Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Link to C-span live online streaming added to Peace, Justice, Ecology links of interest on right side of page
Investigative journalist remembered in OMNI newsletter
US VALOR: JOURNALISTS
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/17/09 11:56 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
George SELDES Born November 16, 1890
By 1940 George Seldes was already a famous investigative journalist, but his fame continued to grow. In that year he published Witch Hunt, an account of the persecution of people with left-wing political views in America. From 1940 to 1950, Seldes published a political newsletter, In Fact, which at the height of its popularity had a circulation of 176,000. One of the first articles published in the newsletter concerned the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. As well as writing his newsletter, Seldes continued to publish books. These included Facts and Fascism (1943), 1000 Americans (1947), an account of the people who controlled America, and The People Don't Know (1949) on the origins of the Cold War. In the early 1950s, Seldes came under attack from Joseph McCarthy, who accused him of being a communist. Seldes was blacklisted and found it difficult to publish his work. However, he continued to write books, including Witness to a Century (1987). In 1981, Seldes appeared in Warren Beatty's Reds, a film about the life of journalist John Reed. Seldes died in 1995 at age 104.
Dick Bennett
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/17/09 11:56 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
George SELDES Born November 16, 1890
By 1940 George Seldes was already a famous investigative journalist, but his fame continued to grow. In that year he published Witch Hunt, an account of the persecution of people with left-wing political views in America. From 1940 to 1950, Seldes published a political newsletter, In Fact, which at the height of its popularity had a circulation of 176,000. One of the first articles published in the newsletter concerned the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. As well as writing his newsletter, Seldes continued to publish books. These included Facts and Fascism (1943), 1000 Americans (1947), an account of the people who controlled America, and The People Don't Know (1949) on the origins of the Cold War. In the early 1950s, Seldes came under attack from Joseph McCarthy, who accused him of being a communist. Seldes was blacklisted and found it difficult to publish his work. However, he continued to write books, including Witness to a Century (1987). In 1981, Seldes appeared in Warren Beatty's Reds, a film about the life of journalist John Reed. Seldes died in 1995 at age 104.
Dick Bennett
Sunday, November 15, 2009
World leaders persist in ignoring climate-change problems
This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now.
November 15, 2009
Leaders Agree to Delay a Deal on Climate Change
By HELENE COOPER
SINGAPORE — President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future.
At a hastily arranged breakfast on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Sunday morning, the leaders, including Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark and the chairman of the climate conference, agreed that in order to salvage Copenhagen they would have to push a fully binding legal agreement down the road, possibly to a second summit meeting in Mexico City later on.
“There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “I don’t think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that any of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen, and yet thought that it was important that Copenhagen be an important step forward, including with operational impact.”
With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it has, for several months, appeared increasingly unlikely that the climate change negotiations in Denmark would produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming, as its organizers had intended.
The agreement on Sunday codifies what negotiators had already accepted as all but inevitable: that representatives of the 192 nations in the talks would not resolve the outstanding issues in time. The gulf between rich and poor countries, and even among the wealthiest nations, was just too wide.
Among the chief barriers to a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen was Congress’s inability to enact climate and energy legislation that sets binding targets on greenhouse gases in the United States. Without such a commitment, other nations are loath to make their own pledges.
Administration officials and Congressional leaders have said that final legislative action on a climate bill would not occur before the first half of next year.
After his breakfast meeting in Singapore, Mr. Obama was scheduled to meet with Asian leaders and to hold a number of one-on-one sessions, including one with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev.
After his meeting with Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Obama will attend a symbolically important regional meeting of Southeast Asian nations, in which representatives of Myanmar’s government will also be present. Mr. Obama, who has made a point of his willingness to engage with adversaries, noted that for the first time an American president would be at the table with Myanmar’s military junta. But he has also called on the government to release the leader of the country’s beleaguered democracy movement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
APEC summit meetings are not known for accomplishing much that is substantive. The most memorable moments often involve the photo opportunities, in which leaders wear colorful matching shirts. And often communiqués issued on dismantling trade barriers are undermined by the attending countries almost as soon as they are signed.
Speaking to world leaders at the APEC summit meeting Sunday morning, Mr. Obama said he would hold the 2011 gathering in Hawaii.
“The United States was there at the first meeting of APEC at Blake Island when President Clinton started the tradition of having leaders wear outfits picked out by the host nation,” Mr. Obama said. “And when America hosts APEC in a few years, I look forward to seeing you all decked out in flowered shirts and grass skirts because today I am announcing that my home state of Hawaii will be hosting this forum in 2011.”
This year’s meeting promises more of the same, complete with charges and countercharges of protectionism.
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico got things going early Saturday when he lashed out at what he called politically driven protectionism in the United States. He complained that Congressional coddling of the Teamsters had prevented the United States from opening its borders to Mexican trucks, which it was supposed to do years ago after it signed Nafta.
“Protectionism is killing North American companies,” Mr. Calderón said in Singapore. “The American government is facing political pressure that has not been counteracted.”
Mr. Obama is facing high expectations, which may be difficult to meet. For instance, while he has spoken about reducing trade barriers, he also talked during his speech in Tokyo on Saturday of making sure that the United States and Asia did not return to a cycle — which he termed “imbalanced” — in which American consumerism caused Asians to look at the United States as mainly an export market.
There are also high hopes among American companies and some Asian countries that the United States will commit to joining a regional trading group called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Although Mr. Obama did open the door during his speech in Tokyo on Asia policy, he did not explicitly say that the United States would join the pact. A formal announcement that the United States is beginning negotiations would undoubtedly kick off criticism from free-trade opponents in the United States and pushback from Congress.
Mr. Obama spoke, instead, of “engaging the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st-century trade agreement.”
That line left many trade envoys already in Singapore scratching their heads: did Mr. Obama mean that the United States would begin formal talks to join the regional trade pact, which presently includes Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand, and could later include Vietnam — an addition that could lead to more Congressional pressure at home?
Many regional officials have been waiting for the United States to join the initiative as a demonstration that Washington will play a more active role in the region. But the Obama administration has yet to establish a firm trade policy, as it is still reviewing its options.
White House officials were not much clearer on what Mr. Obama meant when they were pressed on this after the speech. Mr. Froman, the deputy national security adviser, said that what Mr. Obama meant was that he would engage with the initiative “to see if this is something that could prove to be an important platform going further.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Privacy Policy Terms of Service Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map
November 15, 2009
Leaders Agree to Delay a Deal on Climate Change
By HELENE COOPER
SINGAPORE — President Obama and other world leaders have decided to put off the difficult task of reaching a climate change agreement at a global climate conference scheduled for next month, agreeing instead to make it the mission of the Copenhagen conference to reach a less specific “politically binding” agreement that would punt the most difficult issues into the future.
At a hastily arranged breakfast on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meeting on Sunday morning, the leaders, including Lars Lokke Rasmussen, the prime minister of Denmark and the chairman of the climate conference, agreed that in order to salvage Copenhagen they would have to push a fully binding legal agreement down the road, possibly to a second summit meeting in Mexico City later on.
“There was an assessment by the leaders that it is unrealistic to expect a full internationally, legally binding agreement could be negotiated between now and Copenhagen, which starts in 22 days,” said Michael Froman, the deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs. “I don’t think the negotiations have proceeded in such a way that any of the leaders thought it was likely that we were going to achieve a final agreement in Copenhagen, and yet thought that it was important that Copenhagen be an important step forward, including with operational impact.”
With the clock running out and deep differences unresolved, it has, for several months, appeared increasingly unlikely that the climate change negotiations in Denmark would produce a comprehensive and binding new treaty on global warming, as its organizers had intended.
The agreement on Sunday codifies what negotiators had already accepted as all but inevitable: that representatives of the 192 nations in the talks would not resolve the outstanding issues in time. The gulf between rich and poor countries, and even among the wealthiest nations, was just too wide.
Among the chief barriers to a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen was Congress’s inability to enact climate and energy legislation that sets binding targets on greenhouse gases in the United States. Without such a commitment, other nations are loath to make their own pledges.
Administration officials and Congressional leaders have said that final legislative action on a climate bill would not occur before the first half of next year.
After his breakfast meeting in Singapore, Mr. Obama was scheduled to meet with Asian leaders and to hold a number of one-on-one sessions, including one with the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev.
After his meeting with Mr. Medvedev, Mr. Obama will attend a symbolically important regional meeting of Southeast Asian nations, in which representatives of Myanmar’s government will also be present. Mr. Obama, who has made a point of his willingness to engage with adversaries, noted that for the first time an American president would be at the table with Myanmar’s military junta. But he has also called on the government to release the leader of the country’s beleaguered democracy movement, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
APEC summit meetings are not known for accomplishing much that is substantive. The most memorable moments often involve the photo opportunities, in which leaders wear colorful matching shirts. And often communiqués issued on dismantling trade barriers are undermined by the attending countries almost as soon as they are signed.
Speaking to world leaders at the APEC summit meeting Sunday morning, Mr. Obama said he would hold the 2011 gathering in Hawaii.
“The United States was there at the first meeting of APEC at Blake Island when President Clinton started the tradition of having leaders wear outfits picked out by the host nation,” Mr. Obama said. “And when America hosts APEC in a few years, I look forward to seeing you all decked out in flowered shirts and grass skirts because today I am announcing that my home state of Hawaii will be hosting this forum in 2011.”
This year’s meeting promises more of the same, complete with charges and countercharges of protectionism.
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico got things going early Saturday when he lashed out at what he called politically driven protectionism in the United States. He complained that Congressional coddling of the Teamsters had prevented the United States from opening its borders to Mexican trucks, which it was supposed to do years ago after it signed Nafta.
“Protectionism is killing North American companies,” Mr. Calderón said in Singapore. “The American government is facing political pressure that has not been counteracted.”
Mr. Obama is facing high expectations, which may be difficult to meet. For instance, while he has spoken about reducing trade barriers, he also talked during his speech in Tokyo on Saturday of making sure that the United States and Asia did not return to a cycle — which he termed “imbalanced” — in which American consumerism caused Asians to look at the United States as mainly an export market.
There are also high hopes among American companies and some Asian countries that the United States will commit to joining a regional trading group called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Although Mr. Obama did open the door during his speech in Tokyo on Asia policy, he did not explicitly say that the United States would join the pact. A formal announcement that the United States is beginning negotiations would undoubtedly kick off criticism from free-trade opponents in the United States and pushback from Congress.
Mr. Obama spoke, instead, of “engaging the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries with the goal of shaping a regional agreement that will have broad-based membership and the high standards worthy of a 21st-century trade agreement.”
That line left many trade envoys already in Singapore scratching their heads: did Mr. Obama mean that the United States would begin formal talks to join the regional trade pact, which presently includes Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand, and could later include Vietnam — an addition that could lead to more Congressional pressure at home?
Many regional officials have been waiting for the United States to join the initiative as a demonstration that Washington will play a more active role in the region. But the Obama administration has yet to establish a firm trade policy, as it is still reviewing its options.
White House officials were not much clearer on what Mr. Obama meant when they were pressed on this after the speech. Mr. Froman, the deputy national security adviser, said that what Mr. Obama meant was that he would engage with the initiative “to see if this is something that could prove to be an important platform going further.”
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
Privacy Policy Terms of Service Search Corrections RSS First Look Help Contact Us Work for Us Site Map
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Afghanistan war perspective
AFGHANISTAN WAR
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Sat 11/14/09 10:59 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
From Afghanistan to the White House
|Kevin Martin, Peace Action to jbennet
Peaceact@mail.democracyinaction.org
Dear James,
Peace Action brings the peace perspective from Afghanistan to the White House
Peace Action's Policy and Organizing Director Paul Kawika Martin visited Afghanistan as part of a citizen peace delegation, and upon return to the US went directly to the White House, where national Peace Action staff, board members, and local Peace Action members were participating in civil disobedience to draw President Obama's attention to ongoing opposition to the war. Click here to read the full article.
Urge your Representatives to end the war in Afghanistan
The US is at a turning point on Afghanistan. President Obama continues to deliberate on sending more troops, giving us more time to pressure him to end the escalation and bring the troops home. Contact your Representatives today, letting them know you want to see an end to the war
Kevin M. Martin Executive Director Peace Action
TO: SENATORS LINCOLN AND PRIOR AND REPRESENTATIVE BOOZMAN.
The proposed 2010 War Budget contains approximately $128 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars through September 2010. But there is no exit plan for Afghanistan, while General McChrystal calls for tens of thousands of additional U. S. troops and a long-term commitment.
We need a different policy in Afghanistan, one that emphasizes diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. And we need an exit plan.
We urge you to support Congressman James McGovern’s H. R. 2404 that requires President Obama to provide an exit plan no later than December 2009.
LINCOLN AND PRYOR CONTACTS
LINCOLN
http://lincoln.senate.gov
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
912 West Fourth St.
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-2993
Fax (501) 375-7064
Toll Free 1-800-352-9364
Fay office = John Hicks
Community Affairs Specialist
tel 251-1224
fax 251-1410
john_hicks@lincoln.senate.gov
PRYOR CONTACTS
http://pryor.senate.gov/contact
Little Rock Office
The River Market
500 Clinton Ave
Suite 401
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336
Fax: (501) 324-5320
Toll Free from AR:
(877) 259-9602
Washington, D.C. Office
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Sat 11/14/09 10:59 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
From Afghanistan to the White House
|Kevin Martin, Peace Action to jbennet
Peaceact@mail.democracyinaction.org
Dear James,
Peace Action brings the peace perspective from Afghanistan to the White House
Peace Action's Policy and Organizing Director Paul Kawika Martin visited Afghanistan as part of a citizen peace delegation, and upon return to the US went directly to the White House, where national Peace Action staff, board members, and local Peace Action members were participating in civil disobedience to draw President Obama's attention to ongoing opposition to the war. Click here to read the full article.
Urge your Representatives to end the war in Afghanistan
The US is at a turning point on Afghanistan. President Obama continues to deliberate on sending more troops, giving us more time to pressure him to end the escalation and bring the troops home. Contact your Representatives today, letting them know you want to see an end to the war
Kevin M. Martin Executive Director Peace Action
TO: SENATORS LINCOLN AND PRIOR AND REPRESENTATIVE BOOZMAN.
The proposed 2010 War Budget contains approximately $128 billion for the Iraq and Afghan wars through September 2010. But there is no exit plan for Afghanistan, while General McChrystal calls for tens of thousands of additional U. S. troops and a long-term commitment.
We need a different policy in Afghanistan, one that emphasizes diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. And we need an exit plan.
We urge you to support Congressman James McGovern’s H. R. 2404 that requires President Obama to provide an exit plan no later than December 2009.
LINCOLN AND PRYOR CONTACTS
LINCOLN
http://lincoln.senate.gov
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
912 West Fourth St.
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-2993
Fax (501) 375-7064
Toll Free 1-800-352-9364
Fay office = John Hicks
Community Affairs Specialist
tel 251-1224
fax 251-1410
john_hicks@lincoln.senate.gov
PRYOR CONTACTS
http://pryor.senate.gov/contact
Little Rock Office
The River Market
500 Clinton Ave
Suite 401
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336
Fax: (501) 324-5320
Toll Free from AR:
(877) 259-9602
Washington, D.C. Office
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Veterans Day November 11, 2009, newsletter from OMNI founder, Dick Bennett
e subscribed to this mailing list. Unsubscribe
VETERANS' DAY 2009
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Wed 11/11/09 6:47 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI ARMISTICE/VETERANS' DAY NEWSLETTER #2, NOVEMBER 11, 2009, WE, THE PEOPLE BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE, Compiled by Dick Bennett
NEWSLETTER #1, Nov. 11, 2008
CONTENTS
Honoring the Troops
Armistice Day
Veterans for Peace
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Veterans Against the Iraq War
Gold Star Families for Peace
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Rabbi Waskow, Temple Shalom
Bucheit’s American Wars and Other Books
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380; www.lincoln.senate.gov; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/index.cfm; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
SENATOR Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908. www.pryor.senate.gov ; http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
Nov. 11, 2009, CONTENTS
OMNI in Veterans’ Day Parade 2009
Message from Veterans for Peace
Greenwald Message on Afghanistan
Peace Action Message on Afghanistan
Support the Troops: Vets’ Health Care
Valor
Military Refusers
Zinn on Nationalism and War, Will Phillips on the Pledge
Recent Books on US Empire from OMNI Bibliographies
OMNI VETS IN EUREKA SPRINGS
Lyell Thompson (WWII), Carl Barnwell (Vietnam War), and Dick Bennett (Korean) represented Veterans for Peace and OMNI in the Veterans’ Day Parade in Eureka Springs 11-11-09. We and our large banner were cordially welcomed by the parade organizer who invited us, by all in the parade who voiced their feelings, and by many along the parade route. Nobody vocally objected to our being there; many thanked us strongly for it. One woman in the restaurant afterward came to our table to say we were the voice of sanity. The majority of our citizens oppose US permanent war.
In addition to Fayetteville, OMNI has created activities in Bentonville/ NWACC, Springdale, and Greenland. I spoke to the librarians in the ES library about a possible event at their library, to maintain our connection with ES. Dick
Veterans For Peace Statement for Armistice/Veterans' Day 2009
Veterans' Day began as "Armistice" Day, to celebrate November 11, 1918 when the guns of World War One finally stopped - and what cause for celebration there was!
From August 1914 until November 1918, 30 million soldiers were killed or wounded and another 7 million were taken captive. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter. A hint of the wreckage can be glimpsed by visiting a Great War memorial in any European town and invariably seeing a list of names long enough to include every young man who lived there at the time - hence the "lost generation."
Today we can hardly imagine the horror of the trenches where rats provided a real service by eating away at the corpses hanging on the barbed wire, in shell holes and half-buried in the walls of the dugouts.
The reality of the battlefield permeated the consciousness back home; so much so that even in America, whose troops arrived in Europe only in the closing months of the war, Congress responded to a universal hope that such a war would never happen again. It passed a resolution calling for "exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples." Later, Congress added that November 11 was to be "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace."
Armistice Day was more than a time for department store midnight madness sales. It meant more than military color guards marching in parades featuring the cleaned-up machinery of war. It was a reminder of the insane, horrific cost of war paid by soldiers at the front, those who ministered to the dead and wounded, and their families back home. It was a day to reflect on that memory and vow to learn to live in a world without war.
These days, when some still give all, but very few give some, it's easy for most of us to go on with our lives of work, shopping and family as if that's all there was. It's easy to overlook the tremendous pain and pressures caused by the multiple deployments needed for a "volunteer" military - unless someone in your family is directly involved in the fighting or is cut down by war's wide blade of "collateral damage" that can strike an Army base in Texas as well as a village in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Some truths are indeed universal. Veterans For Peace abides by two very simple ones: Wars are easy to start and hard to stop; and the innocent on all sides always suffer most.
The doughboys of WWI, shivering in the soggy, rotten trenches of Europe in November 1918, would have nodded wearily in agreement.
Mike Ferner, President Veterans For Peace
A Veterans Day Message from Vets to the President:
Do Not Escalate in Afghanistan info@bravenewfoundation.org
President Obama may send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan… 1 soldier = $1 million/year…Quagmire in its ninth year…
Watch the Video | Sign the Petition | Email a Friend
Dear Dick,
News reports indicate that in the next few weeks, President Obama plans to announce his decision to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
If he does so, he will be making the biggest mistake of his presidency.
Sign our petition to send a clear message to President Obama: Do not send more soldiers into this quagmire. [Dick: My software did not reproduce this signing capability. Greenwald’s email is the best I can do here.]
Yours, Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation team
info@bravenewfoundation.org
MESSAGE ON AFGHANISTAN FROM PEACE ACTION
Dear James,
In 1954, President Eisenhower declared that Veterans Day would be a national holiday where "all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose" of peace. In honor of all the veterans who have lost their lives in war, it is time to put war behind us. Ask your Representative to support HR 3699 to prevent funds for more troops to Afghanistan.
This Veteran's Day we must reflect on the steps forward and backwards we have made in this pursuit. Today will be a day to mourn for all those who have lost their lives because of war. Not only American veterans, but the people who have lost their lives needlessly in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Peace Action would urge all people to honor our troops this Veteran's Day by e-mailing your Representative in Congress and asking her or him to keep our troops safe by keeping them home. E-mail your Representative here and tell her or him to support HR 3699.
Sincerely, Paul Kawika Martin, Political Director, Peace Action
SUPPORT THE TROOPS: VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE INSURANCE
Contact: Mark Almberg, Physicians for a National Health Program, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996, mark@pnhp.org
*Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance*
*Harvard researchers say 1.46 million working-age vets lacked health
coverage last year, increasing their death rate*
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military
veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health
insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than
14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in
Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of
Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the
health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not
significantly affect this grim picture.
The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2009
Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their
insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans
between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only
classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor
received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals
or clinics………
CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
Take a moment on this Veterans / Armistice Day to call your Congressperson at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you need them to stop funding the wars and occupations.
PHYSICAL VALOR, PATRIOTISM, PERMANENT WAR, MEDIA
Beginning November 8, the Morning News and the NWA Times began a series, “to last through year’s end,” about 50 men and women “who have received top commendations for bravery and valor.” Nothing in my recollection of local or national newspapers equals this exhibition of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. The newspapers declare: “Since 2001, more than 1.9 million Americans have been deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, displaying the highest form of service to country.” The statistic and claim of “service” are equally shocking. Our editors consider the risk and waste of our youth in illegal and useless foreign wars to be “the highest form of service”? What have they served? Sometimes you hear the soldiers and the public say: they defended US freedom? But how was our freedom threatened by Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan (or by Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua)? Instead, we have witnessed the waste of the lives of our soldiers, their civilians, and trillions of dollars urgently needed for the sustenance of millions of people and a planet threatened. “War is tragic and frightening.” Then should our youth be thrust into tragedy and fear to fight for lies and delusions resulting in torture and killing of innocents and chaos? (Read Chomsky’s summary history of torture:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-7}
We need a national teach-in on the so-called war against “terrorism” as the defense of U. S. freedom, and the valor alleged to have defended it. We need a national teach-in on better ways to defend freedom than by violence and endless wars.
MILITARY REFUSERS AND MORAL VALOR
And we need a national education on the distinction between physical and moral and intellectual courage. Why have not the Morning News and the NWA Times praised those troops who have refused to violate international laws and kill civilians? Democracy Now interviewed (August 5, 2009) Spc. Victor Agosto, court-martialed August 5, 2009 for refusing to redeploy to Afghanistan on moral grounds after having served in Iraq. And Camilo Mejia, who refused redeployment and was imprisoned in 2003(?) to protest torture and other war crimes committed by US. He is appealing his conviction on international law grounds. Both have been designated Soldiers of Conscience by Amnesty International.. Mejia is now Chair of Iraqi Veterans Against the War.
And we need to dig at the roots of why our leaders will send 1.9 million of our youth to our two latest brutal wars and most of our youth are willing to go. Howard Zinn here zeroes in on nationalism.
Zinn, Howard on Nationalism. “Put Away the Flags” in We Who Dared to Say No to War
Published on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by The Progressive
“Put Away the Flags”
“…. we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? …..”
A boy in West Fork shows us a way: West Fork’s Will Phillips Refuses the Pledge: http://arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021
RECENT BOOKS ON US MILITARISM AND EMPIRE (from OMNI Biblio 35)
IMPERIALISM (see: Iran, Iraq, Nationalism, Patriotism, Terrorism, War)
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Times Books/Holt, 2006. “The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode. It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which AmericAns overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons….No nation in modern history has done this so often, in so many places so far from it own shores.”
--Ensign, Tod. America’s Military Today: Challenges for the Armed Forces in a Time of War. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Bacevich, Andrew. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Smith, Tony. A Pact with the Devil: Washington’s Bid for World Supremacy and the Betrayal of the American Promise.
Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Leffler, Melvyn, and Jeffrey Legro, eds. To Lead the World: American Strategy aTfer the Bush Doctrine. Brigham,
Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Klare, Michael. Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Rashid, Ahmed. Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afganistan, and Central Asia. Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Greider, William. Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of our Country. Rodale, 2009. “The U.S. military…has itself become the gravest threat to our peace and security….Our risks and vulnerabilities around the world are magnified and multiplied because the American military has shifted from providing national defense to taking the offensive worldwide, from being a vigilant defender to being an adventurous aggressor in search of enemies.”
--Jolin, Michele. Change for America. Basic Books, 2009.
--Bass, Alison. Side Effects. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
· --
· "Alliances in a Unipolar World," World Politics, Volume 61, no. 1 (January 2009)
From OMNI Biblio 34
IMPERIALISM (see: CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Debt, Exceptionalism, Foreign Policy, Gulf War, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Intolerance, Iran, Islam, Mexico, Middle East, Patriotism, Refugees, Victims)
--Murphy, Cullen. Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Rev. NYT Book Review (May 13, 2007): both nations were afflicted by “a sense of exceptionalism”; both became obsessed with security.
--Lutz, Catherine. Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts. A quarter of a million U.S. troops are massed in over seven hundred major official overseas airbases around the world. In the past decade, the Pentagon has formulated and enacted a plan to realign, or reconfigure, its bases in keeping with new doctrines of pre-emption and intensified concern with strategic resource control, all with seemingly little concern for the surrounding geography and its inhabitants.
The contributors in The Bases of Empire trace the political, environmental, and economic impact of these bases on their surrounding communities across the globe, including Latin America, Europe, and Asia, where opposition to the United States’ presence has been longstanding and widespread, and is growing rapidly.
Through sharp analysis and critique, The Bases of Empire illuminates the vigorous campaigns to hold the United States accountable for the damage its bases cause in allied countries as well as in war zones, and offers ways to reorient security policies in other, more humane, and truly secure directions.
"These fascinating case studies provide a powerful assessment of the worldwide network of U.S. military bases and the burgeoning anti-base campaign, and analyze the changing nature of empire building and the re-mapping of the sociopolitical terrain within the context of the 'global war on terror.' “ Kimberly Theidon, Harvard University
Also by Lutz: Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century
Related article: Holmes, Amy. "The Bases of Empire: The Impact of US Military Installations on Germany and Turkey" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA,, Aug 14, 2004. 2009-03-04
--Higgs, Robert. RESURGENCE OF THE WARFARE STATE: The Crisis Since 9/11.
Immediately after 9/11, government officials and commentators claimed that the terrorist attacks had “changed everything.” In contrast, economist and historian Robert Higgs warned that history would likely repeat itself in one key respect: the government’s hasty reactions would resemble its responses to previous crises, providing little more than opportunities for special interests to feather their nests and for the government itself to expand its powers at the expense of the public’s wealth and civil liberties.
Resurgence of the Warfare State is Robert Higgs’s real-time analysis of the U.S. government’s tragic but predictable response: the quick enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, the federal takeover of airport security, the massive increase in defense and other government spending, and the carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq wrought by leaders unaccountable for their costly and deadly mistakes.
Governmental responses to crises have been—and will likely continue to be—a bonanza for political, corporate, and even religious opportunists who seek power and financial gain by exploiting the fears of the American public.
END OF VETERANS’ DAY NEWSLETTER #2, 2009
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
VETERANS' DAY 2009
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Wed 11/11/09 6:47 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI ARMISTICE/VETERANS' DAY NEWSLETTER #2, NOVEMBER 11, 2009, WE, THE PEOPLE BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE, Compiled by Dick Bennett
NEWSLETTER #1, Nov. 11, 2008
CONTENTS
Honoring the Troops
Armistice Day
Veterans for Peace
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Veterans Against the Iraq War
Gold Star Families for Peace
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Rabbi Waskow, Temple Shalom
Bucheit’s American Wars and Other Books
SENATOR LINCOLN (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.
Fayetteville office: 251-1380; www.lincoln.senate.gov; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/index.cfm; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
SENATOR Mark Pryor: Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908. www.pryor.senate.gov ; http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
CONGRESSMAN Boozman: Lowell office: 479-725-0400.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.
Nov. 11, 2009, CONTENTS
OMNI in Veterans’ Day Parade 2009
Message from Veterans for Peace
Greenwald Message on Afghanistan
Peace Action Message on Afghanistan
Support the Troops: Vets’ Health Care
Valor
Military Refusers
Zinn on Nationalism and War, Will Phillips on the Pledge
Recent Books on US Empire from OMNI Bibliographies
OMNI VETS IN EUREKA SPRINGS
Lyell Thompson (WWII), Carl Barnwell (Vietnam War), and Dick Bennett (Korean) represented Veterans for Peace and OMNI in the Veterans’ Day Parade in Eureka Springs 11-11-09. We and our large banner were cordially welcomed by the parade organizer who invited us, by all in the parade who voiced their feelings, and by many along the parade route. Nobody vocally objected to our being there; many thanked us strongly for it. One woman in the restaurant afterward came to our table to say we were the voice of sanity. The majority of our citizens oppose US permanent war.
In addition to Fayetteville, OMNI has created activities in Bentonville/ NWACC, Springdale, and Greenland. I spoke to the librarians in the ES library about a possible event at their library, to maintain our connection with ES. Dick
Veterans For Peace Statement for Armistice/Veterans' Day 2009
Veterans' Day began as "Armistice" Day, to celebrate November 11, 1918 when the guns of World War One finally stopped - and what cause for celebration there was!
From August 1914 until November 1918, 30 million soldiers were killed or wounded and another 7 million were taken captive. Never before had people witnessed such industrialized slaughter. A hint of the wreckage can be glimpsed by visiting a Great War memorial in any European town and invariably seeing a list of names long enough to include every young man who lived there at the time - hence the "lost generation."
Today we can hardly imagine the horror of the trenches where rats provided a real service by eating away at the corpses hanging on the barbed wire, in shell holes and half-buried in the walls of the dugouts.
The reality of the battlefield permeated the consciousness back home; so much so that even in America, whose troops arrived in Europe only in the closing months of the war, Congress responded to a universal hope that such a war would never happen again. It passed a resolution calling for "exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding...inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples." Later, Congress added that November 11 was to be "a day dedicated to the cause of world peace."
Armistice Day was more than a time for department store midnight madness sales. It meant more than military color guards marching in parades featuring the cleaned-up machinery of war. It was a reminder of the insane, horrific cost of war paid by soldiers at the front, those who ministered to the dead and wounded, and their families back home. It was a day to reflect on that memory and vow to learn to live in a world without war.
These days, when some still give all, but very few give some, it's easy for most of us to go on with our lives of work, shopping and family as if that's all there was. It's easy to overlook the tremendous pain and pressures caused by the multiple deployments needed for a "volunteer" military - unless someone in your family is directly involved in the fighting or is cut down by war's wide blade of "collateral damage" that can strike an Army base in Texas as well as a village in Afghanistan or Iraq.
Some truths are indeed universal. Veterans For Peace abides by two very simple ones: Wars are easy to start and hard to stop; and the innocent on all sides always suffer most.
The doughboys of WWI, shivering in the soggy, rotten trenches of Europe in November 1918, would have nodded wearily in agreement.
Mike Ferner, President Veterans For Peace
A Veterans Day Message from Vets to the President:
Do Not Escalate in Afghanistan info@bravenewfoundation.org
President Obama may send up to 40,000 additional troops to Afghanistan… 1 soldier = $1 million/year…Quagmire in its ninth year…
Watch the Video | Sign the Petition | Email a Friend
Dear Dick,
News reports indicate that in the next few weeks, President Obama plans to announce his decision to send up to 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
If he does so, he will be making the biggest mistake of his presidency.
Sign our petition to send a clear message to President Obama: Do not send more soldiers into this quagmire. [Dick: My software did not reproduce this signing capability. Greenwald’s email is the best I can do here.]
Yours, Robert Greenwald and the Brave New Foundation team
info@bravenewfoundation.org
MESSAGE ON AFGHANISTAN FROM PEACE ACTION
Dear James,
In 1954, President Eisenhower declared that Veterans Day would be a national holiday where "all veterans, all veterans' organizations, and the entire citizenry will wish to join hands in the common purpose" of peace. In honor of all the veterans who have lost their lives in war, it is time to put war behind us. Ask your Representative to support HR 3699 to prevent funds for more troops to Afghanistan.
This Veteran's Day we must reflect on the steps forward and backwards we have made in this pursuit. Today will be a day to mourn for all those who have lost their lives because of war. Not only American veterans, but the people who have lost their lives needlessly in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq.
Peace Action would urge all people to honor our troops this Veteran's Day by e-mailing your Representative in Congress and asking her or him to keep our troops safe by keeping them home. E-mail your Representative here and tell her or him to support HR 3699.
Sincerely, Paul Kawika Martin, Political Director, Peace Action
SUPPORT THE TROOPS: VETERANS’ HEALTH CARE INSURANCE
Contact: Mark Almberg, Physicians for a National Health Program, (312) 782-6006, cell: (312) 622-0996, mark@pnhp.org
*Over 2,200 veterans died in 2008 due to lack of health insurance*
*Harvard researchers say 1.46 million working-age vets lacked health
coverage last year, increasing their death rate*
A research team at Harvard Medical School estimates 2,266 U.S. military
veterans under the age of 65 died last year because they lacked health
insurance and thus had reduced access to care. That figure is more than
14 times the number of deaths (155) suffered by U.S. troops in
Afghanistan in 2008, and more than twice as many as have died (911 as of
Oct. 31) since the war began in 2001.
The researchers, who released their analysis today, pointedly say the
health reform legislation pending in the House and Senate will not
significantly affect this grim picture.
The Harvard group analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2009
Current Population Survey, which surveyed Americans about their
insurance coverage and veteran status, and found that 1,461,615 veterans
between the ages of 18 and 64 were uninsured in 2008. Veterans were only
classified as uninsured if they neither had health insurance nor
received ongoing care at Veterans Health Administration (VA) hospitals
or clinics………
CALL YOUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
Take a moment on this Veterans / Armistice Day to call your Congressperson at (202) 224-3121 and tell them you need them to stop funding the wars and occupations.
PHYSICAL VALOR, PATRIOTISM, PERMANENT WAR, MEDIA
Beginning November 8, the Morning News and the NWA Times began a series, “to last through year’s end,” about 50 men and women “who have received top commendations for bravery and valor.” Nothing in my recollection of local or national newspapers equals this exhibition of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism. The newspapers declare: “Since 2001, more than 1.9 million Americans have been deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, displaying the highest form of service to country.” The statistic and claim of “service” are equally shocking. Our editors consider the risk and waste of our youth in illegal and useless foreign wars to be “the highest form of service”? What have they served? Sometimes you hear the soldiers and the public say: they defended US freedom? But how was our freedom threatened by Iraq or Afghanistan or Pakistan (or by Grenada, Panama, Nicaragua)? Instead, we have witnessed the waste of the lives of our soldiers, their civilians, and trillions of dollars urgently needed for the sustenance of millions of people and a planet threatened. “War is tragic and frightening.” Then should our youth be thrust into tragedy and fear to fight for lies and delusions resulting in torture and killing of innocents and chaos? (Read Chomsky’s summary history of torture:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/05/19-7}
We need a national teach-in on the so-called war against “terrorism” as the defense of U. S. freedom, and the valor alleged to have defended it. We need a national teach-in on better ways to defend freedom than by violence and endless wars.
MILITARY REFUSERS AND MORAL VALOR
And we need a national education on the distinction between physical and moral and intellectual courage. Why have not the Morning News and the NWA Times praised those troops who have refused to violate international laws and kill civilians? Democracy Now interviewed (August 5, 2009) Spc. Victor Agosto, court-martialed August 5, 2009 for refusing to redeploy to Afghanistan on moral grounds after having served in Iraq. And Camilo Mejia, who refused redeployment and was imprisoned in 2003(?) to protest torture and other war crimes committed by US. He is appealing his conviction on international law grounds. Both have been designated Soldiers of Conscience by Amnesty International.. Mejia is now Chair of Iraqi Veterans Against the War.
And we need to dig at the roots of why our leaders will send 1.9 million of our youth to our two latest brutal wars and most of our youth are willing to go. Howard Zinn here zeroes in on nationalism.
Zinn, Howard on Nationalism. “Put Away the Flags” in We Who Dared to Say No to War
Published on Sunday, July 1, 2007 by The Progressive
“Put Away the Flags”
“…. we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed. Is not nationalism -- that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder -- one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred? …..”
A boy in West Fork shows us a way: West Fork’s Will Phillips Refuses the Pledge: http://arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=2f5d7a3b-c72a-446b-8d20-3823aa79c021
RECENT BOOKS ON US MILITARISM AND EMPIRE (from OMNI Biblio 35)
IMPERIALISM (see: Iran, Iraq, Nationalism, Patriotism, Terrorism, War)
Kinzer, Stephen. Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq. Times Books/Holt, 2006. “The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was not an isolated episode. It was the culmination of a 110-year period during which AmericAns overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons….No nation in modern history has done this so often, in so many places so far from it own shores.”
--Ensign, Tod. America’s Military Today: Challenges for the Armed Forces in a Time of War. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Bacevich, Andrew. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Johnson, Chalmers. Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Smith, Tony. A Pact with the Devil: Washington’s Bid for World Supremacy and the Betrayal of the American Promise.
Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Leffler, Melvyn, and Jeffrey Legro, eds. To Lead the World: American Strategy aTfer the Bush Doctrine. Brigham,
Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Klare, Michael. Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America’s Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum. Brigham, Robert. Is Iraq Another Vietnam? Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Rashid, Ahmed. Descent Into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afganistan, and Central Asia. Rev. Peace and Change (July 2009).
--Greider, William. Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of our Country. Rodale, 2009. “The U.S. military…has itself become the gravest threat to our peace and security….Our risks and vulnerabilities around the world are magnified and multiplied because the American military has shifted from providing national defense to taking the offensive worldwide, from being a vigilant defender to being an adventurous aggressor in search of enemies.”
--Jolin, Michele. Change for America. Basic Books, 2009.
--Bass, Alison. Side Effects. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2009.
· --
· "Alliances in a Unipolar World," World Politics, Volume 61, no. 1 (January 2009)
From OMNI Biblio 34
IMPERIALISM (see: CIA, Cold War, Cuba, Debt, Exceptionalism, Foreign Policy, Gulf War, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Intolerance, Iran, Islam, Mexico, Middle East, Patriotism, Refugees, Victims)
--Murphy, Cullen. Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. Rev. NYT Book Review (May 13, 2007): both nations were afflicted by “a sense of exceptionalism”; both became obsessed with security.
--Lutz, Catherine. Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts. A quarter of a million U.S. troops are massed in over seven hundred major official overseas airbases around the world. In the past decade, the Pentagon has formulated and enacted a plan to realign, or reconfigure, its bases in keeping with new doctrines of pre-emption and intensified concern with strategic resource control, all with seemingly little concern for the surrounding geography and its inhabitants.
The contributors in The Bases of Empire trace the political, environmental, and economic impact of these bases on their surrounding communities across the globe, including Latin America, Europe, and Asia, where opposition to the United States’ presence has been longstanding and widespread, and is growing rapidly.
Through sharp analysis and critique, The Bases of Empire illuminates the vigorous campaigns to hold the United States accountable for the damage its bases cause in allied countries as well as in war zones, and offers ways to reorient security policies in other, more humane, and truly secure directions.
"These fascinating case studies provide a powerful assessment of the worldwide network of U.S. military bases and the burgeoning anti-base campaign, and analyze the changing nature of empire building and the re-mapping of the sociopolitical terrain within the context of the 'global war on terror.' “ Kimberly Theidon, Harvard University
Also by Lutz: Homefront: A Military City and the American Twentieth Century
Related article: Holmes, Amy. "The Bases of Empire: The Impact of US Military Installations on Germany and Turkey" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA,, Aug 14, 2004. 2009-03-04
--Higgs, Robert. RESURGENCE OF THE WARFARE STATE: The Crisis Since 9/11.
Immediately after 9/11, government officials and commentators claimed that the terrorist attacks had “changed everything.” In contrast, economist and historian Robert Higgs warned that history would likely repeat itself in one key respect: the government’s hasty reactions would resemble its responses to previous crises, providing little more than opportunities for special interests to feather their nests and for the government itself to expand its powers at the expense of the public’s wealth and civil liberties.
Resurgence of the Warfare State is Robert Higgs’s real-time analysis of the U.S. government’s tragic but predictable response: the quick enactment of the USA PATRIOT Act, the federal takeover of airport security, the massive increase in defense and other government spending, and the carnage in Afghanistan and Iraq wrought by leaders unaccountable for their costly and deadly mistakes.
Governmental responses to crises have been—and will likely continue to be—a bonanza for political, corporate, and even religious opportunists who seek power and financial gain by exploiting the fears of the American public.
END OF VETERANS’ DAY NEWSLETTER #2, 2009
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Dorothy Day's birthday a day to remember her heroics in the fight for women's rights, workers' right and against war
1897-1980 "The biggest mistake sometimes is to play things very safe in this life and end up being moral failures."
Dorothy Day combined her political passion for justice and equality with her religious commitment for serving the destitute. She took a vow of poverty and lived a life of service to the poor in the hospitality houses and the newspaper The Catholic Worker she developed with Peter Maurin-- the Catholic Worker Movement. She worked tirelessly and was arrested often in the struggles for women's rights, workers' rights, and against war. Bio: Jim Forest, Love is the Measure.
Dorothy Day combined her political passion for justice and equality with her religious commitment for serving the destitute. She took a vow of poverty and lived a life of service to the poor in the hospitality houses and the newspaper The Catholic Worker she developed with Peter Maurin-- the Catholic Worker Movement. She worked tirelessly and was arrested often in the struggles for women's rights, workers' rights, and against war. Bio: Jim Forest, Love is the Measure.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Carbon Caps Task Force to meet at 1:30 p.m. Sunday November 8 at 3274 Lee Avenue in Fayetteville Arkansas
Asking Ourselves: What’s My Role in the CCTF?
Objectives:
1. Define and discuss expansion of the CCTF mission.
2. Ensure members are up to date on CCTF tasks and gain their input and commitment.
3. Introduce Joanna as the CCTF Facilitator
Attendees:
Will be filled in as Joanna is notified and sent out with reminder
e-mail one day before the meeting.
Date, Time and Duration:
Sunday 11/8/09 from 1-2:30pm
At The New Omni House on 3274 Lee Avenue
Items:
• Introductions and any announcements members have…(3 minutes)
• CCTF Mission: Raising Climate Change Consciousness- Education and Beyond…Joanna Pollock (8 minutes).
• Art with Social Purpose, Speaking to Copenhagen…Adam Campbell (10 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Reaching out to Farmers and the American Farm Bureau Hypocrisy…Joanna Pollock (5 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Addressing Anti-Climate Change Legislation Propaganda…Dick Bennett (10 minutes or less)
• Population and Climate Change Book Forum…Joanna Pollock (10 minutes or less).
• Climate Scientist and CAT-TV Forum…Dick Bennett (3 minutes)
• Talking to Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor…Art Hobson.
• Coal Coalition…Joanna Pollock (3 minutes) (A Clean Air Arkansas Collaboration)
• Future Plans and New Ideas…Open to All (10 minutes).
Objectives:
1. Define and discuss expansion of the CCTF mission.
2. Ensure members are up to date on CCTF tasks and gain their input and commitment.
3. Introduce Joanna as the CCTF Facilitator
Attendees:
Will be filled in as Joanna is notified and sent out with reminder
e-mail one day before the meeting.
Date, Time and Duration:
Sunday 11/8/09 from 1-2:30pm
At The New Omni House on 3274 Lee Avenue
Items:
• Introductions and any announcements members have…(3 minutes)
• CCTF Mission: Raising Climate Change Consciousness- Education and Beyond…Joanna Pollock (8 minutes).
• Art with Social Purpose, Speaking to Copenhagen…Adam Campbell (10 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Reaching out to Farmers and the American Farm Bureau Hypocrisy…Joanna Pollock (5 minutes or less) (A 1sky collaboration)
• Addressing Anti-Climate Change Legislation Propaganda…Dick Bennett (10 minutes or less)
• Population and Climate Change Book Forum…Joanna Pollock (10 minutes or less).
• Climate Scientist and CAT-TV Forum…Dick Bennett (3 minutes)
• Talking to Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor…Art Hobson.
• Coal Coalition…Joanna Pollock (3 minutes) (A Clean Air Arkansas Collaboration)
• Future Plans and New Ideas…Open to All (10 minutes).
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Film date reset to later in the month: November 19 likely date
FILM CANCELED
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/03/09 12:16 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
WATCH FOR IT IN TWO WEEKS
NEW FILM, RETHINK AFGHANISTAN.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009, 6p.m. LIKELY new date
UA KIMPEL HALL 105.
Contact Jonathan Biggs 655-2427
Kimpel is located between two parking garages, which are free at nights to visitors.
This outstanding film by the notable documentarian, Robert Greenwald (Director of Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale) shatters the deceptions and myths that started and sustain our nation’s longest war. Segments: Troops, Pakistan, Cost of War, Women in Afghanistan, Civilian Casualties, Security, Solutions. For more information and to get engaged contact OMNI members producing the Book Forum, and : www.rethinkafghanistan.com and Facebook.com/rethinkafghanistan
ACQUIRE AND SHOW THIS FILM. SPEAK OUT AGAINST THESE WARS.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Tue 11/03/09 12:16 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
WATCH FOR IT IN TWO WEEKS
NEW FILM, RETHINK AFGHANISTAN.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2009, 6p.m. LIKELY new date
UA KIMPEL HALL 105.
Contact Jonathan Biggs 655-2427
Kimpel is located between two parking garages, which are free at nights to visitors.
This outstanding film by the notable documentarian, Robert Greenwald (Director of Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and Iraq for Sale) shatters the deceptions and myths that started and sustain our nation’s longest war. Segments: Troops, Pakistan, Cost of War, Women in Afghanistan, Civilian Casualties, Security, Solutions. For more information and to get engaged contact OMNI members producing the Book Forum, and : www.rethinkafghanistan.com and Facebook.com/rethinkafghanistan
ACQUIRE AND SHOW THIS FILM. SPEAK OUT AGAINST THESE WARS.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Patriot Act needs revision NOW to protect the rights of honest citizens of the U.S.
Please help get the UnPATRIOTic Act amended to regain our constitutional rights. Please go to the link below and send a letter urging our members of congress to support legislation coming before them SOON.
The letter says:
I write as a concerned constituent. Government surveillance of the communications and activities of innocent Americans has increased exponentially since the events of September 11, 2001. I urge you to support investigations of, and amendments to, the Patriot Act and other surveillance laws that have fundamentally diminished the rights of Americans. This is the best chance to rein in the out-of-control government powers embedded in the Patriot Act since it was enacted.
H.R. 3845, The USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009, protects constitutional speech and privacy rights by:
*Amending the national security letter statute to ensure that the government obtains financial, communication and credit records only of people believed to be terrorists or spies;
*Requiring the government to convince a court that a national security gag order is necessary;
*Ensuring that the so-called "library records provision" does not authorize collection of library and bookstore records if they contain information on the patron.
As you can imagine, the bill is not perfect. It leaves the Patriot Act's so-called "material support" provision intact, permitting prosecution of those who work with or for charities that give humanitarian aid in good faith to war-torn countries. Please support adding a provision that would limit prosecution to those who actually intend to support terrorist-oriented actions.
I urge you to co-sponsor the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009. It's time that our government stop violating the rights of everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism.
I look forward to your response on this important matter.
(https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=1781&page=UserAction),
And please pass it on!
The letter says:
I write as a concerned constituent. Government surveillance of the communications and activities of innocent Americans has increased exponentially since the events of September 11, 2001. I urge you to support investigations of, and amendments to, the Patriot Act and other surveillance laws that have fundamentally diminished the rights of Americans. This is the best chance to rein in the out-of-control government powers embedded in the Patriot Act since it was enacted.
H.R. 3845, The USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009, protects constitutional speech and privacy rights by:
*Amending the national security letter statute to ensure that the government obtains financial, communication and credit records only of people believed to be terrorists or spies;
*Requiring the government to convince a court that a national security gag order is necessary;
*Ensuring that the so-called "library records provision" does not authorize collection of library and bookstore records if they contain information on the patron.
As you can imagine, the bill is not perfect. It leaves the Patriot Act's so-called "material support" provision intact, permitting prosecution of those who work with or for charities that give humanitarian aid in good faith to war-torn countries. Please support adding a provision that would limit prosecution to those who actually intend to support terrorist-oriented actions.
I urge you to co-sponsor the USA Patriot Amendments Act of 2009. It's time that our government stop violating the rights of everyday people who have nothing to do with terrorism.
I look forward to your response on this important matter.
(https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=1781&page=UserAction),
And please pass it on!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Claire Detels' performance of samples of music of some of the Great African American composers Friday night brought support to OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology
Please click on image to move to Flickr site and ENLARGE view of Claire Detels on October 20, 2009
Claire Detels performs music of Great African American composers tonight; donations support OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology
Hi OMNI folks and friends...
Tonight only! Pianist and musicologist Prof. Claire Detels performs the music of Great African American composers on Adella Gray's lovely piano. The program is attached. Please join us.
Great African American Composers
Home of Gary and Adella Gray
1681 N. Starr Drive
6:30 social hour, 7:00 performance
Directions: Take Mission Blvd. to N. Starr, turn right
$10 donation accepted to benefit OMNI Center. Please join us.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
Tonight only! Pianist and musicologist Prof. Claire Detels performs the music of Great African American composers on Adella Gray's lovely piano. The program is attached. Please join us.
Great African American Composers
Home of Gary and Adella Gray
1681 N. Starr Drive
6:30 social hour, 7:00 performance
Directions: Take Mission Blvd. to N. Starr, turn right
$10 donation accepted to benefit OMNI Center. Please join us.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
OMNI AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN BOOK FORUM at 6 p.m. November 6, 2009, at Nightbird Books on Dickson Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas
OMNI AFGHANISTAN/PAKISTAN BOOK FORUM
NOV. 6, 2009, NIGHTBIRD BOOKS, 6PM
The books for this Forum discuss the complicated history and factional rivalries that have shaped Afghanistan,imperial—British, Soviet, and US--forays into Afghanistan and South and Central Asia,the role of the CIA, the rise of bin Laden and Taliban, human rights struggles of women in Afghanistan, and much more. The subject has large, urgent meaning for Americans today, as President Obama weighs the heavy decision whether to increase (as General McChrystal recommends) or not increase or decrease troops in Afghanistan ( Vice President Joe Biden’s argument); whether to change from a policy primarily of military force (including assassination of Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders) and occupation, to a criminal approach, arresting and prosecuting Al-Qaeda; or to one of diplomacy and assistance. These books help us to understand the history of Afghanistan and Western Pakistan, knowledge essential to a citizen who wishes to be informed in order to have a voice regarding the costs and the future of this longest war in U.S. history.
PANELISTS
Sanaa Riaz: Ali, The Duel (history of Afghanistan)
Jesse Barr: Kolhatkar and Ingalls, Bleeding Afghanistan
Edrene McKay: Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue
Julie Thacker: Rashid, Descent into Chaos
BOOKS
*--Ali, Tariq. The Duel. Simon & Schuster, 2008. (Riaz)
--Bick, Barara. Walking the Precipice. Witness to the Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
*--Chayes, Sarah The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban. 2006. (McKay)
--Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
AFGHANISTAN 101 by Ehsan Entezar
--Gould, Elizabeth and Paul Fitzgerald. Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story.
--OPIUM SEASON by Joel Hafvenstein
-- Iraq Veterans Against the War and Aaron Glantz. Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations. Haymarket Books, 2008.
--Johnson, Chris and Jolyon Leslie. Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace. 2004.
*--Kolhatkar, Sonali, and James Ingalls. Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence. 2006. (Barr)
--THREE CUPS of TEA by Greg Mortenson and David Relin
*--Rashid, Ahmed. Descent Into Chaos. Viking, 2008. (Thacker)
--Stewart, Rory. The Places in Between.
BIOGRAPHIES OF SPEAKERS
JESSE BARR
Born and raised in rural central Illinois. (1932)
Korean war veteran. (1952-1956)
BS in Journalism 1960, University of Illinois
MS in Education 1970, University of Oregon
TV producer/cinematographer/photographer, University of Illinois,
Xerox Corporation, Government of American Samoa,
University of Michigan Telecommunications consultant
Avocation: wood sculptor
EDRENE MCkAY
Edrene McKay teaches United States history, Western Civilization, and contemporary history at NorthWest Arkansas Community College and DeVry University Online. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and her specialty is late 19th and early 20th century U.S. history, although in recent years she has focused more on contemporary history.
SANAA RIAZ
Sanaa Riaz is a PhD Candidate in the Dept. of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. She has conducted a year and a half of fieldwork on private schools, public schools and madrasas (religious schools) in Karachi, which is also her hometown. Sanaa is the American Association of University Women International Fellow 2008-9. She has taught at high school and college levels in Pakistan and served as a teaching assistant for 2 and a half years for the Anthropology department. She has also taught for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Arkansas. Sanaa has contributed book reviews to academic journals and has written over 20 book reviews, articles and opinion pieces for Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper.
JULIE THACKER
Julie Thacker is a life-long Arkansan. I was born in Stuttgart AR, and moved to Elaine Ark. when I was about 4 years old. I went to college at ASU in Jonesboro Ark. and graduated in 1976 with a BSE in Art. I have been living in Fayetteville for 30 years, which I think is a better place to live than any other place in Arkansas. I have an adult daughter. I want to do this forum because I believe that evil thrives when good people do nothing. I consider it my civic duty to do this forum.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
NOV. 6, 2009, NIGHTBIRD BOOKS, 6PM
The books for this Forum discuss the complicated history and factional rivalries that have shaped Afghanistan,imperial—British, Soviet, and US--forays into Afghanistan and South and Central Asia,the role of the CIA, the rise of bin Laden and Taliban, human rights struggles of women in Afghanistan, and much more. The subject has large, urgent meaning for Americans today, as President Obama weighs the heavy decision whether to increase (as General McChrystal recommends) or not increase or decrease troops in Afghanistan ( Vice President Joe Biden’s argument); whether to change from a policy primarily of military force (including assassination of Taliban and Al-Qaeda leaders) and occupation, to a criminal approach, arresting and prosecuting Al-Qaeda; or to one of diplomacy and assistance. These books help us to understand the history of Afghanistan and Western Pakistan, knowledge essential to a citizen who wishes to be informed in order to have a voice regarding the costs and the future of this longest war in U.S. history.
PANELISTS
Sanaa Riaz: Ali, The Duel (history of Afghanistan)
Jesse Barr: Kolhatkar and Ingalls, Bleeding Afghanistan
Edrene McKay: Chayes, The Punishment of Virtue
Julie Thacker: Rashid, Descent into Chaos
BOOKS
*--Ali, Tariq. The Duel. Simon & Schuster, 2008. (Riaz)
--Bick, Barara. Walking the Precipice. Witness to the Rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
*--Chayes, Sarah The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban. 2006. (McKay)
--Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
AFGHANISTAN 101 by Ehsan Entezar
--Gould, Elizabeth and Paul Fitzgerald. Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story.
--OPIUM SEASON by Joel Hafvenstein
-- Iraq Veterans Against the War and Aaron Glantz. Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations. Haymarket Books, 2008.
--Johnson, Chris and Jolyon Leslie. Afghanistan: The Mirage of Peace. 2004.
*--Kolhatkar, Sonali, and James Ingalls. Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence. 2006. (Barr)
--THREE CUPS of TEA by Greg Mortenson and David Relin
*--Rashid, Ahmed. Descent Into Chaos. Viking, 2008. (Thacker)
--Stewart, Rory. The Places in Between.
BIOGRAPHIES OF SPEAKERS
JESSE BARR
Born and raised in rural central Illinois. (1932)
Korean war veteran. (1952-1956)
BS in Journalism 1960, University of Illinois
MS in Education 1970, University of Oregon
TV producer/cinematographer/photographer, University of Illinois,
Xerox Corporation, Government of American Samoa,
University of Michigan Telecommunications consultant
Avocation: wood sculptor
EDRENE MCkAY
Edrene McKay teaches United States history, Western Civilization, and contemporary history at NorthWest Arkansas Community College and DeVry University Online. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and her specialty is late 19th and early 20th century U.S. history, although in recent years she has focused more on contemporary history.
SANAA RIAZ
Sanaa Riaz is a PhD Candidate in the Dept. of Anthropology, University of Arkansas. She has conducted a year and a half of fieldwork on private schools, public schools and madrasas (religious schools) in Karachi, which is also her hometown. Sanaa is the American Association of University Women International Fellow 2008-9. She has taught at high school and college levels in Pakistan and served as a teaching assistant for 2 and a half years for the Anthropology department. She has also taught for Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Arkansas. Sanaa has contributed book reviews to academic journals and has written over 20 book reviews, articles and opinion pieces for Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English language newspaper.
JULIE THACKER
Julie Thacker is a life-long Arkansan. I was born in Stuttgart AR, and moved to Elaine Ark. when I was about 4 years old. I went to college at ASU in Jonesboro Ark. and graduated in 1976 with a BSE in Art. I have been living in Fayetteville for 30 years, which I think is a better place to live than any other place in Arkansas. I have an adult daughter. I want to do this forum because I believe that evil thrives when good people do nothing. I consider it my civic duty to do this forum.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Saturday, October 24, 2009
October 24, 2009, is United Nations Day
Today, Oct. 24, we reflect on the founding ideals of the UN and the work it accomplishes around the world.
This year's commemoration is particularly significant as the United States embarks on a new era of global cooperation and engagement with the United Nations.
We at UNA-USA are energized and more committed than ever to our mission to educate, inspire and mobilize Americans in support of the UN's principles and vital work to create a better, safer world. Here is a snapshot of UNA-USA news and events and information on how you can participate:
Major Announcements
UNA Delivers Global Classrooms Curriculum in Chicago
UNA-USA President Tom Miller joined Chicago public school officials and city leaders on Oct. 23 at an international education conference on world studies held at the University of Chicago. The conference also formally reintroduced the expanded Global Classrooms curriculum to educators in the Chicago public school system, where 9th grade students are now required to take world studies courses. Read more about it here.
Board Member Nominated for Post of Ambassador to UN in Geneva
Betty King, a UNA-USA board member and former Unesco ambassador, has been nominated by the White House to be the next US ambassador to the UN in Geneva. Among other roles, this office maintains oversight of the Human Rights Council, which the US joined in May 2009. UNA-USA congratulates Ambassador King on her nomination. Read the full UNA statement here.
Take Action Today
In September, President Obama addressed the UN for the first time, calling for a new era of engagement through the world body. Although he was speaking to world leaders, the president's message can be directed to all of us as individuals. Tell Congress you support international cooperation.
The International Criminal Court is a major achievement of the UN, and UNA has a program, AMICC, to support it. Celebrate this success on UN Day by reminding the administration to support the ICC..
UN Day Events
UNA-USA chapters nationwide are holding events to commemorate UN Day. From university campuses to city halls or governors' mansions, serious debates of issues before the UN are taking place. Find an event in your area by visiting our event calendar or learn more about local events here.
Program Events
UNA’s Council of Organizations most recent event highlighted milestones that reflect the international community’s efforts to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women. Read about their latest event here.
Official UN Day Messages
US President Barack Obama's UN Day Proclamation
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's UN Day Message
US State Department Fact Sheet: US Multilateral Engagement Benefits
--
Dick Bennett
This year's commemoration is particularly significant as the United States embarks on a new era of global cooperation and engagement with the United Nations.
We at UNA-USA are energized and more committed than ever to our mission to educate, inspire and mobilize Americans in support of the UN's principles and vital work to create a better, safer world. Here is a snapshot of UNA-USA news and events and information on how you can participate:
Major Announcements
UNA Delivers Global Classrooms Curriculum in Chicago
UNA-USA President Tom Miller joined Chicago public school officials and city leaders on Oct. 23 at an international education conference on world studies held at the University of Chicago. The conference also formally reintroduced the expanded Global Classrooms curriculum to educators in the Chicago public school system, where 9th grade students are now required to take world studies courses. Read more about it here.
Board Member Nominated for Post of Ambassador to UN in Geneva
Betty King, a UNA-USA board member and former Unesco ambassador, has been nominated by the White House to be the next US ambassador to the UN in Geneva. Among other roles, this office maintains oversight of the Human Rights Council, which the US joined in May 2009. UNA-USA congratulates Ambassador King on her nomination. Read the full UNA statement here.
Take Action Today
In September, President Obama addressed the UN for the first time, calling for a new era of engagement through the world body. Although he was speaking to world leaders, the president's message can be directed to all of us as individuals. Tell Congress you support international cooperation.
The International Criminal Court is a major achievement of the UN, and UNA has a program, AMICC, to support it. Celebrate this success on UN Day by reminding the administration to support the ICC..
UN Day Events
UNA-USA chapters nationwide are holding events to commemorate UN Day. From university campuses to city halls or governors' mansions, serious debates of issues before the UN are taking place. Find an event in your area by visiting our event calendar or learn more about local events here.
Program Events
UNA’s Council of Organizations most recent event highlighted milestones that reflect the international community’s efforts to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women. Read about their latest event here.
Official UN Day Messages
US President Barack Obama's UN Day Proclamation
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's UN Day Message
US State Department Fact Sheet: US Multilateral Engagement Benefits
--
Dick Bennett
Fayetteville Climate Change Action begins at 2 p.m. at Dickson Street and Campbell Avenue next to Bordinos
Fayetteville Climate Change Action begins at 2 p.m. at Dickson Street and Campbell Avenue next to Bordinos.
March and Rally - Fayetteville will join with over 4,000 others world-wide. We hope you will come to learn more about Climate Change and show solidarity. Join with fellow citizens of NW Arkansas at 2:00pm at Dickson and Campbell Streets (next to Bordinos)...the march will begin there and head to the Square. There will be speakers, music and information on how we can make a difference affecting the December treaty in Copenhagen. This is the most pressing universal issue that concerns us all...It's a chance for all of us to Stand up for Action on Climate Change. The event is sponsored by 350.org and 1 SKY. For more information call 530-7786.
A one day screening of The AGE OF STUPID in Fayetteville at the UA Union Theater from 6-9 pm on October 24th.
All of the community is encouraged to attend this FREE screening! Parking free in Union Parking Lot.
After the International Climate Day of Action (2:00 pm beginning on Dickson by Bordinos)
March and Rally - Fayetteville will join with over 4,000 others world-wide. We hope you will come to learn more about Climate Change and show solidarity. Join with fellow citizens of NW Arkansas at 2:00pm at Dickson and Campbell Streets (next to Bordinos)...the march will begin there and head to the Square. There will be speakers, music and information on how we can make a difference affecting the December treaty in Copenhagen. This is the most pressing universal issue that concerns us all...It's a chance for all of us to Stand up for Action on Climate Change. The event is sponsored by 350.org and 1 SKY. For more information call 530-7786.
A one day screening of The AGE OF STUPID in Fayetteville at the UA Union Theater from 6-9 pm on October 24th.
All of the community is encouraged to attend this FREE screening! Parking free in Union Parking Lot.
After the International Climate Day of Action (2:00 pm beginning on Dickson by Bordinos)
Mayor John Gray of Greenland serves as host of OMNI book forum on October 23, 2009, at Greenland Community Center
Please click on image to go to Flickr site to Enlarge photo and to see other photos from Friday night environmental conservation events in Northwest Arkansas on Friday October 23, 2009, including Ed Begley's lecture at Fayetteville Public Library.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Friday night book forum on climate breakdown in Greenland, Arkansas
FORUM ON CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology and its Climate Change Task Force will present a Book Forum on Climate Breakdown at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at the Greenland Community Center.
Panelists will discuss the latest science-based scholarship explaining how the climate is collapsing with accelerating speed because of the rapid increase of human-generated CO2 in the atmosphere. The consensus of scientists know that by 2050 the atmosphere must be restored to 350 PPM (parts per million) of CO2 if our civilization is to survive even in a reduced condition. Panelists are Steve Boss, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathan Gibbs, and Joanna Pollock. Moderator: Carl Barnwell.
The Forum offers two firsts:
This is the first public presentation in Arkansas of the best books on climate change. All express the scientific consensus that 350 PPM of atmospheric C02 must be the goal, and it must be achieved quickly. And it is the first Forum by OMNI presented in a town other than Fayetteville, Springdale, and Rogers. OMNI and its Climate Change Task Force, with its climate educational programs, are reaching out to NWA beyond its major cities and colleges..
Books to be discussed are: Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future; David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 years of Earth's Climate; Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet; James Speth, Bridge to the End of the World. (Additional excellent books among the many: Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution; Larry Schweiger, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth; James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia A Final Warning .
Directions to the Greenland Community Center
South on 71: At Greenland stoplight turn right onto Wilson, cross railroad tracks, keep on Wilson to “Y”, turn right onto Leticia, go 2 blocks to Center.
South on 540: At Greenland Exit, go east on Wilson to “Y”, turn left onto Leticia, Center will be on right.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology and its Climate Change Task Force will present a Book Forum on Climate Breakdown at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at the Greenland Community Center.
Panelists will discuss the latest science-based scholarship explaining how the climate is collapsing with accelerating speed because of the rapid increase of human-generated CO2 in the atmosphere. The consensus of scientists know that by 2050 the atmosphere must be restored to 350 PPM (parts per million) of CO2 if our civilization is to survive even in a reduced condition. Panelists are Steve Boss, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathan Gibbs, and Joanna Pollock. Moderator: Carl Barnwell.
The Forum offers two firsts:
This is the first public presentation in Arkansas of the best books on climate change. All express the scientific consensus that 350 PPM of atmospheric C02 must be the goal, and it must be achieved quickly. And it is the first Forum by OMNI presented in a town other than Fayetteville, Springdale, and Rogers. OMNI and its Climate Change Task Force, with its climate educational programs, are reaching out to NWA beyond its major cities and colleges..
Books to be discussed are: Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future; David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 years of Earth's Climate; Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet; James Speth, Bridge to the End of the World. (Additional excellent books among the many: Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution; Larry Schweiger, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth; James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia A Final Warning .
Directions to the Greenland Community Center
South on 71: At Greenland stoplight turn right onto Wilson, cross railroad tracks, keep on Wilson to “Y”, turn right onto Leticia, go 2 blocks to Center.
South on 540: At Greenland Exit, go east on Wilson to “Y”, turn left onto Leticia, Center will be on right.
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Book forum on climate breakdown at 5:30 p.m. Friday, October 23
FORUM ON CLIMATE BREAKDOWN
The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology and its Climate Change Task Force will present a Book Forum on Climate Breakdown at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at the Greenland Community Center.
Panelists will discuss the latest science-based scholarship explaining how the climate is collapsing with accelerating speed because of the rapid increase of human-generated CO2 in the atmosphere. Panelists are Steve Boss, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathan Gibbs, and Joanna Pollock. Moderator: Carl Barnwell.
Books to be discussed are: Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future; James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia A Final Warning; David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 years of Earth's Climate; Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet; James Speth, Bridge to the End of the World. Special references: Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution; Larry Schweiger, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.
The OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology and its Climate Change Task Force will present a Book Forum on Climate Breakdown at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at the Greenland Community Center.
Panelists will discuss the latest science-based scholarship explaining how the climate is collapsing with accelerating speed because of the rapid increase of human-generated CO2 in the atmosphere. Panelists are Steve Boss, Ryan Bancroft, Jonathan Gibbs, and Joanna Pollock. Moderator: Carl Barnwell.
Books to be discussed are: Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future; James Lovelock, The Vanishing Face of Gaia A Final Warning; David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing the Next 100,000 years of Earth's Climate; Mark Lynas, Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet; James Speth, Bridge to the End of the World. Special references: Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution; Larry Schweiger, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Dick Bennett leads celebration of Indigenous people's day October 12, 2009
Please click on image to go to Flickr site and ENLARGE for viewing of photo and story from The Northwest Arkansas Times of October 13, 2009.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Indigenous people of the Americas Day coming October 12, 2009
UA INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE AMERICAS DAY OCTOBER 12, 2009
University of Arkansas Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Day Observance to Focus on the “Trail of Tears” in Northwest Arkansas
This year’s observance of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Day will focus upon one of America’s greatest tragedies - the forced removal of Native Americans, in the 1830s, over “the Trail of Tears”. The Trail of Tears was the result of a legislative declaration that no foreign government, which included Native American tribes, could be physically located within the borders of the United States. Any tribe that failed to disband or move of its own accord to the specially designated “Indian Territory” of present day Oklahoma would be forcibly removed by Federal forces. Thousands of people died during this thousand mile journey over the “Trail of Tears”. Part of the infamous trail that the Cherokee people took traverses Northwest Arkansas.
On Monday, October 12th (officially Columbus Day), the University of Arkansas will host a special program recognizing the “Trail of Tears”. The 74 minute documentary Trail of Tears from the 2009 PBS series We Shall Remain will be shown at 11:00 a.m. in Room AU 503 of the Arkansas Student Union. This screening is free and open to the public.
From 1:00 to 1:45 p.m., members of the Honors Film Association, Native American Student Association, and OMNI will be expressing their thoughts about this sad chapter in American history, by reading passages from journals kept by those who walked the Trail of Tears. Members of the public are encouraged to share their feelings and do readings relating to the Trail of Tears during this open forum. This observance will be held in the Connections Lounge in the Arkansas Student Union.
At 1:45 there will be a procession from the Connections Lounge to the marker in the park on Highway 62, which commemorates the location where a thousand Cherokees camped during their journey to Indian Territory in 1839, over the Trail of Tears. At 2:00 there will be a ceremony in which officers of the Arkansas Chapter of the National Trail of Tears Association will speak about the Cherokees who actually came through Northwest Arkansas and camped here. State Representative Lindsley Smith will be presenting a Proclamation commemorating this event on behalf of Mayor Lioneld Jordan.
Further information about this historic site can be found at http://campusmaps.uark.edu/461.php.
The University of Arkansas Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Observance is sponsored by the Honors Film Association; the Native American Student Association; the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology; the Honors College; the Multicultural Center; and the Department of Communication. For more information about this observance, visit our website at http://cavern.uark.edu/~hfa, or contact Frank Scheide at 575-5961 (fscheide@uark.edu).
BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE BY AFFIRMING NATIONAL DAYS OF PEACE AND TRANSFORMING NATIONAL DAYS FOR WAR INTO DAYS FOR PEACE
We cannot make this change so long as we celebrate the myths represented by the US official ceremonial Days, many of which, like Columbus Day, directly support aggression, conquest, and slaughter.
George Orwell wrote in 1984: "Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth”—that violence and invasions are inevitable, that our species is inherently violent. Much of OMNI’s work in building a Culture of Peace involves the struggle to reinforce peaceful values despite the power of innumerable species, ethnic, and nationalistic myths. In behavioral psychology, we are what we do. Most of the public mindlessly accepts the messages of special Days (Daze?) and holidays that promote military power and domination, because, they believe, militarism is not only inevitable but necessary for our security, even though it is we who have attacked other nations, and since the War of 1812 never been attacked by another nation.
The US celebrates two kinds of Days. Some of them affirm peace (Martin Luther King’s birthday). But most of them project the US nationalistic, patriotic, exceptionalist, imperial Days. OMNI reinforces the DAYS for PEACE (and creates new ones), and offers alternatives for the Days for Violence.
When people ask, What can I do, what can one person do, to change the world from war to peace? Here is one answer: Help OMNI reinforce a peaceful day or challenge a warfare Day!
When scoffers ask, what difference can we make here? We can answer: we are offering a model to the world, and sometimes models grab the world’s imagination.
We are experimenting of course. The subtitle of Gandhi’s autobio. Is My Life of Experiments. Few peace organizations adhere to a comprehensive program like ours, based on the assumption that the US warfare state—Corporate-Pentagon-White House-Congress-Mainstream Media—is an interrelated complex, and we should counter it, point by point, by a peaceful complex.
Join OMNI, choose your DAY!
Dick
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
University of Arkansas Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Day Observance to Focus on the “Trail of Tears” in Northwest Arkansas
This year’s observance of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Day will focus upon one of America’s greatest tragedies - the forced removal of Native Americans, in the 1830s, over “the Trail of Tears”. The Trail of Tears was the result of a legislative declaration that no foreign government, which included Native American tribes, could be physically located within the borders of the United States. Any tribe that failed to disband or move of its own accord to the specially designated “Indian Territory” of present day Oklahoma would be forcibly removed by Federal forces. Thousands of people died during this thousand mile journey over the “Trail of Tears”. Part of the infamous trail that the Cherokee people took traverses Northwest Arkansas.
On Monday, October 12th (officially Columbus Day), the University of Arkansas will host a special program recognizing the “Trail of Tears”. The 74 minute documentary Trail of Tears from the 2009 PBS series We Shall Remain will be shown at 11:00 a.m. in Room AU 503 of the Arkansas Student Union. This screening is free and open to the public.
From 1:00 to 1:45 p.m., members of the Honors Film Association, Native American Student Association, and OMNI will be expressing their thoughts about this sad chapter in American history, by reading passages from journals kept by those who walked the Trail of Tears. Members of the public are encouraged to share their feelings and do readings relating to the Trail of Tears during this open forum. This observance will be held in the Connections Lounge in the Arkansas Student Union.
At 1:45 there will be a procession from the Connections Lounge to the marker in the park on Highway 62, which commemorates the location where a thousand Cherokees camped during their journey to Indian Territory in 1839, over the Trail of Tears. At 2:00 there will be a ceremony in which officers of the Arkansas Chapter of the National Trail of Tears Association will speak about the Cherokees who actually came through Northwest Arkansas and camped here. State Representative Lindsley Smith will be presenting a Proclamation commemorating this event on behalf of Mayor Lioneld Jordan.
Further information about this historic site can be found at http://campusmaps.uark.edu/461.php.
The University of Arkansas Indigenous Peoples of the Americas Observance is sponsored by the Honors Film Association; the Native American Student Association; the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and Ecology; the Honors College; the Multicultural Center; and the Department of Communication. For more information about this observance, visit our website at http://cavern.uark.edu/~hfa, or contact Frank Scheide at 575-5961 (fscheide@uark.edu).
BUILDING A CULTURE OF PEACE BY AFFIRMING NATIONAL DAYS OF PEACE AND TRANSFORMING NATIONAL DAYS FOR WAR INTO DAYS FOR PEACE
We cannot make this change so long as we celebrate the myths represented by the US official ceremonial Days, many of which, like Columbus Day, directly support aggression, conquest, and slaughter.
George Orwell wrote in 1984: "Everything faded into mist. The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth”—that violence and invasions are inevitable, that our species is inherently violent. Much of OMNI’s work in building a Culture of Peace involves the struggle to reinforce peaceful values despite the power of innumerable species, ethnic, and nationalistic myths. In behavioral psychology, we are what we do. Most of the public mindlessly accepts the messages of special Days (Daze?) and holidays that promote military power and domination, because, they believe, militarism is not only inevitable but necessary for our security, even though it is we who have attacked other nations, and since the War of 1812 never been attacked by another nation.
The US celebrates two kinds of Days. Some of them affirm peace (Martin Luther King’s birthday). But most of them project the US nationalistic, patriotic, exceptionalist, imperial Days. OMNI reinforces the DAYS for PEACE (and creates new ones), and offers alternatives for the Days for Violence.
When people ask, What can I do, what can one person do, to change the world from war to peace? Here is one answer: Help OMNI reinforce a peaceful day or challenge a warfare Day!
When scoffers ask, what difference can we make here? We can answer: we are offering a model to the world, and sometimes models grab the world’s imagination.
We are experimenting of course. The subtitle of Gandhi’s autobio. Is My Life of Experiments. Few peace organizations adhere to a comprehensive program like ours, based on the assumption that the US warfare state—Corporate-Pentagon-White House-Congress-Mainstream Media—is an interrelated complex, and we should counter it, point by point, by a peaceful complex.
Join OMNI, choose your DAY!
Dick
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Patriot Act needs revision NOW to protect the rights of honest citizens of the U.S.
On top of the huge changes on health care, climate change, and immigration reform going on, Congress will also need to address those patriot act issues still in place from the Bush admin. Two bills about this are on the Congressional docket, and need to be monitored by citizens.
Please read this good information from the National Library Association. You recall that it was the librarians who were on the front lines in defense of civil liberties then. They continue to keep an eagle eye on how changes to the patriot act unfold.
They're sending us a request to write our legislators on these issues. What a great OMNI folk project... books are pretty important to us. I personally felt very grateful to the librarians who put their jobs on the line to say "no" to surveillance of patrons by NSA and others.
Thanks Nancy for passing this along.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
--- On Wed, 9/30/09, Nancy Goliff :
Subject: USA Patriot Act Reforms
From a CA librarian friend. Please contact our Senators about this. -- N.
This is very important to libraries that library records remain confidential except for a court order showing reason why the records need to be released. This is guaranteed by California State law, but the federal Patriot Act Section 215 trumps State law. The federal law does not even allow a library director to tell his or her boss or to consult an attorney before or after releasing all records.
USA PATRIOT ACT REFORMS – JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MARKUP SEPTEMBER 30TH
More Info
September 30, 2009
ADVOCATES ASKED TO CONTACT SENATORS ON JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ASAP
It is critical that library supporters from states with senators on the Judiciary Committee call them as soon as possible urging reforms to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and laws covering national security letters. The Senate switchboard number is: (202) 224-3121
There are two USA PATRIOT Act reform bills pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee at this time. The Committee has scheduled a work session or "markup" of S. 1696, the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act originally introduced on September 17th by Judiciary Chairman Leahy and Sens. Cardin and Kaufman. This bill respects constitutional rights by increasing judicial review of the use of surveillance authorities that sweep in U.S. citizens. The bill also expands public reporting to ensure that Americans can monitor the use of these authorities.
[ Leahy statement: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200909/092209b.html ]
THE MESSAGE:
Congress should pass the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009, S. 1692, with key amendments to protect civil liberties based upon S. 1686, the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act, and,
Congress should also consider reforms of national security letters (NSLs) now as legislation on reform and reauthorization of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act moves forward.
TALKING POINTS:
The library community thanks Senator Leahy and the bills's other sponsors, Senators Cardin (MD-D) , Kaufman (DE-D) and Sanders (VT-I) for introducing legislation that makes many needed reforms to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act;
However, library advocates urge the Judiciary Committee to consider amendments to S. 1692, based upon provisions in S. 1686, the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act;
Intensify oversight of the Section 215 and National Security Letters provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and other laws that limit the privacy rights of library users, library employees and the general public, including annual reports by the Department of Justice's Inspector General.
Guarantee a recipient the right to consult an attorney, the right to challenge any gag order and due process at the time a Section 215 order or an NSL is served on the recipient;
Require the FBI to provide sufficient facts to demonstrate that a gag order is necessary to protect national security; if authorized, the gag order should automatically expire at the end of six months unless the FBI shows good cause to extend the gag order.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, D-Vermont
Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin
Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member, R-Alabama
Dianne Feinstein, D-California
Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah
Russell D. Feingold, D-Wisconsin
Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa
Charles E. Schumer, D-New York
Jon Kyl, R-Arizona
Richard J. Durbin, D-Illinois
Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Maryland
John Cornyn, R-Texas
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island
Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma
Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota
Edward E. Kaufman, D-Delaware
Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania
Al Franken, D-Minnesota
[For additional background information go to ALA's recent "District Dispatch" on USA PATRIOT Act reforms at: http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?cat=10]
Full bill text for S. 1692 is at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1692.IS:
Full bill text for 1686 is at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.01686:
You may view the latest post at
http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=3830
Please read this good information from the National Library Association. You recall that it was the librarians who were on the front lines in defense of civil liberties then. They continue to keep an eagle eye on how changes to the patriot act unfold.
They're sending us a request to write our legislators on these issues. What a great OMNI folk project... books are pretty important to us. I personally felt very grateful to the librarians who put their jobs on the line to say "no" to surveillance of patrons by NSA and others.
Thanks Nancy for passing this along.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
--- On Wed, 9/30/09, Nancy Goliff
Subject: USA Patriot Act Reforms
From a CA librarian friend. Please contact our Senators about this. -- N.
This is very important to libraries that library records remain confidential except for a court order showing reason why the records need to be released. This is guaranteed by California State law, but the federal Patriot Act Section 215 trumps State law. The federal law does not even allow a library director to tell his or her boss or to consult an attorney before or after releasing all records.
USA PATRIOT ACT REFORMS – JUDICIARY COMMITTEE MARKUP SEPTEMBER 30TH
More Info
September 30, 2009
ADVOCATES ASKED TO CONTACT SENATORS ON JUDICIARY COMMITTEE ASAP
It is critical that library supporters from states with senators on the Judiciary Committee call them as soon as possible urging reforms to Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act and laws covering national security letters. The Senate switchboard number is: (202) 224-3121
There are two USA PATRIOT Act reform bills pending before the Senate Judiciary Committee at this time. The Committee has scheduled a work session or "markup" of S. 1696, the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act originally introduced on September 17th by Judiciary Chairman Leahy and Sens. Cardin and Kaufman. This bill respects constitutional rights by increasing judicial review of the use of surveillance authorities that sweep in U.S. citizens. The bill also expands public reporting to ensure that Americans can monitor the use of these authorities.
[ Leahy statement: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200909/092209b.html ]
THE MESSAGE:
Congress should pass the USA PATRIOT Act Sunset Extension Act of 2009, S. 1692, with key amendments to protect civil liberties based upon S. 1686, the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act, and,
Congress should also consider reforms of national security letters (NSLs) now as legislation on reform and reauthorization of Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act moves forward.
TALKING POINTS:
The library community thanks Senator Leahy and the bills's other sponsors, Senators Cardin (MD-D) , Kaufman (DE-D) and Sanders (VT-I) for introducing legislation that makes many needed reforms to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act;
However, library advocates urge the Judiciary Committee to consider amendments to S. 1692, based upon provisions in S. 1686, the Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools in Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act;
Intensify oversight of the Section 215 and National Security Letters provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act and other laws that limit the privacy rights of library users, library employees and the general public, including annual reports by the Department of Justice's Inspector General.
Guarantee a recipient the right to consult an attorney, the right to challenge any gag order and due process at the time a Section 215 order or an NSL is served on the recipient;
Require the FBI to provide sufficient facts to demonstrate that a gag order is necessary to protect national security; if authorized, the gag order should automatically expire at the end of six months unless the FBI shows good cause to extend the gag order.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee
Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, D-Vermont
Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin
Jeff Sessions, Ranking Member, R-Alabama
Dianne Feinstein, D-California
Orrin G. Hatch, R-Utah
Russell D. Feingold, D-Wisconsin
Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa
Charles E. Schumer, D-New York
Jon Kyl, R-Arizona
Richard J. Durbin, D-Illinois
Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina
Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Maryland
John Cornyn, R-Texas
Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island
Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma
Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota
Edward E. Kaufman, D-Delaware
Arlen Specter, D-Pennsylvania
Al Franken, D-Minnesota
[For additional background information go to ALA's recent "District Dispatch" on USA PATRIOT Act reforms at: http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?cat=10]
Full bill text for S. 1692 is at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.1692.IS:
Full bill text for 1686 is at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:s.01686:
You may view the latest post at
http://www.wo.ala.org/districtdispatch/?p=3830
Thursday, October 1, 2009
It's National Call-in Day: No timeline, no exit strategy. Stop the funding!
Subject: It's National Call-in Day: No Timeline! No Exit Strategy! Stop the Funding!
It's National Call-in Day: No Timeline! No Exit Strategy! Stop the Funding!
To reach the Washington Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or 202-225-3121
Congress is steps away from passing the $625.8 billion 2010 Defense Budget, which contains approximately $128.2 billion to conduct the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through September 2010.
So far the White House has offered no timetable and no "exit strategy" for Afghanistan. To the contrary, General McChrystal is calling for tens of thousands of additional American troops and a long-term commitment, which could tie the United States down in Afghanistan for years to come.
This is the original meaning of "a quagmire"-when every step taken to escalate a war makes it harder than ever to leave. At this critical moment, members of Congress need to get a powerful message from their constituents that we need a different policy in Afghanistan -one that emphasizes diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. Without any plan to bring the war to an end, Congress should not give another" blank-check" to the White House for continued fighting.
United for Peace and Justice, CODEPINK, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats for America, Just Foreign Policy, AfterDowningStreet and Voters for Peace (list still in formation) believe that a public outcry is vitally important now, when the Pentagon is so obviously leaning on the President and Congress to escalate a costly, destructive and ultimately un-winnable war.
Join the National Call-in Day and tell your Senators and Congressional Representatives to vote against the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. When making this call, urge them to co-sponsor Congressman James McGovern's H.R. 2404 that would require President Obama to provide an "exit plan" from Afghanistan no later than December 2009. For a list of co-sponsors of the McGovern bill:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.02404
Growing numbers of Senators and Congressional Representatives have expressed concerns over US policy in Afghanistan. It is hypocritical to raise so many questions and then turn around and provide "blank check" funding for another year of war.
Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
VotersForPeace is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose candidates for office.
VotersForPeace.US
2842 N. Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
443-708-8360
It's National Call-in Day: No Timeline! No Exit Strategy! Stop the Funding!
To reach the Washington Switchboard: 202-224-3121 or 202-225-3121
Congress is steps away from passing the $625.8 billion 2010 Defense Budget, which contains approximately $128.2 billion to conduct the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through September 2010.
So far the White House has offered no timetable and no "exit strategy" for Afghanistan. To the contrary, General McChrystal is calling for tens of thousands of additional American troops and a long-term commitment, which could tie the United States down in Afghanistan for years to come.
This is the original meaning of "a quagmire"-when every step taken to escalate a war makes it harder than ever to leave. At this critical moment, members of Congress need to get a powerful message from their constituents that we need a different policy in Afghanistan -one that emphasizes diplomacy and humanitarian assistance. Without any plan to bring the war to an end, Congress should not give another" blank-check" to the White House for continued fighting.
United for Peace and Justice, CODEPINK, Peace Action, Progressive Democrats for America, Just Foreign Policy, AfterDowningStreet and Voters for Peace (list still in formation) believe that a public outcry is vitally important now, when the Pentagon is so obviously leaning on the President and Congress to escalate a costly, destructive and ultimately un-winnable war.
Join the National Call-in Day and tell your Senators and Congressional Representatives to vote against the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill. When making this call, urge them to co-sponsor Congressman James McGovern's H.R. 2404 that would require President Obama to provide an "exit plan" from Afghanistan no later than December 2009. For a list of co-sponsors of the McGovern bill:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.02404
Growing numbers of Senators and Congressional Representatives have expressed concerns over US policy in Afghanistan. It is hypocritical to raise so many questions and then turn around and provide "blank check" funding for another year of war.
Call the Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
VotersForPeace is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose candidates for office.
VotersForPeace.US
2842 N. Calvert St.
Baltimore, MD 21218
443-708-8360
Monday, September 21, 2009
Today is International Day of Peace
Please click on headline above to open link to more information.
TODAY IS THE UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Mon 9/21/09 10:50 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE NEWSLETTER, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009, Compiled by Dick Bennett for OMNI’s Culture of Peace Mission. (Newsletter #1 September 20, 2008.)
Yesterday the 20th was the birthday of Thich Nhat Hanh.
CONTENTS
United Nations Day of Peace
Education for Peace
William Blum vs. Militarism and Empire
Contact Your Congressional Representatives
International Peace Day is September 21.
Check out the new UN web site that covers disarmament issues
1. International Day Of Peace
www.peacedirect.org Join local people promoting peace around the world.
Search Results
1. Home - International Day of Peace
The International Day of Peace NGO Committee in association with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations. Includes information on the day ...
www.internationaldayofpeace.org/ - Cached - Similar -
2. - International Day of Peace
Sep 14, 2009 ... The Broadcast will feature Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Message for the UN International Day of Peace; as well as interviews with present ...
internationaldayofpeace.org/news_and_updates/ - Cached - Similar -
Show more results from internationaldayofpeace.org
3. International Day of Peace Vigil
Aug 18, 2008 ... Welcome to the International Day of Peace Vigil site. This global 24-hour spiritual observation for peace is meant to demonstrate the power ...
www.idpvigil.com/ - Cached - Similar -
4. News results for iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
As UN marks International Day of Peace, Ban makes appeal for ... - 2 hours ago
“On this International Day of Peace, I have a simple message for all: We Must Disarm! We must have peace.” The Secretary-General's 100-day campaign on ...
UN News Centre - 67 related articles »
Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots International Day of Peace ... - Emediawire (press release) - 3 related articles »
Day of Peace planned - Warren Tribune Chronicle - 10 related articles »
5. International Day of Peace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The International Day of Peace occurs annually on September 21. It is dedicated to peace, or specifically the absence of war, such as might be occasioned by ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace - Cached - Similar -
6. ReadWriteThink: September 21, 2009: Today is the International Day ...
The International Day of Peace This site contains a number of links to other websites dealing with ways to become active in promoting peace around the world ...
www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=296 - Cached - Similar -
7. Welcome to Peace One Day: Peace One Day – 21 September 2009
Peace One Day is a non-profit organisation committed to raising awareness of Peace Day, 21st September, an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence.
www.peaceoneday.org/ - Cached - Similar -
8. International Day of Peace, 21 September
Jun 13, 2009 ... The International Day of Peace, observed each year on 21 September, is a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. ...
www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/ - Cached - Similar -
9. International Day of Peace 2009 - UN Peace Day
International Day of Peace: September 21, 2009. "There has never been a network of Peace Makers on Earth; at one time, of one heart, of one mind, ...
www.themiracletimes.com/.../International_Day_of_Peace.htm - Cached - Similar -
10. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE: SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 « BEAUTIFUL, ALSO ...
The United Nations' (UN) International Day of Peace is annually held on September 21 to recognize the efforts of individuals, organizations and governments ...
kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/.../international-day-of-peace-september-21-2009/ - Cached - Similar -
11. Video results for iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
International Day of Peace 2009 - Nuclear ...
2 min 27 sec
www.youtube.com
At the Heart of Peace
2 min 16 sec
vids.myspace.com
12. Image results for iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
- Report images
EDUCATION FOR PEACE
September 21, 2009
The United Nations has declared September 21 as the Inter- national Day of Peace. In a message commemorating the Day in 1995, Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali stated that “the world, once more, cries out for peace. And for the economic and social development that peace alone can assure... Let us keep our goal clear and simple... Let us work for peace.”
image © 2009 www.clipart.com
Today is the International Day of Peace.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
For middle and high school students:
1. Have students brainstorm a list of conflicts that are happening around the world: Israel-Palestine, Iraq, etc.
2. Ask students to generate a list of reasons why people fight: religion, economics, etc.
3. Have students form groups and assign each group one reason from the list they generated above. In groups, students should discuss and be ready to present possible solutions that could address the causes. It is important to emphasize that students are not trying to solve a particular world crisis, but rather are trying to identify solutions that can work in general (education, tolerance, debt relief, etc.).
4. The groups could then create posters that promote their particular solution. See the lesson plan Designing Effective Poster Presentations for tips and ideas on making posters.
For elementary-age students, follow the same process as above, but instead of looking at the world, ask students to focus on conflicts, reasons, and solutions in their school.
Lesson Plans
Peace Poems and Picasso Doves: Literature, Art, Technology, and Poetry
This lesson for grades 3–5 asks students to apply think-aloud strategies to reading, as well as to the composition of artwork and poetry, as they research symbols of peace and compose their own poetry.
The Peace Journey: Using Process Drama in the Classroom
In this lesson, high school students participate in a simulation of a “Peace Journey” as they engage in a variety of literacy activities.
Exploring Author’s Voice Using Jane Addams Award-Winning Books
The middle school lesson uses Jane Addams Award-winning books, given to children’s books that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community and the equality of the sexes and all races, to explore author’s voice and style.
Web Links
The International Day of Peace
This site contains a number of links to other websites dealing with ways to become active in promoting peace around the world and in the local communities.
Peace Education
This site, part of the United Nations Cyberschool Bus, contains five curricular units that focus on ecology, tolerance, critical thinking, social justice, and global citizenship.
The Nobel Peace Prize
Read about the outstanding people who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the official site for the award. The site includes biographies, lectures, and additional information for all the award winners as well as educational material.
Peace Corps Kids World
This kid-friendly site explores the services of the U.S. Peace Corps.
Texts
Schell, Jonathan. 2003. The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People. Metropolitan Books.
Schell argues in this book that military power is no longer the main arbiter of justice in the world, and that promoting nonviolence will be the key to world security.
Pierce, Linda Breen. 2000. Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World. Gallagher Press.
Peace also starts at home and work, and this book offers solutions to working for peace in our own lives.
Gilley, Jeremy. 2005. Peace One Day. Putnam Juvenile.
Gilley, a British filmmaker, shares his successful efforts to have the United Nations declare a day to celebrate peace. The book includes descriptions and images of Gilley’s experiences in war-torn areas.
Home | Lessons | Standards | Web Resources | Student Materials | Literacy Engagements | Calendar
About Us | Contact Us | Search | Legal Notices | FAQs | Technical Support
International Reading Association | National Council of Teachers of English
Copyright 2002–2009, IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved.
Last Modified: 09/18/2009 14:32:29
WILLIAM BLUM, Anti-Empire Report, September 2, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer73.html
OUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION, OUR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT: WE WILL NOT HAVE WORLD PEACE AND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE UNTIL OUR REPRESENTATIVES BELIEVE IN THEM.
BLANCHE LINCOLN
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
912 West Fourth Street
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-2993
Fax (501) 375-7064
Toll Free 1-800-352-9364
MARK PRYOR
Little Rock Office
The River Market
500 Clinton Ave
Suite 401
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336
Fax: (501) 324-5320
Toll Free from AR:
(877) 259-9602
Washington, D.C. Office
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
JOHN BOOZEMAN
Addresses and Phone Numbers
Washington, DC Office:
1519 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4301
Fax: (202) 225-5713
Lowell Office:
213 W. Monroe, Suite K
Lowell, AR 72745
Phone: (479) 725-0400
Fax: (479) 725-0408
Fort Smith Office:
4943 Old Greenwood Road
Suite 1
Fort Smith, AR 72903
Phone: (479) 782-7787
Fax: (479) 783-7662
Harrison Office:
North Arkansas College
303 North Main Street
Suite 102
Harrison, Arkansas 72601
Phone: (870) 741-6900
Fax: (870) 741-7741
END OF OMNI INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
TODAY IS THE UN INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Mon 9/21/09 10:50 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE NEWSLETTER, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009, Compiled by Dick Bennett for OMNI’s Culture of Peace Mission. (Newsletter #1 September 20, 2008.)
Yesterday the 20th was the birthday of Thich Nhat Hanh.
CONTENTS
United Nations Day of Peace
Education for Peace
William Blum vs. Militarism and Empire
Contact Your Congressional Representatives
International Peace Day is September 21.
Check out the new UN web site that covers disarmament issues
1. International Day Of Peace
www.peacedirect.org Join local people promoting peace around the world.
Search Results
1. Home - International Day of Peace
The International Day of Peace NGO Committee in association with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations. Includes information on the day ...
www.internationaldayofpeace.org/ - Cached - Similar -
2. - International Day of Peace
Sep 14, 2009 ... The Broadcast will feature Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Message for the UN International Day of Peace; as well as interviews with present ...
internationaldayofpeace.org/news_and_updates/ - Cached - Similar -
Show more results from internationaldayofpeace.org
3. International Day of Peace Vigil
Aug 18, 2008 ... Welcome to the International Day of Peace Vigil site. This global 24-hour spiritual observation for peace is meant to demonstrate the power ...
www.idpvigil.com/ - Cached - Similar -
4. News results for iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
As UN marks International Day of Peace, Ban makes appeal for ... - 2 hours ago
“On this International Day of Peace, I have a simple message for all: We Must Disarm! We must have peace.” The Secretary-General's 100-day campaign on ...
UN News Centre - 67 related articles »
Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots International Day of Peace ... - Emediawire (press release) - 3 related articles »
Day of Peace planned - Warren Tribune Chronicle - 10 related articles »
5. International Day of Peace - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The International Day of Peace occurs annually on September 21. It is dedicated to peace, or specifically the absence of war, such as might be occasioned by ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace - Cached - Similar -
6. ReadWriteThink: September 21, 2009: Today is the International Day ...
The International Day of Peace This site contains a number of links to other websites dealing with ways to become active in promoting peace around the world ...
www.readwritethink.org/calendar/calendar_day.asp?id=296 - Cached - Similar -
7. Welcome to Peace One Day: Peace One Day – 21 September 2009
Peace One Day is a non-profit organisation committed to raising awareness of Peace Day, 21st September, an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence.
www.peaceoneday.org/ - Cached - Similar -
8. International Day of Peace, 21 September
Jun 13, 2009 ... The International Day of Peace, observed each year on 21 September, is a global call for ceasefire and non-violence. ...
www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/ - Cached - Similar -
9. International Day of Peace 2009 - UN Peace Day
International Day of Peace: September 21, 2009. "There has never been a network of Peace Makers on Earth; at one time, of one heart, of one mind, ...
www.themiracletimes.com/.../International_Day_of_Peace.htm - Cached - Similar -
10. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE: SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 « BEAUTIFUL, ALSO ...
The United Nations' (UN) International Day of Peace is annually held on September 21 to recognize the efforts of individuals, organizations and governments ...
kathmanduk2.wordpress.com/.../international-day-of-peace-september-21-2009/ - Cached - Similar -
11. Video results for iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
International Day of Peace 2009 - Nuclear ...
2 min 27 sec
www.youtube.com
At the Heart of Peace
2 min 16 sec
vids.myspace.com
12. Image results for iNTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
- Report images
EDUCATION FOR PEACE
September 21, 2009
The United Nations has declared September 21 as the Inter- national Day of Peace. In a message commemorating the Day in 1995, Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali stated that “the world, once more, cries out for peace. And for the economic and social development that peace alone can assure... Let us keep our goal clear and simple... Let us work for peace.”
image © 2009 www.clipart.com
Today is the International Day of Peace.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY
For middle and high school students:
1. Have students brainstorm a list of conflicts that are happening around the world: Israel-Palestine, Iraq, etc.
2. Ask students to generate a list of reasons why people fight: religion, economics, etc.
3. Have students form groups and assign each group one reason from the list they generated above. In groups, students should discuss and be ready to present possible solutions that could address the causes. It is important to emphasize that students are not trying to solve a particular world crisis, but rather are trying to identify solutions that can work in general (education, tolerance, debt relief, etc.).
4. The groups could then create posters that promote their particular solution. See the lesson plan Designing Effective Poster Presentations for tips and ideas on making posters.
For elementary-age students, follow the same process as above, but instead of looking at the world, ask students to focus on conflicts, reasons, and solutions in their school.
Lesson Plans
Peace Poems and Picasso Doves: Literature, Art, Technology, and Poetry
This lesson for grades 3–5 asks students to apply think-aloud strategies to reading, as well as to the composition of artwork and poetry, as they research symbols of peace and compose their own poetry.
The Peace Journey: Using Process Drama in the Classroom
In this lesson, high school students participate in a simulation of a “Peace Journey” as they engage in a variety of literacy activities.
Exploring Author’s Voice Using Jane Addams Award-Winning Books
The middle school lesson uses Jane Addams Award-winning books, given to children’s books that effectively promote the cause of peace, social justice, world community and the equality of the sexes and all races, to explore author’s voice and style.
Web Links
The International Day of Peace
This site contains a number of links to other websites dealing with ways to become active in promoting peace around the world and in the local communities.
Peace Education
This site, part of the United Nations Cyberschool Bus, contains five curricular units that focus on ecology, tolerance, critical thinking, social justice, and global citizenship.
The Nobel Peace Prize
Read about the outstanding people who have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on the official site for the award. The site includes biographies, lectures, and additional information for all the award winners as well as educational material.
Peace Corps Kids World
This kid-friendly site explores the services of the U.S. Peace Corps.
Texts
Schell, Jonathan. 2003. The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People. Metropolitan Books.
Schell argues in this book that military power is no longer the main arbiter of justice in the world, and that promoting nonviolence will be the key to world security.
Pierce, Linda Breen. 2000. Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World. Gallagher Press.
Peace also starts at home and work, and this book offers solutions to working for peace in our own lives.
Gilley, Jeremy. 2005. Peace One Day. Putnam Juvenile.
Gilley, a British filmmaker, shares his successful efforts to have the United Nations declare a day to celebrate peace. The book includes descriptions and images of Gilley’s experiences in war-torn areas.
Home | Lessons | Standards | Web Resources | Student Materials | Literacy Engagements | Calendar
About Us | Contact Us | Search | Legal Notices | FAQs | Technical Support
International Reading Association | National Council of Teachers of English
Copyright 2002–2009, IRA/NCTE. All rights reserved.
Last Modified: 09/18/2009 14:32:29
WILLIAM BLUM, Anti-Empire Report, September 2, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer73.html
OUR CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION, OUR REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT: WE WILL NOT HAVE WORLD PEACE AND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE UNTIL OUR REPRESENTATIVES BELIEVE IN THEM.
BLANCHE LINCOLN
355 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-4843
Fax (202) 228-1371
912 West Fourth Street
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-2993
Fax (501) 375-7064
Toll Free 1-800-352-9364
MARK PRYOR
Little Rock Office
The River Market
500 Clinton Ave
Suite 401
Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336
Fax: (501) 324-5320
Toll Free from AR:
(877) 259-9602
Washington, D.C. Office
255 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-2353
Fax: (202) 228-0908
JOHN BOOZEMAN
Addresses and Phone Numbers
Washington, DC Office:
1519 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-4301
Fax: (202) 225-5713
Lowell Office:
213 W. Monroe, Suite K
Lowell, AR 72745
Phone: (479) 725-0400
Fax: (479) 725-0408
Fort Smith Office:
4943 Old Greenwood Road
Suite 1
Fort Smith, AR 72903
Phone: (479) 782-7787
Fax: (479) 783-7662
Harrison Office:
North Arkansas College
303 North Main Street
Suite 102
Harrison, Arkansas 72601
Phone: (870) 741-6900
Fax: (870) 741-7741
END OF OMNI INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER 21, 2009
--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu
International Day of Peace
Today is International Day of Peace
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Gladys tiffany (gladystiffany@yahoo.com)
Sent: Mon 9/21/09 10:28 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
1 attachment
logo.png (70.7 KB)
Culture of Peace Initiative
September 2009
Dear Culture of Peace Initiative Participants (CPI),
We have more Peace Day news and events to share, along with very important news about the upcoming worldwide focus on the environment.
POST YOUR EVENTS: It is the weekend before Peace Day, and many people will be seeking events to attend. Please share your event at www.cultureofpeace. org or www.internationalda yofpeace. org. Note: Events posted on either site will automatically show up on both websites! There are about 600 events from all over the planet listed already! Take a moment to browse the calendar and imagine all of the people around the world building peace in their community. It is truly inspiring. It reflects the work of thousands of people preparing venues and outreaching to their friends, family and neighbors!
VISIT OUR BLOG: We plan to make frequent updates to the Culture of Peace Initiative blog in the next few days and the week of Peace Day! Take a visit in this upcoming week for posts on Peace Day events, videos and news!
24 HOUR WORLD PEACE CELEBRATION & GLOBAL BROADCAST for the International Day of Peace will be available at www.cultureofpeace. org. This broadcast will highlight the vitally important work of the United Nations and its humanitarian agencies with video presentations of the "UN in Action". The program will include the official ceremony at UN Headquarters, mentioned below. In addition, this "Peace Day" internet broadcast will include the work of many organizations and individuals around the world dedicated to creating a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. Also featured will be Michael Franti's "Power to the Peaceful" celebration in San Francisco and The Jane Goodall Institute's 'Roots and Shoots' Day of Peace Festival in Santa Monica, CA.
UN WEBCAST: This year's ceremonies at UN Headquarters will be available live and for future viewing at the the following link: www.un.org/webcast. The program will feature presentations by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other UN dignitaries, as well as UN Messengers of Peace Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall, Elie Weisel, and Princess Haya of Jordan. There will be performances by a choir from Japan and musicians from the Vermont Peace Academy; films from Yemen and Albania; and large screen video-conferencing with students in Iraq, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sudan and Timor-Leste. These will be followed by a presentation of Pledges for Peace, the Minute of Silence, the Ringing of the Peace Bell, and a Flags of the World Ceremony by the World Peace Prayer Society.
NEWS
PRESIDENT CARTER TO RECEIVE NONVIOLENCE AWARD: On Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace, President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will be awarded the second Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award from James Madison University’s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, which promotes education, peace and social justice in memory of Mahatma Gandhi. After leaving the White House, the former first couple founded the Carter Center, a non-profit organization that promotes nonviolence and social justice. The organization has helped farmers multiply grain production in 15 African countries, mediated civil and international conflicts, worked to prevent the spread of disease in Latin America and Africa, and strove to diminish the stigma against mental illness. The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence presents the award every two years. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the first award in 2007. He, like Carter, is a Nobel laureate and a member of the Elders, an international alliance of senior statesmen. Read more...
THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE SUMMIT: Just launched its website featuring live broadcasts and chats from the summit in Costa Rica this week. There are also forums, blogs and information in 42 languages! One of their goals is to get all nations to establish a Department or Ministry of Peace. As part of this, they are asking all nations to recognize the International Day of Peace. The Dalai Lama and Yoko One have already sent messages of support. www.gasummit. org
MORE MEDIA ATTENTION: We receive alerts from media outlets all over the world. We are happy to report that our group effort to capture the media's and peoples' attention to this global observance seems to be working. Please keep it up. Here are selected items that we have recently received. Ban Ki-moon mentioned it at the UN NGO conference in Mexico; Yahoo is offering ideas for Peace Day observances; the Bushnell, Connecticutt' s largest performing arts center, is hosting a celebration with notable speakers; Ode Magazine wrote an article about it; so did Whole Life Times; Friends Meetings (Quakers) are hosting events open to the public; libraries are now also participating in the Pinwheels for Peace program; the newspaper in Tampa Bay, FL is calling for a citywide candlelighting ceremony; Vassar College is having a Peace Week (with films, discussions, vigils and more), the Huffington Post covered it; there are veteran's luncheons in some cities; Amma & Shiva Rea are doing an observance together; the city council of Ashland, Oregon has approved a budget for a city wide observance; it was in the Kiwanis International newsletter; several environmental organizations have written about it in their newsletters; there are Montessori schools observing it; churches are planting and dedicating Peace Poles; and Juanes' concert in Cuba being televised worldwide.
A FEW MORE NOTABLE EVENTS
FAST FOR LIFE - In a show of solidarity with the people of Darfur, Mia Farrow, Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel and many government and religious leaders are promoting - and participating in - the Fast for Life on the International Day of Peace. The video on their home page is very moving. fastdarfur.org
OTTAWA PEACE FESTIVAL - Is Ottawa the city with the most peacebuilders? The Canadian Department of Peace Initiative (CDPI) and the United Nations Association of Canada, together with several Ottawa peace and justice groups, invite people to take part in a 13-day Festival of Peace! The Third Annual Peace Festival with the theme of Peace, Unity and Harmony will mark two important dates, the UN International Day of Peace September 21 and October 02, the birth of Mahatma Gandhi 140 years ago. There will be dozens of events, including: forums, walks, school activities, films, proclamations, performances, speeches, diversity discussions, religious observances, environmental panels, exhibits, a trade show, and more. Learn more at: www.cicr-icrc. ca
ENVIRONMENT ONLINE (ENO) is a global virtual school and network for sustainable development, based in Finland. Since 2004, the ENO Programme has arranged tree plantings to celebrate Peace Day. There have been hundreds of participants in 124 countries. In 2008, over 300,000 trees were planted by 2000 schools. A special tree planting song and play have been created to celebrate the day. Their website includes photo galleries of past Peace Day tree plantings, instructions and a registration form for your school or group. A charity concert "Trees Rock For Peace" will be organized in Finland to provide tree seedlings to ENO schools in Africa. According to ENO Director Mika Vanhanen, this year 73 schools from Cuba alone will have a tree planting for peace! www.enotreeday. net, www.enoprogramme. org
CONCERT IN HONOR OF PEACE - at Carnegie Hall, NY by pianists Nimrod David Pfeffer and Bashara Haroni, on Sept. 23rd to support the Jezreel Valley Music Center in Israel, a multicultural community center where people from Israel’s northern region come together to sing, play, and study music. Its choir and ensembles are made up of Jewish and Arab people representing and combining their distinct musical traditions. Read more...
THE HAGUE MARKS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE - In keeping with its worldwide reputation as International City of Peace, Justice and Security, The Hague is taking a special initiative on 21 September. The day will begin with a breakfast in the Peace Palace. Ambassadors, cabinet members, representatives of international organisations and companies, and the Municipal Executive will participate in the breakfast. The vice-president of the International Court of Justice His Excellency A.S. Al-Khasawneh will deliver a message of peace. Breakfast will be followed by a parade involving schoolchildren. There will then be a musical performance by Brainpower and The Party Squad. The local radio station Den Haag FM will broadcast live from the procession under the name of Radio Peace. The live performances will be broadcast on the radio and the schoolchildren will be asked questions about war and peace on the radio. The event will conclude with a lecture by the British historian Jonathan Irvine Israel. Mr. Israel is one of the world’s leading authorities on the Dutch philosopher Spinoza and the issues of peace and security. Read more...
SEASON FOR INTERFAITH CELEBRATION & 11 DAYS OF GLOBAL UNITY (September - December 2009) - Join hundreds of task forces around the world in prayer gatherings and workshops focusing on interfaith communication and harmony. Since 2008, AGNT has been partnering with Unity for 11 Days of Global Unity, a celebration of oneness from September 11 - 21. For more, visit www.agnt.org, http://www.wethewor ld.org/11days200 7/About11Days. html
Important Dates: September 11: Unity World Day of Prayer, 102 years since the birth of Gandhian Nonviolence. December 2nd: New Thought Delegation Pre-Conference at Parliament of the World's Religions. December 3-9: New Thought participates as a unified movement in Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia.
IDP VIGIL - Since the G-20 Summit is in Pittsburgh, the IDP (International Day of Peace) Vigil Campaign, which happens to be based in Pittsburgh, has organized large observances throughout the Pittsburgh area. They have asked "all religious groups throughout the Pittsburgh metropolitan area take this historic opportunity to use their day of worship to link peace and the G-20 gathering. As nuclear disarmament is the UN's major theme of this year’s International Day of Peace, this also presents an excellent opportunity to address the horror of nuclear war." They have delivered a message of peace from Pope Benedict XVI to these religious groups. They have asked that these religious groups focus the worship’s sermon message on peace; use songs of peace, observe a minute of silence at Noon on the IDP, light a candle or ring a bell for peace, and encourage families, teens and children to observe the day. One church is hosting a Peace Pole planting and Flags of the World Ceremony; several churches are having interfaith services on the International Day of Peace. The IDP Vigil Campaign facilitates hundreds of vigils worldwide; many of these have turned into very large events - especially this year's observances in Australia and Malaysia. www.idpvigil. com
MAKING PEACE WITH THE PLANET
A SPECIAL SECTION ON THE ENVIRONMENT:
In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming runs out. To keep the process alive there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol. The UN and others recognize this and there is a worldwide conference in Copenhagen Dec. 6 - 18, 2009 to address this issue. At this conference the parties of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) meet for the last time on a government level before the climate agreement needs to be renewed. Therefore the Climate Conference in Copenhagen is essential for the world's climate, and UNFCCC is putting hard effort into making the meeting in Copenhagen a success, ending up with a Copenhagen Protocol to prevent global warming and climate changes. The UN has initiated the "Seal the Deal" Campaign to get all countries to support this, and leading environmental groups are rallying for it with various events - some of these begin on the International Day of Peace this year!
Global Wake Up Call! Flashmobs!- On Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace, in preparation for the upcoming UN summit on climate change, in Copenhagen in Dec., Greenpeace, Oxfam, CARE, Amnesty International, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the World Wildlife Federation, Avaaz.org and several other organizations are coordinating a worldwide series of events including hundreds of flashmobs in cities, towns and villages worldwide - featuring forums, speakers, films, rallies and other major events. www.tcktcktck. org, https://secure. avaaz.org/ en/sept21_ hosts/
Climate Week NYC - The United Nations, the UN Foundation, the City of New York, The Climate Group, and the Carbon Disclosure Project are organizing Climate Week NYC, a program of more than 50 city-wide events from September 18-25, 2009. www.climateweeknyc. org
The G20 Summit - The G-20 Summit will be in Pittsburgh, PA Sept 24-25, 2009. President Obama will chair this meeting of leaders from countries around the world that represent 85 percent of the world’s economy. At the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit, leaders will review the progress made since the Washington and London Summits and discuss further actions to assure a sound and sustainable recovery from the global financial and economic crisis. As part of this, the G20 'Climate Change' Summit will be marked by a call from unions for a deal in Copenhagen to secure green jobs and a sustainable future. www.pittsburghsummi t.gov
CLOSING NOTES AND REMINDERS:
FACEBOOK: Please join thousands at our Facebook community at www.facebook. com/peaceday There you can see some of the latest events or post your own stories and links. The information and comments posted on this group's wall is inspirational.
TWITTER: Let the world know your thoughts or plans for Peace Day! Remember to spell it #peaceday, which will make #peaceday an active link that anyone can click on to learn more about Peace Day! Follow us at www.twitter. com/peacedaysept 21
RADIO INITIATIVE: A member of our Facebook page recently posted that she got all the radio stations in Edmonton, Canada to play the song 'Imagine' at noon on Peace Day. Perhaps we can all do this with radio stations near us - possibly followed by the song 'Give Peace a Chance'. (We liked this idea so much, that we have already sent this request to over 100 radio stations.) IMAGINE ON YOUTUBE: Here is a link to the song 'Imagine' by John Lennon on YouTube; it has been viewed 3 million times.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=-b7qaSxuZUg.
MINUTE OF SILENCE: One activity in which all people can participate is the UN request for a minute of silence at noon in all time zones - this has now been observed consistently for 27 years.
Join others in making your pledge for the Million Minutes of Peace, a 1 minute worldwide prayer for peace at noon on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21. www.odysseynetworks .org
Here are three things that we can all do on this International Day of Peace: help our neighbors, forgive someone, and count our blessings.
We want to thank all of you, and your supporters, for all of the work you have done on behalf of this year's global observance. We wish you peace for all of your events, activities, programs and initiatives.
Thank you, CPI Participants, for your dedication to building a culture of Peace for future generations on Peace Day and every day.
CPI Coordinator Michael Johnson, CPI Contributing Writer - Melvin Weiner, CPI Outreach Intern - Michael Kwan
Pathways To Peace (PTP) is the International Secretariat for the Culture of Peace Initiative, a designated UN Peace Messenger Initiative. PTP has been involved with the observance of the International Day of Peace since it's inception, and has nurtured it from a single event of a few hundred people in 1982 into what it has become today - a universal and global observance. PTP was responsible for getting the International Day of Peace printed onto calendars worldwide this year. PTP created the CPI website, which serves the 3,000 organizations and countless projects in 200 nations that participate in this local/global Peacebuilding initiative. Pathways To Peace also created the International Day of Peace website, which serves all of humanity. For more information or to support our efforts: www.pathwaystopeace .org
Acting in concert, we do make a difference in the quality of our lives, our institutions, our environment and our planetary future.
Through cooperation, we manifest the essential Spirit that unites us amidst our diverse ways.
Culture of Peace Initiative (CPI) is a project of Pathways To Peace
PO Box 1057
Larkspur, CA 94977
http://www.cultureo fpeace.org/
http://www.pathways topeace.org/
www.internationalda yofpeace. org
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Gladys tiffany (gladystiffany@yahoo.com)
Sent: Mon 9/21/09 10:28 AM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
1 attachment
logo.png (70.7 KB)
Culture of Peace Initiative
September 2009
Dear Culture of Peace Initiative Participants (CPI),
We have more Peace Day news and events to share, along with very important news about the upcoming worldwide focus on the environment.
POST YOUR EVENTS: It is the weekend before Peace Day, and many people will be seeking events to attend. Please share your event at www.cultureofpeace. org or www.internationalda yofpeace. org. Note: Events posted on either site will automatically show up on both websites! There are about 600 events from all over the planet listed already! Take a moment to browse the calendar and imagine all of the people around the world building peace in their community. It is truly inspiring. It reflects the work of thousands of people preparing venues and outreaching to their friends, family and neighbors!
VISIT OUR BLOG: We plan to make frequent updates to the Culture of Peace Initiative blog in the next few days and the week of Peace Day! Take a visit in this upcoming week for posts on Peace Day events, videos and news!
24 HOUR WORLD PEACE CELEBRATION & GLOBAL BROADCAST for the International Day of Peace will be available at www.cultureofpeace. org. This broadcast will highlight the vitally important work of the United Nations and its humanitarian agencies with video presentations of the "UN in Action". The program will include the official ceremony at UN Headquarters, mentioned below. In addition, this "Peace Day" internet broadcast will include the work of many organizations and individuals around the world dedicated to creating a more peaceful, just, and sustainable world. Also featured will be Michael Franti's "Power to the Peaceful" celebration in San Francisco and The Jane Goodall Institute's 'Roots and Shoots' Day of Peace Festival in Santa Monica, CA.
UN WEBCAST: This year's ceremonies at UN Headquarters will be available live and for future viewing at the the following link: www.un.org/webcast. The program will feature presentations by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other UN dignitaries, as well as UN Messengers of Peace Michael Douglas, Jane Goodall, Elie Weisel, and Princess Haya of Jordan. There will be performances by a choir from Japan and musicians from the Vermont Peace Academy; films from Yemen and Albania; and large screen video-conferencing with students in Iraq, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Sudan and Timor-Leste. These will be followed by a presentation of Pledges for Peace, the Minute of Silence, the Ringing of the Peace Bell, and a Flags of the World Ceremony by the World Peace Prayer Society.
NEWS
PRESIDENT CARTER TO RECEIVE NONVIOLENCE AWARD: On Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace, President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, will be awarded the second Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence Award from James Madison University’s Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence, which promotes education, peace and social justice in memory of Mahatma Gandhi. After leaving the White House, the former first couple founded the Carter Center, a non-profit organization that promotes nonviolence and social justice. The organization has helped farmers multiply grain production in 15 African countries, mediated civil and international conflicts, worked to prevent the spread of disease in Latin America and Africa, and strove to diminish the stigma against mental illness. The Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence presents the award every two years. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the first award in 2007. He, like Carter, is a Nobel laureate and a member of the Elders, an international alliance of senior statesmen. Read more...
THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE SUMMIT: Just launched its website featuring live broadcasts and chats from the summit in Costa Rica this week. There are also forums, blogs and information in 42 languages! One of their goals is to get all nations to establish a Department or Ministry of Peace. As part of this, they are asking all nations to recognize the International Day of Peace. The Dalai Lama and Yoko One have already sent messages of support. www.gasummit. org
MORE MEDIA ATTENTION: We receive alerts from media outlets all over the world. We are happy to report that our group effort to capture the media's and peoples' attention to this global observance seems to be working. Please keep it up. Here are selected items that we have recently received. Ban Ki-moon mentioned it at the UN NGO conference in Mexico; Yahoo is offering ideas for Peace Day observances; the Bushnell, Connecticutt' s largest performing arts center, is hosting a celebration with notable speakers; Ode Magazine wrote an article about it; so did Whole Life Times; Friends Meetings (Quakers) are hosting events open to the public; libraries are now also participating in the Pinwheels for Peace program; the newspaper in Tampa Bay, FL is calling for a citywide candlelighting ceremony; Vassar College is having a Peace Week (with films, discussions, vigils and more), the Huffington Post covered it; there are veteran's luncheons in some cities; Amma & Shiva Rea are doing an observance together; the city council of Ashland, Oregon has approved a budget for a city wide observance; it was in the Kiwanis International newsletter; several environmental organizations have written about it in their newsletters; there are Montessori schools observing it; churches are planting and dedicating Peace Poles; and Juanes' concert in Cuba being televised worldwide.
A FEW MORE NOTABLE EVENTS
FAST FOR LIFE - In a show of solidarity with the people of Darfur, Mia Farrow, Richard Branson, Peter Gabriel and many government and religious leaders are promoting - and participating in - the Fast for Life on the International Day of Peace. The video on their home page is very moving. fastdarfur.org
OTTAWA PEACE FESTIVAL - Is Ottawa the city with the most peacebuilders? The Canadian Department of Peace Initiative (CDPI) and the United Nations Association of Canada, together with several Ottawa peace and justice groups, invite people to take part in a 13-day Festival of Peace! The Third Annual Peace Festival with the theme of Peace, Unity and Harmony will mark two important dates, the UN International Day of Peace September 21 and October 02, the birth of Mahatma Gandhi 140 years ago. There will be dozens of events, including: forums, walks, school activities, films, proclamations, performances, speeches, diversity discussions, religious observances, environmental panels, exhibits, a trade show, and more. Learn more at: www.cicr-icrc. ca
ENVIRONMENT ONLINE (ENO) is a global virtual school and network for sustainable development, based in Finland. Since 2004, the ENO Programme has arranged tree plantings to celebrate Peace Day. There have been hundreds of participants in 124 countries. In 2008, over 300,000 trees were planted by 2000 schools. A special tree planting song and play have been created to celebrate the day. Their website includes photo galleries of past Peace Day tree plantings, instructions and a registration form for your school or group. A charity concert "Trees Rock For Peace" will be organized in Finland to provide tree seedlings to ENO schools in Africa. According to ENO Director Mika Vanhanen, this year 73 schools from Cuba alone will have a tree planting for peace! www.enotreeday. net, www.enoprogramme. org
CONCERT IN HONOR OF PEACE - at Carnegie Hall, NY by pianists Nimrod David Pfeffer and Bashara Haroni, on Sept. 23rd to support the Jezreel Valley Music Center in Israel, a multicultural community center where people from Israel’s northern region come together to sing, play, and study music. Its choir and ensembles are made up of Jewish and Arab people representing and combining their distinct musical traditions. Read more...
THE HAGUE MARKS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE - In keeping with its worldwide reputation as International City of Peace, Justice and Security, The Hague is taking a special initiative on 21 September. The day will begin with a breakfast in the Peace Palace. Ambassadors, cabinet members, representatives of international organisations and companies, and the Municipal Executive will participate in the breakfast. The vice-president of the International Court of Justice His Excellency A.S. Al-Khasawneh will deliver a message of peace. Breakfast will be followed by a parade involving schoolchildren. There will then be a musical performance by Brainpower and The Party Squad. The local radio station Den Haag FM will broadcast live from the procession under the name of Radio Peace. The live performances will be broadcast on the radio and the schoolchildren will be asked questions about war and peace on the radio. The event will conclude with a lecture by the British historian Jonathan Irvine Israel. Mr. Israel is one of the world’s leading authorities on the Dutch philosopher Spinoza and the issues of peace and security. Read more...
SEASON FOR INTERFAITH CELEBRATION & 11 DAYS OF GLOBAL UNITY (September - December 2009) - Join hundreds of task forces around the world in prayer gatherings and workshops focusing on interfaith communication and harmony. Since 2008, AGNT has been partnering with Unity for 11 Days of Global Unity, a celebration of oneness from September 11 - 21. For more, visit www.agnt.org, http://www.wethewor ld.org/11days200 7/About11Days. html
Important Dates: September 11: Unity World Day of Prayer, 102 years since the birth of Gandhian Nonviolence. December 2nd: New Thought Delegation Pre-Conference at Parliament of the World's Religions. December 3-9: New Thought participates as a unified movement in Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia.
IDP VIGIL - Since the G-20 Summit is in Pittsburgh, the IDP (International Day of Peace) Vigil Campaign, which happens to be based in Pittsburgh, has organized large observances throughout the Pittsburgh area. They have asked "all religious groups throughout the Pittsburgh metropolitan area take this historic opportunity to use their day of worship to link peace and the G-20 gathering. As nuclear disarmament is the UN's major theme of this year’s International Day of Peace, this also presents an excellent opportunity to address the horror of nuclear war." They have delivered a message of peace from Pope Benedict XVI to these religious groups. They have asked that these religious groups focus the worship’s sermon message on peace; use songs of peace, observe a minute of silence at Noon on the IDP, light a candle or ring a bell for peace, and encourage families, teens and children to observe the day. One church is hosting a Peace Pole planting and Flags of the World Ceremony; several churches are having interfaith services on the International Day of Peace. The IDP Vigil Campaign facilitates hundreds of vigils worldwide; many of these have turned into very large events - especially this year's observances in Australia and Malaysia. www.idpvigil. com
MAKING PEACE WITH THE PLANET
A SPECIAL SECTION ON THE ENVIRONMENT:
In 2012 the Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming runs out. To keep the process alive there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol. The UN and others recognize this and there is a worldwide conference in Copenhagen Dec. 6 - 18, 2009 to address this issue. At this conference the parties of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) meet for the last time on a government level before the climate agreement needs to be renewed. Therefore the Climate Conference in Copenhagen is essential for the world's climate, and UNFCCC is putting hard effort into making the meeting in Copenhagen a success, ending up with a Copenhagen Protocol to prevent global warming and climate changes. The UN has initiated the "Seal the Deal" Campaign to get all countries to support this, and leading environmental groups are rallying for it with various events - some of these begin on the International Day of Peace this year!
Global Wake Up Call! Flashmobs!- On Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace, in preparation for the upcoming UN summit on climate change, in Copenhagen in Dec., Greenpeace, Oxfam, CARE, Amnesty International, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the World Wildlife Federation, Avaaz.org and several other organizations are coordinating a worldwide series of events including hundreds of flashmobs in cities, towns and villages worldwide - featuring forums, speakers, films, rallies and other major events. www.tcktcktck. org, https://secure. avaaz.org/ en/sept21_ hosts/
Climate Week NYC - The United Nations, the UN Foundation, the City of New York, The Climate Group, and the Carbon Disclosure Project are organizing Climate Week NYC, a program of more than 50 city-wide events from September 18-25, 2009. www.climateweeknyc. org
The G20 Summit - The G-20 Summit will be in Pittsburgh, PA Sept 24-25, 2009. President Obama will chair this meeting of leaders from countries around the world that represent 85 percent of the world’s economy. At the Pittsburgh G-20 Summit, leaders will review the progress made since the Washington and London Summits and discuss further actions to assure a sound and sustainable recovery from the global financial and economic crisis. As part of this, the G20 'Climate Change' Summit will be marked by a call from unions for a deal in Copenhagen to secure green jobs and a sustainable future. www.pittsburghsummi t.gov
CLOSING NOTES AND REMINDERS:
FACEBOOK: Please join thousands at our Facebook community at www.facebook. com/peaceday There you can see some of the latest events or post your own stories and links. The information and comments posted on this group's wall is inspirational.
TWITTER: Let the world know your thoughts or plans for Peace Day! Remember to spell it #peaceday, which will make #peaceday an active link that anyone can click on to learn more about Peace Day! Follow us at www.twitter. com/peacedaysept 21
RADIO INITIATIVE: A member of our Facebook page recently posted that she got all the radio stations in Edmonton, Canada to play the song 'Imagine' at noon on Peace Day. Perhaps we can all do this with radio stations near us - possibly followed by the song 'Give Peace a Chance'. (We liked this idea so much, that we have already sent this request to over 100 radio stations.) IMAGINE ON YOUTUBE: Here is a link to the song 'Imagine' by John Lennon on YouTube; it has been viewed 3 million times.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=-b7qaSxuZUg.
MINUTE OF SILENCE: One activity in which all people can participate is the UN request for a minute of silence at noon in all time zones - this has now been observed consistently for 27 years.
Join others in making your pledge for the Million Minutes of Peace, a 1 minute worldwide prayer for peace at noon on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21. www.odysseynetworks .org
Here are three things that we can all do on this International Day of Peace: help our neighbors, forgive someone, and count our blessings.
We want to thank all of you, and your supporters, for all of the work you have done on behalf of this year's global observance. We wish you peace for all of your events, activities, programs and initiatives.
Thank you, CPI Participants, for your dedication to building a culture of Peace for future generations on Peace Day and every day.
CPI Coordinator Michael Johnson, CPI Contributing Writer - Melvin Weiner, CPI Outreach Intern - Michael Kwan
Pathways To Peace (PTP) is the International Secretariat for the Culture of Peace Initiative, a designated UN Peace Messenger Initiative. PTP has been involved with the observance of the International Day of Peace since it's inception, and has nurtured it from a single event of a few hundred people in 1982 into what it has become today - a universal and global observance. PTP was responsible for getting the International Day of Peace printed onto calendars worldwide this year. PTP created the CPI website, which serves the 3,000 organizations and countless projects in 200 nations that participate in this local/global Peacebuilding initiative. Pathways To Peace also created the International Day of Peace website, which serves all of humanity. For more information or to support our efforts: www.pathwaystopeace .org
Acting in concert, we do make a difference in the quality of our lives, our institutions, our environment and our planetary future.
Through cooperation, we manifest the essential Spirit that unites us amidst our diverse ways.
Culture of Peace Initiative (CPI) is a project of Pathways To Peace
PO Box 1057
Larkspur, CA 94977
http://www.cultureo fpeace.org/
http://www.pathways topeace.org/
www.internationalda yofpeace. org
Saturday, September 19, 2009
OMNI Climate-breakdown book forum was a success at 6 p.m. Friday at Nightbird bookstore on Dickson Street
Please click on image to go to Flickr and use tools to ENLARGE view from OMNI forum on global climate change on September 18, 2009.
For more recent photos, please visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7295307@N02
For more recent photos, please visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7295307@N02
Monday, September 14, 2009
OMNI group to discuss 100-year plan for peaceful change in our culture at 7 tonight at the library
The 100-year-plan group meets tonight at 7:00 in the library. We'll be discussing a variety of situations where non-violent revolution brought about stable democratic governments. It's a myth of our culture that violent revolutions are required to bring about change. The evidence says otherwise. You're invited to come and share your insights on this topic.
Please join us.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
Please join us.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
Saturday, September 12, 2009
OMNI newsletter commemorates 9-11 attacks
OMNI NEWSLETTER FOR 9/11 PEACEFUL TOMORROWS
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Sat 9/12/09 7:22 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI PEACEFUL TOMORROWS, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009
Dick Bennett for a CULTURE OF PEACE, the many voices of peace and justice and ecology expressed by OMNI
(OMNI solicits a new editor of this Annual Newsletter for 2010. Contact Dick. See below for concept of OMNI DAYS.)
9/11, 2001 immediately became not just another of our countless patriotic, military stimulations, but a chief engine of flag emotions. We see the result around us every day. For example, in Blaine, MN, the high school organized9/11 2009 “to remember those who died in the attacks and served in the two wars that have followed,” as reported in the newspaper article, “Patriotism Flies on Gridiron.” The Blaine Bengals provided “color guards from all four branches of the military…a gigantic American flag…at the 50-yard line,” fireworks, the school band playing each military branch’s song, and, “four T-6 Thunder airplanes” performing a flyover.
No wonder, I suppose, that President Bush named 9-11 “Patriot Day” and the cowed Congress passed the “Patriot Act” to further restrict dissent. Heroes had to be created, and enemies decried. On 9-11 2009 The Morning News provided a Harville graphic with columns of light extending into the sky representing the Twin Towers and captioned “Never Forget.” And the newspaper denounced the “blind loyalty of crazed, fanatical minions” for attacking “the American people—and against all peace-loving peoples of the world.” It was they, the newspaper astonishingly suggests, not Bush and Cheney, who created the “wars fought in Afghanistan and Iraq” (people died, wars necessarily followed).
It’s a fascinating narrative, generated and fertilized by patriotism. Sociologists call it ethnocentrism, nationalism, or chauvinism.
But patriotism, as prepared for in the Blaines of our country and acted out in the killing of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn’t have to lead to bigotry and revengeful wars. We have living, inspiring alternatives. Following 9-11, the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows pled and prayed for the victims, including the many rescuers. They asked our leaders to be truly mindful of asking our troops to engage in an incredibly ugly, violent, and dangerous war, and to consider the consequences both to our troops and to the civilian “enemies.” They expressed their compassion for soldiers ordered to fight in an illegal war against an extremely complex enemy—from the majority of Afghans trying to survive, to groups of threatened tribes, to extremist Muslims called Taliban, to al Qaeda opponents of western intervention in the Middle East. But they also cried out for international law, negotiation, and reconciliation. They appealed to the nation not to invade Afghanistan, neither of whose people or government attacked the United States; they entreated Bush and Cheney not to add more innocent victims to those killed on 9-11.
We can be grateful for the alternative given us by the September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. We shall never forget 9-11, in their spirit.
References
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows (see below)
“Americans Mark Sept. 11 Anniversary” by Suzanne Ma. The Morning News (9-12-09).
“Patriotism Flies on Gridiron” by Jon Krawczynski. The Morning News (9-11-09).
“Remembering the Heroes of 9/11, Now.” Editorial. The Morning News (9-11-09).
“September 11, 2001.” Editorial graphic by Vic Harville. The Morning News (9-11-09).
Youssef, Nancy. McClatchey Newspapers Afghanistan correspondent. Interv. Bill Moyers' Journal (9-11-09). The complexity of the Afghan opposition to a war/occupation longer than WWI and WWII combined.
The rest of this newsletter offers a diversity of information and commentary about 9-11.
Contents
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Schurz, Patriotism
Klein, Shock Doctrine
Johnson, Liquidate the Empire
Blum, Anti-Empire
Bill Williams, Peaceful Tomorrows
National DAYS Project
1. Peaceful Tomorrows : Index
Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent ...
www.peacefultomorrows.org/ - Cached - Similar -
Contact us
About
Whoever Says
Guantanamo & Military Commissions
News from Peaceful Tomorrows
International Network for Peace
The Price of Peace Activism
Iraq
More results from peacefultomorrows.org »
2. Peaceful Tomorrows : About Us
Peaceful Tomorrows is an organization founded by family members of those killed on September 11th who have united to turn our grief into action for peace. ...
www.peacefultomorrows.org/article.php?list=type&type... - Cached - Similar -
3. Statement on Eighth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks | CommonDreams.org
Sep 11, 2009 ... CONTACT: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows ... In 2006 Peaceful Tomorrows founded the International Network for Peace [INP], ...
www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/11 - Cached - Similar -
4. Video results for peaceful tomorrows
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows ...
www.democracynow.org
Peaceful Tomorrows Presentation on LaOnf
10 min
www.youtube.com
5. News results for peaceful tomorrows
Statement on Eighth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks - 1 day ago
In 2006 Peaceful Tomorrows founded the International Network for Peace [INP], ... Since 2007, Peaceful Tomorrows has worked to spread the hopeful message of ...
Common Dreams (press release) - 3 related articles »
6. September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows - Wikipedia ...
Jun 1, 2009 ... September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, also known as 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows or simply Peaceful Tomorrows, ...
en.wikipedia.org/.../September_Eleventh_Families_for_Peaceful_Tomorrows - Cached - Similar -
7. Welcome to Peaceful Tomorrows Network Pages
Welcome to Peaceful Tomorrows Network Pages Under Construction. Stop back soon.
peacefultomorrows.net/ - Cached - Similar -
8. Dawn Peterson
*Dawn Peterson is in the American Studies M.A. program at NYU and a member of Peaceful Tomorrows. Her academic interests include grassroots ...
www.hemisphericinstitute.org/eng/.../dawn_peterson.shtml - Cached - Similar -
9. Amazon.com: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Amazon.com: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning Tragedy into Hope for a Better World (9780971920644): David Potorti: Books.
www.amazon.com/...Peaceful-Tomorrows/dp/0971920648
Carl Schurz (1829–1906)
QUOTATION:The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, “My country, right or wrong.” In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right. Senator CARL SCHURZ, remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872.
Schurz expanded on this theme in a speech delivered at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois, October 17, 1899: “I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: ‘Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.’”—Schurz, “The Policy of Imperialism,” Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 6, pp. 119–20 (1913).
THE SHOCK DOCTRINE
Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine places the 9-11 attacks as the beginning of the “intensely violent brand of disaster capitalism” that ensued. The traumatic surprise and disorientation of the attacks enabled people like Bush and Cheney to exploit the vulnerable public and “take advantage of the chaos for their own ends.”
EMPIRE
“Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire and 10 Ways to Do It” By Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com. Posted July 31, 2009.
According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories...
These massive concentrations of American military power outside the United States are not needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries. They are also unimaginably expensive. According to Anita Dancs, an analyst for the website Foreign Policy in Focus, the United States spends approximately $250 billion each year maintaining its global military presence. Imagine how the world might be transformed for the good of humanity with this money through education, medical care, employment, and a sustainable environment.
William Blum
Anti-Empire Report, December 1, 2008
http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer64.html
BBlum6@aol.com
Anti-Empire Report, April 4, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer68.html
Anti-Empire Report, July 3, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer71.html
Anti-Empire Report, September 2, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer73.html
PEACEFUL TOMORROWS FOR 9/11 PATRIOT DAY 2009
In search of a nonviolent response to 9/11.
Patriot Day commemorates the victims of the 9-11 attacks on the WTC, but it was also used to justify the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and to subvert our Constitution in the Patriot Act and other anti-democratic laws. In contrast, the Indonesian response to the Bali bombings was to search, find, and prosecute the criminals. India endures almost daily political or religious violence, recently even an entire train burned and the passengers murdered, but without accusing and attacking Pakistan or some country the other side of the planet, and without dismantling India’s democratic institutions and protections. (Dick)
In contrast to the Bush Administration's invasions and permanent world "war against terrorism," September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was created by families opposed to the vengeance of the Afghanistan invasion and the self-maiming of the Patriot Act. They mourned the death of innocent victims here and everywhere, including those who died at the hands of our military and militaries allied with the US.
BILL WILLIAMS, PEACEFUL TOMORROWS
Dick and Friends,
Without regard to the who and why of the events of September 11, 2001, some things seem clear:
A lot of Americans died that day at the hands of those who killed mercilessly.
A huge monetary loss was suffered by individuals, businesses and taxpayers.
Playing on the fears of the American public and Congress, the Bush administration leveraged these events into two wars and a massive propaganda campaign.
The cost of the Bush actions is calculated to be in the hundreds of thousands of lives - including twice as many Americans than died on September 11.
The cost to American taxpayers of the Bush actions is estimated to be one to three trillion dollars - it continues to increase daily.
To describe those unfortunates who died on September 11, 2001 as 'Patriots' is to be disingenuous or to fall dupe to the Bush propaganda. These were people who simply were beginning another day at work until shortly after 8:00 a.m.
That sad historic day deserves remembrance, partly because of the horrific losses suffered by the families killed in the moment, but mostly because of the tragic chapter it introduced in American history. The cavalier killing, the casting aside of constitutional right, the rule by fiat and the obscene transfer of money from the American Government to dishonest contractors and operatives should never be forgotten.
You and I must be optimists, else we would not do the things we do. Accordingly, instead of commemorating "Bush Was Worse Than Hitler Day", we should look ahead and work for better times. For me, September 11 will forever after be "Peaceful Tomorrows Day", a time when I can give special reflection to the cause of peace, the value of peace and the road to peace. My first efforts will be to deal with the contempt and disgust I feel in my own heart for the architects of this grotesque Middle East debacle, but for now, I see no path to forgiveness.
On that day I'll wear a U.N. Blue colored ribbon in hopes that people will ask why. You can be assured I will tell them.
Bill W.
OMNI’s National DAYS project is one more series of actions building a CULTURE OF PEACE in NWA. Because a public and their leaders are formed in numerous ways, including institutions, we must change them too. A way to change society derives from changing people’s behavior, which will then change thinking patterns. Changing what people do is one way to change their behavior and therefore their thinking, and ultimately to change society. Thus instead of celebrating Patriot Day for 9/11, with their domestic and foreign McCarthyism, political repression, revenge, domination, and wars, we celebrate Peaceful Tomorrows: international law, reconciliation, diplomacy, cooperation, assistance, amity.
OMNI’s Culture of Peace program (derived from the UN, and shared with Peaceful Tomorrows, the AFSC and FCNL, and surely all peace organizations) offers an alternative, and a plan. It is long-range, and it is multifarious, but it is nonetheless clear, composed as it is of specific alternatives to the pervasive warfare state. In 2009 when you look around Fayetteville you will see all the old conditionings and reinforcements of the US National Security Corporate State, but you will also see peace, justice, and ecology counter-values in hundreds of new activities in city, county, and university.
And of course if we do nothing the totalitarians will win. So we are affirming DAYS that support nonviolent peace, compassion, social and economic justice, human rights, and the environment, and offering alternatives to Days that do not (instead of the genocide of Columbus Day, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day). Join OMNI and choose DAYS for peaceful tomorrows.
Dick Bennett
From: Omnicenter Communications (omninews@listserv.uark.edu) on behalf of Dick Bennett (jbennet@uark.edu)
Sent: Sat 9/12/09 7:22 PM
To: OMNINEWS@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU
OMNI PEACEFUL TOMORROWS, SEPTEMBER 11, 2009
Dick Bennett for a CULTURE OF PEACE, the many voices of peace and justice and ecology expressed by OMNI
(OMNI solicits a new editor of this Annual Newsletter for 2010. Contact Dick. See below for concept of OMNI DAYS.)
9/11, 2001 immediately became not just another of our countless patriotic, military stimulations, but a chief engine of flag emotions. We see the result around us every day. For example, in Blaine, MN, the high school organized9/11 2009 “to remember those who died in the attacks and served in the two wars that have followed,” as reported in the newspaper article, “Patriotism Flies on Gridiron.” The Blaine Bengals provided “color guards from all four branches of the military…a gigantic American flag…at the 50-yard line,” fireworks, the school band playing each military branch’s song, and, “four T-6 Thunder airplanes” performing a flyover.
No wonder, I suppose, that President Bush named 9-11 “Patriot Day” and the cowed Congress passed the “Patriot Act” to further restrict dissent. Heroes had to be created, and enemies decried. On 9-11 2009 The Morning News provided a Harville graphic with columns of light extending into the sky representing the Twin Towers and captioned “Never Forget.” And the newspaper denounced the “blind loyalty of crazed, fanatical minions” for attacking “the American people—and against all peace-loving peoples of the world.” It was they, the newspaper astonishingly suggests, not Bush and Cheney, who created the “wars fought in Afghanistan and Iraq” (people died, wars necessarily followed).
It’s a fascinating narrative, generated and fertilized by patriotism. Sociologists call it ethnocentrism, nationalism, or chauvinism.
But patriotism, as prepared for in the Blaines of our country and acted out in the killing of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, doesn’t have to lead to bigotry and revengeful wars. We have living, inspiring alternatives. Following 9-11, the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows pled and prayed for the victims, including the many rescuers. They asked our leaders to be truly mindful of asking our troops to engage in an incredibly ugly, violent, and dangerous war, and to consider the consequences both to our troops and to the civilian “enemies.” They expressed their compassion for soldiers ordered to fight in an illegal war against an extremely complex enemy—from the majority of Afghans trying to survive, to groups of threatened tribes, to extremist Muslims called Taliban, to al Qaeda opponents of western intervention in the Middle East. But they also cried out for international law, negotiation, and reconciliation. They appealed to the nation not to invade Afghanistan, neither of whose people or government attacked the United States; they entreated Bush and Cheney not to add more innocent victims to those killed on 9-11.
We can be grateful for the alternative given us by the September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. We shall never forget 9-11, in their spirit.
References
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows (see below)
“Americans Mark Sept. 11 Anniversary” by Suzanne Ma. The Morning News (9-12-09).
“Patriotism Flies on Gridiron” by Jon Krawczynski. The Morning News (9-11-09).
“Remembering the Heroes of 9/11, Now.” Editorial. The Morning News (9-11-09).
“September 11, 2001.” Editorial graphic by Vic Harville. The Morning News (9-11-09).
Youssef, Nancy. McClatchey Newspapers Afghanistan correspondent. Interv. Bill Moyers' Journal (9-11-09). The complexity of the Afghan opposition to a war/occupation longer than WWI and WWII combined.
The rest of this newsletter offers a diversity of information and commentary about 9-11.
Contents
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Schurz, Patriotism
Klein, Shock Doctrine
Johnson, Liquidate the Empire
Blum, Anti-Empire
Bill Williams, Peaceful Tomorrows
National DAYS Project
1. Peaceful Tomorrows : Index
Peaceful Tomorrows is an advocacy organization founded by family members of September Eleventh victims. Its mission is to seek effective nonviolent ...
www.peacefultomorrows.org/ - Cached - Similar -
Contact us
About
Whoever Says
Guantanamo & Military Commissions
News from Peaceful Tomorrows
International Network for Peace
The Price of Peace Activism
Iraq
More results from peacefultomorrows.org »
2. Peaceful Tomorrows : About Us
Peaceful Tomorrows is an organization founded by family members of those killed on September 11th who have united to turn our grief into action for peace. ...
www.peacefultomorrows.org/article.php?list=type&type... - Cached - Similar -
3. Statement on Eighth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks | CommonDreams.org
Sep 11, 2009 ... CONTACT: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows ... In 2006 Peaceful Tomorrows founded the International Network for Peace [INP], ...
www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/09/11 - Cached - Similar -
4. Video results for peaceful tomorrows
September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows ...
www.democracynow.org
Peaceful Tomorrows Presentation on LaOnf
10 min
www.youtube.com
5. News results for peaceful tomorrows
Statement on Eighth Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks - 1 day ago
In 2006 Peaceful Tomorrows founded the International Network for Peace [INP], ... Since 2007, Peaceful Tomorrows has worked to spread the hopeful message of ...
Common Dreams (press release) - 3 related articles »
6. September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows - Wikipedia ...
Jun 1, 2009 ... September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, also known as 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows or simply Peaceful Tomorrows, ...
en.wikipedia.org/.../September_Eleventh_Families_for_Peaceful_Tomorrows - Cached - Similar -
7. Welcome to Peaceful Tomorrows Network Pages
Welcome to Peaceful Tomorrows Network Pages Under Construction. Stop back soon.
peacefultomorrows.net/ - Cached - Similar -
8. Dawn Peterson
*Dawn Peterson is in the American Studies M.A. program at NYU and a member of Peaceful Tomorrows. Her academic interests include grassroots ...
www.hemisphericinstitute.org/eng/.../dawn_peterson.shtml - Cached - Similar -
9. Amazon.com: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
Amazon.com: September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows: Turning Tragedy into Hope for a Better World (9780971920644): David Potorti: Books.
www.amazon.com/...Peaceful-Tomorrows/dp/0971920648
Carl Schurz (1829–1906)
QUOTATION:The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, “My country, right or wrong.” In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right. Senator CARL SCHURZ, remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872.
Schurz expanded on this theme in a speech delivered at the Anti-Imperialistic Conference, Chicago, Illinois, October 17, 1899: “I confidently trust that the American people will prove themselves … too wise not to detect the false pride or the dangerous ambitions or the selfish schemes which so often hide themselves under that deceptive cry of mock patriotism: ‘Our country, right or wrong!’ They will not fail to recognize that our dignity, our free institutions and the peace and welfare of this and coming generations of Americans will be secure only as we cling to the watchword of true patriotism: ‘Our country—when right to be kept right; when wrong to be put right.’”—Schurz, “The Policy of Imperialism,” Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, vol. 6, pp. 119–20 (1913).
THE SHOCK DOCTRINE
Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine places the 9-11 attacks as the beginning of the “intensely violent brand of disaster capitalism” that ensued. The traumatic surprise and disorientation of the attacks enabled people like Bush and Cheney to exploit the vulnerable public and “take advantage of the chaos for their own ends.”
EMPIRE
“Three Good Reasons To Liquidate Our Empire and 10 Ways to Do It” By Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com. Posted July 31, 2009.
According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories...
These massive concentrations of American military power outside the United States are not needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries. They are also unimaginably expensive. According to Anita Dancs, an analyst for the website Foreign Policy in Focus, the United States spends approximately $250 billion each year maintaining its global military presence. Imagine how the world might be transformed for the good of humanity with this money through education, medical care, employment, and a sustainable environment.
William Blum
Anti-Empire Report, December 1, 2008
http://killinghope.org/bblum6/aer64.html
BBlum6@aol.com
Anti-Empire Report, April 4, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer68.html
Anti-Empire Report, July 3, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer71.html
Anti-Empire Report, September 2, 2009
http://www.killinghope.org/bblum6/aer73.html
PEACEFUL TOMORROWS FOR 9/11 PATRIOT DAY 2009
In search of a nonviolent response to 9/11.
Patriot Day commemorates the victims of the 9-11 attacks on the WTC, but it was also used to justify the illegal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and to subvert our Constitution in the Patriot Act and other anti-democratic laws. In contrast, the Indonesian response to the Bali bombings was to search, find, and prosecute the criminals. India endures almost daily political or religious violence, recently even an entire train burned and the passengers murdered, but without accusing and attacking Pakistan or some country the other side of the planet, and without dismantling India’s democratic institutions and protections. (Dick)
In contrast to the Bush Administration's invasions and permanent world "war against terrorism," September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was created by families opposed to the vengeance of the Afghanistan invasion and the self-maiming of the Patriot Act. They mourned the death of innocent victims here and everywhere, including those who died at the hands of our military and militaries allied with the US.
BILL WILLIAMS, PEACEFUL TOMORROWS
Dick and Friends,
Without regard to the who and why of the events of September 11, 2001, some things seem clear:
A lot of Americans died that day at the hands of those who killed mercilessly.
A huge monetary loss was suffered by individuals, businesses and taxpayers.
Playing on the fears of the American public and Congress, the Bush administration leveraged these events into two wars and a massive propaganda campaign.
The cost of the Bush actions is calculated to be in the hundreds of thousands of lives - including twice as many Americans than died on September 11.
The cost to American taxpayers of the Bush actions is estimated to be one to three trillion dollars - it continues to increase daily.
To describe those unfortunates who died on September 11, 2001 as 'Patriots' is to be disingenuous or to fall dupe to the Bush propaganda. These were people who simply were beginning another day at work until shortly after 8:00 a.m.
That sad historic day deserves remembrance, partly because of the horrific losses suffered by the families killed in the moment, but mostly because of the tragic chapter it introduced in American history. The cavalier killing, the casting aside of constitutional right, the rule by fiat and the obscene transfer of money from the American Government to dishonest contractors and operatives should never be forgotten.
You and I must be optimists, else we would not do the things we do. Accordingly, instead of commemorating "Bush Was Worse Than Hitler Day", we should look ahead and work for better times. For me, September 11 will forever after be "Peaceful Tomorrows Day", a time when I can give special reflection to the cause of peace, the value of peace and the road to peace. My first efforts will be to deal with the contempt and disgust I feel in my own heart for the architects of this grotesque Middle East debacle, but for now, I see no path to forgiveness.
On that day I'll wear a U.N. Blue colored ribbon in hopes that people will ask why. You can be assured I will tell them.
Bill W.
OMNI’s National DAYS project is one more series of actions building a CULTURE OF PEACE in NWA. Because a public and their leaders are formed in numerous ways, including institutions, we must change them too. A way to change society derives from changing people’s behavior, which will then change thinking patterns. Changing what people do is one way to change their behavior and therefore their thinking, and ultimately to change society. Thus instead of celebrating Patriot Day for 9/11, with their domestic and foreign McCarthyism, political repression, revenge, domination, and wars, we celebrate Peaceful Tomorrows: international law, reconciliation, diplomacy, cooperation, assistance, amity.
OMNI’s Culture of Peace program (derived from the UN, and shared with Peaceful Tomorrows, the AFSC and FCNL, and surely all peace organizations) offers an alternative, and a plan. It is long-range, and it is multifarious, but it is nonetheless clear, composed as it is of specific alternatives to the pervasive warfare state. In 2009 when you look around Fayetteville you will see all the old conditionings and reinforcements of the US National Security Corporate State, but you will also see peace, justice, and ecology counter-values in hundreds of new activities in city, county, and university.
And of course if we do nothing the totalitarians will win. So we are affirming DAYS that support nonviolent peace, compassion, social and economic justice, human rights, and the environment, and offering alternatives to Days that do not (instead of the genocide of Columbus Day, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day). Join OMNI and choose DAYS for peaceful tomorrows.
Dick Bennett
Monday, August 31, 2009
Ann Wright to speak on Thursday in Fayetteville
Ann Wright in Fayetteville and Bentonville
Witness in Gaza
Thursday September 3, Fayetteville
7:00 pm at United Campus Ministries 902 W. Maple
Tuesday September 8, Bentonville
6:00 pm at Shewmaker Center, 1100 SE Eagle Way
The first time I heard of Ann Wright, it seems like she and Medea Benjamin were on the news for being chained to something. I can’t remember what it was now, but it was toward the beginning of the Iraq war. You probably know that Medea is the founder of Code Pink, and if you don’t know who Code Pink is you haven’t been in OMNI long enough. You can google it though.
That’s about the same time I learned that she was the same Ann Wright who was a retired Army Colonel who’d resigned her commission as a diplomat in protest to the war.. That was pretty impressive.
Not long after that Ann’s name came up again when Medea Benjamin couldn’t come to our Hiroshima Nagasaki commemoration because she was abruptly called to Jordan by Iraqi legislators who were desperate to understand some confusing American positions. They were also seeking support from American citizens. Code Pink and Medea appeared to be a good resource for both of those.
Then Ann called us up and offered to visit in Medea’s place. It took me back a bit. The Ann Wright I’d heard of operated on the international stage and got in trouble with very important people. It was surprising that she was willing to do that kind of kindness for strangers in a small state like us. It was only later that I found out that she was a Bentonville girl, and was glad for a chance to come home to visit. It gave me a new and instant appreciation for Bentonville.
I’ve observed Ann long enough now to have grown deep respect for her dedication and determination to see integrity prevail in the world. At least in the parts she has any say to. There are a few of us here who feel the same way, and have been relieved see her on the national news during some difficult times. It makes her a role model for us folks working for peace and justice on the local level, and it makes me appreciate the chance to observe her in action when she’s in town.
This year she has been traveling to that hottest of hot spots on this conflicted globe: Israel and Palestine. It’s not a pretty picture over there. I suspect the stories she brings will not be happy. I expect though, that they’ll be told with the same integrity that she’s shown when the subject was Iraq, Afghanistan, the treatment of prisoners of war, fairness for conscientious objectors in the military, or many other conflictual problems she’s spoken out on. And they’ll be stories worth listening to. Sure hope you can join us for one of these two events.
Please join OMNI for this opportunity to hear first hand from this dedicated soldier, diplomat, public servant, and peace advocate.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
Witness in Gaza
Thursday September 3, Fayetteville
7:00 pm at United Campus Ministries 902 W. Maple
Tuesday September 8, Bentonville
6:00 pm at Shewmaker Center, 1100 SE Eagle Way
The first time I heard of Ann Wright, it seems like she and Medea Benjamin were on the news for being chained to something. I can’t remember what it was now, but it was toward the beginning of the Iraq war. You probably know that Medea is the founder of Code Pink, and if you don’t know who Code Pink is you haven’t been in OMNI long enough. You can google it though.
That’s about the same time I learned that she was the same Ann Wright who was a retired Army Colonel who’d resigned her commission as a diplomat in protest to the war.. That was pretty impressive.
Not long after that Ann’s name came up again when Medea Benjamin couldn’t come to our Hiroshima Nagasaki commemoration because she was abruptly called to Jordan by Iraqi legislators who were desperate to understand some confusing American positions. They were also seeking support from American citizens. Code Pink and Medea appeared to be a good resource for both of those.
Then Ann called us up and offered to visit in Medea’s place. It took me back a bit. The Ann Wright I’d heard of operated on the international stage and got in trouble with very important people. It was surprising that she was willing to do that kind of kindness for strangers in a small state like us. It was only later that I found out that she was a Bentonville girl, and was glad for a chance to come home to visit. It gave me a new and instant appreciation for Bentonville.
I’ve observed Ann long enough now to have grown deep respect for her dedication and determination to see integrity prevail in the world. At least in the parts she has any say to. There are a few of us here who feel the same way, and have been relieved see her on the national news during some difficult times. It makes her a role model for us folks working for peace and justice on the local level, and it makes me appreciate the chance to observe her in action when she’s in town.
This year she has been traveling to that hottest of hot spots on this conflicted globe: Israel and Palestine. It’s not a pretty picture over there. I suspect the stories she brings will not be happy. I expect though, that they’ll be told with the same integrity that she’s shown when the subject was Iraq, Afghanistan, the treatment of prisoners of war, fairness for conscientious objectors in the military, or many other conflictual problems she’s spoken out on. And they’ll be stories worth listening to. Sure hope you can join us for one of these two events.
Please join OMNI for this opportunity to hear first hand from this dedicated soldier, diplomat, public servant, and peace advocate.
Gladys Tiffany
OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
www.omnicenter.org
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com
Saturday, August 29, 2009
OMNI book forum on the denial of global warming's reality
Our Forum is almost complete, and I am sending this PR to KUAF soon. Let me know if you see anything needing correction. Videographer needed. Leonard and Aaron OK?
At end a letter from Sierra that emphasizes the importance of our Forum.
THANK YOU ALL, Dick
AUGUST 2009
CLIMATE BREAKDOWN BOOK FORUM
Sponsored by OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and ECOLOGY
SEPTEMBER 18, FRIDAY, 6PM, NIGHTBIRD.
FOUR PANELISTS
Ryan Bancroft: Chris Mooney, Unscientific America
Jonathan Gibbs: Mark Lynas, Six Degrees
Steve Boss: David Archer, The Long Thaw
Joanna Pollock: Larry Schweiger, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.
DESCRIPTION
This OMNI Book Forum discusses the latest science-based scholarship explaining how the climate is breaking down with accelerating speed. Imagine inland United States average temperature a few degrees hotter within a few decades, with many states ravaged by mega-droughts and widespread wildfires, while our coasts drown from a increases in sea levels, which are climbing inches a decade. This Planetary Purgatory is the likely future facing our country before mid-century—probably in our own lifetime—if the politics of denial and delay that have triumphed so far continues for another decade. Most Americans and many policy makers and journalists still don’t understand how global warming will ruin America for the next fifty generations if we don’t act quickly
The widespread confusion about our climate crisis is no accident. For several decades, corporate and conservative religious deniers that climate change is an urgent problem have run a well-financed propaganda campaign to spread myths that misinform debate. The U. S. has never had an efficient energy system. The Bush administration muzzled government climate scientists. The highest ranks of the National Hurricane Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have misinformed the public. Media failed to explain science and the science of CO2 and warming (special sections in newspapers every week on Religion, with rare, small reports on science). Many environmentalists have been unfocused and timid. But the science is clear and has been clear for over three decades: We humans are the primary cause of global warming, and we face a bleak future if we fail to act quickly.
But that humans are the primary cause is also the primary hope: we can reverse the growth in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and assert leadership to bring in every country. We have cost-effective technologies today that can sharply reduce global-warming pollution. California, for example, has embraced critical clean-energy strategies that if adopted nationwide would deliver vast benefits—a sharp drop in use of fossil fuels and therefore foreign-oil imports (and our massive trade deficits), a large gain in air quality and health, and a big boost in high-wage, high-tech jobs. But this hopeful future will happen only if the President and Congress join together to create a super-Manhattan Project (that built the atom bomb).
Time is short. We have at most a decade to sharply reverse course. If we fail to act in time, global warming will profoundly and irreversibly remake every aspect of American life. For example, no other nation has as much wealth along its shores. As catastrophic sea-level rises, we will be overwhelmed by urban triage—deciding which sea-side towns and cities can be saved. Katrina reveals what is to come for this country.
These books will put fire in your belly and set your hair on fire. (Dick from Hell and High Water).
VOLUNTEERS
Coordinator: Dick Bennett, 442-4600 (always glad to be replaced)
Moderator: Carl Barnwell
Greeter: Leonard Schulte
Publicity Campaign (using Dick’s Guide):
Photos: Aubrey Shepherd
Video:
Flyer and Poster:
Distribution of Flyer and Poster:
News Release (traditional): Dick
News Release (electronic): Aaron?
NEW BOOKS ON CLIMATE BREAKDOWN (thanks to Art for several annotations
Nightbird Books has a large display of these and related books.
This Forum focuses on the realities of warming, on the need 1) to return to 350 PPM CO2 in atmosphere 2) quickly. The books marked with an asterisk tentatively seem to be especially suitable.
*David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing theNext 100,000 years of Earth's climate. This is somewhat science oriented, would be enjoyed by a scientist, engineer, etc. (Art) “This is the best book about carbon dioxide and climate change that I have read.” James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “Not only are massive climate changes coming if we humans continue on our current path, but many of these changes will last for millennia….This is the book for anyone who wishes to really understand what cutting-edge science tells us about the effects we are having, and will have, on our future climate.” Richard Alley. [Steve Boss]
*Tim Flannery. The Weather Makers. This is the first book I read about climate change. For example, I first learned there about the inevitable submersion of many Pacific islands. Interesting reading. (Dick)
Thomas L. Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: why we need a green revolution, and how it can renew America. Again, this book is more about energy and "being green" than about global warming. It sends out a good, positive message that most people can identify with. (Art)
Fred Krupp (Pres of Environmental Defense Fund) & Miriam Horn, Earth: the sequel. The race to reinvent energy and stop global warming. This book looks more at energy than it does at global warming, has lots of suggestions for alternative energy and energy conservation. (Art)
*James Lovelock. The Vanishing Face of Gaia A Final Warning. Basic Books, 2009. 288 pp Lovelock argues that climatic change is likely to lead to a hotter Earth able to sustain only a small fraction of the world's current population. Hot off the press. (Dick)
*Mark Lynas, Six degrees: our future on a hotter planet. For general readers, it will wake people up. It tells us what will happen with 1 degree of warming, then with 2 degrees, ...and finally with 6 degrees. By about 3 degrees, things are getting really bad. (Dick) [Jonathan Gibbs]
Arjun Makhijani, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. eRoad Map for U.S. Energy Policy: Creating a Carbon Free & Nuclear ... The Plan: We can eliminate carbon emissions from the US energy system by 2050 without relying on nuclear power, and we have a plan to do it! The Carbon-Free ... www.carbonfreenuclearfree.org/ - [PPT] Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTML Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy. 17 February 2009. Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. 301-270-5500 ... www.carbonfreenuclearfree.org/.../CFNF.Slides.2009-02-17.part1_.ppt - Similar Energy Policy, IEER's latest book, available free ...iicph.org/ieer-book –
Bill McKibben. Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community. Holt, 2007.
*George Monbiot. Heat. This is the 2nd book I read on CO2 and planetary heating, and it had a stronger effect upon me then did Flannery’s probably because I was understanding the scientific discussions better, though some chapters were very slow going. Full of arresting stories; for example, his chapter on the extraordinary quantify of CO2 produced by airplanes came as a surprise, since I had only read about cars before. Monbiot has spoken and written repeatedly that the IPCC report and his own book are too optimistic, and I think he was the first I encountered to urge a change from “warming” to “breakdown.” (Dick)
*Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future. Basic Books, 2009. How religious ideologues, an education system weak in science, science-ignorant politicians, and the corporate media have collaborated to create this dangerous condition and how scientists have failed to counter it. [Ryan Bancroft] See: The Republican War on Science. “A well-researched, closely argued and amply referenced indictment of the right-wing’s assault on science and scientists.”
*Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution. Harper Perennial, 2007. Even though this books was published in 2007 (and therefore written in 2006), it seems up-to-date, and that, his book reveals, is because a scientific consensus about warming existed by 2006. The book is very clear reading, punctuated by gong after gong of reality. (Dick)
Eric Roston. The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilization’s Geratest Threat. Walker, 2008. A history of carbon, of carbon chemistry and chemists, and of the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere and climate breakdown. Packed with interesting anecdotes, interspersed with explanation of the developing science, and moments of powerful summation. For example, this explanation of why I was uneasy about the Weather Channel’s air quality reporting never mentioning CO2: “The invisibility of carbon dioxide emissions to the naked eye itself is part of the reason it has been so easy for deniers to confuse the public about dangerous man-made global warming for more than twenty years.”(172 in the midst of an account of Charles David Keeling’s CO2 research); and Keeling’s empirical proof of the rise of CO2: “When Keeling’s first apparatus was set up at Mauna Loa, the reading was 313pp. Today it has passed 383ppm….Up it goes, 2ppm a year or so, and accelerating.” (Dick)
*--Schweiger, Larry. Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth. Fulcrum, 2009. The causes and effects of global warming on our ecosystems, human life, wildlife. “our best chance toward a future we will be proud to leave future generations,” Robert Redford. (Dick) [Joanna Pollock]
*James Speth. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. Yale UP, 2008. I recall Art saying this is excellent. It explains why capitalism is a root cause of climate collapse. (Dick)
(If you want a step by step explanation of how to set up
Twitter here is the link for that. Twitter Activism Step-By-Step: http://tcxs.net/step_by_step.php )
-- The clearest succinct statement I as a general citizen have read recently about the accelerating dangers of climate breakdown is the editorial of The Nation (August 3/10, 2009), “The G-8 Abdicates.” . Here’s a sample: “Now comes the really bad news: we are already at 387 ppm. And at current rates atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are set to double by the middle of the century, resulting in catastrophic rise in sea levels,” which would “utterly transform civilization as we know it,” unless “emissions are drastically reduced soon.” The Nation recommends three solutions: 1) the rich nations “must cut their carbon emissions radically and quickly,” 2) they “must spend enormous sums of money to subsidize the transformation of developing economies away from coal and oil toward carbon-neutral forms of green energy,” and 3)”there must be massive investment in developing alternative energy sources.” (Also see Sharon Begley, “Climate-Change Calculus: Why It’s Even Worse Than We Feared,” Newsweek, August 3, 2009, about the surprises scientists have experienced recently regarding the unexpected worsening of Arctic sea ice loss, of Greenland mass loss, of permafrost melting, and more. “Given the pathetic response to global warming, skepticism that the world will get its act together seems appropriate.”) The media are waking up and speaking out against the deniers, delayers, and scammers.
Thanks, Dick
Dear Dick,
Tell Companies to Demand the US Chamber of Commerce Stop Denying Global Warming
We've rallied, we've sent messages to the EPA, and we've shown that Americans overwhelmingly support a clean energy economy that creates jobs and fights global warming.
Now the US Chamber of Commerce wants to silence us by threatening to sue the EPA in an effort to put "the science of climate change on trial." This ridiculous and dangerous stunt is engineered to undermine the EPA's authority to fight global warming, which we fought so hard to support.
Send a message to US Chamber of Commerce member companies telling them that this case is closed--responsible businesses know climate change is real and that we need to do something about it now.
The Chamber of Commerce already had an opportunity to air any legitimate concerns when the EPA held a 60 day comment period on its finding that global warming poses a threat to our health and welfare.
Where was the Chamber of Commerce then?
The Chamber wants to pretend that the 41,000 comments we collected supporting the EPA were never written, that the 2,000 people who rallied at the hearing in Seattle never showed up, and that the people speaking out in favor of action to fight global warming at the hearing in Arlington, VA did not out number the skeptics by 9 to 1.
It's time to tell responsible companies to stop letting a handful of polluters use the Chamber of Commerce to hold our Country hostage to last century's dirty energy technology--Sign the petition today!
Earlier this year, a group of big companies like Nike and Johnson and Johnson sent a letter to the Chamber asking them to more accurately reflect the majority of American businesses who are well aware that the science of global warming is settled, and who want to move the U.S. into a cleaner energy future.
But it seems the Chamber is siding with a minority of polluting energy companies, even though it is now clear that reducing global warming emissions is good for both the economy and the environment.
Sign our petition to these responsible companies urging them to back up their words with action--the U.S. Chamber of Commerce needs to come to its senses and side with the majority of its members who support action on global warming, or these companies should resign their memberships.
Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment.
Mary Anne Hitt
Sierra Club Big Picture Campaign
P.S. After signing up, please forward this message to a friend! Chamber companies need to hear our message loud and clear.
Sierra Club
85 Second St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
Dick Bennett
At end a letter from Sierra that emphasizes the importance of our Forum.
THANK YOU ALL, Dick
AUGUST 2009
CLIMATE BREAKDOWN BOOK FORUM
Sponsored by OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, and ECOLOGY
SEPTEMBER 18, FRIDAY, 6PM, NIGHTBIRD.
FOUR PANELISTS
Ryan Bancroft: Chris Mooney, Unscientific America
Jonathan Gibbs: Mark Lynas, Six Degrees
Steve Boss: David Archer, The Long Thaw
Joanna Pollock: Larry Schweiger, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.
DESCRIPTION
This OMNI Book Forum discusses the latest science-based scholarship explaining how the climate is breaking down with accelerating speed. Imagine inland United States average temperature a few degrees hotter within a few decades, with many states ravaged by mega-droughts and widespread wildfires, while our coasts drown from a increases in sea levels, which are climbing inches a decade. This Planetary Purgatory is the likely future facing our country before mid-century—probably in our own lifetime—if the politics of denial and delay that have triumphed so far continues for another decade. Most Americans and many policy makers and journalists still don’t understand how global warming will ruin America for the next fifty generations if we don’t act quickly
The widespread confusion about our climate crisis is no accident. For several decades, corporate and conservative religious deniers that climate change is an urgent problem have run a well-financed propaganda campaign to spread myths that misinform debate. The U. S. has never had an efficient energy system. The Bush administration muzzled government climate scientists. The highest ranks of the National Hurricane Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have misinformed the public. Media failed to explain science and the science of CO2 and warming (special sections in newspapers every week on Religion, with rare, small reports on science). Many environmentalists have been unfocused and timid. But the science is clear and has been clear for over three decades: We humans are the primary cause of global warming, and we face a bleak future if we fail to act quickly.
But that humans are the primary cause is also the primary hope: we can reverse the growth in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and assert leadership to bring in every country. We have cost-effective technologies today that can sharply reduce global-warming pollution. California, for example, has embraced critical clean-energy strategies that if adopted nationwide would deliver vast benefits—a sharp drop in use of fossil fuels and therefore foreign-oil imports (and our massive trade deficits), a large gain in air quality and health, and a big boost in high-wage, high-tech jobs. But this hopeful future will happen only if the President and Congress join together to create a super-Manhattan Project (that built the atom bomb).
Time is short. We have at most a decade to sharply reverse course. If we fail to act in time, global warming will profoundly and irreversibly remake every aspect of American life. For example, no other nation has as much wealth along its shores. As catastrophic sea-level rises, we will be overwhelmed by urban triage—deciding which sea-side towns and cities can be saved. Katrina reveals what is to come for this country.
These books will put fire in your belly and set your hair on fire. (Dick from Hell and High Water).
VOLUNTEERS
Coordinator: Dick Bennett, 442-4600 (always glad to be replaced)
Moderator: Carl Barnwell
Greeter: Leonard Schulte
Publicity Campaign (using Dick’s Guide):
Photos: Aubrey Shepherd
Video:
Flyer and Poster:
Distribution of Flyer and Poster:
News Release (traditional): Dick
News Release (electronic): Aaron?
NEW BOOKS ON CLIMATE BREAKDOWN (thanks to Art for several annotations
Nightbird Books has a large display of these and related books.
This Forum focuses on the realities of warming, on the need 1) to return to 350 PPM CO2 in atmosphere 2) quickly. The books marked with an asterisk tentatively seem to be especially suitable.
*David Archer, The Long Thaw: How Humans Are Changing theNext 100,000 years of Earth's climate. This is somewhat science oriented, would be enjoyed by a scientist, engineer, etc. (Art) “This is the best book about carbon dioxide and climate change that I have read.” James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “Not only are massive climate changes coming if we humans continue on our current path, but many of these changes will last for millennia….This is the book for anyone who wishes to really understand what cutting-edge science tells us about the effects we are having, and will have, on our future climate.” Richard Alley. [Steve Boss]
*Tim Flannery. The Weather Makers. This is the first book I read about climate change. For example, I first learned there about the inevitable submersion of many Pacific islands. Interesting reading. (Dick)
Thomas L. Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: why we need a green revolution, and how it can renew America. Again, this book is more about energy and "being green" than about global warming. It sends out a good, positive message that most people can identify with. (Art)
Fred Krupp (Pres of Environmental Defense Fund) & Miriam Horn, Earth: the sequel. The race to reinvent energy and stop global warming. This book looks more at energy than it does at global warming, has lots of suggestions for alternative energy and energy conservation. (Art)
*James Lovelock. The Vanishing Face of Gaia A Final Warning. Basic Books, 2009. 288 pp Lovelock argues that climatic change is likely to lead to a hotter Earth able to sustain only a small fraction of the world's current population. Hot off the press. (Dick)
*Mark Lynas, Six degrees: our future on a hotter planet. For general readers, it will wake people up. It tells us what will happen with 1 degree of warming, then with 2 degrees, ...and finally with 6 degrees. By about 3 degrees, things are getting really bad. (Dick) [Jonathan Gibbs]
Arjun Makhijani, Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. eRoad Map for U.S. Energy Policy: Creating a Carbon Free & Nuclear ... The Plan: We can eliminate carbon emissions from the US energy system by 2050 without relying on nuclear power, and we have a plan to do it! The Carbon-Free ... www.carbonfreenuclearfree.org/ - [PPT] Carbon-Free and Nuclear Free File Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTML Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy. 17 February 2009. Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D. 301-270-5500 ... www.carbonfreenuclearfree.org/.../CFNF.Slides.2009-02-17.part1_.ppt - Similar Energy Policy, IEER's latest book, available free ...iicph.org/ieer-book –
Bill McKibben. Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community. Holt, 2007.
*George Monbiot. Heat. This is the 2nd book I read on CO2 and planetary heating, and it had a stronger effect upon me then did Flannery’s probably because I was understanding the scientific discussions better, though some chapters were very slow going. Full of arresting stories; for example, his chapter on the extraordinary quantify of CO2 produced by airplanes came as a surprise, since I had only read about cars before. Monbiot has spoken and written repeatedly that the IPCC report and his own book are too optimistic, and I think he was the first I encountered to urge a change from “warming” to “breakdown.” (Dick)
*Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future. Basic Books, 2009. How religious ideologues, an education system weak in science, science-ignorant politicians, and the corporate media have collaborated to create this dangerous condition and how scientists have failed to counter it. [Ryan Bancroft] See: The Republican War on Science. “A well-researched, closely argued and amply referenced indictment of the right-wing’s assault on science and scientists.”
*Joseph Romm, Hell and High Water: The Global Warming Solution. Harper Perennial, 2007. Even though this books was published in 2007 (and therefore written in 2006), it seems up-to-date, and that, his book reveals, is because a scientific consensus about warming existed by 2006. The book is very clear reading, punctuated by gong after gong of reality. (Dick)
Eric Roston. The Carbon Age: How Life’s Core Element Has Become Civilization’s Geratest Threat. Walker, 2008. A history of carbon, of carbon chemistry and chemists, and of the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere and climate breakdown. Packed with interesting anecdotes, interspersed with explanation of the developing science, and moments of powerful summation. For example, this explanation of why I was uneasy about the Weather Channel’s air quality reporting never mentioning CO2: “The invisibility of carbon dioxide emissions to the naked eye itself is part of the reason it has been so easy for deniers to confuse the public about dangerous man-made global warming for more than twenty years.”(172 in the midst of an account of Charles David Keeling’s CO2 research); and Keeling’s empirical proof of the rise of CO2: “When Keeling’s first apparatus was set up at Mauna Loa, the reading was 313pp. Today it has passed 383ppm….Up it goes, 2ppm a year or so, and accelerating.” (Dick)
*--Schweiger, Larry. Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth. Fulcrum, 2009. The causes and effects of global warming on our ecosystems, human life, wildlife. “our best chance toward a future we will be proud to leave future generations,” Robert Redford. (Dick) [Joanna Pollock]
*James Speth. The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability. Yale UP, 2008. I recall Art saying this is excellent. It explains why capitalism is a root cause of climate collapse. (Dick)
(If you want a step by step explanation of how to set up
Twitter here is the link for that. Twitter Activism Step-By-Step: http://tcxs.net/step_by_step.php )
-- The clearest succinct statement I as a general citizen have read recently about the accelerating dangers of climate breakdown is the editorial of The Nation (August 3/10, 2009), “The G-8 Abdicates.” . Here’s a sample: “Now comes the really bad news: we are already at 387 ppm. And at current rates atmospheric concentrations of CO2 are set to double by the middle of the century, resulting in catastrophic rise in sea levels,” which would “utterly transform civilization as we know it,” unless “emissions are drastically reduced soon.” The Nation recommends three solutions: 1) the rich nations “must cut their carbon emissions radically and quickly,” 2) they “must spend enormous sums of money to subsidize the transformation of developing economies away from coal and oil toward carbon-neutral forms of green energy,” and 3)”there must be massive investment in developing alternative energy sources.” (Also see Sharon Begley, “Climate-Change Calculus: Why It’s Even Worse Than We Feared,” Newsweek, August 3, 2009, about the surprises scientists have experienced recently regarding the unexpected worsening of Arctic sea ice loss, of Greenland mass loss, of permafrost melting, and more. “Given the pathetic response to global warming, skepticism that the world will get its act together seems appropriate.”) The media are waking up and speaking out against the deniers, delayers, and scammers.
Thanks, Dick
Dear Dick,
Tell Companies to Demand the US Chamber of Commerce Stop Denying Global Warming
We've rallied, we've sent messages to the EPA, and we've shown that Americans overwhelmingly support a clean energy economy that creates jobs and fights global warming.
Now the US Chamber of Commerce wants to silence us by threatening to sue the EPA in an effort to put "the science of climate change on trial." This ridiculous and dangerous stunt is engineered to undermine the EPA's authority to fight global warming, which we fought so hard to support.
Send a message to US Chamber of Commerce member companies telling them that this case is closed--responsible businesses know climate change is real and that we need to do something about it now.
The Chamber of Commerce already had an opportunity to air any legitimate concerns when the EPA held a 60 day comment period on its finding that global warming poses a threat to our health and welfare.
Where was the Chamber of Commerce then?
The Chamber wants to pretend that the 41,000 comments we collected supporting the EPA were never written, that the 2,000 people who rallied at the hearing in Seattle never showed up, and that the people speaking out in favor of action to fight global warming at the hearing in Arlington, VA did not out number the skeptics by 9 to 1.
It's time to tell responsible companies to stop letting a handful of polluters use the Chamber of Commerce to hold our Country hostage to last century's dirty energy technology--Sign the petition today!
Earlier this year, a group of big companies like Nike and Johnson and Johnson sent a letter to the Chamber asking them to more accurately reflect the majority of American businesses who are well aware that the science of global warming is settled, and who want to move the U.S. into a cleaner energy future.
But it seems the Chamber is siding with a minority of polluting energy companies, even though it is now clear that reducing global warming emissions is good for both the economy and the environment.
Sign our petition to these responsible companies urging them to back up their words with action--the U.S. Chamber of Commerce needs to come to its senses and side with the majority of its members who support action on global warming, or these companies should resign their memberships.
Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment.
Mary Anne Hitt
Sierra Club Big Picture Campaign
P.S. After signing up, please forward this message to a friend! Chamber companies need to hear our message loud and clear.
Sierra Club
85 Second St.
San Francisco, CA 94105
Dick Bennett
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
