The Nature of Boston Peace Groups :: War Iraq Papers

The record of capital of Massachusetts Peace GroupsLike many a(prenominal) different Brookline residents, Amy Hendrickson spends every Saturday at Coolidge Corner. But unlike most Coolidge Corner visitors, shes not catch a movie at the historic Coolidge Corner Theatre or grabbing a latte at Starbucks. Every Saturday at noon for the sometime(prenominal) two years, Amy Hendrickson has held a pink of my John vigil for soldiers who have died in Iraq. Hendrickson is the bring out of Brookline Peaceworks, a community peace activist group and offshoot of joined for umpire with Peace.Its amazing what you can do from Brookline, says Hendrickson, a free-lance(a) computer consultant who admits she probably spends more time on Brookline Peaceworks than on her job. Every Saturday Hendrickson and other Brookline Peaceworks members hand out flyers, and speak with passers-by about the warfare in Iraq. On March 23, 2005, Hendrickson handed out flyers detailing the cost to taxpayers for the w ar, including the specific cost for Brookline residents.And shes not stopping there.Brookline Peaceworks is initiating a town-wide see to raise awareness about the impact of the Iraq War. We will be expiry door to door to ask Brookline citizens to sign a petition to dispatch U.S. troops from Iraq as quickly as possible, and to reassess the use of milliampere National Guard in international conflicts, wrote Hendrickson in the Guest commentary section of the Brookline Tab, on March 24, 2005.Hendrickson was a member of United for Justice with Peace (UJP), an association of almost 60 peace groups in the greater Boston area. In 2002 it came to her attention that Brookline was lacking a community peace group. After some hesitation, Hendrickson decided to found Brookline Peaceworks with the encouragement of other UJP members.Since then, Brookline Peaceworks has make front page news in the Boston Globe by organizing a demonstration in Boston that was concurrent with demonstrations in ot her U.S. cities, such as New York and San Francisco organizing teach-ins at schools such as northeasterly University and Brookline High School and campaigning for Randall Forsberg as a write-in panorama for Senate, in defiance of John Kerrys support of the war powers act. This hold out effort resulted in 25,000 write in votes for Forsberg, according to Brookline Peaceworks.The group has worked many hours in an effort to end the war with Iraq. Groups such as Boston Peaceworks aim to educate Boston residents, but to many they seem useless, ineffective, and to some, downright annoying.