Col. Ann Wright speaks to “connect the dots” between America’s wars and the cost to its victims, those who are under the bombs and those paying for them, as this October brings us to 11 years of America’s war on Afghanistan, this country’s longest-running war. Wright will speak on Thursday Oct 11 at 7pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 4345 W. Ft. Wright Drive.
Col. Ann Wright resigned from the Department of State in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war. She is a retired Army Reserve colonel and 29-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserves, US diplomat in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia.
Since then, she has been writing and speaking out for peace. She fasted for a month, picketed at the US prison at Guantánamo, Cuba, served as a juror in Bush impeachment hearings, traveled to Iran as a citizen diplomat, and has been arrested numerous times for peaceful, nonviolent protest of Bush’s policies, particularly the war on Iraq. She has been on delegations to Iran and was in Gaza three times in 2009, following the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed 1,440 and wounded 5,000. She was an organizer for the Gaza Freedom March that brought 1,350 persons from 44 countries to Cairo, Egypt, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. She was on the May, 2010 Gaza flotilla that was attacked by the Israeli military and was an organizer for the US Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, in the 2011 Gaza flotilla.
Col Wright is now organizing with Gaza’s Ark, which will build a boat in Gaza, to be sailed out of Gaza by a crew of internationals and Palestinians, carrying Palestinian products to fulfill trade deals with international buyers.
For more information, [email protected] or 838-7870
Co-sponsored by Peace & Justice Action League of Spokane, Veterans for Peace-Spokane Chapter, and Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane