
Description
It is 1983, and the anti-war movement Target Seattle is preparing for a trip to Tashkent, Seattle's Sister City in Uzbekistan. Betsy Bell's husband, Don, is the chair of the executive committee of Target Seattle, and co-leader of the trip. Travelling with three thousand copies of a peace petition, as well as her seventeen-year-old daughter and thirty others, Betsy sees first-hand the risks of travelling as an American to the USSR. She also sees the heart-warming stories of people-to-people connections across political boundaries. Upon returning to the US, Betsy pushes to find her own voice in a world where a wife's goals are subservient to her husband's. As tensions between the US and USSR are only increasing, Betsy travels to Washington, DC. She speaks to elected officials and the United Nations in favor of open borders, even as conflicting aspirations and careers become a point of contention in her marriage. With honesty and poise, Betsy chronicles a history of a time when ordinary citizens were transformed into agents of peace
Product Details
Publisher | Epicenter Press (WA) |
Publish Date | October 16, 2018 |
Pages | 132 |
Language | English |
Type | |
EAN/UPC | 9781941890219 |
Dimensions | 8.5 X 5.5 X 0.3 inches | 0.3 pounds |
About the Author
Reviews
"Open Borders tells a story both personal and world-changing.... Betsy writes beautifully as she narrates her own passion for citizen diplomacy between the world's two nuclear super powers at a time the Soviets seemed determined to bury us. [...] An inspiring memoir with follow on essays by and about extra-ordinary citizens who brought heart to the Cold War. Betsy Bell offers us a deepened and expanded awareness of how citizen diplomacy changes our world."
--David C Hall MD, Past president, PSR and WPSR; author of America's Exceptional Violence
"With global tensions rising and the threat of nuclear weapons again coming into public consciousness, this is a timely reminder of the power of peoples movements to make the world safer for everyone."
--Susi Snyder, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (2017 Nobel Peace Prize)
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