Letters to the Editor, September 23, 2005

Join Them If You Can. But If You Can’t,
Sign Our Petition and Even Add Your Photo

Travel to DC or stay at home; either way you can participate in this weekend’s anti-war activities. This Saturday hundreds of thousands of Americans are getting on buses and heading to Washington, DC to rally for peace. If you’d like to join them, just click this link to find out how to get on a bus through our friends at United for Peace and Justice. www.unitedforpeace.org

But we know that many millions more who want peace in Iraq won’t be able to make it to Washington. So we’ve created a new way for you to be there. On the Monday after the rally, thousands of activists will stay in Washington to lobby their legislators. To support them, we’ve created a new kind of petition -- we call it a photo petition. Anyone can go online and sign it like a regular petition, but we’ve added a new feature. If you like, you can upload a picture of yourself so that your Congressmember has to look you in the eye even if you aren’t there.

Here is the link to the petition. Be sure to share this with everyone you know who opposes the war: http://www.truemajority.org/photopetition

Signing the petition is easy. If you are a member of TrueMajority we’ll just need your email address. If you’re a newcomer we’ll ask your addresss as well, so we can figure out who your member of Congress is. Then, you’ll get a chance to upload a picture of yourself and add any personal comments for your Congressmember. The picture can be any photo of yourself that you already have on your hard drive, or you can take a new one holding up a sign.

We’ll put the petitions together and deliver them to each Member of Congress Monday morning.

Remember, adding a photo makes the petition more powerful, but sign it whether you have a picture or not.

Nationwide Strike for Peace Campaign
University of Oregon
PO Box 3150, Eugene, OR 97403

September 21, 2005

University's only Peace Studies student strikes against war

Brian Bogart worked in the defense industry for 15 years, turning down security clearance opportunities three times before leaving Silicon Valley. In 1997, he earned a B.A. in Japanese History from the University of Oregon, and is now entering his final year as its first graduate student in Peace Studies.

At noon on Monday, September 26, at University of Oregon's EMU Amphitheater, Brian Bogart will launch the nationwide Camp U.S. Strike for Peace Campaign to coincide with the efforts of Cindy Sheehan, and will have the support of Noam Chomsky, Robert Jensen, and thousands of others at schools across the country. The campaign will publicize the surprising extent of the war industry in our communities, our schools, and our lives, and call for a reasonable defense.

Making even one part of a weapon 10,000 miles from conflict contradicts the core meaning of education. Beginning at noon on the first day of the new academic year, I will refuse to study inside the classroom of any school that sells itself to war, and I will deliver my Petition for Peaceful Priorities to University of Oregon's President Frohnmayer at the same time it is being delivered to the White House by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink and Global Exchange. Then I will speak against war all year from noon to dusk, to focus public attention on statistics that reveal America's obscene war-for-profit economy and my university's participation in the development of the most horrific weapons imaginable.

CampU.S. Strike for Peace Campaign
September 26, 2005 to June 10, 2006
310,000 companies, including more than 350 universities, work for the Pentagon.
How will we ever learn peace while making war in our schools?
US military, $1000 billion a year. US education, $59 billion a year.
strikeforpeace.org

Best regards,

Jason Miller

http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/2005/09/camp-us.html

Somerville Submits Divestment Petitions

Somerville Divestment Project - divestmentproject@yahoo.com

Somerville Divestment Project submits over 4000 signed petitions for a ballot question on divestment from publicly held funds connected to Israel’s Human Rights violations against Palestinians

The Somerville Divestment Project (SDP) will climax a nine-month ballot initiative campaign by delivering an additional 3000 petitions (for a total of 4000) to the Board of Election Commissioners at Somerville City Hall at 11:30 am on Friday Sept 24th.

A Press Conference outside of City Hall will be held at this time.

The total number of signatures submitted exceeds the requisite number of petitions (10% of registered voters = 3966) to place a question on the ballot for the November 8th election. Further signatures will be delivered on Monday.

The signatures have been collected despite a well-funded mailing and publicity campaign to block collection of the signatures. Mayor Curtatone, Congressman Capuano, and the Boston-based Jewish Community Relations Council encouraged people not to sign the petition, yet thousands of citizens have made their own choice.

The SDP, like several larger religious and other groups, proposes divestment from Israel Bonds and military companies which facilitate human rights violations by Israel. Divestment is a means to promote justice and thereby peace in the Holy Land.

The SDP has also filed a complaint with the Massachusetts Superior District Court for an injunction against the Board of Election Commissioners for their refusal to accept and count the more than 4400 petitions which the SDP has collected so far.

Karin

This Saturday, Hundreds Of Thousands of Americans Will Go to DC to Rally for Peace

Join Them If You Can. But If You Can’t, Sign Our Petition and Even Add Your Photo

This Saturday, Hundreds Of Thousands of Americans
Will Go to DC to Rally for Peace

Join Them If You Can. But If You Can’t,
Sign Our Petition and Even Add Your Photo