Tag Archives: Pacifism

Uproot nuclear missiles in our backyard

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Uproot not upgrade nuclear missiles in our backyard
Vigil to commemorate Trinity atomic test blast, July 16, 1945
Nuclear SILO N-8, Weld County, 1pm Saturday, July 14, 2007
(CITIZENS FOR PEACE IN SPACE carpool starts at PPJPC at 9:30am)

From Bill Sulzman of Citizens for Peace In Space:
UPROOT, DON’T UPGRADE MISSILES IN OUR BACKYARD

The nuclear non proliferation treaty (1970) and the International Court of Justice opinion (1996) both call for the dismantling of all nuclear arsenals and the prevention of new nuclear weapons anywhere.

U.S. policy ignores both principles. Nuclear silo N-8 in Weld County should be uprooted not upgraded. Ranchers and farmers know the scourge that weeds represent. For good things to grow bad ones have to be eliminated and replaced. The 49 Minuteman III missiles in our state and the other 451 spread across parts of Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana and North Dakota are illegal, immoral and noxious for the whole world. They need to be eliminated to restore the integrity of our state and our country.

Join us on July 14 at Nuclear silo N-8 in Weld County, the site of the 2002 Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares action. Help us express our gratitude to Sisters Ardeth, Carol and Jackie and to Fr Carl Kabat who remains imprisoned for a similar action in North Dakota last year. We will also remember the Trinity atomic blast which occurred July 16, 1945.

The vigil at the silo will start at 1:00. We will leave in a carpool from the Justice and Peace Office, 214 E. Vermijo Colorado Springs at 9:30 AM on Saturday July 14. For more details call 389 0644. We will have maps for those who are driving.

‘Global Fleet Stations’, AFRICOM, and demanding intervention

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West Africa: U.S. Navy Plans Six-Month Regional Training Mission is to be done under AFRICOM direction. Both AFRICOM and this US militarization program for Africa that also includes bombing, invading, and occupying Somalia must be OK for all the activists calling for intervention into the Sudan. Why do I say this? It is simply because they want the US and Europe to intervene in Africa, rather than stop intervening there.

In fact, none of these groups speak out against these current activities of the Pentagon on the African continent. This is not an oversight at all. Many in the supposed world ‘peace’ camp actually unfortunately are not all that anti- US military use at all. They are what might be termed pseudo pacifists. These people just seem to think that it would be better for them to direct the war machine, and not Bush. That will not be the case though. The US war machine will bring about more suffering and bloodshed, and not greater peace, in Africa, if allowed by us to be used there.

Do not go along with all this call for intervention against Sudan. Intervene against your own reactionary government first.

From Y to V- The CIA’s Otpor strategy to overthrow governments

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Since so many pacifists seem prone to accept at face value and fall for any rhetoric that appears to be supporting ‘peaceful’ means of protest, even when it is being pushed from the Pentagon and Washington DC, the following information is quite important. This is from Setting the Stage for Turmoil in Caracas…
—Repeating the East European experience in Venezuela—

The new imperial strategy includes something called “American Corners.” These “corners” are small offices set up by Washington throughout the target country that basically serve as mini-embassies. It is not completely clear what exactly these “corners” do, but inside you will find an array of information about the United States, including study abroad opportunities, English classes, and pro-U.S. propaganda. On top of this, the mini-embassies also organize events, trainings, and lectures for young students.

Interestingly, they seem to be very abundant in countries that Washington seeks to destabilize. The former Yugoslavian countries have a total of 22 American Corners, including 7 in Serbia. The Ukraine has 24, Belarus 11, Russia 30, even Iraq, with 11. By far the highest concentration of the “corners” is in Eastern Europe, where Washington has focused its destabilization efforts in recent years. [17]

There are at least 4 “American Corners” in Venezuela, the most for any Latin American country, and the U.S. also finances literally hundreds of organizations throughout the country to the tune of more than $5 million a year. [18] Together, these U.S.-funded organizations are working to implant the Eastern European experience in Venezuela. As reported by Reuters, the Venezuelan opposition is already learning the Serbian tactics to overthrow a regime from a retired U.S. army colonel named Robert Helvey.

“Helvey, who has taught young activists in Myanmar and Serbian students who helped topple the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, is giving courses on non-violent opposition tactics this week at an east Caracas university,” said the article. “Neither Helvey nor the organizers of the Caracas seminar would give details of exactly what opposition tactics were being taught. But in his work in Serbia before Milosevic’s fall, Helvey briefed students on ways to organize a strike and on how to undermine the authority of a dictatorial regime,” reported Reuters. [19]

And more recently, in the university city of Mérida, history professor from Texas, Neil Foley, hosted an event sponsored by the U.S. embassy and the Venezuelan-American Center (Cevam), not an official “American Corner” but serving the same purpose. Foley, who has also spoken in various “American Corners” in Serbia, gave speeches in both Bolivia and Venezuela on “American values.” [20]

I attended one of Foley’s speeches and, as expected, it was a complete pro-U.S. propaganda campaign imposed upon the university students. The professor gave exactly the message that the U.S. Embassy had paid him to give, speaking wonders about American society and “American democracy.” According to Foley, the United States solves all of its problems by tolerance for others and an all-inclusive “dialogue,” between opposing parties. And sending a clear hint to the Venezuelan students, Foley implied that any government that does not live up to these standards “must be overthrown.” [21

Also, besides the full article (which is well worth reading) from where this excerpt came from, the additional following article is also of interest. Behind Venezuela’s “Student Rebellion”. Who’s pulling the strings?

Unpublished response to Gazette editor

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Gazette editorial supervisor Sean Page thinks he’s clever to admonish the St Patrick’s Day Seven for disturbing the peace. Unseemly for pacifists, he derides, haha. Ala Rodney King he asks: why can’t you give peace a chance?

Mocking us for being insufficiently peaceful for pacifists is like the bully chiding his prey for not taking their lumps. This isn’t about making peace with you or the police officers, it isn’t about keeping the peace in our community, AT ALL. The issue is bringing peace to war-ravaged Iraq and Afghanistan, et al.

I can turn the other cheek, as a matter of fact, but I don’t presume to do it for the Iraqi. Why should the innocent Iraqi or Afghan bear the brunt of your anything? I want you to stop persecuting THEM and I offer you no peace until you do.

Call me uncharitable, but I don’t want to make peace with mass murderers, baby killers and rapists, or those who would cover for them, excuse them or egg them on. The minute you put down your guns and put your pants back on is when I will lower my voice.

Impersonating a soldier

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We all know it’s illegal to impersonate a police officer, but is it illegal to impersonate a soldier? This notion appears to me to be an utter urban myth, readily quoted but unsubstantiated. Is there such a restriction? We are seeing recent veterans getting in trouble for wearing their uniforms at peace rallies, they don’t face jail time, but rather not insubstantial downgrading of their discharge status. But you and I face no such punitive risk. Why don’t we take the lead and don their uniforms?

I’m not certain that pretending to be soldiers protesting the war would come off well at all, but perhaps it could embolden real soldiers to do it. What if they wore each other’s uniforms, from an opposite branch of the military for example? Does their code of conduct preclude that? Would such political expression jeopardize a vet’s retirement benefits?

The so-called surge has yielded an upsurge of soldiers now calling for peace. We see it on the streets when we hold up our PEACE NOW banners. A good portion of honks, thumbs-up, and peace-signs come from active duty soldiers. We even see them tooting their horns to get our attention, less we miss their smiling encouragement. Our soldiers are ripe for taking a stand against this war. Let them do it. Let’s figure out a way to include their voices. They have earned the right, after all, to speak out as soldiers. We sent them to war as soldiers, however can we presume to strip them of the authority when they return?

I could only find a law passed last year, the Stolen Valor Act, which made it illegal to impersonate a decorated soldier, such that “anyone who knowingly wears, manufactures, or sells any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the U.S. armed forces, or any of the service medals or badges awarded to the members of such forces, or the ribbon, button, or rosette of any such badge, decoration or medal, or any colorable imitation thereof, except when authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

Which gives me an idea. Let’s get some Op. Iraqi F. uniforms and decorate them with LEGAL NON-US medals, such as Iron Crosses and Nazi regalia, and then parade as satiric soldier-dissenters. Neither military getups nor creepy regalia appeal to me, but there might be something pretty chilling about the sight.

US Armada poised to strike Iran

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I found video images of our Persian Gulf Armada taunting the Iranians and restricting their movement. What would our flag waver, ass-kicker types do if some other country sent a navy to aim their guns at our shores? Indeed what did the English do when the Spanish mounted their celebrated Armada? I think the Iranians are showing incredible restraint.

Numb skulls awarding peace prizes

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Two weeks ago I wrote about a CIA funded Otpor spokesperson in town talking to local pacifists of Gandhi and nonviolence and how supposedly that had overthrown Milosevic in Yugoslavia instead of the US and NATO bombs rained down on his country. Then last week I wrote about a NM Department of Tourism run ‘peace’ festival in Albuquerque funded to the tune of $450,000. Sappy ‘peace’ rhetoric run by the Chamber of Commerce basically. This week I guess the focus has to be on the Australian ‘Sidney Peace Prize‘.

This one just blows me away, too! The prize was awarded to none other than Hans Blix, which is the most absurd award of a peace prize since Henry Kissinger was given the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1973! We truly live in an Orwellian world these days when initiators of wars are so often given prizes by people spouting pacifist ideology.

Hans Blix was the guy who set up all the lies about Saddam Hussein and Iraq having WOMD that Bush and his Democratic and Republican Party enablers used to launch the invasion and occupation of Iraq. No way he deserves a peace prize, and actually he might better be executed as a war criminal instead. Without his personal act as wrench-er up of the propaganda, hysteria, and panic, the world public would never have gone along much as they did with initially supporting the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.

This is just one more example of how pacifist beliefs and desires by much of the public can often be distorted into its opposite by simplistic twists of illogic. Then we get numb skulls awarding peace prizes to war criminals like Hans Blix and Henry Kissinger.

PS- I am still trying to get over how the local ACLU cut off audience questioning of CS police chief Richard ‘Liars’ Myers last week. The ACLU organizers required that all questions be vetted and then read by one person alone to the audience. Because of this, the annual meeting of the ACLU turned into a hug and handshake fest with the cops. Shameful. If the city of Colorado Springs had tried to do this sort of stunt at the city council meeting we would all have gotten peeved off. But instead, the audience silently sat by while the police chief fed them a long sermon of crap. And then many of the crowd applauded just that! Sometimes some amongst the ‘peace’ crowd can make one wanna cry with their innocence and naivete.

DR Congo-4,000,000 dead in last decade and counting

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The real African locale where genocide is occurring is not so much in Sudan, but rather in the Democratic Republic of Congo. So why is there not a ‘Save Congo Coalition’? After all, 4,000,00 dead in just the last decade is nothing trivial at all. Don’t the ‘Save Darfur Coalition’ folk give a damn?

No doubt as I write these words, there are speakers at the ‘Peace’ conference in Albuquerque wailing about how action must be taken FOR Darfur. But they won’t say hardly a whisper about the DR Congo. Why not? Well it might just be because there are already 18,000 ‘peacekeeper’ troops in the DR Congo, and yet the fighting keeps on continuing. And the UN Security Council wants out, even as it demands to be let into Sudan! The ‘Save Darfur’ solution of sending in the troops is no more likely to work in Sudan than it really has been working in the DR Congo.

There are real reasons why troops controlled from Washington DC and European capitals do not alleviate much the suffering, but actually add to it long term. That’s because there is no commitment to spend any money on anything other than soldiers and their equipment. The amount of money spent on food for the people of the DR Congo is far less than the money spent on troops. Much less.

It is a disgrace, that while there are those who in our country and Britain demand sending in the Pentagon controlled troops to yet more African countries, they remain largely silent about how in the epicenter of current African genocide (DR Congo), far less than $100 million dollars is spent to help out a huge population of starving people! UNICEF states that currently 1,200 people a day are dying in the DR Congo there, unnecessarily due to the conflicts and poverty/ disease arising from war.

Troops were sent into Somalia, and the US is now begging its proxy invader, Ethiopia, to stay in and further occupy Mogadishu. The US is actually spreading conflict in Africa, and not stopping inter-ethnic conflicts like there are in parts of Sudan. Want to help Africa out? Then try the following approach…

All US controlled troops out of Africa! Send- Food, not Bombs.

All of Africa’s burdensome international debt needs to be written off, and the ‘Save Darfur’ people need to think about saving Africa as a whole instead, by simply demanding that food and medical relief be prioritized instead of their current calls for economic wars (boycotts) and sending in new branches of the military to one locale or another. Help save the people of the DR Congo, and help save the Sudanese and Somalian people, too. And please, please, please…. Close AFRICOM (the US Pentagon African command center) down.

We lose they lose

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On the forbidden sidewalkProtesting at the side of the street does seem futile at times, it certainly seems so just thinking about it. But out there catching each others eyes, you’re reminded of its mysterious power, particularly when you’re shown to what extent those against you are willing to go to keep you from being there.

When we first turned up Monday at the Broadmoor Space Symposium Arms Bazaar, we were quickly moved from a section sidewalk declared off limits to us. The police could not explain exactly what ordinance or why, except that they had orders to keep us off the Lake Circle sidewalk. We complied the way reasonable people do, because the area to which we were confined seemed at first glance perfectly suitable. We occupied the corner of Lake and Lake Circle, where we could hand fliers to symposium attendees crossing to the Convention Center. But this gave us contact with only a fraction of the participants in attendance. The majority of the weapons dealers stayed inside the center, whose windows faced the sidewalk area forbidden to us.

We decided to accept the “free speech zone” given us until we could research the new restriction, mindful of the recent Appeals Court verdict which upheld the Broadmoor’s discretion to cordon off its entire neighborhood as a security zone for the NATO conference some years back. Citizens for Peace In Space lost that appeal.

It took Bill Sulzman until 10pm Wednesday to get someone at the CSPD to speak to the issue of the exclusive use permit granted to the Broadmoor. That representative, a Commander Overton, agreed to meet Bill the next morning to negotiate where protesters would or would not be restricted.

Was this a victory of discourse and civility? It certainly was a victory for the Space Arms Symposium. They effectively kept us off their turf until the last day, then thwarted a legal challenge by deciding to give in. We got to stand on the contested sidewalk for a snowy hour of the last day of the conference.

This is where less confrontational pacifists hinder their protest efforts. It might be well to resolve your differences by arbitration, meanwhile the bad guys hold the real estate. In the end our message does not get out, the war rages on, we are entangled in bureaucratic battles until our rights are upheld. This was the tactic used at the DNC, RNC, FTAA, WTO, and indeed our own St Patrick’s Day: detain the dissidents until their opportunity to be heard has passed. It’s an abridgment of our civil liberties, and the government factors into its budget the liability of likely legal judgments.

But what price lost free speech? What cost for every day the war goes on? We know that number. What cost for each further contract for more WMDs? If protest could stop that, that’s the price the government owes us. Could street protest have that effect? Somebody thinks so.

Last year at the Broadmoor, the reaction to our protest was very telling. The first day we were nearly arrested for trying to walk along the edge of a cordoned area, the same contested sidewalk. The head of Broadmoor security was screaming for officers to arrest us. The next day I was assaulted by an overwrought Marines commander in jogging shorts. He circled right to me and flung his hands around my throat, pushing me back until policemen pulled him off. The next day we rode a bicycle up and down the bike path adjacent the blocked sidewalk, to relentless harassment and endangerment by the security vehicle. Somebody doesn’t like to have to gaze upon our message. We could see military brass last year watching from the windows with arms crossed.

Our banners, then and now, quote Henry Ford “Take the profit out of war and you’ll have peace tomorrow” and President Eisenhower “Beware the military industrial complex.” We also have this haunting question: “will your children survive your work?”

The arms manufacturers in attendance at the Broadmoor are normally well buffeted from the real world. They work in industrial complexes and high rises out of reach of humanist and spiritual voices of conscience. They certainly don’t have to see the results of their work, the suffering or the poverty. They ride high on the war gravy train.

The Broadmoor gathering for me is the rare chance to look these people in the eye, to examine the war profiteers in their insular habitat. They might be bellicose, or proud, or defensive, and they may deride us. If it seems their consciences are not keeping score, the symposium organizers seem to have more faith in them than we do.

On this occasion the military industrial complex beat us, they kept us out of sight for most of their event. But we won too. No we didn’t get to challenge their method in court, but we did get to stand in the forbidden zone of their periphery, if but for a morning, a cold snowy morning. Though I believe the increasing snow fall lent our message the credibility of determination. We got to aim this banner right at them: “Will your children survive your work?”

More on the St Patricks Day parade

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Why did a group of people with the non-confrontational message of “PEACE” deserve to be kicked out of a local parade and then blamed for the disruption?

We were gathering with the same green shirts, some peace flags and a few banners for an hour before the parade began. Parade organizers had time to advise us if we were not welcome. We—thought a peace message would—fit well with the “child-like mentality” of the event, and the message did receive support from onlookers.

There was no intention to be disorderly, or children would not have been involved as they were last year. We were shocked by the police’s rude actions and lack of prior notice.

Much has happened since Bookman’s “Let there be PEACE on earth” message in last year’s Old Colorado City parade:

America’s continued escalation (surges) in Iraq against the advice of many military experts while other nations were pulling out of that country’s civil war.

Our country was seen by the rest of the world as at least indirectly supporting Israeli incursion into—Lebanon and—Israel’s taking of Palestinian land on the West Bank.

The November election was a loud and clear message from U.S. citizens to end the Middle East conflicts, which have been strengthening the terrorists’ resolve.

Wouldn’t an inquiring mind find one of those reasons alone enough to support a banner suggesting getting out of an endless war?

Members of the local Justice and Peace Commission have been in this area for years trying to raise local consciousness about dangers of greed leading to injustices and war, and how peace will only come if it begins within ourselves.

(Printed in Letters to the Editor, The Independent, April 12)

Investigate this

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While the CSPD investigates reports that its officers employed excessive force at The 2007 John O’Donnell St. Patrick’s Day Parade, you can check out this collection of news segments which feature the St Patrick’s police surge on home-video footage. (Courtesy of Mark Lewis)
Fast forward to these select items:
At the 5:27 mark, Frank Cordero in an illegal choke hold,
At 5:04, Molly Eaves being held by the throat,
At 3:30, Elizabeth Fineron knocked down by two police officers, and
At 3:14, dragged swifty across the pavement.

Excessive force

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Excessive force
If a limited number of policemen are charged with stopping an unruly crowd, you might excuse them having to scramble around to contain everyone. Perhaps they’d have to do what it takes to immobilize each arrestee and move on the the next.

Is that what you see in this picture?

I see four officers, among the forteen who were there, two of whom are fastening handcuffs on me. They are about to leave me laying next to Esther who was pushed down beside me, to wait in the middle of the street while they apprehend six others. Examine the pictures. The same two officers handled [mishandled] us while the other dozen filled out the paperwork. If they were trying to get us off the street, why leave us in the street?

I did not resist being pulled from the truck. Why was I not escorted straight away to the sidestreet?

The seven arrestees were cited for “failure to disperse,” not “resisting arrest.” Why then were we treated as if we were resisting? Why the choke holds, pressure holds, the bruises and abrasions? If I was following the policeman obediently, why then do I have a bruise the size of a boot on the back of my leg, an edge of which broke the skin, and a bruised rib cage that pains me to laugh or lie down? As the video evidence shows, and watchers can testify, and the shock of their children attests, we were treated with excessive force.

If an officer shows up on your doorstep, and arrests you for some crime, you don’t begrudge him his actions, he’s doing his job, a tough one. If he’s caught the wrong person, still, people make mistakes, it’s fine, everything will sort itself out, no harm done.

If he wrestles you to the ground, because he thinks you might be armed, because you might be somebody dangerous, again you can excuse him. It is a big responsibility, to protect and to serve. Even if you are hurt. You forgive him.

But if he knew you weren’t a threat, even knew you weren’t guilty, but still threw you to the ground, trying to flex his muscles, to demonstrate his authority in front of hundreds of onlookers, to humilate you and teach onlookers that they’d better not speak up themselves, that’s another story. That’s not an excusible miscalculation of law enforcement. That’s excessive force, that’s injustice. That’s criminal authoritarian jackboot thuggery. Let’s see how far that’s going to fly.

The Gazette and slander (libel)

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Regrettable miniature body languageWhat a completely slanderous editorial the Gazette has published, suggesting that we peace marchers planned the police beating we received!
 
A couple of innocent circumstances find themselves at odds with such a conclusion. Number one, a good number of us can guarantee we would not have brought our children if we had known what the police had in store for us; number two, we parked our cars at the end of the parade route, which turned out to be quite inconvenient when we were turned back; and number three and without doubt a trump card, none of us brought video cameras! Have you ever seen a protest where every third participant did not have a video camera to document and/or deter police brutality? We had none! We’re now having to solicit video footage from eyewitnesses in the crowd to counter the official assurances that their conduct was above board.

That’s because our St Patrick’s Day message was not one of protest, but celebration. Look even at my preparatory efforts to organize the marchers! We wanted to be seen in a different light than protestors. Even in this atmosphere of war and fear, we are optimistic that mankind’s compassion for each other will prevail over war. As some seek comfort in the image of a blow-up marine on steroids, as a symbol of ass-kicking diplomacy, so we honor and want to project the principles of non-violence and peace.

Remarks are being made that the St Patrick’s Day parade was the wrong forum for a peace message. Ignoring the obvious Irish insurgent spirit, pray tell, what are any venues available to expressions of non-conformist views? In this pro-military, conservative town, there’s not a one. Otherwise we’re at the corner of Nevada and Dale on Mondays at noon, at Academy and Austin Bluffs on Wednesdays at three, and at the Fort Carson B-Street entrance every first Tuesday at seven. Have you got another opportunity to suggest? We’ll be there.

Admittedly young cops manhandling elders in front of impressionable children opened eyes less about the war in Iraq, than to the rapidly diminishing civil rights of ordinary Americans. Now everyone’s privilege to voice their opinion appears in jeopardy. We’re fighting for what, overseas? Freedom?

We didn’t march to change your mind about the war. We marched to encourage the majority of the American public who are against the war in iraq, to come out from behind thugs like you who’ve monopolized the street and airwaves with your pro-war, pro-violence message. We’ve seen the shift already as we hold our banners every week curbside, we get far more honks of support than signs of disapproval. The parade would have been a wonderful way to elicit that sentiment in front of everyone on main street. That is perhaps why your type wouldn’t allow it.

The cause for which we marched received a lot of attention as a result of the police over-reaction. But it wasn’t due to our planning, or our preparations in full view an hour before the event began. It wasn’t due to our obstinance in response to being told our permit was revoked, or being ordered to turn away while certain among us were being brutalized. The attention the marchers have received has been entirely due to the city parade organizers’ actions to silence us and the police department’s decision to be violent.

This is how you take fascism down, by showing the politicians, businessmen, chest-beaters and their backers, that they do not have the support of the people. That the common people do not share their zealousness to beat dissenters over the head with the flag. Step aside you goons and conformists, the American People want their country back.

Shillelagh-bearing lepre-cons

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lepre-con.jpgIf our local media coverage and relative lack of moral outrage on the part of the citizenry over the St. Paddy’s Day debacle has you a bit depressed (with today’s freedom-loving Gazette editorial calling the peace marchers “parade crashers” and “political zealots” serving as salt in our ever-deepening collective “rugburn”), check out the national blog The Daily Kos. They picked up Cara DeGette’s article which, thus far, has generated over 300 comments. Most of them biting and insightful and hilarious. An example:
 
Cops Are Thugs Get it?
I’m sure there is a perfectly good justification for dragging a 75-year-old woman down the street. Maybe their sunglasses were so dark, they thought she was black?
by Snarcalita on Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 11:14:23 PM PDT

Sure made me feel a lot better…..

It’s against the law to be for peace and not for war

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The Tejon Street stand off, taser versus maracaTodays peace contingent in the Colorado Springs Saint Patricks Day parade was physically attacked by the police about 5 minutes after we began the walk. One or two people were told that our permission to participate had been revoked, and within seconds the police assaulted us.

Most of us never even heard that they were revoking the permission that we had to participate at all, before we found ourselves watching the police assault selected members our our group. This assault occurred as hundreds looked on in shock. Children began to cry as they saw their parents being taken down and put into choke holds while in handcuffs behind their back face down on the pavement. One of us who was unable to actually walk was pulled from the vehicle accompanying us onto the pavement and bruised badly enough as she was pulled across the pavement to need ememrgency care at Memorial Hospital. Leaders of the 2 main peace groups in Colorado Springs were assaulted, placed in handcuffs, and then held in police cars while being processed. Several children became lost in the parade as they were slightly ahead of their parents who found themselves in the melee.

There was absolutely no cause for our permission to be revoked in such a manner. We had our signs out, our peace shirts on, and a few green flags with peace symbols on them before the parade even got off. The time between the notification for us to remove ourselves from the parade and when the police began their attack was just a second or two. It was as if this was a deliberate plan to have an excuse to physcially assault us, since being for peace in a parade of this sorts in Colorado Springs certainly was little more than being mere balance to the army fatigues on children in some groups, plus the contingents of pro war city council parading their campaigns in front of the crowd. No problem for those people at all, yet we evidently merited a police assault in the middle of the parade!

I have just seen some of the local TV coverage where the only comment about this assault is that people for peace had no permission to protest here by parade organizers. We had gotten permission to participate in this event, and then within seconds we had this permission revoked and an assault on us began. Certainly if the parade directors had felt we were not wanted, they could easily have notified us with more than a few seconds before having the cops beat on us. The fact that they did not, speaks loudly to the piossibility that they delberately cherished the idea of assaulting peace people walking with them, even as pro military contingents were widely evident and welcomed everywhere in the parade.

There was even one group of about 20-25 kids dressed up in Rambo fatigues, but our peace signs were used as reason to assault a group of mainly retired people! Pretty sad stuff overall. I think that the kids with us learned a lot about America today.

Give Peace a Dance!

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The annual PPJPC membership meeting revealed a community bristling with energy and optimism. The very best idea yet was voiced by Phyllis Lucero, about her oft overuled idea to hold a dance as a funraiser for peace. “Give peace a dance” Bill Young hollered!

We listened attentively to guest speaker Richard Skorman talk about his role as advisor to Senator Salazar, but we didn’t give him a free pass. Salazar has lost the pacifist vote Jerry White lamented, and will lose the military vote as well if he continues to support the war. Pull the troops out now, urged most everybody.

Skorman sited polls that quote Iraqis wanting the US to stay. “Conditions in Iraq are unthinkably bad, said Skorman, yet pollsters have been able to reach the Iraqi People, somehow, who knows how, to hear that they fear the American soldiers giving up anytime soon.”

How is that for a lack of critical thinking? Is there any chance the polls which parallel the military’s objectives, could be fabrications from within the Green Zone? Would that be harder to imagine?

Proposed logo for caps

The emperor’s subjects speak out

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Click to see CSACTION.ORG pics of the Acacia Park rally
Acacia Park protest at Nevada and Bijou, Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The turnout was fantastic and everyone was asking about the next opportunity to raise our voices. Turns out that will be Sunday 5pm for the Martin Luther King March from the YMCA, across Acacia Park, up Tejon Street to Colorado College, then across Armstrong Quad to Shove Chapel. Bring peace signs and anti-war slogans. MLK WAS ANTI WAR.

Here’s a video clip Mike “NewsBlab” Colleta took of the latter part of the protest.

El Paso Co. to respect the Sanctity of Life

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County resolved to uphold the sanctity of life in Haditha
We got a heads-up from our friends at Newspeak about an impending anti-abortion proclamation by the El Paso County Board of Commissioners. I accidentally read the 2nd page first. If you strike out half the WHEREASes, the resolution is about all human life. And their concluding paragraph dots the i. Those crazy pro-war Republicans are finally speaking out against Bush’s atrocities. It’s about time. We can be proud that El Paso County proclaims an end to war.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the undersigned members of the Board of County Commissioners of El Paso County, Colorado hereby proclaim January 21-28, 2007, as Sanctity of Human Life Week in El Paso County. As we reflect upon the sanctity of human life, we call upon our residents to recognize this week with appropriate ceremonies in our homes and places of worship, to rededicate ourselves to compassionate service, and to reaffirm our commitment to respecting the life and dignity of every human being.
DONE THIS 11th day of January 2007 at Colorado Springs, Colorado

THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
OF EL PASO COUNTY, COLORADO

Dennis Hisey, Chair
Jim Bensberg, Vice Chair
Wayne W. Williams, Member
Sallie Clark, Member

Rose Bowl Impeach Bush Parade

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As you can see I’ve been reading and writing a lot. So I was on the pacifism tab. Got to the one about the parade in Manitou.
 
Empire rebellion banner in PasadenaOn New Years, somebody at the Tournament of Roses parade was across from the grandstand, where the cameras would be sure to catch it every time a float or band or whatever passed by, holding up a sign made of each letter on a separate square of cloth, I M P E A C H.
I pointed that out to my landlady, who had oohed and ahhed when the Air Force did a flyover with a couple of fighters and a stealth bomber, right after some insipid songfest about how good and nice everybody in America is, and we should all be so very proud of our goodness and nicene….aaaaaarrrrggggggghhhhhhh!

But for a half hour every float that passed by had the impeach sign flying prominently in the background.

Then the marching Storm Troopers, literally, it was a tribute to Star Wars, and the sign was nowhere in the shot. I noticed that they were keeping the shots kind of tight from there on, so I don’t know if the cops made them take down their banner or if the cameramen had specific orders not to show it ever again.

I mentioned this to my landlady and she said Good,! That’s just disrespectful to put politics into a parade where everybody is just out to have a little fun.

I told her that since we are being shut out by every media outlet there is over the peace marches, she said there is a Proper Time for everything, and some bullshit about working within the system….

And not a word of protest about the government sponsored anti-peace demonstrations.

Vigil for official 3000th US death in Iraq

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Military spokesmen announced yesterday the three thousandth US soldier’s death in Iraq, not counting the 25% more dead American mercenaries. Several local peace organizations have been planning a candlelight vigil to commemorate those lives sacrificed to our tragic warmongering in the name of “freedom.” Everybody’s welcome.
 
Acacia Park, downtown, Monday, January 1st, 5pm sundown.

Come, if you feel anything still for our soldiers losing their lives in Iraq. Soldiers who could possibly be knowing better by now that their orders are immoral and illegal. Soldiers who could exercise their own freedom and decline to participate in the further destruction of Iraq and its people. The US casualty count is up to 3,000 US, but that’s not even the average number of Iraqis who are killed every month under our occupation. That wouldn’t be happening if not for our boys.

Save Darfur from us

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Do you wonder how the word is getting out about Darfur? How is it Americans can’t mobilize a decent opposition to the harm we’re perpetrating in Iraq, but we can -seemingly by grassroots efforts alone- make a case for coming to the rescue of the people of Darfur? It’s because taking action in Sudan means intervention. Taking action in Iraq means ceasing intervention.

With intervention the Western participants get to control the problem nation’s resources. In both Sudan and Iraq that means the oil. Remember how the Coalition of the Willing worked? If you didn’t participate with soldiers, your businesses weren’t allowed to bid on any of the contracts.

The tragedy unfolding in the Sudan is deplorable and must be remedied. But it’s not going to be solved by petitioning President Bush to send US troops there. We’re just inviting the fox into the henhouse. They’re busy with another henhouse right now, but I’m sure they’re pleased as punch that “grassroots” operatives can get them a personal invite into the next one.

George Clooney and so many well-intentioned college clubs are being coordinated by a well-funded PR machine in DC. They are being blinded by the ferocity of the crimes against the people of Darfur, which require urgent policing, but they are ignoring the necessity of an African-managed remedy. Help the Organization of African Nations join with the political players in the Sudan to enforce peace. Any solution will be better than sending in the white vultures who are only after the oil. There are enough regions of the world being kept destabilized for the profit of Western multi-nationals without adding Sudan to the list. Not to mention that Darfur is one of the places where Islamic forces have determined to make a stand against western capitalism.

Anti-war is not pro-peace?

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Human peace sign on the Magyar Heroes SquareI’ve heard the point made twice now. First someone complained after a rally that they were the only one to speak in favor of peace in the midst of exclusively anti-war sentiments. Then another person asked me, if instead of the anti-war statements I was soliciting, could they submit ideas that were pro-peace?

“Of course!” I told her. To be inclusive was my main intent, but I really wanted to ask, what to you is the difference? And I’d like to put the question to anyone: what distinction are you making between ant-war and pro-peace? Are you thinking that someone against the Iraq War is not necessarily against all war? Because I’m thinking someone who is pro-peace is not necessarily taking a stand at stopping this war or any other.

There are enough people sidestepping the issue of war, ignoring the War in Iraq, afraid to speak out of turn or against the grain or outside of the norm. The I’d like to teach the world to sing peace people would seem to be choosing the non-confrontational route while the tanks roll onward. Our mantra must be peace, but our bodies must be set against war.

It’s so easy to criticize someone who is anti, because they can be accused of offering no alternative. But need there be an alternative to war? Just stop it. If I catch you strangling your little brother in the bathtub, need I suggest an alternative method for you to dispatch him? No. Cut it out. Period. Let your brother be.

Anti-war voices were accused of being too negative at election time. Too anti. But were there any politicians we could support? If more candidates had expressed being opposed to the war, we could have been pro- those candidates! Instead, look at the batch that we got, a Democrat majority, but too few of them against the war, I’m sorry, pro-peace.