Since the fall of last year, we in Asheville have new peace and justice activists adding new life to our cause. We see the people in Gaza being killed as tensions now stretch throughout the Middle East. This younger team of activists is making an impact on our region.
They remind us of the starvation and total destruction of an ancient culture at the hands of an occupying force armed with U.S. weapons. These activists lead rallies, mourn the dead and dying, sponsor programs and teach-ins, while building solidarity with those in Palestine, as well as those from other oppressed groups. This collective deserves our thanks and respect.
But they join others who have sacrificed and demonstrated for peace here in our region for decades before and during endless wars.
Beginning in 2003, members of WNC Veterans for Peace stood for peace in front of the former Vance Monument every Tuesday afternoon. Twenty-one years later, passersby would see their signs and banners urging drivers and walkers to, as John Lennon pleaded half a century ago, “Give peace a chance.” These vigils now are drawing to a close, but the vets and their associates intend to still be active in the community.
Until a few years ago, Women in Black did a regular silent vigil on behalf of women and their families suffering from war waged by the USA and approved by both parties’ policies, even though many of those members of Congress knew the reasons were lies.
Also here in Asheville, we witness the WNC Physicians for Social Responsibility standing in that spot educating passersby about the possible devastation caused by a nuclear war.
A younger crowd dressed in red, calling themselves the Party for Socialism and Liberation, chants slogans, marches and delivers powerful lectures in solidarity with those here and away who are suffering from injustice and oppression.
When a member of the military-industrial complex opened a 1.2 million-square-foot Pratt & Whitney (a subsidiary of RTX) plant on a hundred acres of forested land formerly owned by Biltmore Farms, another group for peace formed. They called themselves Reject Raytheon AVL. You can see them with weekly banners on Montford Avenue’s overpass above Interstate 240, reminding drivers that U.S. weapons are committing genocide on innocents in Gaza.
These local groups and many more peace and justice groups make up a culture of peace in Asheville, envied by many other communities in our mountain region. Most of us operate on a shoestring, compared to how much our country spends annually on offensive wars (over a trillion dollars). But our heroes honor diplomacy, while our elected leaders seem to salivate over “forever wars.”
Come honor those who advocate and stand for those harmed and killed by our weapons at our one day of peace, the International Day of Peace. We’ll gather at Land of the Sky United Church of Christ on Saturday, Sept. 21, at 11 a.m. to honor Asheville’s peace heroes and proclaim why we do what we do and how we can change our community and world by “giving peace a chance.”
— Rachael Bliss
Asheville
Yes the people of Gaza have had casualties as they let terrorist use their houses, hospital’s, nurseries and secret tunnels as bases against Israel.
When terrorist steal vast amounts of food donated to those in need, those in need go hungry unless they can afford to purchase food from the terrorist/thieves.
When the terrorist kill the kidnapped Israels as Israel special forces get within a block either turn against terrorist or get your affairs in order.
Defend democracy in Ukraine. Defend democracy in Taiwan. Defend democracy here in the US. Those who would trade their liberty for their [imagined] security deserve neither …to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin. There is no peace when dictators and fascists are running amok. And of course, there is no peace without justice for all. The Tree of Liberty needs watering, sigh.
It is difficult to be part of a serious and thoughtful progressive, political left in Asheville, when this kind of uncritical, politically and intellectually dishonest drivel, in the guise of “peace activism,” seems to get promulgated so regularly in this community.
The PSL being called out for praise as, “peace heroes?” Really? Does that praise extend to their support for the murderous regimes of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, and Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, who is responsible for the death of approximately 600,000 of his own people? Does it acknowledge PSL’s unapologetic support of Putin in his seizing of Crimea and Donbas in his war against Ukraine?
To be taken seriously, progressives in Asheville need to call out and distance themselves from the kind of nonsense being spewed by the letter writer, and most certainly be clear-eyed enough to see groups like PSL for what they are. To do otherwise simply confirms all of the right-wing smears and tropes of the left.
peace in gaza when all hostages are released and all Hamas/Iranian terrorists and their supporters are eliminated from civilized society.
Peace activists in NC should be aware that Rev. William Barber II and many other religious leaders like him in NC are pushing a total vote Democrat party line with absolutely no mention of Gaza , the Palestinians , Israel or War , Nuclear Weapons or Military spending at all. NONE just Ra Ra vote Democrat. Check out Barber’s twitter feed to see what I am saying. Peace Activists need to see if we can get Barber and others to mention Gaza , at least , and all the other related war issues as well. Barber seems to have forgotten what Dr. King preached about war because he is preaching vote Democrat and nothing else.
The killing and kidnapping of civilians by Hamas and other militants on October 7 was a war crime, a violation of International law. The decimation of Palestinian life in Gaza and the West Bank are also war crimes, violations of international law and a plausible genocide. Whatever one may think of PSL as a party, to their credit they have called our publicly this horrific situation. Desmond Tutu said that Palestine is the moral issue of our time. We must look in the mirror and face our complicity in ongoing violence in the world that results in nothing productive. The U.S. is in violation of its own laws by blocking accountability for Israel’s and its actions vis a vis the Occupation, the apartheid state, and for the last 11 months the ongoing bombardment and destruction of Gaza and its people. If we continue on the path of the rule of war, we will never get to the rule of law…we will wind up where we are headed…a fascist world teetering on the brink of World War III.
By all means – I trust the writer will continue live her values and flex her first amendment rights. But you will earn few friends, and even less respect by keeping company with folks who victim blame the people of Ukraine for the anti democratic violence of Putin, or ignore the atrocities of October 7th, amongst the many sins of Hamas. Ours is a complex world where democratic ideals, and the writers constitutional freedoms sometimes require a forceful, and military defense.
In our complex and violent world it’s not possible to advocate for the peace we must achieve without there being some flaws and omissions in the solutions we seek. We are all human, after all, and see things differently. The main thing is to TAKE ACTION to promote peace, URGE our representatives personally, and in the voting booth, to enact and enforce laws that curtail the presence of military weaponry among nations, and NEGOTIATE FOR A JUST PEACE before and while wars are being waged. If this all sounds farfetched and keeps anyone from DOING SOMETHING, think hard about the sad and sure reality of this…
“Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind”
From a speech given by President John F. Kennedy to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 1961.
That is really deep. Good luck promoting your peacenik silliness.
Hello Indy499,
Thanks for taking the time to read my comment and to reply to it. A few questions…
1. Are you a veteran?
2. Do you consider peace a bad thing?
3. What, if anything, do you do to try to make the world we share a better place?
4. Would you be willing to meet with me in person to talk about these questions, and others?
Thanks again. Regardless of whether you respond or whether we get to talk, I wish you, and those you love, well.
All the thumbs down seem to indicate that justice and peace in this world is not worthy of working toward. So sad. What will the children of today think of their elders?
An article, I recommend:
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/09/no-israel-does-not-have-a-right-to-defend-itself-in-gaza-but-the-palestinians-do/?sfnsn=mo