Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 01.31.07

[David Shove (shove001]

            P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R     01.31.07

1. Alliant trial     2.01 8:30am
2. Battered women    2.01 9am
3. Mexico/US         2.01 11:30am
4. Neurosci/teens    2.01 11:30am
5. Eagan peace vigil 2.01 4:30pm
6. Northtown vigil   2.01 5pm
7. New school supt   2.01 6pm
8. Inconvenient T/f  2.01 7pm
9. Jesus v empire    2.01 7pm
10. Im/migration     2.01 7pm
11. Coldwater moon   2.01 7pm
12. US v Bush        2.01 7:30pm

13. Anti-war exhibit 2.02 9am
14. FFUNCH           2.02 11:30am
15. Palestine vigil  2.02 4:30pm
16. Mexico/film      2.02 6pm
17. US v Bush        2.02 7pm
18. Taylor sells out 2.02 7pm

19. Kathy Kelly    - Engagement with war
20. Rev WE Alberts - Hiding America's surging militarism behind children
21. Fran Shor      - Can the anti-war movement dismantle the war machine?
22. RM Mendenhall  - The state of the anti-war movement
23. e e cummings   - i sing of Olaf glad and big (poem)

--------1 of 23--------

From: AlliantACTION <AlliantACTION [at] circlevision.org>
Subject: Alliant trial 2.01 8:30am

AlliantACTION in conjunction with the War Resisters League celebrated the
birthday of Gandhi with nonviolently attempting to deliver to Alliant
Techsystems (ATK) CEO Dan Murphy a subpoena on October 2, 2006.

Edina police arrested 78 nonviolent activists at Alliant's front door.

A trial date has been set for 8:30 AM on Thursday February 1, 2007 at the
Southdale Hennepin County District Court, 7009 York Avenue South, Edina.
We expect it to take all day and possibly into Friday. Please feel free to
stop in when you can to show support and to hear some powerful witnessing.

Images from the action and more info: <http://www.alliantaction.org>


--------2 of 23--------

From: erin [at] mnwomen.org
Subject: Battered women 2.01 9am

Thursday, February 1: Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women. Advanced
Order for Protection Advocacy Training. 9 AM-3 PM. Walter F. Mondale Hall,
229-19th Avenue South, UofM Law School, Minneapolis. Free for MCBW members
and $30 for nonmembers. Space is limited. 651/646-6177. www.mcbw.org.


--------3 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Mexico/US 2.01 11:30am

Thursday, 2/1, 11:30 am registration, noon to 1:30 luncheon and program,
MN International Center presents Mexican ambassador-at-large Andres
Rozental, speaking on future of US/Mexico relations, Windows on MN, 50th
floor, IDS Tower, 30 S 8th St, Mpls.  $45.  www.micglobe.org


--------4 of 23--------

From: jointdgr <jointdgr [at] UMN.EDU>
Subject: Neurosci/teens 2.01 11:30am

New Neuroscience, Old Legal problems: The Case of Juvenile Responsibility
Thursday, February 1, 2007
11:30am-1:00pm
Coffman Memorial Union Theater

This lecture will address the legal implications of neuroscientific
advances that have been fueled by the revolution in imaging technology.
Prof. Morse will suggest that, although the technology is new, the
challenges it presents are often overstated and always familiar. Existing
legal, moral, and political resources are adequate to respond. He will
discuss juvenile responsibility and use the U.S. Supreme Court's recent
decision abolishing the death penalty for juveniles, Roper v. Simmons, as
a case study.

Prof. Monica Luciana, PhD (Department of Psychology) and Prof. Barry Feld,
JD, PhD (Law School) will offer commentary after Prof. Morse's talk.

Continuing education credit is offered (see below).  This lecture series
was established in memory of Amos S. Deinard, Sr. (1898-1985) and Benedict
S. Deinard (1899-1969) to present educational programs on law, medicine,
public health, and biomedical ethics.  This series is cosponsored by the
University of Minnesota's Joint Degree Program in Law, Health, & the Life
Sciences (www.jointdegree.umn.edu
<file:///C:\Documents%20and%20Settings\aboyle\Kammen\www.jointdegree.umn.edu
> ) and the Center for Bioethics (www.bioethics.umn.edu
<http://www.bioethics.umn.edu/> ) with major support from Amos S. Deinard,
Jr., MD, MPH, Miriam Kelen, and the law firm of Leonard, Street and
Deinard (www.leonard.com <http://www.leonard.com/> ).

The event is free and open to the public.  Registration is required if you
wish to receive continuing education credits (CLE, CME, or CNE)--RSVP to
lawvalue [at] umn.edu or 612-625-0055.  Coffman Union parking is available in
the East River Road Garage on Delaware Street behind Coffman Union.  Maps
may be found at http://onestop.umn.edu/Maps/index.html.

About Prof. Morse:

Prof. Stephen Morse is an expert in criminal and mental health law, whose
work emphasizes individual responsibility in criminal and civil law and
the relation of the behavioral and neurosciences to responsibility and
social control.  Prof. Morse has published Foundations of Criminal Law
(Foundation Press, with Leo Katz and Michael S. Moore), and he is
currently working on a book, Desert and Disease: Responsibility and Social
Control.  He is a Diplomate in Forensic Psychology of the American Board
of Professional Psychology; a past president of Division 41 of the
American Psychological Association (the American Psychology-Law Society),
a recipient of the American Academy of Forensic Psychology's Distinguished
Contribution Award, a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network
on Mental Health and Law (1988-1996); a founding director of the
Neuroethics Society, and a trustee of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health
Law in Washington, D.C. (1995-present). Prior to joining the Penn faculty
in 1988, Prof. Morse was the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychiatry
and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California.  He
has served as a Visiting Professor at a number of institutions, including
the California Institute of Technology (Law and Social Science), Cardozo
School of Law, Georgetown Law Center, and University of Virginia School of
Law.

Commentators:

Prof. Monica Luciana's research examines brain/behavior relationships in
adults and children.  She is specifically interested in the neurobiology
of behaviors that are mediated by the brain's prefrontal cortex, including
working memory, planning, and emotional control.  Prof. Luciana received
her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Prof. Barry C. Feld a leading scholar of juvenile justice.  He teaches
criminal procedure, juvenile law, torts, and education and law.  He
received his JD, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law
School and his PhD in sociology from Harvard University, where he was a
Russell Sage Foundation Fellow in Law and the social sciences.

Continuing Education Information:

This lecture is intended for students, faculty, researchers, scientists,
policymakers, and interested community members.  Following this lecture,
participants should be able to:

 * Describe the legal implication of advances in neuroscience studies.
 * Suggest ways existing resources may be used to respond to legal
concerns arising from neuroscientific advances.

Applications for CME and CNE credits have been filed with the University
of Minnesota Office of Continuing Medical Education.  Determination of
credit is pending.  Continuing legal education credit (CLE) for attorneys
has been requested (1.5 hours).

This event has been designated by the University of Minnesota's Office of
the Vice President for Research to satisfy the Awareness/Discussion
component of the Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) continuing
education requirement.

For more information on upcoming events, visit
http://www.lifesci.consortium.umn.edu/conferences/.


--------5 of 23--------

From: Greg and Sue Skog <skograce [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Eagan peace vigil 2.01 4:30pm

CANDLELIGHT PEACE VIGIL EVERY THURSDAY from 4:30-5:30pm on the Northwest
corner of Pilot Knob Road and Yankee Doodle Road in Eagan. We have signs
and candles. Say "NO to war!" The weekly vigil is sponsored by: Friends
south of the river speaking out against war.


--------6 of 23--------

From: EKalamboki [at] aol.com
Subject: Northtown vigil 2.01 5pm

NORTHTOWN Peace Vigil every Thursday 5-6pm, at the intersection of Co. Hwy
10 and University Ave NE (SE corner across from Denny's), in Blaine.

Communities situated near the Northtown Mall include: Blaine, Mounds View,
New Brighton, Roseville, Shoreview, Arden Hills, Spring Lake Park,
Fridley, and Coon Rapids.  We'll have extra signs.

For more information people can contact Evangelos Kalambokidis by phone or
email: (763)574-9615, ekalamboki [at] aol.com.


--------7 of 23--------

From: Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council <betsy [at] mplscluc.com>
Subject: New school supt 2.01 6pm

The Minneapolis School Board is soliciting input on hiring a new
superintendent.

On Thursday, February 1, from 6-8 PM, members of the Minneapolis School
Board will solicit direct input from union members and the general public
on what we want in a new superitendent.

The meeting will be held in Room 218 of the United Labor Centre (312
Central Ave, corner of University and Central Ave NE Minneapolis).

This is a critical hiring that will directly affect school board
employees, parents, students, and our community. For further information
or to RSVP, please contact Andrea Ledger at (612)379-4206 or
andrea [at] mplscluc.com.

Forum with members of the Minneapolis School Board regarding new
superintendent hire

Thursday, Feb. 1, 6-8 PM
United Labor Centre (312 Central Ave, Minneapolis), Room 218


--------8 of 23--------

From: Curt McNamara <mcnam025 [at] umn.edu>
Subject: Inconvenient truth 2.01 7pm

Free
MCAD's CELELBRATE SUSTAINABILITY Film Series
Minneapolis College of Art and Design
2501 Stevens Ave. South. Minneapolis.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
MCAD Auditoriums 150 and 140, 7:00 and 8:00 pm

An Inconvenient Truth
A passionate and inspirational look at one man's fervent crusade to halt
global warming's deadly progress in its tracks by exposing the myths and
misconceptions that surround it.
97 minutes, 2006
Directed by David Guggenheim


--------9 of 23--------

From: scot b <earthmannow [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Jesus v empire 2.01 7pm

The St Croix Valley Peacemakers are indeed fortunate to have with us for
our next meeting noted author and speaker

Jack Nelson Palmeyer, Peace Studies Instructor at St Thomas University
On February 1st at 7:00PM
at Ascension Episcopal Church
214 No.3rd St in Stillwater  [ next to Stillwater public Library  ]

Jack will speak on "Christianity and Empire, Jesus nonviolent challenge to
empire then and now."

Jesus' example of nonviolence and call to peacemaking has particular
relevance for U.S. Christians today. Dick and Lynne Cheneys 2003 Christmas
card included the following quote "If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground
without his notice, is it probable that empire cannot rise without his
aid." Jack will explore with us our present context of empire and the
relevance of Jesusexample for our lives. Plan on treating yourself to a
most informative and awakening evening.


--------10 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Im/migration 2.01 7pm

Thursdays, 7 to 8:30 pm, "Topics in (Im)Migration" discussion group,
Macalester College, St.Paul Contact iali [at] macalester.edu or
trebert [at] macalester.edu to join.


--------11 of 23--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: Coldwater moon 2.01 7pm

Coldwater Full Moon Tour

Thursday, February 1, 7:00 p.m. (Gather) 7:15 p.m. (Walk) Minnehaha Park,
54th Street South, Minneapolis (South End of the Pay Parking Lot). At this
time of growing daylight we celebrate the ancient Goddess, Brigid, who is
associated with fire and springs, heat and water--and the earliest signs
of Spring. Coldwater is a sacred spot for Native Americans and earth
preservation. Led by Terri Starnes and Cara Carlson. Plus a traditional
group howl. FFI: Visit <www.friendsofcoldwater.org>.


--------12 of 23--------

From: david unowsky <david.unowsky [at] gmail.com>
Subject: US v Bush 2.01 7:30pm

Elisabeth de la Vega discusses her book U.S. V BUSH (Seven Stories Press)
7:30 pm Thursday, February 1 at Magers and Quinn 3038 Hennepin Ave South.
www.magersandquinn.com

What if there were a fraud worse than Enron and no one did anything about
it? In United States v. George W. Bush et. al., former federal prosecutor
Elizabeth de la Vega brings her twenty years of experience and her passion
for justice to the most important case of her career. The defendants are
George W Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, and
Colin Powell. The crime is tricking the nation into war, or, in legal
terms, conspiracy to defraud the United States. Elizabeth de la Vega, a
former federal prosecutor, was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Minneapolis
as well as a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and Branch Chief
in San Jose, California. Since her retirement in 2004, she has been a
regular contributor to Tomdispatch. Her articles have also appeared in the
Nation, the LA Times, Salon and Mother Jones. She is not in the Witness
Protection Program.

For further information, contact: David Unowsky 612/822-4611
davidu [at] magersandquinn.com


--------13 of 23--------

From: ChaArles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Anti-war exhibit 2.02 9am

Friday, 2/2, 9 am to 3 pm,"Eyes Wide Open Minnesota" exhibit of boots
representing fallen soldiers and sailors in Iraq and shoes for fallen
civilians, Atwood Memorial Center, St Cloud State University, St Cloud.
jluraymond [at] juno.com


--------14 of 23--------

From: David Shove <shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu>
Subject: FFUNCH 2.02 11:30am

Meet the FFUNCH BUNCH!
11:30am-1pm
First Friday Lunch (FFUNCH) for Greens/progressives.

Informal political talk and hanging out.

Day By Day Cafe 477 W 7th Av St Paul.
Meet in the private room (holds 12+).

Day By Day has soups, salads, sandwiches, and dangerous apple pie; is
close to downtown St Paul & on major bus lines


--------15 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Palestine vigil 2.02 4:30pm

Friday, 2/2, 4:30 to 5:30 pm, vigil to end the occupation of Palestine,
Snelling & Summit Aves, St Paul.  Karen, 651-283-3495.


--------16 of 23--------

From: Charles Underwood <charleyunderwood [at] hotmail.com>
Subject: Mexico/film 2.02 6pm

Friday, 2/2, 6 pm, film "Mojados - Through the Night," about 4 migrants from
a small Mexican village tho embark on a 120 mile trek across the desert,
Resource Center of the Americas, 3019 Minnehaha, Mpls.  www.americas.org


--------17 of 23--------

From: wamm <wamm [at] mtn.org>
Subject: US v Bush 2.02 7pm

"United States V. George W. Bush, et al.:" Elizabeth de la Vega
Friday, February 2, 7:00 p.m. Weyerhaeuser Chapel, Macalester College,
1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul.

A presentation to a Grand Jury of a Theoretical Case against the
Defendants George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Condoleeza Rice, Donald M.
Rumsfeld and Colin Powell based on a one-count indictment: Conspiracy to
Defraud the United States by misrepresenting the case for the War in Iraq.
Sponsored by: Merriam Park Neighbors for Peace.


--------18 of 23--------

From: tom [at] organicconsumers.org
Subject: Taylor sells out 2.02 7pm

Hold The Date Because We Are Opening The Vaults

The evening of Friday, February 2nd not only offers you a full moon AND
Ground Hogs Day but also a unique opportunity to view and take home pieces
from all our collective pasts.  Tom Taylor and Aldo Moroni are opening
their vaults and cleaning house.

There will be fine art posters, drawings, prints and much general visual
hoo-hah and EVERYTHING is priced to MOVE, MOVE, MOVE with different sale
prices happening EVERYDAY during the week that the show is hung.

This show of hand made posters from Minneapolis' cultural history; printed
extravaganza and original works will open Friday, February 2nd at The
California Street Gallery, 22nd and California in lovely lower NE MPLS.

Original drawings, sculpture, fine art prints, Political posters, food
posters, protest posters, band posters, poetry reading posters, zines,
broadsides, objects d'arte, baseball and building images and more stuff
than you can shake a stick at.

Come relive and remember or pick something up because you can't remember
or only heard about it.

On Friday the 2nd the doors will open at 7:PM and go till everyone leaves.

The skinny: Opening Friday, February 2nd 7:00 PM on.  Everything is being
offered SO cheap that this fine art cultural flee market is a BYOB affair,
HEY pick up some cheese too, eh?

Duration - This show will hang from Friday, February 2nd till Saturday,
February 10th (closed on Monday).  The gallery hours are noon to 8:PM.

The Occasion - We are broke and need to make room.

I will be offering up all my handmade posters that I have done over the
years as well as a slew of drawings, SO if you ever wanted a Tom "Chuck
Fredâ" Taylor piece NOWS the time that you can do it.

Hope you can make it, spread the word and give me a jingle if you have any
questions, --Tom Taylor 612-788-4252


--------19 of 23--------

"Imagine All They Have Survived ... "
Engagement with War
By KATHY KELLY
CounterPunch
January 30, 2007

Amman, Jordan.

Earlier this week, I received a joyful phone call from Baghdad. Members of
a family I've known since 1996 announced that one of their younger
daughters was engaged. Broken Arabic and broken English crossed the lines:
"We love you! We miss you!" My colleague here in Amman, who also knows
this family well, shook her head smiling when I gave her the happy news.
"What an amazing family," she said. "Imagine all that they've survived." A
few hours later, the family sent us a text message: "now bombs destroy all
the glasses in our home - no one hurt."

No one was home when the explosion shattered every window and damaged
ceilings and walls. This was exceptionally fortunate given that they are a
family of nine living in a very small dwelling. The family has moved into
an even smaller home where one daughter lives with her husband and newborn
baby. It happens that their aunt and her three children are also with
them. The aunt had traveled from Amman to secure needed documents in
Baghdad. Seventeen people are crowded into an apartment the size of a
small one car garage.

This family suddenly joined the ranks of over a million people in Iraq who
are homeless, displaced. I watched television coverage of the gruesome
carnage at the intersection of the street where they had lived. The
blood-spattered streets, charred vehicles, and desperate bereavement are
part of everyday footage filmed in cities throughout the region, whether
in Iraq, Lebanon, the West Bank, or Israel. The humanitarian crisis that
mounts as a consequence of the catastrophic explosions and attacks is more
difficult to portray.

"We need everything," said the visiting aunt when I asked what they
needed. A displaced family needs food, water, clothing, blankets, fuel and
housing.

Every family in Baghdad struggles with fuel and energy crises. In Baghdad,
there is one hour of electricity every 12 hours. Only the more well-to-do
families can afford a generator for back-up electricity. The price of fuel
for transportation has risen so high that any travel has become extremely
expensive. Families with no income in a society that has 50% -75%
unemployment find themselves scrounging for basic necessities and not at
all prepared to offer hospitality to newly displaced families.

Families that receive the dreaded knock on the door giving them 24 hours
notice, - leave or you will be killed - often travel to other regions of
Iraq where they no longer have access to the rations distributed in their
former neighborhoods. Many families are hungry and cold. Disease sets in
and they have no access to health care. Children aren't easily accepted in
overcrowded schools when families move into a new area. Sewage and
sanitation systems are stressed by unexpected rises in neighborhood
populations. A family might be welcomed by relatives who couldn't bear to
turn them away, but how are the host families and communities to manage
continued hospitality with very little international relief or support
available?

Consider, for instance, that over a third (38%) of Iraq's people depend on
the ration system for the meager allotments of lentils, rice, flour, salt
and tea. If a family is displaced by an attack on their home, distance or
personal safety often prohibits returning to their former home to pick up
these supplies. Too often the agent who delivers the supplies can't even
approach the warehouse to collect them, because it is located in a "hot"
area now controlled by a sect or militia to which he does not belong and
which may kill him. In those cases, whole neighborhoods, already
struggling and suffering, must go without a month's supply of food.

There should be massive convoys traveling into Iraq on a regular basis to
meet the rising humanitarian needs. There should be, but there aren't.
Families that can manage to reach the Jordanian or Syrian borders flee
with the hope of being allowed to cross into the two countries that have
allowed Iraqis to enter. But now, Jordan's official policy is that they'll
only allow Iraqis with permanent residence in Jordan to enter, and the
Syrians are also clamping down.

We who are vastly more comfortable and secure stand by, seemingly
mesmerized by the awful consequences of a "war of choice" begun by the
United States. We must liberate ourselves from the absurd presumption that
the U.S. military has the power or the right to impose solutions in parts
of the world where they are not welcome. We should insist that decision
makers in the U.S. come to grips with the consequences of the past four
years of military invasion and occupation and demand that U.S. wealth be
directed toward humanitarian concerns, unhinged from U.S. military
control. We should welcome and support diplomatic means to resolve crises.

Now another engagement looms. The Bush administration may try to wed U.S.
people to yet another war, this time against Iran. If so, that would be
joyful news for the controlling interests of large corporations that
benefit from U.S. warfare and U.S. dominance over oil resources in this
part of the world. We who claim the right to free speech, far beyond the
imprisoning borders of Iraq, should join our strengths and wills to visit
every congressional and senate office over the coming weeks, exercising
nonviolent civil disobedience to cut funding for the wasteful, cruel,
illegal and immoral U.S. addiction to war. (See www.vcnv.org to learn more
about joining such a campaign.)

Kathy Kelly is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and
author of Other Lands Have Dreams. She can be reached at: kathy [at] vcnv.org


--------20 of 23--------

A "Peace Existence" for Whom?
Hiding America's Surging Militarism Behind Children
By Rev. WILLIAM E. ALBERTS
CounterPunch
January 30, 2007

Matthew's gospel records that when his disciples asked, "Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?," Jesus put a child in their midst and
said, "Whoever becomes humble like this child, he is the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven. (18:1-4) When America was attacked on 9/11, President
Bush said the United States is "the greatest nation on the face of the
earth." (The New York Times, Sept. 17, 2002), and then put a child in our
midst to justify a needless pre-emptive war against sanctions-weakened,
defenseless Iraq: "We owe it to our children, we owe it to our
grandchildren to make sure that the dictator of Iraq never threatens our
country, or our children, or our children's children with the world's
worst weapons." (The Boston Globe, Sept 24, 2002)

What we owe our children and grandchildren is to stop the spreading, now
surging, malady of militarism with which the Bush administration has
infected America and the world. Whereas Jesus affirmed the natural
innocence of children, President Bush uses their innocence to justify
waging a criminal war against the people of Iraq and their children and
grandchildren. Bush's continuing, seemingly sociopathic, exploitation of
family, democratic and religious values, to mask and justify war and
domination, needs to be seen for what it is and ended now by Congress.
Only then will our children and grandchildren avoid the legacy of hatred
of America and constant fear and threat of violence, being created for
them by the Bush administration's warped "good versus evil" worldview and
unending militaristic war of terrorism. The so-called "war on terrorism"
is a terrible hoax perpetrated on Americans by the Bush administration,
using the horrific attack of 9/11 to instill manipulative fear, cloak
military aggression and domination that serve corporate interests, and
maintain Republican political power.

President Bush continually drafts our children and grandchildren to serve
militaristic policies that threaten, not protect, their future. He
exploits our children's innocence to justify his latest "surge" of sending
21,000 more American troops to Iraq: "But victory in Iraq . . . a
democratic Iraq . . . will help bring a future of peace and security for
our children and grandchildren." He even drafted countless other children
in his new escalation of militaristic violence: "From Afghanistan to
Lebanon to the Palestinian Territories, millions of ordinary people are
sick of the violence, and want a future of peace and opportunity for their
children. And," he said, "they are looking at Iraq. They want to know:
Will America withdraw and yield the future of that country to the
extremists - or will we stand with the Iraqis who have made the choice for
freedom?" ("Transcript of President Bush's address to the nation last
night" as recorded by The New York Times, Jan. 11, 2002)

President Bush's repeated cloaking of his administration's militarism in
the innocence of children is seen in his recent year-end news conference:
"This war on terrorism is the calling of a new generation. Success," he
continued, "is essential to securing a future for peace for our children
and grandchildren. And," he added, "securing this peaceful future is going
to require a sustained commitment from the American people and our
military." ("Press Conference by the President," Office of the Press
Secretary, The White House, Dec. 20, 2006)

Here again, President Bush even recruited the children of the Middle East
in his war of terrorism. "The one thing we cannot do," he said, "is to
give up on the hundreds of millions of ordinary moms and dads across the
Middle East who want the hope and opportunity for their children that the
terrorists and extremists seek to deny them. And that's a peaceful
existence." (Ibid)

"A peaceful existence?" It is not believed to be about "success" in Iraq
being "essential to securing a future for peace for our children and
grandchildren" - and for the children of "the ordinary moms and dads
across the Middle East." It is about President Bush's overriding need for
"victory" in Iraq to hide his administration's war crimes and thus secure
his future - from the gallows of public opinion, the judgment of
impeachment, or the docket, in absentia, of the US-opposed International
Criminal Court charged with war crimes. It is not just about protecting
his "ego" but about protecting his own future "peaceful existence." He
desperately needs a "surge" of American troops in Iraq to stave off the
reality of truth and justice that the future holds for him - and for
certain other members of his militaristic administration.

"A peaceful existence?" "For our children and grandchildren?" For "the
ordinary moms and dads across the Middle East . . . ?" Using the innocence
of children to justify crimes against humanity. A preemptive, criminal war
based on a lie: ". . . the dictator of Iraq threaten[ing] our children
[and] children's children with the world's worst weapons."

The ensuing deaths of some 655,000 "ordinary moms and dads" and their
children across Iraq. ("Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has
Reached 655,000," by David Brown, The Washington Post, Oct. 11, 2006)
"Operation Iraqi Freedom's" destruction of Iraq's life-sustaining
infrastructure, and the continuing failure of Bush administration-favored
war-profiteering corporations, like Vice President Cheney's Halliburton,
to reconstruct what America's militarism devastated. Horribly violent
sectarian civil war, set in motion by the US-led invasion and occupation
of Iraq, making the country less stable and safe than under the brutal
rule of Saddam Hussein.

"A peaceful existence?" The reality includes the flight rather than
"freedom" of millions of "ordinary" "moms and dads" in Iraq and their
children. Last October a report by The United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees was quoted as stating that "out of the population of 26
million, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled the country and a further 1.5
million are displaced within Iraq." ("The Exodus: 1.6m Iraqis have fled
their country since the war," by Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, 23
Oct. 2006)

"A peaceful existence? For whom? Over 3,000 children and grandchildren of
American "ordinary moms and dads" dead, and tens of thousands more
physically and emotionally maimed - and these totals will "surge" if
Congress does not stop the insanity of this militarizer-in chief. The
criminal investment of our country's human and material resources in
killing and occupying and dominating instead of in creating and sustaining
and renewing life here and abroad.

"A peaceful existence?" That is not the reality of the "ordinary moms and
dads across the Middle East" and their children, who are oppressed by
US-supported Arab tyrannies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and Libya and
Morocco and the Gulf States. ("Six Questions for Michael Scheuer On
National Security," by Ken Silverstein, Harper's Magazine, Aug. 23, 2006)
Nor is "a peaceful existence" the reality of Palestinians in the Occupied
Territories, living under the US-enabled apartheid-like rule of Israel.
And a similar reality of oppression is endured by the people of
US-supported, authoritarian-ruled Pakistan.

In the face of these brutal realities, our country is led by a president
evidently blinded by the arrogance of power in continuing to insist, "And
I want the enemy to understand that . . . they can't run us out of the
Middle East." ("Press Conference by the President," Dec. 20, 2006) It is
the "ordinary moms and dads across the Middle East" who want to "run us
out of the Middle East." Bush's arrogance is also seen in his call for a
"surge," which will involve US forces "continu[ing] to pursue Al Qaeda and
foreign fighters [italics added]." ("Transcript of President Bush's
address," The New York Times, Jan. 11, 2007) The only real "foreign
fighters" in Iraq are Americans and their coalition partners.

"Foreign fighters?" A poll conducted by the University of Maryland last
October was reported as indicating that "78 percent of Iraqis said the US
military is 'provoking more conflict than it is preventing,'" that "71
percent, including 74 percent of Shiites and 91 percent of Sunnis, want US
soldiers out within a year or less," and that "61 percent of Iraqis favor
attacks on American troops." ("Time to Leave," Editorial, The Nation, Dec.
18, 2006) "Merciless and violent . . . terrorists and extremists," as
President constantly tries to have us Americans believe? Or "ordinary moms
and dads" across Iraq, whose love of their children and their country
leads them to resist a "merciless and violent" "shock and awe" invasion
and occupation of their homeland, paraded as the "advance of liberty?"

President Bush accuses neighboring Iran and Syria of aiding and abetting
the "terrorist and insurgents" in Iraq, and threatens to "seek out and
destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our
enemies in Iraq." ("Transcript of President Bush's address," The New York
Times, Jan. 11, 2007) His desperate need to "succeed," to secure his own
future "peaceful existence," could lead him to divert public attention
from his war crimes against Iraq by provoking a much larger war against
Iran and Syria - ostensibly to also "help bring a future of peace and
security for our children and grandchildren."

Our country is suffering from the militarism of a president in deep
denial: "Our goal remains a free and democratic Iraq that can govern
itself, sustain itself and defend itself, and is an ally in this war on
terrorism." ("Press Conference by the President," Dec. 20, 2006) A
president whose compulsion to "succeed" in Iraq, and thus hide and justify
his war crimes, is seen in his saying the obvious: "I believe that we're
going to win. . . . If I didn't think that, I wouldn't have sent our
troops there. That's what you've got to know. We're going to succeed."
(Ibid)

President Bush wants everyone to also know, "Most people have asked me to
do one thing, and that is to make sure that their child didn't die in
vain. And I agree with that; that their sacrifice has been worth it."
(Ibid) Tragically, Bush justifies the death of one "child" by the death of
another, in his apparently obsessive pursuit of "victory" to secure "a
peaceful existence" for his own future. Here is believed to be a deeper
motivation for the President's present "surge" of American troops in Iraq.

Millions of children and grandchildren in America and the Middle East are
being left behind to struggle and die, by an administration that hides
behind their innocence to serve the imperialistic interests of corporate
America. Tragically, much of our country's human and material resources
are being sacrificed to illegally seize and control the oil and lands of
other countries' children and grandchildren.

Think what our human and material national wealth could do if invested in
all our children and grandchildren. A truly adequate minimum wage, for
example, would help to guarantee that no American child would be left
behind - as would other such present-protecting and future-preparing
social programs. "Ordinary moms and dads" across America know that a full
stomach feeds a hungry mind. And a hungry mind is far more likely to
search for truth and justice and thus help to guarantee a full stomach and
life for all children. For a full stomach also nourishes a caring heart.

President Bush ended his call for a "surge" in US troops for Iraq by
saying, "We go forward with trust that the Author of Liberty will guide us
through these trying times." ("Transcript of President Bush's address,"
The New York Times, Jan. 11, 2007) It is not about "the Author of Liberty
guid[ing] us," but about the authorizing of a "surge" of death cloaked in
the divine.

President Bush would poison America with a chronic malady of militarism.
He ended his State of the Union Address with, "The war on terror we fight
today is a generational struggle that will continue long after you and I
have turned our duties over to others." He then proposed "to establish a
special [bipartisan] advisory council on the war on terror . . . [to] show
our enemies abroad that we're united in the goal of victory." (Tape of
Address, Jan. 23, 2007) The "victory" Bush and Vice President Cheney and
their neo-conservative collaborators so desperately pursue to cover up
their war crimes.

It is time for Congress to stop funding and end the malady of militarism
with which the Bush administration is corrupting our country. It is time
to become humble like a child-for the sake of children and grandchildren
everywhere.

Rev. William E. Alberts, Ph.D. is a hospital chaplain, and a diplomate in
the College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy. Both a Unitarian
Universalist and a United Methodist minister, he has written research
reports, essays and articles on racism, war, politics and religion. He can
be reached at william.alberts [at] bmc.org.


--------21 of 23--------

Shadow of a Resistance
Can the Anti-War Movement Dismantle the War Machine?
By FRAN SHOR
CounterPunch
January 30, 2007

Although the anti-war movement demonstrated on January 27th that it could
mobilize hundreds of thousands to demand an end to the war on Iraq, the
question remains whether the anti-war forces can begin to dismantle the
war machine. In one of their more challenging statements in their equally
provocative book, Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of
War, Retort asserts: "Unless the anti-war movement comes to recognize the
full dynamics of US militarism - to understand that peace, under current
arrangements, is no more than war by other means - then massive
mobilizations at the approach of full-dress military campaigns must
inevitably be followed by demoralization and bewilderment" (94).

Certainly, it is true that the massive mobilizations in February of 2003
led to demoralization when the Bush Administration demonstrated its utter
contempt for international opinion and law by its war on and occupation of
Iraq. Nonetheless, the anti-war movement slowly regained urgency and
popularity as the Bush Administration's war machine proved incapable of
establishing its imperial "peace" in Iraq. Reinvigorated demonstrations
have now sought to leverage wide-spread public antagonism to the Iraq War
into pressuring the Congress to enact specific legislation for cutting off
funds and bringing home the troops by a speedy withdrawal.

Unfortunately, putting all of its eggs in the congressional basket may
doom the anti-war forces to further demoralization and bewilderment,
especially given the particular political orientation of the Democrat
leadership. Senator Harry Reid, the leader of the slim Democrat majority
in the U.S. Senate, expressed the pusillanimous approach of this
leadership to Bush's escalation: "Our hope, really our prayer, is that the
president will finally listen: listen to the generals, listen to the Iraq
Study Group, listen to the American people, and listen to a bipartisan
Congress."

If Senator Reid believes that this tone-deaf president will listen to any
of the aforementioned critics of his war policies, he is living in as much
a fantasy world as Bush is. The problem, of course, is that the
congressional leadership continues to shun their constitutional
responsibilities when it comes to using the power of the purse to cut off
funds for the Iraq War or to begin impeachment proceedings against the
Bush Administration for its numerous violations of the Constitution. If
Bush is under the delusion that more military muscle will salvage a
"victory" in Iraq, the congressional leadership is under the delusion that
it can inhibit an imperial presidency committed to permanent war with
non-binding resolutions or tactical slaps on the wrist.

Bush is already sending additional troops to Iraq and implementing another
phase of counter-insurgency strategies that have previously failed to stem
the insurgency. The level of sectarian violence is only of concern to the
US war machine if it fuels resistance to the imposed military
neo-liberalism that defines that war machine. Enriching Halliburton and
KBR and the vast private contractors that complement the Pentagon's
presence in Iraq is part of what feeds the Bush Administration's
intransigence to establishment calls, such as the Iraq Study Group, to
pull back the troops. As argued in Afflicted Powers, "despite often
inchoate rationales and uncontrollable specific outcomes, each military
intervention is intended to serve an overall pressing American power - and
the potential for Western capital entrenchment in 'emerging markets' -
even further into vital regions of the globe" (81).

Beyond this military neo-liberalism, the neo-conservative desire to remake
the map of the Middle East is still alive and well in the White House.
Moreover, the combination of an evangelical desire to purge the world of
"evil" and to eliminate any challenges to US hegemony is reflected in the
manic military campaigns emanating from the Bush Administration. The
incapacity of imposing congressional restraints on the Bush Administration
is compromised both structurally and ideologically. Congress lacks the
will to confront Bush head-on about his essentially dictatorial war moves,
including the recent attacks on Somalia and the ramping up of provocations
against Iran. Although there have been rumblings of dissent from the
Administration's plans to attack Iran, it is not enough to contend, as
Senator Biden and others have, that Bush must seek a declaration from
Congress before attacking Iran. Essentially, Congress has forfeited the
only power it has to stop the White House from extending the war to
Iran - the power to impeach.

In fact, the accumulation of dictatorial powers of a revised imperial
presidency and expansion of the military-industrial complex has further
hamstrung even the timid protestations of Congress. Indeed, imagining that
the electoral arena holds to key to reversing the war machine is one of
the major illusions of the variety of political factions which constitute
the anti-war movement. Being reduced to a lobbying mechanism for
legislative relief from an imperial presidency and permanent war has
marginalized what passes for an anti-war movement. Hence, irrespective of
how large demonstrations may grow in Washington, DC, they occupy only
symbolic space with a narrow political focus and imagination.

The incapacity to confront how deeply embedded the war machine is in the
political culture of the United States further compounds the misguided
efforts of the anti-war movement to pursue the legislative and electoral
route. As the Pentagon's tentacles have spread beyond the
military-industrial complex to the manipulation of media images,
militarism has injected its values even deeper in the veins of the society
of the spectacle. An obvious vehicle for socializing young boys in
particular into militarist values is the video game. As consultants to
video games, retired military personnel transferred their obsession with
"shock & awe" technology to advance the agenda of the virtual performance
of permanent war. In November 2002 the Pentagon released for free the
video game, "America's Army." As an explicit recruitment tool for the
Pentagon, the video game had a separate webpage of links with local
recruiters. Another video game, "Splinter Cell," touted its mission to
neutralize the terrorist threat with ads that read like a Cheney-Rumsfeld
wet-dream: "I alone have the fifth freedom: the right to spy, steal,
destroy, and assassinate to insure that American freedoms are protected."

While efforts to combat military recruitment in the schools are an
important arena for countering the influence of the war machine, the more
insidious conditioning continues apace. Moreover, trying to create
communities of resistance in an era of highly privatized space and
hyper-consumerism is, if not impossible, assuredly very difficult. In
effect, the very possibility of developing and sustaining an anti-war
movement is open to question. Yet, without confronting both the cultural
representations of the permanent war machine and its daily material
production and cultural reproduction, any anti-war movement is a mere
shadow of actual resistance.

When one compares the anti-war movement that emerged in the 1960's with
the pale imitation today, one not only recognizes the lack of real
organizing and movement-building, but also the transformed historical
conditions. The insurgencies that marked the 60's attack on the war
machine from anti-draft activities to military mutinies to factory
uprisings to blockading supply trains were part of a collective revolt
against the state's colonization of the body and the mind. Alternative
institutions flourished in college towns, on the outskirts of military
bases, and within communities of color and young people in general. Where
are those forces or sectors in the US willing to reject in the most
radical way the military neo-liberalism that has become the hallmark of
the latest incarnation of American imperial project?

Have our imaginations become so impoverished and our social conditions so
debased that we have neither the mental nor material capacities even to
disrupt the war-machine, let alone dismantle it? Given Retort's argument
that any oppositional movement in the U.S. is itself an "afflicted power"
as a consequence of "weak citizenship" and the ubiquitous effects of
advanced pacification and spectatorship, perhaps the only hope for
dismantling the war machine is its own self-destruction through imperial
over-reach.

On the other hand, to consign our role as radical agents of social change
to waiting for the inevitable demise of U. S. military hegemony or
cheerleading for some external salvation from Latin America or elsewhere
is another form of pacification. As Roberta Flack reminds us in her song
about "letting Pharaoh go," whatever form the state takes we must refuse
to be its conduits. The war machine isn't only about the
military-industrial-infotainment complex; it is also about complicit
bodies and co-opted minds caught in the very deep structure of a
state/militarist matrix. Understanding how pervasive that matrix is and
what we need to do to overcome it may enable us to begin the long and
difficult task of dismantling the war machine.

Fran Shor, a peace and justice activist, teaches at Wayne State
University. He is the author of Bush-League Spectacles: Empire, Politics,
and Culture in a Bushwhacked America.


--------22 of 23--------

The State of the Anti-War Movement
Post Surge Commencement January 2007
by R. Miles Mendenhall
www.dissidentvoice.org
January 30, 2007

Surely I'm not alone in being frustrated and angry about the pitiful
level of anti-war organizing over the last four years? Back in March of
2003, as the war in Iraq got rolling and all of the massive demonstrations
focused on preventing its start faded into memory, I proposed that my
local anti-war group in Santa Rosa, north of the San Francisco Bay Area in
Sonoma County, start a series of non-violent direct action blockades of
local businesses who had military supply contracts. The purpose would be
to give us a local focus that might have a direct impact (down the road,
eventually) on the prosecution of the war. The hope is to raise the cost
of pursuing the war to a level not acceptable to the American people.

There are various reasons these actions were never taken. Organizers were
burning out. The locations of the businesses were not in central areas of
our town. Quite a few people had already been arrested in a blockade of a
major intersection or at one of two or three shutdowns of the local Armed
Forces Recruiting Center. I point out some of the larger reasons below.

There has been some discussion as to why the anti-war/peace movement is so
marginal to the national debate. At least it was until the results of the
Fall 2006 mid-term Congressional elections and George Bush and the
Republican Party lost their majority in both houses.

The lack of a draft keeps many young people from having to pay a personal
price in this war.

The social and cultural difference between now and the '60s, at that time
the post-WWII youth demographic was the largest in history.

And at the time the legacy of the Civil Rights movement was still alive in
memory and in the person of many experienced organizers.

There was the visceral response to 9/11 so that people were looking for
targets and not reasons why.

And we have the graying of the majority of activists now in a time of
willful ignorance and unilateral self-advancement to the exclusion of
social consciousness in an era of little hope for the future.

Some have argued that the timidity of the peace movement was because no
one wanted to be branded a traitor or accused of being sympathetic to
terrorists.

All the reasons above have an element of truth. Personally I think there
were two major generally unacknowledged sources for our weakness. First
was the focus on stopping the war from starting. (Could he really be that
insane and really mean what he was saying? Isn't it just a bluff?) So that
when the war started in spite of our efforts, all of the momentum came to
a halt.

Secondly, the focus on large mobilizations of peaceful demonstrators was
essentially a passive plea for reason, not a militant demand to cease and
change course. Also most, if not all, of the initial major demonstrations
in the US were organized by a front group for a marginal Marxist-Leninist
sect, and the rhetoric from the stages reflected that and did not help.

Some said, "Who cares what the speakers say on C-Span? We know that we are
a broad cross section of Americans (US) and that's what counts."

But when it comes to mobilizing large numbers of people, perception is
reality, and I believe many people came away from those massive marches
and rallies with a sour taste in their mouth about what was being said as
representative of them, and they didn't want any part of it for the long
run.

So what to do, now that the atrocious and criminal costs of Bush's Iraq
venture have become clear to almost everybody? And yes we did tell them
so, for all the good it did the Iraqis, the G.I.s and the policymakers. We
now have an opportunity to drive home our goal of stopping this war and
preventing an expansion of it into Iran, Syria and elsewhere. There are
plans for another large demonstration this weekend in D.C. and companion
demos in San Francisco and throughout the land, but this is more of the
same.

I do not want what I have said here to be construed as a claim that
nothing has been done for the past four years. A great deal of work is
going on to support soldiers who find the terms of their enlistment to
have been deceptive. Counseling youth who are considering volunteering is
ongoing. The networks of local groups that have carried on public protest
are in place.

I took a backseat to others because I have been concentrating on trying to
start a teaching career. I've lacked the time and energy to organize and
I've wondered about how much of my public reputation as an activist
hampers my attempts to get work in the timid bureaucratic world of public
school teaching. So please do not read this as criticism, so much as a
plea to change and deepen our tactics so that we can become a more
effective movement for peace and positive social change.

The reasons for public passivity in the face of significant threats to the
future of our general wellbeing, even the future of life on this planet,
are complex. This short harangue is not an attempt to fully address them,
because space does not permit me in a form that would be receivable by
most others. Volumes of social theory address that question and for those
interested I can recommend some writers and titles.

I still think that a campaign of rolling non-violent actions focusing on
the direct economic domestic support of this war is appropriate. It is
long overdue. Kathy Kelly and Voices for Creative Non-Violence have
initiated a series of sit-ins and blockades of congressional offices for
those who will not openly support and end to this debacle. They call it
The Occupation Project.

I fully support that strategy. But bringing up the costs, and benefits for
some, of this war in each community and opposing it locally, is even more
important. We've already seen the Democratic Party majority leadership
waffle on disengagement. They will continue to do so. The "voices of
reason" in the Democratic Party counsel patience and waiting. Of course
they are wrong.

Showing our communities that some of their friends and neighbors profit
from our destruction of Iraq would be the most direct way we can
non-violently show the connection between us and the Iraqis. Everything
else is just talk and symbolism, while we leave all of the decisions to
the architects and beneficiaries of this venture to secure massive oil
supplies for "us."

In the early 70s the slogan of the anti-Vietnam War movement was "Bring
The War Home." This led to many excrescences, but it was a good strategy
to make the cost of the war apparent to those in its homeland Active
nonviolence is a way to fight violence. "Power gives nothing without a
fight," and we haven't really been fighting. Yet.

R. Miles Mendenhall has been an activist off and on since 1975. He is
currently an unemployed Secondary School Social Science and English
teacher. Comments on, and criticisms of, his opinions may be sent to him
at: miles_mendenhall [at] hotmail.com.


--------23 of 23--------

 i sing of Olaf glad and big
 e.e. cummings

 i sing of Olaf glad and big
 whose warmest heart recoiled at war:
 a conscientious object-or

 his wellbelovd colonel(trig
 westpointer most succinctly bred)
 took erring Olaf soon in hand;
 but--though an host of overjoyed
 noncoms(first knocking on the
 head him)do through icy waters roll
 that helplessness which others stroke
 with brushes recently employed
 anent this muddy toiletbowl,
 while kindred intellects evoke
 allegiance per blunt instruments--
 Olaf(being to all intents
 a corpse and wanting any rag
 upon what God unto him gave)
 responds,without getting annoyed
 "I will not kiss your fucking flag"

 straightway the silver bird looked grave
 (departing hurriedly to shave)

 but--though all kinds of officers
 (a yearning nation's blueeyed pride)
 their passive prey did kick and curse
 until for wear their clarion
 voices and boots were much the worse,
 and egged the firstclassprivates on
 his rectum wickedly to tease
 by means of skilfully applied
 bayonets roasted hot with heat--
 Olaf(upon what were once knees)
 does almost ceaselessly repeat
 "there is some shit I will not eat"

 our president,being of which
 assertions duly notified
 threw the yellowsonofabitch
 into a dungeon,where he died

 Christ(of His mercy infinite)
 i pray to see;and Olaf,too

 preponderatingly because
 unless statistics lie he was
 more brave than me:
 more blond than you.

 e.e. cummings 1931


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   - David Shove             shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu
   rhymes with clove         Progressive Calendar
                     over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02
              please send all messages in plain text no attachments