Don’t kid yourself. It ain’t over yet.

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The White House Peace Vigil is an anti-nuclear weapons peace vigil started by William Thomas in 1981.(caption from Wikipedia)
Photo taken at the White House Peace Vigil November 15, 2015, by Jennifer Bendery. Printed with the permission of the photographer.

Thanksgiving is not over, at least not for me. I’m still giving thanks—not for all the benefits that come with white privilege, because they come at too high a cost for too many others—but for the people of all colors who fight for, work for, and live and die for peace.

Today, when rabid voices howl with cries for war in countless caves across the nation, I give thanks to the volunteers for what is probably the longest peace vigil in US history—the White House Peace Vigil. This vigil began in 1981 as an anti-nuclear weapon vigil led by William Thomas, who was soon joined by Concepcion (“Connie”) Picciotto. Picciotto, an immigrant who arrived in the United States at the age of 18, has been described as “carrying on the longest continuous act of political protest in the United States.”

Ammar Aziz during a protest with veteran peace activist Concepcion Picciotto in front of the White House in Washington, D.C
Photo by Commiegirl and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Thomas and Picciotto were joined in 1984 by Ellen Thomas, who adds a poetic love story to the quest for nonviolence and anti-nuclearism. Through the decades, many other volunteers have joined the protest.

Now in her 70s, Piccioto has spent most of her time for over three decades in the “peace camp” pictured above—a white tent pitched in Lafayette Square across from the White House. She generally wears a helmet, because, she tells passersby, she has been hit in the head so often—generally by police. In 2013, when one of the volunteers left the tent area unguarded, the park police removed it. It was soon reinstalled and the vigil continues.

To learn more about this fearless messenger of peace and her fellow resisters, read here: http://www.prop1.org/conchita/

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology