Yesterday I summarized the rally of the third week of the Poor People’s Campaign in Des Moines, Iowa. That event was held across the street from North High School because part of this week’s theme is school gun violence.

Videographer Rodger Routh shares video segments he takes at these events.

Here Robert Nishimwe talks about feeling unsafe at school:

One of the things that I was most affected by was Brian Terrell’s talk about his visits to Afghanistan. He said the median age for the population of the country was 18 years.  That meant half of the population had not been born when the war began.

Rodger Routh video:

I realized that must also mean very large numbers people older than 18 must have been killed in the war. When I asked my friend Rezadad Mohammadi, who comes from Afghanistan, if that was true he indicated that to a large extent it was. He also spoke about how corrupt the government there is, making it hard to create change. When I said I knew he was working for change to occur there, he replied, “not only me, but thousands of others, too.”

“During the war in Afghanistan (2001–present), over 31,000 civilian deaths due to war-related violence have been documented; 29,900 civilians have been wounded. Over 111,000 Afghans, including civilians, soldiers and militants, are estimated to have been killed in the conflict. The Cost of War project estimated that the number who have died through indirect causes related to the war may be as high 360,000 additional people based on a ratio of indirect to direct deaths in contemporary conflicts.”  Wikipedia

You can see Jon Krieg’s (AFSC) photos of the rally here:  http://photos.afsc.org/?c=1938&k=dbc5399e7f

And my photos: https://1drv.ms/f/s!Avb9bFhezZpPiaRhO7n1WLZ-6u_MFQ