We had another successful and busy year.

Of course we continued our almost daily vigils in Andover, as well as weekly ones in Newburyport and monthly ones in Reading. We also sponsored some larger special ones… Nagasaki and Cindy Sheehan last August, the anniversary of the war in Iraq, and the constitutional vigil. Some folks also participated in the Good Friday vigil against the Death Penalty.

Becci and various helpers have set up our table and our wonderful new tarp at the Lowell Folk Festival, Paws for Peace, Bread and Roses, and Shedd Some Light Festivals, as well as at numerous coffee house events and concerts such as Pat Scanlon’s CD release party.

Many of us have marched in Boston, New York, and Washington this year, and a number of MVPP folks joined the annual Walk for a New Spring in various locations around Eastern Mass.

We made donations to help with relief after Katrina, mudslides in Guatemala, the earthquakes in Pakistan, and our own local floods, as well as a large number of peace and justice organizations. This year we tried to be more organized and thoughtful about our donations.

We also decided as a group to focus on Counter-recruitment, especially in Lawrence, Depleted Uranium, and of course, ending the war in Iraq…and Afghanistan and preventing one in Iran.

We’ve learned a great deal about counter-recruitment this past year, and have taught others, as well. We’ve given out over 250 of our Think Before You Enlist packets. We’ve finally started tabling at Lawrence Vocational Technical School, and are working on getting into Lawrence High School. We have copies here of last Sunday’s front-page articles in the Northeast section of the Globe and the actual front page of the Lawrence Eagle Tribune, featuring Mary and Jim Todd.

We have a DU committee, whose members are reading books and articles, watching videos, attending lectures, to be more informed so we can inform others about the realities of DU.

We’ve heard lots of inspiring talks by folks like Camilo Mejia, Dahr Jamahl, Doug Rokke, Noam Chomsky, and our own Masood. We’ve learned about DU, Israel/Palestine, Iran, our constitution, our economy, and so many other topics, and some of us have attended town meetings with Marty Meehan and Ed Markey, Democracy School, and the Eyes Wide Open exhibit. And most of us read and forward lots and lots of emails.

A number of different MVPP members have also spoken at religion, sociology, and women’s studies classes at Merrimack College.

We’ve even started our own lending library of books, videos, DVD’s and CD’s.

We’re starting to address immigration issues, and have continued our nice connection with the mosque in Methuen through Masood.

Quite a few of us worked to collect signatures for the National Guard referendum. We write letters to the editor, and email and call our Senators and representatives about so many issues. And of course, Becci, Chad, and I go to lots of meetings with UJP, connecting with other area peace activists to coordinate activities and learn from each other.

So, as I said earlier, we’ve had another busy and successful year. We have a great team of people who care passionately about peace and justice issues, each doing what we can to make the world a better place. While we have 4, now 5, officers and 15 board members who make decisions in between our monthly meetings, our various committees are also very important in continuing the work that we do. We now have over 125 members, and our impressive newsletter goes out to so many more people. Thank you all for your deep commitment and concern, and for the hard work that you all do. I’m really proud to be a part of Merrimack Valley People For Peace.

Bobbie Goldman, President
June 16, 2006

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