Sunday, September 02, 2018

by

Abby Zimet, staff writer

Photos by World Beyond War

With September marking the fraught final buildup toward the vital mid-terms, anti-war activists are launching a new billboard campaign to raise awareness of - and change - America's role in sustaining and supporting conflicts around the world. Designed by World Beyond War and often partnering with local organizations, the project in the past has brought its calls for peaceable action to D.C. bus shelters, Toronto subways and the streets of New York City, Baltimore, Albany, Syracuse, Charlottesville, VA.; to explore the issues it raises in greater detail than can fit on a billboard, World Without War will hold its annual conference later this month in Toronto.

Funded entirely by contributions, the billboard project offers an array of blunt, sometimes mobile messages - "Armed Drones Make Orphans," "Iraq Is the Saddest Country On Earth," "For Every Innocent Person You Kill, You Create 10 New Enemies," "The Majority of War Deaths Are Civilians," "You Can't Win A War Any More Than You Can Win An Earthquake" - blasting the human and economic cost of war. Working with Women Against War, Neighbors For Peace and Upper Hudson Peace Action, it will kick off this election season with a Friday vigil and billboard launch in Schenectady, NY. Its goal: To "push our policy makers to make different choices," and hold them accountable if they don't.