Thursday, March 21, 2019

Vietnam grunt to underground GI paper publisher, the Paul Cox podcast; Before You Enlist! Courage to Resist

Courage to Resist Jeff Paterson<jeff.paterson@couragetoresist.org>
To  alfredjohnson34@comcast.net  
Courage to Resist
paul cox podcast
Podcast: Paul Cox, Vietnam grunt to underground GI paper publisher
“I felt really bad about myself that I’d been so stupid and incurious that I had let myself go off into this war without ever having thought about it. And that I was very lucky to be alive, but there’s a little bit of survivor guilt, and there was a lot of guilt that I didn’t have the courage to stand up on the day that we killed those people,” explains Paul Cox.
This Courage to Resist podcast was produced in collaboration with the Vietnam Full Disclosure effort of Veterans For Peace -- "Towards an honest commemoration of the American war in Vietnam." This year marks 50 years of GI resistance, in and out of uniform, for many of the courageous individuals featured.  Listen to Paul Cox's story now.

before you enlist
Video: Before you enlist! The real deal.
The real deal on joining the military, as told by veterans, and what the military recruiters won't tell you.
“Before You Enlist!” (16 minutes) provides a rational voice to counter the seductive and often deceptive recruiting practices of the U.S. military. The message is not “don’t enlist” but rather to provide young people and their families a more complete picture of the life-altering consequences of joining the military – especially in wartime. Watch "Before You Enlist!" now.
D O N A T E
to Support Resistance to War & Empire
ctr video
We shared our new 75 second promotional video on Facebook last week. Yes, FB is kind of evil, but we still reach a lot of folks that way. Please check it out, share with friends, and "like" our FB page.
ctr video
During last Sunday's Objector Church online meetup, James Branum discussed the history of St. Patrick and the St. Patrick’s Battalion (Batallón de San Patricio), a unit of several hundred immigrants and expatriates of European descent who fought for Mexico in the Mexican–American War of 1846–48. Most of the battalion’s members had deserted or defected from the US Army. Watch the video here.
COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559
www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist
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Kathy Kelly: Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan: What’s happening and what can we do? Massachusetts Peace Action

Massachusetts Peace Action Shelagh Foreman<info@masspeaceaction.org>
To  Al Johnson  

Kathy Kelly: Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan: What’s happening and what can we do?

Dear Al,
Kathy KellyKathy is just coming off her fast to call attention to the need for the U.S. to end its joint war with the Saudis against Yemen.
She is founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and for many years has visited the war-torn countries of the Middle East and supported those working for peace in those countries.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of the most committed and experienced peace organizers in the U.S. You will learn a great deal about peace, war and solidarity.
Kathy Kelly will speak at the following times:
Thursday, March 21, 7:30 pm at the United Church in Walpole, 30 Common St.
Friday, March 22, 12 noon, MIT Room 66-144, 25 Ames St., Cambridge
Friday, March 22, 7pm, Cambridge Friends Meeting, 5 Longfellow Park
Saturday, March 23, 2pm, St. Augustine’s Church in O’Brien Hall, 20 Old Rd., Providence, RI 02908
Sunday, March 24, 11 am at the Community Church of Boston, 565 Boylston St., Copley Square, Boston 02115
Information: 617-354-2169 or 617-623-5288

War Profiteers Off Campus! 

Protest Raytheon at Campus Career Fairs

Raytheon, headquartered right here in Massachusetts, makes billions of dollars a year selling weapons of war that kill innocent civilians around the world, including weapons being used by Saudi Arabia in the U.S.-backed War on Yemen. They’re attending campus career fairs to recruit  students to come work for them.
Join us as we give Raytheon a warm welcome and let students know exactly what kind of work they do.
Thursday, March 21, 4:30 pm, UMass Lowell -- Tsongas Arena, 300 Arcand Dr., Lowell
Thursday, April 4, 12 noon, MIT -- Johnson Athletic Center, 120 Vassar St, Cambridge
Thank you for all you do for peace,
Shelagh Foreman
Co-Chair, Middle East Working Group
P.S. The House may vote on the Yemen war as early as next week.  Stand by for an update!
Visit our website to learn more about joining the organization or donating to Massachusetts Peace Action!
We thank you for the financial support that makes this work possible. 
Massachusetts Peace Action, 11 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138
617-354-2169  • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
Massachusetts Peace Action Email  
unsubscribe 
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Time is running out BernieSanders.com

BernieSanders.com<info@berniesanders.com>
To  alfred johnson  

Alfred -
We may have been out-raised in our first 24 hours, but today we learned that we had more individual donations than anyone else. A lot more. Almost two times as many.
What Bernie says is true: they may have a lot of money, but we have the people.
Soon we’ll close the books on our first official FEC reporting deadline. After that we’ll share our numbers. But not just how much money we’ve raised, we’ll share how many donations we’ve received.
And what we want to do is post a number that makes it abundantly clear that we do indeed have the people, and that we are the grassroots campaign to beat Trump.
So we’re shooting for as many individual donations we can. The amount isn’t as important as the donation itself. We are just looking to rack up that number, but time is running out. So we have to ask:
We are still toying with setting an audacious goal for individual donations before this deadline. How people respond to today’s email will let us know whether it’s possible or not. If you donate, we think we’ll be able to go for it.
All our best,
Team Bernie

With time running out before our first official FEC deadline of our campaign, we're aiming to reach as many individual donations as possible.

Contribute $100 before the deadline to send an unmistakable message that ours is the grassroots campaign capable of beating Trump. 





 
Paid for by Bernie 2020
(not the billionaires)
PO BOX 391, Burlington, VT 05402
This email was sent to alfredjohnson34@comcast.net. If you need to, unsubscribe using this link. If you want to receive less emails, just tell us here. We hope you'll stay, because emails are such an important part of how we organize and how we raise money. In fact, there is no single greater source for our campaign's fundraising than emails like this one. And that's important, because no one person, not even Bernie Sanders, can take on Trump and the billionaire class alone.
We have an official FEC fundraising deadline coming up and we're trying to report as many individual donations as we possibly can. Make a contribution today before the FEC deadline comes to a close.
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SIGN: Fully fund Massachusetts' public schools Mary Cowhey

Mary Cowhey<moveon-help@list.moveon.org>
To  Alfred F Johnson  
Dear fellow Massachusetts MoveOn member,
There is an urgent public education funding crisis facing Massachusetts. I'm an elementary educator in Massachusetts public schools, retiring in June after 22 years of teaching. I'm also a mom. I know too well, from all angles, the painful impact of Massachusetts' inability to fully fund our schools.
Students, family members, community members, educators, principals, school staff, and local elected officials are taking to the streets and at the Statehouse next week to urge passage of the PROMISE Act, which will increase state education aid by $1 billion per year for pre-K-12 public schools. I'm asking you to sign on to our call.
Massachusetts legislature, heed the call of countless Commonwealth students, family members, educators, staff, local elected officials, and community members and fully fund our schools, pre-K through grade 12.
When I started teaching first grade in 1997, I had 14 students and a full-time bilingual aide. Twelve years later, I had 26 students and no aide. Among those 26 students, I had more English language learners than before (many of them newcomers to English), more students with learning disabilities, and more students suffering from childhood trauma. I am currently a Title I math teacher, but even though I teach eight groups a day, I can serve only half the grades in my school. My school needs two of me. My math intervention is extremely effective in getting children up to grade level so they will not need special education services, but I can provide services only in first, second, and third grade because of time constraints.

Thus, I will be taking a personal day on Friday, March 22, and making a five-hour bus trip to Boston and back to testify before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education to call on our legislature to seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to fully fund our schools.
Please join me in demanding action from our lawmakers for fair and equitable public education for every student in the Commonwealth.

Back in 2015, the bipartisan Massachusetts Foundation Budget Review Commission found that the Commonwealth's public school funding formula was woefully outdated and that state spending was way too low. The formula for education spending hasn't been updated since 1993!1

This has created a crisis at the local level, with cities and towns and our schools having to make drastic cuts, all of which harm our children's education. It's time to say ENOUGH!

The PROMISE Act, filed by Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz (D-Boston) and Representatives Aaron Vega (D-Holyoke) and Mary Keefe (D-Worcester), would, over a period of time, implement the five core recommendations of the Commission.2

The bulk of the additional funds would go to districts with the greatest need and fewest resources. The formula would be changed to
  • realistically account for districts' health care costs,
  • provide adequate support for English learners and low-income students,
  • account for special education costs, and
  • mitigate losses to charter schools.
The bill is also structured to ensure that every district benefits during the phase-in of reforms and that no one type of reform is front-loaded or back-loaded. And, of course, we also have to account for the unique and pressing needs of rural schools, such as regional transportation and declining enrollment, an effort that gained ground last year but must go much further this session.

We live in precarious times. An educated, creative, hard-working, and compassionate citizenry is the best hope for our future. If we shortchange our schools, we weaken our democracy and jeopardize our future. It's time to fund our future now.
Thanks!
–Mary Cowhey
Sources:
1. "What's Behind The Beacon Hill Battle Over School Funding," WBUR, June 11, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/63979?t=10&akid=229669%2E38417624%2Epgw14O
2. "Here are the basics on the bill to reform how Massachusetts schools are funded," Boston.com, January 11, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/63980?t=12&akid=229669%2E38417624%2Epgw14O
You're receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you. It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition here.
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with MoveOn?
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Alfred Johnson on March 21, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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Dangerous Developments in Modern Weaponry - MIT on April 16


Global Network<globalnet@mindspring.com>

To  GN List Serve  
Dangerous Developments in Modern Weaponry: a forum on the military pursuit of global hegemony
officeArt objectTuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:00
MIT, Bldg 56, room 114, Enter thru Bldg 66 at 25 Ames St. (Kendall Square T stop)

Cambridge, MA.

Speakers:

Subrata Ghoshroy, Research Affiliate at MIT

Nick Mottern, Knowdrones.com

Elaine Scarry, Harvard professor and author ofThermonuclear Monarchy

Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

Topics will include:
* Continued expansion of the hugely profitable military budget
* Cutting-edge Pentagon weapons technology, drones, AI/robotics
* The trillion dollar nuclear weapons modernization program
* The US drive to dominate space
* Resistance of tech workers to war research

Rods from God,” that are released from space to penetrate underground nuclear silos in a nuclear first strike


This forum is sponsored by the Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drones Network (a task force of United for Justice with Peace), Mass Peace Action, Coalition to Stop the Genocide in Yemen, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Boston branch, the Greater Boston Chapter of Green-Rainbow Party…


For questions or comments, contact ujpcoalition@gmail.com or 617-776-6524.

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Wednesday, March 20, 2019

The Fire This Time-In Honor Of James Baldwin Whose Time Has Come Again-From The Archives- Books To While Away The Class Struggle By- James Baldwin's “The Fire Next Time”-That’s Right- Not Water- The Fire Next Time

The Fire This Time-In Honor Of James Baldwin Whose Time Has Come Again-From The Archives-   Books To While Away The Class Struggle By- James Baldwin's “The Fire Next Time”-That’s Right- Not Water- The Fire Next Time

 Click on the headline to link to a "Wikipedia" entry for James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time".

 That’s Right- Not Water- The Fire Next Time

 Recently I have begun to post entries under the headline- “Songs To While Away The Class Struggle By” and "Films To While Away The Class Struggle By"-that will include progressive and labor-oriented songs and films that might be of general interest to the radical public. I have decided to do the same for some books that may perk that same interest under the title in this entry’s headline. Markin

 Book Review

“The Fire Next Time”, James Baldwin, Vintage International, New York, 1962, 63

 Now I have been, as is my wont when I get “hooked” on some writer, on something of a James Baldwin tear of late, reading or re-reading everything I can get my hands on. At the time of this review I have already looked at “Go Tell It On The Mountain”, "Tell Me How Long The Train's Been Gone", and "If Beale Street Could Talk." Frankly those works, while well written and powerful, did not altogether remind me why I was crazy to read everything that Baldwin wrote when I was a kid. The Baldwin black liberation manifesto (and, maybe, white liberation as a by-product), "The Fire Next Time", "spoke" to me then and after forty years still "speaks" to me now in so-called "post-racial" Obama time.

 Back in the early 1960s I used to listen to a late night talk show on the local radio station in Boston. Many times the host would have Malcolm X on and the airwaves would light up with his take on white racism, black nationalism and the way forward for the black liberation struggle- and away from liberal integrationism. Now in those days I was nothing but a woolly-headed white, left liberal "wannabe" bourgeois politico kid who believed in black liberation but in the context of working within the prevailing American society. I was definitely, and adamantly, opposed to the notion of a separate black state on the American continent if for no other reason that it would look something like the then existing ghettos, writ large, that I was committed to getting rid of and a set up for black genocide if things got too hot. And I still am. So, on the one hand, I admired, and I really did, Malcolm X for "speaking truth to power" on the race question while on the other disagreeing with virtually every way he wanted to achieve it.

 Now that scenario is the predicate for James Baldwin's assuredly more literary, but seemingly more hopeful, way of getting the thread of the Malcolm X message about white racism out while posing the possibility (or, maybe, necessity) of joint struggle to get rid of it. In my recent re-reading of "The Fire Next Time" I was struck by how much of Baldwin's own hard-fought understandings on the question of race intersected with The Nation Of Islam, Malcolm at the time, and Elijah Mohammad's. Oddly, I distinctly remember debating someone, somewhere on the question of black nationalism and using Baldwin's more rational approach as a hammer against the black nationalists. I probably overdrew his more balanced view of a multiracial American then, if not now.

 Still, Jimmy was onto something back then. Something that airy-headed kids like me, who thought that once the struggle in the South was won then the struggle in the North could be dealt with merely by a little fine-tuning, were clueless about. Don't smirk. But do note this: while only a fool or political charlatan, would deny that there have been gains for the black population since those civil rights struggle days the pathology of racism and, more importantly, the hard statistics of racism (housing segregation, numbers in the penal system, unemployment and underemployment rates, education, and a whole range of other factors) tell a very different story about how far blacks really have come over the last half century. A story that makes "The Fire Next Time" read like it could have been written today. And to be read today. Thanks, Jimmy.
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