Ithaca welcomes the walkers for a nuclear free future. Ithaca Unitarian Church, March 30, 2010.
The peace walkers are passing through the Six Nation Native American Territories and NY State, walking to the UN by May 2 for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Conference of 190 Countries. They are coming to call attention to the intertwined problems of nuclear weapons and nuclear power. This two-month sojourn is the brainchild of Jun Yasuda, a remarkable Buddhist nun of the Nipponzan Myohoji order. The Japanese-born peace pilgrim has lived in the U.S. for 20 years and spends many months each year on foot. She is also responsible for a Peace Pagoda in Grafton, northeast of Troy.

The welcoming starts with Buddhist chants with hoop drums with Jun Yasuda and Gyotethu Morishita (from Japan). Clare Grady introduces speakers Paul Gagnon, Larry Bring Good, Gyotethu Morishita, and Frida Berrigan, followed by Q&A.

Here’s a link to the opinion piece in the Ithaca Journal several days ago if you would like to know more about the reasons for the walk.

http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20100323/VIEWPOINTS02/3230303/1129/viewpoints/Walking-the-anti-nuke-walk

Ithaca Schedule

TUESDAY MARCH 30th:

Walk arrives in Ithaca in the late afternoon at De Witt Park

Welcoming Circle at 7:15PM at the Unitarian Church (corner of Buffalo and Aurora St)
we will hear from Jun san and walkers and Frida Berrigan*.

WEDNESDAY MARCH 31st: Rest Day in Ithaca

morning and early afternoon talks with middle and high school students and late afternoon talk at IC, with Jun san and Frida Berrigan, in Williams 225, from 4-5:30PM

Evening Interfaith Service at the First Baptist Church 7-8:30PM

THURSDAY APRIL1 st:

walk leaves Ithaca, departing from De Witt Park btwn 8:30 and 9AM.
12 NOON, talk at TC3 with Frida Berrigan and a few walkers (in the Student Center 12 noon to 1PM)
evening circle in Dryden TBA

Any questions call clare 273-6257, poco 277-7442, tom 277-7426, ellen 277-6932
PEACE

Walk for a Nuclear-Free Future 2010
(Last updated 11/19/09)

Northern Route (3/7/10-5/2/10)

Date             Point of Departure                     Destination                                     Miles
3/6 Sat Opening Ceremony (Streamburg)
Day 1 3/7 Sun Steamburg (Cold Spring Territory, Seneca Nation) Salamanca (Allegany Territory, Seneca Nation) 12
Day 2 3/8 Mon Salamanca Ellicottville 12
Day 3 3/9 Tue Ellicottville Rt. 219 & County Rd. 85 10
Day 4 3/10 Wed Rt. 219 & County Rd. 85 Springville (via Rd. 85, West Valley Nuclear Waste Site) 10
Day 5 3/11 Thu Springville Gowanda (Cattaraugus Territory, Seneca Nation) 16
Day 6 3/12 Fri Gowanda Irving (Cattaraugus Territory, Seneca Nation) 16
Day 7 3/13 Sat Irving (via Rt. 20) Wanakah 14
Day 8 3/14 Sun Wanakah Buffalo 15
Day 9 3/15 Mon rest day
Day 10 3/16 Tue Buffalo Town of Tonawanda 11
Day 11 3/17 Wed Town of Tonawanda Lewiston (Tuscarora Nation) 18
Day 12 3/18 Thu Lewiston Lockport 15
Day 13 3/19 Fri Lockport Akron (Tonawanda Territory, Seneca Nation) 18
Day 14 3/20 Sat Medina Albion 12
Day 15 3/21 Sun Albion Brockport 15
Day 16 3/22 Mon Brockport Rochester 18
Day 17 3/23 Tue rest day
Day 18 3/24 Wed Rochester Victor 18
Day 19 3/25 Thu Victor Canandaigua 15
Day 20 3/26 Fri Canandaigua Geneva 16
Day 21 3/27 Sat Geneva Seneca Falls 13
Day 22 3/28 Sun Seneca Falls Union Springs (Cayuga Farm) 15
Day 23 3/29 Mon Union Springs (Cayuga Farm) King Ferry (Rt 90 & NY 34B) 15
Day 24 3/30 Tue King Ferry (Rt 90 & NY 34B) Ithaca 16
Day 25 3/31 Wed rest day
Day 26 4/1 Thu Ithaca Dryden 10
Day 27 4/2 Fri Dryden Cortland 14
Day 28 4/3 Sat Cortland Tully 12
Day 29 4/4 Sun Tully Onondaga Nation 12
Day 30 4/5 Mon Onondaga Nation Syracuse (National Guard Hancock Airport) 14
Day 31 4/6 Tue rest day
Day 32 4/7 Wed Syracuse Chittenango 15
Day 33 4/8 Thu Chittenango Oneida Nation 12
Day 34 4/9 Fri Oneida Nation Rome 16
Day 35 4/10 Sat Rome Utica 16
Day 36 4/11 Sun Utica Herkimer 16
Day 37 4/12 Mon Herkimer East Creek 14
Day 38 4/13 Tue East Creek Palatine Bridge 13
Day 39 4/14 Wed Palatine Bridge Fonda (Mohawk Community) 12
Day 40 4/15 Thu rest day
Day 41 4/16 Fri Fonda Amsterdam 14
Day 42 4/17 Sat Amsterdam Schenectady 17
Day 43 4/18 Sun Schenectady Albany 16
Day 44 4/19 Mon Albany Ravena 15
Day 45 4/20 Tue Ravena Athens 16
Day 46 4/21 Wed Athens Saugarties 17
Day 47 4/22 Thu rest day
Day 48 4/23 Fri Saugarties Kingston 13
Day 49 4/24 Sat Kingston Highland 16
Day 50 4/25 Sun Highland Newburgh 16
Day 51 4/26 Mon Newburgh Highland Falls (Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant) 13
Day 52 4/27 Tue Highland Falls Stony Point 12
Day 53 4/28 Wed Stony Point Nyack 12
Day 54 4/29 Thu Nyack Englewood, NJ 15
Day 55 4/30 Fri rest day
Day 56 5/1 Sat Englewood, NJ New York City (United Nations Plaza) 13
Day 57 5/2 Sun National Rally at United Nations Plaza, New York City
5/3 Mon NPT review conference starts

Total miles; 706

Supported by:

Catholic Workers; Center for Health, Environment & Justice; Citizens Campaign for the Environment; Citizens’ Environmental Coalition;
CODEPINK; Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR); FootPrints for Peace; Global Network Against Weapon and Nuclear Power in Space;
Grandmothers for Peace; Indigenous Women’s Initiatives; Mayors for Peace; New York Regional AFSC; Nuclear Information & Resource Service
(NIRS); Pax Christi; Peace Action; Sierra Club; Syracuse Peace Counsel; Veterans for Peace; Western New York Peace Center.

* Frida Berrigan is Senior Program Associate of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation. Previously, she served for eight years as Deputy Director and Senior Research Associate at the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute at the New School in New York City. She has also worked as a researcher at The Nation magazine.

Ms. Berrigan is a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus and a contributing editor of In These Times magazine. She is the author of reports on arms trade and human rights, U.S. nuclear weapons policy, and the domestic politics of U.S. missile defense and space weapons policies. She has been a featured expert on national and regional radio outlets, and regularly speaks on national security issues to citizen’s organizations and at major conferences throughout the United States.

Dear Supporters and Friends,

I am writing to update you on my Ithaca College tenure case.

For the first time in 11 years, I did not start the Fall semester as a professor in the Sociology Department at Ithaca College. I am deeply saddened by this and I have truly missed the campus and my opportunity to engage students and interact with my peers.

Despite this dramatic absence in my life, I have been busy telling my story, interacting with cherished supporters and collaborating with other professors in similar situations. I am also very happy to announce that I have just accepted a position to teach in the Sociology Department at Hunter College in New York City.

Below, I would like to highlight some of the truly inspirational interactions I have had over the past few months:

*After speaking on the “Defending Academic Freedom Today“ panel at the summer Socialism ’09 Conference in Chicago, a group of concerned faculty, students and citizens formed a group called Free the Academy. This group is working on organizing material for my case. The hope is to create a presence in academia that addresses academic freedom of progressive and left leaning faculty who are under attack. I invite you to join and contribute your ideas and abilities. http://freetheacademy.wordpress.com/

*This past fall I was invited to speak on a panel called “Israel and US Academic Censorship,” at the Peace and Justice Studies Association Conference “Exploring the Power of Nonviolence,” at Marquette University. Other panelists included Professor Joel Kovel, who as many of you know, was fired from his position at Bard College last year for his critical scholarly work on Zionism. Professor Chris Toffolo was a respondent on this panel. Chris was removed from her position as director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program at St. Thomas University in Minnesota after she protested the administration’s banning of Bishop Tutu from speaking at St. Thomas in 2007. Tutu was labeled anti-semitic for his criticism of Israeli politics in Palestine. As vice-president of academic affairs at St. Thomas in 2007, the current president of Ithaca College, Thomas Rochon was responsible for removing Chris Toffolo from her position.

*I have received endorsements from well-established advocacy groups including Academics for Justice and California Scholars for Academic Freedom.

*I have also started working with the American Association of University Women (AAUW) and hope to find other groups that will look closely at the sexual harassment elements in my case. Please share any contacts you may have with academic women’s groups, feminist organizations or employment law groups specializing in job discrimination.

*Also, look for online articles about my case in two recent publications:

- My story was recently published in the newsletter of ‘We Advocate Gender Equality’ (WAGE) and should be posted on their online site soon at http://wage.org/

- I was recently interviewed by Nora Barrows-Friedman for Electronic Intifada. Here is the article:

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10998.shtml

*I have been invited on two panels this summer:

The first will be on “Scholar Activism” at the US Social Forum in Detroit, and the second on “Academic Freedom” will be at the Labor Section of the annual American Sociological Association in Atlanta.

Here is the current status of my case. I am waiting for the results of the New York State Division of Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Employment Commission’s investigations of my discrimination charges against Ithaca College. My hope is that if found in violation, Ithaca College will prefer to settle my case outside of court. Otherwise, we will have to proceed to the next level, which is court.

I will continue my struggle against Ithaca College and I demand and ask my supporters to demand that:

1. Ithaca College grant me tenure and restore me rightfully back to my teaching position which I have held for 12 years.

2. Ithaca College take responsibility for all damages I suffered through my tenure ordeal which started in 2005 and has continued until today. These include, racist and sexist attacks, sexual harassment, academic freedom violations, jeopardizing my legal status in the US by denying my work visa while under contract, as a result, forcing me out of the country and preventing me to teach my final semester of classes.

On that note, I am looking for ways to help to defray my legal costs. If you know of any grants for legal funding for such cases, please send this information along. My email address is margo.nankoe@gmail.com

Thank you for all your support.

Warmly,

Margo Ramlal-Nankoe

The U.S. cannot “win” the war in Afghanistan. It was losing the war when Barack Obama took office. In March 2009, President Obama ordered another 30,000 troops. Rather than reverse the outcome, the U.S. and NATO effort lost even more ground. Now President Obama has ordered another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

Attempting to deflect growing opposition to the announcement of his dramatic escalation of the war in Afghanistan, President Obama is simultaneously claiming that U.S. troops will start to be withdrawn in July 2011.

The Generals and Admirals, and now the White House, are unwilling to accept responsibility for a military setback. The President knows they cannot win and yet is unwilling to leave. Since no leader is willing to take responsibility, they are instead sending thousands more to their deaths.

Bush and Cheney ordered the invasion thinking it would be easy going. They thought Iraq would be easy, too. They were going to wipe out the governments in Iran, Syria and North Korea. This colonial-type fantasy, nourished by “great nation” arrogance and the acquiescence of a caste of corrupt politicians in Congress, set the stage for the current catastrophe of a war without end.

After eight years of war, more than 140 armed insurgent groups of Afghans now exist as a response to the invasion and they control large parts of the country. The people in Afghanistan perceive the occupation as a colonial-type takeover of their country. September 11 was a pretext, but there were no Afghans or Iraqis who hijacked the planes. The people of Afghanistan, like the people in Vietnam, will never accept foreign military occupation in their country.

In the 1968 election Nixon ran on a platform of a “secret peace plan” for Vietnam. In reality, Nixon’s “peace plan” meant more bombing of Vietnam, expansion of the war into Cambodia, and “Vietnamization” – the building up of the South Vietnamese puppet army under the direction of U.S. “advisors.” The puppet army was supposed to do the fighting and dying in the place of U.S. troops in an increasingly unpopular war.

The new plan for Afghanistan calls for more bombing and drone attacks, and “Afghanization” – the building up of a puppet Afghan army trained and led by U.S. commanders. This follows President Obama’s escalation of massive bombing of the people of Pakistan.

Bush Policy – Obama Policy

On Jan. 20, the day that Barack Obama took the oath of office, a government helicopter carrying George W. Bush lifted off and made the ceremonial flight away from the nation’s capital, signaling the end of one era and the start of a new administration.

It was a remarkable event to witness. As the Bush helicopter passed over the inaugural throng, millions of people on the ground started cheering spontaneously. The official pomp of the transfer of power was overwhelmed by the euphoria of those who hated Bush and his policies.

But was there a transfer of power? The personalities change, but the institutions of militarism, war and empire remain intact.

Since Obama took over as president, the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan has nearly doubled, and that’s before the new deployment of 30,000 more soldiers.

Today, less than a year since Bush departed, there are actually more combined U.S. military forces occupying Iraq and Afghanistan than at any time during Bush’s tenure. Between official military forces, private mercenaries and other contractors, by the middle of 2010 there will be nearly a half-million U.S. personnel in the two countries.

At a time of deep economic crisis, with tens of millions out of work and losing their homes, the cost of the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq is already running at over $225 billion per year or $1.2 billion every two days. Escalating the war will escalate that cost.

The war is not about “the security of the people of the United States being at stake.” If it was, there could be no talk about exit strategies and announced plans for withdrawal.

Starting today, there will be a growing escalation of anti-war protests in the United States. Tonight and tomorrow there are demonstrations across the country.

On Saturday, March 20, 2010, tens of thousands will march in Washington, D.C., with coinciding mass actions in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Real change comes from below. It comes from the millions who are suffering from unemployment, foreclosure, evictions and poverty. It comes from the young people who are being driven from college because of soaring tuition. The children of working-class families are the ones who do the bleeding and the killing, and they are told they do it for “national security.”

This is not our war. This is a war for empire, one that has gone very badly for the occupying force. How many more will die for the U.S. to avoid the appearance of defeat?

The ANSWER Coalition, in partnership with scores of organizations and echoing the sentiment of millions of people who want the wars to end, will be in the streets today, tomorrow and in the months to come. That is now clearly the only prescription to end the violence and occupation of the American Empire.

Click here to become an endorser of the March 20th National March on Washington, D.C.

To support the anti-war movement, click here.

Fr Roy Bourgeois has lived in a small apartment next to the main gate of the world’s largest military training base for the past 18 years. His concern is the US Army training of Latinos at Ft Benning, Ga. . SOA Graduates (renamed WHINSEC) are trained in combat arms with a sprinkling of ‘new’ human rights courses. Graduates have gone back to their own countries to commit horrendous crimes against their own people. A blood trail left by graduates of the US Army School of the Americas extends from Central to South America. America tax payers subsidize the horror.

Long before Abu Ghraib, Roy Bourgeois knew well the tactics of teaching torture by the US Military. When Americans began to realize that our claimed moral superiority was a false assumption, Roy Bourgeois and others had long pointed to our history of terror teaching at the US Army School of the Americas. Back in the 1990’s Roy spent a total of over four years in federal prison in his attempt to publicize the crimes of American foreign policy in Latin America.

Long a supporter of human rights, Roy has also taken the struggle of women within his church to a controversial high in American Catholicism. His support for the ordination of women has made him a target of derision by church hierarchy.

See: http://www.soaw.org/ for more details.

Sponsored by the Latin American Studies Program, COLA and CSAS with SAFC funding.

I hope you’ll honor this Day in whatever way works in your life.

For something special, I hope that you and your family and friends will come to the downtown DeWitt Park at 6:30 pm for a sing-along with JOHN SIMON and his guitar. At 7:30 Debaura Dahl and Dani Novack Land of Dawes will open a silent vigil with an invocation ceremony in the Native American tradition.

All ages welcome – along with signs, flags, posters, information about your own peace and justice group – and your good will for the world.

Patricia Haines, Level Green

LEVEL GREEN – fostering sustainable community through collaborative initiatives in hospitality, education and the arts, in the 150 year-old democratic spirit of the Danish Folk School. 1519 Slaterville Road, Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 339-9472

INFORMATION TO BE COVERED:

• THE RECENT 911 TRUTH CONFERENCE, IN NYC 9/11-9/13.
• THE NYC 911 BALLOT INITIATIVE: CALLING FOR A NEW 9/11 INVESTIGATION, &
• THE UPCOMING RALLY/MARCH, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH, 1P.M., UNION SQUARE TO CITY HALL, NYC.

Additional info:
NY City Coalition for Accountability Now, (NY CAN), has obtained 80,000 signatures, towards placing a 911 ballot initiative on the November Ballot in NYC. NYC City Hall has accepted these as valid, and will vote on September 30th, whether or not to allow this initiative to be placed on the ballot, allowing NYC residents to vote in favor of a new 911 investigation by an independent, non-governmental body.

People are encouraged to come to this informational meeting to learn more about the reasons this new investigation is being called for.

The meeting is free of charge. Donations accepted to offset rental.
Presenters: Bob Nape and Stephen Calkins