Fw: What Now? for the peace movement?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Cahill"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 4:41 PM
Subject: What Now?


>
> From: barton@sonic.net
> Subject: What Now?
> Date: November 16, 2004 6:31:21 AM PST
> To: peacerootsalliance@yahoogroups.com
>
> Disbelief and depression get boring after a while.
>
> I've attended two What Now? gatherings lately, small political/personal
> discussion groups for sharing reactions to the election defeat, and want
to
> share with you some of our discussion.
>
> The most immediate and fervent expression was something like: "I'm awake
> now and I'm not going back to sleep." There was grief and dismay, but also
> a determination to stay in the struggle, looking for an opening.
>
> Among the openings considered were:
>
> The electoral challenge. Immediate support for challenges in Ohio and
> Florida, long range support for ranked choice and proportional
> representation systems.
>
> The 9/11 truth efforts.
>
> Building community support organizations that would be for us what the
> churches are for the Repubs.
>
> Political party organizing, within and without the Democratic party.
>
> Rebuild the labor movement. So much of what Repubs are trying to
dismantle
> came to us through the labor movement of the 1930's, the time seems ripe
> for a big renewal.
>
> Reframe the political dialog. Many of us are reading George Lakoff's
> "Don't Think of an Elephant" and plan to work together to practice
> reframing.
>
> Build a "virtual government" from among some of the many wonderful
> talented and articulate people who came forward in the past year to
provide
> a voice to this grassroots movement that does not rely on the Democratic
> party organization. I heard this proposal on an Air America interview
from
> some blogger I missed the name of. Do you know of anyone working on this?
>
> I know these discussions are happening everywhere.
>
> Deep gratitude to you for your beautiful heart and courageous actions!
>
> Barton Stone
>
>
>
>
>
>

Fw: U.S. Presbyterians threatened over 'anti-Israel' stance

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Ron Harold

To: William Mandel

Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 5:13 PM

Subject: U.S. Presbyterians warned to change 'anti-Israel' stance

U.S. Presbyterians warned to change 'anti-Israel' stance
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/501561.html 
Shlomo Shamir
By Haaretz
14 November 2004



NEW YORK - Special safety precautions were taken in
Presbyterian churches throughout the United States on Sunday after
leaders received threats that churches would be burned by
Monday if they did not demand a reversal of what a letter writer called
their "anti-Israel" policy.

The Presbyterian church decided in June to divest
itself of companies doing business with Israel.

The threats were contained in an anonymous letter
received last weekend at the denomination's headquarters in
Louisville, Kentucky.
The letter, postmarked Queens, New York, threatened
that in response to the church's "anti-Israel and anti-Jewish" stance,
its houses of worship and offices would be set on fire.

Jerry Van Marter, a church leader, said Sunday that
the letter cited Monday as the day by which its authors were to demand
the church change its policies on Israel. "We take the threat
seriously," Van Meter said.

Relations between the Presbyterian church and the U.S.
Jewish community and Israel soured after the June decision.
Van Marter admitted Sunday that since the decision was made,
thousands of letters and e-mails protesting it have been received.

Letter from Iraq- "worse than Saddam"

My dear friend in America,

 

Things here are much worse now than under Saddam.  There was murder rape and torture then too but at least we had basic services and could walk on the street without fear of being held up or kidnapped.

 

Your Christian president is acting like he is the antiChrist.  He says he is bringing democracy and freedom to Iraq and now we under martial law.  The elections won't happen because major groups are planning to boycott. After the slaughter in Fallujah this past week no one wants any part of a plan set up by Americans.  Besides, everyone knows that the American election was rigged so why should we expect fair elections here?

 

It is hard not to hate you Americans.  Several of my friends and relatives have been killed in the past few months.  Some of them were brave Iraqi patriots- what you call insurgents- fighting for their homeland.  Most were just regular people trying to live their lives in the middle of chaos.  Three were children.

 

We are afraid to have babies because of the radioactivity everywhere.  Five of my friends had miscarriages or badly deformed babies in the past year. 

I personally know 4 children with cancer.  If you Americans had a heart or a conscience you would cry out for us. 

 

I guess you are too busy looking at the disaster in your own country.  I know you are trying desperately to reverse the election results but what happened to your candidate John Kerry?  You seem to have no leadership.

 

I continue to pray for peace.  Maybe Allah or your Jesus who was supposed to be for peace will hear me.

 

Salaam, Mariam

 

 

 

Fw: Massacre in Fallujah: ³where is the world? WHERE IS EVERYONE???²*

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Jim Kirwan

To: jr@rense.com

Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 2:43 PM

Subject: Fw: Massacre in Fallujah: ³where is the world? WHERE IS EVERYONE???²*

 

----- Original Message -----

From: fpf

To: ifj@ifj.org

Cc: beth@axisoflogic.com

Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 5:08 AM

Subject: Massacre in Fallujah: ³where is the world? WHERE IS EVERYONE???²*

FPF-fwd. International  Federation of Journalists = global list.

From AxisofLogic.com      -      Iraq

Massacre in Fallujah: ³where is the world?

WHERE IS EVERYONE???²*

By Beth Moore Henry*    -    Nov 15, 2004, 15:45

³Those that scaped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escaped.  It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time.  It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fyer, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stincke and sente there of, but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemies in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.²
 
William Bradford, History of the Plymouth Plantation, of Captain John Mason¹s attack on a Pequot village on the Mystic River
 
Terrorism.  The deliberate massacre of civilians, the physical and psychological horror of it accomplishing both political and military objectives.   Considering the account at the beginning of this article, this ³strategy² is hardly a new one for the United States of America, even before it bore the name.
 
The bombing of Cambodia was what prompted such a nasty fiasco for Nixon, who was no doubt too busy comparing scripts for ³painkillers² with Elvis to see it coming.  The My Lai massacre, of course, did not help matters at all in selling the disastrous and monstrous lie that slaughtered so many in Vietnam.
 
And let us not forget Tokyo, and  Dresden,  Hamburg, and Nagasaki and Hiroshima, as well as innumerable other such sorties throughout the decades.  Superior military technology deployed with minimal risk to the attacker, the maximization of casualties being more a psychological than a military strategy.
 
When one considers that the present administration and many in its ³opposing² party view the war in Iraq as part of the ³War on Terrorism², the attack on Fallujah this week is a cruelly nasty twist of the blade of irony.
 
U.S. Forces, under the command of the U.S. government, have literally razed, with fire and bombs and bullets, a city of civilians ­ women, children, and old people, forcibly preventing medical aid or food to enter the city, and shooting those who attempt to retrieve and bury the bodies of loved ones from the bloody, shattered streets.
 
Many in this country will call it a victory, and give praise to God.
 
Fallujah has been a black hole in terms of live and on-the-scene news coverage, of course, but some accounts have seeped out.
 
From Fadhil Badrani, an Iraqi journalist and resident of Falluja who reports regularly for Reuters and the BBC World Service in Arabic:
 
³It is hard to know how much people outside Falluja are aware of what is going on here.
 
I want them to know about conditions inside this city - there are dead women and children lying on the streets.
 
People are getting weaker from hunger. Many are dying from their injuries because there is no medical help left in the city whatsoever.
 
Some families have started burying their dead in their gardens.²
 
From Omar Anwar, Reuters, ³Aid agencies say Falluja is Œbig disaster¹², November 12, 2004:
 
³The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which receives support from foreign agencies including the Red Cross and UNICEF, said on Friday it had asked U.S. forces and Iraq's interim government to let them deliver relief goods to Falluja and establish a medical team in the city's main hospital, but had received no reply.
 
"We call on the Iraqi government and U.S. forces to allow us to do our humanitarian duty to the innocent people," said Firdoos al-Ubadi, Red Crescent spokeswoman.
 
"This is their responsibility," she said, adding that judging by reports received from refugees and pictures broadcast on television, Falluja was a "big disaster".²
 
³U.S. commanders say civilian casualties have been low, but residents dispute that, describing incidents in which non-combatants, including women and children, have been killed by shrapnel or hit by bombs.
 
In one case earlier this week, a 9-year-old boy was hit in the stomach by a piece of shrapnel. His parents said they couldn't get him to hospital because of the fighting, so they wrapped sheets around his stomach to try to stem the bleeding. He died hours later of blood loss and was buried in the garden.
 
Rasoul Ibrahim, a father of three, fled Falluja on Thursday morning and arrived with his wife and children in Habbaniya, about 12 miles to the west, on Thursday night.
 
He said families left in the city were in desperate need.
 
"There's no water. People are drinking dirty water. Children are dying. People are eating flour because there's no proper food," he told aid workers in Habbaniya, which has become a refugee camp, with around 2,000 families sheltering there.
 
Ubadi from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society said many families taking refuge in Habbaniya and other villages nearby were suffering from diarrhoea and malnutrition and needed medicine as well as basic necessities such as lentils, sugar, bread, tea and candles.
 
She said a convoy of aid, including drinking water, food and medicine, was ready to leave for Falluja from Amiriya, a town to the south, but needed permission from U.S. forces. She also called on international aid agencies to send more supplies.
 
 
 
More real, more desperate, more thunderous, yet unheard, are the voices of the people closest to this cruel obscenity.
 
From a young woman in Baghdad, who has, since the occupation began, posted the Riverbend Blog (during the periods of time in which she has electricity):
 
³Murder...
People in Falloojeh are being murdered. The stories coming back are horrifying. People being shot in cold blood in the streets and being buried under tons of concrete and iron... where is the world? Bury Arafat and hurry up and pay attention to what's happening in Iraq.
 
They say the people have nothing to eat. No produce is going into the city and the water has been cut off for days and days. Do you know what it's like to have no clean water??? People are drinking contaminated water and coming down with diarrhoea and other diseases. There are corpses in the street because no one can risk leaving their home to bury people. Families are burying children and parents in the gardens of their homes. WHERE IS EVERYONE??²
 
And this from Nesreen Melek, who wrote the poem, ³To The Father in Fallujah Who Buried His Son in His Garden² http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_13492.shtml
:

³There was a genocide in Fallujah Beth, people were burried under cement and Iron, so there will be no evidence for the American atrocities. They are killers but they always make sure not to leave their fingerprints. I am surprised about the media and the normal American people, can't they ask themselves did the Iraqi civilians who were killed during the invasion caused them any harm? 

Iraqis need you and the other American to speak out for them, they are struggling with their daily live, thanks to the American government which turned their lives into hell.²

What kind of nation are we? 

Are we a horrendous herd of feral swine rampaging across the planet, leaving nothing behind us but raw sewage, raw grief, and raw hatred?

Are we a nation of sacrificial lambs being led to certain slaughter by a small, insulated group of nihilistic ideologues?

The world needs to hear all of us to speak out with the answer to those questions.  We must shout ³ENOUGH!², loudly, in unison, in mourning and grief and horror that this blood should be put on our hands, if only to live with ourselves, and, really, if only to live at all. 

Because the greater the threat our government poses to the world, the more danger we will be in ourselves.

Notes:   *River Bend blogspot -- http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com

Beth Moore Henry lives near the Texas Gulf Coast with her two children.  She has worked as a technical writer for the aerospace industry, but finds her conscience better served selling books in a used bookstore.  She does not pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, but to her neighbors, her fellow citizens, and to her brothers and sisters all over the world who, like her, simply want to live in peace and with sufficient resources to sustain herself and her family.  Contact her at beth@axisoflogic.com

© Copyright 2003 by AxisofLogic.com   [ Url.: http://tinyurl.com/4cdct ]

Fwd. by:

FPF/HR + Falluja - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/4o8zg

FOREIGN  PRESS  FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/3crhn
Editor :  Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/2ghoh
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl

The Dutch author has this far worked abroad for 4 decades for international media,
as a foreign correspondent, of which 10 years - also during Gulf War I - in the Arab
World and the Middle East.

Seeing worldwide that every bullet and every bomb breeds more terrorism !
( US Senator Hollings agrees: http://tinyurl.com/2ylmv )

Evil triumphs when good men, women and we journalists remain
silent: - http://tinyurl.com/3tgqa - Let's fight today, because
tomorrow it may be too late...

Help the troops come home ! We need them badly to fight
our 'governments': http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

HR

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Fw: Iraq is Burning - Where's the peace movement? By DONNA J. VOLATILE

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Karim A G

To: Karim A G

Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 9:05 AM

Subject: Iraq is Burning - So What Are You Going to Do About It?

By DONNA J. VOLATILE

November 15, 2004

John Kerry has slithered back under the rock from whence he came but never fear he'll be back. Like the Clinton's, like Gore and countless other ineffectual democrats, he'll be back, and he'll be received very well, possibly even be rewarded for his successful exploits: destroying the third party alternative and breaking the anti-war movement with his bare hands.

John "Help is On The Way, America", "Reporting for Duty", Kerry, we have a new title for you: The Great Destroyer. How will that look on a political resume?! G.W. Bush, your distant cousin and brother in arms may be the political anti-Christ, leader of "America", the great Satan, but you will forever be remembered as the democrat who lead the self destructive charge, running what was left of your party into the, not so, hallowed ground and for leading your parishioners into the depths of despair and immobility, in neo-religious political lingo: the ninth circle of hell.

(We need to get use to this kind of verbiage now that the fundamentalists have seized total control. Creationism is coming soon to a school near you.)

Meanwhile, Iraq is burning and where is the anti-war movement now? Where are the millions of disillusioned Kerry supporters who were so opposed to the war in Iraq? Where is your leadership? Why aren't you on the streets in mass demonstrating against the evil being committed against innocent men, women and children in Fallujah?! Are you tired, is your spirit broken? Are you too busy working on recounts and election fraud or are you just too busy today, in general, to worry about civilian casualties? You're not even on the streets, in mass, demonstrating your frustration against the pitiful excuse for an election that just passed!

Hold onto your hats my friends! There are demonstrations being planned, in the works as we like to say. If you really want to show your dissatisfaction with this election and the ongoing slaughter in Iraq, here's your chance.

The hope is that you will forget pointless recounts in a system, a game, that is rigged and move on to more important things, like letting the world know that the majority of us here in the good ol' US of A object to the slaughter of innocent people. The Bush regime doesn't speak for us just as Kerry didn't speak for us peace loving lefties and traditional conservative, anti-war, nut cases. We're all in the same fruit basket. Might as well join forces eh?

(How many of you know that Justin Raimondo of Antiwar.com voted Nader?! Raimondo, a traditional conservative?! Not only did he vote Nader but in California, he had to spend the time to write him in! The rapture's comin', I just know it!)

The anti-war movement was high jacked, temporarily, let's take it back and take it back in force.

To those "anti-war" groups who got behind a pro war Kerry: Come on down, we need you, now more than ever! To put it in the parlance of our times: we forgive you, come on in, the water's fine! 1) Coen brother's rip.

The only chance we have, is to put aside our differences and come together, right now, under the original anti-war banner that we once all stood under! Let's get back to the original message: NO WAR! NO WAR FOR OIL, NO WAR FOR ISRAEL! This is simplicity at its best. No democrats in the way to muddy up the message. NO WAR, plain and simple. (Can I hear an Amen?!)

Even those of us seemingly divided by traditional political stances: the left-right argument, have more in common than not! We ALL want our country back. We want to restore (more specifcally re-invent) democracy, uphold the constitution and the bill of rights. On this, both extremes agree! Let us drop those things which divide us and take refuge in what we agree upon: Let us take our country back.

By joining our forces together, who knows what we might achieve?! The truth is, we must do something and so, here is a good starting place!

MASS DEMONSTRATION ON THE FIRST DAY
OF THE NEXT ADMINISTRATION
January 20, 2005
Washington DC

With joint actions in San Francisco & Los Angeles

On the day of George W. Bush's inauguration for this second term in office - January 20, 2005 - there will be thousands of people all along the inaugural route in Washington DC demanding "End the occupation of Iraq - Bring the troops home now." Bush and the world will hear this message loud and clear from the people of the U.S.

The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has obtained permits for the Counter-Inaugural demonstration.

Now, whether you are a traditional conservative or progressive does not matter. We all need to be out on the streets in any one of these locales ( create your own if you can't get to any of those listed!). Forget about the little things, your political differences, and just do it. We don't have time for pettiness. Party lines have no place in our collective outrage against this war and against what is happening to our country. Get over it!

I would not dare to propose that a mass demonstration is the answer, especially after our anti-war voices were muted before the pre-emptive strike on Iraq but I will tell you we have got to do something and do it soon! People are dying, needlessly, and the current regime is responsible. This demonstration is a good starting place for what we need to do!

In addition, if there is anyone out there who cares to take on a leadership role, we need you now! There is a vacancy t hat Ralph Nader, the Greens and other third party alternatives cannot fill! We need to form a viable third party alternative now! Nader, the Greens and others who have been a force in the third party arena will be needed to encourage and develop a new and viable third party. They'll need to get behind it and get beyond their political differences. We need all of you, no matter which side of the road you are on! We need an alternative party that will encompass all of the disenfranchised: traditional conservatives, progressives and everything in between.

We need EVERY anti-war group to unite under the same banner! We need every single person in this country who does not support this illegal war, the murder of innocent people, the injustices being foisted upon other countries, to come together now!

What are we waiting for?! We don't have time to grieve or even question what is happening around us. There is no time for recounts or voter fraud investigations. While we fiddle, Iraq is burning, Palestine is burning and soon the entire region will be engulfed in flames! Do we have that kind of time? Are we that ego centric? The answer is NO, NO and NO!

A place is there below, stretching as far from Beelzebub as his tomb extends, which not by sight is known, but by the sound of a rivulet that here descends along the hollow of a rock that it has gnawed with its course that winds and little falls. My Leader and I entered through that hidden way, to return to the bright world. And without care, to have any repose, we mounted up, he first and I second, till through a round opening I saw of those beauteous things which heaven bears, and thence we came forth to see again the stars.

- Canto XXXIV, Dante's Inferno


Let us hope so.

Donna J. Volatile is an un-produced, radical screenwriter living in New Mexico. She can be reached at: djvolatile2@yahoo.com

 

http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/912168.htm

 

US Troops Shot Civilians Escaping From Fallujah

http://mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/911982.htm

 

fwd: religious progressives- the new silent majority

 For a progressive interpretation of the Bible, see http://biblequotes.blogspot.com/

 

From: American Progress Action Fund

To: Jim Kirwan

Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 8:35 AM

Subject: Progress Report

RELIGION
Progressive Morality

Conservatives have seized on the notion that the "moral values" of the religious right determined the recent election. As Frank Rich of the New York Times points out, however, "There's only one problem with the storyline proclaiming that the country swung to the right on cultural issues in 2004…it is fiction." According to a new poll co-sponsored by the Center for American Progress, Res Publica and Pax Christi, there actually is a new silent majority in America: a coalition of religious moderates, progressives and other non-traditional religious voters. "This bloc of religious voters constitutes 54 percent of the electorate and holds very similar moderate-to-progressive views on domestic and national security issues" such as economic justice and the war in Iraq. By comparison, religious conservatives make up less than a quarter of the national electorate. (For more on the changing focus of the new "silent majority," read the new op-ed by American Progress's John Podesta and John Halpin.)

THE MORALITY OF WAR: The American Progress poll showed more voters felt progressive issues were more important than socially conservative ones in this election. Forty-two percent of voters said the war in Iraq was the most important moral issue in the election; only 13 percent said abortion and fewer than 10 percent said same-sex marriage were the most important moral issues. The moral criticism of the war in Iraq is growing. Columnist Leonard Pitts writes, "one is hard pressed to find much evidence of morality in Bush's ineptly prosecuted war, his erosion of civil rights, and the loss of international credibility that his policies have caused." BeliefNet's Steve Waldman agrees, saying progressives "believe that launching any war unless absolutely justified is profoundly immoral…Liberals also believe that a morally indefensible policy was sold dishonestly – a gross moral breach compounded by another."

SEPARATING CHURCH AND STATE: Americans support the clear division between church and state. According to the American Progress poll, 52 percent of voters surveyed "say they want a president who is informed by faith but does not impose these views on others through public policy decisions." Only 13 percent of voters want a president who uses his or her faith to determine policy positions and another 31 percent want faith and policy completely separate. Waldman explains most progressives advocate a strict demarcation between church and state because "they want to protect the free expression of religious views."

GAY MARRIAGE: Exit polls on Nov. 2 showed 22 percent of voters claimed their votes were influenced by "moral values." The same survey, however, showed "nearly three times as many Americans approve of some form of legal status for gay couples."

CONSERVATIVES DISPARAGED BELIEF BEFORE THE ELECTION: Republicans spent a lot of effort before the election trying to paint Democrats as the anti-God party by disparaging their religious beliefs. During the 2004 campaign, the New York Times reported that mailings by Republicans warned voters that liberals wanted to ban the Bible. The GOP also distributed flyers in church parking lots saying John Kerry favored "'anti-Christian, anti-God, antifamily' judges, same-sex marriage and abortion." Jerry Falwell told CNN Democrats were on an "anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-religion kick."

CONSERVATIVES STILL AT IT AFTER THE ELECTION: After the election, gloating Republicans continued to attack the religious beliefs of many Americans. Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh charged Democrats "don't like God." Evangelical leader Bob Jones charged the reelection of George Bush was a "reprieve from the agenda of paganism," stating, "You owe liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ." And conservative television host Joe Scarborough accused Democrats of "taking solace" in "bigoted anti-Christian screeds."