Silent Vigil for Peace in Ukraine and Palestine and honoring Native American Heritage Day

The women and men of WILPF (Women's Intl. League for Peace & Freedom) vigil silently (in Quaker tradition), with our signs and banners speaking for us, every Friday at the Palo Alto corner of El Camino & Embarcadero, outside Town & Country shopping center, on the public sidewalk.

We will gather again the Friday after Thanksgiving for an end to these wars. And as we do so, we also remind Americans that many/most of our nation's "first people," indigenous Native Americans, do not celebrate the traditional Thanksgiving day feast of the Pilgrims, but the month of November as “Native American Heritage Month." And since the passage by Congress of HR 40 (Pub. L. 111-33), the “Native American Heritage Day Act of 2009” which designates the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving Day of each year as “Native American Heritage Day.” We support their special observances of their culture, and we mourn the injustice of their treatment as the settlers and following decades took their land, waged war and herded them into reservations. As we stand outside a busy shopping area on commercial "Black Friday" we recognize those who now - indigenous Americans, and those who are under siege in wars around the globe, who have no justice, no peace, no feasting, no normal meals with family, perhaps no family. And we recognize our obligation to justice - and if we can - we should at the least stand in public vigil for peace, and work for an end to war. We have signs and banners to share, and hope to have others join us. Contact us at wilpf.peninsula.paloalto [at] gmail.com