Monday Evening Meeting on 9/11 Organizing

This is a reminder about the Monday, July 22, 7 PM meeting in SF for people who want to organize local peace events during the week of Sept. 11. We’re meeting at the City Blend Café, 3087 16th Street (btwn. Mission and Valencia). We need your ideas and organizing skills!

Hope to see you there,
Andrea Buffa & Medea Benjamin
Global Exchange

P.S. Below is the “call” to organize 9/11 peace events that we’ve been circulating. Feel free to forward it.

Imagine all the people...organizing September 11 peace events

“Don’t let the first  year commemoration of the 9/11 tragedy be used to call for more war and violence. Please help us honor the death of our loved ones by creating Sept. 11, 2002 events that move us towards a future of peaceful tomorrows.”

–Kelly Campbell, September Eleventh Families for
Peaceful Tomorrows

"Wherever you live, we need your help! Let's show the world that in hundreds of U.S. cities, we are claiming the anniversary of 9/11 as a time to say YES, a peaceful, just world IS possible and we are building it.

--Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange

Help organize peace events in your community
The first anniversary of 9/11 is fast approaching. Let’s make it a time to put forth A VISION of a safer, more just world— a world free of war and violence, a world that rejects ethnic and religious divisions and celebrates diversity, a world that calls no nation “evil” but builds a global community, a world that cherishes the environment, a world where the needs of humans and other living things take priority over profits.

September 7-8 weekend events
For the weekend gatherings, we suggest an upbeat tone that focuses on the world we would like to create. Events could include a peace concert, town hall meeting, Walk-a-Thon or Bike-a-Thon, film showings, interactive art projects, community picnic, street theater and dance, teach-in and workshops with global/local themes.

Let’s make our events inter-generational, multi-ethnic ones that bring together unexpected allies—Indians & Pakistanis, Jews & Arabs, veterans & peace activists, labor organizers & business leaders.

The Anniversary of September 11
For the day of September 11, we suggest a more somber, respectful tone to commemorate those who died on 9/11 and all other innocent victims. Appropriate actions include interfaith services and silent vigils—perhaps even an overnight vigil from the evening of September 10 to the morning of September 11.

Be part of a national movement by building locally
The local groups will function autonomously, but will be tied together nationally through a common name, purpose, website and media strategy.

The response to this idea has been overwhelming.
Already, events are being organized in big cities like New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and small towns such as Seadrift, Texas and Chester, West Virginia. Organizations involved include the National Coalition for Peace and Justice, Global
Exchange, September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and the War Resisters League.

Another world is possible. Let's build it together!
Contact Global Exchange at 1-800-497-1994, peace [at] globalexchange.org or visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org.