While the country and the ISU campus were still in shock, a couple Iowa State students met to discuss the events that had unfolded on Sept. 11, 2001.

According to Omar Tesdell, a co-founder of Time for Peace, the group was started as an immediate community response to the attacks.

It was “meant to be a forum for thoughtful discussion because of the reactionary thinking that we feared was coming,” Tesdell said. “The reactionary thinking did come, and we cherished the sanctuary provided by our weekly silent vigils and discussions.”

Tesdell said he was part of a group that first organized silent candlelight vigils at the Memorial Union.

“This grew into an important campus space of discussion each Sunday evening,” he said. “Our discussion hosted journalists, musicians, poets and military veterans, among others.”

Tesdell said the group actively sought out people who disagreed with Time for Peace’s stance.

The group developed into the leading local group that organized against a U.S. invasion of Iraq.

“At its height in late 2002, we had a couple hundred people, often standing in the cold, for our weekly vigil along Lincoln Way,” Tesdell said.

“We felt that we [were] part of the larger anti-war movement sweeping across American communities and campuses.”

Tesdell said the group was disappointed because millions of people around the world spoke against an Iraq invasion, but it was carried out anyway.

“The U.S. government has now spent the last years attempting to extract the United States from Iraq,” he said. “While the monetary cost has been great, the true bill for this mistake has been paid in the devastating currency of human life; thousands upon thousands of children, women, whole families and soldiers have been killed.”

Tesdell said Time for Peace was a product of its time.

“I hope that Iowa State students can find seeds of inspiration for their own work for social justice in Time for Peace’s modest history,” he said.