Freedom From War David Dionisi’s work for a peaceful world

“They also serve who only stand and wait.” This famous sentence from the pen of John Milton, himself a passionately politicized writer, might just be the maximum encouragement to us who stand with our signs at intersections promoting the dream of peace. Sometimes we grow discouraged out there when it seems the weeks pass without evidence of sufficient change. That’s why, when something remarkable does happen, right in Sacramento’s backyard, it’s so inspiring.

Sacramento’s backyard? No offense, Davis, but that means you! What has come forth in Davis is a worldbeating organization with a world-beater at its helm! This is Freedom From War, created by David Dionisi, who in less than a year after its founding has already made it an
international organization active in four countries.

This man Dionisi is many admirable things. In 1985, while an army intelligence officer in Korea, he first began to question this country’s foreign policies. A book he’s written to reawaken our sleep-walking world to the all too real nightmare of nuclear weapons, American Hiroshima,
is translated and available even in Korea, and the source for a motion picture being made in England. His fund of information on world affairs, much of it gathered as an intelligence community insider, is prodigious.

Dionisi will address the public wherever they’re willing to listen, and as a speaker he’s not just good, he’s formidable. More than just a highly talented tongue, however, he’s a humanitarian who organizes and serves orphanages in third world countries. In fact he’s taken all his inordinate capabilities and trained them upon one objective: to rescue the world from the terminal disaster that appears about to swallow it.

Now I come to one final talent of this man: his genius for organization, with its fruition in the rapidly swelling membership of Freedom From War.

So what distinguishes FFW? The paramount distinction must be Dionisi’s vision of a peace movement sweeping up all the little “pieces of peace” into a strong, unified force field. “Our open source peace model and sharing of best practices,” he writes, “has the potential
to change the insular and often ineffective efforts of many peace organizations.”
In terms of community service, its umbrella covers world-beating undertakings, some of them truly heart lifting. Umbrella is the operative word here: Dionisi is the systemic unifier, administrator and servant to other folks’ independent projects.

One of the most impressive of the projects being advanced is the effort by FFW member Nadia McCaffrey to create homes to care for soldiers shattered to the point of dysfunction. Now in the process of becoming a separate organization, the homes for veterans program, while so far only a concept, illustrates how FFW, disapproving of war, reaches out to the victims of war.

The final good news bulletin: FFW will soon have a Sacramento chapter! To learn more about Freedom From War, visit http://www.freedomfromwar.org. You can reach David Dionisi at ddionisi [at] sbcglobal.net. Those interested in purchasing his book can visit http://www.americanhiroshima.

Tom King is a retired college professor who lives and writes in Sacramento.

This article was reprinted with permission from editors at Because People Matter, a local alternative newspaper. This article was featured November/December issue.