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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula February 6, 2003 (updated Feb. 10, 2003) Text © 2003 Copper Country Peace Alliance and Michigan Tech press releases and Michele Anderson. Photos © 2003 Michele Anderson.

Peace groups to hold Walk for Peace, poetry, film events

HOUGHTON -- Several groups plan events during the next week to express their opposition to war in Iraq. The Copper Country Peace Alliance will sponsor a Walk for Peace on Saturday, Feb. 8, 2003. On the Michigan Tech campus, the public is invited to participate in an open mic, anti-war poetry reading Wednesday, Feb. 12. A student peace group will show the 1964 classic film, Dr. Strangelove, on Feb. 12 and 14.

"The lives of beautiful children, women and men are at stake: Pray for a peaceful solution" will be the theme of the Walk for Peace on Saturday, Feb. 8, starting at noon from the Motherlode Coffeehouse in Houghton.

Heidi Sherman, Michigan Tech graduate student, receives positive responses from passing traffic during the Jan. 25, 2003, Walk for Peace as the group crosses the Portage Lift Bridge from Houghton to Hancock. Sherman said the idea for the sign came from Traverse City peace walks in which she participated. Sherman also joined peace marchers in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 18, 2003. See her Feb. 1  letter to The Daily Mining Gazette.

Sponsored by the Copper Country Peace Alliance, the Walk is one way for local citizens to demonstrate their support for a non-violent, diplomatic solution to the conflict between the U.S. and Iraqi governments. For more information, call 288-3181.

Carrying homemade peace signs, participants in the Jan. 25 Walk for Peace head toward the Portage Lift Bridge on their return from Hancock to Houghton.

Anti-War Poetry Reading Feb. 12 on MTU campus

On Wednesday, Feb. 12, an open mic poetry reading will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Room 134 of the Walker Arts & Humanities Center on the Michigan Tech campus for all members of the MTU and Copper Country communities interested in protesting a possible U.S. war against Iraq. The format will be informal; and people are invited to come for all or part of the reading, which is free and open to all.

The reading is intended to give those who oppose such a war an opportunity to acknowledge publicly their opposition by reading or listening to poems that express anti-war sentiments or that offer witness against war-related atrocities. Participants may read their own work or share a favorite poem they feel is appropriate. Anyone interested in bringing visual representations expressing their protest against this war is welcome to do so. An overhead projector will be available for displaying transparencies.

During the Jan. 25 Walk for Peace on the Portage Lift Bridge, a Copper Country Peace Alliance member holds up an anti-war sign contributed by a faculty member from the University of Minnesota in Duluth.

This event is part of a nationwide day of protest readings sponsored by American poets all over the United States who oppose the Bush administration's apparent determination to wage war against Iraq. Its national coordinator, Washington poet Sam Hamill, poet and founder of Copper Canyon Press, was a leading voice in the Poets Against the Viet Nam War movement.

"There are a lot of people writing and reading poetry in this country who are feeling alienated," Hamill says. "A lot of people feel deep in their gut that first strike is not an American way of doing things."

Poet Randall Freisinger, Michigan Tech professor of humanities, reports that The White House had invited a number of prominent poets to come on Feb. 12 to celebrate the poetry of Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson.

"Sam Hamill refused his invitation and invited other poets to do so as well," Freisinger notes. "Out of that refusal has grown a poets for peace movement of a scale not seen since the Viet Nam era."

In weeks to come, Hamill is planning to post hundreds of poems on a web site designed specifically for this protest. It can be accessed at http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/.

For more information contact Randy Freisinger at 487-3229.

Student peace group to show film, Dr. Strangelove

Following the poetry reading, at 7 p.m. on Wed., Feb. 12, Stanley Kubrick's classic film, Dr. Strangelove (1964), with Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, will be shown in Room 134 of MTU's Walker Arts & Humanities Center. Sponsoring the film are students concerned about peace and justice, a new group on campus, who call the film a "nuclear comedy." They will have a second showing of the film at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 14, also in Walker Room 134, during Winter Carnival,  Refreshments will be served. The film showing is free and open to the public.

Joe Kirkish, Keweenaw Now guest columnist and film critic, has this to say of Dr. Strangelove: "Of all the anti-war films, undoubtedly the most biting, satirical and humorous all at the same time. No one but Stanley Kubrick could create it so brilliantly, but he had a great cast to use, including Peter Sellers in no less than three major roles."

For more information contact Bill Sewell at 487-3242.

Peace demonstrations planned for New York, San Francisco on Feb. 15, 16

The peace movement Web site, MoveOn.org, reports that a large peace rally is scheduled to be held in  New York City on Feb. 15. The list of speakers includes Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Martin Luther King III, and Patti Smith. On the same day, from London to Helsinki to Bangkok, millions of people will join demonstrations, rallies and marches. A San Francisco event is planned for Feb. 16. See details on http://www.unitedforpeace.org.

See also the Feb. 8 Reuters article: Franco-German Plan Floated to Avert Iraq War.

Note: If you wish to contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives on the issue of Iraq, visit the Congress Merge Web site to locate them. Visit also www.moveon.org for updates on the movement against war in Iraq.

Read why Peace Alliance members and supporters oppose war on Iraq in "Open Letter to our friends and neighbors."

See also the initiative to impeach President Bush at www.votetoimpeach.org.

Marquette Citizens Opposed to the War on Iraq rally every Saturday in front of the Marquette Post Office. Visit their Web site. 

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