Call to Action

Cindy Sheehan asks:"What Kind of Extremist Will You Be?" She writes that the death of her son, Casey, and Martin Luther King were both on April 4, but years apart. Before Casey's death Cindy admits that she was not vocal about the Iraq insanity. She was silent. As she points out, MLK stated: "We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people." Now she is in the forefront of calling for an end to the senseless war. And she challenges all of us to become active.

I encourage and challenge every citizen of the world to do one small thing for peace each day. Even if it is to nag your elected officials to demand the keys of our country back from the all but convicted felons, liars and self-proclaimed pro-life hypocrites who have them now.
If there ever was a time in our nation's history that required the passion and compassion of extremists, it is now: This very minute.
What kind of extremist will you be?

Elisa Salasin also writes about her own transformation in "My September 11th". She talks about her activities on 9-11 (shopping trip) and how she viewed life and the world before that day. She also talks about her newfound activism.

We are all wronged until we are able to collectively recognize and articulate the continuity of tragedy, which stretched long before September 11th, and lives on today in Iraq, in Niger, in the destroyed lives of New Orleans' Ninth Ward. This continuity of tragedy is fueled by Martin Luther King's interrelated triple evils of poverty, racism, and war, and by each of our blindness and indifference to our role in this poisonous relationship. In his Beyond Vietnam address, King spoke of the need to send a message to the world, one of longing, of hope, of solidarity, and commitment: "The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment of human history." This is a choice that requires we do more than bring our bodies to the streets as we did on February 15, 2003, and then retreat back within our own lives, back to our own form of shopping trips for baby clothes.
Not long ago I had a dream in which I was searching for an orb, a smooth, unfractured sphere - for a wholeness that I, and we, have not yet achieved. As I searched, I became increasingly fearful that I wouldn't be able to find this orb, or perhaps that if I did, I would not have the strength or courage to carry it home. For to find that orb, and hold it in our hands with awe and reverence, requires that we take action. We must bring our bodies to the streets on September 24, 2005, and then keep them there as we each strive to understand, to educate, and to express not only our outrage but also our love. The "time to break silence" is now.

So what to do? Talk to your neighbors. Write. Come out to support Cindy Sheehan (she will be in New Haven on Sunday, September 16 from 4 to 6). Get yourself out to D.C. on September 24. Scream for an end to the war. Wear a peace button. Just do something!

See you in New Haven and then D.C.