Donna Shalala

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Overview

Donna Shalala born Cleveland, OH February 14, 1941. Served in Iran as Peace Corps volunteer, 1962-64; US Secretary of Health and Human Services, 1993-2001; University of Miami president, 2001-present.

Quotations

"Violence is not some mysterious bacterial infection or inexplicable new disease; rather, it is a phenomenon for which we are responsible, and we can prevent it. It is time we stopped the denial and claimed our power to halt the bloodshed and save lives." (Health Affairs, 1993; 2009 photo Wikipedia)

Lisa J. Shannon

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Overview

Lisa J. Shannon born Portland, OR February 5, 1975. Human rights activist and author. Founded Run for Congo Women, 2005; co-founded Sister Somalia rape crisis center, 2011.

Quotations

“There is no greater threat to human security than our well-trained capacity to simply flip off our empathy switch. But if we can flip our empathy switch back on, and keep it on, we find a new power to speak up, step up, and do what we can to stop the violence. Not because we should, but because it’s happening to our friends.” (lisajshannon.com; photo Wikipedia)

Martha Sharp

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Overview

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Martha Sharp (née Dickie) born Providence, RI April 25, 1905 (d. 1999). Unitarian refugee rescuer; co-founded Unitarian Service Committee; work in Prague 1939 relief program and escort of children to Holland; Lisbon 1940 assisted escape of Jews; honored by Yad Vashem Righteous Among Nations, 2005; founded “Children to Palestine” 1943; aided release of imprisoned Spanish refugees, 1944.

Quotations

“Anyone would have done it.” (New York Post, Sep. 17, 2016; photo ushmm.com)

Larissa Shasko

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Overview

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Larissa Shasko born Regina, Saskatoon, Canada January 20, 1982. Canadian politician; anti-nuclear activist. Leader Green Party of Saskatchewan, 2009-11. Organized Fossil Fools Day protest against climate change, 2009. Opposed Iraq War.

Quotations

On why she joined the Green Party: “[The principles of] ecological wisdom, participatory democracy, gender diversity. . . peace and non-violence.” (News-Optimist, Oct. 11, 2010)

“Peace and Non-Violence: Regardless of differences, we recognize the inherent value of all life. The Green Party of Saskatchewan commits itself to the establishment of a demilitarized society, based on mutual cooperation and nonviolent conflict resolution amongst all people and nations.” (deliberation.ca, 2015; Photo mjtimes.sk.ca)

Cindy Sheehan

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Overview

Cindy Sheehan (née Miller) born Inglewood, CA July 10, 1957. Leading Iraq War resister. Established Camp Casey outside George W. Bush's ranch in Texas, in honor of her son, killed in Iraq War.

Quotations

“War is a barbaric tool of the war profiteers and Empires who employ them. War pits young people from the working class against other similarly poor, or disadvantaged humans, for nothing but the greed of the few. Only we the people can make war obsolete by not participating in the profound crimes of the profiteers and other war mongers.” (worldbeyondwar.org/quotes)

“It's up to us, the people, to break immoral laws, and resist.” (Vets for Peace, Aug. 5, 2005; photo lapsblog.com)

Donna Sheehan

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Overview

Donna Sheehan born Oakland, CA April 1, 1930 (d. 2015). Artist and peace activist. Began her environmental activism with a protest against California Dept. of Transportation herbicide usage, 1983. Founded anti-toxics sustainability organization MOW & SOW, 1986. Led Unreasonable Women Baring Witness in nude Iraq War protests, 2002-03.

Quotations

“It is no accident either that women would choose to get naked for the sake of peace and justice. For Baring Witness is about using the greatest weapon women have, the power of the feminine, the power of our beauty and nakedness to awaken our male leaders and stop them in their tracks. In this way, Baring Witness is about heightening the awareness of human vulnerability.

"By risking with our nakedness—our charm and beauty and vulnerability—in service of peace we are exposing the flesh all humans share. We are casting off the old dominant paradigm of aggression and restoring the power of the feminine to its rightful place as the protector of life. It is time for women to deter the men in their lives from violent acts, as nurturers, as guardians of our families and as voices of reason.

"War seems to be a masculine invention. For thousands of years, men have been conditioned to respond to threat and confrontation with violence first. Whereas the feminine way is to resolve difficulty and conflict through dialogue and negotiation, through compromise and kindness, not acts of violence.” (Baring Witness, Dec. 2002; photo linkedin.com)

Rebecca Shelley

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Overview

Rebecca Shelley born Sugar Valley, PA January 20, 1887 (d. 1994). Absolute pacifist, militant suffragist, and peace activist. Green Party leader. Teacher of German. Leading woman lobbyist in opposition to World War I; sailed on Ford’s peace ship, 1915. Attended International Women’s Conference that led to formation of WILPF, the Hague, 1915. Organized mother’s marches and draft resistance, 1917. Co-founded anti-war People's Council of America, 1917. Picketed Pentagon against Vietnam War, 1965; wore black until all troops were out of Vietnam. Founded 230-acre PeaceWays farm to "promote World Peace and the practice of Universal Human Brotherhood. . . to build a world community free from ignorance, poverty and war," Battle Creek, MI, 1959. Vice-presidential candidate on pacifist write-in ticket, 1964.

Quotations

Can we discern through crumbled empires' dust,
Whose holy wars were right, whose causes just?

(her poem; photo wikimedia)

Georgiana Sibley

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Overview

Georgiana Sibley (née Farr) born Millbrook, NY May 30, 1887 (d. 1980). American church woman and leader of ecumenical movement. Served as Church Women United (CWU) official observer at the founding of the UN, 1945. As President of United Council of Church Women, opposed draft, 1945. National president, CWU, 1946-48. Founded Rochester UN Association, 1946. Leader in racial desegregation; urged control of atomic weapons.

Quotations

“[We seek] international abolition of conscription and the rapid development of the strength of world government and of its police force.” (to President Truman, Oct. 25, 1945, in Melanie Johnson, Building Bridges, p. 71; photo hws.edu)

Carol Ruth Silver

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Overview

Carol Ruth Silver born Boston, MA October 1, 1938. UN clerk; Freedom Rider; arrested Jackson, MS, 1961 on Trailways bus from Nashville; jailed 40 days; worked with Cesar Chavez; San Francisco Supervisor, 1978-89; involved with OLPC, donating computers to Afghan children.

Quotations

"We were doing something to change the world in a very direct and dangerous way. Just like the kids in Libya with their Facebook apps are changing the world, we changed the world." (San Francisco Chronicle, April 14, 2011; 1978 photo http://bit.ly/w7Iz4s)

Althea Simmons

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Overview

Althea Simmons born Shreveport, LA April 17, 1924 (d. 1990). Civil rights activist; lawyer; chief lobbyist for NAACP, esp. Mississippi voting rights. Advocated for recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as national holiday.

Quotations

"[F]ight the good fight, and march on 'til victory is won." (resolution cited in Benjamin Hooks, The Crisis, Oct. 1990, p. 52)

Jeanmarie Simpson

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Overview

Jeanmarie Simpson born Ray, AZ November 20, 1959. American pacifist theater actress, whose roles include Jeannette Rankin and Mary Dyer; leader of WILPF.

Quotations

"What's wrong with being a socialist country?!! 'Jointly Needed, Jointly Owned.' There can still be free enterprise, but the basics—housing, food, health care, utilities, education—are off limits to the market. All the rest—go for it! Make your damn widgets. But by god, pay a living wage and provide safe and sanitary working conditions. What the hell is wrong with that?" (Facebook, April 2009; photo 1977 wiki)

Ruth Sivard

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Overview

Ruth Sivard (née Leger) born Queens, New York November 25, 1915 (d. 2015). American sociologist, economist, and arms expert. The Nixon administration discontinued her official reports on arms for US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, leading to her resignation, 1971. Founded World Priorities non-profit organization, which published “World Military and Social Expenditures”, 1974-96; “Women. . . a World Survey”.

Quotations

“The accumulation of destructive force in the name of national defense has itself become the major threat to international stability and human security.” (quote and photo New York Times, Aug. 28, 2015)

Holly Sklar

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Overview

Holly Sklar born New York, NY May 6, 1955. Journalist and author who opposed US militarism, war on Nicaragua 1988, Iraq War.

Quotations

"Imagine a country where violence against women is so epidemic it is their leading cause of injury. . . Imagine a country whose military budget tops average Cold War levels although the break up of the Soviet Union produced friends, not foes. This nation spends almost as much on the military as the rest of the world combined and leads the world in arms exports. . . It’s the United States." (Z Magazine, June 2007; photo PBS)

Alice Slater

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Overview

Alice Slater born New York, NY April 16, 1938. Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation; anti-nuclear activist; attorney; president of Global Resource Action Center for the Environment (GRACE); co-founder of Abolition 2000; opposed NATO bombing Kosovo, and Libya War.

Quotations

"We must begin serious negotiations on a treaty to eliminate all nuclear weapons and call for a moratorium on the building of new nuclear reactors as we close down the old ones. Now is the time to embrace a new paradigm of nuclear abolition that frees the planet from the threat of nuclear holocaust once and for all."(http://bit.ly/Q50P9D)

"Surely the most sensible way to deal with Iran’s nascent nuclear weapons capacity is to call all the nations to the table to negotiate a treaty to ban the bomb. That would mean abolishing the 20,000 nuclear bombs on the planet." (Common Dreams, Aug. 28, 2012; photo wagingpeace.org)