Peter Mott, ¡Presente!

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Peter Mott

Peter Mott
Nov. 6, 1933 – May 27, 2020

The peace, solidarity, and justice movements grieve the loss of our friend Peter Mott, a peacemaker who always searched for truth.

Peter Mott was a physician who was part of the Kennedy-Johnson “War on Poverty.”  (Yes—the government was actually trying to help poor people back then.)  He worked to set up federally funded health centers in Baltimore and Tucson, where he was Medical Director of El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center.  In Rochester he was Director of the Rochester Regional Medical Program, and one of the first Board-certified Geriatricians at Monroe Community Hospital.

During this period he was Co-Chair of the Rochester Committee on Latin America (ROCLA), and coordinator of the Central American Caucus.

Peter retired at age 60 to devote his life fully to peace, justice, and solidarity work.  He and his wife, Gail, created and edited the national newsletter INTERCONNECT.  He co-founded the Latin America Solidarity Coalition (LASC) and the Mexico Solidarity Network.  He was Board Chair of the Genesee Valley Chapter of the NY Civil Liberties Union, and was Co-Convener of the Rochester Committee on Latin America (ROCLA).

In 2006 he wrote Cancer in the Body Politic: Diagnosis and Prescription for an America in Decline.  This book “critiques American domestic and foreign policy from the perspective of the poor, and offers a strategy for a future based on social justice and citizen empowerment.”

Peter was honored by ROCLA with the local White Dove Award in 1995 as “a leader in the struggle for peace and justice in Central America, and publisher of the quarterly national newsletter, INTERCONNECT.”  In 2012, Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace recognized him as Genesee Valley Peacemaker.  The award, given only once every five years, was awarded to Peter “for untiring work for peace, justice, human rights, and solidarity in the Genesee Valley and around the globe.”  (Both awards given to Peter and his wife, activist Gail Mott.)

Those of us who knew Peter saw him as patient, calm, caring, and loving.  He was passionate about peace and justice, and he spent his entire life helping to make the world a better place for everyone.

Now, the rest of us have to work even harder to make Peter’s vision come true.

We say, Peter Mott, ¡Presente!


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