The Reading People for Peace has sponsored monthly peace vigils on the Town Common in Reading, MA since 2003. All vigils are from 11 a.m. to noon on the second Saturday of each month. We are a non-partisan group that believes people must actively seek peace in order to have peace. Our vigils have included people who identify as members of traditional faith communities, including Congrationalists, Unitarians, Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews as well as those who choose not to affiliate with any faith community.
This site has been more-or-less superseded by our tumblr blog, where you can also read the reflection of the month that accompanies the email reminders. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.
SO how does standing around the common once a month promote peace? How do we get peace today?
— Steve · May 18, 02:18 AM · #
This web site is pathetic….Woodstock is never coming back!….Your bus left 40 years ago!
— Mark · Jun 1, 11:33 PM · #
@Mark: We’re not Woodstock types. Sorry you find the idea of learning to get along with other people to be pathetic. I think you’ve unintentionally identified the problem. You view people whose world view doesn’t correspond to your own as being “pathetic”, and thereby not fully human.
@Steve: “How do we get peace today?” Sadly, there is no magic wand. Peace comes when people decide it’s important. People who never think about peace one way or another will never come to the conclusion that having peace is important to ensuring our own future as well as that of our children. We vigil as a means of suggesting that people begin to think about the problems of peace, rather than reflexively support the default view that violence is the first and best solution to any and all problems. An approach, by the way, that hardly ever works.
I can imagine how our vigiling on the common can, eventually lead to peace. But why don't you tell me how not vigiling on the common can lead to peace. Can you suggest a better way?
— lgpiper · Jul 19, 04:43 PM · #
Kathy Kelly and David Smith-Ferri will speak on September 9 at 7 PM in St. Michael Parish Hall, 196 Main St, North Andover. Leaders of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, they will describe conditions in Iraq, Afghanistan,and Pakistan. Kathy, three time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, and recently on the boat “Audacity of Hope,” has a PowerPoint show, and David will read from his recent book, “With Children Like Your Own.” www.merrimackvalleypeopleforpeace.org/events.htm
— Brain Quirk · Aug 28, 03:23 AM · #
We’re about to change servers. We might be down for a short time.
— larry p · Dec 29, 05:54 PM · #
The server transition went without mishap for this domain. Wish I could say the same for the others I had to migrate.
— larry p · Jan 9, 08:13 PM · #
Well, once again, we’re trying to move to a new server. My guess is it won’t happen until well after this notice has been posted, but you won’t actually see this notice until the move has been completed. Which is to say, I’m commenting on the site to be, not the one that _currently is_.
— larry p · Feb 4, 10:18 PM · #