Whatcom Peace & Justice Center Celebrates Second Anniversary

Jamie K. Donaldson is the full-time coordinator of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center. In addition to her work for the center, she is an advocate for protecting Bellingham’s only remaining heronry at Post Point.

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
—John F. Kennedy

We figure we must be doing something right when the local belly dancing troupe wants to perform pro bono for the cause. Belly dancers for peace and justice! We’re honored and grateful to add them to the growing list of county residents who have found ways—often very creative ways—to be part of the work of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center (WPJC), which celebrated two years of activism last month.

The Blond Ambition dancers joined local favorite, the Raging Grannies, to help mark the occasion with an open house at our Drop-in Center for Peace at 1226 Cornwall Avenue. Happily, the anniversary coincided with Allied Arts’ Chalk Art Festival and two volunteers created a lovely chalk drawing for the center, inviting passersby to contemplate peace as they go about their hurried business.

Our second birthday provides an opportunity to take stock of our efforts over the past year, a year marked by the unpopular occupation of Iraq, escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis in the Occupied Territories, and eroding civil liberties and manufactured fear here at home. I remember the dismissive comment of a board member whose foundation had just turned down a proposal from the center, “Well, what can you do for peace locally, anyway?”

Phooey, I thought. Where else do you work for a more peaceful, just world? You start with where you’re at, striving to create peace in your own heart, then in your family, among friends, in community, in the nation and in the world. Peace can be created by working for justice as you move from the inner to the outer spheres of involvement.

Instead of the board member’s cynicism, I choose to invoke the famous quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” With those words to inspire us, the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center defines its role as a resource and motivator for local peace and justice activism. We try to be sensitive to people’s different knowledge base, time availability and comfort level for activism.

At the Drop-in Center for Peace, staffed for six hours daily Monday–Friday, a newcomer can get started by renting a video, finding a bumper sticker that speaks her mind or simply a compassionate listener. Seasoned activists have a hub for planning or publicizing events, a drop off spot for petition drives or special fundraising campaigns and resources for their own ideas and projects.

During the past twelve months, staff at the Drop-in Center attended to 1,644 visits, averaging six per day, including one new visitor each day.

The center works to be proactive for peace and justice, as well as a voice of conscience against war and injustice. Our greatest success in this area over the past year has been the expansion of our “Militarism in the Schools” program. Starting in 2003, volunteers for the center set up literature tables in the three Bellingham high schools to offer students information that is different from the seductive sales pitch of military recruiters.

We offer practical information on how to finance college without joining the military, on peaceful and social change careers, on AmeriCorps opportunities and apprenticeships through the Department of Labor. We also urge students and their parents to weigh very carefully the pros and cons of enlisting, show them what an enlistment agreement looks like and provide statistics regarding the high incidence of violent assault against women in the armed services at the hands of fellow servicemen or military spouses.

This year we surpassed our goal of extending informational tabling to one high school outside Bellingham, receiving permission to be in four out of six county high schools.

As last year, the center is currently helping to advise parents of their right to prohibit the release of their students’ personal information to military recruiters so they can call kids at home with a hard sell to enlist. Through the so-called “No Child Left Behind Act,” the federal government now requires public schools to release this information, threatening them with the loss of funding if they do not comply. Before the act, one third of the nation’s public schools restricted recruiters’ access to student information and to campus.

The center’s Militarism in the Schools program also promotes alternatives to violence and war by offering individualized counseling to young people on draft registration and conscientious objection to war. Our counselor, himself a conscientious objector from the Viet Nam conflict, Charlie Baker, provided over 170 hours of free counseling in the first six months of 2004. We anticipate that the need for this service will increase dramatically in the years ahead and invite others to get training in this specialized area of counseling.

Looking back on our second year of peace and justice activism, a few things stand out:

•The center worked closely with the leadership of Synagogue Beth Israel to bring Israeli peace activist, Jeff Halper, to Bellingham in January of 2004. Halper’s presentation took a critical look at the separation wall currently being built by the Sharon government in the Occupied Territories. We are grateful to the synagogue for hosting the event, and recognize the strong feelings it elicited from the audience of over 100.

•We made it into this year’s Ski to Sea parade! Our puppet master, Vince Lalonde, directed a group of volunteers to create a peace dove with a 30-foot wingspan, accompanied by a giant puppet of Lady Justice, complete with masked eyes and drawn sword. Together they marched down the parade route surrounded by folks carrying colorful silk banners and playing hand-held instruments.

•We received many blessings this year from community members who found creative ways to help the center. Our friends at Village Books, Chuck and Dee Robinson, sent us the proceeds from three of their events: Rick Steves, Maxine Hong Kingston and Amy Goodman. Such generosity! Another supporter thought we should publicize ourselves more and had a colorful sandwich board made for the sidewalk outside the center. Members of Bellingham Friends Meeting took up an impromptu collection so we could get a lead banner made for our Ski to Sea entry. Not one, but two window washers have donated their services this year to keep the light shining on our work.

We believe that working for peace and justice is simply the right thing to do, even if you can’t see immediate results. To create our new culture of peace, justice and compassion, we all need to be in it for the long haul. This year the Drop-in Center for Peace saw an increase in first-time visitors who were sent there at the urging of someone else in order to help transform their despair over the national and world situations into affirming involvement for change. Hope is the antidote to fear and despair, and while we certainly suffer our own bouts of discouragement, the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center draws from a deep well to offer hope and activism to others in troubled times.

Join us on Tuesday, September 21, for the International Day of Peace Celebration. Municipal Court, 7:30 p.m. Music by the Kulshan Chorus and Mockingbird. Words from Rabbi Yosef Zylberberg of Synagogue Beth Israel, Nadeem Israr of the Islamic Society of Whatcom County and Mary Helen Cagey from the Lummi Nation.

If you would like to support the work of the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, drop by 1226 Cornwall Avenue, Monday–Friday from 9–noon or 1–4 p.m. Or contact the center at 734-0217 or by email at whatcompjc@fidalgo.net. §