War Resisters League (WRL) board member Frida Berrigan was recently presented with the Kairos Award, honoring her for “her commitment to nonviolent action and her work for nuclear disarmament, demilitarization and human rights.”  The Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives presents this award annually to individuals and organizations in recognition of “their work to create conditions of peace and justice and moments of possibility for social change.”

Frida is nationally recognized as an expert on national security issues, the arms trade, human rights, and nuclear weapons policy.  She was a Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation.  She served as the Deputy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center of the World Policy Institute.

In her acceptance speech, Frida described, “the work of peacemaking” as, “trying to pull our humanity back from a voracious and violent and virulent strain of capitalism.”  She said that there is “less money for people’s needs, more money for war.  Money for war never seems to be in short supply.”  Frida spoke of what seems to be the “normalization of hatefulness.”  She proclaimed, “The moment demands our attention, demands our outrage, demands our compassion, demands our vision, demands our work; and that is what peacemaking is about.”

For more information about the War Resisters League, a link to its website, and links to resources WRL offers, please see the War Resisters League entry in the Peace and Justice Online Directory of Resources.

Here is a video of Frida Berrigan’s inspiring speech.