A HISTORY OF NEWTON DIALOGUES ON PEACE AND WAR 2001 – 2007 One community‘s response in opposition to its government‘s policies after the attacks of 9/11 Written and compiled by Linda Smith Nathanson, 2016 With help from Steve Nathanson and Dave Ascher Special thanks to Louise and Sev Bruyn, Octo and Sarah Barnett, Doris Tennant, Dave Ascher, Dick Sterne, Dan Shaw, and Judith Hudson for allowing me to interview them about their experiences in Newton Dialogues. Dedicated to all my friends in Newton Dialogues on Peace and War “A time comes when silence is betrayal.” --Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface vii A History of Newton Dialogues 1 Beginnings and Background 2 1990-91 Peace Vigil 3 Letter 4 Statement of Purpose 5 Newton Dialogues Forms 6 Minutes of an early meeting, February, 2002 7 This informal group gets a name, 2002 8 The Working Group 9 The Vigil 10 Opposition to the Iraq Invasion Builds 12 Statement of Purpose 12 NDPW Ad in The Newton Tab, to protest Iraq invasion 14 NDPW presence in mass protest in NYC, 2003 15 Booklet of NDPW information 17 Alternative Views newsletter, 2003-2004 19 Resolutions brought by NDPW to the Newton Board of Aldermen 22 Actions and Projects, 2001-2007 23 Talks/Lectures Demonstrations/Petitions Workshops Films Other actions Presentations to local groups 29 Committees 29 iii Social Events 30 Musical and Theatrical Events 30 Peace booklets : 31 Reflections on Peace and War for MLK, Jr. Day, 2003 NDPW Dialogues on Peace and War Working Group Notes and Meeting Announcements 32 Declaration of Moral Outrage 32 NDPW Committee Members 33 Further NDPW Activities 37 What did Newton Dialogues Contribute to the Peace Effort? 37 Comments from NDPW members 38 NDPW Activities, 2007 – 2016 40 Collage of photos and articles 43 APPENDIX 48 Alternative Views, 12 copies, from June 2003- October, 2004 1A – 94A Flyers for monthly meetings (in chronological order 95A – 129A Films presented (in chronological order) 130A – 137A Board of Aldermen Resolutions (2002 – 2009) 138A – 147A Vigil Statement, July 11, 2002 148A – 149A Anti-War Groups in the Boston Area 150A Fund Raiser Documents, Fall 2003 151A – 153A ―Things You Can Do‖ 154A NDPW Mission Statement 2002 155A-156A iv NDPW By-Laws 2004 157A – 158A Three Peace Brochures 2003 159A – 164A MLK Jr.’s ―Silence is Betrayal‖ speech 165A – 166A March 19, 2005 Rally in Newton Center 167A Town Meeting, ―The War in Iraq: What Now‖ January 2007 168A Fund Raiser for 2004 Election Action ACT 169A Fund Raiser for Tennant and Lubell, Newton lawyers volunteering in Guantanamo 170A – 173A Opt-Out project to help Newton students understand their right NOT to have their names sent to the military 174A – 177A Workshops 178A – 194A Making the Case for Leaving Iraq 2006 195A Declaration of Moral Outrage 2005-2006, including letter to Donald Rumsfeld, press release and explanation 196A – 200A Petition to Senator Ted Kennedy, ―Bring the Troops Home,‖ 201A – 202A Song Fests 203A – 220A Mystic Chorale Fund Raiser for NDPW 2004 221A – 223A Examples of Community Outreach Interfaith Service, March 2, 2003 224A – 227A Talk at Needham Senior Center, January 2003 228A NDPW Bumper Sticker and Pins 229A – 230A Open Letter from Dr. Bernard Lown, 2003 231A – 232A Proclamation of Nuclear Disarmament Day, August 5, 2005 233A NDPW Ad opposing Iraq Invasion, March, 2003 234A Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom NDPW Public Reading, Dec. 11, 2005 235A – 236 A v Additional Notebooks and Folders These materials may be viewed in the Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington Street, Newton, MA 617-796-1450. They are available in hard copy only. Folder #1 NDPW public reading of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, Sunday, December 11, 2005. Copy of the script. Notebook #2 NDPW Announcements distributed at monthly meetings, 2003-05 Notebook #3 Early meetings, 2001 – 2002 NDPW Minutes of the Working Group, 2003 - 2007 Folder #4 Photographs Folder #5 NewTV Interview Video VHS with NDPW 10/09/02 Folder #6 Articles Notebook #7 Copies of Alternative Views, June 2003 – October 2004 Photos and other material included in the text: Cover photo: March in Boston against the imminent Iraq invasion (2003) Photo: Protesters in the 1990-1991 vigil against the Gulf War 4 Yellow information card, vigil begun in 2002 11 Photo: Newton Center vigil (summer, 2002) 12 NDPW ad (2003) in the Newton Tab protesting planned invasion 14 NDPW prepares to join massive rally in NY against the war 15 Photo: NDPW at the NYC march, February 15, 2003 15 Photo: ―Bracing for War‖ Newton Center vigil 16 Alternative Views first issue/front page 21 Photo: Singing on the Newton Green 30 Photo: Harvest Fair NDPW Table 36 Collage of photos and articles 43 vi Preface Newton Dialogues on Peace and War (NDPW) grew out of small group of people who met in our Newton Highlands living room shortly after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Like many other people, we were confused and worried about what would happen next: How would our government react and what should we, as citizens, do? It did not take long before the Bush administration launched an invasion of Afghanistan in an unsuccessful effort to find those responsible for the attacks and also to overthrow the Taliban and install a new government. Given the large number of Afghan civilians killed in this invasion, our opposition to our government’s reaction increased. In 2002, talk of an invasion of Iraq—a country with no connection to 9/11--grew louder within the U.S. government. In response to the growing likelihood of another invasion, NDPW began a weekly vigil in Newton Center in July of 2002—eight months before the Iraq war began. We wanted to alert people to the threat of an extended and unnecessary war and to stimulate public opposition to it. From the vantage point of 2016, politicians routinely describe the Iraq invasion as a ―mistake.‖ But that was not the case in 2002-2003. It fell to hundreds of community groups around the country and around the world to stand up and protest this action by the United States government. This is the story of one such community protest group. The group that first met in our living room in 2001 grew unexpectedly large and in unexpected directions. It grew from about ten people to an organization with an email distribution of over a thousand. It also grew from simply having a shared sense of opposition to our government’s policies to an activist organization that, over many years, held hundreds of talks, demonstrations, workshops, vigils and petitions. Our speakers addressed issues ranging from the Iraq invasion and occupation to the Patriot Act, torture and Guantanamo, the Israel-Palestine dilemma, and many other issues facing the United States and the world community. Though NDPW was begun by Newton residents, many people from other communities attended our programs, and we co-sponsored many events with protest groups from other Massachusetts towns and cities. NDPW sponsored hundreds of events, some in conjunction with the Newton Free Public Library, the West Newton Cinema, and with the Eliot Church in Newton Corner. The great majority of events and most of our monthly meetings have taken place in the Eliot Church, and we acknowledge with deep appreciation the Church’s generosity and support. vii Over time, a website was created for NDPW and later expanded and revised. Both sites are still available online: www.newtondialog.org and www.newtondialogues.org. When my husband and I moved from Newton to Brookline in 2007, the entire archive of NDPW up to that point moved with us. This record seemed to me too important to be allowed to disappear, and it is that impulse that has led to the writing of this History. The history of Newton Dialogues is a narrative of events and activities followed by an Appendix containing scanned flyers from most of NDPW’s talks and programs, as well as many other materials, and copies of the impressive newsletter, Alternative Views, written during the anguished year of 2003-2004. With the help of the Jackson Homestead and Museum (Historic Newton) (www.historicnewton.org) notebooks and folders of additional material will be preserved and made available to the public. The History itself, including the appendix, will also be available in the Newtonia Collection of the Newton Free Library. The bulk of activities described took place during the years from 2001 to 2007, but NDPW continues to hold talks and events, and these more recent activities are listed toward the end of this book. My hope is that the History of Newton Dialogues will be interesting and useful to people studying how a group of ordinary citizens in the aftermath of 9/11 organized to oppose what they perceived to be (and what has now been confirmed to be) disastrous policies on the part of their government. I remain very proud of our efforts and grateful for the many good people I came to know through this experience. Linda Smith Nathanson April, 2016 viii A History of Newton Dialogues on Peace and War 2001 – 2007 On September 11, 2001, nineteen men, mostly from Saudi Arabia, commandeered four planes and attacked the United States, killing nearly 3000 people. Like most people all over the world, Newton citizens reacted in horror and disbelief. Suddenly we learned about the fundamentalist Muslim group called Al Qaeda that had organized these attacks. Within two weeks of the attacks, several Newton residents, some of whom had been part of earlier protests against the Gulf War of 1990-91, met to talk. As they later described it, they were ―united by a sense of urgency about the challenges facing our country…they feared that our government would respond to the September 11 attacks with massive military force and that such a response would decrease the security of Americans and other peoples; [they] believed that efforts to prevent terrorism must be grounded in international cooperation; and…were disturbed that in the period after September 11, there was [too] little discussion and debate about how our country should respond to the threat of terrorism.‖ Fearful and troubled, the group began meeting in a regular way simply to share their concerns—concerns which grew when the United States government began raids in Afghanistan to try to capture the leaders of Al Qaeda and then, when these covert military efforts failed, the U.S. decided to launch a full offensive war against Afghanistan. Afghanistan at that time was governed by the Taliban, a strict Muslim sect that forbids girls’ education, forbids women from going outside the home without a male escort, and uses crushing punishment for the smallest deviation from their strict interpretation of the Q‘uran. In March of 2001, the Taliban had destroyed 1700 year-old Buddhist statues with great religious and cultural value. Finally, the Taliban had provided a safe harbor for Al Qaeda leaders and their followers and allowed Al Qaeda to use their country as a training ground. These factors made it easy for many Americans to think that it was appropriate to fight against the Taliban. Most Americans focused on these facts and ignored the unpleasant reality that the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. were carried out not by Afghans, but Saudis. The group of Newton residents who met informally in September and October of 2001 could not follow this reasoning. To them, the 9/11 attacks were carried out by terrorists, not by a nation-state; they were acts that demanded a criminal investigation and punishment, not an invasion and war that would inflict harm on civilians. As the Afghan invasion began in the fall of 2001, this small group of Newton citizens tried to figure out how best to express their opposition and influence the actions of the U.S. government. The group of people that began to meet shortly after 9/11 grew slowly into a local effort to educate the public about war and peace issues in general and to create greater leverage to affect government policies on war and peace. Believing that democracy can flourish only if citizens discuss and debate government policies, rather than simply acquiescing in 1 them, we eventually named our group Newton Dialogues on Peace and War. In the following decade, Newton Dialogues on Peace and War (NDPW) organized hundreds of local programs, protests, and other events, focusing primarily on war and peace issues generated by U.S. policies but also on the Israel/Palestine dilemma and the civil rights challenge posed by the USA Patriot Act. Local peace organizations sprang up all around the country in response to the United States invasions, first of Afghanistan in 2001 and then of Iraq in 2003. Newton Dialogues on Peace and War was one of hundreds of such groups around Massachusetts* and around the country that came into being after 9/11. This narrative recounts the growth of a local Newton peace group, what it did, and what it meant within the community at a time of great crisis in U.S. history. *Note that an asterisk in the text indicates material that can be found in the Appendix to this history. *************** Beginnings and Background Several of the Newton residents who gathered in the fall of 2001 to discuss U.S. responses to 9/11 had taken part in vigils to protest the First Gulf War more than ten years earlier. The latter protest began spontaneously in December, 1990, with a vigil— held every night in Newton Highlands before and during the Gulf War-- at the corner of Lincoln and Walnut Streets. This small group stood in the winter cold, marched in the 1991 Memorial Day parade, and held a vigil during the Fourth of July ceremonies. Since Newton Dialogues on Peace and War grew out of this 1990-91 ―Newton Peace Vigil,‖ it seems appropriate to begin this history of NDPW with a description of the earlier group’s motivation and concerns. 2