Dear friends,

In Baghdad, as I write, things are relatively quiet. Today IPT delegate Wade Hudson had a chance to take a limited drive around Baghdad with a driver and a government minder. After passing by the still smoking Ministry of Foreign Affairs building, he drove to a residential neighborhood where he reports having seen a bomb crater 8 to 12 feet deep "in the middle of a wide, divided street. Traffic in one direction was blocked." He also reported passing by "many small homes in the neighborhood with all of their front windows blown out, presumably from the blast that created the crater."

A few hours ago, we spoke with Kathy Kelly at the Al Fanar hotel in downtown Baghdad. Kathy told us that they will be going around and visiting some hospitals tomorrow where there are apparently quite a lot of children. It is expected that the worst is yet to come.

Today at Noon, on March 20th 2003, 76 or more Columbus Alternative High School students stood up for what they believed in. Inspired by Anti-Flag, The Clash, Henry David Thoreau, Thomas Paine and their own beliefs they walked out. United from different social groups, different races, different everything! They called the Media, and it seemed to be a pretty good turn out. It all begun with a few Amnesty International meetings at the school and wound up making high school history. The protest was to coincide with the national International Answer Walkout at 12:00 PM. The leaders of this cause, despite strong discouragement by their principal led the walkout peacefully and silently. They knew the consequences and were willing to face them. All in the name of freedom, peace and unity. The students gathered in the school's courtyard and proceeded to the front lawn of the school, for the sake of thought that it may "disrupt" the fellow student's learning environment. They stood out there playing Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Tupac Shakur, Bob Dylan, and many other peaceful musicians' works. They carried signs, made tee shirts and put the peace sign up every

Today at Noon, students at Columbus Alternative High School gathered today in hopes of making a difference. We all gathered in the front lawn of our school, we had Channel 4, a news helicopter, 3 cops and a woman from the Cols. Dispatch come. The cops arrested one person, we had 76+ people turn out. When the cops came it narrowed to 26. One was arrested. We commited Civil Disobiedence. A revolutionary idea brought forth to us by the likes of Thoreau, Thomas Paine and many others. I, as a student would just like to let you guys know that we support the Free Press, and are going to continue the struggle for peace. To make a difference in the Anti-War movement.

AUSTIN, Texas -- Don't you hate when war starts in springtime? We are now united in desperately hoping that the war will be both easy and short.

The most depressing thing about this war is that we are going into it with the support of the majority of public opinion in exactly two countries, the United States and Israel -- and that is indeed a miserable failure of diplomacy, as Sen. Daschle put it.

In the current issue of Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria has a long and thoughtful piece on what went wrong. He reports, "I've been all over the world in the last year, and almost every country I've visited has felt humiliated by this administration." He quotes Jorge Casteneda, the recently resigned foreign minister of Mexcio: "Most officials in Latin American countries today are not anti-American types. We have studied in the United States or worked there. We like and understand America. But we find it extremely irritating to be treated with utter contempt."

Air pollution from power plants alone triggers over 35,000 asthma attacks and causes over 1,900 premature deaths in Ohio each year, threatening both public health and the environment. Incredibly, our clean air protections are under attack by the Bush administration and their allies in Congress. The White House's misnamed Clear Skies initiative allows companies to pollute the air at levels far above current law. Here in Ohio, these changes translate into even dirtier air and increased health risks.

Please take a moment to call Representative Sherrod Brown and urge him to oppose the Bush administration's Clear Skies initiative on air pollution. You can call Representative Brown at 202-225-3401, here's a sample message you can leave:

"Hi, my name is ______ and I live in _____, Ohio. I think air pollution is a big problem, and I want to ask Representative Brown to oppose Clear Skies, the Bush administration's air pollution plan, and to support enforcing the current law instead of weakening it."

Then, let us know you made the call by following the link below and filling out the form there.