On Wednesday, July 11th congregants from 9 different faith traditions throughout the Twin Cities brought their banners and joined together in speaking out in one voice against the war. The clear message from the group was “End the War…Bring Our Troops Home.” Together Lutherans, Quakers, Mennonites, Catholics, Episcopals, Unitarians, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ and Methodists spoke out in a single message, “PEACE”!

In collaboration with WAMM*, People of Faith for Peace gathered more than 100 people along the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge, spanning the Mississippi River between Minneapolis and St. Paul—kids, adolescents, young adults and grandparents all gathered together and protested the war to the honks of car horns showing their support of their single message of peace.

To date the war and military occupation of Iraq have resulted in the deaths of more than 3,600 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. A sign stating “The Sooner We Bring Them Home, The More of Them We Will Bring Home” said it all!

These weekly vigils, and other vigils in the Twin Cities, provide the opportunity for the people in the community to participate in an important ongoing act of public resistance to war, occupation, and empire. FFI: Twin Cities Peace Campaign-Focus on Iraq at 612-522-1861 or WAMM at 612-522-1861.

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Phil Klees, aka Dr. Phil, is a licensed psychologist with clinical expertise with adolescents, adults and, couples and families. He has been nomadic in his career working in Anchorage, AK, Little Rock, AR (shook Bill Clinton’s hand—YES!!!) and Miami, FL. Three years ago he returned to his home state of Minnesota. Phil has been emotionally connected to SJA for 20+ years and an official member since returning to Minneapolis. Phil can be contacted at psklees@yahoo.com.

*In the fall of 1981, ten women began to meet in Loretta’s Tea Room in Minneapolis to figure out how to most effectively respond to the threat of nuclear war, the huge increases in military spending and the massive slashes in human services budgets. Inspired by polls that showed most women were anti-war, yet as a group were not organized and empowered to challenge the government’s priorities, Women Against Military Madness [WAMM] founders believed that by confronting our fear, anger and denial together, women could become the leaders of a movement to turn our country from the brink of nuclear holocaust to a peaceful and just society.