Thursday, August 23, 2007

Agenda for VFP 8/23

Ernest Gruening Chapter (Southcentral Alaska), Meeting Agenda

Thursday, August 23, 7 pm, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Tudor & Lake Otis, Room 3 (downstairs)

 

  1. Introductions & Discuss Agenda
  2. Chapter Business-Finances
  3. Coordination with Anchorage Peace Coalition
    1. Next meeting 8/28, 7 pm Immanuel Presbyterian (near N. Light & Boniface—same place as Alaskans for Peace & Justice)
    2. Truth in Recruiting Training session: Wednesday, September 5, 7 pm, at 2621 Redwood Street (in Rogers Park near Northern Lights and the Seward highway)
    3. Our next Truth in Recruiting meeting will focus on training for adopt a school volunteers. Instead of meeting August 23, I've rescheduled for Wednesday, September 5. That will give us time to the word out and try to get at least one person for every high school.
  4. Upcoming Events
    1. Plans for the Eyes Wide Open exhibit around the state—Fairbanks in Sep. and Anchorage in Oct (http://ewoak/blogspot.com) are underway. See national site (http://www.afsc.org/eyes/ ) The next meeting will be tonite! at the home of: Taylor and Terry Brelsford 5909 Lynkerry Circle, phone 338-5520, or cell 244-2992(near Northern Lights and Boniface)
    2. Sept. 14-21: Declaration of Peace -- a week of coordinated nonviolent actions. http://vcnv.org/project/the-occupation-project
    3. September 15: Turn Up the Heat Protest in Washington, D.C.! http://www.pephost.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=8553&news_iv_ctrl=3361 (sponsor ANSWER)
    4. National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (D.C. action - September 20th);
    5. The Iraq Moratorium (a monthly day of action beginning September 21st); The THIRD FRIDAY of every month--Wear and distribute black ribbons and armbands, etc. http://www.iraqmoratorium.org 
    6. SEPT 22- 29: Encampment in front of Congress - Cut off the War funds - Build a People Peace Congress--Congress will not end the war, Marches alone will not end the war, It's time to shut down Washington DC -No more business as usual! http://www.troopsoutnow.org/sept2207call.html
    7. No War, No Warming (October 21st -23rd);
      FIGHT CLIMATE CHANGE, NOT WARS FOR OIL! Join a global movement rising up against war and global warming by participating in a massive intervention in Washington DC or your own community. The Declaration of Peace is working with many other anti-war initiatives this summer and fall -- to consolidate our actions to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq. http://nowarnowarming.org/article.php?list=class&class=20
    8. October 27 Massive Regional Actions to End the War in Iraq Regional Mobilizations being planned by United for Peace and Justice and member groups http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
  5. Pressure on Politicians Congressional Delegation- What can we do?
  6. Next Meeting on Sep.13th (2nd and 4th Thursday of every month)

 

 

 

Jon Lockert

Jon4Paz@AcsAlaska.net

 

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Wednesday, August 22, 2007

VFP Meeting Reminder and Idea from IVAW

Hello Vets,

 

Just a reminder about our first meeting in awhile Thursday night at 7 pm at St. Mary’s Episcopal (Lake Otis & Tudor). We will be downstairs. Please bring a friend so we can build our organization to step up our efforts to stop the war. It is clearly going to take a lot of work as the stalemate in Washington becomes more evident.

 

As for ideas—here is one I received from the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Also check the link to the Eyes Wide Open project link at the bottom.

 

Dear IVAW Supporter,

 

I'm sure that, like me, you are angered and saddened by the mounting violence and chaos in Iraq. We watch in frustration as more U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians lose their lives in a misbegotten occupation that is well into its fifth year. We all want this war to end now. To achieve this goal, IVAW has developed a strategy that will directly challenge military support for the war, but we can't do it alone.

 

This summer IVAW members toured bases from Georgia to New York hosting BBQs for veterans and active duty service members to spread the word about the organization and its work to end the illegal occupation of Iraq and bring the troops home now. Our members were greeted with "Semper Fi" by active duty Marines at Camp Lejeune's mess hall in June, helped expand our largest on-base chapter at Fort Drum in New York, and celebrated July 4th with a fundraiser and concert in Philadelphia.

 

Now it is your turn. We are asking our supporters to host Bring Them Home House Parties to spread the word about IVAW's strategy to end the war now and to help us raise money to implement this strategy. IVAW plans to more than double our budget in the coming year as we expand our organizing on and near military bases and step into a larger leadership role within the anti-war movement. In order to do this we need to enlarge our base of supporters.

 

Please consider hosting a house party. You can read more about it and sign up at http://events.ivaw.org. We have done our best to make it easy by creating a simple guide, which includes materials for the event and ideas for different kinds of house parties. (You can find the guide here: http://events.ivaw.org/moreinfo ). But ultimately the success of this effort relies on the commitment of supporters like you.

 

If we have 50 house parties that each raise $500, that would pay for one full-time organizer. If we have 500 house parties it would allow us to hire 10 IVAW members as full-time organizers who would be trained to organize in every region of this country. Our membership could grow from over 500 to more than 5,000 and our capacity to build coalitions and strategic alliances would also grow, enabling us to be far more effective in our efforts to end the war now.

 

House parties are a great way to support our national strategy to end the war. Please host a Bring Them Home House Party so we will have the resources we need to get the job done.

 

Sincerely,

Kelly Dougherty

Former Sergeant, Army National Guard

Executive Director

Iraq Veterans Against the War

www.IVAW.org

 

Our postal address is

PO Box 8296

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19101

United States

 

 

Jon Lockert

Jon4Paz@AcsAlaska.net

 

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Monday, August 13, 2007

Stevens Defends New Weapons--

New cutting-edge warplanes will lift Alaska's economy

ADN Compass By SEN. TED STEVENS, Published: August 8, 2007

MY COMMENT:
Uncle Ted keeps hauling it in--the only problem is we have to agree to be part of the unprecedented buildup of weapons and those who feel compelled to use them. Are we buying our comfort by playing our dependent role to the military-industrial-political complex at the expense of the lower-48 taxpayers? It actually is not too complex--weapons and war-making is profitable (therefore we need more weapons and more wars to use them in...). You have to ask yourself--is an F-22 or the Missile Defense System going to reduce the threats we are facing from the blowback to our current and future imperial wars?

The following is from the article

"Besides increasing the strength of our military, these planes will benefit all of Alaska, and Anchorage in particular. Elmendorf's economic impact -- more than $800 million per year -- touches almost every sector of our economy: It bolsters our real estate market, and boosts sales for everything from automobiles to consumer goods. F-22-related projects are expected to generate more than $300 million in new construction, and will create hundreds of new jobs for local residents."

Is the war machine our new growth sector (in case we don't get a gas line)?

Below are the top 12 donors to Sen. Stevens. The familiar names in bold are likely looking for support for MORE weapons systems.

Boeing Co
BP
Veco Corp
AT&T Inc
Lockheed Martin
News Corp
General Dynamics
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn
Cassidy & Assoc/Interpublic Group
Teamsters Union
General Electric
Northrop Grumman
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