Peace Council Pages

Educate, Agitate, Organize

SPC IN ACTION

compiled by Jessica Maxwell

Bowl for Peace – Last Call

Despite its reputation as a den of conservatism, the youth of Cazenovia were well represented at the 2004 Strike For Peace Bowl-a-thon with three teams of peace-loving teens. There’s still time to sign up for this year’s event on March 6. Photo: Paul Pearce

Energy is building for SPC’s annual benefit bowl-a-thon – Sunday, March 6 from 2-5 pm at Strike ‘N Spare Lanes, 1777 Brewerton Rd. in Mattydale.

Our ambitious organizing committee is hoping we’ll fill up all 72 lanes of the largest bowling alley in Central New York. There’s still time for you to participate.

Organize a team from your school, college, union, community/activist group, or faith community. Or come solo and we’ll connect you with a team. In either case, touch base with us soon.

Costumes can help identify your team and add to the fun. Prizes will be awarded for the most creative costumes, greatest age diversity, best team spirit, most improved and most consistent bowler, and more!

The $12/person entry fee covers two games, shoes, and an SPC donation. We hope you’ll seek out sponsors to help with the fundraising part of the day’s fun. Bumper lanes are available for kids.

Contact:Kelsy Waggaman at SPC or [antioch@peacecouncil. net]. Registration forms and sponsor sheets can be found at [www.peacecouncil.net/bowl].

A Marine’s Eye View
Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey will be in

Jimmy Massey in Iraq.

Syracuse on Thursday, March 10 as part of a regional speaking tour. After participating in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, Massey was deeply troubled by the civilian casualties he witnessed. “It just hit me like a ton of bricks. What in the hell are we doing? Not more than five minutes ago we were taking out bad guys, and we’re now killing civilians,” he said.

Massey will speak at 7 pm at South Presbyterian Church (S. Salina St. and Colvin St.). Earlier in the day he’ll address the Thursday Morning Roundtable at Drumlins, speak at OCC at noon (Fireside Lounge in Gordon Student Center) and at SU (Kittredge Aud., HBC Hall) at 4 pm. This is a perfect event for your pro-war neighbor, skeptical sister-in-law or other non-activist colleague. Spread the word. Contact Andy.

Youth and Militarism
The Youth and Militarism Task Force, coordinated by SPC, continues to move forward. The Task Force has an engaging agenda for the next few months. Fourteen people attended the first session of a Draft Information Workshop to train people to assist in outreach work.

Outreach has begun to schools to book presentations about the issues facing young people regarding military recruiting, the draft and draft registration. To help us arrange presentations at schools, community centers, faith community youth groups, etc., contact Kelsey at SPC or [antioch@peacecouncil.net].

Other organizations working with the Task Force include the Syracuse Greens, American Friends Service Committee, Pax Christi and Peace Action.

Anti-War Organizing Grows

This month marks two years since the US invasion of Iraq. Congress will debate Bush’s request for $80 billion more to fund ongoing military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, hoping to decide by April. Congress should be debating a timetable for withdrawing US troops and funding reparations to rebuild Iraq. We must escalate our efforts to bring the war to an end. This month’s PNL includes a pull-out poster featuring a calendar of anti-war events, meetings and contacts. How can you get involved?

Study Group Completes Water Wars
Our SPC study group on the US global agenda has just finished reading Vandana Shiva’s Water Wars. Wanting to learn more about water issues

Karen Kerney

in our own area, we asked NOON (Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation) if they would organize a public presentation (see SPC Momthly Program below).

Now is a good time to check us out. For a few more meetings we’ll read short articles exploring the politics of water, and then select a new book to read. All are welcome – come with a desire to learn, willingness to discuss ideas respectfully, and general support of the SPC Statement of Purpose. We meet on the second and fourth Mondays each month at the Friends Meeting House (821 Euclid Ave., Syracuse). To learn what we’re reading for the next meeting, contact Carol.

NOON Update
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) is revising the booklet we published in 2001, Neighbor to Neighbor, Nation to Nation: Readings about the Relationship of the Onondaga Nation with Central NY, USA. Thanks to a generous financial gift at that time we were able to print 3,000 copies. To our great delight these are now just about gone, having been distributed copy by copy to interested people over the years. We have also developed a series of small pamphlets reprinting single articles from the original booklet, which are easy to distribute and less cumbersome for those interested in a specific topic.

NOON is organizing the March 24 SPC program, and expects a member of the Onondaga Nation to talk to us about the significance of water in Haudenosaunee culture and in relation to regional issues concerning reclaiming Onondaga Lake, Onondaga Creek, and connected smaller waterways.
If you would like to help with NOON educational efforts, please contact SPCs Carol Baum.
- Carole Resnick for NOON

Activist Appreciation
Lauren Neider, a North Syracuse native, has just completed a six-week internship with SPC. Her energy and ideas helped make the counter-inauguration bus trip to Washington, DC a success and helped re-invigorate our anti-war work. We’ll miss Lauren and wish her all the best as she returns to Bennington College.

Mimi Lyons of Baldwinsville has been coordinating the PNL mailing party for the past several months. The last Thursday of every month, Mimi sorts labels, sets out all the supplies, coordinates the many volunteers who come to help and prepares the post office paperwork.

Mimi is moving to California this spring. We’re grateful for all her work and hope she finds a vibrant peace community in her new home – and we hope someone from our community will offer to take over Mimi’s work here. If you’re interested in coordinating the monthly PNL mailing, contact Jessica.

Wednesday Work Nights
If you need to pick up or drop off anything, you no longer need to get to the office during normal business hours. SPC is now open until 8 pm on Wednesdays. Please come in to help with organizing tasks, office work and maintenance/cleaning jobs. Look for our weekly email announcement noting tasks or projects we currently need help with.

Culture Clash a Smash
On January 29 SPC raised $800 at our second Syracuse Stage theater bash. Culture Clash, the most prominent Chicano-Latino performance troupe in the US, wowed us. As one of the three Culture Clash members explained, “We’re talking about race, culture, politics and social issues. To make that entertaining has been our challenge, so we throw a dance number in there.”

Thanks to the organizing committee of Dik Cool, Barb Kobritz, Linda Perla and Carol Baum; to Teresa Florack for catering the reception; Tracey White of Syracuse Stage for her help and good humor; and the Syracuse Cultural Workers for the flyers and other assistance.

Youth Anti-Violence Work

SPC has now passed the half-way point in the nonviolence program we’ve been facilitating with the Dunbar Association’s “Each One Teach One” program. We engage in discussions, games, role plays and other exercises with about 15 teens who participate regularly. We’ll soon be working with the youth to identify a project we can work on together in the community to address local violence issues.

We will also be restarting our free bike clinics soon! Last year, we helped dozens of youth learn how to fix their bikes and recycle donated bikes.

This spring we hope to hold a couple of training sessions for volunteers so we can increase the number of workshops we offer and work with even more youth. Last year we held clinics on the North and East sides of the city. This summer we’d also like to use sites on the South and West sides. To help, please contact Jessica.

Justice Denied
On February 8, in Federal Court in Syracuse, Dr. Rafael Dhafir was found guilty on 59 of 60 charges. Although SPC has never taken a stand on Dr. Dhafir’s guilt or innocence, we are outraged at how his arrest and trial have been covered by some mainstream media. Unsubstantiated accusations of terrorism were widely reported even though the government never produced evidence linking Dr. Dhafir to terrorism.

According to a recent Cornell University poll, 44% of US people now believe it is okay to curtail the civil liberties of US Muslims. We can’t help but wonder whether such bias also infected Dr. Dhafir’s jury. We question whether it is possible for any Muslim to receive a fair trial in the US today. Any such bias is a threat to the freedom of us all. We must stand against discrimination and scape-goating. Contact Carol to become active with local efforts to oppose the USA PATRIOT Act.

CNY-Colombia Solidarity
In mid-February four SPC activists – Ed Kinane, Rae Kramer, Dan Sage and Ann Tiffany – returned home from a Witness for Peace delegation to war-torn Colombia. They met with state oil executives, displaced people, political prisoners, community organizers, US embassy officials, and the governor of Putumayo, the region notorious for toxic coca fumigation and narco-trafficking. Each of the four is available for presentations – contact Ann or Ed at 478-4571.