CODE PINK: Women for Peace Press Conference 1/11/11 at UMC

A Press Conference will be held at 12:00 noon tomorrow, Tuesday, 1/11/11, at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, to allow our community's many peace-minded groups to offer prepared statements in response to the Saturday Safeway Massacre targeting Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

Representatives from Code Pink: Women for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, AZ4NORML, the Tikkun Community & Jewish Voice for Peace, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Tucson Chapter, Middle East Justice Now!, the independent producer of Access TV's Lovolution Village, Women's International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Tucson's Raging Grannies, and a growing list of other Tucson peace activists will be on hand to offer statements and answer questions.

BACKGROUND: Code Pink was born out of the 9/11 terror attacks. When the twin towers fell, the Department of Homeland Security responded by adopting a color code to alert air travels of the degree of danger – air travelers hear it is a “Code Orange” or “Code Yellow” day while awaiting their pat-downs down.

But our administration forgot to include a color for peace. So Code Pink: Women for Peace was born in 2002 with the mission to use creative ways to call for peace to replace terror in our lives.

Code Pink invites all those who are interested in working locally to promote peaceful alternatives to join together to alleviate the grief and to supplant violence with more sustainable alternatives.

Group Statement from some of these organizations about the mass shooting on January 8, 2011:

“Tucson peace activists, represented by the undersigned organizations, express their deepest sympathy for the anguish experienced by the victims and their families of the shooting on January 8, 2011, and their fervent hopes for the full recovery of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the others who were injured.

Tucson peace activists also wish to state their abhorrence of the rhetorical-political context for the shooting. That context includes Arizona's near-bottom position in expenditures on education and mental health services and near-top position in laws favorable to gun ownership and use.

We believe the political climate and ordinary political discourse in Arizona, as reflected in statements by particular elected officials and by actions taken by the Arizona legislature as well as in violence expressed on talk shows and in threatening activities in various political campaigns, is a toxic brew. It expresses violence, encourages it, and then, with its lax gun laws, makes it easy to turn suggestions of violence into actual physical violence. Tucson peace activists reaffirm their commitment to non-violent actions in promoting peace locally, nationally and globally for all human beings.”

signed by WILPF, Tucson Raging Grannies, Tucson Tikkun Community, Jewish Voice for Peace