In some ways, much of Kathy Kelly's adult life has been a walk against war. So it was completely in character for her to be walking through Milwaukee Monday, on a 450-mile trek to St. Paul and the Republican national convention.

Kelly, (left) a high school and community college teacher, has repeatedly risked her life and her freedom as an advocate for non-violence. She is now affiliated with Voices for Creative Nonviolence, based in her hometown of Chicago, which organized Witness Against War now making its way across Wisconsin.

A three-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work , Kelly is a longtime pacifist who refuses to pay war taxes. She's served prison time for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites and for crossing the line as part of an ongoing effort to close the School of the Americas, an Army military combat training school at Fort Benning, GA.

She helped initiate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign which brought medicine and toys to Iraq in open violation of UN/US sanctions against Iraq. Voices in the Wilderness organized 70 delegations to visit Iraq in the period between 1996 and the beginning of "Shock and Awe” warfare in 2003. Kelly has been to Iraq 24 times since January 1996, when the campaign began.

They'll be flipping pancakes for peace Friday, Iraq Moratorium day, at the Midwest Renewable Energy Expo in Wisconsin. It's one of 100 Moratorium actions planned across the country.

They'll hold a teach-in on torture on the train to San Jose, where a picket and vigil will target a Boeing subsidiary accused of providing logistics for those "extraordinary rendition" flights.

Church bells will ring in Massachusetts. Activists will leaflet commuters in San Francisco Bay area, Brooklyn, and Takoma Park MD. Street corner vigils are planned in dozens of communities across the country, large and small.

That's the question asked by The Real News Network

Back on Thursday, May 15, 2008 I asked a question as well: PEACE Is A Political Statement?.

Both of these are asked as to the Why? a Veterans Organization was banned from marching in Memorial Day Parades. Mine covered two chapters of Veterans For Peace

Chapter 139 (North Olympic Peninsula) and Chapter 016 (Washington D.C.) have both been banned from parades! In both cases, being too political was the reason cited for the ban.

The Real News Network covers the Parade in Washington D.C., the Capital of this Country, The Country And Citizens We Veterans Served For!

The Washington, DC chapter of Veterans for Peace is barred from DC's Memorial Day Parade

Iceland topped Vision of Humanity's Global Peace Index of 140 countries that analyzes how peaceful they are regarding international policy and domestic conditions, The Financial Times reported Tuesday.

Because of continued violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, Iraq ranked last in the index developed by the organization based in Australia.

So says annual study ranking nations on how peaceful they are

MAKE MAYDAY A "NO PEACE, NO WORK HOLIDAY"!

The following was written by Jack Heyman a longshoreman who works on the Oakland docks

Longshoremen to close ports on West Coast to protest war

Sign up for their Newsletter or just save their site as a favorite and visit each week to find just abit of the Real History that helps bring about needed Change and Corrective Direction of a Country, World, and Democracies, forcing Democracies to become so and maintain their Freedoms.

You can find this weeks newsletter here of which I've borrowed a few moments of to pass on to you, below.

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

I was born at the tail end of 1951.  My father was a soldier who served in WWII and Korea.  His brother came back from Korea so psychologically devastated that he never recovered.  He lived nearly fifty of his seventy years haunted by the horror of what he witnessed in the Korean War.  He was not alone.  Every war produces more casualties than are accounted for in the body counts.  My uncle died just a few years ago but it was the Korean War that killed him.  

Outstanding in the Field is a diary series usually devoted to Americans who are working to change the backwards policies in Washington. This week’s dedication was going to be to Amory Lovins. His green environment was explored and he had a few choice words for American energy policy on this week’s installment of the PBS series Nova, Saved by the Sun.

However on CBS Sunday Morning there was a segment on the origins, a half-century ago, of one of the world’s most recognizable emblems. So this diary is devoted to something that is neither American nor a person, The Peace Symbol, a sign for our times.

I completely agree with your position.

This war is not only wrong, it is a crime.

I believe that both political parties are complicit before and after this war crime.

So please understand that what follows in no way disputes or negates opposition to the war or the criminal government that initiated it.

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

My generation thought Vietnam was an aberration, but it wasn’t, it was the game plan.  Lie your way into a nasty little war and let other people’s children do the killing and dying while the fat cats at the top of the capitalist pile rake in the dough.  It’s all for the benefit of those so bloated with greed that they just don’t care that their profits come soaked in the blood of innocents and patriots.

Even though a renowned Scientist has predicted that an Apocalypse of unimaginable severity awaits us because of global warming, there is hope, and while several other scientists believe we may have already reached the "tipping point" - and we have if we don't take action very quickly on a global basis, there is hope, because Peace and Mitigating Climate Change can be far more profitable than war! There are rumors which I have verified that indicate a global peace initiative may be in the offing in the very near future, and it will be a non-political organization that will work to establish a global initiative to help bring about world peace and a plan to mitigate global warming which has an enormous potential to be effective once the entire global community becomes involved. I am not at liberty to delve further into that issue right now, but am stating that even as I'm writing, the efforts are being made to establish this forum of renowned scientists and peace activists and may offer our only means of achieving Peace and mitigating climate change - and they don't originate from the United States.

The age old adage that "history repeats itself" has been a maxim to those that are attempting to understand how we can change the future - and in the face of conflicts developing throughout the world, how we can implement a peace process that will be achievable and sustainable. The task is daunting, but it can be accomplished with an effort that spans the world, not just a loose assortment of peace activists that do not have the power or resources to achieve their goals. This is a task that must become a worldwide effort, and hopefully, some of those objectives could soon become reality.

cross posted at daily Kos and The Dream Antilles

Remembering Myanmar. Remembering Aung San Suu Kyi. Remembering the monks who demonstrated. Remembering the people of Burma, killed, beaten, jailed, tortured, disappeared, threatened, relocated. Remembering their struggle for freedom. Remembering the military government's unchecked repression.