"For it isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it" ~Eleanor Roosevelt
TABLE OF CONTENTS
3000 Remembered
A Campaign for Antiwar Academics
January Action
Screenpeace Film Festival
Antiwar Diary Rescue & Web Roundup
Plus music videos, pictures, & more!
3000 Remembered
Alameda, CA vigil
The American Friends Service committee reports that 345 local vigils were organized as memorials timed to mark the death of the 3000 US servicemember fallen in Iraq. Reports from perhaps 20-30% of the events can be found, here are a few reports I found quickly skimming the list:
Juneau, AK: In pouring rain, in 35 degree weather, in winds blowing over 30 mph, over 100 people from Juneau met for a 30-minute vigil on the afternoon of January 1, 2007. The vigil was solemn and respectful; there were only brief comments by the organizers (Veterans for Peace and Juneau People for Peace and Justice). At 4:30 at our latitude, it is dark; illumination came from candles set in the middle of the ring of participants. We vowed to Wage Peace in 2007.
Phoenix, AZ: About 200 people met at Senator McCain's office to mourn the dead from the Iraq War and occupation and to send a message to Senator McCain that Arizonans do not support a troop escalation (the McCain Doctrine). We read the names of the Arizona dead, each one with the refrain, "Not one more death, not one more dollar" and displayed video regarding the human cost of the Iraq war. We also gave information on the upcoming Eyes Wide Open presentations in the Phoenix area in February, check www.azpeace.org for future event details. Neither newspaper covered the event. 3 local English and 1 Spanish TV stations covered it, and 2 local radio stations.
Athens, GA: The second hour of our vigil was COLD, however, we were glad we had a 2 hour vigil, because we felt we were reaching many more people (driving by) that way. The response to our "Honk for Peace" sign was much higher than pre-election honking. Maybe more poeple are for peace now, or maybe more people are willing to express it in public since the election.
St. Louis, MO: About 50 people took part at 7PM. College Church is only a few blocks from the St. Louis theater district where the New Year's Eve First Night celebration is held. Our vigil site was betweeen the parking garage and the Metro Link Station and the main stage of the First Night celebration. Thousands of people (mostly in groups of families) walked in front of the vigil on the steps of College Church. We held four large banners "Justice, Not War," " Honor the Dead," "Count the Costs," Stop the War" and passed out over 600 "Not One More Death, Not one More Dollar" flyers.
Milwaukee, WI: About 200 people participated in a candlelight vigil and mass die-in in front of Milwaukee's Federal Court House to commemorate the 3000 US dead in Iraq and to call for an end to the war. Speakers included Veterans for Peace, organizers of the Jan. 27 DC event and a student activist. The names of all the Wisconsin soldiers who died were read by a veteran. We had very good media coverage with a colored picture of the die-in on the front page of the metro section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, news coverage on 3 TV stations and interviews of participants on public radio.
Westport, CT
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"No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country." ~Alexis de Tocqueville
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A Campaign for Antiwar Academics
An article currently on the website of Inside Higher Ed tells the story of how a private fundraising appeal for United for Peace and Justice at a small college has suddenly gone national through those darned tubes:
Nevins said the original message, circulated within Vassar, has become a chain letter, bouncing from e-mail inbox to inbox in the larger ".edu" community. Dozens of people across the country have already signed the letter, though Nevins said there’s often a mismatch between who has pledged and who has actually donated. He said he has no fund raising goals in mind and has no idea how many signatories will give more than once. Because the letter was sent around during winter vacation, Nevins said the campaign is still in the early stages. (snip)
As the original letter to Vassar faculty states: "One resource most of us do have at our disposal is money — at least relative to the U.S. population as a whole. And it is this resource that we’re asking you to share with the antiwar movement, in a manner greater and more sustained than you have done up until this point." (snip)
In the short term, faculty donations will largely support a United for Peace and Justice peace march and Congressional lobbying day planned for later this month in Washington.
It's a familiar story to netroots, and it's a treat to see the same forces helping to build the infrastructure of the peace movement. It promises bright things.
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Music Video: Peace by Esther Sparks.
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THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN, NOW CONGRESS MUST ACT.
THURSDAY, January 11. America Says No! To Escalation. Scores of local rallies are quickly being organized to speak out against Bush's call for escalation in Iraq. Click here to find an event near you, or to create an event of your own.
NATIONAL MARCH & RALLY Saturday, January 27. Sponsored by United for Peace and Justice.
On Saturday, Jan. 27th, people from every corner of the country will march on Washington, DC. Our message will be clear, our voice will be strong: End the war in Iraq, Bring all the troops home now! We urge you to join us! Click here for more details
CONGRESSIONAL ADVOCACY DAY Monday, January 29. Be part of the delegation organized by UFPJ to visit your Congresscritters in their native habitat on Capitol Hill. Training and preparation sessions being held Sunday, January 28. Click here for more details and to register
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Act From Home!
Bring Them Home Now! Postcards to Congress Campaign: For information and to get your own postcards Click here.
MoveOn internet petition against escalation: Click here.
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Asheville, NC
Thinking Globally, Acting Locally
Just a small sampling of what people are doing in their own home towns to stand up for peace.
Thursday, January 11: North Adams, MA Club B-10 at MASS MoCA 87 Marshall St. North Adams. 8:00 PM. Film showing. The Ground Truth. "This timely portrait of patriotic young Americans who served in Iraq includes stunning footage of recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The film somehow renders the ferocious military conflict and the challenges faced by those returning home as equally terrible dramas."
Friday, January 12: Winston-Salem, NC Corpening Plaza, at the corner of Liberty and First Streets. Liberty and First St. Winston Salem. 6:30 am We will set up empty combat boots with name tags for each soldier from NC who has died in the Iraq War.
Saturday, January 13: Columbus, OH Teach-in & Film Showing. Larry Everest from the video,'it's worse than you think,' speaking about the ongoing situation in Iraq. Hilltop Branch of the Columbus Library in John Wilson Room 511 S. Hague(at Sullivant) Columbus. 3:00pm.
Saturday, January 13: Missoula, MT corners of Mullen and Reserve Street, Missoula. 12:00 Noon. Antiwar Rally.
Monday, January 15: Norfolk, VA Unitarian Universalist Church of Norfolk, 739 Yarmouth St, Norfolk. 5:00pm to 6:00pm Public Press Conference by Active Duty, Reserve and Guard, US military personnel and www.appealforredress.org to raise community awareness about the urgency of ending the war in Iraq, bringing the troops home now and taking care of them when they get here.
Friday, January 19 - Sunday, January 21: Tacoma, WA Evergreen College, 1210 6th Ave, Tacoma. Citizen's Hearing. Citizen's Hearing on the Legality of U.S. Actions in Iraq. Iraq veterans, military families, and others with first-hand experience will testify about the reality and impact of the Iraq war. This event is part of an effort to support IVAW member Lt. Ehren Watada as he prepares to be court martialed for refusing to participate in the Iraq war, as well as put the war on trial. Friday, January 19, 2007 from 7:00pm to Sunday, January 21, 2007 5:00pm
Saturday, January 20: Montpelier, VT Vermont Says End the War in Iraq! Gather: 10 am- Montpelier City Hall, March to Statehouse:10:30 am, Rally at Statehouse: 11 am.
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War-making is never determined by anything like a democratic process. War is something that governing elites undertake, and they don't undertake it in response to popular opinion. If that were the case, we would probably never go to war, because ordinary people pay for war with blood and with their wealth."
"One kind of evidence for that is that candidates never campaign as war candidates. Lyndon Baynes Johnson, who kept us in Vietnam, promised not to go to war in Vietnam. You can see that again and again. Candidates always campaign as peace candidates.
"Another kind of evidence is that antiwar movements ... rarely succeeded at the outset. It's as the war grinds on and people become more and more angry and disillusioned with the war that popular opinion, popular resistance to the war begins to take its toll on the capacity of government to make war." ~Frances Fox Piven
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Music Video: Guernica Iraq,
by Dem Bruce Lee Styles. Hat tip to Chewbacca2000
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Screenpeace
For New Yorkers and those in the environs, from the website of the War Resisters League:
The War Resisters League and the Brecht Forum present
SCREENPEACE: AN ANTIWAR FILM FESTIVAL
January 5 - February 16, 2007 All screenings at 8 PM.
@ The Brecht Forum, 451 West Street, NYC (Betw Bank & Bethune)
Friday, January 12 Arlington West. The temporary "cemeteries in the sand" created by Veterans for Peace in California to honor the unacknowledged fallen U.S. soldiers of the war in Iraq.
Friday, January 19 Brother Outsider. The life of Bayard Rustin, the charismatic conscientious objector and civil-rights strategist who was the main organizer for the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice.
Friday, January 26 Worlds Apart. The 2004 journey to Afghanistan by Ground Zero for Peace founder Megan Bartlett and other members of the antiwar 9-11 emergency workers’ group, and their meetings with their counterparts in Kabul.
Screenings $10 each. $7.50 for seniors and students. A benefit for the War Resisters League
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Music Video: Tr4nqued gives us F3K - The Grave.
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Daily Kos Peace Diary Rescue
Mary2002 recounts the Soviet perils in Afghanistan and asks Is Any of This Familiar?.
ilona examines how the Iraq War is a Deadly Trigger for Previous Wars' Veterans.
In that rarest of items, jimstaro provides us with good news from Iraq, that finally Mercenaries Fall Under UCMJ Now!.
San Jose Lady reports on a new study by the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, in The horror of a woman's life in Iraq.
Backgr0und N015e follows the money in No more blank checks!
paradocs provides a first-hand account of the peaceroots in action, reporting on a Kansas City protest vigil.
Based on personal information, doingbusinessas informs us that the "surge" has started.
Last, but most definitely not least, on December 29, Janet G asked us to Help Spread the Word about the Voters for Peace Pledge.
Continuing series
Grief tag (Iraq War Grief Witness and I Heard the News Today.)
spread the word IRAQ NAM
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Around the Blogs
Zanne Joi starts the New Year off right, and discovers that the Golden Gate Bridge is private property.
Tom Hayden writes at HuffPo on The Mandate for Peace
Justin Raimondo talks strategy and tactics for the antiwar movement in Confronting the Empire. It's Time...
Video Interviews with Cindy Sheehan and David Swanson by Kevin Zeese at Democracy Rising.
In Daring to Change Minds, The Burning Man covers Sunsara Taylor's appearance on the "O'***** Factor."
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Around the Web
Aaron Kreider at ZNet on Online Activism 2.0: Movement Building.
Margaret Kimberley at Black Agenda Report: Saddam Takes the Fall.
Dahr Jamail on Negroponte and Managing Escalation.
Michigan's Observer and Eccentric remembers peace activist Sister Elizabeth LaForest.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer, Antiwar signs come down, leaving a West Chester peace activist with more questions than answers.
Gary G. Kohls of Every Church a Peace Church, writes an op-ed for the Baltimore Chronicle on how Militarized America Is Approaching Spiritual Death.
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"War remains the decisive human failure." ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
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Resources
Get informed, stay informed.
American Friends Service Committee
United for Peace and Justice
Bring Them Home Now
War Resisters League
CODE PINK
Military Families Speak Out
Gold Star Families for Peace
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Veterans for Peace
Vietnam Veterans Against the War
US Labor Against the War
Pax Christi
Traprock Peace Center
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