Shadows of the Big Game: Trafficking and the Super Bowl
It has become sadly well documented fact that large sports events tend to increase “opportunities” for the trafficking of human beings, in particular women and girls for sex trafficking.
In advance of the 2012 Super Bowl occurring in Indianapolis Catholic Sisters through the mid-west have joined together to increase awareness while demanding that officials in Indiana do all they can to ensure a safe environment for all who attend the event.
Check out the two articles below about this important work.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rani-hong/human-trafficking-prevention-month_b_1199395.html
Liberty and Justice for All…
This past week held two important events. On Jan. 11 there was a vigil calling for the closing of Guantanamo and the use of indefinite detention and on Jan. 12 there was a city council hearing on a resolution to declare Chicago a “torture free city.”
This year, 2012, marks ten years of Guantanamo being open and indefinite detention being a practice. Currently just fewer than 200 men remain in the prison with no access to due process. If current practice continues these men could be held until their own deaths having never been accused of a crime or afforded an opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law.
This year also marks over 30 years of struggle to bring accountability to police officers on the south side of Chicago who used torture to extract confessions from suspects. Over 200 African-American men, some as young as 14, were beaten, shocked with electric cattle prods, put through mock executions, and placed in stress positions by Chicago police to extract fake confessions and ensure higher convictions rates. Many of these men went on to serve over 20 years in prison for crimes they did not commit.
Both of these events shared a common link: justice is a core piece of our identity as a democracy and human community. When we remove, compromise, exploit, or block justice we lose the balance of power between government and citizen – between law officer and community member – between nation and citizen of another land. And when that balance of power is gone – then we cease to be a democracy and we edge towards the abusive power regimes that stand infamous in human history.
The vigil and the hearing on the city council resolution provided the space to take back a piece of that lost democracy, the lost balance of power by honoring the victims and calling for accountability. Check out the photos below and the link to an article explaining more about the resolution.
http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=198382
Vigil to close Guantanamo
Mary L Johnson mother of police torture survivor
Hungering for Justice – 10 Years of Guantanamo
Folks gathered at 8th Day for Witness Against Torture
8th Day Center for Justice joins with groups around the globe to mark the 10th anniversary of Guantanamo Bay Prison and the practice of indefinite detention, enhanced interrogation and torture.
We will spend the next nine days leading up to January 11 going to teach-ins, actions, vigils and walks to help raise up the voices of those disappeared by fear, prejudice and the abuse of the law.
Check out the link below to see how you too can “hunger for justice” this next week and support the end of torture!
Hungering for Justice
January 2-12, 2012
To mark and mourn ten years of torture, abuse, mistreatment and miscarriage of justice, Witness Against Torture began a liquids-only fast on January 2. We will break the fast the morning of January 12. We fast for ten days to remember ten years of Guantanamo. We fast for the closure of Guantanamo and Bagram and other sites of indefinite detention and abuse. We fast for an end to torture. We fast for the restoration of justice and decency.
We remember those held at Guantanamo, Bagram and other similar prisons around the world – those who have been deprived of food by their captors, and those who have voluntarily deprived themselves of food in protest. We stand in solidarity with them, and our fast is our small piece of understanding. Join Us! Also read Practical Information About Fasting
Occupy Advent
Advent calls us to wait, not a passive numbing to enable a blind passage of time, rather an engaged anticipation that does not dim with the dying light of a winter season.
The Occupy Movement calls forth a similar engagement of holy imagination; to imagine fiercely a world built on economic justice, is an active willing rather than a passive day dreaming.
Occupy and Advent call us to not just long for the new day but create it from the raw beauty and potential that surrounds us wherever we are – to move toward a light we see as birthright no matter the obstacles, the chronic pain of cynicism, or danger.
Add the video from Occupy to your Advent meditations and join the global celebration of possibility…
an Immigrant Welcoming Community
Today, FSPA, together with nine other congregations of Catholic Sisters, declares itself an Immigrant Welcoming Community.
The sisters, based in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, call on President Obama and Congress to work together to enact comprehensive immigration reform. To make their point, they have issued a statement on “Welcoming Communities” and are placing billboards in the QuadCities,Des Moines, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Sioux Cityand Clinton,Iowa, this month in advance of the Iowa caucuses to make sure delegates, potential candidates and voters remember this critical issue.
“We declare ourselves ‘Welcoming Communities’ in affirmation of our Catholic tradition that holds sacred the dignity of each person,” the Sisters said in the official statement, “and we invite other communities and people of faith to join us in becoming ‘Immigrant Welcoming Communities’ through prayer, reflection, education and action.”
“Our ‘Welcoming Communities’ stance is a direct response to the government’s ‘Secure Communities’ program which has transformed local police officers into a primary gateway for deportation,” explained the sisters.
“The results have been hundreds of thousands of detentions and deportations, serious civil and human rights concerns, due process violations and damaged trust between immigrant communities and local police.”
They further noted that “the ‘Secure Communities’ process was marketed to local law enforcement agencies as a way to deal with serious and dangerous criminals. In fact, low-priority, non-violent offenders or even lawful permanent residents are being funneled into this program which is breaking up families, promoting racial profiling, and fueling a fear-filled and hateful anti-immigrant atmosphere.”
National immigration reform organizations assert that the “Secure Communities” program has actually made communities less safe because many individuals are afraid to report crimes that they experience or witness for fear of being deported or having neighbors, family members or friends deported. As a result, they state, crimes are going unreported and communities, rather than becoming “secure” are living in fear.
“Failure on the part of the federal government to reform the present unworkable immigration system has resulted in states passing legislation that is punitive and harmful to human rights,” noted the Sisters.
“We understand that enforcement of law is part of any immigration policy,” the Sisters emphasized. “However, the present policy of involving state and local law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of federal immigration law, such as in the ‘Secure Communities’ program, is not achieving that goal. True security lies in building relationships and respecting human rights and only true, comprehensive, compassionate immigration reform can deal with the crisis in our nation. Therefore, we are declaring ourselves Immigrant Welcoming Communities.”
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/catholicsisters.
“We pledge oursleves to liberate all our people from the continued bondage of poverty…”
“We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people from the continued bondage of poverty, deprivation…” Nelson Mandela
Dear All – It is very good to be back after travelling to Italy for an International meeting on Human Rights and to France for an International Citizens Hearing on the rights of people in asylum in foreign countries. Both meetings were very enriching and left me full of ideas and the hope that comes from sharing in the struggle. It is amazing to think of the connections the FSPA community can bring to the world from La Crosse, to Chicago, to Bogota, to Paris – connections for transforming structures and systems continue to bloom so much further then we can initially see or know – thank you so much for all of the support.
This week I wanted to follow up a little bit on a presentation that was given on Free Trade Agreements by another 8th Day staff member Katie Varatta. She gave a presentation this past weekend in La Crosse and mentioned that some folks were curious about strategies or ways to oppose the Free Trade Model.
Most of us know free trade through the NAFTA agreement signed into treaty law in 1994 between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico – former President Clinton heralded NAFTA as a way to “raise all boats.” In the past fourteen years however many of us have seen our communities diminished as many small business and family farms were lost to the broad economic consequences of the Free Trade Model.
The current agreement up for consideration is the Colombia Free Trade Agreement – the complexity of the human rights situation in Colombia is too much to go into in this sort email. But I am attaching an article that gives a good quick synopsis about why it is important to oppose this particular agreement with Colombia as well as the larger model of “free trade” that has been so destructive to communities and in particular poor communities.
It is a very good time to be contacting both your State Representatives and Senators and asking how they plan to vote on the Colombian Free Trade Agreement and what is their stance on the Free Trade Model – public pressure before this hits the floor for a vote will be key to helping to counter the strong push from the White House to pass this measure. It is wonderful to be back home and I hope this finds everyone very well! Much Peace Liz
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/5381/81/
“This is the work involved. Work is creative then….”
“This is the work involved. Work is creative then. It is what makes for reliance, relying upon the relation of land and people.” Simon Ortiz
Dear All – This will just be a brief note because the action below is long-ish. Last Monday a group of indigenous held a nonviolent protest to mark the beginning of a workers strike – the Colombian government has responded with a disproportionate level of violence. The email details some good action steps to take.
This alert is also a good follow up to last week’s email on the possibility of the Colombian Free Trade Agreement being voted on in Congress – this could be an important example to bring up with your Senators and State Representatives in light of Colombia’s commitment to respecting the human rights of their own people.
I hope this finds everyone enjoying our beautiful descent into Fall…Much Peace Liz
Repression of Colombian indigenous protest.
Take Action Now–Indigenous Protesters and Striking Workers are Under Attack by the Colombian Government
Reports indicate 19 indigenous people killed in the past two weeks while striking sugarcane workers face repression. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe declares a “State of Internal Commotion” to deal with protests and strikes.
Indigenous communities in northern Cauca and the sugarcane workers on strike in the neighboring province of Valle de Cauca are asking for an honest dialogue with the Colombian government to address the serious social problems they face. Rather than listening to the concerns of these marginalized communities, the Colombian government-backed by U.S. military funding-responds with repressive force.
Please act now to stand with these activists!
Contact William Brownfield, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, asking him to demand that the Colombian government respect human rights. Click here to send Ambassador Brownfield an email message.
Speak up at a campaign forum. With elections around the corner, you can help inform candidates and voters about the FTA and human rights in Colombia speaking up at a campaign forum. Learn how here.
INDIGENOUS MOBILIZATION
Since October 12th, indigenous and other social organizations in southwestern Colombia, have been protesting the militarization of their lands, the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the failure of the government of President Alvaro Uribe to comply with agreements relating to indigenous land, education, and healthcare. See their demands here (link is in Spanish). Over 12,000 indigenous activists and other social justice activists are congregated on the Territory of Peace and Coexistence in La Maria Piendamo, in Cauca, resisting the hostile and massive presence of state security forces who have been ordered to remove them. On Monday, the communities participating in the indigenous protest blocked a portion of the Pan American Highway in Cauca, in an act of civil disobedience meant to force the government to meet with them to discuss their demands.
Rather than respond to their calls for negotiation, over the last four days violence has broken out between elite police units and the assembled communities, with at least two people killed and over 50 indigenous activists severely wounded mostly by bullets, one possibly fatally, in the ensuing clashes. These unfolding developments come just days after two other Nasa Indians– Nicolas Valencia Lemus and Celestino Rivera — were assassinated by unidentified gunmen over the weekend, just a few hours before the start of the mobilization. The National Organization of Colombia’s Indigenous (ONIC) report that in the past two weeks at least 19 indigenous leaders have been killed across the country. This only adds to the alarming human rights situation in indigenous communities in Colombia. ONIC reports that between 2002 and 2006, 1,226 indigenous people have been killed, 300 have been disappeared and 1,660 have been jailed.
STATE OF INTERNAL COMMOTION
Last week, President Uribe declared a “state of internal commotion”, alarming many activists and human rights defenders. As stipulated in the 1991 Constitution, the “state of internal commotion” allows the president to govern without the oversight of the legislature, giving the President unprecedented powers, particularly in the area of security and “public order.” Many constitutional scholars have criticized the measure as unnecessary, if not undemocratic. President Uribe justified this frighteningly authoritarian approach to domestic affairs, pointing a 42-day judicial workers strike that has clogged the judicial system. Now that the government and the judicial workers union, ASONAL, reached a tentative deal on a new contract that ended the strike today, the big question is whether or not the President will reverse the measure.
–
Elizabeth Deligio
FSPA JPICC Coordinator
8th Day Center of Justice
205 W. Monroe
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 641-5151
Turning a page in our cultural imagination
I offer the article linked below as a reflection in our last week before the
election. We have spent close to two years now on the campaign trail
listening to different visions of what our future should look like and
what the needs are of our nation and world at this time. It has been a
long road and we may find ourselves weary of the talk, gossip and
hype that surround the campaign trail. It can be difficult to remember
amongst all the blitz that we are poised to make a historic decision
as a country and to enact the fundamental human right of political
participation.
This article was a good reminder to me that wherever I may stand on
issues or on candidates this race in particular bears the historic
mark of having a woman, an African American, and a torture survivor
being granted the political space and possibility of becoming the next
leader of our nation. A page in our cultural imagination and social
history has been turned, at a time when so much of our domestic sphere
is shadowed by fears of war, economic collapse, and environmental
destruction this is a heartening reminder. We are moving forward, ever
so slowly, toward a table more open and welcome than before.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/165660
Much Peace Liz
Our work is just beginning as we cast our vote
“We are very fond of blaming the poor for destroying the environment. But often it is the powerful, including governments, that are responsible.” Wangari Maathai
Dear All – I would like to offer the article below from Truthout as reflection on election day. The article looks at the intersections between environment, hunger, and women – unpacking the complexity that stands behind poverty in our globalized world.
I offer this on the day of elections as a reminder to each of us that our work is just beginning when we cast our vote, whoever is elected into the White House faces a world of complex challenges and urgent needs and we face that world with them. Democracy at its best I think calls us out of ourselves into a communal reality where our decisions are made not for ourselves but for the good of the whole. Democracy at its fullest has no room at the table for poverty, for each would have their needs met.
When we exercise the right to political participation that right is linked to the well being of the whole for it is dependent upon that well being. In essence it is linked to poverty, war, racism, environmental destruction, sexism – anything that threatens the well being of the whole is a threat to democracy. So when we vote, we are not just casting one ballot into the sea of ballots to determine leadership – we are casting light onto every issue that blocks, impedes, or threatens a table open for all. This is our shared power and responsibility, our inheritance for everyone who has struggled to deepen the democracy that began over 200 hundred years ago.
Blessings on your trip to the ballot box if you choose to go and blessings on all the tomorrows that we greet as a community….Peace Liz
You may write me down in history
Dear All – I wanted to offer a brief reflection on this momentous day in American history when we have awoke as a nation for the first time to an African American president. Our first African American president when twelve previous presidents were slave owners. We have turned a page in our cultural imagination, we have moved as a nation not divided along lines of color but united for a common purpose toward a future for the United States and the world that is not based in the ideology of fear but of hope.
It is a new day, a new opening, a new worldview that has been waiting for centuries to be realized from the depth of the ships that carried prisoners to be forced into a life of slavery to the millions who marched for civil rights to the unique struggle and life of Barack Obama. Together we greet this precious new day and as Maya Angelou says below we rise…
“You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies, you may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I’ll rise. Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise up from a past rooted in pain I rise. I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise into daybreak miraculously clear I rise. Bringing the hopes that my ancestors gave, I am the hope and the dream of the slave.’ And so, we all rise.
Peace Liz
“Did you too, O friend, suppose democracy was only for elections
“For memory is a blessing: it creates bonds rather than destroys…”
“Ain’t I woman?”
“Ain’t I a woman…?” Sojourner Truth
FSPA JPICC Coordinator
8th Day Center for Justice
205 W. Monroe
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 641-5151
“Martin didn’t make the movement, the movement made Martin.”
As Ella Baker, the civil rights organizer, famously said of Martin Luther King, “Martin didn’t make the movement, the movement made Martin.”
Dear All – I found this article on Truthout and I wanted to share it with all of you because I feel it captures the energy in this new “Obama” moment well.
It highlights the the incredible importance of having our first President of color as well as the incredible potential in what Obama has promised on the campaign trail. It also notes that the fullest realization of those promises are not dependent on Obama alone but require for each of us to pay attention, advocate, and demand that Obama and his administration follow through on what they named as their priorities.
We sit at a unique crossroads in our history; the economy, international relationships, environment, and human rights practices are at all time lows, each in differing states of severe disrepair. What Obama faces is monumental – what we face as a nation and as a world is monumental, historic, and vastly critical for the well being of earth and all of creation.
In this season of expectant waiting it feels the perfect time to stop and reflect on the deep dreams of this “Obama moment” as well as the deep needs of the world and begin to imagine the way forward. A way marked not by one man or one position of power but shaped by the many voices, hands, visions, and dreams that make up the whole. Peace Liz
http://www.truthout.org/120208A
–
Elizabeth Deligio
FSPA JPICC Coordinator
8th Day Center f orJustice
205 W. Monroe Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 641-5151
“No person can put a chain about the ankle of a fellow being…”
”No person can put a chain about the ankle of a fellow being without at last finding the other end fastened to their own neck.” Frederick Douglas
Dear All – I wanted to share this piece about the new military base the United States is working to establish on the African continent AFRICOM. AFRICOM is currently located in Germany while the United States looks for a country willing to host the base.
One of AFRICOM’s primary functions will be to train and equip African militaries to “legitimize” and “professionalize” soldiers. The history of U.S. military training has resulted in devastation and violence as a result of the infusion of weapons and training into unstable areas of the world. During the Cold War, the U.S. provided weapons and training to governments which were willing to help fight the ideological war against communism, regardless of their human rights or good governance standards. This was devastating in Latin America where thousands of citizens disappeared, were killed, tortured, and unjustly imprisoned.
AFRICOM represents a broader shift in U.S. foreign policy – a foreign policy that places an emphasis on defense above diplomacy. Many feel that it is an attempt by the United States to contain some of the newly rising trading partners like India or China instead of relying on solid international relationships to promote mutual flourishing. In essence using the people and resources of Africa to defend the United States against rising Asian economic powers – how does this help Africa to flourish?
If we continue to approach the world in fear and with a mindset of control we will lose the very thing we say we are preserving – safety. For as Frederick Douglas wrote, the shackles we are putting on the rest of the world surely lead back to our own lives.
Check this site out, especially the embedded YouTube video and history of the AFRICOM situation as well as the chance to sign up to receive e-alerts about this issue. Peace Liz
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1552/t/5717/signUp.jsp?key=3094
–
Elizabeth Deligio
FSPA JPICC Coordinator
8th Day Center of Justice
205 W. Monroe
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 641-5151
“May we not be afraid to see or speak our truth…” The Terma Collective
Dear All – I am sure many folks may have seen some of the announcements marking and celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I am including a link to a short video on YouTube that was made to celebrate this very significant document and its impact.
I chose the quote from the Terma Collective at the beginning because I think it captures the courage and integrity that was necessary for the Declaration to come into being. The Declaration was partially born from the testimonies that came from the investigation of the holocaust. If people had remained silent or we as a global community had decided it would be better to sweep things under the rug we may have never entered into the process of crafting the declaration. We extend our gratitude to the many before us who were brave enough to speak and loving enough to dream a different world.
It was because people saw the truth and spoke it that the Declaration was born and continues to be a document that is used to protect individuals and communities. Silence can be a force that legitimizes violence and the abuse of power. Join with the many thousands around the world who have shattered silence and spoken truth to power by holding a teeny birthday party for the Declaration and watching this short clip. Peace and Christmas Blessings…Liz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTlrSYbCbHE
Elizabeth Deligio
FSPA JPICC Coordinator
8th Day Center of Justice
205 W. Monroe
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 641-5151
Do something new
I beg of you
do something
learn a new step
a new dance
something that honors your existence
that gives you the right
to be clothed by your skin
by your hair
learn to walk and laugh
because it would be too awful
in the end
that so many should have died
and that you should live
without honoring your life…
– Charlotte Delbo Auschwitz and After
I send this poem by Charlotte Delbo who was a survivor of concentration camps during World War II. She was a member of the French Resistance Movement and was arrested and bounced between concentration camps for three years before she was released from Auschwitz, her last camp.
Delbo wrote this poem in the years after her release when she saw the world forgetting the deep devastation caused by the war. She called on the living to honor the dead not just through ongoing mourning and public ritual, but to honor them by being present to and intoxicated with the deep beauty of life. This sense of radical gratitude was the natural sister for all the deep grief. For Delbo, it was deep intentional living that crafted the sacred space to nurture the understanding necessary to never again create an Auschwitz.
This is an understanding we need today as we face the realities that have come into existence in the “War on Terror.” Amnesty is calling people to join together in a campaign entitled “Fight Terror with Justice.” This campaign is asking for President elect Obama in his first 100 days to undue the torture and detainment practices that the Bush administration created and implemented. It is a campaign calling for all of us to be intentional and intoxicated with the beauty of life and take a step to end the devastation that has been wrought in our name.
Check out the link below!
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/news/100-days-demonstrate-commitment-to-human-rights-20081105
Much Peace and A Merry Christmas,
Liz
No exceptional circumstances justify torture
–
Elizabeth Deligio
FSPA JPICC Coordinator
8th Day Center of Justice
205 W. Monroe
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 641-5151
–
“Shalom is the flower that blooms…”
“Shalom is the flower that blooms only on the tree of justice, planted near the waters of abundance, warmed by the light of truth and faithfulness.” Anthony Prete
Dear All – I will be short as I think the article shared below by Bill Quigley says a lot. Bill is a human rights lawyer who has flown over to Egypt to try and enter into Gaza to be a human rights presence as the war against the Palestinian people rages onward. Bill writes about doctors being blocked form entering into Gaza to help the estimated 3,000 wounded.
We have heard that Israel has the “right” to protect herself, this may be true, but how does protection necessitate blocking food, water, and medical care to injured civilians?
As the world audience seeing these brief news clip everyday we are called to be ethical witnesses, to move toward a space of creative action that upholds the right of all people to be protected, calls on state structures to engage diplomacy, and international structures like the U.N. to mediate. I encourage each of us to consider one small action we might take toward being in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Prayer, vigils, calling our Representatives, a peace sign in the window all of these small acts build toward creating the “bloom of Shalom” that Anthony Prete invokes…Much Peace Liz
January 10, 2009
Report from Rafah: Doctors Stopped At Borders
by Bill Quigley
Dr. Nicolas Doussis-Rassias and many other volunteer doctors have been
waiting in Rafah, Egypt for days. Nicolas and the other physicians
came to Rafah to go through the border into Gaza to help the 3000
people wounded by Israeli bombs and heavy weapons.
Rafah is a heavily armed Egyptian border crossing into Gaza, a four
hour drive away from Cairo. Sonic booms of high flying jets cut
through the stark blue sky. Military drones hover over the border as
the air smells of burning.
”Three thousand victims of bombs and gunfire would overwhelm the
medical system of New York city,” Nicolas said. “Gaza now has no
functioning medical system at all. Most of it has no electricity nor
running water. These people are in crisis – they need medical help,
so we are here to help them.”
But today, instead of helping the thousands of wounded, Nicolas and
other doctors are holding up a hand lettered red and blue banner
outside the Egyptian border station saying – Let the Doctors Through!
Why? Doctors of Peace and numerous other doctors from around the
world have been prevented from entering Gaza for seven days. They
cannot get in to help through Israel nor Egypt.
Nicolas is not an anti-Israeli radical. He is a jolly 49 year old
Athens doctor. Father of two children, he is the president of a
organization of volunteer Greek physicians called Doctors of Peace.
These doctors pay their own way and volunteer to help the victims of
war and natural disasters. They have helped out in Latin America with
victims of Hurricane Mitch, in Sri Lanka with tsunami victims, and the
victims of wars in Lebanon, Serbia, Turkey, and Pakistan.
But the borders of Gaza are sealed off preventing basic humanitarian
and medical assistance from entering.
Richard Falk, the UN Special Reporter on Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories, pointed out the human rights violations of the sealed
border: “Israeli actions, specifically the complete sealing off of
entry and exit to and from the Gaza Strip, have led to severe
shortages of medicine and fuel (as well as food), resulting in the
inability of ambulances to respond to the injured, the inability of
hospitals to adequately provide medicine or necessary equipment for
the injured, and the inability of Gaza’s besieged doctors and other
medical workers to sufficiently treat the victims.”
The people of Gaza have been cutoff from basic medical and
humanitarian resources for a long time by an ongoing blockade by
Israel, but everything is much worse in the last few weeks.
Falk, like many others, also condemned the rocket attacks launched
from Gaza against Israel. More than a dozen Israelis have died since
the war began, as have more than 800 Gazans. But Falk’s harshest
words were reserved for the catastrophic human toll from the Israeli
air strikes and “those counties that have been and remain complicit,
either directly or indirectly, in Israel’s violations of international
law.”
Frida Berrigan pointed out that “During the Bush administration Israel
has received over $21 billion in U.S. security assistance, including
$19 billion in direct military aid. The bulk of Israel’s current
arsenal is composed of equipment supplied under U.S. assistance
programs. For example, Israel has 226 U.S.-supplied F-16 fighter and
attack jets, over 700 M-60 tanks, 6,000 armored personnel carriers,
and scores of transport planes, attack helicopters, utility and
training aircraft, bombs, and tactical missiles of all kinds.”
Palestinian medical officials say more than half of the 800 dead and
3000 wounded are civilians. Denial of humanitarian and medical
assistance to civilian casualties is a clear violation of basic human
rights.
The people of Egypt are challenging the denial of medical help for
Gaza. Halfway through our drive from Cairo to Rafah, we saw a hundred
young Egyptians sitting in the middle of the highway protesting
Egypt’s inactions.
After seven days, the border is starting to open a little. The
Egyptian Red Crescent was allowed to deliver supplies to the border
today and some of the waiting doctors were allowed in. With great
show, two dozen Egyptian ambulances were allowed to enter the border
area – only to be parked inside to wait for the injured to make it to
the border. Two ambulances left Rafah with patients inside.
Doctors of Peace were still not allowed in today. Some physicians,
tired from the seven day blockade, have started to return home.
Nicolas is going back to the Rafah border crossing tomorrow to try
again. Why? “Because there are 3000 injured people who need help. I
am going to keep trying.”
“What if the mightiest word is love?”
“What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.” Elizabeth Alexander
Dear All – I offer the quote above from the inaugural poet Elizabeth Alexander. I offer this quote in the deep delight that this day holds as we turn a page on history and look squarely in the face as a nation all the struggles we face.
Of all the wise, powerful, and beautiful words spoken this morning this one stood out to me as the question and call we cannot fail to answer. All of ideas and visions for the future shared by different speakers today will not be realized if we come to the table without love.
As St. Paul tells us in Corinthians 13:1-3: “If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.”
What if love is the mightiest word? Only we together can answer…Peace Liz
Shallow Grave
Dear All - I apologize for this post being a day late. I was in Columbus, Georgia working with the defendants who crossed the line at Ft. Benning this past November.
I wanted to share the story of one of the “crossers”, Sr. Diane Pinchot, an Ursuline sister who was in community with Sr. Dorothy Kazel who was killed with others in El Salvador. She said in her statement to the court that she decided to cross to both honor Sr. Dorothy’s memory and to call attention to the fact that over twenty years later the School that trained Sr. Dorothy’s killers is still open.
She shared with the court an art piece she had made to help her process the loss of Sr. Dorothy. It was entitled “Shallow Grave” and was a carving of how the four women’s bodies were found after being raped and murdered. The silence at the end of her explanation was total, in that moment those four women were present again.
It struck me how powerful memory is not just to recall those we have lost but to live into that memory so completely we act on their behalf and from what they have taught us.
Sr. Dorothy was committed to crafting justice in El Salvador, so deeply committed she gave her life rather then give up. The power who took her life thought they had silenced the song that Sr. Dorothy’s life sung . And yet the song continues over twenty years later through a friend and a fellow sister who refuses to believe that the best we can offer is violence, poverty, and silence.
How precious are those who we meet, love, work , live, share with and how mysterious the path that can form from the footprints they leave in our hearts. It is dazzling to think of all the different relationships within the FSPA community and how those different points ripple outward and upward and inward lending love and light to the world as Sr. Dorothy and Sr. Diane have done.
Thank you all for all you do, are, create, and share! To learn more about those who crossed the line at Ft. Benning this year go to www.soaw.org …Much Peace Liz
“The only qualification for human rights is being human…”
“The only qualification for human rights is being human…”
Dear All – It is not often that I get to write about good news or at least news that is mostly good. On only the second day of being in office President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo. The end of essentially a “legal black hole” in which “illegal combatants” could be placed and never be seen again. This was an excellent first step in moving the United States back toward engaging human rights and international law.
But several questions remain… what happens to the over 245 prisoners left? Do we try them in a regular court? Separate court? Do we house them in U.S. prisons? Do we send them home? What if their own country refuses them entry? Do we pay reparations? How do we deal with each person legally and holistically? Guantanamo is much more than a building to be shuttered, it represents the belief that the United States had the right and duty to protect itself at any cost.
We saw this belief not only justify Guantanamo but the Patriotic Act I & II, enhanced interrogation techniques, warrant-less wire tapping, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Military Commissions Act, extraordinary rendition, “black spot” secret prisons…the list goes on.
Closing Guantanamo is much more than turning off the last light; it is a signal that the United States is shifting, slowly away from its own sense of “exceptional-ism” and accepting responsibility as a global partner. Which means how we answer the questions that surround the prisoners is as important as closing the facility. Ultimately how we decide to treat the detainees will indicate how much the Obama team is choosing to move away from the “exceptionalist” practices of the Bush administration.
Right now is a great time to be in touch with Senators and Representatives and affirm the closing of Guantanamo while also calling for the full human rights of the detainees to be honored. How far we move from the symbol of Guantanamo will require more than executive orders, it will require the full participation of U.S. citizens saying, “Not in my name…”…Peace Liz
P.S. Below is a great YouTube link made about a current inmate.
“As we grow in our understanding of Earth, galaxy, and the universe…”
“As we grow in our understanding of Earth, galaxy and the universe, we see revealed in more exquisite detail not points of life but a whole trembling web of life.” FSPA JPIC Committee/Hunger Series
Dear All – I would like to invite you to check out the latest project of the FSPA Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee – “The Hunger Series.” The Hunger Series is available on-line at http://www.fspa.org/justiceandpeace/hungerseries.htm and will examine the issue of hunger through stories, prayer, images and action.
We chose hunger because we believe it to be a central concern in these times of economic and environmental devastation. We imagine hunger at the center of web surrounded by issues it impacts and is impacted by, we look at hunger and its relationship to community, territory, bio-diversity, violence and gender.
We invite you to journey with us through all of these five different aspects as we deepen our awareness of hunger and its impacts. Much Peace Liz
“I think Jesus had the best idea about hunger in the loaves and the fishes…”
Dear All – I wanted to offer below this excellent reflection from Sister Theresa Keller, FSPA, that was sent to me on hunger. Sister Theresa explores beautifully what it means to live in a context racked with hunger. Thank you Sister Theresa!
I also would like to welcome folks to post comments to the blog and dialog with each other through the blog space. I still have much to learn about this blogging but one thing that strikes me is the chance for the wisdom of the whole to shine through – not just one person’s questions or hunches but the combined insights of many. Blessing on your Lenten Journeys…Much Peace Liz
Sister Theresa’s Reflection
I have often heard the Cameroonians here talk of the abundance of food in the United States. How they were overwhelmed by their first experience of the “supermarket.” Though I have experienced hunger as a child and a few times in my life, I can only image the pain of hunger felt in an entire community. I was teaching a class on human adaptation to my Cameroonian students asking about their adaptive responses to attending boarding school. Without pause a number answered the most difficult adaption has been “I always feel hungry.”
My experience has taught me, most poor will feast when food is available adhering to the lifeline to eat as much as you can because you do not know when you will eat again. Food preparation for poor women is an all day event. There are no fast food breakfast places to swing by in the morning. A myth we have in the developing world is that the poor eat more natural food. Not really. The poor eat what is available and protein is dearly lacking in their diets. Food consists of the fruit or vegetable in season. There is no thought to quality if you have no money to buy.
I was at the market buying rice with a friend. There were several bins of rice for sale. My friend wanted to try a higher quality of rice for her children. I also bought some and we split a few kilos. The rice was much better quality but my friend could only afford it if I split the cost. For Valentine’s Day and Halloween, I bought candy for my students. I had flashes of all the candy in the stores at home and knew the excess of eating six Reeses Peanut Butter cups. I had a small piece of candy for each of the 45 students, they were thrilled.
I am not writing this to cause folks to fast or have guilt about the occasional drive thru McDonald’s or to get crazy and do the 100 mile diet. (Folks in the mid-west would not last the winter trying to sustain on food grown in that area). I am writing because hunger is a complex overwhelming problem for most of the world. Yes, war can ravage the land and displace millions of people but even without civil conflicts, hunger can be seen in the face of millions of children.
I tried to teach healthy nutrition for the critically ill patient to the hospital staff and suddenly realized none of the nurses knew what was meant by calories. I fell back on the portion size of foods, but how can you limit portions to someone who is hungry?
I have no doubt we have enough to feed everyone and heard it stated our problem is distribution– even if we were to re-distribute the food it would not solve the problem. A dear friend assists resident physicians in their clinic practice. Often, the residents will want the nurse to do this or that for them, such as fill out a form, but she gently redirects them stating, “I can feed you fish today and you will eat or I can teach you to fish and you will eat for a long time.” I guess that’s what I hope will happen with this hunger piece that we begin to teach people the underlying or infrastructures that are not present or block people from having their fill. We teach community to share enough so that no one goes hungry.
Being hungry does not lead to deeper spirituality, it just leads to feeling more hungry. I think Jesus had the best idea about hunger in the loaves and the fishes. He knew the way to feed everyone was to set them all down and share what they had brought. He did not ask the disciples to follow him before they had learned to fish. Thanks, Sister Theresa
“As Native peoples, we still know the difference between the reality of freedom and the illusion of freedom…”
“As Native peoples. we still know the difference between the reality of freedom and the illusion of freedom.” John Trudell, Aboriginal Youth Network
Dear All – This morning I went to a talk by Vice President Santos of Colombia. He was addressing a room full of investors about why the Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Colombia would bring prosperity to both countries.
He talked a lot about how U.S. companies could benefit from partnering with Colombia mapping out the popular free trade theme…decreased cost and increased profit.
What he did not mention was that the U.S. Embassy stated that if the Free Trade Agreement was passed, displacement in Colombia would increase exponentially. Colombia has the highest level of displacement in the world beating out both Iraq and Sudan.
What he did not mention was that 49% of the Colombian population exists below the poverty line already and free trade agreements to date have never raised wages for anybody.
What he did not mention was that Colombia has the highest rate of union members killed annually in the entire world. All of the other countries of the world totalled together is still fewer then the number killed in Colombia. A free trade agreement could destroy the few worker protections that are enforced in Colombia.
What he did not mention is that the people of Colombia have spoken out again and again that a Free Trade Agreement would be disaster just as it has been in Mexico.
Is the best we can offer trade agreements that line the pockets of a few at the expense of the environment and human dignity? Are we still unaware that the current global economic crisis happened because of economic principles like free trade?
As they would say in Spanish…Basta! Enough!
The Colombian administration is lobbying hard to get this agreement passed. Join with the people of Latin America and contact your members of Congress and Senators and let them know that you are opposed to a free trade agrreement.
Much Peace Liz
Celebrate International Women’s Day
Dear All- I am grateful to have this opportunity to be a guest blogger this week for the FSPA Justice and Peace blog. My name is Erin Cox and I currently work as a staff member at 8th Day Center for Justice. I came to 8th Day almost two years ago in June as an intern with the Loyola University of Chicago’s Master’s in Social Justice Program. Liz is my mentor at the Center, and it has been a great honor to learn and work with her, as well as with the rest of the 8th Day staff who share an abundance of wisdom and dedication to peace and justice.
I would like to take this time to recognize International Women’s Day celebrated this past Sunday, March 8, 2009. On this day, hundreds of events around the world recognized and celebrated the social, political and economic achievements of women. The first International Women’s Day took place in 1911, which was put forward by a woman named Clara Zetkin, a member of the Socialist Democratic Party in Germany. Zetkin proposed that in every country around the world, there should be a celebration of women on the same day—a women’s day—to press demands for the rights of women. The day turned out to be a huge success, and has been a part of our history ever since.
An international initiative of organizations, governments and women’s groups choose a theme to reflect the reality of women’s issues on a local and global context. For 2009, the United Nations focused on the theme: Women and Men United to End Violence against Women and Girls. How powerful and important it is to recognize and celebrate the strength of women who have walked before us, and to call attention the issue of violence against women on a multitude of levels. This violence is not limited to physical violence against women, but extends to economic, political, sexual, and societal levels, very much alive within all aspects of our lives today. We live in a world where 80 percent of the world’s 27 million refugees are women; where 530,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year; and where women do two-thirds of the world’s work, but receive only ten percent of the world’s income. (Source: Reuters AlterNet). It is certain that women suffer the full impacts of the world’s poverty and experience tremendous suffering during times of crisis—natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, or famine, or wars such as the recent tragedy in Gaza and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As a response to the disproportionate level of violence against women across the world the United Nations adopted The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (or CEDAW) in 1979. This treaty provides the most comprehensive universal standard of human rights for women addressing discrimination in areas of education, politics, reproductive health, finance and law. According to Amnesty International, a total of 185 countries around the world have ratified this treaty as of 2007. However, the United States continues to remain one of the only countries in the Western Hemisphere to have not signed on to this treaty. In the United Statesthe passage of the CEDAW treaty would require two-thirds, or sixty seven senatorial votes. We must call upon our senators and new administration to take further steps to support women to achieve full protection and realization of their rights. I will provide links to take further action on the CEDAW initiative below.
International Women’s Day is an important reminder of the long journey through the desert that women continue to travel. However, this journey has been walked by many women who have the faith and courage to continue the struggle. We commemorate the strong, brave women who have walked the journey before us, whose efforts for justice and equal rights plant the seeds for the future of women and serve as gifts to the world. We remember those women in biblical times; Sarah, who answered God’s call with Abraham to take a leap of faith to ensure a covenant with God, and all women religious who speak out for justice and against corruption in the church and inequality throughout the world. We remember women whose brave witness has led to great risks, including prison, torture and death. During this most sacred season of Lent, let us continue to renew our faith in order to gain strength for our own journey through the desert. Grant us the courage to follow the footsteps of those women before us who challenge us to grow and speak out for justice on behalf of all women in the world.
Thank you for this opportunity and blessings on this special day of women!
Erin E. Cox
To read more about the International Day of Women please see: http://tiny.cc/uAxxa
To learn more about the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) please see: http://tiny.cc/3hR7w
Immigration and Postville, Iowa
Hi all, it’s today’s guest blogger, Sister Sarah Hennessey, FSPA
I just returned from a gathering called “Engaging the Impasse of Immigration” sponsored by NETWORK. It was so fabulous that I want to share some of the vision and excitement! There were 25 women religious (sisters and nuns) there from all over the country and a lot from the Dubuque, Iowa, area, including the sister who was the pastoral administrator at Postville. We told stories. We cried. We broke our hearts open and looked at the issue of immigration from many sides. We concluded that stories are important to break through the impasse and find some middle ground. We need fresh language and stories and common ground to live prophetically and to organize for legalized change.
Some action ideas discussed that NETWORK will implement in its next newsletter and in its work with staffers on the hill. Other ideas included a pilot project of engaging the impasse through stories that could be done in northeast Iowa. Also, there is a traveling exhibit on the history of women religious that is starting this summer and the idea was that the local pieces could have a focus on immigration. The anniversary of Postville is May 12, 2009. There will be an event in Postville and we will look at ways to be in solidarity with them. Look for more details about this coming up. With all of our ideas everyone at the gathering committed herself to some action.
What ideas do you have?
Because we found stories to be so powerful, I want to share some that the NETWORK intern, Katrine Herrick, gathered. One is a moving video of a young boy; the next comes from the point of view of the Minutemen; and last is a story of someone picked up in the raid in Postville.
I want to share these stories with you so you can travel into the impasse with me.
Peace in Christ, Sister Sarah
1. Watch “Juan: An Immigrant’s Story”
2. While this slideshow is on the Minutemen Web site, I believe that it provides an interesting perspective that leads to a better understanding of why some hold their beliefs. I hope you will let the slideshow play and hold these people and their families and communities in your heart.
3.This is the story of a worker who returned to Guatemala, where most of the detained were from. Vincente Sanail Lopez has warned everyone in his hometown about the consequences they could face for illegally working in the United States. “I’ve told people what happened to me, and they think I’m making it up,” he said in Spanish. He told his neighbors how in May he was arrested with nearly 300 other Guatemalans at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. He told them how he was led away in chains and how he spent five months in prison with drug traffickers and thieves. He told them how he was dumped off at the Guatemala City airport, with nothing but his prison uniform and a warning that if he ever returned to the United States, he could be sentenced to 10 years behind bars. For the rest of the article and more stories of the returned, visit the DesMoines Register.
“I believe in the creative energy that weaves the fabric of relations..”
“I believe in the creative energy that weaves the fabric of relations…” Graciela Pujol
Dear All – I am struck today as we near the six year anniversary of the war in Iraq as well as more than seven years in Afghanistan what a different place we are in from this time last year.
We sadly greet yet another year of war and occupation but yet greet this anniversary with the knowledge that Guantanamo may be closed, troop withdrawals are being discussed, and dialog is returning to our presence at the United Nations.
It is not a complete solution, but a beginning and such a beginning has not been seen since September 11, 2001. It matches well the small buds, burgeoning shoots, and unfurling leaves that are starting to mark our entry into spring.
Simple, small and yet deeply nourishing these little flags of hope raise our eyes to the horizon as winter buttons her coat and whispers a gracious goodbye. This delicate opening for change can help us as we continue to raise our voice for peace in the world. To speak for the rights of the Iraqis and Afghanis who have born the burden of our limited vision in the past and still bear that burden today.
We have left Egypt and yet are still in the desert, still crafting the way forward to a land that does not require military might to control resources, settle differences, or ensure domination.
Here is to all the little green leaves, plants, blooms that will help guide us all forward to a peace that brings full justice….Blessings on this Almost Spring…Liz
‘Support development instead of “escalation” in Afghanistan’
Dear All – I would like to share an action today from Sojourners. It is a call to the President to support development instead of “escalation” in Afghanistan.
President Obama has sent a surge of troops into Afghanistan in an attempt to “take control” of the country so that the United States can eventually withdraw all of its troops from the region.
Multiple experts, including some retired military officers, have warned that an increase in military presence will not solve the problems in Afghanistan. It is an “unwinnable” terrain that does not allow for success by air or land.
The most important experts, the Afghan people, have also called for an end to the occupation of their country by the U.S. military. After decades of both internal conflict and conflicts with other state actors the Afghan people are ready to chart a path of peace.
Sojourners has put together a petition that calls on the President to consider turning our course in Afghanistan from a military plan into a plan for development. Let us give money for schools, health care, and food and send the message to the larger region of the Middle East that the United States will no longer choose domination over diplomacy, mutuality, and peace.
Click on this link… www.sojo.net, and scroll down the page until you see a line “Faith in Action” Support Development…click on that and it will take you to the page for the petition.
Isn’t it wonderful to feel that we have an administration that just might listen to us!! Blessings on these Lenten Days…Peace Liz
Postville, Iowa: Action alert and May 12 event information
First, Paul Rael, Hispanic Lay Minister at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Postville, Iowa, requests that we contact our Senators and Representatives to push for Comprehensive Immigration Reform. We need to end the inhumane treatment the workers from Postville have had to suffer and all people like them throughout the United States. They live with GPS tracking devices attached to their ankles and are not allowed to take them off; as a result there are medical problems. They are not allowed to work or go home at this time. Families have been torn apart and may never be reunited; several businesses have closed and all together the whole community suffers. All they ever wanted was to work, feed their families and provide a better life for their children, a basic need of life that has been denied them.
Thank you for contacting your Senators and Representatives on their behalf. Here’s a Web site that makes contacting your elected officials easy: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
Second, here’s the event information for the first anniversary of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on Postville, Iowa.
A Call for Nationwide Awareness and Commemoration of the Postville, Iowa Immigration Raid
Tuesday, May 12 marks the first anniversary of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid on Postville, Iowa. To stand in solidarity with the 389 people who were detained and their families, a nationwide day of remembrance has been declared to promote awareness of the devastating effects of raids. The prayer vigil and walk to commemorate the event will be held as follows:
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
3:30 p.m. – Gather at St. Bridget’s Church, 141 W Williams St, Postville, Iowa
4:00 p.m. – Prayer Vigil and Remembrance
5:00 p.m. – Solidarity Walk to Agriprocessors
The event is a unified call for comprehensive immigration reform, just labor practices, family unity and an end to raids. Invitations will be sent throughout the country to political and faith leaders, social justice advocacy groups, and all who offered assistance to those affected by the raid, requesting their presence in body or spirit on the day of the event.
On this nationwide day of remembrance and solidarity, we urge faith communities of all denominations to sound a call for justice, e.g., ringing of church bells or blowing of the shofar at 10:00 a.m., the time the raid began.
Text of the prayer vigil and remembrance will be available for adaptation for local use after April 15 at www.postvillestbridget.org. Individuals and towns are encouraged to don red ribbons as in Postville on the day of the raid.
Peace,
FSPA Justice, Peace and Integration with Creation Committee
Good Friday Walk for Justice
Dear All – Next Friday, April 10, the 8th Day Center will engage in its 29th Annual Good Friday Walk for Justice. The Walk is a modern “way of the cross” that takes current struggles for justice and peace and matches them to the traditional stations of the cross. We do this to memorialize that very sacred day in two ways, remembering Jesus’ walk to his own execution and uplifting the many today who also “carry crosses.”
The different station prayers are written by social justice groups who reflect on the Gospel narrative as well as the issue for change they are engaged with as a community. Over the years we have looked at war, poverty, environmental destruction, women’s rights, workers’ rights, immigration, torture…a long list of communities struggling toward crafting the “beloved kindom” on Earth.
I invite you to join with us! If you are in Chicago we will begin at noon at Michigan and Congress and walk together until about 3 p.m. If you are not local and are interested in having a copy of the prayer booklet please feel free to e-mail me and I could send you a PDF version of it. Or even more simply, remember us next Friday as you engage Good Friday in a way that feels right and good for your own soul song. Blessings!
Oh! My email is eininn@gmail.com
Much Peace….Liz
Seeking refuge…have you heard of Sheriff Joe Arpaio?
“Home for an immigrant is not a fixed and stable location, but a traveling adventure, which entails seeking refuge in a strange lands, bargaining for survival, and negotiating for existence…” Kwok Pui-Lan
Dear All – Blessings on this Holy Week as we reflect on the pieces of our shared oral and written tradition that tell the stories of the Passion and Resurrection. A story out of Phoenix, Arizona in the last few weeks recalls a part of our sacred story.
A group of migrants were paraded through downtown Phoenix by Sheriff Arpaio, dressed in striped uniforms, humiliated and mocked. I thought of Jesus tortured and mocked by his guards over two thousand years ago. Both suffered at the hands of those who could not see their full humanity, nor recognize their inherent dignity. I want to believe we will one day live in a world where we will not see the Passion reflected in the world around us.
I know that to reach that point we must work together. We must stand with those who are being made to walk the road to Calvary for no reason other than the abuse of power and the reach of ignorance and fear.
Click on the link below to send a letter to President Obama and Homeland Security asking for the dismissal of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Sheriff Arpaio is in charge in Phoenix and is abusing his power to enact cruel, degrading, racist, and extra legal measures against immigrants in the community.
Join with others to create what Sr. Ivone Gebara has named “little resurrections”…any actions that foster the beloved community. Much Peace Liz
OH! I had a question if the ringing of the bells for the Postville event is CST and the answer is yes! The ringing will begin at 10 a.m. CST.
“Let us vow to manifest peace and joy….” A Free Trade Agreement and Colombia
“Let us vow to manifest peace and joy with wisdom and compassion.” Buddhist Prayer
Dear All – Happy Easter! I would like to share with all of you today a campaign that has been put together by Witness for Peace. Witness for Peace is group that partners with organizations in Latin America to help create changes in U.S. foreign policy and funding in the region. They do this through delegations, education and advocacy.
Their focus right now is on Colombia. Colombia has the highest number of people internally displaced in the world, higher even than Iraq or Sudan. People in the country, especially the poor, have been displaced due to military incursions by the Colombian government.
Colombia is lobbying hard to gain a Free Trade Agreement with the United States. It is believed that if passed, the agreement will only deepen the situation of displacement and extreme poverty so many Colombians already face.
Witness for Peace is working hard to educate and advocate against the Free Trade Agreement and in favor of changing U.S. foreign policy in the region. Follow this link to their web page and for action ideas and information on the situation. http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=669
It is a good chance to reinforce with our Congress that the Free Trade model supports environmental destruction, poverty, and loss of sovereignty for communities. Much Peace Liz
Peace conference brings like-minded together in Wisconsin
The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration will co-host a global peace conference on August 1, 2009 in La Crosse, Wis., that is expected to attract hundreds of people to the area.
Creating a Culture of Peace is being organized by FSPA, along with the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi of Milwaukee, Wis., the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist of Meriden, Conn., and the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis based in Cameroon, Africa. The conference celebrates the tenth anniversary of the congregations’ collaboration to share educational resources, improve health care delivery and deepen cultural understanding.
Celebrating peacemaking in today’s world, the conference will feature internationally renowned presenters, including:
• Mae Chee Sansanee Sthirasuta, a spiritual leader from the Thai Buddhist tradition who is known around the world as a peace messenger;
• Janaan Hashim, a Chicago attorney and Muslim who serves as an ardent advocate for Muslims’ civil rights;
• Ilia Delio, OSF, a professor and chair of spirituality studies at Washington Theological Union in Washington, DC, who has written and presented extensively on Franciscan theology;
• Dr. Robert Zuber, director of the project for a United Nations Emergency Peace Service and Global Action to Prevent War who consults with a wide range of U.N. agencies and diplomatic missions.
As part of the conference and anniversary celebration, the Peace Women exhibit will be displayed throughout the Viterbo University campus from August 1, 2009, through early September.
For conference registration information, visit www.franciscancommonventure.org or call 608-791-5287 to request a brochure. Registration is open through July 15, 2009.
“Give me your tired, your poor….” the DREAM act
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Quote at base of Statue of Liberty
Dear All – I would like to share an action from NETWORK this week in regard to the DREAM Act. You will be able to read more below, but essentially the DREAM Act will remove the many obstacles that immigrant youth may face once they leave high school and try to pursue further education or training.
The bill helps to ensure that we as a country do not further the current trend of criminalizing immigrants, especially the children of immigrants who may have had no choice in how they entered the country.
Read the great information below and take a quick action to support the immigrant youth in our communities. Much Peace Liz
An American DREAM for immigrant children
On March 26, 2009, Senators Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Richard Lugar (R-IN) and Representatives Howard Berman (D-CA), Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-FL) and Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) reintroduced the DREAM Act (S. 729, H.R. 1751).
The DREAM Act (“Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors” Act in the Senate, and “The American Dream” Act in the House) would allow undocumented children who entered the United States when 16 years or younger and who have lived in the United States for five years to apply for conditional permanent residency if they maintain good moral character and earn a high school diploma. After 6 years of conditional permanent residency, they could apply for lawful permanent residency (LPR). By allowing students to apply for conditional permanent residency, it would also be giving them a path to apply for higher education, lawful employment, or service to the United States.
Please urge your representative and senators to co-sponsor the DREAM Act so that high school graduates brought to the United States as children can realize their potential through higher education and service to the United States, thus benefiting all Americans. (Or thank them if they are already a co-sponsor.)
You can e-mail your representative at http://capwiz.com/networklobby/issues/alert/?alertid=13182316&type=CO
And your senators at http://capwiz.com/networklobby/issues/alert/?alertid=13182421&type=CO
An appropriate sample message will come up when you enter your zip code, either thanking your member of Congress or urging them to become co-sponsors. This is one of the advantages of using the system on our website to e-mail your members of Congress – we can customize the message based on their co-sponsorship status.
“Arise, then, women of this day…” Julia Ward Howe
“Arise, then, women of this day…”
Dear All – It is a little early for Mother’s Day but I wanted to share an excerpt from a reflection written for Mother’s Day in 1872 by Julia Ward Howe. Ms. Howe was a poet, pacifist, suffragist and author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Her reflection came across my desk right after I read of even more deaths in Iraq. The snyergy of her words with the story from Iraq struck me and I wanted to share her piece.
“Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water of fears!
Arise and say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender to those from another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.
Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have forsaken the plow and anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first as women to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Cesar, but of God.
In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, and the great and general interest of peace.”
May it be so…Much Peace Liz
“I seek mercy…” Support the work of Women Human Rights Defenders in Afghanistan
“I seek mercy for the women stoned and their accomplice the darkness of night….Desanka Maksimovic
Dear All – I am sure many of you may have heard about the recent passage of a law in Afghanistan stripping Shia Afghani women of fundamental rights. Under this new law, “…women cannot leave the house without their husbands’ permission, that they can only seek work, education or visit the doctor with their husbands’ permission, and that they cannot refuse their husbands’ sex.”
President Karzai has promised to review the law and even possibly repeal it because it violates fundamental human rights. However, the law points to a troubling trend in Afghanistan and with our engagement of Afghanistan. A trend where we decry the violence and inequities women face but do little concretely to ensure a socio-political space for women to safely inhabit.
I am pasting below a letter drafted by Amnesty International that can be sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; it urges for certain steps to be taken to begin to repair the damage done to human rights in Afgahnistan. Below the letter is a link to the Secretary of State’s “Contact Us” Web page and mailing address.
The letter speaks specifically of human rights defenders in Afghanistan being protected. This is very important as it is ensuring that the solutions for women in Afghanistan come from the women of Afghanistan. What we do as international allies is hold open the space for those solutions to be dreamed, debated and implemented rather then creating answers outside of the context.
Join me in letting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton know that we are concerned for the women of Afghanistan and believe that since the U.S. invasion in 2001 we bear a unique responsibility to act. Much Peace Liz
Dear Secretary of State,
I am writing to urge you to support the work of Women Human Rights Defenders in Afghanistan and to immediately take effective measures to ensure that they are able to carry out their vital work, without fear of violence and intimidation.
The October 2001 US-led international intervention in Afghanistan was accompanied by a pledge by the Afghan government to protect women’s rights and promote gender equality in Afghanistan. Women human rights defenders play a key role in advancing these concerns, for example, by running safe houses for women at risk, raising awareness on child and forced marriages and providing education programmes and family planning services. Sadly, many come under attack for their work, which is often portrayed mistakenly as challenging the religious and social order in Afghanistan.
In many instances women human rights defenders have faced death threats and kidnapping attempts against themselves and their families, as well as physical attacks, including acid attacks. Tragically some, like the journalist Zakia Zaki in 2007, have been killed for raising their voice, while others have fled the country.
I urge you to support the work of Human Rights Defenders and, in particular, take the following steps to:
- promote and implement the principles in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders (1998), including the right to communicate views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
- ensure that Human Rights Defenders are able to discuss, form and hold opinions on the observance of all human rights and draw public attention to these matters without fear of persecution or punishment;
- ensure that Human Rights Defenders benefit from an effective remedy in the event of violation of their rights and are protected by law and in practice;
- promote public awareness of the role and work of Human Rights Defenders;
- promote awareness among police and other officials of the role and work of Women Human Rights Defenders, including by providing appropriate training to police and other state officials;
- establish a national plan for the promotion and protection of human rights, including both civil and political and economic, social and cultural rights, and emphasizing their universality and indivisibility, and the role and work of Human Rights Defenders, in line with commitments enshrined in the Afghanistan Compact.
Main address:
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
“How could we tire of hope…NGO’s efforts to end violence against women
“How could we tire of hope? – So much is in bud.” Denise Levertov
Dear All – I would like to follow up a little more on the piece I put out last week on the women in Afghanistan. I read an article in the last week that stated a 200% increase in domestic violence against women in the United States since the economy began to severely falter last September. While we focus on the needs of women outside of the country we must also look at the needs within our own borders.
In light of this and different situations around the globe, the United Nations has called for a broadened campaign in NGO’s efforts to end violence against women. Truthout, an on-line publication, has an excellent article that frames this initiative and looks at concrete ways to eliminate violence against women. I will paste the link to the article at the bottom of this entry.
I encourage folks to read this article and think broadly of the efforts of the FSPA community that has long had a commitment to empowering women. There are many efforts already afoot and yet are there more ways to engage this issue? How do we continue to deepen our vision and broaden our reach into places of hurt, loss, and marginalization? As Francis embraced the leper how do we find ways today to embrace women struggling to live with full dignity?
Think about this and write me back in the comments section. I would love to receive ideas and insights to bring to my work at 8th Day and to the Justice and Peace Committee. The comment sections also allows us to talk with one another and learn from the broader community!
I ask for your wisdom as this issue feels so big and deeply important as we work to bring us all closer to the “beloved kindom.”
http://www.truthout.org/050809WA
Much Peace Liz
“It is not power that corrupts but fear…” be a voice for Aung San in Burma
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” Aung San Suu Kyi
Dear All – I wanted to share an action with you for Burmese Pro-Democracy Leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has been threatened with a five year increase on her house arrest. Aung San has been held in house arrest by the military junta of Burma for years. She was nearing the end of her time when a man, an American, swam across the lake near her house and entered her compound.
Having a guest in her compound breaks the conditions of her house arrest. She begged the man to leave but he told her he was exhausted from the swim and asked if he could stay. She allowed him to stay for two days, it is unclear why he was trying to see her.
Because this broke her house confinement rules the Burmese junta government arrested her and is threatening to hold her for five more years. Aung San was close to finishing her time of confinement and would have been free at a politically important time in Burma. Many members of Burma and the international community are saying this is just a tactic by the Burmese government to prevent her from particpating politically.
Aung San has long been an adovocate of human rights, democracy, and nonviolent resistance. It is brutally unfair to force her to stay in confinement any longer especially as she had no control over how this man enetered her compound. Below is a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations calling on his and the UN’s supprt of Aung San. I have also included a link to an article about Aung San and the recent circumstances. Please consider mailing a copy of this letter to support Aung San.
The upcoming Peace Conference that FSPA is co-hosting on August 1 in La Crosse, Wis., touches on the work of someone like Aung San. She is one model for crafting peace in our world through nonviolent resistance and collaborative grass roots work. She is a modern day peace maker and light to the world. Blessings on her work and her vision. Much Peace Liz
May 14, 2009
Secretary General United Nations
Dear Secretary General,
We are writing to you to urge your immediate action against the false imprisonment of our friend and fellow Nobel Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. As you probably know, Ms. Suu Kyi was arrested May 14, 2009 for supposedly breaking the terms of her unlawful detainment by the military junta of Burma and placed in the notorious Insein Prison.
It is clear that this is an excuse by the military junta to add trumped-up charges at a time when her unlawful detention was scheduled to end May 27, 2009. She is to stand trial on Monday, May 18th. The trial is a mockery. There is no judicial system in Burma.
We are extremely concerned about the health of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. As you know, she was diagnosed withlow blood pressure and dehydration. Her personal physician has been imprisoned along with the two women who take care of her. They have all been taken to Insein Prison, which is infamous for its inhumane and treacherous conditions, where prisoners endure mental and physical torture.
We are outraged by the deplorable actions of the military junta against Ms. Suu Kyi and strongly encourage challenge this obvious harassment and intimidation of our fellow Nobel Laureate. We urge you to do everything possible to procur her release. The protection of Ms. Suu Kyi and other peaceful political leaders in Burma is integral in maintaining the prosperity and stability of the country and the Southeast Asian region. Aung San Suu Kyi needs ASEAN to use its political power and esteem in this dire time of need.
It is time for the O.N:U and the international community to join in voicing their outrage for this horrible injustice. We urgently express our views to you and implore you to do everything in your power to free this internationally champion of non violence, human rights and democracy.
Yours sincerely
Secretary General
2 UN Plaza, DC2-1328
New York, NY 10017
United States of America
Day of the Dead by Cindy Sheehan
Dear All – Just a short intro to the reflection written below by Cindy Sheehan for Memorial Day.
I am sure many of remember when Cindy camped outside of the ranch in Crawford, Texas, to try and get an answer from then President George Bush as to why her son was killed in Iraq. The reflection below shows her continued struggle to create a different reality that will no longer require the death of the many to ensure the power of a few…Much Peace Liz
Day of the Dead by Cindy Sheehan
I was on an airplane flying to Orange County from Sacramento to attend the al-Awda Conference, which is a Palestinian Right’s Conference (al-Awda translates to “The Returning”), when the pilot’s voice filled the cabin to make an announcement that I think went unnoticed by most of my fellow passengers, but I heard it.
As the plane was on the approach to John Wayne airport, the Captain came on the intercom to remind us all to “remember our brave troops who have died for our freedom.” Even in this post 9-11 paranoid paradigm, if I wasn’t belted in for landing, I would have popped out of my seat at 13D and charged up to the cockpit to let the pilot know that my son was killed in Iraq and not one person anywhere in this world is one iota more free because he is dead.
As a matter of fact, the people of Iraq, the foreign country thousands of miles away where my oldest child’s brains, blood and life seeped into the soil, are not freer, unless one counts being liberated from life, liberty and property being free. If you consider torture and indefinite detention freedom, then the pilot may have been right, but then again, even if you do consider those crimes freedom, it does not make it so.
Here in America we are definitely not freer because my son died, as a matter of fact, our nation can spy on us and our communications without a warrant or just cause, and we can’t even bring a 3.6 ounce bottle of hand cream into an airport, or walk through a metal detector with our shoes on. Even if we do want to exercise our Bill of Rights, we are shoved into pre-designated “free speech” zones (NewSpeak for; STFU, unless you are well out of the way of what you want to protest and shoved into pens like cattle being led to slaughter), and oftentimes brutally treated if we decide we are entitled to “free speech” on every inch of American soil.
If you watch any one of the cable news networks this weekend between doing holiday weekend things, you will be subjected to images of row upon row of white headstones of dead US military lined up in perfect formation in the afterlife as they were in life. Patriotic music will swell and we will be reminded in script font to “Remember our heroes,” or some such BS as that.
Before Casey was killed, a message like that would barely register in my consciousness as I rushed around preparing for Casey’s birthday bar-be-que that became a family tradition since he was born on Memorial Day in 1979. If I had a vision of how Memorial Day and Casey’s birthday would change for my family, I would have fled these violent shores to protect what was mine, not this murderous country’s. Be my guest; look at those headstones with pride or indifference. I look at them now with horror, regret, pain and a longing for justice.
I can guarantee what you won’t see this holiday weekend are images of the over one million Iraqi dead. Say we assign, in an arbitrary way for purely illustrative purposes, an average height of five feet for every person killed in Iraq and then line those people up from head to toe. That gruesome line would stretch from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon… 950 driving miles up Interstate 5. If we count the Iraqis who have been forced to flee, we would have to go back and forth between Los Angeles and Portland another four times.
There are obscene amounts of people who have been slaughtered for the U.S. Profit Driven Military Empire who do not count here in America on any day. People in Vietnam are still dying from the toxins dumped on their country by the U.S., not to mention the millions who died during that war. Let the carnage escalate in Afghanistan while we protect our personal images by turning a blind eye to Obama’s war crimes. Are you going to feel a lump of pride in your bosom when the coffins start to be photographed at Dover for this imperial crime of aggression? Will you look at those flag-draped boxes of the lifeless body of some mother’s child and think: “Now, I am free.” Is it better to be dead when Obama is president?
A tough, but real, aspect of this all to consider is, how many of the soldiers buried in coffins in military cemeteries killed or tortured innocent people as paid goons for the Empire? To me, it is deeply and profoundly sad on so many levels. If I have any consolation through all of this, I learned that my son bravely refused to go on the mission that killed him, but he was literally dragged into the vehicle and was dead minutes later – before he was forced to do something that was against his nature and nurture.
Casey will always be my hero, but he was a victim of U.S. Imperialism and his death should bring shame, not pride, as it did not bring freedom to anyone. I will, of course, mourn his senseless death on Memorial Day as I do every day.
However, we do not need another day here in America to glorify war that enables the Military Industrial Complex to commit its crimes under the black cloak of “Patriotism.”
From Palestine to Africa to South America, our quest for global economic domination kills, sickens, maims or oppresses people on a daily basis, and about 25,000 children per day die of starvation. I am not okay with these facts and I am not proud of my country.
I will spend my reflective time on Memorial Day to mourn not only the deaths of so many people all over the world due to war, but mourn the fact that they are the unseen and uncared for victims of U.S. Empire.
Postville raid reflection and prayer
It’s guest blogger day!
Rev. Denny Coon, United Methodist Church, FSPA affiliate
On May 12 there was a prayer vigil in Postville, Iowa, commemorating the one year anniversary of the ICE raid on the Agriprocessors plant. I attended to hear the stories. There’s a holy connection that takes place when someone else’s story intersects with mine. I am even more drawn to situations where it seems most unlikely my story will intersect with another person. What would I, a male Anglo from Iowa, have in common with a young Mexican woman? I learn at these intersections that we all have interests alike and are connected through our stories. Once we intersect, we are no longer aliens, enemies, or foreigners. I find God’s presence in all these stories. We are allies of God. I cannot imagine why anyone who believes in God would be angry with immigrants coming to the USA after they hear their stories.
Here is a prayer I wrote for a prayer service in Waterloo, Iowa, the day before Postville’s vigil:
Worker God, with the wind you swept over the chaos,
You, without a visa, created the light and it was good.
You, without a green card, created the sky and it was good.
You, without a driver’s license, created the dry land and sea and they were good.
You, without a social security number, created the sun and stars and they were good.
You, without a passport , created birds and sea creatures and they were good.
You, without a government petition, created cattle, creeping things, and humankind and called them good.
You, O God,
illegal worker,
undocumented creator,
immigrant parent of us all,
the only home land security we need,
stand in solidarity with all workers everywhere because you have created and called them good.
We give thanks for your unconditional love without borders, without agents, without GPS ankle monitoring devices
Lover of the least and the lost,
Lover of the widow and orphan,
Lover of the alien and the sojourner,
Lover of us all.
We pray for your presence with us on this day when we remember the workers and their families from Postville and the community of Postville. May creation be brought back to your intended order where there is enough food and shelter and work for all. May we all work and have meaning as you intended and as you modeled for us that very first week of work.
For, we look forward to the great Sabbath day when all will worship and rest and sit at table together, feasting at your kingdom banquet.
Amen.
Rev. Denny Coon
“Blessed are the peacemakers…” President Obama’s address
Dear All – I want to take this week to reflect on President Obama’s address to the “Muslim world” delivered on June 4.
After eight years of a complete lack of diplomacy, international law and human rights, President Obama faced a steep challenge in addressing the primary victims of U.S. foreign policy. I would like to honor the incredible gaps he tried to bridge from communities still shattered by 9/11 to communities currently shattered in the face of occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. As President Obama noted in his speech these are areas of historical as well as current anguish and require careful reflection and steady care.
I thank the President for what he said. I am relieved and heartened by the tone he struck and hopeful for the branch of collaboration he offered. If we turned a page eight years ago on 9/11 perhaps we have turned another page this past June 4th – a turn toward peace.
But for collaboration to flourish, for mistrust to ease, for anguish to end as the President hopes (and we all hope), we need to take a minute to examine what President Obama did not say.
He did not say that the war in Iraq was illegal and has killed over a million civilians and displaced more than 2 million more; he did not say that Palestinians have existed in one of the most brutal occupations of the past century-an occupation aided and abetted by U.S. military aid; and he did not say that the people of Afghanistan and now Pakistan have begged for the U.S. to leave – that its presence fuels the extremists, it does not defeat them.
In short he did not say what we have done, what we are responsible for, what we need to ask forgiveness for in the humblest of ways as a people – no strings attached – no hedging – just open hearts and hands.
I say this not as a critique of such an important and powerful speech, but as a gentle reminder to each of us: how do we create the peace and prosperity the President eloquently framed if we do not start with the truth? Simple, stark and uncomfortable, the United States has been a devastating force within her own borders and beyond for a long time – long before 9/11.
I think President Obama gave us a place to start – a place more hopeful than the one created by the Bush Presidency. But it is only a beginning and it will take each of us stretching and pushing the public discourse, policy and vision to really create what Obama laid out as a possibility in his speech.
So as the President said, “We have the power to make the world we seek, but only if we have the courage to make a new beginning, keeping in mind what has been written:
The Holy Koran - ”O mankind ! We have created you male and female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another!”
The Talmud – “The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace.”
The Holy Bible – “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called daughters and sons of God.”
We can do it – in love, in light, in community and a perfect opportunity to begin is the Peace Conference on August 1 in La Crosse – join peacemakers from the around world to learn how to open our hearts and hands toward a vision of shalom. In Peace, Liz
Peace Conference details http://www.franciscancommonventure.org/
“I sing to God, my Creator God…” Reflecting on the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement
Dear All – I hope this finds readers who are Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration and affiliates well after the congregation’s General Assembly held last week. I heard the meetings were full of energy and life and gave a good sense of direction for FSPA as it continues to grow from its past and into its future.
I want to share below a reflection and set of actions from a lay missionary in Peru who has been there during the time of violence against the indigenous about the conditions of the Free Trade Agreement. Please read below and to learn more about what is happening in Peru! Much Peace Liz
Dear Friends,
I write to you with haste, and heavy heart from Peru.
Violent clashes between Peruvian police and indigenous protesters in the region of Bagua, Peru occurred this past week.
The indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon are protesting because of fast-track decrees that allow the entrance of extractive industries to their native lands. These decrees are part of the implementation of the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement which began February 1, 2009.
Friday night and Saturday, the Peruvian police were called into the area, called “The Devil’s Curve” and opened fire on the communities who had been performing a protest and blockade for several weeks.
The communities were armed with sticks and lances; the police with guns, helicopters, shields, and gases.
Numbers of those killed are unconfirmed, as allegations that the police are hiding bodies have been made. The government also called a curfew, preventing indigenous residents to search for the missing. Many have been disappeared.
Democracy, development, and human rights are in question here in Peru. Watching the news with my Peruvian colleagues, I listened to outbursts and protests against the government’s callous interpretation of “order” and “citizenship.”
Few media channels are relating live footage and numbers of dead have been controlled by the government. A mass grave has been discovered of indigenous people. And yet, President Alan Garcia is on record for calling the indigenous protesters terrorists. For many Peruvians, this situation brings up memories of the terrible Years of Violence between government and guerrilla forces. This is one example of the violent results of Free Trade.
I just got back from a beautiful ecumenical Vigil for the Amazon communities. My heart and head are full. We here are living on hope, the hope that is God, that the violence stops. Many people have traveled to Bagua to demonstrate that the communities there are not alone, that they are supported, and that there is a movement against the Free Trade decrees which the government must heed.
As people committed to an alternative to this deformed development, the Bridge of Hope Fair Trade team with which I work recognizes the horrific effects of the US-Peru Free Trade Agreement in these events. As Garcia’s government pushes fast-track legislation decreeing exploitative industries in the Amazon to implement the FTA, residents of that area – indigenous peoples – are trying to voice their protest to protect their ancestral territory. The forces at work of globalization and neoliberalism silences these voices with military force by pushing guns into their faces. This is not a new story, unfortunately.
We, the Bridge of Hope team and all of the artisans, offer our solidarity to the indigenous communities in Bagua. We hope, along with them, for dialogue, transparency, respect, justice, and peace, all requisite elements of Fair Trade.
We need your solidarity, too.
Please take a minute to send off two letters. One, to Nancy Pelosi and the House trade committee leaders . They need to know, and admit, that the US-Peru Free Trade agreement is negatively affecting Peruvian communities, and that people in the US care, and want it to stop. Second, send this message to Peru President Alan Garcia . He needs to know that the international community is watching, indignant, and willing to act.
Sign on to this ecumenical, international statement for peace. And stay tuned for ways to communicate with other international leaders for the rights of all people.
Read more:
Democracy NOW:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/8/peruvian_police_accused_of_massacring_indigenous
Eyes on Trade:
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2009/06/ftaspawned-crisis-continues-in-peru.html
Amnesty International:
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa14309.pdf
Pray with us, as we sing:
I sing to God, my Creator God
For life, our life, which today wants to live.
The beautiful things that you gift to us, the mother earth that we have to care for
For the happiness and the colors that encourage us to continue
And for the people of my country, for those that love without conditions
For those that fight, that dedicate themselves for a homeland with dignity
And for the hands that hug us, for care and good will
For the tenderness and the existence of consolation and liberty
I sing to God, my Creator God
For life, our life, which today wants to live.
As we sign off at Bridge of Hope,
Hoping, praying and working,
…Por un Mundo màs Justo y Solidario…
For a world with more justice and solidarity,
Alexandra Buck
–
Joining Hands Peru
www.manosperu.org
“With this faith we will be able to work together…” Wis. legislation filling gaps for immigrants
“With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together to stand up for freedom together…” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dear All – I want to share some information on an action that was brought to my attention by Sharon Chavolla, an FSPA Affiliate. Sharon works closely with the immigrant community in La Crosse, Wis., and the surrounding area. Sharon has worked with the community as they have mobilized to pass measures that would allow immigrants driving certificates and in state tuition.
The driving certificate measure would give immigrants legal driving status that is different from a drivers license. It serves as a protection for both the immigrant and other drivers and also allows access to car insurance. It is a simple measure that helps to fill the “gaps” when a person is undocumented and blocked from many government services/requirements.
The second piece of the legislation extends in state tuition to immigrants seeking to attend state schools. Right now undocumented individuals do not get access to the in state rates no matter how long they have lived in the community. This shows another “gap” that comes from a lack of documentation and creates a road block to education for the immigrant community.
These measures, while simple if passed, would create many exciting openings for the immigrant community of Wisconsin. It would also send a signal that the fear, mistrust and racism that has surrounded much of the rhetoric of immigration reform no longer rules the day. That we as diverse community hailing from around the world seek to welcome and not criminalize those who come to build new lives.
Click on the link below and see how you can help ensure the passage of these important measures! Much Peace Liz
http://www.vdlf.org/get_informed/christines_column.php?eid=21
It’s time Congress makes substantive changes in our health care system
Today we’re passing on a message from Julie Wokaty at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. The link from ICCR makes composing and sending your letter to all your representatives in both House and Senate incredibly easy (in one fell swoop it goes to all 3 based on your home address).
“On June 24, 2009, ICCR faxed a letter and the ICCR Principles for Health Care Reform to the leadership of the five committees in the House and the Senate addressing health care to say: “Now is the time for enacting legislation that includes a strong/meaningful public plan in order to provide access to affordable, quality health care which is accountable and equitable to all across our nation. Now is the time for Congress to make substantive changes in our health care system.”
We ask you to send a message to your Congressional Representative and Senators which you can do by clicking here, using the action page created for ICCR by the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center: http://capwiz.com/ipjc/issues/alert/?alertid=13612061.
For the copy of the ICCR letter and Principles for Health Care Reform, go to: http://www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/2009/pr_healthreformaction06.24.09.htm ”
Standing with the people of Honduras…
Dear All – I am including below an action alert from the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America. It describes the situation in Honduras and a simple action to take to support the people of Honduras to ensure the democratic process is up held.
The situation in Honduras is very fragile and will require active engagement from the international community to ensure that this coup does not stand. The United States bears a special responsibility because we trained the General that led the coup at the School of the Americas/WHINSEC. A military training “school” that has been behind some of the worst dictators and human rights violations in Latin American history.
While we stand with the people of Honduras we can ask our own government how a school that claims a “human rights” curriculum continues to graduate dictators. Much Peace Liz
CRLN Action Alert
Early Sunday morning democratically-elected Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya was ousted from the Presidential palace in a military coup orchestrated by Honduran General and SOA graduate Romeo Vasquez. The coup took place after several weeks of tension within the country between President Zelaya and other branches of government over a referendum planned for Sunday. Yesterday at 5 a.m. the Honduran military, under General Vasquez’s direction, stormed the Presidential Palace and forced President Zelaya onto a plane which landed in Costa Rica. CRLN received reports that the military has set up curfews and roadblocks throughout the country, cut off public television and community radio, and limited electricity supply to the capital Tegucigalpa.
Later on Sunday, the right-wing Honduran Congress voted the head of Congress, Roberto Michelleti into the presidency. Meanwhile, the Organization of American States (OAS) has stated that: “no government arising from this unconstitutional interruption will be recognized.” The OAS, the European Union (EU), several Latin American governments and U.S. State Department have all publicly condemned the coup. For statements from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the OAS and U.S. human rights organizations, click here: http://www.lawg.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=447
Call the State Department & the White House! CRLN urges the U.S. government to take immediate action and make their condemnation of the coup loud and clear. When you call, say that you are deeply concerned about the recent military coup in Honduras and that you want the U.S. government to take the following three positions:
- Refuse to recognize the new, unconstitutional government;
- Call for the immediate re-instatement of Honduran President Zelaya to office; and
- End all U.S. military aid as a result of the Honduran military’s serious violation of the country’s democratic order.
State Department: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339
White House: Comments: 202-456-1111, Switchboard: 202-456-1414
For decades, the Honduran military has been a heavy recipient of U.S. aid. Since 1998 Honduras has been the fourth largest feeder of students to the School of the Americas/WHINSEC. Just days before Sunday’s coup, our U.S. Representatives voted yes on an amendment to release the names of graduates and instructors of the SOA/WHINSEC. Thank your representative if they voted for this important amendment! The fact that General Vasquez, the leader of Honduras’ military coup was an SOA graduate is yet one more reason why transparency in U.S. government institutions, as well as the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC, is critical. For the full results of the vote, click here http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll454.xml
Never Never Land and a Coup
Dear All – I offer below more information on the situation in Honduras. It seems all news has been replaced with tasteless coverage of the death of Michael Jackson. While the loss of any human life is sad and certainly “newsworthy” it is disheartening to see the “vulture-esque” circling of the media over his life and the questions surrounding his death…no offense to vultures, of course.
In the meantime we have troops withdrawing from Iraq, continued struggles in Iran and a coup in Honduras…to simply name a few of the things that deserve as much attention as who will inherit Neverland Ranch.
So as we have just marked our own remembrance of independence let us join in solidarity with the people of Honduras in regaining their own…the information below is provided by the Chicago Religious Leadership Network on Latin America. Blessings and Much Peace, Liz
Honduras
On Sunday afternoon, Honduran President Zelaya attempted a return to Honduras after being ousted from his post last week by a military coup. Despite accompaniment from several Latin American presidents and international bodies, military troops on the ground in Honduras did not allow the plane to land. To read an article from today’s LA Times, click here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-honduras6-2009jul06,0,1801880.story.
Geoff Thale from the Washington Office on Latin America, wrote an excellent article, “Behind the Honduras Coup” analyzing the crisis in Honduras. We especially recommend you scroll down the page to read the section titled “Deeper Roots”. To see the article, click here: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6225
Finally, if you have not yet called the State Department & the White House, please do so this week! Urge the U.S. government to take immediate action and make their condemnation of the coup loud and clear. We call on the U.S. government to take the following three positions:
1. Refuse to recognize the new, unconstitutional government;
2. Call for the immediate and unconditional return of Honduran President Zelaya to office; and
3. End all U.S. military aid as a result of the Honduran military’s serious violation of the country’s democratic order.
State Department: 202-647-4000 or 1-800-877-8339
White House: Comments: 202-456-1111, Switchboard: 202-456-1414
“You’ll have lots of splaining to do…” Chicago protest at the Jewish United Fund
“You’ll have lots of splaining to do…” Ricky Ricardo and Senator Corbourn
Dear All – This morning there was a protest in downtown Chicago against the Jewish United Fund. A group calling themselves “God Hates America” held signs in front of the Fund that read, “God Hates Jews,” “Fags Are Beasts,” “Jews Will Repent,” and “Obama is the Devil.”
They claim to be part of a separatist Baptist church that believes the bible instructs Christians to act against “inequities” and name the “devil” and his work. The connection they believe that exists between the Jewish community and the Gay community is that both are condemned in the Bible.
While on one hand this represents the fullness of our belief in the freedom of speech, it is always difficult to see that right utilized toward demeaning a people especially in the name of God.
I think it is often easy to dismiss groups like this. We feel uncomfortable with their message but assure ourselves that the majority would not share their view. They are extremists and a minority. Yet strangely they were reminding me of the Senators on the Judiciary Committee.
During the confirmation hearings of Judge Sonia Sotomayer for the Supreme Court, Republican Senators repeatedly couched their questions in references to her racial background. References that at best were inaccurate and at worst were racist.
For example, Senator Sessions asking her why she did not agree with a fellow judge who was Puerto Rican – seeing that they were both Puerto Rican should they not agree with one another automatically? Weirder was his insistence that by not agreeing with him she was being racist…against white males….even though who she disagreed with was Puerto Rican.
Or his companion Senator Corbourn who decided it was appropriate to imitate Ricky Ricardo when asking Judge Sotomayor a question. When questioning Judge Roberts for his appointment to the Supreme Court Senator Corbourn did not find it necessary to use any accents.
Not of course to be outdone by Pat Buchanan, Republican analyst, who urged the Senators to use the confirmation hearings as a way to incite anger among marginalized whites and use that energy to refuel the Republican base.
Extremists? A minority?
While not going as far as the group this morning protesting the Jewish Fund, the Republican reaction to Judge Sotomayor had echoes of “God Hates Jews”…namely that the person or persons is reduced to a single factor – his or her race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, etc.
This “factor,” like race, is then defined by the person doing the original reduction. For this morning’s protesters being Jewish or gay is being evil – for the Republicans being Latina means you are unable to see outside of the biases created by your race (not of course a problem they were having…ahem).
This reduction takes away the humanity of the person or persons and begins the slippery slope to believing as the Nazis did that they had not only the right but the duty to exterminate a whole people.
So while I want to dismiss this morning’s group and the Senators I cannot. I cannot because what is at risk is far too important. For what is at risk is human life, dignity and security. Should anyone have to live in fear based on their gender, sexual orientation, race or religion?
Let us draw hope and strength from the reality of our first African American President and first (hopefully) Latina Supreme Court Justice. Those are openings that shift the landscape that believes “God Hates Jews” but also let us remain clear that we have a long way to go before we will not have a corner covered in signs that demean and dismiss.
“One nuclear weapon exploded in one city…”
“One nuclear weapon exploded in one city — be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague — could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be — for our global safety, our security, our society, our economy, to our ultimate survival.” President Obama
Dear All – I would like to share a link from Peace Action, a group that works to promote alternatives to military solutions. They are engaging a year long set of strategies around the reduction and ultimate removal of nuclear weapons. One of their actions is to gather 100,000 signatures for a petition calling for a nuclear free world.
If you click on the link below it will take you to their home page – you can then click on the link entitled “Petition Obama” and join with thousands of others to ask President Obama to move toward complete disarmament. They have a lot of great information on their site so feel free to check it all out!
A unique moment came in last few days when the F-22 program was successfully cut from the defense budget. It is the first time in a long time that the Pentagon was open and transparent about a military program being a waste of money and only being continued because miltary contractors profited.
While this offers a small success it does not address the broader concern that the United States is still putting the lion share of its resources toward military solutions and determent.
Join with Peace Action in taking the small opening created in public dialog by cutting the F-22′s and sign a petition to broaden what we acknowledge as a “waste”…Nuclear bombs powerful enough to destroy the whole planet would certainly qualify… Peace Liz
Creating a Culture of Peace
Four congregations of Catholic sisters presented Together, Creating a Culture of Peace on Saturday, August 1 in La Crosse, Wis. The congregations, the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist celebrated the 160th anniversary of their common founding. The Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis-Cameroon, West Africa, joined these communities in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Franciscan Common Venture. FSPA also celebrated the beginning of 132 years of Perpetual Adoration. Opening at the conference was the Peace Women Across the Globe 1000 Women for Peace exhibition.
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- “Love and forgiveness can heal our world and make a brighter future for our children. Every time we meet someone, it is our opportunity to give love to that person.”
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- “Peace is not peace unless it is shared. Peace lives on the horizon of a new future. The universe cannot attain peace without us.”
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- The 1000 Peace Women Across the Globe exhibition opened during the Peace Conference.
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- “Guideline for peace-making: Remember God first, above all and throughout the process. No peace can be established without an awareness of God.”
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- The conference closed with Mass that ended with a Cameroonian drum finale.
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- “It’s time to start coaching. A chronic need is to find women to mentor younger women in peace-making.” Dr. Robert Zuber, United Nations Emergency Peace Service and Global Action to Prevent War
The conference closed with a Peace Mass during which the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis offered the Gospel Procession and Acclamation.
One Thousand Paper Cranes: remembering Hiroshima
Dear All – A reflection below from Frida Berrigan, daughter of Liz McAllister and Phil Berrigan, on remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki…she says a lot very well so I will say very little and let her wisdom speak….Peace Liz (for those in the La Crosse, Wis., area, check out this event happening Thursday, Aug. 6 and co-sponsored by FSPA).
Remembering
When I was young, to keep memory from “slipping,” our family and friends marked the anniversary of those terrible days in a distant land with a demonstration or vigil. Often, we ended with a ceremony of remembrance, setting paper lanterns afloat on water in honor of those who died.
Admittedly, this would not pass for a carefree American summer evening, but even as a little girl I came to feel as if I knew some of the A-bomb survivors personally – the experience of Akihiro Takahashi, the photographs of Yosuke Yamahata, and perhaps closest to my heart, the story of Sadako Sasaki.
The children’s book, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, written by Eleanor Coerr, brought me close to one girl whose life was cut short by my government’s A-bomb long before I was born. I was then a chubby, sedentary kid, and so found myself strangely intrigued and confused by Sadako’s deep love of running.
She was just two years old when Little Boy exploded above her city, but eight or nine as the book begins, impatient and uncomfortable with all the obligatory ceremonies surrounding the anniversary of the bomb in Hiroshima. She did not like to look at the survivors or care to hear the terrible stories. All she wanted to do was run. Lithe, athletic, and popular, Sadako joined a footrace on the very anniversary of the destruction of her city and, when she found herself unable to finish, was taken to the doctor only to discover that she had “atom bomb sickness” – in her case, leukemia.
In the hospital, a friend reminded her of an ancient Japanese belief: if you fold 1,000 paper cranes, the Gods will grant you a wish. So with the help of her classmates, she began to do just that. Scrap paper, candy wrappers, fancy printed paper: all become tiny origami birds of hope.
With her as an inspiration, I learned to fold paper cranes, practicing until I could do so with my eyes closed and fold them as small as a pea. Childhood being childhood, what may have impressed me most was a friend of mine who could fold those origami birds with her toes.
On October 25, 1955, with 356 birds left to go (as Coerr tells it), Sadako died. Since 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden folded crane has stood in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, draped with small paper birds sent from children all over the world, a symbol of peace.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Today
Sixty-four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we need more than symbols of peace. Folding paper cranes alone cannot, unfortunately, end the threat of nuclear war. Memories of the destruction fade, the hibakusha grow even older and die, the haunting pictures end up in books stored spine out on bookshelves.
Meanwhile, the terror of nuclear annihilation – so keen at certain moments during the long superpower Cold War stand-off – seems to have worn off almost completely. That’s too bad, since the actual threat of nuclear war remains hidden but potent. The nine nuclear powers – the United States, Russia, France, England, China, Israel, Pakistan, India, and North Korea – have more than 27,000 operational nuclear weapons among them, enough to destroy several Earth-sized planets. And in May, Mohamed
ElBaradei, the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that the number of nuclear powers could double in a few years unless
new disarmament is a priority. Is it any wonder then that, according to a recent Rasmussen opinion poll, one in five Americans believe nuclear war “very likely” in this century, and more than half, “likely”?
The unthinkable is still under consideration – even as the Obama administration takes its first steps in the right direction. In an April speech in Prague, President Obama publicly embraced the goal of seeking “the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.” In its wake, his administration has begun taking still quite modest but potentially important steps towards that goal, including: renewed talks with Russia over mutual nuclear reductions, conversations initiated in the Senate about jump-starting the ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban, stalled these last 10 years, and of negotiations for the also stalled Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, imagined as an internationally verified ban on the production of nuclear materials for weapons.
Right now, however, the American nuclear landscape – little acknowledged or discussed – remains grimly potent. According to the authoritative Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the United States still maintains a nuclear stockpile estimated at 5,200 warheads – of which approximately 2,700 are operational (with the rest in reserve), while the Obama administration will spend more than $6 billion on the research and development of nuclear weapons this year alone.
At some point early next year, the administration will complete a Nuclear Posture Review outlining the role it believes nuclear weapons should play in the American pantheon of power, and, if the president follows through on his anti-nuclear statements, perhaps that document will at least begin to limit the scenarios in which such weapons could be used. In the meantime, the policy of the United States remains no different than it was in 2004, when Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed the Nuclear Weapons Employment Policy. It said, in part, that the United States possesses nuclear weapons for the purposes of “destroying those critical war-making and war-supporting assets and capabilities that a potential enemy leadership values most and that it would rely on to achieve its own objectives in a post-war world.” Read that sentence again, and think, under such a doctrine, what might the United States not bomb?
Keep in mind as well that the bombs which annihilated two Japanese cities and ended so many lives 64 years ago this week were puny when compared to today’s typical nuclear weapon. Little Boy was a 15 kiloton warhead. Most of the warheads in the U.S. arsenal today are 100 or 300 kilotons – capable of taking out not a Japanese city of 1945 but a modern megalopolis. Bruce Blair, president of the World Security Institute and a former launch-control officer in charge of Minutemen Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles armed with 170, 300, and 335 kiloton warheads, pointed out a few years ago that, within 12 minutes, the United States and Russia could launch the equivalent of 100,000 Hiroshimas.
It is unthinkable. It seems unimaginable. It sounds like hyperbole, but consider it an uncomfortable and necessary truth. The people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the children of our future need us to understand this and act upon it – 64 years too late… and not a minute too soon.
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ACLU releases Tortured Logic video
Dear All – Below is an action from ACLU calling for Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate those who authorized the use of torture techniques.
This is different than an independent prosecutor to investigate those who performed acts outside of the approved techniques. Attorney General Holder is also considering investigating members of the CIA and those contracted by the government who took actions within interrogations that were outside of the prescribed “enhanced interrogation techniques.”
This might seem confusing and it is confusing to understand how the law would find those who engaged in torture responsible. By asking for an investigation into those who were involved in the highest levels of government we help ensure that anyone who engaged in torture whether by writing memos or performing techniques is held accountable to the law.
Please click the link below to watch the video and find an email you can send Attorney General Eric Holder to encourage him to begin to create a space of healing for victims by investigating the masterminds who authorized torture.
ACLU
The Bush torture memos were never intended to see the light of day — much less to be spoken out loud. That’s what makes the ACLU’s Tortured Logic video so powerful. We asked a number of prominent artists and citizens including award-winning filmmaker Oliver Stone and 9/11 family member Patricia Perry to give voice to these chilling descriptions of torture techniques and the twisted justifications that were used to authorize them.
Right now, Attorney General Eric Holder is deciding if he will appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate the Bush torture program. Make sure Attorney General Holder hears the call for a thorough criminal investigation by sending him this powerful video. Forward the Tortured Logic video to Attorney General Eric Holder now, and ask him to appoint an independent prosecutor.
If Attorney General Holder sets in motion a thorough investigation, it will reaffirm that, in America, no one is above the law. But, if he does nothing, or if he limits the scope of the investigations to exclude high-level officials, it will further tarnish America’s credibility as a nation that respects the rule of law and human rights. When the Justice Department is deluged with copies of this powerful video, it will serve as compelling evidence of the American people’s resolve to investigate and prosecute acts that showed a blatant disregard for human rights and the rule of law.
The justification to authorize the Bush torture program was endorsed by officials at the highest levels. We can’t let them just walk away. The only way to make sure this does not happen again is to conduct a thorough criminal investigation. You can help tip the balance by sharing this video with Eric Holder as he makes his decision. Please send this just-released video today.
Thank you for taking action at this crucial moment.
Sincerely, Anthony D. Romero
http://www.aclu.org/torturedlogic/
Peace Liz
Let’s make it simple…a letter on health care by Thomas Hartmann
Dear All – I want to share a letter written on health by Thomas Hartmann who is a syndicated radio host. In his open letter to President Obama he cuts through much of the “debate” that is surrounding the proposal for a public option and gets at the heart of the matter.
We already have a public option….it is Medicare. And while it has flaws, it works a lot better than having no coverage at all.
Hartmann’s letter reminds us that a public option does not have to spiral us into debt, socialism, or “death panels.” Nor will it heave orphans into the streets or put the elderly or disabled on buses out of town. It will instead give life to millions of Americans who currently make choices between paying rent or going to the doctor.
I encourage you, if you like this letter, to use it creatively – send it to friends or family or even better, your Reps and Senators and encourage them to not give up on the public option because the health care industry is flexing all its monetary might…Much Peace Liz
Dear President Obama,
I understand you’re thinking of dumping your “public option” because of all the demagoguery by Sarah Palin and Dick Armey and Newt Gingrich and their crowd on right-wing radio and Fox. Fine. Good idea, in fact.
Instead, let’s make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.
It would be so easy. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called “public option” that’s a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won’t — just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you’re so comfortable with.
Just pass a simple bill — it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people — that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.
So it’s revenue neutral!
To make it available to people of low income, raise the rates slightly for all currently non-eligible people (like me — under 65) to cover the cost of below-200%-of-poverty people. Revenue neutral again.
Most of us will do damn near anything to get out from under the thumbs of the multi-millionaire CEOs who are running our current insurance programs. Sign me up!
This lets you blow up all the rumors about death panels and grandma and everything else: everybody knows what Medicare is. Those who scorn it can go with Blue Cross. Those who like it can buy into it. Simplicity itself.
Of course, we’d like a few fixes, like letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and filling some of the holes Republicans and AARP and the big insurance lobbyists have drilled into Medicare so people have to buy “supplemental” insurance, but that can wait for the second round. Let’s get this done first.
Simple stuff. Medicare for anybody who wants it. Private health insurance for those who don’t. Easy message. Even Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley can understand it. Sarah Palin can buy into it, or ignore it. No death panels, no granny plugs, nothing. Just a few sentences.
Replace the “you must be disabled or 65″ with “here’s what it’ll cost if you want to buy in, and here’s the sliding scale of subsidies we’ll give you if you’re poor, paid for by everybody else who’s buying in.” (You could roll back the Reagan tax cuts and make it all free, but that’s another rant.)
We elected you because we expected you to have the courage of your convictions. Here’s how. Not the “single payer Medicare for all” that many of us would prefer, but a simple, “Medicare for anybody who wants to buy in.”
Respectfully,
Thom Hartmann
Hinkypunks….
Dear All – In the famed Harry Potter series there is a very important magical creature, the hinkypunk. Hinkypunks are small one legged ghostlike creatures who cast a false light so travelers mistake the light for a true road and follow the hinkypunks into the bog. They are mischievous little critters who lure you away from the road not because they want to help as their light suggests, but because they want the pleasure of confusing and confounding travelers.
I think in many of our national debates we are facing a serious case of the hinkypunks. We are being fed false stories that appear real and lead us off the road and into the bog. We are being told to follow the false lights of national health care killing grandmothers, of a “post racial” era where white males are the new minority, where coal is “clean” and Afghanistan is the “good war.” In this hinkypunk land torture can be made legal by a memo, corporations need protection from unions, and in Missouri you can get a free AK-47 when you buy a truck because the new socialist government wants to remove the 2nd amendment.
Hinkypunks? Absolutely.
The proposed solution in Harry Potter is that you have to resist the lure of the lights the hinkypunks cast – in short you cannot try to get home before it is time. You need to stay your path – even when lost – and resist following the false light further into the abyss.
In the case of our national debates we need to listen deeply, search for facts, and resist the multi million dollar media machine telling us up is down and the sun is the moon. We must ask who and what is helped by creating hysteria over public option health care? Who and what is helped by claiming coal can be made clean? Who and what benefits from the many bobbing lights encouraging us into a bog of distractions that sacrifice real decisions and real ideas that could help real people.
Nationalized health care would help grandmothers and many others, having one African American president doesn’t make white men the new minority and no one has ever suggested removing the 2nd amendment at least no one that was ever listened to. So let us place our feet as a nation back on a path of integrity where we as citizens have access to news that informs, public debates that shape ideas and public policy that strives for a common good.
Let us banish the hinkypunks by not listening, not following the light and getting home with one less tour through a bog…Much Peace Liz
Those who have endured the unimaginable…torture in the U.S.
“This is a day on which we pay our respects to those who have endured the unimaginable. This is an occasion for the world to speak up against the unspeakable. It is long overdue that a day be dedicated to remembering and supporting the many victims and survivors of torture around the world.” Kofi Annan
Dear All – We have heard much in the news these past weeks about torture and the U.S. involvement in torture programs. These conversations have been troubling on many levels but in particular that they frame torture as if it started after 9/11.
This “start date” for torture does two things: it “justifies” the action by placing torture in response to the tragedy of 9/11 and it erases the history of the people of Latin America and others who experienced U.S. sponsored torture programs long before 9/11.
Representative McGovern has put together an important piece of legislation that the torture debate could learn from. It is an amendment that calls on the SOA/WHINSEC who train soldiers from Latin America to engage complete transparency and make public the names of their students. The School, infamous for training torturers and dictators, refuses to provide the names of the students claiming it would violate their privacy. What schools you attend is typically public knowledge it is not like asking the graduates to share with the world when they had their first kiss.
The importance of the transparency is that it says to the world and us, the U.S. taxpayers, we have nothing to hide here. No midnight memos, back doors programs, secretly approved CIA initiatives that even Congress does not know about only legal and ethical actions we have no reason to hide.
With the action below you can directly support Rep. McGovern’s bill and indirectly support the broadening of the torture debate. Transparency is vital for democratic process and for attempting to begin a healing process with all those around the world who have suffered at the hands of U.S sponsored torturers. Let’s tell congress and Attorney General Eric Holder that we value transparency as step toward creating justice for those who have “endured the unimaginable…” Peace Liz
Urgent Action #2
On June 25, 2009 the House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to support the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop-Lewis Amendment, which would force the Pentagon to release the names of SOA/WHINSEC graduates and instructors. This amendment to FY 2010 Defense Authorization Bill is now being sent to a Joint House-Senate Conference Committee, in charge of debating this amendment. The Committee’s approval will send the proposed amendment to the Senate for a vote. Senator Burris was recently appointed to this Conference Committee.
Please urge your Senator to support the McGovern Amendment as part of the final draft of the Defense Authorization Bill. For a list of the 224 Representatives who supported this amendment, click here: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll454.xml.
Call your Senator this week and tell him/her to support this amendment and promote transparency within the SOA/WHINSEC and leave the following message:
“Hello, my name is ___________ and I live in __________ (city/state). I am calling to urge Senator _______ to support the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop Lewis Amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill. This amendment would release the names of SOA/WHINSEC graduates and instructors, which are crucial to research and legislative efforts to close the school. Since many past graduates from SOA have been proven human rights abusers, it is important that the U.S. government commit itself to transparency and the priority of human rights. Can I count on Senator _______ to support this important amendment? Please let me know.”
Busted Borders: Fatoumata (Senegal) | Busted Halo
Sister Sarah Hennessey stumbled upon this series hosted by BustedHalo.com that we know you’ll enjoy (video link below).
According to the Web site, “Instead of contributing to the glut of coverage about immigration, BustedHalo is featuring stories by immigrants themselves about the issue…
Regardless of where you stand on the issue, we hope to give a personal glimpse into the humanity of these strangers in our midst.”
Enjoy. Peace.
Busted Borders: Fatoumata (Senegal) | Busted Halo
Shared via AddThis
“I am a registered nurse…” About health care reform
“I am a registered nurse and have good health care but it cuts deep into my moral fiber to see so many people especially children who cannot get health care because their parents cannot afford it.” Joanna, Nurse – Sioux Falls
Dear All – Below is a link to Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good it has a wonderful interactive map that tells the real stories of people struggling without health care.
The debate on health care has devolved into almost another dimension. We have moved from disagreeing about how to provide health care into fictionalizing a plan that does not exist. In this plan grandmothers are killed, we become socialist over night and our children will still be paying for the stitches their grandfather got thirty years after he is dead.
Calling for health care reform is now a two step process – upholding what we know needs to be changed and upholding and demanding the truth from our lawmakers, TV news analysts, newspapers and radio shows. Enough “spinning” we have spun into a place that is not about differences but about lying to prevent change.
If those who oppose health care reform have no other argument to prevent the change than fictionalized concerns, it is time for the debate to move onto to the real questions that need to be answered to create a quality option for all of us. Help move the debate along and check out the work of Catholics In Alliance and spread the word about credible sources speaking to health care realities. Peace Liz
The New Illiteracy (in a “You Lie” era)
Dear All – Below is an article from Henry A. Giroux, Chair of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada. He is reflecting on the incident of the Representative who yelled out that President Obama is a liar (during Obama’s address) and the larger cultural emergence of shouting and lying that is replacing real public discourse at an alarming rate. It is a long piece and I have posted a shortened version but I included a link at the end to the full article for anyone who is interested.
Viva literacy! Peace Liz
The New Illiteracy
Henry A. Giroux
C. Wright Mills argued 50 years ago that one important measure of the demise of vibrant democracy and the corresponding impoverishment of political life can be found in the increasing inability of a society to translate private troubles to broader public issues.
This is an issue that both characterizes and threatens any viable notion of democracy in the United States in the current historical moment. In an alleged democracy, the image of the public sphere with its appeal to dialogue and shared responsibility has given way to the spectacle of unbridled intolerance, ignorance, seething private fears, unchecked anger, along with the decoupling of reason from freedom.
Increasingly, as witnessed in the utter disrespect and not so latent racism expressed by Joe Wilson, the Republican Congressman from South Carolina, who shouted, “You Lie!” during President Obama’s recent address on health care, the obligation to listen, respect the views of others and engage in a literate exchange are increasingly reduced to the highly spectacularized embrace of an infantile emotionalism.
This is an emotionalism that is made for television and is perfectly suited for emptying the language of public life of all substantive content, reduced in the end to a playground for hawking commodities, promoting celebrity culture and enacting the spectacle of right-wing fantasies fueled by the fear that the public sphere as an exclusive a club for white, male Christians is in danger of collapsing.
For some critics, those who carry guns to rallies or claim Obama is not a bona fide citizen of the United States are simply representative of a lunatic fringe that gets far more publicity from the mainstream media than they deserve. Of course, this is understandable given that the media’s desire for balance and objective news is not just craven, but relinquishes any sense of ethical responsibility by failing to make a distinction between an informed argument and an unsubstantiated opinion.
The collapse of journalistic standards finds its counterpart in the rise of civic illiteracy. An African-American president certainly makes the Rush Limbaughs of the world even more irrational then they already are, just as the lunatic fringe seems to be able to define itself only through a mode of thought whose first principle is to disclaim logic itself.
But I think this dismissal is too easy. What this decline in civility, the emergence of mob behavior and the utter blurring in the media between a truth and lie suggests is that we have become one of the most illiterate nations on the planet.
I don’t mean illiterate in the sense of not being able to read, though we have far too many people who are functionally illiterate in a so-called advanced democracy, a point that writers such as Chris Hedges, Susan Jacoby and the late Richard Hofstatder made clear in their informative books on the rise of anti-intellectualism in American life.
But I am talking about a different species of ignorance and anti-intellectualism. Illiterate in this instance refers to the inability on the part of much of the American public to grasp private troubles and the meaning of the self in relation to larger public problems and social relations.
It is a form of illiteracy that points less to the lack of technical skills and the absence of certain competencies than to a deficit in the realms of politics—one that subverts both critical thinking and the notion of literacy as both critical interpretation and the possibility of intervention in the world.
The type of illiteracy is not only incapable of dealing with complex and contested questions; it is also a principle for glorifying the principle of self-interest as a paradigm for understanding politics. This is a form of illiteracy marked by the inability to see outside of the realm of the privatized self, an illiteracy in which the act of translation withers, reduced to a relic of another age.
The United States is a country that is increasingly defined by a civic deficit, a chronic and deadly form of civic illiteracy that points to the failure of both its educational system and the growing ability of anti-democratic forces to use the educational force of the culture to promote the new illiteracy. As a result of this widespread illiteracy that has come to dominate American culture we have moved from a culture of questioning to a culture of shouting, and in doing so have restaged politics and power in both unproductive and anti-democratic ways.
The new illiteracy is about more than learning how to read the book or the word; it is about learning how not to read the world. It is a problem as serious as any we have ever faced in the United States. At the core of any viable Democratic politics is the ability to question the basic assumptions central to an imagined democracy. This is not merely a political issue, but an educational issue, one that points to the need for modes of civic education that provide the knowledge and competencies, for young and old alike, to raise important questions about what education and literacy itself should accomplish in a democracy. This is not an issue we can ignore too much longer.
“Why I threw the shoe…”
Dear All – This article truly speaks for itself – in honor of all those who have suffered and died in the occupation of Iraq I offer the following….Peace Liz
I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.
Why I Threw the Shoe
by Muntazer al-Zaidi
The Guardian/UK
Friday, September 18, 2009
I am free. But my country is still a prisoner of war. There has been a lot of talk about the action and about the person who took it, and about the hero and the heroic act, and the symbol and the symbolic act. But, simply, I answer: what compelled me to act is the injustice that befell my people, and how the occupation wanted to humiliate my homeland by putting it under its boot.
Over recent years, more than a million martyrs have fallen by the bullets of the occupation and Iraq is now filled with more than five million orphans, a million widows and hundreds of thousands of maimed. Many millions are homeless inside and outside the country.
We used to be a nation in which the Arab would share with the Turkman and the Kurd and the Assyrian and the Sabean and the Yazid his daily bread. And the Shia would pray with the Sunni in one line. And the Muslim would celebrate with the Christian the birthday of Christ. This despite the fact that we shared hunger under sanctions for more than a decade.
Our patience and our solidarity did not make us forget the oppression. But the invasion divided brother from brother, neighbour from neighbour. It turned our homes into funeral tents.
I am not a hero. But I have a point of view. I have a stance. It humiliated me to see my country humiliated; and to see my Baghdad burned, my people killed. Thousands of tragic pictures remained in my head, pushing me towards the path of confrontation. The scandal of Abu Ghraib. The massacre of Falluja, Najaf, Haditha, Sadr City, Basra, Diyala, Mosul, Tal Afar, and every inch of our wounded land. I travelled through my burning land and saw with my own eyes the pain of the victims, and heard with my own ears the screams of the orphans and the bereaved. And a feeling of shame haunted me like an ugly name because I was powerless.
As soon as I finished my professional duties in reporting the daily tragedies, while I washed away the remains of the debris of the ruined Iraqi houses, or the blood that stained my clothes, I would clench my teeth and make a pledge to our victims, a pledge of vengeance.
The opportunity came, and I took it.
I took it out of loyalty to every drop of innocent blood that has been shed through the occupation or because of it, every scream of a bereaved mother, every moan of an orphan, the sorrow of a rape victim, the teardrop of an orphan.
I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.
When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.
If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.
I didn’t do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country.
Muntazer al-Zaidi is an Iraqi reporter who was freed this week after serving nine months in prison for throwing his shoe at former US president George Bush at a press conference. This edited statement was translated by McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Sahar Issa www.mcclatchydc.com
The United States and the Wolf of Gubbio
Dear All – First a very Happy and Blessed Feast of St. Francis this weekend! May the memory of St. Francis infuse our world with the passion, creativity and vast love he lived so deeply.
I have copied below one of my favorite stories of St. Francis -St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio. I invite you as you read this familiar tale to picture the wolf as the United States and the village as one of the many communities that has had to survive our dominating presence.
Imagine the United States offering its “paw” as we promise the world to no longer terrorize but rather live in harmony. St. Francis opened a new space when he chose to not encourage the villagers to kill the wolf; let us honor that creative action today as we work to open new spaces to transform the wolf, heal the village and trust in the faith that guides us.
At the end of the story is a great link from American Friends Service Committee which looks at our military spending and challenges us to imagine a world where 53% of our resources would not be going to war.
Happy Feast Day! Pace e Bene
Liz
St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio
At the time when St Francis was living in the city of Gubbio, a large wolf appeared in the neighbourhood, so terrible and so fierce, that he not only devoured other animals, but made a prey of men and women also; and since he often approached the town, all the people were in great alarm, and used to go about armed, as if going to battle. Notwithstanding these precautions, if any of the inhabitants ever met him alone, he was sure to be devoured, as all defence was useless: and, through fear of the wolf, they dared not go beyond the city walls.
St Francis, feeling great compassion for the people of Gubbio, resolved to go and meet the wolf, though all advised him not to do so. Putting all his confidence in God, he went forth from the city, taking his brethren with him; but these fearing to go any further, St Francis bent his steps alone toward the spot where the wolf was known to be, while many people followed at a distance, and witnessed the miracle.
The wolf, seeing all this multitude, ran towards St Francis with his jaws wide open. As he approached, the saint, cried out: “Brother Wolf; I command you, in the name of Christ, neither to harm me nor anybody else.”
Marvellous to tell, no sooner had St Francis cried out, than the terrible wolf, closing his jaws, stopped running, and coming up to St Francis, lay down at his feet as meekly as a lamb. And the saint thus addressed him: “Brother wolf, you have done much evil in this land, destroying and killing the creatures of God without God’s permission all creatures are made after the image of God; for which thing you could be hanged like a robber and a murderer. All of the people cry out against you, the dogs pursue you, and all the inhabitants of this city are your enemies; but I will make peace between them and you, O brother wolf, if you will no longer offend them, and they shall forgive you and all your past offences, then neither people nor dogs shall pursue you any more.”
Having listened to these words, the wolf bowed his head, and, by the movements of his body, his tail, and his eyes, made signs that he agreed to what St Francis said. On this St Francis added: “As you are willing to make this peace, I promise you that you shall be fed every day by the inhabitants of this land so long as you shalt live among them; you shalt no longer suffer hunger, as it is hunger which has made you do so much evil; but if I obtain all this for you, you must promise, on your side, never again to attack any animal or any human being; do you make this promise?”
Then the wolf, bowing his head, made a sign that he consented.
Said St Francis again: “Brother wolf, wilt you pledge your faith that I may trust you to keep this promise?” and putting out his hand he received the pledge of the wolf; for the latter lifted up his paw and placed it familiarly in the hand of St Francis, giving him thereby the only pledge which was in his power.
Now, the news of this most wonderful miracle spreading quickly through the town, all the inhabitants, both men and women, small and great, young and old, flocked to the market-place to see St Francis and the wolf.
St Francis spoke these words: “Listen my brethren: the wolf who is here before you has promised and pledged his faith that he consents to make peace with you all, and no more to offend you, and you must promise to give him each day his necessary food; to which, if you consent, I promise in his name that he will most faithfully observe the compact.”
Then all the people promised with one voice to feed the wolf to the end of his days.
Now this event caused great joy in all the people, and a great devotion towards St Francis, both because of the novelty of the miracle, and because of the peace which had been concluded with the wolf; and they lifted up their voices to heaven, praising and blessing God.
The wolf lived two years at Gubbio; he went familiarly from door to door without harming anyone, and all the people received him courteously, feeding him with great pleasure, and no dog barked at him as he went about.
At last, after two years, he died of old age, and the people of Gubbio mourned his loss greatly; for when they saw him going about so gently amongst them all, he reminded them of the virtue and sanctity of St Francis.
This blog is all yours.
Hello all. Guest blogger here, Jane Comeau from FSPA Communications. As this blog nears its first birthday, we want to thank you, our readers. We thank you for supporting the blog (it’s nearing 5,000 visits!). We thank you for joining the conversation and commenting on issues such as health care, immigration and free trade.
This week, we open the FSPA for Justice and Peace blog to you. What’s on your mind? What blog topics would you like to see in year two? How can we make your blog better?
Peace.
What’s happening in Postville, Iowa?
Today’s blog is a compilation of information shared by Sister Carrie Kirsch and affiliate Sharon Chavolla.
First, Sister Carrie shared an update on the trial for Rubashkin. She tells us that this really needs our prayers. “The trial might take months. The trial in which some Postville Hispanics are to testify is to take place after this trial. This means they need to stay in Iowa most of the winter.” The Des Moines Register article (Oct. 13, 2009) gives a complete update.
Second, affiliate Sharon Chavolla shared this PBS video in which FRONTLINE/World correspondents Greg Brosnan and Jennifer Szymaszek take a look at the lasting effects a U.S. immigration raid in Postville, Iowa, had on two small villages in Guatemala. It is a 15 minute video which is well worth your time. Peace.
Oct. 20 is national day of action for health care reform. Actions you can take…
We’re passing this on from our friends at NetworkLobby (and below that, a health care reform prayer from our friends at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good).
JOIN NetworkLobby ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 20, FOR A
NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR HEALTH CARE REFORM
The United States is the only industrialized democracy in the world that has not made the commitment to ensure health care coverage for all its people. This is a moral scandal, and we call on Congress to approve a reform plan that guarantees accessible, affordable, quality care for everyone in the U.S. Join with people of faith and organizations all around the country to make your voice heard in support of quality health care reform!
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
- Send an e-mail: Visit http://www.networklobby.org and look for the “Contact Congress” box on the right. Enter your zip code, click “GO,” and select “Healthcare Reform: It’s time to deliver” under “Write to Your Elected Officials.”
- Sign on to our letter to congressional leaders: Visit http://www.networklobby.org/Oct20signon.html to add your name and comments to thousands of other signatures on a letter that we will deliver to the leaders of Congress on Tuesday, October 20.
- Make 3 Phone Calls: Tell your 2 Senators and your resentative that you want them to pass a healthcare reform bill that fixes our broken system. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 888-797-8717 or(202) 224-3121 and ask for the appropriate office. Identify yourself and leave a brief message in support of healthcare reform.
- Put this flyer in your window (house or car) or another visible place to remind others that there are people of faith working for health care reform!
Here’s a health care reform prayer from Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good http://www.catholicsinalliance.org/node/21233
Peace.
Farmingville, New York: “This is the latest battle over the American Dream”
Here is some information shared with us by our friends at WISDOM.
First, WISDOM is part of a campaign to make drivers cards available to undocumented people in Wisconsin. Please contact your state Assembly Person and Senator (click for talking points).
Second, we introduce you to Farmingville, a documentary from the Point of View (POV) series on PBS. The documentary is free to watch until November 18, http://video.pbs.org/video/1264711314/program/1154485580#
About Farmingville
The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate.
The day workers themselves, led by Matilde Parada, organize a mutual association called Human Solidarity to counter the harassment, fight for their rights, and reach out to the community. The workers come together on one of their most shared cultural traditions — soccer — and, in one of the conflict’s few bright spots, employ their hard-earned expertise in landscaping in exchange for permission to play on a local school’s athletic fields. The fields are groomed and a different kind of interaction is fostered when the workers joyously take the field. Yet despite the hopeful signs of conciliation and progress, Farmingville ends without resolution; at the film’s conclusion we find the community still struggling with a situation to which no clear solution seems imminent.
Farmingville is a complex, emotional portrait of an American town in rapid transition from a relatively homogenous community to a 21st-century village. “We wanted to tell this story from the inside out,” says co-producer Sandoval, “to capture the story as it happened. We shot over 200 hours of footage, in two languages, to reveal the personal stories behind the headlines and sound bites.”
“This is the latest battle over the American Dream,” adds co-producer Tambini, “one that puts every American town on the front line of deciding just who shares — and who controls — that dream.”
Peace.
Heath care is a human right.
Dear All – I hope this finds you all well.
It is good to be back and I send many thank you’s to all those who sent wishes concerning my father’s passing. It was a great gift during that time so thank you.
Also while I was away some requests were made to have the blog include more FSPA stories – feel free to send your stories to me (eininn@gmail.com ) or Jane in communications (jcomeau@fspa.org) - our hope is to have the blog be a relection of the FSPA community and would love to hear from all FSPA member and affiliate readers!
I have just a simple action for all of you and a brief piece to read on health care. I am sure we are all sick of the debates and the drama surrounding this issue but it seems more important now than ever to be in touch with our congress people and encourage and even insist that the public option remain a piece of any legislation that is passed.
By public we mean an option that includes the poor and does not parade itself as public but has a price tag that denies accessibility. By public we mean a democratic solution within a democratic republic that tends to all of its citizens not just those obsessed with false notions of socialism. By public we mean a plan that treats heath care as a service and a right not investment package with options ranging from broken roller skates to Cadillac.
Talk to your Reps and Senators and encourage them to support legislation that takes into account both reforming the laws that give private companies options like “preexisting conditions” and includes a public option. Private insurance spokesman made the comment a few weeks ago that regardless of what Congress passes they plan to raise their rates by 111%. If insurance companies can be so bold in their messaging let us be bold too! Peace Liz
Health Care for All
Monday 26 October 2009
by: t r u t h o u t | Staff Editorial
Americans are mired in debate over which national health care reform plan would best serve their needs. On an individual level, Americans also face tough decisions on a regular basis when it comes to choosing private health insurance plans for themselves and their families.
We at Truthout don’t think health care should be so confusing. We believe it is a human right and should be available to everyone. We also believe the same level of care should be available across the board, regardless of ability to pay for treatment. What if the fire department decided to not send its newest equipment to a particular house because the homeowner didn’t have “Cadillac” insurance?
While we know that Anthony Weiner’s single payer bill (HR 676) will not pass this time around, we call on all members of Congress to support this approach since it is the only true solution to the health care crisis.
As the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) goes on estimating the percentages of Americans that will be covered by this bill or that bill, Weiner’s bill stands alone in its ethical simplicity: It will cover 100 percent of the people, no CBO guessing games needed.
For now, we call on Congress to pass a bill with a “robust public option.” We applaud the president and Congress for their consensus on key reforms, such as making it illegal to deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions and capping out-of-pocket expenses. At the same time, we urge them to prevent the insurance industry from passing those costs on to us in the form of higher premiums and co-pays. Only competition from a strong public option will control skyrocketing health costs.
Congress members have centered the health reform debate on the question of whether a bill will add to the national debt, rather than whether it will provide affordable, top-quality health care to everyone. It is time to treat health care as a right of all people and not a commodity to be bought and sold.
FSPA partners with Catholics Confront Global Poverty
We’re excited to tell you about our new partnership with Catholics Confront Global Poverty (an action alert is below). The FSPA Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation committee decided to partner with this organization to contribute to the work of confronting the challenge of global poverty.
The initiative is a partnership between the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services and is inspired by Pope Benedict XVI’s 2009 World Day of Peace Message: Fight Poverty to Build Peace.
This initiative aims to mobilize one million Catholics in the U.S. to confront global poverty by defending the life and dignity of people living in poverty throughout the world. It focuses on seven key areas:
- U.S. international assistance
- peacekeeping
- debt relief
- fair trade
- natural resource extraction
- migration
- global climate change
This effort provides a way for Catholics to confront these poverty issues by praying, learning, acting and giving.
Here’s an action alert from our friends at Catholics Confront Global Poverty:
Tell Senators on Key Committees:
Protect the Poor in Climate Legislation
Take Action Now! Contact your Senator now and urge that the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act (S. 1733, the climate change bill) now being considered:
Fully protect low-income individuals and families in the U.S. from any potential rise in the price of energy and other consumer goods resulting from the legislation by providing the same level of funding for low-income assistance as in the House bill;
Significantly increase the funding for international adaptation programs. At a minimum allocate $3.5 billion of funding generated by the bill to international adaptation programs starting in 2012 and increase rapidly to $7 billion annually by 2020 so that people living in poverty around the world can be protected from the effects of climate change.
Why is action important now?
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will likely vote on this climate change legislation this week. This begins a serious and overdue effort to face up to our moral and environmental challenges.
What is the Church’s position?
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) seek climate legislation that achieves two fundamental goals: care for creation and protecting the poor and vulnerable—both at home and abroad—who contribute least to climate change, but suffer its worst consequences. While we are encouraged by language in the Kerry-Boxer bill acknowledging the need to protect poor people worldwide, we are deeply concerned that the level of funding for these provisions is well below what is needed.
What does climate change have to do with my Catholic faith?
The Catholic Church brings a unique voice to the climate change debate by lifting up both the moral dimensions of caring for God’s creation and the needs of the most vulnerable among us. The Catholic bishops’ primary concern is to place the life, dignity and needs of the poor and vulnerable at the center of climate legislation. Poor people should not bear an undue burden of the impacts of climate change or the global adjustments needed to address it. To learn about Catholic teaching on climate change, read the June 2001 statement by the United States Catholic Bishops, Global Climate Change: A Plea for Dialogue, Prudence and the Common Good.
How is the Catholic Church confronting the effects of climate change?
The Church promotes prudent action in the face of the growing impacts of global climate change and is seeking common ground for the common good in a very polarized debate. CRS has already witnessed the tragic consequences of climate change in the daily lives of people living in poverty and is working diligently to help affected communities through health, agriculture, water, and emergency preparedness programs in 100 countries. USCCB, CCUSA and CRS are members of the Catholic Coalition on Climate Change that invites Catholics to join the Catholic Climate Covenant. Through the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative, USCCB and CRS are mobilizing one million Catholics to learn, pray and act in support of policies that will help address the effects of climate change on poor people worldwide.
TAKE ACTION NOW: Contact your Senators below who are members of the Environment and Public Works, Foreign Relations and Finance Committees now – through e-mail, phone calls, or FAX letters.
John Kerry, MA (sponsor)
Barbara Boxer, CA (sponsor)
Richard Lugar, IN
Benjamin Cardin, MD
Joseph Lieberman, CT
Max Baucus, MT
Thomas R. Carper, DE
Frank R. Lautenberg, NJ
Bernard Sanders, VT
Amy Klobuchar, MN Sheldon Whitehouse, RI
Tom Udall, NM
Jeff Merkley, OR
Kirsten Gillibrand, NY
Arlen Specter, PA
George Voinovich, OH
Lamar Alexander, TN
Robert Menendez, NJ
Bob Casey, PA
For more information, contact:
Cecilia Calvo, USCCB Environmental Justice Program Coordinator: 202-541-3188, ccalvo@usccb.org
Tina Rodousakis, CRS Grassroots Advocacy Manager: 410-951-7462, trodousa@crs.org
Monica Maggiano, CCUSA Campaign to Reduce Poverty in America Director: 703-236-6230, mmaggiano@catholiccharities.org
Circle of Life in Colombia
Dear All – It is very good to be back from my trip to Colombia. I visited with a community in Debeiba who was displaced in 1997 from their land and suffer ongoing human rights violations due to the presence in their community of Colombian military, paramiltary forces and guerillas. They shared their stories and dreams as we visited the land that had been stolen from them over ten years ago.
Also while I was in Colombia the announcement of a new military agreement between the U.S. and Colombia was announced. This agreement allows for increased access of U.S. soldiers to seven military bases as well as additional weapons, training and overall military aid. The people of Colombia are deeply concerned about this agreement and fear it will only serve to increase the level of violence within their own country.
I am including an action and a link. The action is to encourage your Reps to sign onto a “Dear Colleague” letter asking Secretary Hillary Clinton to reconsider this effort of the U.S. in Colombia.
The link is a brief video clip of me speaking with the Colombian press about the bases. The link is a little hard to hear because they are translating my English to Spanish, however the heart of what I said was no more military aid! Let us move toward humanitarian solutions that empower the people of Colombia and in particular the victims of the violence that exists there.
In Much Peace and Solidarity – Liz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJhQNQqqq3I
ACTION
Dear Friends,
As of Friday, Representatives McGovern, Schakowsky, Payne and Honda are circulating a letter throughout the halls of Congress addressed to Secretary of State Clinton with a clear message: let’s spend our taxpayer dollars on supporting victims of violence, not funding military abuses.
This letter is a chance to get Congress behind the changes we want to see and an opportunity for our government to stand by our brothers and sisters in Colombia. We need your support to give the letter the power it needs.
Take action today to ensure we get at least 70 representatives to sign on to it in the next two weeks, before it is sent out to Secretary Clinton. The letter makes a strong case for why there is no time to waste in changing our policies towards Colombia. It paints a vivid picture of the Colombian government’s failure to protect human rights, raising issues like the killing of civilians by the army, the persecution of human rights defenders, and the humanitarian crisis of over four million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Echoing what we have been saying for a long time, it demands a cut in military aid and an increase in support for victims and those who are working for peace and justice in Colombia.
It also calls for an end to harmful and ineffective aerial fumigations, suggesting that we invest instead in creating more drug treatment centers in the United States to do our part by decreasing the demand for illicit substances. Now is the time for faithful action for a sustainable peace in Colombia. Please help ensure that your congressional representative signs on. Call your Rep. today! If you don’t know who your representative is go to go to http://www.congress.org/ and type in your zip code to find out who your Rep is and get in touch.
When you call, ask to speak to the foreign policy aide. If he or she is not available, leave a voicemail message. An example is provided below:
“I am a constituent calling to encourage Representative ____________ to sign on to the Dear Colleague letter written by Representatives McGovern, Schakowsky, Payne, and Honda, which calls for change in U.S. policy towards Colombia. This letter to Secretary of State Clinton asks that our government be honest about the human rights conditions in Colombia and make changes in the aid package.
The U.S. should stop spending taxpayer dollars on the military, which has been found to be killing innocent civilians and illegally wiretapping human rights defenders, journalists, and Supreme Court judges.Instead, we should be supporting refugees and displaced people, Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, and small farmers who are trying to turn away from coca. And we also need to invest in drug treatment centers here at home.
I strongly urge Representative ______ to take a stand for human rights and sign on to this letter today. To get a copy of the letter and to sign on, please contact Cindy Buhl in Rep. McGovern’s office. Thank you.”
Global Security Priorities resolution: take action now
We’re passing this action alert to you from our partners at Catholics Confront Global Poverty. Take action!
Visit the Action Center and urge your member of Congress, especially those on the Foreign Affairs, Rules, and Armed Services Committees, to co-sponsor the bipartisan “Global Security Priorities” Resolution, H. Res. 278, introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA). H. Res. 278 currently has 15 co-sponsors, 10 short of the 25 needed to move it out of committee. Please make sure that your member of Congress becomes a co-sponsor today.
WHY IS THE GLOBAL SECURITY PRIORITIES RESOLUTON IMPORTANT? H. Res. 278 does two things: Addresses the threat of international terrorism and protects the security of the United States by reducing the number of and access to nuclear weapons and preventing their proliferation. H. Res. 278 urges the President to continue negotiations to further reduce nuclear arms to minimal levels, to have the U.S. and Russia agree to cut the number of deployed nuclear weapons, to assist other countries in reducing and eliminating nuclear weapons throughout the world, and to expand efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining access to nuclear materials. Directs a portion of the resulting $13 billion saved annually towards child survival, food security, and universal education. H. Res. 278 requests $5 billion over five years to enhance global child survival through new high-impact and low-cost health and nutrition interventions at the community level, and an additional $1.5 billion annually over five years for existing programs that reduce child hunger and increase child nutrition and educational opportunities. These added resources would enable organizations such as Catholic Relief Services (CRS) to strengthen food security programs with local partners in poor countries by boosting long–term food security and life-saving emergency aid. Support for H. Res. 278 is very timely in light of recent statements by President Obama who has called for substantial verifiable reductions in the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, and has committed the U.S. to new leadership to reduce global poverty by doubling international assistance. At the same time, Iranian and North Korean nuclear ambitions and growing poverty and hunger due to the economic crisis call for immediate action.
WHY DOES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SUPPORT H. RES. 278? The U.S. bishops have long supported the dismantling of nuclear weapons systems, the effective securing of nuclear materials from terrorists, and a reduction in the overall number of nuclear armaments. Church teaching supports preventing proliferation of these horrific weapons and ultimately eliminating them. The “Global Security Priorities” Resolution, H. Res. 278, embraces these goals and takes important steps in this direction. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and CRS recognize that if we want peace, we must work for justice. Howard J. Hubbard, Bishop of Albany and Chair of the International Justice and Peace Committee of the USCCB noted in a recent letter to members of the House that Pope Benedict XVI has linked disarmament and development. In his January 1 message for the 2009 World Day of Peace, the Holy Father recommended that “resources saved [by reducing expenditures on arms] could then be earmarked for development projects to assist the poorest and most needy individuals and peoples.”
For more information contact: Dr. Stephen Colecchi, Director, International Justice and Peace, USCCB, scolecchi@usccb.org, (202) 541-3196 Tina Rodousakis, Manager, Grassroots Advocacy, CRS, trodousa@crs.org, (410) 951-7462
Catholics Confront Global Poverty is an initiative by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services.
20th Anniversary of the El Salvador Martyrs
Dear All – I leave tomorrow to help with the annual organizing of the School of the Americas Watch Vigil. 8th Day Center for Justice has helped out at the vigil since 1996. This year, as in many years past, we will assist with the “Peacemakers Training.” Peacemakers are a presence of nonviolence and help to guide the procession and facilitate conversations with the local authorities…if necessary 
.
This year the procession will be led by life-sized puppets that represent the six Jesuits and their housekeeper and her daughter. The idea is that these martyrs and the vision they gave their life for still guides us today. A vision of a world that does not demand grinding poverty for the many while the few may be rich. A world that does not demand crushing violence as an answer to the cries for peace, justice and dignity.
I will carry with me the beautiful and peace filled presence of the FSPA community and the prayer of St. Francis…God make me an instrument of your peace…Check out the link below for more info on the event…and blessings till the next time! Peace Liz
Memory as resistance…the call to close the School of the Americas
“It is time to take the funeral out of the funeral parlor…” Hector Aristozabol, Puppetista
Dear All – This past week I went again to Georgia to join in witnessing with thousands of others the call to close the School of the Americas and the transformation of oppressive U.S. policy.
I was especially honored to see one of our partners there, Padre Alberto from Colombia who I work with on the Ethics Commission. From the stage, he spoke of the deep need for the continued joining of hands between the north and the south to build a new future and transform a very painful history.
This year there was a slight change in the traditional funeral procession that usually occurs within the area permitted by the police. This year a group of folks and the Puppetistas (an artist group that joins us and makes puppets and pageantry for the weekend) left the permitted space.
This group walked through the police barricades, past lines of officers and marched into the street taking our witness as Hector had said…out of the funeral parlor. This was not to damage or change the traditional witness, but to raise up the idea of memory as resistance.
Our grief is not private for if we make it private we make it individual denying the necessary whole to which our grief flows from. Our grief is public because the story of what created all the loss and tragedy in Latin America belongs to all of us as one human family, as one nation of participative democracy, and as one faithful spirit led community.
Our ritual then of reading the names of all those killed and calling out Presente! cannot stay in the “funeral parlor” or permitted area but needs to flow out beyond the arbitrary borders enforced by authorities for grief, for recognition, and for healing. It was a powerful act and I was proud to be part of stretching the boundaries.
I think of Advent coming up and the ritual remembrance we do as a community of the journey of Mary and Joseph. We are not just remembering this beautiful piece of our tradition. We are recommitting ourselves to the inherent resistance within its lines. Mary and Joseph broke the norms of the day, resisted local authorities and had the courage and vision to accept Holy Mystery with no guarantees or promises.
Can we? Can we flow out of boundaries, out of fear, and uncertainties toward that which is unknown and waiting to be born if we can but say yes? I would love to hear all your stories this Advent season of how memory has served to teach, inspire and raise up new paths forward in your lives…Much Peace Liz
Whitewashing a coup…elections in Honduras
Dear All – This past week 8th Day Center for Justice staff member Erin Cox went with a delegation to Honduras to serve as a protective international presence for the Honduran people wishing to peacefully boycott the elections held this past Sunday.
Honduran civil society has called for a boycott on elections for several important reasons.
One: The coup that unseated the democratically elected Zelaya has not been addressed – the Honduran government has refused to follow requests made by international bodies – including the U.S. – most importantly to recognize Zelaya as the legal leader of Honduras.
Two: A high level of repression by military and police forces has erupted in Honduras since the coup. This has included the enforcing of a curfew, detainment, arrests, torture, and the death of 22 peaceful protesters at the hands of the military and police. How can a democratic election take place when people are being arrested for exercising their right to dissent?
Three: The country has existed in such chaos for the past several months there has been no ability for a normal campaign process to happen. Citizens have not been given a chance to educate themselves and choose between a diversity of candidates.
The reports we have received from Erin have been serious and heart breaking. The police and military were out in huge numbers. They used rubber bullets, tear gas and physical intimidation to prevent peaceful protests. They forcibly arrested leaders of social movements before the day of election on trumped-up charges as well as asking mayors for “lists” of organizers in their communities so these individuals could be “targeted” before Sunday’s elections. And in communities where people were boycotting the vote they used intimidation and threats to force people to the polls.
Democratic? Transparent? Legal? Why is the United States recognizing these elections? Please check out the link below (it is a cartoon story that depicts the lead up to the coup…very useful tool!) and an action to call the White House and State Department and demand we do not recognize this election.
Remember, if the election is seen as legal then all of our military aid will once again flow to Honduras. Do we want to fund a regime that disappears social leaders, tear gasses peaceful assembly, intimidates voters and flies their legally elected President out in the middle of the night? I am thinking no…Much Peace Liz
http://www.alternet.org/images/slideshows/houduras_coup/illustration.php
Action: At April’s Summit of the Americas, President Obama promised Latin America’s leaders a new relationship with Latin America. However, instead of a new direction, President Obama has deeply undercut his promise by failing to take timely, effective action in concert with the OAS to reverse the illegal coup in Honduras.
Equally cynical is the promised U.S. recognition of scheduled coup-regime elections, despite opposition by the United Nations (UN), the Organization of American States (OAS), the 23-member Rio Group, and an active national coup resistance movement within Honduras .
Add to this mix the placement of seven (that’s 7!) new military bases in Colombia and certification that Mexico and Colombia have complied with human rights conditions to receive U.S. military aid despite comprehensive evidence to the contrary. Change we can believe in? Sadly, it does not even appear on the horizon.
Through these actions, President Obama and his top advisors risk driving a whole new generation of Latin Americans to become mistrustful of and hostile to the United States.
For this reason, each of us must give voice in the USA to the courageous civilian coup resistance in Honduras, and human rights defenders in Colombia and Mexico!
To start, please contact President Obama and the State Department this week urging them to reject these coup regime-sponsored elections and their results, and to instead encourage constitutional reform in Honduras to make more inclusive participatory democracy a reality.
Call the White House: (202)-456-1111 or (202)-456-1414 (to email go to www.whitehouse.gov )
Call the State Department: (202) 647-4000 (to email go to www.state.gov)
Tell them: “I AM CONTACTING YOU TO INSIST THAT THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT NOT RECOGNIZE THE MILITARIZED ELECTIONS CARRIED OUT BY AN ILLEGAL COUP REGIME ON NOVEMBER 29. PLEASE FOLLOW THE LEAD OF THE OAS AND CIVIL SOCIETY RESISTING THE COUP WITHIN HONDURAS TO REDEMOCRATIZE HONDURAS”
Roots of Migration
Dear All – I will keep this short because I share with you a video on migration (six chapters, approximately 25 minutes total - see below). The JPIC committee met this past weekend to discuss our focus of im(migration) for the next few years. Our initial work has been to educate ourselves on this issue as we discern a way to move forward.
This video “Roots of Migration” came to the 8th Day Center for Justice from one of our partners, Witness for Peace. The video looks at the experience of a group of delegates in Oaxaca – talking with both those who live there and the North Americans who traveled to learn more about what forces people into migrating.
Finding 25 minutes can be hard – but this video gives an excellent heart and mind view of what is happening on this important issue. Watch it if you can and please comment here. Let the JPIC committee know what your musings, questions, and concerns are with im(migration)…Peace Liz
All six chapters can also be found at http://www.witnessforpeace.org/article.php?id=758
New Immigration Legislation…
Dear All – I hope this finds you each well as we head into the heart of Advent. The story of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter as she was on the verge of giving birth is a poignant reminder to us of the importance of home.
Home not just being a shelter, but a place where you feel safe and welcomed. A place where you may grow, be educated and dream. A place for you and the generation that will follow you.
Sadly for so many of our immigrant brothers and sisters who were forced into migrating due to situations of extreme poverty, natural disaster and civil conflict they have no place to call home.
Not because they do not have shelter but because they live each day with the fear of being detained, deported, and ultimately divided from their own loved ones.
Today, Representative Gutierrez introduced an important piece of legislation that will reopen the debate on creating a pathway to citizenship for those among us that live undocumented.
If you feel that you support comprehensive immigration reform it would be a good time to call your Representative and ask if s/he will co-sponsor or vote yes for Gutierrez’s bill. You may also call your Senator and encourage her/him to support the introduction of comprehensive reform in the Senate.
The time has come to allow the over 12 million undocumented among us a chance to make a home, without fear, for themselves and their families.
Much Peace,
Liz
“The hungry God has filled with good things…”
Dear All – I want to share with you the re-working of “O come, O come, Emmanuel” by Tori Amos. She does an excellent job capturing the essence of the song with some fresh words. I was particularly struck this year with the first verse. The image of a people and place waiting in exile, longing to be ransomed and freed. I thought of the Afghans, Iraqis, Hondurans, Palestinians, Immigrants, Homeless, Earth and so many more. People and Earth, honest, loving and waiting for a day of justice, for a time of relief and healing.
Our Christmas story gives us a wonderful example of the power of hope. A poor young couple with no power beyond their faith journey to have a baby that from the moment of conception broke the social and religious boundaries of the day. A baby that many would have thought doomed as he came into the world not the child of the mother’s husband. And yet this infant would grow up and create a beautiful new paradigm that more than 2,000 years later still has the ability to turn what we know upside down.
This hope is not just a feeling. It is a love that grounds itself in action, that called on the whole community that knew Jesus to risk, dream, and be different…dangerously so. And so must we, for this is our spiritual inheritance, our call to action in a world that needs healing and paradigm shift as desperately as the ancient one that Jesus was born into.
And so let us gather and dream as Mary and Joseph did. Let us gather and do as the many that journeyed with Jesus. And let us risk , grounded in the faith, that what appears as endless night has waiting in its depth a mesmerizing dawn.
Merry Christmas….In Peace Liz
O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel
Long ago the earth lay sleeping
Waiting for the darkest night
To bring with it the dove of peace
Rising on the wings
Wings of the sun
Rising on the wings of the sun
O come, O come, thou Dayspring bright!
Pour on our souls thy healing light
Dispel the long night’s lingering gloom
And pierce the shadows of the tomb
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel.
-Tori Amos
Helping poor countries get back on their feet
We pass this along from our friends at Catholics Confront Global Poverty …
How can we confront global poverty?
Get wealthy nations to cancel debt payments so that poor countries can get back on their feet.
Meet Aurelie Nyapeye Yatchou, a community forest manager for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Cameroon. Cameroon suffers a high rate of underdevelopment, despite the presence of rich natural resources. Many forests in Cameroon and other developing countries have historically been exploited by logging companies and other large industries with little compensation for local communities.
Due to debt forgiveness and the work of CRS, many forest communities in Cameroon have been able to see a real improvement in the quality of life in their communities. In 2006, funds that were saved through the forgiveness of Cameroon’s debt were approved to be redirected into a new community forest management program run by CRS. This poverty reduction program now helps the forest communities that Aurelie manages improve their quality of life by managing, harvesting and selling valuable forest products such as wood, bark, leaves and seeds.
Since the wide-scale movement to cancel the debt of developing countries began in 1999, a great deal of progress has been made. The Jubilee USA Network reports that since the latest round of debt cancellation in 2006, more than $40 billion in debts in 21 countries in Africa and Latin America have been cancelled. Meanwhile total spending for education, health and other poverty-reducing investments in the countries receiving debt relief has increased substantially over the last decade.
But there is one remaining step to be taken: extending debt cancellation to all poor countries that need it and can show that they will use the savings for poverty reduction.
That’s why Catholics Confront Global Povertyis calling upon 1 million Catholics to urge the United States and international financial institutions such as the World Bank to cancel the debt of needy poor countries that have been left out of existing debt relief programs.
Here are three things you can do this week to confront global poverty:
Learn more about how completing debt forgiveness will help end global poverty.
Let your Facebook, MySpace, or other networks know about Catholics Confront Global Poverty.
Send this card to your friends, family, colleagues, neighbors, classmates, fellow parishioners and others and invite them to become one in a million confronting global poverty. Make it your personal goal to recruit five new members this week.
Thanks. You’re one in a million!
Ringing in a New Year and New Trade
Dear All – Blessings on this new year! I am writing today with an action for a piece legislation that was introduced into the Senate. It will enact new levels of transparency and accountability with how “free” trade agreements are formed as well as providing new oversight and change to existing agreements.
This piece of legislation dovetails nicely with the immigration legislation proposed by Rep. Gutierrez in December. Free trade is considered a leading “push factor” in many of the countries from which so many of our own undocumented brothers and sisters have come. NAFTA and CAFTA have left small farmers and business people in Mexico and Central America with no choice but to leave as making a living at home is no longer possible.
In our own liturgical year, we see the wise men on the horizon cresting the hill as they head toward a child born without a home…Let us follow the example of these wise men and bring the gift of advocacy to those amongst us who also have been forced far from home….Peace Liz
ACTION
In November, Senator Sherrod Brown re-introduced the Senate version of the Trade Responsibility, Accountability, Development, and Education (TRADE) Act, requiring a review of existing and future trade agreements to make them in line with new requirements for labor, environmental, and human rights standards. Keep reading or click here for more details!
The TRADE Act already has 132 co-sponsors in the House. Call your Senators today and tell them to co-sponsor this important legislation!
The TRADE Act requires a review of existing trade pacts, including NAFTA, the WTO and other major pacts, and sets forth what must and must not be included in future trade pacts. It also provides for the renegotiation of existing trade agreements and describes the key elements of a new trade negotiating and approval mechanism to replace Fast Track – the undemocratic negotiating system that go us into WTO and NAFTA – that would enhance Congress’ role in the formative aspects of agreements and promote future deals that could enjoy broad support among the American public.
Call your Senators and ask them to Co-sponsor S. 2821 the TRADE Act. Below is a sample conversation…
“My name is __________ from _________ (city or zipcode). I am calling to ask the Senator to co-sponsor S 2821, the TRADE Act. For too long we’ve operated under a trade model that only benefits multinational corporations, at the expense of workers here at home and abroad. It is time for the United States to stand up for trade that is fair for us and for people in other countries. Please join almost 140 of your colleagues in Congress by co-sponsoring this legislation.”
Remember to ask for a formal reply by snail mail or email! As a constituent, you should get one.
50,000 a year trafficked
January 11, 2010, was a day of awareness for human trafficking. Statistics show that 50,000 people a year are trafficked into the United States, part of a larger estimated 27 million people who are being held by traffickers. 27 million is more than the population of 18 states.
What is trafficking? Trafficking is defined by the U.N. as “a person who is recruited to be controlled and held captive for exploitation…” Trafficking is estimated to be a nine billion dollar industry. People are recruited believing they will be taken to a new country and given legitimate work only to find themselves in a strange land, working for no pay, and literally held captive by their “employers.”
As a single mother in Mexico, Esperanza experienced the loss of a child due to starvation and decided that she must leave her children with her family and go to Los Angeles for a job as a seamstress. Following what she believed to be a legitimate job lead, Esperanza was sold into slavery, which separated her from her children and prevented her from sending home the money that she went to earn. Esperanza was able to leave through the help of an agency that recognized the place that was holding her captive as a potential place for trafficking. Through their investigations Esperanza was able to get the help she needed to get out.
We can help Esperanza and others like her by clicking on the link below. It is a link to site called “Chain Store Reaction” and it gives you the chance to check out some of the places you may shop at and see how well they are doing at ensuring that their goods don’t come from trafficked labor.
It is a simple action and does not completely cover the depth of such a tragic reality, but it gives us a pathway for matching our values to our choices and raises our voices so those in power know we will not support goods made from slavery….Peace Liz
Haiti, Pat Robertson and Christian Love
Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, has been hit by a number 7 earthquake. The island that was just beginning to crawl out from beneath the impact of four hurricanes has now been leveled by another natural disaster. It has neither the money nor the infrastructure to cope with such a huge crisis.
It is important to understand that the reasons Haiti has neither the money nor the infrastructure to cope with this disaster has many roots. Like so many desperately poor countries around the world, Haitian sovereignty and resources have often been taken out of Haitian hands and put into the pockets of others, including the United States. The extent of this disaster is not the fault of the Haitian people.
I would like to offer two suggestions to help. The first comes from Pat Robertson and the second from Latin American and Caribbean Community Center.
Below I offer a quote from Pat Robertson, who suggests that when the Haitians revolted against their slave masters to get their freedom in 1804, they made a pact with the devil. And because of seeking their freedom and this pact they have been cursed and that is why the earthquake happened.
“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it,” Mr Robertson, 80, said yesterday on his Christian Broadcasting Network show, The 700 Club.
Haitians were originally “under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil,” said the former US presidential candidate.
“They said, `We will serve you if you will get us free from the French’. True story. And so the devil said, `OK, it’s a deal’. Ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”
Mr Robertson contrasted Haiti with the neighbouring Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola. The Dominican Republic “is prosperous, healthy, full of resorts etc,” he said. “Haiti is in desperate poverty. Same island. They need to have . . . a great turning to God and out of this tragedy. I’m optimistic good may come.”
I invite folks to let the world know that a Christian response to this disaster is not to make a racist claim that revolting against slavery would have meant making a deal with the devil. That God does not punish anyone, lest of all the poorest amongst us with earthquakes. And that we as Christians have a better solution than blame – we offer love and solidarity which gets me to the second action.
To support our brothers and sisters in Haiti, I recommend checking out Catholic Relief Services, they have good opportunities to help. Another resource is Center for International Disaster Information , it provides links to organizations providing assistance.
Peace, Liz
Mini Doctrine on Haiti
Some more resources on Haiti this week.
There is a lot of mixed messaging going around about what to donate, who to donate to; do we call for structural change or human needs or both? What in short will give the most relief to the Haitians and build relationships into the future so Haiti is not deserted in a couple of weeks when the cameras turn off.
The Transafrica Forum provides some great links and insights into these questions. If you have not made a donation yet or would like to, the link gives you some choices and addresses the bigger question of what structural change should we call for at this time and how.
There are a lot of policy shortcomings that aided the earthquake in creating the disaster we have seen on T.V. Really providing relief for Haiti will mean challenging some of the policies and practices that put Haiti into such a position of poverty.
Finally, here is a YouTube video that is less than two minutes and gives a great assessment of the layered situation in Haiti. It is an easy resource to educate and encourage a comprehensive response to the Haitian people.
From West to King to Obama
First off some great news on Haiti from the Jubilee Network see below…
The Obama administration granted Temporary Protective Status to Haitian immigrants living in the United States!
And, on Wednesday, the IMF Managing Director stated that the IMF intends to work to cancel all of Haiti’s debts to the institution, including the $100 million loan proposed last week. See our press release about the pledge here.
Yesterday, the World Bank announced yesterday that it will work toward cancellation of $39 million of Haiti’s remaining debt. Officials from the Inter American Development Bank, which holds the largest amount of Haiti’s debt, have said they will consider cancelling Haiti’s debt.
These are excellent developments and show the impact of grass-roots movements can have on big institutions like the IMF. Most importantly it will remove the creation of a huge financial burden for Haiti during a time when it is in such desperate need.
Secondly in light of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday and the upcoming of State of the Union I wanted to offer the following video from Dr. Cornel West. Dr. West is a professor at Princeton and author of 19 books including Race Matters.
Dr. West raises many excellent points in the three-minute video and reminds us that the kind of moral and political actions needed to move from us a place of empire to a place of democracy have not yet been seen. He praises and critiques Obama and invites all of us to join in the struggle for change. In honor of Dr. King watch, reflect, and let me know what you think…Peace Liz
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xbxyew_cornel-wests-note-to-obama-january_news
Messy and Chaotic Democracy
About 80% of the country approved of President Obama’s State of the Union address. I can say I count myself among them, although not because I agree with much of the policy being proposed. I am not sure how coal becomes clean, how wars build security, or why immigrants should “get in line.” But I appreciated the spirit of the speech and in particular, a sincere belief in the democratic process represented in the quote below.
“But remember this: I never suggested that change would be easy or that I could do it alone. Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated. And when you try to do big things and make big changes, it stirs passions and controversy. That’s just how it is.”
President Obama is the first president in my lifetime who continuously invites us to take part, the average folks, who in the end will live with whatever policy gets hashed out in bi-partisan quarreling. He reminds us that if we want health care and immigration reform, in peace, with government accountability, to not stop trying because it gets messy or chaotic.
I appreciate that nod while the Republicans hold the Senate hostage with a 60 vote majority, Democrats cannot seem to really talk to each other, and the Supreme Court throws a “for sale” sign on the White House lawn with their “money equals free speech” ruling for corporations.
Now more than ever is a time to be involved, to stay tuned in, to reach out and dream. One of the best opportunities I know of to be a part of that communal dream is the U.S. Social Forum, scheduled to take place in Detroit this June. I have included a link below for anyone ready to join a messy, chaotic walk to a fuller democratic state….Peace Liz
http://ussf2010.org/about
Xe/Blackwater and a $1 billion Pentagon contract
Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater, is poised to get a $1 billion contract from the State Department to train the Afghan National Police despite their dismal failure training the Afghan Border Police. The Border Police are one of the most corrupt entities of the Afghan security forces. They are renowned for their involvement in bribes, drug trade, arms trafficking and unnecessary use of force with civilians.
Deep concerns have been raised that these behaviors are part and parcel of the training provided by Xe/Blackwater. This is not too hard to believe when you follow the trail of Xe/Blackwater training.
Xe has trained police and security forces in Mexico, Colombia and Iraq – all three have significant records of human rights violations. More than one source, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (when she was a Senator) have expressed concern over outcomes from engaging Xe.
“These private security contractors have been reckless and have compromised our mission in Iraq. The time to show these contractors the door is long over due.” Senator Hillary Clinton (Press Release Feb 28, 2009)
Former Senator Clinton even went so far as to co-sponsor a bill that would have removed private contractors from Defense Spending (SOS – Stop Outsourcing our Security).
So why now would Secretary Clinton look to hand over a $1 billion contract? Let’s remind Secretary of State Clinton of her own previous wisdom. Contact Secretary Clinton and let her know you do not support any more contracting with Xe.
White House: 202-456-1111; State Department: 202-647-4000; U.S. Capitol: 202-224-3121.
And check out the link below for more information on what is happening with Xe training in Afghanistan…Peace Liz
Our immigration project mission
FSPA’s Justice, Peace & Integration of Creation committee kicked off its 2010 project theme with an immigration focused op-ed printed in the February 10 edition of the La Crosse Tribune.
The mission of FSPA’s Justice, Peace & Integrity of Creation Committee’s 2010 immigration project is to stand with our migrant brothers and sisters displaced from their homelands and seeking survival elsewhere.
Our commitment to the Franciscan way of life demands that we “manifest God’s love to the world: to bring new life, meaning and hope to a suffering, searching humanity.” Unity in Diversity #37.
We welcome and assist those who seek hope, home and labor in the United States. We commit to educate ourselves to political awareness and action to effect changes in the underlying causes of migration. We call our sisters and affiliates to join us in this commitment.
FSPA exists because our Founders have accompanied immigrant people since 1849. Today we can do no less. “True to our Franciscan calling,we commit ourselves to building Christ’s kingdom of justice and peace.”
Unity in Diversity #40.
Links
Read the op-ed here http://www.lacrossetribune.com/news/opinion/article_c620990c-15d7-11df-870e-001cc4c002e0.html
Read the Prayer of Our Nation of Immigrants here http://www.fspa.org/justiceandpeace/jpiccprayerfocus.html
FSPA also supports the Wisconsin Catholic Sisters immigration campaign (find out more at www.facebook.com/wiscs ) and Sisters United News of the Upper Mississippi Valley’s immigration presentations in eastern Iowa in March (find out more at http://fspa.org/news/Postvilleexperience.htm ).
“The Earthquake left not a soul untouched.”
As a way to enter in to Lent – the following reflection from an Episcopal Bishop in Haiti…
A Lenten reflection from the Bishop of Haiti
‘I look at this as a baptism’
By Jean Zaché Duracin
January 12 was a terrible day for the Haitian people. The earthquake left not a soul untouched. There is not a single family that did not lose a close friend or member: Mothers, fathers, siblings, in some cases entire families disappeared.
As for resources, we have next to nothing. The wreckage is beyond imagination.
However, this situation delivers us into faith. I look at this as a baptism. We who are still alive have had the blessing of survival, but in many ways we have died to the ways of the past. We have the opportunity to rise up and start anew. In this moment of grief and mourning, life must continue.
During this Lenten season, it is important for us in Haiti to turn inward and rediscover all that is just within us. It is imperative that we be reborn in this moment. We will live without the physical trappings of the church because we still have the same spiritual guidance, the confessions, the conversations, the reflections.
We need faith. We must go forward with confidence and hope. The Haitian people are fighters. We will not give up. We must see within this situation the possibilities that exist. Jealousy, anger, hatred – this is not the time for these. We turn to Jesus Christ, who did not fall into temptation; though he was in hard situations, he overcame death in victory.
We await the resurrection of Christ as we explore what is found in this wreckage. Dear ones were lost, houses, clothes, possessions, memories – lives are reduced to nothing. The church lost precious belongings, and the physical foundation of the state is in ruins.
Yet, we Haitians are speaking to each other in new ways. We can look at each other with new eyes. We can create a society of respect and love so that we may truly live as children of God. This is how we can rebuild our country.
We have also seen how other people – other nations – love us. The people of this Episcopal Church have sent countless messages witnessing sympathy. Knowing we are not alone gives us confidence in new life. We receive comfort and consolation in our relationships.
My wife was injured in the earthquake and left to seek medical care. I cannot visit her. I miss her and wish she were here with me. It is difficult to be separated. But this separation has given me solitude and has enabled me to reflect in a new way about how to proceed in a life founded in God as a Christian.
It is natural to question, but we hold on in faith to God – God who is always good, the God of infinite compassion. That we were struck by this tragedy does not mean God is not with us. He is here. We must always remember that God lives in this world. There is pain, but there is also joy. He gives us assurance not of the life that ends, but the life that is eternal.
The earthquake did not diminish our worship, though it altered the places where it takes place. The church has not faltered and must now rise to a new role. Belief in Christ and love for our Lord carries us into a new phase of construction. We will raise new places to worship God.
We are looking forward to a celebration of Easter; familiarity of religious practices sustains us. We give glory to God. We sing within the church of the world. We celebrate life with the same spirit we were given it. In the middle of all the deaths, there is a God of love and of life, and we must shout Alleluia with the living.
—From an interview with Bishop Jean Zaché Duracin of Haiti, conducted in French and translated by Cecily Hutton, assisting the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti and Episcopal Relief & Development in relief and recovery efforts in Haiti.
Lent and the Landless of Brazil
I would like to share a reflection for this week that is part of Cry Justice! Cry Hope! by Beverly Bell and Joan Chittister, OSB about the Movement of Landless Rural Workers of Brazil (MST).
Ilda Martines de Souza has been part of MST for many years, she believes in their mission to hold large land owners and the Brazilian government to agrarian reform.
MST members create cooperatively run, democratic communities of about 2,000 people that they name land reform settlements. The communities build schools, self govern, farm, create their own media, celebrate their cultural expressions and model new forms of democracy.
They also “take” the land without any formal processes. They do not try to buy land but rather focus on land that is being unused by the government or a land holder and essentially “squat.”
“Without firing a gun, we create a revolution. Without a death toll we made a revolution. Given all the riches of my country why should I see my kids go hungry? No mother should shed tears because her son was murdered trying to steal a piece of bread.” Ilda Martines de Souza
Brazil is second in the world for unbalanced land distribution, it is estimated that 20 percent of the population own up to 97 percent of arable land. MST says the beauty of their land reform project is that it takes the land from one hand and puts it into the hands of thousands. The land becomes, again, a communal good.
In my own neighborhood of Humboldt Park in Chicago, I pass by several empty lots each day on my way to the train. Lots owned by someone, somewhere, that could provide community garden space, affordable housing, etc., but instead sit empty and collect litter. MST suggests that when you liberate land you liberate the people and that builds a future for all.
I invite you to take the time in the next week to look at land in your community; how is it used? Who is included and excluded? What land might you liberate if you could?
Check out the link below to the MST Movement to help you dream some Lenten squatting in your own neighborhood.
International Women’s Day
“Women never benefit from bombs and bullets.” Rethink Afghanistan
I offer two resources today – a link to a video that examines what is happening to women in Afghanistan and a list of facts about Afghanistan that was created by justice promoters in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana.
The situation for women in Afghanistan makes the upcoming International Women’s Day all the more poignant and important. Women in Afghanistan have been used by the U.S. administration to point to the “success” of the invasion. Women were liberated when U.S. troops entered and now hold positions as members of parliament, teachers, etc.
The facts are that women face as much if not more violence and violation of their human rights as when they were under the Taliban. Liberation does not come at the end of a gun – whether that gun is held by a Taliban fighter or a U.S. soldier.
Take a moment to honor International Women’s Day and learn about the women of Afghanistan. Then remind your Representatives and Senators that you will not support further funding for this war because “women never benefit from bombs and bullets.” And the truth is no one person or part of creation does either…
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/blog/?p=604
Afghanistan – Did You Know…?
- To date, $1.05 trillion dollars have been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
($747.3 billion to Iraq and $299 billion to Afghanistan.)These appropriations do not include funds to support the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan announced by the Obama administration on December 1, 2009. Conservative estimates suggest the surge will cost approximately $30 billion and we anticipate supplemental appropriations for this later in the year. Source: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home
- Currently only a fraction of US development assistance in Afghanistan goes to meet basic human needs and help the economy develop. Much of the economic benefit of foreign development assistance is lost to Afghanistan because only 31% is spent on local goods and services and much of it leaves the country in the form of foreign contracts and salaries. Source: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/auxiliary/costofwar/cost_of_war_afghanistan.pdf
- Afghanistan is home to more than a dozen ethnic groups; Pashtun and Tajik, the two largest, together make up over half the population. Both peoples are from Mediterranean stock and practice Sunni Islam. Most Taliban are Pashtun and most Northern Alliance fighters are Tajik. Source: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0206/feature4/
- The average life expectancy in Afghanistan is 44 years. Source: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/auxiliary/costofwar/cost_of_war_afghanistan.pdf
- Afghanistan is extremely poor, landlocked, and highly dependent on foreign aid, agriculture, and trade with neighboring countries. Much of the population continues to suffer from shortages of housing, clean water, electricity, medical care, and jobs Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html#People
- Afghanistan is the world’s largest producer of opium. the Taliban and other antigovernment groups participate in and profit from the opiate trade, which is a key source of revenue for the Taliban inside Afghanistan; widespread corruption and instability impede counterdrug efforts Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html#People
- In response to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and part of its overall Cold War strategy, the United States responded by arming and otherwise supporting the Afghan mujahideen, which had taken up arms against the Soviet occupiers. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghanistan
- In 2002 there were approximately 5,200 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. There are roughly 62,000 U.S. troops currently in Afghanistan. This number is expected to grow to at least 68,000 by year’s end. Source: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/newsletter/2009/12/01/Afghanistan-fact-sheet-numbers-behind-troop-increase
Hate never creates change…
Below is an action encouraging political party leaders to take responsibility and action to prevent further “hate mongering” and threats to be part of expressing opposition. Whether or not you support health care reform, name calling is not OK. Read and take the action below to help stop the spread of hate.
From our friends at ColorOfChange.org
We’re calling on RNC Chair Michael Steele, House Minority Leader John Boehner, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to publicly do two simple things:
Unequivocally condemn bigotry and hate among their supporters, and make clear that those who embrace it have no place in their party.
Make clear that they will not tolerate fear-mongering and coded appeals to racism from officials in the Republican party, at any level.
Republican leaders publicly denounced Sunday’s ugly scene, but they failed to acknowledge that this is only the latest incident in a pattern of violent rhetoric, racially charged imagery, and paranoid conspiracy theories at Tea Party rallies.2 Many Tea Partiers aren’t simply about dissent — they use fear and hatred to assault the very legitimacy of our elected leaders. It’s the worst America has to offer.
Despite this, Republican leaders court the Tea Party movement while methodically supporting, exacerbating and exploiting their fear and anger for cynical political ends.3 This is nothing less than a betrayal of American values, and it’s up to us to force the Republicans to stop aiding and abetting this enterprise:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/?id=2683-888837
The Tea Party movement has been marked by racially inflammatory and violent outbursts since its inception a year ago. GOP leaders are trying to pass off this weekend’s assaults on Congressmen Lewis, Cleaver, Clyburn and Frank as isolated incidents. But when so-called “isolated incidents” crop up again and again, a pattern starts to emerge. The examples are numerous.
At rallies held to protest tax day last year, Tea Partiers carried signs that announced “Obama’s Plan: White Slavery,” “The American Taxpayers are the Jews for Obama’s Oven,” and “Guns Tomorrow!”4 The Republican National Committee had endorsed the rallies, and RNC Chairman Michael Steele encouraged Tea Partiers to send a “virtual tea bag” to President Obama and Democratic Congressional leadership.5 After reports of the fear-mongering signs surfaced, Steele did nothing to distance his party from the lunatic fringe. He has even gone so far as to say that if he didn’t have his current position, he’d be “out there with the tea partiers.”6 Some Republican governors even planned a “Tea Party 2.0″ for the following month in an effort to build on the rallies’ momentum.7
The Tea Party’s venomous rhetoric picked up steam over the summer, when angry mobs flooded town hall meetings legislators had organized as sites for rational, civil debate on health care reform. After one meeting in Atlanta, a swastika was painted on the office of Congressman David Scott (D-GA), who had also received a flier addressed to “nigga David Scott.” 8 Some protesters showed up at town hall meetings carrying guns, including at least one man who was armed at an event where the President was speaking.9 Again, Republicans responded to these tactics with silence, doing nothing to denounce them.
Similarly, there was no public outcry from Republican leadership when Mark Williams, a leader of the Tea Party movement, was exposed for having described the President as “an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and a racist in chief” on his blog.10 Instead, members of the GOP continued to show up to and endorse Tea Party rallies. And as recently as Sunday — the day that the historic health care bill passed the House — Republican members of the House riled up the same Tea Party crowd that had earlier harassed their fellow members with hate and bigotry.
Our country deserves better than this. No matter what party one supports, we should all take strong action to support civil, honest, and respectful public debate. Can you take a moment to call on Michael Steele, John Boehner, and Mitch McConnell to denounce the racist rhetoric and fear-mongering that have been ongoing, significant characteristics of the Tea Party movement, and tell those who embrace these divisive and un-American beiefs that they have no place in their party, as members or leaders? And when you do, please ask your family and friends to do the same:
http://colorofchange.org/hate/?id=2683-888837
Thanks and Peace,
– James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Milton and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
March 23rd, 2010
2. “10 Most Offensive Tea Party Signs And Extensive Photo Coverage From Tax Day Protests,” Huffington Post, 4-16-09
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/128?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=9
3. “Memo Reveals GOP Plan to Exploit Fear of Obama,” AOL News, 3-4-2010
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/137?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=11
4. See Reference 2
5. “Tax Day Tea Parties Officially Endorsed By Republican Party,” Huffington Post, 5-15-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/138?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=13
6. “Steele: I’d join the tea parties,” Politico, 1-15-10
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/136?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=15
7. “GOP govs plan Tea Party sequel,” Politico, 5-12-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/131?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=17
8. “Rep. David Scott’s (D-Ga) office spray-painted with Swastika,” Daily Kos, 8-11-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/132?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=19
9. “Armed and Dangerous?” Talking Points Memo, 8-11-2009
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/133?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=21
10. “Tea party leader calls Obama a welfare thug,” The Loop, 9-15-09
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/134?akid=1397.1073960.SvZA2V&t=23
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability”
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Last week I sent an action about stopping a lot of the hate language and actions that have been surfacing in our country. From throwing bricks to throwing words like “nigger” our platform for open and transparent debate has been hijacked by elements that use fear to control dialog and process.
These tactics could prove lethal to the immigration debate – already many senators and representatives are saying they will not engage immigration this year because the fall out from the health care vote has been so difficult.
Sojourners, in this final week before Easter, is calling us to action on behalf of our immigrant brothers and sisters. They ask that we contact and continue to contact our elected officials and encourage them to engage this area of change. We want them to know that we support them in taking a courageous step and bringing immigration to the table. Please read below to learn more…
SojournersLast week nearly a quarter million people rallied in Washington in support of immigration reform – and you were there! Sojourners printed a large banner with the names of our 10,000 immigration supporters; it was featured on one of the main stages for the event!
We need to be honest: Passing immigration reform legislation this year is going to be really tough. We need you to be committed to the cause, to honor Dr. King’s words that “change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability,” but must be carried on the shoulders of servants.
Here is what needs to happen now: The Senate needs to introduce legislation by the end of spring if we expect any progress before the elections. Two senators have a draft bill, but they need to know that other senators will support reform.
Though the present political environment might seem daunting, we must be faithful in working for a more just system! Present immigration procedures continue to divide families, deport workers, underpay laborers, defer students’ dreams, and offer no agency to those still living in the shadows. Our work is making an impact. In a recent press conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said:
“I had a terrific meeting the day before yesterday on immigration; I had religious leaders from all over the country. They’re peaceful, they’re powerful, but they’re going to add a new dimension to getting this done because if there were ever anything that dealt with fairness, it’s this immigration issue, and they’re going to try something new, and going to do a lot praying around America with all these different faiths.”
Our faithful witness is making a difference. Send an email to Congress today – keep the pressure on!
Senator Reid closed by promising that “we’re going to do everything we can to get this immigration thing over the finish line.”
So will we. In the next three weeks, people of faith will be writing their members of Congress, reminding them that their communities care deeply about just and humane immigration policies and want to see legislative action this year.
You’ve told Sojourners that this issue is important to you – thank you. We pledge to continue working as hard as possible in Washington, and we need you to keep up the pressure across the country. Together, our voices will be heard.
Thank you for your ongoing support in transforming our nation into a beloved community that welcomes all.
Blessings,
Allison Johnson, Marco Savvadera, and the rest of the team at Sojourners
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Good Friday Walk(s) for Justice
La Crosse, Wis.
A social justice Stations of the Cross, with a 1.6 mile route through
downtown La Crosse, will begin at 10 a.m. Good Friday, April 2,
outside the Franciscan Spirituality Center, 920 Market St.
The event, organized by the La Crosse area Pax Christi group, is
inspired by the traditional Stations of the Cross processions that
Christian communities lead prior to Easter.For more information call the Franciscan Spirituality Center at 608-791-5295 or e-mail fscenter@fspa.org.
Chicago, Ill.
The 8th Day Center for Justice will host the 30th annual Good Friday Walk for Justice on Friday, April 2, noon, meeting on the corner of Congress and Michigan Streets. The theme for this year’s Good Friday Walk – Trouble the Water – reflects 8th Day Center’s belief that each of us must bear the responsibility to be in solidarity with those who suffer at the hands of dominating and abusive power. Those who are condemned, burdened, stripped of dignity, tortured and killed by unjust public policies.
Get more information and download the Prayer Guide at the 8th Day’s Web site.
Other ”justice” actions
During this Holy Week, our friends at Catholics Confront Global Poverty invite you to consider the issue of poverty here in the United States.
Learn how 25 percent of contributions to CRS’ Operation Rice Bowl support local hunger and poverty relief efforts in the United States.
As Catholics, we have a global responsibility to assist those in need both in our own communities and around the world. Pray for our brothers and sisters who struggle with poverty, wherever they may live, using this prayer and support CRS’ work in reducing hunger and poverty.
Catholics Confront Global Poverty webcast
With Liz in Colombia this week, we’ll use this space to share a webcast invitation from our friends at Catholics Confront Global Poverty (the webcast is tomorrow, April 14).
Please join Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) for a Catholics Confront Global Poverty webcast:
Extracting Natural Resources with People in Mind:
Addressing Root Causes of Conflict and Poverty
with
Olun Kamitatu – Regional Technical Advisor, Extractive Industries, Central Africa Region/Catholic Relief Services (in Kinshasa, DRC),
Rev. Juan Molina, O.SS.T. – Latin America and Global Trade Policy Advisor, Office of International Justice and Peace, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
and
Rees Warne – Strategic Issues Advisor, Extractives Industries, Catholic Relief Services/USA
Wednesday, April 14
2:00-3:00 PM Eastern Time
RSVP now!
This Catholics Confront Global Poverty webcast will explore issues around the extraction of natural resources in the developing world such as the links between minerals and conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We will examine the Church’s approach to natural resource extraction and discuss concrete ways for Catholics in the United States to have a real impact in helping people around the world ensure that their oil, minerals and other natural resources can fuel development.
This webcast will provide:
1. An on-the-ground view from a CRS staff person working with people affected by the extraction of natural resources ;
2. An overview of CRS’ response and support for the people who live there;
3. USCCB and CRS’ policy recommendations for how U.S. policymakers can make a difference on these issues based on Catholic social teaching and our experience;
4. Ideas on how Catholics in the U.S., through the Catholics Confront Global 5. Poverty initiative, can support greater transparency; in natural resources extraction in the developing world;
6. An opportunity to ask the presenters questions about these issues and engage them in dialogue.
Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia, Apr. 18-19
Yesterday we mentioned that Liz is in Colombia. Since then this action alert came across our desk from our friends at Catholics Confront Global Poverty. With Liz where she is, we thought it was very timely to share with you.
Peace.
Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia:
Urge Congress to evaluate and refocus U.S. policy and assistance to Colombia
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Contact your members of Congress (click the link and scroll down the page) during the Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia April 18-19 and urge them to:
1. Prioritize social and humanitarian aid for Colombian refugees and displaced persons; and
2. Decrease and redirect the disproportionate emphasis on military assistance for Colombia to give greater priority to the humanitarian needs of the conflict’s victims.
WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN COLOMBIA? Four decades of conflict deeply rooted in social and economic exclusion has relegated Colombia second only to Sudan as the country with the highest number of forcibly displaced persons within its borders according to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. Over 4 million people–or close to 10 per cent of the population-have been forcibly displaced within the country, and hundreds of thousands of Colombians have become refugees in neighboring countries. Colombia also suffers high rates of forced disappearances, threats and violence directed at rural communities and human rights defenders, and a largely hidden epidemic of gender-based violence.
HOW HAS THE U.S. RESPONDED? The United States has provided significant counternarcotics, military and social assistance to Colombia over the past decade. Despite some noteworthy advances in security, other issues such as internal displacement and refugee flows, widespread threats and targeted assassinations continue at an alarming rate. The Obama Administration and Congress have a significant opportunity at this moment to thoroughly evaluate and refocus U.S. policy and aid to Colombia: to prioritize the needs of the victims of the conflict, strengthen human rights protections, and support the foundations of a sustainable resolution to the current conflict.
WHAT DOES THE CATHOLIC CHURCH URGE THE U.S. TO DO? The Colombian Catholic Bishops Conference, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS) agree that the United States can make a signifanct contribution to ending the violent conflict in Colombia and assisting affected communities. We urge the United States Congress to:
1. Prioritize social assistance and humanitarian aid for Colombian refugees and displaced persons by:
- Ensuring aid for the internally displaced in Colombia is maintained at FY 2010 levels and includes funding to prevent displacement and protect the rights of the displaced.
- Restoring funding for Colombian refugees and the Western Hemisphere in the Migration and Refugee Account that was cut by the Administration’s FY 2011 budget request to at least 2010 levels.
- Passing House Resolution 1224 that promotes the protection of the indigenous, Afro-Colombian and women who have been forcibly displaced.
2. Decrease and redirect the disproportionate emphasis on military aid to Colombia. After 11 years of military funding for Colombia, in what was intended to be a five year plan, it is time for the U.S. to significantly phase down military aid and give greater priority to the humanitarian needs of the victims of the conflict in Colombia.
3. Adopt trade policies that promote sustainable development in Colombia. Any trade agreement with Colombia should include, among other important mechanisms to minimize losses, protections for small farmers. Without such protections, the loss of rural livelihoods is likely to push farmers towards illicit crops, increase the number of displaced persons, and deepen the conflict.
WHAT DOES THE CONFLICT IN COLOMBIA HAVE TO DO WITH MY FAITH? The Catholic Church’s social teaching is rooted in the sacredness and fundamental dignity of every human life. We are called to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need throughout the world because we are all part of one human family. Good stewardship of our resources urges us to assist those most vulnerable, particularly refugees and internally displaced people as well as to promote policies that prevent further displacement and poverty.
HOW IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SUPPORTING PEACE IN COLOMBIA? The Colombian Catholic Church, USCCB, and CRS are working to promote peace and reconciliation in Colombia while providing assistance to the people who need it most–the displaced, the victims of violence and the poor. We also promote policies that can bring about a just and sustainable peace.
“We humbly ask you what we can do…”
Below is a letter and action from Iraq Veterans Against the War. It is addressing a video of an attack on a neighborhood in Iraq that was posted to Wikileaks.
Wikileaks obtained the video because Reuters Press had filed a Freedom of Information Act request because two of their own reporters were killed in this attack. The government’s explanation to them at the time was that no civilians were involved.
At the bottom of the letter is the video. It is a very disturbing film and yet shows a reality that is inescapable for the people of Iraq.
Equally important, I believe, is the letter written by veterans who were involved in the event. If you have time for only one thing – please read this letter. It is a road map for how to get out of this war and dignify the many victims. If you have time for two things – please click the link at the end and sign their petition. Peace Liz
AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION & RESPONSIBILITY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE
From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military
Peace be with you.
To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the “Collateral Murder” Wikileaks video:
We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.
We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.
There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.
We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.
We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and what we carried out in the name of “god and country”. The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn’t have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.
More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.
Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation’s leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won’t lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation’s importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.
We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation’s leaders, and to extend our hands to you.
With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out. We are doing what we can to speak out against the wars and military policies responsible for what happened to you and your loved ones. Our hearts are open to hearing how we can take any steps to support you through the pain that we have caused.
Solemnly and Sincerely,
Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army
Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army
Senate Bill 1070 is Arizona’s new law
This week Arizona’s governor signed into law measures that give both the police and citizens unprecedented authority over people without documentation.
The new law states that if a police officer has a suspicion that a person is not a “legal” resident it is the officer’s responsibility to require that individual to show his/her documentation. If the individual cannot show documentation the officer is to arrest him/her.
It also gives citizens who feel the law enforcement is not enacting this law the “right” to sue them, yes sue the police, for failure to fulfill their duties.
Two natural questions come to mind:
1. How does one determine that someone is legal or illegal just by looking at him or her?
2. And how does a citizen determine if the police are asking enough people to show documentation to know whether or not they should sue them?
In both cases it seems like you might have to rely on racial profiling. Racial profiling relies on a stereotype that all undocumented people in the United States are Latinos and Latinas and a further stereotype that you can pick them out by their skin color, facial features, etc.
Seem fraught with difficulties?
Below is a clip from the Daily Show with John Stewart (click on the words “The Daily Show With John Stewart” to play the clip) and, below that, a link to a series of action you can take to support the people of Arizona and the United States who might fall into the category of “suspicious”….Peace Liz
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Law & Border | ||||
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Take action!
Lest We Forget: Tutu’s reflection on Arizona’s new law
Below is a reflection from Desmond Tutu about the law passed in Arizona and the consequences it could have for all of us but in particular for those who are targeted by the law. Tutu reminds us that similar measures were a part of apartheid South Africa, lest we forget the damage such ideology has already done.
You may not live in Arizona but it is important for all of us to let our lawmakers know we will not tolerate a similar law coming to our states and to encourage them to back the Justice Department in challenging this law. Peace
Desmond Tutu
I am saddened today at the prospect of a young Hispanic immigrant in Arizona going to the grocery store and forgetting to bring her passport and immigration documents with her. I cannot be dispassionate about the fact that the very act of her being in the grocery store will soon be a crime in the state she lives in. Or that should a policeman hear her accent and form a “reasonable suspicion” that she is an illegal immigrant, she can – and will – be taken into custody until someone sorts it out, while her children are at home waiting for their dinner.
Equally disturbing is what will happen in the mind of the policeman. The police talk today about how they do not wish to, and will not engage in racial profiling. Yet faced with the option of using common sense and compassion, or harassing a person who has done nothing wrong, a particularly sinister aspect of Arizona’s new immigration law will be hanging over his head. He can be personally sued, by ANYONE, for failing to enforce this inhumane new act.
I recognize that Arizona has become a widening entry point for illegal immigration from the South. The wave has brought with it rising violence and drug smuggling.
But a solution that degrades innocent people, or that makes anyone with broken English a suspect, is not a solution. A solution that fails to distinguish between a young child coming over the border in search of his mother and a drug smuggler is not a solution.
I am not speaking from an ivory tower. I lived in the South Africa that has now thankfully faded into history, where a black man or woman could be grabbed off the street and thrown in jail for not having his or her documents on their person.
How far can this go? We lived it — police waking a man up in the middle of the night and hauling him off to jail for not having his documents on his person while he slept. The fact that they were in his nightstand near the bed was not good enough.
Of course if you suggested such a possibility today to an Arizona policeman he would be adamant that he would never do such a thing. And I would believe him. Arizona is a long way from apartheid South Africa.
The problem is, under the new law, the one or two who WOULD do it are legitimized. All they have to say is that they believed that illegal immigrants were being harbored in the house. They would be protected and sanctioned by this law.
Abominations such as Apartheid do not start with an entire population suddenly becoming inhumane. They start here. They start with generalizing unwanted characteristics across an entire segment of a population. They start with trying to solve a problem by asserting superior force over a population. They start with stripping people of rights and dignity – such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty – that you yourself enjoy. Not because it is right, but because you can. And because somehow, you think this is going to solve a problem.
However, when you strip a man or a woman of their basic human rights, you strip them of their dignity in the eyes of their family and their community, and even in their own eyes. An immigrant who is charged with the crime of trespassing for simply being in a community without his papers on him is being told he is committing a crime by simply being. He or she feels degraded and feels they are of less worth than others of a different color skin. These are the seeds of resentment, hostilities and in extreme cases, conflict.
Such “solutions” solve nothing. As already pointed out, even by people on the police force, Arizona’s new laws will split the communities, make it less likely that people in the immigrant communities will work with the police. They will create conditions favorable to the very criminals these laws are trying to disarm.
The Latinos in Arizona have not come to Arizona because they want to live in communities wracked with violence and crime. I would guess that the most recent arrivals have fled their border towns and the growing violence there as drug lords tightened their control of the communities. They want to live and raise their children in peace, just as you or I do.
I am certain that, given the chance, the leaders of the Latino immigrant communities in Arizona would enthusiastically work with the State to find constructive solutions to these problems. I am very sure that they would like, as much as others, to rid Arizona of the drug smugglers, human traffickers and other criminal elements infiltrating their communities.
We can only hope that this law will be thrown out of the courts in short order. I do not disagree with the calls to boycott the businesses in the State until it is turned around.
In the meantime, it has opened the door to some smart State leaders sitting down with the leaders of the Latino communities in Arizona and hammering out some solutions that actually work. Hopefully these solutions would recognize the difference between a drug smuggler and a man willing to stand outside a gas station in the hot sun for hours in the hopes that someone will give him some work for the day.
The problem of migrating populations is not going to go away any time soon. If anyone should know this, it should be Americans, many of whom landed here themselves to escape persecution, famine or conflict. With the eyes of the world now on them, Arizona has the opportunity to create a new model for dealing with the pitfalls, and help the nation as a whole find its way through the problems of illegal immigration. But to work, it must be a model that is based on a deep respect for the essential human rights Americans themselves have grown up enjoying.
Priests and Human Rights Workers targeted in Colombia
I have an urgent request. Below is a letter to the Minister of the Interior and Justice in Colombia concerning three men with whom I have worked closely in the past five years. All three men do human rights work in Colombia and have recently been the target of death threats and false accusations by different armed groups within the country.
I am asking for folks to place their name into the letter, print and send it to the Minister. These threats have happened before and attention from the international community has been vastly helpful in creating safety for those concerned.
These cases have been picked up by Amnesty International as well. Amnesty’s site inlcudes a letter that is also available for sending.
Human rights documentation is a vital necessity within Colombia. The ongoing civil conflict as well as the action of para-military groups leaves many vulnerable but in particular the poor and marginalized. Please take a moment to send a letter today and help protect Human Rights Defenders. Peace Liz
Minister of the Interior and Justice
Sr. Fabio Valencia Cossio
Ministerio Del Interior y de Justicia
Carrera 9a. No. 14-10,
Bogota, Colombia
Dear Minister
My name is______________ and I am a member of a nonprofit organization called 8th Day Center for Justice. This nonprofit represents over 40 religious congregations located in the Midwest. I am writing to express concern for the safety of members of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission, including Father Javier Giraldo, Father Alberto Franco, and Danilo Rueda because of the explicit threats against them and because the two priests could be the target of the graffiti against “the Marxist priest”.
I am calling the Colombian government to conduct a full and impartial investigation into these threats and for those responsible for ordering and writing the threats to be brought to justice. I urge all authorities to provide effective protection to those individuals affected who request it and in strict accordance with their wishes and the protection measures granted by the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of the Organization of American States.
I want to remind and urge all authorities to fulfill their obligations to ensure human rights defenders can carry out their work without fear, as laid out in the UN Declaration of Human Rights Defenders.
Thank you for your time in this urgent matter.
Sincerely,
Your name etc.
Big Oil: Sojourners offers this action
Below is a quick action to take on behalf of the ocean, the birds, the turtles, the fish…all the life that is being changed, sickened and destroyed by the oil spill in the Gulf.
Sojourners offers a quick way to remind our leaders that this tragedy could have been prevented and can be prevented in the future if we decide to change our policies and practices around energy consumption.
Join with others and demand that we stop “prioritizing polluters over people and the planet…”
Sojourners
Just weeks after the worst mining accident in more than 40 years, this month’s issue of Sojourners takes on King Coal. We had no idea that Big Oil would so soon demand our attention as well.
Oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico with no guarantee of when it will stop; dead sea turtles, fish, and birds washing ashore; horrible “solutions” that require setting fire to the Gulf and dumping massive amounts of chemicals in the water – the aftermath of the April 20 oil rig explosion just keeps getting worse.
People in the surrounding states are watching their livelihoods be destroyed. Millions of God’s creatures will be poisoned. Ecosystems will be disrupted and changed – possibly forever.
Who is to blame? Unfortunately, the answer is all of us – the oil companies, the government, and each of us who participate in an oil-and-energy driven culture. We must take personal responsibility, but we must also call our leaders to account for this environmental disaster.
The Senate is working on passing energy and climate legislation, but right now it prioritizes polluters over people and the planet – buying industry’s political support with “incentives,” like new permits for offshore drilling and nuclear power development.
This tragedy continues to unfold, but until all of us – and our nation – break our love affair with oil, gas, and coal, we will continue to see environmental disasters take place. We need to invest in a clean, renewable energy infrastructure today. We can’t wait any longer.
In the coming weeks there will be plenty of blame to go around for this disaster. But right now we need to see leadership from the president and U.S. Senate to ensure that our country is put on the path to a better future.
After you take action, please join us in prayer for the thousands of engineers, politicians, and scientists racing the clock to find solutions for this tragedy.
For God’s creation,
Elizabeth, Justin, Kevin, Jen, and the rest of the Sojo policy team.
More help for Colombia
- Read about Rogelio’s case on the CRLN website by clicking here
- Write letters to Colombian government officials (names, titles, and fax numbers listed below) calling on them to:
- Conduct an independent, thorough and independent investigation into Rogelio’s murder
- Take immediate measure to provide adequate protection to Rogelio’s wife, Julia Torres Cancino, and their four children, as well as other members of the farming commumity of La Alemania
- Swiftly resolve long-standing legal issues that have made it impossible for all farming families originally displaced from La Alemania Farm to return safely
- Transform security and development policies on Colombia’s northern coast that have left small farmers vulnerable to violence
*some wording taken from Amnesty International and Lutheran World Relief
Face of the struggle: protesting SB1070
Over 100,000 gathered in Arizona to protest SB1070. If you like the photo below check out the link it will take you a site full of images of the “face of the struggle,” those willing to risk to prevent racial profiling from becoming law. How will you join?
Participants in march in Arizona
The other side of the debate: SB 1070
Below is a video of the 2,000 people who gathered in Arizona to support SB 1070…check it out.
This video portrays a complexity of views from an African American man claiming that “whites” have done more for race relations than “blacks” to a woman who believes that the Catholic Church is organizing immigrants so they can take over the world….how can we meet across such a divide? Send me your thoughts…
If it was my home…bringing the oil spill to your town
Below is a link to an interactive map that lets you “move” the Gulf spill to your own hometown to see what it would look like and how far the devastation would spread. Just type in your hometown at the top and click “move the spill.” There is also a good set of action steps at the bottom.
It is a simple tool but one that takes the abstract concept of “thousands of barrels of oil spilling ” each day and put it into a recognizable context. A context that gives a window into the depth of devastation that is destroying the waters, the sea creatures, the plants, the land…what will we be called to do?
Nebraska joins Arizona in immigration debate
Yesterday voters in Fremont, Neb., passed an ordinance that has divided the city. Ordinance 5165 prohibits businesses and landlords from hiring or renting to people who are in the United States illegally.
According to a CNN report the organization One Fremont-One Future offered this in response: “It is with great disappointment and sadness that tonight we acknowledge a majority of Fremont voters approving this misguided ordinance. In reality, the passage of this ordinance shows that we have much work to do in our community to educate, break down barriers, and build relationships.”
Is this the wrong solution for a real problem? (links to a short video of Bold Nebraska’s on the ground coverage).
Actions
Prayer
Prayer to Change Our Hearts, Our Policies: by Jill Rauh www.educationforjustice.org
Undocumented persons among us are often accused of breaking the law. Instead, it is our poverty-producing policies which have broken the law of human dignity.
Change our hearts and our policies, O God.
Our leaders sometimes see these persons as a burden. Yet, if we came from a life without opportunities, wouldn’t we do the same?
Change our hearts and our policies, O God.
We long for a more just world, where families need not be separated for lack of opportunity. Inspire us to challenge the systems and structures that perpetuate poverty.
Change our hearts and our policies, O God.
Amen.
Additional prayers are available on the FSPA website.
Conference call – June 24 at 1 p.m. Eastern
On June 24th at 1 pm Eastern, CCIR will host a national conference call, “Faithful Perspectives: A Conversation on Immigration and Your Congregation.” A panel of pastors and leading advocates will name the fundamental issues surrounding immigration in the U.S., talk about the tricky issues surrounding the debate, and explore ways that pastors and church leaders can faithfully respond. This call is ideal for clergy and lay leaders who want informed theological perspective on immigration and are interested in how to lead on the issue in a church setting. We’ll also have time for participant Q and A. Featured speakers include Rev. Jim Wallis, Rev. Gabriel Salguero of the Latino Leadership Circle, Rev. Rich Nathan of Vineyard Church of Columbus, and Angela Kelley of the Center for American Progress.
We invite you to join this call on June 24th and to share this invitation with your pastor, colleagues, or friends who may be interested. Click here to register.
Ways to help out in the Gulf
FSPA has joined with many other faith communities who are uniting their faith with action for the care of the earth.
Through a donation, FSPA has joined Interfaith Power & Light’s “Converted?” week August 6 – 8.
The goal that week is to increase the visibility of faith communities that are taking a stand and insisting respectfully, yet forcefully, that our elected officials follow suit to protect God’s creation.
More about the organization:
http://interfaithpowerandlight.org/
Here are some ways to participate from August 6 – 8:
Interfaith Power & Light can help you speak to the nation’s leaders in ways that will be heard. Here are several ways you can participate as a Climate Convert:
- Sign a pledge that will be delivered to President Obama, urging him to approve strong legislation that protects the climate, promotes clean energy, and creates green jobs.
- Order your free “Converted?” pin to wear while your legislators are home on break in August.
- Ask others to speak out.
In closing a prayer from Dr. Emoto,
“I send the energy of love and gratitude to the water and all the living creatures in the Gulf of Mexico and its surroundings. To the whales, dolphins, pelicans, fish, shellfish, plankton, coral, algae, and all living creatures . . . I am sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.”
A Different Look at the Fourth
The 4th of July is a mixed experience for veterans. While it is often looked at as a day held in their honor, some veterans can be found indoors while civilians are out enjoying the fireworks. In his blog post below, our friend, Ryan Harvey, reflects on his own experience of this year’s 4th of July celebration. Ryan is a musician and an organizer with the Civilian Soldier Alliance, IVAW’s main organizing partner in our GI and Veterans Bill of Rights Campaign. He is based in Baltimore, Maryland.
Is it About Independence, Or Explosions?
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“Consult not your fears…” Pax Christi awards LCWR peacemaker award
This past Sunday I was able to attend the Pax Christi Conference award ceremony and see Sister Marlene Weisenbeck, FSPA, accept the Eileen Egan Peacemaker Award for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
Pax Christi shared that they decided to give the award to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in light of the many gifts women’s communities have given over time to efforts of peace and justice.
Pax Christi noted that women religious have not just given time or money to peacemaking. They have given over their whole selves – to the call of the Gospel to live as Sister Marlene called, a life of the Beatitudes.
This extraordinary way of being present and willingness to risk their own significance has held open a space for others to join in the walk of solidarity that leads us to places of beauty and pain, possibility and fear.
In light of this way of life, much more than one action or even a set of actions, Pax Christi wanted to honor women religious for their love, leadership, and incredible example as peacemakers.
What better time to honor the work of women religious, to point to their unique sense of relationship and solidarity with the world than right now? A time when the world is marked by environmental disaster, multiple wars and a growing sense of fear that is creating “others” and “strangers” at a rapid rate.
The work and lives of women religious offer us a chance as Pope John XXIII wrote to,” consult not your fears but your hopes and dreams…”
Thank you all for helping us to dream, hope and stay in the struggle for a new day!
Pax Christi - Eileen Eagan Peacemaker Award
In this photo I am pictured with Sister Marlene Weisenbeck. Sister Marlene’s award acceptance speech is available on the LCWR website.
The Afghan War meets Wikileaks
This week an incredible amount of information on the war in Afghanistan has been “released” through a site known as “Wikileaks.” Wikileaks is a sister to Wikipedia, an online resource that “democratizes” information sharing by making it accessible to anyone willing to put information up on the Internet.
The information is vetted before becoming public, so people cannot post info that is blatantly fictional. For example to claim that Barack Obama is actually from Kenya would not be permitted, too bad FOX news does not have the same ethical approach.
These sites are a grassroots way of getting information out to the public without having to rely on the mainstream media machines to tell the story. The importance of this is evident as soon as you begin to read the leaked documents. These documents provide the fullest picture of the war on the ground that we have ever been provided. A picture that looks into the frustration and concerns of the soldiers, the human rights violations of the people of Afghanistan, and the clear troubles of our relationship with Pakistan.
This is the information we need to be able to understand and collectively support or dissent on this war. How can we continue to put human lives at risk when we are not permitted to know the fullness of what is happening, what is working and what has become a dangerous and miserable failure.
Check out the story in the link below and take a look at Wikileaks, Truthout, Leftturn, or any alternative news source you prefer. The truth may set us free, but first we need access to it.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100726/ap_on_re_us/us_afghanistan_wikileaks
Soldier's gun at a lookout point, Afghanistan.
The power of presence: ceremonies to mark Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Below is an article from the Christian Science Monitor reflecting on the upcoming anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the first time in 65 years, a top U.S. official will attend the ceremonies that mark the tragedy.
The U.S. will stand and mourn with the victims of the bombing. What a powerful image: that we who caused the drastic tragedy could be invited to stand and mourn with the victims and that we are finally ready to be present to their pain.
Emma Goldman said to not be surprised if peace “came quietly” in the end, for it is the outcome of a million small gestures and not all of them come with noise.
So here is to this small, quiet gesture – the power of presence – and to the small peace it may bring.
Christian Science Monitor
President Obama’s campaign to eliminate the world’s nuclear weapons takes on a symbolic twist this Aug. 6. For the first time, a top US official will attend an anniversary ceremony in Japan marking the 1945 dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
The American ambassador to Japan, John Roos, will join the annual memorial service for the bomb’s victims. Also attending for the first time will be a UN secretary-general, Ban Ki Moon. Japan wants to highlight this 65th anniversary of the attack – which helped end World War II at a terrible cost – by bringing together as many foreign dignitaries as possible.
It is certainly fitting for both Japan and Mr. Obama to keep alive the memories of the kind of devastation that a nuclear weapon can cause on a civilian population. More than 100,000 Japanese died from the bombing. Since 1945, a pacifist and democratic Japan has been a leader in world efforts to achieve nuclear nonproliferation. And it now welcomes a US president acting boldly toward a goal that seems so elusive, even impossible.
My first memories of Hiroshima came from my father. As a Navy lieutenant in the postwar US occupation of Japan, he flew over the city just a week after the bombing, seeing the widespread devastation. One of his friends was able to walk through Hiroshima a couple weeks later, taking the first color movies of the devastation – at a time when color film was quite rare even in the US.
Decades later, I visited the city a few times as a journalist, impressed at first by its rise from the ashes to become a thriving economy. But then, like many visitors, I was taken aback when I saw the skeleton dome of the city’s former Chamber of Industry and Commerce building. It was the only big structure still standing near the center of the atomic blast. My reaction was tempered a bit, however, after talking to some visiting Japanese teenagers who mistakenly believed that World War II actually began with the US attack.
Hiroshima (the attack, not the city) still evokes strong emotions and hot debate over many lingering questions.
Was the bombing, along with the one Aug. 9 on Nagasaki, really necessary? Are young Japanese today taught enough about the war’s history to put this event in the context of Japan’s aggression in Asia and its attack on Pearl Harbor? Is warfare on civilians – especially with atomic weapons – ever justified?
It is unlikely that Ambassador Roos, or Mr. Obama during a visit to Japan this November, will even come close to apologizing for Truman’s decision to use the bomb. Indeed, the remaining veterans of World War II on both sides do not likely see eye on eye on Hiroshima’s meaning.
For now, though, the US can help the world recall the effects of an atomic bomb, as Japan has long done, in order to look ahead and try to prevent such military tactics from being used again.
Lanterns floating in a river to mark anniversary of bombing in Hiroshima.
Out of Iraq?
Important update from Iraq Veterans Against the War…
It’s Not Really OverMainstream television news has made a big show of the withdrawal of America’s “last combat troops” from Iraq, but the painful saga continues for our service members. Many returning home to their tearful and joyous families in the coming days will ultimately be sent to serve more tours of duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, members of two different units heading to Iraq and Afghanistan are calling on their commanders right now to halt their deployments because they are not physically or mentally ready to deploy. Will you stand with them? President Obama makes it sound like the troops remaining in Iraq will be serving largely administrative and ‘advisory’ functions. But in reality, 50,000 “combat capable” troops will remain in Iraq to:
In an Iraq which grows increasingly violent each month, does this sound like desk duty? The 3rd ACR at Fort Hood1This Sunday, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR) at Fort Hood will be shipped out to Iraq. The military wives and family members of 3rd ACR soldiers say that hundreds of the 5,000 about to go to Iraq are suffering from PTSD and other ailments, and are not fit to deploy. This week they demanded that those wounded warriors stay home. IVAW’s Fort Hood chapter and Fort Hood’s military families are asking the civilian community to join their calls for the military to stop deploying traumatized troops. Call 3rd ACR Commanders and tell them not to deploy soldiers who have PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. 3rd ACR Commanders: Call between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and ask for whatever commander you’re ringing by name. If they won’t speak to you, leave them a message or call back. If you get anyone else’s ear, tell them to stop deploying soldiers who are medically unfit. After you’ve made your call, send us an email at feedback@ivaw.org to let us know you’ve called. The 656th Transportation Company2The 656th is an Army Reserve unit based in Indiana, made up of reservists from several midwestern states. Due to deploy this weekend for Afghanistan, members within the unit have cited lack of training and mental health problems among the reasons they are not fit to go. IVAW member, Alejandro Villatoro, a Sergeant in the Company, has raised concerns that they have not been trained on the weapons they will be using, and do not know how to operate the vehicles they will have to drive, once in Afghanistan. There are also serious mental health issues among some of the troops set to deploy. After Alejandro first exposed this crisis, others in the unit also came forward. They are now pushing for a Congressional inquiry into their unit’s readiness. We will keep you posted next week with steps you can take to support their efforts. For a full explanation of the situation facing the 656th, click here. |
New Orleans: Five years Later
It has been five years since Katrina hit New Orleans. What does the city look like now? Who has come home? What will the future be?
Below is a link to a Truthout article that serves as a “video essay.” It includes five different short videos that highlight different aspects of what has developed (or not developed) for the people of New Orleans.
But it also shows a hint of the future, if the response to Katrina becomes our norm as a country what will that mean for future survivors of natural disasters inside the United States and around the world?
Check out this video and the four others and let me know what you think…
http://www.truth-out.org/reinventing-paradise-2062741
Future leaders and Georgetown
Georgetown University has recently named former president Alvaro Uribe from Colombia to teach at its School of Foreign Service in the coming year. While common for Georgetown to have former dignitaries and leaders as professors former president Uribe is a unique case.
Alvaro Uribe, while president of Colombia, oversaw and implemented some of the worst human rights violations in the hemisphere. From spying on his own Supreme Court to displacing small farmers off of their land Uribe was a human rights disaster.
Does this sound like a “distinguished scholar” who can can teach future generations about “global leadership?”
Join School of the Americas Watch and Human Rights Watch in sending a letter to the President of Georgetown calling on Georgetown to consider the impact of human rights violators teaching the next generation.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/727/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4711
Images of the "disappeared" at a human rights march in Colombia.
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Below is an action shared by a partner of 8th Day Center – The National Religious Campaign Against Torture.
It is calling on our elected officials to pass a bill that will comprehensively review the criminal justice system. This is a vital step to removing the many abuses that have occurred for a long time but also the new abuses that were put into place with some of the legislation passed after 9/11.
If you have time please make a call and lend a voice to the many who suffer daily in our prison and detainment system.
National Religious Campaign Against Torture
Please call your Senators! Today, Wednesday, September 15, NRCAT is participating in a nation-wide call-in day to encourage the Senate to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act.
Please call your Senators today, and tell them that you would like them to pass the National Criminal Justice Commission Act (H.R. 5143/S. 714) as soon as possible.
It has been 40 years since our nation last undertook a comprehensive review of our criminal justice system. After all that time, such a review is sorely needed. Recently, the House passed a bill, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act (H.R. 5143/S. 714), that would create a bipartisan panel to review all aspects of our criminal justice system. Importantly, this panel would have the authority to review the conditions of confinement for all prisoners in our criminal justice system. As such, the panel could issue recommendations for preventing the torture and abuse of prisoners.
The bill has already been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and has passed the House. Now it is time for the full Senate to vote on it.
Please call your Senators!
You can call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to speak with your Senators, or you can use this link to find contact information for them: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
You can use this script while on the phone:
“Hello, my name is _________, and, as a person of faith, I am calling to ask the Senator to work for the immediate passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act.”
Thank you for your help. Passage of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act could be an important step toward ending the use of extensive isolation in prisons, which is a form of torture.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2162/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=5469
International Peace Day
The Cellist of Sarajevo – Actions for Peace
Vedran Smajlović, with hundreds of thousands of other residents in Bosnia endured the siege of Sarajevo – surviving the cold, food and water shortages, constant bombings and sniper fire in the street.
Smajlović decided to play his cello in the space of a bombing after a particularly brutal explosion that killed 22 people. He played his cello to honor each of the 22 people killed by the bomb while they were queuing for bread; transforming the space of violence into a memorial for those who had died.
He points us to the power of witness. Check out the links below for a chance to participate in a local witness for peace today!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nJxmwY3f8
Events planned throughout the world
http://internationaldayofpeace.org/participate/events_calendar.html
La Crosse, Wis.
An International Day of Peace observance is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 21 in La Crosse’s Cameron Park at noon. It is sponsored by the The La Crosse Interfaith Justice and Peace Network with Rotary Club support. If you attend, bring a lawn chair and, if you’d like, a sign with a peace theme. This is a peace rally not an anti war rally. The event program includes a brief noon ceremony with singing, vigil and march. Questions? Contact the coordinators at createpeace@centurytel.net or call 608-786-2816.
Action Alert: Help struggling families today!
Action shared by Lifetime, a group committed to helping low-income families and individuals become empowered through education…
Action alert! Please Call Your Senators Today and
Ask Them to Extend the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund!
I’m writing to ask for your help in winning an extension of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund, which expires on October 1st. The TANF Emergency Contingency Fund has provided crucial federal funding to help states provide assistance to struggling families, and create jobs for 200,000 low-income parents nationwide.
Background:
When Congress passed the economic stimulus bill, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, it included the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund (TANF ECF), to help states fund their safety net programs and provide assistance to families who are struggling in this recession. The TANF ECF provided federal funding to help states do three important things:
(1) Meet rising welfare caseloads and maintain funding for safety net programs. Since the Great Recession officially began in September 2007, welfare rolls have been rising for the first time since Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), or welfare reform, was passed in 1996; the poverty rate has risen to its highest level in 15 years; and the unemployment rate for single mothers has more than doubled, reaching its highest level in 25 years.
(2) Create jobs for 200,000 low-income parents nationwide. This is one of the best uses of federal funding that I have seen in my lifetime: the TANF ECF has enabled states to put low-income parents to work and gain crucial work experience, and take home a paycheck, in lieu of a welfare or unemployment check; and
(3) Provide assistance with one-time, non-recurring expenses, such as emergency housing assistance e.g. providing money for move-in costs for families who have become homeless due to foreclosure or unemployment.
Since last February, the House of Representatives has passed a bill to extend the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund three times. However, each time the bill has gone to the Senate, it has fallen just a few votes short of passage. So please call your Senator today! If their office is closed, you can leave a message on their voice mail. Together we can make this happen – yes we can!
LIFETIME has a toll-free number so you can call your Senators at no cost. To speak to your representative, just call 888-245-0215 and ask for your Senator by name, and the Capitol operator will connect you to their office. Tell them that it is crucial that they support an extension of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund, so that the states can provide help to struggling families in these hard economic times. And many thanks to our friend Debbie Weinstein at the Coalition on Human Needs in Washington, D.C. for providing this toll-free number!
Here’s some sample language when you make your call:
Hello, my name is (your name!), and I’m calling to ask Senator _____________ to support the extension of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund, which expires on October 1st. The TANF Emergency Contingency Fund has enabled states to help families (like mine) who are struggling in this recession, and to create 200,000 jobs for low-income parents (like me) nationwide. Please support the extension of this important program!
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Honduras: the struggle continues
An action to help Honduras and a chance to listen to one of its top human rights defenders, Bertha Oliva !
Help is urgently needed to encourage more Members of Congress to sign the Dear Colleague letter being circulated in the House of Representatives by Rep. Farr (CA). Only 10 Members of Congress have signed as of this morning.
It’s a strong letter registering concern for human rights and calling for suspension of US aid to Honduras, particularly police and military assistance. Deadline for signing is Wed., Oct. 13th. Given the holiday weekend, the time for a full court press would be Tuesday morning.
Signers so far: Reps. Farr, Woolsey, Schakowsky, Jesse Jackson, Jr.; Danny Davis, Stark, Oberstar, Rush, Hank Johnson; Kucinich
Members to pursue: all Members could be contacted, but the following represent a priority as they signed a June 2010 Dear Colleague but have not yet signed the current one: McGovern, Honda, Lee, Grijalva, Payne, Conyers, Pingree, Olver, Miller, Neal, Gwen Moore, Baldwin, Edwards, Capuano, Lynch, James Moran, Markey, Delahunt, DeLauro, Tierney, Serrano, McCollum, and Rush.
It may be that the supportive Representatives mentioned above and their key staff are back in local districts focused on the upcoming election—but calling them could make all the difference in elevating the letter for their sign on. As indicated below, to sign on they should contact Caitie Whelen in Rep. Farr’s office.
Below is a link to an action alert by U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project:
USLEAP Action Alert: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1618/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4943
USLEAP website article on Honduras (includes more details): http://usleap.org/action-alert-strengthen-congressional-opposition-us-policy-honduras-0
The Ultimate Door for Dismissal by Sister Julia Walsh
Sister Julia Walsh here, guest blogging this week.
Some of you have heard about my recent experience with the “deportation bus rides to Chicago’s O’Hare airport,” and some of you have not. For those who haven’t, here it is.
I recently had an intense experience that taught me a lot about the truth of the immigration situation in our country. Last Friday morning I had the opportunity to go along with a few Franciscan friar friends to pray at the immigration detention center here in Chicago before a group was brought to the O’Hare airport to be deported.
We got there by 6 a.m. so three people could board the bus and pray with the immigrants before they were shuttled to O’Hare airport. Three people are allowed on the bus every week. When we arrived in the dark and I stepped outside in front of the unmarked building with high barbed-wire fences and a garage, I was overwhelmed already. I realized that just being around the building was intense enough for me and I didn’t have the strength to board the bus as well. I let three other people have that opportunity. I actually babbled about not feeling comfortable praying in Spanish instead of admitting to feeling overwhelmed. The three were on the bus for five to ten minutes—praying in the dark garage before the bus departed.
I heard that there were about 80 people deported that morning.
While they were inside the bus praying I learned from some Catholic sisters- the shepherds of all this, it seems- that people are deported Tuesday and Friday mornings from this center.
Once people are arrested for their crimes—traffic violations for example—then they are brought to this place early every morning for processing before they go to a county jail. Within 12 days or so they come back to the deportation center to be deported on the bus.
It is the ultimate door for dismissal. We were at the regional center and there are about 12 or 15 throughout the country. These remarkable Catholic sisters have an outreach where they visit with those who have been arrested in the county jail during their short time there before they go. They find their families and inform them of their rights- if any- and give the immigrants a little money so they can buy necessities (the jail doesn’t give them any).
The sisters know where they’ll arrive when they’re deported: the Mexicans are flown to a Texas border town and then driven across the border and given about $10 and left there. They are left in the war zone of the drug cartel civil war that is happening in Mexico right now, and often times the deported quickly become involved in the mess because they are desperate for anything that will give them the basic human stuff!
There is a social services center there that I think is an outreach of the Catholic sisters on the other side of the border. The Chicago sisters give them the name of the place on the other side of the border so they can try to find it, but they can’t always find it. I wondered if they might forget its name because of the trauma of being deported.
I learned that the families try to say goodbye to their loved ones on the mornings they are deported, but they have to be at that center before 5 a.m. and they aren’t always allowed through- it depends on the mood of the officers. That morning a woman wasn’t allowed to say goodbye to her husband because she brought their baby with her and the baby didn’t have the proper papers.
By 6:30 a.m. my friends were back from praying and at about 6:45 a.m. we waved prayerfully and raised our hands in blessings at the bus while it drove away. The windows were completely covered so I wasn’t sure if they could see us, but I knew it still mattered. Soon after, people started coming and preparing for the prayer service. During that time three unmarked vans with dark windows drove up. I was told that inside were the people who had been arrested overnight and they came to be processed before going to jail for a few days. Again, we raised our hands in loving blessing. I learned that these powerful Catholic sisters are so effective in their work that one of them is on a first-name basis with the director of ICE and she calls him and reports trouble. I told her that it’s sisters like her that make me so happy I am part of the sisterhood.
The prayer vigil happens every Friday at 7:15 a.m. A crowd emerged, diverse people- the group is very ecumenical. There were young and old and every race. There were many nuns and priests. Immigration attorney Royal Berg gave an introduction speech and shared that they have been having this prayer service every Friday morning since January of 2006. The first time they did it there was such a huge snowstorm that the flights were canceled out of O’Hare and no one was deported that day, so they decided they better do it as often as they could.
He said that 1100 people are deported everyday and that more are deported now under the Obama administration, than a few years ago. He also said that the prayer service was featured in a documentary about immigration that is just being released now. I watched the trailer yesterday and it is about a Polish immigrant couple here in Chicago (film trailer below).
Then we prayed, powerfully. Someone hung prayer flags in a little tree and we gathered around a huge picture of the Guadalupe. We prayed the rosary in different languages. Before we prayed each decade we sang a verse of “We are Called.” We prayed the sorrowful mysteries and heard the names of those deported that morning. We prayed for the government and the officers and our lawmakers. We prayed for Gutierrez’s immigration reform bill and the conversion of our country. The decades of the rosary were prayed in layers of English, Spanish and Polish- and we all had prayer sheets if we didn’t know the language. Our rosary ended with a closing prayer and a blessing of the Holy Spirit upon us all and we then we parted hearing announcements about other ways we can continue the work.
As we left, I asked my friar friends what it was like inside of the bus. They told me that the three of them were crowded near the bus driver and they couldn’t really see the people. They could see that they were in cages and their wrists and ankles were chained so it was hard for them to do the sign of the cross when they prayed. They said that most of the people that they could see looked like they were in their 20s and some of them probably didn’t know English. They said it smelled really bad because the people couldn’t bathe or brush their teeth or anything while in jail (and even if they did have money to buy hygiene products the prices were tripled so they couldn’t afford them).
And they said they seemed so grateful to see a witness of love and that my friend Ed, OFM, got them all singing in Spanish. The friars pointed out how the path to citizenship can take many, many years. It may not ever go through, but a person can be deported in under two weeks. My friend Ed said told me that most of the immigrants he knows have been waiting for years to get their papers fixed … they really want to do that, and they are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. I just remembered that a sister in my community sent me a great graphic recently showing how the naturalization process works. http://reason.org/files/a87d1550853898a9b306ef458f116079.pdf
It’s so hard for me to believe that people are treated this way, especially people who are so poor and simply trying to live and survive in the ways that they can. Few of the people committed any serious crimes but are simply trying to eat and work and provide for the people they love. I can imagine myself being desperate and wandering into another country if I was hungry and poor and wanted a job. I am disgusted that tax dollars (that the immigrants’ tax dollars!) are being used to violate my brothers and sisters’ dignity.
Certainly we must learn, spread the truth, pray, advocate, support immigrants and work really hard for just and comprehensive immigration reform. We must work with the Catholic Bishops and Gutierrez to help our government and nation be more loving and more fair.
Thanks for reading and being supportive of me and the things I try to do to help this world be a better place.
Love,
Julia
p.s. A little about the Gutierrez reform bill: http://www.gutierrez.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=456&Itemid=30
Voting 101
A great resource for election time from NETWORK…a reflection from the Bishops, a link to a resource that shows voting records of candidates and a link to a set of questions to help us reflect on issues and candidates …
Election 2010 – We Must Become Engaged!
As people of faith and as Catholics, we are called to live out our faith by promoting the common good through civic engagement and other means.
It may seem easy to become cynical about politics for a variety of reasons, but we cannot afford to ignore our duty to participate in the democratic process. The U.S. Catholic Bishops confirmed this when they wrote, in Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship:
Unfortunately, politics in our country often can be a contest of powerful interests, partisan attacks, sound bites, and media hype. The Church calls for a different kind of political engagement: one shaped by the moral convictions of well-formed consciences and focused on the dignity of every human being, the pursuit of the common good, and the protection of the weak and the vulnerable. The Catholic call to faithful citizenship affirms the importance of political participation and insists that public service is a worthy vocation. As Catholics, we should be guided more by our moral convictions than by our attachment to a political party or interest group. When necessary, our participation should help transform the party to which we belong; we should not let the party transform us in such a way that we neglect or deny fundamental moral truths. We are called to bring together our principles and our political choices, our values and our votes, to help build a better world.
Working to change systems that oppress and deny human rights can seem daunting, but each of us must do what we can. One important first step is to become informed about the issues, look at the candidates running in the upcoming election, and vote your conscience.
Link to helpful questions and websites…
http://www.networklobby.org/files/Election%202010%20questions_1.pdf
Check out voting records…
Hey, world don’t give up on me…
Yesterday across the country we casted our votes.
Casted our votes during a time of war, recession, environmental decline. ..a time of indefinite detention, a wall at our southern border, LGBTQ teen suicides…a time of hunger, uncertainty and fear.
This video from music artist Michael Franti offers a lovely simple call – don’t give up on me and I won’t give up on you.
A gentle and loving reminder that all of our actions from recycling that paper cup to casting a vote to smiling at a stranger in line…each one is part of not giving up and in that faithful embrace helping to create change…check it out!
Memory and Resistance! 21st annual School of the Americas Watch Vigil
This week I leave for Columbus, Georgia, to join the vigil at the gates of Ft. Benning. We will gather to remember and resist as we approach the 30th anniversary of the four women who were killed in El Salvador. We will gather to celebrate and commemorate as we move forward with the challenge of creating full peace with justice.
This year I will blog each of the days leading up to the vigil. I invite you to journey with the School of the Americas Watch Movement as we ready to Close It Down (subscribe if you want to get my posts right in your inbox)! To get us started I would like to offer the following excerpt from a letter by Ita Ford, M.M. to her niece.
A Letter from Ita to her niece
Dear Jennifer,
The odds that this note will arrive for your birthday are poor, but know I’m with you in spirit as you celebrate 16 big ones…
What I want to say…some of it isn’t too jolly birthday talk, but it’s real…yesterday I stood looking down at a 16-year-old who had been killed a few hours earlier. I know lots of kids even younger who are dead. This is a terrible time in El Salvador for youth. A lot of idealism and commitment is getting snuffed out here now…
Brooklyn is not passing through the drama of El Salvador, but some things hold true wherever one is at, and at whatever age. What I am saying is, I hope you come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you…something worth living for, maybe even worth dying for…something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead. I can’t tell you what it might be – that is for you to find, to choose, to love.
I can just encourage you to start looking and support you in the search. Maybe this sounds weird and off-the-wall, and maybe, no one else will talk to you like this, but then, too, I am seeing and living things others around you are not.
I want to say to you: don’t waste the gifts and opportunities you have to make yourself and other people happy…I hope this does not sound like some kind of sermon because I do not mean it that way. Rather, it is something you learn here, and I want to share it with you.
In fact it is my birthday present to you. If it does not make sense right at this moment, keep this and read it sometime from now. Maybe it will be clearer.
A very happy birthday to you and much, much love…Ita
Ita Ford, Presente!
Coming to Georgia: SOA Vigil
Watching everyone come into town for the SOA vigil is one of the best parts of the weekend. You see folks from all over pull up in busses and cars, they spill out in lobbies and restaurants, and everyone is greeted like an old friend.
We begin immediately to build a new space. A space that is not dependent on power or privilege but rather a space that thrives on creative open relationship. A radical idea that community exists in each of us (like breath) and we are able even in a crowd of thousands to say we, in this moment, are one.
It is always a joy to me each year to watch this space open over the days of the weekend. To watch as all the elements of organizing come together and the key ingredient of the people arrive and gently like a bloom another world rises before our eyes.
I think of Francis and how he did this everyday. He held open space for a radical loving community and watched as a different world bloomed before his eyes. A world built on the foundations of trust, love and complete equity. We carry on, grateful for our inheritance from this particular peacemaker.
We are here, working to build that world and I will do my best through this blog to have the world bloom for you, too! Many blessings and much gratitude for the support of the FSPA community!
p.s. I’ve learned that the FSPA sponsored bus has left La Crosse, Wis., and is headed for Georgia.
This picture was captured this morning as the Franciscan Sisters blessed the students before they boarded the bus!
FSPA bless the students departing for the SOA Vigil.
Gathering in Peace: SOA Vigil
So we gathered from all across the country some even from other countries to begin our vigil, our presence at the gates of Ft. Benning.
We gathered together to hear the testimony of survivors, the stories of those who are currently in the struggle and the poetry and music of many groups of resistance.
The stories from stage reminded us of why we gather. We heard of the human rights violations, the stolen land, the communities broken by militarization, and the fear created by oppression.
We also heard of creative resistance, alternative economies, loving rebuilding of communities. It was a day of energizing grace.
As we left the space, the police attitude changed. There were aggressive arrests, as people tried to make their way to their cars. Theirs was an attitude of control and suspicion that was the antithesis of the nonviolent open space that had been created by the community.
This is our struggle, how do we create change when speaking out is seen as threat? When calling for justice is seen as violent? How do we walk our road?
The day teaches that we walk it together, we walk it in peace, we walk it because this is who we are called to be.
From SOA Vigil to jail to court
On Saturday after the rally some members of the School of the Americas Watch community took action within the city of Columbus. They chose to take their message to Columbus instead of the military base. They chose a different space but the reasons for the action were the same: to close the SOA and bring justice to its victims. The police had a strong reaction to what they felt was the abuse of the permit. As people were attempting to leave the vigil site the police responded by arresting more than seventeen individuals who were doing nothing more than leaving the space – all together 26 folks were arrested.
I have attended the vigil for six years and never have I seen anything like what happened on Saturday. The police were directing people to leave and then accusing them of refusing to disperse and placing cuffs on them. They picked up journalists, high schoolers, and even a member of their own Columbus community who simply stepped out of a barber shop near the road.
We began immediately to mobilize, to gather money for bond. We received our second shock of the weekend: the police had piled charges on the folks they arrested. Even though they were all facing misdemeanors their bonds were set as high as $5500. This would mean that roughly we would have needed over $100,000 to get our own people out of jail.
Between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we worked to get in touch with family and friends of those who had been arrested and to raise money for bond. By Sunday afternoon, after the vigil as we headed to the court for the arraignment hearings, we had managed to raise close to $20,000. Not all of what we needed but an amazing outpouring from those who were there.
We reached court and received our third big shock of the weekend: the judge! He said that if anyone whispered or passed notes they would spend the night in jail. We witnessed an arraignment hearing that was treated as a trial and when the judge was asked about this particular disparity he told us it was his court and he could do whatever he wanted.
After several hours of ”trials” the judge retired to his chambers to watch police video footage of the arrests. The defense attorneys went to the back to watch the videos as well. The defendants were never allowed to see the evidence against them and several of them never even heard the police testimony against them. The judge then came out and found every single person guilty (except one). He applied hefty fines, sent some of the charges to the State court and adjusted bonds.
After his threat to give all of them jail time the outcome of fines and a continuance of charges was a relief. However it was very difficult to feel that any justice had been served. Arrestees were denied a right to testify on their own behalf, the police were not made to provide the burden of proof and the judge ran the courtroom like a king rather than a public official.
It was difficult and discouraging. And yet, and yet…
Around ten thousand people gathered to remember those who were victims of the school. Four members of the SOAW community crossed the line onto the base. Seven people were willing to risk an arrest in the Columbus community and the other 19 who were arrested accidentally still stood by the call for justice of vicitms of the school. We raised all the money we needed to bond people out, supported them in court and will continue to support them as they get ready for state court.
Watching people gather in support, pitch in time, money and witness was amazing. It is community and community is the antithesis of arrest and the court process we experienced. Community is the antithesis of the mindset and logic of the School of the Americas. It is a sacred sense of relationship that opens doors for change.
As Bill Quigley, a lawyer for the movement, qouted St. Agustine, “Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage. Anger at the way things are and courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
We must be angry at the injustice we see but then also have the courage to change it!
Moving forward: after the SOA vigil
I wanted to share with you all a letter from Padre Alberto to the folks who crossed the line at the School of the Americas Vigil. Padre Alberto is a Colombian priest who is in the U.S. because he has received death threats for his work on human rights in Colombia. He is a good friend of mine and a man I have worked with for the past five years (since I began my work with the Ethics Commission and the FSPA community).
I am also including a video that shows one of the arrests that happened of a journalist at the Vigil. Padre Alberto’s letter and the video hold a good contrast, each I think informing us what solidarity and transformation means in our time. Peace! Liz
To all the Prisoners of Conscience at the gates of the School of the Americas
Greetings and all my admiration and recognition for your prophetic action.
Your free decision to go to jail questions the lack of freedom of those that have been repressed through the mechanisms and procedures taught at the School of the Americas: social leaders, peasants, indigenous peoples, African descendant communities, professors, politicians, journalists, defenders of Human Rights… The dignity of your walk to prison contrasts with the way many prisoners had their dignity taken from them, in clandestine centers of torture, through disappearance and death.
The way in which you confronted the law – with your heads held high – contrasts with the humiliation caused by “the law” to all those immigrants that have sought to escape the poverty generated by the economic policies that benefit from militarization and state violence.
Thank you, because your imprisonment helps denounce the injustice behind so many imprisonments.
The scene last Saturday was shocking: police, patrols, weapons, handcuffs, the alert and vigilant look put on those participating in the vigil, the barking repetition from the loudspeakers of laws and articles contrasted with the slow joyful, and dignified walk of the “disobedient” towards the line prohibited by the law. We all knew what was going to happen, the consequences and motivations moving each person. Then, crossing the line, arrests, prayers, vigils, and solidarity as the supreme affirmation of ethics and morals, in the face of the immorality of many laws.
How many people there have there been who were detained, tortured, disappeared by military who crossed that line to study, and then crossed back to their countries to apply what they had learned?
Thank you, because you have been and you are, from prison, the conscience of the people of the United States.
A loud applause for you, who from the moment when you crossed that line and were imprisoned, denounce that jails are a business that repress the cry for justice and announce that SOLIDARITY IS THE DIGNIFICATION OF THE MEMORY OF OUR VICTIMS.
In your detention, the words of Jesus of Nazareth gain new strength: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the cause of justice…” Blessed are you who are pursued, insulted and slandered, because this was how the prophets before you were persecuted.
A big hug,
Father Alberto Franco, CSsR.
Ecumenical Commission for Justice and Peace of Colombia
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, condemning the detention of media during the vigil and is calling for an independent investigation:
DREAM Act – Act Now!
A chance to impact the lives of the 65,000 children who graduate each year undocumented. Check out the action from Justice for Immigrants and the YouTube from UCLA.
One Last Push: URGENT action needed for the DREAM Act
PLEASE contact your Representatives and Senators as soon as possible to ask for their support for the DREAM Act. Both the House and Senate could vote tomorrow. You can either send a letter through the Justice for Immigrants website (www.justiceforimmigrants.org) or call their local or federal offices.
U.S. Senate: 202-224-3121
U.S. House: 202-225-3121
The Imperius Curse strikes our government
Anyone who is a fan of Harry Potter has heard of the Imperius Curse. It is a curse that when cast on a person will put that person completely under the control of whoever gave the curse. This person now under the Imperius will do whatever the person controlling him or her wishes (while the person under the curse believes he or she is still in control).
I can only guess that a massive Imperius Curse has taken over the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government in the past year. There are really too many examples to list but the latest of the extension of tax cuts to the very wealthy plus the denial of the DREAM Act seem to point to forces at play that can have nothing to do with plain common sense or the slightest moral sensibility.
Instead we are faced with arguments that distort facts and place a new “cultural” purity on the table. What makes America “America” and Americans “Americans” is a very narrow list of credentials that is defined by a few, a very few from a very conservative slant. In this America the wealthy are victims, migrants are terrorists, corporations are people with first amendment rights, the Gulf is clean and war is a state of being necessary for true patriotism.
Clearly a case of the Imperius Curse.
In the Harry Potter stories a person can resist the curse. The curse and its impact of erasing personhood and replacing it with a mindless following of commands can be prevented. To resist the curse, one must show great moral fortitude and courage. The person resisting the curse must believe so strongly in what they know to be right that the pressure to give up critical thought and moral inquiry can be overcome.
Gandhi, while not a reader of Harry Potter, had a similar concept only he called it soul-force. Soul-force is the force within us that gives us the strength and courage to stand up, no matter the consequences, for what we believe in and to struggle for those beliefs. This is not a private struggle for Gandhi or indeed Potter. It is a public one taking on the cultural sphere that roots the lies that are the mark of the Imperius Curse. We must not only believe but act and act publicly to create a wider space for more and more people to engage soul-force and resist the Imperious Curse.
In our final week of Advent it seems most appropriate to spend some time with soul-force. To look into the heart of the longest night of the year, December 21, and imagine what should welcome the dawn. Undocumented youth allowed to flourish? Millions of new, well paid jobs for the unemployed? The end of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan?
What would greet your dawn? What calls on your soul-force?
Crossing the line: School of the Americas trial
Tomorrow, January 5, 2011, SOA Watch activists Nancy Smith from New York and Chris Spicer from Illinois will appear in federal court in Columbus, Georgia. They will stand trial for crossing the line during the 2010 November vigil to close the School of the Americas (renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).
The two carried the protest against the SOA atrocities onto the Fort Benning military base. They now face up to six months in federal prison for their courageous act of nonviolent civil disobedience.
Nancy and Chris will use the courtroom to put the SOA itself on trial and to take a stand against the SOA, torture, militarization and oppressive U.S. foreign policy in Latin America.
The presiding judge, Stephen Hyles, sentenced two other human rights advocates last November to the maximum allowed prison sentence for the same action. Father Louis Vitale and David Omondi, who also crossed onto the base during the November vigil are each currently serving six months prison sentences.
Please write to our Prisoners of Conscience David and Father Louis and send Nancy and Chris good thoughts, strength, courage and love as they speak truth to power in the Georgia Middle District Court tomorrow.
A moment of silence…
May we all take a moment of silence in the face of the violence that broke out on Saturday in Tucson ending six lives and wounding 12 others.
A moment for the victims…
A moment to hold all of the families and loved ones of the victims as they struggle to grieve and heal and hope…
A moment of silence for the family of Jared, the shooter, as they struggle to come to terms with their grief and shock…
A moment for Jared as he lives into what he has done…
A moment for the community of Tucson as they face rebuilding a sense of safety and peace…
A moment for this country as it struggles to understand what happened and why…
A moment of silence free of political rhetoric, finger-pointing and antagonizing analysis.
I wonder what we would hear?
Maybe we would hear what Moses heard all those years ago, “take off your shoes you are standing on holy ground . . .”
Holy simply by being creation: alive, complex and vital. Holy by being open, loving and even wounded. Holy by being together – linked one to the other – a scared chain of life.
So let us take off our shoes real and imagined and allow our bodies, souls and hearts to be soaked in what is holy, what is vital, what is real…
and let the healing begin, born of tenderness and not blame, born of justice and not revenge, born of honesty and not manipulation…may it be so.
Guantanamo 10 years later
I quickly want to share a blog posted to the Messy Jesus Business blog.
Sister Julia invited Luke Hansen, SJ, to guest blog this week and he wrote an excellent piece about the “issue” of Guantánamo. Specifically how “it may have lost popularity and fallen off the narrow radar of the American people, but the continued suffering of its detainees remains very real.”
I recommend the read. Visit http://messyjesusbusiness.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/faith-based-community-begins-12-day-fast-for-justice/
I’m not buying it…Human Trafficking and the Super Bowl
Many of us would probably never guess but 100,00 – 300,000 people are trafficked in the United States every year. One of the biggest draws for trafficked girls and women is the Super Bowl which will be happening in two weeks in Dallas.
Besides just celebrating your favorite team or secretly celebrating that the season is over (whichever side of the aisle reflects your interest), we can take this upcoming Sunday to celebrate human rights and take action for women and girls.
Natalie Grant and Tenth Avenue North PSA for Traffick 911 from Nate Bernard on Vimeo.
The link below leads to a great site that has educational materials, videos, a petition to sign and faith-based materials that can be shared. All of the tools will help reduce the risk for women and girls who may be trafficked and forced into sex slavery at the Super Bowl.
I invite you to check it out and share it, too! Let’s celebrate human rights with the same enthusiasm we have for our favorite teams! Peace…
Tunisia and Egypt: A New Storm
In the past few weeks we have seen an eruption of protests in two countries, Tunisia and Egypt. According to most mainstream press releases the hovering threat in both cases is Islamic extremists when the lived threat is actually oppressive governments failing utterly at leadership.
These demonstrations are vastly important and should not be described in simple terms of riots and unrest. They are two situations of the people working hard to take back their governance and transform power structures into something that serves all the people and not just the few.
The fact that both are happening in countries that may have a high number of people who practice Islam should not lead us to narrow conclusions of “radicalism” that is threatening to our own safety. Rather it should lead us to examine what democracy really means and how it is lived out both at home and in our foreign policy.
Below are two lengthy articles (perfect for a snow day!). Settle in, read and let the people of Tunisia and Egypt tell their own story…
http://www.truth-out.org/saads-revolution67383
http://www.truth-out.org/tunisias-democratic-revolution66977
The power to tell the story…
In the last few weeks we have all watched as a firestorm of reform works its way through the middle east, centered of course in Egypt. We are seeing many images that frame the situation in Egypt as volatile and violent. We are being told a story of a thirty year dictatorship and many faceted social movement in sound bytes that take minutes.
The reporting has been OK given mainstream media bias but it misses an important question: Will a dictatorship, even a crumbling one really let the whole world into its world?
Rachel Maddow takes a few minutes more to look at how the story of Egypt is being told and why it is so important. Watch the video and continue to journey with those seeking peace and democracy in Egypt!
The budget goes global
We are hearing much fly through the air these days about our domestic budget. What will be cut, kept and even increased is a labyrinth of values that right now range from conservative to very conservative. This is an important conversation and there is much at risk right now including affordable housing and public broadcasting.
What it seems we are not hearing are the voices of those who will be impacted and the voices of people around the world who already live in poverty due to many of the economic choices industrialized countries make. The video below pulls back the lens a little bit and looks at what is happening globally with poverty and where our real hope may lie. Join Vandana Shiva in exploring what a real domestic budget that links to a global economy may need to consider.
The Struggle Continues
Wanted share some relfections and links from a Wisconsin native about one of the biggest areas of social struggle to open in the United States since the famous Immigrant Rights March of 2006. Read, watch and dream with the links below!
Dear Friends,
Greetings from Wisconsin!
We wanted to share with you some links to videos and information highlighting the unfolding of events here. I can say that personally as a person who is from Wisconsin, coming from white rural background, I love this place and the people who live here. Needless to say, the experience of the past 2 weeks has been very emotional for me. I think many of us are feeling an incredible opportunity and responsibility in this moment to find openings to connect to people and build relationships in a deeply transformative way.
There is a lot of complexity here in terms of how white privilege and systems of oppression intersect and connect to the popular surge of protest in Wisconsin, and I think many of us here who are committed to racial justice are trying to hold that complexity and work with it to the best of our ability. This includes working to prioritize supporting people of color led organizations who are part of the fight, lifting up pieces of the bill that are getting less attention but would directly impact low income communities of color, while also connecting to the many poor, working class and middle class white folks who are being moved and transformed by this moment.
As a part of this, Groundwork has developed flyers and is trying to do “teach ins” at the capitol connecting the Budget Repair Bill to struggles for racial justice and pulling out how the bill will have a devastating impact on people of color across the state. Other anti-racist allies on the UW Madison campus, PREA (Promoting Racial and Ethnic Awareness) have developed banners to march with that address both worker rights and attacks on Medicaid programs in the bill. We are also trying to support and provide resources to some of the informal and formal organizations who are involved in organizing the mobilizations. We will keep you posted as things continue to move forward.
Here are some links that I have found helpful and I hope you will, too:
General websites about what is going on:
http://www.defendwisconsin.org/ — this website is run by the Milwaukee and Madison Teacher’s Assistant Associations and some of the other unions
Here is website from Coalition working to stop overhaul of Medicaid in the bill:
www.SaveBadgerCare.org
Analysis of affect of Budget Repair Bill on public transit and Medicaid:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/22/walker-unions-wisconsin-protests_n_826908.html?ref=fb&src=sp
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/83939/walker-wisconsin-public-employee-union-medicaid-cut
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/116164054.html
People of Color and Disability Rights organizing:
MEChA action last week Wednesday in Capitol Rotunda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkaJhxdRebg
Voces de la Frontera on Telemundo WI:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/video/video.php?v=522045102398&oid=193901736924&comments
Video highlighting voices from people of color at Capitol:
Freedom, Inc. a grassroots SE Asian and African American organization in Madison has been doing incredible work getting youth to the Capitol and supporting political education in their communities. Z! will be forwarding their soon to be launched website that features video interviews from their members.
ADAPT Action occupying WI GOP headquarters yesterday demanding Medicaid provision be removed from Budget Repair Bill:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/02/24/activists-occupy-gop-headquarters-in-madison
Police officers joining labor protests plus Walker saying he considered “planting troublemakers” on the prank phone call with David Koch have developed a very unique situation with the police:
Police Officer Convert from Fox News:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fCm6JcOMuM
Madison Police Chief Troubled by Walker’s Statement
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_40c3dfbe-402c-11e0-8c68-001cc4c002e0.html
Just today the Wisconsin Professional Police Chief’s Association issued a statement saying they request the governor not evict the protesters from the Capitol and that they will be sending their members from around the state to sleep over. We will see how this all unfolds.
Send us your love and support here! And as Z! said, please consider attending your local state or city rally tomorrow in support of public employees. ColorLines has been doing great work on this front and I hope you can check out their website as well.
In Solidarity,
Cindy Breunig
Happy International Women’s Day
Celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day with a quick history and video. Blessings and Peace!
The first IWD was observed on 19 March 1911 in Germany following a declaration by the Socialist Party of America. The idea of having an international women’s day was first put forward at the turn of the 20th century amid rapid world industrialization and economic expansion that led to protests over working conditions.
In 1910, Second International held the first international women’s conference in Copenhagen. An ‘International Women’s Day’ was established. It was suggested by the important German Socialist Clara Zetkin, although no date was specified. The following year, 1911, IWD was marked by over a million people in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, on 19 March. They demanded the right to vote to hold public office for women, as well as protested against employment sex discrimination.
In 1913 Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on the last Sunday in February (by Julian calendar then used in Russia). In 1917 demonstrations marking International Women’s Day in St.Petersburg on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar) initiated the February Revolution
In the West, International Women’s Day was first observed as a popular event after 1977 when the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
A world without wars
This week I travel to Afghanistan as part of a delegation of U.S citizens who will be accompanying the Afghan Youth Peace Initiative through a week of activities to build peace. We will participate in a walk for peace, a candle lit vigil to honor the dead, a tree planting for prosperity and peace, and a Global Day of Listening where youth from Iraq, Gaza and Afghanistan will dialog through Skype about what peace means to them.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/livewithoutwars/
There is a link to the delegation on the FSPA website that includes more information and links to get involved in the Global Day of Listening. Check it out here:
http://www.fspa.org/news/afghanyouthpeace.htm
And Kathy Kelly, a long time advocate for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan wrote an excellent reflection please see below.
Peace and Many Blessings!
By Kathy Kelly
Recent polls suggest that while a majority of U.S. people disapprove of the war in Afghanistan, many on grounds of its horrible economic cost, only 3% took the war into account when voting in the 2010 midterm elections. The issue of the economy weighed heavily on voters, but the war and its cost, though clear to them and clearly related to the economy in their thinking, was a far less pressing concern.
U.S. people, if they do read or hear of it, may be shocked at the apparent unconcern of the crews of two U.S. helicopter gunships, which attacked and killed nine children on a mountainside in Afghanistan’s Kumar province, shooting them “one after another” this past Tuesday March 1. (“The helicopters hovered over us, scanned us and we saw a green flash from the helicopters. Then they flew back high up, and in a second round they hovered over us and started shooting.” (NYT 3/2/11)).
Four of the boys were seven years old; three were eight, one was nine and the oldest was twelve. “The children were gathering wood under a tree in the mountains near a village in the district,” said Noorullah Noori, a member of the local development council in Manogai district. “I myself was involved in the burial,” Noori said. “Yesterday we buried them.” (AP, March 2, 2011) General Petraeus has acknowledged, and apologized for, the tragedy.
He has had many tragedies to apologize for just counting Kunar province alone. Last August 26th, in the Manogai district, Afghan authorities accused international forces of killing six children during an air assault on Taliban positions. Provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziayee said a group of children were collecting scrap metal on the mountain when NATO aircraft dropped bombs to disperse Taliban fighters attacking a nearby base. “In the bombardment six children, aged six to 12, were killed,” the police commander said. “Another child was injured.”
In the Bamiyan province of Afghanistan, Zekirullah, a young Afghan friend of mine, age 15, rises at 2:00 a.m. several mornings each week and rides his donkey for six hours through the pre-dawn to reach a mountainside where he can collect scrub brush and twigs which he loads on the donkey in baskets. Then he heads home and stacks the wood – on top of his family’s home – to be taken down later and burned for heat. They don’t have electrical appliances to heat the home, and even if they did the villagers only get electricity for two hours a day, generally between 1:00 a.m. – 3:00 a.m. Families rely on their children to collect fuel for heat during the harsh winters and for cooking year round. Young laborers, wanting to help their families survive, mean no harm to the United States. They’re not surging at us, or anywhere: they’re not insurgents. They’re not doing anything to threaten us. They are children, and children anywhere are like children everywhere: they’re children like our own.
Sadly, more and more of us in America are getting used to the idea of child poverty – and even child labor – as our own economy sinks further under the burden of our latest nine years of war, of two billion dollars per week we spend creating poverty abroad that we can then emulate at home. Things are getting bad here, but in Afghanistan, children are bombed. Their bodies are casually dismembered and strewn by machines already lost in the horizon as the limbs settle. They lie in pools of blood until family members realize, one by one, that their children are not late in returning home but in fact never will.
In October and again in December of 2010, our small delegation of Voices for Creative Nonviolence activists met with a large family living in a wretched refugee camp. They had fled their homes in the San Gin district of the Helmand Province after a drone attack killed a mother there and her five children. The woman’s husband showed us photos of his children’s bloodied corpses. His niece, Juma Gul, age 9, had survived the attack. She and I huddled next to each other inside a hut made of mud on a chilly December morning. Juma Gul’s father stooped in front of us and gently unzipped her jacket, showing me that his daughter’s arm had been amputated by shrapnel when the U.S. missile hit their home in San Gin.
Next to Juma Gul was her brother, whose leg had been mangled in the attack. He apparently has no access to adequate medical care and experiences constant pain. The pilot of the attacking drone, perhaps controlling it from as far away as Creech Air Force Base here in the United States, knows nothing of this family or of the pain that he or she helped inflict. Nor do the commanders, the people who set up the base, the people who pay for it with their taxes, and the people who persist in electing candidates intent on indefinitely prolonging the war.
But sometimes the war is like it was this past Tuesday March 1. Sometimes the issue is right in front of us – as it was to those helicopter crews – it’s up close so there can be no mistake as to what we are doing. According to the election polls we see the cost of war, dimly, but, as with the helicopter crews, it doesn’t affect – or prevent – our decisions. Afterwards we deplore the tragedy; we make a pretense of acknowledging the cost of war, but it is incalculable. We can’t hope to count it. We actually, finally, have to stop making people like the nine children who died on March 1st, pay it.
Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) and has worked closely with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers (www.livewithoutwars.org)
Resources also available on FSPA’s website
Photo courtesy of http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/livewithoutwars/
Finding Hope in Afghanistan
Last week Liz blogged about her travel to Afghanistan as part of a delegation of U.S citizens who are accompanying the Afghan Youth Peace Initiative through a week of activities to build peace. She is there now and we are sharing updates from Liz and others who are with her.
Guest blog entry: Jake Olzen (he writes from Kabul, Afghanistan).
Finding Hope in Afghanistan, March 20, 2011
In a country torn by thirty years of war where the promise of peace is continually broken, despair and resignation seem to be the norm for Afghan society. War – and its corollaries of social decay, poverty, corruption, and trauma – does not discriminate. Not a family in Afghanistan has been left unaffected by the death or disappearance of a loved one and the daily, traumatizing stress of living in an occupied war zone. Billions of aid intended for reconstruction has been siphoned off leaving little left over for meaningful, local development. Afghanistan is an unstable society wracked by corruption at nearly every level of government and a pervasive distrust of strangers and neighbors alike is the expectant result of such disintegration of social ties. But as the late Studs Terkel reminds us, “hope dies last.” And this is certainly true for the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a small but growing group of young Afghans committed to a life of peace in the midst of so much violence. While cynicism and disbelief run deep across generations, the AYPVs have an alternative vision for their country embedded deep in their hearts – and they believe this hope for peace is already in the heart of every Afghan.
Hope in the Afghan Spring
Fifty-five young saplings mark the beginning of a new year in Afghanistan. The various apple, apricot, and almond trees were planted in a Kabul elementary and high school as a sign of hope and promise of peace. Organized by the AYPVs, twenty-five international partners joined together with over fifty ordinary Afghans to declare a commitment to an Afghanistan without war. The previous day, the AYPVS along with members of the Open Society organized and participated in an inter-ethnic walk for an end to the war. As far as anyone can tell, this is the first public gathering calling for peace in Afghanistan that is not politically aligned or sponsored. The bright blue scarves of the AYPVs, their smiles and words of gratitude to the accompanying riot police, and banners denouncing warmongering is a considerable different message that most Kabulis are not used to seeing or hearing. The steadfast commitment to nonviolence of the AYPVs and their deep desire for peace offers a kind of hope that is unheard of in Afghanistan but it also offers a breath of fresh air. Slowly but surely the AYPVs and their partners – both Afghan and international – are growing into a sizable community with a peace-filled vision for Afghanistan. The planting of trees is a small gesture indeed and the challenges for ending the foreign occupation of Afghanistan, confronting corruption and human rights abuses (particularly of women), and promoting a culture of peace are many. But the planting of trees is a beginning and it may very well be the birth of a movement that transforms Afghanistan.
Jake Olzen is a member of the White Rose Community in Chicago, Il. He can be reached at jake.olzen@gmail.com.
Celebrating Nauroz in Kabul
Guest blogger Patrick Kennelly, writing from Kabul, Afghanistan (continuing our posts from Afghanistan as Liz Deligio travels this week with Voices for Creative Nonviolence).
Throughout Afghanistan people are gathering to celebrate the Afghan new year, Nauroz (March 21, 2011). It is a chance for Afghans to celebrate the rebirth of nature after the long winter. In Kabul, today thousands of gathered in the cemetery and spent the day picnicking. Before heading home to share a meal that included seven items to symbolize their hope for the coming year: wheat for rebirth, a sweet pudding for affluence, garlic for health, apples for beauty, berries representing the sunrise, vinegar for patience, coins for prosperity. After 13 days the wheat will be collected and tossed into flowing water, by which time it will have collected the family’s bad luck for the year.
While some Afghan’s describe the situation in their country as bad luck, the majority of Afghans realize that there is a direct correlation with the increased number of American and foreign fighters entering the country. Currently, there are more foreign troops in Afghanistan than at any time since the American led invasion and the security situation is at the worst point since the beginning of the war. While nearly all Afghan’s do not want to see the return of the Taliban, they do not want the status quo of violence caused by the International Security Assistance Force and the armed opposition groups to continue. Instead Afghans are realizing that the underlying problems of their country are the problems of poverty, hate, and violence. They are also realizing that these are problems that cannot be solved by war.
In Kabul, a group of young people are adopting strategies that would help solve Afghanistan’s problems and allow them to see their wishes from Nauroz come to fruition. They have consciously chosen methods that are exemplary in applying theoretical nonviolence to actively resist the indignity of violence and seek out life sustaining alternatives. For example, under the tutelage of professional journalist a group of young men and women in their twenties launched a campaign of public speeches, declarations, and photography by young journalist to manifest Afghan’s desire for peace.
On another occasion the group gathered nearly one hundred people, primarily school children and elders, to plant fruit and nut trees at a school in Kabul. The trees will help clean the air of Kabul that is polluted from decades of war. The trees will produce nutritious food. The tree planting was preceded by a forum on the importance of creating educational opportunities. The action demonstrates the point of Gandhian nonviolence that from the seed grows the fruit or in other words that nonviolence has to begin with education and be integrated into daily living.
While these feats are exceptional considering the situation in Afghanistan, if Afghans are going to get their Nauroz wish the international community will need to begin following these Afghans example and integrate nonviolent strategies into their lives and foreign policy. This will begin by working to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan.
Patrick Kennelly is the Associate Director of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking and is participating in the peacemaking efforts organized by the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers and Voices for Creative Nonviolence. He writes from Kabul, Afghanistan and can be contacted at kennellyp@gmail.com.
Photos courtesy of Patrick Kennelly
Killing civilians in Afghanistan is terrorism
Guest blogger Patrick Kennelly, writing from Kabul, Afghanistan (continuing our posts from Afghanistan as Liz Deligio travels this week with Voices for Creative Nonviolence).
In Kabul, on the same day that Der Spiegel released photos
documenting American soldiers posing with the bodies of civilians they
murdered, the Transitional Justice Coordinating Group (TJCG), the
umbrella organization for NGOs in Afghanistan that are pursuing
transitional justice, gathered Afghan, Australian, American, and
German peacemakers to discuss methods to bring peace and security to
Afghanistan. The photos present the grim reality that this conflict is
characterized by civilian killing and violence.
In 2001, the American led ISAF (International Security Assistance
Force), a coalition of the richest nations in the world, began
military operations in Afghanistan in response to the 9/11 killing of
civilians in New York and Washington. The purpose of the operations
was to fight terrorism and seek reprisal for the Taliban’s harboring
of Al Qaeda. The operation has turned into a near decade long war on
one of the poorest nations in the world.
After nearly ten years of war Afghanistan is mired in terror,
brutality, and a security situation that is worsening. Among Afghans
there is growing consensus that the ISAF is pursuing military
measures, such as the formation and arming of independent local
militias under the banner of the “Afghan Local Police” against the
wishes of President Karzai and the Afghan people, which undermine the
prospects of peace in the future and further endangers ordinary
people. However, it is the killing of civilians by American military
personal and mercenaries that most enflames the conflict and expands
the rift between ISAF and the Afghan people.
Most Westerners are familiar with the thousands of American civilians
killed 9/11, some people know about the atrocities committed by the
armed opposition groups in Afghanistan, and even fewer people are
familiar with the stories of Afghan civilians killed by ISAF forces.
Some of the recent civilian killings by ISAF, primarily composed of
American forces include: 2children in Kunar province on March 14, 9
children collecting firewood in Kunar province on March 1, five
civilians including two children who were searching for food in
Kapisa province on February 24, 22 women, 26 boys, and 3 old men in a
raid on insurgents in Kunar province on February 17, 2 civilians were
killed and one injured while traveling in a van in Helmand province
on February 3.
As the fallout from the Der Spiegel photos continues to be felt
around the world, ISAF and the other belligerents who have publicly
stated their objective is to prevent terrorism need to recognize that
the killing of civilians whether by Taliban, mercenaries, militias,
insurgents, or by soldiers of a nation is terrorism.
Guest blogger Patrick Kennelly is the Associate Director of the Marquette University Center for Peacemaking and is participating in the peacemaking efforts organized by the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers and Voices for Creative Nonviolence. He writes from Kabul, Afghanistan. He can be contacted at kennellyp@gmail.com
Why not love?
I am back from an incredible week in Afghanistan and wanted to share with you some highlights of this most important trip.
I traveled with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, a group of young men between the ages of 14 and 20 who are working on creating peace within the war-torn context of Afghanistan. The question the boys ask of their fellow Afghanis and the international community is: Why not love?
Why not love instead of war, poverty, instability and ongoing cycles of hatred and revenge?
To help illustrate this questions the boys engaged in a walk for peace, a tree planting for peace, and a candlelight vigil. As international partners we were able to participate in different activities that supported the boys.
I think the poem and video created by the boys below is the best explanation fo their work and world view. Please read and watch and join me in celebrating the incredible work for peace the boys are engaging and the presence of the FSPA and 8th Day community in their struggle. Peace Liz
P.S. I am in the video but you only see the top of my head covered in a black scarf! I did not look up at the right moment.
Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
Dear friends,
On 19th March, the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, with an
international team of 24 peace activists, planted 55 trees at a school
in Kabul, Afghanistan. They did this to usher in the Afghan New Year,
in hope for a new way of living, a non-violent way of rebuilding the
country.
Hakim and the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers
http://ourjourneytosmile.com/blog
http://livewithoutwars.org
http://globaldayoflistening.org
Poem
We need a different tree
For seekers of roots, life has ample proof
that Power and Privilege consistently oppress the People.
This Power and Privilege is perfected in war,
& accepted universally like any other conventional tree.
And then,
its shade kills the People.
Why would an Afghan mother want a tree that kills?
Why would scholars promote it?
Why would the few rich and powerful insist on it?
Why would the People want it?
War is NOT what we wish to plant on any day, & certainly not today.
We wish to plant a tree rooted in Love,
a Love which says,’I live and love, so I shall not kill.’
If we wish to live without wars,
we need to plant a different tree.
Video
Memory and Resistance
I was able to participate in a march and direct action to close the School of the Americas this weekend in Washington D.C. It was amazing to be there while the entire country was watching the debate on the “budget crisis” go down and never once hear a single congress person talk about cutting military spending.
Over 70 million dollars a year could be saved by closing the School of the Americas let alone the human lives home and abroad that would thrive with less military intervention and spending.
We gathered as a group at Dupont Circle and marched with an artist collective that had made puppets honoring the resistance of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Led by the grandmother puppet we walked to the White House and 27 of us laid down in a “die in” front of the White House to symbolize the death and destruction that comes from the School.
We prostrated ourselves and begged from the heart to stop funding the military training that has led to torture, disappearances, death, dictatorships and the destruction of whole economies in Latin America.
The National Park Police who have jurisdiction over the sidewalk in front the White House arrested us for failing to obey a police order to move. We felt that by staying we could call – even if only for a moment – the attention of the White House and our Congress to the importance of the issue and give them a way to save money without cutting schools, health care or PBS!
It was an honor to take a step of resistance and hold up the memory and resistance of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo as we called to close it down. Click on the link below and you can see the puppets, march and even the arrests!
p.s. A quick note about my arrest: an arrest for civil disobedience is handled very quickly. I was held in a room (not in a jail cell) for about two hours and paid a small fine ($100) before my release.
The Budget: A moral crisis not a fiscal one
Holy Week seems an apt time to stop and take a simple action to impact the national budget for 2012. Below is a good summary of what passed the House from Huffington Post and an action from NETWORK.
Many blessings on this week and on Easter as we move as a Christian community through our shared collective stories toward celebration and rebirth.
Huffington Post
Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan proposed, and last week the Republican House approved, a budget bill that will transfer tens of trillions of dollars from ordinary working people to the insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and generic rich people from any industry. This money will come in the form of higher payments by seniors in their old age for health insurance and another round of tax breaks for the country’s richest people.
The Medicare story is the bigger transfer here. Representative Ryan wants to replace the current Medicare system with a voucher system. The size of the voucher in Ryan’s plan is held even with the overall rate of inflation. This means that it will not rise at anywhere near the rate of projected health care cost growth. As a result, a greater portion of the cost of health care will be shifted from the government to retirees.
However, this is the less important part of the story. The main reason that retiree health care costs will increase is that the private sector is less efficient at delivering care than the existing Medicare program. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that, under the Ryan plan, the increase in the cost of buying Medicare equivalent policies would be more than $30 trillion over Medicare’s planning horizon.
This additional waste comes to almost $100,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country. It is approximately equal to six times the size of the projected Social Security shortfall. This waste is a direct transfer from retirees to the insurance industry and the health care industry.
This is not the only way that Representative Ryan and the Republicans dip into the pockets of ordinary workers for the benefit of the obscenely rich. He also wants to give an additional $2.9 trillion in tax breaks to the wealthy over the next decade. These tax breaks would be paid for with cuts to Medicaid, Food Stamps and other programs that middle-income and poor people depend upon.
The tax breaks would be real money for the people who get them. For example, Representative Ryan’s tax breaks could give Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, another $3 million a year based on his $20 million annual paycheck. That’s the equivalent of more than 2,600 monthly Social Security checks.
Representative Ryan and the Republicans in Congress are likely to justify their budget by saying that they believe that their health care plan will hold down costs and their tax cuts will spur economic growth. While we can never know what politicians believe, we do know that these are not plausible stories.
We have already tested expanding the role of private insurers in the Medicare system. We did this in the 90s when the Gingrich Congress pushed through their Medicare Plus Choice plan. We did it again more recently with the Medicare Advantage program that was promoted by President Bush. These plans did not lower costs; they raised them. That is the basis for the non-partisan CBO’s projections that the Ryan plan will raise costs.
Similarly, Representative Ryan and the Republicans claim that tax cuts for the wealthy will spur growth. We have also twice tested this one. The first time was when President Reagan gave us big tax breaks beginning in 1981. The 80s were the worst decade of growth since the Great Depression, prior to the 00s, when President Bush tested his tax cuts for the wealthy. Certainly the economy’s bad performance during these decades cannot be blamed solely on the tax breaks for the wealthy, but it is a bit hard to maintain tax cuts to the wealthy gave a big boost to growth in these years.
While Representative Ryan and the Republicans may actually believe that giving private insurers more control over health care lowers costs and that cutting taxes for the rich increases growth, who cares? These people may believe that the moon is made of green cheese, but this does not make the green cheese theory true or even plausible.
We have extensively tested both parts of the Ryan transfer program to the wealthy, and they don’t work as he claims. They redistribute money to the rich: end of story. Thanks to Representative Ryan we have the Republican Party on record as supporting these massive transfers to the wealthy. We just have to hope that the Democratic Party takes a different position.
NETWORK: Budget issues return after recess
Killing Osama bin Laden: Justice?
The headlines are filled with the killing of Osama bin Laden by the U.S. Special Forces. One headline in Chicago read, “Justice Has Been Done.” The images of Americans celebrating in the streets, waving flags and soldiers abroad cheering all seem to indicate that we just completed something monumental. We achieved a goal or overcame a dire obstacle and so it is time to herald a new beginning free of the danger of the past.
It would seem that we are in a nation-wide pep rally and not that just we killed a man in his home in front of his family. Literally in front of his family since we shot one of his wives to be able to shoot him.
Interesting that the over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan had nothing to do with the killing of Osama bin Laden even though that is why we invaded that country 10 years ago. Equally interesting that the troops who have been in Iraq, our other war, since 2003 were also not involved.
No, a Special Ops Team went into Pakistan, our ally in the double wars, and killed him. Interesting that we have spent close to a trillion dollars on two wars and what “got us” the intellectual author of the 9/11 attacks was intelligence and a small group of soldiers none of which were harmed.
So our double occupation and destruction of two countries in the end had nothing to do with the killing of America’s “enemy number one” – and yet we celebrate.
Equally interesting that we kill a man without even the pretense of a trial and we call it justice. We kill a man who according to our own laws, no matter how horrible the crime, had a right to have his innocence or guilt proven in a court of law. We celebrate and announce justice as if the entire story exists between Osama bin Laden and those Special Ops.
No dead civilians in Afghanistan or Iraq, no families who lost their sons and daughters to two wars, no corruption of our own rule of law, no Abu Grahib or Bagram, no torture and indefinite detention, no environmental devastation and extravagant debt. Nope all we have is a victory, at last, the U.S. has been avenged as was our right.
There has been a lot of misinformation and outright lies that we as a country have been expected to overlook as we struggled through the unknown territory of the “borderless war on terror” for the past ten years.
But to be asked to celebrate this assassination and call it justice, to see “victory” or closure with two ongoing wars is too much. We cannot afford to cede any additional moral ground to the disaster that is the “war on terror.” Join with the Quaker Friends Committee and click on the link below to contact your Reps and Senators and ask them for real solutions to the two wars and real justice for the victims of 9/11.
http://www.capwiz.com/fconl/issues/alert/?alertid=44473501&type=CO
Join the Dreamers
Watch the video and join with Presente! and advocate for immigrant youth in detention.
Earlier this week President Obama gave a major speech in El Paso, Texas, where he renewed his commitment to immigration reform.
That’s great news, and we’re ready to continue fighting to make immigration reform and the DREAM Act a reality. But the truth is that there are thousands of young people facing the threat of deportation right now–including University of Texas student Raul Zamora, who hopes to be an architect but first must survive his May 26 deportation hearing.
The President has the power to make sure thousands of young men and women like Raul don’t have to worry about deportation. He can issue an Executive Order that would stop the deportation of DREAMers until we get this critical legislation passed. And if he’s serious about immigration reform, that’s exactly what he should do.
In this critical time following his speech, the media will look to see how the public reacts. If we can show that thousands of us are demanding action right now, we can make a real impact on the public debate around the DREAM Act and help save thousands of amazing students from being forced from the only country they know as home. Can you click below to automatically sign this petition asking President Obama to use his executive authority to stop the deportations of DREAMers? Click here:
http://act.presente.org/go/285?akid=353.187068.B1dvZI&t=5
Sadly, Raul’s story is not unique. In Texas alone, there is Benita Veliz who came to the United States from Mexico when she was eight years old, graduated as the valedictorian of her high school, and is now in removal proceedings. Mario Perez came to this country when he was five and now studies math and statistics as he fights his deportation order.
DREAMers like these across the country have asked the President to use his executive authority to stop their deportations. Unfortunately, despite the advice of legal scholars1 and calls from members of his own party2, the President has refused to halt the deportations of young people like Raul, Benita and Mario.
The longer he waits to take action, the more young people will be deported. They need our help and we need to pressure the Obama administration to grant executive relief for them.
Please join us and ask your friends and family to do the same.
http://act.presente.org/go/285?akid=353.187068.B1dvZI&t=7
References
1. “Legal Experts Weigh in on Executive Branch Authority,” Immigration Policy Center, 4-29-11
http://act.presente.org/go/283?akid=353.187068.B1dvZI&t=9
2. “Twenty-Two Senators Ask Obama to Stop Deporting DREAMers,” Colorlines.com, 4-11-11
http://act.presente.org/go/284?akid=353.187068.B1dvZI&t=11
SB 1070 comes to Wisconsin
A copy cat of Senate Bill 1070 has come to Wisconsin. Please read below the quote from Rep. Pridemore on his motivation for introducing it and the statement from immigrant justice group Voces about the deep concerns the bill raises. This is home for many of you that read this – so I know that makes it even harder to see a bill based on discrimination and fear labeled a way to make Wisconsin a “safe haven.”
I have included an antidote…a short video from Princeton Professor Cornel West who reminds us that Love is the answer. Stay tuned for actions on this bill from the FSPA Justice and Peace committee.
“This is an action that should have begun long ago when the federal government and the current administration stopped efforts to secure our borders,” Pridemore said in a statement. “Now that the illegal drug trade and human trafficking have put the lives and property of those along our borders in peril, we must do all we can to dissuade the criminal element from looking at Wisconsin as a safe haven.” Rep. Don Pridemore
Voces de la Frontera Condemns Introduction of Arizona-Copycat Bill in Wisconsin
As the largest immigrant rights organization in the state, Voces de la Frontera unequivocally condemns the passage of any racist, anti-immigrant legislation in Wisconsin.
Yesterday Representative Don Pridemore (R-Hartford) introduced a bill requiring law enforcement officers in Wisconsin to interrogate people they detain about their immigration status if they have ‘reasonable suspicion” that the person is undocumented. However, the vagueness of the term “reasonable suspicion” is exactly what gives cover to legalizing racial profiling.
“We will not tolerate this vicious bill, designed to lead directly to racial profiling and the criminalization of innocent people. Voces is prepared to mobilize widely in opposition.” says Primitivo Torres, president of Voces de la Frontera.
The bill is modeled after Arizona’s SB-1070, the controversial anti-immigrant law which prompted mass boycotts and cost that state hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business revenue. The Center for American Progress estimates that boycotts against Arizona in response to SB 1070 could cost the state more than $250 million in taxes, tourist spending and wages. Pridemore’s bill is designed to do the same to Wisconsin, a state already facing economic challenges.
The bill also requires people to carry certain documents available to prove their immigration status or else risk being arrested, jailed, and deported. People of color are more likely to be racially profiled and more likely to be interrogated; this also violates their rights to be treated as equals under the law.
This legislation also violates US Constitutional rules, including the denial of Fourteenth Amendment equal protection guarantees, because it encourages racial discrimination against Latinos and other people having foreign appearance or who sound foreign. By interfering with the federal government’s authority to regulate and enforce immigration law, it also opposes the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution.
Pridemore’s legislation claims that it is designed to avoid racial profiling, but it clearly encourages police officers to base their actions on people’s appearance and characteristics as race, ethnicity, language, and social class.
This law would greatly harm the trust that authorities need from the public to protect Wisconsin residents. The law would also compel law enforcement officers to assign scarce resources to investigate false threats instead of solving serious crimes.
Voces de la Frontera and our allies will fight to ensure that Wisconsin does not inherit the moral and economic burden that has devastated Arizona.
Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me…
So much of civil discourse in recent years has been robbed of the importance and beauty of recognizing our powerful inter-connection to one another and to Earth. Instead we appear to be in a frenzy to point out what is different and mark those differences in alienating and unjust laws and social policy. These radical demarcations of power and privilege are then upheld as social triumphs that create safety and punish those who “deserve” it.
Nothing is more emblematic of this problem than the debate that surrounds immigration. Migrants and their families are placed in the category of criminals while punishing policies and laws masquerade as solutions that create safety and justice.
Are we in such a state of scarcity as a nation that we cannot respect the basic civil rights of people who live here? The right to education, housing, health care, work and safe passage are universal human rights that are not based in citizenship.
They are based in being human and as signers of the Universal Declarations of Human Rights we are accountable as a nation to crafting laws and policies that respect those rights. As human beings linked to one another and to Earth we are accountable for creating a world that reflects the soul deep knowledge that how we act toward one another reflects our beliefs in the sacred, in democracy, and in human dignity – and that matters. Justice cannot flow from distortions created by fear and prejudice – it needs the wild love of inclusion.
This sign was caught on camera by FSPA at an immigration rally in Postville, Iowa.
Please consider joining with allies for immigrants across the state in the actions listed below and helping to turn the tide in “whatever we did not do…”
Emergency Action Alert: Defend Public Education, In-State Tuition Rights, and Denounce AZ Copycat Bill!
UPCOMING ACTIONS
Thursday, June 2nd in Madison
PROTEST JOINT FINANCE VOTE ON IN-STATE TUITION AND CUTS TO PUBLIC EDUCATION!
We urgently need people to come to the Capitol in Madison this Thursday, June 2nd at 12:45 PM in Room 412 (East) to protest the Joint Finance Committee vote to repeal instate tuition rights for Wisconsin’s immigrant youth and massive cuts to public education. Walker’s budget forces taxpayers to pay for the children of wealthy families to attend private schools while attacking the quality of education for working class families and the poor.
Come to Madison to hold legislators accountable for the hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin’s children whose futures will suffer if this budget is passed!
Bus Schedule
RACINE – Bus leaves from Pick n Save, 2210 Rapids Drive at 7:30 am
MILWAUKEE - Bus leaves from Voces de la Frontera Action (1027 S. 5th St.) at 10:30 am
All buses will return in the evening. To sign up, please call (414) 469-9206.
Thank you for standing with us to protect the educational future of all children! Education is a right, not a privilege!
Saturday, June 4th in Milwaukee
CIVIL RIGHTS MARCH & RALLY TO SUPPORT PUBLIC EDUCATION & INSTATE TUITION RIGHTS!
Voces de la Frontera Action and allied organizations will be sponsoring a civil rights march and rally to condemn Governor Walker’s proposed budget which robs our children of their basic civil rights and jeopardizes the future of our communities, our city and our state. All children have the right to schools that offer art, physical education, music, library, school nurses, a kindergarten program, school buses, and reasonable class sizes.
All children raised in WI deserve in-state tuition at public universities and technical colleges, including immigrant students!
Parents, teachers, students & community members: Defend your children’s right to public education!
• 11am gather at MacDowell Montessori (17th & Highland)
• March across the 16th Street Bridge (James E. Groppi Unity Bridge)
• Rally outside Forest Home Elementary (1516 W Forest Home Ave)
Tuesday, June 7th in Madison
PRESS CONFERENCE TO DENOUNCE ARIZONA-COPYCAT BILL
On May 23rd, Rep. Don Pridemore (R-Hartford) announced plans to introduce an Arizona-copycat bill in Wisconsin which will undermine the state’s economy and legalize racial profiling.
Voces de la Frontera Action and Wisconsin Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (WNIRR) will host a press conference on Tuesday, June 7th at 1:00PM at the State Capitol to protest the bill. We invite organizations to write press statements/statements and share them with Elena Lavarreda at statewideorganizer.voces@gmail.com, as well as joining us at this action.
For those that cannot attend the June 7th press conference in Madison please contact your legislator here and call Governor Walker at (608) 266-1212 to say, “We don’t want an Arizona-copycat bill in Wisconsin!”
Click here to view the current version of the Pridemore bill
For more information on these events, contact Voces de la Frontera Action at (414) 643-1620
Top 10 reasons WI does not want to copy AZ
For many of my FSPA readers it’s Chapter of Chats week! I’ll see some of you very soon.
Check out another great resource from Voces on the copy cat bill introduced by Rep. Pridemore – do not miss the link at the end that lets you sign a petition to let Rep.Pridemore know WI will not become another AZ!
1. Immigrants Deserve Our Respect, Not Our Disdain
Contrary to conservative talking points, the majority of immigrants are not criminals or welfare parasites, but rather hard-working folks who simply want to earn a living. In fact, Harvard professor Robert Sampson has found that immigrants are actually less likely to commit crimes than other people. Undocumented immigrants also contribute more to state and local economies in taxes than they absorb in social services, including billions paid to Social Security.
2. Arizona-Style Laws Are Expensive
Since it passed SB 1070, the state of Arizona has spent over $1 million on legal defense and has paid out hundreds of thousands more to public relations firms to restore the state’s image. The Wisconsin bill’s opponents have already promised a public campaign and legal action against the bill.
3. Civil Rights Violations Will Skyrocket
Pridemore’s proposed law would require police to check the immigration status of anyone who is arrested, not just those convicted of crimes. Giving local law enforcement officials the power to threaten any undocumented immigrant they encounter with deportation is dangerous — that kind of unchecked power permits officers to threaten, coerce or manipulate any undocumented person at will. Communities across Wisconsin will surely see a disturbing uptick in civil rights violations.
4. Policing Will Suffer
Local law enforcement, already strapped for cash by the recession, will have to spend precious staff time and resources to check the immigration status of every “suspected” undocumented immigrant. That’s why Arizona law enforcement was against SB 1070. It’s also why Milwaukee Police don’t ask suspects about their immigration status — it’s a waste of time for immigration authorities. “Do you really think they’re going to come at 2 o’clock in the morning in District 7 to pick up a bricklayer who just got caught without a driver’s license and is here illegally?” says Milwaukee’s police chief.
5. Immigrants Will Be Less Likely to Report Crimes
Immigrants that are scared of being deported are less likely to tell police when they witness or are victims of crimes. Pridemore’s proposed law would reduce reporting by victims of domestic violence, theft or violent assaults.
6. Families Will Be Needlessly Divided
Under this policy, a law-abiding undocumented mother or father of citizen children could be pulled over for a broken tail-light, booked, then permanently deported within days, leaving responsibility of the children to local social service agencies. It just doesn’t make sense — the state loses a hard-working taxpayer, and children lose their parents.
This little girl holds an American flag at a rally in Postville, Iowa.
7. Many Citizens Can’t Prove Their Legal Status
Thirteen million people — seven percent of the U.S. population and primarily poor women — don’t currently have documents that prove they are citizens, says a study by New York University. Even more worrying are mistaken deportations like that of Mark Lyttle, a mentally ill U.S. citizen who was recently deported to Mexico.
8. Private Prisons Will Benefit, Not the Public
Private prisons stand to gain millions from laws that criminalize immigrants and cause incarceration to rise. Investigators recently uncovered that ALEC, a membership organization of state legislators and corporations, including private prison companies, played a major role in the drafting of Arizona’s SB 1070 law. Wisconsin’s new governor-elect, Scott Walker, was a member of ALEC and has supported the private prison corporate agenda for years.
9. Wisconsin Has Bigger Concerns
Like the rest of the nation, Wisconsin’s unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high while local and state governments, schools and social services are facing crushing cutbacks. Wisconsin has more to worry about than immigrants who haven’t caused social or economic problems in the state.
10. No One Says Immigrants Are Bad for Wisconsin
In his announcement, Rep. Pridemore made a clumsy link between Wisconsin immigrants and “the illegal drug trade” and a host of other generic social problems. The fact is, no one has provided proof or even claimed that immigrants are to blame for any of the state’s problems. Rather than sparking a foolhardy and costly campaign to bring Arizona’s discredited law to Wisconsin, Pridemore should tackle issues that really matter to Wisconsinites.
Sign the petition and tell Representative Don Pridemore that Wisconsin Won’t Be the Next Arizona!
Photo copyright: FSPA Communications Department
Fair Trade Not Free Trade
Dear All – Obama and Congress is hoping to slip in a Colombia Free Trade agreement this summer.
This would be disastrous for the majority of Colombians adding to the profound poverty, displacement and violence that is already prevalent in Colombia.
Obama promised when he was still a presidential candidate that as President he would not “reward” Colombia with a free trade agreement when it continues to have the highest death rate of union members in the world. Guess what? It still does.
Join with the Washington Office on Latin America and many others to remind the President and Congress that we want fair trade not free trade!
Washington Office on Latin America
Good news! We received over 400 signatures from organizations, academics, and individuals in the United States and Colombia on our letter opposing the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Click here to read it.
Not so good news: The Obama Administration has announced that it wants to push all three trade agreements through before August and the republican controlled house may move on it as soon as this week.
So we have to act now. We’re going to send the sign-on letter to Congress this Thursday, June 23, at 10 am. And we need your help to generate as much buzz as possible about it throughout this week.
How you can help:
1. Send the letter to congress. Stay tuned for more one-click actions to share with your networks.
2. Send out a press release. Click here to read our sample press release from WOLA. Feel free to use as much of it as makes sense for your organization or background.
3. Write an op-ed and send it your local newspaper. Click here for a sample op-ed. Check out these great resources to use in crafting your own press strategy:
- Videos by the U.S. Office on Colombia provide testimony from Colombia on the impact of the FTA on small-scale farmers and workers, in addition to Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities.
- Today’s blog in “The Hill” by Jess Hunter-Bowman of Witness for Peace
- Karen Hansen-Kuhn’s op-ed in the “Winona Daily News”
- LAWG’s video on “What will you do if the US-Colombia FTA is passed?”
4. Tweet it! Share it on Facebook! Use #nocolombiafta! If you’re active on social media, click here to read a great strategy from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship and adapt it to your needs.
We know you all are really busy, but if there was ever a time to push on this, it’s now. So please do what you can to get the word out to Congress and the press starting this Thursday, June 23 at 10 AM EST.
If you have any questions or need any help, please contact Anthony Dest at adest@wola.org.
Photo note from Liz: The above photo was taken while I was in Colombia for an ethics march (2010).
“It is time to stand with the millions who have lost….” Sen. Bernie Sanders
Senator Bernie Sanders took to the floor and gave a 10,000 word historic speech about the absolute necessity of not solving the budget crisis on the backs of the poor and vulnerable. Below is a snippet from the speech & the video. If you are interested in reading his speech, click the Truthout link pasted below.
On the heels of Governor Walker’s “austerity” budget stripping funds from BadgerCare, public schools, and Medicaid - Senator Sanders’ speech serves as a great antidote or for Harry Potter fans…it is the chocolate after a Dementor attack….read, watch and feel inspired!
Senator Bernie Sanders
“At a time when the richest people and the largest corporations in our country are doing phenomenally well, and, in many cases, have never had it so good, while the middle class is disappearing and poverty is increasing, it is absolutely imperative that a deficit reduction package not include the disastrous cuts in programs for working families, the elderly, the sick, the children and the poor that the Republicans in Congress, dominated by the extreme right-wing, are demanding…”
Read his speech: http://www.truth-out.org/sen-bernie-sanders-we-will-not-balance-budget-backs-working-families/1309280399
Join the budget talks
Huffington Post:Kate Maehr
If the economy is showing tepid signs of recovery, we’re seeing no indication at the hundreds of food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters we serve daily. Across the country and throughout Chicago and Cook County, record numbers of men, women and children are still in need of emergency food assistance — many for the first time.
A few weeks ago, David, a single father of two in his 30s, walked into a community center in South Suburban Harvey. He needed food to feed his young children because his work hours had recently been cut. He’d seen a flyer about an assistance program, but didn’t know what to expect. From a Greater Chicago Food Depository outreach worker at the center, David learned of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly the Food Stamp Program), and that he might be eligible for help. He also learned that there was a fresh source of wholesome food close to his home at a nearby stop of the Food Depository’s pantry on wheels, the Producemobile. For David, the social safety net worked beautifully, as it should.
David’s circumstances are all too common these days, as the need for emergency support remains achingly high. But, the support net that is essential to tens of millions of people is in danger of fraying badly, as Congress drives to cut the budget deficit. In the fiscal 2012 agriculture appropriations bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, deep cuts were made in SNAP, the nation’s frontline defense against hunger, which would convert the program to block grants and reduce the flexibility of states to respond to spikes in need. Nearly 50% of SNAP recipients are children under the age of 18. Also sharply cut are programs that provide nutritious food packages to low-income seniors. Cuts to the Women, Infants, and Children — or WIC — program mean that 300,000 fewer people will have access to supplemental nutritional food and educational assistance.
We understand the long-term importance of getting our nation’s financial house in order. But, we urge Congress to take a measured approach in the budget battle and avoid slashing vital services that are essential to the stability and wellbeing of those most in need, especially children and the elderly. A downward spiral is a real worry. Cuts at the federal and state level will place enormous burdens on scores of critical human services organizations — and, this at a time when 1.8 million people and 850,000 households in Illinois are currently receiving SNAP benefits, the highest number ever.
When critical services are cut, low-income families are forced to make difficult choices to balance basic needs — child care, housing, medicine, transportation and food. More people turn to their local food pantry, their community health center, or other temporary supports for help, contributing to record levels of demand. While the Food Depository distributes tens of millions of pounds of food each year, we cannot meet the need alone.
Our current safety net was forged in the 1960s with bipartisan support. Now, nutrition programs are becoming an unfortunate political chip.
What can be done? Members of Congress must be made aware of the grave consequences for millions of Americans if vital services are cut. Your voice must be heard. You can get involved by visiting the Advocacy Center on the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s website (chicagosfoodbank.org/advocacy) or by visiting Feeding America’s website (feedingamerica.org).
The most vulnerable in our communities — children, the elderly, the working poor — should be our priority. It is true that the sheer numbers can be overwhelming. And, that’s why it’s so important to remember David and his two young daughters and the challenges they face.
Saving Monsignor Ryan
Sorry for the link last week that did not work. Sadly I still cannot get it to work, however I have a new way to participate in the budget talks.
MoveOn.org is providing an online forum for people to share ideas and build momentum to create a “new contract” for America that honors workers, elderly, children/persons with disabilities and those who are undocumented .It also calls for accountability in how resources are divided and taxed.
http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/
Also, below is a quick read on remembering our own heritage of Catholic Social Teaching from National Catholic Reporter.
Cong. Ryan on Catholic Social Teaching
by Michael Sean Winters on Jul. 12, 2011
Congressman Paul Ryan, House Budget Chairman, has a post up at Our Sunday Visitor [3] in which he explains how he understands Catholic social teaching and its applicability to the budget he has proposed. He neglects to mention that the USCCB, which knows rather a lot about social programs, how they work, and whom they help, disagree with his proposed cuts.
Still, Ryan gets points for trying. I just wish he would read a bit more deeply in the writings of another Ryan, Msgr. John A. Ryan, who is sort of the father of Catholic social teaching in the U.S. Ryan, the Monsignor, understood the need for government to assist those who have been marginalized by our incredibly dynamic society. He also recognized that unrestrained capitalism was a great danger to the stability of society, which is why he advocated for the very programs that Ryan, the Congressman, is aiming to gut.
Walker and Wisconsin
The story of what happened in Madison still reverberates around the blogosphere gaining new attention with the pending recall elections for Republicans on the horizon. Few of these blogs, however, are looking at the potential impact Walker and conservatives in the State House and Senate could have and are having on the immigrant community. Check out this great video from “The Real News” and learn more about the struggles of the Wisconsin immigrant community.
Will Wisconsin make history again?
Wisconsin will hold elections on Tuesday to recall six Republican seats from the state legislature. These recall elections were a strong and pointed reaction to the attacks on unions made by Walker this past winter.
Wisconsin is popping up all over the news as the site of the most important elections of the year. What message will be sent to conservative lawmakers looking to disenfranchise workers, immigrants, and the economically poor? Will the message be that if you take on the working class with unfair and extreme politics you can expect to lose your seat? Or will it be a green light – after some protest politicians can expect to be able to push through their extreme agendas?
Check out the Rachel Maddow clip below (includes a mention of La Crosse) and go and vote on Tuesday! Then come back and let us know on the post which way will Wisconsin go.
Help end Secure Communities
http://altopolimigra.com/s-comm-shadow-report/
Recall Elections, Recalling Democracy
Wisconsin continues to make national news and has become the bell weather for the health of democracy in the United States.
The country is watching and gaining hope from watching the grass-roots struggles of the people in Wisconsin who are refusing to respond to the extreme agenda of Gov. Walker with apathy and fear.
Check out this piece from Democracy Now and a link to an interesting website called “Scott Walker Watch”…it even has the first round of a petition to recall Gov. Walker! Thank you for leading the way!
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/10/wi_recall_marks_labor_win_election
http://scottwalkerwatch.com/recall-races/
A small win
Remembering September 11th – Ten Years Later
Girls in a school, Kabul Afghanistan
We have reached the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. This weekend will mark, for many in the United States, the anniversary of the death of a loved one – in light of that a moment of silence.
In October we will reach the tenth anniversary of our invasion of Afghanistan – many Afghanis mark the anniversary of the deaths of loved ones throughout the year – in light of that a moment of silence.
In light of the lives lost and communities destroyed around the world by violence, war, occupation we take a moment of silence.
In light of the children around the world, like the girls at school in Afghanistan in the photo above, let us take action to create a world free of terror, war and violence. Join with Sojourners below and take the pledge to work for peace….
Sojourners
This Sunday marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. While we will all take time to remember the day and the lives we lost, 10 years later, we must go deeper.
There were two paths forward from the ashes and rubble of 9/11: One path led to war, torture, and fear, but another path — led by people of faith across our land — was marked by soul-searching, genuine mourning for the lost, and standing up for peace-building and caring for our neighbors.
Although our government and too many of its citizens, regrettably, have chosen the first path, Sojourners invites you to celebrate the alternative journey — to stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters of all faiths, and no faith, who are helping to build a nation that reflects our best values.
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, affirm your commitment to peace-building and reconciliation by signing this commemoration pledge, written by Sojourners, an organization that I belong to:
To take action on this issue, click on the link below:
http://go.sojo.net/site/Advocacy?s_oo=8hTv4XvIy1vhZVynZpLGQQ&id=435
If the text above does not appear as a link or it wraps across multiple lines, then copy and paste it into the address area of your browser.
Culture of Cruelty: The struggle to end deportation
Please click on the link below to sign a petition to President Obama to stop the human rights violations by Border Patrol against immigrants in their custody! To read the full report or the Executive Summary of “A Culture of Cruelty: Abuse and Impunity in U.S. Border Patrol Custody,” go to:
http://www.cultureofcruelty.org/?p=306
To see media coverage of the new report:
From USA Today:
Katerina Sinclair, a statistical consultant and research associate at the University of Arizona, oversaw the report separately from her work at the university. She said the report was funded by donations to No More Deaths and a grant from the Fund for Unitarian Universalist Social Responsibility.
The main finding of the report “is that Border Patrol is acting with impunity and that abuse is pervasive,” she said. She said researchers expected to find abuse limited to certain shifts or certain days of the week by a small number of agents.
Instead, she said, “it was across the board. It was a horrible violation of human rights, and I don’t think that is what people were expecting at all. We were deeply shocked.”
From International Business Times:
Physical abuse was reported by 10 percent of interviewees. Physical abuses reported include sexual assault, being shoved into cacti, and being forced to walk barefoot through the desert.
One woman reported having her breasts touched in the presence of male and female guards after being forced to strip naked.
The report said that children were just as likely as adults to be abused, and spending more time in custody meant an increased chance of being abused.
There were also 416 reports of “dangerous transportation practices,” such as overcrowded vehicles and agents who purposefully drove in circles to make passengers nauseous.
The report also noted that items were often confiscated from detainees and not returned.
Several cases of evening repatriation were reported, which the study notes violates the Memorandum of Understanding and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act.
There were 869 reports of family separation. Seventeen of these reports came from children and 41 came from teenagers.
“Aside from the psychological agony of being separated, possibly permanently, from loved ones, women and children who are repatriated alone are vulnerable to kidnappers and sex traffickers,” the report said.
From the San Antonio Times:
Customs and Border Protection spokesman Bill Brooks said Border Patrol agents “were required to treat all those they encounter with respect and dignity.”
“This requirement is consistently addressed in training and consistently reinforced throughout an agent’s career,” he said in an email. “Mistreatment or agent misconduct will not be tolerated in any way. Any agent within our ranks that does not adhere to the highest standards of conduct will be identified and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”
It was unclear whether CBP planned to investigate the report’s allegations.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/21/us-usa-mexico-study-idUSTRE78K6NV20110921
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2011/09/immigrant_abuses_at_hands_of_b.php
Happy Feast of St.Francis
Happy Feast Day FSPA community and Franciscans everywhere!
On this special day to honor the life and legacy of St. Francis a reflection from Sr. Joan Chittister entitled: We need St. Francis now.
Blessings!
We need St Francis now
By Joan Chittister
Created Sep 27, 2010
Some things never go way. The best ones, in fact, come back to us in whole new ways. Saints are like that.
The church calendar that formed me, for instance, provided the Catholic community one feast day after another designed to remind us of the heroes of the Catholic community. On those days, congregations held special masses, sang special songs, prayed special prayers and blessed special statues.
On St. Joseph’s Day, for instance, the Italians had street fairs in which they spread a family feast from one end of the country to the other in honor of Joseph, the just one, who protected the Virgin and raised the child Jesus in a holy family. And so that Holy Family became a model for us all. For committed children and faithful fathers and strong mothers.
On St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish carried shamrocks to remind us of Patrick’s exegesis of the Trinity which, we were told, converted the pagans of Ireland and were still a clear icon to us of the God whose presence is “three in one.” It was the articulation of a ‘mystery’ that became clearer as we got older.
On Halloween, all the saints of the church were honored for their faithful lives and their models of goodness. We dressed up to look like Therese of Avila and Ignatius of Loyola and the Children of Fatima rather than Peter Pan and The Terminator and a vampire or two on Halloween.
We named our children for saints. We dedicated our churches to their memory. We presented them as icons and heroes to our children long before celebrities and rock bands and rappers and reality shows conquered the airwaves and took their place. Long before Brittany and DeShaun and Darcy and Travis replaced Peter and Mary and John and Theresa as baptismal names.
In that period, we lived immersed in a veritable “communion of saints,” surrounded by signs and images of those whose lives were themselves meant to be templates for our own.
We don’t do those things anymore. For many good reasons, both liturgical and theological. At the same time, the stories and the figures go on stirring in my memory, raising old ideals, provoking old memories of beauty and fidelity and awareness and commitment. Only now those figures and those stories ring in strong new ways.
For instance, Oct. 4 is the Feast of Francis of Assisi, il poverello, the poor one, whose voice in the newly emerging mercantile class of the 13th century warned of the greed and corruption and destitution that would come when the world was run more on profit for the rich than it was on a prophetic commitment to the poor. And he was right.
But Francis was known for more than protests.
Francis loved animals, too. He was a walking apostle for ecology and the protection of woodlands which having been destroyed for parking lots and housing estates leave animals who once lived in caves and forests spilling over into our largest cities. He talked to the animals. He understood them. He knew their place in creation.
Francis talked to the birds about their call to the unceasing singing of the praises of God. When the birds surrounded him, he told them,”My sister birds, you owe much to God, and you must always and in every place give praise to Him; for He has given you freedom to wing through the sky and He has clothed you …
He calmed the wild. The wolf Gubbio who had been ravaging animals and people alike lay down at his feet like a puppy when Francis scolded him for his violence: “All these people accuse you and curse you … But Brother Wolf, I would like to make peace between you and the people.”
Then Francis led the wolf into the town, and surrounded by startled citizens made a pact between them and the wolf. Because the wolf had “done evil out of hunger”, the townsfolk were to feed the wolf regularly, and in return, the wolf would no longer prey upon them or their flocks. In this manner Gubbio was freed from the menace of the predator.”
No doubt about it. In a world where species after species is disappearing under the rubric of “progress,” where animals are being used for research on materials and cosmetics, where the boundaries between forests and cities are fast disappearing, where bears show up in shopping districts of major cities and crocodiles show up on people’s front lawns, we need St Francis now.
It is also becoming clear that Francis knew what we are only now discovering.
In our time, the science that separated us from nature is now declaring that animals, too, have intelligence, have emotions, have needs like ours. Research by Dr. Filippo Aureli, professor of animal behavior and co-director of the Research Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology in Liverpool, England, indicates that the study of animal emotions, particularly in birds and primates is providing new insight and information on the emotions of humans, as well as the feelings of animals.
Well, I am an animal lover, too. And I have been threatening for years now that my last book would be Two Dogs and a Parrot: The Spiritual Lessons I Have Learned From My Pets. The parrot, named “Bennie” for obvious Benedictine reasons, is the most obvious educator of them all.
From Bennie I am learning persistence and emotional sensitivity. Both of which are needed in this world of invisible women and neglected children.
Persistence is a very good thing for a woman to know in a man’s church. If Bennie needs something, she simply refuses to give up trying to get it. She will knock at her hopper until it gets filled, until the door gets opened, until you put her on your shoulder and make her a real part of the community.
Emotional sensitivity, the awareness of the needs of needy others, is her forte. She stretches herself out on the top of her cage, thin as a pencil, rigid as a piece of steel and stares at you until you stop work and give her the loving she seeks, for her sake and yours. She teaches us to be very aware of very small signals in life.
No wonder that churches to this day bless animals on October 4, the Feast of St. Francis.
St. Francis would find it all very normal, very necessary.
From where I stand, we need to take another look at what animals have to teach us today, yes, but we have to take another look at what the saints have to say to us today, too. Somehow or other, the models we have put in their stead have not, as a class, managed to fill the gaps.
Occupy Wall Street Spreads Across the Country
The 8th Day Center for Justice participated yesterday in march in downtown Chicago as a part of the new national movement that originated as Occupy Wall Street. We marched to the call of ,”We are the 99%” teachers, public workers, students, college students, union members, high school students and even grade-schoolers” in order to call attention to the spreading disparity, inequality and want.
I was behind a group of fourth graders that carried signs saying, “I am in the fourth grade and I want recess back” pointing to the recent Illinois budget cuts that shortened the school days and took recess away. To my left was a high school marching band that was out in support of their teachers who may lose collective bargaining rights and behind me was the Jane Addams Senior Caucus calling for politicians to take their hands off Social Security and Medicare.
It was diverse, nonviolent and full of the palpable needs so many of our communities across the United States are facing. Check out the pictures below and link from Daily Kos to see what groups around the country are doing…
Images
http://www.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/index.html?story=8145613
Daily Kos
Lost in Detention
The FSPA Justice Peace and Integrity of Creation Committee has been working for two years on the issue of immigration.
PBS is offering a great opportunity tonight to curl up in this great fall weather and watch a Frontline episode about the devastating impacts of detention on immigrant families and communities.
This is great opportunity to learn more about what is happening across the country as politicians refuse to reform the immigration system and instead are “creating” policy by default through extensive detention and deportation. Join with the JPIC Committee and commit to learning more about this human rights crisis tonight!
See below for more information and an action from Presente.org !
Presente
On Tuesday, October 18th, award-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa presents the groundbreaking documentary Lost in Detention. It’s an exposé that reveals the devastating consequences of the mass incarceration of immigrants, and the harsh toll it takes on families, women and children.
Hinojosa discussed Secure Communities (S-Comm) and other issues highlighted in the documentary. Check out the video and you will see why we all need to tune in to Lost in Detention on PBS. Click below to let us know you’re watching on Tuesday and to see the exclusive interview. When you’re done, forward this email to friends and family and post this video on Facebook and Twitter.
http://act.presente.org/signup/lostindetention/
The astonishing and unprecedented footage in Lost in Detention has the power to change how people understand the immigration crisis and motivate them to act. The film starts with the highly criticized Secure Communities (S-Comm) program and goes on to give a look at the overall system of detention and incarceration – and on the physical and sexual abuse that has become commonplace.
Click here for more information on Lost in Detention and to find your local listing.
Thanks so much!
Occupy Wall Street: A Moment or a Movement?
Wanted to share some info and perspectives on the Occupy Wall Street movement and how it is seen from an international lens (video below from Russia Today News) to locally a reflection from Noam Chomsky. Watch, read and ponder…are we making history?
Noam Chomsky, Truthout | Speech
(This article is adapted from Noam Chomsky’s talk at the Occupy Boston encampment on Dewey Square on Oct. 22. He spoke as part of the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series held by Occupy Boston’s on-site Free University. Zinn was a historian, activist and author of “A People’s History of the United States.”)
Delivering a Howard Zinn lecture is a bittersweet experience for me. I regret that he’s not here to take part in and invigorate a movement that would have been the dream of his life. Indeed, he laid a lot of the groundwork for it.
If the bonds and associations being established in these remarkable events can be sustained through a long, hard period ahead, victories don’t come quickly, the Occupy protests could mark a significant moment in American history.
I’ve never seen anything quite like the Occupy movement in scale and character, here and worldwide. The Occupy outposts are trying to create cooperative communities that just might be the basis for the kinds of lasting organizations necessary to overcome the barriers ahead and the backlash that’s already coming.
That the Occupy movement is unprecedented seems appropriate because this is an unprecedented era, not just in this moment but since the 1970’s.
The 1970s marked a turning point for the United States. Since the country began, it had been a developing society, not always in very pretty ways, but with general progress toward industrialization and wealth.
Even in dark times, the expectation was that the progress would continue. I’m just old enough to remember the Great Depression. By the mid-1930s, even though the situation was objectively much harsher than today, the spirit was quite different.
A militant labor movement was organizing, the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) and others, and workers were staging sit-down strikes, just one step from taking over the factories and running them themselves.
Under popular pressure, New Deal legislation was passed. The prevailing sense was that we would get out of the hard times.
Now there’s a sense of hopelessness, sometimes despair. This is quite new in our history. During the 1930s, working people could anticipate that the jobs would come back. Today, if you’re a worker in manufacturing, with unemployment practically at Depression levels, you know that those jobs may be gone forever if current policies persist.
That change in the American outlook has evolved since the 1970s. In a reversal, several centuries of industrialization turned to de-industrialization. Of course manufacturing continued, but overseas, very profitable, though harmful to the workforce.
The economy shifted to financialization. Financial institutions expanded enormously. A vicious cycle between finance and politics accelerated. Increasingly, wealth concentrated in the financial sector. Politicians, faced with the rising cost of campaigns, were driven ever deeper into the pockets of wealthy backers.
And the politicians rewarded them with policies favorable to Wall Street: deregulation, tax changes, relaxation of rules of corporate governance, which intensified the vicious cycle. Collapse was inevitable. In 2008, the government once again came to the rescue of Wall Street firms presumably too big to fail, with leaders too big to jail.
Today, for the one-tenth of 1 percent of the population who benefited most from these decades of greed and deceit, everything is fine.
In 2005, Citigroup, which, by the way, has repeatedly been saved by government bailouts, saw the wealthy as a growth opportunity. The bank released a brochure for investors that urged them to put their money into something called the Plutonomy Index, which identified stocks in companies that cater to the luxury market.
“The world is dividing into two blocs, the plutonomy and the rest,” Citigroup summarized. “The U.S., U.K. and Canada are the key plutonomies, economies powered by the wealthy.”
As for the non-rich, they’re sometimes called the precariat, people who live a precarious existence at the periphery of society. The “periphery” however, has become a substantial proportion of the population in the U.S. and elsewhere.
So we have the plutonomy and the precariat: the 1 percent and the 99 percent, as Occupy sees it, not literal numbers, but the right picture.
The historic reversal in people’s confidence about the future is a reflection of tendencies that could become irreversible. The Occupy protests are the first major popular reaction that could change the dynamic.
I’ve kept to domestic issues. But two dangerous developments in the international arena overshadow everything else.
For the first time in human history, there are real threats to the survival of the human species. Since 1945 we have had nuclear weapons, and it seems a miracle we have survived them. But policies of the Obama administration and its allies are encouraging escalation.
The other threat, of course, is environmental catastrophe. Practically every country in the world is taking at least halting steps to do something about it. The United States is taking steps backward. A propaganda system, openly acknowledged by the business community, declares that climate change is all a liberal hoax: Why pay attention to these scientists?
If this intransigence continues in the richest, most powerful country in the world, the catastrophe won’t be averted.
Something must be done in a disciplined, sustained way, and soon. It won’t be easy to proceed. There will be hardships and failures, it’s inevitable. But unless the process that’s taking place here and elsewhere in the country and around the world continues to grow and becomes a major force in society and politics, the chances for a decent future are bleak.
You can’t achieve significant initiatives without a large, active, popular base. It’s necessary to get out into the country and help people understand what the Occupy movement is about, what they themselves can do, and what the consequences are of not doing anything.
Organizing such a base involves education and activism. Education doesn’t mean telling people what to believe, it means learning from them and with them.
Karl Marx said, ‚”The task is not just to understand the world but to change it.‚” A variant to keep in mind is that if you want to change the world you’d better try to understand it. That doesn’t mean listening to a talk or reading a book, though that’s helpful sometimes. You learn from participating. You learn from others. You learn from the people you’re trying to organize. We all have to gain the understanding and the experience to formulate and implement ideas.
The most exciting aspect of the Occupy movement is the construction of the linkages that are taking place all over. If they can be sustained and expanded, Occupy can lead to dedicated efforts to set society on a more humane course.
© 2011 Noam Chomsky
The people have spoken!
In another exciting round of recall elections, similar to those in Wisconsin, Arizona recalled Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce who was the author of S.B 1070- Arizona’s infamous “Show Me Your Papers” law.
This is a tremendous moment for immigrants, their families and supporters across the country. A moment of collective outcry that says we are not a nation built on fear and exclusion. A nation that relies on an abuse of power rather than examining our own role and responsibility in how folks come to live, work and be a part of our diverse land.
Read below and take a moment to celebrate with immigrants and advocates across the country!
Loss a stunning reversal for Pearce
Howard Fischer Capitol Media Services | Posted: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 12:01 am
MESA – Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce – architect of some of the nation’s toughest state laws against illegal immigration – was ousted by voters Tuesday in an unprecedented recall.
Results late Tuesday showed challenger Jerry Lewis, a political newcomer, with a 53-to-45 percent margin over Pearce in his east Mesa district. Both are Republicans. A small percentage also cast ballots for Olivia Cortes, although she withdrew from the race.
Pearce conceded defeat, saying he is disappointed and will spend some time “with my family and my God” before deciding what to do next. He has not ruled out another run – including to get his seat back.
Pearce is probably best known for proposing several immigration measures – often amid opposition from his own party – including a successful 2004 ballot measure to deny services to people living here illegally, and most recently, last year’s Senate Bill 1070 to give police more power to detain and arrest illegal immigrants.
“Obviously, it was a huge part of the recall,” said Lewis, who promised a more “civil dialogue and discussion” of the entire immigration issue.
U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat who called for a controversial boycott of Arizona over SB 1070, said Pearce’s loss “is a game changer for Arizona and a game changer for politicians who have used the immigration issue to divide people.”
Pearce, however, said he makes no apologies for his style, which can come across as confrontational. “Am I vigilant? Yes,” he said. “When you take tough positions, people get upset. That’s because somebody has to be a leader, and we wouldn’t have accomplished what we accomplished without leadership.”
He said polls have shown that most Arizonans support SB 1070, and he still believes that.
Pearce said one reason he lost was that this was an unusual race, with no primary. That allowed all voters, including the district’s Democrats and independents, to make the final decision.
“This is going around the primary process,” Pearce said.
“Jerry Lewis could not win in a (Republican) primary,” he added, saying Lewis was the choice of Democrats. “So it doesn’t take but 10 to 15 percent of the Republicans to vote for him to make the difference.”
Lewis disputed that description of the race, calling it dishonest. He sidestepped the question of whether he could have beaten Pearce in a head-to-head primary where only Republicans were allowed to vote. “That’s a hypothetical question,” Lewis said. “I don’t know the answer to that.”
Lewis, a charter school executive, said he never ran for office in a regular primary “because I never wanted to be a politician.”
He said one reason he probably won is he had support from Hispanic voters, many of whom are Democrats.
Despite being rejected by the voters in the district, Pearce said he would not have done anything any different since he was first elected to the Legislature in 2000.
“We’re Number One in the nation in Second Amendment liberties,” said Pearce, who helped push through laws allowing any adult to carry a concealed weapon. “We’re one of the top in the nation in laws that protect the unborn. So what else would I do differently? I’m pretty proud of that record.”
Pearce blamed his defeat in part on “heavy outside money” from liberal groups and unions, but at the same time boasted about the fact that he received donations from contributors in 40 states.
Lewis, for his part, said he waged a clean race, suggesting Pearce supporters had not done the same.
“I was told from the beginning it would be very hard hitting, below the belt. I just didn’t realize I’d have padlocks thrown below the belt as well,” he said, in a reference to a July incident where someone threw a lock at him. “That was a symbol of things to come,” he said.
But Lewis said he has no animosity for the man he beat.
“I still love him, he’s my brother,” he said of Pearce. “And I still consider him a friend, and I hope that we can work together in bringing about a fresh voice for Mesa.”
The recall election, forced by a petition drive, was the first for an Arizona legislator.
Tuesday’s vote has statewide implications in other ways. It means the 21 Senate Republicans – now including Lewis – will have to pick a replacement for Senate president.
That could shuffle the power within the chamber as would-be contenders try to line up support and promise plum committee assignments to supporters.
Arizona Daily Star reporter Carmen Duarte contributed to this report.
Returning to Georgia: SOA Vigil
I will return this week to the gates at Ft. Benning to gather and vigil for the closing of the School of the Americas. We will stand together to remember all those who have been victims of the school and their loved ones. We will stand together to call for peace with full justice which demands that those responsible for the crimes of the school be brought to light. We will stand and lean out hearts and souls into the knowledge that another is possible even it is not yet known. Join me in prayer, in spirit, and enjoy the video below….Adelante!
SOAW Video 2010
Bearing witness
“I am crossing today because I am hoping for a resurrection.” Theresa Cusimano
Theresa Cusimano crossed onto Ft. Benning on Nov. 20, 2011, to call for the closing of the School of the Americas and a return to believing that each of us can bear witness to the struggles we see in the world. To bear witness to harm and suffering as well as beauty and possibility is a path away from the apathy and dis-empowerment that builds fear and hate. It is a path toward resurrection.
Join in bearing witness by watching Theresa’s video.
December 10: Human Rights Day
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,
Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,
Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,
Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,
Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights will be turning 63 on Saturday December 10th. For over 60 years the conversation on human dignity, rights and responsibilities has been shaped by the historical document that flowed from the atrocities of WWII.
In a time of indefinite detentions, deportations, and enhanced interrogations it is more important than ever to honor human rights by fighting for them – celebrating them – and never forgetting all the victims of human rights violations worldwide. Check out the link below and see how you can join in the global conversation of continuing the struggle for the… recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world!
http://www.un.org/en/events/humanrightsday/2011/events.shtml
