The Voices in the Wilderness website is no longer maintained. VitW.org will be available indefinitely for archival and research purposes.

Educate

Learn the story:

Get informed about the history of the U.S. conflict with Iraq. Visit the Voices in the Wilderness website and the Electronic Iraq website to brush up on the myths and realities of 13 years of sanctions and war. For a helpful digest, read “Sanctions and War: Myths and Realities.”

Understanding Corporate Media:

Corporate media, or the Fourth Estate are no longer run as public trusts with a responsibility to society. They are now consumer products that are marketed and manufactured. Understanding the corporate media and knowing which independent and trustworthy alternatives are available is essential in truth telling and bringing justice during this most recent war and the failures of the on-going occupation. Reverse the corporate media spin IN EVERY CREATIVE WAY YOU CAN. Stay updated with website news services such as www.antiwar.com, news.independent.co.uk/world/, www.commondreams.org, and the “world news” section of the Guardian Unlimited Then use mediums such as art, street theatre, flyers, and alternative literature to effectively communicate the “rest of the story” to the public.

Educate yourself wisely:

If you are a student, sign up for courses in Peace Studies, Arabic Studies, and International Relations. Consider getting a major or minor in one of these subjects. Or, attend lectures about these topics. The movement for a humane and just U.S. foreign policy towards Iraq and the Middle East will benefit from people with this sort of knowledge.

Research divestment:

Find out which military contractors or corporations (e.g. Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Pentagon, and Department of Defense) have a vested interest in your school through grants and/or research. Consider starting a divestment campaign like students from Penn and Colombia have done: check out www.columbiadivest.org, www.geocities.com/penndivest/, and divest-from-israel-campaign.org.

Teach others:

Hold a teach-in at a local educational, community or religious center. Contact Voices in the Wilderness at 773-784-8065 for speakers and educational materials such as literature, videos, and enlarged photos taken in Iraq. On the iraqpeaceteam.org website, click on “multimedia” and then “activism.”

Question:

Attend the public speeches of political candidates or any public figure who has supported or has remained silent about the crimes of sanctions and war. Ask questions. Be respectful, but DO NOT back down. Come with a group of friends who will help distribute literature, hold banners, etc. Send out a press release before and after the event.

Pressure:

After you’ve called, emailed, faxed, and visited your Senators, Representative and the White House (for contact info see capwiz.com and the WH at 202.456.1111) to say NO! to continued U.S. military aggression, step it up a notch. Sit-ins, die-ins, and singing in a congressional office make an impression. Make connections with domestic concerns, such as heightened domestic insecurity if our government keeps exporting war around the world. Additional points to bring up are the number of civilian and military casualties, the high cost of war compared to the lack of funding of social welfare programs, and the loss of civil liberties.

Act

With most actions it is well worth it to contact the media. For an excellent media manual, see the Ruckus Society websites media manual.

Protest:

If there is a defense company in your area, hold regular vigils at the site, distributing info, and making music to attract attention. Since March 2003, there have been countless creative nonviolent actions at Boeing Headquarters in Chicago. For example, a group of 15 people recently drummed and leafleted outside Boeing for 6 hours one afternoon and reached hundreds of people. Other possible sites include Congressional offices, federal buildings, military recruitment centers, and gas stations. VitW can send you sample leaflets as well as banner and slogan ideas. Email info@vitw.org.

Resist war taxes:

At present, close to 50% of every federal tax dollar goes to military spending for present and past wars. Consult with a war tax resister, such as those within the Voices network, or contact the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee, (800) 269-7464; nwtrcc@lightlink.com; War Resisters League (800) 975-9688; email wrl@igc.org.

Give blood:

Organize a blood drive in your area and donate blood locally. Do this in memory of Iraqi children who have suffered and died in Iraq from sanctions and war. You could invite each donor to share a few words about the reasons she or he is giving blood. Look up blood banks in your local yellow pages. Usually you’ll need a minimum number of definite participants and a location. Work to get local community leaders, religious figures and other well-respected individuals to attend. And as always, invite the media.

Monitor:

Help monitor military access and involvement in our schools. For more information, check out the American Friends Service Committee’s Youth and Militarism website.

Sponsor:

Donate towards the stipend of an activist who is combating economic and military injustice. Help sponsor an organization working to end economic and military warfare through a donation of time, energy, or resources.

Write:

Send a letter to the editor of your local paper or an article to a news magazine. If they are not published, call and ask for a non-discriminatory policy. Keep writing. If your paper presents only a pro-war perspective, consider requesting a meeting with the editorial board to pressure for better media coverage.

Avoid oil consumption:

Explore and use alternative transportation and energy. Love your bike!

By Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
October 28, 2003

Death in the Background

This morning I can taste the dust in the water. But I prefer tap water over bottled water which I tried the other day and actually found distasteful. The dusty taste makes me think of a beautiful poem by Li-Young Lee which I want to share with you. Actually I want to hear it again myself. It is called From Blossoms.

From Blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bit into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

By Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
October 26, 2003

Dear Friends,

Today is the first day of the holy month of Ramadan for Suni muslims. Tomorrow Ramadan begins for Shias. Early this morning the heavily fortified hotel for senior officers and CPA staff, the Al Rashiid, was attacked.

Just a couple of hours later I was on my way to the Conference Center which is in the Al Rashid compound, when our taxi driver Mohammed told me about the hit. He was visibly distressed, hitting his forehead and saying in Arabic “many problems, many problems!”

Arriving at the compound we found many people cued up between coils of razor-wire that form a long narrow passage one has to pass through in order to reach the first checkpoint. A nearby reporter said “No one is allowed in, everything is cancelled today.” And indeed no one was at the gate.

Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness
Baghdad
October 17, 2003

Overcast morning. Our first very few drops of rain of the season.

No diary entry yesterday. I was busy adapting three diary entries into an article for the November Peace Newsletter. Since the three came in at a couple hundred words over the 1200 word limit I was given, I had to shave them a bit. Of course that only improved them.

One change in Baghdad since the invasion: more men wearing jeans. I asked Wadah, who these days always wears jeans, about this. When he was our minder last spring he was always dressed in creased slacks. He explains: more men out of work.

Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness
Baghdad
October 14, 2003

PRESS CONFERENCE
Around 11am Ghareeb takes me and Neville to Nejaf., a two-hour drive. Once there it takes us an hour to find the press conference. The site has been moved from the announced location. We park at a traffic barrier in the old city and walk a carless block along an arcaded commercial street, past numerous men with guns, toward the main mosque.

Ghareeb seeks the office of Muktate Al-Sadur’s organization to get access and directions to the press conference. In an alley, Ghareeb is searched by a clot of armed men before being escorted to the office. Two men are detailed to accompany us as we drive to the site, maybe a couple miles away. When we arrive there are numerous men with guns keeping watch, some on neighboring rooftops. No uniformed authorities are present. We don’t have to show any ID or press pass. We are pattted down and wanded before being let through a narrow door into a dwelling. We head upstairs onto a roof packed with journos and cameramen.