CFOW Weekend Update
March 10, 2017
Hello All – As there are many new readers on the CFOW mailing lists, let me explain that we send out a "Weekend Update" on Thursday/Friday that focuses on upcoming events and reports of peace & justice activities in our neighborhoods. And on Sunday/Monday we send out the CFOW Newsletter, which has links to news articles and analysis that (we hope) illuminate CFOW's front-burner action issues.
Moving right on to biznez, it will be way too cold to hold our weekly peace & justice vigil in Hastings tomorrow. So the vigil is CANCELLED. But for those who can't stay away, let's meet at the Hastings Center Restaurant at noon for Meaningful Conversation and Conviviality. Also this weekend, everyone is invited to our CFOW monthly meeting, on Sunday, at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society (12 Elm St.) from 7 pm (sharp) to 9 pm (sharper). At these meetings we review the events of the past month and make plans for the next one.
Here are some updates on CFOW issues and from CFOW committees:
On War & Peace – The House of Representatives has passed Trump's military budget, which now goes to the Senate. The budget includes a $55 billion increase. Sadly, Representatives Engel and Lowey voted for the budget, even though 43 Democrats voted against it. In the Senate, the militarists will be demanding an even greater increase in military spending. Will our Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand support that? – Also on the war front, the Trump team is sending more troops to Syria, while the impeachment of South Korea's president throws a monkey wrench into Trump's confrontation with North Korea.
On Immigrants and Their Rights – Trump's immigration ban 2.0 goes into effect on Thursday. Already five states have challenged the executive order, saying that is it essentially no different from the first one, which the courts have rejected. Here is an interesting article on the role that the tens of thousands of international students play and will play in challenging the ban. Needless to say, we have to keep fighting; this is the front line for resisting the totality of the Trump Agenda.
"Ban the Barges" – The week's Enterprise has a useful article about a press conference by politicians and others opposing the Coast Guard's/Maritime Industries push to establish 42 "anchorages" or parking places for oil tankers in the Hudson River, including 18 between Yonkers and Dobbs Ferry. CFOW will hold a forum or "teach-in" about the awfulness of this idea at the Hastings Community Center on Sunday afternoon, May 7th. Several speakers are already lined up. Our demands are: No Compromise! The number of anchorages for oil tankers that is acceptable in the Hudson River is ZERO. The point is to keep ALL of the oil off the river and in the ground. Did we mention global warming? Spring is arriving about three weeks early this year, the earliest in North America since records have been kept.
The next meeting of the CFOW Healthcare Committee will be on Thursday, March 23rd, at the Hastings Library at 7 p.m. Our focus is on "Single Payer" or "Improved Medicare for All." The importance of healthcare reform is underscored this week by the Republicans' introduction of their revisions to Obama's Affordable Care Act. A fair-and-balanced column by The New York Times' Paul Krugman describes it as "A Bill So Bad its Awesome." If you're keeping score at home, stalwart Betsy Todd suggests the use of this congressional fact checker. If you would like to get involved in the Healthcare Committee and/or the fight for "Medicare for All" in New York State (and the USA), please send a return email.
What once seemed a pretty simple and straightforward way to oppose Israel's 50-year occupation of lands acquired in the 1967 war – and regarded for many years as the homeland of a future Palestine state – has gotten extremely complicated. Advocating "boycott, divestment, and sanctions" is now legally penalized in two dozen US states, including New York. State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins was among those who last week voted for legislation confirming Cuomo's executive order. And next Monday the Westchester Democrats in the County Legislature are considering a similar piece of legislation, one that includes an "I-never-did-and-never-will-support-BDS" clause in all purchase orders. (!) (To preemptively protest this Bill, call your legislator using this directory.) Not to be outdone, last week Israel's Knesset passed a law that forbids entry into Israel – by Jews or not-Jews – if the person has "supported BDS." The New York Times has some harsh words about this crackpot idea. I've linked below an interesting essay about Israel's new legislation from Ms. co-founder Letty Cottin Pogrebin.
Calendar of Coming Attractions
Saturday, March 11th – The Indian Point Safe Energy Committee will commemorate the ongoing disaster at Fukushima with their annual peace walk to Indian Point (beginning at 10am) followed by Fukushima Remembrance and Potluck dinner at the Peekskill Presbyterian Church, 705 South Street in Peekskill, NY. The program begins at 1:30pm and will feature eyewitnesses with updates on conditions in Japan, an independent nuclear expert, poetry about Fukushima, music and reflection. For more information, go here and read the event's Facebook page also.
Sunday, March 12th – The Lower Hudson Valley Progressive Action Network (LHVPAN) will hold a community meeting at the Yonkers Riverfront Library, 1 Larkin Center, in Yonkers from 12:30 to 4:30. To learn more about the event and to register to attend, go to their event page here.
Monday, March 13th – Another "Justice Monday" event, sponsored by the Westchester Social Justice Committee, will be held in White Plains at the Renaissance Plaza fountain (Marmaroneck Ave. and Main St.) from 12 to 1 pm. Legislator Catherine Borgia will provide an important update on changes made to strengthen the Westchester Board of Legislators Immigrant Protection Bill. Legislator Catherine Parker will speak about the County Human Rights Commission's inadequate response to the increase in bias acts in our area. Chuck Bell of WESPAC will speak about Congress' current efforts to rush to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Members of the community will be invited to speak for 1 minute about how the Affordable Care Act has impacted them and what repeal would mean to them. (CFOW is a member of the WSJC, "a network of organizations working collaboratively to push back on a political agenda that propagates bigotry, racism, misogyny, and oppression.)
Tuesday, March 14th - Community Voices Heard, Westchester for Change, and Indivisible Westchester invite us to join in learning organizing skills to transform communities. Juanita Lewis, Hudson Valley Organizing Director of Community Voices Heard, and Stephanie Low, Consultant and Trainer with the National Coalition Building Institute (NCBI), will train us in resisting bigotry, racism, misogyny and other forms of oppression. Dominant Narrative, Power, Self-Interest and One to One meetings will be the focus of the workshop. The training will be held at the Yonkers Riverfront Library, 1 Larkin Center, in Yonkers, from 6 to 9 pm (5:30 for pizza). RSVP (required) at westchester4change@gmail.com.
Thursday, March 16th – CFOW is a member of the Westchester Coalition Against Islamophobia (WCAI). WCAI will hold its monthly meeting at the Ethical Culture Society of Westchester, 7 Saxon Wood Rd. in White Plains at 7:30 p.m. For more information, email wcai@socialjusticepartners.net. Needless to say, the WCAI has an important mission and a busy agenda, and could use your help.
Saturday, March 18th – The MLK Institute for Nonviolence is offering a workshop called "Introduction to Active Nonviolence." It will take place at the First Baptist Church in White Plains from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. They write: "The workshop will feature co-facilitators Jill Sternberg and Rev. Doris K. Dalton. Jill Sternberg is a seasoned peace activist and international facilitator in active nonviolence, mediation and conflict resolution. Rev. Dalton is the Executive Director for the MLK Institute, and leads others to explore the possibilities of living nonviolently." The cost of participation is $20, with lower rates for students and the unemployed. For more information and to RSVP (a must), go here.
Friday, March 24th – There will be a screening of four short film segments from The Hudson: A River at Risk at the James Harmon Community Center, 44 Main St., starting at 6:30 pm. Filmmaker Jon Bowermaster will lead a community conversation on the proposed and current uses of the Hudson as a fossil fuel conduit, including the barges, pipelines and "bomb trains" along with representatives from Scenic Hudson and Riverkeeper. The event is free
Sunday, March 26th – Hastings RISE ("Racial Inclusion and Social Equality"), a new organization that recently held an important rally in Hastings against "white supremacist" posters targeting young people, will hold its first big meeting at the Hastings library at 1:30 p.m. The goal of the meeting is to start subcommittees and generate action. You can sign up for their Facebook page here.
More Things to Do!
Our friends at Food and Water Watch are circulating a sign-on letter to Congress, calling on political leaders to "Resist Extreme Attacks on Our Environment. The letter urges congressional representatives to "actively resist all effort to defund the EPA, eliminate or reduce its enforcement capabilities, or weaken our bedrock environmental laws and regulations." Furthermore, "rather than weakening the EPA and environmental protections, we should be be strengthening rules to protect communities from the impacts of factory farms, fossil fuel production and use, other sources and working to ensure all people have access to clean water, safe food, and a livable climate" Both individuals and organizations can sign this letter. For the complete document, and to sign on, go here.
Legislation requiring a picture ID for voter registration is quietly "pending" in Albany. Usually promoted as a move to protect voter fraud, this is actually an effective technique of voter suppression, as many people don't have a driver's license, etc., and obtaining an alternative form of ID can be expensive. I don't know much about this legislation, but it alive in both the Assembly and the Senate, and one of its sponsors is from Westchester, State Sen. Terence Murphy (914-962-2624; he wants to hear from you.). Basic information about the Bill and why it is bad can be found in this fact sheet from the American Civil Liberties Union. (Thanks to KW).
Rewards!
This week's rewards for readers-all-the-way-to-here are some modern dating tips from America's sweetheart, Norah Jones. First up is her ballad "Happy Pills." And to reinforce the basic message, here is her family-friendly "Miriam." Enjoy!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
SOME GOOD/USEFUL WEEKEND READING
Am I Too Dangerous to Enter Israel?
By Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Haaretz [Israel] [March 9, 2017]
[FB – As she tells us in this essay, Letty Cottin Pogrebin has done a great many things; but she may be best known in the USA as a founder of MS Magazine.]
---- Okay, yes, I've written critical articles and signed Open Letters protesting Israel's occupation of the West Bank and decrying the settlement enterprise; and yes, I've been a member of Americans for Peace Now for more than 30 years and a supporter of B'Tselem, Human Rights Watch, ACRI, and the New Israel Fund, among other "suspect" organizations. So it's a safe bet that, under the new Israeli entry ban, I'm going to end up on the government's blacklist. But if they're going to ban me, I think they ought to know a few other facts about the American Jewish woman they've judged too dangerous to step foot beyond the security gate at Ben Gurion airport. [Read More]
No More Saturday Marches
By Nelson Lichtenstein, Jacobin Magazine [March 2017]
[FB – Nelson Lictenstein is a preeminent historian of the American labor movement.]
---- What is the meaning of a strike, demonstration, or protest march? Is it designed to register a vast outpouring of sentiment, as was so magnificently demonstrated in the women's marches and assemblies held all across the country the day after Trump's inaugural? Or are these protests really more like a political strike, designed to show that many workplaces (indeed, the entire functioning of a complex society), will be crippled, at least for a day, when both immigrants and those who support them don't show up at work? That was the message put forward on Thursday, February 16 when thousands of workers shut down hundreds of restaurants, warehouses, retail shops, and garages in a work stoppage and boycott labeled "A Day Without Immigrants." [Read More]
The Surge Delusion: An Iraq War Anniversary to Forget
By Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch [March 2017]
By Danny Sjursen, Tom Dispatch [March 2017]
[FB – This is the tenth anniversary of "the surge," a sharp spike in the number of US troops in Iraq in 2007 that has often been claimed to be a "success" in the otherwise disastrous war. – There is a large literature out there that shows it was no such thing, that the violence in Iraq diminished not because US troops had been sent to Baghdad and other cities, but because the "religious cleansing" – separating Shiite from Sunni neighborhoods – had been accomplished; there was no one left to kill. Nevertheless, the myth of "the surge" persists, available anytime a politician or a military leader wants to talk up a troop increase. – Maj. Danny Sjursen was a young soldier during "the surge," and later was a history instructor at West Point.]
---- The real question no surge cheerleaders publicly asked (or ask to this day) was whether an invading foreign entity was even capable of imposing an inclusive political settlement there. To assume that the United States could have done so smacks of a faith-based as opposed to reality-based worldview -- another version of a deep and abiding belief in American exceptionalism. … there's something ominous about seeing Generals H.R. McMaster, James Mattis, and John Kelly, all holdovers of sorts from the surge generation, take key positions in Donald Trump's administration where they will once again face surge-like issues and dilemmas in the Greater Middle East. The question is: Has their thinking on such problems developed since the surge era? [Read More]
