Voices in the Wilderness will host Dahr Jamail’s speaking events in Chicago for April 22nd-23rd.

Help with publicity
Download Color Flyer of Events

Download B/W Flyer of Events

Please Help With Publicity

“I have learned from first hand experience that war is the destroyer of everything that is good in the world, it turns our young into soulless killers and we tell them that they are heroes when they master the ‘art’ of killing.”
-Kevin Benderman

“One man has stopped killing. One man has chosen to find a path other than war. One man has taken the right road, the only road that leads to sanity, and leads to peace. That man and his wife hope that one more man will follow, and another after that; And the duty they adhere to will be saving a life.”
-Monica Benderman

Help with publicity

• email this page to friends
• Download and Print the Fliers Below
• contact Megan, meganvitw at yahoo dot com, or 773-784-8065 or 773-784-6144

Download Flyer

• Download The Color Flyer
• Download The Black & White Flyer

• Download The “Pro-Soldier, Anti-War” Version Color Flyer
• Download The “Pro-Soldier, Anti-War” Black & White Flyer

Voices in the Wilderness is pleased to bring Kevin and Monica Benderman to Chicago

Saturday and Sunday, April 9 & 10

Find a Speaking Event Near You:

Saturday, April 9, 11:00 AM

Grace Place
637 S Dearborn, 1st floor
View Map

Kevin and Monica Benderman will be the guest speakers at a press conference and public panel on the militarization of youth
Sponsored by: VITW, CCOMY, AFSC, VVAW, SSC

Saturday, April 9, 4:00 PM

University Church, Hyde Park
5655 S University Ave.
View Map

Sunday, April 10, 4:00 PM

Lake Street Church of Evanston, MacLeish Hall
607 Lake St (NW corner of Lake St and Chicago Ave)
View Map

Please Help With Publicity

Voices in the Wilderness is seeking help with publicity. Please e-mail this page to friends. Flyers are available

Please contact Megan
meganvitw at yahoo dot com
773-784-8065 or 773-784-6144

Independent Journalist, Dahr Jamail, has been back in the US giving presentations for several weeks. The following is the last story he wrote while in Iraq. It was originally published in The Nation on March 7, 2005.

Originally Published in The Nation
Dahr Jamail
March 7, 2005

Despite Talk of Civil War, Sunnis and Shiites Seem More United Than Divided

Baghdad - Wrapped in his brown abaya, Sheik Sayak Kumait al-Asadi, a spokesman in Baghdad for the revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, is angry and forceful when speaking of both the US occupation and the suffering of the Shiites under the regime of Saddam Hussein. Above him hangs an ornately framed poster of Sistani.

The spokesman’s point is clear: After decades of repression, now is the time for the Shiites to have power, no matter the price. “Most of the Sunnis are accepted by us, but there are those among them who don’t want the Shia in the government, nor the Kurds. Some Sunnis will either kill us or make us slaves. We accept these elections now,” says Asadi, pulling the abaya close over his shoulders. “But many Shias and Kurds believe dividing the country is the only real solution.”

After all, the Shiites suffered horribly under the reign of the deposed dictator. Among the highly prominent Shiite ayatollahs killed by Saddam’s men were the revered Mohammed Bakr Sadr, executed with his sister in 1980, and his cousin Mohammed Sadiq Sadr (the father of Muqtada al-Sadr), who was assassinated in 1999.

By Cathy Breen
Amman, Jordan

He seems older to me than his 58 years, but then when I met him it was in a damp and dark little room which is home for him. And Mehdi’s spirit that day seemed so sad, as sad as the room was dismal. The room is at the top of a long flight of stone steps, especially treacherous at night. The only furniture in the room was a makeshift cot onto which the three of us (Mehdi, a trusted Iraqi translator, and myself) lowered ourselves cautiously. I too was damp when we later stood up to take our leave. Medhi agreed to have his picture taken that day, but unfortunately the camera batteries did not oblige.

From Kerbala, Medhi has been in Jordan since he fled Iraq in the year 2000. Two of his brothers were assassinated under Saddam Hussein. His nephew was also imprisoned, but managed to escape, and the family sought Medhi’s help. After taking them to the north of Iraq, he then went to Jordan to find refuge.

By Cathy Breen
Amman, Jordan
March 18, 2005

Some six months into the U.S. occupation of Iraq, an Iraqi friend said to me in Baghdad as we were sitting at the kitchen table of the Voices apartment “The United States took the cotton out of our mouths that Saddam Hussein had put there. But they put it in their ears.” Now on the eve of the 2nd anniversary of “Shock and Awe,” I wonder if there is still hope that we might remove the cotton.

Two evenings ago, I found myself once again sitting at a table with 2 Iraqi friends and a woman from Lebanon-all working in human rights. Our conversation, which lasted for over 4 hours, would begin with accounts of current atrocities facing Iraqis, and later turn to stories of past horrors under Saddam’s regime. I returned home exhausted, acutely aware that I’ve never really grasped the extent of the suffering people endured under Saddam. Until that evening.