This Thursday, there will be a National Day of Action on Thursday, April 4, to demand that Attorney General William Barr #ReleaseTheReport since he has failed to meet the deadline set by Congressional leaders of Tuesday, April 2. Barr has offered an alternate timeline for a redacted version of the report—but we deserve the full report and Congressional leaders and the American people expect it now. Meet us at 5pm on Thursday!
On 4/4/19, we will welcome the Poor People’s Campaign’s National Emergency Van Tour and commemorate 51 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. started the first Poor People’s Campaign, since his participation in and support of the sanitation workers’ strike, and since Dr. King’s last sermon, ‘I’ve been to the mountaintop’. It is also 51 years, to the day, of his assassination. Join us at the foot of Ferry (West Ferry St., Broderick Park) at the Harriet Tubman Historical Plaque at 6:45pm to meet Poor People’s Campaign members from across the state. We’ll spend some time learning about the rich abolitionist history of Buffalo and New York State! Learn more about other tour stops here!
On Sunday, April 7 @ 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Sister Anita Baird will speak on the topic, “Justice is JUST US”
At St. Columba-Brigid Church, 75 Hickory St, Buffalo. Acclaimed and inspired preacher Sister Anita has won the 2018 LCWR Oustanding Leadership Award; is the founder of the Archiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice; and also earned the Harriet Tubman “Moses of Her People” Award. Followed by reception. Fundraiser for the SSJ Sr Karen Klimczak Center. http://www.sisterkarencenter.org.
Sunday, 4/7 is also the deadline to purchase tickets for the Sierra Club dinner on 4/10! Get your tickets today. Sierra Club Niagara Group Annual Awards Dinner
April 10 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
At the Unitarian Universalist Church, W Ferry & Elmwood. This year the Sierra Club Niagara Group is celebrating our eco-heros with a plant based meal catered to perfection. We hope you will join Sierra Club Niagara to honor a year of accomplishments, hard work and passion for the planet from our volunteers and our award winners. Deadline to purchase tickets is Sunday, 4/7.
Our PeaceJam program will begin on Tuesday, April 9 and will continue on Tuesdays for 11 weeks, 3-5pm (except when school is out) at the CAO Rafi Green Center, 1423 Fillmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Parents are welcome to register their children for this program. wnypeace.org.
**We have extended the deadline to receive Board nominations for the WNY Peace Center. Please forward any suggestions to nominations@wnypeace.org. Thank you.**
As usual, this week brings us new opportunities to work towards peace through justice!
Events this week:
School Board Candidates Forum
April 2 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
At Lafayette High School, VOICE-Buffalo’s Criminal Justice Task Force and the Buffalo Immigrant Leadership Team (BILT) will take collective action to hold Buffalo Public School Board Candidates accountable to the needs of the people. VOICE-Buffalo and BILT are inviting Candidates to answer questions about community concerns about commitments to English Language Learner students to raise the ELL graduation rate and to reduce the number of school suspensions in Buffalo Public Schools. Please join us for an evening of collective action and dialogue around these critical issues.
Border week-Canisius: a photo-legacy of César Chávez
April 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
April 2nd 7:00 – 8:30 pm: César Chávez, A Legacy Stranczek Commons, Science Hall, Canisius College (parking along Main Street near Delevan) Join Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer José Galvez as he explores César Chávez, the farm workers’ movement, and his own personal cultural revolution. Free and open to the public. http://blogs.canisius.edu/border/borderweek2019/
Combatting White Supremacy Terrorism and Gun Violence,
April 3 @ 7:15 pm
Organized by UB’s Amnesty International Student Activist Group. Keynote address by Mr. Qasim Rashid, a human rights attorney, best-selling author, former Harvard University Fellow of Islamic Studies, Current Truman National Security Fellow, Black Lives Matter Advocate. University At Buffalo, North Campus, 201 Natural Sciences Complex, Buffalo, NY 14228.
Remembering Rev. Dr. King – in Truth and Love
April 4 @ 12:00 am – 11:59 pm
This week is the anniversary both of Rev. Dr. King’s ground-breaking and iconic Beyond Vietnam speech (link to text and audio of speech) at Riverside Church, NYC; as well as of his being murdered in Memphis, TN, where he went to support the Sanitation Workers’ strike.
Rally to Demand the full release of the full Mueller report
April 4 @ 5pm
Elmwood Avenue and Bidwell Parkway, Buffalo, NY.
Demand that Attorney General William Barr #ReleaseTheReport since he has failed to meet the deadline set by Congressional leaders.
Border week-Canisius: migrant Farm Labor in WNY – film and discussion
April 4 @ 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm
April 4th 5:30 – 7:30 pm: “After I Pick the Fruit.” Film Screening and Reception Stranczek Commons, Science Hall, Canisius College (parking along Main Street near Delevan) Free and open to the public. 7:30 – 8:30 pm: Panel: (Im)migrants and Farm Labor in WNY Stranczek Commons, Science Hall, Free and open to the public.
Poor People’s Campaign: Nat’l Emergency Freedom School Bus Tour Kickoff!
April 4 @ 6:45 pm – 7:30 pm
Join us at the foot of Ferry (West Ferry St., Broderick Park) at the Harriet Tubman Historical Plaque to meet Poor People’s Campaign members from across the state. We’ll spend some time learning about the rich abolitionist history of Buffalo and New York State! Learn more about other tour stops here!
The Kairos Blanket Exercise- Witness to Injustice-Train the trainer
April 6 @ 9:00 am – April 7 @ 5:00 pm
More details to be determined, but if you are interested, visit www.nacswny.org, or call Native American Community Services at (716) 874-4460 for more information. The Blanket Exercise is based on participatory popular education methodology and the goal is to build understanding about our shared history as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples.
Sr Anita Baird, DHM: “Justice is JUST US”
April 7 @ 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm
At St. Columba-Brigid Church, 75 Hickory St, Buffalo. Acclaimed and inspired preacher Sister Anita has won the 2018 LCWR Oustanding Leadership Award; is the founder of the Archiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice; and also earned the Harriet Tubman “Moses of Her People” Award. Followed by reception. Fundraiser for the SSJ Sr Karen Klimczak Center.
Film Screening – “Paris to Pittsburgh”
April 8 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Daemen College, Schenck Hall, Room 107. “Paris to Pittsburgh” – Free public film screening on Monday, April 8 at 7pm, Info-contact byoung@daemen.edu. “Paris to Pittsburgh shines a light on the many forgotten communities and people who have been affected by climate change in our country, as well as solutions for how we can fight back.
Sierra Club Niagara Group Annual Awards Dinner
April 10 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
At the Unitarian Universalist Church, W Ferry & Elmwood. This year the Sierra Club Niagara Group is celebrating our eco-heros with a plant based meal catered to perfection. We hope you will join Sierra Club Niagara to honor a year of accomplishments, hard work and passion for the planet from our volunteers and our award winners. Deadline to purchase tickets is Sunday, 4/7.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
***********
More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.
To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line.
To unsubscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “unsubscribe” in subject line. (Sorry for occasional delays!)
Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.
Please call your/our legislators – both senators and congressional representative – today to ask them to vote and act as requested by the many Peace Action reps (including PANYS President Jim Anderson and WNYPC Director Vicki Ross) who are asking them to support peace worldwide in many ways. High on the list is stop aiding Saudi war crimes on Yemen (thank Sen Gillibrand); support peace in Korea; no-first-use nuclear policy; and defund war while funding peace! Calling 202-224-3121 will reach each and all.
Students from some of the 20 NYS Student Chapters of Peace Action New York State (PANYS) along with other chapters including the WNY Peace Center; lobbying Senators Schumer’s excellent legislative aide, Clarissa Chandoo, on peace issues and stopping the militarism!!
Judging U.S. War Crimes
Peace Activist Kathy Kelly contributed the below, elaborating on the desperate situation(s).
kathyincircle1
Judging U.S. War Crimes by Kathy Kelly
March 10, 2019
Chelsea Manning, who bravely exposed atrocities committed by
the U.S. military, is again imprisoned in a U.S. jail. On International Women’s
Day, March 8, 2019, she was incarcerated in the Alexandria, VA federal detention
center for refusing to testify in front of a secretive Grand Jury. Her
imprisonment can extend through the term of the Grand Jury, possibly 18 months,
and the U.S. courts could allow formation of future Grand Juries, potentially
jailing her again.
Chelsea Manning has already paid an extraordinarily high
price for educating the U.S. public about atrocities committed in the wars of
choice the U.S. waged in Iraq and Afghanistan. Chelsea Manning was a U.S. Army
soldier and former U.S. intelligence analyst. She already testified, in court,
how she downloaded and disseminated government documents revealing classified
information she believed represented possible war crimes. In 2013, she was
convicted by court martial and sentenced to 35 years in prison for leaking
government documents to Wikileaks. On January 17, 2017, President Obama
commuted her sentence. In May of 2017, she was released from military prison having
served seven years.
“Where you stand determines what you see.” Chelsea Manning,
by virtue of her past work as an analyst with the U.S. military, carefully
studied footage of what could only be described as atrocities against human
beings. She saw civilians killed, on her screen, and conscience didn’t allow
her to ignore what she witnessed, to more or less change the channel. One scene
of carnage occurred on July 12, 2007, in Iraq. Chelsea Manning made available
to the world the black and white grainy footage and audio content which depicted
a U.S. helicopter gunship indiscriminately firing on Iraqi civilians. Twelve people
were killed, including two Reuters journalists.
What follows is part of the dialogue from the classified US
military video footage from July 12th:
US SOLDIER 2: Alright, we just engaged
all eight individuals.
Amy Goodman described
the next portion of the video:
AMY GOODMAN: Minutes later, the video
shows US forces watching as a van pulls up to evacuate the wounded. They again
open fire, killing several more people, wounding two children inside the
van.
US SOLDIER 2: Bushmaster, Crazy Horse.
We have individuals going to the scene, looks like possibly picking up bodies
and weapons.
US SOLDIER 1: Let me engage. Can I
shoot?
US SOLDIER 2: Roger. Break. Crazy
Horse one-eight, request permission to engage.
US SOLDIER 3: Picking up the wounded?
US SOLDIER 1: Yeah, we’re trying to
get permission to engage. Come on, let us shoot!
US SOLDIER 2: Bushmaster, Crazy Horse
one-eight.
US SOLDIER 1: They’re taking him.
US SOLDIER 2: Bushmaster, Crazy Horse
one-eight.
US SOLDIER 4: This is Bushmaster
seven, go ahead.
US SOLDIER 2: Roger. We have a
black SUV —- or Bongo truck picking up the bodies. Request permission
to engage.
US SOLDIER 4: Bushmaster seven, roger.
This is Bushmaster seven, roger. Engage.
US SOLDIER 2: One-eight, engage.
Clear.
US SOLDIER 1: Come on!
US SOLDIER 2: Clear. Clear.
US SOLDIER 1: We’re engaging.
US SOLDIER 3: I got ’em.
US SOLDIER 2: Should have a van in the
middle of the road with about twelve to fifteen bodies.
US SOLDIER 1: Oh yeah, look at that.
Right through the windshield! Ha!
Democracy Now, in the same segment, asked
former U.S. whistleblower Dan Ellsberg for comments about releasing the video. “What
were the criteria,” Ellsberg asked, “that led to denying this to the public?
And how do they stand up when we actually see the results? Is anybody going to
be held accountable for wrongly withholding evidence of war crimes in this
case…?”
Chelsea Manning’s disclosures also led to public awareness
of the Granai
massacre in Afghanistan. On May 4, 2009, Taliban forces attacked U.S. and
Afghan forces in Afghanistan’s Farah province. The U.S. military called for
U.S. airstrikes on buildings in the village of Granai. A U.S. Air Force B-1
bomber was used to drop 2,000 lb. and 500 lb. bombs, killing an estimated 86 to
147 women and children. The U.S. Air Force has videotape of the Granai
massacre. Ellsberg called for President Obama to post the videotape rather than
wait to see if Wikileaks would release it. To this day, the video hasn’t been
released. Apparently, a disgruntled Wikileaks employee destroyed the footage.
Were it not for Chelsea Manning’s courageous disclosures, certain
U.S. military atrocities might have been kept secret. Her revelations were also
key to exposing U.S. approval of the 2008 coup against the elected government
in Honduras and U.S. dealings with dictators and oligarchs across the Middle
East, which helped spark the Arab Spring rebellions.
Prior to her
arrest in 2010, Chelsea Manning wrote: “I want people to see the truth,
regardless of who they are. Because without information, you cannot make
informed decisions as a public.”
Chelsea Manning’s principled and courageous actions provide
guidance for us to control our fears. We must seek an end to war crimes in
Afghanistan, Iraq and other areas where the U.S. terrifies and kills civilians.
We are in the midst of Peace Action’s National Organizing Meeting, and we’re meeting with our congresspersons in the name of peace! We are demanding that our government put an end to endless wars and endless military spending, commit to building communities that work for all of us, and guide U.S. foreign policy away from war and towards sustainable peace. Please call Congressman Brian Higgins – 26th Congressional district– (202) 225-3306, or locally (716) 852-3501 to voice your concerns tomorrow (Tuesday, 3/26), preferably from 12:30-1:30pm to voice your concerns.
The LASC Peace Coffeehouse is tonight! 7-8:30pm, Canisius College Science Hall. James Jordan of the Alliance for Global Justice will speak on his continuing work for economic labor justice in Columbia, Venezuela, and throughout Latin America.
**We have extended the deadline to receive Board nominations for the WNY Peace Center. Please forward any suggestions to nominations@wnypeace.org. Thank you.**
Thank you to everyone who attended last week’s events Northern Access Pipelines speakouts! Thank you to everyone who attending Fly Kites Not Drones at LaSalle Park!
Save the Date: On 4/4/19, we will welcome the Poor People’s Campaign’s National Emergency Van Tour and commemorate 51 years since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. started the first Poor People’s Campaign, since his participation in and support of the sanitation workers’ strike, and since Dr. King’s last sermon, ‘I’ve been to the mountaintop’. It is also 51 years, to the day, of his assassination. Stay tuned to wnypeace.org and the weekly news for more information.
Also, tonight – Prisoners Are People Too Monthly Meeting, 7-9pm, CAO Rafi Green Center, 1423 Fillmore Avenue, Buffalo, NY. Open to the public. Please also see the poignant article by abolitionist Karima Amin, and information on the upcoming Prison Abolition Conference, in the body of this post (under Prisoners’ Rights).
As usual, this week brings us new opportunities to work towards peace through justice!
Events this week:
Think Indigenous: Richard Oakes & the Red Power Movement
March 25 @ 5:00 pm, 10 Capen (The Buffalo Room), UB. Talk by historian Prof. Kent Blansett, Univ of Nebraska, Omaha. As the University at Buffalo marks the anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement with exhibitions, installations, and programming centered on the theme “Revolution: Civil Rights at UB, 1960-1975 ,” the Indigenous Inclusion Subcommittee and the Haudenosaunee-Native American Research Group, with support from the Department of History, are pleased to welcome historian Kent Blansett to campus for a talk about the Red Power movement of this period and the important work of Akwesasne Mohawk activist Richard Oakes. Free and open to the public. See complete event post for more information and links to relevant articles.
Labor Solidarity – Latin America
March 25 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
March Peace Coffeehouse, Canisius College Science Hall (pking on main near Delevan). James Jordan of the Alliance for Global Justice will speak on his continuing work for economic labor justice in Columbia, Venezuela, and throughout Latin America. Light refreshments. Jointly sponsored by PeaceAction – Canisius College, and the WNY Peace Center’s LASC/Latin American Solidarity Committee.
Prisoners Are People Too Monthly Meeting
March 25, 7:00 to 9:00pm
C.A.O. Masten Resource/Rafi Greene Center, 1423 Fillmore Avenue @ Glenwood.
Regular monthly meeting, open to the public. Please also see the poignant article by abolitionist Karima Amin, and information on the upcoming Prison Abolition Conference, in the body of this post (under Prisoners’ Rights).
Call-in to Cong. Higgins’ DC Office!!
March 26 @ 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Please call Cong Higgins’ DC Office at 202-225-3306 to support PeaceAction/WNYPC positions (undo AUMF, re-do disarmament agreements, mammoth decrease in military funding, create PEACE DIVIDEND!!, more) while PANYS President Jim Anderson, WNYPC Exec Director Vicki Ross, and others are meeting with Cong Higgins.
Styrofoam Ban – Common Council hearing – Come out to voice your concerns
March 26 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
13th Floor, City Hall, 65 Niagara Square, Buffalo, NY 14202.
Community Development Committee meeting on this issue this coming Tuesday, 3/26 at 2pm in the Common Council chamber (13th floor in City Hall), and the Sierra Club Niagara Group is specifically invited to attend per the agenda item. Members of the public are asked to attend and discuss the pros and cons of a Styrofoam ban. Please come if you can to voice your support for this proposal. We have included 2 fact sheets on the waste and health issues that you can use as talking points, and a video for your review.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2098476837129562/
Poverty is a Human Rights Issue: Social Work and Economic Justice
March 27 @ 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
4th Annual Symposium UB School of Social Work
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Room 1220
995 Main St, Buffalo NY 14203 (use entrance at corner of Main St. and High St.). This event is free and open to the public, though pre-registration is required. Visit eventbrite.com for more information.
Many more events on the website!
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting.
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
***********
More listings on website (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts.
To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line.
To unsubscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “unsubscribe” in subject line. (Sorry for occasional delays!)
Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.
And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.
