It was March of 2003 and President Bush had been talking about attacking Iraq with “shock and awe”. After marching in the streets for several weeks, I knew what I was doing was not enough because what was about to happen was going to be so egregious, so horrifying, and so unjust. My curiosity was piqued when I saw a notice for training in nonviolent civil resistance, conducted by local activists. I immediately knew this is what I needed to do and I attended the training.

When Kerry Beheler of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, became aware of the significant habitat impacts of the proposed Cardinal-Hickory Creek high voltage transmission line in the Driftless Area, she began to educate herself. The decision came down to her daily life,“Many of the natural places where I conduct bird surveys, teach environmental education, work to restore native habitat, and where our community members enjoy the peace of natural surroundings, would be ravaged by 170 foot high towers and massive cables.

This past Friday in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, Hazara girls joined young Pashto boys to sing Afghanistan’s national anthem as a welcome to Pashto men walking 400 miles from Helmand to Kabul. The walkers are calling on warring parties in Afghanistan to end the war. Most of the men making the journey are wearing sandals.