Upcoming Events

Intersection of Market and Patrick Streets

Dinner After the Vigil with Guest Speaker -

The Militarization of America: At What Cost?

6:45 – 8:45 p.m.

The Orchard, 45 N. Market Street

RSVP for dinner appreciated. Space is limited. Program details follow below.

Email: wibfrederick@gmail.com

Join us for an informative presentation and conversation on

Women United Worldwide to Build Bridges of Peace and Understanding

On International Women’s Day 2010 women around the world are standing together

To say yes to peace and hope
and a peaceful vision of the future

To end the cycle of war and violence.

And we stand here at the 7th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. We remember and mourn the lives lost and damaged. This war is almost forgotten, but has not yet ended.

We stand here in witness to the loss of life in Afghanistan, and say that war is not the answer to bringing peace to the people of that region.

We stand knowing that 75% of the victims of war are women and children.

Imagine! Thousands of women standing together in Congo and neighboring Rwanda to demand peace and development. Thousands more from Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom, saying no to war and yes to peace and hope. Now, that’s powerful!

We can build bridges of peace.

We honor the resilience of the millions of survivors of war around the world. We honor the women who need our support to rebuild their families and societies.

Yes! To greater investment from governments, donors, and everyday people to achieve women’s safety and development. Enable full political, economic and social participation for women.

Yes! To women having much more access to education, job training and creation, credit, property rights – tools for self-sustainability for rebuilding families and economies. Investing in women’s development builds stable communities.

Yes! To raising a united voice, saying that peace on earth will only happen with education and when we eradicate poverty and sexual oppression, and achieve equality for women.

Find out more: Women for Women International http://www.womenforwomen.org/bridge/index.php Women for Afghan Women: http://www.womenforafghanwomen.org/ Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, http://www.ikat.org/ Kiva: http://www.kiva.org/ Local: Able & Willing Int’l Education Found.: http://ableandwilling.org

Blueprint for Peace in Afghanistan: A Community Conversation

Sunday, February 28^th

What would a blueprint for peace in Afghanistan include?

What are the issues and factors affecting the prospects for peace?

Panelists:

Linda Pappas Funsch - Adjunct Professor, History and Political Science – Middle East Studies, Hood College

Fahima Vorgetts - Board Member, Women for Afghan Women and Director of the Afghan Women’s Fund

Ellen Barfield – Veterans for Peace

John Darnell, Ph.D. - biochemist, consultant on sustainable energy technology, Energy Advisor to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett.

Sponsored by Women in Black Frederick and Peace and Social Concerns Committee, Frederick Friends Meeting (Quakers) as an offering of the Season for Nonviolence.

Martin Luther King became an opponent of Vietnam precisely because he could see how it shifted the focus from the problems on the home front. He said:

"Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such."