Dear John,

Right now, members of Congress are debating over how many bombs and fighter jets they can buy and how many hundreds of billions of dollars they can add to the military budget next year. While their constituents go hungry, or go into medical debt, they are trying their best to fund the next war. 

We know policymakers in Washington are out of touch. It’s become quite clear over the years that the message of peace hasn’t been visible enough. That's why we are working on uplifting the message of peace this summer so they can't ignore us!

What is the summer of peace? It may seem abstract, but the fact of the matter is, we’ve spent the last year trying to bring anti-war messaging to members of Congress and their staff tell us they haven’t seen the movement for peace. We aren’t visible enough. The Summer of Peace is about making ourselves visible again. You can join the Summer of Peace by putting a peace flag in your window, wheatpasting peace messages in your area, putting up CODEPINK stickers, handing out flyers supporting peace through diplomacy in Ukraine, and organizing a peace walk at your local farmers market. It only takes one person to uplift the message of peace, and that’s what we want to focus on this summer. 

Our goal? We want to have 500 actions for peace by the end of September. If you put a peace sign in your window, send us a picture, if you wear your CODEPINK shirt to a music festival, send us a picture! We’ve already kicked off the summer with our phone banking team which has made 300 calls to Members of Congress calling for negotiations in Ukraine! Shoutout to star phone banker Kathleen! 

Will you pledge to join the summer of peace?

At CODEPINK, we are focusing on movement building this summer. After the war in Ukraine started people were asking where the peace movement was. You are here! We are here! But when the only visible message is one for war and weapons, standing up for peace can feel isolating. So the Summer of Peace is about showing how popular peace really is. It’s about being loud, brave, and audacious in any way you can big or small! 

If you’re in, we already have one thing you can do today. To make this as effective as possible, we need to have as many people as possible! Kick off the summer of peace by forwarding this message to five of your friends. You can start your summer as a movement builder!

After you've signed the pledge to join the Summer of Peace, we want you on the planning committee. This is a collective effort. Join us on Zoom on July 10 at 6PM ET for our first commitment and brainstorming call.

Towards peace,
The whole CODEPINK Team 

P.S. We just got cool new CODEPINK shirts. Vijay Prashad already got his, get yours today!