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Thursday, May 21, 2015
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Save
the Date!
Sunday,
June 7
DORCHESTER
DAY PARADE!
Our
message will focus on building a neighborhood-based movement to resist wars and
military interventions abroad – while opposing racism, dispossession and budget
cuts at home; reducing excessive military spending; and funding urgent needs in
our communities. Thousands of marchers and parade watchers will see our banners
and get our anti-war flyers
Marchers
will gather around Noon in Dorchester Lower Mills (Richmond
St.) with
the parade kick-off about 1pm. We’ll have our after-Parade barbeque
and celebration at Jeff Klein’s house, 123 Cushing Ave. from about 3:30pm.
Please come to that, even if you can’t march in the parade. More details as
we get them.
This is what it has all come
down to.... the US and the corrupt, dictatorial Gulf monarchies meeting at Camp
David Thursday and agreeing on a plan to flood the Middle East with 'missile
defense' (MD) systems.
These Gulf monarchies are the essential allies of the US in the world now (in addition to a few other fascist-leaning nations). Together they are destabilizing and creating chaos in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and beyond. This meeting is evidence of the desperation and the moral decay of the USA.
Obama announced that that he would streamline weapon sales and increase joint military exercises with Bahrain (home to US Navy Central Command and the Fifth Fleet), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as part of an “iron-clad commitment” that the United States will help protect them against their neighbor and rival Iran. The Gulf states claim they fear Iran's nuclear weapons even after recent successful negotiations to ensure they don't build any.
In fact Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program several years ago - the CIA has even reported as much as has the IAEA. But truth and reality don't matter much anymore.
What this new deal with the Gulf states really mean is unrestrained US and Arab extremism throughout the Middle East. The plan is to build a region-wide MD system including Patriot and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) along with MD radars. It's also likely that Aegis ship or land-based MD systems will be added to sweeten the pot as well.
The US weapons production corporations will make lots of money. It's important to remember that weapons are the #1 industrial export product of our country. When weapons are your #1 export product, what is the global marketing strategy for that product line? Endless war. What does that say about the soul of the USA?
All of these MD systems will be "interoperable" with the Pentagon's existing programs. It will all be run through the US military space satellite system. That means the Gulf states will pay for the US to build a region-wide MD system that is actually aimed at Iran, Syria, and Russia and fully controlled by Washington.
MD is a key element in US first-strike attack planning - its the shield that is used after a Pentagon sword is thrust into the heart of another nation's military forces. When the attacked nation attempts to fire a retaliatory strike it is then that the MD systems are used to pick off the remaining military capability thus giving the Pentagon a "successful" first-strike. The whole system works best if you can get real close to the 'offending nation' and hit their missiles soon after launch rather than waiting for them to reach deep space - or hit them as they descend from space as they approach their targets.
This new Gulf states agreement is dangerous, provocative, destabilizing and very expensive. The US has once again betrayed its revolutionary roots against British monarchy as it snuggles up with the Arab right-wing feudal monarchies. Nothing good can come from this new agreement.
These Gulf monarchies are the essential allies of the US in the world now (in addition to a few other fascist-leaning nations). Together they are destabilizing and creating chaos in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine and beyond. This meeting is evidence of the desperation and the moral decay of the USA.
Obama announced that that he would streamline weapon sales and increase joint military exercises with Bahrain (home to US Navy Central Command and the Fifth Fleet), Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as part of an “iron-clad commitment” that the United States will help protect them against their neighbor and rival Iran. The Gulf states claim they fear Iran's nuclear weapons even after recent successful negotiations to ensure they don't build any.
In fact Iran stopped its nuclear weapons program several years ago - the CIA has even reported as much as has the IAEA. But truth and reality don't matter much anymore.
What this new deal with the Gulf states really mean is unrestrained US and Arab extremism throughout the Middle East. The plan is to build a region-wide MD system including Patriot and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) along with MD radars. It's also likely that Aegis ship or land-based MD systems will be added to sweeten the pot as well.
The US weapons production corporations will make lots of money. It's important to remember that weapons are the #1 industrial export product of our country. When weapons are your #1 export product, what is the global marketing strategy for that product line? Endless war. What does that say about the soul of the USA?
All of these MD systems will be "interoperable" with the Pentagon's existing programs. It will all be run through the US military space satellite system. That means the Gulf states will pay for the US to build a region-wide MD system that is actually aimed at Iran, Syria, and Russia and fully controlled by Washington.
MD is a key element in US first-strike attack planning - its the shield that is used after a Pentagon sword is thrust into the heart of another nation's military forces. When the attacked nation attempts to fire a retaliatory strike it is then that the MD systems are used to pick off the remaining military capability thus giving the Pentagon a "successful" first-strike. The whole system works best if you can get real close to the 'offending nation' and hit their missiles soon after launch rather than waiting for them to reach deep space - or hit them as they descend from space as they approach their targets.
This new Gulf states agreement is dangerous, provocative, destabilizing and very expensive. The US has once again betrayed its revolutionary roots against British monarchy as it snuggles up with the Arab right-wing feudal monarchies. Nothing good can come from this new agreement.
Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (blog)
~ Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. - Henry David Thoreau
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (blog)
~ Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. - Henry David Thoreau
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Leaving Publix: Growing wave of longtime Publix customers spurning Florida grocery
giant to express outrage over company’s refusal to support Fair
Food… Life-long customer to Publix: “You have a responsibility to share the loyalty, good fortune and prosperity we’ve given you with the rest of your community.” An intriguing new trend is beginning to emerge among once-loyal customers of Publix, and Florida’s hometown grocer would do well to take note. In increasing numbers, consumers are launching their own, personal boycotts of the Lakeland-based chain — often doing so quite publicly — to express their frustration with Publix’s unconscionable refusal to join the Fair Food Program (FFP). As the FFP continues to expand and gain momentum, and as the food justice movement increasingly leaves Publix behind in its embrace of the worker-driven social responsibility model, a growing wave of longtime customers who value human rights and fairness for farmworkers are leaving Publix right along with it. Today, we want to share yet another letter from one more fed-up Publix customer. Last week, food blogger and Polk County native Renia Carsillo watched the documentary “Food Chains,” and much to her dismay she learned that Publix was rejecting, rather than embracing, a proven solution to farmworker abuse and poverty in their shared home state. To quote Renia, “To say that I am outraged at Publix’s stubborn refusal to treat the farmers who pick their produce with basic human dignity would be a gross understatement… Today my weekly grocery trips became something I am ashamed of...“ |
Memorial Day for Peace
Smedley D. Butler Brigade of Veterans for
Peace invites all to join us in remembering. This Memorial day we will
be recalling the 70th anniversary of V-E, and the 40th anniversary of the end of
Vietnam. Poets and speakers will help us remember. We will also recall names of fallen, and ceremoniously drop carnations into the sea with a toll of the bell.
Monday, May 25, 1-4pm
Christopher Columbus Park
Atlantic Ave. & Richmond St, Aquarium T, Boston
Directions from the Aquarium T stop:Follow the signs in the station for Waterfront and Aquarium.
As you exit the T station, turn right on Atlantic Ave. and turn right again after passing the Long Wharf Marriott. Enter Christopher Columbus Park. The event will be taking place along the harbor, look for the Veterans for Peace white flags.
Call To End US Drone Warfare via Ramstein
In Solidarity with Drone Victims and the German People
The US uses
its base in Ramstein, Germany to relay all US drone strikes to the Middle East
and elsewhere. The US base in Stuttgart is the HQ for Africom. All of this is
against German law. A Yemeni family that lost members from a US drone strike is
suing the German government to be accountable and forbid US use of the Ramstein
Air Base for drone warfare. Their court date is May 27. They are asking for
supportive actions here. There is a German consulate in Boston and we are
trying to organize a group to picket there and deliver a statement. Groups are
asked to use the link below to endorse. Please spread the word.
Marilyn
Consulate General of the Federal Republic of
GermanyThree Copley Place, Suite 500
Boston, MA 02116 Location: In Copley Place shopping mall, corner of Dartmouth and Huntington St., Copley Square,
Call
To End US Drone Warfare via Ramstein
In
Solidarity with Drone Victims and the German People
All lethal US drone
strikes are guided via the Satellite Relay Station located on the US Air Force
Base Ramstein. More than 10,000 people worldwide have been killed by these
drone strikes. The bin Ali Jaber family lost two of its members through a drone
strike in Hadramout in Yemen. Now Reprieve and the European Center for
Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) have filed a lawsuit against the German
government in a German court on behalf of the bin Ali Jaber family. The suit
demands that the German government “take legal and political responsibility for
the US drone war in Yemen” and “forbid use of the Satellite Relay Station in
Ramstein.”
Wednesday, May
27th 2015, 11 a.m., German Bundestag (Meadow) : this case will begin
with a hearing before the high administrative court in Cologne. Here in the
United States, we will organize actions in solidarity on or before May
24th as we will need to deliver to the German Consulate/Embassy on
the 26th.
The military base in
Ramstein remains under the legal jurisdiction of the German federal government
even though the US Air Force has been allowed to use the base. If illegal
activities are conducted from Ramstein -- such as extra-judicial killings – and
the US judicial authorities do not condemn these crimes and mandate an end to
them, then German justice authorities have a duty to act.
The United States Government claims the right to deploy killer drones
everywhere in the world, but extrajudicial killing is against United States
constitutional law as well as German and international law. Extra-judicial
killing, the killing of 'suspects' is a grievous violation of the United States
Constitution. The initiation and prosecution of wars in sovereign countries
that do not threaten the US mainland are in violation of international Treaties
the United States has signed and which have been ratified by our Congress.
These include the United Nations Charter, the Nuremberg Judgement and the
Kellogg Briand Pact, all signed into US Law at the time of their ratification.
Extra- judicial
killings carried out by armed drones that are guided to their targets and
controlled via Ramstein on German sovereign territory are also violations of
both German law and international law. In deference to the suffering of drone
victims, and to the deep antiwar sentiment of the German people, as citizens of
the United States, we stand in solidarity with the bin Ali Jaber family of
Yemen, and the urgent demand by German activists that the (German) Attorney
General’s Office act to initiate investigations against military personnel
working at Ramstein.
The Two-plus- Four-Treaty (the
constitutional founding document of the reunited Federal Republic of
Germany) grants Germany “complete sovereignty at home and abroad” and
emphasizes that “there shall be only peaceful activities from German
territory.”
In accordance with the Treaty and in solidarity with the
German people and drone victims everywhere, we demand that:
> The
Attorney General’s Office immediately initiate investigations on the US military
base Ramstein against those individuals who are participating in the operation
of the Satellite Relay Station.
> The
German Government work for the immediate closing of the Satellite Relay Station
at Ramstein and abstain from acquiring weaponized drones for the German
military.
If your group
is planning a solidarity action or wishes to endorse this Call, please go to Reports.PapillonWeb.net and click the “Form to Endorse
Ramstein Call” label in the upper right hand corner of the page.
-- Action Coalition “Stop the US Drone war via Ramstein”
** Drone Victims Take Germany to Court for Abetting U.S. Murders, Talk Nation Radio Interview with Andreas Schueller of ECCHR
** Germany is the Tell-Tale Heart of America’s Drone War, The Intercept
** Translation of the German Call for Action, Numerous groups in Germany have signed on to a similar Call.
--
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The Cost of War, the Price of Peace
When: Sunday, May 24, 2015, 11:00 am to
1:00 pm
Where: Community Church of Boston • 565
Boylston St • Copley T • Boston
Kathy Kelly co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end
military and economic violence. She has visited Afghanistan 15 times since
2010.
Kathy will describe experiences living in a working class area of Kabul,
Afghanistan. where people feel trapped by war and impoverishment and then
discuss experiences living in a U.S. prison, for protesting U.S. drone warfare,
where people likewise feel trapped and struggle with
impoverishment.
Kathy will describe experiences living in a working class area of Kabul, Afghanistan. where people feel trapped by war and impoverishment and then discuss experiences living in a U.S. prison, for protesting U.S. drone warfare, where people likewise feel trapped and struggle with impoverishment.
FILM: Eyewitness Gaza: Life After the 2014 Israeli Invasion
When: Friday, May 22, 7:30 pm
Where: Friends Meeting at Cambridge, 5 Longfellow Park,
Cambridge - (a 10 minute walk from Harvard Square)
With
ALICE ROTHCHILD
Physician, activist, filmmaker, author of ‘Broken Promises, Broken Dreams’
and ‘On the Brink;’ documentary film: ‘Voices Across the Divide.’
BILL SLAUGHTER Physician and activist who works with
the Greater Boston Muslim Health Initiative; President, Gaza Mental Health
Foundation.
Alice Rothchild and Bill Slaughter visited the Gaza Strip in March 2015
with a medical delegation, as part of broader Israel/Palestine visits.
They will share images and impressions of the destruction and
extraordinary resilience that they encountered and the ongoing
siege conditions. What is life like after an invasion that killed 2,200
people (582 of them children, according to UN figures) and
destroyed nearly 100,000 homes? Explore how people currently
confined in the Gaza Strip - from farmers to psychiatrists -
rebuild their lives amidst the devastation and political challenges.
Sponsored by:
The Peace & Social Concerns Committee of Friends Meeting at
Cambridge,
Gaza Mental Health Foundation,
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights,
Jewish Voice for Peace - Boston,
United for Justice with Peace.
Who Stole The American Dream?
Who Stole the American Dream? [see trailer]Showing Thursday, May 21, in Cambridge [please download & distribute flyer] HEIST traces the worldwide economic collapse to a 1971 secret memo entitled Attack on American Free Enterprise System. Written over 40 years ago by future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell, at the behest of the US Chamber of Commerce, the 6-page memo, called for a big business makeover of government through corporate control of the media, academia, the pulpit, arts and sciences and destruction of organized labor and consumer protection groups. HEIST exposes the systemic implementation of Powell's memo by BOTH U.S. political parties culminating in the deregulation of industry, outsourcing of jobs and regressive taxation. All of which led us to the global financial crisis of 2008 and the continued dismantling of the American middle class. Today, politics is the playground of the rich and powerful, with no thought given to the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans. US democracy has been sold to the highest bidder. "Wherever one's politics fall on the spectrum, there is much in here --” such as a maddening video clip in which an American law firm offers counsel on how to avoid hiring American workers --” likely to give one pause." ~Mindy Farabee, LA Times "See this film and you may begin entertaining the notion of public hangings." ~Pacific Sun "HEIST is a one-stop summary of reasons for ordinary Americans to be furious at our financial systems. Its last third turns from compiling past outrages to encouraging activism, making this snappy, solid docu an ideal candidate for savvy distribs to jump on immediately." ~Dennis Harvey, Variety "For those who have not paid attention to 'the man behind the curtain,' or those who have swallowed The Matrix's Blue Pill, HEIST is an absolute must-see." ~D. Schwartz, cine source When/where doors open 6:40; film starts promptly 7pm 243 Broadway, Cambridge - corner of Broadway and Windsor, entrance on Windsor rule19.org/videos Please join us for a stimulating night out; bring your friends! free film; free door prizes[donations are encouraged]feel free to bring your own snacks and soft drinks - no alcohol allowed "You can't legislate good will - that comes through education." ~ Malcolm X UPandOUT film series - see rule19.org/videos Why should YOU care? It's YOUR money that pays for US/Israeli wars - on Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Libya. Syria, Iran, So America, etc etc - for billionaire bailouts, for ever more ubiquitous US prisons, for the loss of liberty and civil rights... |
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March for Our Children to Shut Down Pilgrim Nuclear Plant
June 13 - 16 Plymouth to
Boston
Boston Downwinders will join Mass
Downwinders on a walk from Plymouth to the State House to raise awareness about
the terrible condition of Pilgrim Nuclear Plant, and to gather signatures on a
petition to Governor Baker to SHUT IT DOWN.
Starts: Saturday, June 13 in
Plymouth
Ends: Tuesday, June 16 in Boston
12:30 pm Rally at Dewey Square
1:00 pm Walk up Summer Street to the
State House
2:00 pm Rally in the Gardner Auditorium
at the State House
Join us! The walk will span 54 miles over
4 days - from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth to the Boston State
House. Good company, meals and
accommodations will be provided. All belongings can be towed by van, so you will
not have to carry any of your gear. You
can join us all the way or for any part of our journey.
For more information, details on the route,
or to sponsor a walker, please visit http://www.madownwinders.org/calendar/march-for-our-children/.
Boston Downwinders is a recently formed
working group of Massachusetts Peace Action. Our immediate mission is to close
Pilgrim Nuclear Plant, which has the same failed GE Mark II design as the
Fukushima plant. Experts for the Massachusetts Attorney General said that the
Pilgrim's overloaded spent fuel pool is vulnerable to a catastrophic fire that
could contaminate over 100 miles downwind and cause up to 24,000 latent cancers
and $488 billion in damages. The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission placed Pilgrim among the 5 worst run reactors in
the US. And a Pentagon-commissioned analysis listed it among the 8 US plants
most vulnerable to catastrophic terror attack. As with every other nuclear
plant, there is no safe place to put the waste. Our grandchildren’s
grandchildren will have to take care of it -- while receiving no
benefits.
Boston Downwinders have been joining Cape
Downwinders in lobbying our State Reps and Senators to sponsor bills improving
Pilgrim's safety, health and evacuation procedures. And we are sharing our
concerns with the Mass. Emergency Management Association (MEMA), which is
responsible for evacuation in case of accident.
We need your energy, ideas and support.
Please come to our next meeting on June 1, 7pm at the First Church in
Cambridge, 11 Garden St., in Harvard Square.
And join us for all or part of the MARCH FOR OUR CHILDREN through Plymouth, Kingston, Weymouth,
Cohasset, Hingham Braintree and on to Boston.
Activists played a key role in shutting
down Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station and we can do the same for
Massachusetts!
For more information about our Pilgrim
Nuclear Plant and Boston Downwinders, see http://masspeaceaction.org/close-pilgrim-nuclear or contact us.
Yours for a clean and safe energy
future,
Guntram Mueller and Paula
Sharaga
Co Conveners, Boston
Downwinders
Join Massachusetts Peace Action - or renew your membership
today!
Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions. Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2015! Your financial support makes this work possible!
Dues are $40/year for an individual, $65 for a family, or $10 for student/unemployed/low income. Members vote for leadership and endorsements, receive newsletters and discounts on event admissions. Donate now and you will be a member in good standing through December 2015! Your financial support 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
617-354-2169 • info@masspeaceaction.org • Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
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Video short: Aspen Institute
puts Fair Food Program center stage… Last month, the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program held a public forum in Washington, DC, entitled “The Future of Worker Voice” with a distinguished panel of speakers. Included on that panel were two representatives of the Fair Food Program, Cruz Salucio of the CIW and Judge Laura Safer Espinoza, Executive Director of the Fair Food Standards Council. The Aspen Institute is an organization that, for over 60 years, has worked to foster “enlightened leadership, the appreciation of timeless ideas and values, and open-minded dialogue on contemporary issues,” with perhaps its best known event being the annual “Aspen Ideas Festival,” which has become a much-respected marketplace of new ideas on the social, economic, and cultural issues facing the world in the 21st century. The panel discussion last month in DC focused on the challenges facing workers today as they seek to have their voices heard at work and protect their fundamental human rights... |
Mister James Dandy To The Rescue-With LaVern Baker In Mind
Mister James Dandy To The Rescue-With LaVern Baker In Mind
Mister James Dandy To The Rescue-With LaVern Baker In Mind
Mister James Dandy To The Rescue-With LaVern Baker In Mind
No question a lot of the classic works of rock and roll, say from the mid-1950s until the end of that decade were driven by those twangy guitars (hopefully provided by the genius of Les Paul and other pioneers working in their little garages in places like Nowhere, Texas trying to get more hyp out of that damn acoustic guitar, knowing, knowing like we all know now that whatever musical jail-break breeze was blowing was going to need plenty of electricity before it was through), those big blast sexy saxs blowing out to high heaven (think about that sax player who backed up Bill Halley on something like See You Later, Alligator and almost inhaled that sax driving that be-bopping first touch of rock coming out of about six musical traditions), and big brush back beat drums. Driven mainly by guys, hungry guys, guys with huge wanting habits trying to run away from the farms and small towns trying to break free from that life of farmer’s son or small store hardware clerk. Guys like Elvis, Chuck, Bo, Jerry Lee, Warren, Carl and a lot more. But in that mix, maybe somewhat neglected, intentionally or not, maybe there was no room for lilting voices when the music got all sweaty and from jump street, were female performers like Wanda Jackson (who really could have held her own with the big boys and had a fetching look to boot), Ruth Brown and the Queen of the popping fingers, Miss LaVern Baker.
Strangely the rise of the “girl” singers in rock and roll, usually in groups, did not really get a jump until toward the end of the 1950s decade but I would argue that LaVern Baker is the “godmother” who set the latter grouping up with her sweet life rhythm which had us all snapping our fingers. It is no secret that a lot of young guys then, a lot of guys like me with two left feet, almost instinctively overcame our shyness, overcame our desire not to be made fools of when something like LaVern Baker’s Jim Dandy popped out of the school dance DJs hands and on to that creaky old record player in that sullen gymnasium which passed for a dance floor come Friday night keep the kids off the streets time. Or come last dance chance time and having broken the ice, and hopefully no ankles or toes of that eyed partner (as for possible damage imposed on yourself, well, we all, guys anyway, learned early on around our streets that it is a dangerous world and that is that), you closed out the evening with her soulful version of Lonnie Johnson’s Tomorrow Night. There is still a lot to be written about the women of early rock and roll but Miss Baker is definitely in the mix.
[Another thing that could use some addressing is the fate of those artists who had center stage for a minute and then faded from mass view when the next best thing came along but who continued to perform out in the back streets, out in the bandstand bowling alleys, out in the motel lounges, out in the road houses. In the mid-1990s long after her heyday 1950s I heard LaVern Baker in a jazz bar in Cambridge. She had just gotten out of “rehab” for a knee or hip replacement, I forget which, and performed in a wheelchair, performed a lot of her old stuff and the highlight of the performance was a rousing version of Jim Dandy. Still working, still popping. I know my youthful memory fingers were popping that night.
Eyewitness Gaza: Life After the 2014 Israeli Invasion
When: Friday, May 22, 7:30 pm
Where: Friends Meeting at Cambridge, 5 Longfellow Park,
Cambridge - (a 10 minute walk from Harvard Square)
With
ALICE ROTHCHILD
Physician, activist, filmmaker, author of ‘Broken Promises, Broken Dreams’
and ‘On the Brink;’ documentary film: ‘Voices Across the Divide.’
BILL SLAUGHTER Physician and activist who works with
the Greater Boston Muslim Health Initiative; President, Gaza Mental Health
Foundation.
Alice Rothchild and Bill Slaughter visited the Gaza Strip in March 2015
with a medical delegation, as part of broader Israel/Palestine visits.
They will share images and impressions of the destruction and
extraordinary resilience that they encountered and the ongoing
siege conditions. What is life like after an invasion that killed 2,200
people (582 of them children, according to UN figures) and
destroyed nearly 100,000 homes? Explore how people currently
confined in the Gaza Strip - from farmers to psychiatrists -
rebuild their lives amidst the devastation and political challenges.
Sponsored by:
The Peace & Social Concerns Committee of Friends Meeting at
Cambridge,
Gaza Mental Health Foundation,
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights,
Jewish Voice for Peace - Boston,
United for Justice with Peace.
 | ||
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United for
Justice with Peace is a coalition of peace and justice organizations and
community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP Coalition, formed
after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and economic
justice.
Help us continue to do this critical work! Make a donation to UJP
today.
| ||
| 617-383-4857 | www.justicewithpeace.org | |
Harvard Graduation Day Demonstration for Palestinian Rights
When: Thursday, May 28, 2015, 4:00 pm to 6:00
pm
Where: Holyoke Center • Mass. Ave. in
Harvard Square • Cambridge
People from all around the US and world attend the graduation.
We will ask them to oppose Israel’s accelerated settlement drive and demand freedom for Palestinians.
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights
We will ask them to oppose Israel’s accelerated settlement drive and demand freedom for Palestinians.
Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights
The American War in Vietnam: Lessons Learned and Not Learned, essay by W.D.
Ehrhart
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As The 100th Anniversary Of The First
Year Of World War I (Remember The War To End All Wars) Continues ... Some
Remembrances-Musicians’ Corner
In say 1912, 1913, hell, even the
beginning of 1914, the first few months anyway, before the war clouds got a
full head of steam in the summer they all profusely professed their unmitigated
horror at the thought of war, thought of the old way of doing business in the
world. Yes the artists of every school the
Cubist/Fauvists/Futurists/Constructivists, Surrealists or those who would come
to speak for those movements (hell even the hide-bound Academy filled with its
rules, or be damned, spoke the pious words of peace, brotherhood and the
affinity of all humankind when there was sunny weather), those who saw the
disjointedness of modern industrial society in its squalor, it creation of
generations of short, nasty, brutish lives just like the philosophers predicted
and put the pieces to paint, sculptors who put twisted pieces of metal
juxtaposed to each other saw that building a mighty machine from which you had
to run created many problems; writers of serious history books proving that,
according to their Whiggish theory of progress,
humankind had moved beyond war as an instrument of policy and the
diplomats and high and mighty would put the brakes on in time, not realizing
that they were all squabbling cousins; writers of serious and not so serious
novels drenched in platitudes and hidden gazebo love affairs put paid to that
notion in their sweet nothing words that man and woman had too much to do, too
much sex to harness to denigrate themselves by crying the warrior’s cry and by
having half-virgin, neat trick, maidens strewing flowers on the bloodlust
streets; musicians whose muse spoke of delicate tempos and sweet muted violin
concertos, not the stress and strife of the tattoos of war marches with their
tinny conceits; and poets, ah, those constricted poets who bleed the moon of
its amber swearing, swearing on a stack of seven sealed bibles, that they would
go to the hells before touching the hair of another man, putting another man to
ground or laying their own heads down for some imperial mission.
They all professed loudly (and those
few who did not profess, could not profess because they were happily getting
their blood rising, kept their own consul until the summer), that come the war
drums they would resist the siren call, would stick to their Whiggish, Futurist,
Constructionist, Cubist worlds and blast the war-makers to hell in quotes,
words, chords, clanged metal, and pretty pastels. They would stay the
course.
And then the war drums intensified, the
people, their clients, patrons and buyers, cried out their lusts and they, they
made of ordinary human clay as it turned out, poets, beautiful poets like
Wilfred Owens who would sicken of war before he passed leaving a beautiful
damnation on war, its psychoses, and broken bones and dreams, and the idiots
who brought humankind to such a fate, like e. e. cummings who drove through
sheer hell in those rickety ambulances floors sprayed with blood, man blood,
angers, anguishes and more sets of broken bones, and broken dreams, like Rupert
Brooke all manly and old school give and go, as they marched in formation
leaving the ports and then mowed down like freshly mown grass in their
thousands as the charge call came and they rested, a lot of them, in those
freshly mown grasses, like Robert Graves all grave all sputtering in his words
confused about what had happened, suppressing, always suppressing that instinct
to cry out against the hatred night, like old school, old Thomas Hardy writing
beautiful old English pastoral sentiments before the war and then full-blown
into imperium’s service, no questions asked old England right or wrong, like
old stuffed shirt himself T.S. Eliot speaking of hollow loves, hollow men,
wastelands, and such in the high club rooms on the home front, and like old
brother Yeats speaking of terrible beauties born in the colonies and maybe at
the home front too as long as Eliot does not miss his high tea. Jesus what a
blasted night that Great War time was.
And as the war drums intensified, the
people, their clients, patrons and buyers, cried out their lusts and they, they
made of ordinary human clay as it turned out, artists, beautiful artists like
Fernand Leger who could no longer push the envelope of representative art
because it had been twisted by the rubble of war, by the crashing big guns, by
the hubris of commanders and commanded and he turned to new form, tubes, cubes,
prisms, anything but battered humankind in its every rusts and lusts, all
bright and intersecting once he got the mustard gas out of his system, once he
had done his patria duty, like speaking of mustard gas old worn out John Singer
Sargent of the three name WASPs forgetting Boston Brahmin society ladies in
decollage, forgetting ancient world religious murals hanging atop Boston museum
and spewing trench warfare and the blind leading the blind out of no man’s
land, out of the devil’s claws, like Umberto Boccioni, all swirls, curves,
dashes, and dangling guns as the endless charges endlessly charge, like Gustav
Klimt and his endlessly detailed gold dust opulent Asiatic dreams filled with
lovely matrons and high symbolism and blessed Eve women to fill the night,
Adam’s night after they fled the garden, like Joan Miro and his infernal boxes,
circles, spats, eyes, dibs, dabs, vaginas, and blots forever suspended in deep
space for a candid world to fret through, fret through a long career, and like
poor maddened rising like a phoenix in the Spartacist uprising George Grosz
puncturing the nasty bourgeoisie, the big bourgeoisie the ones with the real
dough and their overfed dreams stuffed with sausage, and from the bloated
military and their fat-assed generals stuff with howitzers and rocket shells,
like Picasso, yeah, Picasso taking the shape out of recognized human existence
and reconfiguring the forms, the mesh of form to fit the new hard order, like,
Braque, if only because if you put the yolk on Picasso you have to tie him to
the tether too.
And do not forget when the war drums
intensified, and the people, their clients, patrons and buyers, cried out their
lusts and they, they, other creative souls made of ordinary human clay as it
turned out sculptors, writers, serious and not, musicians went to the trenches
to die deathless deaths in their thousands for, well, for humankind, of course,
their always fate ….
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