Click here to view the embedded video.

Goodman is being charged with obstruction; while felony riot charges are pending against both of the producers. All three were violently manhandled by law enforcement officers.

During his attest producer Abdel Kouddous was slammed against a wall and the ground, leaving his arms scraped and bloodied. He sustained other injuries to his chest and back. Also arrested was producer Nicole Salazar who was violently arrested by baton-wielding officers, during which she was slammed to the ground while yelling, “I’m Press! Press!,” resulted in her nose bleeding, as well as causing facial pain. Goodman’s arm was violently yanked by police as she was arrested.

On Tuesday, Democracy Now! will broadcast video of these arrests, as well as the broader police action. These will also be available on: www.democracynow.org

Goodman was arrested while questioning police about the unlawful detention of Kouddous and Salazar who were arrested while they carried out their journalistic duties in covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Goodman’s crime appears to have been defending her colleagues and the freedom of the press.

“I was down on the convention floor interviewing delegates when I heard that two of our producers had been arrested,” said Goodman. “I ran down to Jackson and 7th Street, where the police had moved in.”

Goodman said that when she ran up to find out what was going on, she was also arrested.

“They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter.” – Amy Goodman on The Washington Post

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were arrested on suspicion of rioting, a felony. While the three have been released, they all still face charges stemming from their unlawful arrest. Kouddous and Salazar face pending charges of suspicion of felony riot, while Goodman has been officially charged with obstruction of a legal process and interference with a “peace officer.”

Democracy Now! forcefully rejects all of these charges as false and an attempt at intimidation of these journalists and demands that the charges be immediately and completely dropped.

Democracy Now! stands by Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and condemns this action by Twin Cities’ law enforcement as a clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.

During the demonstration in which the Democracy Now! team was arrested, law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force against protesters and journalists. Several dozen demonstrators were also arrested during this action, including a photographer for the Associated Press.

Amy Goodman is one of the most well-known and well-respected journalists in the United States. She has received journalism’s top honors for her reporting and has a distinguished reputation of bravery and courage. The arrest of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar and the subsequent criminal charges and threat of charges are a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists.

Editor’s Note: This story was drawn from  Democracy Now! news releases with a quote attributed to the Washington Post. Democracy Now! is a nationally syndicated, daily, independent, award-winning public TV and radion news program hosted by journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez that airs on 700 radio and TV stations in the United States and around the world.

When I was a teenager, going to private Catholic school, I was approached by military recruiters. I was encouraged to join the military and to enlist in the ROTC program, much like my father had been. For whatever reason, I declined. I was not yet a peace activist like I became after the first Gulf War, but something in my instincts told me that I could not serve in the military the way my father had served.

In 1990, while I was enrolled at the University of Minnesota, George Bush Sr. began beating the drums of war. I was enrolled in the selective service program at that time in order to get student loans to go to college. I remember clearly the night the bombs began to drop in Iraq for the first time. I was living in the student district of Minneapolis and there had been anti-war activity on campus leading up to the invasion. Students were busy organizing against the campus military center, sometimes called the stockade, holding demonstrations and putting anti-war material in front of the recruiting and training center.

The night of the first bombing and initial invasion in 1991 I witnessed something I had never seen before, a spontaneous anti-war demonstration. Demonstrators began marching from the University district and marched, without a permit, into downtown Minneapolis and over to the uptown district, several thousand people marching a distance of five or six miles. Something about that demonstration vitalized me and helped me to commit to a path of peace. I knew at the time, based on my religious convictions, that I could not kill another human being in the name of my country, no matter what the reason. Although I am no longer a person of faith, I still retain the same conviction to this day and remain a pacifist and committed to the path of non-violence.

I joined the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors at that time and met with a Quaker counselor from the American Friends Service Committee. I decided at that point in my life to begin to serve the path of peace.

My story is only one story of many paths to adulthood. Besides having deep respect for my father and his choices in life, we have something in common, we both had the opportunity to choose how to serve our country. This choice, which has been a mainstay of American life since shortly after the Vietnam war, has never been under greater threat than it is right now. Our military forces are taxed to exhaustion, and a back door draft of sort already exists with our national guard reserve. President Bush has chosen to keep one hundred forty thousand troops in Iraq in addition to the thousands already serving in Afghanistan and the hundreds of thousands serving in over one hundred and twenty countries around the world.

Nearly every person in the military today is there because they were able to choose to serve. Regardless of how one feels about the process of military recruitment, the targeting of poor and minority communities, even recruiting persons who are not yet citizens of this country in order to serve, the alternative to this is far worse. I do believe that we need to scale down the size of our military. We cannot afford the extreme financial burden that this military is costing us, both in current expenditures and obligations we have on past expenditures, such as debt from previous military expenses which is as yet unpaid, and the financial obligations that we have to the health and welfare of our nation’s veterans.

There has been talk in the military of reintroducing the draft. It is argued that we cannot afford to keep going the way we are. There has even been speculation that the very reason that our national reserve forces are being taxed to their limits is to reintroduce the draft as a socially acceptable resolution to the current crisis in Iraq. Our military forces are broken. They are being taxed to their limits, but the solution is not the reintroduction of a draft. This war in Iraq was based on lies and manipulation. There is nothing honorable about recruiting unwitting young men in order to support the lies and misdeeds of the current administration.

The solution to the crisis in Iraq is to bring the troops home now. Our national guard has served the country well. They have answered the call to serve, in spite of the betrayals of the current administration, and it is time to bring them home. Then it is time to let our military heal from the current round of conflict. We need a peacetime administration that is focused on using alternatives to violence and warfare in order to solve international conflicts. We need elected representatives who are committed to the path of peace and who are more concerned about the economic crisis at home.

I am still proud of my father and everything he has done. I am also proud of my friends who have chosen not to serve in the military. I am proud of the peace activists I know who have chosen to serve their country and the world to promote the cause of peace. I believe that there can be reconciliation and understanding between these two very different communities, each choosing to serve in the way they believe is best. The act of choosing is one of the most important rites of transitioning into adult life. Don’t our children deserve the opportunity to explore all the alternatives that life has to offer them, in education, in job training, in community service? We don’t need another draft. What we need is a new outlook on our government.

We need a government that is dedicated to the idea that serving the people is the highest priority. A draft will only reinforce the idea that Americans are cannon fodder for greedy warmongers who can’t make good foreign policy decisions and then need to sacrifice American lives in order to cover for their terrible decisions. Instead of investing more money in war let’s invest it in peace. Let’s make sure that every American graduates from high school. Let’s take the money that we would spend on guns and spend that money on health care. Let’s take the money that we would spend on military bases halfway around the world and spend that money on our own domestic infrastructure. Let’s take the money that we would spend on bombs and spend that money on social security. Finally, let’s take the money that we would spend on training our young men and women to be soldiers and instead spend that money on training them to be teachers, doctors and engineers.

We can lift this nation out of poverty. We can find alternatives to warfare and violence. We can solve our international problems without invading foreign countries and occupying them. We can have peace and security at home without resorting to a draft. It is time for us to take the steps towards peace that we have been waiting to take. It is time to look at real solutions to the economic crisis facing this country. It is time to restore the honor and dignity that is the soul of this nation. I believe we can do this. All we need is the leadership and the representation to make the right decisions in Washington DC. Let’s take the first steps toward becoming the people that we deserve to be by resisting talk of a draft and instead let’s bring the troops home now.

Chris Lugo is a candidate for the US Senate from Tennessee running on a platform of Peace.

Last August, President Bush attended an exclusive, high-priced fundraiser for New Mexico Senator Pete Domenici.  Local activists opposed to the president’s policies were, of course, not invited.  To let the president know that not everyone agreed with him, they planned to stand along his motorcade route holding up signs expressing their views, especially their opposition to the war in Iraq.

The peaceful demonstrators’ attempt at free speech was quickly squashed when police officers forced them to stay at least 150 yards away from the motorcade route, walling them off by placing numerous police cars and officers on horseback between the protesters and the president.  Meanwhile, a group of Bush supporters was allowed to stand right along the motorcade route, where their “God Bless George Bush!  We pray for you!” sign was in plain view of both Bush and the journalists accompanying him.

This isn’t the first time law enforcement officers have tried to squelch dissenters in President Bush’s presence. In 2004, Jeffrey and Nicole Rank were arrested for peacefully attending one of the president’s speeches while wearing t-shirts bearing the international “no” symbol superimposed over the word “Bush.”  The Ranks sued and ultimately received an $80,000 settlement from the White House—a win for free speech after a fight that should never have been necessary in a free society.

And in 2005, Leslie Weise and Alex Young were ejected from another of the president’s speeches because of a bumper sticker on their car that read “No More Blood for Oil.”  Their lawsuit is still pending.  

Now, the ACLU has filed a complaint in federal court on behalf of six of the peaceful protesters in New Mexico who were banned from the view of the president.  It is our hope that the lawsuit will prove once and for all that incidents such as these are unconstitutional.

These incidents of censorship appear to be dictated by White House policy.  The official Presidential Advance Manual recommends that someone working on the ground where the president is to make an appearance “ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.”  It advocates the formation of “rally squads” of sign-wielding supporters that can “use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform.”  It also suggests that the rally squads “lead supportive chants to drown out the protesters (USA!  USA!  USA!).”  

Lest it be thought that only Republican administrations engage in this type of behavior, it is worth pointing out that the Clinton administration’s Advance Manual also suggested that supporters could “be encouraged to wave supporting placards in front of opposing ones.”  In fact, the ACLU supported a lawsuit against a government policy that prohibited people from demonstrating along the route of Clinton’s presidential inauguration parade.

It’s easy to see why presidents would want to be pictured surrounded by adoring supporters. After all, the true audience for a presidential appearance is usually not those who attend in person, but the potential millions who will catch a glimpse on the evening news.  Few may hear the words the president speaks, but many will see the images filmed that day.

But the desire to look good does not justify treating members of the public like extras in a campaign commercial rather than citizens with a protected constitutional right to engage in speech of their own.  Shielding the president from all criticism is an unsound and undemocratic policy that violates the Constitution.  The First Amendment prohibits the government from “abridging the freedom of speech.”  This guarantee is grounded in the idea that, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes explained almost 90 years ago, “the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.”  

The right to free speech is meaningless when the government is permitted to do an end run around the First Amendment by relegating those who want to exercise it to remote locations where no one will hear them.  Communication requires both a speaker and a listener.  Just as it is censorship to prohibit speech entirely, it is censorship to place individuals where they can speak all they want with no chance of being heard.

Take Action

You should consider joining the ACLU, or at least donating to help them with the good works they are doing to protect all of our civil liberties.

About the author

Catherine Crump works at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), to safeguard the right to engage in political dissent. Catherine’s project seeks to protect the First Amendment rights of government whistle blowers and political protesters. She counsels and supports government employees who wish to come forward with information about shortcomings in the government’s national security strategy. She also works with political protesters who are critical of government and have been forced to protest in relatively remote locations because of their viewpoint.
 

Editor’s Note: This article was originally posted at The Huffington Post, and The Daily Kos. Her bio is from Equal Justice Works

The meeting will also feature a screening of the award winning documentary film, The Future of Food, presented by Katherine Pendleton, the Tennessee Sierra Club Chapter Chair.

This event is free and open to the public. The Clarksville Montgomery County Public Library is located at 350 Pageant Lane in Clarksville, Tennessee.

About The Future of Food

A revolution is happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America — a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.

THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade.

Click here to view the embedded video.

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.

Why Join the Sierra Club?

Because they need you!

Your voice will be added to those of more than 1.3 million of your fellow Americans who are committed to leave our children a living legacy — clean air, clean water, and natural grandeur. The Sierra Club has been instrumental in preserving wilderness, wildlife and nature’s most splendid wild places for over 100 years — Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, the Florida Everglades and the Sequoia National Monument to name just a few — helping protect over 150 million acres of wilderness and wildlife habitat.

The Sierra Club is America’s most effective advocate for the environment and helps you protect the environment locally and globally. The Sierra Club’s dedicated volunteers and grassroots activists make your dollars go further; each dollar of your support is “multiplied” by the work of the Club’s tens of thousands of dedicated volunteers.

For additional information, contact Amanda Whitley via email, or via telephone at 931-553-4264

*Some information in this announcement is from the Sierra Club home page at http://www.sierraclub.org/

The equivalent of major peace march, the rally is a cyberspace version of traditional social action and participation is simple. Organizers from a dozen myspace sites are asking individuals and organizations with my space or other sites that have “default” photos to switch out those photos for peace signs and peace candles for July 4th.

Anyone browsing or actively accessing myspace, facebook or other sites will see thousands of peace signs, each representing one user’s desire for peace and an end to Iraq War. Word of the peace initiative is being spread through bulletins and e-mails across the web. Myspace users with a handful of “friends” and users with thousands of “friends” are spreading the word.

For one day, we can gather online and make our voices heard through powerful imagery. Although organizers are still collecting votes for the specific symbol representative of the rally, they note that any symbol of peace can be used. For those who want to use the frequently seen image in brown and gold tones of a Peace candle against the Peace sign, photobucket has a wide selection of peace candle graphics to choose from.

Peace & Justice E-Blast
For the week of June 23 – July 1, 2007

Peace actions to end the Iraq War

Joyce Kisner — Monday Night Vigils on Any Corner (every Monday)

Every Monday – 6:00 p.m.
ORIGINAL CORNER: 14th and Eastland in East Nashville
SECOND CORNER: At the Wendy’s on West End Avenue , across from Centennial Park

There is no end date set for these vigils. Please join Joyce and others at the corner of 14th and Eastland in East Nashville every Monday night at 6:00 p.m. — or at that same time at ANY corner that works for you. Wouldn’t it be cool if throughout Nashville on Monday nights at 6:00 p.m. a growing number of vigils were happening on corners all around the city? Hey, why not throughout the state… even the country! To post a new corner address on the NPJC E-blast in the near future, send an email to Tamara, .

Other upcoming events

Tennessee Justice Center — Calling Parents, Doctors, Teachers, and Friends of Children on TennCare

Do you know a child on TennCare who is having problems getting what he/she needs?  Please call the Tennessee Justice Center toll-free at 1-877-608-1009 to SHARE THE STORY.

Tennessee Alliance for Progress (TAP) — Tennessee Progress Report on Radio Free Nashville (every Monday)

Every Monday, 5-6 p.m. CST
Radio Free Nashville, http://www.radiofreenashville.org/

Host Nell Levin, Coordinator for Tennessee Alliance for Progress, interviews key progressive leaders and activists, talks about current issues affecting our city, state and country, and plays her favorite musicians. Tune in!

Tennessee Equality Project (TEP) — weekly meeting (every Monday)

Every Monday, 6:30 – 8 p.m. CST
Red restaurant at Tribe, 1517 Church Street, Nashville 37203
Contact: Roger Schecter,

Fathers/Parents in Prison Support Group — weekly meeting (every Tuesday)

Every Tuesday night at 5:30 p.m.
The CBX of Centennial Boulevard, Men’s Minimum Security Prison

Fathers/Parents in Prison Support Group meets every Tuesday night at the CBX of Centennial Boulevard, Men’s Minimum Security Prison, at 5:30 p.m. It is a closely knit group of men who are seeking means to be better fathers to their children while they are incarcerated. It is a special needs group who, while incarcerated, work on maintaining contact and parenting their children from inside the prison walls. Part of the group is educational and discussion formatted. With written media, we assist the men who have low reading and writing skills and work on encouraging new healthy communication skills. Other men need a place to be and feel safe to express themselves away from the prison system environment even if it is only for a brief time.

The Fathers in Prison/Parents in Prison Project is seeking ex-cons who have been out for over a year, doing well, and are interested in talking to the group. We are also seeking Latino and African-American men to speak about fatherhood and what it means to them. And we specifically seek persons of all faiths.

We are open to ideas regarding interactive workshops at the CBX on parenting, self-parenting, relaxation, negotiation skills and child development. For contact information, call or email Deborah Jane Chadwick, or (615) 391-4079.

Fathers/Parents in Prison Support Group — Books needed for fathers in prison — please contribute!

Fathers/Parents in Prison Support Group is seeking Philosophy and Critical Thinking books in good condition. Reading level: high school — college. If you have books on these subjects to donate, please contact Deborah J. Chadwick, or (615) 391-4079. Books can be dropped off at NPJC, and Deborah will pick them up here.

United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union — Justice at Smithfield Farms, the largest hog processing plant in the world

Tuesday, June 26, 2007, 7:00 p.m. (for those that have not seen the “Witness” video – the story of these workers’ struggle in their own words — please join us early, at 6:30 p.m., for a showing)

Frothy Monkey Coffeehouse, 2509 12th Avenue South (between Beechwood and Sweetbriar), Nashville 37204
Contact: Kate Mason, UFCW organizer, at mailto:Every%20Monday,%206:30%20-%208%20p.m.%20CST or (202) 286-9626

The working people at Smithfield Inc.’s Tar Heel, NC hog processing plant, the largest one in the world, need our help!  They have been fighting for safer working conditions, respect, and a voice on the job for 14 years.  These workers can’t fight the company alone any longer.  UFCW has brought this cause to the national stage in a number of cities across the U.S. in the last year.  It is time for Nashville to join them in telling the company that it will not support products packaged with abuse any longer.  Join your fellow faith, community, labor, and political leaders this Tuesday for the campaign roll-out and help strategize for the summe rallies. 

Tennessee Health Care Campaign — Afternoon Radio Program on Radio Free Nashville (every Wednesday)

Every Wednesday, 4-5 p.m. CST

Listen to “Health Care in Tennessee ” on Radio Free Nashville every Wednesday from 4-5 p.m. Central Standard time, ONLINE. Radio Free Nashville is a low-power community radio station, currently available for listening online only (streaming audio).

Peace Coalition meeting

Every Wednesday, 6-7:30 p.m.
Nashville Peace & Justice Center , 1016 18th Avenue South

Come be a part of this vibrant group, strategizing for peace! Make friends, plan events, end the war! The Peace Coalition meets at NPJC every Wednesday at 6 p.m. (with the exception of holidays). You’re welcome to join the in-person group or the online group, or both. For more info, check the online group or contact .

Earth Matters TN — Press Conference & Dedication of the DeFord Bailey Tribute Rose Garden, “Celebrating Past, Present, and Future Pioneers”

Wednesday, June 27, 2007, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon
1001 Gale Lane and Lealand at the Carver Pavilion

Earth Matters Tennessee, in association with LifeWorks Foundation, is pleased to honor DeFord Bailey, Nashville musician and the first star of the Grand Ole Opry, in the upcoming opening and dedication of the DeFord Bailey Tribute Garden.  The garden, located in George W. Carver Food Park at the corner of Lealand (10th Ave. South) and Gale Lane in teh Sunnyside Community, will be presented on Wednesday, June 27, 2007, at 11 a.m. in a special ceremony open to the public. 

Appropriately, the garden will house nearly a dozen different varieties of miniature and tea roses named for country music singers and songs including Barbara Mandrell, Dolly Parton, Reba McEntire, Lynn Anderson, Elvis, and songs “Ring of Fire,” “Tennessee Waltz,” and “Rocky Top.”  The flowers are just a sampling from the Nashville Music Collection, which consists of apx. 20 different varieties of flora including flowers named after Pam Tillis, Minnie Pearl, Amy Grant and Blue Bayou, to name a few.  This is the first time the country music roses will ever be housed together in one location but it is not the last appearance these roses will make in the Nashville area.  “There is no more fitting a tribute to the man who helped make the Grand Ole Opry a household name than for Nashville to honor DeFord Bailey with a living tribute of a garden populated by flowers named after the singers and songs in country music,” explains Pat Bullard of Life Works.  The event will feature DeFord Bailey’s family including Jr. & Carlos Bailey, biographer David Morton, Sizwe Herring, Lisa Bullard, Skipper Poole, Silas Tyrone Newsome, Dr. Louis Mishu, and Gwynelle Dismukes.

Nashville Branch of the NAACP –  Mayoral Candidate Debate

Thursday, June 28, 2007, 6:00 p.m.
Nashville Downtown Public Library, 615 Church Street, Nashville, TN  37219
Contact the Nashville office: (615) 329-0999Join the Nashville Branch of the NAACP in a Mayoral Candidate Debate at the Nashville Downtown Public Library.

Women in Black — silent peace vigil (every Thursday)

Every Thursday, 12:15 — 12:45 p.m.
The bridge on Broadway across from the Tennessean building

Join local Nashvillians in protesting war by participating in Women in Black’s silent peace vigils.  Vigils happen every Thursday at the location above.  Women in Black is an international peace network.  It is not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action.  Women in Black vigils were started in Israel in 1988 by women protesting against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.  Women in Black has developed in the U.S., England, Italy, Spain, Azerbaijan and in FR Yugoslavia, where women in Belgrade have stood in weekly vigils since 1991 to protest war and the Serbian regime’s policies of nationalist aggression.  Women in Black NY has been standing in solidarity with the women of Belgrade ever since 1993.

NPJC — Leadership Institute – Workshop #2: “Strategic Planning for Grassroots Organizations” by Cecilia Mynatt, Center for Non-profit Management

Thursday, June 28, 2007, 6-8 p.m.
Nashville Peace & Justice Center, 1016 18th Ave. S, Nashville 37212
$25 per workshop of the Leadership Institute (unless you pre-registered)
Contact: Tamara Ambar Losel, (615) 321-9066 or

Know where you’re going and how you’ll get there.  Learn to set achievable short and long-term goals, build power within your organization, research and plan strategically, identify and maximize opportunities, and lead your group in making decisions.  This workshop will be led by Cecilia Mynatt, consultant in Strategic Planning for the Center for Non-profit Management.  Don’t miss it!

La Casa (Central American Solidarity Association) — Pastors for Peace presentation & potluck dinner

Monday, July 9, 2007, 6:00 p.m. potluck dinner (presentation at 7:00 p.m.)
1925 19th Avenue South, right off of Portland Avenue, which runs between Belmont Blvd. and 21st Ave. S.
Contact: Eugene Teselle at eugene.

La Casa will host a Pastors for Peace caravan on its way to Cuba.  This will be on Monday, July 9, with a potluck dinner at 6 and the presentation at 7.

NPJC — Dialogue Circle (follow-up to May 24 Circle)

Tuesday, July 17, 2007, 6-7:30 p.m.
Nashville Peace & Justice Center, 1016 18th Ave. S, Nashville 37212
Contact: Tamara or Keith, or  

Mark your calendar for our next Dialogue at NPJC, a follow-up to the first Circle on May 24.  Inspired by the film, The Color of Fear, we will continue to discuss race and the effects of racism in our society.  Our objective is simply to have a safe space to talk and listen to each other’s experiences, respect our differences, and build trust and community.  All are welcome!  Let us build bridges of understanding together.  Coexistence is ours, if we want it!

JOB LISTINGS

Looking for jobs in peace and justice? How do you find out about them? NPJC wants to help you connect your skills and talents to meaningful work in Nashville . Please send an email to Tamara () whenever you hear about job openings in social/economic/racial justice, human rights, advocacy, and peace or conflict resolution!

• Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity seeks a Faith Relations Coordinator (Americorps)to develop and implement an annual plan for making contact and building relationships with local faith organizations and act as the liaison between organizations and NAHFH.  Work to maximize financial and volunteer support through communications and meetings.  Coordinate with and assist the Development Manager in the production of reports and lists to support the annual campaign for faith organizations and in the production and distribution of mailings for this constituency.  Interact with various program and development staff to achieve the best possible outcomes for various collaborative jobs or duties requiring a team effort.  Contribute to the team effort by willingly participating in NAHFH development events and in the Development Team staff meetings and functions.
• TN Conference on Social Welfare seeks an Advancement Coordinator for a part-time position with the possibility of full-time.  Contribute to the growth and expansion of the oldest, multi-issue social policy group in Tennessee as we approach our 100th Anniversary!  This part-time, contract position involves assuring TCSW membership, donor and conference operations are neat, organized, smooth, and efficient; positive external relations through the media; and swift response to rapidly changing electronic options for better performance.  For additional information about the Tennessee Conference on Social Welfare, (see: http://www.tcsw.org/).  Employment begins in July.  The position is for an average of 15-20 hours per week at $13/hr for a qualified individual, with hours being 1 to 5 p.m.  For a full job description.
• StoryCorps is seeking enthusiastic and dedicated Facilitators for a year-long commitment to work part-time at our newest StoryBooth in Nashville, TN.  StoryCorps’ mission is to instruct and inspire people to record one another’s stories in sound.  StoryBoothsare small, comfortable recording studios where friends, families and neighbors bring each other to conduct 40-minute audio interviews.  The stories recorded in these booths are housed at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center.  Each week, stories from teh project air on NPR’s Morning Edition.  Interviews from teh Griot Initiative, a grassroots national tour that brings StoryCorps directly into African-American lives and communities across the nation, air on NPR’s News and Notes.  The collection wiill become our nation’s largest oral history archive.  For more detials about the position.  
• Visit the Center for Nonprofit Management’s Job board to view job listings.
• Visit Idealist.org, Action Without Borders, to view job listings.
• Visit the job listings in the non-profit section of Craigslist, Nashville.

…AND MORE…

Visit the Middle TN Progressive Calendar and get connected to more social justice events in our area for the next two months!

Spread the word! 

Change is possible, and it happens everyday! Forward this message to everyone you know, and encourage them to join our mailing list.

To subscribe to our weekly E-blast, send an e-mail with “subscribe to E-blast” in the subject line to .

To receive our bi-monthly newsletter, Alternatives, and other mailings, include your name and contact info in the body of the email (along with issues and/or organizations that interest you).

About the Nashville Peace & Justice Center

In calling for its enactment, President John F. Kennedy identified “simple justice” as the justification for Title VI:

“Simple justice requires that public funds, to which all taxpayers of all races contribute, not be spent in any fashion which encourages, entrenches, subsidizes, or results in racial discrimination. Direct discrimination by Federal, State or local governments is prohibited by the Constitution. But indirect discrimination, through the use of Federal funds, is just as invidious; and it should not be necessary to resort to the courts to prevent each individual violation.” See H. R. Misc. Doc. No. 124, 88th Cong., 1st Sess., 3, 12 (1963).

The battles of the civil rights era are mostly thought to have resulted in major victories. However, as this 43rd anniversary approaches, a local citizen’s watchdog group has been studying Clarksville’s compliance status and the results do not speak well of us this late in game. To be kind, the city’s Title VI compliance status seems to be less than adequate, if not, totally nonexistent. Frankly, this is a seriously perilous situation. But how can it be?

Some salient facts to keep in mind as you consider this situation:

1. The City of Clarksville has no Title VI Implementation Plan. City Council has never adopted Title VI has the official nondiscrimination policy of city government.
2. More than nine racial discrimination lawsuits have been filed against the police department and the city.
   Of all the cases that have thus far gone to trial, the city has been found guilty every time.
3. The city is saddled with heavy judgment awards from each of the lost lawsuits. They are still yet to be paid and they are accruing interest, daily.
4. The police department has been undeniably and irrefutably identified as a racially hostile work environment for minority officers and personnel.
5. TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely stated in 2005 that the city and county must each develop their own Title VI Implementation Plan, as required by federal and state law, and disallowed Ms Woodle’s declaration that we could piggyback off of TDOT’s plan.
6. The receipt of federal financial assistance requires Title VI compliance up and down the line of that assistance distribution flow.
7. A loss or suspension of federal financial assistance becomes a real probable consequence when noncompliance is not addressed and remedied by primary recipients or their sub-recipients, including contractors and sub-contractors.

The City of Clarksville and Montgomery County are, indisputably, recipients of federal and state financial assistance. They are subject to compliance laws, rules and regulations of the federal and state agencies which distribute or pass thru federal financial assistance to them. Efforts by private citizens to urge local governmental bodies to meet compliance requirements and standards has met with strong resistance and direct denial. This noncompliance status jeopardizes the continued receipt of the myriad forms of federal financial assistance which continually flow into the city and county coffers and funds so many services and programs. Real leadership would move to put this ship, which is our local governmental triumvirate, on course, steering a true and honest path of compliance. The pie is big enough for all of us. After all, this is, “The Gateway To The New South!”

FreeThinkers founder Debbie Boen and co-organizer Christine Piesyk circled a tree with candles for a solemn, non-political memorial at which the names of the Kentucky and Tennessee soldiers were read. The group stood in silence to honor the fallen.

Boen voiced concern that Americans need to become more involved and vocal in their opposition to the war and the policies supporting it, to read about the issues and ask the hard questions.

“How many more have to die in this fight?” she asked, questioning the motivation behind the war.

Piesyk noted that the soldiers killed included men and women, people who are sons and fathers, mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers. One hundred and eleven soldiers have died from self-inflicted wounds. Coalition countries have sustained heavy losses and the Iraqi people have casualty numbers well over 50,000. (icasualties.org)

“Reading the names puts a face to the numbers in the news,” Piesyk said.  “It makes them real, even though we don’t know them. To someone out there, each name represents a broken heart.”

The FreeThinkers have held over fifty vigils at the Flame and have also sponsored other events including anti-war rallies and peace actions at various locations around Clarksville.

“I find it very strange that two healthy teen’s suddenly drop dead upon being restrained for unruliness by staff members at this facility. Something does not sound right about these deaths and we intend to do a full investigation to not only get to the bottom of the truth but to make sure that the current youths housed at this facility are not being subjected to physical or life threatening abuse at the hands of staff members.” –  Terry McMoore.

The Chad Youth Enhancement Center is located at 1751 Oak Plains Road in Clarksville-Montgomery County TN. The Chad Youth Enhancement Center is a non-custodial placement, 50-bed residential treatment center for youth who have a significant history of emotional and behavioral problems.

Contact person for this press release is Mr. Terry McMoore (931) 552-9076 or (931) 378-1999 Email:

These cards contain the faces of big shots from all over the world who are capitalizing on the wars and conflicts all over the world. Underneath their photo is a brief bio of each greedy fool and their company, organization or special group affiliation.

Each suit in this deck represents a category of war profiteers:

Oil, gas, and energy companies

US government officials

Military and defense contractors

Heads of industry, finance, media, policy, and hype

Download the whole deck

(pdf, 1mb)

(pdf, 461kb)

To get a real deck and support the on-going campaigns against many of these evil-doers  Click Here

I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called “Face” of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such “liberal blogs” as the Democratic Underground. Being called an “attention whore” and being told “good riddance” are some of the more milder rebukes.

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a “tool” of the Democratic Party.  This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our “two-party” system?

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the “left” started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of “right or left”, but “right and wrong.”

I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt “two” party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland. I am demonized because I don’t see party affiliation or nationality when I look at a person, I see that person’s heart. If someone looks, dresses, acts, talks and votes like a Republican, then why do they deserve support just because he/she calls him/herself a Democrat?

I have also reached the conclusion that if I am doing what I am doing because I am an “attention whore” then I really need to be committed. I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a “grateful” country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then. I have sacrificed a 29 year marriage and have traveled for extended periods of time away from Casey’s brother and sisters and my health has suffered and my hospital bills from last summer (when I almost died) are in collection because I have used all my energy trying to stop this country from slaughtering innocent human beings. I have been called every despicable name that small minds can think of and have had my life threatened many times.

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life. This group won’t work with that group; he won’t attend an event if she is going to be there; and why does Cindy Sheehan get all the attention anyway? It is hard to work for peace when the very movement that is named after it has so many divisions.

Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people. However, in five, ten, or fifteen years, our troops will come limping home in another abject defeat and ten or twenty years from then, our children’s children will be seeing their loved ones die for no reason, because their grandparents also bought into this corrupt system. George Bush will never be impeached because if the Democrats dig too deeply, they may unearth a few skeletons in their own graves and the system will perpetuate itself in perpetuity.

I am going to take whatever I have left and go home. I am going to go home and be a mother to my surviving children and try to regain some of what I have lost. I will try to maintain and nurture some very positive relationships that I have found in the journey that I was forced into when Casey died and try to repair some of the ones that have fallen apart since I began this single-minded crusade to try and change a paradigm that is now, I am afraid, carved in immovable, unbendable and rigidly mendacious marble.

Camp Casey has served its purpose. It’s for sale. Anyone want to buy five beautiful acres in Crawford , Texas ? I will consider any reasonable offer. I hear George Bush will be moving out soon, too…which makes the property even more valuable.

This is my resignation letter as the “face” of the American anti-war movement. This is not my “Checkers” moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.

Good-bye America …you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

It’s up to you now.

About Cindy Sheehan

Cindy Sheehan was an American anti-Iraq War activist, whose son, Casey Sheehan, was killed during his service in Iraq. She attracted international attention in August 2005 for her extended demonstration at a peace camp outside President George W. Bush’s Texas ranch garnering her both support and criticism.

* Originally posted by Cindy Sheehan at Daily Kos on Mon May 28, 2007 at 09:57:01 AM PDT

It will include 25 green power speakers, an alternative vehicle and fuel exposition, two music stages powered by solar energy, a tour of alternative homes, an energy play shop for kids, an eco-film fest, the debut of Middle Tennessee’s Green Living Journal and much more!! The festival opens June 1 with an Ecovillage Experience Weekend at the Ecovillage Training Center on the Farm Community in Summertown, TN and a Cumberland Greens Bioregional Council Gathering.

GREEN POWER DAY SPEAKER PROGRAM

Location of Venue: High Forest Room, Memorial Park, Court St. in Downtown, Hohenwald

10:10

Welcoming Address, Mayors of Lewis County and the City of Hohenwald

10:20

Green Power: Solutions for a Wealthier Future
Jennifer D. English, Chairperson Green Power Committee

11:00

Climate Change: Why Now is the Time to Act
Representative from the Climate Project

11:40

Deforestation and Loss of Biodiversity
Representatives from Swan Trust, Earth Advocates Research Farm

1:00

The Energy Crisis: What We Can Do
Representatives from MLEC, TVA, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

2:20

Current Fuel Technology
Representatives from Clean Cities of Middle and West TN and Middle TN Biofuels Project

3:40

Generating Home Power
Representatives from Big Frog Mountain

4:20

Cycling Energy in the Home System
Representatives from the Ecovillage Training Center and Ecoville Architechs

Other Events

There will be Green Power Speakers at 2 other venues near Memorial Park 11-5pm

More than 15 other speakers will talk on Solar, Biofuels, Natural Building, Energy Conservation, Energy and Food, Peak Oil, Geothermal, Permaculture, Green Design and much more!

Alternative Vehicle and Fuel Exposition from 10-5 pm – see biofuels, hybrids and waste vegetable oil vehicles and fuel processing.

Bring your car for display. Contact biofuels@… for details!

A Green Power Film Fest will be held in the War Memorial building/Career Center on Smith Street

• 12:00 Kilowatt Ours
• 12:45 Who Killed the Electric Car
• 2:20 The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
• 3:30 An Inconvenient Truth

Kids Energy Play Shop 12-3

For more information

Contact Jennifer D. English ecovillage@… for further
details!

It’s not too late to be a vendor/exhibitor at the festival, we still
have a few spaces open. Please enquire with Jennifer.

Jennifer Dauksha-English
President Center for a Holistic Ecology * Development Director
Global Village Institute * Co-Director Ecovillage Training Center
Ecovillage Training Center * POB 90 * Summertown, TN 38483 * Cell
931-306-9355 * Work 931-964-4474

A peaceful mind is your most precious capital – Swami Sivananda

This peaceful event will include a prayer service, spiritual readings, music, guest speakers, and a reading of the names of Kentucky and Tennessee soldiers killed in the Iraq conflict. The public is welcome to attend.

While many of us oppose the War in Iraq, we join with Americans on both sides of the debate in sharing the same concerns for the men and women on the front lines, our soldiers serving overseas and those about to be deployed. We support our troops (that message seems universal) but not the flawed policies and politicians that have immersed them in this escalating conflict.

As this Memorial Day approaches, fatalities in Iraq are escalating rapidly and another landmark number, 3500, is quickly approaching. That number does not include fatalities in Afghanistan, or the civilian death toll in either country. At home, many returning troops and their families face both physical and psychological difficulties from extended (and multiple) deployments.

MSNBC ran a “Live Poll” Tuesday (5/22/07) which, as of 11 p.m. that evening, had 400,000 respondents. Of that number, 88% support a policy change to end the Iraq conflict along with a belief that the President had committed impeachable offenses on the road to war. Those offenses can be measured in lives lost and families torn apart by stress and grief.

Join us in our peaceful efforts to honor those who serve and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. Join us as we ask the leaders of our country to end the insanity and bring our soldiers home. Alive.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The still and motion photography of the man standing alone before a line of tanks reached international audiences practically overnight. It headlined hundreds of major newspapers and news magazines and was the lead story on countless news broadcasts around the world. In April 1998, the United States magazine TIME included the “Unknown Rebel” in its 100 most influential people of the 20th century.

* The text in this article is from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Video is by the BBC

To take part simply call President Bush at (202) 456-1111, and tell him that you demand protection for innocent civilians in Darfur who are the targets of this intolerable genocide.

Talking points

On May 1, the United States will begin its rotating one-month presidency of the U.N. Security Council. The Bush administration should use this opportunity to launch an intense multilateral diplomatic effort to achieve real protection in Darfur. Tell President Bush to:

• Ensure that the new U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, is able to deploy an effective U.N. peacekeeping force on the ground in Darfur and eastern Chad.
• Set a timeline and benchmarks for implementation of a U.N. peacekeeping force in accordance with Security Council Resolution 1706, which was passed eight months ago.
•  Provide much-needed funding for African Union and U.N. peacekeepers to protect civilians and achieve stability in the region.

Your calls make a difference!

In early February, UUSC’s Drumbeat for Darfur campaign asked you to call your representatives to cosponsor a Sudan divestment bill introduced by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). At that time, the bill had 45 cosponsors.

In the week that followed, 16 additional representatives signed on. There are now 101 cosponsors of the bill. Because of your calls, the message to take action for Darfur is reaching our policymakers!

But more than that, two technology companies — Swiss ABB and German Siemens — that were targeted in the Lee bill have since stopped their operations in Sudan: “Lee’s divestment legislation played a central role in Siemens’s and ABB’s pullouts from Sudan,” said a spokesman for Rep. Lee.

You can find out more about the campaign, by visiting http://hrdefenders.c.topica.com/maagjo5abx88uaBUph8e/, by emailing ">, or by calling 617-868-6600.

* UUSC – Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, http://www.uusc.org/