| October 8, 2001 Dear AFTA friends and colleagues,
Words one-by-one on the page cannot hold the enormity of our grief for all
of those lost in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, nor our fears that
the lives of more innocent people will be lost in the days to come, or our
fervent hopes for peace. Yet we speak and write to reach out to the
thousands who have lost loved ones -- to try to understand the effects
on all of us -- to hold those accountable who have killed -- and to prevent
future acts of conflict, war and injustice.
Within our AFTA community there has been a tremendous outpouring of e-mails
and other contacts which have included deep words of support, information
about ways to be there for and connect with families and communities affected
by trauma, descriptions of work being done, as well as personal responses.
The recent AFTA Board retreat on October 4 — 7, 2001 reaffirmed AFTA's
position to stand against hate, injustice, and intolerance in any form.
In the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11, many people have been
the recipients of other violent responses. There are also other vulnerable
communities including those who are refugees, immigrants, or from war torn
countries. Acts of racism, discrimination, and violence along the continuum
-- from minor slights to physical attacks -- divide us as communities and
replicate social injustices.
AFTA members have taken stands against acts such as these and have initiated
various dialogues, support groups, and other projects to support those affected
by trauma, loss, and violence. We encourage you to write short pieces
for the next AFTA Newsletter on your work and the work of other AFTA members
so that we may all benefit from the expertise of this group. You may
also wish to send in brief descriptions of resources (with full citations
please so people may locate them) including web sites that have been useful,
written information, and other things such as audio-visual materials.
Please write them up with the benefit of your critical eye and please use
our membership directory to be in contact with others in your area to help
us compile these resources.
Please save your contributions as a .doc file in MSWord and attach them to
an e-mail. Send the e-mail with your contribution by November 15, 2001 to: thomasv@purdue.edu.
For further questions please e-mail the Editor at the same e-mail address
or call at (765) 494-7859.
With deep appreciation that we have had and will continue to have the benefit
of connection with this community of talented and caring people in these most
difficult of times. Janine Roberts, President of AFTA Volker Thomas, AFTA Newsletter Editor |
