Let Diplomacy Work: Don’t Attack Iran

Veteran peacemaker Rudy Simons shares his reflections from his journey to Iran with a Fellowship of Reconciliation peace delegation. He reports:

A brighter future for the entire world demands that ‘The Great Satan’ and the ‘Axis of Evil’ build a new and friendlier relationship with each other after 28 years of hostility and mutual isolation. War is not the answer. Let’s have a discussion about how we can reduce the threat of armed conflict and create possibilities for a new opening between our two nations.

Come hear more of what he has to say about his trip on Thursday, June 7, 7:00 p.m. at the Ann Arbor District Library, 343 S. Fifth Avenue.

Free and open to the public. Details: chuck@icpj.net, 734-663-1870

The Library is renting the room to us, and part of the rental agreement is that we can’t pass the hat. So we depend on pople like you to make this event possible. Please make a donation to help us cover the costs of the event:

Listen to an interview with Rudy Simons on Michigan Radio

Read article about Rudy Simons’ trip by Jack Lessonberry in the Toledo Blade

Download the poster for this event: Don’t Attack Iran Poster or the full color flyer.

Published by Chuck on May 10, 2007 under Middle East

One Response to “Let Diplomacy Work: Don’t Attack Iran”

1. # Chuckon 24 May 2007 at 7:40 am

   Wow, I’ve just found the extensive reporting from the delegation Rudy was on, details at the

   Fellowship of Reconciliation website.

   The report is full of moving stories of the humanity of the Iranian people and the warm welcome that the delgation received. I was particularly moved by this account from a visit with a person they met in a long-term care facility for men injured in the Iran-Iraq war.

   Before we left the center, we were invited to sit at a long table for tea, an Iranian hospitality we have enjoyed everywhere we have visited. As we tasted Persian sweets and sipped black tea through sugar cubes melting in our mouths, Iranian style, we were introduced to a distinguished looking man in glasses and he quietly began to tell us his story.

   The report states:

   He was only 14 years old when the village he was in was attacked with chemical weapons. He watched children died instantly as they took their first breath of the chemical, and he too experienced burns over 70 % of his body. In addition, his lungs and eyes were burned. Even today, after more than 20 years, he experiences pain all the time – burning sensations on his skin. Sometimes in the morning when he wakes up, his eyes are so painful he sometimes wants to take them out. But he worries most for his seven-year-old son who was born without a thyroid gland and whose speech is like that of a two-year-old. At this he began to cry, and his friends standing behind him quickly put comforting hands on his shoulders.

   But he continued:

   “Sometimes, you cannot prevent war, but my hope is that in my life, there will not be another war. I hope that people like you can help so that no chemical weapons, no nuclear weapons will ever be used again. I am ready to come to your country to talk with people there about our experiences.

   ”We Iranians felt so sorry for the American people after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. That should not happen to anyone. We felt for the pain of the American people because we too were victims of a war perpetrated against us. Iran was the only Muslim country that held a candlelight vigil for your country. The painful part for us is that the U.S. and other countries stayed quiet and didn’t say anything after Saddam Hussein used chemical weapons against the Iranian people. That is not human!

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