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 The Hudson Valley chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation will host a very special Community Circle this Sunday, Sept. 19th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Moderated by FOR's executive director, Mark Johnson, the program will feature Army Colonel (ret.) and U.S. diplomat Ann Wright for a conversation about U.S. foreign policy, particularly regarding the Middle East. Wright was a member of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla that was attacked by Israeli Defense Forces this spring in the Mediterranean Sea.
Col. Wright has been a long-time advocate of creating a just peace for Palestine and Israel, and has participated in multiple human rights actions for Gaza. On June 3, 2010, ten Turkish sailors were killed on the Marmara ship in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. Col. Wright was on the Challenger 1, which was an estimated 150 yards away at that moment, and her ship was also boarded. "Flash bangs were used," said Wright. "One of our journalists was hit with something of an electric shock. I don't know that it was a taser." She did not see the clash between the IDF soldiers and the Marmara passengers due to the pre-dawn darkness.
Ann Wright grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and attended the University of Arkansas, where she received a master's and a law degree. She also has a master's degree in national security affairs from the U.S. Naval War College. Following college, she spent 13 years in the U.S. Army and 16 additional years in the Army Reserves, retiring as a Colonel. In 1987, Col. Wright joined the Foreign Service and served as U.S. Deputy Ambassador in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She received the State Department's Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 people from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since Saigon.
She was on the first State Department team to go to Afghanistan and helped reopen the Embassy there in December 2001. Her other overseas assignments include Somalia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada, Micronesia, and Nicaragua. On March 19, 2003, the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ann Wright cabled a letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, stating that without the authorization of the U.N. Security Council, the invasion and occupation of a Muslim, Arab, oil-rich country would be a disaster. Since then, she has been writing and speaking out for peace. She fasted for a month, picketed at Guantánamo, served as a juror in impeachment hearings, traveled to Iran as a citizen diplomat, and has been arrested numerous times for peaceful, nonviolent protest of Bush's policies, particularly the war on Iraq. In the last two years, she has been on delegations to both Iran (organized by FOR) and Gaza.
The Community Circle with Col. Ann Wright will be held at FOR's national Shadowcliff headquarters, 521 N. Broadway, Nyack NY 10960. Suggested donation is $10.00. For more information, contact Mary Heckler by e-mail or by phone at 845-358-4601 ext. 32. Media inquiries please contact Ethan Vesely-Flad (cell: 510-701-5267).
P.S.: Don't forget to get your tickets TODAY to FOR's Oct. 3rd peace awards and "One Nation Working Together" report-back event! Tickets are just $35, and the "Peace of the Action" celebration will include an arts exhibition, music, food, the national peace prize ceremony, keynote speeches, and reflections by local community leaders who will have just returned from the mass rally in Washington on Oct. 2nd. Contact Jonette O'Kelley Miller or Linda Kelly at 845-358-4601 ext. 22 to purchase your ticket.
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