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WARoNOke Peace Action Group Home Page Currently
being shown on our Waronoke Peace Action TV program:
Monday evenings at 11:00 pm Wednesday evenings at 9:00 pm Friday mornings at 9:00 a.m. plus one or more late night times on the Westfield Community Programming Channel Comcast Cable Channel 15 in Westfield Programs are normally repeated for several weeks before changing. Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress from the May 25, 2009 Democracy Now Memorial Day special episode  War veterans from
Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill to testify before
Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war.Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March 2008, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, “Winter Soldier on the Hill” was designed to drive home the human cost of the war and occupation—this time, to the very people in charge of doing something about it. Present and past
DEMOCRACY NOW episodes can
also be seen at http://www.democracynow.org/
See Trudy's 2008 photos of the
Westfield State College "Students for Peace and
Justice" group at a Boston peace rally and the AFSC "Eyes Wide Open"
display
on the WSC campus.
Click here. Our second annual "Poems
of War,
Poems of Peace" poetry reading program was held Thursday, Nov.
6, 2008 (as near
Veteran's Day as technically possible) at the Westfield Atheneum
(Westfield's public library) in the Reed Room.
The readers included four of the local literary and theatrical professionals who were so highly praised by the audience last year: Tommy "Twilite" Clark, Lori Desrosiers, Bob Plasse, and Bob Lehan. They were joined this year by Athenaeum Director Chris Lindquist and Waronoke's own Korean War veteran and aniti-war, pro-veteran activist Brendon Preston. Our "Songs of Peace, Not
War" - a
special open mic
night - was held at the Teapot
Gallery,
22 Elm St, Westfield, MA Wed.
on Oct. 29, 2008 from 7:00 - 10:00 pm.
Our Saturday, March 22, 2008 vigil to mark 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq was very successful. Our core group was
joined by several other people supporting our cause; many drivers
gave us thumbs up or said thank you as they passed. Our vigil was
covered by ABC TV 40 WGGB on their 6:00 evening news.
Read our Memorial Day
2007 Letter to the Editor - published in both The Republican and
the
Westfield Evening News
(click here to read letter) Report on Sign Holding
Visibility
at Mass Pike Entrance held Friday May 25, 2007 3-5 pm
Success! - lots of support (and heat and humidity) on the Friday of Memorial Day Weekend Report on Megan
Bartlett, 9/11 first responder and organizer of Ground Zero for Peace,
spoke at Westfield State
College April 23, 2007
Powerful talk, good turnout!  A veteran's panel discussion at Westfield State College was held Wed. Feb 28, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. “THE VETERAN’S DILEMMA: COMING HOME” Photo report click here Buddhist Peace Walkers Return to Westfield Tue, Feb. 20 - was facilitated again this year by the Waronoke Peace Action Group To see photo report of last year's visit with a link to background information click here. Photo report of this year's visit - click here. Photo report on Waronokers participation in the "Vigil for the 3000" Jan. 2, 2007 when the U.S. military causality count reached 3000 click here Brief report on the Jan. 27, 2007 Visibility in support of the Washington D.C. march to End the war in Iraq, Bring all the troops home now! click here The West Springfield Citizens for Peace continue to hold peace vigils on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays each month at 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. on the West Springfield Green opposite the library. Several Waronokers join with them when schedules permit DVD Lending Library You may now borrow DVD's from our new lending library. (more on new Library Page) Our Letter to the Editor re: photo encouraging a girl with face paint TO PLAY WITH A MACHINE GUN! (Read the letter) We have permanently added to our LINKS Page a link to Connecticut Coalition For Peace and Justice (CCPJ) http://www.hopeoutloud.org/ . Thanks to Wayne Coste for reminding us that "Western Mass and CT are NOT two different worlds". Mutual support of neighboring grassroots events and coalition building are what have, historically, empowered a well informed, energised, progressive minority to win the support of the typically less well informed (or misinformed) and too-often apathetic majority - to the benefit of us all. About Us
The Waronoke* Peace Action Group is an informal organization formed initially by individuals who came together on the green in downtown Westfield, Massachusetts to demonstrate their opposition to the Iraq war - even before it began. Together and individually, group members have continued - to participate in sign-holding visibilities, candle-light vigils, and protest marches, - to sponsor talks, films, and forums, - to work on voter registration, education, and get-out-the-vote campaigns in the 2004 primary and November elections, - to write letters to the editor and, in other ways, - to work to bring an end to the death, destruction, and deficit that were the predictable product of this tragic war of choice and subsequent occupation. *Waronoke (a variant of Woronoco) was the name given to the Westfield river valley region by its pre-colonial native residents; it is here that most of the members of our group presently reside. Not coincidentally, the spelling includes the words "WAR" and "NO". Click here to join the Waronoke Peace Action Group E-Mail List  Any
problems using this website or
questions about its contents may be
e mailed to webmaster@WaronokePeace.org
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