Jan 08 2009
It’s clear to this unbiased observer that Hell froze over as the hand-basket arrived.
It’s clear the October Surprise was to saddle the in-his-heart progressive, Obama, with a fucking millennial nightmare to thwart any meaningful change which might have occurred under a regime with a human heart.
Jan 07 2009
Sometimes we think we should just call it the War Moratorium.
We all want to end the war and occupation of Iraq — but not to free up more troops for Afghanistan.
Violence continues to rage on a daily basis in both of those war-torn countries.
And now Gaza has been added to the mix, with innocents dying on both sides.
A new president takes office in less than two weeks — someone whose candidacy was launched and sustained in its early stages by his opposition to the Iraq war.
He, and other policy makers, need to hear from us, loudly and clearly, that we elected them to follow a path to peace — in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Gaza, and around the globe.
What better time than Friday, Jan. 16, Iraq Moratorium #17, four days before the inauguration?
The Moratorium offers a chance for people across the country to speak out for peace with a united voice, in their own communities, all across the country. Since it began in September 2007, it has sparked more than 1,500 local events in 43 states and 260 communities.
Please join us this month. It’s easy. You simply have to disrupt your regular routine and do something on January 16 to call for peace in Iraq. The Moratorium is a big umbrella. You decide what to do — as an individual or with a group. Aside from unity on Iraq, there is plenty of room for other messages — to convert military spending to health care or other urgent needs, for example, or to stop the bloodshed in Afghanistan and Gaza.
The main thing is that we all do something — and that we share that information with others, so that it can inspire them and let them know that they are not alone, but truly part of a national grassroots movement that is mobilizing in local communities.
Please check our website to see if there’s an event listed in your community. Here’s the list.
If not, please send us the information on any group or individual action you’re planning for January 16. Just use this form.
Afterward, we hope you’ll share your experience by sending us a short report, with photos or video if possible.
This is not a time to relax our efforts. It is a time to renew and redouble them, knowing that we’re no longer trying to speak to a President and Congress with deaf ears on this issue. There is a lot of talk about hope these days, and we should be hopeful, too — but take nothing for granted.
Thanks for all of your efforts to date, and for whatever you can do this month in the cause of peace.
Dec 30 2008
Obama We’re Hopeful
(Nelson 2008, tune of “O Come All Ye Faithful”)Obama we’re hopeful, cautiously believing
you meant when you told us that you’d end this war,
Sooner than later, let’s get our troops back state-side!
OBAMA WE’LL BE WATCHING,
OBAMA WE’LL BE MARCHING,
OBAMA WE’LL BE HOLDING YOUR FEET TO THE FIRE!Ensconced in the White House, trying to get your bearings,
Oil men and gen’rals whisp’ring in those big ears,
Filling your head with doubts and grim scenarios,
OBAMA WE’LL BE WATCHING,
OBAMA WE’LL BE MARCHING,
OBAMA WE’LL BE HOLDING YOUR FEET TO THE FIRE!
That could be the theme song* for Camp Hope, which opens a 19-day presence in the president-elect’s Hyde Park neighborhood on New Year’s Day, also known as Emancipation Proclamation Day. Activities and actions are planned daily in Chicago, ending on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 19.
Dec 22 2008
So you say it’s below zero out there, and your garage door’s frozen shut, and you don’t know if your car will start anyway, and even if it does that shopping malls make you so tense and irritable you want to sit down in the aisle and cry, and you don’t even have the slightest idea what to get anybody for a gift anyway, and time is running out?
Is that what’s troubling you, Bunky?
Well, be troubled no more.
If you’re reading this you’re already at your computer, so just relax and take care of your holiday shopping needs in the next few minutes.
Consider giving the gift of peace.
Dec 21 2008
Armed with a guitar, Santa hats and some terrific antiwar lyrics for Christmas caroling, members of Military Families Speak Out sang out on Iraq Moratorium day Friday, serenading two members of Congress and asking them to bring family members and loved ones home now.
The carolers visited the homes of two Republican House members,Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and even got a photo and article in the Orange County Register, no easy feat.
The lyrics by Vern Nelson are terrific. You can find them, for eight different songs, on the Orange Juice Blog Here’s a sample:
Why the Hell Are We Here?
(tune of Do You Hear What I Hear, Nelson-Alviso 2006)Said the grunt to his sergeant in Iraq:
Why the hell are we here? (Why the hell are we here?)
Tryin’ to not get shot in the back,
Why the hell are we here? (Why the hell are we here?)
A wife and child wait for me back home,
spending Christmas-time all alone,
spending Christmas-time all alone.Said the sarge to the Captain in command:
Why the hell are we here? (Why the hell are we here?)
Ev’ry week it seems I lose a man.
Why the hell are we here? (Why the hell are we here?)
A roadside bomb planted in the night
filling ev’ry moment with fright;
There’s no way to win such a fight.Said the Captain to the Joint Chiefs of Staff:
Why the hell are we here? (Why the hell are we here?)
In this civil war in Iraq?
Why the hell are we here? (Why the hell are we here?)
Each bomb we drop only makes things worse;
and our choosing sides is perverse
in this Sunni/Shia universe.Said the troops to the Congressman back home
Time to bring us back now! (Time to bring us back now!)
Congressman all comfy back home,
Time to bring us back now! (Time to bring us back now!)
This war, this war, has gone on far too long,
Can you hear the words of our song-
Getting out will make us- more strong!!!
A report from that action, and reports and photos from others across the country, are available at the Iraq Moratorium website.
Dec 19 2008
Today is Iraq Moratorium #16.
It is a day to interrupt business as usual and take some action to end the war and occupation of Iraq.
Join a group action or do something yourself. Write a letter. Send an email. Call your Congress members. Wear a button or armband to work or school. Donate to your favorite peace group. Or do something more creative. You’ll find lots of ideas on the Iraq Moratorium website.
Since the monthly actions, on the Third Friday of the month, began in September 2007 more than 1,500 events in 43 states and 260 communities have been listed on the website, and many more have gone unreported.
Be part of it. The war has to stop, and we have to stop it.
Do something.
Dec 16 2008
Friday’s Iraq Moratorium will offer a mixed bag of activity across the country, from holiday-themed events to footwear-related actions.
Antiwar caroling, mall walks to raise shoppers’ consciousness, and vigiling by Santa are among the plans.
Elsewhere, the shoe-throwing by an Iraqi journalist have inspired actions like a “Give Bush the Boot” footwear-throwing contest in Milwaukee, and plans by others in New York and Connecticut to mail shoes to the White House on Moratorium day, with a note calling for an end to the war and occupation.
It’s all part of the ongoing, growing effort to get US troops out of Iraq by ratcheting up locally-based antiwar activity on the Third Friday of every month. Friday, Dec. 19, is Iraq Moratorium #16.
Moratorium efforts got a boost last weekend when the National Assembly of United for Peace and Justice, the nation’s largest antiwar coalition with 1,400 member groups, approved an action plan that includes support for the Moratorium’s Third Friday organizing efforts.
Here’s a list of what’s planned this week (that we know of; there are always others we find out about later.): December actions.
You’ll find lots of other information and ideas on the Moratorium website.
Friday’s the day. The war’s got to stop and we’ve got to stop it. Please do something,
Dec 11 2008
Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the Chicago-based group that staged a 500-mile Witness Against War walk to the Republican convention in St. Paul, will sponsor a presence from Jan. 1-19, in President-elect Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago. It’s called “Camp Hope: Countdown To Change.”
It’s called Camp Hope because organizers
earnestly hope his presidency will signal the dawning of long-needed progressive change in the United States.
The 19 days of activities are designed to help build popular momentum behind the progressive goals of President Obama’s campaign — and, one suspects, to remind him of those commitments.
Nov 26 2008
Reports from Iraq Moratorium #15, observed Nov. 21, are coming in to the Moratorium website. This one from Santa Barbara:
Vets for Peace, Chapter 54: A war memorial honoring exclusively the 18- 19- year-old military personnel, men and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, was erected on a lawn overlooking the ocean at Santa Barbara City College. The local chapter of Veterans for Peace and students set up the memorial, which currently honors 303 young men & women.
Dr. Gilberto Robledo, former faculty member of SBCC and VFP member along with several other VFP/SBCC students sets up the memorial the third Friday of every month in conjunction with the national Iraq Moratorium. As students, faculty, staff & community members pass by, they’re asked to place a placard on a white tombstone. The military person’s picture, name, unit, circumstance surrounding the death, and birth date is on the placard. This interactive memorial depicts the cost of war, especially to the college age students, who in many cases are in the same age range as the teen casualties of these two current conflicts.
American teenage casualties, of course, are the tip of the iceberg when measuring the costs of the wars. In Iraq alone, hundreds of thousands of civilians — some estimates say a million — have died. Even before the war, 500,000 Iraqi children died unnecessarily because of economic sanctions that prevented them from getting the food and medical care they needed.
Reminding college students that young men and women their age are dying is one way to bring the cost of war home. There are many others, like a “health care not warfare” campaign in Wisconsin aimed at redirecting our tax dollars from killing to life-saving. You’ll find reports from there, and other actions across the country, on the website, too.
Nov 21 2008
Today’s the day. Friday, Nov. 21. The 15th Iraq Moratorium day. You know what to do.
But in case you don’t, a suggested to-do list:
— Interrupt your daily routine, some way, somehow, and do something, by yourself or in a group action, to call for an end to the war and occupation. You’ll find a list of events and ideas for individual action at IraqMoratorium.com
— Take a digital or video camera along, and get some shots of the action, big or small.
— Send a short report, with photos and video if you can. Use this easy form. If you do something individually, tell us about that, too. Your story may inspire others to act next time.
— If you can, pass the hat at your event and ask for contributions to keep the Iraq Moratorium growing, Send us a check or make an online donation for the amount you collect. We’ll make every dollar count and use it effectively in the cause of peace. Here’s the link.
But you don’t need anyone to tell you what to do. The important thing is that you do something.
It has to stop, and we have to stop it.
Nov 17 2008
Iraq and the United States have signed an agrement requring the US to withdraw its troops by the end of 2011.
So the war and occupation, already more than five and a half years old, could be over in three more years. How about that?
That actually is progress of sorts. And there are some positive things about the agreement, which still needs to be ratified by Iraq’s Parliament. (Interestingly, it does not need Congressional approval.)
UPDATE: David Swanson says it is a treaty that does, indeed, require Senate ratification, and that we should insist on it. Link.
But you’ll have to excuse us if we don’t call off Friday’s planned Iraq Moratorium actions across the country. In fact, there are signs of renewed and increased interest in antiwar activity. We definitely need to keep the heat on the new Congress and the Obama administration.