Statement of NWU At-Large Executive Board - DAVIE, FL, July 18, 2006 - A statement released Tuesday by the Executive Board of the National Writers Union's At-Large chapter calls on writers to speak out for peace and is strongly supportive of U.S. positions articulated by mainstream Republican and Democratic leaders.
The statement called for "global responsibility to the children of the Middle East, even when their own fathers and mothers betray the very meaning of those titles."
Robert Henthorn, of Boston, a member of the group's executive board and steering committee, said the statement was a response to the current crisis and increasing danger freelance journalists face covering violent conflicts around the world. Without citing Syria or Iran by name, Henthorn said blame for the escalation rests with "tyrannical regimes of ruthless dictators and despots who have hijacked the lives and dreams of entire nations."
Another member of the executive board, Seth Eisenberg of Fort Lauderdale, said journalists pay a particularly high price when violent conflicts breakout across the globe. He cited a Reporters Without Borders study on the increased numbers of killings and kidnappings of reporters in the Middle East. Eisenberg said, "We must collectively ask: Where is the consciousness influenced by love, commitment and obligations to our children? Where is the restraint that must be inspired by our human instinct to nurture, protect and create?"
Eisenberg also said that before releasing the statement, the group debated many issues related to the current crisis and the dangers faced by civilians and journalists in the region. "As writers, we have an obligation to help communities gain perspective and take action on the events that threaten the most vulnerable citizens of our planet. There are many areas in which writers have an obligation for neutrality. But we have the opposite responsibility - an obligation to speak out courageously with a collective voice when we see such horrors as children raised to become human bombs, schools and public housing being used as bases from which to launch terror attacks, and many other atrocities being committed to prop up dictatorships and similar regimes that deprive citizens of their most basic liberties."
The full statement follows:
"Endless words have been written of the senseless killing that has stolen countless lives in the Arab-Israeli conflict. During most of the last century, avowed enemies on every continent have made peace, tens of millions of refugees have been resettled, neighborhoods and entire nations have been rebuilt. On every corner of the globe, where there was once hatred, rejection, and hopelessness, there are now examples of cooperation, mutual respect, and tangible daily rewards that feed and empower people of all races, religions and cultures.
"Around this same world, generations of men and women who cherish life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the civil rights, freedom of speech, and democratic principles that are the foundation of such precious values have waited anxiously for an end to the violence that has become the currency of the Middle East. We've watched from a distance as the world's most abundant and valuable natural resources - paid for at petrol and power stations every minute of every day by the world's consumers and economies fueled by our collective passions - have been squandered by tyrannical regimes of ruthless dictators and despots who have hijacked the lives and dreams of entire nations, generation after generation.
"We must collectively ask: Where is the consciousness influenced by love, commitment and obligations to our children? Where is the restraint that must be inspired by our human instinct to nurture, protect and create?
"The People of Israel have taken unlimited chances for peace. From the very earliest days of the rebirth of modern Israel, their leadership offered significant compromise for the hope of peace. Even before independence, they accepted the historic division of Palestine that left the Jewish nation just a small fraction of their ancestral homeland. They have continued in that spirit until the present by withdrawing from Sinai, Lebanon, Gaza, parts of the West Bank, and offering to contribute to the creation of yet another Arab state in their very backyard by again dividing the tiny sliver of land that is their precarious nation and the exclusive promise of an independent Jewish future. No nation can be expected to compromise to the point of national suicide.
"The agents of terror who stockpile deadly missiles instead of libraries, classrooms and a future for their children must have no haven. Those who prepare young boys and girls to sacrifice their own lives as human bombs can have no sanctuary; nor can the regimes that provide these thugs military, intelligence, or financial support. They must be deprived of the tools, structures and opportunity callously used to inspire further destruction.
"We have a global responsibility to the children of the Middle East, even when their own fathers and mothers betray the very meaning of those titles; even when it means the destruction of those tormentors who heartlessly conspire to steal their very lives."
About National Writers Union At-Large
The National Writers Union (UAW Local 1981) is a leading voice for economic security, rights and collective benefits for freelance writers. NWU's At-Large chapter is an autonomous unit of the union with members throughout the world.
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