While the For Mother Earth anti-nuclear march was taking place, I know what was going on because of people I had met at the Hague Appeal for Peace. Never once did I see a mention of the peace walk in any kind of American media even though I was actively looking for it. I did find out that there was American media filming and recording the events at the end of the walk, however, and it angered me that there was still no coverage. I wanted to take matters into my own hands so I tried to get as many people as I possibly could to act with me, contacting every form of American media (radio, television, and newspaper.) I spent an entire weekend on the phone with newspapers and television stations, explaining over and over again the story of 262 people being hit with water cannons and arrested while trying to perform a civilian nuclear inspection at NATO headquarters. Most people I spoke to seemed only slightly interested but never ran a story. A representative of ABC News in New York City told me "That's not news" when I told him the story. One reporter from the Star Ledger newspaper in New Jersey seemed quite interested but the story never ran in the paper. I then spent several days emailing For Mother Earth press releases to hundreds of TV and radio stations across the country, including CBS, CNN, ABC, and every PBS station in the United States and Canada. I also sent them to several New York Times reporters. I got a total of two responses... one from a PBS station asking me not to send them press releases in the future, and one from a NY Times reporter saying he had forwarded the press release to his editor.

This was a very frustrating experience for me but I know that I can't allow it to wear me out and discourage me in the future. I believe that if I stick with my goal of getting positive, peaceful events into the news, and if other people who support this goal will act with me, we will be successful. The public has to demand that they receive this kind of news coverage as well as coverage of wars, murders, famine, and every other depressing event that gets reported on every single day. The way we can go about this is by keeping on top of world events ourselves... go online and read the newspapers from other countries, correspond with someone in another country, follow the news from an NGO that interests you. Be the first to hear about the news you would like to see in American media and then immediately contact the news and tell them you'd like to see that certain story covered. Try to rally other people to contact the media also. If enough people do this for enough time, it will pay off. Good luck, and peace and love to all.

Nathalie White

UU Teens for Peace