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Contributor: marl
Date: 2003-01-22 14:52:11
I do believe that the world wide demonstrations against the war on Iraq that took place on January 19, 2003 are indicative of humanity's awareness that aggression and war are obviously not in our best interests. Indeed, if the super power (U.S.), backed by other first world countries continue on this reckless path of destruction and domination the world may not survive. I find it heartening that so many people around the globe, including many Canadians demonstrated this growing awareness. Many people from all walks of life have woken up to the senseless tragedy of another unjust war and have recognized the need for the individual to speak out and make our voices heard. We cannot afford to sit back and let our governments make these decisions on their own. The talk of possible use of nuclear weapons against a largely defenseless population is not only frightening to the people of Iraq, it is shocking and should be totally unacceptable to the rest of the world. It speaks of madness and insanity. I implore our Canadian government to stand up to the bullying of the U.S. and firmly reject any involvement in an attack on the country of Iraq.
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Contributor: jeffg
Date: 2003-01-22 16:28:17
Bravo. Canadians, and more than half of Americans, realize that George Bush is a tyrant with an itchy trigger finger. He must be stopped.
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Contributor: Naios
Date: 2003-01-22 20:50:56
Why exactly is Bush a tyrant? Has he used biological agents against his own people? Has he started any wars where more than a million people have been killed? Has he sent people to bus shelters to blow themselves up? Has he systematically targeted civillians?
Has he taken taxpayers money to build himself palaces while letting his people starve?
Let's try to use the word tyrant with a little more forethought.
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Contributor: whichwaysthegym
Date: 2003-01-22 23:37:02
I totally agree. These are just people who would bash the US no matter what they do. I dont know whether it is jealousy that drives them?
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Contributor: digger
Date: 2003-01-22 23:57:13
I agree , these American bashers should crawl back under their rocks and hope the next terrorist's bomb doesn't land on them.Canada should give our unwavering support and gratitude to America, and back them fully with or without the UN's blessing. Only this, will we start to regain some of our integrity as a country that will not cower to the threat of terrorists.
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Contributor: Iceberg
Date: 2003-01-23 00:23:30
Digger, don't forget that the US tried on numerous occasions to annex Canada (or what was British North American territory at the time). It is in our nature to be, at least a little bit, suspicious of their activity.
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Contributor: craigmui
Date: 2003-01-23 05:08:11
In the many discussions I have reviewed and participated in regarding recent world events there is one very important perspective that we must all be aware of. How can you successfully engage in any negotiations without representing a strong and crediable position?
In regards to the situation in Iraq please take a moment and think for one second just how successful UN inspection teams would be in the US and UK were not massing armed forced outside of Iraq's borders. In fact you don't even have to use your imagination, just review the past 10 years and see the results. It is clear that unless the regime in Iraq feels threatened it will not respond in a positive manner. UN weapons inspectors were kicked out years ago and no action resulted so why now (without the threat of force) would Saddam simply change his mind and decide to actively engage with the UN on this issue. Clearly sanctions were not working so the next step is to threaten force.
The US has the very unenviable position of being the worlds only superpower. And as a result it falls to them to play the role of "bad cop" all the time so the "good cop" (the UN) can get the suspect (Iraq) to come clean. If the US was not beating the war drums does anyone really believe that Saddam would have let weapons inspectors back in?
We should all thank the US and it's taxpaying citizens for the commitment to PEACE they are making by flexing their muscle on this issue. Dismissing US foreign policy as "global bullying" is as shortsighted and self serving as it is just plain wrong.
Here is a link to an official Iraqi government information site http://www.uruklink.net/eindex.htm. Give it a read and you'll see that Iraq does not represent the truth in most everything they report.
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Contributor: marl
Date: 2003-01-25 10:13:59
If you check the record, the U.N. inspectors were not "kicked out" of Iraq in 1998, as you stated. They left because the U.S. and Britain were about to begin their bombing campaign. The media does such a good job in propandizing U.S. foreign policy that, unless you watch events closely, you are left with these false perceptions of what took place.
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Contributor: olympiakos7
Date: 2003-01-23 13:55:48
Canada is a multi-cultural country and need to take the helm when it comes to global politics. We need to set an example to the world as to how races of every nation can live side by side in harmony.
We need to think for ourselves. We musn't be blinded by American propaganda that were bombarded with nightly. We can no longer live in the shadow of the United states and it's war mongering tyrannical government.
Canada must take a role as the voice of reason, something that Germany, France and China have done in opposing the US and their unjust war.
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Contributor: Gordie
Date: 2003-01-23 14:01:12
Or we could stand up for ourselves as an sovereign nation that can make up its own mind democratically.
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Contributor: marl
Date: 2003-01-23 12:01:09
In response to your comments that we should support this unjust war on Iraq, I submit the following letter written by a concerned American. I challenge you to dispute these facts.
"If Americans understood our last war on Iraq, would we more strongly oppose another one? Do we know what our military does in the real world, where the Pentagon won't even take our lapdog of a press corps out for a walk?
The Gulf War's 'video game accuracy' was a lie told by the Pentagon and re-told by the media. We dropped 88,000 tons of bombs on Iraq, nearly seven times the force of Hiroshima. 93% were old-fashioned dumb bombs, mostly dropped from high altitudes. 60,000 of these were anti-personnel cluster bombs. The civil infrastructure of central and southern Iraq was devastated, resulting in years of polluted water supplies, no electricity, and criminal levels of child mortality.
We use depleted uranium (DU) to pierce armor "like butter." We left 300 tons of DU in Iraq, mostly as easily-inhaled radioactive dust. Now Iraq has skyrocketing rates of monstrous birth defects and aggressive cancers and leukemias. Though a few members of Congress tried to highlight this scandal, it remains resolutely ignored by American media. Consequently, our commitment to DU has deepened, despite its nuclear pollution of Iraq and (via NATO) the Balkans. We now proliferate these radioactive weapons around the world.
When Hussein pledged to withdraw from Kuwait, President Bush I called it a "cruel hoax." When the withdrawal began as promised, we waited until midnight, then launched a frantic, all-out air blitz to exterminate the departing Iraqi soldiers. That night we incinerated tens of thousands of Iraqis for the crime of trying to go home.
How much do we need to know to oppose more war on Iraq? We learn some very troubling things just sitting in front of the TV. We've seen news of the devastation caused by the US-sponsored sanctions. We've heard experts disagree whether the sanctions have killed hundreds of thousands, or more than a million Iraqi mothers and children. Why do these deaths, continuing today, mean so little to our hearts?
Can we maintain a sense of moral responsibility for our always-benevolent foreign policy, if we're told time and again that its fatal effects are the result of exploitation by our enemies? It's this point, where US policy connects with the real world, that is always attacked by core sources in government and media who aim to pander and propagandize. They absolve us of responsibility for a generation of dead Iraqi children by trotting out presidential palaces and rusting Scud missiles, prattling that "the sanctions wouldn't kill so many children if Saddam weren't such a monster!"
As surely as Pavlov's dogs, we take this idiotic bell as a cue to blame another US-inflicted disaster on a prescribed and suitably evil enemy. Many well-intentioned Americans have simply been unable to resist years of televised orders to hate Saddam Hussein like the Devil himself. Thus, outrageous lies about US policy are digested by a 'free people', and we hear them dutifully repeated by our neighbors, at the rare times they are required.
Our support for Israel's occupation of Palestine also requires unrelenting propaganda, but, like Iraq, key facts have leaked through. We dimly understand that Israel occupies land that is supposed to be Palestinian, maybe in the future, if it's OK with Israel. We've seen Israeli bulldozers mow down Palestinian homes, and we know the rest of the world says the occupation is illegal. We even know that our pro-Israel policy incites more terror against us.
But we don't protest, or lift a finger to protect the Palestinians, even to save our own skins. Because we've been told who to blame: "Raging" Arabs who obstinately reject the "modernity" of occupation. Stunning evidence that even the most simple-minded lies, repeated often enough on the right lips, can fatally corrupt our national discourse.
What did we know, and when did we know it? Future historians will probably decide that we knew a lot, and we knew it a long time ago. They will mark the failure of the US media as a critical blow to freedom and democracy. But unless we are exonerated as non compos mentis victims of the world's first successful mass brainwashing, history will also fault us as a people, for our chronic failure to demand respect for human rights and international law from our government.
James Brooks of Worcester, Vermont
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Contributor: jeffg
Date: 2003-03-12 18:54:09
First off, we are not bashing the United States. We are bashing its current leader, George W Bush. (Alright, his advisors, too.) Second, I don't see how jealousy is relevant - try fear.
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Contributor: cfallon
Date: 2003-03-13 15:59:36
Fear - perhaps its more like paranoia.
Jealousy is definetely part of the problem. Its one of the reasons people blame the US for problems created by their own governments: jealously acts like the lubricant which that allows despotic governments to slide their culpability to everyone's favorite scape-goat: the US.
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Contributor: fatmomma
Date: 2003-03-13 22:29:10
No jealousy here; in fact I feel sympathy for the American people. The US a scapegoat ; yeah sure .
The present American government refuses to listen to good advice. By insisting on attacking a country while it is disarming under UN weapons inspectors is very stupid and dangerous. It will only succeed in alienating other countries and bring more terrorist attacks to North America. Mr Bush seems to think He is the only authority in this world that is important.
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Contributor: cfallon
Date: 2003-03-14 14:42:46
Many Canadians, including you, criticise the US administration without being paranoid. There is a legitimate discussion here.
However, the ever-present strand of anti-americanism that exists in Canada, you must admit, is driven mostly by paranoia and a fear that we are not a real country.
I do think many governments across the world use the US as a scape-goat for their citizens suffering which is largely the fault of these governments.
Also, I think we will get more terrorist attacks regardless of what we do. That's what scares me.
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Contributor: fatmomma
Date: 2003-03-15 05:16:29
No, I strongly disagree with you. It is Mr Bush's arrogance and dismissal of any suggestions that could avoid war. He had a mandate to seek out terrorists. He bombed too many civilian targets in Afghanistan without capturing Osama bin Laden which was his target. He suddenly turned his attention to Iraq and made many assertations that have been proven false. His WMD proofs that are revealed to be fraudulent. Powell's logic to tie Iraq to the al quadi network was incredibly lacking. His insistence on war with no regard to the UN was very disturbing and arrogant. His thinly veiled threats of economic repercussions for not backing him is not in keeping with the American and Canadian respect for free speech and democracy. Most people I talk to still have faith in the American people as basically fair minded but we just do not trust this leadership. I do believe that peace in the middle east can only come from pressuring Israel and Palestine to work at resolving their differences. Israel with their US backing has become very aggressive; mimicking US speeches and refusing to obey UN resolutions.
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Contributor: cfallon
Date: 2003-03-17 13:54:22
Yes, we disagree. What suggestions have been made to avoid war?
The only suggestion I heard came from Quatar and it was a suggestion to Saddam: leave Iraq.
Also, why should any country "obey" a UN resolution when there is no incentive to do so?
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Contributor: codc01
Date: 2003-03-17 15:12:04
A timetable for disarmement. The Canadian proposition was a good proposition...
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Contributor: fatmomma
Date: 2003-03-17 22:34:40
What do you think the UN weapons inspectors were for. They were making Iraq destroy missles. Saddam and his people were cooperating. The suggestion from the majority said we should not attack Iraq as long as it was cooperating fully with the weapons inspectors and destroying and revealing any banned military assets they possessed. The majority were working to make a timetable when certain steps should be completed by. What was wrong with that solution. Bush's attacking a country that iss/or is appearing to disarm with only succeed in enraging more arabic/muslim people which will result in more terrorist attacks in North America. That is as plain as can be and why anybody doesn't realize this is beyond my comprehension
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Contributor: olympiakos7
Date: 2003-01-23 14:24:48
"Why exactly is Bush a tyrant? Has he used biological agents against his own people? Has he started any wars where more than a million people have been killed? Has he sent people to bus shelters to blow themselves up? Has he systematically targeted civillians?
Has he taken taxpayers money to build himself palaces while letting his people starve?
Let's try to use the word tyrant with a little more forethought."
Where to begin, first: those biological weapons were supplied by the US. Second: how many people did the US kill in Japan, Vietnam, Iraq, Afganistan?
Third: No the don't send people to blow themselves up, they do it by dropping daisy cutter bombs from 30,000 feet on innocent civilians
Fourth:ask the native American or the African American wheather they have been systematically targeted.
Fifth: The US has spent trillions of dollars on their millitary yet in every city in the US there are starving, homeless, desolate people.
Let's not be so easily swayed by the American propaganda machine.
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Contributor: df
Date: 2003-01-26 23:50:07
Yes, this is well-said, in my opinion. The U.S. killed somewhere between 2 and 3 million people in Vietnam without so much as an apology. It depends on arms proliferation to prop up its economy. It has played a huge role in making the world a powder keg. It is setting a new policy of initiating pre-emptive war against any perceived threat to its supremacy. It holds huge stocks of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. It is undermining civil rights the world over in the name of freedom. It has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
I'd prefer to see Canada take the role of peace advocate. I was proud, for example, of the work Canada did to attempt to ban land mines. Certainly there is plenty more to be done in this kind of direction.
Even if Hussein is a villain (he is, no doubt), Canada's participation in a war would be only symbolic. It's America that has the well-tuned killing machine. We are only forced into participation to lend legitimacy to their war-mongering.
Better to build up our trade relations with other countries so that we are not so dependent on America. Better to put our weight behind peace than war.
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Contributor: Darien
Date: 2003-01-24 12:04:38
A few numbers for you...
33 million Americans live in poverty. 41 million live without health insurance.
George W. Bush gave the righest 1% of Americans a $1.6 trillion tax cut, as 'economic stimulus'. Curiously enough, the number of unemployed persons in the country rose by 35% since he 'took' office.
The US's one-year military budget increase of $48 billion is more than the military budget of any other country. The proposed budget for 2003 is $396 billion. Renovating and upgrading every school in the US would cost $112 billion.
The government has to increase money to the military to help fight terrorism? Missile shields won't help against terrorists. Stealth planes won't help against terrorists - and for that matter, the first time the stealth bomber was ever used, it was shot down. Nuclear missiles won't help against terrorism. What will help terrorism isn't kneejerk lashing out, or cold calculated death, it's finding the roots of terrorism and solving those.
Al Gore recieved 540,000 more votes than George Bush. Hundreds of the overseas votes that were counted on his behalf in Florida violated Florida Law. He did not, by any objective mathematical calculations, win that election, but he did take power because of who he knew, and where they were, and what favours they could do for him. And favours he did, with his 'economic stimulus'. The common voter, however, gets nothing.
Bush isn't the worst person in the world, but he finagled an election he didn't win into providing him with power, and he has abused that power.
A few more numbers:
Cut $39m from federal spending on libraries.
Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50%.
Cut half a billion dollars from the EPA's budget.
Cut funding for the Community Access Program (coordinates health care for people without health insurance) bt 86%.
Cut $200m from the Childcare and Development Grant, which provides child care to low-income families so they can go to work.
Are these the actions of a tyrant? Not necessarily. But they hardly seem to be the actions of a man concerned about the security and well-being of the population, or at least, most of it. The rich will stay rich, and the poor, well, they're poor already, it can't get worse, right?
People in the US die, because they can't get good health care. They die because they don't have anywhere to go when the weather gets cold. They die because they can't get food when they need it. All the while, Bush and his ruling nobility sit on the mountain and look down upon the struggling unwashed masses, and don't seem to care. To me, that's right up there with tyranny.
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Contributor: marl
Date: 2003-01-24 14:40:29
Words from an American statesman
SWEARING-IN CEREMONY SPEECH OF U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH, SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2003
"My fellow Americans, the America I envision seeks world unity instead of unilateralism. It gains its power through being the first to help, not the first to strike. It extends itself to the peoples of the world to lift their burden. It is an America, which when asked for help, dispenses bread instead of bombs, medical assistance instead of missiles, and food instead of fissile materials.
There is a role for America in the world. It is in working with the community of nations to achieve the security of all nations. It is in restoring the promise of the Non Proliferation Treaty to lead the way to get rid of all nuclear weapons. It is in helping to assure international order. It is through strengthening and abiding by international treaties. It is in assuring control and eventual elimination of biological and chemical weapons, and landmines. It is in protecting our global climate by cooperating with the rest of the world in reducing carbon emissions. America can help protect the world. America can help save the world. But America cannot control the world, nor should we want to do so.
Yet our Administration would project American power for the purpose of domination. Their National Security doctrines call for America to strike anywhere it pleases and to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Our nation is now poised to go to all-out war against Iraq. Iraq has not committed any act of aggression against the United States. Iraq was not responsible for 911. No credible evidence exists linking Iraq to Al Queda's role in 911. Iraq was not responsible for the anthrax attack on our nation. The United Nations has yet to establish that Iraq has usable weapons of mass destruction. There is no intelligence that Iraq has the ability to strike at the United States. According to the CIA, Iraq has no intention to attack America, but will defend itself if attacked.
Why then, is our nation prepared to send three hundred thousand of our young men and women into house to house combat in the streets of Badhdad and Basra? Why is our nation prepared to spend 200 billion or more of our hard-earned tax dollars for the destruction of Iraq?
Why is our nation preparing to use the most powerful military machine in history to wage an assault against the people of Iraq, to destroy their houses and buildings, to wipe out their water and electric systems and to block their access to food and medical supplies?
There is no answer which can separate itself from oil economics, profit requirements of arms trade, or distorted notions of empire-building.
War with Iraq is wrong. But if war is prosecuted further in Iraq, we must be prepared to advance the cause of peace in this country. We must be prepared to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to march, to demand an end to the war, or to demand an end to an administration which insists on war.
It is urgent we oppose this war. It will dominate our nation's priorities. It will threaten Social Security. It will threaten Medicare. It will block a prescription drug benefit for the elderly. It will stop America from providing jobs for all, health care for all, education for all.
There are some who believe that it is unpatriotic to challenge the Administration on the war. They believe it is politically wiser to debate the economy. but how can one reasonably separate war from the budget, war from the economy, war from America's ability to meet the needs of the people of this nation?
The Administration's own top economic adviser said the war could cost up to $200 billion. Our federal budget is already close to a $200 billion deficit due to huge tax cuts for the wealthy. Remember when we had a budget surplus?
Each time the administration talks about war, fear is created and when fear goes up, the market goes down. War will mean a sharp increase in oil prices, which will hurt jobs in manufacturing and transportation. One economic study with a worst-case scenario puts the cost of an all-out war, plus long-term occupation of Iraq at $1.6 trillion.
You cannot separate war from the economy. You cannot separate war from America's future, from its role in the world and its ability to meet the needs of our own people here at home.
We need to ask the questions. Why does America have hundreds of billions to ruin the health and take the lives of innocent people in Iraq but no money to provide health care for all Americans?
Why would America spend hundreds of billions to retire Saddam Hussein, but no money to protect the retirement security of its own people?
Why does America have money to blow up bridges over the Euphrates River in Iraq, but no money to build up bridges over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland?
The path America must take is one of peace which leads to prosperity. It is one which understands that creating a structure of peace ensures that economic structures can be sound, affirmative of human needs and restorative of human values.
This is the dream of a Department of Peace which can help America take the first step towards making nonviolence an organizing principle in our society -- making the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a reality -- and working to make war itself a thing of the past. It is this ethnic of peace seeking and peace building which will cause us to take down weapons from the heavens and work to create a heaven on earth full of new possibilities.
Peace and prosperity shall be as two pillars in a newly rebuilt America which provides for the economic and social security of its own people as a cause of nationhood and for the economic and social progress of peoples of other lands as a cause of brotherhood.
This confirmation of the purpose of nation was the dream of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, and John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier. This shall continue to be our dream in the days ahead, that no matter the darkness, we shall hold up the light of America's higher purpose, which calls to us across the ages from Washington, Jefferson and Adams through Lincoln to the present day.
Our nation has always had a higher calling, despite the darkness of 911 and the official response to it. It is a calling to maintain the quest for democracy, for freedom and liberty at times of peril as well as times of peace. We can sense that higher calling. That higher calling is our heritage. The words of Francis Scott Key still echo:
"Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" In this he celebrated the link between freedom and bravery: That it takes courage to live in a democracy. It takes courage to stand up to terrorists and maintain basic liberties. It takes courage to lead the way toward global disarmament while some are bent on destruction. It takes patience to face dictators around the world and not be tempted to bomb them into submission. It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world. And it takes compassion to understand the plight of peoples world wide who themselves are trying to survive, to live out their own humble lives despite having conditions which are challenging or governments which are oppressive.
Thank you."
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Contributor: apierre
Date: 2003-03-18 10:47:56
Hi,
Please find hereunder copy of a message I received from friends in the US and which you might use for your own inspiration and/or forward to your contacts in the US.
Friendly and peaceful regards,
Alain ( from France )
---
( Part 1 of 2 )
WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN:
LOBBY WASHINGTON TO CREATE A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF PEACE.
APRIL 6-8 CONFERENCE IN D.C.
SIMULTANEOUS CALLS, FAX'S, EMAILS FROM AROUND THE NATION
At this critical time in our nation's history, righteous action is
the antidote to despair. Please participate in a powerful citizen
lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace,
sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congressman
Dennis Kucinich. This bill establishes nonviolence as an
organizing principle of American society, cultivating an array of
peace-building policies and procedures. On April 8th, this
historic legislation will be introduced for a second time;
whether or not it becomes law is dependent on whether we,
the people of the United States, take the time to make phone
calls, lobby our Congresspeople, and in other ways create the
political will to make it happen.
Please join us, either in Washington D.C. for the bill's
introduction and our initial lobbying campaign, or in your local
area, as we blanket every Congressional district with a strong
message of support for a Department of Peace.
Let us stand as passionately for peace, as some now stand so
passionately for war.
WHAT IT IS:
The Department of Peace focuses on individual and group
responsibilities for establishing nonviolence as an organizing
principle in society. The Department would focus on
nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, prevent violence and
promote justice and democratic principles to expand human
rights. Domestically, the Department would be responsible for
developing policies which address issues such as domestic
violence, child abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, and other
issues of cultural violence. Internationally, the Department
would gather research, analyze foreign policy and make
recommendations to the President on how to address the root
causes of war and intervene before as or before they begin,
while improving national security, including the protection of
human rights and the prevention and de-escalation of unarmed
and armed international conflict.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
I. COME TO THE GLOBAL RENAISSANCE ALLIANCE CONFERENCE
IN WASHINGTON D.C. ON APRIL 6-8. During our conference
we will hold seminars on Non-Violent Principles and
Civics/Lobbying Training, led by Marianne Williamson and Lynn
McMullen along with a presentation by Congressman Kucinich
on the Department of Peace legislation. In addition, we will
travel together to the Capitol to lobby our representatives. It
is particularly important that as many people as possible come
to this event in order to lobby our Congresspeople on April 8
when the bill is "dropped." There is no political act more
powerful than actually meeting with your Congressperson. Set
a meeting with you Member of Congress for April 8th. You can
visit www.renaissancealliance.org to learn more about how to
set a meeting with your representative and to register for the
conference. Web link here!
II. If you cannot come to Washington SET UP A MEETING IN
YOUR HOME DISTRICT WITH YOUR CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE on
April 8th. Recruit as many people as you can to attend this
meeting with you. Doing this, we will blanket the nation with
meetings in support of the bill, both in DC and beyond. Our
goal is a meeting with every single member of Congress or
members of their staff so we need people from every
Congressional district in the country to come forward and help.
III. GET AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO CALL, FAX AND
EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE on April 8th. Your job between
now and April 8 is to make sure that everyone has the name
and phone and fax number of their Congressperson (easy to
find...visit www.Congress.org), and to call them on April 7 to
remind them to make the call. It is a good idea for you to keep
a list of the people who have agreed to call and the needed
numbers in case they misplace the contact information.
to be continued...
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Contributor: apierre
Date: 2003-03-18 10:49:06
( Part 2 of 2 )
WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN:
LOBBY WASHINGTON TO CREATE A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF PEACE.
...
IV. PRINT FLYERS (on the GRA website at
www.renaissancealliance.org) Hand them out at Peace
marches and post them in coffee houses, universities,
churches, bus station, staff break room, everywhere you can
think of!
As soon as Congressman Kucinich "drops" the bill, we will post
its number on our website. Between now and April 8, e-mail as
many people as you can, giving them the information about
the Department of Peace lobbying effort. Ask them to help us!
Most importantly, FOLLOW UP. It is not enough to merely let
people know that the legislation is being introduced; our job is
to lobby for it, so that it passes. Congress is a reactive body,
but if our Congress people do not hear from us directly, then
there is nothing for them to react to.
Please send us an email to peace@renaissancealliance.org and
let us know you will be a DOP Activist Leader. This means you
will adopt your Member of Congress and stay with this process
for the duration of this legislative session. You will be
contacted within a week, to follow up. We will give you a new
action each month to forward the bill. On the GRA website you
will also find many additional ways in which you can participate
in your community on an ongoing basis-- to help educate,
speak up, and lobby for this important legislation.
There is much to do, to change the direction of our country.
Each of us can make a difference. The time to do it is now.
For more information on this campaign, or for general or
registration information on our peace gathering in Washington,
visit our website at www.renaissancealliance.org, email us at
peace@renaissancealliance.org or call us at (586) 754-8105.
Please help us spread the word! You can share this information
with everyone you know. If you are a part of an activist
network, please consider sharing this information. To sign-up
to receive email updates on the campaign, send a blank email
to: join-gra-enews@lists.renaissanceunity.org
Global Renaissance Alliance
P.O. Box 3259
Center Line MI 48015
Phone: (586) 754-8105
Fax: (586) 754-8106
www.renaissancealliance.org
peace@renaissancealliance.org
READ THE BILL:
Please visit our website at www.renaissancealliance.org to
read the latest draft of the proposed legislation.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE LEGISLATION
-Hold peace as an organizing principle in our society;
-Endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to
expand human rights;
-Strengthen non-military means of peacemaking;
-Work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from
armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures
in non-violent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of
conflict, and structured mediation of conflict;
-Address matters both domestic and international in scope;
-Submit to the President recommendations for reductions in
weapons of mass destruction, and make annual reports to the
President on the sale of arms from the United States to other
nations, with analysis of the impact of such sales on the
defense of the United States and how such sales effect
peace;
-Encourage the development of initiatives from local
communities, religious groups, and nongovernmental
organizations;
-Facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties
to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to
promote non-violent communication and mutually beneficial
solutions;
-Develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges
of school violence, guns, racial or ethnic violence, violence
against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations
disputes.
-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute
resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on
local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and
programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled
areas;
-Provide for the training of all United States personnel who
administer postconflict reconstruction and demobilization in
war-torn societies;
-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute
resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on
local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and
programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled
areas.
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Contributor: Justsomeguy
Date: 2003-01-28 13:29:48
You are simply using the term tyrant as spoon-fed to you by CNN and Ari Fleisher. Cluster-bombing civilians in Afghanistan and then failing to clean up the mess is tyrannical. Strong-arming the international community and stating that "you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists," is a subtle form of global tyranny.
We must remember the context in which these actions and many others take place. The United States is the most powerful country in the world's history. They don't need to drop biological weapons or blow up bus shelters to get their point across and exert their unquestionable influence. They just send John Negroponte into the UN to get their tyrannical message across. If that doesn't work, they send their troops wherever they're needed and act unilaterally. Do a bit of research and you'll see that it's true.
The weak have other ways of exerting their force, and it is much less subtle. They do not have buildings full of PR experts and press secretaries to construct a dubious facade of victimhood.
I do not defend those whom the West classifies as terrorists, but I cannot turn a blind eye to the more subversive tyranny of the White House. It is unfortunate that so many already have.
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Contributor: Jimmy_Dukes
Date: 2003-01-22 23:06:22
So the question is how do we stop this mad warmongere? should we wait till 2004 when the war is in full swing, CNN is bathing in raitings for the american people to do the right thing in an informed and democratic election?
OR?
should do we as the white house says
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Contributor: Dedee
Date: 2003-01-24 21:10:02
Alexa McDonough in her goodbye tonight said it all for me !
No War in Iraq .
No to Globilization in it's present form. NAFTA must be renegotiated or repealed. No to FTAA.
My Canada is a compassionate country,
extending a hand to 3rd worlds, who are more and more bankrupt, partly due to the World Bank and US policies that started with Betton Woods.
Our G8 voice must be stronger ..for
humanity not profit.
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