Thursday, November 29, 2012

Petition Against Military: Prison for 6 Months



My name is Brian Terrell. I'm co-coordinator of a group called Voices for Creative Nonviolence. We support the petition to ban drones organized by RootsAction. http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180 On November 30th I report for six months in a federal prison in Yankton, S.D., as a result of protesting drones.

The appearance of war being made easy by drones is resulting in more war. In Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and in places we don't know about, in places where we are not at war, we're sending these unmanned pilotless airplanes into foreign air space to hunt down people who've been accused of crimes only in the private court of the administration. They're hunted down and killed along with anybody who might be in the immediate vicinity.

Drones are creating new wars rather than scaling down old ones. Drone pilots in Afghanistan have been targeted and killed. Drone pilots in the United States suffer PTSD at higher rates than real pilots. Drone victims are 98% innocent civilians according to the recent Stanford/NYU study. The other 2% are targeted victims of murder without charge, trial, due process, or in many cases even knowing the target's name. Drones buzzing over houses traumatize children before they kill them. That those children are (in most cases) not American hardly diminishes the immorality. Drones are rapidly being developed and deployed by other nations.

Would you support the equal right of other nations to kill with drones in this country? And if not, why not? And how can that thinking not apply to U.S. policy as well? As I head to prison I urge you to add your name to the petition to ban drones and to ask others to do so. http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180
Back on April 15th, about 40 people, mostly from the Kansas City area, went to Whiteman Air Force Base and held a short rally outside the gates on a public right of way.

We had a petition -- an indictment we called it -- that listed the laws that drones are violating and the damage they are doing. We took that to the gate and were stopped. Three of us asked directions to deliver the petition and were immediately put in handcuffs. About 40 military police in full riot gear appeared (video [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXkiyGXUF3c ]) and did a choreographed dance including high kicks and grunts and beating their shields, two steps forward and one step back, to get rid of the rest of the U.S. citizens, who were acting legally under the First Amendment. At my sentencing I told the judge: "Each of the government's witnesses, all of them Air Force police personnel, testified that participants in this protest were nonviolent, respectful and peaceable in assembling at Whiteman Air Force Base, a government installation, to petition that government for redress of a grievance, demanding that the remote control killing carried out daily from Whiteman cease. They testified that at no time, before or during our protest, did they perceive us as a threat. "Our expert witnesses testified that our behavior was consistent with the activities that the drafters of the First Amendment intended to be protected, not persecuted, by the government.

The order and security of the base would not have been compromised had the security police allowed us to proceed to the headquarters to deliver our petition. No testimony to the contrary was offered this court. "Instead of planning to accommodate a constitutionally protected peaceable assembly, however, the Air Force chose intimidation and conspired to deprive us of the rights they are sworn to protect.

We learned from government witnesses that the phalanx of goose-stepping riot police is a 'Confrontation Management Team,' deployed only in the case of preannounced events. Whiteman security did not call out the Team to defend the base but to intimidate citizens engaged in lawful activities." Sign the petition to ban militarized drones now, before it is delivered to government officials. http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180

Please forward this email widely to like-minded friends. --Brian Terrell for RootsAction.org

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

1,000,000 Strong Against Off-Shore Drilling

                                           B.C. First Nation Members Evict Pipeline Surveyors, Set Up Road Block

Members of a First Nation in Northern British Columbia have evicted surveyors working on

 a natural gas pipeline project from their territory, seized equipment and set up a roadblock against all pipeline activity. The group identifying itself as the Unis'tot'en clan of the Wet'suwet'en Nation said surveyors for Apache Canada's Pacific Trails Pipeline were trespassing.

"The Unis'tot'en clan has been dead-set against all pipelines slated to cross through their territories, which include PTP (Pacific Trails Pipeline), Enbridge's Northern Gateway and many others," Freda Huson, a spokesperson for the group, said in a statement.

The Unis’tot’en are now calling for solidarity and support actions to reaffirm their position and to amplify the message to Industry and Government that no proposed pipelines will proceed in their territories. There is a call for immediate actions on TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 27th to ensure that corporations, investors, and governments get a clear message that they have no right or jurisdiction to approve development on Unist’ot’en lands.

Read the full story and watch video : http://bit.ly/10Ie9kS
To help with the Nov. 27 action please see:
http://unistotencamp.wordpress.com/
Image credit: www.whitewolfpack.com/www.ctvnews.ca/
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Monday, November 26, 2012

Celebrations for Grace's Birthday


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRACE PALEY!!
Judith Arcana writes: Hello everybody -
 I'm writing to invite you to a party in Portland.

December 11, 2012 will be the 90th anniversary of Grace Paley's birth.
Grace was one of our most committed, hopeful & joyous activists;
one of the greatest short fiction writers ever to use American English;
a notable poet and essayist - and a serious ping-pong player.

As some of you know, I've been organizing Grace-birthday events since 2007, the year she died.
This'll be the last -
Years ago, when I began writing about her, she told me she did not want "to be lionized."
 In the past five years I believe I've gotten too close to the savannah - I can hear some growling. Luckily, 90 is a good number to go out on.

Come to this party celebrating Grace's life and work - bring your friends and neighbors, your colleagues and pals.
 Watch an award-winning documentary film - Grace Paley: Collected Shorts and Hear a posse of Portlanders reading Grace’s poems & stories & essays ......
Ben Parzybok ... Constance Hall ... Harold Johnson ... Khanh Pham ... Laura Moulton ... Liz Woody ... Michael Heald ... Sandy Polishuk ... Steve Williams ........ with me as MC

Other Details: free admission - courtesy of generous theater owners & filmmaker popcorn, candy & drinks for sale at the counter + free birthday cake This event is partially supported by a grant from Soapstone, Inc.
Grace Paley: Collected Shorts Director: Lilly Rivlin Country: USA Runtime: 75 minutes

Grace Paley was the child of Jewish immigrants who fled oppression in Russia. They instilled in Grace a lifelong commitment to fighting social and political injustice. She was jailed many times for protesting war and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. She often referred to herself as a “combative pacifist”. This small, feisty woman spoke with the rough-around-the-edges accent of the Bronx neighborhood where she grew up. Her work combines the personal with the political befitting a woman whose private views on world events led her to take public action. As a master of the short story, she has been compared to Chekhov and her bestselling work Enormous Changes at the Last Minute brought her international fame. This documentary traces the life of this ordinary woman with an extraordinary talent for poetry and prose through her own stories and the stories of her family, friends, colleagues and critics. The film depicts the delicate balance of the three pillars of Grace Paley’s life…activism, writing and her circle of family and friends. It explores the power of literature and Paley’s capacity to touch and comfort readers, as well as her ability to achieve the most human reaction to life’s challenges…laughter.

Grace Paley was true to her ideals to the last. No small feat when you consider the dreams she had for a better world for her grandchildren. “It would be a world without militarism and racism and greed and where women don’t have to fight for their place in the world.”