Twenty-two years ago, on March 2, 2003, East Bay Citizens for Peace was born out of a sense of great urgency to stop the U.S. government from invading Iraq, and to defend our civil liberties threatened by the “Patriot Act.” We rightfully questioned the existence of weapons of mass destruction and we warned that if the U.S. invaded Iraq without provocation, it would violate international law, set dangerous precedent for other powers and risk catastrophic destabilization in the Middle East.

When we presented the Bristol Town Council with a petition of over 100 signatures, they responded by passing the following resolution: “Whereas people of all nations desire peace. And so, therefore, be it hereby resolved that the Bristol Town Council urges our President George W. Bush and the Congress of the United States of America to explore all diplomatic avenues to bring peace to a troubled world.” If only the powers in Washington had listened then!

Instead, over the past 22 years, leaders of both parties have pursued endless war instead of diplomacy and in the process have brought the world closer to the brink of nuclear disaster than ever before. With more and more of our tax dollars squandered on the Pentagon – the only department that has never passed an audit – our society has suffered from inadequate funding of people’s needs, such as education, affordable housing, healthcare and services for elderly. The rich have gotten richer and the poor are poorer.

According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 U.S. billionaire families paid an average federal individual tax rate of 8.2%, compared to the average American family tax rate of 13%. We are one of the richest counties in the world, and yet the Poor People’s Campaign reported that 800 people died from poverty every day in 2019, and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 47.4 million Americans suffered from food insecurity in 2023.

As a result of cuts in much needed programs since President Trump took office, many more Americans will go hungry and homeless. Corporate greed has gained a stranglehold on our political system and has contributed to the current collapse of our democracy. The often employed tactic of divide and conquer has worked, and sadly we have become a deeply divided nation. This quote from Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis rings true: “We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.”

In the face of all this, East Bay Citizens for Peace, which is a non-partisan grassroots group, holds fast to our commitment to peaceful solutions to conflicts around the world and to social and economic justice. We continue to call for ceasefires and peace with justice in Ukraine and the Middle East. In keeping with our core beliefs, we deplore our country’s complicity in genocide and oppose all war crimes. The illegal and inhumane treatment of immigrants and the persecution of anyone because of their political beliefs (including opinions about Israel and Palestine), their nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender are violations of our constitutional rights and should bother anyone who has a conscience.

We are dedicated to addressing conflict through open and respectful dialogue and will continue to hold monthly vigils, and offer public forums and conversations in our effort to respond to the crisis of our democracy. We hope you will join us.

Nancy Hood
Bristol

Hood is a founding member of East Bay Citizens for Peace.