Jim's Peacemaking

"What can I do for peace in Iraq?" asked someone to Cliff Kindy, a long time CPTer in Iraq, at one of his six seminars at the Cornerstone Music Festival. Cliff replied, "What I am sharing is what I experienced, which is one view of Iraq. Get other views from a number of news sources , talk to people who have been in Iraq, especially soldiers. They need to tell their story and we need to hear their story for our healing and their healing. We need it for the healing of our nation. We can not expect the government to provide this. The churches need to do this." Several times Cliff reminded people how important getting other points of view and connecting with people who have been in Iraq is to build a lasting peace in the world. Here at our Cornerstone Booth is Hilda a woman from Norway signing up to be on our mailing list, one of the over 300 persons who did so. One of the leaders of the band Me with out You put in an unsolicited but good plug for CPT at Main Stage b...

Judging War by Death's Tally Death and its increase on the battlefield have become the most contentious measures of failure or success for the United States in recent years - pointed to by some as further evidence of war gone wrong, or dismissed by others who see no sacrifice as too great for the American cause. Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, varying perceptions of the U.S.-led war on terror have teetered on this quotient of lives lost - as if somewhere in the calculus of human destruction can be found sufficient cause for national shame, or sublime hope for the battles still to be fought. The occupation of Iraq has become especially death-riddled, so there certainly has been no shortage of this volatile fuel. Nearly as troubling as these fatalities are Americans' responses to them, ranging from stoic disregard to disturbing displays of fist-pumping elation. Two recent cases in point: * On June 15, it was announced that 2,500 American military personnel had died in Iraq - a total t...