Oct 22, 2005
Fall has set in and the rain came down hard and cold as the wind whipped through downtown Brooklyn's streets. But that didn't stop some 3,000 Brooklynites from turning out to attend the third annual Peace Fair. Held at Brooklyn's YWCA on Atlantic Avenue and sponsored by the borough's leading peace and justice organization, Brooklyn Parents For Peace, the fair brought together activists and citizens from all walks of life, communities and organizations to explore ways to advance the struggle for peace and social justice.
Thousands of Brooklynites attended the 3rd annual Peace Fair.
Dozens of members pitched in to make this year's fair the best yet - there were a slew of well-attended workshops on subjects ranging from counter-recruitment and how to build opposition to military recruiting in the city's schools to an exploration of peace in the mideast between Palestinians and Israelis.
Children were invited to create paintings and drawings that could evoke their images of peace while local entertainers performed and sang out with songs of protest and hope.
David Tykulsker, a vice-chair of Brooklyn Parents, opened the session in Memorial Hall at eleven. The auditorium was filled to capacity when David introduced one of Brooklyn's progressive Congressmembers and a veteran champion of peace in his own right, Major Owens. He, in turn, introduced the keynote speaker, Cindy Sheehan, who was greeted with a standing ovation. Cindy Sheehan is a founding member of Gold Star Families For Peace, a mother who lost her son to the war in Iraq and the woman who single-handedly galvanized the nation this summer with her demands to the President at his ranch in Texas that he tell her in person what "noble cause" her son had died for. The President refused to meet with Cindy who camped out on his doorstep. Many believe that his arroagant refusal was the beginning of the long decline in his approval rating that we are witness to today.
The overflow crowd at Memorial Hall.
Brooklyn Parents For Peace vice-chair David Tykulsker opened the Peace Fair at 11 a.m.
Major Owens, one of Brooklyn's progressive members of Congress, talked about the struggle for peace and then introduced Cindy Sheehan.
Cindy, backstage, being interviewed by Turkish television.
Cindy Sheehan addresses the Peace Fair. Her warmth and humanity were evident to all.
An impassioned plea to end the war and bring the troops home.
Greeted with sustained applause and respect.
Cindy spoke for a long time and the audience listened intently to every word. To my ears, her speech came directly from the heart of a mother who knew and felt the reality and meaning of war on the most personal level. Her protest of the Administration's policies was borne of the anguish and loss that she had sustained and the audience could sense the honesty and truth in her gentle manner.
Perhaps the most moving moment of her remarks were words that brought tears to many gathered in Memorial Hall. Cindy recited a poem that her daughter Carly had written. Here is Carly Sheehan's poem --
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
The torrential rains of a mother's weeping will never be done.
They call him a hero, you should be glad he's one, but,
Have you ever heard the sound of a mother screaming for her son?
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
They say he must be brave because his boy died for another mans lies.
The only thing he allows himself are long, deep sighs.
Have you ever heard the sound of a father holding back his cries?
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
They say he died so the flag will continue to wave,
But I believe he died because they had oil to save.
Have you ever heard the sound of taps played at your brother's grave?
Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Rocked to Sleep?
The leaders want to keep you numb so the pain won't be so deep,
But if we the people let them continue, another mother will weep.
Have you ever heard the sound of a Nation Rocked to Sleep?
~ A Nation Rocked To Sleep/For Casey
By Carly Sheehan
Copyrighted 2004
After Cindy's address, founder and co-chair of Brooklyn Parents For Peace, Rusti Eisenberg spoke to remind people that a job remained to be done - to expand the peace movement and to make Cindy's quest to bring the troops home a reality. She made a passionate plea to join the movement and to reach out to broader circles to still the hands of the Bush regime - the band of warmakers and criminal profiteers that have usurped our government.
Rusti Eisenberg of BPFP - "Join us so we can help end the war."
The halls of the YWCA were buzzing with excitement as people toured the various exhibits that were on display or headed to the workshops scheduled throughout the balance of the day. On the sixth floor, food was available and peace and justice organizations from Brooklyn and beyond had set up tables to inform people of their activities.
After her speech, Cindy was surrounded by well-wishers and supporters.
A big hug for Cindy ... and a thank you!
A collage by a local artist on display at the Peace Fair.
Express yourself! Children were invited to translate their desire for peace into works of art.
Young artists at work at the Peace Fair.
I made all of these peace buttons!
Finalists in the Essay contest, "How To Be A Peacemaker", read their entries while families and friends listen.
One of the essay writers - "this is why peace matters."
One of the many workshops -- Exiting Iraq, led by (l-r) Professor Jed Arahamian of Baruch College and Professor Rusti Eisenberg of Hofstra University and vice-chair of Brooklyn Parents For Peace.
Local artists entertained throughout the day.
Brooklyn rocks for peace at the YWCA.
Tables were set up by dozens of local organizations to inform people of their activities.
The Peace Fair was an uplifting experience and a fabulous Brooklyn success story. It was a wondrous coming-together of the borough's diverse population, demonstrating the unity of all people and sending a powerful message that cannot be ignored -- We want peace in Iraq and in the world.We want the resources of our wealthy country to be used for healing and helping not for death and destruction.We won't stop until we're successful.
Sep 8, 2005
Please come to DC on September 24th. On that day, tens of thousands of Americans will gather in their nation's capitol. Their demand - To end the war against Iraq. To bring our troops home now - safe and alive. To change our nation's priorities - away from spending trillions on war, death and destruction.
If Hurricane Kristina did nothing else, it illuminated in the most dramatic fashion the existence of two Americas in a way that dry statistics on poverty could never do. The misleaders of our government - the Bush Administration - that collection of illegitimate, un-elected, parasitical, oil-coated billionaires - fiddled while a great and historic American city burned and sank. The people of New Orleans were the tragic victims of the vitriolic neo-con hatred of government, a bunch of right-wing idealogues who, for years, have been the sworn enemies of the notion that government exists to serve the people. And so, when government was most needed, Bush played his guitar and avoided getting his feet wet as people slowly died. As he said the week before, when asked why he was avoiding Gold Star mom, Cindy Sheehan - "I have to get on with my life." Pathetic, no?
While Kristina was one of the biggest disasters to hit our country, there is one that has been even bigger and more dangerous and destructive ... and that is the Bush Administration, itself. The germ-ridden and poison-filled waters that have drowned the great city of New Orleans will recede in the days and weeks ahead. But the filthy stench of racism and contempt for poor and working people that emanates from the Bush White House and the Republican-controlled Congress grows day by day and hangs heavily over our country and people as the ominous threat to our collective well-being that it is.
The media finally gets it right!
I have been out on the streets of my neighborhood with friends, setting up a table and handing out flyers. My goal? - to promote the national day of protest - a grand peace march that is scheduled for Saturday, September 24th in Washington DC. This is certainly not the time to give in to feelings of disillusionment or despair. The majority of our people now oppose this war and want our troops to begin coming home. Despite the despicable silence of the Democratic party, we, the people, dare not remain quiet or inactive. As they say: "If the people lead, then the leaders will follow." The peace movement can and must move beyond the hundreds of thousands into the millions and become a massive movment of all the American people to still the hand of Bush and his oily minions.
My friend Bob at the peace table at Flatbush Avenue and Sterling Place.
Buttons, flyers, bus tickets and lots of contributions from neighborhood peple.
Busses leave from all over the country. Here, in New York, round trip tickets are available from United For Peace And Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org). In Brooklyn, from Brooklyn Parents For Peace (www.brooklynpeace.org). If you've never been on a peace march or if it's been a long time -- this is the time to get active again. Don't sit home and be an observer. Be part of history! Get your tickets now. See you in Washington on September 24.
Jul 24, 2005
Our friends Tamar and Jay couldn't make a Cyclone's baseball game at the new Keyspan ball park in Coney Island. They have season tickets. Would we like the tickets for Sunday afternoon? Stacey and I looked at each other - we're not big baseball fans. But the idea intrigued us nonetheless. And we were going to be down by the shore anyway - Sophie, our friends' granddaughter, was to be the star of her first birthday party and we were invited. We accepted the offer of free tickets. There's something very appealing about sitting in a ball park on a warm Summer afternoon - and the Keyspan park has the added attraction of a cooling ocean breeze that picks up late in the day - a beautiful place to watch the game and enjoy the ocean air.
Keyspan Park - adjacent to the Coney Island boardwalk and beach.
Coney Island was jammed - with people and cars. Parking was not to be had in the lot adjacent to the park so we drove several blocks away and finally located a not-easy-to-find spot. As we walked back to the park we noticed that the city had built a spiffy new park but hadn't done much (or anything) for the neighborhood surrounding it. So what else is new? Coney Island is one of Brooklyn's poorest and most-underserved communities and it's been that way for decades. Development, from my experience, proceeds only if it benefits the wealthy. With the new Supreme Court declaration on the right of cities to use (abuse) eminent domain on behalf of private developers I suspect that will be the case even more in the future.
The Coney Island community is Latino and African-American but the crowd inside the park was virtually all white - another contradiction. Who were these people and where did they come from? And how does that whole racial separation system work? Then I thought about the Mayor and his obsession with building ball parks on Manhattan's west side and in downtown Brooklyn and how an ordinary New Yorker can't even buy Jets tickets for years because they're all sold out to wealthy season ticket holders. Seems to me that the sports industry is pretty much like the rest of our society - profits before people. It's the market, stupid!
Enough analysis. Now for the game, itself. The Cyclones, and this is only the second game I've seen so I don't pretend to be an expert, do not play very well. Lots of errors, very few hits and even less runs. Compared to the team they were playing - the Jamestown, NY Jammers - well, there was no contest. The latter, the farm team of the Miami Marlins, played like pros; our hometown team, farm team of the NY Mets, like high school amateurs. Final score was 6-3, Jammers.
A beautiful Keyspan Park, complete with ocean breezes.
Stacey and Matt at a Coney Island ball game.
The lights go on as the sun goes down. Ocean in the distance. Nice.
Fabulous backdrop - the old parachute jump of yesteryear - now just a Coney landmark.
We left at inning eight - it wasn't fun any more. The Cyclones were getting whooped and the outcome was predictable. We opted for a walk on the Boardwalk in the fading summer sun. It was mobbed with beachgoers and strollers and ... dancers! A Latino band was pumping out salsa and folks were jiving to the sound. Quite a sight.
Boogey on down the Coney Island Boardwalk.
We love our new neighborhood of Prospect Park. Culturally rich and diverse, it has "Brooklyn" written all over it. But one thing it lacks is the ocean, the beach and the boardwalk, whose three mile length I've biked and walked hundreds of times over the years that I lived down by the shore. Coney Island and its boardwalk have a proud history, immortalized in a PBS documentary several years ago. The wooden walkway's official name is the Riegelmann Boardwalk, so named for the Brooklyn Borough President, Edward Riegelmann. Here's what the NYC Parks Department has to say about its construction in 1921:
Once the BMT subway line reached the area in 1920, the pleasures of Coney Island were just a five-cent ride away from the steaming city. Attendance on a hot summer day could reach as high as a million, causing extreme congestion on the beach. Making matters worse, private concessions (such as beachfront hotels, bath houses, and cabarets) controlled large portions of the beach. As Brooklyn Borough President from 1918 to 1924, Edward Riegelmann (1869-1941) took charge of beautifying Coney Island and ensuring public access to the beach and shore. After the city secured title to property along the beachfront, the $3 million beach improvement and boardwalk construction began in 1921.
The immense engineering project required 1.7 million cubic yards of sand to add another 2.5 million square feet to the beach area. Construction of the boardwalk made use of 120,000 tons of stone, 7700 cubic yards of reinforced concrete, and 3.6 million feet of timber, including long leaf yellow pine for the flooring. From a height of 14 feet above the beach, the 80-foot wide boardwalk stretched from W. 37th Street to Ocean Parkway and provided easy access to both beach and concessions. "Coney Island's Fifth Avenue" opened with great fanfare on May 15, 1923.
Leaving the boardwalk after a day on the beach.
We left the boardwalk and walked past Nathan's - the famous hot dog emporium and couldn't resist that fabulous Brooklyn snack. Nathan Handwerker got a job at Feltman's in Coney Island in 1915. The latter, it is said, invented the hot dog in 1867 and built a huge hotel that catered to the wealthy. But Nathan had another idea and sold his hot dogs for five cents - half the price of Feltman's. History records that Nathans's is still here. Feltman? Who's he?
And so it goes on a lovely summer Sunday - baseball, politics, hot dogs, history and salsa on the boardwalk. Only in Brooklyn, New York.
Jun 29, 2005
My friend, Eric, said he was relieved ... new to my Blog, he had noticed, apprehensively, that my posts were coming fast and furious. And then, suddenly, nothing. "What happened", he wanted to know."I haven't seen one of those blogs for weeks now." Eric, I suspect, is like the rest of us computer users -- our inboxes are deluged and clogged with endless tracts, ads, junk, pleas and exhortations. I commiserated with Eric, being there myself. There's not enough time to read all that. Of course, that doesn't apply to my blog.
But as for writing, it's the summer, that's what I blame it on. Things just slow down in the summer.(Ain't that grand?) And so does my desire to write and snap. On top of that, I did what I had been contemplating doing for many months -- removed my long-faltering hard drive (the faltering was rapidly becoming failing), inserted a new one and, for the past few days, have been endlessly re-installing Windows XP, a myriad of programs and utilities that I use and depend on and all my data (which I had meticulously backed up; I've learned that lesson). It's a process I've visited several times before. Each time, with dread.
And so, I've delayed. But the time came and I was forced to proceed. The upside of that is my computer now behaves like it did when I first purchased it - snappy and speedy. It obeys my every command. I still haven't finished the job. I installed my most heavily used programs. The rest will come over the weeks ahead on a need-to-use basis.
......
Ah yes, the title of this post: Dinner On The East River. I knew I had something on my mind. As our esteemed, former Vice President Quayle (VP-Potatoe) once said, "A mind is a terrible thing to lose."
Last night, Stacey and I joined several hundred others on Bargemusic's floating barge at the foot of Atlantic Avenue. The occasion was the annual fundraiser for Brooklyn Parents For Peace. It was a beautiful, if hot and steamy, evening. But being out on the river with its beautiful breezes helped to cool our sweaty brows. On the other hand, being on the river with its vigorous current and waves, also helped to slowly and gently rock the moored barge up and down and back and forth which induced a slightly queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach.
A chamber music trio was playing sweet tunes as we feasted on a wonderful spread of foods that had been donated by local merchants. We took our dishes out onto the deck of the barge to enjoy the magnificent view: the Brooklyn Bridge, the river with boats sailing by and an assortment of people on the adjacent pier, out to enjoy a beautiful summer night on the East River.
Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - enjoying the warm breezes of the East River.
Sunset on the river - and a time to reflect on the country's direction.
While we were partying with our fellow peace activists, the President (he's not my president) was defending his fast-sinking war on Iraq. As New York Congressmember, Louise Slaughter wrote in her blog --President Bush spoke tonight and his silence was deafening. If anyone was surprised... if anyone was shocked to see their Commander-In-Chief so divorced from reality, they really haven't been paying much attention.
But day by day more Americans are seeing the light. Each day they see the news... More casualties. More wounded. Billions of dollars lost or wasted. Congress cutting off veterans benefits. New memos discovered detailing White House plans to invade Iraq using manipulated or manufactured evidence. The list goes on and on.
After we finished our dinner and enjoyed the views, it was time to get down to the business of the evening. This dinner was called to raise funds for the job ahead. Brooklyn Parents has grown so large that it now has an office and a full-time staff. That takes lots of money, but it's money well spent. They are very effective, reaching a broad population in downtown Brooklyn and beyond. Hundreds of newspaper clippings from local papers were on display to attest to the wide coverage the group commands.
As an aside, I urge my readers to send a contribution to keep this organization going and growing. You can make an online donation by clicking right here: Brooklynpeace.org . Or, you can send it in the old fashioned way --
Brooklyn Parents for Peace
138 Court Street
PMB 416
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Another purpose of the evening was to honor those in our community who had made a significant contribution to the cause of peace. This year we were honoring Congressmembers Major Owen and Nydia Velasquez (both of whom could not attend due to an important evening vote in Washington), The venerable War Resistors League and Debbie Almontaser, an educator who is a Boardmember of Women in Islam and a tireless community activist.
Short "thank yous" were said, plaques and bouquets, expressing our appreciation, handed out and then the evening ended with some more music and socializing. It was, indeed, a wonderful night out on the shores of Brooklyn.
Lovely music by which to dine.
David Tykulsker, of Brooklyn Parents, presents certificate of appreciation to Chris Owens (son of Rep. Major Owens, who was detained in Washigton).
Community activist, Debbie Almontaser receives her award.
Part of the crowd at the fundraiser on the barge.
Dan Wiley, representing Rep. Lydia Velasquez, says thank you.
Representing the War Resistors League, four women accept the award of honor.
Olga Bloom, founder and chair of Bargemusic - receives a big thank you from all of us.
Jun 16, 2005
Last Thursday, a young Brooklyn woman, peacefully riding her bicycle up Fifth Avenue in Park Slope, was struck and killed by a delivery truck. Liz Padilla swerved to avoid a door that was unexpectedly thrown open in her path by a driver parked at the curb. Her emergency maneuver landed her under the wheels of another truck that was overtaking her, killing her instantly.
New York State and City laws both prohibit the opening of car doors in such a manner as to present a hazard to other vehicles and cyclists --
NYS VTL A33, ¤1214.: "Opening and closing vehicle doors. No person shall open the door of a motor vehicle on the side available to moving traffic unless and until it is reasonably safe to do so, and can be done without interfering with the movement of other traffic, nor shall any person leave a door open on the side of a vehicle available to moving traffic for a period of time longer than necessary to load or unload passengers."
NYC Traffic Rules ¤4-12 (c): "Getting out of vehicle. No person shall get out of any vehicle from the side facing on the traveled part of the street in such manner as to interfere with the right of the operator of an approaching vehicle or a bicycle."
Yet, "dooring" is the number one injury confronting New York bicyclists. In this case, a young woman's life was taken from her. Yet,amazingly and tellingly, not even a summons was issued to the driver who acted thoughtlessly and was the direct cause of the tragedy!
Liz Padilla was the third cyclist run down on our streets in the past month and a half, bringing the total of cyclists killed since 1995 to 204, a staggering toll. And although, NYC streets are somewhat safer than they've been in the past, the city's Department of Transportation still makes auto traffic flow it's main priority, while cycling and pedestrian safety gets a very short shrift.
So today, several hundred bicyclists gathered in silence at the corner where Liz Padilla lost her life. They then proceeded to the Brooklyn Bridge, crossing it to rally at City Hall. Here, they demanded from the Mayor that the city increase its efforts to make the streets safer and more accessible for cyclists and pedestrians. It's clear that in the long run, cycling will provide a healthier and more efficient means of transportation than the current system of allowing cars to dominate and overwhelm our city's streets.
Flowers for Liz Padilla at the corner of Prospect Place and Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn.
The Daily News story of June 10th.
A white bike placed at the scene - to symbolize our loss.
Paul Steely White, of Transportation Alternatives -- a moment of silence.
We won't forget you Liz.
Up Smith Street - heading to the Brooklyn Bridge and City Hall.
Hundreds of cyclists, demanding safer streets, crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.
At City Hall.
Taking our message to City Hall.
