Friends--
 I'm truly excited to be participating in today's Let Freedom Ring event, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
MSNBC is broadcasting the event live, so I hope you'll tune in over the next half-hour as my turn comes to speak (you may also be able to do so online).
Before I step up to the microphone, I wanted to send you, Friends, an advance copy of my remarks.
I hope you'll consider spreading them to others today if you find them useful. The network of interfaith peace-workers and justice-weavers connected to FOR is truly inspiring, and I hope to highlight the wisdom of one of our most prominent organizers, Bayard Rustin, to this great fellowship of reconciliation now taking place in our national capital.
Peace and blessings.
--Kristin
My words to Washington today
 I bring you greetings from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which has been working since 1915 to secure a world of justice and freedom through nonviolence.
Today, 50 years after the March on Washington, I pay tribute to the visionary primary organizer of the original march, Bayard Rustin.
As a Fellowship of Reconciliation staff director, Rustin cofounded the Congress of Racial Equality and organized the first freedom ride in 1947.
An African American gay man, Rustin was a Quaker. His life commitment to nonviolence as a spiritual discipline exemplifies that true pacifism is in no way passive.
Rustin refused to be at war with himself by denying society’s expectation that he be straight; he refused to be at war with another nation by being imprisoned as a conscientious objector in World War II; and he refused to be at war with humanity by not accepting divisions and diminishment based on race.
In every situation, instead of violence, conflict, and strife, Rustin chose peace. He and Rev. James Lawson, another FOR staffer, are credited with convincing Rev. Dr. King early on that nonviolence had to be the way to freedom.
And so on this day, when we commemorate the enactment of Rustin's vision of a march on Washington, how can we pay tribute to his legacy of nonviolence and peace, to Dr. King's stand for an active love infused with power, when we are poised to attack Syria?
Rustin and King both showed us over and over that racism and militarism and economic exploitation are inextricably linked.
On behalf of all people of conscience, I call on our leaders here today to do all in our power to resist the siren song of militarism and embrace instead the way of Rustin, the way of King, the way of nonviolence and peace.
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