OMNI NEWSLETTER: EVENTS, ACTIONS, COMMENT
JULY 2, 2005

Choose an action that attracts you and go to work!

FRIDAY NIGHTS Join host David Brancaccio as NOW moves to 7:30 p.m. every Friday beginning July 1. Visit the NOW Website at http://www.pbs.org/now/index.html



JULY 2, RAPID RESPONSE WRITERS MEETS FIRST SATURDAY NOON OF EACH MONTH

At Ozark Mt. Smokehouse, 11:30. Join us there. Let your indignations or celebrations find expression in letters to the editor. If you wish, send copy of your letters to Larry Woodall la_wood@earthlink.net



JULY 3, 12:30, PROTEST THE WAR (EVERY SUNDAY)

Chris revised the protest flyer with a photo from last Sunday. Join us. Copy the flyer to friends. http://www.geocities.com/elvis_4_peace/misc/full_page_omniposter.doc


JULY 5, OMNI'S ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE, 1:30, OMNI

Come help OMNI help the NWA environment movement.

JULY 12, TRANSPORTATION MEETING

In the last newsletter I was not clear about the Wash. Cnty Meeting:

The Fayetteville meeting will be July 12 at the Washington County Quorum Court Room, 2nd fl. Of Wash. County Courthouse, 11am to 2pm, 4 to 7pm. OMNI needs at least one observer there.



JULY 15, 7PM, at OMNI, PATRIOT ACT COMMITTEE
http://www.northwest-ark.com/pfcl/petform.htm the new petition form. You can either print it from the website or download the image from the site. Be sure and tell your printer to print the page horizonally. Unconstitutional is at the OMNI center for those who want to send them to their council people. Pippin
Please distribute this petition and bring them to the meeting. OMNI needs the help of many citizens in this effort to persuade Fville's City Council to renounce some parts of the anti-democratic Patriot Act.





JULY 23, SATURDAY, 12 TO 4, AT OMNI: West Memphis 3 Awareness Day:
http://www.wm3.org/live/newsevents/eventsitem.php?index=1&events_Id=88

Watch for more details. Contact Mikhelle Chamberlin Taylor: sororkalyx@yahoo.com .


OMNI Needs for its HOME PEACE PLACES NETWORK DIRECTORY

Someone to direct and develop it. Someone to create an artistic looseleaf? collection of the Directory with Photos. And someone to create and produce a brochure on the Directory. One person for all? Or 3? Or 2?



CHRISTIANITY MILITARIZED

An ad in TMN 6-25 from the First Baptist Church of Springdale entitled "Summer Freedom Celebration" had the U. S. flag in the background, then Rev. Floyd with Bible preaching, and then a photo of Rev. H. D. McCarty in his Brigadier General's uniform, Special Guest. This is the church that brought Col. North here years ago; North you recall was part of the grossly unconstitutional, secret Contra invasion of Nicaragua headquartered in Pres. Reagan's White House. The dystopian anti-totalitiarian novelists-Zamiatin, Kafka, Koestler, Silone, Orwell-powerfully depict the threat of totalitarian governments. Supporting such governments are religious sects like Floyd's. Haven't we allowed these nationalistic, imperial, Armageddon churches (fraudulently wrapped in the flag and "freedom") to escape criticism long enough? And of course this is only part of the indictment we might mount against these churches. Floyd's contempt for women who seek equality of opportunity is an undisguised part of his warrior masculinity values. From a recent sermon: "Now what will NOW say about it? The National Organization for Whiners_I'm sorry. The National Organization for Worriers_I'm sorry. The National Organization for Wrestlers..oh, my gosh." Will YOU join me in forming a committee to take action? (Read Jefferson's Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom in preparation.)


REV. FLOYD'S SERMONS: Examine and Write newspaper, friends, groups

Here is the direct link to order the transcript:
http://www.fbc-springdale.org/cgi-bin/fbc-springdale/sb/order.cgi?storeid=*1
47dccdaf803e0070b3f5ee8&dbname=products&itemnum=597&function=add
You can also access the sermon and watch it online at: http://www.fbcs.net/webcast.htm
First Baptist Church of Springdale & The Church at Pinnacle Hills
(thanks to Susan Schroeder)

LOCAL WATCHMEN: ONE-WHIRLED VIEW
For over 10 years, Critical Thinkers Dan Vega and Roger Henry have probed into important issues of peace, justice, and ecology on CAT Mondays at 10:00 pm. Thank them the next time you see them. CAT is open to many more such programs, forums, debates, talks. What a shame CAT is so underemployed for peace, justice, and ecology.

CORPORATE-WHITE HOUSE-PENTAGON- MAINSTREAM MEDIA COMPLEX EXPOSED: DOWNING STREET MEMO. Send this to news people. from Arianna Huffington http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/22291/ (add to the articles you received: "Talking Points" and "Connect the Dots"; the evidence is sufficient to bring down this president and his congressional supporters, only mobilizing the public's will remains)
Excerpt:.
-- ABC News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 42 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 121 segments.
-- CBS News: "Downing Street Memo": 0 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 70 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 235 segments.
-- NBC News: "Downing Street Memo": 6 segments;
"Natalee Holloway": 62 segments; "Michael
Jackson": 109 segments.
The 'liberal media," eh?
With 645 segments to bring you real news about real issues, the big networks spend 6 of those 645 segments on real news, and 639 segments on handjob stories to help Bush cover stuff up.
Less than one percent of the news is about the biggest story of the last five years.

PHOTOS and STATISTICS OF THE WAR
The muckraking website "The Memory Hole" first published the photos of soldiers' coffins that the Pentagon (Bush) tried to hide. Chris Hondros' disturbing photos of civilians killed by U. S. troops: www.newsday.com For current stats on the war's toll, visit www.icasualties.org (from Mother Jones)

SENATE WATCH

PRYOR AND LINCOLN WEAK ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Pryor teamed with Rep. Sen. Chuck Hagel for an amendment to the energy bill to make tax credits, loans, and other financial incentives the way to reduce greenhouse gases that are causing global warming. And even this little is non-binding. Lincoln voted with them. Accord. To the League of Conservation Voters the legislation "continues the failed voluntary action on global warming." (TMN 6-28-05 1A)

PUBLIC BROADCASTING: BOOZMAN WATCH

Congressman, Rep. Boozman, voted with the House majority to restore $100 million of the $200 million cut from NPR and PBS funding. You can call to thank him at 202-225-4301, and ask for the other $100 million!



BUSH'S CPB HATCHET MAN: CITIZEN ACTION NEEDED

Ken Tomlinson, the new Chairman of Board of Directors, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, intends to make NPR and PBS "conform to the values of this administration."

Call in a leave a polite comment explaining why Tomlinson should resign.The Corporation for Public Broadcasting wants to hear from you. This is what their website says: To encourage submission of comments, CPB maintains a toll-free, 24-hour telephone line (1-800-272-2190) and a dedicated e-mail address (comments@cpb.org). They actually tell Congress in a formal report each year about the content of all of the public comments. This is seriously worth doing. 1-800-272-2190, or comments@cpb.org.



FSTV

Sample of recent programs: one on protecting rivers and water, turning from large to small dams, draining some large dammed lakes (missed the title); "Democracy Now" as always packed with information and analysis not found in mainstream news media: Italian judge ordered arrest of 13 CIA agens for kidnapping a cleric and shipping him to Egypt where he was tortured; US gov't. plans to spend $1 ½ billion to produce plutonium 238, the most lethal, but Bush Admin. won't explain; people in DC arrested while demonstrating for UN Day for Victims of Torture; Program on Prof. Ward Churchill, U Colorado, who is under fire for some sentences he expressed about 9-11; Film with Bruce Gagnon on the U.S. Master of Space plan that explains U. S. intention to control space and therefore earth, will continue to send plutonium into space, etc.; "Aftermath: The Remnants of War," on the consequences of war; Toni Morrison and Cornel West in dialog. You can see it's an endless feast for the mind and future action.



KNOW YOUR GOVERNMENT

These are US Government (Bush administration) propaganda websites (you may know of these websites already). http://lifeandliberty.gov (Patriot Act) http://freedom.gov (Iraq War)

There may be more of these ".gov" propaganda websites funded by US citizen tax dollars ! Carl

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE: CONGRESSWATCH
Urge Lincoln, Pryor, Boozman to vote to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act. See: Family Violence Prevention Fund, www.endabuse.org; National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence. Center for Court Innovation. Miles Foundation. National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-7233).



DISARMAMENT FOR REAL SECURITY
There is a long road to travel in creating the type of system change that is necessary to secure our world - but there are many tools available that we can use to assist us in preparing future citizens to critically analyze the present and propose alternatives for the future. If you have yet to read it, I encourage each of you to download the "United Nations Study on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Education." This report is beautiful in defining issues of disarmament, identifying past and present disarmament efforts, and recommending ways in which to introduce new disarmament efforts. Perhaps most unique about the report is that it also goes beyond the substance of disarmament and identifies the types of education, training, and methodology that are critical for facilitating the immense transformation that must occur in our thinking about what security is and how it is ensured. To download the report visit the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs website at: http://disarmament2.un.org/education/study.html From Tony Jenkins



LABOR MOVEMENT
The debate over labor's future: www.labornotes.org, Service Employees international Union: www.unitetowin.org

PR/MEDIA WATCH
Center for Media and Democracy, www.prwatch.org

COMMODIFYING THE FLAG (USA = turning everything into a commodity?)
Let's all remember, the next time any of us is accused of desecrating the flag, the profligate ways businesses exploit it for lucre. For example, 7-2-05 in TMN: Sam's Furniture not only advertises "Stars & Stripes Savings" on "4th of July" (our Founding Fathers?) but assures us we can "Choose [our] Freedom This Weekend" by buying Sam's furniture (this is freedom!?). Perhaps some of you would want to complain to the newspaper (its advert. rep. suggested and supplied the ad probably) and to the company.


ECOLOGY/OCEANS/TOURISM/CRUISE SHIPS: CONGRESS WATCH

"Oceana and Bluewater Network are fighting the cruise industry's nasty habit of dumping sewage offshore." Urge our congresspeople to pass the Clean Cruise Ship Act at www.stopcruisepollution.com (from Mother Jones)


OMNI SEEKS A WORLD FREE OF WAR AND THE THREAT OF WAR, A SOCIETY WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, A COMMUNITY WHERE EVERY PERSON'S POTENTIAL MAY BE FULFILLED, AN EARTH RESTORED. WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP. Thanks to FCNL and AFSC. Compare the opening paragraph of the Preamble of The Earth Charter. Which do you prefer as OMNI's short mission statement?