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| United For A Cause
By: Anthony Radek Long black veils and solemn faces could be seen walking out of Chicago Methodist Templeon March 20, 2005, but it wasn't a body that was been carried in the casket they followed, it was a message.
It was the two year anniversary of America’s first involvement with Iraq, and United for Peace-Faithful Citizenship held a mock funeral in protest of the war. The group had been formed after the events of September 11th, and this protest was one of their biggest yet, marching 800 strong.
“(UPFC) was formed by a group of Chicago interfaith religious leaders following the tragic events of September 11th to encourage greater interfaith collaboration around issues of tolerance, peace, and justice,” says the Voices-Exchange Web site. | 
Photo from www.bluffton.edu | War: What Is It Good For
Jean Darling is a member of the organization and sits on the steering committee made up of mostly clergy. “We go through the religious hierarchies to get the word out to the people,” said Darling.
They got the word out to 800 people on March 20th for their mock funeral.
“We walked behind a horse drawn carriage with an American flag to represent the dead [soldiers],” said Darling. “The coffin was filled with peace stubs.”
United for Peace isn’t involved with the political aspect of the war, even though protesters may be political.
“We hold large vigils because we’re mainly religious, we didn’t want to come across politically,” said Darling. “We wanted to try and talk about the issues in Iraq.”
Speak Up
There are other organizations connected with United for Peace who are political, including American Friends Service Committee and Oak Park Coalition for Truth and Justice. All three are connected through a speaker’s bureau called Voices-Exchange.
Voices-Exchange is an organization that solicits speakers to talk on a variety of subjects from war to media.
“We held an educational forum retreat over a year ago with a speaker,” said Darling. “Our education sub-committee decided to do a speakers bureau, and after we started we found two other groups.”
For more information go to www.voices-exchange.org
You Gotta Have Faith
United for Peace is made up of many faiths including Muslim, Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal.
“The Catholics were more involved in the past, but not so much now,” said Darling.
"It has been harder to get the Jewish community involved," she said.
“It has not been easy to get Rabbis involved because they are so involved with the issue in Palestine,” said Darling. “The Jewish community has a tendency not to go because they are weary and believe they are going to be attacked by Palestinians.”
United for Peace is prone to expressing views, rather than major action. Their affiliate American Friends Service Committee started to collect health kits after the first attacks for the Iraqi people made homeless during the war.
Above all United for Peace is about the people of the world, and our promise to one another that we must keep our morals and our responsibility to preserve life.
The group is just out there to remind America of that fact, and they believe it just needs to be awaken up inside of them.
“To me one of the most interesting things about that gathering [March 20th] was that when any of the speakers talked about moral values there was the most applause,” said Darling. “They were there because of their religious conviction.”
To get another perspective of Voices-Exchange, meet Bill Barclay. BACK
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