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OMNI NEWSLETTER: EVENTS, ACTIONS, COMMENT
JANUARY 27, 2006 CREATING A CULTURE OF PEACE
Table of Contents:
Coming Events
Fayetteville, NWA, Arkansas
USA, World
UPCOMING EVENTS
JANUARY 29, 6:30, 2nd Annual Omni Membership Meeting –
at the United Campus Ministries Bldg. (NW corner of Maple and Storer) This will be FUN! Omni is providing a wonderful dinner (Kelly’s mom and Donna are making Lasagna) ; we will have a bit of music from Still on the Hill and Emily Kaitz; and we will get you up to speed on Omni's agenda and how YOU can get involved. This was a wonderful gathering last year. We do hope you will attend and renew your membership for 2006!
OMNI NEWS and COMMENTARY on CAT
Watch Livia Phillips and Dick Bennett on alternating weeks tell about what’s going on in NWA about CURRENT PROGRESSIVE activities. And see Cliff Hughes’ weekly commentary. All weekdays on CAT Monday/Thursday 11a.m., 5p.m., 11p.m., Fridays 11-6-11.
JANUARY 27, FRIDAY, Arkansas Indymedia’s Annual Birthday Benefit
at Sodie's Underground, located in the downstairs of the building in the center of the square. The Benefit show will start at 10:00PM, and Gnome Chomsky and The Gung Hobos will be playing.
JANUARY 28, SATURDAY, 1p.m., Book and Movie Group at Jones Center, Rm. 259.
Steve Woods, Native American Studies at Tulsa Community College, will discuss Sherman Alexie’s book of short stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven. Stay afterward to see “Smoke Signals,” the movie based on the book. Info.: 756-8090, x190.
JANUARY 28, SATURDAY, OMNI, 1PM, PLANNING MARCH 11 RALLY AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR. Hello Everyone, Just want to remind you about the meeting to coordinate the M11: Bring Home the Troops! event. It will take place this Saturday at 1:00 at the Omni Center/ UCM Presbyterian Church. We need your help and input to make this event into a powerful statement against the occupation of Iraq! Attached are designs for the t-shirts and buttons. See you Saturday! Greg Moore 479.841.2855
JANUARY 28, SATURDAY, 2PM, FORUM ON PRESIDENTIAL POWERS
At Fayetteville Public Library. Prof. Steve Sheppard, on President Bush claiming powers above the law. Co-sponsored by NWA ACLU and OMNI. We will hand out drafted letters to Rep. Boozman, our 2 Senators, and our aldermen/women. Join us to let our elected represeantives know where we stand on the Patriot Act and other laws subversive of our liberties, and to increase our voice to get the City Council’s attention on the importance of standing up for our civil liberties.
JANUARY 29, 6p.m., THOMAS PAINE Celebration, The Enlightenment by Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine, the great author and innovator, will be memorialized with speeches, handouts and mementoes at a dinner (buffet style - you pay) at Fire Mountain restaurant. Cheryl Cerell's talk will be "Thomas Paine - What Happened to the Age of Reason". And Paine's remarkable scientific innovations will be discussed. Q and A will follow. Jack Makens, working with Thomas Paine Friends, Inc. www.thomaspainefriends.org wants Arkansas to be the 10th State to Proclaim January 29th as "Thomas Paine Day" for the many ingenious humanitarian innovations Paine gave to us. Contact Jack at b4ethics@yahoo.com or 444-8149.
JANUARY 29, SUNDAY, 6:30, MEMBERSHIP MEETING
JANUARY 30, MONDAY (7pm), Sam Totten of the University of Arkansas, will appear as a guest on "On the Air with Richard S. Drake" to discuss genocide in Darfur. Totten is one of the editors of the book, A Century of Genocide: Political Essays and Eyewitness Accounts. The program will air on Community Access Television, on Channel 18 of the Cox channel line-up in Fayetteville. Additional showings will be: Tuesday, January 31 – noon;
Saturday, February 4 -- 6pm.
FEBRUARY 2, THURSDAY, Training on Worker's Rights
Matthew D. Goodwin, Interfaith Workers Justice Center. 902 West Maple St., Fayetteville, AR 72701 (in the United Campus Ministry Building). For pre-registration call Matt at 750-8015.
FEBRUARY 4, SATURDAY, 9:30-3:30, CITIZENS FIRST
Ozark Natural Foods Conf. Rm.
FEBRUARY 4, SATURDAY, RAPID RESPONSE WRITERS
11:30, Ozark Mountain Smokehouse. Contact Larry Woodall
FEBRUARY 4, PROTEST THE WAR (every first Saturday)
Intersection of Joyce and Mall at McDonald’s and just east of Wal-Mart.
FEBRUARY 5, SUNDAY, Protest of the War Every Sunday
11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., College and Dickson. Plenty of signs to choose from, or bring your own.
FEBRUARY 5, 1:00pm, Arkansas Indymedia meeting
At Arsaga's in the Fayetteville Public Library. Anyone interested in independent media is encouraged to attend. Our meetings are always the first Sunday of each month at Arsaga's in the Library 1:00PM
FEBRUARY 5, SUNDAY, 7PM, OPEN MIC PEACE COFFEEHOUSE
At OMNI at United Campus Ministry, Maple and Storer in Fayetteville.
Emily Kaitz, MC. Emily has a brand new peace song that is much the buzz. Bring a song or poem of peace, justice or ecology OR just sit back and enjoy the fabulous talent we enjoy in Fayetteville. Drinks and snacks provided. Parking in back of building off Storer, or along Storer or Maple, or in large UA parking lot #36 north of UCM on Douglas St.
FEBRUARY 6, MONDAY, 4:30, NWA ACLU BOARD MEETING
Office of Charles Kester on College.
FEBRUARY 6, MONDAY, 5:30, UNITED CAMPUS MINISTRY BOARD MEETING
902 W. Maple.
FEBRUARY 6-7, FILM SHORT TAKES AT CAT
FEBRUARY 6-10, BETSEY WRIGHT ON DEATH PENALTY
As part of the Omni Center Forums on C.A.T., an hour-long inteview with Betsy Wright about abolishing the death penalty in Arkansas will be shown during the week of Feb. 6.
Former advisor to then Governor and presidential candidate Bill Clinton, Betsy Wright has worked tirelessly as an advocate for death row inmates. In addition to working with the Department of Corrections to ensure humane treatment for the prisoners, she has enacted community programs such as the sending of birthday cards to inmates, and establishing commissary funds for those without families to provide for everyday needs. Her priority, of course, is to see the death penalty overturned. Tune in for this interesting talk with this dynamic woman.
For information: contact Melanie Dietzel 442-8600 melaniedietzel@cox.net
FEBRUARY 8, WEDNESDAY, 6:00, OMNI’S CRITICAL THINKING AWARDS COMMITTEE At Nancy Maier's house, 951 Missouri Way, Fayetteville. We will have a potluck supper, develop guidelines for evaluating projects, and discuss forming a panel of judges. Hope you can all make it. (Directions to Nancy's: from IGA on College, take Lafayette, app. six blocks east. Do not take Mission. Continue straight on Lafayette and take a right on Dogwood. Go app. 1/4 mile and take a right onto Missouri Way. Third house on the left, 951 Missouri Way. Phone: 521-5678).
FEBRUARY 12, SUNDAY, Protest the War Every Sunday
11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., College and Dickson. Plenty of signs to choose from, or bring your own.
PROTEST THE WAR.
Feb 12, 2006 –VIDEO UNDERGROUND, The Battle of Algiers
Director Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 movie The Battle of Algiers concerns the violent struggle in the late 1950s for Algerian independence from France, where the film was banned on its release for fear of creating civil disturbances. Certainly, the heady, insurrectionary mood of the film, enhanced by a relentlessly pulsating Ennio Morricone soundtrack, makes for an emotionally high temperature throughout. Decades later, the advent of the "war against terror" has only intensified the film's relevance.
It will be shown at the OMNI CENTER FOR PEACE, JUSTICE, AND ECOLOGY located at 902 W. Maple in Fayetteville, on the first floor of the Presbyterian and Disciples Student Center. This event will begin at 7:00 pm. Admission is free, donations are welcomed. View the Video Underground's entire video schedule at: http://omni-vu-films.blogspot.com.
FEBRUARY 22, Wed., Sustainable Communities Networking Meeting: 6-7:30PM Fayetteville Library at corner of School and Mountain The purpose: To support people who want to create a sustainable world: Not-for-profit organizations; locally owned businesses; faith-based groups; individuals who want to share project ideas or get involved. Each person will briefly share their message with the entire group, with time left over for more in-depth conversations and networking. Tables and bulletin boards will be provided for display of written materials. Presentations will be video-taped for airing on Community Access Television and other venues. Plans for creating an excellent Earth Day 2006 in NW Arkan! sas will be unveiled. Sponsored by The Livable Future Project, "Working together we can create a sustainable world one community at a time." Contact: Patricia Mikkelson, Director, LivableFuture@yahoo.com 479-582-1681
OMNI UA PLANS NEW FILM SERIES
Febuary 13 and 27, March 13 and 27, April 17 and 24. Movies we'll be watchin', unless we come up with better/different movies: a) City of God, b) Baraka, c) Island of the Roses, d) Blue Eyes Brown Eyes, e) Manufacturing Consent, f) Hearts and Minds
MIDDLE EAST FILM SERIES organized by Prof. Joel Gordon
104 Mullins Library, 7p.m.
January 25: Amrika Shika Bika (America Abracadabra), dir. Khayri Bishara, Egypt, 1993
February 8: Vivre au Paradis (Living in Paradise), dir. Bourdem Guerdjou, Algeria/France, 1998
March 8: Eskiya (Bandit), dir. Yavuz Turgel, Turkey, 1996
April 5: Ihna Bitu' al-Autobis (We Are the Bus People), dir. Husayn Kamal, Egypt, 1979
April 19: Dayereh (The Circle), dir. Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2000
May 3: Darb al-Tabanat (The Milky Way), dir. Ali Nassar, Palestine/Israel, 1997
FAYETTEVILLE, NWA, ARKANSAS
FAYETTEVILLE, NWA
OMNI’S WOMEN’S VOICES: OMNI encourages women's leadership in OMNI's
steering committee and as initiators and coordinators of our activities.
Annually:
Women’s History Month
International Women’s Day: Celebrate your favorite woman.
Mother’s Day: In May take back Mother’s Day for Peace, Julia Ward Howe’s original purpose.
Monthly:
HOWL (by HerWords Outloud), women reading and singing about their lives and for women’s rights and social justice, 3rd Thursdays at OMNI
Many OMNI events include celebration and defense of women: Human Rights Day, UN Day, Indigenous People’s Day, Hiroshima/Nagasaki Remembrance, and more.
The HOWL REPORT:
On Sunday, Jan. 15th the first HOWL was a hit. An audience of 35 gathering to listen as 14 women read selections of poetry and prose at the new open mic hosted by poet Mendy Knott. Topics ranged from politics to personal and back again. HOWL is produced by Herwords Outloud, a community-in-progress of local women writers, with the generous support of the Omni Center. We extend a special thank-you for Omni's support of women's voices, especially since other local venues were worried about potential political/alternative content of the reading! HOWL happens the third Sunday of every month. The next is Sunday, February 19th at the Deep End in front of Omni. Doors open at 6pm, readings begin at 6:30pm. Women and Men are invited to attend and listen as women read their own work or the work of women writers they admire. Inspiration is guaranteed! To receive a reminder about the next reading or if you have questions, write howl@herwords.org
OMNI’s VP Melanie Dietzel led a demonstration in support of Roe v. Wade, January 20,
in front of the Washington County Courthouse., to support the rights of woman everywhere and to protect those rights for our daughters and granddaughters. Related: Doc. on FSTV(www.freespeechtv.org) on Planned Parenthood in Milwaukee. I didn’t get the title, but the director is Stacey Benoit.
OMNI UA for Peace, Justice & Ecology at the University of Arkansas will be active in its second semester. Our first weekly meeting will be Monday, January 23, in UNION 516, at 8 pm. We will discuss what events we will hold this semester, specifically what we can do to increase the numbers of OMNI's March 11 anti-war march. Also, someone suggested we stay "a night in a third world country" at Heifer International in central Arkansas. We will also pick a time to visit the Peace at Home Family Shelter, on the invitation of Cody Ford.
OMNI UA will continue gathering signatures as part of its Fair Trade Campus campaign, which hopes to induce RZ's Coffee into selling fair trade coffee. To this end, OMNI UA will have a table at the Student Involvement Fair on Febuary 9th in the Connections Lounge of the Student Union, whereat we will be selling bumper stickers, as well as giving out the OMNI Center flier. Fair trade coffee sellers from Fort Smith will be there giving away their coffee as we attempt to gather signatures. For more information on OMNI UA, contact Stephen at omniua@uark.edu .
The 1st annual Martin Luther King Essay Contest is under way. We have $700 in prize money for winners in the 11th and 12th grade categories. Essays are due on March 12th. If you have a child that age (or know one ) , be sure that they know about this educational opportunity. Call or email Kelly Mulhollan at 582 2291 or still@stillonthehill.com
The troops aren't back but the PEACE POLES ARE! Look for them at Ozark Natural Foods in a new, snazzy display case. If your old peace pole is worn out, pick up a new one. Stand up for PEACE! Contact: Leonard Schulte.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
The City of Fayetteville is having meetings for their Plan 2025 (e.g. to nudge development more to compact villages, the “new urbanist movement”). OMNI will soon hold a brainstorming (“charrette”) meeting for OMNI Plan 2025. Where do we want NWA to be in 2025 for peace, justice, and ecology? Please join the discussion. Contact Gladys Tiffany gladystiffany@yahoo.com
LGTBIQA (and see below)
Interweave has begun a new monthly dinner & a movie night open to all GLTBIQA persons/ Interweave & our allies in the area. We have chosen 3 local restaurants to alternate between, ROTC (Restaurant on the Corner) Common Grounds, & Jose's. After dinner we will go to the underground video at the OMNI Peace Center (at the Presbyterian Disciples building ) This is going to be every month on the fourth Sunday. Next month we will meet on February 26 at 5:00pm at Common Grounds.
Also our Next Interweave meeting will be on February 20 at the UUFF Annex Building @ 6:30-7:15 for social time and 7:15 to 8:30 for a business meeting. This month we will have cake for my 30th birthday and simply have open interaction during our social time. Topics in our business meeting will include GLTB religious education at the Unitarian Universalist fellowship, Pride Picnic Planning & discussion of interaction with Fayetteville High Schools GSA. Come for both or just part we'd like to get to know some new faces. Interweave is an Affiliate Group of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Fayetteville. Interweave is a gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, questioning, and allied group formed to celebrate and promote diversity and equality in our lives and community.
Rachel M. Sweet, Interweave President SwtLykCandi@Yahoo.com
YOUTH TRAVEL
OMNI’s Steering Committee voted to support financially travel by young members of OMNI to state, regional, national, and international conferences on a case by case basis.
ARKANSAS
ARKANSAS’ NEEDS, ARKANSAS’ PRIORITIES
SUPPORT FOR ENERGY NEEDS OF THE POOR
“Arkansas lags behind all but New Mexico among 41 states that track non-federal spending toward energy programs that target low-income users” Arkansas gave 93 cents per low-income person. ADG (12-18-05).
MINIMUM WAGE
OMNI’s Steering Committee voted 1-19 to endorse the drive to raise the minimum wage from $5/15 to $6.15.
AFFORDABLE HOUSING
TMN 1-22-06, “Director: Housing Subsidies Decreasing” (about Fort Smith).
COLLEGE SUPPORT
TMN 12-21-05, “College Financial Aid: Report: State’s Poor Need Help.”
WELFARE AND WORK
TMN 12-21, “Few Welfare Recipients Can Escape Poverty”: only 12% of the “clients who find work ultimately live above the poverty level”; they need more assistance to stay off welfare.
ECOLOGY
“Environmentally Minded Students at Hendrix College Live the Eco-Life.” (TMN 1-3).
USA, WORLD
USA
BUSH (see our last newsletter for many links, evidence, arguments for impeachment)
BUSH ADMIN. ABUSE OF POWER
See or read Al Gore’s excellent speech, “Bush Admin. Policies on Domestic Surveillance,” C-SPAN Jan. 16? Rptd. TMN (1-17, p. 4B).
BUSH ON TRIAL in New York
Is the Bush Administration guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity?
Even raising this question has been ruled out of order and out of bounds in the U.S. today, but on January 20-22 in NYC an unprecedented citizens Commission of Inquiry asked -- and sought to answer -- exactly these questions and alter the terms of debate about this government. Internationally-known expert witnesses and whistleblowers from the US and UK testified in five areas: war, torture, global environment, global health (AIDs and reproductive rights), and the administration's response to Katrina. Ann Wright on the Tribunal: "These are indictments that will ultimately bring down this administration." More info: http://www.bushcommission.org/
SPYING ON CITIZENS
US Accused of Spying on Those Who Disagree with Bush Policies
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012206Z.shtml
PATRIOT ACT
--In December, a bipartisan group of senators stopped a bill that would have reauthorized expiring PATRIOT Act provisions from coming to a vote because it failed to safeguard essential civil liberties. In anticipation of the new February 3 deadline for the PATRIOT Act's reauthorization, please contact both your Senators and your Representative. Ask them to work for a PATRIOT Act reauthorization bill that truly preserves free speech and privacy, and that restores checks and balances, including judicial review and much greater congressional oversight. Or if you prefer, ask them to vote to let the entire reauthorization die, which should have expired in December, and replace the reauthorization bill with one that repeals the rest of the PATRIOT Act, which is truly an abomination upon the Constitution! Find additional resources at the Bill of Rights Defense Committee web site: http://www.bordc.org/involved/resourcesdefending.php Lincoln, Pryor, Boozman addresses below at end.
---Some good news: U. S. District Judge James Robertson “resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases [FISA] in protest of Pres. Bush’s secret authorization of a domestic spying program.” (TMN 12-21-05).
CUT TAXES FOR RICH, CUT SERVICES FOR POOR
HOUSE TO CAST FINAL VOTES ON CRUEL BUDGET CUTS IN FEBRUARY When the House reconvenes in February, one of the first items they will vote on is the conference report for the Budget Reconciliation bill. The bill includes cruel cuts to TANF, Medicaid, and child support enforcement programs. We must DEMAND that they vote NO. Take Action
GETTING OUT OF IRAQ
--James Sterba, “Free Iraq” (Free Inquiry Feb/March 2006): “We should state that we intend to completely withdraw from Iraq within six months or less….along with a willingness to pay reparations for all the damage we’ve done.”
--“Who Would Jesus Bomb?” by David Rovics (www.freespeech.org).
--“What Would J.F.K. Have Done?” by Theodore Sorensen and Arlthur Schlesinger Jr., New York Times (Dec. 4, 2005, p. wk13), for leaving Iraq, tells how.
MATRIOTS ARISE
Cindy Sheehan gave a talk recently on “Patriotism and Matriotism.” “Women and men with matriotic tendencies can get more info and endorse the call for peace at: www.womensaynotowar.org. It is past time for we Matriots to get together to stridently call for an end to the immoral bloodshed in Iraq.”
WAR CRIMES (see below on Agent Orange/US Chemical Warfare)
“Command Responsibility?” By Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, January 10, 2006
Foreign Policy In Focus ( www.fpif.org).
“A jury verdict in Memphis late last year caused little stir among the general public, but it may have caught the attention of Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and other high officials of the Bush administration. The jury found Colonel Nicolas Carranza, former Vice Minister of Defense of El Salvador and now a U.S. citizen living in Memphis, responsible for overseeing the torture and killing in that country 25 years ago. 1 Could similar charges be brought against high U.S. officials for the actions of their subordinates in Abu Ghraib, Falluja, and Guantanamo?” For the complete essay go to:
Brendan Smith and historian Jeremy Brecher are the editors, with Jill Cutler, of In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (Metropolitan/Holt, 2005) ( www.americanempireproject.com), and the founders of www.warcrimeswatch.org. They are regular contributors to Foreign Policy In Focus
TORTURE
The Nation magazine published a Special Issue on “The Torture Complex” (12-26-05)—12 articles, including “The Torture Tree,” that expose the Bush Admin.’s “adherence to systematic torture and extralegal imprisonment.”
HUMAN PESTICIDE TESTING
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012306Q.shtml
HARRY BELAFONTE’S CRITICISM
The link took me right to the windows video, http://movies.crooksandliars.com/TSR-Belafonte.wmv.
The video is at www.crooksandliars.com, not too far down on the page, and is certainly worth seeing .
ARGUMENT FOR IMPEACHMENT
Elizabeth Holtzman, “The Impeachment of George W. Bush,” The Nation (Jan. 30, 2006), 11-18; brings together the major arguments. (Holtzman was a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Nixon Impeachment Proceedings, 1973-74).
BUSH AND MEDIA
---www.takebackthemedia.com
---Access Update offers programs on public access community TV. They announced that new legislation threatens community TV. See: Alliance for Community Media and Save Our Shows (SOS).
---“All the President’s Flacks” by Frank Rich, New York Times (Dec. 4, 2005,WK13): scathing attack on Bush and Bob Woodward.
---Kristina Borjesson, Feet to the Fire: The Media After 9/11.
JUDGE ALITO
Lincoln Announces Opposition to Judge Samuel Alito in Senate Floor Speech
http://lincoln.senate.gov/press_show.cfm?id=250798 Thank her, ask Pryor to oppose also.
Also go here and tell them to Stop Alito!
http://www.johnkerry.com/action/filibuster/
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. 77TH BIRTHDAY
--The writer from the LA Times acknowledged only one-third of King’s life: “interracial harmony,” leaving out the last five years of his life, when he turned increasingly toward protesting the Vietnam War/wars and poverty/U. S. capitalism. (TMN 1-16).
--But in Little Rock on the 16th, the parade was led by a garbage truck. King was assassinated in Memphis after he addressed a group of sanitation workers on strike. (TMN 1-17).
--PBS 1-16 offered a comprehensive account of the last five years of King’s life in “Citizen King.”
WOMEN (see below)
“A Passion for Justice: 21st Century Feminism,” on FSTV: the struggle for respect and equity for women. FSTV offers many programs pro-women every week.
MEDIA
“A Canadian Perspective on U.S. Media” by Naomi Klein, interviewed by David Barsamian at the 2005 Media Conference in St. Louis. FSTV also very analytical of US media.
ECOLOGY
--To protect towns from chemical poisoning: www.safehometowns.org (FSTV) (See below on Agent Orange and Bhopal).
--To reduce air pollution: www.energystar.gov (FSTV)
--The Bush Admin. wants to cut more trees. Again. Go here and protect the roadless rule!
http://ga3.org/campaign/RoadlessRule/w7di7u5rv5bttkd? Stephen C.
-- The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Act (S. 2012) is supposed to protect our oceans from overfishing but proposed language is too weak to accomplish that once and for all. We need stronger, clearer language that bans overfishing. http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id=1146&id4=TAFsent Stephen C
IMMIGRATION
Congressman Boozman voted for the H.R. 4437, the “Border Protection, Anti-terrorism and Illegal Immigration Contnrol Act of 2005.” See the denunciation of this deplorable bill by a rep. of LULAC in TMN 1-27 (Letter to Editor: “Among its many appalling provisions….”). The bill was also condemned by Sen. Lincoln’s Hispanic staff member at the Democratic Women’s meeting last Tues., who said the bill by Senators Kennedy and McCain was immensely better. (I have a copy of her talk.) Let our congressional delegation know your opinion.
LGBT
FSTV: “Lipstick,” short feature film about teenage lesbians and the difficulties they experience; “Flowers from the Heartland” by Peter Daulton, doc. about GL marriages in San Fransisco (www.flowersfromtheheartland.com ). FSTV needs defending, write your ward reps. and CAT manager Sky Blaylock.
WORLD
LASTING CONSEQUENCES OF WAR
---Documentary on FSTV on unexploded WWI shells in France; hundreds of thousands of MIA/unknown soldiers scattered around Stalingrad of WWII; Agent Orange (dioxin) continuing to poison, kill, and maim Vietnamese; mines in and around Sarajevo, Bosnia. Title perhaps “Effects of War.”
---Dow Chemical and Monsanto were convicted in S. Korea for poisoning S. Korean troops with the toxic defoliant Agent Orange during Vietnam War. (TMN 1-27-06, 4B). A S. Korean court ordered Dow and Monsanto to pay $62 million in medical compensation to their troops injured by the dioxin in Agent Orange, causing 11 diseases (but not including peripheral neuropathy). This is one more step toward an indictment of the US for its chemical war crimes against the people of Vietnam in violation of Geneva conventions.
AMONG THE CAUSES OF WAR
INTOLERANCE IN THE BIBLE
Gerg Ludemann, “The Intolerant Gospel” (Free Inquiry, Feb./March 2006) a preview of his forthcoming Intolerance and the Gospel: Selected Texts (Prometheus, 2006).
FSTV (3a.m. to 9a.m. each morning, brought to you by OMNI)
Sourcecode is an excellent creator of progressive documentaries (www.sourcecode.freespeech.org). In one program several programs: Failure of mainstream media to tell truth about major issues; Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Powell Jr.’s 1971 memo urging right wingers to seize power over press, universities, courts, church, and politics; Advocating treating highspeed broadband internet as a public utility for everybody (www.freepress.net); Scott Vogel doing another BuzzFlash (www.buzzflash.com); large gathering to celebrate and read Ginzburg’s Howl; send your own original film to Sourcecode, POB 6060, Boulder, CO, 80306.
HUNGER
A new DVD by John de Graaf -- SILENT KILLER: The Unfinished Campaign Against Hunger. It shows us the face and causes of hunger around the world, and what is being done and what can be done to end hunger forever. 57 minutes. Grades 10-12, college, adult. $30.
ECOLOGY
--Video on banks funding projects that destroy the environment, by Rainforest Action (www.rainforestaction.com; www.ran.org ) shown on Chicago Independent Television and in Fayetteville by FSTV.
--TREES FOR LIFE JOURNAL (www.tfljournal.org) will be a free, open electronic forum, to bring together international articles from traditional wisdom, small-scale field studies and scientific investigations. It will expand global knowledge about beneficial, health-boosting plants and trees. It could improve the lives of millions of people. Anyone may publish an article -- from peer-reviewed field and clinical studies to informal essays or ideas for possible new uses of plants and trees. Founded in 1984, Trees for Life is an international nonprofit movement in which people join hands to break the cycle of poverty and hunger and care for our Earth. Visit www.treesforlife.org.
WATER
--“Dead in the Water,” excellent 2-hr. doc. on corporate worldwide efforts to gain control of municipal and other water, part of the global privatization movement led by the US and UK, the World Bank, IMF, and other corporate-dominated powers, by The Fifth Estate (locally shown on FSTV)
--Sourcecode documentaries on water : www.freespeech.org: global privatization (the big corporations: Bechtel, Suez, Vivendi), bottled water scam (www.polarisinstitute.org), Bolivia and water as a human right (see Water for All campaign by Public Citizen, www.citizen.org, 202-588-1000), Scott Vogel’s Buzzflash satire (selling air), Robert Kennedy Jr. denouncing privatization.
WOMEN’S ACHIEVEMENTS: CRACKING THE GLASS CEILING
--Angela Merkel, elected Germany’s first female chancellor.
--First woman in history to be elected head of an African nation: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s new president.
--Tarja Halonen, Finland’s first woman president, re-elected.
--Michelle Bachelet, Chile’s first woman president elected.
But the struggle for equity is far from over. “…females remain a small minority in the world’s top jobs. In the past 100 years, fewer than 50 have served as head of state.” TMN (1-17-06).
DISABLE AFRICAN WOMEN
Documentary film by Sourcecode on FSTV on disabled East African women learning to make their own wheelchairs. It think the title was “Mama Wahiezi.”
ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
“Ripples Cross” (www.ripplescross.com) by David Turner and Martin Schlur, about a Brit. and U.S. accompaniment group in the West Bank, followed by a long list of Israel’s violations of Geneva conventions against Palestine.
CORPORATE CRIME: BHOPAL
FSTV documentary about the terrible release of poisonous gas at Union Carbide’s chemical plant (now owned by Dow) in Bhopal, India, where people continue to suffer, many have never been compensated, and new victims are being created because the ground water is contaminated. The film refers to the “slow and silent Bhopals throughout the world” caused by chemical corporations.
SOCIAL/ ECONOMIC JUSTICE IN BRAZIL
FSTV doc. on Landless Movement in Brazil.
AFRICA
Urge Bush to help stop AIDS and poverty in Africa:
http://www.one.org/one/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1278
SCIENCE
Sunday, 12 February, Evolution Sunday, the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin.
CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
--Senator Blanche Lincoln: Web Site: www.lincoln.senate.gov
Washington Office:355 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510-0404
Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371. Fayetteville office: 251-1380;.
--Senator Mark Pryor: Web Site: pryor.senate.gov
Washington Office:217 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510-0403
Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
Main District Office:700 W. Capitol, Rm. 2527 Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336 Fax: (501) 324-5320
--Congressman John Boozman, District 3, 12 counties from Benton to Washington
Lowell office: 479-725-0400. 213 W. Monroe, Suite K, 72745. Steve Gray, coodinator of office. Heath Hasenbeck, intern (one of them). Boozman's new office in Lowell is located at 213 West Monroe in Lowell between I 540 and Business 71. To reach that office take Exit 78 off I - 540 and go east. You will be on Hwy 264 which is also West Monroe. The office is in the Puppy Creek Plaza, past the McDonald's on the right. His suite is in the back of the complex to the left.
Ft. Smith office: 479-782-7787; 30 South 6th St. Rm 240, Ft. Smith 72901.
Harrison office: 870-741-6900; 402 N. Walnut, Suite 210, Harrison 72601.
DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301. Leslie Parker, appointments secretary: 202-225-4301.
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. GRASSROOTS NONVIOLENCE, WORLD PEACE, HUMAN RIGHTS, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP PROTECTING SPECIES AND THE EARTH.
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