Kathy Kelly

Cold Shoulders

Kathy Kelly — 2008-07-09T10:30:00Z

Over the past two years, here in Amman, Jordan, I've regularly visited the family of Umm Hamdi, an Iraqi woman forced out of her native Iraq four years ago by terrifying death threats after her husband, very likely prey to that same threatened violence, disappeared. Although often met with the proverbial “cold shoulder” when trying to improve conditions for her family, she persists,—in the daytime she does child care for another family and, in the evening, she knits, sews, and makes handicrafts to sell in a local market. Umm Hamdi is tough, strong and fiercely determined to provide for her children. Nevertheless, she's wretchedly insecure as a single mother and one more refugee among thousands in a country where resources to cope with her anxious needs are very slim. And she is worried for her son who is still in Iraq. (...) - Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Istiklal

Kathy Kelly — 2008-07-09T10:25:00Z

The city of Amman, Jordan, is awash with numerous colorful signs that proclaim independence, Istiklal. The word is found on posters and placards in store windows. It names a major thoroughfare, a hospital, and a shopping center. Appreciation for independence is palpable, and this could be said for numerous cities and towns throughout the region, including Iraq, where past struggles for independence are commemorated by naming buildings and streets Istiklal. It reflects the love of independence and the longing for it. (...) - Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Weary of War? Don't Collaborate.

Kathy Kelly — 2008-04-17T21:25:40Z

An April 14th AP article by Anne Flaherty reported that U.S. Senators and Representatives are finding common ground in asking that Iraqis begin picking up the tab for the cost of war. The lawmakers are troubled that Iraqis might experience windfall surpluses of revenue generated by rising oil prices, while U.S. people bear the burden of paying for war in Iraq. "In hearings last week," Flaherty writes, "Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates whether Baghdad should start paying some U.S. combat costs, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., raised the possibility that an anticipated Iraqi budget surplus this year could be used to help Afghanistan, whose $700 million in annual revenue represents a small fraction of Iraq's $46.8 billion budget." (...) - Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Commemorating the White Rose: Resisting the Iraq War

Kathy Kelly — 2008-02-29T22:32:00Z

65 years ago, on February 22, 1943, the Nazi regime executed three German students because of their active resistance to the regime's murderous global and domestic agenda. Known as the White Rose, nearly all participants were students. 29 members were indicted for promoting opposition to the holocaust and to World War II.

Here in Chicago, several dozen people gathered in early February to watch “Sophie Scholl: The Final Days,” a film about the White Rose movement which focuses upon the experience of Sophie, and to think about our responsibilities, today, to confront Congressional Representatives and Senators in the U.S. who fund and prolong the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seventeen people agreed to commemorate the 29 indicted White Rose activists by delivering white roses to people working in Representative Rahm Emanuel's office. Rahm Emanuel is Chair of the House Democratic Caucus and consistently votes to fund the war in Iraq. We hoped that staffers would receive the roses and also engage with us in a conversation about Representative Emanuel's position regarding the war in Iraq. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Traveling Light

Kathy Kelly — 2007-12-06T14:35:47Z

Traveling with as light a load as possible is something I long for during long stretches away from home. I routinely discard paperwork and periodicals, “recycle” gifts and give away clothing. But, here in Amman, Jordan, when a ten year-old Iraqi girl named Nauras gave me a camera, I quickly put it in the envelope where I keep my money, confident it would survive my next purge.

The camera consists of two pieces of drawing paper, cleverly folded so that the parts slide past each other, opening up a tiny square “shutter.” I think of Nauras peering through the shutter and pretending to snap my picture, then gleefully posing for imaginary snapshots as I take my turn as photographer. I remember her fetching her only other toy, a bedraggled baby doll with long white hair and eyes of aqua blue, and placing it in my arms. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Peace Activists Kathy Kelly and David Smith-Ferri on Iraq's Worsening Refugee Crisis

Kathy Kelly, David Smith-Ferri — 2007-11-02T22:39:00Z

The United Nations revealed this week that 2,000 Iraqis are still fleeing their homes each day because of the continuing violence. The UN refugee agency estimates there are over 4.4 million displaced Iraqis. Some groups put the estimate even higher. More than 2.2 million of the Iraqi refugees are living in Syria and Jordan. The U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has created the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since the creation of Israel in 1948, when more than half the Palestinian population were driven off their homeland.

We end today's show with two peace activists who have spent time in Jordan working with Iraqi refugees. Kathy Kelly is the executive Director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She is a veteran peace activist and the founder of Voices in the Wilderness. Earlier this year she also helped organize the Occupation Project to oppose continued funding of the Iraq war. David Smith-Ferri is a poet and peace activist. His latest collection of poetry is titled “Battlefield Without Borders.”

Kathy Kelly and David Smith-Ferri are in New York as part of a speaking tour.

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Democracy Now!

We Shouldn't Be Causing This

Kathy Kelly — 2007-08-23T14:15:39Z

Here in Amman, Jordan, a British teenager, Sonia, age 12, recently spent four days interviewing and befriending Iraqi youngsters close to her in age. She wanted to learn, firsthand, about the experiences of Iraqi youngsters who have fled war and violence in their home country. (...) - Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Get to Work!

Kathy Kelly — 2007-08-13T06:23:38Z

“GET A JOB!” These three words are very familiar to activists bearing signs calling for an end to war, whether standing on street corners, walking along highways, holding vigils, or nonviolently occupying the offices of elected representatives. Listen to the activists, and you'll often hear, “We're doing our job. We're trying.”

I'm convinced that our work must always have one foot placed in nonviolent resistance to the forces that design and wage wars, with the other foot standing among people who bear the physical and mental affliction caused by these forces. Today, I'm thinking especially about two young women who found themselves in nightmare circumstances because, in their view, they simply wanted to have a job. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

She Stands At Every Door

Kathy Kelly — 2007-08-06T21:11:10Z

Amman, Jordan

At a small, informal school in the basement of a church in Amman, many strings of colorful paper cranes bedeck walls and windows. The school serves children whose families have fled Iraq. Older children who come to the school understand the significance of the crane birds. Claudia Lefko, of Northampton, MA, who helped initiate the school, told them Sadako's story. The Japanese child survived the bombing of Hiroshima, but suffered from radiation sickness. In a Japanese hospital, she wanted to fold 1,000 origami crane birds, believing that by doing so she could be granted a special wish: hers was that no other child would ever suffer as she did. Sadako died before completing the task she'd set for herself, but Japanese children then folded many thousands more cranes, and the story has been told for decades in innumerable places, making the delicate paper cranes a symbol for peace throughout the world.

Today, August 6, children who've recently joined the informal school in Ammam will learn Sadako's story. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Judgment Call

Kathy Kelly — 2007-08-06T21:07:00Z

Amman, Jordan

Governments and Non-Governmental Organizations may seem to be transfixed, almost mesmerized, by the mounting humanitarian catastrophe in Iraq. But, since 2003, an admirable group of NGOs, including Oxfam, has steadily tried to address humanitarian needs through collecting and organizing data, establishing priorities, responding to emergencies, and working out ways to deliver food, medicine, and clean water to some of the neediest areas in Iraq.

Although it isn't ideal, these groups have generally relied on “remote management,” primarily from Jordan, working with anonymous human rights and relief workers, primarily Iraqis, inside of Iraq. From their experience, they are able to identify problems which could be solved, they believe, given the political will of the U.S. government, the Iraqi government, other foreign governments, and the United Nations. The report strongly urges each of these groups to accept critiques of their current programs and to greatly increase efforts to deliver emergency assistance to impoverished and displaced Iraqis.

They've particularly urged the Iraqi government to decentralize the distribution of aid. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Dancing in Darkness

Kathy Kelly — 2007-07-30T22:19:44Z

Amman, Jordan

Last weekend was an important one, regarding education, here in Jordan. Jordanian high school students learned the results of exams qualifying them (or not) for University studies. Television news showed students - among the 52% who passed - dancing for joy. And, King Abdullah announced that Jordan will open its public schools to Iraqi students under fifteen years of age. Along with this news came a UNHCR request for $129 million in funding to help provide schooling for Iraqi children living in neighboring countries, especially Jordan and Syria.

I hope this will be good news for several of Abu Mahmoud's children who have already missed three years of school. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

“Attuned to Tom and Jerry”

Kathy Kelly — 2007-07-25T00:06:47Z

Last week, Umm Daoud, (her name means “Mother of Daoud”), met me and three friends at a bridge that crosses into her neighborhood. It was just after sundown; the streets were darkening as she guided us toward the narrow path which leads to her home. She and her five children live in a humble two room apartment in a crowded “low-rent” area of Amman.

As guests, my friends and I sat on a makeshift piece of furniture, an old door placed atop two crates and covered by a thin mat. She and her children sat on the floor. Apart from a television and a small table, the living room had no other furniture. The television remained “on” while Samil, her youngest son, seemed completely absorbed in a “Tom and Jerry” cartoon. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Being Hope

Kathy Kelly — 2007-05-31T23:08:25Z

Earlier this week, the American Friends Service Committee asked me to speak about finding hope in hard times as part of an interfaith service to conclude their "Eyes Wide Open" display in Chicago's Grant Park. The display arranged 3,438 soldiers' boots to commemorate U.S. military people killed in Iraq, along with life sized pictures of Iraqi civilians and a collection of numerous civilian shoes to remember hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed in Iraq since 2003. I asked the audience to join me in recalling experiences I had while imprisoned at the Pekin Federal prison for "crossing the line" at Fort Benning, Georgia. (...) - Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Over 240 Arrested Since "Occupation Project" Launched to Call on Congress to End War Funding

Kathy Kelly — 2007-03-27T23:09:00Z

The Senate is preparing to vote this week on a spending bill that would give the President $100 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also establish a timeline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq by next year. We speak with veteran peace activist Kathy Kelly On Capitol Hill, the Senate is preparing to vote this week on a spending bill that would give the President $100 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but also establish a timeline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq by next year. On Friday the House passed a similar bill by a margin of 218 to 212.

A total of 14 Democrats voted against the bill including eight who oppose any more funding of the war. The eight anti-war Democrats were, Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Diane Watson and Barbara Lee, all of California, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, John Lewis of Georgia, Mike McNulty of New York and Mike Michaud of Maine.

Many anti-war activists were pushing Congress to reject all future funding of the war. Last month, the group Voices For Creative Nonviolence launched the Occupation Project. Activists around the country traveled to congressional offices and conducted sit-ins while calling on lawmakers to stop funding the war.

Over 240 peace activists have been arrested since the Occupation Project began.

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Democracy Now!

Do Something Good

Kathy Kelly — 2007-02-23T06:56:33Z

This past Tuesday, in Fairbanks, Alaska, nine people entered the office of Senator Ted Stevens to deliver their "emphatic request" that the Senator vote against supplemental funding for the war and then began reading the names of Iraqis and U.S. people who had died because of this war. They separated the names of U.S. troops by age. When ordered to leave, they were only half way through the commemoration of the twenty-one year old U.S. troops who died in Iraq. They began by reading the ages of the younger troops.

Seth Warncke, a University student, was issued a citation; Rob Mulford and Don Muller were taken to the Fairbanks Correctional Unit. They were released after being in jail for 23 hours. (...)

- Voices for Creative Nonviolence / Voices for Creative Nonviolence