Newsline: Wrestling with Lent: A Brethren reflection on Iraq war
…"As I wrestled with Lent, I did what I do whenever I tackle an issue here at the Brethren Witness/Washington Office: I researched what the Church of the Brethren has said in the past about this issue. A quick look, although not exhaustive, did not uncover any real directive from Brethren policy.
"But I did find something very interesting from the minutes of the 1851 Annual Meeting: 'Considered, inasmuch as the gospel teaches us to fast and pray, to always pray, and never faint; and the Great Teacher says, a certain species of evil spirits cannot be cast out but by fasting and prayer, we hope that every Christian shepherd will teach (their) flock to pray and fast oftener than once a year as we do not know the time when the one that goeth about as a roaring lion may tempt or deceive us.'
"I knew I could count on the historical record. This gets me going. Pray and fast and watch for the roaring lion.
"I wrestle with Lent because I am afraid we have done too much reflecting already and not enough lion-hunting. We have had 300 years of reflection about who we are as a peace church; our continued prayers and reflection about how we live this out are imperative. Spend your Lenten season doing that, but wrestle with Lent as well. Do not just pray and reflect, but act.
"On the 17th day of Lent this year, you will have an excellent opportunity. Pray and fast and reflect and discern--and come and join us. It is time to name the lion and demand that the violence of this war in Iraq come to an end.
"Thousands of Christians from across the country will worship together to mark the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War. This Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, organized by a broad cross-section of denominational peace groups and organizations, is expected to be the largest peace gathering of Christians expressing opposition to the war since it began four years ago.
"Prominent religious leaders and peace activists including Jim Wallis, Celeste Zappala, and Bernice Powell Jackson will speak at a worship service at 7 p.m. at the National Cathedral. Then thousands of Christians will make a two-mile, candlelit procession to the White House, where a solemn, prayerful vigil will dramatize the Christian call for peace in Iraq. Following the vigil, hundreds of participants including many clergy will encircle the White House with a band of candlelight to express their conviction that the teachings of Jesus call unequivocally for an end to the war. Many will choose to participate in an act of nonviolence, risking arrest as a witness to their passion for bringing an end to the war.
"'We will...send a message to our leaders and the world that peace and reconciliation stand at the very heart of the Christian message and our respective traditions,' said Rick Ufford-Chase, convener of the national steering committee for the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
"Join in this season of Lent. Wrestle with the challenges of our faith. Pray and reflect and seek God's direction. Come and give witness in the nation's capital or in your own community. Say you are sorry for the culture of violence in our nation, and really mean it. Live out the teachings of Jesus, who came out of his 40 days with a roar of his own."…
http://www.wfn.org/2007/03/msg00247.html
Peace march recognizes start of war
Patriots for Peace, will hold a peace march this afternoon marking the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war for the fourth consecutive year.
Organizers Jeff Nall and Vicki Impoco expect the event to be the most successful peace march since 400-500 attended pre-war protests based on the interest generated by the event. The event is being held in solidarity with the National March On The Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
Participants will gather at the ‘Peace Corner’ located at 1700 West New Haven Ave, the northeast corner of U.S. 192 and Evans blvd. The march will begin shortly after 4 pm.
http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/BREAKINGNEWS/70317008/1086
Religious 'Peace' March Tonight Fails to Connect With Reality
WASHINGTON, Mar. 16 /Christian Newswire/ -- Several thousand activists are expected to protest the U.S. military presence in Iraq during a march on the White House tonight. "Christian Peace Witness for Iraq," organized by numerous religious left groups, including Sojourners/Call to Renewal and the National Council of Churches, seeks an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and calls upon the U.S. to "stop threatening other nations and Iran." Following an ecumenical service at the National Cathedral and a march to the White House, several hundred of the protesters will perform acts of civil disobedience and risk arrest, which they term "divine obedience."
Mark Tooley, IRD's UM Action Director, commented:
"It is important to note that the march's organizers are not merely opposing U.S. involvement in Iraq. In their promotional literature they advocate 'the principles of pacifism upon which Jesus based his life and ministry.' Quite simply, these groups oppose U.S. military action of any kind, no matter what the circumstances. This is a pacifist rally and an anti-U.S. rally, not an anti-Iraq War rally."
http://peacejournalism.com/ReadArticle.asp?ArticleID=17707
Peace march to converge in downtown area Saturday
Rally seeks local initiatives toward Bush impeachment
From Journal staff reports
ITHACA — A major peace march is planned for Ithaca and the surrounding area Saturday, two days before the fourth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.
“Tompkins County Marches for Peace” parallels a national march at the Pentagon, also on Saturday, and a peace march in New York City on Sunday.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20070316/NEWS01/703160347/1002
Thousands of Christians protest Iraq war
By Sarah Karush / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.
Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk.
"We gave them three warnings, and they broke the guidelines," said Lt. Scott Fear. "There's an area on the White House sidewalk where you have to keep moving."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9427
Peace march, rally to be held Saturday
BY PAUL FATTIG
MAIL TRIBUNE
A peace march and anti-war rally will be held Saturday in Medford.
Organized by Citizens for Peace & Justice, the event is intended to raise awareness about the human and financial cost of the war in Iraq, which began four years ago, on March 19, 2003.
A demonstration against the war is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the corner of Barnett Road and Riverside Avenue, followed by a noon march west on Central Avenue to Medford's Central Library, where members of the Rogue Valley Peace Choir will sing in support of the rally.
In addition to calling for removing U.S. troops, the theme is "fund books not bombs."
http://www.mailtribune.com/archive/2007/0316/local/stories/antiwarrally.htm
March 17th, 2007 1:25 am
U.S.: 2 more soldiers killed in Iraq
Associated Press
BAGHDAD - A U.S. soldier was killed by an explosion during fighting northwest of Baghdad, while a Marine died in a non-combat incident, the military said Friday.
The Task Force Lightning soldier died and another was wounded Thursday in an attack while they were conducting combat operations in Salahuddin, a mainly Sunni province, according to a statement.
A Marine assigned to Multinational Force — West died Wednesday in a non-combat related incident in Anbar province, a Sunni insurgent stronghold west of the capital, the military said separately. The incident is currently under investigation.
Identities were not released pending notification of relatives.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9426
DEMONSTRATION
At march, join movement for peace at home
By Dwight Fee
Michelle Malkin's column of Feb. 17 paints a grossly distorted and vicious description of the pro-peace vigils and demonstrations that are arising across America. Having attended the peace march in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27, I saw none of the behaviors she attributes to those who call for an end to militarism in our national policy. My clearest memory is of whole families walking hand-in-hand.
One of the key organizers of the upcoming pro-peace gathering Friday in Washington, D.C., and across the country is the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
Please share the following invitation to balance the "invitation" made by Malkin's angry column. Note especially the partners involved with the peace demonstration. These are the kinds of folks I saw in D.C. in January.
As followers of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, our faith compels us to make our voice heard - to repent of our complicity with the invasion and occupation of Iraq and renew our commitment to peacemaking.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/16906578.htm
March 17th, 2007 1:53 am
Waxahachie vet, wife using heart to battle brain injury
Disorder from mortar blast has family in daily struggle
By J. Louise Larson / Dallas Morning News
WAXAHACHIE – Army Spc. Jason McCully was one month away from walking out of Iraq healthy when an insurgent's mortar changed all that.
Army Spc. Jason McCully suffers from frequent seizures as a result of wounds he received in Iraq. His wife, Marirose, quit her job to stay home and take care of him.
Spc. McCully, 33, was in his 11th month of deployment as a forward observer in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, when a mortar landed 10 meters away from him.
"We were in the wild West, man," the Waxahachie native said.
The Humvee in front of him bore the brunt of the impact, but Spc. McCully was knocked out and sustained a closed head-injury that wasn't immediately detected.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9428
Interfaith rally protests war
BY JILLIAN DALEY
Statesman Journal
March 17, 2007
A Vietnam veteran stood on the Marion Street Bridge on Friday holding a sign saying "Peace is Patriotic."
"War has never solved anything," said John Roy Wilson, who served for 399 days as a medic in a mobile U.S. Army hospital. "War is the most idiotic human behavior. It's horror beyond horror."
A crowd of about 50 people lined the pedestrian walkway on the bridge Friday, holding anti-war signs in anticipation of the March 20 fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.
The Salem Fellowship of Reconciliation held a Christian/Interfaith Peace Witness for Iraq at the same time as one in Washington, D.C., and many more across the country, said Janet Brown, the Salem event organizer.
"It is a peace witnessing: To witness means you're visible publicly; it means you don't keep quiet; you don't keep still, but that you stand up and speak," Brown said.
What happens in Iraq is draining U.S. resources that could be spent on programs for children and health care, she said.
Fellowship member Kathy Campbell-Barton said the rising death toll, more than 3,200 soldiers, aggrieves her. "My heart's so broke that everybody's dying," she said.
jbdaley@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6714
http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070317/NEWS/703170326/1001
Peace advocates must post $1 million bond for march
By ERIN SNELGROVE
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Members of a local peace group say they'll risk possible arrests and fines today by refusing to take out $1 million in liability insurance being demanded by the city of Union Gap.
Members of the Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network, who plan to hold a protest marking the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war, call the insurance requirement unfair.
The group held a similar protest three years ago and wasn't required to get insurance, nor was a gay rights group when it held a demonstration a few years ago, according to Larry Breer, a member of the group.
"If 125 people decide to have a picnic in the park, would the city make them put up a $1 million bond?" he said. "We think that's ridiculous."
Breer said his group -- comprised of 30 core members -- informed Union Gap last week it would be holding a peaceful demonstration starting at Cahalan Park and walking on sidewalks to the Valley Mall Boulevard area.
http://www.yakima-herald.com/page/dis/341645084183986
"I want you to be clear here: Don't be dropping it at the president's door." -- Tony Snow
March 17th, 2007 2:16 am
Republican support for Gonzales erodes
By Laurie Kellman / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House dropped its contention Friday that former Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys, blaming "hazy memories" as e-mails shed new light on Karl Rove's role. Support eroded further for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Presidential press secretary Tony Snow previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea, but he said Friday, "I don't want to try to vouch for origination." He said, "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."
The White House also said it needed more time before deciding whether Miers, political strategist Rove and other presidential advisers would testify before Congress and whether the White House would release documents to lawmakers.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9429
Peace Marchers say City of Union Gap Infringing on 1st Amendment Rights
Union Gap, WA - The Yakima Valley peace advocates network says Union Gap city officials are infringing on their first amendment rights.
Marchers were originally supposed to gather at Cahalan Park in Union Gap for a peace march tomorrow afternoon, but now the city is saying they need to take out one million dollars in liability insurance to do that.
The group still plans to meet at Cahalan Park, but they'll meet on the sidewalk if they have to.
They have planned a two mile peace march through Union Gap and Yakima to protest the fourth anniversary of the Iraq War.
http://www.kndo.com/Global/story.asp?S=6240049&nav=menu484_2_10
Christians Gather in D.C. to Protest War
By SARAH KARUSH
Saturday, March 17, 2007 10:44 AM EDT
WASHINGTON - Thousands of Christians prayed for peace at an anti-war service Friday night at the Washington National Cathedral, kicking off a weekend of protests around the country to mark the fourth anniversary of the war in Iraq.
Afterward, participants marched with battery-operated faux candles through snow and wind toward the White House, where police began arresting protesters shortly before midnight. Protest guidelines require demonstrators to continue moving while on the White House sidewalk.
"We gave them three warnings, and they broke the guidelines," said Lt. Scott Fear. "There's an area on the White House sidewalk where you have to keep moving."
About 100 people crossed the street from Lafayette Park _ where thousands of protesters were gathered _ to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk late Friday. Police began cuffing them and putting them on buses to be taken for processing.
http://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2007/03/17/ap/headlines/d8ntv5vo0.txt
Ramsey Clark?s Just a Peace Marcher
Tomorrow, according to organizers, tens of thousands of demonstrators protesting the war in Iraq will march on the Pentagon in what they are billing as “the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 march to the Pentagon."…
Ramsey Clark, who as attorney general for President Lyndon Johnson helped oversee the administration’s preparations for the march, said that day shifted the ground under the government. “From that moment, I got the feeling that we’d reached a turning point in the commitment of many people to ending the war in Vietnam,” Clark said in an interview this week.
Whether today’s feelings match those of 40 years ago is another question. Clark will be among the speakers tomorrow. “I can’t tell you that we have the depth of passion or breadth of commitment today that we had then,” Clark said.
http://www.kxma.com/getARticle.asp?ArticleId=105070
3209 U.S. MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ
March 17, 2007, 12:58 pm
source: antiwar.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/deaths.php
Peace coalition plans march, tree planting
Published Friday, March 16, 2007
The Columbia Peace Coalition will have a rally and march Sunday afternoon at the Boone County Courthouse Square.
The event - dubbed "Peace is Growing!" - will mark the fourth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq and will call for an end to violence, for no attack on Iran and for directing resources toward healing and rebuilding.
Organizers said they hope at least 500 people will participate. According to a news release from the coalition, 424 people had signed up to participate as of Wednesday.
Mark Haim, a member of the peace coalition, said he expects the event to be the largest peace rally in Columbia since U.S. troops entered Iraq in 2003.
The rally will begin at 2 p.m. with the Rev. Maureen Dickmann of Rock Bridge Christian Church and John Betz, a Vietnam War veteran and member of Veterans for Peace, speaking. At 2:30 p.m., participants will march through downtown to Douglass Park, where a tree will be planted to symbolize peace.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2007/Mar/20070316News013.asp
23785 U.S. MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ
March 17, 2007, 1:00 pm
source: antiwar.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/wounded.php
THIS PAGE REPRESENTS 26,200 OF THE 655,000 'EXCESS' IRAQI DEATHS SINCE WAR BEGAN
http://www.michaelmoore.com/takeaction/iraqi_deaths.php?page=25
Worldwide protests mark Iraq war
A series of anti-war demonstrations are under way, with protests scheduled in countries including the United States, Canada, Australia and Britain ahead of the fourth anniversary of the US-led war in Iraq.
Thousands of people are expected to converge on the centre of the US capital on Saturday and march on the Pentagon, organisers said.
The protests are timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary on Tuesday of the Iraq war, which has claimed at least 70,000 civilian lives and nearly 10,000 lives of soldiers and police officers from Iraq, the US and eight coalition countries.
The US military said on Friday it was sending some 2,600 soldiers to Iraq earlier than planned, raising the number of extra US troops being deployed, in a new effort to stabilise the country,to nearly 30,000.
Australia protest
Around 500 protesters marched through Sydney on Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Similar rallies were held in cities around Australia.
http://mwcnews.net/content/view/13285&Itemid=1
Protest march passes peacefully
A march through Brighton city centre by campaigners defending the right to protest has passed peacefully.
Sussex Police said about 40 people took part, with one man being arrested for obstructing the highway.
The demonstration was organised by Sussex Action for Peace, which claims officers have been over-zealous in policing at other local demonstrations.
"We actively support the rights of individuals and groups to protest lawfully," said Supt Graham Bartlett.
"But we will always balance this support with ensuring that people who are not connected with the protest can go about their lawful business."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/6462589.stm
The headline in the January 8 issue of "Army Times" was stark:
"About Face On The War. After Three Years of Support, Troops Sour on Iraq."
It's not the first such declaration. Almost a year ago, a Zogby poll published by the military paper "Stars & Stripes" reported that more than seventy per cent of the troops on the ground wanted the U.S. to be out of Iraq within a year. More than twenty per cent wanted to be out of there tomorrow.
This year, on March 17, when the annual peace march and rally take place in Fayetteville, we will gather in an atmosphere very different from that of earlier years.
On this fourth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, only a small and diminishing minority even of those in uniform believe that the war is anything but a travesty and a waste of our blood and treasure.
Yet these same troops and their families now face a stupid and cynical "surge," that is gambling their lives and the lives of their loved ones for nothing more than an effort by a twisted leadership to avoid facing the truth of the fiasco that their war has been.
More than a thousand active duty soldiers and sailors have signed an Appeal for Redress, asking Congress to end the war and bring them home.
It is difficult and dangerous for those in uniform to speak their opposition openly in public. On March 17, let's gather in Fayetteville to add our voices to their chorus: End this war Bring Us Home!
This will be the fourth time voices for peace have gathered in Fayetteville to demand an end to this immoral war. But on March 17, 2007, we won't be speaking TO the troops this time we'll be saying it WITH them.
http://fayetteville-peace-rally.org/labels/FrontPage.php
