Good Morning!!

Thank you all very much for your quite unexpected check, which did arrive yesterday.

Sharing the podium with Representative Baldwin on Saturday evening was uplifting for me. To meet someone in government who so cheerfully embraces the anti-war spirit was fantastic. Her verve both on and off the podium helped me feel very much at ease.

I still have no mixed feelings about the inevitability of war. Every time I dare to raise my hopes (Hans Blix said yesterday that he thought his team would require a year to fully report on the status of weapons development in Iraq. The head of the International Atomic Energy Commission said that he thought, under the present circumstatnces, that "war could be avoided."), I need only read the morning "Times" to have them dashed (this morning: "In Blunt Words, Bush Threatens Hussein Again -- Vows Tough Action - Nato Chiefs Gather," "A Call to Arms: Bush's Plea on Iraq").

I am working to develop a concrete idea concerning what people can do in their communities to affect their children's future. It centers around making their houses of worship Sanctuaries of Peace that guarantee not only that nonviolence will be at the core of all decision-making done by the congregants but also that any person fleeing violence, either in their homes (e.g. domestic abuse) or in their native lands (e.g. refugees from repressive regimes) will be GUARANTTED to find actual and real sanctuary (shelter, food, protection, medical aid) in the community of believers. Perhaps I can make something come of this.

Thanks once more for the invitation to Madison. Except for the subject matter, I enjoyed myself immensely. May our paths cross again!

Sincerely and Respectfully,

Ken

Voices in the Wilderness
1-773-784-8065
http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw
1460 West Carmen Ave
Chicago IL 60640

**Please visit http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert W Park [mailto:rwpark@juno.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 20, 2002
To: info@vitw.org
Subject: To Ken Hannaford-Ricardi

Ken,
The final meeting of our organizing committee for the Nov. 2nd interfaith peace conference in Madison was a followup meeting, after we had had a chance to review the conference income and expenses. With a good turnout and expenses lower than expected, we found we had surplus funds remaining, and decided to use part of that, $150, as an honorarium for your keynote address. A check made out to Voices In the Wilderness (with your name in the memo blank) was to have gone out in Monday's mail, and may have arrived at your Chicago office by now.

I would like to express once again our appreciation for your visit and for the work of Voices In the Wilderness.

If I may add personal note, I hope you find some basis for hope in the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq, both for avoidance of war with Iraq and for the end to sanctions. I am not ready to believe that our current federal government is so immune to world opinion that it will feel free to launch a war against Iraq while the rest of the world believes the inspections are succeeding. I hope Voices In the Wilderness is doing all it can to see that accurate information about the weapons inspections reaches western media. There is a great need for groups such as VITW, which have gained a level of respect and trust in Iraq, to be available on the scene when communication difficulties arise. I hope your organization is seeking NGO observer status in connection with some of the inspection efforts, and is ready to facilitate communication if called upon.