Mourning the Dead

United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) has a terrific idea: wearing white ribbons to honor all who have died in Iraq.

Today is International Human Rights Day, which celebrates the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human rights and provides an opportunity to renew our commitment and deepen our efforts to ensure well-being and wholeness for all people. Article 3 of the declaration states that “everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person.” The U.S. government has violated human rights in the illegal Iraq war. Today, let's start making the growing death toll in Iraq more visible by joining UFPJ's White Ribbon Campaign.

Why white? It's the symbol for peace in many countries and the symbol of mourning in others. If you wear a white ribbon or tie it on a tree or vehicle, you'll be saying, I mourn all of the dead, Iraqi and American. End the war now and bring the troops home.

UFPJ says that "students and faculty at American University hung 100,000 ribbons all over campus on December 5 to represent the vast number of deaths caused directly and indirectly by the Iraq war. The number is based on a study of Iraqi civilian deaths by Johns Hopkins and published in The Lancet, a highly respected medical journal. Another source for information about the growing Iraqi civilian death toll is www.iraqbodycount.net."

If you can, join UFPJ and others in a protest in Washington, D.C. on inauguration day, Thursday, January 20. And buy a UFPJ "We the people say no to the Bush agenda" flag to take with you.