Tompkins County Against War and Occupation is a web log for Tompkins County War Resisters that presently serves three organized work areas:
- Support for veterans and active-duty servicemen and women of the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) to end the war and bring our soldiers home.
- Impeachment of Bush and Cheney and holding all in the Bush administration accountable for crimes have have committed.
- Direct action against the war.
This web site was borne out the enthusiasm of the “Tompkins County Marches For Peace” —a convergence of feeder marches from towns and villages and neighborhoods through out Tompkins County into the City of Ithaca demanding an end to the war in March 2007.
Two work area were identified at “Tompkins Keeps On Marching” meetings that followed the event. One was the continuation of a petition drive toward County and City resolutions supporting an investigation into the impeachment of the president and vice-president which was partially successful (the resolutions passed, but the Congressional investigation has yet to start). The second work area identified was to work with soldiers resisting the continued occupation of Iraq.
An anti-war store front and blog was also an articulated goal and this website is the result of that.
Public meetings with IVAW Ft. Drum Chapter members were held, and continue to be held.
The Tompkins County Marches for Peace event in March of 2007 was followed by a Puppet Pageant for Peace on the Ithaca Commons in March of 2008.
Direct action continues with NYS Marches for Peace in April of 2008.
Page edited March 19, 2008
2 responses so far ↓
1 therese // Nov 3, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Since it looks as if it might be a while before we can all get together in the flesh I want to put some ideas out there that have I’ve been mulling over. I realize that the storefront/coffeehouse is just a dream at the moment and I wonder if it’s because we haven’t been creative enough or energetic enough to explore some options…
like grant money–if there are arts related projects going on and, especially if we have arts related projects for kids, we can qualify for grant money.
I am not well connected in this community yet so I don’t really know who to talk to about available space but could we, perhaps, share space with someone?
When my daughters were growing up they belonged to a group called “Young peacemakers” it was a grassroots organization and extremely vital–they published their own magazine (Peace On Our Minds or POOM they called it). They sang together, worked on street theatre projects like banners and puppets and masks. It was an excellent greenhouse for young activists. When the first generation of kids got to be teenagers they couldn’t bear to disband so they started “teen peacemakers” and the group became “Young and Teen Peacemakers” with the older kids mentoring the young ones. I have always been grateful that they had this forum to discuss issues they were coming to grips with in their own lives in the areas of social justice and inner peace as well as peace in the world at large. Very little adult participation was required or desired; the kids provided each other with counsel, modeling and feedback that generated its own positive momentum and energy. It was a beautiful phenomenon that, I’m afraid , I took for granted at the time. I had no idea what a rarity it was. Now I look back and see that it was quite unique and I think it deserves to be as widespread as scouting or 4H used to be. I should think the Ithaca community would support something like it or, perhaps there is something analogous and I’m just not aware of it. If not, maybe this is an area to explore with the children of this community. Experience with my own kids has shown me how deeply kids are concerned. Their sense of justice is very fine and they think (and worry) about peace all the time! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be able to give them the safe space and tools they need to form answers for themselves and practice ways of being in the world that are compassionate and confident?
Is it too far-fetched to think that this could be tied in with our work?
2 Cris // Nov 4, 2007 at 8:42 am
While others may think about the anti-war coffeehouses of the Vietnam war era, the concept of a peace or anti-war storefront as I have thought about is akin to the movement press found in many cities prior to the proliferation of copy shops. If you wanted to connect with what was happening, this was where you could find out. If you needed something published, that is where you went. In Ithaca, that was the Glad Day Press, which was located where ABC Café is located today on Stewart Ave. I think my fondness for the smell of the ink in a new book goes back to my days as a high school student hungry for ideas and knowledge of the world and peoples’ struggles when I would frequent the Glad Day Press. Definitely, there is a great importance and benefit for children and youth in having such a center in our community. What emerges in regard to programming specific to children and youth depends on what folks want and bring to it and constraints of budgets and space. The notion is not new with the current group. A media center has been discussed for some time and I feel, especially with the slide that occured with Pubic Access TV, is a cricial component. I am thinking largely of video and web streaming, but this could include print and radio as well (perhaps co-locating with Ithaca Community Radio if those very ambitous plans come to pass). Obviously, we neen to come together to pool resources to make this happen. At the same time, we need to be wary of the entrapments of traditional non-profits regarding programming, funding, paid administration etc. that takes it away from its anarchistic roots that would sustain the vision with people power.
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