President's Report 2003-2004
June 18, 2004

Congratulations, MVVP for 20 wonderful years of making a difference… in North Andover, Merrimack Valley, and in the world. Look around you. Aren't we a great group of committed people? Committed to making the world a better, more peaceful place. As a group, we share our commitment, integrity, and outrage at the injustices in the world, and the needless damage our current administration has caused under the guise of fighting terrorism.

This has been an exciting year for MVPP. As the world situation grew worse and worse, we became more and more committed to doing whatever we could to change the course of events. First with daily vigils, and now with vigils
6x/week, we are getting noticed in the community, and in the peace movement, and we continue to attract new people. Despite frigid or hot temperatures, or any kind of precipitation, someone is always out on the curbside during our vigils. Of course on Tuesday mornings, it's mostly Mary Kate Small and Arthur Brien greeting the workers at 5:45 AM as they go to their shift. We've sold over 300 peace flags, and many more bumper stickers and buttons, with important - and sometimes funny - messages. We've had some amazing interactions with people who drive or pass by our vigils. Quite a few have changed their views after some discussions, and many have thanked us for being there consistently.

We've also caused a bit of controversy, by bringing first a replica of the Wall to our Andover vigil last November, and then the Wheels of Justice Tour, which educated people about the occupation of Iraq and of Palestine and made quite an impression on some 10th grade history students in Barry Humphreys' classes in North Andover High School. We've had a lot more publicity this year in various newspapers, partly thanks to our publicity committee, and individual members have had many letters-to-the-editor published. We even attracted 3 police cars to our March 14th vigil.

Merrimack Valley People For Peace now has a fabulous website, business cards, a beautiful new banner, and a pamphlet about why we still vigil. Our online newsletter attracted the attention of Swarthmore College Peace Coalition, which has joined MVPP in order to receive the newsletter for their peace archives. At our last count we have 123 members. We've had increasingly more people at our larger vigils, with over 70 at our "No More Victims" vigil last March, on the eve of the anniversary of the start of the war. We tabled at the Bread and Roses Festival in Lawrence, at the Peace College in Salem, at the Michelle Shocked concert in Newburyport, and at events we co-sponsored, including Noam Chomsky at Merrimack College, The Spirit of Resistance Concert with Pete Seeger and The People's Music Network at Cochran Chapel at Phillips Academy, and the Dave Lippman/George Shrub concert at this church. Also, we have permission to table on Saturday mornings in Andover through at least November.

We heard Dan Bishop from the International Depleted Uranium Study Team (IDUST) explain about DU, watched a movie called The Invisible War about the consequences of DU, and have been selling various books on DU. Members have supported and participated in the Immigrant Workers' Freedom Ride, ANSWER's march on Washington last October, and last March, over 12 MVPP members participated in the demonstration in NYC to bring the troops home… and we managed to find almost everyone there through our cell phones. MVPP has made contributions to the Tony Van Der Meer fund, Jane Bernhardt's trip to Hiroshima, Global Peacemakers, the House of Peace, Mass Peace Action, the March to Abolish Poverty, AFSC, Toxics Action, LIFE (Life for Relief and Development), for food and medicine in Iraq; The War Resisters League of New England, and United for Justice with Peace, and individuals contributed to Oxfam and Adopt a Landmine at our potluck dinners. We supported Mary Kate Small and Hattie Nestle when they got arrested once again, this time at BAE, which is the largest defense contractor in NH. Last month John and Carrie Schuchardt also had their trial after their arrest at Westover Air Force base a few days after the US invaded Iraq. We joined the Campaign to ban DU, endorsed the petition for the resolution to Congress for our government to investigate the death of Rachel Corrie, and endorsed the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. We again hosted a potluck supper for the Buddhist monks from the Leverett Peace Pagoda and other walkers on their Walk for a New Spring, and some of us joined part of the walk. We have increased our linkages with the Lawrence community, by supporting the Latinos United for Justice vigils and other efforts, and we have linked up with other peace groups in Lowell, Groton, Reading, Ipswich, and Newburyport. Some of our members are involved with these other groups as well. We are active members of UJP (United for Justice with Peace) in Greater Boston, attending their monthly community brunches, and we communicate with and are members of UFPJ (United for Peace with Justice), which is a national organization of peace groups. We have 2 ministers, Ralph Galen and Jim Todd, who have joined us this year, and are working to make connections with other religious leaders in the community. We have also held some events in their churches. Wow, what an impressive list of accomplishments!

Thanks to all the folks who make this possible. This is a team effort. My biggest thanks go to Becci Backman for ordering the most outrageous buttons and bumper stickers she can find and setting up her table wherever she can. Becci, your dedication is what makes our Saturday morning vigils so unique and powerful. You have also organized our membership records, and have coordinated your efforts with our treasurer, Peter Cameron, who is always ready to write a check whenever needed. Next, I'd like to thank Don Abbott for prioritizing our programs and events, and for keeping us on task at our meetings. You write wonderful minutes, have inspiring interactions with passersby at our vigils, and you keep us entertained with your poetry and song. Brian Quirk, thank you, thank you for being such a patient and creative webmaster, for playing your bagpipes at our vigils, and for coming to our rescue with the newsletter. We have a great team who work on the newsletter, but special thanks go to our editor, Barbara Haack, and for Lou Bernieri, who steps in when Barbara goes to Mexico in winter, and for Arthur and Marge Brien, who deal with the printer and the mailing labels. A special personal thanks to Barbara Haack and Jane Cadarette, who listen and support me well when I get overwhelmed or confused, and are great sounding boards and mentors. Thanks, also, to our vice president, Kathie Robinson, who fills in for me when I'm unavailable, and is the voice of reason and experience. We miss our deceased co-founders, Gwen Smith and Alison Ceplikas, and our strong supporter, Henry Everett, who died this year. And we sorely miss Ed Meagher, who reluctantly retired 2 years ago from active peace duty for health reasons. But we now have so many new, dedicated members. What would we do without Masood's letters-to-the-editor, Dilenia's picture of her son, Javier, or Henry's signs at our vigils, Boryana's scrumptious vegetarian delights and recorder playing, Mary and Jim's hosting of numerous potlucks, Ralph's energy and outrage, and everyone else's contributions as well? It's been very personally gratifying, too, to have Eli Grober, a student at West Middle School, as an important member of our vigiling team. I'm looking forward to the day when the reins of the presidency of Merrimack Valley People For Peace will be handed over to him!

Bobbie Goldman, President
6/18/04

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