UUCOV 's Social Action Committee
is a joint sponsor of the
Venice Peace Coalition
The Venice Peace Coalition has been formed as a result of activities including two peace vigils held in Venice on December 23rd and December 30th, 2002. These vigils were initiated by the UUCOV Social Action Committee, and were successful due in large part to press publicity arranged by Kindra Muntz and Jim Sparrow (not a UUCOV member, but he was present at the relevant committee meeting).
The group now comprises over 100 people who are supportive of peaceful solutions in Iraq. Many of these are UUCOV members, but most are not. We know that some are Quakers, some Catholic, some Muslim, and some have no religious affiliation. The Social Action Committee of UUCOV is one of the sponsors of the group, with the approval of the UUCOV Board.
MISSION
The mission of the Venice Peace Coalition is to work for peaceful solutions to world conflicts, especially those involving the United States.
To accomplish this we seek to bring together all people in the Southwest Florida area who wish to share our mission. We seek to communicate, advance and promote, by non-violent means, peaceful solutions to conflicts between nations.
VENICE PEACE NEWSLETTER- JULY, 2008
Please send all announcements, activities and items for this newsletter by the 30th of each month for inclusion in the following month's publication. Send them to ebarritt@msn.com and include your name with every contribution.
SOME THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH
"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go fight. After my experiences I have come to hate war. War settles nothing."
--D.D. Eisenhower, 34th President
"We are not hated because we practice democracy, value freedom, or uphold human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in Third World countries whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations. That hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism....Instead of sending our sons and daughters around the world to kill Arabs so we can have the oil under their sand, we should send them to rebuild their infrastructure, supply clean water, and feed starving children....In short, we should so good instead of evil. Who would try to stop us? Who would hate us? Who would want to bomb us? That is the truth the American people need to hear."
--Lt. Col. Robert Bowman (Ret.U.S. Air Force)
(Taken from the National Catholic Reporter- 1998 after he became a Roman Catholic Bishop)
"I have heard angry rhetoric by some Americans, including many of our nation's leaders, I would like to make it clear that my family and I take no comfort in your words of rage. If you choose to respond to this incomprehensible brutality by perpetuating violence against other innocent human beings, you may NOT do so in the name of justice for my husband."
--From the wife of an army pilot who was killed in the World Trade Center 9/11/02:
Amber Amundson
"When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist."
--Archbishop Helder Camara
A FEW STATISTICS AS OF JUNE 30, 2009
Taken from the Information Clearing House News Letter (emailtom@cox.net) and icasualitites.org
- Number of Iraqis slaughtered since the U.S. invaded Iraq: 1,225,898
- Number of U.S. Military dead (105 females): 4,113
- Number of contractors killed (all countries): 435
- Number of journalists killed (all countries): 142
- War and Occupation costs to date: $532,731,478,754
"But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?" Barbara Bush on ABC Good Morning America 3/18, 2003
Peace, Evelyn Barritt. Editor, July I, 2008
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Venice
Home > Venice Peace Coalition
