What's "Happening Here?" (Hope for the Peace Movement)

In what is probably my favorite blog, "Happening Here?" by Jan Adams, earlier this week (9/12) the author discussed the inability/unwillingness of the Democratic Party leadership to work effectively to end the war. Jan referred to a conference call facilitated a couple weeks ago by the Network of Spiritual Progressives (NSP), another faith-based peace and justice group with which the Fellowship of Reconciliation is collaborating.

NSP organized this national conversation between several leaders in the peace movement -- FOR Executive Director Mark Johnson participated in the discussion about seeking/building a common strategy to end the war. It is particularly interesting to read the perspectives of Members of Congress Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Jim Moran (D-OH).

It was a timely conversation. As the New York Times is reporting, dozens of people were arrested on Saturday at an anti-war rally organized by the ANSWER Coalition. The rally is the first of what promises to be a series of high-profile national efforts calling for an end to the war over the next 1-2 months. FOR will be participating on October 27th in the United for Peace and Justice's national mobilization, and we're also supporting the Declaration of Peace effort, just launched on Friday, to press Congress through nonviolent actions throughout this week to end funding the Iraq war so troop withdrawal can begin.

In many ways, despite all these organizing campaigns for peace, the prospects seem dim right now. Last week's testimony to Congress by General David Petraus and the President's address to the nation show that the Bush administration is as resolved as ever to "stay the course," so it would be easy to get discouraged these days. But I remain hopeful. In a few hours, our Festival of Peace will begin, and several hundred people will come together -- some new to FOR -- to celebrate the possibility and perhaps even probability of peacemaking.

On Thursday night, the Festival weekend began with a powerful documentary film about Iraq war veterans who have become homeless upon their return to the United States, When I Came Home. The filmmaker, Dan Lohaus, and the primary character in the film, Herold Noel, were both in Nyack to speak on a panel with members of Veterans for Peace after its screening. The film was also preceded by an excerpt from another strong film on the Iraq war, Ground Truth. Sitting next to me right now is another such film, Soldiers of Conscience, and my colleague Mark recently saw yet another, Breaking Ranks. Within four years of the launch of the Iraq war, all these films and others are being released to help profile what is "happening here" in this time of warfare and madness.