Kathy Kelly is Co-Coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a Chicago-based campaign to end U.S. military and economic war against Iraq. In 1996, she co-founded Voices in the Wilderness (VitW) and worked, with companions, to challenge economic sanctions against Iraq by delivering medical supplies to Iraqis. VitW organized over 70 delegations as part of a campaign of civil disobedience from 1996 to 2003. In October 2002 VitW organized the Iraq Peace Team, in Baghdad, where they maintained a presence throughout the bombardment and invasion. Kathy remained in Iraq throughout the US Shock and Awe bombing and has returned three times, most recently in May of 2006 when she traveled to northern Iraq. She recently spent five weeks living in Amman, Jordan, amongst Iraqi families who have fled Iraq. Kathy and three companions from Voices were in Beirut during the final days of the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006 and subsequently reported from southern Lebanon following a ceasefire. Her book, Other Lands Have Dreams, a collection of her writings from war zones and prisons (Kathy spent one year in maximum security prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silos and was imprisoned for three months for crossing a line at Fort Benning, GA), is available through www.counterpunch.org
Lauren Cannon, 38, of Chicago, traveled to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness in 1998, 2000, and 2001, breaking the embargo and living with ordinary Iraqi families in Basra in 2000 closely witnessing life under the grip of economic sanctions. Cannon has spoken across the U.S., coordinating tours of those returning from Iraq and serving time in maximum-security prison for non-violent actions to end the war. Cannon works for the health of communities in Chicago, making connections between war spending, justice, immigration and ecological sustainability. Lauren holds a Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary, is a minister in training for ordination with the United Church of Christ, and is studying for a Master of Sacred Theology.
Paul Melling, 27, is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War. September of 2002 he enlisted in the army and started training as a field artillery cannon crewmember. From February 2003 to January 2004 he was deployed to a small forward operating base near Kirkuk, Iraq. After returning from Iraq he finished up his time in the army and was honorably discharged in June of 2006; he has been an Iraq Veteran Against the War ever since.
Dan Pearson, 27, is Co-Coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence and works with the Catholic Worker Community in Chicago. In early 2006 he spent nearly 3 months in Damascus, Syria learning Arabic and meeting with Iraqi refugees living there. Later in 2006 he joined the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions for a summer rebuilding project in Palestine. In 2007 Dan spent 5 months learning Arabic and living among Palestinian and Iraqi refugees in Yarmouk camp near Damascus, Syria. Dan has recently been working with Iraqi refugees in Chicago
Jeff Leys, 43, is Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence where he’s worked full time since May 2004. He traveled to Iraq to nonviolently oppose the impending U.S. led invasion in February 2003 with the Iraq Peace Team project of Voices in the Wilderness, and then again in November 2003. He organized and participated in three water only fasts between June 2005 and March 2006, which sought to build opposition to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the economic exploitation. He also organized and participated in the Walk for Justice, a 30 day, 320 mile walk through Illinois to build opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq in June 2006. Leys also worked as a labor union organizer (1995-2004) and as an advocate for those experiencing homelessness, youth especially. In the 1980s, he served two years in prison for participating in a Plowshares-Disarmament action. He also engaged in active nonviolent resistance to draft registration and to the U.S. proxy wars in Central America. He was arrested numerous times at Honeywell Corporation’s headquarters in Minneapolis while resisting Honeywell’s role in the manufacture of cluster bombs and guidance systems for first strike nuclear weapons.
Heléne Hedberg, 22, has just finished her first year of a Human Rights and Democracy program in Stockholm, Sweden. As a student representative for that program she’s involved with the local NGOs that partner with the school in trying to activate students on subjects of human rights and democracy. Heléne has been involved with UN volunteer work on different occasions over the last four years. She lives in Varberg, a suburb in the south of Stockholm where she, together with a group of people from the local church, has been working with the Iraqi immigrant youth at an after school center for two years. Besides that she is also animator of a web community for human rights bloggers, for a web page called Human Rights Tools and runs her own blog at http://undialogue.blogspot.com.
Bob Abplanalp has been involved with peace and justice efforts since 1979 when he began working with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee of the United Farm Workers. He began working with El Salvadoran Relief in 1981 and with Casa Nicaragua in 1984. Over the years he has volunteered to supply homeless shelters and food pantries with supplies. In 1992 Bob became involved with and currently coordinates the Chicago-based Nicaragua Medical Alliance. Bob has been a driver for the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour since 2001 and recently returned from his nineteenth caravan with Pastors for Peace, bringing relief supplies to Cuba.
Alice Gerard is a freelance writer and photographer from Grand Island, New York. She has been involved in human rights and antiwar issues since the mid-1980s, when she was a part of the Pledge of Resistance. She traveled to the Texas-Mexico border for “Border Witness” and she spent a few months in Guatemala learning Spanish. As a journalist for an alternative newspaper in Buffalo, NY, Alice has written about the sanctuary movement, the “Freedom Writers”, Iraqi refugees, and the School of the Americas. As an activist, Alice has crossed the Fort Benning fence more than once and has spent some time in federal prison for her actions. Alice has also spent time in Washington, D.C., lobbying in Congressional offices on issues such as the Iraq War and closing and investigating the instruction at SOA/WHINSEC. Alice’s writing has been published in such places as the Island Dispatch, the Niagara Gazette, Alt Press (Buffalo), and in books by Jessica Kingsley Publishers and Celtic Wordcraft. Alice’s blogs can be found at http://alicesgrandadvetures.blogspot.com and http://closethesoa.blogspot.com.
Josh Brollier, 25, is currently living in Clarksville, TN with his wife Abby, working as a guitar instructor at a local music store. He has worked with refugees from Afghanistan, Sudan, and Somalia while living in Memphis. He has also spent three months in Zimbabwe in 2004 working with youth orphaned from AIDS. He studied African and Latin American history at the University of Memphis and has been involved in various positions working with youth since he graduated in 2006. Josh has previously been involved with civil disobedience and counter recruitment as he’s strongly opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mary Dean is a pediatric physical therapist. She has been a peace activist for twenty years including working to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) since 1994 and spending six months in federal prison in Greenville, IL in 2002 for nonviolent protest at the SOA. She has traveled across the U.S. to Central America and Cuba on several caravans with Pastors for Peace, volunteered at Catholic Worker houses of hospitality for homeless people, fasted for three weeks in front of the U.N. in New York to end the sanctions against Iraq in 1998 and was a board member for five years with the Organization in Solidarity with Guatemala in Chicago. In 1996 She participated in an encampment at ELF in Ashland, WI to protest nuclear weapons and in 1992 assisted in organizing and participated in the international Walk for a Peaceful Future in Israel and the Occupied Territories. In 1990 Mary rode her bike across the U.S. in BikeAid, a fundraising and educational project of the Overseas Development Network, and has also been arrested a number of times for nonviolent protests against the war.
Leah Patriarco is Co-Coordinator for Voices for Creative Nonviolence and has recently completed a teacher certification program in Chicago. Leah is one of the founders of the Allium Collective, a community in Chicago dedicated to activism and ethical living practices. As part of the Allium Collective, Leah has helped organize three month-long electricity fasts in part to raise awareness of the lack of reliable electricity, clean water, and other resources in Iraq.
Mike Miles is a 54 year old, catholic worker who founded Anathoth Community Farm, a center for the study of nonviolence, community and sustainable living located in Luck, Wisconsin. His involvement in the peace movement started twenty-eight years ago when he and his partner Barb Kass moved into Jonah House during the trial of the Plowshares Eight. Three decades of practicing active nonviolence has netted him scores of arrests and more than a year served in various jails and prisons. He has been to Iraq three times since 1997 and recently returned from Palestine/Israel. For eight years he has been working with the Wheels of Justice—a mobile peace center that has traveled 100,000 miles, making over 1000 stops at campuses, peace groups and faith communities all over the US promoting nonviolent solutions to war and occupation. His writing has been featured widely including on Common Dreams, in The Jordan Times and in Sojourners. Most recently, Mike started the Northwoods Peace Initiative—an online organizing tool which brought hundreds of people to protests in Washington, DC, as well as to the highways and town squares of rural Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice named him Peacemaker of the Year in 2002.
Steve Riley is an avid reader of political, economic and Catholic social thought and has been active in peace and justice issues for the past ten years. He facilitated a course on Structural Injustice with the peace and justice ministry at Incarnation Parish in Sarasota, Florida. In his local parish, Steve recently completed serving as co-facilitator for a 30-week course called “Just Faith”. He attended the 1999 World Trade Organization demonstrations in Seattle as well as the World Bank demonstrations in Washington D.C. In September 2006, Steve took part in the five day Thomas Merton-Ghandi march from the Thomas Merton Heritage at the Abbey of Gethsemane to Louisville, Kentucky. This march was in honor of the teachings of proactive nonviolence by both Ghandi and Merton.
