Check out this tasty nugget from Google Video created by former FOR peace delegate and civilian diplomat and filmmaker Margot Smith, Videomaker www.offcentervideo.com. OffCenterVideo@aol.com

An excellent idea of what the trip is like and what the mission is all about.

it is called Listen to Iran’s People: A Call for Peace

by Mark Hare • May 20, 2008 Originally published in the Democrat Chronicle, Rochester, New York

When Hillary Clinton suggested recently that, were she president, an attack on Israel by Iran would result in the “total obliteration” of Iran, some recent visitors to that country cringed. As they did when President George W. Bush likened talking to Iran or Hamas with “appeasement.” Lynda Howland, Tom Moore and Judy Bello have all visited Iran within the last year — Howland, in March — under the auspices of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, one of the country’s oldest peace groups. “A lot of the American public sees Iran as primitive, terrorist and uncivilized,” says Howland, of Pittsford. But that’s not what visitors find in Iran, she says. Iranians are increasingly well-educated, respectful and eager to speak to Americans, she says. She showed me a photo of some soldiers smiling and flashing a peace sign when they learned the group in front of them were Americans. Read the rest of this entry »

Stanley & David in Qom, Iran

Stanley Campbell will show slides and speak about his trip to Iran at the

Mr. Campbell has served 20 years as executive director of Rockford Urban Ministries, and has been on numerous peace missions including Nicaragua in 1985; Guatemala in 1986; a return trip with Vietnam veterans in 1987; and the occupied territories of Israel in 1988 during the first intifada. Mr. Campbell has also joined a Volunteers In Mission/UMCOR work camp to Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 1996, and a delegation of the National Council of Churches to Cuba in 2004

“We want to get the message out that if we could talk to the Iranians, so should our government,” says Mr. Campbell after his latest trip to Iran.

Contact: Douglas Thompson 309-264-8914; Razia 309-868-4218