(as aired about 1455 PST, 27.09.01, on KPFK,
Los Angeles)

The peace initiative that I announce today is an exercise in leadership to expedite the process of our reunion and focus our attention on our new reality as of Sept 11, 2001. It brings familiar voices back to our airwaves; we handle our grievances and differences internally; and we request the continuing confidence and support of our many listener-subscribers in the Pacifica leadership. It establishes a Pacifica role in the American led response to the terrorist war brought so violently to our country. These activities can be accomplished in the near future. They are in response to our national crisis.

I want a unified Pacifica. We need to field the best team available as we use our airwaves, so I am asking Amy Goodman to come back to a supportive Pacifica; that the Pacifica Campaign pause in its activities; and that the Pacifica network news stringers end their strike and return home. And I will ask board members who are suing Pacifica to please reconsider their suits at this time.

I'm currently in Washington, D.C., to meet with the Executive Director and our counsel on the state of affairs of the Pacifica Foundation. I will use this information and a series of proposed policy matters already prepared by our Executive Director and Board member recommendations for a report on the state of the Pacifica Foundation. I will obtain independent organizational audits of Pacifica as we address our management oversight and fiduciary responsibilities. I promise our listener-subscribers that as materials are prepared for board discussion that they will be posted on our website and that we will develop and use our airwaves and the internet to seek their concerns and comments.

As we take this path we must begin to define Pacifica’s unique role as America sets forth on its war on terrorism.

Central to that role is Pacifica Network News and the way that we approach national programming on our airwaves. I believe that the expressed concerns of station managers, staff, volunteers, and listener-subscribers past and present can be addressed and resolved when considered in the context of the international crisis that we face today.

To support our board and staff in dealing with the new reality I will establish an independent panel as advisors in the vital role of management of Pacifica Network News. It will be supplemented by experts with knowledge of the lands and people most immediately effected in this, the first world war of the 21st century.

I want to thank our station managers and staff, paid and volunteer, for their services and contributions to Pacifica. I appreciate that support. I want to express my appreciation again to you, our listener-supporters, who make the Pacifica Foundation, its airwaves, management and our leadership opportunities possible.

Now, we will be coming to you again soon, as is our custom and obligation, for financial support through our fund drives and special appeals. We must all come together to fund and finance our future. The Pacifica Foundation and community that will engage the new international war and its consequences will require our giving – mine, yours, and all the members of the Pacifica family.

What you can expect to hear in the near future is our support and encouragement of people like the courageous Representative Barbara Lee, advocate of a Department of Peace, Representative Dennis Kucinic, information and news concerning the campus awakenings as a new generation expresses its concerns about war in more than 120 locations across the country; commentary and analysis of the war and its consequences put in historic, economic, and political context as a guide to civic and political action.

What we will also expect of you is your continuing support and participation as we review the vision and role of Lew Hill and use that as a guide in our own transformation of Pacifica in this present day.

Thank you very much.

God bless Pacifica.

God bless America.