The Ban Bus

United Nations Day in Davis, California

After an initial panic on over-packing of the Ban Bus, ban campaigners squeezed everything in and set off for Davis, CA today - a town of 55,000 about one hour’s drive east of Berkeley. Approximately 25,000 students attend the University of California in Davis where the Ban Bus stopped at noon today to participate in an outdoors landmine event on the main square organized by the campus’ National Organization for Women (NOW) chapter.

On 22 October, Davis members of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines published a full page open letter to President Clinton in the local paper, The Davis Enterprise, urging him to demonstrate moral leadership by supporting the Ottawa Treaty. It was signed by over 650 local individuals and organizations and will be sent to the President along with additional names received. “We were amazed at how easy and fast we managed to get folks to sign on to this letter and donate funds to place it in the paper,” said Will Lotter, of the Davis Religious Community for Sanctuary. Campaigners also successfully lobbied to get the Davis City Council to sponsor a landmine resolution proclaiming the day: “Ban Landmines Day”.

Tonight, the Ban Bus will participate in an event at the Davis Unitarian Church organized by local groups including the Davis United Nations Association. The keynote speaker is Vince Rios, a decorated U.S. Marine sergeant who lost both legs and one arm to a landmine while serving in Vietnam twenty years ago.

The Ban Bus participants would like to thank the Davis ban supporters for their kind hospitality including Mary Ellen Dolcini of the UNA/Davis and Northern California, Jane and Will Lotter, Richard and Judy Houck, Andrew Anker and Nancy Leroy and Merline Williams.

The Ban Bus stops in Chico, CA tomorrow (Saturday 25th). Contact: Sandi Williams, Soroptimist International, tel. 916-343-4632.

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Messages of support for the Ban Bus have been received from children around the world, from the CyberSchoolBus to the Ban Bus - a selection of their emails follow:

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Here are a selection of messages supporting the Ban Bus, ICBL a USCBL. These were sent in to the Schools Demining Schools project run by the United Nations CyberSchoolBus.

>From the CyberSchoolBus crew, good luck to all of you and see you in New
York.
Abouali Farmanfarmaian, Coordinator

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Dear Bus Crew,

I hope we are not too late to hop on the bus. Please carry our support on this issue. We will be hoping and/or praying that President Clinton will “get on board” by the time you reach Ottawa in December. We look forward to seeing you when you pass through Connecticut. Tell Mary Wareham that we were thrilled to meet her last Saturday at the
AntiLandmine Campaign at Yale University. Be sure to let Jody Williams how proud we are of her.
Bravo.
Safe traveling.

Joan Cole, Advisor
Schweitzer Student Network
East Lyme Middle School
East Lyme, CT 06357
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To the ICBL,
Congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. I agree with the treaty to ban land mines. Any weapon of war that risks killing innocent civilians with out warning should be severely restricted. Thank you for helping keep the world safe.

Michael Christopher
penn-tex@swbell.net
313 Pinnacle Drive
Cedar Hill, Texas 75104
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To the Ban Bus crew,
Congratulations to the ICBL on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. We hope your journey raises awareness sufficiently to stir the US government and Bill Clinton to positive action, just as Russia and Japan have recently done.
Regards

Stella Louca
(ESL Co-ordinator)
Kew High School
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I am very impressed with the unbelievable effort in the war against land mines. Because of such organizations such as the ICBL, the world is becoming a better place for all of us, especially the future, us the children. So I congratulate the ICBL, and wish them my support.
Yours in support

Jeffrey Eriksen
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On behalf of the Warwick High school Students in Warwick, Queensland, AUSTRALIA, we would like to wish the Banbus the greatest success in bringing the message of world wide mine banning to the people of the U.S.A.
Our congratulations go to the ICBL in winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

Anna Nolan, Susan Watts and Bob Fraser.
Ross Barrell
Warwick State High School
mailto:rossb@flexi.net.au
phone: +61 76 618332
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CONGRATULATIONS to the ICBL on winning the nobel peace prize. Landmines should be banned! Any endeavour to achieve this is to be congratulated. What a great idea to get support for a total ban treaty by the ban bus trip.

Cherrol McGhee
cmcghee@b022.aone.net.au
Possum Magic Book Rap Co-ordinator
Class Teacher
Hillvigu State School
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Dear Ban Bus,
Congratulations to your efforts to ban land mines. I thank you very much. I am a United States citizen living in North Cyprus. My spouse took a job teaching here, and I also do some part-time teaching.I have been here 2 1/2 years, and have been much concerned with the increasing military tensions concerning Cyprus. I had never heard of land mines here until last month, when a land mine killed a man who followed his dog into the buffer zone area in S. Nicosia. I have a 7 year old girl who loves to run and play, as all children should have the right to do. It is so sad to think of the children who have been maimed by the terrible land mines, or worse yet killed. Please keep up your good work. I read about your project on the Global School Bus email. Let me know if I can help in some way via email.
Sincerely,

Kathleen W. Pagan
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Congrats,
I think you are doing a great job. Not many can say they won a Nobel Peace Prize. I wish that we had signed on to the band. Thank-you for you work and effort.

Bill preye@educ.umass.edu
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We are students from Argentina. A teacher told us about this project about the Landmines.He also told us about the reject of USA. What we want to say is that we are with you and we wish the Ban Bus project will be succesful.
Best Wishes.

San Luis Gonzaga School.
ARGENTINA