.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The Letters from the Road are personal accounts of our inner and outer experiences while working for peace and justice in other countries. They began 8 years ago while we were living and working in Iraq to bring world attention to the stories of Iraqi civilians prior to the U.S. invasion.
Reading them takes you with us to Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, Brazil, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, Israel, Iran, and Afghanistan.
INDEX OF LETTERS
Letters from the Road
- 08/22/2010 - #50: Pakistan: Helping Ourselves - In a few weeks the vast floods that are sweeping through Pakistan will draw back. Then, when the rain has stopped and people begin to return to their land and the places they live, imagine [...]
- 08/03/2010 - #49: Afghanistan: Women and Development! (3) - This is the third in a series of posts about the necessity of protecting the rights of Afghan women in creating a sustainable peace. I discuss what is involved in that process and what [...]
- 07/20/2010 - #48: Afghanistan: Changing a Culture of Violence (2) - This is the second in a series of posts about the necessity of protecting the rights of Afghan women in creating a sustainable peace. I discuss what is involved in that process and what can [...]
- 07/16/2010 - #47: Afghanistan: It really is about the Women! (1) - This is the first in a series of posts about the necessity of protecting Afghan women’s rights in creating a sustainable peace. I discuss what is involved in that process [...]
- 05/12/2010 - #46: Snapshots of Kabul - Kabul, Afghanistan The Streets Kabul was nervous today. The car bomb went off at rush hour, rattling the windows of our guesthouse, the smoke rising about a mile to the west. People came out on their roofs [...]
- 04/28/2010 - #45: Pakistan: The Politics of Fear: Part 2 - . The U.S. Role in the Return of the Taliban After 9/11 the people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and many international optimists like me expected the US-led international community to commit to rebuilding Afghanistan and undertaking reforms in [...]
- 04/22/2010 - #44: Pakistan: The Politics of Fear: Part 1 - It was tea break. I joined the stream into a large gloomy room with no windows (for our security I was told) in the National Library in Islamabad and confronted a sea of men, [...]
- 03/31/2010 - #43: Pakistan: A Prayer in the Militant Mosque - The following letter by Elias – and the next ones to come by Elizabeth – were written from Pakistan, where Elias was invited to address a conference on “Sufism and Peace” sponsored by [...]
- 01/25/2010 - #42: Afghanistan: Glimmers of Light - Most of my liberal friends are discouraged about Afghanistan. They are convinced the Afghans don’t want us there, that the military is not capable of doing anything right, and that we have to admit the [...]
- 01/20/2010 - #41: Does the U.S. Military belong in Afghanistan? - Recently I traveled to Kabul with a small peace delegation because I wanted to experience for myself what is happening there and what the people say they want and need from my country. I [...]
- 01/04/2010 - #40: Becoming a Citizen Diplomat - 10 years ago my husband, Elias, and I sold our house and belongings, packed what was left in a small storage container, raised funds from a few friends and set off on an open-ended pilgrimage [...]
- 12/02/2009 - #39: The Fate of the Jewish State - WEST BANK, PALESTINE I have just returned from my eighth trip to the Middle East in as many years. I had read news reports to the effect that conditions in the West Bank had improved [...]
- 11/01/2009 - #38: Voices from Kabul - KABUL, AFGHANISTAN So ring the bells that still can ring forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. – Leonard Cohen I recently returned from the Middle East and Afghanistan, and am surrounded [...]
- 10/01/2009 - #37: Confessions of a Peace Activist - KABUL, AFGHANISTAN Kabul: armed guards, machine guns and sand bags at every intersection and at the door to my guest house – open sewers and fecal dust – traffic jams of SUVs, military convoys, bicycles and [...]
- 06/01/2009 - #36: Iran and the Feather of the Simorgh - IRAN I would like to step back for a moment from the compelling drama occurring now in Iran to look at this drama with a long-view question in mind: what does it tell us about the [...]
- 04/02/2009 - #35: Looking for Iran - ESFAHAN, IRAN The Rally for Ahmadinejad This morning Rabia and I walked out of our small hotel in Esfahan, Iran, and were immediately swept along by a boisterous crowd filling the street—chanting, waving banners—all heading to Imam [...]
- 11/02/2006 - #34: Leaving Our Father’s House - THE MIDDLE EAST Separation Four years ago at this time my wife and I were in Iraq, on the eve of the invasion. With the members of the Iraq Peace Team we were trying to bring [...]
- 04/02/2006 - #33: The Neighbor and the Pilgrim - PALESTINE In the sixties the poet Gary Snyder advised, “Find your place on the planet and dig in.” I took his advice seriously, digging out roots to clear gardens, digging holes to build fences, digging [...]
- 11/17/2005 - #32: With Hafez in the Islamic Republic of Iran - IRAN In the desert city of Yazd, central Iran, I start asking around to meet a Sufi. Having asked this kind of question before in a number of Muslim countries, I know it doesn’t always work [...]
- 10/30/2005 - #31: Walking with Abraham - HARRAN, TURKEY It feels like the middle of nowhere – a rainy night, a poor neighborhood of scattered mud-brick and cement-block houses, puddles forming in the unpaved streets – but it was here in Harran, in [...]
- 03/19/2005 - #30: To a Soldier in Iraq - Last fall my nephew Danny was sent into combat in Iraq . He is there now. A tall and gentle young man in the reserves, he has been accompanying Iraqi foot patrols in Fallujah and [...]
- 08/02/2004 - #29: Our Great Loss - MEXICO This story must be told. Omar Diop is a finely-built black man, about 45 years old with small laugh lines radiating from his bright eyes. [...]
- 06/02/2004 - #28: The Way of the Bard - BRAZIL As I sit through this long plane ride back to the States I am flooded with images of my journey to Brazil. How do [...]
- 03/03/2004 - #27: Indigenous Survival - MAE LAN KHAM COMMUNITY FOREST, SAMOENG, THAILAND Trying to keep our balance in the back of the pickup truck as it struggles up the rutted [...]
- 01/06/2004 - #26: In the Fourth World - MAE LAN KHAM COMMUNITY FOREST, SAMOENG, THAILAND Pati Daiya, the village headman, held the chicken gently next to the Water Spirit’s bamboo shrine, her wings [...]
- 12/24/2003 - #25: A Dream from the Holy Land - ISRAEL-PALESTINE Consider the Holy Land, trampled and fought over for thousands of years, blood splashing on its stones, tears soaking into it, temples razed, [...]
- 11/24/2003 - #24: The Believer’s Candle - DAMASCUS, SYRIA Our pilgrimage to Syria left many traces on our hearts of realities deeper than headlines. In this letter I would like to describe [...]
- 11/22/2003 - #23: Syrian Pilgrimage - DAMASCUS, SYRIA “In America, the idea of us Syrians is that we eat foreigners,” joked Mahat El-Khoury, a 71 year-old human rights worker and recent [...]
- 09/02/2003 - #22: Being Alone - HELL ROARING CANYON, UTAH At the moment Rabia and I are waiting in the silence near a remote canyon in the Great Basin Desert of [...]
- 07/30/2003 - #21: Gaza - GAZA “What reign is worse than that of militant virtue?” – Amin Maalouf The taxi drives south toward Gaza through the pleasant Israeli countryside. [...]
- 07/26/2003 - #20: Jesus Wept - JERUSALEM, BETHLEHEM, RAMALLAH, HEBRON “Bus number 14 was blown up right there,” my guide told me, pointing [...]
- 05/27/2003 - #19: From a Desert Monastery - THE MONASTERY OF ST. MOSES, SYRIA Up here in the desert cliffs everything that is not human, goat, or chicken, is stone or sky. A [...]
- 05/01/2003 - #18: On Pilgrimage - COLORADO Four years ago the two of us sold our house and left on an open-ended “pilgrimage,” expanding on the work we had been doing [...]
- 04/11/2003 - #17: A Gesture - COLORADO The feelings generated in us by this war are not easy to hold. For months so many of us worked to stop the war [...]
- 03/19/2003 - #16: Creating a Nonviolent Culture - COLORADO “After the final no there comes a yes, and on that yes the future of the world depends.” – Wallace Stevens Elias and I returned to the United States from Iraq in time to permit [...]
- 03/07/2003 - #15: What About Saddam? - COLORADO A couple of days after we got back from Iraq we were on a Denver “drive time” AM radio program speaking about our experiences. [...]
- 02/24/2003 - #14: Shock and Awe - AMMAN, JORDAN Last week my Iraqi friend Fais told me how he used to take his son fishing. “I liked to sit there doing nothing, [...]
- 02/16/2003 - #13: The People Yes! - BAGHDAD, IRAQ It is Sunday, the day after the massive international peace demonstrations. We here in Baghdad are so heartened by this historic event. Thank [...]
- 02/12/2003 - #12: To End the Scourge of War - BAGHDAD, IRAQ A wonderful thing happened this morning at our vigil in a field across from U.N. headquarters here in Baghdad. We’ve made an encampment [...]
- 02/10/2003 - #11: Dark Night of the Soul - BAGHDAD, IRAQ But we, like sentries, are obliged to stand In starless nights, and wait the ‘pointed hours. – John Dryden Elias has been busy for the past days making banners, getting tents [...]
- 02/09/2003 - #10: If Only I Had Wings to Fly - BAGHDAD, IRAQ I woke up at 5:30 this morning to go out to the U.N. headquarters on the outskirts of Baghdad with my friend Mohamed, [...]
- 02/06/2003 - #9: In Iraq with Colin Powell - BAGHDAD, IRAQ We arrived in Baghdad three days ago. It is good to be back, though it seems strange to say that. There is something [...]
- 01/30/2003 - #8: Back to Baghdad - AMMAN, JORDAN Today we write from a small hotel in Amman, Jordan, waiting for our visas which will enable us to return to Iraq. The [...]
- 12/25/2002 - #7: The Darkest Time of the Year - BAGHDAD, IRAQ This is a letter from both of us, our last from Iraq for the time being. After two months here we have decided [...]
- 12/22/2002 - #6: Letter to a Warrior - BAGHDAD, IRAQ I recently received the following email message from a man I have never met but who must have read one of our letters [...]
- 12/18/2002 - #5: #5: How We Spend Our Days - BAGHDAD, IRAQ Almost every day there are new rumours that a U.S. attack is coming soon. Once again a large group of the press was [...]
- 12/12/2002 - #4: The Work of Making Miracles - BAGHDAD, IRAQ I am in back in Baghdad after an absence of two weeks, here to bear witness to the reality of the Iraqi people, [...]
- 11/26/2002 - #3: Flying in the No-Fly Zone - SOUTHERN IRAQ The captain of the aging Boeing 727 Iraqi Airways flight 642 to Basra stands by the cockpit door greeting his passengers as they [...]
- 11/02/2002 - #2: Waiting for the Bombs - BAGHDAD, IRAQ How do you prepare to be attacked by the most powerful military in the world? [...]
- 11/01/2002 - #1: Dancing in the Streets - BAGHDAD, IRAQ We arrived in Baghdad at 1 AM in the morning to a decaying six-story hotel next to the Tigris River. The lobby smells of kerosene used to wash the floors in the absence of [...]