Download PDF of this full issue: v26n1.pdf (10.4 MB)

Appeal for the Dellingers

By VVAW

July 25, 1995

Dear Friends of Dave and Elizabeth Dellinger:

Since their wedding in 1942, Dave Dellinger and Elizabeth Peterson have been champions of peace and justice, beacons of hope and inspiration, and doers of what needs to be done. Dave continues to speak to and with as many of the countless groups that seek his counsel as his schedule allows. He has just returned from a Peace March through Vietnam and Cambodia, from speaking at a rally for Mumia Abu-Jamal in Philadelphia, and from meetings on behalf of Leonard Peltier in Washington, D.C. Elizabeth is hard at work on her memoirs and is very active with our local North Country Coalition for Peace and Justice, along with other groups, on issues from prisoners' rights to recognition for the Abenski Nation here in Vermont. She also assists with the local hospice and senior meals programs. Few individuals have given more of themselves than have these two in their lifelong active commitment to non-violent struggle for racial and economic justice. Even fewer have done so with greater humility, compassion, and good humor.

As war-tax resisters, and as individuals committed to a simple lifestyle, the fact that there was often very little financial compensation for years of active dedication to our struggle may have been easier for their family to deal with than it would have been for most of ours. This summer, Dave will turn 80 and Elizabeth 75. It is time for us to reflect on our love and appreciation for them, and help facilitate their transition into a new, challenging, yet ever-fruitful period of their lives. A period in which it may not always be possible for Dave to split the firewood for their wood stove (and primary heat source) or for Elizabeth to stack that firewood and feed the stove, often many times a day and night. A period in which the trips up and down stairs to the basement laundry and to the sole bathroom upstairs have become an increasingly less manageable burden.

With your help, we would like to raise a minimum of $10,000 to purchase the materials, and a portion of the labor, to equip the Dellinger-Peterson home with a backup oil furnace, increased insulation, and a first floor bathroom/laundry. Much of the labor will be donated by local activists. Your help would be deeply appreciated, and would indeed help to ensure that Dave and Elizabeth will be able to remain in the home on Peacham Bay they love so well.

I trust you will help as best you are able. Checks can be made out to the Hardwick Area Peace and Justice Coalition, footnoted to the Dave and Elizabeth Peace and Justice Fund, Box 336, Hardwick, VT 05843. For further information, you can reach me, Robin Cappuccino, the coordinator of this effort, at 802-533-2296.

Many thanks.