2009 LTLPF Plans

On November 2, twelve committed agents of peace met to set the priorities for 2009.  We would love to do everything (and will probably try in spite of our well-intentioned priority setting), but want to make sure we put most of our time, effort, and resources into what is most important to us.

First, we formally adopted a mission statement, which you will find at the top of this page.  Then we got down to specifics.

This year's most pressing issues are:

• The economy
• The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan/Pakistan
• U.S. actions in the Americas
• Climate change / the environment / justice issues
• Palestine and Israel

And this year's program priorities are:

• Film and speaker series with two major topics:  (1) understanding economic systems and their implications for social justice; (2) understanding the other countries in the Americas, their political systems, and the actions our government has taken since the Monroe Doctrine to influence, control, or even destabilize them.
• Three Cups of Tea: beginning with a community read of the book, co-sponsored by the Charlevoix Public LIbrary, this multi-year umbrella project will involve several communities, the schools, churches, and other organizations.
• 350 Event:  to increase the awareness in our community of the number 350 (see www.350.org) and its significance, we will plan a community-wide fun event.
• LTLPF reading list / lending library:  we're going to develop a reading list for people interested in the topics that concern our group, and post it on this site.  We will also make printed copies available.
• Sixth anniversary event:  we'll recognize the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq on March 21.  Details TBD.
• Mothers Day event:  we are not sure what we're doing exactly -- the same thing we've done in years past, a luncheon or dinner honoring mothers of servicemen and servicewomen, or both?

We will also be working on some other items such as this blog, the Peace Digest (or maybe an online version of it?), an informational brochure, and membership outreach.

Please share your thoughts - let us know what you would like to do, what you would like us to do, and how you think the group can best accomplish its mission. 

NOT WAITING FOR GODOT

Some people are not waiting to see what Obama will do as president before acting. In South Korea activists are now meeting and publicly calling on president-elect Obama to end the dangerous and costly U.S.-South Korea (ROK) military alliance that is contributing to major tensions in the region.

The U.S. is currently doubling its military presence in the Asian-Pacific region. New and expanded Pentagon bases are going into Guam, Australia, Japan, and South Korea. "Missile defense" is being peddled to Australia, Japan, and South Korea which is forcing China, who today only has 20 nuclear missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the U.S., to produce more for fear that a U.S. "first-strike" could knock out their nuclear capability. In fact the U.S. Space Command has been war gaming such a first-strike attack on China for the past several years!

If Obama wants to reduce global tensions he should begin negotiating a de-escalation of militarism in the Asian-Pacific region. If Obama wants money for health care, education, energy policy, and new jobs at home then he must stop expanding U.S. military bases in that region and throughout the world.

Activists from Solidarity for Peace & Reunification of Korea (SPARK) in South Korea have it right. Make demands on Obama now, before he sets his foreign and military policy in stone.

We in the U.S. have much to learn from our friends in South Korea.

The Global Network has been invited to hold its 2009 space organizing conference in South Korea on April 16-18.

Several key peace groups in South Korea will host the conference and we hope we can all celebrate the cancellation of the U.S.-ROK military alliance. We hope to raise our glasses to toast a new U.S.-ROK and U.S.-Asian Peace Alliance in place of the antiquated war making venture that now dominates our nations agenda.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)

Nov. 2 -- You are invited to the LTLPF Planning Meeting

The Little Traverse League for Peace and Freedom will be moving its planning retreat to Sunday afternoon, November 2, in order to avoid the conflict with the Alba injection well teach-in on the 26th.

Perhaps you attended our recent movie / speaker event, "Refusing to Be Enemies," which profiled the efforts of 12 women, 6 Arab and 6 Jewish, as they attempted to understand each other through dialog. If so, you know how valuable the contributions of the LTLPF are to the Charlevoix area. At our planning meeting, we will be setting priorities for the next year. For example, we'll select movies for our winter film series; plan the Community Read we're co-ordinating with the Charlevoix Public Library and Charlevoix High School; and flesh out the year-1 plan for the Three Cups of Tea initiative.

Can you help us figure out what our priorities should be and how we can reach as many people as possible with our message of peace? Could you devote a few hours as we head into this election, to the cause that eclipses the rest, peace? If so, please call me at the number below. I will let you know the time and place of the meeting, and ensure that we provide you with all of the materials ahead of time.

Why Women Should Vote

WHY WOMEN SHOULD VOTE

This is the story of our Grandmothers and Great-grandmothers; they lived only 90 years ago.

Remember, it was not until 1920 that women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote.

 

The women were innocent and defenseless, but they were jailed
nonetheless for picketing the White House, carrying signs asking
for the vote.

And by the end of the night, they were barely alive.
Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing
went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of
'obstructing sidewalk traffic.'

 
They beat Lucy Burns, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding
and gasping for air.

 
They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her
head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her
cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and
suffered a heart attack.

Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women.

Thus unfolded the 'Night of Terror' on Nov. 15, 1917,
when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their
food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms.

When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on
a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced
a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her
until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks
until word was smuggled out to the press.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/suffrage/nwp/prisoners.pdf

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because- -why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work?  Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new
movie 'Iron Jawed Angels.' It is a graphic depiction of the battle
these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling
booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the
actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote.
Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege.
Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history,
saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk
about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. 'One thought
kept coming back to me as I watched that movie,' she said.
'What would those women think of the way I use, or don't use,
my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just
younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn.' The
right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her 'all over again.'

HBO released the movie on video and DVD . I wish all history,
social studies and government teachers would include the movie in
their curriculum I want it shown on Bunco night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy.

The doctor admonished the men: 'Courage in women is often
mistaken for insanity.' Please, if you are so inclined, pass
this on to all the women you know.

We need to get out and vote and use this right that was
fought so hard for by these very courageous women. Whether
you vote democratic, republican or independent party -
remember to vote.

History is being made.

Legalize Medical Marijuana

See what the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care has to say:
http://mpp.convio.net/site/MessageViewer?em_id=16641.0&dlv_id=13581