"Genius" award recipient and other luminaries campaigning for worldwide renunciation of war

January 13, 2006

In a recent ZNet Commentary, wrote that a group of people, including, , , , and , are promoting the creation of worldwide gatherings to renounce war. Their intention, according to Zinn, is to make worldwide renunciation of war so popular that halting existing wars and preventing the beginning of new wars is politically irresistible.

In his article, After This War, Zinn asks, "should we not think beyond this war? Should we begin to think, even before this shameful war is over, about ending our addiction to massive violence, and using the enormous wealth of our country for human needs?" He goes on to talk of ending not just "this war or that war but war itself. Perhaps the time has come to bring an end to war, and turn the human race onto a path of health and healing."

The five people have been actively involved in global issues for many years and have a solid track record of accomplishments on the world stage.

Dr. Gino Strada is a war surgeon and the founder of, a nonprofit, humanitarian organization dedicated to providing assistance to civilian victims of war. His recent book Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary helped persuade to abandon the use and manufacture of a flying anti-personnel mine.

Dr. Paul Farmer is a professor and practicing physician. In 1987, he helped found the worldwide health organization, which treats some of the poorest people on Earth. Dr. Paul Farmer has received a "genius" award from the.

Kurt Vonnegut is an American writer and humanist, currently serving as Honorary President of the. As a prisoner of war in, , Kurt witnessed the fire bombing of Dresden. This event formed the core of his book . In a column for In These Times, he began "... our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees ... the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East ... like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for ."

Nadine Gordimer from received the 1991 Nobel Prize in literature and 1974. She received worldwide praise for her leadership for South Africa to re-examine and replace its long held racist policy of.

Eduardo Galeano's books combine history, political analysis, journalism and fiction. "I'm a writer obsessed with remembering, with remembering the past of America ... condemned to amnesia.  is one of Galeano's works covering the exploitation of by foreign powers from the 15th century onwards.

Both Nadine and Eduardo's books are recognized by the as among the top 40 books in Citizens of the World: Readings in Human Rights. We Say No by Eduardo Galeano and Comrades by Nadine Gordimer are listed there along with the ' of, Independence by , the ', and  by

Howard Zinn is a U.S. historian, political scientist and author of fifteen books. Howard writes, "In a world of clashing interests—war against peace, nationalism against internationalism, equality against greed, and democracy against elitism—- it seems to me both impossible and undesirable to be neutral in those conflicts. I do not claim to be neutral, nor do I want to be... . I will try to be fair to opposing ideas by accurately representing them."