716-332-3904 716-931-3520 7/17/18
Dear Friends,
The Commission of Corrections Medical Review Board has deemed that India Cummings tragic death 2 ½ years ago from 17 days in the Erie County Holding Center was homicide due to extreme medical neglect. We hope Scott LaPoint, the Monroe County pathologist who deemed her cause of death “undetermined” has the courage to restate that based on the investigation done. Please join us on Wednesdays at 4-5pm outside the Erie County Holding Center, at Delaware & Church, to vigil and protest (bring signs, please). No more deaths – uphold human rights and reverence for life!
Also tomorrow, don’t miss the Resist Militarism! Taskforce Meeting, joint with Veterans For Peace #128. We’ll be preparing for Focus on Yemen, including a session with – yes – Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, renown peace activist and Nobel Prize Nominee (July 30, 7pm at Burning Books).
On Saturday, July 21, you can
– catch the Global Days of Listening (7:30am-10:30am livestreaming) with the Afghan Peace Volunteers (go to globaldaysoflistening.org/)
– Celebrate/Honor Iris Alexander at 11am at Bidwell & Elmwood. We’ll celebrate the installation of a bench honoring Iris right by her beloved Women In Black (to be followed by same). Light refreshments; music – and all – welcome! Iris was a local legend – let’s remember and inspire each other with her example!
– If you missed the Stars under Stars fundraising events of our Latin American Solidarity Committee – come out this or next Saturday at 7:30pm for discussion, networking, information, and inspiration. This week focuses on Guatemala, and will be at Terry and Mary Bisson’s, 372 Voorhees Ave. (El Norte). BYO lawn chair and any refreshments you’d like, too!
Many thanks to the some 150 people or so who came out – including especially Food for All, Ismail & Co, WNY Resistance Revivial Chorus, and cosponsors – to the Celebration For Change!: a Poor People’s Campaign Event. We will #UnitetheStruggles more and more as we work and partner in the Poor People’s Campaign: a National Call for Moral Revival! Next meeting August 1, 6pm, 1199 SEIU, 2421 Main St, Suite 100, Buffalo. #PowertothePollsMany Thanks, Peace, Solidarity, and yes Love. Go to wnypeace.org to see our calendar for more details and events! aswell as the rest of this post. And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio orstreaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu orhttp://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/. #UniteTheStruggles #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver #LoveisLoveBUF
Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.
And be sure to go to wnypeace.org/calendar for more event listings – there’s plenty more and additions are frequent! …..
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. #UnitetheStruggles !
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love. #loveisloveBUF <3
June 26, 2018
Writing this week for the Chicago Tribune, Steve Chapman called a U.S. Government report on the war in Afghanistan “a chronicle of futility.” “The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction” report says the U.S. spent large sums “in search of quick gains” in regional stabilization – but these instead “exacerbated conflicts, enabled corruption and bolstered support for insurgents.”
“In short,” says Chapman, the U.S. government “made things worse rather than better.”
Gains, meanwhile, have certainly been made by weapon manufacturers. On average, during Trump’s first year in office, the Pentagon dropped 121 bombs per day on Afghanistan. The total number of weapons – missiles, bombs – deployed in Afghanistan by manned and remotely piloted aircraft through May this year is estimated at 2,339.
War profiteers deliver hellish realities and futile prospects, but the Afghan Peace Volunteers have not given up on bettering their country. In recent visits to Kabul, we’ve listened as they consider the longer-term question of how peace can come to an economically devastated country where employment by various warlords, including the U.S. and Afghan militaries, is many families’ only way to put bread on the table. Hakim, who mentors the APVs, assures us that a lasting peace must involve the creation of jobs and incomes with a hope of sustaining community. Inspired by Mohandas Gandhi’s calls for self-sufficiency, and the example of his Pashtun ally, Badshah Khan, they resist war by fostering education and creating local cooperatives.
Miriam is a student in the APVs’ “Street Kids’ School,” which prepares child laborers to pursue schooling while helping their families stay afloat with monthly rations of rice and oil. Sitting with me in the garden of the APVs’ Borderfree Center, her widowed mother, Gul Bek told me of the hardships she faces as a single mother of five.
Each month, she struggles to pay for water, rent, food, and fuel. Some years ago, a company installed a water pipeline leading to her home, but every month a representative from the company comes to collect 700 – 800 Afghanis (about $10.00) in payment for the family’s water consumption. An impoverished household – even free of war’s ravages – can’t easily spare $10. She tries hard to conserve. “But we must have water!” says Gul Bek. “We need it to clean, to cook, to do laundry.” She knows how important hygiene is, but she doesn’t dare go over her budget for water. Gul Bek fears she might be evicted if she can’t manage rent. Would she then go to a refugee camp in Kabul? She shakes her head. I asked if the government helps at all. “They know nothing about how we live,” she said. “At the beginning of Ramadan, we couldn’t even have bread. We had no flour.” Her two eldest sons, age 19 and 14, are beginning to learn tailoring skills and they attend school part time. I asked if she ever considers allowing them to join the military or the police to earn something closer to a living wage. She was adamant. After working so hard to raise these sons, she doesn’t want to lose them. She won’t allow them to carry guns.
Visiting a refugee camp several days later, I could understand her horror of moving into a camp. The camps are overcrowded, muddy, and dangerously unsanitary. An elder from the camp, Haji Jool, was entrusted with the keys to a control room for a well that two NGOs recently installed. On that day, the valves weren’t functioning. 200 of the 700 families in the camp depend on that well for water. I looked at the worried faces of women who had been waiting, since early morning, to collect water. What would they do? Haji Jool told me that most of the families had come from rural areas. They fled their homes because of war or because they lacked water. Kabul’s battered infrastructure, in desperate need of U.S. reparations for fifteen years of war, simply can’t sustain people.
Our APV friends, recognizing the need to create jobs and incomes, have begun forging ahead with impressive work to establish cooperatives. In early June, they initiated a shoemaking cooperative, led by two young men, Hussein and Hosham, who’ve already been trained and have taught their skills to Noorullah. They named their store “Unique.” A carpentry co-op will soon be up and running.
The APV are grateful to the many internationals who, over the past six winters, have assisted their annual “Duvet Project” to bring much-needed blankets to Kabul residents lacking protection from harsh winter
716-332-3904 716-931-3520 7/4/18
Dear Friends,
What a wonderful Families Belong Together Rally & March we had last Saturday! Many thanks to all who supported and participated. An estimated 1,500-2,500 came out, because the City of Good Neighbors will stand up for Humanity over Oppression every time! Si, se puede!
If you want to sign a petition in support, you could sign this one calling on governors to refuse to send the National Guard to militarize the Mexican border.. at https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/dont-let-your-governor.
And as a next step, please plan to join us for the Celebration For Change: a Poor People’s Campaign Event Thurs, July 12, 5:30 til 7:30pm at MLK Park. We’ll celebrate the 40 Days of Action and the many more to come as we #UnitetheStruggles. Music will include a Community Jam Sessions with Ismail & Co, and with the Women’s Resistance Revival Chorus; food (hot dogs and potluck); and great information and inspiration from supporting groups. Voter registration also included, and our #LoveisLove signs will also be on hand as membership gifts.
At the Celebration For Change, we’re excited that you will also meet our new Assistant Director, Gabrie’l Atchison – a longtime activist and organizer. We are thrilled to have her on board! If you’re associated with a group that wants to cosponsor, that means to publicize and table, just let us know at 332-3904, silverlight143@ymail.com or staceysm@buffalo.edu. You can also join us for a planning meeting on Thursday, July 5, 3:15, at the WNYPC, NRC Bldg, 1272Delaware Ave, Buffalo (entrance & pkg round back behind building). #UnitetheStruggles.
On this 4th of July, let’s remember the message of renowned peace activist, author, and historian Howard Zinnprogressive.org/howard-zinn-s-july-4-wisdom-stands-test-time/?utm_source=THE+PROGRESSIVE+UPDATED+LIST&utm_campaign=579ea26c32-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_21_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_194f0c7083-579ea26c32-186688709&mc_cid=5
Also please go to our website to see another July 4th illumination, as well as a number (3) Environmental Justice Taskforce events in the next two days.
Camp Peaceprints is also fast approaching. IF YOU ARE A LIFEGUARD AND ARE WILLING TO WORK 1-2PM ON TUES & THURS, with travel time and expenses also covered, IE, JULY 17, 19, 24, & 26, PLEASE CONTACT US AT 716-931-3520(CALL OR TEXT)!
Lastly don’t forget to sign your 8 to 13 year olds for Camp Peaceprints, now in its 11th year, July 16-27, M-F 10am-3pm; with swimming (4 times); field trips to new Underground Railroad Museum in/and Niagara Falls, as well as Tifft’s Nature Preserve. We’ll also be meeting with Mayor Brown. Sign them up with registration form accessible at wnypeace.org/education&humanrights
Many Thanks, Peace, Solidarity, and yes Love.
Go to wnypeace.org to see our calendar for more details and events! as well as the rest of this post.
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCAST MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/. #UniteTheStruggles #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver #LoveisLoveBUF
Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.
And be sure to go to wnypeace.org/calendar for more event listings – there’s plenty more and additions are frequent! …..
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. #UnitetheStruggles !
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love. #loveisloveBUF <3
