Citizens for Peace

I was inspired by seeing people at the Farmers Market Sunday after Sunday collecting signatures and donations. I hate war and have been deeply saddened by the loss of American and Iraqi lives. I was really happy to have something that I could actively do to demonstrate my opposition to the war.

Sometimes I feel that we will never leave Iraq until we have destroyed this historic area, and rained down hatred on ourselves: "bombed it back into the Stone Age" as a General recommended for Vietnam.

But then I remember how we ended the Vietnam War from Inside America, and I think that maybe we can do it again

~ Nick Sheridan

I worked on it because it seemed so obvious to me that something had
to be done. As a union organizer, I know that you can't expect other
people to do it. You have to do it. Each "you" adds up to many.
That's the only way anything gets done.

This ad is one of the few means available for ordinary people to voice a strong, articulate, public repudiation of the war (and the warmongers). It speaks for a large number of people; it will be seen by a large number of readers, including the lawmakers to whom it's addressed. People can debate the meaning of "immediate withdrawal;" I just remember Frederick Douglass' great truism: Power concedes nothing without a demand

~ Tom Chalkley

I am the mother of three teenagers and I want them to see that individuals not only have an obligation to become directly involved with their own government but to also see that individuals can act to initiate change – even with really big problems like war and racism.

My sixteen year old son and I accepted an invitation to get involved with friends, and friends of friends who also wanted to do something to express their anger with America’s occupation of Iraq. Talking to others about the war and asking them to sign-on to a protest letter was one way to do something positive with your anger. I was amazed at the response.

People talking to other people and providing a simple mechanism to record their call for change.

It’s déjà vu all over again. We've been there and done that in the 60’s. And we've got to do it again, for ourselves, for our children especially, now that they are young adults and need to see that we continue to care and act on our convictions of what is just and right. Peace is never out of date.

I worked on the ad so that Citizens For Peace could make contact across the city with other opponents of the war.

The war in Iraq has been associated with the Republican Party, but the Democrats have mostly been timid in voicing opposition to it. Even our Senators and Representatives, who seem secure in their positions, have supported every funding resolution. It's time for them to show some courage; public opinion is certainly for withdrawal.

~ Claudia Leight