Flagstaff New Day

Peace Center

<www.newdaypeace.org>  <info (at) newdaypeace.org>

Peace Center Open House - Friday Jan 26 2007, 5:30-7:30 pm.

2615 N. Fourth Street, Suite 5, Flagstaff, across from the UPS Store.

Join us for light refreshments and discuss how to bring Peace to 2007

928.773.8050 or <flagstaffpeace@yahoo.com>.

 

A new day for peace dawns in Flagstaff - By BETSEY BRUNER, Community Editor

<http://www.azdailysun.com/articles/2007/01/21/news/local/20070121_local_news_31.txt>

 

Although he didn't want a peace center named after him, Bud Day, Flagstaff's eminent peace activist and human-rights champion, who died Dec. 17, 2003 at 76 years, would have been the first to join the grand open house celebrations Friday at the Flagstaff New Day Peace Center.

"The longtime advocates of peace, members of the New Day Peace Center, recognize and honor the legacies of people like Bud Day, Bruce Green and John Wahl -- all long-term peace activists in the community," said Carol Thompson, who was married to Day for 26 years.

Emerging from the Justice and Peace Coalition (founded in 1996), the Flagstaff New Day Peace Center has consistently opposed war as a response to 9/11, according to a press release from the center.

The press release said the center has been working for two years with the Flagstaff school district to promote peace education into Flagstaff schools. It has also brought international speakers to Flagstaff to speak about Afghanistan, the Middle East and other current issues.

The center also organizes outreach programs and offers educational materials to build peaceful alternatives to violence and to promote social justice over oppression, with several activities planned for this spring.

"Members of the peace center are delighted with Flagstaff community support of peace education and actions in northern Arizona -- from offering conflict-resolution curricula in the high schools, to ending war, to debating nuclear issues which impact the environment," Thompson said.

For 30 years, Day, whose full name was Warren J. Day, had been a civil engineer working with water and sanitation in rural areas in Asia and Africa, she said.

Thompson is a political economist and a full professor at NAU, where she works on international trade and finance.

"He worked on latrines, and I work on the big picture," Thompson said, with a laugh.

Day served in the United States Navy during World War II, but became a conscientious objector while serving, she said.

"He counseled young men when they were wanting not to go to war for more than 40 years," Thompson said. "He was a founding member of Veterans for Peace in Flagstaff, and that still exists."

The center will be helping organize and sponsor peace-oriented events, such as the "Eyes Wide Open" exhibit that will come to Flagstaff in March to honor Arizonans who have given their lives in wars, and the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war on March 24, when a peace rally will be held in Wheeler Park.

With a grant from the A.J. Muste Foundation, members are also working to publicize the personal stories of "downwinders" in Mohave County, Ariz., with a photo exhibit. [end]