‘Tis the season of peace, joy, and goodwill toward men and women, and as such we at The Independent have, for the past several years, recognized people in our community who dedicate their lives to those tenets year-round. In this year’s Peace on Earth issue, Nick Welsh talks to activist Dennis Apel, who, along with helping the poor and downtrodden in his home town of Guadalupe, has staged numerous peace vigils at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc to protest American military actions and spending; and Isabelle T. Walker writes of her experience walking the streets with Doctors Without Walls as they tirelessly patrol the nooks and crannies of our city in search of homeless people who need medical attention, which they then administer for free. We’ve also printed poems of peace by the winners in the youth category of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation’s Poetry Contest. Read on for inspiration.
• Healing the Forgotten – A Medical Team Gives Aid to the Homeless by Isabelle T. Walker
• Bearing Witness or Bearing Fruit? – Waging Peace at Vandenberg Air Force Base by Nick Welsh