http://www.labordawgs.com/f/Save_the_Date_Flyer.pdf
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Statement from AFAN RE: Canyon Ridge Christian Church
*Thanks to AFAN for choosing to do the right thing.
Statement from AFAN RE: Canyon Ridge Christian Church
by Aid for AIDS of Nevada on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 2:45pm
Posted on Facebook
“After evaluating Canyon Ridge Christian Church’s backing of Pastor Ssempa of Uganda and his support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, we feel that it is in the best interest of our clients, supporters and staff to dissolve our relationship with the church immediately. Unfortunately, we will be unable to continue to work with the church, as long as they are associated with Pastor Ssempa. Since what he and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill represent violates the basic human rights that should be afforded to all Ugandans. Our mission is to provide client service programs that assist in enhancing the physical health and psychosocial wellness of the individuals living with and affected by HIV/AIDS in southern Nevada, while promoting dignity and improving the quality of their lives. We will further this mission without the support of Canyon Ridge Christian Church.” - Aid for AIDS of Nevada
Founded in 1984, Aid for AIDS of Nevada (AFAN) is the oldest and largest AIDS service organization in the state of Nevada. Nearly two thousand men, women and children infected with HIV are registered as clients with our agency. AFAN provides direct client service programs, food programs, prevention and education programs, and community outreach.
http://www.afanlv.org
Statement from AFAN RE: Canyon Ridge Christian Church
by Aid for AIDS of Nevada on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 2:45pm
Posted on Facebook
“After evaluating Canyon Ridge Christian Church’s backing of Pastor Ssempa of Uganda and his support of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, we feel that it is in the best interest of our clients, supporters and staff to dissolve our relationship with the church immediately. Unfortunately, we will be unable to continue to work with the church, as long as they are associated with Pastor Ssempa. Since what he and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill represent violates the basic human rights that should be afforded to all Ugandans. Our mission is to provide client service programs that assist in enhancing the physical health and psychosocial wellness of the individuals living with and affected by HIV/AIDS in southern Nevada, while promoting dignity and improving the quality of their lives. We will further this mission without the support of Canyon Ridge Christian Church.” - Aid for AIDS of Nevada
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Founded in 1984, Aid for AIDS of Nevada (AFAN) is the oldest and largest AIDS service organization in the state of Nevada. Nearly two thousand men, women and children infected with HIV are registered as clients with our agency. AFAN provides direct client service programs, food programs, prevention and education programs, and community outreach.
http://www.afanlv.org
Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Tuesday, August 03, 2010
Should Cities Restrict Food to the Homeless?
Should Cities Restrict Food to the Homeless?
Cities Seek to Contain the Homeless; Advocates Call Policy 'Misguided'
July 5, 2010
Read the full article here:
Gee, Thanks for Permission to Feed People, Las Vegas
Gee, Thanks for Permission to Feed People, Las Vegas
by Josie Raymond June 15, 2010 11:30 AM (PT) Topics: Criminalization of the Homeless
Doesn't asking for permission to feed the needy feel a little off, like asking to go to the bathroom or to eat lunch?
Read the full article here:
http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/gee_thanks_for_permission_to_feed_people_las_vegas
by Josie Raymond June 15, 2010 11:30 AM (PT) Topics: Criminalization of the Homeless
Doesn't asking for permission to feed the needy feel a little off, like asking to go to the bathroom or to eat lunch?
Read the full article here:
http://homelessness.change.org/blog/view/gee_thanks_for_permission_to_feed_people_las_vegas
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Sunday, May 16, 2010
People & Power - Homeless Hero - 03 Feb 08 - Pt 1
Story of Cheri Honkala's rise from homelessness and single motherhood to leadership of a growing popular movement in the USA.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Welcome: Japan Council Against A&H Bombs
Welcome: Japan Council Against A&H Bombs
http://pjep.org/actions/?id=4618&t=1273035600
The Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs (Gensuikyo) was established in September 1955. Since then it has waged various kinds of campaigns for: the prevention of nuclear war; the total ban on and the elimination of nuclear weapons; and support and solidarity with Hibakusha (victims of the atomic bombing). Yayoi Tsuchida, assistant general secretary of Gensuikyo, will be leading their delegation in Las Vegas.
Over 5000 people from Japan are visiting the United States on the occasion of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference http://peaceandjusticenow.org/wordpress/ at the United Nations throughout the month of May including 1500 members of Gensuikyo. Eighty of them, including several Hibakusha (A-bomb survivors) are coming to Las Vegas. Like their compatriots visiting other cities, they want to speak with people about the need for a swift and total ban on and the elimination of nuclear weapons; and the need for people to support and have solidarity with Hibakusha (victims of A- and H- bomb attacks and testing).
Please review and consider signing and circulating their Appeal for a Nuclear Weapon-Free World. http://www.antiatom.org/sig/2010/E_index.html
...Thursday, May 6, the delegation will stand with the weekly peace vigil outside the federal courthouse in Las Vegas.
Thanks to the Atomic Testing Museum http://www.atomictestingmuseum.org/ for donating their space for this reception. Organized by Nevada Desert Experience http://nevadadesertexperience.org/ along with Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. http://paceebene.org/
...Vigil for Peace Every Thursday: 8:30 a.m. - 9:30 a.m., in front of the Federal Courthouse, 333 Las Vegas Blvd. S., Las Vegas, Nevada.
Every week, a group of people stand with signs about peace, about the cost of war, asking people to honk in a sign of solidarity if they're in a vehicle. This particular vigil has been taking place for over eight years. Please join us in promoting nonviolence and world peace.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Education Not Incarceration
Education Not Incarceration
by Dahn Shaulis
Sunday, February 14, 2010, 10:10 AM
[The RJ failed again to mention common sense legislation that could be used to reduce the State budget. I provided Mr. Benjamin Spillman with the written information below which he failed to use in his article "Residents Give Budget Input". I am doubtful that the RJ or the Sun will publish this]
I am asking that Nevada lawmakers gather the courage to push Senate Bill 398 in the emergency session, to reduce a dysfunctional and wasteful aspect of state government, to treat low-level drug offenders rather than throwing them into gang-infested, drug infested prisons. I am also asking Nevada voters to call or write their legislators about this measure.
According to the SAGE Commission, which approves of this measure, the State would save an estimated $51.2 million in the first year by diverting non-violent probation violators from prison to treatment. The SAGE Commission also estimated a $280 million savings over five years. Substance abuse treatment would be provided by the Department of Health and Human Services. The heads of Corrections and Parole and Probation have already publicly stated that they approve of this measure.
I speak to you not only as a concerned citizen, but also as an educator who has spent considerable time working in and studying the Nevada justice system. As a case manager in high security mental health units at two state prisons, I have seen this waste of resources, where prisons have become “the new asylums” and where high security prisons serve as graduate schools for organized crime.
For 45 years the State of Nevada decided to invest in adult and youth prisons instead of communities, public education, and human services. Crime grew as a result of the growing casino culture, racial segregation and discrimination, and the refusal to treat people for substance abuse and mental health problems. Overall index crime peaked in Nevada in 1980, yet the fear of crime enabled lawmakers to push for more prison funding, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars in capital expenditures. Currently, some lawmakers want to build prisons even as other facilities lie vacant.
Prisons in Nevada do little to habilitate prisoners, providing them with few opportunities to get the skills and resources they need to make it on the outside. It is appalling to see that Casa Grande, which is supposed to provide opportunities for short-timers, always has dozens of empty beds, while waves of low-level probation violators flood the high security High Desert State prison. Let’s have the courage to start the savings now. The time is now to downsize this costly part of government—and to replace it with community reinvestment and public education.
Nevada Interim Finance Committee Meeting
MEETING NOTICE AND AGENDA
Name of Organization: NEVADA LEGISLATURE’S INTERIM FINANCE COMMITTEE
Date and Time of Meeting: February 18, 2010 – 9:00 a.m.
Place of Meeting: Grant Sawyer State Office Building
Room 4401
555 East Washington Avenue
Las Vegas, Nevada
Note: Some members of the Committee may be attending the meeting and other persons may observe the meeting and provide testimony through a simultaneous videoconference conducted at the following locations:
Legislative Building
Room 4100
401 South Carson Street
Carson City, Nevada
If you cannot attend the meeting, you can listen to or view it live over the Internet. The address for the Nevada Legislature website is http://www.leg.state.nv.us. Click on the link “Live Meetings – Listen or View.”
Note: Please provide the secretary with electronic or written copies of testimony and visual presentations if you wish to have complete versions included as exhibits with the minutes.
A G E N D A
Note: Items on this agenda may be taken in a different order than listed.
Note: Items on this agenda may be taken in a different order than listed.
*Denotes items on which the Committee may take action.
A. ROLL CALL.
*B. DISCUSSION OF THE STATE BUDGET SHORTFALL AND PROPOSED SOLUTIONS.
C. PUBLIC COMMENT.
(Because of time considerations, the period for public comment by each speaker may be limited, and speakers are urged to avoid repetition of comments made by previous speakers.)
Note: We are pleased to make reasonable accommodations for members of the public who are disabled and wish to attend the meeting. If special arrangements for the meeting are necessary, please notify the Fiscal Analysis Division of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, in writing, at the Legislative Building, 401 South Carson Street, Carson City, Nevada 89701-4747, or call the Fiscal Analysis Division at (775) 684-6821 as soon as possible.
Notice of this meeting was posted in the following Carson City, Nevada, locations: Blasdel Building, 209 East Musser Street; Capitol Press Corps, Basement, Capitol Building; City Hall, 201 North Carson Street; Legislative Building, 401 South Carson Street; and Nevada State Library, 100 Stewart Street. Notice of this meeting was faxed for posting to the following Las Vegas, Nevada, locations: Clark County Government Center, 500 South Grand Central Parkway; and Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 East Washington
Avenue. Notice of this meeting was posted on the Internet through the Nevada Legislature’s website at www.leg.state.nv.us.
Avenue. Notice of this meeting was posted on the Internet through the Nevada Legislature’s website at www.leg.state.nv.us.
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Human Rights Advocates Given Maximum Federal Prison Sentences
Speaking Truth to Power
Human Rights Advocates Given Maximum Federal Prison Sentences of Six Months for Direct Action Opposing the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC)
Judge Finds SOA Watch Activists Guilty for Carrying Protest against the SOA/WHINSEC onto Fort Benning, Issues Arrest Warrant for Michael Walli for Refusing to Appear for the Trial. Father Louie in Georgia Jail.
On Monday, January 25, 2010, U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced three human rights advocates to six months in federal prison for carrying a protest against the School of the Americas onto the Fort Benning military base in Georgia. This school, re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is a controversial U.S. Army training school for Latin American soldiers.
Father Roy Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic priest and the founder of SOA Watch, the organization that works to close the School of the Americas said "Judge Faircloth has sentenced our sister and brothers to 6 months in federal prison for speaking the truth about the SOA/WHINSEC. We are saddened by the court's continued blindness and hardness of heart, but we are stronger than ever in solidarity. These sentences are symbolic of our nation's misdirection, but they are also great steps forward for our resistance movement. It is truer today, than ever before, that although they jail the resisters they have not, and cannot, jail the resistance!"
The "SOA 4" are:
Nancy Gwin, long-time activist from Syracuse, New York - sentenced to six months in prison
Father Louie Vitale, veteran and priest from Oakland, CA - sentenced to six months in prison
Ken Hayes, SOA Watch Council member from Austin, TX - sentenced to six months in prison
Michael Walli, a member of the Catholic Worker movement from Washington, DC refused to appear for the trial in Georgia. Walli had told the court during his November arraignment that he would not pay any bail and that he would not voluntarily return for the trial. "I walk out and it's goodbye" Walli told Judge Mallon Faircloth. Michael Walli made good on his promise and on Monday, Judge Mallon Faircloth issued a warrant for Michael Walli's arrest.
The "SOA 4" were among the tens of thousands who gathered on November 20-22, 2009 outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia to demand a change in U.S. policy in Latin America and the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC. The group peacefully crossed onto Fort Benning while thousands stood vigil at the gates of the base in memory of those killed by graduates of the institution.
The SOA/WHINSEC, a military training facility for Latin American security personnel, made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.
Nancy Gwin's trial statement
(Nancy is on trial for her work to close the School of the Americas along with Louie Vitale and others.)
Your Honor, I’ve brought a woven fabric, a tapestry from Guatemala, with me today to remind those in the courtroom of the beauty of the people of Latin America, of their gifts. And, this weaving is also a reminder of what violence does to beauty.
Your Honor, my name is Nancy Gwin. I was born in Nebraska, growing up in a small town there. My home is now Syracuse, New York. I wish to speak to you of my journey to the prayer vigil to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC on Sunday, November 22, 2009.
I am a war orphan---my father, Boyd Gwin is MIA/Missing in Action in North Korea, an Air Force/National Air Guard Pilot whose plane was shot down in January, 1953. I am a peace activist in my father’s honor. As a young woman I committed to do what I could in my lifetime to make the strong statement, “No more war orphans, no more widows or Gold Star mothers.”
Many veterans are working to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC. I like to think I stand with them and understand their indignity of knowing such a training school exists within the United States Armed Forces.
I have been to El Mozote in the Morazan Department of El Salvador, walked on the grounds where people were massacred and visited the small museum there. Graduates of the School of the Americas, Salvadoran armed forces trained by U.S. military, killed at least 1000 civilians at El Mozote. It is estimated that 130 were children under the age of twelve. I have a granddaughter who will turn twelve this week.
Your Honor, I am a person of faith, a church woman. My faith tradition is the United Church of Christ, although I have great respect for other religious traditions. Whenever I have been able, I have journeyed to other countries in Latin America to interface with the people, to witness the impact of the economic and foreign policies of the United States first hand.
The United Church of Christ has adopted a Resolution “Calling for the Close of the U.S. Army School of the Americas” which I have attached to my statement. I quote:
“Whereas it has been established that people of faith, working in solidarity with people of Central America, have been murdered by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas, namely those responsible for the assassinations of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the four North American church women, the six Jesuit priests, their Housekeeper and her daughter, all in El Salvador; . . .
“Be it further resolved that the Twenty-first General Synod endorses continued efforts by the School of the Americas Watch in Fort Benning, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and local Central American solidarity organizations across the country, to push for closing the School of the Americas; . . .”
I visited Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico where forty-five Catholic indigenous people, including fifteen children, gathered at a prayer meeting were massacred on December 27, 1997. They were members of the pacifist group, “Las Abejas”. Mexican graduates of the School of the Americas/WHINSEC have played an active role in the civilian-targeted warfare in their country.
Your Honor, I treasure the ideal of a truly democratic process where a person may decide to run for elected office, cast an unfettered vote for the candidate of his or her choice. I have served as an International Election Observer, trained and certified, in elections in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti and witnessed people there working hard to assure fair and free elections; to revitalize democracy.
I was not surprised to learn that the general, Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, who led the coup in Honduras on June 28, 2009 which overthrew democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya is a two-time graduate of the School of the Americas. This institution, funded by our tax dollars, has trained thousands of coup leaders and human rights abusers. This coup has happened only seven short months ago. Thousands of people in Honduras have been resisting while the SOA/WHINSEC is continues to train Honduran officers.
The School of the Americas/WHINSEC has in the past and continues to train in low-intensity conflict; in counter-insurgency warfare against the poor, the laborers, the teachers, union-organizers. The School of the Americas/WHINSEC continues to send military officers from Latin America back to their homelands to use tactics and policies which result in war orphans, widows and Gold Star mothers.
I have always loved, been intrigued by the Spanish verb ”esperar”. It translates both “to hope” and “to wait”. In English, we use different verbs and distinguish between the meanings---sometimes, I think, because waiting and hoping are so separate in our impatient culture---not as intertwined.
Your Honor, I have worked hard to educate my elected officials on the urgency of closing the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, investigating its operations, and changing the foreign policies which underpin it. It is past time to send a message to our brothers and sisters in Latin America that we are ready for change, for right relation, for new beginnings. Sometimes waiting and hoping are not enough.
Links:
http://www.unobserver.com/layout4.php?id=7141&blz=1
http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d26-US--human-rights-defenders-get-maximum-prison-sentence-for-truth
Human Rights Advocates Given Maximum Federal Prison Sentences of Six Months for Direct Action Opposing the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC)
Judge Finds SOA Watch Activists Guilty for Carrying Protest against the SOA/WHINSEC onto Fort Benning, Issues Arrest Warrant for Michael Walli for Refusing to Appear for the Trial. Father Louie in Georgia Jail.
On Monday, January 25, 2010, U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced three human rights advocates to six months in federal prison for carrying a protest against the School of the Americas onto the Fort Benning military base in Georgia. This school, re-named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is a controversial U.S. Army training school for Latin American soldiers.
Father Roy Bourgeois, a Roman Catholic priest and the founder of SOA Watch, the organization that works to close the School of the Americas said "Judge Faircloth has sentenced our sister and brothers to 6 months in federal prison for speaking the truth about the SOA/WHINSEC. We are saddened by the court's continued blindness and hardness of heart, but we are stronger than ever in solidarity. These sentences are symbolic of our nation's misdirection, but they are also great steps forward for our resistance movement. It is truer today, than ever before, that although they jail the resisters they have not, and cannot, jail the resistance!"
The "SOA 4" are:
Nancy Gwin, long-time activist from Syracuse, New York - sentenced to six months in prison
Father Louie Vitale, veteran and priest from Oakland, CA - sentenced to six months in prison
Ken Hayes, SOA Watch Council member from Austin, TX - sentenced to six months in prison
Michael Walli, a member of the Catholic Worker movement from Washington, DC refused to appear for the trial in Georgia. Walli had told the court during his November arraignment that he would not pay any bail and that he would not voluntarily return for the trial. "I walk out and it's goodbye" Walli told Judge Mallon Faircloth. Michael Walli made good on his promise and on Monday, Judge Mallon Faircloth issued a warrant for Michael Walli's arrest.
The "SOA 4" were among the tens of thousands who gathered on November 20-22, 2009 outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia to demand a change in U.S. policy in Latin America and the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC. The group peacefully crossed onto Fort Benning while thousands stood vigil at the gates of the base in memory of those killed by graduates of the institution.
The SOA/WHINSEC, a military training facility for Latin American security personnel, made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.
Nancy Gwin's trial statement
(Nancy is on trial for her work to close the School of the Americas along with Louie Vitale and others.)
Your Honor, I’ve brought a woven fabric, a tapestry from Guatemala, with me today to remind those in the courtroom of the beauty of the people of Latin America, of their gifts. And, this weaving is also a reminder of what violence does to beauty.
Your Honor, my name is Nancy Gwin. I was born in Nebraska, growing up in a small town there. My home is now Syracuse, New York. I wish to speak to you of my journey to the prayer vigil to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC on Sunday, November 22, 2009.
I am a war orphan---my father, Boyd Gwin is MIA/Missing in Action in North Korea, an Air Force/National Air Guard Pilot whose plane was shot down in January, 1953. I am a peace activist in my father’s honor. As a young woman I committed to do what I could in my lifetime to make the strong statement, “No more war orphans, no more widows or Gold Star mothers.”
Many veterans are working to close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC. I like to think I stand with them and understand their indignity of knowing such a training school exists within the United States Armed Forces.
I have been to El Mozote in the Morazan Department of El Salvador, walked on the grounds where people were massacred and visited the small museum there. Graduates of the School of the Americas, Salvadoran armed forces trained by U.S. military, killed at least 1000 civilians at El Mozote. It is estimated that 130 were children under the age of twelve. I have a granddaughter who will turn twelve this week.
Your Honor, I am a person of faith, a church woman. My faith tradition is the United Church of Christ, although I have great respect for other religious traditions. Whenever I have been able, I have journeyed to other countries in Latin America to interface with the people, to witness the impact of the economic and foreign policies of the United States first hand.
The United Church of Christ has adopted a Resolution “Calling for the Close of the U.S. Army School of the Americas” which I have attached to my statement. I quote:
“Whereas it has been established that people of faith, working in solidarity with people of Central America, have been murdered by soldiers trained at the School of the Americas, namely those responsible for the assassinations of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the four North American church women, the six Jesuit priests, their Housekeeper and her daughter, all in El Salvador; . . .
“Be it further resolved that the Twenty-first General Synod endorses continued efforts by the School of the Americas Watch in Fort Benning, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and local Central American solidarity organizations across the country, to push for closing the School of the Americas; . . .”
I visited Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico where forty-five Catholic indigenous people, including fifteen children, gathered at a prayer meeting were massacred on December 27, 1997. They were members of the pacifist group, “Las Abejas”. Mexican graduates of the School of the Americas/WHINSEC have played an active role in the civilian-targeted warfare in their country.
Your Honor, I treasure the ideal of a truly democratic process where a person may decide to run for elected office, cast an unfettered vote for the candidate of his or her choice. I have served as an International Election Observer, trained and certified, in elections in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Haiti and witnessed people there working hard to assure fair and free elections; to revitalize democracy.
I was not surprised to learn that the general, Gen. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, who led the coup in Honduras on June 28, 2009 which overthrew democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya is a two-time graduate of the School of the Americas. This institution, funded by our tax dollars, has trained thousands of coup leaders and human rights abusers. This coup has happened only seven short months ago. Thousands of people in Honduras have been resisting while the SOA/WHINSEC is continues to train Honduran officers.
The School of the Americas/WHINSEC has in the past and continues to train in low-intensity conflict; in counter-insurgency warfare against the poor, the laborers, the teachers, union-organizers. The School of the Americas/WHINSEC continues to send military officers from Latin America back to their homelands to use tactics and policies which result in war orphans, widows and Gold Star mothers.
I have always loved, been intrigued by the Spanish verb ”esperar”. It translates both “to hope” and “to wait”. In English, we use different verbs and distinguish between the meanings---sometimes, I think, because waiting and hoping are so separate in our impatient culture---not as intertwined.
Your Honor, I have worked hard to educate my elected officials on the urgency of closing the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, investigating its operations, and changing the foreign policies which underpin it. It is past time to send a message to our brothers and sisters in Latin America that we are ready for change, for right relation, for new beginnings. Sometimes waiting and hoping are not enough.
Links:
http://www.unobserver.com/layout4.php?id=7141&blz=1
http://www.examiner.com/x-10438-Human-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d26-US--human-rights-defenders-get-maximum-prison-sentence-for-truth
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Military Industrial Complex
AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8
Iraq Veterans Against the War
http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony/racism-and-war-dehumanization-enemy-part-2/mike-prysner/video
Rumsfeld 2.3 Trillion Dollars missing Pentagon 1 DAY b4/9-11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo
Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdrGKwkmxAU
Documentary – “Why we fight?”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682#
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8
Iraq Veterans Against the War
http://www.ivaw.org/wintersoldier/testimony/racism-and-war-dehumanization-enemy-part-2/mike-prysner/video
Rumsfeld 2.3 Trillion Dollars missing Pentagon 1 DAY b4/9-11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpWqdPMjmo
Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdrGKwkmxAU
Documentary – “Why we fight?”
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682#
Friday, January 08, 2010
"Somebody Like Me" by Jason Crabb
"Somebody Like Me" by Jason Crabb
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC-MyglVbCc
1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC-MyglVbCc
1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Homeless Memorial Candlelight Vigil 2009
List of homeless who didn't survive the streets totals 42
By Lynnette Curtis
Las Vegas Review-Journal
http://www.lvrj.com/news/list-of-homeless-who-didnt-survive-the-streets-totals-42-79392997.html
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Modern Day Slavery in America
You may remember Feminists for Life speaker Joyce McCauley-Benner's powerful speech, “Victory Over Violence."
http://www.feministsforlife.org/video/victory-over-violence-frame.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj6jtE3mrls
Today this survivor of sexual assault assists victims of sex trafficking.
Please be aware that information contained within the following op-ed may be disturbing to some adults. And although children are sadly experiencing the abuse she writes about, parents are the best judge of whether their child is prepared to read Joyce's revealing article.
If you are interested in hosting Joyce as a speaker, http://www.feministsforlife.org/cop/speakers.htm please contact FFL’s College Outreach Program Coordinator at coordinator@ffloncampus.org .
Because women deserve better,
Serrin M. Foster
President
The Face of Modern Day Slavery
While browsing the internet one day, I came across an unsettling advertisement for a t-shirt which read “I went to Thailand and all I got was this kidnapped prostitute.”
It sold for $16.99 and, The Onion’s website noted, the “prostitute [was] not included.”
I would imagine the creators of the shirt found the statement amusing. They are, after all, working for a website that satirizes politics and the media. Some readers may gloss over it completely. Some may not understand the reference. And then there are those of us that are outraged.
“Kidnapped prostitutes” are victims of sex trafficking, a form of modern day slavery. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, championed by Rep. Christopher Smith, defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as ’’sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.”
Sex trafficking is more common than you think. While it certainly occurs internationally, in places like Thailand (driven largely by men “vacationing” or “on business” from America), it is also perhaps America's dirtiest little secret.
I have been working as an advocate for domestic (American) sex trafficking victims for the past year and a half. What have I learned?
- Slavery has been reinvented in America. Today, in 2009, children (both boys and girls) and adults are used for the purposes of commercial sex and forced labor—and most of America is completely unaware of their plight.
- Trafficking victims are vulnerable. They are most often victims of abuse, assault, and neglect before being trafficked.
- Trafficking victims are made vulnerable by other social injustices: poverty, racism, and the over-sexualization and objectification of women in our culture.
- Trafficking victims do not engage in “sex work.” They are manipulated into a life of prostitution, drugs, torture, and disempowerment.
- Trafficking victims do not have free choices; their actions are compelled by circumstances or by force, fraud, or coercion. Abortion, adoption, or parenting is a decision made and forced by another person, an abuser.
Victims of sex trafficking can come, when there is no intervention, from a generational or familial life of prostitution. It is not uncommon to see daughters of traffickers groomed to become future prostitutes and sons become future traffickers. In international trafficking, forced adoption or child abduction is also very common as children and women are considered products of a business rather than free human beings. Forced abortion is often performed with methods unsafe to women. A trafficked woman’s body is never her own.
As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I know the pain and turmoil having your sexuality hijacked. I also know how common sexual assault is in our society. But I found that the victimization I experienced was nothing in comparison to what these women experience as slaves, what these children experience as chattel.
Sex trafficking occurs in truck stops, hotels, suburban homes, rural fields, and cities across the US. Ever drive by a strip club assuming it employs adults? Would you be surprised to find children? I have met several young teens (14-16) who were coerced or manipulated into stripping and then prostituting after hours. Often the girls have fake papers given to them to protect the owner of the club. MySpace and other social web sites are prime recruiting ground to lure teens into these types of situations.
Shared Hope International’s “National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children” reveals that 13 is the average age children in the United States are forced into prostitution, and at least 100,000 American children are used in domestic prostitution every year.
Minor victims of domestic sex trafficking fill our detention facilities. We pay for that, but they pay much more. “Tonya,” a survivor of domestic sex trafficking put it this way. “I always felt like a criminal. I never felt like a victim at all. Victims don’t do time in jail, they work on the healing process. I was a criminal because I spent time in jail. I definitely felt like nothing more than a criminal.” But these children really are victims, not criminals. While they suffer, true criminals who buy sex from minors remain free, and the traffickers, watchers, recruiters, and groomers (many of whom were abused or exposed to trafficking by family members when they were young) who traffic children frequently escape detection.
Pornography contributes to this global injustice against women and children. Trafficking flourishes where pornography objectifies women and children and stimulates economic demand for even more pornography and prostitution. Ignorance or willful disbelief on the part of customers allows traffickers to fill that demand with their victims, who appear in seemingly legal porn.
Ideas to combat trafficking in the U.S. have included the formation of Rescue and Restore coalitions throughout the country. The US Department of Health and Human Services sponsors an awareness and educational campaign in addition to developing the coalitions and building awareness about the national human trafficking hotline. In June 2003, the FBI in conjunction with the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative. Their combined efforts were aimed at addressing the growing problem of domestic sex trafficking of children in the United States. As of September 2009, 818 children have been recovered, over $3 million has been seized, there have been 510 convictions, and 34 task force and working groups in targeted areas have been formed. Passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act is also integral to the fight to end human trafficking.
These strides are a good beginning. Yet, we must continue to dig deeper to fight the root causes of this issue. Trafficking victims are often missed because you have to look under the surface to find the truth of her circumstances. You may see them on the side of your milk carton while you enjoy your morning cereal. They are our missing children and the adults we missed as children. We have to ask more questions and assume less. We have to know that this is America's shameful secret too.
These crimes against women and children are a new wave of slavery. It deserves our full attention—and should not be callously displayed on a t-shirt.
Joyce Ann McCauley-Benner was raped at 20 while working her way through college and chose not to abort, not knowing if her unborn son was the result of rape or of her relationship. She says, “I know what it's like to want to run as far away as possible from a problem, how it feels to hang on to 'if I wasn't pregnant anymore, it would all be OK again.'“ Ms. McCauley-Benner, who graduated from college while raising her son, worked on a racial justice task force and currently works with victims of sex trafficking. Today she presents her speech, “Victory Over Violence” on college campuses and at Capitol Hill briefings. In addition to her lecture, she moderates FFL Pregnancy Resource Forums. A mother of two sons, Ms. McCauley-Benner lives in the Midwest.
Feminists for Life was a charter member of the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking and was the only pro-life organization who actively worked towards the successful passage of the Violence Against Women Act. More information may be found on FFL’s website, as in The American Feminist issues “Victory Over Violence” http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/1998/fall/Fall98.pdf and “Crimes Against Women Around the World.” http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/2002/SpringSummer2002/SpringSummer2002.pdf
©2009, Feminists for Life of America. Permission to reprint this article in its entirety with attribution to Joyce McCauley-Benner and Feminists for Life is granted. Please send a copy of or link to any reprints to Feminists for Life at info@feministsforlife.org .
............................................
www.feministsforlife.org
............................................
"Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women. Women deserve better than abortion."
Say NO to the Status QuoTM
REFUSE TO CHOOSE® WOMEN DESERVE BETTER®
............................................
Feminists for Life is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, 501(c)3 organization.
All donations and membership contributions http://www.feministsforlife.org/support/index.htm are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Refuse to Choose and Women Deserve Better are registered trademarks of Feminists for Life of America.
___________________________________________________
This is the information list for Feminists for Life.
Are you a member and is your membership current?
Go to http://www.feministsforlife.org/support/index.htm and join online or donate today!
Feminists for Life - PO Box 320667 - Alexandria, VA 22320
http://www.feministsforlife.org/video/victory-over-violence-frame.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj6jtE3mrls
Today this survivor of sexual assault assists victims of sex trafficking.
Please be aware that information contained within the following op-ed may be disturbing to some adults. And although children are sadly experiencing the abuse she writes about, parents are the best judge of whether their child is prepared to read Joyce's revealing article.
If you are interested in hosting Joyce as a speaker, http://www.feministsforlife.org/cop/speakers.htm please contact FFL’s College Outreach Program Coordinator at coordinator@ffloncampus.org .
Because women deserve better,
Serrin M. Foster
President
The Face of Modern Day Slavery
While browsing the internet one day, I came across an unsettling advertisement for a t-shirt which read “I went to Thailand and all I got was this kidnapped prostitute.”
It sold for $16.99 and, The Onion’s website noted, the “prostitute [was] not included.”
I would imagine the creators of the shirt found the statement amusing. They are, after all, working for a website that satirizes politics and the media. Some readers may gloss over it completely. Some may not understand the reference. And then there are those of us that are outraged.
“Kidnapped prostitutes” are victims of sex trafficking, a form of modern day slavery. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act, championed by Rep. Christopher Smith, defines severe forms of trafficking in persons as ’’sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age.”
Sex trafficking is more common than you think. While it certainly occurs internationally, in places like Thailand (driven largely by men “vacationing” or “on business” from America), it is also perhaps America's dirtiest little secret.
I have been working as an advocate for domestic (American) sex trafficking victims for the past year and a half. What have I learned?
- Slavery has been reinvented in America. Today, in 2009, children (both boys and girls) and adults are used for the purposes of commercial sex and forced labor—and most of America is completely unaware of their plight.
- Trafficking victims are vulnerable. They are most often victims of abuse, assault, and neglect before being trafficked.
- Trafficking victims are made vulnerable by other social injustices: poverty, racism, and the over-sexualization and objectification of women in our culture.
- Trafficking victims do not engage in “sex work.” They are manipulated into a life of prostitution, drugs, torture, and disempowerment.
- Trafficking victims do not have free choices; their actions are compelled by circumstances or by force, fraud, or coercion. Abortion, adoption, or parenting is a decision made and forced by another person, an abuser.
Victims of sex trafficking can come, when there is no intervention, from a generational or familial life of prostitution. It is not uncommon to see daughters of traffickers groomed to become future prostitutes and sons become future traffickers. In international trafficking, forced adoption or child abduction is also very common as children and women are considered products of a business rather than free human beings. Forced abortion is often performed with methods unsafe to women. A trafficked woman’s body is never her own.
As a survivor of sexual assault myself, I know the pain and turmoil having your sexuality hijacked. I also know how common sexual assault is in our society. But I found that the victimization I experienced was nothing in comparison to what these women experience as slaves, what these children experience as chattel.
Sex trafficking occurs in truck stops, hotels, suburban homes, rural fields, and cities across the US. Ever drive by a strip club assuming it employs adults? Would you be surprised to find children? I have met several young teens (14-16) who were coerced or manipulated into stripping and then prostituting after hours. Often the girls have fake papers given to them to protect the owner of the club. MySpace and other social web sites are prime recruiting ground to lure teens into these types of situations.
Shared Hope International’s “National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children” reveals that 13 is the average age children in the United States are forced into prostitution, and at least 100,000 American children are used in domestic prostitution every year.
Minor victims of domestic sex trafficking fill our detention facilities. We pay for that, but they pay much more. “Tonya,” a survivor of domestic sex trafficking put it this way. “I always felt like a criminal. I never felt like a victim at all. Victims don’t do time in jail, they work on the healing process. I was a criminal because I spent time in jail. I definitely felt like nothing more than a criminal.” But these children really are victims, not criminals. While they suffer, true criminals who buy sex from minors remain free, and the traffickers, watchers, recruiters, and groomers (many of whom were abused or exposed to trafficking by family members when they were young) who traffic children frequently escape detection.
Pornography contributes to this global injustice against women and children. Trafficking flourishes where pornography objectifies women and children and stimulates economic demand for even more pornography and prostitution. Ignorance or willful disbelief on the part of customers allows traffickers to fill that demand with their victims, who appear in seemingly legal porn.
Ideas to combat trafficking in the U.S. have included the formation of Rescue and Restore coalitions throughout the country. The US Department of Health and Human Services sponsors an awareness and educational campaign in addition to developing the coalitions and building awareness about the national human trafficking hotline. In June 2003, the FBI in conjunction with the Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children launched the Innocence Lost National Initiative. Their combined efforts were aimed at addressing the growing problem of domestic sex trafficking of children in the United States. As of September 2009, 818 children have been recovered, over $3 million has been seized, there have been 510 convictions, and 34 task force and working groups in targeted areas have been formed. Passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act is also integral to the fight to end human trafficking.
These strides are a good beginning. Yet, we must continue to dig deeper to fight the root causes of this issue. Trafficking victims are often missed because you have to look under the surface to find the truth of her circumstances. You may see them on the side of your milk carton while you enjoy your morning cereal. They are our missing children and the adults we missed as children. We have to ask more questions and assume less. We have to know that this is America's shameful secret too.
These crimes against women and children are a new wave of slavery. It deserves our full attention—and should not be callously displayed on a t-shirt.
Joyce Ann McCauley-Benner was raped at 20 while working her way through college and chose not to abort, not knowing if her unborn son was the result of rape or of her relationship. She says, “I know what it's like to want to run as far away as possible from a problem, how it feels to hang on to 'if I wasn't pregnant anymore, it would all be OK again.'“ Ms. McCauley-Benner, who graduated from college while raising her son, worked on a racial justice task force and currently works with victims of sex trafficking. Today she presents her speech, “Victory Over Violence” on college campuses and at Capitol Hill briefings. In addition to her lecture, she moderates FFL Pregnancy Resource Forums. A mother of two sons, Ms. McCauley-Benner lives in the Midwest.
Feminists for Life was a charter member of the Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking and was the only pro-life organization who actively worked towards the successful passage of the Violence Against Women Act. More information may be found on FFL’s website, as in The American Feminist issues “Victory Over Violence” http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/1998/fall/Fall98.pdf and “Crimes Against Women Around the World.” http://www.feministsforlife.org/taf/2002/SpringSummer2002/SpringSummer2002.pdf
©2009, Feminists for Life of America. Permission to reprint this article in its entirety with attribution to Joyce McCauley-Benner and Feminists for Life is granted. Please send a copy of or link to any reprints to Feminists for Life at info@feministsforlife.org .
www.feministsforlife.org
............................................
"Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women. Women deserve better than abortion."
Say NO to the Status QuoTM
REFUSE TO CHOOSE® WOMEN DESERVE BETTER®
............................................
Feminists for Life is a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, 501(c)3 organization.
All donations and membership contributions http://www.feministsforlife.org/support/index.htm are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Refuse to Choose and Women Deserve Better are registered trademarks of Feminists for Life of America.
___________________________________________________
This is the information list for Feminists for Life.
Are you a member and is your membership current?
Go to http://www.feministsforlife.org/support/index.htm and join online or donate today!
Feminists for Life - PO Box 320667 - Alexandria, VA 22320
Saturday, June 20, 2009
What Does Love Mean?
Received this in my e-mail today. Thought it was cute and thought I would share it with you.
Power of God
If people were to hate me that is their load to carry, I have no room for hate in my heart because it is filled with love from God. Butch (Lou) Mathews
Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it.. Touching words from the mouth of babes.
What does Love mean?
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca- age 8
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." Billy - age 4
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other." Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy - age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." Danny - age 7
"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss." Emily - age 8
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday." Noelle - age 7
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Tommy - age 6
"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore." Cindy - age 8
"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine - age 5
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford." Chris - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day." Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." Lauren - age 4
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image) Karen - age 7
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross." Mark - age 6
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget." Jessica - age 8
And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.
The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.
Father, God bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with you. Amen.
Then send it on to five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people. Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.
P. S. Five is good, but more is even gooder!
Power of God
If people were to hate me that is their load to carry, I have no room for hate in my heart because it is filled with love from God. Butch (Lou) Mathews
Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it.. Touching words from the mouth of babes.
What does Love mean?
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?"
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.
So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca- age 8
"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." Billy - age 4
"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other." Karl - age 5
"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy - age 6
"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired."
Terri - age 4
"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." Danny - age 7
"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss." Emily - age 8
"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)
"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Nikka - age 6
(we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday." Noelle - age 7
"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Tommy - age 6
"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore." Cindy - age 8
"My mommy loves me more than anybody. You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night."
Clare - age 6
"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine - age 5
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford." Chris - age 7
"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day." Mary Ann - age 4
"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." Lauren - age 4
"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image) Karen - age 7
"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross." Mark - age 6
"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget." Jessica - age 8
And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge.
The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.
The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.
Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this.
Father, God bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with you. Amen.
Then send it on to five other people, including the one who sent it to you. Within hours you caused a multitude of people to pray for other people. Then sit back and watch the power of God work in your life.
P. S. Five is good, but more is even gooder!
Friday, June 05, 2009
Chomsky on Obama Speech
News Release
Chomsky on Obama Speech
June 4, 2009
NOAM CHOMSKY
Chomsky, whose recent books include Interventions and The Essential Chomsky, sent the following to the Institute for Public Accuracy this morning: "A CNN headline, reporting Obama's plans for his June 4 Cairo address, reads 'Obama looks to reach the soul of the Muslim world.' Perhaps that captures his intent, but more significant is the content hidden in the rhetorical stance, or more accurately, omitted.
"Keeping just to Israel-Palestine -- there was nothing substantive about anything else -- Obama called on Arabs and Israelis not to 'point fingers' at each other or to 'see this conflict only from one side or the other.' There is, however, a third side, that of the United States, which has played a decisive role in sustaining the current conflict. Obama gave no indication that its role should change or even be considered.
"Those familiar with the history will rationally conclude, then, that Obama will continue in the path of unilateral U.S. rejectionism.
"Obama once again praised the Arab Peace Initiative, saying only that Arabs should see it as 'an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities.' How should the Obama administration see it? Obama and his advisers are surely aware that the Initiative reiterates the long-standing international consensus calling for a two-state settlement on the international (pre-June '67) border, perhaps with 'minor and mutual modifications,' to borrow U.S. government usage before it departed sharply from world opinion in the 1970s, vetoing a Security Council resolution backed by the Arab 'confrontation states' (Egypt, Iran, Syria), and tacitly by the PLO, with the same essential content as the Arab Peace Initiative except that the latter goes beyond by calling on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in the context of this political settlement. Obama has called on the Arab states to proceed with normalization, studiously ignoring, however, the crucial political settlement that is its precondition. The Initiative cannot be a 'beginning' if the U.S. continues to refuse to accept its core principles, even to acknowledge them.
"In the background is the Obama administration's goal, enunciated most clearly by Senator John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to forge an alliance of Israel and the 'moderate' Arab states against Iran. The term 'moderate' has nothing to do with the character of the state, but rather signals its willingness to conform to U.S. demands.
"What is Israel to do in return for Arab steps to normalize relations? The strongest position so far enunciated by the Obama administration is that Israel should conform to Phase I of the 2003 Road Map, which states: 'Israel freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).' All sides claim to accept the Road Map, overlooking the fact that Israel instantly added 14 reservations that render it inoperable.
"Overlooked in the debate over settlements is that even if Israel were to accept Phase I of the Road Map, that would leave in place the entire settlement project that has already been developed, with decisive U.S. support, to ensure that Israel will take over the valuable land within the illegal 'separation wall' (including the primary water supplies of the region) as well as the Jordan Valley, thus imprisoning what is left, which is being broken up into cantons by settlement/infrastructure salients extending far to the East. Unmentioned as well is that Israel is taking over Greater Jerusalem, the site of its major current development programs, displacing many Arabs, so that what remains to Palestinians will be separated from the center of their cultural, economic, and sociopolitical life. Also unmentioned is that all of this is in violation of international law, as conceded by the government of Israel after the 1967 conquest, and reaffirmed by Security Council resolutions and the International Court of Justice. Also unmentioned are Israel's successful operations since 1991 to separate the West Bank from Gaza, since turned into a prison where survival is barely possible, further undermining the hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
"It is worth remembering that there has been one break in U.S.-Israeli rejectionism. President Clinton recognized that the terms he had offered at the failed 2000 Camp David meetings were not acceptable to any Palestinians, and in December, proposed his 'parameters,' vague but more forthcoming. He then announced that both sides had accepted the parameters, though both had reservations. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt to iron out the differences, and made considerable progress. A full resolution could have been reached in a few more days, they announced in their final joint press conference. But Israel called off the negotiations prematurely, and they have not been formally resumed. The single exception indicates that if an American president is willing to tolerate a meaningful diplomatic settlement, it can very likely be reached.
"It is also worth remembering that the Bush I administration went a bit beyond words in objecting to illegal Israeli settlement projects, namely, by withholding U.S. economic support for them. In contrast, Obama administration officials stated that such measures are 'not under discussion' and that any pressures on Israel to conform to the Road Map will be 'largely symbolic,' so the New York Times reported (Helene Cooper, June 1).
"There is more to say, but it does not relieve the grim picture that Obama has been painting, with a few extra touches in his widely-heralded address to the Muslim World in Cairo on June 4."
For more information, contact at the
Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Chomsky on Obama Speech
June 4, 2009
NOAM CHOMSKY
Chomsky, whose recent books include Interventions and The Essential Chomsky, sent the following to the Institute for Public Accuracy this morning: "A CNN headline, reporting Obama's plans for his June 4 Cairo address, reads 'Obama looks to reach the soul of the Muslim world.' Perhaps that captures his intent, but more significant is the content hidden in the rhetorical stance, or more accurately, omitted.
"Keeping just to Israel-Palestine -- there was nothing substantive about anything else -- Obama called on Arabs and Israelis not to 'point fingers' at each other or to 'see this conflict only from one side or the other.' There is, however, a third side, that of the United States, which has played a decisive role in sustaining the current conflict. Obama gave no indication that its role should change or even be considered.
"Those familiar with the history will rationally conclude, then, that Obama will continue in the path of unilateral U.S. rejectionism.
"Obama once again praised the Arab Peace Initiative, saying only that Arabs should see it as 'an important beginning, but not the end of their responsibilities.' How should the Obama administration see it? Obama and his advisers are surely aware that the Initiative reiterates the long-standing international consensus calling for a two-state settlement on the international (pre-June '67) border, perhaps with 'minor and mutual modifications,' to borrow U.S. government usage before it departed sharply from world opinion in the 1970s, vetoing a Security Council resolution backed by the Arab 'confrontation states' (Egypt, Iran, Syria), and tacitly by the PLO, with the same essential content as the Arab Peace Initiative except that the latter goes beyond by calling on Arab states to normalize relations with Israel in the context of this political settlement. Obama has called on the Arab states to proceed with normalization, studiously ignoring, however, the crucial political settlement that is its precondition. The Initiative cannot be a 'beginning' if the U.S. continues to refuse to accept its core principles, even to acknowledge them.
"In the background is the Obama administration's goal, enunciated most clearly by Senator John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to forge an alliance of Israel and the 'moderate' Arab states against Iran. The term 'moderate' has nothing to do with the character of the state, but rather signals its willingness to conform to U.S. demands.
"What is Israel to do in return for Arab steps to normalize relations? The strongest position so far enunciated by the Obama administration is that Israel should conform to Phase I of the 2003 Road Map, which states: 'Israel freezes all settlement activity (including natural growth of settlements).' All sides claim to accept the Road Map, overlooking the fact that Israel instantly added 14 reservations that render it inoperable.
"Overlooked in the debate over settlements is that even if Israel were to accept Phase I of the Road Map, that would leave in place the entire settlement project that has already been developed, with decisive U.S. support, to ensure that Israel will take over the valuable land within the illegal 'separation wall' (including the primary water supplies of the region) as well as the Jordan Valley, thus imprisoning what is left, which is being broken up into cantons by settlement/infrastructure salients extending far to the East. Unmentioned as well is that Israel is taking over Greater Jerusalem, the site of its major current development programs, displacing many Arabs, so that what remains to Palestinians will be separated from the center of their cultural, economic, and sociopolitical life. Also unmentioned is that all of this is in violation of international law, as conceded by the government of Israel after the 1967 conquest, and reaffirmed by Security Council resolutions and the International Court of Justice. Also unmentioned are Israel's successful operations since 1991 to separate the West Bank from Gaza, since turned into a prison where survival is barely possible, further undermining the hopes for a viable Palestinian state.
"It is worth remembering that there has been one break in U.S.-Israeli rejectionism. President Clinton recognized that the terms he had offered at the failed 2000 Camp David meetings were not acceptable to any Palestinians, and in December, proposed his 'parameters,' vague but more forthcoming. He then announced that both sides had accepted the parameters, though both had reservations. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met in Taba, Egypt to iron out the differences, and made considerable progress. A full resolution could have been reached in a few more days, they announced in their final joint press conference. But Israel called off the negotiations prematurely, and they have not been formally resumed. The single exception indicates that if an American president is willing to tolerate a meaningful diplomatic settlement, it can very likely be reached.
"It is also worth remembering that the Bush I administration went a bit beyond words in objecting to illegal Israeli settlement projects, namely, by withholding U.S. economic support for them. In contrast, Obama administration officials stated that such measures are 'not under discussion' and that any pressures on Israel to conform to the Road Map will be 'largely symbolic,' so the New York Times reported (Helene Cooper, June 1).
"There is more to say, but it does not relieve the grim picture that Obama has been painting, with a few extra touches in his widely-heralded address to the Muslim World in Cairo on June 4."
For more information, contact at the
Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020;
or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Saturday, April 25, 2009
May 1st March, Las Vegas
Click image to enlarge
Repost from myspace
Apr 21, 2009 1:23 AM
In response to the Las Vegas Review Journal Article
Dear Lynette,
I enjoyed reading your story about the upcoming march scheduled on May 1st in Las Vegas (http://www.lvrj.com/news/43166087.html). I am in strong support of such social justice efforts and am committed to supporting the students who are organizing this march.
I want to encourage you to reconsider your use of the term "illegal immigrants." I find this term to be incredibly offensive and dehumanizing. I understand that people living in this country without documentation are characterized as "illegal" by the government, but this is problematic for at least two reasons.
One, the immigration laws do not offer all people equal access to visas, residency and/or citizenship. In fact, poor people and people of color are overwhelmingly discriminated against and denied "legal" access to travel for work, etc.
Two, if a person commits a crime, the act is "illegal," not the individual. If you take a wrong turn and break a traffic law, you are not an "illegal" human being. You broke a law, and it is up to the courts to determine and decide what action to take.
When the average person/journalist uses this kind of terminology it opens up the avenue for hate language and anti-immigrant sentiment that is unfounded and largely based on myths about immigration and immigrants (as is evident in the comments left on your article).
Moreover, I believe that people living in this country as economic refugees, that is, people who come here for reasons of economic survival, do not deserve to be unfairly criminalized. The lack of citizenship status does not warrant citizenist (anti-immigrant discrimination) behavior/language nor the right to exploit and discriminate against this community of people.
As Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote in his letter from Birmingham, "An unjust law is no law at all." Hence, since there is great debate about the justice of immigration law as it exists today, it is unfair to uphold this question of "legality" as a reason to refer to human beings as "illegal."
Overwhelmingly, journalists are taking the advice of the National Association for Hispanic Journalists and using the more respectful and dignified term "undocumented" immigrant/person/student/woman/man/child. I believe that journalists have an obligation to set the example for a more humane discourse on this issue. Thus, I urge you to discontinue the use of the terminology that is so closely linked to hate and discrimination. In a few years, this term will be as distasteful and shameful as the use of other derogatory/racist terms we have worked diligently to eliminate.
Sincerely,
Dr. Anita Tijerina Revilla..
---
FYI...
NAHJ
Urges News Media to Stop Using Dehumanizing Terms When Covering Immigration Calls for stopping the use of illegals as a noun, curbing the phrase illegal alien
Media Contact: Joseph Torres (202)662-7143.; Daniela Montalvo ..(202) ..662-7152 Washington, D.C.
-- As protesters march in the streets and debate intensifies in Congress over how to fix the nations immigration laws, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists calls on our nations news media to use accurate terminology in its coverage of immigration and to stop dehumanizing undocumented immigrants.
NAHJ is concerned with the increasing use of pejorative terms to describe the estimated 11 million undocumented people living in the United States. NAHJ is particularly troubled with the growing trend of the news media to use the word illegals as a noun, shorthand for "illegal aliens".
Using the word in this way is grammatically incorrect and crosses the line by criminalizing the person, not the action they are purported to have committed. NAHJ calls on the media to never use illegals in headlines.
Shortening the term in this way also stereotypes undocumented people who are in the United States as having committed a crime. Under current U.S. immigration law, being an undocumented immigrant is not a crime, it is a civil violation. Furthermore, an estimated 40 percent of all undocumented people living in the U.S. are visa overstayers, meaning they did not 'illegally' cross the U.S. border.
In addition, the association has always denounced the use of the degrading terms alien and illegal alien to describe undocumented immigrants because it casts them as adverse, strange beings, inhuman outsiders who come to the U.S. with questionable motivations. Aliens is a bureaucratic term that should be avoided unless used in a quote.
NAHJ, a 2,300-member organization of reporters, editors and other journalists, addresses the use of these words and phrases by the news media in its Resource Guide for Journalists.
The following are excerpts for some of the terms prevalent in the current news coverage:
Alien:
A word used by the U.S. government to describe a foreign-born person who is not a citizen by naturalization or parentage. People who enter the United States legally are called resident aliens and they carry alien registration cards also known as "green cards," because they used to be green.
While Webster's first definition of the term "alien" is in accordance with the government's interpretation, the dictionary also includes other, darker, meanings for the word, such as a non-terrestrial being, "strange," "not belonging to one," "adverse," "hostile." And the Encyclopedia Britannica points out that "in early times, the tendency was to look upon the alien as an enemy and to treat him as a criminal or an outlaw.
" It is not surprising then that in 1798, in anticipation of a possible war with France, the U.S. Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, which restricted "aliens" and curtailed press freedoms.
By 1800 the laws had been repealed or had expired but they still cast a negative shadow over the word.
In modern times, with science-fiction growing in popularity, "alien" has come to mean a creature from outer space, and is considered pejorative by most immigrants.
Illegal alien
Avoid. Alternative terms are "undocumented worker," or "undocumented immigrant." The pertinent federal agencies use this term for individuals who do not have documents to show they can legally visit, work or live here. Many find the term offensive and dehumanizing because it criminalizes the person rather than the actual act of illegally entering or residing in the United States. The term does not give an accurate description of a person's conditional U.S. status, but rather demeans an individual by describing them as an alien. At the 1994 Unity convention, the four minority journalism groups NAHJ, Asian American Journalists Association, Native American Journalists Association and National Association of Black Journalists issued the following statement on this term: "Except in direct quotations, do not use the phrase illegal alien or the word alien, in copy or in headlines, to refer to citizens of a foreign country who have come to the U.S. with no documents to show that they are legally entitled to visit, work or live here. Such terms are considered pejorative not only by those to whom they are applied but by many people of the same ethnic and national backgrounds who are in the U.S. legally."
Illegal immigrant
While many national news outlets use the term "illegal immigrant," this handbook calls for the discussion and re-evaluation of its use. Instead of using illegal immigrant, alternative labels recommended are "undocumented worker" or "undocumented immigrant." Illegal immigrant is a term used to describe the immigration status of people who do not have the federal documentation to show they are legally entitled to work, visit or live here. People who are undocumented according to federal authorities do not have the proper visas to be in the United States legally. Many enter the country illegally, but a large number of this group initially had valid visas, but did not return to their native countries when their visas expired. Some former students fall into the latter category. The term criminalizes the person rather than the actual act of illegally entering or residing in the United States without federal documents. Terms such as illegal alien or illegal immigrant can often be used pejoratively in common parlance and can pack a powerful emotional wallop for those on the receiving end.
Instead, use undocumented immigrant or undocumented worker, both of which are terms that convey the same descriptive information without carrying the psychological baggage. Avoid using illegal(s) as a noun.
Illegal Avoid.
Alternative terms are "undocumented immigrant" or "undocumented worker." This term has been used to describe the immigration status of people who do not have the federal documentation to show they are legally entitled to work, visit or live here. The term criminalizes the person rather than the actual act of illegally entering, residing in the U.S. without documents.
Immigrant
Similar to reporting about a person's race, mentioning that a person is a first-generation immigrant could be used to provide readers or viewers with background information, but the relevancy of using the term should be made apparent in the story. Also, the status of undocumented workers should be discussed between source, reporter and editors because of the risk of deportation.
Undocumented immigrant
Preferred term to "illegal immigrant," "illegal(s)" and "illegal alien." This term describes the immigration status of people who do not have the federal documentation to show they are legally entitled to work, visit or live here. Some Latinos say this term more accurately describes people who are in the United States illegally because the word points out that they are undocumented, but does not dehumanize them in the manner that such terms as 'aliens' and 'illegals' do.
Undocumented worker
Preferred term to "illegal alien," "illegal immigrant," or "illegal(s)." This term describes the immigration status of people who do not have the federal documentation to show they are legally entitled to work, visit or live here.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Protest at the prison, Saturday March 7th
REPOST:
Feb 22, 2009 7:19 PM
Subject: Protest at the prison, Saturday March 7th from 11AM - 2PM
Shut Hutto Down! - Change we can believe in!!!
Saturday, March 7th in Taylor Texas at 11AM at the T.
Don Hutto "Residential" Facility 1001 Welch St, Taylor, TX 76574
Join us to Protest at the Prison.
Students for a Democratic Society of the University of Houston is calling for a protest at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center in Taylor Texas on Saturday March 7th. The T. Don Hutto Facility is a retrofitted medium security prison run by the Tennessee based Corrections Corporation of America, that detains pregnant women and women with children awaiting immigration court hearings.
This is a violation of the rights of children, a draconian false solution to the issues raised by human migration, a huge waste of taxpayer dollars going into the pockets of CCA shareholders, and a bad public policy, period. The intersection of xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria and the continual growth of prisons for profit is a threat to human rights. We can not sit by and allow private companies to profit of off the incarceration of children.
As part of the 100 actions in 100 days to end family detention we are calling on people and organization from throughout Texas to join us on March 7th in Taylor Texas at 11am at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility 1001 Welch St, Taylor, TX 76574. Please get in touch if you would like to be listed as a co-sponsor.
SDS in Houston will be leaving from the University of Houston campus at 7:30am to caravan to Taylor. If you would like a space in one of our vans (we are also asking for a deposit for the rental), or to carpool with us, please write us an email SDSUHtx@gmail.com
To learn more about the T Don Hutto Facility and the struggle against detention for profit, check out:
http://tdonhutto.blogspot.com
http://www.grassrootsleadership.org/100Actions.html
www.texasprisonbidness.org
Feb 22, 2009 7:19 PM
Subject: Protest at the prison, Saturday March 7th from 11AM - 2PM
Shut Hutto Down! - Change we can believe in!!!
Saturday, March 7th in Taylor Texas at 11AM at the T.
Don Hutto "Residential" Facility 1001 Welch St, Taylor, TX 76574
Join us to Protest at the Prison.
Students for a Democratic Society of the University of Houston is calling for a protest at the T. Don Hutto Family Residential Center in Taylor Texas on Saturday March 7th. The T. Don Hutto Facility is a retrofitted medium security prison run by the Tennessee based Corrections Corporation of America, that detains pregnant women and women with children awaiting immigration court hearings.
This is a violation of the rights of children, a draconian false solution to the issues raised by human migration, a huge waste of taxpayer dollars going into the pockets of CCA shareholders, and a bad public policy, period. The intersection of xenophobia and anti-immigrant hysteria and the continual growth of prisons for profit is a threat to human rights. We can not sit by and allow private companies to profit of off the incarceration of children.
As part of the 100 actions in 100 days to end family detention we are calling on people and organization from throughout Texas to join us on March 7th in Taylor Texas at 11am at the T. Don Hutto Residential Facility 1001 Welch St, Taylor, TX 76574. Please get in touch if you would like to be listed as a co-sponsor.
SDS in Houston will be leaving from the University of Houston campus at 7:30am to caravan to Taylor. If you would like a space in one of our vans (we are also asking for a deposit for the rental), or to carpool with us, please write us an email SDSUHtx@gmail.com
To learn more about the T Don Hutto Facility and the struggle against detention for profit, check out:
http://tdonhutto.blogspot.com
http://www.grassrootsleadership.org/100Actions.html
www.texasprisonbidness.org
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The State of OUR State
MEDIA ALERT
Citizens’ groups to hold press conference on “The State of OUR State” on Wednesday
For information, call Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, Nevadans for Quality Education, at (702) 277-7862; Launce Rake, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, at (702) 791-1965; or Jan Gilbert, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, (775) 882-3440.
Jan. 12, 2008
For Immediate Release
Advocates for schools, children, families, people with disabilities, seniors and others affected by Nevada state budget cuts will hold press conferences in Reno and Las Vegas Wednesday, Jan. 14 to describe “The State of OUR State” and discuss how our communities should respond to the economic crisis.
In Reno, advocates from several organizations will speak at 1 p.m. at the Washoe County Senior Center Art Room, 1155 E. Ninth St.
In Las Vegas, advocates will speak at 4 p.m. outside the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.
The organizers, among them Nevadans for Quality Education, and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, are inviting anyone with a concern about the quality of our communities to join us at these press conferences.
The day after the press conferences, Gov. Jim Gibbons is scheduled to present his annual State of the State address in Carson City.
--END
Citizens’ groups to hold press conference on “The State of OUR State” on Wednesday
For information, call Mary Jo Parise-Malloy, Nevadans for Quality Education, at (702) 277-7862; Launce Rake, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, at (702) 791-1965; or Jan Gilbert, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, (775) 882-3440.
Jan. 12, 2008
For Immediate Release
Advocates for schools, children, families, people with disabilities, seniors and others affected by Nevada state budget cuts will hold press conferences in Reno and Las Vegas Wednesday, Jan. 14 to describe “The State of OUR State” and discuss how our communities should respond to the economic crisis.
In Reno, advocates from several organizations will speak at 1 p.m. at the Washoe County Senior Center Art Room, 1155 E. Ninth St.
In Las Vegas, advocates will speak at 4 p.m. outside the Grant Sawyer State Office Building, 555 E. Washington Ave.
The organizers, among them Nevadans for Quality Education, and the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, are inviting anyone with a concern about the quality of our communities to join us at these press conferences.
The day after the press conferences, Gov. Jim Gibbons is scheduled to present his annual State of the State address in Carson City.
--END
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