More links to activism 2

[Brian]

Roots Action started a petition last Thursday with The Nation's logo asking the President and Congress to reduce military spending.  This is the first time I've seen the magazine associated with an online action.  Sure enough, there's a box you can uncheck at the bottom of the petition if you do not want to be added to The Nation's list.  The 26,345th signature is mine:

act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=9461

[Jeanne]

26,393 for me.

Thanks for the link.

[Sharon W]

Bill was 26,437 and I was 26,439.

[Brian]

One guy is serving time in prison because of U.S. torture -- and he was a whistleblower, not someone who approved the waterboarding.  You've probably read about former CIA officer John Kiriakou since he told us the truth in 2007.  On Tuesday, CODEPINK put up this petition to the Bureau of Prisons, asking that he be allowed to move into a halfway house for the rest of his 30-month term:

codepink.salsalabs.com/o/424/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=7203

[Brian]

Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy started a petition asking all of Congress and President Obama to support a House bill to require an annual report on the victims of drone strikes, retroactive for five years.  Our Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat, and Republican Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, who's been wonderful on peace issues for a decade -- Roberta's daughter is one of his constituents -- are the bill's co-sponsors.  MoveOn is hosting the petition:

petitions.moveon.org/sign/congress-require-public?source=c.tw&r_by=1135580

[Brian]

Continuing this week's theme on the message board about mothers:  The Peace Alliance just unveiled its 10th annual Mother's Day Campaign, which organizes visits to Congressional district offices during the second week of May to deliver pies with the message, "peace deserves a piece of the pie."  Here's the Tips and Tools webpage:

peacealliance.org/mothers-day-pie-campaign-tips-and-tools/

I've long been a supporter of the Peace Alliance and its legislative goals -- the establishment of a Department of Peacebuilding and the passage of the Youth PROMISE Act.  At the same time, I've always wondered how the pies are received in this era of homeland security.  Do the staffers eat the pies, do they have to throw them out or do they send them to some federal lab?  Maybe the pies are just meant to be symbolic.  If that's so, what kind of pie would you buy or bake for our Rep. Adam Schiff?

[Jeanne]

One more thing. Peace Alliance had a link on Facebook a few days ago referring to Sam Daley-Harris as their mentor/consultant. He is the author of our recent book selection for RAPP. The book is called Reclaiming Our Democracy and has a plethora of detailed anecdotes about how ordinary people find courage to become activists and to shape legislation and policy. They did a lot to reduce deaths from starvation and disease in the world. He does point out that many, many more people die from hunger and hunger related diseases every day than die from war.If anyone would like to borrow my copy of the book, you are welcome to it. It is not great literature, but it has some useful guidelines for activism in it. I see the practices used in the book as a viable challenge to Citizens United, because it is very low cost effective lobbying.

[Brian]

Apr 19, 2014 22:05:26 GMT -8 Jeanne said:

Peace Alliance had a link on Facebook a few days ago referring to Sam Daley-Harris as their mentor/consultant. He is the author of our recent book selection for RAPP. The book is called Reclaiming Our Democracy and has a plethora of detailed anecdotes about how ordinary people find courage to become activists and to shape legislation and policy. They did a lot to reduce deaths from starvation and disease in the world. He does point out that many, many more people die from hunger and hunger related diseases every day than die from war.

I've always been haunted by something George McGovern said as the last speaker at a tribute to him in Washington that was shown on C-SPAN a few years before he died.  After decades of working for peace, he realized that humans would probably never abandon war, but we could end world hunger.  I won't stop coming to the corner until all U.S. troops are home from Afghanistan, but I want to do more about the roots of poverty, starting locally.

As a member of the Peace Alliance, I know about Sam Daley-Harris.  The book RAPP members read was probably the 20th anniversary edition, with proof of activism working.  This is Sam's official website:

www.reclaimingourdemocracy.com/

[Jeanne]

Apr 20, 2014 23:00:17 GMT -8 Brian said:

Apr 19, 2014 22:05:26 GMT -8 Jeanne said:

Peace Alliance had a link on Facebook a few days ago referring to Sam Daley-Harris as their mentor/consultant. He is the author of our recent book selection for RAPP. The book is called Reclaiming Our Democracy and has a plethora of detailed anecdotes about how ordinary people find courage to become activists and to shape legislation and policy. They did a lot to reduce deaths from starvation and disease in the world. He does point out that many, many more people die from hunger and hunger related diseases every day than die from war.

I've always been haunted by something George McGovern said as the last speaker at a tribute to him in Washington that was shown on C-SPAN a few years before he died.  After decades of working for peace, he realized that humans would probably never abandon war, but we could end world hunger.  I won't stop coming to the corner until all U.S. troops are home from Afghanistan, but I want to do more about the roots of poverty, starting locally.

As a member of the Peace Alliance, I know about Sam Daley-Harris.  The book RAPP members read was probably the 20th anniversary edition, with proof of activism working.  This is Sam's official website:

www.reclaimingourdemocracy.com/

Thanks for the link, Brian. Halfway through the interview with Patricia Gras, I've heard the gist of his book, which is, as you say, the 20th Anniversary Edition of Reclaiming Democracy. I am glad that you are moved to work on this. I'm with you.

[Roberta]

I've added the Marshall Islands to my want-to-travel-to list!!

Big news today out of The Hague and San Francisco. The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) has filed unprecedented lawsuits against all nine nuclear-armed nations for their failure to negotiate in good faith for nuclear disarmament, as required under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

NAPF is playing a key role in the Nuclear Zero Lawsuits campaign, which just launched this morning. Please go to www.nuclearzero.org, where you can learn more about the specifics of the lawsuits and show your support by signing a petition supporting the RMI's bold, non-violent action.

We'll be bringing you much more news about these lawsuits in the coming days and weeks. But right now, there are two things I'd like for you to do:

1. Go to nuclearzero.org and sign the petition, and then share it with your friends.

2. Share / re-tweet announcements about the lawsuits from our Facebook and Twitter pages.