Carol Mosley
USA Director
Co-founder & Former Coordinator of Nature Studies program at Miami Dade College
Ana Maria Vasquez
Co-Founder and Coordinator of Darien & Mexico projects. Eco-artist and musician
Michi Regier
Violinista who volunteers with our Music Across Borders program in Mexico
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John Alvarez
Student Activist, Conflict Resolution Mediator
Richard Boren
Border Issues activist; Nicaragua and Colombia Witness for Peace
Stephen Hodges
Botany student who has traveled to the Darien region to give workshops on ecology
Stetson Kennedy
Infiltrator of KKK and author of books Southern Hospitality, The Klan Unmasked, Palmetto Country and numerous others
Maralyn Teare
Marriage, Family & Child Counselor; Former National Red Cross Disaster Team Responder
Sooyong Kim
Landscape Architect, Origami expert
Kenneth Weeks
Peace and Justice Activist, Ecologist
Sr Miriam Therese MacGillis
Co-founder of Genesis Farm Earth Literacy Center & Community Supported Farm in Blairstown, NJ
Emerita GarciaDescription
Sally Luther
On Board of Directors for Radio Por la Paz in Costa Rica
John Neumaier
On Board of Directors for Radio Por la Paz in Costa Rica, and writes for The Daily Freeman newspaper in New York

McGregor Smith
Founder of Miami Dade College Environmental Center; Co-founder of Turn the Tides
Llyas Salahud-din
Description
Larry AbdullahRichard AllenJohn AlvarezHerb BazurBetty BazurRosalie BeloffShelley BerkowitzSidney BertischMargaret BetzNancy BlattnerRichard BorenLaura BradfordCindy BrownBarbara BuckDarlene CharnecoMalcomb ChubbRuth Velma ClarkNoel ClelandMaria CobianJaime ColonLois CongdonDiana Marie CramJames CrooksKathleen CrowSylvia DavisDon DaughtryKathy DaughtryMargaret Day JulianJ. DiBenedetto-Colton |
Shawna DoranMary EarleyBeth & Tony EhrlichMary ElmendorfHenri A. FourrouxElizabeth FussellAl GeigerJulia Geiger (dec.)Wendy GeigerMaurice GioseffiKatie GoldeyRoy GoodmanJean GrosbachJennifer HaleDavid HartgroveJoanne HerrmannStephen Hodges“Smitty” HooperWilliam J. HopkinsWarren HoskinsDelene IaconoAntoinette JacksonJennifer JenStephen Jens-RochowAlberto Jones/CACFAllen JosephMargaret KaryLeon KatsirStetson Kennedy |
Eleanor KenyonSooyong KimLisa KiserSean LandonDwight LawtonTed LeithoDan LiftmanIvone LimaCynthia LunineSally LutherSr. Miriam MacGillisDiana MarengoSusan MastinSonia MaxwellRoss McCluneyElizabeth McGeeTim & Katie McGuirlMetanoia Comm.Don MicklewrightJohn NeumaierKelly O’SullivanJocelyn PeskinJessica PhillipsShirley D. PoorePaula Pred (dec.)Stanley Pred (dec.)Ruth RagsdaleGladys RestrepoJennifer Restrepo |
Anne RichterEric RidenourAdriana SalinasFrank SchiavoneKristin SegelkePeer SegelkeConnie ShearerJane SheffieldJorge & Karen SilvaKena P. SliwaMcGregor SmithMarla SuiterAisha TaylorMaralyn TeareJackie TurchickT.D.N.P. at UTRuth UphausJudith VillarTed WarmbrandKenneth WeeksKurtis WeeksSue WilliamsRobert WinchesterLouise WinchesterSakkony YeangBetty YoungerMichelle ZacksRon ZamoraMary Lea Zamora |
What do we really want from the whole of our lives but to leave a legacy? We want to be thought of on occasion and remembered kindly. We hope that with our life we have made this planet just a little better off. This is the legacy we want to leave for the children of the future.
Much of what we do at BRIDGES honors the foundation left by those who’ve come before us. We know these real life heroines and heroes live on through our thoughts and actions we take. We want them to be proud, and we are grateful for their gifts.
This Memoriam section honors the memory of people who have been near and dear to us in various ways, whether through direct support for BRIDGES or our members, been related through the work of our projects, or by the influence their life has had on our passion for creating a more just and peaceful planet. We all know the deep pain of loss and we grieve also for those who have lost loved ones recently in these violent times across the planet. We ache as we watch the news. The tendency is to feel hopelessness with such vast suffering all around us. But if we take a step, any little step at all, we set in motion a dynamic of creating a critical mass that will bring in a paradigm shift from competition to cooperation.
If you wish to honor a loved one by support for one of our projects or general support for Bridges Across Borders, please let us know. And thank you for the legacy you are creating by the way you live your life each and every day.
Frank Schiavone— It is with sadness for his passing and joy for the powerful impact of his life that we report the loss of South Florida activist and BRIDGES Advisory Board member Frank Schiavone. Frankie was a courageous, lifelong pacifist who served prison time as a conscientious objector during WWII. He was famous for his annual holiday ritual of dressing up as Santa Claus and hitting the malls with his “Don’t Buy War Toys” sign. Click here for more about Frank

Peg McIntire— North Florida and the world have lost a courageous, dedicated “peaceful warrior” for social change with the passing of our dear friend, Peg McIntire. Peg was a lifelong member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, a co-founder of Grandparents for Peace, and a strong supporter of BRIDGES, to name just a few of her many accomplishments in the movement for worldwide peace and justice. In this picture, Peg is receiving BRIDGES’ “Rock” Award.
Arlyne Goodwin— Our pilgrimage to the School of the Americas protest at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA was not the same this year without the chance to see our friend Arlyne, who made the vigil annually along with her husband, Archie.
BAB has been working to create sustainable economic alternatives for the indigenous and refugee communities in the Darien Gap rainforest region that spans across the border of Panama and Colombia. These projects were initiated in 1994 in Choco, Colombia, until massacres in the town necessitated an exodus for a majority of the residents. Since then the project focus has been across the border in Panama to deal with the needs of the refugees and the receiving community. The Darien Projects are now based in Jacque, Panama since the war in Colombia has made it impossible to continue the projects in Choco.
In the United States, BAB gives presentations in order to raise awareness about the ongoing tragedy in this region and how the US policy “Plan Colombia” contributes to the suffering.
Worsen Colombia’s devastating war and human rights crisis:
Plan Colombia bolsters Colombia’s military despite its persistent ties to right-wing paramilitary forces who represent the gravest threat to peace and democracy in that country. The paramilitaries commit the vast majority of human rights abuses and actively engage in drug trafficking. In early 2001 the paramilitaries increased their massacres of civilians and violently took control of territory in southern Colombia ahead of fumigation operations. The escalated war effort also undermines fragile peace negotiations, which are widely recognized as the only hope for lasting peace and a reduction of the violence associated with drug trafficking. Plan Colombia has emboldened efforts to solve the 35-year internal conflict on the battlefield while undermining government and civil society leaders seeking a peaceful resolution.
Poison food crops, and damage human and environmental health:
Last month, governors from four of Colombia’s southern states came to Washington to demand a halt to the U.S. backed campaign of aerial defoliation in their region. They described how subsistence farmers – not large coca plantations – were the most common targets of fumigation. Many families in the southern states have lost some or all of their food crops and been forced to leave their land. U.S. and Colombian officials insist that the defoliant chemicals being sprayed do not threaten human or environmental health. Yet the governors, as well as human rights monitors, report widespread respiratory and skin problems among people who have been directly sprayed. Environmentalists warn that defoliation threatens plant-life and animals in the fragile Amazon ecosystem.
Force drug production into neighboring regions:
As Colombia suffers the consequences of Plan Colombia, the economic and social factors will remain unchanged: massive poverty and a nearly inexhaustible supply of cultivatable land that guarantee new supplies will emerge to meet undiminished U.S. demand for drugs. Cocoa cultivation is already moving to new areas within Colombia and across its borders.
Three years later, the critics of Plan Colombia have been vindicated on all accounts. Plan Colombia has worsened the human rights situation in Colombia, poisoned people and the environment and failed to reduce the supply of narcotics into the United States. Take action today by urging your legislators to end this failed and counter-productive policy
Adapted from an article on the Washington Office of Latin America website: www.wola.org


