Day for peace

To the editor:

This Saturday, 1,000 people in Lawrence will be part of what might be the single largest global day of peaceful protest in history. Millions of people around the world, on every continent, in all major cities, will call for a peaceful settlement in Iraq. Look on the Web: unitedforpeace.org.

In Kansas, demonstrations continue in Manhattan, Emporia, Wichita and Newton. In Missouri, actions go on in Kansas City, St. Joseph, Columbia, Rolla, Cape Girardeau, Jefferson City and St. Louis. Around the United States, hundreds of cities are involved.

After an American aid worker was killed in Amman last October, a Jordanian columnist, noted in The New York Times, stated, “The war on terror seems to be breeding more, not less. There is no sign that anyone in the U.S. or Israel or the Arab world is addressing the grievances that lie underneath all this.”

We need to turn this country around. The world sees the United States increasingly as an anti-Arab, anti-Islamic “rogue nation,” causing a “political earthquake.” The United States is undermining efforts by the U.N. to peacefully end the crisis in Iraq. This could bring the “disintegration” of the Middle East. Hans von Sponeck, former U.N. Humanitarian Aid Coordinator in Iraq, said, “People are realizing that we have to tackle the causes of terrorism, not to practice it ourselves.”

To that end, the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice and other groups invite you to march down Massachusetts Street this Saturday. Meet at Buford M. Watson Jr. Park, Sixth and Kentucky streets, at 11:15 a.m., and march down to the South Park gazebo, for a peace rally. Come join us.

Frank Janzen,

Lawrence