Affectionate greetings to you all. I arrived four days ago from the Middle East and find myself caught as it were between two worlds. I feel like I left one family there in order to return to family here. Despite the starkly different realities, both places seem equally familiar. In ways hard to describe, life there seems easier.

Amman, Jordan
October 22, 2008

I learned that among the things he was forced to leave behind was a large feather pillow his mother had made about seventy years ago. She had gathered the feathers herself. Also left behind were some embroidery pieces she had made as well as a couple of books and other items. When his wife died of cancer over 28 years ago, this gentle man had raised his three children alone. I met his only daughter recently in Syria. She and her husband are among the refugee population there longing to join family in a safe place where they can work and raise their two small daughters. I thought of an embroidered pillow case cover my mother gave me some years back. It is something I cherish imagining how she had laid her head on it as a child. Maybe, I told him, I could retrieve some of the things left behind with a neighbor.

Peace activists from across the US gathered at The Heartland Speaks, a conference organized by Salina People for Peace members Janie M. Stein and Martin Bates of Salina, KS. The conference concluded with a nonviolent direct action in response to Hawgsmoke 2008.

La’Onf participants hung posters in public areas, schools and government service and administrative offices. They also met with 40 organizations from Iraqi civil society.

“We can create a way for all opinions to be expressed; all parties and all people can participate in the elections, if we work to make them truly democratic. So do not choose violence because you think that your opinions are not being represented.”

Left to right: Kinsman, Melling, Langreck, Drydyk, Enslow and Dixon

Peacemakers:

Youth: Karen Drydyk & Paul Melling

Adult: Cassandra Dixon

Senior: Lillia Langreck

Lifetime Achievement: John Kinsman and Julie Enslow