December - Richmond Peace Education Center

Profiles in Peacemaking
The newsletter of the Richmond Peace Education Center
November-December 2010
Demond Mullins
An excerpt from
Breaking Ranks: Iraq Veterans Speak Out Against the War
Our series of essays, Profiles in Peacemaking, have focused on individuals and groups whose lives offered insights into
the practice of peacemaking in our time. Recently we have often focused on local examples. In doing so we have tried to
indicate the factors that provided motivation for the work of peacemaking. This month we offer the example of a young
man whose “conversion” happened while he was a soldier in Iraq. It comes from a book recounting six such stories,
“Breaking Ranks,” by Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Lutz. The book was inspired by the work of RPEC member,
Betsy Brinson who interviewed over 30 men and women as part of the GI Rights Oral History Project, including Demond Mullins.
Editor
Although Demond Mullins had
been an outspoken opponent of the
Iraq war after his return, by the time
we caught up with him he had left
activism behind for the time being,
finished his bachelor's degree, and
begun studying for his doctorate in
sociology at City University of New
York … Demond recounted how
he'd had to drop out of college several years before because he could
not pay the tuition, then ended up in
Las Vegas as a model, and later
joined the National Guard, thinking
this would be a financial ticket back
to college.
During his childhood, Demond
was often on the move. Born when
his mother was just sixteen, Demond
was raised by his mother's own legal
guardian to the age of seven, when
he moved in with his mom and a
stepfather he called Pops, who
worked as a brick mason. Over the
next several years, with his mom
and Pops, Demond moved between
New York City (Coney Island, and
later Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn) and Virginia Beach, Virginia.
With the encouragement of his
highly religious mom and stepfather,
Demond also began spending two or
three hours a day in a local Baptist
church in New York. For Demond,
that experience was both "like any
number of other kinds of 'cultural
activities' for kids" and a time of deep
commitment.
He attended Lehman College in
the Bronx, where he found he loved
being a college student and made the
dean's list his first semester. Then he
got the bill for the second semester
and couldn't pay it. Not knowing
whom to talk with about loans or
grants, and with nothing available
from his family, Demond dropped
out and began working.
He looked into the military and
(Continued on page 3)
RPECnews
RPECnews
is a publication of the
Richmond Peace Education Center
400 W. 32nd Street
Richmond, VA 23225
Phone: (804) 232-1002
E-mail: [email protected]
RPEC Web Page:
http://www.rpec.org
RPEC Staff
Executive Director: Adria Scharf
Asst. to the Director:
Paul Fleisher
Office Manager: Johnnie J. Taylor
2010 Board of Directors
Chair: Ellie Meleski
Vice-chair: Iman Shabazz
Treasurer: Malik Khan
Secretary : Anne-Marie McCartan
Christine Clarke
Renee Hill
Tony Scott
Santa Sorenson
Cricket White
John Williamson
Cathy Woodson
Newsletter Staff
Editor: Bill Gerow
[email protected]
John Gallini
Shirley Silberman
Cathy Woodson
Judy Bennett
Adria Scharf
Francis Woodruff
John Williamson
Renee Hill
Jeremy Raw
Jennifer Garvin-Sanchez
The opinions and announcements
in RPECnews are those of the
individual writers and are not
necessarily endorsed by RPEC.
RPECnews is published 6 times per
year and has a circulation of
approximately 1100. We welcome
article and calendar submissions.
Page 2
Reflections
Adria Scharf
Director, Richmond Peace Education Center
I recently took my 3 year old to visit the Museum of Natural History in
Washington.
We purportedly went to see the dinosaur bones. But I had an ulterior
motive: I wanted to see the museum's human origins exhibit, which first
opened in the spring. The exhibit explores the 6 million year long
evolution of our species. I'd heard about its "Morphing Station," where
visitors can see "what they'd look like" as a Neanderthal, and its
lifelike reconstructions of extinct human species.
My afternoon at the museum was in the end spent mostly chasing my
daughter around the place. (Running down the museum ramps proved far more
interesting to her than either the dinosaurs or the Neanderthals.)
We paused long enough to take in some of the exhibit. I left with a clear
sense of the following:
The history of our species makes perfectly clear how close we living human beings are to one another.
Our history on the planet, as human beings, is a remarkably short one.
Modern humans evolved in Africa just 200,000 years ago. At one point
later the total human population may have dwindled down to just 10,000
people. All living humans share common ancestors. The DNA of everyone
living today is 99.9% identical.
That is to say, the talk of a "human family" isn't just a nicety. There is
a scientific, paleoanthropological basis to the notion. We really are all
cousins. Quite literally.
That is of course not to discount the fact that there is tremendous
cultural diversity, that we have differences, and that groups of humans
have oppressed one another in the most terrible of ways. War and systems
of exploitation have long divided the human family and continue to do so.
And yet there is also a basic truth, concretely rooted in the history of
homo sapiens, that we remain in a very real sense one extended family.
**************************************
Thank you for celebrating RPEC's 30th anniversary with us throughout 2010. We march forward together into our next decade committed to
continuing RPEC's 30 year history of working to
advance peace and justice and to
building a better world.
RPEC lost a dear member of our community
this month, Spencer Reid. A Quaker, an artist, a
committed member of the peace community, she
gave much of herself, her time and her creativity
to the cause of peace with a gentle determination
and spirit. She is missed.
Spencer Reid
RPECnews
Profiles in Peacemaking
(Continued from page 1)
concluded, "Well, I could just join
the National Guard. And then that
way I can stay home and get the
money for school. What could be the
downside of that? His recruiter told
him, “No, you won't go to war or
anything like that. If the U.S. is invaded, you'll be activated.” So I was
all for that." Years later, Demond
knew what it meant to be on the other
side of an invasion scenario, but at
the time, as the recruiter made his
pitch at the end of 2000, it was impossible for Demond —as for so
many others —to fully grasp that he
would be sent to war. When we
talked eight years later it was clear in
his words and eyes that he had not
forgotten or forgiven the sales pitch
that had convinced him to enlist. …
Demond Mullins's epiphany
happened in a most unexpected way:
instant-messaging while surfing the
Web after returning from a mission.
Chatting online with a stranger that
day would change his life forever.
Between moments of high anxiety
and frustration out on patrol in villages or running missions in the cities, when they were not trying to
catch a few hours' sleep or wolf down
food that didn't come out of a plastic
bag, U.S. troops at established military facilities had access to the internet on their downtime. In this way,
the war in Iraq was like no other before it. Soldiers could call or write
home through their computers, surf
the Web for information and diversion, and even order things online
that would be delivered within two or
three weeks to their temporary homes
in Iraq. When he was especially
bored, Demond Mullins liked to enter
a chat room to see if he could strike
up a virtual conversation.
"I remember I was in a chat
room, I don't know if it was AOL or
what service it was. I just needed
some kind of stimulation from
someone who wasn't in Iraq right
then. So I'm trying to talk to people
in the chat room, and I wind up saying, 'Hey, I'm in Iraq right now. I'm
a U.S. soldier, an infantryman/
whatever.’ And some dude in the
chat room was an Iraqi in Iraq. And
we started IM-ing one another. The
guy was a professor; his English
was so-so. We wound up talking for
maybe half an hour through IM.
"He explained to me why U.S.
soldiers needed to leave, and I wasn't putting up a fight about it. I was,
'You're right, you know we don't
want to be here either.’ And then
he was saying that he was afraid of
U.S. soldiers, like at traffic control
points. We started to have a conversation about that. He said that every
time he sees one he's so afraid of
U.S. soldiers because they kill so
many civilians, so he tries to turn
around and drive the other way. I
explained to him that if he did that
we were going to shoot him or
chase him because we were going
to think he was trying to get away
from us.
"And explaining all this in that
exchange, I realized how we were
destroying people's lives. This guy
was trying to go to work, but he
can’t even go to work to provide for
his family without thinking, 'I'm
leaving my house and I'm going to
get shot by a U.S. soldier because
they think I'm suspicious.’ He was
talking about how obnoxious the
U.S. soldiers were and their temperament, how unnecessarily violent and authoritative they were. I
was, 'Look, dude, every day when I
leave this fence, this barbed wire,
I'm scared for my life. And I'm
looking at you and anyone else like
you and thinking you could possibly kill me. All the other U.S soldiers are looking at you like that. So
when we treat people rough it's not a
personal thing. I'm not even this type
of person. You would be surprised to
know certain things about me. This is
not who I am. I'm just stuck here.'
"So at that moment, when I realized that you can't even be a professor in Iraq and keep your standard of
living and just live without being
fearful, that's when I realized that we
were really messing people up in
Iraq, the civilians in Iraq. After that, I
started to be a lot more empathetic to
people when I was on missions."
By the end of his time in Iraq,
Demond felt he had changed as a person. "I never went there with the
mentality of I want to own kills and
go home and say that I killed some
people. For me, just seeing people
get hurt was really humbling. It kind
of made me a nihilist. I think I became kind of a nihilist because of the
war. I just don't see the point in a lot
of shit. Everything's kind of just futile."
“There was something I honestly
admired about the people we fought
and killed in Iraq. A lot of people
were saying, 'Allah _ Akbar' [Arabic
for "God is great"] at the time they
expired. I admired that because they
believed in something so much that
they were an oak tree. They were an
oak tree, and they were willing to die
for it. I was not willing to die for
what I was doing in Iraq." When he
finished his comment, Demond
stared off at no one and nothing in
particular.
What made (these six soldiers)
extraordinary? Partly it was their extra measure of empathy for Iraq's civilians. Partly it was an unwillingness
to simply live with the sense that they
were participating in something
wrong. A commitment to—and empathy for—the other members of
their units, whose lives depended on
them as well, kept most of them at
(Continued on page 7)
Page 3
RPECnews
Happenings
RECENT
Family Peace Festival
world music of Hotel X to a dancing display from the Latin Ballet of
Virginia, Falun Gong Chinese
Academy for girls; Fairfield Court
Elementary School; and the Armstrong Leadership group at Armstrong High School.
No One Is Bulletproof
The seventh annual Family Peace
Festival at Richmond's Mary Munford Elementary School was a celebration of unity and peace. Several
performers entertained throughout
the day, ranging from the hip-hop
sounds of Bread Winnaz, to the
Dance and Ezibu Muntu. Also,
speakers from different faith groups
spoke about peace from their faith
traditions.
Leading up to the festival, students at area schools created artwork in response to the question,
“What does peace look like?” Several of the students incorporated
peace signs, doves, and friendships.
One answered, "Peace is Unity,"
with hands representing different
countries coming together on top of
the Earth. Underneath the Earth, the
student wrote, "It is in our hands."
There were more than 1,500 people
in attendance; all unified in Peace.
Conflict Resolution Team
Training News
The Latin Ballet of Virginia
Page 4
In the past few weeks we have
completed an advanced Healing and
Rebuilding our Community workshop with 12 participants from the
African Immigrant Fellowship for
Peace and Reconciliation. We will
move forward to the Training for
Trainers in January. Our upcoming
workshops are an advanced AVP
training; Hanover Early Childhood
Conference; Asbury United Methodist Church with male youth; Fairfield Middle School with Delta
On November 30, RPEC cosponsored a youth forum on preventing gun violence. The free event,
entitled No One is Bulletproof:
Teens Talk About Gun Violence was
held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
from 4:30-7p.m. The forum featured
excerpts from the ABC 20/20 documentary “If I Only Had A Gun,”
small youth-led group discussions,
and a panel with local activists and
advocates. Co-sponsors of the program included the Richmond Peace
Education Center, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the Armstrong Leadership Program, and the Virginia Center for Public Safety plus included
RYPP teen trainers as discussion
leaders.
(Continued on page 5)
RPECnews
Happenings
(Continued from page 4)
Racial Justice Workshop
Series
This October the Richmond Peace
Education Center sponsored its latest
four-part workshop series, Racial
Justice in Richmond. The workshops
took place on four consecutive Tuesday evenings at the Richmond
Friends Meetinghouse. They were
moderated by RPEC Board members
Cathy Woodson and Cricket White,
and facilitated by Santa Sorenson,
Iman Shabazz, Tony Scott, and Paul
Fleisher A diverse group of twentyseven people participated, many representing a wide range of local organizations. The goal of the series is
to build solidarity among individuals
and organizations in greater Richmond as they work towards social
and economic justice for all.
RPEC will offer Racial Justice in
Richmond again in 2011. Anyone
interested in participating in the next
workshops series should indicate interest by emailing [email protected] or
calling the office, 232-1002.
Campaign to Preserve
Richmond’s African Burial
Ground
Over the past two months, RPEC
has been actively involved in supporting the effort, led by the Richmond Defenders, to preserve and memorialize Richmond’s African Burial
Ground. That piece of land, in
Shockoe Bottom near the intersection
of Broad Street and I-95, is currently
owned by VCU and used as a parking
lot. RPEC has been promoting the
current email and letter-writing campaign aimed at encouraging the university to end parking on the lot as a
first step towards preservation.
RPEC members have also participated in leafleting at the lot, and
contacting other activists around the
state and nation to generate wider
support for the effort. As part of
this effort, the Peace Center’s board
and staff sent the following letter to
VCU president Michael Rao.
Dear President Michael Rao,
We, the board and staff of the
Richmond Peace Education Center,
are writing to urge you to immediately close the VCU-owned parking
lot that now covers the site of Richmond's African Burial Ground and
to properly memorialize this site. It
is now universally accepted that all
or part of this historic site lies under the parking lot located at 15th
and East Broad streets.
As an institution of higher learning, and a publicly supported institution, VCU has a responsibility to
treat this site with the concern and
reverence that it deserves. It is unacceptable to allow commuters to
park their cars on this sacred
ground. As Virginia prepares to
commemorate the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War
and the beginning of the end of
slavery, we urge you to do what is
morally right, and to act immediately to close this parking lot.
Sincerely,
Adria Scharf, on behalf of the Richmond Peace Education Center Board
of Directors and Staff
To learn more about the burial
ground, or to add your voice to the
growing number of people calling for
an end to parking at the site, visit
http://www.defendersfje.org/
id9.html.
If you haven’t yet done it, send
your e-mail to VCU President Michael Rao, Richmond Mayor Dwight
Jones and Virginia Governor Robert
McDonnell. It only takes about 30
seconds when you log onto
www.change.org and in the top righthand corner type in ”Richmond’s
African Burial Ground.”
Meet me in the Bottom: The
Struggle to Reclaim Richmond’s African Burial Ground is an awardwinning documentary film. It is an
(Continued on page 6)
Page 5
RPECnews
Happenings
(Continued from page 5)
excellent introduction to the significance of the oldest municipal cemetery in Richmond.
RePHRAME
sive resident voice on the board, but
supported this change as a first step.
RePHRAME also is calling for
an in-person rent delivery option so
that residents can simply hand deliver their rent payments locally.
More organizing, and more coomunity support, are needed to advance
RePHRAME’s immediate goals as
well as its ultimate vision for housing justice in our city.
UPCOMING
Educoncert
Residents of Public Housing in
Richmond Against Mass
Eviction
On September 16th, we supported
the RePHRAME forum on housing
justice held at Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church, which saw strong turnout. An advance column by Michael
Paul Williams about the RePHRAME
issue of local rent payment helped to
raise the visibility of the issue that
week. RRHA director Anthony Scott
attended the event this year, and
heard resident concerns and demands.
RRHA and City Council are beginning to respond in certain ways to
the priorities that RePHRAME has
put on the table and advocated for.
City council approved an additional
resident spot on the RRHA Board of
Commissioners, increasing resident
representation on the board from one
resident leader to two. RePHRAME
ultimately wants to see more exten-
Page 6
Mark your calendars for Generation Dream 2011, the seventh
RYPP Youth Educoncert honoring
of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. The program will
be held January 30, 2011 at the
VCU Performing Arts Center.
There may still be a few places
available for youth performers interested in appearing in the show,
and for volunteer backstage crew.
Contact Paul Fleisher at
[email protected].
SUPPORT RPEC
Best Ever Auction!
More than 200 folks filled the
15 floor Conference Center of the
Troutman-Sanders Building on Saturday night – by far the best turnout in
the 25 year history of auction events.
For those who took the opportunity to
look, the clear night provided a great
view of the lower James River but
inside the buzz was all about being
together and celebrating 30 years of
action for peace and justice through
our mutual support of RPEC. Karen
Murphy once again provided a delicious and diverse buffet of dining
choices and Bunny Miller baked a
delectable selection of desserts.
Keyboardist Brian Mahne‘s music
jazzed up the evening.
On this 30th anniversary occasion,
the evening was dedicated to the
“founders” of the peace center
(seventeen of whom attended). The
room was filled as Wendy Northup
offered reflections on the longevity
of RPEC and the importance of each
new wave of volunteers and supporters. Then Karen Murphy came back
in her role as auctioneer, this year
supported by Tom Wolf and Charlotte Davenport. The enthusiasm of
the audience resulted in a spirited
bidding exchange as each new item
was offered. While results are still
tentative as this is written, this definitely was the “best auction ever”
from a financial standpoint. Net proceeds exceeded $12,000 – a great
boost for a difficult financial year.
For the past seven years, the auction has been organized by an
“auction committee” so that our staff
th
(Continued on page 7)
RPECnews
Happenings
(Continued from page 6)
could be about the business of peace
(that never keeps the auction from
being a major staff project, however).
This year a new team, led by Chris
Clarke and Carol Obrochta, with 40+
volunteers, shouldered the brunt of
the work. Thanks to everyone who
made this night a success!!!
Go to page 8 to see photos from
the auction.
Contribute
Give the Gift of Peacemaking
Does someone on your holiday list
care about peace and social justice?
Give a contribution in their name to
RPEC. We’ll acknowledge your gift
with a personal letter to them from
the Center.
Participate in the Give Richmond
Giving Card program
tool for individuals who wish to
make informed decisions about
their charitable giving.
In coordination with the launch
of GiveRichmond, The Community
Foundation is offering a giving card
program as a way support the work
of nonprofits in our area. Individuals may obtain giving cards through
December 31, 2010. The recipient
may then choose from among many
local GiveRichmond nonprofits,
including RPEC, to benefit from
your generosity at any time before
March 31, 2011.
Profiles in Peacemaking
(Continued from page 3)
their posts, but they found themselves
unable to cordon off contradictions
between what they had been taught
about America and its military and
what they saw happening on the
ground in Iraq. First they read —and
then they made— history joining a
long column of dissenters in the U.S.
military.
Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Lutz, Breaking Ranks: Iraq Veterans Speak Out Against the War. (c)
2010 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the
University of California Press.
Donate a Gift Card to the Youth
Peace Summit
We are seeking gift certificates
from grocery stores and office supply stores to help cover the expenses of our annual Youth Peace
Summit. We are providing this
summit to area youth with little
funding, and need the gift certificates, and other donations, to help
offset the cost of providing a meal
to the youth participants and covering supplies. Help us solicit gift
certificates for this important youth
event.
Get Involved!
We need you on our newsletter
committee, volunteering in the office, helping to organize our youth
events, and involved in peace activities. Contact the office at 2321002 to plug in, or go to
[email protected].
GiveRichmond is an online tool
designed to encourage charitable giving within the Central Virginia region. It is a central place where nonprofits tell their story and a research
Page 7
RPECnews
Consumers Corner
Dairy Products (Continued)
Alisha Gallini and John Gallini
A recent book by Anna Lappé, Diet
for Hot Planet, offers some new insight into our dietary choices. Her
major assertion is that our food
choices account for 31% of the
greenhouse gas emissions which
contribute to global warming! Almost 60% of that is related to the
livestock which provide our meat and
dairy. Lappé’s conclusions are similar to those of Michael Pollan (In Defense of Food) who proposes a new
(and very old) answer to the question
of what we should eat that comes
down to seven simple but liberating
words: “Eat food. Not too much.
Mostly plants.” Lappé provides
seven principles:
Reach for real food
Put plants on your plate
Don’t panic, go organic
Lean toward local
Finish your peas … The Ice Caps
are Melting
• Send Packaging Packing
• DIY Food (Do it yourself)
•
•
•
•
•
The aspects of the book that provided
new insight for us relate to the greenhouse gas emissions. The major components of these emissions are methane (produced by sheep and cattle in
their digestive system) and nitrous
oxide which comes primarily from
synthetic fertilizers. Digging further
into the environmental life-cycle
analyses we discover the following:
• Factory processed (CAFO) beef
is the food product responsible for
the most greenhouse gas emissions.
• Factory processed dairy products
are a close second!
Page 8
Cheese (and other dairy) from
pastured (grass-fed) cows is responsible for significantly less greenhouse gas, but is still more damaging than foods such as fish and
chicken.
• Transportation contributes a
relatively small part of greenhouse
gas emissions.
• Organic fruits and vegetables
have the lowest global warming
impacts.
•
The main conclusions that we take
from these studies are that we
should 1) eat less cheese and dairy,
2) switch to pastured dairy even if it
is not local, and 3) fish, chicken and
eggs can be good choices.
So where do we find “pastured
dairy”? First, it would not necessarily be organic. For milk (and dairy)
to be labeled organic, “farmers
must use organic feed and not use
antibiotics or growth hormones, and
more recently, must pasture the animals for a minimum of 120 days during the grazing season (about 4
months). This grazing requirement
was added to combat the large corporate "organic dairies" who were meeting the minimum requirements, while
still subjecting the animals to feedlot
conditions. Surely this new requirement will help, but the best milk, and
the best yogurt, highest in nutritional
value (not to mention ethical value),
comes from healthy cows whose
lives are led in pasture and sunshine
and fresh air. This is best achieved at
small family-owned dairy operations” that would produce pastured
dairy products – even though they
might not go to the expense of becoming “certified organic”.
If you go to a market like Ellwood
-Thompson’s and talk with their
cheese buyer, he can lead you to
good local cheese choices, such as
Meadow Creek, Oak Springs and
Goats-R-Us. Good choices that are
not local would include Neighborly
Farms (Vermont), Organic Valley
(nation-wide with regional distribution), and Stonyfield (New Hampshire). These will all be significantly
more expensive ($10-15/lb for
cheese) than Kraft brands. But they
will be better for you and our fragile
planet.
Note: the quote above defining
organic was taken from allaboutfasting.com
RPECnews
Richmond Peace Education Center’s 30th Anniversary Auction
PHOTOS
Brian Mahne‘s music jazzed up the evening
Wendy Northup delivers a tribute to
RPEC Members for 30 Years of
Working for Peace and Justice
Caterers take a break
Renee Hill
Karen Murphy calls for a bid
Page 9
RPECnews
Richmond Peace Education Center’s 30th Anniversary Auction
PHOTOS
Registration
Checkout
Yummy! Buffet
Founders Wendy Northup,
Walt and Anita Grazer
Silent Auction
Page 10
RPECnews
Richmond Peace Education Center’s 30th Anniversary Auction
30 Years of Working for Peace and Justice
Wendy Northup
Wendy Northup, Jan Sisson, Elaine Shurie
(Ogburn)
Tim Litzke
Paula Powdermaker
Paula Powdermaker,
Wendy Northup,
Salim Khalfani,
Candice Powlick
Page 11
RPECnews
Richmond Peace Education Center’s 30th Anniversary Auction
30 Years of Working for Peace and Justice
Wendy Northup
Salim Khalfani
John Gallini
Ruth Anne Young
Chris Klug
Marie Hasegawa
Page 12
RPECnews
Richmond Peace Education Center’s 30th Anniversary Auction
30 Years of Working for Peace and Justice
Wendy Northup
Cathy Woodson
Ken Willis
Kathleen Kenney, Steve Northup, Anne Gray
Ram Bhagat, Chris Patterson, Johnnie Taylor
Page 13
RPECnews
Richmond Peace Education Center’s 30th Anniversary Auction
30 Years of Working for Peace and Justice
Wendy Northup
Dung On
Annette Khan
Paul Fleisher
Betsy Brinson
John Williamson
Gordon Davies
Page 14
RPECnews
CALENDAR
ONGOING
Every Sunday
Food Not Bombs—Cook, serve, or otherwise support the weekly 4 p.m.
meal in Monroe Park, now in its 16th year. Contact Mo Karnage
(804) 300-0023.
Every 3rd Wed.
Amnesty International, University of Richmond campus. Contact Ray
Hilliard at 289-8289.
Every Tuesday
ROSMY—Youth support meeting for LBGTQ youth, 6:30 p.m. Support
line for youth and families 644-4390. To learn more or volunteer call
644-4800.
Every 4th Saturday
Pax Christi Peace Community—Call John Gallini for details - 272-8141.
Every 2nd Saturday
Walk for Peace—9:00 a.m.- 10:00 a.m.. Meet at the Boulevard entrance
of the Virginia Museum. Wear black.
Every 2nd Sunday
The African Immigrant Fellowship for Peace and Reconciliation —
3:00 p.m., Trinity Presbyterian Church, 113 Wilkinson Road, Richmond,
Virginia 23227, (804) 266-1183.
Every 3rd Sunday
Nation Magazine Discussion—2-4 p.m. Food Court, Willow
Lawn..Contact Wayne Young,
232-8521.
UPCOMING
January 17, 2011 Vigil for Victims of Gun Violence at State Capitol—3:00 p.m. (sponsored by
VACPS).
January 30, 2011 Generation Dream Youth Production—4 p.m. at the VCU Performing Arts
Center. Second performance to be held Feb. 4 at the Richmond Public Library.
Details TBA.
Host Eyes Wide Open-Virginia
This exhibit about the human cost of the war in Afghanistan is available for community and
student groups and faith communities to display for free.