December 9,
2009
An
Open Letter to The Norwegian Nobel Committee.
On
December 10, you will award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack
Obama, citing "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international
diplomacy and cooperation between people." We the undersigned are
distressed that President Obama, so close upon his receipt of this honor,
has opted to escalate the U.S. war in Afghanistan with the deployment of
30,000 additional troops. We regret that he could not be guided by the
example of a previous Nobel Peace Laureate, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., who identified his peace prize as "profound recognition that
nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of
our time -- the need for man [sic] to overcome oppression and violence
without resorting to violence and oppression."
President Obama has insisted
that his troop escalation is a necessary response to dangerous instability
in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but we reject the notion that military action
will advance the region's stability, or our own national security. In his
peace prize acceptance speech, Dr. King observed that "Civilization and
violence are antithetical concepts…man [sic] must evolve for all human
conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation." As
people committed to end the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, we are
filled with remorse by this new decision of our president, for it will not
bring peace.
Declaring his opposition to
the Vietnam War, Dr. King insisted that "no one who has any concern for
the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war…We must
continue to raise our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its
perverse ways… We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the
line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man [sic] of humane
convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions,
but we must all protest."
We
pledge ourselves to mobilize our constituencies in the spirit of Dr.
King's nonviolent and committed example. His prophetic words will guide us
as we assemble in the halls of Congress, in local offices of elected
representatives, and in the streets of our cities and towns, protesting
every proposal that will continue funding war. We will actively and
publicly oppose the war funding which President Obama will soon seek from
Congress and re-commit ourselves to the protracted struggle against U.S.
war-making in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We
assume that the Nobel Committee chose to award President Obama the peace
prize in full awareness of the vision offered by Dr. King's acceptance
speech. We also understand that the Nobel committee may now regret that
decision in light of recent developments, as we believe that the committee
should be reluctant to present an Orwellian message equating peace with
war. When introducing the President, the Committee should, at the very
least, exhibit a level of compassion and humility by drawing attention to
this distressing ambiguity.
We
will do all we can to ensure that popular pressure will soon bring
President Obama to an acceptance of the duties which this prize, and even
more his electoral mandate to be a figure of change, impose upon
him. He must end the catastrophic policies of
occupation and war that have caused so much destruction, so many deaths
and displacements, and so much injury to our own democratic
traditions.
This prize is not a
meaningless honor. We pledge, ourselves obeying its
call to nonviolent action, to make our President worthy of
it.
Sincerely,
Jack Amoureux - Board of
Directors
Military Families Speak
Out
Medea Benjamin - Co-Founder,
Global
Exchange
Frida Berrigan - Witness
Against Torture
Elaine Brower - World Can't
Wait
Leslie Cagan -
Co-Founder
United for Peace and
Justice
Bob
Cooke - Regional Coordinator
Pax
Christi USA, Pax Christi Metro, DC and Baltimore
Tom
Cornell - Catholic Peace Fellowship
Matt Daloisio - War
Resisters League
Marie Dennis - Maryknoll
Office for Global Concerns
Laurie Dobson - Director,
End
US Wars
Mike Ferner - National
President
Veterans For
Peace
Joy
First- Convener
National Campaign for
Non-Violent Resistance
Sara Flounders -
International Action Center
Diana Gibson - Christian
Peace Witness
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb - Shomer
Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence
David Hartsough -
Peaceworkers, San Francisco
Mike Hearington - Georgia
Peace & Justice Coalition
Kimber J. Heinz - Organizing
Coordinator
War
Resisters League
Mark Johnson -
Director
Fellowship of
Reconciliation
Kathy Kelly -
Co-coordinator
Voices for Creative
Non-Violence
Leslie Kielson -
Co-Chair
United for Peace and
Justice
Malachy Kilbride - National
Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
Kevin Martin - Executive
Director
Peace Action and Peace
Action Education Fund
Linda LeTendre - Saratoga
[New York] Peace Alliance
Michael T. McPhearson -
National Executive Director,
Veterans For
Peace
Gael Murphy - Co-Founder,
Code
Pink
Sheila Musaji - The American
Muslim
Michael Nagler -
Founder
Metta Center for
Nonviolence
Max
Obuszewski - Pledge of Resistance Baltimore and Baltimore Nonviolence
Center
Pete Perry - Peace of the
Action
Dave Robinson, Executive
Director
Pax
Christi
David Swanson -
AfterDowningStreet.org
Terry Rockefeller - Families
for Peaceful Tomorrows
Samina Sundas - Founding
Executive Director
The
American Muslim Voice
Nancy Tsou - Coordinator,
Rockland Coalition for Peace
and Justice
Diane Turco - Cape Codders
for Peace and Justice
Marge Van Cleef - Womens
International League for Peace and Freedom
Jose Vasquez - Executive
Director
Iraq Veterans Against the
War
Craig
Wiesner
Multifaith Voices for Peace
and Justice
Scott Wright - Pax Christi
Metro DC - Baltimore
Kevin Zeese - Executive
Director
Voters for
Peace