Friends--
Thank you for your great work supporting April’s month of action against drone warfare and surveillance! With your help, we changed the national conversation and prompted a response from President Obama.
Now, join us in calling for a worldwide ban on weaponized drones.
Nationwide actions against drones
FOR members and staff helped organize actions in Seattle, Syracuse, Chicago, Albany and Austin. Many other faith-based organizations were also part of the effort.
FOR Executive Director Mark Johnson spoke at Hancock Air Base, a drone training site, in Syracuse, NY. You can watch the anti-drone rally and march on YouTube.
In Seattle, members of the Western Washington FOR rallied against the lies of drone "job creation."
You can see even more videos and report-backs from actions in San Diego, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York City, Washington DC, Boston, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
Because of such efforts, grave concerns over military and domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles are now finally in the conversation nationally and locally.
President Obama has been forced to answer the outrage over the impunity with which his administration has been using drones. We pay tribute to Medea Benjamin, 2010 recipient of FOR's Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, for directly challenging the president to end the use of armed drones during his foreign policy speech last Thursday.
This Tuesday, Evanston, Illinois became the third U.S. city to pass a resolution against drones.
Yet it will take ever-escalating pressure to prevent the war powers from legitimizing this terrifying new tool of violence.
Keep up the pressure
FOR is joining RootsAction in calling for a worldwide ban on weaponized drones.
Join us in petitioning the U.N. and others to ban the use of drones as weapons.
In addition, the Drones Quilt Project is another way to continue to draw attention to the tragic costs of drone warfare. You and your chapter or fellow activists can sign up to make quilt squares in memory of individuals killed by drone strikes. The U.S. quilt project is inspired by the poignant efforts of the Fellowship of Reconciliation England, and other peace groups in the United Kingdom.
Add your square to the Drones Quilt Project.
Additional resources on drones and anti-drone activism
Wage peace!
Leila, Nathaniel, Mark, Linda, Ethan, and the whole FOR team |
