From UNC to Peaceful Tomorrows

It was this same love that led him away.

Potorti arrived at UNC in 1999 to study folklore as a master's student. He was preparing to write a thesis on occupational folklore, focusing on the story of the UNC janitorial staff.

But he now finds his life focused on a different story, using lessons learned from his brother's death during the Sept. 11 attacks to help other people carve peaceful tomorrows out of today's violent climate.

As the co-director and eastern U.S. coordinator for Peaceful Tomorrows, a nonprofit group organized by family members of Sept. 11 victims, Potorti works to promote nonviolent responses to global terrorism.

Taking their name from a Martin Luther King Jr. quote, "Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows," Potorti said the group wants to end the perpetual cycle of violence in the world.

Potorti made his initial return to New York after Thanksgiving. His first trip back to his former home and the site where his brother died was an emotional one. "I cried. ... You look up past the people living, and there is this massive wreckage," he said.

During the trip, a walk through Manhattan to honor the victims of Sept. 11 led Potorti to meet other family members who shared his view on the response to the attacks.

"We didn't want to extend the same harsh treatment our family members and others had received," Potorti said.

To reach this goal, Potorti and other members of Peaceful Tomorrows are working to communicate their message to President Bush. On Feb. 14, the group held a press conference in New York asking Bush to create an Afghan victim fund. Potorti and his colleagues mailed the president a valentine with the proposal attached.

Potorti said he never considered himself a true activist until now, despite his prior experience canvassing door to door in Los Angeles for the Oaks Project, a citizenship initiative started by Ralph Nader.

During his stint in California, Potorti worked in marketing and promoting television shows and doing occasional freelance work. After 17 years in the television industry, Potorti thought he had advanced as far as he could. He decided to try something new and headed to graduate school. "Being in California, where I could go to the beach every day, made my brain feel soft, like it needed a gym," he said.

Having completed his coursework in spring 2001, Potorti was beginning a job search in the fall while continuing to work on his master's thesis when tragedy struck. Putting academia on hold temporarily, he has found himself thrust into the world of activism as a full-time job. Potorti recently began fashioning his garage into a makeshift office, where he can split time between his family and seeking funding for the fledgling nonprofit.

As Potorti and the other members of Peaceful Tomorrows recover from their loss, they also tread delicately through the nonprofit world together, many for the first time. Potorti said he has found an embracing community, with requests from as far as England and Japan for Peaceful Tomorrows to provide speakers.

Potorti said he still plans to finish his master's degree work at UNC. But for now he will continue to pour his energy into a cause he believes in.

"War is bad for everybody," he said. "We should save each other."

The Features Editor can be reached at features@unc.edu.