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Even though we might be made blind to the evil afoot, we will not be silent. This is the lesson of modern history. We will sing a new song as strangers in a strange land: Let My People Go. While the Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans conspire to keep us from seeing the conditions of life in the world’s largest prison (sorry, no visiting hours this month), there is a chorus, a voice, 43 nations rich, which is lifted in greater harmony and crescendo than ever before to call for raising the siege of Gaza and thereby increasing the security of Israel.

We continue to monitor the grave situation in Honduras with alarm. Our friends at the Quixote Center are doing a great job by regularly posting updates about what's happening in the tense stand-off as well as background materials on many underlying social and political issues in Honduras, such as the divides between poor and wealthy classes, the military and grassroots communities, and more. Together with Witness for Peace (FOR Task Force on Latin America & the Caribbean members helped found WFP in 1983), Quixote cosponsored an emergency fact-finding delegation to Honduras this month. This Thursday at 7:30 p.m. (ET), WFP is offering a free online briefing (via webinar and teleconference) titled "Honduras Coup Exposed" featuring WFP International Team member Galen Cohee Baynes.

Stupid is as stupid does. It’s a cliché. Calibrate? I prefer the bluntness of the truth.

The fact and act of the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. in his own home by a police force presumably sensitive to the issues of race and power is worthy of continuing reflection and commentary. There may not be much to learn that’s new, but there is a good deal to be reminded of about the way racial stereotypes and triggers produce regrettable outcomes. Outcomes that reflect on-going prejudice and inequality; fear and ignorance in some white Americans and a tragic anger in some black Americans.

The people of Iran sing from their rooftops at night.

During the day, I have heard, they march millions in silence, the tapping of footsteps passing by. They smile despite the murder of their brothers and sisters who walked alongside them yesterday. They smile because now they walk together; now they walk empowered; now they walk with hope in their hearts.

I have been caught in the cyber-webs for days now, like my uncle Willie Brown with his metal detector in a junkyard, I go searching for anything that can tell me anything about anything that is happening in Iran today... and there is so much to sift through. I look for the faces of my cousins, my aunts, my uncles in the crowds. With fear in my heart I search every page for anything that can get me closer.

Earlier this month, syndicated columnist Robert Koehler wrote about Civilian Diplomacy.  His column did a great job of explaining the historic founding of FOR in 1915 as well as the power of FOR's peace delegations to Iran. Koehler said a lot of smart things - such as "If we know enough we'll never go to war again" - but my favorte parts were the words of delegate Hank Brusselback:

"If the government isn't willing to talk to people, then the people need to be willing to (talk to each other)," Brusselback said. "It comes from a belief in the nature of security -- it's not about weapons, fear and posturing on the world stage. It's about communication, talking to people, everyone having their basic needs met. If you understood security that way, you'd see that security is about dialogue."  [...]

We were so pleased to find FOR featured in this month's Yes! magazine in a feature about "DIY Foreign Policy Heroes."

Yes! published a photo (without credit) of members of our December Iran delegation, but did give us credit for being "Citizen Ambassadors" in this short piece:

When I was in Bogota earlier this month continuing research on US military aid, I caught up with Mike Power, a stringer for BBC and Reuters. He had just come back from the Meta region, where he’d interviewed the mother of a 15-year-old boy killed by the army and passed off as a guerrilla. He talked about how he’d stayed up late transcribing the interview, hearing the woman say over and over on his machine “I came home and I was destroyed.” We spoke of the experience of translating and interpreting, how powerful it is when the personal voice of another, someone in grief, comes through you.

The BBC didn’t run his piece, apparently because the mother’s testimony was not sufficiently ‘credible.’ Fortunately, online magaine The First Post has featured this story, and quotes FOR and Amnesty International (see article below). FOR and Amnesty collaborated on a joint report about US support for Colombian army units that have committed extrajudicial killings. You can see it at www.forcolombia.org/Calltoinvestigate

It is 5 p.m. in Iran, 8 and 1/2 hours east of New York, and I am sending a first brief report from our civilian diplomacy delegation. It has been an exhausting and invigorating two days, only a few hours of which have actually been spent here in the country.

Congrats to Rick Zand whose article about Iran was just published in the Barre Montepelier (VT) Times-Argus. One of the most importaning things our peace delegates do after visiting countries in conflict is to share the experience and the word of peace with their own communities.

Last week in the printed version of Colombia’s second largest national newspaper El Espectador, an article was printed in the “People of the Year” section that applauded Colombia's Defense Minister for his counter-terrorism accomplishments, and went on to accuse the many organizations that do human rights work in Colombia of being manipulated by the FARC!

Read on to learn more about this dangerous and misleading statement, and read FOR's response which was signed by over twenty organizations.