Peacemakers Offer Alternatives to War

While America is nowhere near as prepared to wage peace as it is to wage war, there are alternatives. America's peace groups are working hard at defining them and putting them into action. This is the first of a series of interviews with peace group leaders in the aftermath of Tuesday's events.

Mary Ellen McNish, General Secretary, American Friends (Quakers) Service Committee (Philadelphia):

We have launched the No More Victims campaign to help support victims and survivors of the tragedies. No More Victims is also designed to educate the public about finding peaceful solutions in the face of these terrible acts.

We understand the grief, the fear, the anger, the rage. We feel them ourselves. But a violent response will not bring justice and safety, and it might bring another terrible attack.

The perpetrators of Tuesday's attacks are criminals. They must be brought to justice under the rule of law. And their supporters must be brought to justice under the rule of law.

This could possibly be done through the World Court or the UN could call a tribunal. If these legal mechanisms don't work, we can create something. With the support we have, not only from our allies but from all the world, we could find these people and bring them to justice through the legal system and throw them in jail for the rest of their lives.

People are still stunned by these events, and finding it hard to plan and be heard. We are trying to work with our partner organizations, Quakers all over the country, and others to get our voices heard in Congress. All that seems to be being heard so far in Congress are the voices suggesting war and retaliation and retribution (blood for blood).

Anger is the first reaction and the easy reaction. There is no question that the anger is legitimate. I am angry down to the soles of my feet. We all are. But we have to take a step back and say this is an opportunity for the U.S. to stand tall and lead the way out of this cycle of violence that is constantly increasing.

Carol Hansen Grey, Executive Director, Women of Vision in Action (San Francisco):

Cultural creatives (affluent, well-educated individuals, motivated by environmentalism and social justice) do not want war. That doesn't mean we don't want the people who did this brought to justice. We do. But we don't want to kill other innocent people.

I had the idea to bring together representatives from different groups of cultural creatives to brainstorm for alternative solutions. I am in the process of arranging this. Bringing representatives from these groups together to say what is the best step to take would be a message to our senators and representatives that there are a great number of us who don't want war. Then we can take it back to our groups to make it happen.

Molly Rush, co-founder, Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice (Pittsburgh):

We had a interfaith prayer vigil at the Federal Building in downtown Pittsburgh. About 100 people came. It was quite moving, with a lot of ministers and priests. Its purpose was to pray for the victims and to make clear that we felt strongly that the perpetrators should be brought to justice, but also to say let's not escalate the violence that will create more innocent victims.

Leaders always think their wars are going to be manageable. It is not clear that a campaign against terrorism has a remote chance of winning. There is so little attempt to understand why people could get to the point of religious fanaticism and hatred that they would kill themselves.

The Board, staff, and membership of the Merton Center have been invited to a meeting this weekend to look at where we are and how we are going to move in this situation. We have endorsed a statement basically opposing going into war, but I think we have to come up with our own ideas.