Brooklyn Said NO To War Last Night

Mar 20, 2008

We've learned how to deal with the weather - ignore it! And that's just what hundreds of Brooklynites did last night as they joined together for a march and vigil to protest the 5-year nightmare of George Bush's war and occupation of Iraq. Beginning at Grand Army Plaza with a press conference attended by CBS, NBC, NY1 and others, speakers, including Brooklyn For Peace's Diane Lent, LIU Student Government President, Ty. Christian Joseph, Deanna Bitetti representing Congressmember Yvette Clarke and Vern Bergelin of MoveOn.org-Brooklyn, took on George Bush's demand that the U.S. must remain in Iraq.

Then the hundreds marched up Flatbush Avenue to the U.S. Army recruiting station. Motorists honked in solidarity and flashed the V-sign as the peace marchers trekked through Brooklyn's rain-soaked streets. They chanted demands for slashing the war budget and transferring those monies to fund urgent human needs instead. A drummer and trumpet led the procession.

Arriving at Flatbush Avenue and Livingston Street, the marchers were greeted by rousing speeches including that of Reverend Clinton Miller of the Brown Memorial Baptist Church who led the crowd in repeated cries of "peace now." Then the marchers broke into small circles of 10 or 12 and, holding candles aloft, they read, one at a time, stories from Iraqi veterans and their families.

The stories told of the hardships endured by soldiers who have been sent back to Iraq again and again; of the stress caused to the families by the return of wounded sons or husbands or even worse, the horror of having lost loved ones to a war based on lies. Mothers and wives demanded a shift in priorities - to end spending for war, death and destruction and to begin funding the urgent needs here at home: for health care, education, jobs training and to take care of an increasingly endangered environment.

Here's a sample of one of the stories -- Mary in Kentucky. Her husband is a Sergeant in the army, currently deployed in Iraq.

"For the second time, my husband is serving a 15 month tour in Iraq. I am now - for all intents and purposes - a single mom to four little kids, ages 7, 5, 4 and 2.

They need their dad in their life. The oldest has been most adversely affected by these repeat deployments. He's big enough now to know that Dad could end up dead.

The emotionall and physical stress of being the spouse of a deployed soldier is more than just "hard work." It's intense and traumatic.

Even if my husband comes out of Iraq physically unscathed, as a medic he has seen things that will leave him emotionally scarred. I worry not only about his physical health but his mental health every waking hour.

Instead of spending billions in Iraq we should invest in education, veteran's benefits and health care."

This was a moving and dramatic outpouring of anger at Congress and the Bush Administration, who prattle on about democracy but then ignore the overwhelming sentiment of the people they were elected to serve. Seventy percent of Americans are opposed to the war but after five years of this disaster there is still no end in sight. Four thousand lives and trillions of dollars later, we're neck deep in the big muddy and the big fool says to push on (as Pete Seeger wrote about another war - Vietnam - many years ago).

Click the PLAY button
to hear Pete Seeger sing Wait Deep In The Big Muddy


Saturday is the citywide culmination of the week of protests against five years too many. Please come out with family and friends to show the world that NYC says NO to war! Details at Five Years Too Many. The human chain, along Manhattan's 14th Street from river to river begins at noon on Saturday, March 22nd. Brooklynites will gather at 10th Avenue and 14th Street. See you there. Deanna Bitetti, speaking on behalf of Congressmember Yvette Clarke, decried the expenditures on war and told how it leaves her district without the funds urgently neeeded by her constituents.

Vern Bergelin of MoveOn.org-Brooklyn, speaks to the press. The cooperation of MoveOn and Brooklyn For Peace played a large part in bringing out hundreds of Brooklyn residents and set a good precedent for future work together.

Diane Lent, co-chair of Brooklyn For Peace's Iraq Committee, reads a statement to the press.

Christian Joseph, President of the LIU Student Government, reads his statement.

Brooklyn's El Puente turned out in force and lent a youthful, exuberant spirit to the march and vigil.

Brooklyn For Peace led the march up Flatbush Avenue .

Marching up Flatbush in the rain - motorists honked and flashed the V-sign. Shopkeepers and strollers waved in support.

The rain could not dampen the high spirits of Brooklynites marching for peace.

A vigil was held at march's end, across from the U.S. Army Recruiting Station. Reverend Clinton Miller of the Brown Memorial Baptist Church gave an impassioned speech denouncing the war and the impact it has on Brooklyn's communities.

Listening to speeches at the vigil.

Holding a candle aloft for peace in Iraq.

Reading the stories of Iraqi vets and their families.

Reading the stories.

This march and vigil marks the beginning of a new, revitalized peace movement in Brooklyn. Bringing together a diverse collection of organizations and individuals, Brooklyn For Peace is making a unique contribution in reaching out and helping to build what can be a new coalition for progressive change in the borough.

Bay Ridge Tells Vito Fossella - Stop Supporting This War!

Mar 19, 2008

There are six members of Congress from Brooklyn. Five of six voted against the last Supplemental spending bill for Iraq. The Supplemental is a separate bill that President Bush annually sends to Congress to fund the occupation in Iraq. He then pressures Congress (and too easily do they cave in) to give him the money or else be accused of undermining his war and the soldiers he has sent there to fight it.

The one member of Congress to obediently and blindly follow Bush is the notorious war-hawk and right wing Congressman from Bay Ridge and Staten Island, Vito Fossella. But opposition is growing to Fossella among his constituents. As he ignores their problems while voting for war and tax cuts for the rich, people are demanding to know why.

In 2004, labor champion, former NY State Assemblyman and Supreme Court judge, Frank Barbaro gave Fossella a run for his money, garnering 41% of the vote. Frank's campaign was grossly underfunded compared to the well-heeled Fossella but nevertheless, came close to unseating him in what used to be a district taken for granted as a Republican fiefdom. The next time around, Steve Harrison, another progressive Democrat, challenged Fossella and won 43% of the vote. Harrison's campaign was also underfunded compared to the money lavished on Fossella by his wealthy corporate supporters. Harrison is running again this year and is already attracting wide support throughout Brooklyn, Staten Island and New York.

For Fossella, the handwriting is on the wall. Five years of war and five years of Fossella support for the war may spell the end of his Congressional reign.

It was with this in mind that dozens of anti-war protestors marched outside Fossella's Brooklyn office in Bay Ridge today. Joined by members of El Puente, the community and youth leadership group, Bay Ridge and Staten Island constituents picketed Fossella's office and rocked the neighborhood with chants like -

"Hey Fossela, can't you hear? Health care! Not warfare!"

The demonstration was part of this week's commemoration of Five Years of War...Five Years Too Many! In thousands of communities around the country, citizen patriots are demonstrating their love for this country and their opposition to five more years of war.

Diane and Jane of Brooklyn For Peace protest Vito Fossella's pro-war policies.

The protest was called by Bay Ridge Peace Action.

Young people from El Puente helped fill the picket line. Beautiful!

Hey Vito -- get the message?

Vicki McFadyen of Military Families For Peace, addresses the crowd.

The next protest is tonight at 6pm in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza. Brooklyn Says No to the War, called by Brooklyn For Peace, will march to the U.S. Army Recruiting Station at Flatbush Avenue and Livinsgston Street. Join them - rain or shine!

Then, this Saturday, a citywide action. Thousands will join hands and form a human chain from river to river along Manhattan's 14th Street. That starts at noon on Saturday, March 22nd. More information at FIVE YEARS TOO MANY. See you there.....Matt

Five Awful Years Too Many

Mar 19, 2008

Here we are --

Five years of war and occupation.

Four thousand American lives taken. Tens of thousands of our soldiers terribly wounded.

A country flattened - utterly destroyed.

A million of that country's citizens ... dead. Four million of them refugees - homeless.

Our democracy and constitutional rights in tatters.

Our standard of living; our economy - poised on the edge of a cliff.

According to the Pew Research firm: in November, 28 percent of news stories were about the war. Today - just 3 percent! It's the war that has disappeared from the front pages of our papers and the screens of our televisions.

The endlessly chattering experts on our op ed pages and TV screens have now pronounced "the economy" as the new problem. It has replaced the war, we are told, as the main concern of Americans. "The surge is working," is repeated over and over and Republican candidate John McBush says "I told you so."

But it's not just the economy, is it? No, it's the WAR economy!

It's not just a recession. It's the WAR recession!

Is that so difficult for the so-called experts to comprehend? Somehow they just can't find a connection between spending a half-trillion dollars for war in Iraq and the huge, gaping hole in our economy that it has produced.

The media and their well-paid talking heads, complicit in selling this war-based-on-lies in the first place will never connect the two: the war and the economy, in the second place. Not now. Not ever. That will be up to us.

A week after Bush rejected the charge that the war has damaged the economy, Nobel Laureate, Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist, Linda Bilmes published a new book that exposed the President and his gang for the house-wreckers that they are. Their book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, The True Cost of the Iraq War, concludes that the true cost, so far, has been a breathtaking three trillion dollars!

Sixty-seven percent of the American people want the war to end now and feel it was a huge mistake. This, despite the surge and the propagandist spin to make it seem the success that it's not. This, despite the prattle that would have us forget the war or detach it from the very serious problems that are piling up at home: jobs disappearing, homes being lost to shady mortgages, lack of affordable health care for tens of millions of Americans, an environment that is in a state of toxic shock.

There's a big job to be done on this the fifth anniversary of Bush's war and occupation of Iraq. Nobody will raise the question of the war and the need to end it now - nobody except us: the peace movement, the activists, those who can see clearly the source of the problems hovering over our country and the world.

So this week, in thousands of communities across our country, thousands of us have been out in the streets, talking to people, handing out fliers, taking a moral and patriotic stand by sitting in and getting arrested, demonstrating and marching. Our mantra -- Five Years of War...Five Years Too Many!

In one of the most amazing actions of this run-up to the fifth anniversary, veterans of the Iraq war held Winter Soldier hearings in Maryland on the 40th anniversary of the My Lai massacre. In gut wrenching and terrifying testimony, these veterans gave eyewitness indictments of atrocities committed by US troops during the ongoing occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers spoke of free-fire zones, the shootings and beatings of innocent civilians, racism at the highest levels of the military, sexual harassment and assault within the military, and the torturing of prisoners. It is something you must watch and share with others.


Flier from Brooklyn For Peace distributed and posted in Brooklyn neighborhoods. Click on the image above for a pdf file you can print and distribute or forward to friends.

Here, in Brooklyn, we've been preparing for this week's actions against the war. Last night, at a big beautiful book store/performance space in Brooklyn's DUMBO, dubbed the Powerhouse Arena. activists and others gathered to hear speakers from peace, veterans and military families organizations.


The Brooklyn For Peace table at Powerhouse Arena yesterday.
Many other organizations were represented.


An Iraqi veteran addresses the crowd in DUMBO.


Code Pink and the War Resistors League were there.


Leslie Kielson of UFPJ prepares her speech.


A dramatic exhibition on the real cost of war: soldier's boots representing the 175 soldiers from New York state lost to Bush's lies.

After the Speak Out at Powerhouse we walked up the block to St. Anne's Warehouse. This was the scene of a fundraiser for United for Peace and Justice. Musicians and dancers put on a fabulous concert filled with powerful performances against the war. Emceed by author/activist Laura Flanders and TV star Richard Belzer, the performers included Lou Reed, Damien Rice, Nora Jones, Bill T. Jones, David Byrne and Laurie Anderson. Over a thousand New Yorkers packed in to this DUMBO space on Water Street and responded to the artists' pleas to turn up the heat for peace.


Lou Reed and his band crank out a jarring and bitter version of the Star Spangled Banner.


Nora Jones sang sweetly and softly ... about elections.


In perhaps the most stirring performance of the night, Bill T. Jones, sang the old Irish anti-war folk song, Mrs. McGrath, and then interpreted the pain and agony of war through dance.


David Byrne performed, backed up by Nora Jones and Damien Rice (at right)

And finally, performance artist Laurie Anderson sang her devastating composition, "Only An Expert." You can listen to it on You Tube, (click below). In it she brilliantly takes on the spinmeisters and propagandists of government and media who sugar coat the ghastly violence of this nation's war machine.


Laurie Anderson ... she blew me away!


Listen to the song that Laurie Anderson performed: "It Takes An Expert."

Being out on my neighborhood's streets, I see that people are demoralized. After all, the war has continued for five years. This, despite the overwhelming opposition to it - here at home and around the world. "Protest doesn't accomplish anything so why bother?" But, even if it doesn't succeed in ending the war (and I firmly believe that, in the end, it will be the pressure of the American people that will still hand or the war makers) we must not be silent. Martin Luther King uttered these words many years ago:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

This Saturday, March 22nd at noon, New Yorkers will form a human chain from river to river along Manhattan's 14th Street to protest five years of Bush's horrible war. Thinking of Martin's words, we should all be there. Click here for details of Saturday's action.

Pedal For Peace -- What A Great Idea!

Now here's a great idea, I thought. Why not combine my two most favorite things in life: bicycling and peace. How 'bout a bike ride for peace? So I was surprised and delighted when New York -United For Peace And Justice, the local chapter of the great national anti-war coalition, announced just that: a Pedal For Peace fundraising bike ride. The idea? Bring family, friends and fellow activists together for some fun and exercise while, at the same time, raising some money to help promote the upcoming anti-war protest set for October 27th in NYC.

Well the great idea turned out to be a great day. A splendid day! The weather was as good as it gets ... a balmy, first-day-of-fall Sunday with a sky as cloudless and blue as one could imagine. We caught a 10:30 Q train in Brooklyn and rode it, with our bikes and friends, to the last stop, ascended to the street and rode through Cental Park to the ride's launching point: the Naumburg Bandshell inside the park at 72nd Street.

Our first stop: coffee and a bagel at our friendly Prospect Perk, a coffee shop in our hood. Then onto the Q for a quick subway ride to Central Park.

UFPJ volunteers staffed the registration table at the Central Park launching point.

Stacey shows off her Pedal For Peace t-shirt. Our bikes are tagged and ready to ride for peace in Iraq.

Leslie Kielson of UFPJ, addresses the cyclists, promoting the anti-war protest slated for October 27th.

The ride attracted young and old alike. Here, two of the younger riders, Noah and Josh, listen up to ride instructions.

This dude's ready to ride!

And we're off! Nadette, one of several very helpful UFPJ ride marshalls, waves us on.

We rode to the top of Central Park, regrouped at 110th Street, then continued up through the streets of Harlem.

Looking back through my mirror, a sea of yellow cyclists for peace!

Our bike ride for peace was warmly greeted by the residents of Harlem.

The people -- they want peace!

Our rest stop at High Bridge Park overlooking the Harlem River and the historic old bridge that first carried fresh Catskill water to the city of New York.

The final stretch - rolling down Riverside Drive on our way back to Central Park. The view was awesome!

Leslie: Thank you all for coming. And don't forget to go out and build October 27th into a mighty protest of the war.

Thanks to all the marshalls and to Olive, the Peace Pup, who made the ride a wonderful cycling event and a strong and compassionate plea for peace.

This was a memorable day: great people, great weather, lots of fun and, most of all, a very worthy cause. Thanks go to all the folks at NY-UFPJ who worked so hard to make it the big success it was.

And to all my readers, please make a donation to UFPJ so they can carry on their work which is so important to our world. You can e-mail me at nyccyclist@yahoo.com to make a contribution as a sponsor of my ride today. I'll send back details.

The fight for peace is costly and funds are urgently needed to make October 27th the big protest it needs to be. End the war! Bring our troops home NOW -- Safe and alive!

P.S. Take a look at some more photos from Sunday's ride at my friend, Diane Lent's website:
http://dianelent.com/pedalforpeace.htm

We Must Not Be Silent

Aug 20, 2007

Is a curtain of silence descending on our American freedoms? An administration that continues to erode constitutional liberties is unchecked by Congress. The recent wiretapping bill hastily passed by Congress is said to have givem Bush even more power to snoop on Americans - more than he even demanded.

And here in liberal New York which should be the bastion of free speech and civil liberties, an authoritarian mayor repeatedly restricts the ability to protest the Iraq war by using aggressive police tactics or refusing the use of our parks and other public places as rallying points for the tens of thousands who want to express their demands for peace. The police are given new enhanced powers to promulgate uncontestable regulations that restrict freedom of assembly. This is done under the guise of fighting terrorism but in effect the police are rapidly becoming a quasi-military force that is not subject to any civilian control

The latest flashpoint in the struggle to preserve our constitution revolves around a proposed new public school that would teach Arabic language, history and culture. Just as many other New York city schools focus on specific racial, linguistic or national studies so would the new Kahil Gibran International Academy consecrate Arabic studies as the focal point of its syllabus. This is in line with what former Mayor David Dinkins referred to as our city's "beautiful mosaic."

But from the very beginning the school came under vicious attacks from racists and extremists eager to advance their agenda of hatred and right-wing politics. Leading these attacks were the New York Post and the New York Sun. These papers are ultra-conservative rags whose biased pages seem to be designed to inflame passions and to divide people. The Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch whose media empire is considered by many to be the unofficial press agency of the Bush administraiton.

Lies and slanders were unleashed against the woman, Debbie Almontaser, who had been called upon by the city to launch the school and to serve as its principal. Branding her a terrorist or terrorist-sympathizer and the school a madrasah (the Arabic word for school) they implied that it would be a training school for terrorists. Despite the fact that Ms. Almontaser is a decorated teacher widely lauded as a force for peace and inter-faith unity, the lies were repeated over and over again. Do the words witch hunt come to mind?

The showdown came when Ms. Almontaser tried to explain the meaning of the word "intifadah" which had appeared on t-shirts prepared by young women belonging to Arab Women Active in Art and Media. Never mind that she had nothing to do with the production of the t-shirts or the group. Never mind that she was simply attempting to explain the meaning of the word intifadah. Never mind that the struggle in Palestine referred to as an intifidah is an uprising that is in response to an unjust and brutal 40-year old occupation of those lands by Israel. All that aside, the simple truth is that the intent of the Post/Sun extremists was to poison the atmosphere, slander Ms. Almontaser and prevent the new school from ever coming into existence.

The Mayor and the Department of Education, while acknowledging the skill, credentials and the upstanding decency of its own proposed principal, caved into the jingoism and agreed to accept Debbie Almontaser's forced resignation. Even more shameful, Randy Weingarten, leader of the teachers' union, the UFT, joined the chorus of circling vultures and also called for her resignation. Shameful, because the head of a union should have been on the front lines in defense of this woman and not siding with the very forces who are always the the first to attack labor.

It's clear to me that if ever there was a time to speak out, this is it. This is no time for silence. This is the time for all of us who cherish democracy, freedom and liberty to speak out forefully in defense of Debbie Almontaser and the Kahil Gibran International Academy. Letters to your local editors, to the TV and radio stations are important. So are statements from local community organizations of all sorts. And teachers should be deluging their union with calls and letters demanding an apology from Ms. Weingarten. After all, this is New York! This is our city! Our tradition is one of free speech and free thought. Our tradition is diversity not conformity to the philosophy of the New York Post and its ilk. No, we must not, dare not be silent.

It was with that goal in mind that hundreds rallied today outside the headquarters of the NYC Department of Education Chambers Street in Manhattan. A wonderful mix of New Yorkers of all faiths stood together to defend Debbie Almontaser and the new school and to demand her reinstatment. Speaker after speaker called on the city and the mayor to defend civil liberties and to stand up to the politics of bigotry and repression.

"It represents a gift of vision, a vision of tolerance, of cooperation, of community understanding,” said Rabbi Michael Feinberg of the Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition. “That's what New York is about, that’s what New York should be about, and that's certainly the vision that the academy was based on and founded on.”

And a former member of the NYC Board of Education, Luis Reyes, in a prophetic warning to the gathering, quoted the famous German pastor, Martin Niemöller:

First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.

Reverend Clinton Miller of the Brown Memorial Baptist Church of Brooklyn, held the crowd in thrall as he chastised the Mayor for his lack of defense of Ms. Almontaser. And he dramatically linked the forces behind the attack on the school to the fundamentalists who helped lead the nation into the disastrous war in Iraq.

A NYC teacher spoke and wanted it to be known that many of his colleagues were very troubled by Randy Weingarten's role in the fiasco when she sided with those attacking the school and its principal. And a young Arab woman pointed to the necessity of such a school in developing pride and identity in her community at a time when it is under attack by the forces of bigotry.

It was an important first step in combatting the curtain of repression that seems to be descending in our country and our city. Next time around there should be thousands protesting, not hundreds. Let us all understand the urgency of the moment and work to bring out those thousands in defense of our democracy.

At the Tweed Courthouse in NYC -- now the site of the NY Department of Education.

One sign poses a very pertinent question to the mayor.

A NYC teacher says Randy Weingarten doesn't speak for him.

A diverse crowd filled the sidewalk in front of the Tweed Courthouse, the headquarters of the NYC Department of Education.

Rabbi Michael Feinberg spoke eloquently of the need for diversity in our schools and cultural institutions.

Reverend Clinton Miller gave a rousing speech which was greeted enthusiastically by the the gathering.

A former member of the NYC Board of Education, Luis Reyes, quoted Pastor Martin Niemoeller, in warning of the danger of remaining silent.