The Peace Task Force: Since the Beginning

By Paul Bennett
June 20, 2004

How do you create peace in the world through your local church?

This is the question that Cara Blouin and I faced after we followed the Rev. Jan Carlsson-Bull’s advice and started the Peace Task Force. It was early 2002 and our government was thinking about invading Afghanistan and the Patriot Act was hot. This was the pre-Howard Dean time when any criticism was considered unpatriotic. We wanted to be a voice for justice, diplomacy and human dignity. We just didn't know how.

At first we were stumped by the question. We would exchange guilty shrugs during coffee hour and hoped that the other person would have a good idea.

We decided to start small. We organized "discussion groups" that advocated a reasonable discussion of issues. Public debate was so polarizing that we considered any public discussion a momentous achievement. Groups of four to fourteen people met around topics such as "What happens if we lose the war on terror?," "What can the average person do to promote peace?" and "The economics of peace." These discussions were lively and helped the group gain a place in the church. People started to know that we existed and like-minded folks gravitated towards us. We slowly grew our e-mail list. I personally got more informed and engaged.

We did have some growing pains. After the first meeting we already had someone quit in protest. By the third meeting we had someone write a letter to the ministers complaining about a scheduling mix-up. I don’t know what happened to the letter writer but the person who quit in protest came back a couple weeks later and became one of our more reliable members.

I also had to learn how to reserve rooms and submit event listings to our newsletter. By 2004, I had developed a keen sense of the newsletter deadline as well as much better relationships with our church administrator and web master.

Despite these small setbacks and our small size, we had established a reputation as respected, reliable and organized advocates for peace. In 2002 when the pretext of a war on terror was used to promote the invasion of Iraq and to hinder our civil liberties our numbers grew.

In September 2002 one of our members, Jessica Jones, organized a letter writing campaign against the drive to war in Iraq. She even arranged for us to deliver them to a representative of Senator Chuck Schumer. We presented the signatures at the Senator's office and got a chance to voice an opinion. However, our opinions were not treated with a high degree of respect. Cara is a theater director and actress and later incorporated the indifference of the donut-eating political aid into a scene in a play.

With many marches and rallies organized in Washington, DC, we got into the business of chartering buses. I never thought that I would know so much about different bus companies, sliding scales and downtown DC.

As we got closer to the March 19, 2003 invasion of Iraq, our dissent became greater and the passion for change grew. Our October 2002 bus had 50 All Souls members. The January 2003 bus had almost 60 All Souls members. The April 2003 bus was filled thanks to help from Karen Hoover and Dzu Do at Community Church and other groups. We did about five bus trips in 2002-2004.

Most of these marches and rallies took place in cold weather along with threats such as the “DC sniper.” With long-underwear and mittens we slogged along. While I mostly remember numb fingers and a sign that became as heavy as an anvil by the end of the march, I savor standing on a hill looking at a sea of people fighting for what is right—despite an enormous amount of misinformation in the media. Inspiring!

In January 2003 we sponsored a "potluck for peace" that featured representatives from all of the NYC-area UU churches. It was a fine event but the real benefit were the relationships created. Now we knew the names and faces of our allies at other churches. We could network, pool resources and grow. And we did the following month. For the massive February 15, 2003 demonstration here in New York City, we got local Unitarian Universalists to agree to meet together at Community Church and march together. At one point, there were over 200 people standing in the sanctuary holding hands and praying for justice.

While we had a hard time staying together amidst the massive crowds, it was a special event. From what I heard after the march, I would say about 50% of our original group actually made it to the rally site. The rest had to turn back. At the following Sunday’s coffee hour, conversation centered around whether you made it or not.

Meeting all these great people combined with Jessica's efforts convinced me that in order to grow, the Peace Task Force's leadership needed to grow. Cara Blouin was going off to China and I was going to be alone. In March 2003 I thought about who was active in our events. I was lucky enough to have James Moloney, Lawrene Groobert, Hanno Schop, Jessica Jones and Hanan Watson sign up. What a great group! Not only did we have gender balance but we had a balance of people from all segments of the congregation.

Now we started to put on larger events in conjunction with other Unitarian Universalist churches. Our first event was on the Patriot Act in June 2003. It featured congressman Jerrold Nadler and the head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman. We also had people from the “trenches” to tell their “war stories.” Lawyer Moushumi Khan spoke about defending the rights of immigrants. Librarian Pamela Lieber told us about how the simple act of checking out a book was going to radically change. We got almost 200 people on a rainy Saturday night. Wow! I remember Tom Check of the UU Brooklyn Society driving out to Costco is Queens to pick up a fruit platter. I never knew that fruit platters would ever be critical to peace-making. But every bit counts.

In August 2003 I got the chance to speak about the work of the Peace Task Force at General Assembly (the Unitarian Universalist annual convention). I had the honor of speaking after historian Howard Zinn lectured to an audience of 3,000 people. It was an exciting 7 minutes. As an amateur comedian and committed peace activist it was a great chance to talk about peace and work in a few jokes. My favorite joke was my first line “What a great honor to have Howard Zinn open for me.”

That summer one of the committee members, Hanno Schop, hit on the idea of showing peace-related movies. I didn’t think it would work. “Who wants to come see a movie at church?” I thought. I was wrong. What a success! We started getting groups of 30-50 people. The movies were challenging and often sparked a lively debate afterwards.

In October 2003 the a panel discussion on “The human side of war” at a time when many people thought that the “mission was accomplished.” We wanted to present a more complex view of the reality in Iraq. This event featured a great line up of speakers including Rev. John A. Buehrens, former President of the Unitarian Universalist Association and Lee Gough the sister of 2003 US Navy Conscientious Objector. As evidence of our increased organizational abilities, we even flew in a military journalist and author, Scott Taylor, from Canada. My highlight was the Solo oud musical performance by Najib Shaheen.

Scott told a story of going through customs. The customs official asked him “Where are you going?” Scott replied “To speak at a Unitarian church.” The customs official leaned over to Scott and whispered “I am a Unitarian too.” Scott asked “Why are you whispering?” We all laughed.

I found out that the people will to do peace work are great people. The planning dinners that Karen, Lawrene, Hanan, Tom and I would have together were priceless. We would plan for a little bit, then talk politics for a while, then plan a bit more then talk politics even more. The conversation was so stimulating we the dinners would last for 4 hours and end only reluctantly.

In November 2003 we were fortunate to hear from Iraqi-American, Jennifer Ridha. Ms. Ridha has family in Iraq. She was able to present a view of how life is there beyond the headlines. She told of the daily life that her family faces in Iraq. She told of the shootings, bombing and electrical failures.

In January 2004 we met with most of the All Souls ministers to get feedback on our work. From this meeting we gained an understanding the success of the Peace Task Force came from our ability to put out a positive attitude while keeping the movement going forward.

Highlighting this attitude was the January 2004 play “Isite” written and performed by Kathryn (Katie) Leila Buck. Hanan was the main driving force behind this event. She was able to get several groups at All Souls to sponsor the event. The play was stirring and thought provoking. My favorite part was when Katie played the role of a hyper weight-and beauty conscious U.S. woman complaining about how oppressed are women in the Muslim world. This made me re-think my value system and see how easy it is to project it onto foreign cultures. The event highlighted the spirit that the Peace Task Force strives for—not trying to make an issue simple but instead introducing the complexities that war (and life) brings to bear.

In February 2004 we played an important role in getting positive political legislation passed. Committee member Lawrene Groobert is also a member of the legislative committee of the New York City Bill of Rights Campaign. She led our effort to get a City Council resolution passed that protects NYC as a civil liberties protection zone. This effort involved phone calls and attending meetings. It was great to see a policy victory!

In March 2004 we proved that we could still march. A group of Unitarian Universalists and friends met again at Community Church. This time we were able to stay together!

In April 2004 we had two events. Neither one was organized by me! The first featured Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA analyst who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq. Lawrene coordinated the event with Community Church and Not in Our Name, a peace and justice group. Out of all the feedback we received, I liked this one the most: “Thank you, thank you, this country is in trouble. Thanks for providing a forum for this important speaker.”

A new member, Anne Zanes, organized a town hall meeting on Nuclear Abolition featuring Helen Caldecott of Physicians for Social Responsibility. This event marked the first time someone outside of the organizing committee had organized an evening event. It marked the continued growth of the Peace Task Force’s leadership.

In May 2004 we worked with All Souls minister Rev. Galen Guengerich and a group that he serves on the board of, the Interfaith Alliance. We co-sponsored “Lights for Human Dignity”. Many of us kept a light on for a night to present our desire for the respect of basic human rights in light of the Iraqi prisoner abuses.

In June 2004 I realized that the Peace Task Force had grown well beyond “discussion groups.” Now I hear Unitarian Universalists from outside NYC say "All Souls does great social justice work." I am proud that the Peace Task Force is partly responsible for that impression. I want it to grow even more!

Hanan was the right person to keep the momentum going with the right attitude. She has great ideas about more events. And she lives in Manhattan. Since I live in Brooklyn, I knew that it was going to be hard to keep up with even more activity. So instead of letting the group fall prey to “founders syndrome” I found a golden opportunity to see the group grow even more. I am excited about standing aside and letting a new leader take over and move us forward.

A question I sometimes get from people outside of All Souls is “How can I create a similar group?” Well, I did it by taking a few steps in the right direction. I think my biggest contribution was simply to be a spark. To just do something. Then I was lucky enough to have people like Hanan and Lawrene come along to create something big. Just doing something got the right people together and got people thinking about what to do next. The “potluck for peace” still produces rewards to this day. Now New York City-area Unitarian Universalist peace organizers know each other and trust each other in a way we could not otherwise.

Finally, in coffee hour, sometimes people ask me “when are you going to achieve peace?” or “I guess you couldn’t stop the war.” To this I say no. We should all be proud of our effort. We came closer to stopping a war from starting than ever before in the history of this country- maybe the world. While the road to peace is not for those who need immediate gratification, we can see that the next war will not be as easy. It took over 100 years to go from the ending of slavery to achieving voting rights for People of Color. I am learning to enjoy the work and the company.