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For immediate release May 8, 2008
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Like the First Mother’s Day in 1870,
Women Today Mourn War Dead, Plea for Peace

Mother’s Day Vigil, Sunday May 11, corner of Reynolds and Heatherdowns from noon to 1:30pm.

We ask all who attend to wear black and stand silently during this event.

The following lines are among those from Howe’s statement that will be displayed on large posters and held for passing motorists to see on Reynolds Rd.

"Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause."

"Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience."

"We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

"From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!”

Mother’s Day wasn’t always about shopping for flowers or jewelry. On the first Mother’s Day in 1870, Julia Ward Howe -- reformer, writer, peace activist, and suffragette -- called for mothers everywhere to raise their voices and bring an end to all war. Her anguished Proclamation (attached) remains timely to this day.

On this Mother’s Day, the North West Ohio Peace Coalition invites all area women – and men who support them – to join with us in mourning the tens of thousands of lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. We invite residents to stand silently in recognition of the thousands of mothers, grandmothers, wives, daughters, and sisters who grieve the death of a loved one – an American, an Iraqi, an Afghan – on this 138th annual commemoration of what is one of history’s most eloquent pleas for peace.

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For Immediate Release March 21, 2008

Sue Carter 419-729-7273

Peggy Daly-Masternak 734-457-2394, Ext. 3

For Iraq War’s 5^th Anniversary Peace Groups Rally to Say: Not One More Death!!

At 11:00 am on Saturday, March 22, area citizens will gather at Toledo Promenade Park on Summit Street in downtown Toledo (next to the COSI building) to hear the remarks of Marine veteran, Wes Liggett, who speaks out against the war and urges us to support the troops when they return home. Liggett, from South Bend, Indiana, was deployed to Iraq three times. From Promenade Park the activists will walk to the site of the Arlington Midwest display of 5,000 tombstones on the Lucas County courthouse lawn. After a solemn closing ceremony, participants will take down the tombstones.

“We hope we will never need to add another one,” states Peggy Daly-Masternak organizer from the NW Ohio Peace Coalition. “This rally and march is the last in a series of events to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq but people of peace will continue to protest until this war end and the troops return.” For over 6 years, the NW Ohio Peace Coalition holds an anti-war demonstration every Sunday on a Toledo street corner.

The week of peace activities is co-sponsored by 37 organizations including communities of faith, campus groups and labor unions from Toledo, Fostoria, Tiffin, and Adrian Detroit and Monroe Michigan.

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Endorsing organizations:

*UT Anti-War - Tiffin Pax Christi - Pax Christi of Corpus Christi University Parish - Fostoria Area Citizens for Peace - People for Peace and Justice Sandusky County - Green Party of Northwest Ohio - Toledo Area Jobs With Justice Coalition - Sylvania Sisters of St. Francis - Pax Christi Wood County - NAACP Toledo Unit - Broadmead Monthly Meeting (Quakers) - St. Paul's United Methodist Church - Interfaith Justice and Peace Center - Toledo NOW - Flowing Waters Sangha - International Socialist Organization - Ursuline Sisters - Military Families Speak Out Ohio - Toledo Area Committee on Central America - Adrian Dominicans Office of Global Missions - Lenawee Peacemakers - Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe - Sisters of St. Francis, Tiffin - AFSCME Local 2415 University of Toledo Medical Center - St. Rose Catholic Church Peace and Justice Committee - Farm Labor Organizing Committee - Monroe for Peace and Justice - Media Decompression Collective - October 15 Anarchist Collective - St. Mark’s Episcopal Church - Voices for Peace and Justice - Millions More Movement Local Organizing Committee - St. Johns Jesuit Social Justice Alliance - Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus - The Servant Leadership Center

For Immediate Release

Sue Carter 419-729-7273

Peggy Daly-Masternak 734-457-2394, Ext. 3 March 17, 2008

Peace Groups Mark 5th Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion, March 19.
At the display site of 5,000 tombstones, activists hold a 12 hour vigil to read names of U.S. military and Iraqi citizens who have died.

At 8:00 AM on Wednesday, March 19, the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, area citizens and activists will gather in a 12 hour vigil at the Lucas County Courthouse on Adams Street in downtown Toledo to read the names of U.S. military and Iraqi citizens who have died. The courthouse is the site of Arlington Midwest: The Human Cost of War , a display of 5,000 tombstones of those who have died in the wars in Iraq, in Afghanistan and when they return home by suicide. A candle light reading will start at 6:30 P.M. Both at 8:00 AM and at 6:30 PM, after the bugler plays taps, readers will begin with the names of the Ohio fallen.

“The 5,000 tombstones of Arlington Midwest try to depict the human cost of war and we read the names so we can remember and grieve for each of them,” states Anna Colnar, member of Military Families Speak Out, an organization of military families opposed to the war in Iraq. “The devastation caused by this war is beyond repair and yet after 5 years there is no end in sight! We need to stop this madness now, bring our troops home, give the Iraqis back their country and use the $275 million dollars (current according to National Priorities Project) we spend each day on war and death to heal and rebuild both of our nations.”

Volunteers will be setting up the tombstones on Tuesday, March 18. Arlington Midwest is the project of the NW Ohio Peace Coalition and Veterans for Peace and is supported and co-sponsored by 35 organizations from Ohio and Michigan including communities of faith, labor unions and campus groups*.

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For Immediate Release

Sue Carter 419-729-7273

Peggy Daly-Masternak 734-457-2394, Ext. 3 February 28, 2008

Peace Groups Mark 5^th Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion with Week of Activity

5,000 Tombstones Will Stand on the Courthouse Lawn

See complete program below

From March 18th through March 22nd, co-sponsors will stage Arlington Midwest: the Human Cost of War at the Lucas County Courthouse. 5,000 tombstones create this display, including US service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and those returning home and committing suicide. Also included are the names of 3,000 Iraqis out of over a million killed.

Complete Program:

March 18 at 11:30 a.m. at Lucas County Courthouse: Dozens of volunteers will spend the day erecting 5,000 tombstones on the courthouse lawn.

March 19 at 8:00 a.m. at Courthouse: Opening ceremony of Arlington Midwest and the start of the reading the names of the fallen, beginning with Ohio.

March 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Courthouse: Candlelight vigil for the fallen and the reading of names continues.

March 10 at 7:00 p.m. at UT Law School: Colonel Ann Wright, former State Department official who resigned in protest to the plan to invade Iraq. She will sign copies of her newly released book, Dissent: Voices of Conscience.

March 20 at 6:30: documentary film: Sir! No Sir! at Sanger Library. “Sir! No Sir!” documents for the first time on film the underground GI movement against the war in Vietnam.

March 22, 11:00 a.m., peace activists rally at Promenade Park and march to the Lucas County Courthouse for a rally and closing ceremony for Arlington Midwest tombstone display. Speaker is South Bend USMC veteran, Wes Liggett, deployed to Iraq three times.

Sponsored by: Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition and University of Toledo Anti-War. Co-sponsors include Tiffin Pax Christi; Pax Christi of Corpus Christi University Parish; Fostoria Area Citizens for Peace; People for Peace and Justice Sandusky County; Veterans for Peace; Green Party of Northwest Ohio; Toledo Area Jobs With Justice Coalition; Sylvania Sisters of St. Francis; Pax Christi Wood County; NAACP Toledo Unit; Broadmead Monthly Meeting (Quakers); St. Paul’s United Methodist Church; Interfaith Justice and Peace Center; Toledo NOW; and International Socialist Organization.

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