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In the Hope for Peaceful Tomorrows On September 11, 2001, Derrill Bodley’s daughter Deora was killed at the World Trade Center, where Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez also lost their son, and David Potorti and Rita Lasar lost their brothers James Potorti and Abe Zelmanowitz. Yet among all the bereaved of that terrible day, Kelly Campbell, Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez, David Potorti, Rita Lasar and a score or so of other extraordinary people knew that they didn’t want other families to suffer such losses—and especially not in their name. By February of 2002, they had joined together as September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, named from the assertion by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that “wars are poor tools for carving out peaceful tomorrows.” Since then they have traveled the world pleading for peace.
On June 13, the War Resisters League was privileged to recognize the quiet heroism of the Families for Peaceful Tomorrows with its 41st Peace Award, given, as always, at its annual dinner. Nine members of Peaceful Tomorrows were there to accept the award including Derrill Bodley, whose statement is reproduced in part below. More than 100 local members of the League were there to pay tribute to the families’ transcendence of grief—and of course to enjoy the once-a-year chance to catch up with the League and with each other. Some who couldn’t be there, notably longtime staffer David McReynolds and writer Grace Paley, sent messages of support and congratulations. No such event happens without the work of many people. The League thanks the Dinner Committee—Frida Berrigan, Ellen Davidson, Melissa Jameson and Bernice Lanning—for putting it together, Pacifeast Caterers (Joanne Sheehan and Rick Gaumer of WRL New England) for the good food, Vicki Rovere for the desserts, Erika Weihs for the hand-lettered scroll, Sachio Ko-Yin for emceeing, Shahira for her dance for peace, all the other people who put time and energy into the dinner and, of course, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows for accepting the award. Build Peace Through Peace Excerpts from remarks by Derrill Bodley on Peaceful Tomorrows’ receiving WRL’s 41st Annual Peace Award June 13. Unfortunately, once again today we see the emerging evidence of what has been true whenever war and warmaking become the predominant public activity of our society: not just the death and destruction in foreign lands, but also the perversion of human values and relationships among our own citizens, and the assault on the basic, inalienable rights of people everywhere. It is becoming clearer to more and more people in America that the “war effort” has affected their own lives or the life of someone whom they have always thought of as being close to them. More and more social programs and services ... are being cut to pay for more and more military programs and services. The freedoms that war is supposed to bring, according to those who wage it, are being taken away systematically and methodically from those who supposedly should be the beneficiaries of warmaking. ... [T]he virtual world of media ... has cast a shadow over all of us, darkening any truth that does not fit the consensus the corporate media wishes to create and control. ... These corporate interests use their media outlets as spotlights for the distorted images they create out of twisted facts and even documented lies, and call it “news.” I bring these issues up because I appreciate that I am speaking to “war resisters.” To me, resisting war includes not only resisting the overt acts of war and the military complex which commits those acts, but also the accompanying and enabling systems that support the government’s ability to enter into war and have the decision supported by the people. Therefore, resisting war currently includes resisting the government’s attempts to restrict our personal freedoms and resisting the corporate media’s attempts to influence American popular opinion with self-interested distortions and censorship. September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows advocates the development of alternatives to violence and conflict as problem-solving methods, and condemns the use of warmaking as the method of choice for resolving conflicts between nations, instead of what should be a wide and highly developed range of peacemaking solutions. ... As an organization, we are a rather new part of an interwoven association of groups with similar goals, each made up of individuals who wish to see the whole movement toward peace rise up and fly, like a magic carpet, carrying us all to the promise of a world which has abandoned war. As we continually and consistently strive to work together, so will we strengthen the vehicle of our belief in what is right to weather the storms and achieve the journey. |
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