November 2007 - In the News

11/01/07: Danenet Made Three Nonprofits Ready To Plug And Play- League of Women Voters, ACLU, Wisconsin Women's Network

Danenet Made Three Nonprofits Ready To Plug And Play
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Andrea Kaminski, Stacy Harbaugh, Elaine Glowacki

Dear Editor: We want to publicly thank DaneNet, our local computer technology support organization for nonprofits, for including us in its annual Day of Service on Oct. 13. Our three organizations -- the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, the Madison office of the ACLU of Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Women's Network -- are moving our offices to a shared suite in downtown Madison that will allow us to share some resources and costs and provide us new opportunities for collaboration.

DaneNet recruited five volunteers -- Peter Dettmer, Paul Donahue, Thomas Kaminski, Jeremy Kieler, and Dee Mitchell -- to wire our new suite for a professional-grade computer and phone network. DaneNet also provided the supplies at a very reasonable cost. The volunteers, who didn't all know each other beforehand, worked well as a team, learned from each other, and helped us make some technical decisions about the network.

The project, which took almost the entire day to complete, was a very large donation of skilled labor that will enable us to move in, plug in, and be up and running even better than before. Thank you, DaneNet!



Andrea Kaminski League of Women Voters of Wisconsin;

Stacy Harbaugh ACLU of Wisconsin, Madison;

Email Stacy

Elaine Glowacki Wisconsin Women's Network

Email Elaine

11/02/07:Army Ads At School Events Draw Fire- Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education

Army Ads At School Events Draw Fire
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: A1
Friday, November 2, 2007
By PAT SCHNEIDER The Capital Times

It's just a logo and a phone number, says Arlene Silveira, president of the Madison School Board.

But to members of TAME, Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education, the "Army Strong" ad that has cropped up on scoreboards at stadiums and gymnasiums this fall looks a lot like an endorsement of an Army future for Madison high school students.

"Students are at an age to figure out what to do with their lives," parent and TAME member Vicki Berenson said Thursday. "When they see 'Army' on the field every day, it starts to seem normal."

TAME is urging parents and others concerned over military recruitment in the high schools to come to the School Board meeting Monday to protest outside school district headquarters at 545 W. Dayton St., then head inside to sign up at 6:50 p.m. to speak out against the ads.

TAME, a Wisconsin branch of an emerging counter-recruitment movement, worked area high schools at fall registration to put in the hands of parents and students the forms that allow them to withhold student contact information from the U.S. military. Members say impressionable high-schoolers are too young to make a commitment that could cost them their lives.

The "No Child Left Behind Act" requires that school districts receiving federal funds provide military recruiters the same access to students that recruiters from colleges and employers have, but doesn't address advertising.

Madison school officials in January gave the nod to ads in district athletic sites, and hired a broker in hopes of raising some $200,000 for its perennially short coffers over two years. Under its three-year contract with the Madison School District, the Army will pay $17,700 to place ads at the Lussier Stadium at La Follette High School, Mansfield Stadium at Memorial High School and spectator gyms at each of the city's four high schools, said district spokesman Ken Syke.

Other advertisers range from banks and health care corporations to a pizza place, a driving school, a tuxedo rental store, a tutoring company and an Internet service provider, Syke said.

The school district's policy on advertising requires that ads be evaluated, case-by-case, as to whether they directly target students, promote a political position, or encourage the use of drugs, gambling or unhealthy food, among other criteria. School officials say they were cautioned by attorneys that they could not be too restrictive.

The School Board approved ads by the U.S. Army in June, Syke said.

School Board Treasurer Carol Carstensen said the ads don't specifically target students.

"They're directed at people attending sporting events," she said Thursday, adding that the board intended that the ads not be placed so that students are subjected to them as part of their education. Carstensen said physical education classes are not held at the stadiums, but she wasn't sure about the spectator gyms.

School officials say that the ads, which ask "Are You Army Strong?" don't amount to recruitment.

Carstensen said she doesn't like ads on school property, period. But she thinks high school students are quite capable of analyzing what the Army is about, regardless of any advertisements.

"I don't think the ads will have a significant impact," she said.

Still, she added, she'd support a policy that legally prohibited Army advertising.

Some district students choose the military, Silveira said. "And the ads fit with our current policy."

Berenson counters that the ad violates school policy, which limits military recruitment materials to guidance offices. The district has a "zero tolerance" policy for weapons and violence, but through the ads is advocating violence as a means of problem-solving, she said.

What's more, the Army openly discriminates against gays and lesbians, in violation of the school district's non-discrimination policies, Berenson said.

It's just not worth the ad income, she argued. "I'd rather pay more taxes."

pschneider@madison.com

Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education website

Email Vicki Berenson

11/03/07: Military Ads Have No Place in Our High Schools - Vicki Berenson, Joann Elder, Janet Parker

Military Ads Have No Place in Our High Schools

Madison Capital Times, Saturday, November 3, 2007

By Vicki Berenson, Joann Elder and Janet Parker

Are you aware that Army recruiting advertisements have been placed in the gyms and on the football field scoreboards of all the Madison high schools? Accepting these military recruiting ads was a very bad idea for so many reasons.

Our schools spend 13 years helping students learn to resolve difficulties nonviolently. Advertising the Army runs counter to the school district's zero tolerance policies regarding violence and weapons. The district also has policies barring discrimination, while the U.S. military openly discriminates against gays and lesbians.

The Madison Metropolitan School District's own Policy 7541.3 states: "All military recruitment materials shall be appropriately labeled or identified and placed only in the Guidance Office." Large signs asking "Are You Army Strong? To find out, call ..." are certainly recruitment materials and have no place in the gyms or on scoreboards. In fact, the very placement of these ads takes advantage of the adolescent desire to prove oneself through physical challenge.

When the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice recently wrote to School Board members to ask them to reconsider this decision, we got this response from Lucy Mathiak: "The same paid advertising opportunities are available to peace organizations, an option that you may wish to consider in the future." It's outrageous to suggest that peace groups could ever compete with the military's annual recruitment budget, which exceeds $4 billion tax dollars (National Priorities Project). And it's ironic that we're now selling access to the students in order to have the resources to educate them.

School Board members were elected to represent the community's values. The 2006 Bring Our Troops Home referendum, in which 67 percent of Madison voters called for all troops to be withdrawn from Iraq immediately, is a good indicator of those values. This same community would not endorse expansion of military recruiting in our schools.

Military recruiters have countless times been revealed to lie to young people in order to entice them into enlisting. And military contracts include a clause that states that the military can change the contract at any time, but the contract is still binding for the enlistee. These goals and practices simply do not fit with what we should be advocating in our schools, no matter what the income from the advertisements.

The annual Madison school budget is over $300 million. Is the $20,000 in revenue that the district says it will be receiving from these ads worth compromising the values of our community?

In the 1970s, military recruiters were completely barred from entering Madison public schools. We should be moving in this direction. It is a dangerous precedent when we lose the separation of military and civilian government. Unfortunately, President Bush's No Child Left Behind Act mandates that recruiters must be given some access to students or federal funds will be cut. However, there is no requirement that paid advertising must be accepted.

Our School Board should move quickly to reverse this misguided decision. Our schools should not be commercialized to sell our children's minds to the highest bidder. In 2000, the decision to award the Coca-Cola company an exclusive contract for soft drink sales in Madison schools was reversed after an outcry from parents and the community at large. We expect that the same will happen as the community discovers the presence of the recruiting ads and speaks out.

The next School Board meeting is Monday at 545 W. Dayton St. We will gather for a rally at 5:30, then enter the meeting to speak at 7 p.m. Please join us.

11/05/07: Protesters oppose military ads - Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education

Protesters oppose military ads

By Brittany Schoepp

Dozens of peace activists, teachers and students showed up to the Madison School Board meeting Monday night to protest several new U.S. Army advertisements at district athletic stadiums and high school gyms.

Although protesters marched outside the Doyle Administration Building for 90 minutes and gave public comments to the board for more than two hours, the board could not discuss the issue Monday because it was not on the agenda.

John Rademacher, a science teacher at Madison West High School, brought his 6- and 7-year old children to the protest, holding signs that read "Ads Influence Me " and "Don 't Sell Me Out. "

"I think it 's ridiculous that there are ads in school at all. It 's a public school, so we shouldn 't be selling out to advertisers, " Rademacher said.

Rademacher said the military ads, which ask "Are you Army Strong? " and give a phone number for a local recruiting station, were "particularly troublesome " because they go against values schools teach, such as conflict resolution.

Will Williams, a Vietnam veteran and member of several local peace organizations, stressed that many of the protestors were not anti-military.

"We know there is a need for military, " he said. "But students are being bombarded. "

He said the ads and other military visits, such as bringing in a portable climbing wall and military vehicles, "circumvent " the district 's policy that says recruiters can visit a high school just three days each year. The policy also states that all military recruitment materials should be placed only in guidance offices.

School Board President Arlene Silveira said she does not believe the ads violate the district 's policy and said that with more state funding, the School Board wouldn 't be in the position to turn to advertising to balance its budget.

"The state funding system is broken, " she said.

Williams called the $17,700 paid by the Army to display the ads for three years a "minute " amount compared to the district 's budget of more than $360 million.

David Miller, a Memorial High School student who is enlisting in the service, disagreed with the protesters and said the military should be given the same chance to advertise in schools as other career or school options.

"High school students are old enough to make decisions, " Miller said. "When I hear teachers and all talking about taking down these signs because they find them offensive, I find that offensive. "

About 1 percent to 3 percent of Madison high school students have indicated plans to enter the military after graduation in recent years.

Several sophomores from James Madison Memorial High School 's Students for Progressive Causes each spoke in favor of limiting the prevalence of military recruitment, including the signs.

"I think it 's ridiculous they think we 're capable of making a decision to sign our life away, " Seb Harris, one of the students, said, noting most high school students can 't vote.

To revisit the issue, four board members would need to request to bring the issue back for reconsideration.

Silveira said she did not yet have a sense of whether four board members would do so.

11/06/07: Protesting Military Ads in Schools - TAME

WNPJ member group Truth and Alternatives to Militarism in Education led the protests against the Army ads in Madison schools.

11/06/07:Elections chief to front reform board- Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

Elections Chief To Front Reform Board
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: A2
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press

A new nonpartisan board created to restore public confidence in government chose to fill its top staff position with the current head of an agency that will be eliminated under the reorganization.

Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Elections Board, was chosen Monday to serve as the new Government Accountability Board's legal director. As such, Kennedy will be the top staff member overseeing the agency that is replacing the Elections and Ethics boards.

The Legislature created the new nonpartisan board of six retired judges to investigate public corruption and enforce laws involving campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying.

Kennedy has worked for the Elections Board since 1979 and been its director since 1983. He said it's vital to have experienced staff work in the new agency.

"There's value in the background I bring," he said.

The board's efforts to restore confidence in government will be helped by having an experienced staff member assisting the new board, said board member William Eich, a retired appeals court judge from Madison.

But Mike McCabe, director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign government watchdog group, said the new board's success depends on the direction charted by the judges who lead it and not staff appointments.

"If they approach this as I hope they will, if they go into this as the new sheriff in town and they set a new tone and back that up with forceful actions, I think things will go fine," McCabe said.

Reformers like McCabe had argued that the Ethics Board has been too weak and the Elections Board was too partisan.

Although they were officially nonpartisan, Ethics Board members were all appointed by the governor. Elections Board members were appointed by the governor, political parties, the state Supreme Court and legislative leaders of the state Assembly and Senate.

Kennedy said Elections Board staff should not be held responsible for controversial decisions the board has made.

The board drew harsh criticism during the 2006 election for issuing an order stripping GOP Congressman Mark Green of hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal campaign donations that he had hoped to use in his race against Gov. Jim Doyle. Green appealed the board's decision to the state Supreme Court, but reached a settlement with the Elections Board before the court ruled.

Corruption scandals that led to convictions against several lawmakers and other public officials prompted the Legislature to create the new board in January.

Kennedy was selected over four other finalists: Roth Judd, the current head of the state Ethics Board; Jonathan Becker, legal counsel of the Ethics Board; Dan Olson, an attorney for the League of Wisconsin Municipalities; and Linda Johnson, an assistant district attorney from Milwaukee County.

The current Ethics and Elections boards will dissolve 31 days after administrators for the new divisions of ethics and elections are selected. Kennedy said he hopes the board will make those appointments at its Dec. 10 meeting, allowing the old boards to disband in mid-January.

Kennedy will earn $121,700 a year in his new position.

11/06/07:Veterans For Peace Will 'mourn The Dead'-Clarence Kailin Chapter of Veterans For Peace

Veterans For Peace Will 'mourn The Dead'
The Capital Times :: METRO :: C1
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
By SAMARA KALK DERBY The Capital Times

Members of the Madison chapter of Veterans for Peace will present a Veterans Day event Sunday in which they will erect about 4,300 tombstones along Olbrich Park to signify the number of American deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The tombstones will go up between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. Olbrich Park is at 3527 Atwood Ave. A ceremony to "Mourn the Dead, Heal the Wounded and Stop the War" will be held at 2 p.m. across from Olbrich Botanical Gardens, near the tennis courts and parking lot.

In case of bad weather, the ceremony will be held at the East Side Club, 3735 Monona Drive, just east of Olbrich Park.

A Veterans for Peace group staged a similar action in Gainesville, Fla., last Memorial Day, in which they put up tombstones along a mile of road.

"It was a very dramatic thing to help people comprehend how many gravestones there are for 4,000 people," said local Veterans for Peace activist Buzz Davis.

"The whole purpose of Veterans Day is to honor people who have served in the military. For many of us in Veterans for Peace, the best way we can honor them is to work harder for peace than we do for war," said Davis, who served as an Army infantry officer from 1967 to 1970 in South Korea.

Davis' aim is to commemorate Veterans Day in a way that is oriented toward peace and "not jet fighters flying over your head at low altitudes making a lot of noise."

The installation is also a memorial for the "650,000 or 1 million" Iraqis and Afghan people who have been killed, most of them civilians, he said. (Iraq Body Count has documented up to 83,034 Iraqi civilian deaths caused by violence during the war.)

"It is difficult for us to get people in our country to understand that there are other ways to do things besides go to war," Davis said.

There will be a book on hand listing the names of those from Wisconsin who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and people will be encouraged to write their thoughts in a guest book.

Speakers at the ceremony will be:

* The Rev. David Couper of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in North Lake. A member of Veterans for Peace, Couper is a former Marine and former Madison police chief.

* Ray Maida of Madison, a Vietnam veteran and father of Army Sgt. Mark A. Maida, 22, who died in Iraq on May 27, 2005.

* Patrick Wilcox, an Iraq veteran, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace.

* Will Williams, Vietnam veteran and Veterans for Peace member.

* Abbie Pickett, who served in Iraq in 2003 with the Wisconsin National Guard, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

People will be invited, as individuals or families, to come forward to read the names of Wisconsin soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Email Samara

Madison Veterans For Peace Website

Email Buzz Davis, a member of VFP

11/07/07:Malls Are Appropriate Places To Protest Monstrously Evil War-Bonnie Block, Joy First, Fr. Jim Murphy, Susan Spahn

Malls Are Appropriate Places To Protest Monstrously Evil War
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Bonnie Block, Madison; Joy First, Monona; Fr. Jim Murphy, Portage; Susan Spahn, Madison

Dear Editor: Last Friday we were among the seven people arrested at East Towne Mall as part of a "die-in" to make visible the human cost of the war in Iraq and to make clear the direct link between our society's materialism and this war.

We believe the war in Iraq is a monstrous evil.

This war is a violation of the United Nations Charter prohibiting pre-emptive war.

This war is a crime against humanity because our military is using a weapon of mass destruction in the form of depleted uranium munitions that scatter radioactive waste and cause cancer, birth defects and other disabilities.

This war has ruined America's standing in the world because our government has engaged in lies, torture and massive military force resulting in the deaths of more than 655,000 Iraqi civilians.

Since George Bush, Dick Cheney and the Congress refuse to end the occupation of Iraq, we think it is our duty as citizens to resist these disastrous policies and to urge our fellow citizens to do likewise.

But why choose a shopping mall for such an act of resistance?

Malls are the modern-day town squares where the issues of the day should be debated. Malls are open to the public even though the law currently says they are private property so mall managers decide who gets to speak. We wonder why corporate executives get to decide Christmas carolers and art or antique exhibits are OK, but war resisters aren't?

What happens to our supposed rights of free speech when public space is closed?

Shopping malls are also a potent symbol of the materialism that leads us into wars for resources like oil.

Why should the U.S. with about 6 percent of the world's population get to use 25 percent of the world's resources?

Why did Bush tell us after 9/11 to go shopping instead of urging that we reduce our oil consumption?

Why don't we take the $12 billion a month the U.S. spends for the occupation of Iraq and the millions we spend for frivolous stuff at the mall and use it instead to ensure that one billion people on our planet no longer have to live on less than $1 a day?

During the U.S.-supported war in El Salvador, Archbishop Oscar Romero said: "Peace is not the product of terror or fear. Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty."

We agree, and that is why we acted to resist the continuing occupation of Iraq.

11/08/07:Costly War Forces City to Sell to Highest Bidder-Susan Spahn

Costly War Forces City To Sell To Highest Bidder
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Susan Spahn, Madison

Dear Editor: Two recent military recruitment advertisements have come to my attention. Apparently the military is recruiting again in Madison schools on scoreboards and in gymnasiums.

The military pays for this advertising to the tune of $20,000. They also advertise in Madison's movie theaters - not sure what they pay there.

Apparently Madison is for sale to the highest bidder. Buses disguised as giant Miller beer cans or little Las Vegases, schools promoting a career in death and destruction, movie theaters sexing up the reality of war.

The irony is that it is war that is responsible for the lack of funding to schools and cities that results in their need to find money wherever they can. According to the Cost of War Calculator that provides up-to-the-minute statistics on the cost of the Iraq war, as of Nov. 2, 5 a.m., the cost of the war to the city of Madison was $275,585,724. By the time you read this, that cost will have increased by a few tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and additional loss of life.



As the old poster says, "It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

11/09/07:Madisonians Have Chance To Learn About Cuban Five-Robert Kimbrough

Madisonians Have Chance To Learn About Cuban Five
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Friday, November 9, 2007
Robert Kimbrough

On Sept. 12, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, for many years the chief aide to Colin Powell and former faculty member at many U.S. military "colleges," attended a lecture at Howard University's Law School (Washington, D.C.). The speaker was Leonard Weinglass; his subject was "The Cuban Five."

Wilkerson had never heard of the Cuban Five. He said he "was stunned by what counselor Weinglass revealed." But he was not surprised. After "four years inside the Bush administration," he knew "the depths to which our government is capable of sinking." He concluded that "this case is truly the bottom of the pit."

If highly placed Wilkerson did not know about the Cuban Five, surely a massive number of Madisonians remain equally uninformed.

Not for long, however.

Leonard Weinglass has been invited by the Free the 5 Madison Committee to come to Madison. He will speak at 7 p.m. Sunday in Room B1, Lowell Hall, 610 Langdon St. His topic is "The Case of the Cuban Five." The event is free and open to all.

Weinglass is a most accomplished U.S. criminal defense attorney and a pre-eminent civil rights lawyer known for his defense of high-profile political clients. Among those he has defended are Angela Davis, Daniel Ellsberg, the Chicago Seven and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Weinglass is currently counsel to one of the Cuban Five, Antonio Guerrero, and he is the lead lawyer among the team of all the lawyers working on behalf of each of the Five. We in the United States have not seen such a famous lawyer on the left since Clarence Darrow.

The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez, and Fernando Gonzalez. They are in five separate U.S. prisons for simply defending Cuba from acts of terrorism carried out by extremist right-wing groups in Miami. Rene was sentenced to 15 years, Fernando 19 years, Ramon and Antonio for life, and Gerardo two life sentences plus 15 years. On Sept. 12, 2007, they began their 10th year of incarceration.

The Cuban Five never harmed anyone, were not destructive, did not try to gather state secrets, and were never a threat to the security of the United States.

On the other hand, confessed anti-Cuba terrorists walk freely in Miami. Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carilles, longtime CIA agents, openly brag that they masterminded the Oct. 6, 1976, explosion of two bombs planted on a Cuban flight from Barbados to Cuba, killing all 73 aboard.

Noam Chomsky has said: "It's an amazing case! Here are Cubans who are infiltrating illegal, terrorist organizations in the U.S. But the infiltrators are arrested, not the terrorists. It's astonishing!"

For information and documentation on the Cuban Five: www.freethefive.org.

Robert Kimbrough is a member of the Free the 5 Madison Committee, Veterans for Peace, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Madison Area Peace Coalition, and Socialist Party of Wisconsin.

11/09/07:Students Should Be Taught To Question Recruiters-Daniel J. Guilfoil

Students Should Be Taught To Question Recruiters
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Friday, November 9, 2007
Daniel J. Guilfoil, Monona

Dear Editor: Do the Madison schools discuss with students the issues raised by the protesters of military ads on sports scoreboards?

Why advertising at all? And why does the federal No Child Left Behind law prescribe that information be provided to the military recruiters when others are not so favored?

How are students taught to question the offers of advertisers who use language to persuade with words that are not reasonable?

Are the students encouraged to ask questions of the recruiters about just and unjust wars? How about killing folks you don't know, many of them women and children?

How do young people think about such things?

Are the schools doing what is best for students?

Advertising is very questionable!

11/10/07:School Board Should Remove Army Ads Quickly-Robert Kimbrough (VFP)

School Board Should Remove Army Ads Quickly
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Robert Kimbrough, Veterans for Peace Madison

Dear Editor: Your Nov. 6 pictorial coverage of Monday night's demonstration in front of the Ruth Doyle Building protesting against Army enlistment ads posted on Madison public school property was dramatically presented. Your caption said, "Supporters of the ads also spoke at the meeting."

Too bad that you did not send a reporter inside to cover the actual meeting.

Ten students were allowed to speak first; only one defended military ads in the school. Next about 35 non-students spoke clearly, logically, loudly and, at times, sadly against the School Board's acceptance of $17,000 to allow the Army to post ads on school property for the next three years.

In a letter to the board, Leila Pine wrote: "As a parent I am absolutely stunned that the School Board is allowing the military to place recruitment ads at athletic events ... What in the WORLD were you thinking? This is Madison, folks, not Crawford, Texas ... To actually accept advertising from the military during the most immoral war in U.S. history, and then to claim that this action isn't controversial is especially egregious."

Along with Leila and the 45 other speakers in favor of ad removal, I hope that the School Board has the collective wit and will to quickly and quietly remove the Army ads from its stadiums and gymnasiums.

11/12/07: Vets Mark Day- 'Memorial Mile' of Tombstones Makes Statement- Veterans For Peace

Vets Mark Day

'memorial Mile' Of Tombstones Makes Statement
The Capital Times :: FRONT :: A1
Monday, November 12, 2007


By JUDITH DAVIDOFF The Capital Times



Claudia Craemer-Meihsner has known for about six months that her older brother will be heading back to Iraq for a second tour of duty.

But jogging past 4,300 makeshift tombstones and a coffin along Atwood Avenue in Olbrich Park on Sunday brought the reality of war home to the mother of two.

"It brought tears to my eyes," Craemer-Meihsner said this morning. "Especially the flag on the coffin, the symbol of a dead veteran. To think that that could be my brother."

Craemer-Meihsner said she was also struck by the sheer number of tombstones erected to symbolize the American men and women who have lost their lives fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. "To know more are being added all the time, Americans as well as Iraqis and Afghans" makes it all the more heart-wrenching, she said.

The tombstones, made of corrugated plastic, were put up for Veterans Day by Madison Veterans for Peace, Clarence Kailin Chapter 25. Dubbed the "Memorial Mile," the tombstones run along the walk bordering Olbrich Park on Atwood Avenue from Starkweather Creek to the East Side Club, formerly the East Side Business Men's Association. The memorial will stay up through this afternoon.

John Fournelle, one of the main organizers of the event, said the visual display is meant to impress on people the true cost of war.

"It's money, but it's also lives," he said. "If you can see a mile of tombstones, that is more compelling. There are people who are dying in our name - for a war most people in this country oppose."

Fournelle said he saw a YouTube video of a similar memorial in Gainesville, Fla., and found it powerful. In June, he and Richard Chamberlin of Madison Veterans for Peace started scouting locations here for a Veterans Day display, but, Fournelle said, their top eight sites were rejected by authorities for various reasons.

In October, the city Parks Commission approved the Olbrich site with little discussion, Fournelle said.

A ceremony Sunday afternoon featured the Rev. David Couper, former Madison police chief and a former Marine; Ray Maida, a Vietnam veteran whose son Mark was killed in Iraq; Iraq war veteran Abbie Pickett; and Vietnam War veteran Will Williams.

Pickett, who suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, spoke emotionally of her fellow veterans.

"Over 4,200 soldiers and Marines have come home draped in the stars and stripes of the American flag," said Pickett, who served in Iraq in 2003. "Many days have come and gone since I first returned home, but not one has passed that I have not thought of those men and women."

Williams implored the crowd, which numbered about 150, to tell their friends and relatives to push for an end to the war.

"The course our country is on is a wrong course," he said. "We just need to have the courage of our convictions."

Couper said he wasn't interested in debating the war in his speech. Rather, he said the day called for showing solidarity for troops and returning veterans.

"It's about our moral responsibility to the men and women we've sent to the war, and now we've got to care for them," Couper said.

Frank Court, a member of Madison Veterans for Peace who was staffing a literature table at the memorial, said in an interview that massive protests were critical to the peace movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

"Without those kids in the street, the Vietnam War never would have ended when it did," he said.

Court, a retired English professor, acknowledged that the group gathered Sunday was considerably grayer than the typical crowd during the Vietnam War.

He said today's younger generation is likely less "personally involved" because of the absence of a draft.

"Not all of us are totally opposed to reinstating the draft for that very reason," Court said.



jdavidoff@madison.com




More photos available here.

11/14/07:Do Donors Still Pay To Play?-Wisconsin Democracy Campaign

Do Donors Still Pay To Play?
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A8
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has come up with an especially telling - and especially troubling - illustration of the primary explanation for the endorsement by the state Senate of a rewrite of cable television regulations that harms consumers and communities while benefitting out-of-state telecommunications corporations.

The 23 senators who voted in favor of the legislation accepted a total of $1.2 million in campaign contributions from special interests that support the proposal, according to the Democracy Campaign.

In contrast, the nine senators who opposed the bill had accepted less than $100,000 in total contributions from the special interests.

Reduced to raw numbers: The average senator who supported the controversial measure - which was crafted to benefit its chief proponent, AT&T - collected $52,297 from interests associated with AT&T and its allies.

The average senator who opposed the bill had contributions from the same interests of around $11,000.

According to the WDC study, AT&T gave 28 times more campaign money to the 23 senators who backed the bill and to party leadership committees associated with them than to the opponents.

Many of the largest contributions went to Republicans such as Milwaukee County's Alberta Darling, and members of the GOP caucus voted in lock step for the measure.

But the Senate is controlled by Democrats, who had stalled the progress of the bill until former Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, was replaced by Russ Decker, a more pliable senator from the Wausau area.

Decker's campaign committee was enriched to the tune of $23,641 in special-interest contributions from interests backing the cable bill, while the state Senate Democratic Committee with which Decker works cleared more than $100,000 - as did its Republican equivalent.

A remarkable $49,955 went to state Sen. Jeff Plale, the Milwaukee County Democrat who is a prime proponent of the cable bill and who battled to block amendments that would have made the measure more consumer-friendly.

Politicians always claim that patterns of contributions and votes are mere coincidences.

But these patterns are too consistent to be dismissed as mere coincidence.

Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, who has traditionally been afforded the ultimate authority for policing wrongdoing in the Capitol, should take a serious look at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's findings. And he should not hesitate to begin asking the necessary questions - as should investigators with the new state Government Accountability Board, which needs to prove that it is more than just a paper tiger creation of legislators who want to foster the illusion that they operate under the scrutiny of a watchdog.

Despite the high-profile prosecutions of legislators involved in the caucus scandals, reasonable Wisconsinites will be excused for looking at the contribution figures and the votes on the cable television bill and wondering whether anything has changed in the Capitol. And if the answer is that Wisconsin still has pay-to-play government, then a new round of prosecutions may well be in order.

11/15/07:Fund schools so military ads are not necessary-Dave Koene (TAME)

Fund Schools So Military Ads Are Not Necessary
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Thursday, November 15, 2007
David Koene, Madison

Dear Editor: "Check the score and join the war." This is the message the Madison School Board is sending our kids.

It's no coincidence that the Army wants to advertise on the scoreboards of our schools' athletic facilities. In a time of war, generous college aid is not enough to entice kids into the military. The Army must persuade them that the war is a game to be won. Joining up is equated with rooting for the home team. "Jump on the team for the big win," an officer told Michael Herr in Vietnam. What better place to advertise this message than a high school scoreboard!

Last week a member of the School Board told The Capital Times the ads "don't specifically target kids." Who, then, is the military targeting - senior citizens?

The school district has a policy against advertisements for beer, cigarettes and even soft drinks. Apparently our School Board thinks kids can't be trusted to make the right choices regarding tooth decay. But if the Army wants to post deceptive propaganda to entice kids into signing a nonrevocable eight-year contract, that is just fine.



Yet the fault does not lie wholly with the School Board. We need to summon the community will to fund our schools. Our School Board should not be forced to depend on such odious sources of money.

11/15/07:Legal Funds Sought For Border Protester- John Peck

See a video of the arrest of Juan on youtube here

Legal Funds Sought For Border Protester

The Capital Times :: FRONT :: A6
Thursday, November 15, 2007
By PAT SCHNEIDER The Capital Times

Friends of a Madison man arrested at a protest at the Mexican border are collecting money for his legal defense as he sought a second bond hearing today in federal court in California.

Juan Esteban Ruiz, 21, was arraigned Tuesday on two federal charges alleging assault of a federal officer and intent to injure. Bond was set at $10,000, said Frederick Carroll, a San Diego attorney close to the case. The offenses carry penalties that include up to 28 years in prison.

The Madison Area General Defense Committee's Legal Defense Fund already has received more than $100 for Ruiz's defense, John Peck said today.

Ruiz was arrested by border police and taken into custody Sunday in Calexico, Calif., at the No Borders Camp protest. A video posted on the No Borders Camp Web site (noborderscamp.org) shows Ruiz drumming and dancing near officers before being physically brought down to the ground. Several officers then surround him, as others, one brandishing pepper spray, advance toward protesters and disperse them in a broader scuffle.

Protesters say Ruiz and others were beaten by police, but it that is not clear in the video, nor is it clear that Ruiz provoked police.

A federal magistrate required that Ruiz's bond be secured by two financially responsible adults who are related to him, Carroll said. That means two relatives with a net worth of $10,000 each would need to put it up to secure Ruiz's bond, he said.

"We hope the judge will relent on the 'relative' part," said Laurel Mark, a Madison physician. Ruiz lived with her family while in high school. Mark was doubtful any of his relatives had that much money.

"These are frighteningly serious charges," she said.

Ruiz, a Colombian national and permanent resident who was brought to the United States at age 4, knows little Spanish, Mark said. She fears his past minor criminal record in Madison, which includes convictions for obstructing officers and disorderly conduct, may make him vulnerable to deportation.

"I'm concerned and cautious about how this case proceeds," said Carroll, who has not been retained, as Ruiz's supporters try to raise money.

The defense fund is intended for political protesters, including those opposed to the University of Wisconsin's contracts with companies that use "sweatshops" to make athletic gear, Peck said.

Checks marked for Ruiz's defense may be sent to the defense fund at P.O. Box 2442, Madison, WI 53701.

pschneider@madison.com

11/16/07:Help block the cradle to prison pipeline- Madison-area Urban Ministry

11/16/07:Q&A with Wil Williams-Veterans For Peace member

Q&A with Wil Williams





Wil Williams doesn’t think it’s wise for the Madison Metropolitan
School District to allow the United States military to advertise on school
property. As a member of Truth and Alternatives to Military Education
(TAME), Williams has been an outspoken critic of a military recruitment
advertisements placed on high school scoreboards and in gymnasiums.
“Some have argued the ad is so small that you can barely see it,” says
Williams, a Vietnam vet. “I’m 65 and my eyes aren’t that good, and I
can see it. I understand we need a military, but my problem is that it’s
exploiting our young people to push a political agenda.”
Williams says he isn’t against teens enlisting, but he says the
military doesn’t clearly explain the fine print, which often has far-reaching
consequences, in terms of education and the number of actual years the
government can keep a soldier on active duty.
Williams recently sat with The Madison Times to discuss why military
advertising in schools is inappropriate, how the armed services are
circumventing the Madison School District’s recruitment policies, and how he
responds to the criticism that he is trying to undermine military
recruiters.

TMT: How are young people being targeted by the military, and why is
that approach inappropriate?
WW: They’re being targeted because there is no draft; it’s voluntary.
In the current situation, there is a great need to fill the ranks to
keep the occupation going in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the No Child Left
Behind Act took effect in 2002, it gave the military access to children
in the schools. In 2003, the Madison Area Peace Coalition went to the
school board, and we had policies instituted to protect the students to
a certain level.
Since that time, the policies have been circumvented by military
recruiters. One way is by coming into the schools and teaching physical
education classes, setting up obstacle courses, [and] bringing in the
climbing walls and military vehicles. This was clearly for recruitment, but
[it] was not counted as one of the visits the policy allows them to
have.

TMT: Why are military advertisements worse than any other
advertisements?

WW: Because when you have someone from Marquette University or American
Family, the consequences are totally different. In order for those
advertisements to be placed, they have to fall within the
nondiscrimination policies of the school. Military ads don’t fall within that policy,
first, because of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, [which] is
discrimination against people with different sexual orientations. It also
discriminates, in my opinion, against the challenged students, who look up
to those ads that say, “Be Army Strong.”

TMT: Do you see a targeting of minorities in particular?

WW: No. As a matter of fact, statistics show that enlistment by
minorities has dropped quite a bit since 2002. I know that the rural areas are
being targeted, and that takes it into another realm. It’s more of a
class thing than a race thing.
Take someone from Boscobel or some other small area who may have grown
up on a farm, who sees his grandfather struggling and his father
struggling; and the economics are so bad that he cannot go to the university
because of the costs. At the same time, funding for the programs that
would’ve helped him, such as the Pell Grant, are being cut. The military
then becomes more convincing, because they make these promises that
they will pay for education. And that’s another thing our young people
don’t understand: that only 15 percent of the people that serve are
actually qualified for the educational benefits.

TMT: But if I’m a military recruiter and don’t have access to schools,
where do I find young people to enlist?

WW: Advertise the way they do now: on television. I just don’t think
they should be targeted in what is supposed to be a safe place of
education.

TMT: How responsive has the school board been to these concerns?

WW: Well, they’re downplaying it. They don’t see it as an issue. They
say it’s just a logo with a phone number. To me that’s downplaying it.
It’s more than that. It’s there for a reason. I also sense that young
people feel [that] whatever is advertised in school, they see that maybe
it’s an endorsement by the school, that maybe it’s not that bad.

TMT: How do you respond to criticism that you’re unpatriotic?

WW: I’m looking at the whole picture of what’s happening in this
country, where people are going to fight and die for a cause they do not
understand. Young people signed up a lot after 2001, and many signed up
because they felt it was a patriotic thing to do.
We don’t advocate to young people not to join the military. What we say
is: Be informed. Learn all you can about it, because it’s a decision
that can be the most consequential decision you’ll make in your whole
life.

(C) The Madison Times

11/16/07:Veterans for Peace create "Memorial Mile"- Mourn the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the War- Veterans For Peace

Veterans for Peace create "Memorial Mile"- Mourn the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the War


The Madison Times

Nov. 16-22, 2007

Vol 16, No. 46

Buzz Davis



On Veterans Day, Sunday, Nov. 11, over 200 people gathered at Olbrich
Park on Atwood Avenue to honor the sacrifices made by the more than
4,300 American men and women who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Speakers recognized those sacrifices and also remembered the hundreds
of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan civilians who have been killed. In
addition, Veterans for Peace (VFP) created a Memorial Mile to commemorate
those who died and to bring home to the rest of us the magnitude of
their sacrifice.

“We erected over 4,300 tombstones so that people can comprehend the
magnitude of this tragedy and reflect upon its meaning,” said VFP project
co-chair Richard Chamberlin, a Navy Vietnam veteran. The tombstones
remained in place all day Monday, Nov. 12, which was the official Veterans
Day this year, and were taken down by volunteers after 5 p.m.  Members
of Veterans for Peace were present all night Sunday and all day Monday
to talk to anyone who wished to walk the Memorial Mile and talk.

“Tens of thousands of extended families in America have been wounded by
the loss of loved ones in the wars.  Millions of families in Iraq and
Afghanistan suffer similar wounds, which may be a long time healing or
may never heal.  The future of the hundreds of thousands of people who
have been killed are gone forever,” said Buzz Davis, a VFP member who
helped organize the event.

Over 50 volunteers turned out early Sunday morning to put the 4,300
replica tombstones along Atwood Avenue across from Olbrich Gardens. “The
effect of white tombstones stretching for nearly half a mile is
sobering,” Davis observed. “Drivers are stunned, and cars driving by just go
slower and slower as they begin to realize the extent of the death that
has taken place.”

A symbolic flag-draped coffin stood near the road, guarded by a sea of
white tombstones.  Motorists and walkers were invited to stop and read
the roll call of Wisconsinites who gave their lives in these wars.
 

 There was also a thought book in which people could write comments.
At the Sunday afternoon ceremony, Rev. David Couper, a former Marine
and a former Madison police chief, dedicated the ceremony by stressing
the sacrifices that have been made and urging forgiveness and efforts for
peace. Vietnam veteran Ray Maida spoke for his family about the loss
of their son and brother Army Sgt. Mark A. Maida, who was killed in Iraq
at age 22.  Iraq Marine veteran Dan Kaufman explained the origin of
Armistice Day: It was to celebrate of the end of World War I, which was
to be “the war to end all wars.” But our history has been, instead, one
war after another.

Wisconsin National Guard Iraq veteran Abbie Pickett spoke movingly of
friends she had lost in combat and the battles that rage in the minds of
combat vets long after they have left the war zone, long after the
real war is over.  Decorated Vietnam combat veteran Wil Williams spoke of
two important needs: to reorder our society away from glorifying the
military to young people, and to help youth understand that peace is
harder to achieve than war, but it must be worked for.

As a bagpipe played in the distance, peace activist Caroline Greenwald
asked people to come forward and read the roll call of those who have
died.  A long line of young and old, men and women came to the
microphone to read, one by one, the rank, name, age, date of death and hometown
of the long list of those from Wisconsin who have died. Esty Dinur, an
Israeli Army veteran of the Yom Kippur War, closed the ceremony by
asking people to search their hearts and make a commitment to work for
peace. She asked all to join her in walking the Memorial Mile and placing
flowers on the tombstones of those who have given their lives.
Veterans for Peace is a national organization with chapters in most
states. Members include men and women from World War II, the Korean War,
the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as
well as other conflicts; peacetime veterans; and associate members.

“Our collective experience tells us wars are easy to start [but] hard to
stop, and those hurt are often the innocent,” VFP says. “Thus other
means of problem solving are necessary.”

11/19/07:'Personhood' Initiative Threatens Women's Rights- Stacy Harbaugh

'Personhood' Initiative Threatens Women's Rights
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Monday, November 19, 2007

Dear Editor: On Nov. 14, Pro-Life Wisconsin's director, Peggy Hamill, issued a press release on efforts in Colorado to begin a path for a "personhood" amendment to the state constitution. This amendment would give legal protection to fertilized eggs as a challenge to the medical privacy protection afforded by Roe v. Wade.

Pro-Life Wisconsin's excitement about the news in Colorado is appalling. The enthusiasm for such efforts is an insult to me as a woman who is committed to defending her body, her fate and the right to her own medical privacy.

I call on all citizens in Wisconsin to stand up for women's access to health care, birth control and abortion rights. Women's personhood must always include the right to health and the freedom of choice.

Stacy Harbaugh Madison

11/22/07:A Cause For Thanksgiving- The Capital Times Editorial Board

A Cause For Thanksgiving
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A8
Thursday, November 22, 2007

Thanksgiving begins a period of celebration embraced by Americans of many ethnic and religious backgrounds. Count us in with those who are thankful and celebrating.

We believe, with our friend Barbara Ehrenreich, that it is important to mark not just holidays but all days with acts of kindness and connection. As Ehrenreich asks in her brilliant history of ritual and celebration, "Dancing in the Streets: A History of Collective Joy" (Metropolitan): "If we possess this capacity for collective ecstasy, why do we so seldom put it to use?"

In order to put the capacity "to use" in the weeks to come, however, we need not deny the disorders of the moment. There are few rebellions more radical than the embrace of joy at a moment when our leaders seem so very determined to exploit and encourage the basest fears. And there is nothing more radical than to find cause for thanksgiving.

To be sure, the cynical and self-serving occupants of stations of power succeeded in spreading their shadows over the year that edges now toward its conclusion.

These are tough times economically and politically. And, of course, there is the matter of an illegal and immoral war.

An inept and lawless president has so battered the republic that reasonable Americans have been inclined toward despair. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are human tragedies characterized by the displacement of millions of innocents, the killings and maimings of hundreds of thousands of additional innocents, and a mounting death toll among combatants. Funerals in recent weeks of area men and women killed in these conflicts remind us that they are not distant dramas but local realities.

Considering the circumstance, it should come as no surprise that we are most thankful on this day of giving thanks for the peace movement that is alive and well in Wisconsin, a state where dozens of communities have voted in referendums to tell Congress to begin an immediate process of withdrawing all U.S. troops from the quagmire that is Iraq. We are thankful, as well, that Sen. Russ Feingold and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin have, unlike most Democrats in Washington, heard the call for peace and embraced it.

This is a time for charitable contributions, and we encourage readers to give generously to the groups they value most.

For those seeking ideas, we'd encourage starting with the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice. This essential coalition of activist organizations - including the Madison Area Peace Coalition - has accomplished much. But their work will be all the more essential in 2008, as they campaign to prevent George Bush and Dick Cheney from attacking Iran and as they seek to hold these lawless administrators to account for their high crimes and misdemeanors.

At the national level, we remain enthusiastic about the work of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning American Friends Service Committee, which combines a commitment to peace with a determination to aid those displaced and endangered by war and the pathologies that go with it.

Readers who have Internet access can learn more about the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice by visiting the group's Web site at www.wnpj.org. Donations may be sent to:
Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice
122 State St., Suite 402
Madison, WI 53703

Readers who would like to learn more about the American Friends Service Committee can visit its Web site at www.afsc.org. Donations may be sent to:
AFSC Development
1501 Cherry St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102

If readers have other ideas about organizations that are working for peace and justice and that merit support during this holiday season, let us know. We will continue to highlight ways in which Wisconsinites can, through donations of their resources and their considerable energies, make real the promise of peace on Earth and goodwill to all.

11/30/07:Bush, Cheney Achieve Their Mideast Goals- Daniel J. Guilfoil

Bush, Cheney Achieve Their Mideast Goals
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Friday, November 30, 2007
Daniel J. Guilfoil, Monona

Dear Editor: George Bush and Dick Cheney have achieved their goal of occupying Iraq and setting up a regime that will invite them to remain for an indefinite period.

There's a huge embassy in Baghdad, large military bases, and an invitation to U.S. oil companies to do business in this stable and protected area.

The Saudi interests have been secured, the Israeli interests have been secured, and the Middle East is now secure for international corporate interests.

Hey, Bush and Cheney have pulled it off.

Next will be Iran. It's part of the program.

Now if the dollar will cooperate, all is right with the Republican world.

11/30/07:Peace Quest Won't End With Retirement - International Committee for the Peace Council

Peace Quest Won't End With Retirement
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: A9
Friday, November 30, 2007
Phil Haslanger

Today is the last day that Madison's Daniel Gomez-Ibanez will have the title "executive director of the International Committee for the Peace Council" appended to his name. But the 12 years in which he has carried that title have given him a chance to see how thoughtful actions can make a difference in some of the world's trouble spots.

The International Committee for the Peace Council is not exactly a household term, but it is an organization with a lot of prestige attached to it. The Peace Council is a group of 21 men and women who are well known in the various faith traditions from which they come. They span Christianity and Judaism, Islam and Hinduism. Three of them have won the Nobel Peace Prize - the Dalai Lama from Tibet, Archbishop Desmond Tutu from South Africa and Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland. What the committee does is provide a structure by which councilors can work together to ameliorate conflicts in various parts of the world.

"What I have learned and what the peace councilors have taught each other and me is how you can really make a difference," Gomez-Ibanez said over a cup of coffee last week as he talked about his retirement, which takes effect today.

He was there at the beginning of this effort. In 1993, he was the executive director of the World Parliament of Religions - an international gathering of religious leaders in Chicago. Out of that, some of the leaders talked about continuing to work together. The Peace Council had its initial meeting with a dozen members in November 1995.

The council has other ties to Madison besides Gomez-Ibanez. Among the 15 trustees who guide the administration of the Peace Council, about half are residents of this area.

When Gomez-Ibanez says the group has made a difference, there is a litany of accomplishments to support him. The group helped in the International Campaign to Ban Land Mines; it found ways to expand the dialogue between North Korea and South Korea; it helped Buddhist monks in Cambodia obtain cease-fires in their land; it entered into dicey situations in Chiapas, Mexico, the West Bank in Israel, and Northern Ireland. Gomez-Ibanez returned earlier this month from a meeting in South Korea where the peace councilors helped dedicate a peace bell in a park between divided nations.

This is all very admirable, of course. But wars go on. The work of the Peace Council gets nowhere near the press of a Mideast summit in Annapolis or a suicide bombing in Baghdad. One of the realities that Gomez-Ibanez has had to face in the last couple of years is that money for this sort of work is harder to come by. A planned gathering in Europe earlier this year of moderate Islamic leaders with the peace councilors had to be canceled for lack of funding.

So at age 64, Gomez-Ibanez is retiring a year earlier than intended. There is no clear plan for what will happen next with the Peace Council.

"It is difficult raising money for an interfaith group not working in your own back yard," he explained. "And many people don't believe peace is possible. Giving to peace is like giving to Don Quixote."

Out of his dozen years on the front lines of seeking peace, though, Gomez-Ibanez has compiled a few lessons for those who would enter into zones of conflict.

One is the "importance of listening before you do anything." He explained how peace councilors entering a trouble spot would meet with all the parties to a conflict without suggesting that they were coming with the answers. As a result, there was "an enormous amount of trust between the peace councilors and the parties to the conflict," he said.

Another lesson is the value of just being present in the midst of conflict. He recalled walking with Buddhist monks through the killing fields of Cambodia in 1996 with former Madison Police Chief David Couper and Joe Elder, a retired University of Wisconsin professor. Villagers came out along the road as they passed by, some seeing a Buddhist monk for the first time in years. The warring soldiers on both sides respected the presence of the peace march, and local cease-fires began to emerge.

Gomez-Ibanez's third lesson is "the importance of being spiritually grounded so that peacemaking comes out of yourself." He recalls talking with the famous Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk and writer Thich Nhat Hanh at a monastery in southern France a few years ago when the monk asked him, "Are you a peaceful person?" When Gomez-Ibanez acknowledged that he had conflicts in his own life, the monk asked, "How do you hope to make peace with yourself?"

When people ask Gomez-Ibanez if he thinks peace is possible, he goes back to the most personal level. He notes that in relationships with spouses, children, friends, we all know that "small acts of peacemaking are collectively significant." That is also true in the larger arena, he said.

As Gomez-Ibanez steps aside from his day-to-day work with the Peace Council, he still has work to do. He hopes to write two books out of this experience, one elaborating the lessons of peacemaking, the other telling the stories of the peace councilors, of how ordinary events in their lives transformed their role in the world.

His quest for peace will go on, even if the title is now part of his past.

Phil Haslanger is a contributing editor of The Capital Times. phaslanger@madison.com