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CINE DEL BARRIO and New College Media Studies Program present:
The Red Dance (El Baile Rojo) directed by Yezid Campos
a film about Colombia, video, in color, 57 minutes, 2004
sub-titles in English
Saturday, April 7, 11:30 a.m.
at the Roxie New College Film Center
3117 - 16th Street (between Valencia and Guerrero)
San Francisco
No admission charge
This is part of "Nuestra America, Muestra de Cine y Video
Documental" series of film showings on Saturdays of March,
April, and May. All films are at 11:30am and 1:30pm on
Saturdays at the Roxie. Films on Nicaragua, Venezuela,
Colombia, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S. (Immigrantes
Nuevo Orleans). Films are in Spanish with English sub-titles.
For more information: 415-863-1087
www.roxie.com
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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN
March 22, 2007
The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Dr. Al-Arian is currently
under his 60th day of a water-only hunger strike in protest of his
maltreatment by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia.
Dr. Al-Arian is currently being held at a medical facility in North Carolina.
He is in critical condition, having lost 53 pounds, over 25% of his
body weight.
According to family members who recently visited him he is no longer
able to walk or stand on his own.
More information on Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal can be found in the transcript
of a recent interview with his wife, Nahla Al-Arian on Democracy Now.
See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255
ACTION:
We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.
Call, Email and Write:
1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov
3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/
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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html
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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ
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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]
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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en
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Come listen and participate in a series of community conversations on
what's happening in public education. Get the 411 on:
Code Breakers: Deciphering Military Myths
Thursday, March 22, 2007 6pm-8pm
At New College of California
780 Valencia (@19th) San Francisco,CA
Military recruiters with a multi-billion dollar budget easily outnumber
college recruiters at most working class high schools. Black hummers,
outfitted with sound systems, flat screen TVs and video game systems
roll up to campuses luring students with false promises of job training,
college support, travel, and non combat positions. At this t4sj 411,
teachers from Community MultiMedia Academy in Hayward will lead
a workshop about the impact of military recruiters on campus and
how this can become an opportunity to think critically about media
campaigns, poverty, personal ethics and the role of a military
in US and global society. Curriculum and student work will be
shared. Participants will be encouraged to participate and share
their insights and work.
For future events check out http://www.T4SJ.org
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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/
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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_
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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html
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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/
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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327
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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489
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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/
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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"
CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.
"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."
"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "
Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.
The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.
Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.
Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.
Contact:
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
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ARTICLES IN FULL:
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1) Colombia seeks eight in Chiquita terrorist scandal
"The banana conglomorate has confessed to paying right-wing
paramilitaries."
By Eoin O'Carroll | csmonitor.com
posted March 22, 2007 at 12:20 p.m. EDT -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0322/p99s01-duts.html
2) Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Maxwell receive recommendations
from Task Force on the Revitalization of Public Housing
Task Force recommends immediate action to secure funding
for replacement of distressed units without displacing current
residents
[This press release just received from San Francisco City Hall proposes
nothing but a racist, classist land grab - privatizing City-owned public
housing by giving it to greedy developers to demolish the homes
of the poor and replace them with "mixed income communities,"
pushing poor families out of the city or onto the streets. And our
mayor and our sole Black member of the Board of Supervisors want
to saddle taxpayers with $100-200 million in debt to finance this
genocidal gentrification...SF Bay View editor@sfbayview.com ]
David Miree wrote:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 23, 2007
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications
415-554-6131
3) House, 218 to 212, Votes to Set Date for Iraq Pullout
By JEFF ZELENY
March 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/washington/24cong.html?ref=world
5) Spain: Delphi Axe Prompts General Strike
March 23, 2007
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=4180
6) Waiting for C. Wright Mills
by RICARDO ALARCON DE QUESADA
[posted online on March 23, 2007]
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070409/alarcon_eng
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1) Colombia seeks eight in Chiquita terrorist scandal
"The banana conglomorate has confessed to paying right-wing
paramilitaries."
By Eoin O'Carroll | csmonitor.com
posted March 22, 2007 at 12:20 p.m. EDT -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0322/p99s01-duts.html
The Colombian government says that it will likely seek the extradition of
eight unnamed people affiliated with the US banana giant Chiquita Brands
International for their alleged involvement in the company's payments to
and arms trafficking with a violent right-wing paramilitary group.
The Chicago Tribune reported on Thursday that Colombia's chief federal
prosecutor, Mario Iguaran, has formally requested from the US Justice
Department documents relating to Chiquita's payment of $1.7 million to the
United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known as the AUC, by its Spanish
initials) a group that the United States labels a terrorist organization.
Chiquita pleaded guilty Monday in US federal court to making payments to
the AUC, and agreed to pay a $25 million fine, payable over five years. As
part of the plea agreement, the US government will not publicly identify
the senior Chiquita executives who approved the illegal payments.
Speaking in Bogotá, Mr. Iguaran denied Chiquita's claims that the payments
were made under duress.
"The relationship was not one of the extortionist and the extorted but
a criminal relationship," Iguaran told a handful of foreign correspondents
in an interview.
"It's a much bigger, more macabre plan," he added. "Who wouldn't know
what an illegal armed group like the AUC does . . . by exterminating and
annihilating its enemies," Iguaran said. "When you pay a group like this
you are conscious of what they are doing."
The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that Mr. Iguaran said in an
interview with a Colombian radio station that he will demand that the
United States hand over the eight suspects, whose identities have not been
disclosed by the US government. "They must be judged in Colombia," Iguaran
said.
According to the US Department of Justice, Chiquita began making payments
to the AUC in 1997 through its Colombian shipping operation, Banadex. The
payments began when the AUC's then-leader, Carlos Castaño, met with a
senior Banadex executive and implied that failure to make payments would
result in physical harm to the company's workers and property.
The United States designated the AUC a foreign terrorist organization on
September 10, 2001. Despite warnings from lawyers who advised the company
to leave Colombia, Chiquita continued to pay the group. In April 2003, the
company's board of directors learned of the payments, who later that month
confessed to the Department of Justice, who told Chiquita to stop paying.
Nevertheless, the payments continued through February 2004.
Additionally, according to a report by the Organization of American States,
in 2001 Banadex helped divert 3,000 Nicaraguan AK-47 rifles and millions of
rounds of ammunition to the AUC.
Chiquita sold Banadex, its most profitable operation, to a Colombian buyer
in June 2004.
The news comes in the midst of a major political scandal in Colombia that
has linked many members of the country's political leadership to right-wing
death squads.
Adam Isacson, an analyst at the Center for International Policy, a human
rights advocacy group, sees Colombia's extradition request as a political
move to burnish Bogotá's image domestically. He writes:
The call for Chiquita executives' extradition also taps into a
commonly felt frustration among Colombians. Many see their government
handing over Colombian citizens to face long jail sentences in the United
States, but believe that U.S. citizens accused of trafficking drugs or
supporting armed groups in Colombia - including rogue U.S. military
personnel who have dealt in drugs or weapons - get slaps on the wrist, such
as fines or a few months in prison.
Either way, if the Colombian government wishes to begin punishing
foreign executives whose corporations have paid "protection money" to
illegal armed groups, it is within its rights to do so - but it may find
itself extraditing a lot of people. Such payments are widely believed to
have been commonplace for decades.
Journalist Amy Goodman, however, says that Colombian authorities have every
right to single out Chiquita, formerly known as United Fruit. In her
syndicated column she cites the company's history of right-wing violence in
Latin America, which includes helping to orchestrate the 1954 overthrow of
Guatemala's democratically elected president and the 1928 massacre of trade
unionists in northwestern Colombia.
A $25-million fine to a multibillion-dollar corporation like Chiquita
is a mere slap on the wrist, the cost of doing business. Presidents like
George W. Bush and Uribe, businessmen first, while squabbling over
extraditions, would never lose track of their overarching shared goal of a
stridently pro-corporate, military-supported so-called free-trade regime. ...
That next organic, fair-trade banana you buy just might save a life.
The online magazine Slate points out that Chiquita pleaded guilty to the
very same crime for which John Walker Lindh, the so-called American
Taliban, is serving a 20-year sentence.
Shares of Chiquita Brands International Inc. rose six cents overnight to
open Thursday at $13.92 on the New York Stock Exchange.
www.marxmail.org
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2) Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Maxwell receive recommendations
from Task Force on the Revitalization of Public Housing
Task Force recommends immediate action to secure funding
for replacement of distressed units without displacing current
residents
[This press release just received from San Francisco City Hall proposes
nothing but a racist, classist land grab - privatizing City-owned public
housing by giving it to greedy developers to demolish the homes
of the poor and replace them with "mixed income communities,"
pushing poor families out of the city or onto the streets. And our
mayor and our sole Black member of the Board of Supervisors want
to saddle taxpayers with $100-200 million in debt to finance this
genocidal gentrification...SF Bay View editor@sfbayview.com ]
David Miree wrote:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 23, 2007
Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications
415-554-6131
*** PRESS RELEASE ***
Mayor Newsom and Supervisor Maxwell receive recommendations
from Task Force on the Revitalization of Public Housing
Task Force recommends immediate action to secure funding
for replacement of distressed units without displacing
current residents
San Francisco, CA – A Task Force appointed by Mayor Gavin
Newsom and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell issued its recommendations
today regarding the revitalization of Public Housing in San Francisco.
The group, comprised of a wide range of stakeholders, was appointed
in the Fall of 2006 and was charged with development of principles
to guide the revitalization process, the identification of funding
needs, and the formation of a menu of financing options.
The San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) owns and manages
approximately 6,400 units of public housing. For the last two
decades, funding for public housing has been in steady decline.
Over the last six years severe cuts have caused both intense physical
distress to housing conditions and serious social and economic
consequences for residents.
In 2002, the SFHA commissioned an independent assessment
of the physical needs of its properties, which revealed a backlog
of immediate needs totaling $195 million. It also was determined
that an average of $26.6 million per year in additional physical
deterioration will occur in SFHA communities if the current problems
are not addressed. A fraction of that need is addressed
with Federal funds.
“While we understand the need to hold the federal government
accountable for support of public housing, San Francisco will
not wait for Washington to act at the peril of our residents,” said
Mayor Newsom. “We have a financial and moral obligation
to address the conditions in public housing and time to for
action is now.”
“I’d like to commend the committee for their work. This helps
ensure equity of living and much improved quality-of-life
experiences,” said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell. “ The work this
committee has done is truly helping all San Franciscans.”
The Task Force recommendations call for an aggressive initial
investment of $100-200 million. In addition the Task Force
recommends a commitment to replace all demolished public
housing units on a one-for-one basis; phased development
to facilitate on site relocation; strong resident involvement at
all levels; and the creation of mixed income communities via
the addition of affordable and market rate housing on site.
“We felt strongly that the principles had to address all of our
concerns around displacement and relocation,” said Task Force
member and Visitacion Valley resident Kevin Blackwell.
“Of course we want the community to look better, but the
main point is to improve conditions for the people who
are living there now,” added Blackwell.
In the meeting the Mayor pledged to immediately start the resident
outreach and education process and to work closely with the Board
of Supervisors to find the funding necessary to get started by looking
at the feasibility of passing a General Obligation Bond and exploring
other financial options.
David Carrington Miree
Deputy Communications Director
Mayor's Office of Communications
City Hall, RM 291
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl.
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 554-6537-DIRECT
(415) 554-6131
(415) 554-4058-Fax
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3) House, 218 to 212, Votes to Set Date for Iraq Pullout
By JEFF ZELENY
March 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/washington/24cong.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON, March 23 — A deeply divided House of Representatives
voted Friday to bring most American combat troops home from Iraq
next year, with Democrats employing their new Congressional
majority to create the most forceful challenge yet to President
Bush’s war policy.
The legislation aimed at accelerating an end to the war passed on
a vote of 218 to 212, with all but two Republicans opposing. Even
as the debate moves to the Senate, where a less restrictive plan
is to be considered next week, Mr. Bush dismissed the action as
“political theater” and promised to veto attempts to manage
the war from Capitol Hill.
The Democratic leaders of Congress said they were acting on
overriding American sentiment to change course in Iraq, and
they vowed to keep pursuing legislative attempts to hold the
Iraqi and American governments accountable for progress there.
“The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct
of this war,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said
in bringing an end to a charged debate on the House floor.
“The American people see the reality of the war; the president
does not.”
The measure was approved as part of a $124 billion emergency
war spending request to pay for military operations in Iraq
and Afghanistan for the next six months. Fourteen Democrats
voted against the plan, with eight saying it did not end the
war fast enough and six saying it was too restrictive and
could usurp the authority of the commander in chief.
At the White House, surrounded by veterans and families
of soldiers, Mr. Bush angrily denounced the bill as one in
which Democrats had “voted to substitute their judgment
for that of our military commanders on the ground in Iraq.”
A two-thirds vote of each house of Congress would be
required to override the presidential veto that Mr. Bush
has threatened, and Democrats have conceded that they
could not meet that target. With top Pentagon officials
warning that American troops will run out of money
if the spending request is not passed in the next month,
all sides may nevertheless have an incentive to negotiate
so that they are not blamed for failing to support the military.
The withdrawal timetable provision, which calls for most
American troops to be out of Iraq by Sept. 1, 2008, is part
of a bill to provide about $100 billion to finance the war
in Iraq and Afghanistan. An additional $24 billion, largely
aimed at domestic programs unrelated to military expenses,
was added by Democrats to make the bill more acceptable
to lawmakers. But in the end, Republicans called their bluff,
standing together in near unison against the spending
provisions.
The debate was highly emotional, with lawmakers from
each side applauding loudly at several points. There were
occasional outbursts from the House gallery, which was
packed with spectators.
As the voting began, two antiwar protestors stood in the
gallery and implored lawmakers not to approve more money
for the war. “Don’t buy the war! Don’t buy the war!” one
woman shouted again and again before being led away
by police as the presiding officer of the House banged
his gavel to order.
In passing the bill, Ms. Pelosi and other Democratic leaders
labored to corral an often-fractious party and presented
a near-unified front on the most forceful measure on Iraq
that Congress has passed since the Democrats won control
of Congress last year. They predicted the outcome would
be very close — and it was, with Democrats gaining 218
votes, the bare minimum needed if all 435 members voted.
(On Friday, three lawmakers did not vote and one essentially
abstained.)
Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the chairman of the
Democratic caucus, noted that each of the freshman Democrats
who were elected last year on a wave of discontent supported
the legislation. “Everybody came to the conclusion that more
of the same — of no change — was not a viable option,”
Mr. Emanuel said.
Several of the Democrats who voted against the bill represent
conservative Southern districts with large military populations
and said they believed the legislation imposed too many
conditions on the president. They were joined in their opposition
by liberal Democrats who objected to investing more money
in a war that has taken the lives of more than 3,200 troops.
Two Republicans voted for the measure: Representative Wayne
Gilchrest of Maryland, a former Marine Corps officer who was
wounded in Vietnam, and Walter B. Jones of North Carolina,
who called for a withdrawal nearly two years ago.
But the rest of the Republican caucus objected to the legislation
on substance and principle. Several lawmakers derided the total
of nearly $24 billion in domestic spending — benefiting spinach
growers and shrimp fishermen and peanut storage, among others
— that Democrats put into the bill to make it more palatable
to its members.
“What does throwing money at Bubba Gump, Popeye the sailor
man and Mr. Peanut have to do with winning a war? Nothing,”
said Representative Sam Johnson, a Texas Republican. “The
sweeteners in this bill are political bribery, and our troops
deserve more than this.”
But Democrats disagreed, saying they were simply financing
projects that Republicans failed to address when they were in
control of Congress. And they pointed to the money devoted
to caring for troops when they return from Iraq, including
$1.7 billion for health care programs, $900 million for treating
post-traumatic stress and brain injuries and other money
to upgrade Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
“This bill had to be very hard to vote against,” said Representative
John P. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat. “This took care
of the troops. This took care of the families of the troops.”
The proceedings represented another step in a vote-by-vote
strategy of Democrats to attempt to gradually erode support
for the president’s Iraq policy and find an alternative to it.
Passage of the bill in the House by no means signals that
the Senate will concur, but the legislation remains a gauge
of political support that is reflected in public opinion.
After scores of lawmakers on both sides of the debate took
their turns at the microphone for one-minute speeches,
Democrats tapped Representative Patrick Murphy,
a Pennsylvania Democrat, to make their closing argument.
Mr. Murphy, 33, served in Iraq as a captain in the Army’s
82nd Airborne Division. He implored lawmakers, moments
before they voted, to consider the 19 paratroopers from
his command who died during his time in Iraq in 2003.
“To those on the other side of the aisle who are opposed,
I want to ask you the same questions that my gunner asked
me when I was leading a convoy up and down Ambush Alley
one day,” Mr. Murphy said. “He said, ‘Sir, what are we doing
over here? What’s our mission? When are these Iraqis going
to come off the sidelines and fight for their own country?’ ”
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4) Play About Iraq War Divides a Connecticut School
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
March 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/nyregion/24drama.html?ref=nyregion
WILTON, Conn., March 22 — Student productions at Wilton High
School range from splashy musicals like last year’s “West Side Story,”
performed in the state-of-the-art, $10 million auditorium,
to weightier works like Arthur Miller’s “Crucible,” on stage
last fall in the school’s smaller theater.
For the spring semester, students in the advanced theater class
took on a bigger challenge: creating an original play about the
war in Iraq. They compiled reflections of soldiers and others
involved, including a heartbreaking letter from a 2005 Wilton
High graduate killed in Iraq last September at age 19, and
quickly found their largely sheltered lives somewhat transformed.
“In Wilton, most kids only care about Britney Spears shaving
her head or Tyra Banks gaining weight,” said Devon Fontaine, 16,
a cast member. “What we wanted was to show kids what was
going on overseas.”
But even as 15 student actors were polishing the script and
perfecting their accents for a planned April performance, the
school principal last week canceled the play, titled “Voices in
Conflict,” citing questions of political balance and context.
The principal, Timothy H. Canty, who has tangled with students
before over free speech, said in an interview he was worried the
play might hurt Wilton families “who had lost loved ones or who
had individuals serving as we speak,” and that there was not
enough classroom and rehearsal time to ensure it would provide
“a legitimate instructional experience for our students.”
“It would be easy to look at this case on first glance and decide
this is a question of censorship or academic freedom,” said
Mr. Canty, who attended Wilton High himself in the 1970s
and has been its principal for three years. “In some minds,
I can see how they would react this way. But quite frankly,
it’s a false argument.”
At least 10 students involved in the production, however, said
that the principal had told them the material was too inflammatory,
and that only someone who had actually served in the war could
understand the experience. They said that Gabby Alessi-Friedlander,
a Wilton junior whose brother is serving in Iraq, had complained
about the play, and that the principal barred the class from
performing it even after they changed the script to respond
to concerns about balance.
“He told us the student body is unprepared to hear about the
war from students, and we aren’t prepared to answer questions
from the audience and it wasn’t our place to tell them what
soldiers were thinking,” said Sarah Anderson, a 17-year-old
senior who planned to play the role of a military policewoman.
Bonnie Dickinson, who has been teaching theater at the
school for 13 years, said, “If I had just done ‘Grease,’ this
would not be happening.”
Frustration over the inelegant finale has quickly spread across
campus and through Wilton, and has led to protest online
through Facebook and other Web sites.
“To me, it was outrageous,’’ said Jim Anderson, Sarah’s
father. “Here these kids are really trying to make a meaningful
effort to educate, to illuminate their fellow students, and
the administration, of all people, is shutting them down.”
First Amendment lawyers said Mr. Canty had some leeway
to limit speech that might be disruptive and to consider the
educational merit of what goes on during the school day,
when the play was scheduled to be performed. But thornier
legal questions arise over students’ contention that they were
also thwarted from trying to stage the play at night before
a limited audience, and discouraged from doing so even off-
campus. Just this week, an Alaska public high school was
defending itself before the United States Supreme Court for
having suspended a student who unfurled a banner extolling
drug use at an off-campus parade.
The scrap over “Voices in Conflict” is the latest in a series
of free-speech squabbles at Wilton High, a school of 1,250
students that is consistently one of Connecticut’s top performers
and was the alma mater of Elizabeth Neuffer, the Boston Globe
correspondent killed in Iraq in 2003.
The current issue of the student newspaper, The Forum, includes
an article criticizing the administration for requiring that yearbook
quotations come from well-known sources for fear of coded
messages. After the Gay Straight Alliance wallpapered stairwells
with posters a few years ago, the administration, citing public safety
hazards, began insisting that all student posters be approved
in advance.
Around the same time, the administration tried to ban bandanas
because they could be associated with gangs, prompting hundreds
of students to turn up wearing them until officials relented.
“Our school is all about censorship,” said James Presson, 16,
a member of the “Voices of Conflict” cast. “People don’t talk
about the things that matter.”
After reading a book of first-person accounts of the war,
Ms. Dickinson kicked off the spring semester — with the
principal’s blessing — by asking her advanced students if they
were open to creating a play about Iraq. In an interview, the
teacher said the objective was to showcase people close to the
same age as the students who were “experiencing very different
things in their daily lives and to stand in the shoes of those
people and then present them by speaking their words exactly
in front of an audience.”
What emerged was a compilation of monologues taken from
the book that impressed Ms. Dickinson, “In Conflict: Iraq War
Veterans Speak Out on Duty, Loss and the Fight to Stay Alive”;
a documentary, “The Ground Truth”; Web logs and other sources.
The script consisted of the subjects’ own words, though some
license was taken with identity: Lt. Charles Anderson became
“Charlene” because, as Seth Koproski, a senior, put it, “we had
a lot of women” in the cast.
In March, students said, Gabby, the junior whose brother is serving
in the Army in Iraq, said she wanted to join the production, and
soon circulated drafts of the script to parents and others in town.
A school administrator who is a Vietnam veteran also raised
questions about the wisdom of letting students explore such
sensitive issues, Mr. Canty said.
In response to concerns that the script was too antiwar, Ms. Dickinson
reworked it with the help of an English teacher. The revised version
is more reflective and less angry, omitting graphic descriptions
of killing, crude language and some things that reflect poorly
on the Bush administration, like a comparison of how long
it took various countries to get their troops bulletproof vests.
A critical reference to Donald H. Rumsfeld, the former defense
secretary, was cut, along with a line from Cpl. Sean Huze saying
of soldiers: “Your purpose is to kill.”
Seven characters were added, including Maj. Tammy Duckworth
of the National Guard, a helicopter pilot who lost both legs and
returned from the war to run for Congress last fall. The second
version gives First Lt. Melissa Stockwell, who lost her left leg from
the knee down, a new closing line: “But I’d go back. I wouldn’t
want to go back, but I would go.”
On March 13, Mr. Canty met with the class. He told us “no matter
what we do, it’s not happening,” said one of the students, Erin Clancy.
That night, on a Facebook chat group called “Support the Troops
in Iraq,” a poster named GabriellaAF, who several students said
was their classmate Gabby, posted a celebratory note saying,
“We got the show canceled!!” (Reached by telephone, Gabby’s mother,
Barbara Alessi, said she had no knowledge of the play or her daughter’s
involvement in it.) In classrooms, teenage centers and at dinner tables
around town, the drama students entertained the idea of staging
the show at a local church, or perhaps al fresco just outside the
school grounds. One possibility was Wilton Presbyterian Church.
“I would want to read the script before having it performed here,
but from what I understand from the students who wrote it, they
didn’t have a political agenda,” said the Rev. Jane Field, the church’s
youth minister.
Mr. Canty said he had never discouraged the students from
continuing to work on the play on their own. But Ms. Dickinson
said he told her “we may not do the play outside of the four walls
of the classroom,” adding, “I can’t have anything to do with it
because we’re not allowed to perform the play and I have
to stand behind my building principal.”
Parents, even those who are critical of the decision, say the episode
is out of character for a school system that is among the attractions
of Wilton, a well-off town of 18,000 about an hour’s drive from
Manhattan.
“The sad thing was this thing was a missed opportunity for growth
from a school that I really have tremendous regard for,” said
Emmalisa Lesica, whose son was in the play. Given the age
of the performers and their peers who might have seen the
show, she noted, “if we ended up in a further state of war,
wouldn’t they be the next ones drafted or who choose to go
to war? Why wouldn’t you let them know what this is about?”
The latest draft of the script opens with the words of Pvt. Nicholas
Madaras, the Wilton graduate who died last September and whose
memory the town plans to soon honor by naming a soccer field
for him. In a letter he wrote to the local paper last May, Private
Madaras said Baqubah, north of Baghdad, sometimes “feels like
you are on another planet,” and speaks wistfully about the life
he left behind in Wilton.
“I never thought I’d ever say this, but I miss being in high
school,” he wrote. “High school is really the foundation for
the rest of your life, whether teenagers want to believe
it or not.”
Private Madaras’s parents said they had not read the play,
and had no desire to meddle in a school matter. But his
mother, Shalini Madaras, added, “We always like to think
about him being part of us, and people talking about him,
I think it’s wonderful.”
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5) Spain: Delphi Axe Prompts General Strike
March 23, 2007
http://futureoftheunion.com/?p=4180
Spain: Delphi Axe Prompts General Strike by just-auto.com
Editorial Team
Spanish trades unions have called for a general strike on 18 April
to protest against embattled US auto parts maker Delphi’s plans
to shut its Puerto Real, Cadiz factory, dismissing 4,500 permanent
and temporary workers, a union official told just-auto on Friday.
The move comes as the European Union this week said it would
support Spain’s efforts to force Delphi to explain exactly why
it is closing the site, to provide a viability plan for it and offer
layoff compensation to workers - something it has so far
refused to do.
The official said Puerto Real’s factory employs 2,000 contract
workers and 2,500 auxiliary workers and that its closure will
mean the loss of an important employer in the largely blue-collar
region of southern Spain. The plant supplies Volvo, Ford, General
Motors, Nissan, Mercedes Benz and Kia.
The general strike will be held in 14 municipalities across the
Cadiz Bay, home to the Puerto Real factory.
It will be followed by a major Madrid demonstration and
a 24-hour strike in Puerto Real on 29 March.
Those measures follow major industrial actions in recent weeks
in which 3,000 people participated in demonstrations.
Today’s announcement came after hundreds of workers from
Delphi’s Sant Cugat del Valles factory in Barcelona took to the
streets to decry Puerto Real’s planned closure.
Unions plan to hold similar actions every week until the crisis
is resolved, the union rep confirmed.
Spanish press quoted government officials as saying they will
do everything possible to fix Puerto Real’s crisis. Apart from
demanding that Delphi come clean about its intentions, they
will ask the company to explain how it used millions of euros
of European Union aid funds given it to set up in Puerto Real.
Government officials have also reportedly called a meeting
with the US embassy in Madrid to discuss the crisis.
Delphi has said Puerto Real’s factory has reported losses since
2002 and that its closure stems from its inability to operate
it profitably.
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6) Waiting for C. Wright Mills
by RICARDO ALARCON DE QUESADA
[posted online on March 23, 2007]
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070409/alarcon_eng
"I am for the Cuban revolution.
I do not worry about it, I worry for
it and with it."
--from Listen, Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba
C. Wright Mills suffered a heart attack at the age of 45 while at
home in New York on March 20, 1962. Fifteen months earlier, his
doctors had warned him that the next one would be his last. And it
was. An intense, creative and noble life ended in one swift blow. His
life, however, would continue beating within a new generation that
had found in Mills a shining example.
In the midst of McCarthyism and the cold war, he published a
half-dozen books vital to understanding contemporary US society.
Among them were The New Men of Power: American Labor Leaders (1948),
White Collar: The American Middle Classes (1951), The Power Elite
(1956), The Causes of World War Three (1958) and The Sociological
Imagination (1959), as well as other essays and articles. They
unmasked the true nature of capitalism from a critical, independent,
original and lucid perspective that contributed to the birth of the
"New Left."
Although Mills was by then an accomplished author and widely
recognized by his peers, the publication of Listen, Yankee in 1960
brought him a surprising notoriety that served as the driving force
behind the debate that swirled around him until that fateful day in
March. It was a book about Cuba. Mills had come to the island in the
summer of 1960. He wanted to study the Cuban Revolution, and he had
prepared for the trip by reading as much as he could about the
island, writing down his questions and doubts. Eager to understand
the reality of this country and its young revolution, he prepared
intensely. Here he spent long hours speaking with Fidel and Che
Guevara on several occasions, as well as with many other Cubans from
all walks of life.
Upon returning to New York he worked feverishly night and day for six
weeks. Listen, Yankee: The Revolution in Cuba was published in
November. It suddenly became an extraordinary and valuable example of
engaged literature. Written without great academic pretensions, told
in straightforward language through the voice of an imaginary and
anonymous Cuban revolutionary, the book aimed to reach ordinary
Americans. It quickly became a bestseller.
Among the first to read the book were FBI analysts, since the bureau
obtained the manuscript prior to its publication. Anticipating its
impact, the FBI also tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the
publisher, Ian Ballantine, to publish a negative perspective of the
revolution by another author.
Mills received numerous messages of support and appreciation of his
book. He was also criticized, insulted and threatened. According to
the FBI, a few days following the appearance of Listen, Yankee,
someone sent Mills an anonymous letter warning him that "an American
agent disguised as a South American would assassinate him on his next
visit to Cuba." In a memo dated November 29, 1960, the FBI noted that
"Mills indicated he would not be surprised if this were true since he
does not doubt that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other
similar United States organizations do not approve of his activities.
Mills has made several inquiries in regard to purchasing a gun for
self-protection." It is significant that the paragraph immediately
following this quote is blacked out by the FBI and remains
classified.
Mills's friends recall that he was concerned not only for himself but
for his family, and that he had indeed acquired a handgun, which he
even kept next to his bed while he slept.
During those days, Mills had been preparing for an hourlong televised
debate with Adolph A. Berle Jr. on NBC, with a viewing audience of
approximately 20 million people, which was scheduled to take place on
Saturday, December 10. He had dedicated many hours to studying US
policy toward Latin America and had accumulated sufficient material
for another book.
On the eve of the highly publicized program, he suffered a severe
heart attack. He was in a coma for four days and hospitalized for two
weeks until he decided to return home. The doctors insisted that he
avoid stress. "That's like telling me to avoid eating and breathing,"
he responded. The cardiograms revealed that he had previously
suffered a heart attack, possibly in 1956 or 1957.
While Mills began his long process of recuperation, the Batista mafia
in Miami filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit, according to FBI
calculations, against Mills and the publishers of Listen, Yankee. The
bureau itself admitted that the US government tried to interfere and
impede them from mounting a proper defense.
Cuba anxiously followed Mills's difficult and solitary battle. In a
letter to Ralph Miliband on January 25, 1961, Mills wrote, "Fidel
keeps cabling me to come on down and convalesce in Cuba, and my
friend Vallejo...a medical man of real ability, as well as the head
of INRA [National Institute of Agrarian Reform] in the Oriente, says
that just to step on the island will cure me and that he has some
things to talk over anyway."
This letter is an important document, as it reveals the depth of
Mills's admirable personality. Describing the question of his health
he said, "I'm not ever going to be a track star; probably can't
really get into any revolutionary action in anybody's mountains, but
with a little carefulness on the physical side, I shouldn't be
handicapped much at all. But of course that's only medicine, which is
about living and dying, not about how one might live, or even must
live. That's well beyond medicine and well into one's own
morality....
"What we do not know, as yet, is how much intellectual and moral
tension I can stand without the silly heart blistering out again....
One point that bothers me greatly: I'm afraid there is going to come
about a very bad time in my country for people who think as I do....
What bothers me is whether or not the damned heart will stand up to
what must then be done."
In the same letter, Mills mentions some of the financial problems
brought on by his illness. "I am not teaching this Spring of course,
and do not yet know if Columbia will pay my salary for the semester
or not. I have no hospitalization or such insurance (which anyway is
a racket) and my first week (in a local suburban hospital mind you)
cost $1,100.00...that's just the hospital, no doctors or surgery."
C. Wright Mills paid a high price for his passionate love of truth.
Listen, Yankee was for him "a pivotal book," which helped him fight
the "moral ambiguity" and "cowardice" that prevailed in US
intellectual circles at the time.
Nearly half a century later, his principal message not only retains
its relevance; recent historical events vindicate it. The world has
changed a lot since 1960. The USSR and "real socialism" have
crumbled. Neoliberal capitalism is global, yet its dominion is
increasingly challenged by the peoples of Latin America and
elsewhere.
From the time when Mills came to visit us, Cuba has lived a dramatic
life with successes as well as failures. Alone and abandoned by all
after the USSR disappeared, it had to heroically resist some very
hard and difficult years during which the United States intensified
its economic and political aggression. Today Cuba forges a path to
craft its own unique socialist system, rooted on its own historical
experience and with the active participation of its people. Social
movements are transforming Latin America, with several countries
putting into practice new, diverse and multicolored forms of
socialism.
Mills's prophetic vision is becoming a reality. Indeed, now we have
many things to talk about. We are waiting for him.
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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES
Note: Op-Eds from the Times can't be viewed without subscription to
Times Select. They are posted here only after I have previously published
them in full and can still be found on the archive at www.bauaw.org...bw
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Another Casualty: Coverage of the Iraq War
Dahr Jamail | March 23, 2007
Editor: Erik Leaver, IPS and John Feffer, IRC
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org
"Iraq is the most dangerous place in the world for journalists.
Along with names and dates, the Brussels Tribunal has listed
the circumstances under which Iraqi media personnel have been
killed since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. This
extremely credible report cites 195 as dead. If non-Iraqi media
representatives are included, the figure goes beyond 200.
Both figures are well in excess of the media fatalities suffered
in Vietnam or during World War II."
http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/www.fpif.org
Kentucky: New Mine Rules
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Coal mines will get increased scrutiny from state inspectors under
legislation signed into law by Gov. Ernie Fletcher. The law will require
inspectors from the Office of Mine Safety and Licensing to double
their visits to underground coal mines to a minimum of six a year.
Two of the annual inspections must focus on electrical work inside
mines. The law also requires at least one member of every underground
crew to have a detector to monitor for the explosive gas methane.
Miners working alone would also have a detector. The law follows
one of the deadliest years in recent history for Kentucky coal miners;
16 miners were killed in 2006.
March 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/us/24brfs-MINE.html
Three Detectives Are Indicted in 50-Shot Killing in Queens
By AL BAKER
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/nyregion/17grand.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Taming Fossil Fuels
Editorial
The importance of these projects cannot be overstated. As a report
released Wednesday by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology observed, coal produces more than 30 percent of America’s
carbon dioxide emissions."
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/opinion/17sat1.html?hp
Utah Sets Rigorous Rules for School Clubs, and Gay Ones May Be Target
By KIRK JOHNSON
March 17, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/17/education/17utah.html?ref=us
TERRORISM
Cuba -- How scared should we be?
BY PHILIP PETERS
http://www.miamiherald.com/851/story/43180.html
The Ides of March 2003
By FRANK RICH
Op-Ed Columnist
March 18, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/18rich.html?hp
In March, Protesters Recall War Anniversaries
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and SARAH ABRUZZESE
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/us/18protest.html
The Army, After Iraq
Editorial
March 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/18/opinion/nyregionopinions/18sun1.html?hp
Death of a Marine
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 19, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19herbert.html?hp
The Medicaid Documentation Mess
Editorial
March 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19mon1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Tens of Thousands March on the Pentagon
Riot Police Block Buses and Deny Access to People
Coming to the Demonstration, plus, full
Message from Immortal Technique
on being denied entrance to the March
on the Pentagon
March 17, 2007
http://www.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8421&JServSessionIdr004=19pxequxo1.app8a
Students’ Right to Free Speech
Editorial
March 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/20/opinion/20tue1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Stepping on the Dream
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
March 22, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22herbert.html?hp
Congress’s Challenge on Iraq
Editorial
March 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/opinion/22thu1.html?hp
Illegal Worker, Troubled Citizen and Stolen Name
By JULIA PRESTON
March 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/us/22raids.html?ref=us
Abolishing the Middlemen Won’t Make Health Care a Free Lunch
By TYLER COWEN
March 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/business/22scene.html
Foreclosures Force Suburbs to Fight Blight
By ERIK ECKHOLM
"Noting that the problem with the desertion numbers arises
when the service cannot find enough recruits to fill certain
crucial specialties like medical experts and bomb defusers..."
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/us/23vacant.html?ref=us
Army Revises Upward Number of Desertions in ’06
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/us/23awol.html?ref=us
New to Job, Gates Argued for Closing Guantánamo
By THOM SHANKER and DAVID E. SANGER
"Some administration lawyers are deeply reluctant to move
terrorism suspects to American soil because it could increase
their constitutional and statutory rights..."
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/washington/23gitmo.html?ref=us
State Takes Control of Troubled Public Schools in St. Louis
By MALCOLM GAY
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/us/23missouri.html
They’re Looking for a Few Good Coal Miners
By STUART ELLIOTT
"YOU load 16 tons, and what do you get? How about a paycheck,
vacations, a dental plan and a 401(k)?"
[The Army is looking for a few good bomb diffusers, too!...bw]
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/business/media/23adco.html?ref=business
California: The Land of Milk and Megadairies
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors approved a plan Tuesday
for two 160-acre megadairies to be built across from Colonel Allensworth
State Historic Park, a site dedicated to the history of California’s first
and only black planned community. The county approved the proposal
by a local rancher to establish two dairies with some 16,000 cows near
the park, in a remote corner of the Central Valley. Citizens, including
some from the original Allensworth Colony, and environmentalists
have protested the plan.
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/us/23brfs-MILK.html
California: Marijuana Card Ruling
By CAROLYN MARSHALL
An appeals court ruled that California’s medical marijuana law does
not automatically shield patients from searches by law enforcement.
The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the State Court of
Appeal said a Napa County sheriff’s deputy had probable cause to
search the vehicle of Gabriel Strasburg, who claimed to have a medical
marijuana card, in October 2005. The law limits patient possession
to eight ounces. The deputy claimed Mr. Strasburg had about 23
ounces and a scale and was smoking in a parked car. Mr. Strasburg
pleaded no contest to misdemeanor possession but appealed, claiming
an unlawful search. In the decision, Justice James Marchiano said the
amount of marijuana found in the search left “a strong suggestion”
that Mr. Strasburg “was using the act as a façade to conceal illegal
activity.”
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/us/23brfs-CALIFORNIA.html
Rat Poison Found in Tainted Pet Food
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:09 p.m. ET
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Pet-Food-Recall.html?ref=us
French Court Rules for Newspaper That Printed Muhammad Cartoons
By CRAIG S. SMITH
March 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/23/world/europe/23france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Kentucky: Soldier Pleads Guilty
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A soldier pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the rape and murder
of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the killing of her family. The soldier,
Pfc. Bryan Howard, 19, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct
justice. Under a plea deal, Private Howard will not serve more than
27 months if he obeys certain conditions. Private Howard’s rank will
be reduced, and he will be dishonorably discharged. He will also have
to testify against others charged in the attacks last year in Mahmoudiya,
20 miles south of Baghdad.
March 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/22/us/22brfs-SOLDIER.html
After Bell, Critics Want Mayor to Broaden Focus on Police
By DIANE CARDWELL
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/nyregion/21bloomberg.html?ref=nyregion
Israel Workers Launch General Strike
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 3:45 a.m. ET
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Israel-Strike.html
Britain Proposes Allowing Schools to Forbid Full-Face Muslim Veils
By ALAN COWELL
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/europe/21britain.html?ref=world
F.B.I. Is Warned Over Its Misuse of Data Collection
By SCOTT SHANE
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/washington/21fbi.html?hp
Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View
By GARDINER HARRIS and JANET ROBERTS
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/us/21drug.html?hp
No Paradise for Criminals Deported to Jamaica
By MARC LACEY
March 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/world/americas/21kingston.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070402/scahill
Dems Abandon War Authority Provision
By DAVID ESPO and MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press
03.13.07, 12:28 AM ET
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/13/ap3510002.html
Defense Spending Soars to Highest Levels Since World War II
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0320-05.htm
Iraqis Increasingly Pessimistic, Anti-US
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines07/0320-02.htm
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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/
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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177
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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.
Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:
Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.
You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.
Happy Holidays!
Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html
SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.
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