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Welcome to On Q magazine I'm Stacey Smith. Have you been talking with your children about the war in Iraq. Well some parents may find the topic difficult but there is one religious community in Fayette County that takes a unique approach. The Spring Valley brouhaha is one of 11 such communities in the world. And parents there actively engage their children in peaceful protest. Well tonight on cue contributor brings you this very different local perspective on the home front.

These are images of war. God yes. And these are images of past peace as it exist at the Spring Valley Buddha Hoff in Fant County or as her father it might be that we can all be together. Brother Hoff is an international Christian group founded in Germany in the one thousand twenty six in the world. Its members fled the violence in World War Two in hopes of finding a peaceful alternative to life. Yes the 300 members here live together and work

together. And lead simple lives of fellowship and peace together mold. He writes the nightly thought it would be like that in this time of Operation Iraqi Freedom. They are anti-war messages practiced and preached by even the youngest brother HOF members. Dear Mr President Bush we are sending you these songs and pictures because we want to protest war. Peace is good. I do not like you were because there are people just like you and me who wrote softer love for Martin Mahler and Lee's first and second graders at the school are composing poms letters

and pictures for President Bush children hoarding checks and riding on horses standing by the Easter fire Mel happy girl happy while they're so happy. Isn't any bombs in war. And when he sees it what do you want him to to see there. Everyone believes the same. I don't need to get bombed. We try to bring to our kids. We're not in a place to take sides. We're not going to say that the leadership of Iraq is wrong. We're not going to say the leadership of our country is wrong. We don't want to take sides. We feel regardless of the situation the war is wrong. Killing is wrong. There has to be a different solution to Rubbermaid.

Bobbi Kristina Burnett are the parents of four boys and at a time when many parents shy away from tough conversations about the war in Iraq. Our school Joe Bob and Christina aren't there talking about war. They're encouraging their children to speak out against it and wish our scotch and Russian and Iraqi did disclose the middle child. This is the Burnett son we've got Iraqi written in bold in red there. Right you do that because that would have been war. Your children ask a lot of questions. What questions have your children been asking about the war but I think that the questions are very normal you know is are we going to have to go to war because we're going to come to our land. My medalist How does a mother starves or you know how do you drop a bomb. Things like that and how do you answer that I think our greatest solution is to trust in God in prayer the

parents actually. We come from a believe a religion that believes that all things are actually in God's hands. What they recognize is that when war comes out of greed and wanting more for ourselves. Definitely pray for the troops and the president as well as the children and the rockets. I know suffering is in the original plan and pray that it can come to an end soon. Prying isn't all they do in protest of the war in Iraq. Brutal HOF members say I'm not just against war we like to focus on what we're for you know for peace peacemakers and that's something we can do right here in our community as followers of Jesus our task is to be peacemakers and we can do that by taking care of an older person or looking out for a child or need some extra attention by resolving conflicts between ourselves and our families in American unity. And that holds true for anybody you know they

can be peacemakers in their neighborhood and that's something positive and productive and something they can do where they can make a difference and they can see results and not feel so helpless and frustrated. Some of their actions are symbolic. Remember the Burnett second great son Adrian. Well he suggested the entire brood off community eat just bread and water at the communal lunchtime meal why their second grade told us yesterday the reason we were having a simple meal than just bread and water is to think of the children in a rack that included in their head as a hard goods you know that they hear that you know this is this is something that is our own soldiers our children's hearts are suffering. Yeah I was very very many of them were and they know that bread and water is nothing compared to what a child near-record going through a crisis. Their efforts though go way beyond the symbolic. And right now in the country

of Nigeria where we spent some time action and outreach play a large part in the broader health way of life. Youth groups travel to Southern states to assist in flood relief last year and many have traveled to third world nations to minister to the sick and the poor. And after the September 11th terrorist attacks this group of young tone suggested they were furbished an old barn on the Buddha Hoff property and named it the peace Bard. This man was in the peace barn is a place devoted to fellowship and prayer and for projects that will have an impact on her. He's

one of those project was inspired by a trip to the September 11th crash site of Flight 93 in Shanksville noticing there were new places for loved ones to sit. The children decided to craft these penchants each one is handmade. Each man is hand carved and all of the work is done by the children. The bunch there that says just do your own it Derrill Bodley was her father and she died on Flight 93 on September 11th. And he's come here a number of times for one of his visits we made. We set it up and put a cover on it and when he came in we took the cover off and he sat down on the bench. And I loved it so much. He stroke the letters each one of the letters.

He was pretty emotional about it. And it was very wonderful to see five of the finished benches already sit at the Shanksville crash site although 26 families have requested benches as tributes to their loved ones. So the brooder have children continue to build. It is kind of awesome to do so. You know the people you know means something to people with with with with with with with with the focus on the problems and the negative aspect the problems. That's it's already a magnet or direction with the culture and ourselves to something that's possible

to hold a thread live with. Now as I was. Was the was yesterday the senior elder communities in the United States and England issued a news release. Johan Arnold said that while he opposes war he believes anti-war protesters should avoid tactics that lead to bitterness division and violence. Now he favors vigils that would support troops and their families. And you might also be interested in knowing that the brutal Hoff welcomes visitors. You can even arrange to stay and be part of the community for a few days but you are expected to live the brooder HOF way of life. And Stacey that includes eating and living and working alongside them. All right now in your report we saw some some younger children and they were reading letters to the president I'm not mistaken. Did they understand what they were doing or were they maybe imitating what their parents might have wanted them to do now.

You know I had a chance to spend a significant amount of time with them in each of these children had in fact written the letters themselves and the poems drawn the pictures and had full intent and sending it to President Bush in fact I said Do you really think he's going to do something and they were so committed in thinking that their simple message would would stop the war or at least see that they too are very concerned so that they could do something about it also. Now let's go to the teenagers are they savvy. Are they selfish What's your impression. You know what I think the spirit of these young people is tremendous I am so impressed with just their their level of understanding in terms of world needs. It's interesting if you compare them to a lot of the kids the teens these days TV video games you know whatever's going on they don't get exposed to that so they really have time to to think to spend time with one another. And certainly to learn about themselves in the world to their very interesting group of people that they are and a very interesting story also of the area which is your first for on cue and so we should take this moment to say that there is Chisholm is indeed a new contributor on Hugh who's going to be

bringing us stories from time to time. And sure a lot of people as I ask you just a few moments ago what have you been doing with your life since you left. The TV news anchor desk very busy in fact I have a small business where I provide web site services to small to mid-size business owners help them with their marketing and advertising also managing a team of sales reps and well busy with a six year old so life is wonderful life is wonderful it's wonderful us for us that you decided to join us here on Q&A. I'm looking forward to working with you guys. We're looking forward to having you here there. Thank you. Coming up next Amnesty International comes to Pittsburgh Chris Moore has the story. And also coming up a little bit later in this half hour a popular pancake festival draws thousands to the tiny town of Ohio Pyle. Find out why the long queue continues. You're watching on these foundations care enough about local programming to help you down there. Richard Mellon Foundation Foundation the dits

Virg foundation the Henry Foundation funding for on cue is provided by the West Allegheny health system among America's best according to U.S. News and World Report magazine. And Allegheny is the provider of choice on the web and a h s dot org. And we couldn't do it without you. The members of Amnesty International USA the American arm of the worldwide human rights organization is holding their annual conference this weekend right here in Pittsburgh. William Schulz is the executive director of Amnesty International USA and a native Pittsburgher himself. Earlier today I had a chance to talk with Dr. Schultz about the upcoming conference and the ongoing war with Iraq. I notice one of the big programs you're doing is on diversity is that a big issue for you.

Absolutely amnesty is of course an international organization it's an organization also that speaks to human rights issues that often disproportionately affect people of color of diverse cultural backgrounds and so it's critically important to amnesty that we also be a culturally diverse organization ourselves. I have to turn to today's headlines and that's the war in Iraq. Amnesty International has always concerned itself with human rights abuses and those kinds of things. What do you think of President Bush's policy of preemptive war. And do you think it and old leads to any human rights abuses. Well any kind of military action leads almost inevitably to human rights abuses amnesty takes no position one way or the other on the war itself. Our job is to monitor the human rights violations that will inevitably take place as a result of that kind of action. Certainly we have seen the Iraqis over the years guilty of very serious crimes several of the paramilitary units the. Fed IOM Saddam who are fighting a very brutally with the United States and the coalition

forces are responsible over the years for cutting out of tongues and beheading of enemies of Saddam. At the same time our job is to monitor the coalition forces and to make sure for example that they don't disproportionately affect the civilian population that the coalition does everything it can to see that civilians are protected and that it not use such things as cluster bombs which can have a disproportionate effect on civilians so our job really is just to call the human rights record as we see it on all sides. Some people in this country might think that that's unpatriotic they think that our troops are loyal brave in defending freedom across the world. And if some people are shot in an Iraqi road block at a bridge and women and children die as happened the other day. They think those soldiers are protecting their lives because there have been incidents. They would point out where people said I surrender I surrender and then fired upon troops so that some people might think that that's an un-American attitude to monitor American troops with human rights

abuses. Well there is such a thing as the laws of war the Geneva Conventions the ways in which any army any military needs to abide by internationally agreed standards. Amnesty is not suggesting at this point for a minute the U.S. and coalition forces have committed human rights abuses all that we are saying is that it's part of our job to monitor what's going on to make sure that that doesn't happen and to insist as we can that the coalition and of course the Iraqis as well abide by those international standards we have certainly condemned the practice of Iraq mixing military Iraqi military in with Iraqi civilians that of course puts every Iraqi civilian at risk. What about the school of the Americas that was formally called. There are various people who are watching what it did in terms of the United States involvement in the training of military forces otherwhere in the use of torture and those kinds of things a number of people claim that these

institutions like the School of the Americas trained people to go back to their countries and commit torture. What do you think of those claims. Well there's absolutely no question that at least in the past the school of the Americas has trained people officers other military officials in Latin America who then have returned to their country and committed torture and other serious human rights violations in fact in the early 90s. There apparently was a manual that was used at the School of the Americas to explicitly teach how to torture those under interrogation for example. Now the military claims that that is no longer the case Amnesty International has asked for the school to be suspended in its operations until a full investigation can take place to see whether indeed that is true. Has it been in response to that on the part of our government. We've not yet succeeded in having that program suspended. There ignore you. Well they're certainly not doing what we're recommending in this case.

What needs citizens do who might be concerned as you are about human rights abuses around the world to do something about it. Well the first thing of course they can do is to log on to our website at Amnesty USA dot org or to call 1 800 amnesty to learn more about amnesty and our programs there are just literally dozens of ways in which people can get involved here it in the Greater Pittsburgh area we have a wide variety of both student and community groups that are active every week every month in both contacting officials of our own government about human rights and contacting those of governments overseas asking them to free political prisoners for example asking them to stop torture and shining a light of truth in international opinion. The mobilization of shame if you will upon those governments that are committing these kind of violations so people to check it out amnesty USA dot org and they can get involved either at the local level or the National. How do you advise those that might say that's a great feel good exercise. But people like Saddam Hussein and other dictators around the world are just

evil people and sometimes they only understand the use of force because they use it so horribly against their own people. Well Amnesty International as I say does not oppose the use of force per se. We do not take a position on military action we don't oppose military action we don't support military action our job is to call it as we see it. Now it may be a feel good exercise but I'll tell you it's a feel good exercise for the 40000 political prisoners whom Amnesty has helped to free since we were founded in 1961 and it's a feel good exercise for the literally tens of thousands of people who have been tortured and whose torture has stopped who have then been released because of amnesty bearing this kind of witness so it may be feeling good but it also feels good to the victims of human rights crimes. Do you think that the domestic agenda here in America is being neglected in any way. Well first of all there's absolutely no question that the war on terror is affecting the domestic agenda here in many different ways we have seen for example immigrants to this country rounded up. And

denied basic international rights as they attempt to make the case that they are not a threat to this country we've even seen two U.S. citizens thrown into jail and denied access to legal counsel they're U.S. citizens that's a remarkable development. So in that respect of course it is affecting it is affecting what is happening at the same time. It's critically important to say that amnesty continues to do its best to monitor such things as police brutality to stop such things as the death penalty and whether or not the war on terror will ultimately divert attention from those efforts I'm not sure but I can assure you that Amnesty International will not be diverted its attention to them. All right. Thank you very much for your great thank you. Still to come a favorite local festival that celebrates the cake. Karalee asked me has that. Stay with us. Next this week on the Bayer arts magazine Jim Cunningham reports from Europe on tour with the Pittsburgh Symphony.

We'll preview the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre's mosaic featuring Ben Stephenson's for last song and we'll hear some guided tours with the Carnegie Museum of Arts pan up to Khan show. Catch the Beyer arts magazine Sundays at 4:00 and Wednesday nights at 8:00 made possible by the Bayer foundation. Ohio Pyle Fayette County population usually less than 100 but every spring and fall the population swells as thousands gather for the buckwheat pancake festival now the event helps support the local volunteer fire department and tonight the host of Judy cooks Chris Fennimore who's also an IQ contributor shows why people love the buckwheat pancakes made in Ohio pile. It started with a grain back in the late quarter we're not sure what year but

I think of around forty eight forty million. They only serve their food every 100 the first couple years. They got up early went to about 200. They got up around about him people you know probably church and we kept getting bigger and expanding getting bigger. They come here for but the biggest thing you want. My family this came from Old Mountain recipe one mother I think she had 12 children. I'm not going to depression you know anything we can eat you've heard a lot about the depression. It was buckwheat cakes in the morning and buckwheat cakes for dinner and if you want to change or if you had pancakes for supper. Wow that's one thing we had to eat. We start with buckwheat flour water salt and a little bit of sugar.

We let that ferment that for our 0 8 hours and we stir it down the following day we add a little more water and a little more flour because you already have the stain it started out down and then we let everything set for another three days. You can smell the fermentation and other ready and we add more flour and more water and then we cut it to make the best sugar to make it brown we add salt to make it Tanky And so to make it fluffy then we had a little what we call an al be immobile a little wagon that they take it across the street. I

get the back weeks again. They're good very good. I really like some one that you ever eat but any other time of the year. No we have no idea why they serve the sweet pickles. How are they thrilled to have no idea. Every year every year on this mock week choppered run for prayer probably per year. She's just one of them. Every year it's getting bigger. The amount of work but the fun little old woman her work and young people. Barbara

that's a lot to go through Chris says buckwheat cakes have a sour taste so they're often served with sweet pickles to offset the tang Enos. Now the festival also has regular pancakes for the less adventurous and we put the dates and times for the Ohio pile Buckwheat Festival on our website. QED dot org. Just click the on cue button on the first page and now here is a look at what you'll see tomorrow night. Do you remember the Nike missile sites built in around Pittsburgh during the Cold War. They were part of the homeland defense strategy designed to protect Pittsburgh from Soviet bombers. Tomorrow on cue we take a trip back in time and find out what the Nike missile sites are being used for today. Also tomorrow award winning local filmmaker Brady Lewis and the local sled hockey team that is opening doors for kids with disabilities. Stay connected. Tomorrow I am thank you for joining us we hope that you'll join us again live at 7:30 tomorrow night. We will be so you there. Good night.

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