On September 21st, the Foothills Peace Coalition and AFSC held a peaceful candlelight vigil in front of the military recruiting center in Pasadena, Ca., which is situated directly across the street from Pasadena City College. Approximately 60 -70 persons attended through the 3 hours that we stood vigil. Several students from the campus joined us. The atmosphere was wonderfully positive and communal as we closed with a circle and a moment of silence.
We had excellent local press coverage and even a mention in the Washington Post. See “Get Your Peace On” by Joe Piasecki in the Pasadena Weekly.
The Foothills Peace Coalition also chose to develop the Declaration of Peace Congressional Pledge into a petition for our 2 local representatives (Schiff, Dreier) and our 2 state senators (Boxer, Feinstein). We conceptualized our petition gathering as the “Lobby the People” campaign for DoP.
Our goal was to reach out beyond the “choir” to those folks who oppose the war and want the troops home but who are rarely heard from.
We gathered nearly 550 signatures by tabling at our local farmers’ markets, churches, municipal meetings, and by going door-to-door.
The petitions have been mailed to the Senators with a cover letter emphasizing the principles of the DoP campaign and including a copy of King’s “Letter from the Birmingham Jail”. We have scheduled meetings with our local representatives and will hand-deliver the petitions to them.
Several of our members supported the civil disobedience action of Peace Witness LA in Hollywood, Ca., on September 25th.
