From Buffalo to NYC

I want to let Dutchess Peace people know about our participation in the march from Buffalo to NYC. Friday evening I attended the potluck at the UU Congregation in Kingston. The marchers were a very spiritual group, mostly Buddhists from Japan, but many Americans and at least two Europeans, one from France and one from Germany. There was also a Native American who offered prayers in his language. They started with prayers and talked a little about their journey; then we ate a simple meal of grains and vegetables (fortunately I had brought broccoli with noodles). During the meal it was mentioned that a support car was needed Saturday afternoon to transport supplies and people who had trouble walking (there was a 68-year-old Japanese man on crutches, who actually did walk part of the way). I volunteered to drive the support car. The group spent the night at the UU congregation, and I went home.

Karen and I met the group in West Park at about noon today, where they had stopped to have lunch at the home of a friend of the leader, a Buddhist nun who is Japanese but lives in Grafton, NY. Again, prayers -- joyous ones because our hostess is recovering from cancer -- then the meal. After lunch Karen walked with the group and I drove the car, with one young woman who had recently arrived from Japan and had been in an auto accident, and besides was jetlagged and tired. After a couple of miles I stopped the car to see if anyone else wanted to ride, or needed a drink. Karen took over the driving, and the man on crutches got in the car. I walked to rest of the way to Highland, about four miles, and Karl joined us along the way, so there were three Dutchess Peace (and UUFP) members on the walk.

When we arrived in Highland, members of the United Methodist Church on Vineyard Avenue were our hosts, and served a dinner of pizza and salad, along with other vegetables cooked by the marchers. After a delightful dinner, Karen and I drove Karl back to his car, and the French marcher came along so Karl could take him back to a place along the route where he thought he lost his knife. I hope he found it.

There are a lot of details I left out; maybe Karen can fill them in for you. But it was a very moving experience, marching with these deeply spiritual people who played drums and chanted as they walked. There was a lot of horn honking from cars as they passed; I think all, or at least most, were approving. The group also gave peace cranes to all of us, as well as handmade peace buttons. It was a beautiful experience. I hope more of you will join us in New York next Sunday!

Peace,
Pat

Poughkeepsie Journal on Rachel Corrie play

Play ignites political passions

Edward Meisel • March 25, 2010

Several weeks ago I was driving home from work very early in the morning and listening to the BBC World Service on the radio. The news reporter began discussing a civil action that was being launched against the Israeli defense ministry by the parents of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen who was killed while protesting the bulldozing of Palestinian homes in the Gaza town of Rafah.

What was intended to be a nonviolent protest on the part of Corrie resulted in her death when an armored bulldozer crushed her. A swell of controversy followed the incident — one side believing the driver was effectively given orders to proceed despite the protesters, the other maintaining that Corrie was not visible to the driver and furthermore had no business being on what had been designated a closed military compound.

With the early rays of the daylight breaking over the Hudson River, I found it hard for some reason to take sides. As I drove across the Mid-Hudson Bridge and home to my family, all I could think was — what a sad waste of a life. Did this young woman know she was going to die? Why didn't she scurry out of the way? Was her cause worth the wasted potential of her life unlived? At that moment I felt both sad and angry and very confused. Were her actions heroic or foolish?

Corrie's story seems to affect many people that way.

Actor Alan Rickman and journalist Katharine Viner combined and edited Corrie's own journals, letters and e-mails to create a one- woman play titled "My Name Is Rachel Corrie." The play was first staged in London in April 2005 and was met with great success. Political fireworks began, however, when the same company attempted to stage a New York production a year later. The production was postponed "indefinitely" with insinuations either implied or inferred that the political content could impede funding of the nonprofit New York Theatre Workshop at which it was to be staged.

It seems Corrie's views, expressed in her own words, are emotional and gripping to some and naive propaganda to others. The play has since appeared in New York as well as venues throughout the world. But it still seems to have a reputation of being booked and then canceled due to controversy — something very unique in our modern and "enlightened" age of theater.


IF YOU GO
What: "My Name is Rachel Corrie," starring Courtney Day Nassar; sponsored by Dutchess Peace Coalition, Grassroots Alliance for Alternative Politics and Middle East Crisis Response

When: 8 p.m. March 26

Where: Rockefeller Hall, Room 200, Vassar College, 124 Raymond Ave., Poughkeepsie

Admission: $10 suggested donation; free for students with ID

Information: Call 845-679-3299

My Name is Rachel Corrie performed at Vassar College

First picture is of Courtney with Sam, the artist who made the great banner.

Second picture is Paul introducing the play to a packed house at Vassar College.

Courtney got a standing ovation for her wonderful performance. She also led an interesting question and answer session at the end of the play. 

The room's capacity was 135, and almost every seat was taken. There were also lots of new faces, with many more community members than students.

(On March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death by an Israeli Army bulldozer in Gaza as she tried to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home. "My Name Is Rachel Corrie" recounts the young woman's life from journal entries, letters, and e-mails she left behind. Courtney Day Nassar has performed this one-woman show at many locations including the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre, Villanova University and the University of Pittsburgh. "In terms of other productions, having seen the New York production, I can say that Courtney inhabits the role with such passion and conviction it can be almost overwhelming." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) 

History of the Dutchess Peace Coalition

THE DUTCHESS PEACE COALITION

By Pat Lamanna

The Dutchess Peace Coalition was founded early in 2003 by a group of Dutchess County citizens concerned that the United States was preparing to invade Iraq, a country that had had no part in the September 11 attacks and was not a known threat to U.S. security.  The people who assembled at that first meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Poughkeepsie represented a variety of political parties, religious institutions, and other organizations; hence the name “Coalition.”  However, in a short time the members of the group found that more and more they were acting solely as concerned citizens and not as representatives of a group, so we more often nowadays refer to our group simply as “Dutchess Peace.” 

Our hope, which now seems naïve and quaint, was that if a large enough number of outraged individuals across the country organized and participated in massive demonstrations, the planned invasion of Iraq would not occur.  As you know, the invasion began shortly after the founding of the Dutchess Peace Coalition.  This made our mission – to forestall the invasion of Iraq – moot, and we weren’t sure at first where to go from there.  We decided to continue meeting and to continue to protest the actions of the Bush Administration, which seemed both appalling and inconceivable at the time.    We joined in actions in New York City and Washington, D.C., and locally began a campaign to inform the public about the hastily-passed U.S.A. Patriot Act.  We joined a national organization, the Bill of Rights Defense Council, and participated in a number of Fourth of July and town parades at which we handed out literature with the provisions of the Act.  We  built an eye-catching “float” with the salient Articles of the Bill of Rights attacked in the Patriot Act painted in red, white and blue.  Some of us dressed as the Statue of Liberty or Uncle Sam and rode the float.   We almost got the Dutchess County Legislature to pass a resolution asking Congress to consider repealing those portions of the Patriot Act that violated rights and liberties outlined in the Constitution.

At some point, we made the decision that with the name “Dutchess Peace Coalition” we should return to our original mission: to promote peace.   Though we continued to work to protect civil liberties, we began to focus more on ending the war in Iraq and the conditions that brought it about.    At that time, we started showing or co-sponsoring movie screenings, such as “Uncovered: the True Story Behind the Iraq War” at the UU Fellowship, and “Dr. Strangelove” at the Upstate Cinema in Rhinebeck.   The March 20, 2004 march in New York City commemorating the first anniversary of the invasion of Iraq had huge representation from Dutchess County – Metro North added a whole train, which we dubbed the “Peace Train,” to accommodate the overflow. 

Over the years, we have continued some of our earlier activities, such as tabling at many community events (the Arlington Street Fair, the Beacon Strawberry, Corn and Pumpkin Festivals, and more); showing a wide variety of antiwar films; and participating in various larger demonstrations in Kingston, New York City, and Washington.  We’ve handed out anti-recruitment flyers at Poughkeepsie and Beacon High Schools. 

We discovered a book of poetry by prisoners of Guantanamo, and put together a creative and moving presentation in which members of our group, clad in orange jump suits and black hoods, read their poems and told their stories at poetry coffeehouses in the area.  We are currently working on a similar creative project involving dramatic readings on the subject of Israel and Palestine.

You’ll find video, photos and a great deal of information about the organization at our web site, www.dutchesspeace.org, which is ably mastered by Fred Nagel.

This organization has had meetings where only two people attended; the maximum at any one meeting was probably no more than a dozen.  People have come and gone; only two remain of those who attended the first meeting.  Yet, it is remarkable how much this “small group of thoughtful, committed citizens” has accomplished in the few years it has been around.  Indeed, as Margaret Mead noted, it’s the only thing that ever has.

We welcome new members or anyone who would like to check us out and learn more about us.  We meet at 7:00 p.m. on the first Monday of every month, at the UU Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, 67 South Randolph Avenue.  For more information, email Pat Lamanna at patla@hvc.rr.com or check out the web site, www.dutchesspeace.org.

Pot Luck for Raed Rakeen for Dec. 4, 2009

Meet Bard College student Raed Rakeen of the Iraqi Student Project (ISP), eat food, and participate in a silent auction and raffle to benefit the ISP.

Location:
Unitarian Fellowship
67 South Randolph Ave
Poughkeespie, NY 12604
(Two blocks south after turning off Hooker Ave)
http://UUPuupok.org
Click for map and directions:
maps.google.com...

Contact: 845 876-7906, or via the email address below.

Sponsored by:

The Iraqi Student Project board of trustees. "The Iraqi Student Project (ISP) is a grass-roots effort to help young people who have studied in Iraq acquire the education they need to participate in rebuilding their country. To this end, ISP seeks the help of American colleges to offer these students that which the United States does very well: excellent undergraduate education."

Social Justice Committee of the Poughkeepsie UU

The Coming of Age Class of the Poughkeepsie UU

Dutchess Peace Coalition - http://DutchessPeace.org

At our last movie, we added audience pictures to the Code Pink quilt project. The sign reads: "I will not raise my children to kill another mother's child."

Diane's Trip to Syria

Iraqi refugees live life of desperation

By Diane Sommer • April 12, 2009

A dark brown scarf is wrapped around Baneen's head and neck to hide the scar on her throat. But there is nothing that can mask the torment and pain imprinted on her dark eyes, eyes that have witnessed atrocities most people cannot comprehend.
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I traveled to Damascus, Syria in November 2008 with activist documentary filmmaker Andrew Courtney to assist in finishing a film project he started in June 2008 concerning the estimated one to 1.4 million Iraqi refugees living in Damascus. We revisited several Iraqi refugee families he had documented to find out if anything had changed with their living conditions or resettlement status. I was most touched by the story of 12-year-old Baneen, her parents and her six siblings.

Baneen's family has been traumatized by many encounters of extreme violence inflicted by the militia in Iraq. Her mother Nahida is Sunni; her father Abdul is Shia. Before the U.S. occupation, they lived comfortably in a middle-class neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq's capital, where Sunni, Shia and Christians lived peacefully. Nahida was a member of the Ba'ath party, of which Saddam Hussein was a leading member. In December 2003, after the U.S. invasion, Saddam was captured by U.S. forces, leaving Iraq without a leader. Groups that had been repressed under his thumb came out in droves to assert their revenge.
Horrific experience

In 2006 masked people with guns opened fire on Nahida's home and kidnapped her for 10 days, saying she was a Saddam element and a criminal. Gunmen shot out the lock on the front door. When her oldest son tried to stop them, they beheaded him and threw his head onto his younger brother's lap.

Ten-year-old Baneen was attending primary school in Baghdad at the time. One day the militia invaded her school and forced the school director to hand 12 children over to them. Baneen was one of the children. They were forced onto a bus, where all were beheaded - except for Baneen. She watched in horror as one of the men began to cut her neck. But someone had informed U.S. soldiers, who then followed the vehicle and Baneen was quickly thrown out. She was taken to a nearby U.S. military base for treatment.

In an ultimate act of violence, Baneen's family's house was raided and blown up - everything was destroyed. With financial help from friends, the family fled to Syria on a bus and have been living in a tiny apartment in Damascus for the past three years.
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Refugees are not allowed to work, yet they must still find a way to pay for food and rent. This leads to a plethora of problems, including lack of education for children, prostitution, malnutrition and homelessness.

Hope endures

The day I met Baneen, she wore a T-shirt with a message written in English: "Happy World." Although dreadful memories and fearful images must flood her mind daily, Baneen said she will never give up hope for a peaceful world. Some day she just might become a powerful leader in the peace movement. I made a promise to Baneen and all of the refugees I met, to share their personal stories of despair and courage with Americans.

Millions of Iraqis have been targeted because of their religion, profession, ethnicity, or simply because they worked with Americans in some capacity. Mainstream media in the U.S. do not give due coverage to the victims of war crimes. It would inundate the news and arouse the public. The campaign of deceit that was designed to sell the Iraq war was the first of a series of war crimes and crimes against humanity by George W. Bush and his administration. Now it is up to us, the people, to prosecute the George W. Bush/ Dick Cheney administration in order to restore justice. There is no statute of limitations for war crimes.

Diane Sommer lives in LaGrangeville and is a writer, artist, social activist and the mother of two children.