Bumpers & Rankin Featured in New Book: June 2002 Issue: PeaceWatch: U.S. Institute of Peace

Featured in the new book Women Who Speak for Peace, U.S. Institute of Peace board member Betty Bumpers recently told Peace Watch that she feels less safe now than at any other time in her adult life. The reason is terrorism: a single individual can put a bomb into a suitcase and kill many people. In 1982, amid nuclear proliferation, Bumpers founded the grassroots organization Peace Links to increase awareness of, and opposition to, the nuclear arms race. (She continued as the organization's president until the national office ceased operations in 2001.) Today, Bumpers considers terrorism a greater threat than nuclear weapons.

In Bumpers' view, the U.S. response to the September 11 attacks has been misguided. Despite intensive military effort, coalition forces do not have control over much of Afghanistan, she commented. Instead of responding to violence with violence, Americans should focus on determining and solving the problems that underlie terrorism, Bumpers said. She believes that many people in other nations feel hostility toward the United States because Americans use such a massive, disproportionate amount of the world's resources.

Related causes of terrorism are poverty and exploitation, especially of children, Bumpers emphasized; "abused and neglected" children become inclined to violence. Governments—including the U.S. government—are not doing enough to increase their citizens' well-being, she stressed: "A country's strength comes from its people being taken care of," not "weapons, weapons, and more weapons." Bumpers urges new priorities: basic health care for all people; decent living and working conditions (including a healthy environment); and good education that, from childhood on, encourages critical thinking.

In addition to a chapter on Bumpers' use of myth and metaphor in her public presentations, Women Who Speak for Peace (Rowman & Littlefield, 2002; edited by Colleen E. Kelley and Anna L. Eblen) includes a chapter on the suffrage and antiwar activism of Jeannette Rankin. The first woman to serve in the U.S. Congress, Rankin was one of fifty congressional representatives who voted against entering World War I and the only congressional representative who voted against entering World War II. In 1968, she led a Washington, D.C. march against the Vietnam War. The Institute's library bears Rankin's name. Just as Bumpers continues to "speak for peace," Rankin's commitment to antiwar activism pned decades.