PEOPLES OPINION PROJECT LAUNCHES ITS FIRST "OPINION AD" IN THE NEW YORK TIMES: 'In our effort to bring democracy to the people of the world, we keep forgetting about the people of the world

The Peoples Opinion Project (POP) has taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times featuring the 'voices of four people from around the world writing from personal experience on issues relevant to U.S. Middle East policy. The POP is the unofficial ad agency for the human condition, and it seeks to expand and encourage dialogue and debate on American foreign policy.

Saint Paul, MN - The Peoples Opinion Project (POP) has taken out a full-page ad in the New York Times, queued to run Sunday June 22, 2003 Main News Section, featuring the 'voices of four people from around the world writing from personal experience on issues relevant to U.S. Middle East policy. These voices include: American Andrew Rice, who lost his brother on 9/11, and serves on the board of Peaceful Tomorrows, the 9/11 families organization; Palestinian Salim Shawamreh, a civil engineer whose home has been destroyed four times since 1998 by the Israeli Civil Administration and rebuilt four times by Israeli and Palestinian volunteers; Jewish Israeli Nurit Peled-Elhanan, recipient of the Sakharov Award for human rights, who lost her daughter in an attack by a Palestinian suicide bomber; and American Kathy Kelly the three time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who was in Baghdad during the war.

The POP is the unofficial ad agency for the human condition," says Executive Director, and co-founder Ed Bice. The POP is neither left nor right-we act on behalf of decency and justice and we belong only to the vast conspiracy of parents who love their children. Our method and our goals are modest: let wise people tell their stories, hope to provoke thoughtful conversations. We intend this to be the first in an ongoing series of similar ads in the NY Times and other media outlets. This ad is running simultaneously in the 20 June edition of the Planet Jackson Hole, Dick Cheneys hometown weekly.

The POP is a non-profit media-based education project founded in May, 2003 that seeks to expand and encourage dialogue and debate on American foreign policy. According to Bice, "At the same time the American government is increasingly isolated from international support, the American people find themselves increasingly isolated from a diversity of views in the mainstream media. We hope that the POP addresses both of these challenges by providing the viewpoints that might encourage a broader understanding of the difficulties in the Middle East." There is no simple truth in the Middle East, there are no simple solutions in this new world, but there are stories. The POP is here to tell the difficult stories. We publish the voices of those whose lives have been changed by world events, those who find no use for hatred and vengeance in spite of their suffering.

The progressive advertisements will feature diverse opinions that encourage those foreign policy decisions that protect and promote human dignity. The project starts with a focus on the opinions and stories of people whose lives have been directly and dramatically affected by either terrorism or the larger war on terror - voices that speak simply to human conditions and human concerns.

"Ultimately," says co-founder Kent Cavender-Bares, "the POP is an effort to persuade the American people of the social and strategic benefit of policy decisions and actions that are rooted in a concern for human dignity." The POP was founded by a carpenter and an environmental scientist-two grade school friends with a shared concern for the world their children are will inherit. Cavender-Bares has devoted his career to trying to save the physical side of the planet. Erstwhile poet and philosopher Bice, who puts on a tool belt as a carpenter five days a week, studied social justice in Paul Wellstones classroom.

Concurrent with its first Opinion Ad in the New York Times, the POP also announces the launch of its website for FAQs, Mission Statement, Opinion Ad PDFs, Translations, and 'Opinions the online journal of the POP. Download the Opinion Ad from our website.