In the name of peace, they went to Afghanistan last year and toured neighborhoods devastated by American bombs.
In the face of war, they flew to Iraq last month and visited cities that may become targets in the coming months.
They have done all the things that anti-war activists normally do. They marched on Washington. They requested meetings with the president. They prayed.
But one day sets Myrna Bethke, Colleen Kelly and their compatriots apart from other anti-war groups. That day was Sept. 11, 2001, when they lost brothers, sons, sisters, spouses and other loved ones in the terrorist attacks.
"We want justice, not retribution," said Bethke, a Methodist pastor from Freehold whose brother Bill died when one of the planes hit near his office on the 95th floor of the South Tower.
Bethke and Kelly are members of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group whose mission has taken on added urgency in recent weeks as America moves closer to a war on Iraq.
Just the other day, Kelly said, she fielded phone calls from reporters from Japan, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy who wanted to interview her about her experience.
Kelly and several other group members spent six days in Iraq last month, visiting schools, hospitals and mosques.
"The point of the trip was to humanize the people of Iraq," she said.
"This is my way of honoring my brother's memory," said Kelly, a nurse practitioner from the Bronx, whose brother Bill was attending a business conference at Windows on the World when the terrorists struck.
Peaceful Tomorrow members know they represent a small segment of the survivors of Sept. 11 victims. They acknowledge there are many other Sept. 11 families who have cheered the strikes against Afghanistan and the preparations for war against Iraq.
"It's about preventing other people from being killed in terrorist attacks," said Stephen Push of Great Falls, Va., whose wife Lisa Raines was aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. "We are not going to be safe unless there are fundamental changes in the Middle East."
Push is on the board of directors of another group called Families of September 11, an organization with about 1,500 members. Their goals are to support policies that prevent terrorism and to promote the families' interests, such as evaluating compensation plans.
"Our board has decided not to take a position" on the possible war against Iraq, said Push, explaining that his support for military action is purely his personal point of view. "We discussed it, but we couldn't reach a consensus. It's a very divisive issue."
Even within many victims' families there is a disagreement on the war question. For example, Kelly has a sister and brother-in-law who support President Bush's military plans. In fact, Kelly is the only one from her family involved in the peace group.
Peaceful Tomorrow members say they are particularly offended by President Bush's references to their relatives' deaths as he tries to build support for military action. They want to get out the message that there are other ways to combat terrorism.
"Any time they've caught any of the masterminds, it was through intelligence work, not military intervention," said Kelly. "I'm not interested in catching some sheepherder who got caught up in this. I want the guys who planned it, the guys who are responsible for murdering my brother."
At one point, Peaceful Tomorrow members were going to be at the front of the procession for the anti-war march yesterday in Manhattan. But that changed after New York authorities denied permission for the march, requiring organizers to hold a stationary rally instead. Peaceful Tomorrow had a space on the podium for the rally.
Kelly traced Peaceful Tomorrows' beginnings back to November 2001. There had been a peace walk, and afterward a few people went out for beers at the White Horse Tavern in Manhattan.
"We knew we had to do something, to join our voices together," said Kelly.
Kelly said the group includes 80 relatives of Sept. 11 victims. It has three full-time employees. Its fund-raising efforts range from $10 checks that come from strangers in the mail to a $50,000 grant from the Ford Foundation.
Peaceful Tomorrows' members went to Afghanistan twice last year. At a memorial service, they showed pictures of their lost loved ones to people whose family members died during American bombings.
"At that moment, there was a connection, a sense of common loss," said Bethke, who was among those on the trip.
Some of the Afghans she met were not aware of what happened on Sept. 11, Bethke said. But most all of them had experienced the devastation of war, she added.
Bethke recalled meeting an 8-year-old girl named Amina who had been making tea in the kitchen when the rest of her family was killed by a bomb.
"She stood before us and listed name after name after name of the people she lost," said Bethke.
Kelly said her trip to Iraq last month opened her eyes to the history and culture of Iraq.
"All we hear about is Saddam Hussein," said Kelly. "We wanted to see the faces of the people."
The constant presence of "government minders" colored her interaction with the Iraqi people. Kelly said she realized the Iraqis were not free to express their political beliefs. Still, she said, she remembers their smiles, their sorrow and their fear.
"One woman came up to me and asked: 'Why don't they just bomb us and get this over with?'" said Kelly.
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