WAND Women Speakers' Bureau
Speaker: Karen Jacob

Region New England; Oregon, Washington State, IN, MI, OH, IL, Midwest Honorarium None Expenses to be covered Travel and lodging (unless within driving distance from home) Topics of focus Federal budget priorities, nuclear non-proliferation, women's political empowerment, unmet human needs, U.S. foreign policy, impact of federal policies and budget priorities on the states Preferred audience Informal, students, formal, religious, either small or large

Karen Jacob has enjoyed a long “peace career” and has worked for Promoting Enduring Peace, (currently president of their board) and Physicians for Social Responsibility, in addition to long-time affiliations with other peace and justice organizations. Karen serves as president of WAND of Northern Indiana, an active chapter that organizes many local peace and justice events.

A comment made at a meeting of policy experts solved a dilemma for Karen. Her ongoing quandary had been, “how could she change hearts and minds of people who were being terribly misled by the neo-cons in power?” The observation made at the meeting was that peace activists forego effectiveness in their quest to be right. From that moment on “being effective,” and, of course, using the truth, has become Karen’s mantra.

Jacob states, “I was very eager to take advantage of WAND’s speaker bureau training as I knew that I would learn how to frame our position in order to be the most effectual speaker I could possibly be. I am passionate about WAND’s mission, which is: ‘WAND empowers women to act to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.’ Now I have a powerful tool to convey our mission, and I am anxious to use it.”

Another aspect to Jacob’s “powerful tool” is to make use of visuals. She states, “As an artist, I am a visual person, it is my strength. For those of us who believe in evolution, we understand that humans evolved by seeing their world, that’s how they came to understand it. Today, we, the evolved species, although able to be moved to tears by beautiful words we hear or read, the things we see, like the horrible photographs from Abu Ghraib, have the most impact on us.”

Jacob will frame her message, using words and pictures, within the context of her belief that, “we cannot stand on the sidelines and let the neo-cons destroy what we Americans value the most, such as programs that assist the least fortunate among us. We cannot let them use the “nation’s checkbook” to further enrich the already rich and to spread violence via their militarism around the world. Freedom, liberty and democracy will not come at the point of a gun. Only by fully funding diplomatic efforts and goodwill programs will we bring peace and freedom.