From the editor's desk

Take a deep breath. We start off this month with an article from a Serbian woman wrestling with some of the most difficult questions: Does commitment to nonviolence override the primal drive to protect one's family? Can I believe in reconciliation and still seek justice? How can we be brave feminists if we let them shoot us? Mladjenovic calls this women's work, but of course it's everybody's work.

March 8 is International Women's Day. What does that mean? That women get one day in 365, or one month in twelve? Best not go down that path too far. We nevertheless honor the day and month with some pieces by or about women. There are two extraordinary essays that were sparked by cancer. Then an account of an archive in New York dedicated to lesbian history. This project's principles have wide applicability. Just as an exercise, try rewriting them around some other 'cause' of your choice; see if they still work: give access to all with no 'credentials' of class or status; house the enterprise within the community served; involve the group in the political struggles of all members; teach its skills, one generation to the next; share the work; honor all lives, not just the rich or famous; and get funding from within the community.

Note that Lepa Mladjenovic says her struggle is against fascism, and the lesbians in Brooklyn say theirs is, as well. The women planning to spend Mothers Day in Washington, sensibly asking to keep guns out of communities where people live--what about them? We opened this morning's paper to the shocking verdict in the trial of the police who killed Amadou Diallo. The murder and the trial, of course, are about many things, caused by many things; but it was guns that killed Diallo--the specter of guns on the street, guns in people's homes, and on that night guns in the hands of four young policemen with too much fear, each armed with too lethal a weapon. Fascism at play, deep-lying racism, or a society's deadly addiction to violent solutions?

As a society we have come to rely on these too-lethal weapons, and most of us hesitate to stand up and make a fuss about it. Peacework honors a few who have persisted in putting themselves in harm's way in order to prevent a much greater harm. Thus we read of protests of nuclear submarines and the depleted uranium weapons used in our wars in Iraq and the Balkans. There are also protests afoot against another sort of weapon--economic sanctions. Three UN officials charged with implementing the embargo on Iraq have chosen to resign, calling the human cost too high. Two venerable and quite careful organizations--American Friends Service Committee and Fellowship of Reconciliation--have come to see the sanctions as lethal weapons of mass destruction, and have declared themselves prepared to commit civil disobedience in order to protest them. We've printed the letter you can sign to join them.

Next, two trouble spots: Colombia and Burma. In Colombia, faced with a deepening problem of drug abuse at home and its attendant societal ills, our government wants to send lethal weapons abroad to crush a civil uprising for economic justice and democracy. In the course of this bizarre exercise, we are aligning ourselves with vicious human rights abusers. In the matter of Burma, we are witnessing efforts here to support a struggle in Burma against fascism. These efforts are in danger of being denied in the name of globalization and free trade. Finally, we offer you a view of one troubled institution--Pacifica Radio. Why Pacifica? It has been a staunch, honest, too-little-known voice among the sound bites that pass for news. But even such an enterprise is not immune from human foible and internal dissent (and perhaps could take some lessons on principles from the women at the lesbian archive). A committed reporter gives us his take on the matter.

We finish up with a few letters. One asks for more and better election coverage. We hope to provide this with your help. (See page 14.) Another challenges us to take a closer look at the issue of gays in the military. A third chides us for printing material from the anarchist "Black Bloc" among the voices from Seattle. We acknowledge that what the anarchists had to say is anything but Quakerly, but we think Quakers, Peacework readers, and everybody else should hear these voices explaining what leads them to break windows. People committed to forging coalitions to make positive change will have to grapple with and counter the anarchists' kind of thinking. Otherwise there's a real danger that "good" people will stay home, retreat from the witness altogether, while war and oppression continue. Anyway, keep the letters coming.