For Immediate Release
Contact: Tim Vining  412-361-3022
November 7, 2001

Pittsburgh Anti-War Coalition to March Against the War

Friday, November 9th, 5:15 p.m.

            The Pittsburgh Anti-War Coalition is having a march and rally against the war on Friday, November 9, 2001.  The participants will gather at 5:15 p.m. at Software Engineering Institute, 4500 Fifth Avenue. Following a period of brief comments and music, they will march to the University of Pittsburgh Student Union where they will gather outside the front porch for a rally.  Comprised of students from local colleges, religious groups, workers from labor unions, social action committees, and residents of the Southwest PA area, the coalition is marching against the U.S. bombings, the presence of ground troops in Afghanistan, to defend civil liberties, and to call for an end to racist attacks, at home and abroad.

            The group condemns the attacks of September 11 and also condemns the U.S. military actions in Afghanistan.  According to the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, if the attacks in Afghanistan don’t stop, there will be a humanitarian crisis with millions at risk of starvation.  At the same time, the U.S. government is attacking democratic rights at home.  This is illustrated by the arrest of over 800 people who have been detained under the new anti-terrorism legislation passed by Congress.  “We must be careful as a nation to not become what we are fighting against.  By acting out of vengeance and risking the lives of innocent civilians, we create more hatred, anger and fear, the breeding ground for future terrorist attacks,” according to Tim Vining, Executive Director of the Thomas Merton Center.  “The scales of justice cannot be balanced with the dead,” added Carnegie Mellon University sophomore Stuart Anderson.  “Violence is the choice of the defeated -- let us have the strength to say we don’t need violence to be powerful.”

Endorsing organizations include:

 For more information, call the Thomas Merton Center at 412-361-3022 or visit their website at www.thomasmertoncenter.org

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"I am against war, against violence, against violent revolution, for peaceful settlement of differences, for nonviolent but nevertheless radical changes. Change is needed, and violence will not really change anything: at most it will only transfer power from one set of bull-beaded authorities to another."  Thomas Merton
© Thomas Merton Center 2002