Join us via Zoom on Thursday, April 21, 6pm for:
Kathy Kelly: “War Is Never The Answer”
An evening (via Zoom) with Kathy Kelly

Kathy Kelly is President of the Board of World BEYOND War, was a co-founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and Voices in the Wilderness, and is a co-coordinator of the Ban Killer Drones campaign (https://bankillerdrones.org/).

Kathy Kelly’s efforts to end wars began during the time of the Vietnam war, more than 60 years ago, and have led her to live in war zones and prisons over the past 35 years. A three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her activism to prevent the spread of violence, Kathy has also protested nuclear missile silo sites, the bombardment of Yemen, the occupation of Gaza, and the US drone policy and, while imprisoned, she worked to empower fellow imprisoned women.

Kathy Kelly was the recipient of the 2005 Peace Seeker of the Year Award (pdf file) from the Montana Peace Seekers Network.

The Zoom presentation by Kathy Kelly, “War Is Never The Answer,” will be followed by questions and conversation via Zoom, and also an in-person gathering at the Helena Library.

Zoom Meeting Information

To participate together as a group in the Zoom video meeting, join this April 21 Zoom meeting at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86121170772
Meeting ID: 861 2117 0772
Passcode: 791556

Facebook Event Page

https://www.facebook.com/events/1088413215070879

Event Sponsors

• Helena Service for Peace and Justice (SERPAJ):
  Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/HelenaSERPAJ
  Helena SERPAJ contact: (406) 422-6303

• Montana NOW: the Montana Chapter of the National Organization for Women

• Montana Women For … Peace, Justice, Equality

About Kathy Kelly

Kathy Kelly has devoted most of her life to making peace. In 2009 and 2010, Kathy co-founded Voices for Creative Nonviolence. From 2010 – 2019, Voices organized dozens of delegations to visit Afghanistan, where they learned about casualties of U.S. military drone attacks. Kathy has participated in almost 30 peacemaking missions in Afghanistan. Voices also helped organize protests at U.S. military bases operating weaponized military drone attacks.

In 2003 while Kathy was in Baghdad, cradling an Iraqi child in her arms, she witnessed firsthand the US military’s massive, deadly “Shock and Awe” bombardment of Baghdad that began the 2003 invasion of Iraq (https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/16/shock-and-awe-then-and-now/).

Kathy was also a founding member of Voices in the Wilderness, precursor to Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and from 1996 to 2003, as a Voices in the Wilderness peacemaker, she brought food and medicine to Iraqi citizens and children’s hospitals in deliberate violation of the deadly, severe US (Bush and Clinton) and UN-imposed economic sanctions that began in 1990.

Kathy’s trips to Iraq began after it was revealed in 1995 by UNICEF and others that in the 1990-1996 period, an estimated 576,000 Iraqi children under the age of five had died as a result of those sanctions — as reported in the New York Times. The 1990-initiated sanctions were a total financial and trade sanctions/embargo (banning essentials including medicines, chlorine need to purify water supplies, and almost everything) imposed by the UN Security Council through Resolution 661, adopted on August 6, 1990 (See also “The Secret Behind the Sanctions against Iraq” [pdf file] by Tom Nagy, and “Razing the Truth About Sanctions Against Iraq”).

On April 4, 2022, Kathy Kelly wrote: “I have long appreciated the Helena Service for Peace and Justice (SERPAJ), which reached out to me to suggest this April 21 gathering, for supporting peace team efforts to resist wars.”

Additional Resources

• Kathy on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathy.kelly.35325 and https://www.facebook.com/Kathy-Kelly-Peace-Activist-189069044486246
• Kathy Kelly: “Six Lessons for Peacemaking and Stopping the Spread of Violence, Learned in Places like Afghanistan and Iraq” Posted by Alex Poppe of Preemptive Love: https://preemptivelove.org/blog/kathy-kelly-six-lessons-for-peacemaking-and-stopping-the-spread-of-violence-learned-in-places-like-afghanistan-and-iraq/
• Bio at Voices for Creative Nonviolence: http://vcnv.org/kathy-kelly-long-version/