Way Forward Peace through Ceasefire, Dialogue--Mairead Corrigan Maguire

Peace People Call for Fair Response to Palestinians
Maired Corrigan Maguire's words

Excerpt, editing for TIN by 

Carolyn Bennett

T

he Palestinian people have issued a call (we must answer)  for the support of the world’s people, asking us to stand with them.

Palestinians point out that the United Nations Security Council (permanent members U.S. UK, China, Russia, France) paralyzed by the United States will not send an observer mission so they have appealed for peace observers to go to Palestine to tell the world what is really happening to their people under Israeli military occupation. 

·     Western Leaders and mainstream media have come up with disingenuous statements repeating Israeli disinformation and blaming the Palestinian victims. 

·     Biased against Palestinians, these leaders and media outlets continue to tell the Israeli narrative. 

·     If Palestinians and Israelis, indeed the Middle East region are to be saved and to move toward peace, it is time that Israeli propaganda be shown for what it is – war propaganda. 

·    This is not an Israeli fight to stop Hamas-- who are not the aggressors. 

·      Israel has answered every occasion for dialogue with military attacks on Palestinian civilians. 

·     Israel has chosen land [grabs] and continues to annex Palestinian land, demolishing Palestinian homes. 

·      The war Israel is waging on Gaza is not about self-defense. 

·      The war Israel is waging is not about destroying Hamas; it is a war about complete control over a territory and a people and it is being conducted with complete disregard for human life. 

·      It is a war aimed at destroying the resilience of the Palestinian people whilst, all the time, illegally confiscating their land. 

P

Maired Corrigan Maguire

eace is possible.

An immediate ceasefire together with dialogue is the only way forward.

We owe it to our

Palestinian and Israeli brothers and Sisters who are working for peace and a nonviolent solution to answer their call …. Let us together as civil community around the world continue and increase our efforts to demand mainstream media talk about the real issues and reach out to all people of conscience in Europe and in the United States and elsewhere to support the Palestinians in their struggle for human rights and International law.

  

Sources and notes

“MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE CALLS UPON BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION AND mainstream western media to end bias against Palestinians and [end] their [media’s] lack of impartiality against Palestinians and in their reporting of Middle East conflicts.

“She called on the BBC, and world media to give factual, fair and balanced reporting in order that people can be informed and not continue to be subjected to Israeli propaganda. Maguire also called for an immediate ceasefire and dialogue ‘as the only way forward.’” Mairead Corrigan Maguire is in Peace People press release July 14, 2014, http://www.peacepeople.com/?p=456

U

pdate on Israel's massacre in Gaza

RT: “Israeli tank strikes on Gaza hospital kill 4, scores injured – medics,” July 21, 2014, RT, http://rt.com/news/174408-israel-hospital-strike-gaza/

The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) death toll from the hostilities in Gaza has risen to 25, with seven Israeli soldiers killed in the last 24 hours (Haaretz). Since the operation began 14 days ago, the death toll in Gaza has reached 508 with 3,130 wounded.

Press TV: “Israeli forces killing Gazans with lethal shells: Rights group,” July 21, 2014, http://www.presstv.com/section/3510202.html

Medics say some Palestinians in the besieged enclave have been wounded by a new type of weapon that even doctors with previous experience in war zones do not recognize. Israel had also used depleted-uranium and white phosphorus shells in the besieged region during their previous assaults. This is while Israeli tanks and warplanes keep pounding the besieged enclave. At least 78 Palestinians were killed on Monday alone. 

This brings to 549 the total death toll from 14 days of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip. Over 3,000 Palestinians have also been injured in the onslaught. The majority of victims have been civilians--including women, children, and the elderly. 

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy
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Women “Strike against war” passionately for nonviolence: Keller, Maguire, Williams

 Great struggle continues 1916, 1979, 2013 -

Minor edit, excerpts by 

Carolyn Bennett

Betty Williams speaking in 1976

“We wish to see those who keep the lights burning twenty-four hours a day in the Pentagon and the Kremlin and all the other great centers of militarism liberated into truly creative and happy lives, instead of the soul-destroying tasks of preparing for self-destruction.…

“We as Peace People … believe in taking down the barriers, but we also believe in the most energetic reconciliation among peoples by getting them to know each other, talk each other’s languages, understand each other's fears and beliefs, getting to know each other physically, philosophical, and spiritually. It is much harder to kill your near neighbor than the thousands of unknown and hostile aliens at the other end of any missiles; and that is going to take a tremendous amount of sheer hard work.

“The only force which can break down those barriers is the force of love, the force of trust, soul-force....

Nobel Peace Laureates
Mairead Corrigan Maguire (L)
Betty Williams (R)

We are deeply, passionately dedicated to the cause of nonviolence, to the force of truth and love, to soul-force. To those who say that we are naive, utopian idealists, we say that we are the only realists, and that those who continue to support militarism in our time are supporting the progress towards total self-destruction of the human race, when the only right and left will be dead to the right and dead to the left, and death and destruction right, left and center, east and west, north and south.

“To the whole world, we repeat the same message that we proclaimed in August 1976. It is the Declaration of the Peace People:

We have a simple message for the world from this movement for peace.

We want to live and love and build a just and peaceful society.

Nobel Peace Laureate
Betty Williams

We want for our children, as we want for ourselves, lives at home, at work and at play to be lives of joy and peace.

We recognize that to build such a life demands of all of us dedication, hard work and courage.

We recognize that there are many problems in our society which are a source of conflict and violence.

We recognize that every bullet fired and every exploding bomb makes that work more difficult.

We reject the use of the bomb and the bullet and all the techniques of violence.

We dedicate ourselves to working with our neighbors, near and far, day in and day out, to building that peaceful society in which the tragedies we have known are a bad memory and a continuing warning.

“The voice of women has a special role and a special soul-force in the struggle for a nonviolent world. We do not wish to replace religious sectarianism or ideological division with sexism or any kind of militant feminism. But we do believe that women have a leading role to play in this great struggle.”

Máiread Corrigan Maguire speaking in 2013

“There is nothing good or glorious about violence, armed rebellions, militarism, nuclear weapons and war.

“Suicide bombings, extrajudicial killings, renditioning, secret trials, and torturing other human beings is always wrong and we as world citizens have the power to stop such inhumanity by raising our voices against the use of such methods be they used by individuals, armed rebels, or governments. Torture should never be accepted and the current policies of many Governments to ignore civil and human rights in the name of ‘war on terrorism’ is a denial of every world citizen’s right to basic freedom, worked for so long and hard by many people. When basic freedoms are denied or removed by governments, or rebel groups, people have a moral and legal responsibility to demand the return of those rights, otherwise all we have is domination and fear; and freedom, democracy and peace are no longer part of the people’s rich identity and inheritance.

“I believe we have to change our thinking and our mindsets. Much of our thinking is being distorted as it is based on the emotion of fear of ‘otherness.’  We see other people and countries, through the lens of fear which leads to hatred and demonization of others whom we see as separate and different, because of religion, race, class, etc. We have allowed fear to be our master. But there is another way to think and live and we are challenged to change both individually and collectively to bring about real change in our world.

“I believe the next stage of our evolution as the human family is to embrace nonviolence. This will mean rejecting violence in all its forms and solving our problems together through nonviolence, human rights and international law. Replacing ‘armed’ rebellions, militarism and war, with international law, is not an impossible task and will happen when we humans reach the critical mass of people who know that each life is sacred, and say ‘no’ to killing, force and the threat of force,  which is currently used by most governments and extremist groups around the world. We are challenged to stop killing each other, and instead use alternatives to violence in order to solve our problems.”

Helen Keller speaking in 1916

Author & Political Activist
Helen Keller

“Strike against all ordinances and laws and institutions that continue the slaughter of peace …. 

Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing of shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. 

Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb-obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.…

Every modern war has had its root in exploitation. 

The Civil War was fought to decide whether slaveholders of the South or the capitalists of the North should exploit the West.

The Spanish-American War decided that the United States should exploit Cuba and the Philippines.

The South African War decided that the British should exploit the diamond mines.

The Russo-Japanese War decided that Japan should exploit Korea.

The present war [World War I] is to decide who shall exploit the Balkans, Turkey, Persia, Egypt, India, China, Africa; and we are whetting our sword to scare the victors into sharing the spoils with us. …

“The preparedness propagandists have still another object, and a very important one.

They want to give the people something to think about besides their won unhappy condition. They know the cost of living is high, wages are low, employment is uncertain and will be much more so when the European call for munitions stops. No matter how hard and incessantly the people work, they often cannot afford the comforts of life; many cannot obtain the necessities.

“The kind of preparedness the workers want, however, is reorganization and reconstruction of their whole life, such as has never been attempted by statesmen or governments.

The Germans found out years ago that they could not raise good soldiers in the slums so they abolished the slums.

They saw to it that all the people had at least a few of the essentials of civilization--decent lodging, clean streets, wholesome if scanty food, proper medical care and proper safeguards for the workers in their occupations.

“That is only a small part of what should be done …. It is your duty to insist upon still more radical measure. 

It is your business to see that no child is employed in an industrial establishment or mine or store, and that no worker is needlessly exposed to accident or disease.

It is your business to make them give you clean cities, free from smoke, dirt and congestion.

It is your business to make them pay you a living wage.

It is your business to see that this kind of preparedness is carried into every department on the nation, until everyone has a chance to be well born, well nourished, rightly educated, intelligent and serviceable to the country at all times.

“Strike against all ordinances and laws and institutions that continue the slaughter of peace ….  Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing of shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb-obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction.…”

Sources

Betty Williams 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech on behalf of herself and Máiread Corrigan Maguire, http://www.dadalos.org/int/Vorbilder/vorbilder/PeacePeople/nobel_prize.htm

“‘Stand In Solidarity For Peace Time To Act’: Replacing Violence, Armed Rebellions, Militarism and War with Nonviolence and International Law,” address by Mairead Maguire at the 13th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Warsaw, Poland, on October 2l-23, 2013,

http://www.nobelforpeace-summits.org/info-nobel-eng/address-mairead-maguire-13th-world-summit-of-nobel-peace-laureates-warsaw/

“Strike against War” Helen Keller Speech given at Carnegie Hall, New York City, January 5, 1916, http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/famous-speeches-by-women/helen-keller-speech.htm

  

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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“Please DON’T THANK ME for my service” ─ Veteran Andrew Larkin

“No Glory in War”

Excerpt, minor edit by Carolyn Bennett

“War damages everything associated with it: ● Not only the sailors and soldiers but the civilians including the children ● Not only the body but the mind and the spirit. 

“Glorification of war becomes support for more war, for accepting the easy violence of war ─ instead of the difficult peaceful resolution of human problems.

Afghan deadWar's endless sufferersPeople of Afghanistan

“… Veterans Day ceremonies perpetuate a myth of fear that we have created for ourselves and that we have allowed our false leaders to impose upon us. 

“We invent myths of defense against those we fear ─ instead of living truly free.

“We perpetuate fear to maintain fantasies of victory and glory and nostalgia for the oxymoronic ‘good war.’ 

We spend $trillions and kill and injure millions of people;

We sacrifice our own people and our people’s needs [for] fantasies of glory, [for] perpetuation of fear.

“War, if it continues, will bring down a nation built by generations of hard-working, dedicated people — a long collapse to be caused by economic and moral bankruptcy, and by the anger, envy and spite of people around the world.

Injury compounded by insult

“Please don’t tell me

War's endless sufferers - People of Iraq

‘thank you for your service’ because that is revolting to me. 

“Instead, thank others for their services to your true freedom:  the creators, growers, healers, preservers.

“As a veteran I might participate in the ceremonies if I could display my opposition to war at those ceremonies; but I cannot because many would be angered, not enlightened, not persuaded.  I would be told, without embarrassment, that ‘freedom isn’t free.’ Even [my] words written here will permit many to indulge their anger.”

War's endless sufferersPeople of Vietnam

Andrew Larkin is a Vietnam-era veteran “as are [his] friends and brothers,” he says. His father, uncles and an aunt were World War II veterans; a great uncle was stationed on a battleship during World War I; a great-grandfather, an immigrant in an Illinois regiment, fought in the Civil War and sustained a bullet wound that caused him to suffer for “the rest of his life.” Andrew Larkin is also Emeritus Professor of Economics at St Cloud State University (Minnesota) and writes for PeaceVoice.

Sources and notes

“No Glory in War: Reflections on the Day from a Veteran” November 11, 2013, by Andrew Larkin, NCVeditor; Category: Guest Author, Politics, newclearvision.comhttp://www.newclearvision.com/2013/11/11/no-glory-in-war/

New Clear Vision: constructive commentary for the chronically farsighted - See more at: http://www.newclearvision.com/about/#sthash.sRQ4SGuL.dpuf

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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How many dead is “enough”? Hollins U Poli.sci. student Lachelle Roddy asks

 Lachelle Roddy

Having had enough she calls for end to U.S. Middle East wars, commitment to care: nonviolence in foreign relations

Re-reporting, editing by
Carolyn Bennett

Motivated young

“I live in a global village in Roanoke, Virginia; and in school (Hollins University), there are many women from the Middle East including Afghanistan and Palestine. They never know whether their families will be alive the next day because of U.S. drones as well as U.S. funding of Israeli war crimes.

Syrians protest
foreigners' interference

“It is very difficult for them to go to school (in the United States) when they have so much hardship back home because of our nation’s foreign policy; especially when, out of fear of being labeled a terrorist, they cannot speak up.”

U.S. Senate hearing considering John Kerry for U.S. Secretary of State

“I stood in the back listening as they continued to reference how big of a threat the Middle East is to America,” Lachelle Roddy said, “and how America needs to be a global leader ─ as if we are not already occupying enough countries. I had had enough when they mentioned economic sanctions on Iran. I could not stay silent any longer, and decided to speak up.

We are killing thousands of people in the Middle East who are no threat to us.

When is it going to be enough?

When are enough people going to be killed?

Motivated by the devastating impact of U.S. foreign policy on the lives of people in the Middle East, the 19-year-old Hollins University student spoke out at the Senate Hearings considering confirmation of President Barack Obama’s nomination for U.S. Secretary of State.

“Global Village” ─ exposure matters

Among its “firsts” are: the first college in Virginia to name a woman president (Matty Cocke, 1901), first chartered women’s college in Virginia, among the first abroad programs in the country (1955, Abroad-Paris), first women’s college in Virginia to offer coed graduate programs (1958), one of the first writers in residence programs in the United States (1959), this 1842 college turned university, sitting on 475 Roanoke, Virginia, acres, is known for its undergraduate and graduate writing programs, which have produced Pulitzer Prize-winning authors Annie Dillard, current Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, and Henry S. Taylor.

Hollins University where Lachelle Roddy majors in political science is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States. It hosts branches of College Republicans and College Democrats in addition to other politically and culturally focused groups dedicated to more specific causes and seeking to advance diversity, creativity, self-expression, unity, independence and self-confidence. Among them are the Global Interest Association, Black Student Alliance, and OUTloud.

Hollins University

Hollins’ core population includes ─

750 undergraduate students (avg. high school GPA 3.5) from 47 states, 14 countries

20 percent students of color

Two-thirds at graduation have had internships

50 percent have had international learning experience

70 percent avg. within a year of graduation are employed, 27 percent are attending graduate or professional school.

“I’m tired of my friends in the Middle East not knowing if they are going to live to see the next day!” Hollins University political science student Lachelle Roddy said of her motivation to protest at a Vietnam War protester’s confirmation hearing to head what has been an “all-wars-all-the-time  cabinet-level agency in the Obama government.

Sources and notes

“Activist Disrupts Kerry Nomination Hearing, Demands End to Military Aid to Israel” (Kevin Zeese - Cool Revolution, January 24, 2013, Posted on 25 January 2013), http://october2011.org/blogs/kevin-zeese/activist-disrupts-kerry-nomination-hearing-demands-end-military-aid-israel

Code Pink intern and college student Lachelle Roddy disrupted the nomination hearing of Sen. John Kerry today. [VIDEO below] From the gallery of the Senate chamber, Roddy voiced her objection to US military aid to Israel:

Roddy commented on her reasons for speaking out during the Senate hearing, which she says was a spontaneous outburst and not a planned action:

“Former presidential candidate goes before Senate panel in first major hearing for president’s new cabinet nominees … A protester interrupts Kerry's statement. She says, ‘you're killing people in the Middle East for no reason... I'm tired of my friends in the Middle East dying.’ She is escorted out” (Tom McCarthy, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 24 January 2013 14.03), http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/24/john-kerry-live-blog-secretary-state

http://www.upi.com/blog/2013/01/24/WATCH-Protester-interrupts-Kerry-confirmation-hearing/1231359043781/

(By Kelsey Osterman, January 24, 2013, http://redalertpolitics.com/2013/01/24/code-pink-protester-interrupts-sen-john-kerry-confirmation-hearing/

“Today, CODEPINK 19-year-old activist Lachelle Roddy interrupted Senator John Kerry’s confirmation hearing for Secretary of State before the Senate Foreign Relations committee. From

Video: CODEPINK activist interrupts Kerry confirmation hearing demanding end of US aid to Israel (by Adam Horowitz on January 24, 2013), http://mondoweiss.net/2013/01/interrupts-confirmation-demanding.html

“Reality Check weekly review for week ending Friday February 1─ In the headlines this past week: War on Syria: Israel strikes a research center on Syrian soil, Egypt’s second anniversary of its revolution: a week of violence: over 50 dead, Atrocities in the France led war in Mali, U.S. gun violence: spiraling out of control, and in news on Iran: the 10 days of dawn [protester at John Kerry U.S. Secretary of State confirmations hearings],” http://www.presstv.ir/section/3510528.html

Hollins University http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollins_University

International programs: In the most recent graduating class, almost half of students had an international learning experience. Hollins sponsors its own programs in Paris and London. In addition, its students study in Cordoba, Argentina; Seville and Alicante, Spain; Osaka, Japan; Puebla, Mexico; Legon, Ghana; Perugia, Rome, and Florence, Italy; Limerick, Ireland; Athens, Greece; Ludwigsburg, Germany; Cape Town, South Africa; and the School for Field Studies, with programs in Costa Rica, Mexico, Australia, and Kenya/Tanzania. Hollins also sponsors an annual service learning project in Lucea, Jamaica, http://www.hollins.edu/about/glance.shtml

Follow the money as predictor of performance in the national and international interest

Center for Responsive Politics assembled data

New U.S. Secretary of State

Sen. John Kerry

Cycle Source of Funds, 2007-2012

Campaign Cmte only

Individual Contributions $3,726,438 (40%)

Small Individual Contributions $354,202 (4%)

Large Individual Contributions $3,372,234 (36%)

PAC Contributions $1,495,700 (16%)

Candidate self-financing $0 (0%)

Other $4,069,870 (44%)

All the numbers on this page are for the 2007-2012 election cycle and based on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on February 03, 2013

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00000245&cycle=2012#funds

SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass), Chair

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind), Ranking Member

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee makes decisions on foreign aid and policy, which is why members are targeted by ideological contributors, such as Pro-Israel political action committees and Cuba-related PACs. This committee also plays a key role in renewing the trade privileges of other nations and expanding membership to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sectors Contributing to Members of this Committee, 2012 Election Cycle

PACS - INDIVS

Agribusiness

$1,850,593 - $1,810,637

Communic/Electronics

$2,468,450 - $4,775,614

Construction

$1,349,678 - $3,493,830

Defense

$931,850 - $273,538

Energy/Nat Resource

$3,392,885 - $2,976,730

Finance/Insur/RealEst

$5,801,143 - $17,896,810

Health

$4,834,711 - $6,323,355

Lawyers & Lobbyists

$1,874,169 - $16,260,483

Transportation

$2,109,901 - $1,376,362

Misc Business

$3,567,536 - $9,285,107

Labor

$3,101,265 - $57,024

Ideology/Single-Issue

$6,416,712 - $7,762,341

Other

$96,300 - $12,861,289

Figures are based on Federal Election Commission data released electronically on November 12, 2012. Numbers are taken from PAC donations and individual contributions of more than $200. http://www.opensecrets.org/cmteprofiles/overview.php?cmte=SFOR&cmteid=S13&cycle=2012

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Kucinich calls for leaders principled in nonviolence, Stop the War calls for "Home by Christmas"

Children of Afghanistan
caught in crossfire

I could not agree more

Excerpt, editing by 

Carolyn Bennett

“We need a new era of bold leadership … that will stand against perpetual war; stand up for peace and economic justice,” Dennis Kucinich declares.

We need leadership that is unafraid of bucking Party leadership and speaking out for what is right and just.

“We need bold leaders who are fearless in their determination to make our nation and our world a more peaceful place for all people — regardless of their race, gender, background or beliefs.” 

together

We must come together to prevent repeating mistakes of the past, prevent the destruction of war.

We must present and advance leaders who advance peace and justice.

Hon. Dennis Kucinich concluding his tenure as

Member of U.S. House of Representatives

Head of Kucinich Action movement

Soon announcing “Champions of Change”

http://action.kucinich.us/page/s/bold-voices/

http://action.kucinich.us/page/s/yourchoice

Home by Christmas

Stars and Stripes
Union Jack

Afghanistan Protest

Naming the Dead

Bring troops home by Christmas

Stop the War Coalition

Sunday October 7, 2012, 1 p.m., Trafalgar Square, London, England

  

On the 11th anniversary of the start of the war on Afghanistan, Stop the War-UK Names the Dead in a ceremony commemorating those killed: Afghan civilians and British soldiers.

“The protest will also demand that the British government end its involvement in an unjustified and futile war now, and bring all the troops home by Christmas.”

Also from Austrialia

Leading the ceremony will be Joan Humphries, whose grandson died in war against Afghanistan; joined by Paul Flynn MP, expelled recently from the British parliament for accusing the government of lying about Afghanistan.

Musician Brian Eno, Afghans for Peace Mitra Quayoom, actor Celia Mitchell, journalist Victoria Britain, Member of Parliament Jeremy Corbyn, actor Miriam Margolyes, and musician Dave Randall will also participate in the ceremony.

http://stopwar.org.uk/index.php/action-a-events/national-events/1890-october-7-afghanistan-protest-bring-the-troops-home-by-christmas

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Bennett's books are available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Begin policy of Nonviolence

Asia with Southwest Central Britannica image

End U.S. occupation, war, “strategic partnership” pressure in Asia

Re-reporting, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Notes from Kelly, Koehler and Afghan Youth on U.S. relations with Afghanistan

“We are startlingly, terrifyingly lost, and we’re getting ever more so,” Voices for Creative Nonviolence coordinator and frequent traveler to Afghanistan Kathy Kelly writes about the U.S. in Afghanistan. “If we see a sign here in the darkness, an opportunity to make contact with the people around us, we should take it gratefully.…”

From her travels, Kelly describes, “People in an Afghan village pass[ing] sleepless nights, anxious that their home might be targeted by a U.S. led night raid.

“Villagers enraged when they hear stories of elders and imams being roughed up and detained, of wives and children being killed, of belongings stolen and property destroyed.

“Increasingly, U.S. military battles against so-called insurgency create stronger resistance as more Afghans determine increasingly to fight back.”

In the news, NATO investigates early August NATO airstrike-killings of eight 

Afghan civilians among them seven children in Helmand province.

Central Asia Britannica image

Notwithstanding continuous slaughter, U.S. officials, Kelly recounts, are pushing on Afghanistan “a ‘Strategic Partnership Declaration,’” believed by many Afghans to be an agreement permitting the United States “to establish permanent military bases, permanent occupation that will provoke resistance groups to declare perpetual war.”

In his article “Common Sense in a Coma,” peace journalist Robert Koehler wrote in late August that the current relationship between Afghanistan and the United States is supposed to end in 2014 but the “nation wrecking” accomplished by the U.S. in the past decade is so extensive that something has to be done to repair the damage and restore stability. So “the Strategic Partnership Declaration” has been    crafted “to entrench U.S. presence well into the future”: establish permanent or long-term U.S. military bases in Afghanistan lasting two or three decades followed by periods of reconsideration talks, extensions.

In this partnership deal, Koehler says, the U.S. will keep the cash flowing “to makeshift Afghan governments installed by the U.S. so that, lacking actual legitimacy or popular acceptance, they stay propped up militarily.”

War without end — “We [The United States] would never have to admit defeat. … Public soul-searching wouldn’t flood the media, paralyzing the country and its military-industrial economy, with conscience.”

And people’s suffering in South and Central Asia would continue to deepen under protracted U.S. occupation. Enraged Taliban would refuse to come to a negotiating table. “The pretext for war — together with an Afghan government’s economically catastrophic security needs — would live in perpetuity.”

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers, quoted by Kathy Kelly, responded August 9 to the U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Declaration — 

“The U.S.-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership Declaration will perpetuate ‘terrorism’ and bring it to everyone’s doorsteps:

“The ‘partnership’ will allow permanent joint U.S.-Afghanistan military bases to launch and project hard power.

The ‘extreme’ Taliban will conveniently ‘use’ these bases as a stand-alone reason for their ‘holy jihad.’ …

This Strategic Partnership Declaration will kill any chance for our madness to slow down and our violence to calm down. …

It will doom ordinary Americans and Afghans to permanent terrorism. … Why can’t we quiet our nerves, look deep inside humanity, and begin healing?”

Awakening or reawakening “to the dreadful situation [in Afghanistan] and our role in it,” Kelly says, “we must act now to free our Afghan hosts of overstaying guests. Get the U.S. safely back to where it should be.”

In “Captives to the Logic of Violence,” Koehler writes that sometimes it seems that “what ended on Sept. 11, 2001, was human evolution.”

In the decade September 11, 2001-September 11, 2011, “The abyss has kept deepening.”

The wars begun in 2001 “continue letting blood and squandering treasure beyond all logic — except the logic of violence.”

Sources and notes

“More Lost By the Second” (Kathy Kelly), August 10, 2011, http://vcnv.org/more-lost-by-the-second; Kathy Kelly (Kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

A Voices for Creative Nonviolence delegation is presently visiting in Kabul with The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. “Both groups are helping to organize for the October 6, 2011 ‘Stop the Machine — Create a New World!’ campaign to end wars.”

Peace lily Britannica image

Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers are young Afghans “dedicated to ending wars and inequalities in their country.”

Kathy Kelly

Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org), a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare, Kathy Kelly with small delegations intent on learning more about conditions faced by ordinary people has visited Afghanistan (suffering three decades of warfare) four times since May 2010.

Kelly is a recipient of the War Resisters Peace Award (2010) and the Global Exchange International Women’s Rights Award (May 2003), among others. Her writings have appeared in The Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune Magazine, The Progressive, Columbia Journal of International Affairs, The Jordan Times, The Washington Report on the Middle East; at Common Dreams, Counterpunch, Electroniciraq dot net, Voices In The Wilderness, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and Antiwar dot com websites.

The Voices for Creative Nonviolence works closely with the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in search of non-military solutions to end the war.

“Common Sense in a Coma” (Robert C. Koehler), August 25, 2011, https://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/common-sense-in-a-coma/

“Captives to the Logic of Violence” (Robert C. Koehler, COTO Report Full Spectrum Defiance), September 7, 2011, https://coto2.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/captives-to-the-logic-of-violence/#more-18298

 

Robert C. Koehler, peace journalist

In his self-description, Robert Koehler writes, “I embraced the concept of peace journalism, the lodestar of my maturity as a journalist, a deceptively simple practice unbelievably rare in a 24/7 media stream that flushes through our lives, peddling horror and fear; …” where news and entertainment are reactive, without depth or reflection and with intensely troubling consequences.

“Nonviolent response to conflict is the foundation of civilization,” Koehler writes…; and although “conflict — between and among people, between species, with our planet and universe — is inevitable, violent response belittles the conflict, shatters the complexity, perpetuates the problem, endangers the innocent and often blows up in our faces. …

“Violence is an industry, shrouded in mythology and consensus. … Working to undo the mythology of violence is the most responsible act a writer can commit.”

Captions

Britannica: Peace Lily A large, white leafy spathe underlies a spadix in Spathiphyllum.  © Sydney Karp—PHOTO/NATS.  Also Britannica maps

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