Learning tolerance from Terry Jones

Today, "Rev." Terry Jones may or may not burn a copy of Islam's holy book, the Koran.  Yes, I find his actions and attitudes appalling; yes, book burning reminds me of the worst totalitarian regimes; yes, I know his actions may put U.S. soldiers at risk from the most extremist and ignorant Muslim elements.  But this is America, right?  If burning American flags and draft cards is constitutionally protected, so is burning a book.

I've been following some of the coverage and comments about Jones' media extravaganza.  One comment caught my eye, and I'll have to paraphrase: We have to accept that some extremists like Jones will use their constitutional freedom to insult religion, and Muslims will have to accept that some people will act on their extremism without responding in kind.

99.99% of Muslims understand this very well.  The ones that don't are the ones who bomb buildings, shoot filmmakers and throw acid in the faces of unveiled women-- in the name of Islam.  But, as my friend Owen Broadhurt posted on Facebook today, "Islam did not attack us on 9/11. Islam, along with all of us, was attacked on 9/11."

Most of the major assaults on the people of the world are no longer done in the name of religion but are crimes committed by one state against another.   90% of the world's population now live in secular states.  A few states still recognize some form of Christianity as their state religion-- Finland, Costa Rica and Cyprus, to name a few-- but the majority of countries with state religions are Islamic.

This should not be surprising.  Islam is the youngest of the world's major religions, only about 1,400 years old.

So where was Christianity when it was about 1,400 years old, at the time when some version of Christianity was the state religion in every organized European state and when it was poised to expand to North and South America?

A few moments in time:

In 1389, the entire Jewish population of Prague -- some 3,000 -- is killed by Christians.
Joan of Arc is burned at the stake as a heretic in 1431.
Witch burnings begin in 1480; 100,000 women and men lose their lives.
The Spanish Inquisition begins in 1482 and ultimately claims about 2,000 lives.
"In the name of the Holy Trinity," in 1492 Christopher Columbus ships 500 Taino indians to Spain as slaves.

I don't make these points to condemn Christianity.  Even in the Dark and Middle Ages, surely most Christians would never lift a hand against another human being because of that person's religious beliefs.  But I do think that Islam as a state religion stacks up pretty well against Christianity at the same age.

Part of me is grateful to Terry Jones. On the ninth anniversary of 9/11, as the nation stops to remember and mourn 3,000 deaths, Terry Jones shows us the darkest side of prejudice and fear.  The level of thoughtful discussion about Islam has never been higher.  Let's not stop here.

65 years ago today

At 8:13 a.m., the first of two atomic bombs fell on Japan.  A quarter of a million people died within four months, half on the first days of the bombing.

65 years later, 26,000 nuclear warheads stand ready to annihilate the world.

Today, monks and nuns from the Leverett Peace Pagoda and other fellow human beings will arrive in Springfield, MA to promote peace.  In particular, they have hoped that Springfield's Mayor Sarno would join Mayors for Peace, an international association of more than 4,069 cities calling for an end to nuclear weapons by 2020.  For the second year in a row, calls to the mayor's office for a meeting have gone unreturned.  Nineteen Massachusetts cities and towns have already signed on, including West Springfield and Chicopee.  Not Springfield, not yet.  But at around 3:30 today, they will gather on the steps of City Hall to pray for peace, and at 5:30, they will join other community members at Arise for Social Justice, 467 State St. for a short program and a potluck supper.

You are welcome to join us.

Photo of a lotus from the Peace Pagoda from NeilinBoston's photostream at Flickr.
 

The Anti-War Movement is Dead

Chris hedges at Truthdig has an important article-- not just about the anti-war movement-- but also the privatization of the federal government.  It's not good news, but it's news we've got to know.


As an anti-poverty activist, the following paragraph jumped out at me:

The roots of mass apathy are found in the profound divide between liberals, who are mostly white and well educated, and our disenfranchised working class, whose sons and daughters, because they cannot get decent jobs with benefits, have few options besides the military. Liberals, whose children are more often to be found in elite colleges than the Marine Corps, did not fight the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 and the dismantling of our manufacturing base. They did nothing when the Democrats gutted welfare two years later and stood by as our banks were turned over to Wall Street speculators. They signed on, by supporting the Clinton and Obama Democrats, for the corporate rape carried out in the name of globalization and endless war, and they ignored the plight of the poor. And for this reason the poor have little interest in the moral protestations of liberals. We have lost all credibility. We are justly hated for our tacit complicity in the corporate assault on workers and their families.

(Congratulations, by the way, to Truthdig for winning the Webby award for best political blog.)

Doomsday Clock moved back one minute

Too much tragedy this week.....yet on Wednesday, January 13, the possibility of our survival as a species increased by one minute.  The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, citing the "growing political will" to tackle both the "terror of nuclear weapons" and "runaway climate change," has moved the Doomsday Clock back one minute, to the same setting as when it wa was first created in 1947.  BBC.  

Veterans Day: may they all come home (and always HAVE a home)

I saw some of Springfield's Veterans Day parade today as marchers kicked off from State and Federal Streets.

Only a few blocks away, at Worthington St. shelter, I knew that more than a quarter of the homeless men and women "living there" are veterans.

Most are Vietnam Era vets, but the Veterans Administration says there are more than 2,000 vets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are homeless right now in this country.

War-- especially the kind of wars we're fighting right now-- seem to take the ground out from under the feet of those who serve.  Many never find their footing again.



Maybe next year, with some special outreach to those homeless vets, they can be included in the day's events.

This lovely video is of a returning soldier being greeted by his dog.  The next video is of returning soldiers surprising their kids.  Yes, it's a bit manipulative, but  it helps us civilians remember that it's real people with real families who are sacrificing-- and being sacrificed-- in these unnecessary and unending wars,

Enough! End this stupid war!

This is not quite the post I was going to write for Bloggers Unite's BlogBlast For Peace ~ Dona Nobis Pacem, which is today.  I was going to start by writing about the "Withdrawal from Iraq" widget at the top right corner of my blog and how just about every day I think about removing it because somehow it seems to imply that I am patiently waiting another seven hundred and eighty-seven days for our troops (at least in Iraq) to come home.  I don't feel patient at all.

I returned home tonight to news that an Army major and psychiatrist at Fort Hood had shot and killed 11 soldiers and had wounded 31 others before being shot dead himself. There will be much discussion over the next week about the stress our soldiers are under, how frequently they are deployed and what a difficult time they are having re-adjusting to civilian life.  And then will everything settle down again, a new story for the media and our momentarily heightened consciousness of the insanity of these wars sinking back into our everyday reality?  God, I hope not.

 The great majority of  us in this country want these wars to end-- that's at least part of the reason so many voted for Barack Obama.   So why the hell isn't it happening?  Instead, Obama contemplates sending more men and women-- our children, our parents, our brothers and sisters-- to Afghanistan.

Eight years of war.  More than 5,000 troops killed.  Hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties.  And nothing to show for it.  Weren't we supposed to be after the terrorists who attacked us on September 11?  Why wasn't this treated as a criminal matter instead of dragging the nation into war?

I know it's hard to keep the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the forefront of our minds when so many of us are struggling just to make ends meet.  Not long ago General David Grange said that the military is at war but the nation is not.  I beg to differ.  The cost of both wars is approaching $1 trillion and I can only begin to imagine the number of small businesses that could have stayed open and the jobs that could have been saved with that money.

Are we really committed to a war on terror?  If so, there are better ways to do it.  New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff made some interesting calculations last month:  for the cost of a single soldier in Afghanistan for a year, we could build twenty schools.  Educated people are essential for a free society, and if we'd started building schools in Afghanistan eight years ago, we could pretty much guarantee the creation of an extremism-free generation.

So what are we to do?  MoveOn, once a key leader in the anti-war movement, seems to have moved on to health care.  United for Peace and Justice is urging us to take action both before and after Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan, as if such action is inevitable. Only A.N.S.W.E.R. is calling for national days of action and mobilization, on March 19 and 20th.

I'm a community organizer, but right now I just don't know how we can get enough power to enforce our common will on the government of this country.  I do know that on November 13th, at 3 p.m, a march against the war will start at Arise for Social Justice, 467 State St., Springfield ,Masasachusetts, before heading down to the steps of City Hall.  And tomorrow at noon I'm going to stand on the corner of State and Federal Streets and say, Enough of this stupid war.  If you're in town, come join me.  It may not be much, but it's better than remaining silent.

The REAL threat to Americans

From St.PeteforPeace.org.

Gaza casualties

Local blogger Bill Dusty challenged info in my last post about 90% of the casualties in Gaza being non-combatants. That figure does seem wrong. I took a look online for some estimates and they follow below, and while I rarely print newspaper articles in their entirety, I must do so for an NYTimes article about the death of three of the daughters of a Palestinian doctor in Gaza.

Just remember: no CHILD voted in any Palestinian election, not for Hamas, not for anyone.

Gaza: UN official reports horrific hospital scenes of casualties

12 January 2009 – Appalled that fighting was still continuing in Gaza despite the Security Council’s ceasefire resolution, senior United Nations officials said today they were horrified at the human costs amid reports that over 40 per cent of the nearly 900 Palestinians killed in the Israeli offensive, and almost half of the 3,860 wounded, were women and children.

“Behind those statistics that we read out every day is really profound human suffering and grave tragedy for all involved and not just for those who are killed and injured but for their families as well,” UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Director of Operations John Ging told a news conference in New York, speaking by video link from Gaza, where he had just visited the main Al Shifa hospital.

“(It) is the place of course where you see the most horrific human consequences of this conflict. Among the tragic cases that I saw were a child, six years of age, little or no brain activity, people don’t have much hope for her survival; multiple amputee – another little girl; and a pregnant woman who’d lost a leg,” he said, as the Israeli offensive went into its 17th day with the stated aim of ending Hamas rocket attacks into Israel.

“The hospital is really full of patients whose lives have been in many instances really destroyed, and they’re alive.”

UNICEF: Number of child casualties still rising in Gaza

Humanitarian situation is desperate

JERUSALEM/NEW YORK, 9 January 2009 - The number of children being killed and injured in the fighting in Gaza continues to climb and the humanitarian situation is becoming more desperate every day.

According to figures cited by OCHA today, there have been 758 Palestinian deaths since December 27 , out of which 257 were children and 56 were women. At least, 3,100 have been injured including 1,080 children and 452 women.

Red Cross accuses Israel over 'shocking' Gaza casualties

Posted Fri Jan 9, 2009 7:10am AEDT

The Red Cross has accused the Israeli army of hindering its rescue teams after saying it found four children lying next to their dead mothers in the wreckage of a shell-battered Gaza City neighbourhoood.

In a scathing statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) accused the Israeli army of failing to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.

The Red Cross said its rescue teams had been refused access to the Zeitun neighbourhood for four days.

January 18, 2009

Gazan Doctor and Peace Advocate Loses 3 Daughters to Israeli Fire and Asks Why

By DINA KRAFT - NYTimes

TEL HASHOMER, Israel — Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Gazan and a doctor who has devoted his life to medicine and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

But on Saturday, the day after three of his daughters and a niece were killed by Israeli fire in Gaza, Dr. Abuelaish, 53, struggled to hold on to the humane philosophy that has guided his life and work.

As he sat in a waiting room of the Israeli hospital where he works part time, he asked over and over, “Why did they do this?”

Elsewhere in the hospital another daughter and a niece were being treated for their wounds.

“I dedicated my life really for peace, for medicine,” said Dr. Abuelaish, who does joint research projects with Israeli physicians and for years has worked as something of a one-man force to bring injured and ailing Gazans for treatment in Israel.

“This is the path I believed in and what I raised and educated my children to believe,” he said.

Dr. Abuelaish said he wanted the Israeli Army to tell him why his home, which he said harbored no militants, had been fired upon. He said if a mistake had been made and an errant tank shell had hit his home, he expected an apology, not excuses.

The doctor, a recent widower, had not left Gaza since the Israeli assault began last month and was at home in the Jabaliya refugee camp with his eight children and other family members during the attack on Friday.

An army spokesman said that a preliminary investigation had shown that soldiers were returning fire toward the direction of areas from which they had been fired upon.

“The Israeli Defense Forces does not target innocents or civilians, and during the operation the army has been fighting an enemy that does not hesitate to fire from within civilian targets,” said the spokesman, speaking anonymously on behalf of the army.

The Israeli public became witness to the Abuelaish family’s tragedy on Friday night when a conversation that a television journalist was having with Dr. Abuelaish was broadcast live.

In a video now available on YouTube, the doctor implored the journalist, whom he had called, to help send assistance, wailing, “My daughters have been killed.”

Journalists had come to know the doctor, who was already well known in the country’s medical establishment, because he has been providing witness accounts of the Israeli operation for television stations. After the broadcast, an ambulance was sent to a border crossing to pick up the doctor and the two wounded girls. His four other children remain in Gaza and are expected to join him in Israel soon.

At the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer on Saturday, Dr. Abuelaish was surrounded by Israeli colleagues. Several were crying. Tammie Ronen, a professor of social work at Tel Aviv University, knelt beside the doctor. “You cannot let yourself collapse, you have your living children to take care of,” said Dr. Ronen. Dr. Ronen had worked with him in researching the effects of conflict-related stress on Palestinian children in Gaza and Israeli children in Sderot, a border town that has been the main target of Gazan rocket fire in recent years.

“Tell them who my children were,” said Dr. Abuelaish, spotting Anael Harpaz, an Israeli woman who runs a peace camp in New Mexico for Israeli and Palestinian girls that three of his daughters attended, including his eldest, Bisan, 20, who was killed Friday. The other two daughters who were killed were Mayar, 15, and Aya, 13. The doctor’s niece who died, Nur Abuelaish, was 17.

Dr. Abuelaish recalled that it was Bisan who, after her mother died of leukemia, urged him to continue his work in Israel, saying she would look after the younger children.

In a hospital room, Ms. Harpaz held 17-year-old Shada Abuelaish’s hand as a nurse placed drops of medicine on her tongue. The girl’s forehead was covered in bandages as was her right eye, which had been operated on in hopes of saving it. The niece who was wounded is in critical condition, with shrapnel wounds.

Outside the room, Ms. Harpaz crumpled into a chair, sobbing.

“I hope this is a wake-up call,” she said. “This is such a peace-loving family.”

Dr. Abuelaish is a rarity: a Gazan at home among Israelis. He describes himself as a bridge between the two worlds, one of the few Gazans with a permit to enter Israel because of his work.

“I wanted every Palestinian treated in Israel to go back and say how well the Israelis treated them,” he said. “That is the message I wanted to spread all the time. And this is what I get in return?”

Later, sitting on a plastic chair near his daughter’s hospital room, Dr. Abuelaish spoke with the prayer of so many parents who have buried their children as part of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I hope that my children will be the last price.”

Springfield's "Israel Solidarity Week" infiltrated by peace activists

A ceasefire may hover on the horizon, but the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is far from ended.

It's hard to know what role the nearly universal horror of Israel's invasion of Gaza, and the intense political activity that's followed, has had on moving the conflict closer to peace. But speaking out is simply what people of conscience have felt compelled to do.

On Friday, a group of peace activists brought their message to an event at the Jewish Community Center in Springfield, MA. The following is a report from one of those activists.

A lot of people have been asking for a report of our direct action at the Jewish Community Center yesterday evening in Springfield so here it is.

A group of 28 of us went to -- essentially infiltrated -- the "Israel Solidarity Week" rally at the Jewish Community Center (JCC)/Jewish Federation in Springfield. A series of these events were held all over the U.S. over the last two weeks. The rallies are sponsored and coordinated by the national organization United Jewish Communities (UJC). UJC's webpage defines the organization's mission as:

"Unifying North American Jewry: United Jewish Communities represents and serves 157 Jewish federations and 400 independent Jewish communities across North America. It reflects the values of social justice and human rights that define the Jewish people." [Emphasis mine.]

We planned our action very carefully so as to ensure the safety of all participants. Our goal was to get the media that was inevitably going to be at the event, as it always is for Israel solidarity rallies, to get footage of our protest that made clear to a broader public that the rally did not represent the sentiment about Israel's actions and policies of all Jews, Israelis, and other people of conscience. (As part of our group we had three Israelis and several Jews.) We didn't for a minute think we'd be changing the minds of the Israel supporters in the room.

We organized into "affinity groups" and drove to Springfield in six cars. The JCC auditorium was packed with over 200 people. Our group sat throughout the auditorium. After a welcome speech by the JCC's president; a short, sycophantish speech by the Springfield mayor in support of Israel; and the singing of the U.S. national anthem and the Israeli anthem, "Hatikva;" all the members of our group rose and went and stood at the sides of the auditorium. We unfurled three large banners and held up signs condemning Israel's actions in Gaza and calling for solidarity with the Palestinian people.

Audience members all looked at our signs and started to "get" what was going on. Immediately the verbal abuse from the audience began with calls of: "get the garbage out of here," "ANIMALS!!!" and "TERRORISTS!!!"

Within a matter of a minute or two, about ten Springfield police who were there doing security for the event approached us and started physically pushing and pulling us out of the auditorum to the hallways on both sides of the space. As soon as we were pushed out of the range of the news cameras' view, the police became physically and verbally aggressive and abusive. They herded us like cattle smashing us one into the other, dragging some of us by our clothing and scarves around our necks, screaming at us abusively all the while, and ultimately beating a few of the members of the group with batons.

Meanwhile, one policeman radioed for additional units to come to the JCC and requested a K-9 (canine) unit as well. Members of the group reported that at least one policeman had his gun drawn and ready to shoot. Their verbal abuse was tremendous, extremely loud and often shouted into our faces literally just inches away from our heads. They demanded that we get into our cars and threatened repeatedly to arrest the entire group. Approximately 10 squad cars arrive on the scene and cops swarmed us pushing us into our cars all the while screaming and physically pushing and pulling us.

One policeman slammed the car door on my leg as I was getting into the car. I got back out of the car and yelled at him that he has slammed the door on my leg and that that was not acceptable. He responded by putting his face right up to mine and screaming, "No I didn't! You're Lying."

A night to remember.

Unfortunately, the news media did not follow us out into the hallways or into the parking lot to record the abuses wreaked upon us. There was short clip of our demo on the 10 p.m. Fox News program (Channel 6) and ABC's channel 40 at 11 p.m.

I saw a cop writing down my license plate number. They probably recorded those of our other cars as well. What will happen to that information? Will it go to the FBI and Homeland Security? I recently heard an interview with Naomi Wolf about her book Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries in which she talked about the increasing force with which local police forces are responding to civil society's protests and political actions. She discussed how police are intimidating people calling for social change with such brutality that protesters are becoming more and more scared to participate in actions.

I don't know if we achieved the goal we had set for ourselves. The media coverage was fairly marginal and some of us sustained bruises and increased rage. We continue to struggle with questions about what our next steps should be toward ending the current carnage and cruelty in Gaza; ending Israel's occupation, siege, blockades, and dehumanization of Palestinians for the longterm. How can we, here in little Western Massachusetts, influence the hearts and minds of our fellow citizens and the politicians who are supposed to represent us? For those of you who are local, I'll send out just one more email today with ideas some of us are working on. We'd like to solicit your participation and support.

I am attaching a copy of the flier we dispersed as we were being pushed out of the JCC

We are an ad-hoc, multi-generational coalition of students, members of academia, Israelis, Americans, internationals, Jews, and people of conscience in Western Massachusetts who are speaking out against the policies and actions of the Israeli government and military.

We are deeply troubled by and outraged at Israel’s war on Gaza and its aggressive violence against the Palestinian people.

To date:

Over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and over 4,600 have been wounded. Over 90 percent of those killed and injured are civilians. Almost half are children.

• The 1.5 million Palestinian people in Gaza have been under Israeli-imposed siege and blockade for the past 18 months without adequate food, water, medicine, or fuel
• The Palestinians in Gaza have suffered collective punishment for resisting an unjust and illegal occupation
• Israel continues to perpetrate massive violations of international and humanitarian law against the Gazans
• Israel’s murderous and unjust campaign in Gaza is being funded misguidedly by the U.S. and carried out with U.S.-made weapons and U.S. approval

We call on Israel to:

Stop the killing! Stop the siege! Stop the blockade! Stop the war crimes! Allow humanitarian goods and other commodities to flow into and out of Gaza freely! Allow the people of Gaza their human dignity, legal rights under international law, and freedom!

While the end of the current war, siege and blockade on Gaza is our most immediate priority, we call for an end to Israel’s ongoing occupation, ethnic cleansing and oppression of Palestinians. Israel’s current policies and actions will not bring safety to Israelis nor peace to anyone in the Middle East.

We call on the United States to: Stop funding and supporting Israel’s war crimes, occupation, and unjust assault on Palestinians!

Israelis, Jews all over the world, and people from all over the world are speaking out against the Israeli war on Gaza. We mourn the carnage Israel has wreaked in Gaza and the loss of life on both sides. AIPAC and this rally do not represent our views.

Image from Makaristos,Wikimedia.org

Israli youth resist oppression

I don't usually reprint entire emails, but I think it's important for people to know that just like in the U.S., there are many in Israel also protesting the oppression of Palestinians. There's an easy action for you to take, also.

It's hard to believe that people all around the world are learning about my 19-year-old son Yuval. I know that I'm proud of him. I just never expected the world to be proud of him. I can't thank you strongly enough

Send a letter to the Israeli Minister of Defense.

I am Yuval Ophir-Auron. I am one of the Shministim. I need your help.

for your words of support for Yuval and his fellow activists and friends.

As I write this, Yuval's in jail, serving his second term. We don't know how or when this will end.

When Yuval was 9 years old he met Palestinians for the first time while we were visiting them after being liberated from jail as administrative detainees. I think this was probably the first time something in his naïve conception about good and bad was broken and he began to ask questions.

It's hard to be a mother of a kid like this. I want him to be enjoying his teenage years. I want him to benefit from the fruits of my and Yuval's father's labor, and I want him to live in a world where he doesn't have to serve in a military that occupies another people. I am sad that I haven't been able to create that world for him. But I am proud that he's trying to create it for himself.

Here's why it matters that the rest of the world is paying attention to Yuval, Raz, and the other Shministim.

The Israeli government would like nothing better than to believe that everyone in the world supports Israel unconditionally. Hell, even people in Israel don't unconditionally support it.

The sad fact is that the occupation is destroying us all- Israelis and Palestinians alike. Supporting the Shministim is a way to do your part to end the occupation and bring comfort and well-being to our peoples.

I am sending a letter:

Will you do the same? Please sign a letter now. Ask those you know to sign their names. Your support means so much to my son and his friends, to me, to all of us who want and deserve a real future in this part of the world.

Thank you,

Ayelet Ophir-Auron
Neve Shalom-Wahat al Salam, Israel

Why I'm voting for Barack Obama

In spite of our history of Republican governors, Massachusetts is one of those states that can always be counted on to vote Democratic in the national elections. That has freed up many of us up to "vote our consciences" without fear of jinxing the Democratic candidate, but has also sometimes had an enervating effect on progressives using the electoral system to organize. I did see that start to change during the Deval Patrick campaign. The opportunity to have a Black governor was too good for many to pass up.

Through the years I've mostly voted Democratic, but I can't say I've been a great Democrat-- haven't joined ward committees and have rarely worked on a campaign. One exception was the Jesse Jackson campaign of 1984. I was inspired by the Jackson of 1984. By volunteering for his campaign, I was taken under the wing of some of Springfield's most dedicated and political African-American leaders-- then State Rep. Ray Jordan, E. Henry Twiggs, Candace Lopes, to name a few-- and the contacts I made there have lasted 25 years. I also learned the basic skills of looking up numbers in reverse directories, phonebanking, door to door work and stand-outs. I know that the Internet has added to a campaign organizer's toolbox, but still, nothing beats the basics. I wish some of my progressive friends could bring themselves to roll up their sleeves and labor with the on-the-ground Democrats.

Twenty-five years later I am far less likely to be idealistic about any candidate because the options for a political platform in the United States are very narrow and defined by the parameters of capitalism and Christianity. Unlike most other democracies, we have two major parties only, and while I agree there's a difference between them, it's the difference between one and three on a scale of ten. I will never forget sitting in a homeless shelter lunchroom watching Bill Clinton be inaugurated on the TV, when all of us expected him to include ending homelessness in his address, and the slow slumping of shoulders when homeless people were ignored yet again.

I am a faithful voter, however, because of what every organizer knows: Use what you've got to get what you need.

Within this framework, the candidacy of Barack Obama is so extraordinary that for months it barely seemed real to me. If truth be told, I still find it difficult to believe that the U.S. is ready to elect a Black man to the Presidency. but I'm starting to think I'm wrong. I want to be proud of my country. If Barack is elected, it'll be one of those too-rare moments when we can say to each other, Well, I guess the struggle is worth it after all.

So here's my short list of reasons I'm voting for Barack Obama.

Save the environment, save the world. I won't need to worry about policy decisions that make things worse and can expect some positive movement. (Nuclear energy and clean coal be damned.)

Jobs, jobs, jobs. I'm tired of seeing people work and struggle to get by . I'm tired of seeing young people grow up not knowing the value of work. My first jobs out of high school were in factories, making things, and relatively speaking, they were still probably the best-paying jobs I've ever had. Moving toward energy independence could almost be like a national jobs program.

Peace and civil rights. I'm not a pacifist (maybe in my next life) but I believe war should be such a last resort as to make it nearly impossible. I doubt Barack Obama will find it necessary to start any new wars and he'll help us get out of the ones we're in.

So I'm off to the polls then home for a long night in front of the TV with my sister and her husband and a six-pack of beer (sorry, Sarah Palin). Michaelann the organizer is voting Obama.

(BTW, it's time for Blogger to stop underlining Barack Obama as if it's a misspelled word!)

Another side of seniors

Seniors in the Western Mass area are leaders in the anti-war movement. Don't know who this woman is, but she's beautiful.

Which do YOU choose?

Tell Congress, ‘No more tax dollars for war’

On “tax day,” April 15, AFSC and friends will send the U.S. Congress a clear message that tax dollars should be used to address human needs in the U.S. and Iraq, not to prolong the war. Join with AFSC’s Cost of War project in spreading the word about the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars being used to prolong the war in Iraq. Sign our letter to Congress, find how you can bring the Cost of War information to your community, and stay tuned for a Congressional call-in day on April 15. Sign here:

Queer youth coordinator weighs in on "psychopathic army killers"

yes...thank you liz...and michaelann for your remarks. i, too, feel a sense of sadness and outrage at your remarks, david. i spend many hours each week with queer youth....queer youth from springfield (springfield, documented as a poor city according to the last census). queer youth who are trying to make it in springfield public schools (where in 2003 and 2004 only 33% of entering freshmen graduated...so, what of the 67% who didn't make it?). queer youth who are mainly from poor families, and who aren't seeing a whole lot of choices out there for their futures. queer youth of color, who are prime targets for the military recruiters, who are promising them everything 'and the kitchen sink' to sign up (and, are told by recruiters not to worry about "Don' Ask, Don't Tell" ...because recruiters are pulling out all stops).

i can tell you, that these young people are not psychopaths or murders. they are our brothers/sisters, neighbors, they are sensitive and reflective and insightful...they are our future....and, i'll tell you right now...i will fight like hell to tell them the truth about the military, send them to trainings on counter-recruitment, show them films, etc to help them not join...because i know for sure they will be damaged in ways we DO have some idea about. but, david, we are up against a huge and powerful institutional oppressive machine (and, that is where i will target my rage, my work). because, when/if these young people sign up, join, get sent to iraq, or wherever...i will not stop loving them and showing them respect for their incredible struggle. and, i will not call them names that will only do further damage to them, their families, and will ultimately damage all of us. i will walk with them through it all, understanding and holding the complexities at the same time.

holly richardson,

arise member

and co-director of Out Now (springfield's queer youth organization)

Navy Mom: Don't you call my son a psychopathic killer!

I am one of the moderators of AriseAction, a listserve that Arise started way back in June of 2000. AriseAction is overtly political and focused toward social justice and against oppression. About three-quarters of our 350 members are from Western Massachusetts and the rest from everywhere else. Views range from liberal to far lest.

Anyone who's ever moderated or been actively involved with a listserve knows it can get pretty contentious out there. We've had our moles and our agent provocateurs and the occasional racist in sheep's clothing, but they don't last long, and for the most part we've had a thoughtful, sincere crew with limited interest in beating each other up.

Still, as moderator I sometimes approve a message with which I strongly disagree. Almost any message that isn't a personal attack or otherwise oppressive gets posted.

Today, a member wanted to commemorate the death of 4,000 military personnel in Iraq by sharing a picture of Bush and Cheney's faces composed of the faces of those who have died. The accompanying text said, "In remembrance of the 4,000 brave men and women who sacrificed everything for us, and the two men who would continue this great tragedy, despite the cost to our soldiers."

When I read it (and approved it), I thought, I didn't ask them to sacrifice for me, maybe that's what they believed, but I believe they were themselves sacrificed by our Government. I thought I might write a response if I had a chance.

But someone else responded first, and his response read: They weren't "brave men and women who sacrifice everything for us." They were psychopathic murderers who participated in perpetrating genocide against the Iraqis.

Well, now I had to respond, and I did, but my sister's post that followed mine was much more eloquent:

As a mother with a son in the military, seeing you call our servicepeople "psychopathic murderers who participated in perpetrating genocide against the Iraqis" caused me to fell several different emotions in the space of seconds.
First I was astonished at the hatred and stupidity in that statement.
Second was pain and sorrow knowing someone hated my son that way.
Third was anger. Anger at you who dare to attack my son.
My son, who still laughs at silly jokes.
My son, who has defended friends, family and complete strangers to his own detriment, and I'm not talking about since he has been in the service.
My son, who at 5 tried to fight off the police as they forced the homeless from "No Homes Inn" in Northampton. Then the rage to defend my son.

Now that I've said that, let me add that my son grew up in an anti-war household with my sister, myself and a father who is an anti-war Vietnam vet.
My son is in the Navy and stationed in Japan, far away from the fighting in Iraq.
And if your statement had that effect on ME, can you imagine the kind of effect it would have on mothers and fathers whose sons and daughters are in Iraq?. Who have died in Iraq?. Who aren't sure how they feel about Iraq? Put yourself in my place and be glad you're not in their place.

Peace,

Liz

No Justice No Peace

"the revolution begins today.."

Our Tory at the IRS building, Washington D.C.

Seven Blunders of the World

1. Wealth without work

2. Pleasure without conscience

3. Knowledge without character

4. Commerce without morality

5. Science without humanity

6. Worship without sacrifice

7. Politics without principle