Editor’s note: Event information is listed at the bottom of this letter.
The editor of the Kent Reporter has asked me to write a column on who I am, the organizer of Peace Day, to be held at 7 p.m. July 10 at the Kent-Meridian High School Performing Arts Center.
So who is this guy Ken Iverson and where did he come from and why is he peddling Peace Day.
First, I am the President/CEO of Peace Day. Peace Day is a nonprofit corporation and charitable organization registered with the Washington Secretary of State. We will apply for tax exempt 501c3 nonprofit status with the IRS later in 2010.
Who is Ken Iverson? I am a 1961 graduate of Kent-Meridian and a 1965 graduate of Stanford University, BA, history with an emphasis on Africa.
But who is this guy anyway? I was registering blacks to vote in late October and early November 1963 in a mock election for Governor of Mississippi. The candidate was a black man named Aaron Henry. The purpose was to show that the black vote could be a force in Southern politics and particularly in Mississippi. President Obama was 2 years old at that time. It was three weeks before President Kennedy was shot and killed.
The following summer was the Summer of Freedom and white students from Stanford, Yale and other institutions spread across the South to register blacks to vote and to organize.
It is a long way from a mock election and Aaron Henry in November 1963 to the White House and a long way back to this civil rights worker from the White House today.
On July 6, I got a phone call from an assistant to President Obama saying unfortunately, the president would not be able to attend Peace Day July 10. I had invited him and his first family last week.
So who is this organizer of Peace Day? I am an Obama Democrat. I am a “full fledged” volunteer community organizer with Organizing for America seeking to promote the Obama agenda and to recruit others to do the same. Our aim is to elect and reelect candidates who support the Obama agenda. In this area that means U.S. Rep. Adam Smith and Suzan Delbene. And for U.S. senator, that means Patty Murray.
So who really is this guy Ken Iverson? I secured a loan for Peace Day from a small credit union in Seattle. Thank you Express Credit Union of Seattle for the loan. I will use it to pay for the rental of the Kent-Meridian Performing Arts Center the night of Peace Day.
Thank you for this opportunity to introduce myself.
Ken Iverson
Kent
Peace Day planned in Kent
Several speakers as well as a country music band are part of Kent’s first-ever Peace Day celebration 7 p.m. July 10 at the Kent-Meridian High School Performing Arts Center, 10020 S.E. 256th St.
Speakers at the free event include a Peace Corps recruiter, two members of the Institute for Community Leadership of Kent who will present original poetry and interpret Alice Walker’s poem “Why War is Never a Good Idea,” and a conscientious objector who served two years of alternative service with the Quakers in Seattle during the Vietnam War. Tupelo, an-eight member bluesy country band, will play at the festival.
Kent resident Ken Iverson is the organizer of Peace Day.
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