www.kensingtonbooks.com/itm_img/0806528737.gif
This is to announce the publication of my book, "GRANDMOTHERS AGAINST THE WAR: GETTING OFF OUR FANNIES AND STANDING UP FOR PEACE," with a foreword by best-selling author, Malachy McCourt, on April 29 by Citadel Press. On that date, the book will be available in all major book stores and most independent ones. It can be pre-ordered now or at any time at amazon.com or bn.com.
The first review was published yesterday on democrats.com, afterdowningstreet.com and several other blogs, and isn't so much a testimonial for the book as it is a tribute to the peace grandmothers portrayed. Here's part of the review:
Can Grandmothers End Wars?
By David Swanson
Here is the perfect Mother's Day gift for your mother, your mother in law, your grandmothers, and in fact for the men in their lives as well - who ought to be shamed into action. Joan Wile has published a book called "Grandmothers Against the War: Getting Off Our Fannies and Standing Up for Peace." As far as I know, this is her first book. It is very much an account of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. If more people did the same, we would put an end to war.
Of course, the people in this book are extraordinary, but everyone is, and the actions that Wile recounts this group of grandmothers having taken are actions she describes as fun and exciting. If more people understood that and acted on it, we would put an end to war.
These grandmothers in New York City hold a weekly vigil against the occupation of Iraq. And they mean it. They are protesting the current proposal by the Democrats to "oppose" the occupation by throwing another $178 billion at it. Quick! Quick! Can somebody "oppose" me like that?
The grannies don't just vigil. They generate significant discussion of peace in the media through actions that have included attempting to get themselves recruited at the Times Square military recruiting office. They sat down in front, were arrested, went to trial, put the war itself on trial, and were acquitted, generating more attention all the while.
They've traveled abroad, networking with peace activists, and spreading awareness of the depth of American opposition to our government's crimes.
They've bird-dogged John McCain and Hillary Clinton. And Clinton recently gave peace activists the credit for her defeat.
They've gone to Washington and lobbied for peace. They've performed hilarious and biting song and dance routines. They've inspired and collaborated with grannies around the country and others working for peace. They've knitted stump-socks in rocking chairs in front of the Veterans Administration. If more people took similar actions, we would put an end to war and have more fun at the same time.
In case you did ever doubt that a handful of people can make a difference, that one person can make a difference: READ THIS BOOK. Then go forth and do likewise. And order a copy now for every Mother's Day present you'll need.
Incidentally, the book is very inexpensive -- $14.95 -- so it won't disrupt your budget if you want to purchase it. I can't claim to have authored the literary masterpiece of the year, in all honesty, but if you're interested in a straightforward account of the events leading up to, during and following our notorious arrest and jailing when we tried to enlist at the Times Square Recruiting Center, you'll find it in my book. It's been quite a ride.
I ALSO DISCUSS SOME OF THE NATIONAL GRANNY ACTIONS MOST OF YOU PARTICIPATED IN WITH US
Showing posts with label Activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Activism. Show all posts
Apr 25, 2008
Stratcom Conference
By Tim Rinne & Bruce Gagnon
Admittedly, “StratCom: The Most Dangerous Place on the Face of the Earth” sounded a bit over the top for the title of a conference. But by the time the participants caught their flight home from Omaha, Nebraska last month, there wasn’t anybody disputing whether U.S. Strategic Command deserved the label.
Two hundred people from 12 countries and 28 states gathered April 11-13 at the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space 16th Annual Space Organizing Conference to learn about this remote command in America’s heartland. And the local sponsor, Nebraskans for Peace, who for years had been fretting about what was going on in its own backyard, couldn’t have been more excited. There’d never before been an international conference specifically addressing the transformation that’s taken place at StratCom. But then, until just recently, StratCom had never before represented the threat to the world that it does now.
From the moment George W. Bush was rushed to StratCom’s underground headquarters at Offutt A.F.B. on 9/11, the U.S.’s nuclear command began to undergo what StratCom Commander General Kevin Chilton described as “not a sea-state change, but a tsunami of change” in its role and mission. In the years since 9/11, the command has seen its traditional and sole responsibility of maintaining America’s nuclear deterrent proliferate to include missions for space, cyberspace, intelligence/reconnaissance/surveillance, missile defense, full spectrum global strike, information operations and combating weapons of mass destruction.
In the blink of a strategic eye, the command has gone from being something that was ‘never supposed to be used’ (i.e. the doomsday machine) to ‘being used for everything.’ It’s gone from being putatively ‘defensive’ to overtly ‘offensive’ to become, in the words of Nebraska activists, “Dr. Strangelove on steroids.”
With now eight missions under its belt, StratCom’s fingerprints are seemingly everywhere. Though it’s almost never mentioned by name, you can hardly open a newspaper anymore without reading about one of its various machinations. Here’s a rundown:
- Now charged with actively waging the White House’s “War on Terror,” StratCom is authorized to attack any place on the planet in one hour—using either conventional or nuclear weapons—on the mere perception of a threat to America’s ‘national interests.’
- Through its National Security Agency “component command,” StratCom is regularly conducting the now-infamous ‘warrantless wiretaps’ on unsuspecting American citizens.
- The proposed “missile defense” bases in Poland and the Czech Republic that are reviving Cold War tensions with Russia are StratCom installations under StratCom’s command.
- Having conducted what it touts as “the first space war” with its “Shock and Awe” bombing campaign on Iraq, the command is now actively executing the Bush/Cheney Administration’s expressed goal of the weaponization and “domination” of space.
- StratCom’s recent shoot-down of a falling satellite using its Missile Defense system, just after the U.S. had repudiated a Russian proposal banning space weapons, demonstrated the anti-satellite capability of this allegedly ‘defensive’ program and is certain to jump-start an arms race in space.
- In actively promoting the development of new generations of nuclear weapons (the so-called ‘bunker-buster’ tactical nukes and the Reliable Replacement Warhead), StratCom is seeking to ensure America will wield offensive nuclear capability for the remainder of the 21st century.
- Under the White House’s “Unified Command Plan,” StratCom commands access to the hundreds of military bases around the globe and all four military service branches, while working hand-in-glove with the CIA, FBI, Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
- Operating like some executive branch vigilante and scofflaw, StratCom is now poised to routinely violate international law with preemptive attacks and to usurp Congress’ constitutional authority to declare war under the “War Powers Act.”
StratCom, in the words of Commander Chilton, is today “the most responsive combatant command in the U.S. arsenal”—and the next war the White House gets us into (be it against Iran or geo-political rival like China) will be planned, launched and coordinated from StratCom. In fact, Chilton recently told Congress, he believes the name actually ought to be changed to “Global Command,” to better reflect the “global” nature of its new role and mission.
This is the “New StratCom” that Nebraskans for Peace has watched materialize before its eyes. This is the enhanced threat, which the world community has no notion of whatsoever, because the changes at StratCom have occurred with the speed and power of a “tsunami.” This is the global menace the Global Network sought to expose to the international public at its conference in Omaha this past month.
And while the media coverage of the conference was minimal, the word is neverthess starting to get out nationally and internationally. Most of the people in attendance were activists, organizers and academics from all across the country and around the world. Picking up on the comment that StratCom is now a global problem, Jackie Cabasso of the Western States Legal Foundation stressed that addressing it will in turn require a global response. Americans, she said, can no more be expected to halt this threat than we can expect Nebraskans to do it: “It’s going to take the efforts of the world community.”
That sort of international commitment was already strongly in evidence. While the speaker from Poland was prohibited from entering the U.S. by Homeland Security, Jan Tamas of the “No To Bases Initiative” in the Czech Republic tied the proposed Star Wars radar in his country directly to StratCom. From the title of his talk alone, “StratCom is the Main Threat to Peace in the Korean Peninsula,” Ko Young-Dae, the representative from Solidarity for Peace and Reunification in Korea (SPARK), made it clear that he understood the connection to the Omaha command center. British activist Lindis Percy of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, who regularly contends with StratCom’s presence in her homeland, sized it up perfectly with the expression, “horrid StratCom.” Similar sentiments were expressed by the German, Swedish, Indian, Japanese, Filipino, Mauritian, Italian, Romanian and Canadian participants. In country after country, an understanding the StratCom menace is starting to take hold.
The final keynote of the conference was delivered by Bishop Emeritus Thomas Gumbleton, who back in the mid-‘80s had committed civil disobedience at Offutt A.F.B. when it was still the “Strategic Air Command.” Back then, all we had to fear—and it was plenty—was nuclear holocaust. Today, the Bishop said, because of our greed for wealth and power, we now have to fear StratCom’s nuclear prowess and much more.
That greed for ever-more wealth and power had been the message of the conference’s first speaker, national Indian activist and Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska member, Frank LaMere. The city of Omaha, LaMere noted, was named after the Indian Tribe of the same name that had inhabited this area for centuries and still has a reservation about an hour north of the city. The Omaha, he said, had a covenant with Mother Earth, that in return for the corn and buffalo she so generously provided them to live, they would in turn honor her by living in a good way. Never, LaMere said, when the Omaha deeded their lands to the U.S. government—without once going to war—had they ever imagined that an instrument of destruction like StratCom, capable of destroying the Earth multiple times over, would rest on their ancestral homeland, on that sacred ground.
The Omaha, he said, cannot stop what is happening today by themselves. Nor for that matter can the people of Nebraska, nor even the people of the United States. To stop what is happening at StratCom—indeed to save ourselves from our own greed and self-destruction—Americans will need, LaMere said, the help of all their relations around the world. So he was cheered, he said, to see all these relations from around the world here in Omaha, willing to help. That was good, he said. But we need to act fast. Time is getting short.
A five-minute introductory video about StratCom created by Global Network chairperson Dave Webb, who is also the Vice-Chair of Britain's Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), can be viewed by clicking on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkOeUHHV1eU
- Written by Tim Rinne (Coordinator of Nebraskans for Peace) and Bruce Gagnon (Coordinator of Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space)
Mar 30, 2008
Open letter from Alice Walker
Lest We Forget: An open letter to my sisters who are brave.
March 27, 2008
I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find - because of the
presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton
race for the Democratic nomination - a new country existing alongside
the old. On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the
Three Directions and can look back into the past, look at ourselves
just where we are, and take a glance, as well, into the future. It is
a space with which I am familiar.
When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia
plantation that was owned by a white distant relative, Miss May
Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all
white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would
never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it. Told
by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken
skin she responded that of course they would not. No Montgomerys
would.
My parents and older siblings did everything imaginable for Miss May.
They planted and raised her cotton and corn, fed and killed and
processed her cattle and hogs, painted her house, patched her roof,
ran her dairy, and, among countless other duties and responsibilities
my father was her chauffeur, taking her anywhere she wanted to go at
any hour of the day or night. She lived in a large white house with
green shutters and a green, luxuriant lawn: not quite as large as
Tara of Gone With the Wind fame, but in the same style.
We lived in a shack without electricity or running water, under a
rusty tin roof that let in wind and rain. Miss May went to school as
a girl. The school my parents and their neighbors built for us was
burned to the ground by local racists who wanted to keep ignorant
their competitors in tenant farming. During the Depression, desperate
to feed his hardworking family, my father asked for a raise from ten
dollars a month to twelve. Miss May responded that she would not pay
that amount to a white man and she certainly wouldn't pay it to a
nigger. That before she'd pay a nigger that much money she'd milk the
dairy cows herself.
When I look back, this is part of what I see. I see the school bus
carrying white children, boys and girls, right past me, and my
brothers, as we trudge on foot five miles to school. Later, I see my
parents struggling to build a school out of discarded army barracks
while white students, girls and boys, enjoy a building made of brick.
We had no books; we inherited the cast off books that "Jane" and
"Dick" had previously used in the all-white school that we were not,
as black children, permitted to enter.
The year I turned fifty, one of my relatives told me she had started
reading my books for children in the library in my home town. I had
had no idea - so kept from black people it had been - that such a
place existed. To this day knowing my presence was not wanted in the
public library when I was a child I am highly uncomfortable in
libraries and will rarely, unless I am there to help build, repair,
refurbish or raise money to keep them open, enter their doors.
When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early
twenties it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents,
who had been thrown off the land they'd always known, the
plantations, because they attempted to exercise their "democratic"
right to vote. I wish I could say white women treated me and other
black people a lot better than the men did, but I cannot. It seemed
to me then and it seems to me now that white women have copied, all
too often, the behavior of their fathers and their brothers, and in
the South, especially in Mississippi, and before that, when I worked
to register voters in Georgia, the broken bottles thrown at my head
were gender free.
I made my first white women friends in college; they were women who
loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they
did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered. That,
for instance, at Sarah Lawrence, where I was speedily inducted into
the Board of Trustees practically as soon as I graduated, I made my
way to the campus for meetings by train, subway and foot, while the
other trustees, women and men, all white, made their way by limo.
Because, in our country, with its painful history of unspeakable
inequality, this is part of what whiteness means. I loved my school
for trying to make me feel I mattered to it, but because of my
relative poverty I knew I could not.
I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to
lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the
country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep
sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see
him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh
choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that
millions of Americans -black, white, yellow, red and brown -choose
Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic
to me.
When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I
thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job
required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in
any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a
remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King
was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and
are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been
trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The
change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world
that we care about people other than our (white) selves.
True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions however, this does
not mean I agree with everything Obama stands for. We differ on
important points probably because I am older than he is, I am a woman
and person of three colors, (African, Native American, European), I
was born and raised in the American South, and when I look at the
earth's people, after sixty-four years of life, there is not one
person I wish to see suffer, no matter what they have done to me or
to anyone else; though I understand quite well the place of
suffering, often, in human growth.
I want a grown-up attitude toward Cuba, for instance, a country and a
people I love; I want an end to the embargo that has harmed my
friends and their children, children who, when I visit Cuba,
trustingly turn their faces up for me to kiss. I agree with a teacher
of mine, Howard Zinn, that war is as objectionable as cannibalism and
slavery; it is beyond obsolete as a means of improving life. I want
an end to the on-going war immediately and I want the soldiers to be
encouraged to destroy their weapons and to drive themselves out of
Iraq.
I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behavior
towards the Palestinians, and I want the people of the United States
to cease acting like they don't understand what is going on. All
colonization, all occupation, all repression basically looks the
same, whoever is doing it. Here our heads cannot remain stuck in the
sand; our future depends of our ability to study, to learn, to
understand what is in the records and what is before our eyes. But
most of all I want someone with the self-confidence to talk to
anyone, "enemy" or "friend," and this Obama has shown he can do. It
is difficult to understand how one could vote for a person who is
afraid to sit and talk to another human being. When you vote you are
making someone a proxy for yourself; they are to speak when, and in
places, you cannot. But if they find talking to someone else, who
looks just like them, human, impossible, then what good is your vote?
It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish
she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a
woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One
would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less,
but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in
America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world,
did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make
her innocent of her racial inheritance.
I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking, person to
person, with any leader, woman, man, child or common person, in the
world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar
their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Mrs. Clinton who
would drag into Twenty-First Century American leadership the same
image of white privilege and distance from the reality of others'
lives that has so marred our country's contacts with the rest of the
world.
And yes, I would adore having a woman president of the United States.
My choice would be Representative Barbara Lee, who alone voted in
Congress five years ago not to make war on Iraq. That to me is
leadership, morality, and courage; if she had been white I would have
cheered just as hard. But she is not running for the highest office
in the land, Mrs. Clinton is. And because Mrs. Clinton is a woman and
because she may be very good at what she does, many people, including
some younger women in my own family, originally favored her over
Obama. I understand this, almost. It is because, in my own nieces'
case, there is little memory, apparently, of the foundational
inequities that still plague people of color and poor whites in this
country. Why, even though our family has been here longer than most
North American families -and only partly due to the fact that we have
Native American genes - we very recently, in my lifetime, secured the
right to vote, and only after numbers of people suffered and died for
it.
When I offered the word "Womanism" many years ago, it was to give us
a tool to use, as feminist women of color, in times like these. These
are the moments we can see clearly, and must honor devotedly, our
singular path as women of color in the United States. We are not
white women and this truth has been ground into us for centuries,
often in brutal ways. But neither are we inclined to follow a black
person, man or woman, unless they demonstrate considerable courage,
intelligence, compassion and substance. I am delighted that so many
women of color support Barack Obama -and genuinely proud of the many
young and old white women and men who do.
Imagine, if he wins the presidency we will have not one but three
black women in the White House; one tall, two somewhat shorter; none
of them carrying the washing in and out of the back door. The bottom
line for most of us is: With whom do we have a better chance of
surviving the madness and fear we are presently enduring, and with
whom do we wish to set off on a journey of new possibility? In other
words, as the Hopi elders would say: Who do we want in the boat with
us as we head for the rapids? Who is likely to know how best to share
the meager garden produce and water? We are advised by the Hopi
elders to celebrate this time, whatever its adversities.
We have come a long way, Sisters, and we are up to the challenges of
our time. One of which is to build alliances based not on race,
ethnicity, color, nationality, sexual preference or gender, but on
Truth. Celebrate our journey. Enjoy the miracle we are witnessing. Do
not stress over its outcome. Even if Obama becomes president, our
country is in such ruin it may well be beyond his power to lead us
toward rehabilitation. If he is elected however, we must,
individually and collectively, as citizens of the planet, insist on
helping him do the best job that can be done; more, we must insist
that he demand this of us. It is a blessing that our mothers taught
us not to fear hard work. Know, as the Hopi elders declare: The river
has its destination. And remember, as poet June Jordan and Sweet
Honey in the Rock never tired of telling us: We are the ones we have
been waiting for.
Namaste;
And with all my love,
Alice Walker
March 27, 2008
I HAVE COME home from a long stay in Mexico to find - because of the
presidential campaign, and especially because of the Obama/Clinton
race for the Democratic nomination - a new country existing alongside
the old. On any given day we, collectively, become the Goddess of the
Three Directions and can look back into the past, look at ourselves
just where we are, and take a glance, as well, into the future. It is
a space with which I am familiar.
When I was born in 1944 my parents lived on a middle Georgia
plantation that was owned by a white distant relative, Miss May
Montgomery. (During my childhood it was necessary to address all
white girls as "Miss" when they reached the age of twelve.) She would
never admit to this relationship, of course, except to mock it. Told
by my parents that several of their children would not eat chicken
skin she responded that of course they would not. No Montgomerys
would.
My parents and older siblings did everything imaginable for Miss May.
They planted and raised her cotton and corn, fed and killed and
processed her cattle and hogs, painted her house, patched her roof,
ran her dairy, and, among countless other duties and responsibilities
my father was her chauffeur, taking her anywhere she wanted to go at
any hour of the day or night. She lived in a large white house with
green shutters and a green, luxuriant lawn: not quite as large as
Tara of Gone With the Wind fame, but in the same style.
We lived in a shack without electricity or running water, under a
rusty tin roof that let in wind and rain. Miss May went to school as
a girl. The school my parents and their neighbors built for us was
burned to the ground by local racists who wanted to keep ignorant
their competitors in tenant farming. During the Depression, desperate
to feed his hardworking family, my father asked for a raise from ten
dollars a month to twelve. Miss May responded that she would not pay
that amount to a white man and she certainly wouldn't pay it to a
nigger. That before she'd pay a nigger that much money she'd milk the
dairy cows herself.
When I look back, this is part of what I see. I see the school bus
carrying white children, boys and girls, right past me, and my
brothers, as we trudge on foot five miles to school. Later, I see my
parents struggling to build a school out of discarded army barracks
while white students, girls and boys, enjoy a building made of brick.
We had no books; we inherited the cast off books that "Jane" and
"Dick" had previously used in the all-white school that we were not,
as black children, permitted to enter.
The year I turned fifty, one of my relatives told me she had started
reading my books for children in the library in my home town. I had
had no idea - so kept from black people it had been - that such a
place existed. To this day knowing my presence was not wanted in the
public library when I was a child I am highly uncomfortable in
libraries and will rarely, unless I am there to help build, repair,
refurbish or raise money to keep them open, enter their doors.
When I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early
twenties it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents,
who had been thrown off the land they'd always known, the
plantations, because they attempted to exercise their "democratic"
right to vote. I wish I could say white women treated me and other
black people a lot better than the men did, but I cannot. It seemed
to me then and it seems to me now that white women have copied, all
too often, the behavior of their fathers and their brothers, and in
the South, especially in Mississippi, and before that, when I worked
to register voters in Georgia, the broken bottles thrown at my head
were gender free.
I made my first white women friends in college; they were women who
loved me and were loyal to our friendship, but I understood, as they
did, that they were white women and that whiteness mattered. That,
for instance, at Sarah Lawrence, where I was speedily inducted into
the Board of Trustees practically as soon as I graduated, I made my
way to the campus for meetings by train, subway and foot, while the
other trustees, women and men, all white, made their way by limo.
Because, in our country, with its painful history of unspeakable
inequality, this is part of what whiteness means. I loved my school
for trying to make me feel I mattered to it, but because of my
relative poverty I knew I could not.
I am a supporter of Obama because I believe he is the right person to
lead the country at this time. He offers a rare opportunity for the
country and the world to start over, and to do better. It is a deep
sadness to me that many of my feminist white women friends cannot see
him. Cannot see what he carries in his being. Cannot hear the fresh
choices toward Movement he offers. That they can believe that
millions of Americans -black, white, yellow, red and brown -choose
Obama over Clinton only because he is a man, and black, feels tragic
to me.
When I have supported white people, men and women, it was because I
thought them the best possible people to do whatever the job
required. Nothing else would have occurred to me. If Obama were in
any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a
remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King
was and like Mandela is. We look at him, as we looked at them, and
are glad to be of our species. He is the change America has been
trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The
change America must have if we are to convince the rest of the world
that we care about people other than our (white) selves.
True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions however, this does
not mean I agree with everything Obama stands for. We differ on
important points probably because I am older than he is, I am a woman
and person of three colors, (African, Native American, European), I
was born and raised in the American South, and when I look at the
earth's people, after sixty-four years of life, there is not one
person I wish to see suffer, no matter what they have done to me or
to anyone else; though I understand quite well the place of
suffering, often, in human growth.
I want a grown-up attitude toward Cuba, for instance, a country and a
people I love; I want an end to the embargo that has harmed my
friends and their children, children who, when I visit Cuba,
trustingly turn their faces up for me to kiss. I agree with a teacher
of mine, Howard Zinn, that war is as objectionable as cannibalism and
slavery; it is beyond obsolete as a means of improving life. I want
an end to the on-going war immediately and I want the soldiers to be
encouraged to destroy their weapons and to drive themselves out of
Iraq.
I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behavior
towards the Palestinians, and I want the people of the United States
to cease acting like they don't understand what is going on. All
colonization, all occupation, all repression basically looks the
same, whoever is doing it. Here our heads cannot remain stuck in the
sand; our future depends of our ability to study, to learn, to
understand what is in the records and what is before our eyes. But
most of all I want someone with the self-confidence to talk to
anyone, "enemy" or "friend," and this Obama has shown he can do. It
is difficult to understand how one could vote for a person who is
afraid to sit and talk to another human being. When you vote you are
making someone a proxy for yourself; they are to speak when, and in
places, you cannot. But if they find talking to someone else, who
looks just like them, human, impossible, then what good is your vote?
It is hard to relate what it feels like to see Mrs. Clinton (I wish
she felt self-assured enough to use her own name) referred to as "a
woman" while Barack Obama is always referred to as "a black man." One
would think she is just any woman, colorless, race-less, past-less,
but she is not. She carries all the history of white womanhood in
America in her person; it would be a miracle if we, and the world,
did not react to this fact. How dishonest it is, to attempt to make
her innocent of her racial inheritance.
I can easily imagine Obama sitting down and talking, person to
person, with any leader, woman, man, child or common person, in the
world, with no baggage of past servitude or race supremacy to mar
their talks. I cannot see the same scenario with Mrs. Clinton who
would drag into Twenty-First Century American leadership the same
image of white privilege and distance from the reality of others'
lives that has so marred our country's contacts with the rest of the
world.
And yes, I would adore having a woman president of the United States.
My choice would be Representative Barbara Lee, who alone voted in
Congress five years ago not to make war on Iraq. That to me is
leadership, morality, and courage; if she had been white I would have
cheered just as hard. But she is not running for the highest office
in the land, Mrs. Clinton is. And because Mrs. Clinton is a woman and
because she may be very good at what she does, many people, including
some younger women in my own family, originally favored her over
Obama. I understand this, almost. It is because, in my own nieces'
case, there is little memory, apparently, of the foundational
inequities that still plague people of color and poor whites in this
country. Why, even though our family has been here longer than most
North American families -and only partly due to the fact that we have
Native American genes - we very recently, in my lifetime, secured the
right to vote, and only after numbers of people suffered and died for
it.
When I offered the word "Womanism" many years ago, it was to give us
a tool to use, as feminist women of color, in times like these. These
are the moments we can see clearly, and must honor devotedly, our
singular path as women of color in the United States. We are not
white women and this truth has been ground into us for centuries,
often in brutal ways. But neither are we inclined to follow a black
person, man or woman, unless they demonstrate considerable courage,
intelligence, compassion and substance. I am delighted that so many
women of color support Barack Obama -and genuinely proud of the many
young and old white women and men who do.
Imagine, if he wins the presidency we will have not one but three
black women in the White House; one tall, two somewhat shorter; none
of them carrying the washing in and out of the back door. The bottom
line for most of us is: With whom do we have a better chance of
surviving the madness and fear we are presently enduring, and with
whom do we wish to set off on a journey of new possibility? In other
words, as the Hopi elders would say: Who do we want in the boat with
us as we head for the rapids? Who is likely to know how best to share
the meager garden produce and water? We are advised by the Hopi
elders to celebrate this time, whatever its adversities.
We have come a long way, Sisters, and we are up to the challenges of
our time. One of which is to build alliances based not on race,
ethnicity, color, nationality, sexual preference or gender, but on
Truth. Celebrate our journey. Enjoy the miracle we are witnessing. Do
not stress over its outcome. Even if Obama becomes president, our
country is in such ruin it may well be beyond his power to lead us
toward rehabilitation. If he is elected however, we must,
individually and collectively, as citizens of the planet, insist on
helping him do the best job that can be done; more, we must insist
that he demand this of us. It is a blessing that our mothers taught
us not to fear hard work. Know, as the Hopi elders declare: The river
has its destination. And remember, as poet June Jordan and Sweet
Honey in the Rock never tired of telling us: We are the ones we have
been waiting for.
Namaste;
And with all my love,
Alice Walker
Feb 27, 2008
Obama party - March 2
Hi Friends!
We just signed up to host a "Yes We Can" Obama party run by MoveOn.org Political Action.
Sunday, 2 Mar 2008, 4:00 PM
We'll be reminding Texas voters about the critical Democratic primary on March 4, which could decide the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
This event is really important, and I'd love for you to attend.
Bring your cell phone, charger and something to eat/drink!
This is a fun-raiser not a fund-raiser!
You can sign up for the "Yes We Can" Obama party we're hosting, or to host your own, at: http://political.moveon.org/event/callforobama/44474
Here are the details of the event:
Yes, we can/ Si', se puede!
A.1.A. South, one mile south of Anastasia Publix
4600 A.1.A. South, 21,
Village Las Palmas Circle
St Augustine,, FL 32080
Tel 904 806 1400
We hope you'll sign up.
Peg/Jo/Sali McIntire
We just signed up to host a "Yes We Can" Obama party run by MoveOn.org Political Action.
We'll be reminding Texas voters about the critical Democratic primary on March 4, which could decide the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
This event is really important, and I'd love for you to attend.
Bring your cell phone, charger and something to eat/drink!
This is a fun-raiser not a fund-raiser!
You can sign up for the "Yes We Can" Obama party we're hosting, or to host your own, at: http://political.moveon.org/event/callforobama/44474
Here are the details of the event:
Yes, we can/ Si', se puede!
A.1.A. South, one mile south of Anastasia Publix
4600 A.1.A. South, 21,
Village Las Palmas Circle
St Augustine,, FL 32080
Tel 904 806 1400
We hope you'll sign up.
Peg/Jo/Sali McIntire
Feb 14, 2008
2008 War Tax Boycott
From: Robert Randall
Tax season 2008 has arrived.
January brings W-2s, 1099s and 1040s to our doorsteps. It’s time to register for the 2008 War Tax Boycott and bring notice of our resistance to the steps of the White House and Congress. The earlier we register our resistance, the more we will inspire others to join us. The earlier we register our redirection, the better we can plan for the public display our priorities. It only takes a few moments. Just go to www.wartaxboycott.org.
This Year, Together We Can Defund the War
It’s time for taxpayers who oppose this war to join together in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. We can show Congress how to cut off the funds for the Iraq war and occupation and deny funds for any possible assault on Iran. Instead, let’s redirect our taxes to the needs of people.
How do we register and prepare to take this stand?
Our strength is in numbers. Our numbers depend on taking steps now to be ready to act together in April 2008. Go to the website or call to explore steps to get started in war tax resistance, examine the likely consequences, and join with others. Whether the amount you refuse is large or small, or if you choose to reduce your taxes by legal means, you can register your resistance as part of the 2008 War Tax Boycott.
Where will we redirect our resisted taxes?
This 2008 war tax boycott will release resources from the war and redirect them to two designated projects providing desperately needed healthcare services to Iraqi refugees and Katrina survivors. You can also choose your own project.
Who is promoting this act of conscience?
Code PINK, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, the Nonviolent Direct Action Working Group of United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and War Resisters League are assisting with the promotion of this campaign, which was initiated by the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
1-800-269-7464
Tax season 2008 has arrived.
January brings W-2s, 1099s and 1040s to our doorsteps. It’s time to register for the 2008 War Tax Boycott and bring notice of our resistance to the steps of the White House and Congress. The earlier we register our resistance, the more we will inspire others to join us. The earlier we register our redirection, the better we can plan for the public display our priorities. It only takes a few moments. Just go to www.wartaxboycott.org.
This Year, Together We Can Defund the War
It’s time for taxpayers who oppose this war to join together in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience. We can show Congress how to cut off the funds for the Iraq war and occupation and deny funds for any possible assault on Iran. Instead, let’s redirect our taxes to the needs of people.
How do we register and prepare to take this stand?
Our strength is in numbers. Our numbers depend on taking steps now to be ready to act together in April 2008. Go to the website or call to explore steps to get started in war tax resistance, examine the likely consequences, and join with others. Whether the amount you refuse is large or small, or if you choose to reduce your taxes by legal means, you can register your resistance as part of the 2008 War Tax Boycott.
Where will we redirect our resisted taxes?
This 2008 war tax boycott will release resources from the war and redirect them to two designated projects providing desperately needed healthcare services to Iraqi refugees and Katrina survivors. You can also choose your own project.
Who is promoting this act of conscience?
Code PINK, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, the Nonviolent Direct Action Working Group of United for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and War Resisters League are assisting with the promotion of this campaign, which was initiated by the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee.
“If a thousand [people] were not to pay their tax bills this year,
that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them
and enable the state to commit violence and shed innocent blood.”
Henry David Thoreau, during Mexican-American War of 1846-48
National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee
1-800-269-7464
Jan 19, 2008
Elders who attended the Luncheon at UNF's Peace Week in October 2007
Lloyd Pearson, Stetson Kennedy, John X, Willye Dennis, Henri Landwirth, Peg McIntire, Bob Ragland
- photo by Susan D. Brandenburg
Jan 14, 2008
Peg speaking to youth in Jacksonville "truth-in"
97 yr-old Peg McIntire, life time peace activist and founder of St. Augustine Grandparents for Peace, spoke at an anti-recruitment/truth-in-recruitment rally in Jacksonville, FL.
Listen to her speech here.
Listen to her speech here.
Jan 14, 2006
Peg's Background
MY BROTHER JO
He played college football. He slept all through his Christmas vacation. The Dr. called it sleeping sickness (from kissing?) - mono. He flunked out.
He didn't like our father's insurance stuff. Made friends with longshoreman on the docks of NYC Consulted Roger Baldwin (ACLU) about becoming a Union leader. Went to Highlander Folk School. Moved to Youngstown, Ohio. Organized SWOC (first CIO union of steelworkers). Joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. They were volunteers for liberty. They fought the first fight against fascism. They understood that their country was part of the world, and that its citizens had responsibilities to the international community. Surviving veterans continue the struggle for liberty, social justice, and democratic values even today.
MY HERO
I scoured New Orleans looking for something to do in Jo's name. I found Gordon Mclntire one evening, standing tall under a single dim light bulb in a YMCA hall, describing the work of the Louisiana Farmers Onion. He looked down at me with amazement. A Vassar city girl wanting to help? Why? What could she do? Type, edit, hold down the office while he was away signing up members, organizing locals. I proved my ability, and my love. The "onion" grew into a union and became an important part of the National Farmers Union. NFU president was best man at our wedding in 1940. In 1949 and 1950 our children, Jil and Jo, were born. We moved to Rome, Italy, where Gordon was employed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Our happiness was shattered by a letter of termination. McCarthyism The UN Director General yielded to pressure from the U.S. State Dept. We lost even our U.S. passports. But Gordon fought back for five long years, and was totally vindicated. His private struggle inspired and strengthened McCarthy victims in UN organizations in many other foreign countries. Human rights issues were linked to liberty, social justice and democratic values.
MY MENTOR
I attended a NOW Convention in San Francisco in 1988 (50 years after my brother's death, 30 years after my husband's). That's when I first met the late Barbara Wiedner, founder of Grandmothers for Peace Int/l. She invited me to her home in Sacramento and quickly assembled a pool-side party in my honor. Introducing me, she said she knew I had been "involved" in Peace and Justice issues for many years. I was standing at the outer edge of the diving board, in an ankle-length Indian cotton cocktail dress, and I jumped into the water. Dripping wet, I corrected Barbara's statement. "I have not been involved," I said. I'm committed. "
Some of you may recognize this as a take on a Martina Navratilova quote. When she was asked the difference between the two, she answered. ,”Think of a ham and egg omelet. The chicken is involved, the pig is committed."
Once back in St. Augustine I started Grandparents for Peace: Our program includes alternatives to violence, and environmental issues. I think the greatest expression of love a grandparent can make is active participation in efforts to
(1)eliminate nuclear weapons,
(2) convert military bases, munitions facilities and research sites into peacetime purposes,
(3) promote and assist development of peace curricula in our schools, including conflict resolution techniques, and
(4) help children realize a greater awareness of and responsibility for our very beautiful, but fragile, planet.
That is why EARTH DAY is being celebrated in St. Augustine. Held at the Amphitheatre on A1A South, back to back with the Farmers Market, residents and tourists of all ages are urged to attend ... to learn from the educational exhibits, to enjoy the art and craft exhibits, to have fun playing, drumming, dancing and singing with each other. Grandparents for Peace together with St. Augustine Volunteers for Earth (SAVE) regard this as a special opportunity to see this community event as inte-rgenerationalism in action.
EARTH DAY promises to be a very meaningful experience for young and old; leading to greater respect for each other, and for Planet Earth
MY CO CHAIR, Paul
I cannot close without acknowledging the talent and initiative of Paul Archetko. You may know him as the artist behind Skinny Lizard t-shirts. I met him through Ancient City Entrepreneurs (ACE) and he has been a friend and my EARTH DAY co-chair since then. Thank you, Paul And thanks to all our St. Augustine Volunteers for Earth friends.
He played college football. He slept all through his Christmas vacation. The Dr. called it sleeping sickness (from kissing?) - mono. He flunked out.
He didn't like our father's insurance stuff. Made friends with longshoreman on the docks of NYC Consulted Roger Baldwin (ACLU) about becoming a Union leader. Went to Highlander Folk School. Moved to Youngstown, Ohio. Organized SWOC (first CIO union of steelworkers). Joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. They were volunteers for liberty. They fought the first fight against fascism. They understood that their country was part of the world, and that its citizens had responsibilities to the international community. Surviving veterans continue the struggle for liberty, social justice, and democratic values even today.
MY HERO
I scoured New Orleans looking for something to do in Jo's name. I found Gordon Mclntire one evening, standing tall under a single dim light bulb in a YMCA hall, describing the work of the Louisiana Farmers Onion. He looked down at me with amazement. A Vassar city girl wanting to help? Why? What could she do? Type, edit, hold down the office while he was away signing up members, organizing locals. I proved my ability, and my love. The "onion" grew into a union and became an important part of the National Farmers Union. NFU president was best man at our wedding in 1940. In 1949 and 1950 our children, Jil and Jo, were born. We moved to Rome, Italy, where Gordon was employed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Our happiness was shattered by a letter of termination. McCarthyism The UN Director General yielded to pressure from the U.S. State Dept. We lost even our U.S. passports. But Gordon fought back for five long years, and was totally vindicated. His private struggle inspired and strengthened McCarthy victims in UN organizations in many other foreign countries. Human rights issues were linked to liberty, social justice and democratic values.
MY MENTOR
I attended a NOW Convention in San Francisco in 1988 (50 years after my brother's death, 30 years after my husband's). That's when I first met the late Barbara Wiedner, founder of Grandmothers for Peace Int/l. She invited me to her home in Sacramento and quickly assembled a pool-side party in my honor. Introducing me, she said she knew I had been "involved" in Peace and Justice issues for many years. I was standing at the outer edge of the diving board, in an ankle-length Indian cotton cocktail dress, and I jumped into the water. Dripping wet, I corrected Barbara's statement. "I have not been involved," I said. I'm committed. "
Some of you may recognize this as a take on a Martina Navratilova quote. When she was asked the difference between the two, she answered. ,”Think of a ham and egg omelet. The chicken is involved, the pig is committed."
Once back in St. Augustine I started Grandparents for Peace: Our program includes alternatives to violence, and environmental issues. I think the greatest expression of love a grandparent can make is active participation in efforts to
(1)eliminate nuclear weapons,
(2) convert military bases, munitions facilities and research sites into peacetime purposes,
(3) promote and assist development of peace curricula in our schools, including conflict resolution techniques, and
(4) help children realize a greater awareness of and responsibility for our very beautiful, but fragile, planet.
That is why EARTH DAY is being celebrated in St. Augustine. Held at the Amphitheatre on A1A South, back to back with the Farmers Market, residents and tourists of all ages are urged to attend ... to learn from the educational exhibits, to enjoy the art and craft exhibits, to have fun playing, drumming, dancing and singing with each other. Grandparents for Peace together with St. Augustine Volunteers for Earth (SAVE) regard this as a special opportunity to see this community event as inte-rgenerationalism in action.
EARTH DAY promises to be a very meaningful experience for young and old; leading to greater respect for each other, and for Planet Earth
MY CO CHAIR, Paul
I cannot close without acknowledging the talent and initiative of Paul Archetko. You may know him as the artist behind Skinny Lizard t-shirts. I met him through Ancient City Entrepreneurs (ACE) and he has been a friend and my EARTH DAY co-chair since then. Thank you, Paul And thanks to all our St. Augustine Volunteers for Earth friends.
Jun 30, 2004
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