Two of the smartest, most experienced, most passionate, most awesome peace workers in the country. FREE lecture, with Q&A. Sponsored by Iowa Veterans For Peace and University of Iowa Center for Human Rights. Co-sponsored by PEACE Iowa, Iowa United Nations Association, 100 Grannies, and Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Kathy Kelly & Ann Wright present
War & Refugees: Peace Is Possible
Sunday, May 1st
7:00 pm
at the Wellman Mennonite Church
Peace is a Must
with Ann Wright & Kathy Kelly
another in the Global Issues Series
Wednesday, May 4th
7:00 pm
Flaherty Community Room, Basile Hall, Mount Mercy University
Mount Mercy University welcomes Middle East experts Ann Wright and Kathy Kelly to campus. The two will offer a program titled Peace is a Must: Wars and the Refugee Crises in the Middle East and Africa as part of Mount Mercy's on going Global Issues Series.
Kathy Kelly & Ann Wright present
War & Refugees: Peace Is Possible
Thursday, May 5th
7:00 pm
LR1, Van Allen Hall, 30 S. Dubuque Street, Iowa City
Ann Wright won the State Department Award for Heroism for her assistance in helping thousands of refugees escape the civil war in Sierra Leone, though she resigned from the State Department in protest over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She has been a long time peace activist and was aboard Challenger 1 as part of the Gaza Flotilla. Raised in Arkansas, she received a masters and law degree from the University of Arkansas and later was awarded a Master's Degree from the U.S. Naval War College. Col Wright is a member of Veterans For Peace, and is on the Veterans for Peace Advisory Board. Once you have met her or heard her, you will never forget her.
As a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, Kathy has lived alongside ordinary Afghan people in a working class neighborhood in Kabul. She most recently traveled to Kabul for six weeks during the winter of 2015. She and her companions with Voices for Creative Nonviolence believe that where you stand determines what you see. They oppose all forms of war, and try to help educate people about the cost of war and "the price" of peace. On April 21st 2015, Kelly was released from federal prison after serving a three month sentence for non-violently protesting drone warfare at Whiteman AFB which operates weaponized drones in Afghanistan. She has lived alongside ordinary people who can't escape aerial bombings (Iraq, 1991, 2003; Gaza, 2009) and. Since 1981, as a war tax refuser, she has successfully refused all payment of federal income tax, primarily through lowering her income beneath the taxable level. In 2015, she served three months in prison for attempting to deliver a loaf of bread and a letter to the commander of Whiteman Air Force base which operates weaponized drones over Afghanistan and other lands. She is the author of Other Lands Have Dreams, from Baghdad to Pekin Prison.
Wright has announced that she and Kathy will do a speaking tour through Iowa, May 1 through May 7, coming in response to an invitation from Veterans For Peace Chapter #169 in Cedar Rapids. The Des Moines and Iowa City chapters of Veterans For Peace will also host her, and are seeking possible venues.