Getting Lost...and Finding Friends in Tarpon Springs
On Sunday, June 21 I kicked off my summer speaking tour at the (Historic) Unitarian Universalist Church of Tarpon Springs (www.uutarpon.org). But that was after I spent three hours making great time driving from Melbourne (where I stayed the night with family) only to be upended by the ever elusive “Center” street. In the process I was, however, able to find an open office supply store to do some last minute printing. (Can you believe the nerve of office stores NOT to be open by 9am?!) Well I ended up finding the place – the oldest UU church in the state! – just before the service was set to begin.
Inside I finally got to meet Daniel Callaghan, the man I had spent a ton of time emailing back and forth. Dan honored me with an amazing intro, reflecting on our incredible Florida March to Stop War on Iran in August 2008. Dan and his wife Anni participated in the protest along with area members of the Florida Peace Action Network like Bettejo, who was also at the service.
Before I spoke Dan read the words of Col. Ann Wright. And Quimby Heotzler got the place jumping with outstanding jazz. Then I did my thing.I discussed “Humanism and the Peace Revolution.” I’m particularly concerned that too many in the “freethought” movement have become narrowly focused on church-state separation and science that they ignore bringing an end to U.S. militarism.
I discussed the often forgotten Enlightenment philosopher, Condorcet. (Who first publicly called for women’s enfranchisement – before Mary Wollstonecraft—had an amazing, egalitarian marriage with partner, Sophie, and tried his best to write democracy, social safety nets, and other good stuff into the French constitution....before he was killed via the Reign of Terror.) Bottom line, Condorcet envisioned a world in which we would look back at war as a “freakish atrocity.” It’s a vision we have to keep alive.
I delved into the latest developments in our nation’s moral shame: American-made torture (including rape), killing civilians in Afghanistan (http://rethinkafghanistan.com), recent details of U.S. military expenditures (7 times that of China, the second top spender), and the Democrats passage of the war supplemental bill. Holding my amazing and joy-filled 7 month old daughter is a poignant reminder of how my own government is depriving so many others of simple joys....like watching their children play and grow.
During the talk/sermon I got a little emotional, a little fiery, a little preacher like. When it was over I wasn’t sure if I had outraged folks or overwhelmed them. I sometimes get accused of preaching to the choir. But I’ve made it my mission, during this series of summer talks, to challenge progressives to confront American imperialism; to ask the question: is it any less horrific to kill innocent people under an Obama administration than it was during Bush’s reign? The uncomfortable, painfully obvious answer of “no” reminds us all that we have a lot of work to do over the next four years.
When we were finished I was met with a great deal of support. The general response was that I offered a much needed jolt to those who have been intoxicated by a change at the governmental helm. Best of all, I had a series of wonderful conversations. One woman – a lifelong socialist she said – told me of how she was directly involved in the process of desegregating Orlando schools. Amazing people we follow....... And I also spoke to west-coast Florida activist extraordinaire(s) Melissa, Jeanie, and Bettejo. We talked about strategy and organizing future marches. Now that’s time well spent.
Coverage, Photos, and Summary of Florida March for Peace
The Florida March for Peace resulted in not only bringing more than a hundred people together and spreading our anti-war message with tens of thousands of people via the media, but peace/anti-war organizers from around the state came together to form the Florida Peace Congress (FPC). As part of its first decision as a body, the FPC's more than two dozen attendees unanimously endorsed the upcoming Miami May Day protest. More details on this event will follow next month. the FPC's aim will be to mobilize peace/anti-war groups to support the May 1st event. There we will also hold our second FPC meeting.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this a successful event. 2009 is stacking up to be a definitive year for peace. And the march goes on...
Review of Florida March for Peace By Jim Sanders, Member, Broward AntiWar Coalition Monday, Mar 30, 2009
On Saturday, March 28th, 120 to 150 activists from across the state marched through downtown Melbourne against US wars and interventions. These include the occupation in Iraq, the escalation in Afghanistan, attacks against Pakistan, our support of Israel’s aggressions against the people of Palestine, and others. A rally was held at the end point at Melbourne City Hall.
A diverse collection of speakers and performers from across the state addressed the crowd. Food Not Bombs did what they do best and shared food with anybody who was hungry. Raging Grannies sang songs against profiteering and the ludicrous escalation planned in Afghanistan. A radical minister spoke of the need for revolution. A couple of long-time activist spoke of the need to support freeing the Cuban 5. A speaker from the Miami Mayday Alliance called on the crowd to join the upcoming May 1st action in Miami.The rally was organized by the Brevard County based Patriots for Peace. Broward AntiWar endorsed this action along with 66 other groups from across the state.
After the march and rally, a group of about 30 to 40 of us gathered on the balcony of a local bar to form the Florida Peace Congress. We hope that in forming this organization we can offer better communication and support for peace and social justice events throughout the state. The first act of the new group was to endorse the Mayday event in Miami.
It was a great day for the peace and justice communities in Florida. Not only did we boisterously and enthusiastically march and rally against wars and injustice, we laid the groundwork for uniting for greater work in the future.
Just 14 hours after sending it out, our mass email about the march has been opened more than a thousand times. Bill and I have both been fielding phone calls about the march. And I've gotten a handful of emails from new people asking for details about the march.
We're still making a hell of a media splash.
Today I heard from Florida Today, the main daily paper in Brevard county. A nice guy with the paper interviewed me about the march and said a preview of the event would likely run in Wednesday or Thursday's paper. The Hometown News will run a story (hopefully) on Thursday. Endorsements continue to roll in.
In just the last few days we received endorsements from the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, Pax Christi Palm Beach, and the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq. I think it's great that we're having various Christian activist groups get involved. It's important that religious, secular, and spiritual progressives realize that we have more in common than we often realize.
Speakers schedule about to be finalized.
Tonight's the night! While I stayed up till 4am! finishing the mass email we sent out today, tonight I'll be finalizing the speakers' schedule.
Stay tuned!
PS: Here are some materials you might want to print and bring to the march.
Amazing Palestinian-Israel Posters!
Join students and activists across the world who have already downloaded and printed these posters on their own printers, or at local copy centers. We've seen them blown up to 5 feet square, on protest signs and as stickers, and in store and cafe windows. One person even dressed as Middle East Peace at a Purim festival, wearing one image on each side!
Many in the mainstream media bemoan Hugo Chavez’s successful referendum ending term-limits as an assault on democracy. Chavez, according to this view, is a dictator who has succeeded at nothing more than the destruction of his nation. A basic recollection of U.S. history and a look at the economic facts make the absurdity of this position all to clear.
In terms of the outrage over ending term limits one has to wonder if the mainstream media is equally outraged at the near lack of term limits in Congress. More specific to the presidency one must wonder how the mainstream media spent Presidents’ Day. After all, if we applied their condemnation of Chavez to U.S. history it seems we might today refer to FDR as our own dictator since he served, during a time of critical transition not unlike Chavez in Venezuela, from 1933 to 1945. In fact, had FDR not died at the start of his fourth term in office he would have served a total of 16 years in office.
Ironically, while the New York Times today leads the charge against Chavez’s “so-called” power grab, which of course is democratically endorsed by the Venezuelan people, this same newspaper of record declared at the time of FDR’s death: "Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House.” Meanwhile, Florida Congressman Connie Mack has unleashed an all out assault on Chavez declaring that he is leading Venezuela to a “communist abyss.” Mack when on to say that Chavez’s 10 years in power has lead to “Higher poverty, more crime, rampant inflation" and more. New York Times says about the same. The facts, however, flatly contradict these depictions. Despite dire predictions about its economic future with a socialist at the helm, a 2007-2008 report shows that Venezuela’s economy has significantly improved under Chavez’s presidency. The Center for Economic and Policy Research’s report contradicts popular dogma that Venezuela is headed from “oil boom” to “oil bust.” [Report here] Since the nation became political stable in 2003, the “economy has had continuous rapid growth….” Leaning on the nationalizing of the country’s oil, Venezuela’s revenue has increased even faster than spending between 1998 and 2006. Moreover, while most point to the pitfalls of the government’s over reliance on its oil industry, the report shows that the government has drawn up its budget with conservative estimates for oil prices, planning on 29-dollars a barrel when the average was 60.20 dollars. The nation also has enough money in official international reserves to be debt free.
Chavez has used this growth to invest in infrastructure, increasing the number of primary care physicians from 1,628 for 23.4 million people, in 1998, to 19,571 for 27 million people today. Subsidized food is also available at nearly 16,000 stores across the country, offering customers an “average savings of 27-percent to 39-percent compared to market prices in 2005 and 2006, respectively.”[1] In all, the central government’s social spending has gone up from 8.2-percent of GPD (1998) to 13.6-percent (2006). Most impressively, the Center for Economic and Policy Research reports that the government has slashed the nation’s poverty rate from 55.1-percent in 2003 to 30.4-percent at the end of 2006. While inflation of Venezuela’s currency is a problem, it has become less so during the Chavez years, dropping significantly from 36-percent (1998) and 100-percent (1996) before Chavez, to 19.4 today.
Chavez has accomplished all of this by refusing the flat-world, free market fundamentalist program. He has ushered in laws which insist all private banks dedicate a fifth “of their lending portfolio to ‘micro-loans’ for small businesses and small-plot farmers.” He’s also taken foreign national corporations head-on, kicking oil companies like Shell out of Venezuela, and signing contracts with state oil companies of Brazil, China, and India. If globalizers such as the IMF truly wished to see indigent peoples rise to a basic level of health and subsistence they would not so fiercely attack Chavez, whom the The Wall Street Journal described “a tropical version of the International Monetary Fund, offering cut-rate oil-supply deals and buying hundreds of millions of dollars of bonds from financially distressed countries such as Argentina and Ecuador.” Yet the reflexive denunciation of Chavez, the spastic and unreasoned clumping of Chavez with dictators and authoritarians is a flagrant indication that the true interests of the elite in the United States, in the government and in the world of business, base their denunciations, first and foremost, on whether or not a leader is good for their own business interests or not. The reason globalization establishment can not condone what Chavez is doing is because he is cutting off the flow of capital from Venezuela to the United States, reducing U.S. investors profits.
In short, progressives must stand with the people of Venezuela and demand that American politicians and assorted folks in the elite get their hands off of Venezuela’s democracy. In case you haven’t seen it already check out The Revolution Will Not be Televised (5th video down) and learn about how the U.S. government, funded by our tax dollars, attempted to overthrow Chavez despite the will of his people. For a fact sheet on the recent referendum go here. Finally, call your congressperson and tell them not to support Connie Mack’s H. Res. 161. You can find your representative's phone number here. More info at http://www.veninfo.org/
Killing Civilians after Bush Is it Any Less Ethical Under an Obama Administration?
MLK said that you can murder a murderer, but you can't murder murder.
On January 25, 2009 the Associated Press ran a story titled "Afghan president: US forces killed 16 civilians."
According to President Hamid Karzai, a U.S. military operation on Saturday, January 24, killed 16 Afghan civilians. Hundreds of villagers rallied against our military and its destruction of innocent human life. Karzai said that 2 women and 3 children were among those killed by the U.S. military strike.
The AP quotes Karzai is repeating a statement which has become almost absurdly clear, yet ubiquitously ignored: "Karzai said the killing of innocent Afghans during U.S. military operations 'is strengthening the terrorists.'"
In the piece we discover that U.S. politicians and a top NATO official are angry with Karzai and the slow progress taking place in Afghanistan. We even learn that the Obama administration must contemplate whether or not to support Karzai's reelection. Yet there is no acknowledgment that the U.S. 's killing of innocent civilians itself is a likely contributor to the lack of progress in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, President Obama continues to support military strikes like the one which took 16 innocent lives including 2 women and 3 children.Who can blame those who are angrily denouncing our military and demanding an end to overnight raids which take innocent life? What does the U.S. military have to say? "We are sorry for this incident and after this we are going to coordinate our operations with Afghan forces."
One must ask why U.S. and NATO forces had continuously ignored Karzai's calls to end air strikes in civilian areas? But now we are to believe, after the killing of hundreds that U.S. forces will work coordinate with Afghan forces. That's nice. Meanwhile many innocent lives have been destroyed; human beings have been robbed of life.
The real problem, however, is that those who lead our nation are operating under a failed strategy which believes we can end war with war, terrorism with terrorism, murder with murder.
Until our elected representatives, including President Obama, realize that one can't create a peaceful and just world via military operations that take the lives of innocent mothers, fathers, and children, violence and terrorism will continue. We need a Department of Peace, not specialists in execution and predator drones.
Jeff Nall is a writer, speaker and activist. He has Master of Liberal Studies degree from Rollins College, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Comparative Studies: Public Intellectuals at Florida Atlantic University. Jeff recently released his book, "Perpetual Revolt: Essays on Peace & Justice
and The Shared Values of Secular, Spiritual,
and Religious Progressives" (Howling Dog Press, 250 pages, $15.95)
He currently resides in South Florida.
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