CFOW Weekend Update
April 6, 2017
Hello Stalwarts – We have another busy weekend ahead of us. On Saturday, instead of our usual vigil in Hastings, the CFOW Healthcare Committee will hold a rally in support of "Improved Medicare for All" or "Single-Payer Health Insurance." – This is part of a "National Day of Action" sponsored by about 20 healthcare-focused organizations that are advocating a "single-payer" healthcare program. NB – the rally starts at 11:00 a.m. at the VFW Plaza. We need the help of many people to pull this off – sign holding, leafleting, literature table, etc. – so please come 15 minutes early if you can.
ALSO, we are short of speakers. In addition to a few real speeches, we plan to have an "open mic" to allow people to speak from their own experience about why "Improved Medicare for All" is important to them. However, medical people seem to be shy about speaking in public; so if you can step up and speak from the heart for a few minutes about this issue, it would be a boost to the rally. Please consider it; and please send a return email if you will speak. Thanks!
And on Sunday we have our CFOW monthly meeting! As usual, we'll be at the Dobbs Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, starting at 7 pm and ending promptly at 9 pm. In addition to a review of our recent and current activity, there are several events coming up for us to discuss.
ALSO, several people have suggested that it would make our meetings more interesting if we had a chance for some good discussion. One topic on my mind (and see below) is the escalation of our several wars, the possibility of serious warfighting in Syria and/or North Korea, and the general lack of interest in opposition to war on the part of the newly mobilized anti-Trump Resistance. How can we change this? What are the barriers that prevent people from thinking/acting about war when they are mobilized to think and act about other parts of the Trump Agenda? Thoughts about this, or suggestions for other topics for discussion at our meeting? Please send a return email. Thanks.
An issue of great concern
With barely a pause for breath, the mainstream media and political/military elite opinion has generated immense pressure on President Trump to "take action" against Syria for their alleged responsibility for the chemical attack against civilians a few days ago. – As the article linked below by V. J. Prashad argues, a thorough investigation re: responsibility should be conducted before Trump takes military action. – We have been here before: in August 2013 a chemical attack was similarly ascribed to Syria's President Assad, and we were within hours of a US bombing campaign against Syria before Russia proposed, and the United States accepted, a deal by which Syria would rid itself "voluntarily" of its chemical weapons stockpiles. Months later, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh published an article in The London Review of Books [publication in the United States proved impossible] that called the official account into question, and provided lots of evidence that the attack was the responsibility of the anti-Assad Islamic rebels. – While the question of responsibility for the 2013 chemical attack remains controversial, the controversy is a reminder that an investigation of responsibility should be completed before any other measures are taken.
As V. J. Prashad points out in his article linked below, for the Syrian government to launch a chemical attack on civilians – an attack with zero military significance – makes no sense, especially at this moment. Just days after leading foreign policy figures in the Trump administration, including the president himself, were announcing that the United States no longer considered regime change in Syria to be its objective – rather, the objective was combating ISIS, etc. – why would Syria take the one step that would snatch great danger from the jaws of (to the Assad government) "victory"? Common sense suggests that the actions of those entities that have a clear interest in continuing the war against Syria/Assad should be thoroughly examined, as well as the actions of Syria itself. But will the US political climate allow this to happen? I am not optimistic.
Enough for today. See you Saturday!
Best wishes,
Frank Brodhead
For CFOW
478-3848
Coming Attractions
Saturday, April 8th – CFOW and its new Healthcare Committee will sponsor a rally in Hastings, at the VFW Plaza, in support of "Improved Medicare for All," or "Single-Payer." The rally will begin at 11 a.m. and will focus on legislation now pending in Albany. Please join us!
Sunday, April 9th – The next CFOW monthly meeting will be held at the Dobbs Ferry Historical Society, 12 Elm St. in Dobbs, for 7 to 9 p.m. Wall-to-wall excitement; don't miss it!
Monday, April 10th – This week's "Justice Monday" will focus on the lack of affordable housing in Westchester. Sponsored by "the Westchester Social Justice Community" (of which CFOW is a member), the rally will be held from 12 to 1 pm at the Renaissance Plaza in White Plains (Main St. and Mamaroneck Ave.). – For more information, go here.
Wednesday, April 12th – The CFOW Election Integrity group will meet at the Hastings Community Center (lower level) starting at 7 p.m. (NB this is a change of date from 4/19 – for more info and to double check on the starting time, contact Allegra Dengler at allegrad@aol.com.)
Thursday, April 13th – The CFOW Healthcare group will meet at the Hastings Community Center (lower level) at 7 p.m. On the agenda will be furthering cause of "Improved Medicare for All," with legislation pending in both Congress and the state legislature in Albany.
Monday, April 17th – CFOW will be the organizing group for this week's "Justice Monday," with a focus on war and the cost of our wars, just two days before people pay their income tax (60% going to war). Justice Monday events take place in White Plains from 12 to 1 pm at the fountain at Renaissance Plaza, at the corner of Mamaroneck Ave. and Main St. If you can help organize this event, and/or if you need a ride or can offer a ride, please send a return email.
Saturday, April 29th – Hundreds of thousands of people will be in Washington, DC for the Peoples Climate March. As the world rockets toward self-destruction and the Trump Agenda eliminates the few feeble protections set up by the Obama administration against global warming and climate change, humanity is on our own to save our civilization. To learn about the Climate March, go here. To get a seat on a Climate March bus leaving Hastings Saturday morning, email Tara Herman (Indivisible CD16) at taraherman@mac.com , and she will send you a reservation link and more information. The cost of the bus is $57.87 per person. There is also a bus from North White Plains. And plans are developing for rallies in both NYC (Washington Square Park) and White Plains (Renaissance Plaza, 11 a.m. to 12 noon).
Saturday, May 6th – The 6th annual "River Sweep" – organized by the Riverkeeper – will include 90 cleanups and tree planting projects from NYC to Albany. Last year, Over 2,200 volunteers removed 49 tons of debris from the Hudson River Estuary. To learn more, and to get hooked up with local projects in Yonkers, Hastings, Dobbs, Irvington, etc., go here.
Saturday, May 20th – CFOW will be one of the organizations participating in the Westchester Social Forum, at the New Rochelle High School, starting at 10 a.m. For more information, go here.
Saturday, June 3rd – CFOW will once again lead off the River Arts Music Tour. As those with working memories will recall, for the last two years we kicked off the Music Tour in Hastings with some peace and justice songs, starting at 12 and going to 1 pm, under the leadership/direction of Jenny Murphy. So we're signed up for this again. Please start vocalizing and get ready to join our Stalwart Chorus.
SOME USEFUL/INTERESTING WEEKEND READING
Is Trump Going to Commit the Next Great American Catastrophe in Syria?
By Vijay Prashad, AlterNet [April 5, 2017]
---- [Recently,] the administration of Donald Trump said plainly what had been clear since the Russian intervention of September 2015: that regime change in Damascus was off the table. This had been the policy of the Obama administration for the past two years, but it did not directly say so. Trump's people acknowledged reality: with Russia and Iran in the picture, removal of Assad would take a fierce international conflict far greater than the tragedy that has befallen Syria. With Turkey now drifting towards the Russian-Iranian narrative and Jordan dragged into chaos by the refugee crisis, easy borders to resupply the rebels are no longer available. The defeat of the armed opposition—including the al-Qaeda proxies and others—in Aleppo was the greatest blow. For the Syrian government—at this time—to use chemical weapons in such a public way would not only have been foolhardy but it would have welcomed a U.S. attack. It seems only an utterly arrogant and blind leadership in Damascus would have committed such a crime. But the leadership in Damascus has shown that it is crafty, using openings of all kinds of ensure its survival. This is not to say that it would not have necessarily done such an attack. Eagerness to end the war before it can impose a political settlement on the rebels could have led to the use of such weapons. But this is not considered likely. [Read More]
(Video) Noam Chomsky on Trump's First 75 Days & Much More
From Democracy Now! [April 4, 2017]
[Q. Could you talk about the—what you're seeing now as the potential in terms of the healthcare system in the country, what they will try to do and what the potential is there?]
Noam Chomsky: Actually, there was a pretty interesting poll about it that came out a couple of days ago, simply asking people what they preferred. The Republican proposal was the lowest of the choices available. I think about 15 percent of the population were willing to accept it. Somewhat higher was the existing system, so-called Obamacare. And on that, it's worth bearing in mind that a lot of people don't know that Obamacare is the Affordable Care Act. So you have negative attitudes towards Obamacare, thanks to lots of propaganda, but more positive attitudes towards the Affordable Care Act, because of what people see. Most popular of all—over half—was the so-called public option, a government-guaranteed healthcare program, which is pretty remarkable because no one publicly advocates that. But it's been a consistent polling result for decades, that when people are asked what they want, they say that's their choice. [See the Program]
Teach-Ins Helped Galvanize Student Activism in the 1960s. They Can Do So Again Today.
By Marshall Sahlins, The Nation [April 6, 2017]
[FB – Marshall Sahlins was one of the initiators of the teach-in movement 62 years ago. This article might contribute to a discussion at our meeting about why antiwar mobilization is not happening now among the newly energized Resistance to the Trump Agenda.]]
---- In February of 1965, just a few months after successfully campaigning for president against Barry Goldwater on a platform that declared "peace is our first concern," Lyndon Johnson dramatically escalated the Vietnam War by ordering a sustained bombing of the North and dispatching the first American combat troops to the South. The effect of the bait-and-switch in dissident university circles was redoubled opposition to American imperial policies, ultimately culminating in a campus-specific mode of political resistance. We were fewer than thirty, the faculty who called a strike against the University of Michigan in mid-March of 1965. … By contrast to the counter-cultural rebels of the 1960s, the university student body in 2017 is in great part a bourgeoisie-in-training. The students acquire business skills in classes and upscale consumption habits in campus amenities—only then to acquire an indebtedness that puts them in precarious dependence on the wage system for many years to come. [Read More]
