Wandering in the Wilderness Way too Long

A quartet of prisoners opened the 27th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast with song while close to 1,000 dined (or not) on an abundance of pastry, coffee, juice, and a plate of bacon, eggs and hash browns. Meanwhile, across town, the folks at Zaccheaus House were making ready for another cold winter night with a house full of Asheville's poor, seeking shelter.

At the Grove Park Inn, Oralene Simmons, called "a dynamo with a purpose," and her committee, once again brought together a distinguished assortment of Asheville and Buncombe County politicians and government workers, police officers, a Congressman, assorted preachers, youth leaders, non-profit workers, and common folk for a celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I haven't missed many of these celebrations over the past decade, and am always reminded when I come of the many good and caring people in this community who have been touched as I have been by the life and work of Dr. King. I always try to be there, and always leave wishing that someone would have raised a bolder voice calling us all to account for the persistence of war and racism and economic injustice, a bolder voice reminding us as King did, of the "fierce urgency of now."

Instead, we had the likes of Congressman Heath Shuler, with nothing of substance to say. Nothing to say about the occupation in Iraq, of the despots in the White House who condone torture, or of the economy on the brink, and the thousands of homeless veterans in our streets. He mentioned instead the Thursday prayer breakfast he attends in DC, then told the assembly he had to "step out early" and left us with a "God bless you all," asking that we "keep our men and women who are in harm's way in our prayers."

Former Mayor Leni Sitnik explained that the time for the annual event was cut short because of a "scheduling error," with the Grove Park Inn. Sitnik said she had a 20 minute speech prepared, but we were not to hear her words.

Instead of a compelling call to action, time and again the folks who did get to the podium called out a litany of names of city and county employees, city council and county commission members, police, and assorted others who stood for recognition and applause. So much so that most of the time was consumed with this self-congratulatory ritual.

Nathan Ramsey, Chair of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, perhaps forgetting the genocide in Iraq and New Orleans, the crimes at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, the thousands of Veteran suicides, asserted that "our nation still represents that shining city on the hill."

"This is the Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast on speed dial," quipped Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, whose keynote, also cut short, was warmly received. Mindful of what he called "the 5 B's--Be Brief Brother, Be Brief," Kilpatrick spoke of King's emphasis on "tapping into our spiritual power," to change adverse circumstances. And echoing Mayor Bellamy and her concern about youth gangs (but not the more dangerous gangs of real estate developers), Kilpatrick said, "it is time for us to stand up to them in a major way."

The prisoner quartet sang a closing round: "Time to go back home, been wandering the wilderness way to long, its time to go back home." I asked Sheriff Duncan, sitting at a nearby table, if he could perhaps work out a reprieve for these singing prisoners. He explained, in good nature, that he could not, as they were not his prisoners.

Sponsoring organizations were diverse, from the ACLU to the mountain-top removal financiers of Bank of America.

Next time I'll bring a brown bag to save more of the many left over biscuits and pastry that the servers acknowledged would have to be thrown out, more than enough to feed the entire household of dispossessed folk bunking on pallets at Zaccheaus House, where advocates Amy Cantrell, Crystall Cook have been providing emergency shelter all week from the cold rains and ice and snow that impact the poor so harshly.

When I returned from the prayer breakfast, pockets filled with excess biscuits, I opened this email from Zaccheaus House:

PLEASE JOIN US AS WE HONOR THE LIFE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. WITH A BREAKFAST FOR WORKERS
WHEN: THIS MONDAY, GATHER AT 4:30 A.M. AT THE Z-HOUSE (yes, 4:30 AM--most of our friends on the streets arrive for their work day at 5)
WHAT: A HOT BREAKFAST BEFORE A HARD DAY OF WORK
WHY: Dr. King struggled in the Civil Rights movement for years. Then, in addition to his ongoing struggle against racism, he began speaking out against the war in Vietnam and forming a Poor People's Campaign. He died marching with garbage workers in Memphis who were on strike for better wages and working conditions. Many of their placards read: "I AM A MAN!" It was a cry to be treated like a human being.

Today, some of the most oppressed workers in America are our homeless friends who work as day laborers. They work some of the most difficult and dirty jobs for minimum wage and sometimes less. They must wake and walk early to work and some may sit all day and not be given a job.

Day Labor is used by many employers in Asheville from the hospital, to the Department of Prisons, Buncombe County (constructing the new jail), UNC-Asheville, the Renaissance Hotel, construction companies, and many, many others. The trend toward this temporary labor is the way employers are divorcing themselves from caring for their employees and from paying them fair wages.

Desperate people work to survive and temporary labor pools and the institutions that use them take advantage of this desperation to not have to pay benefits, to support injured workers, and to not hire someone full-time (or even steady part-time hours). This is why we must stand with our friends, share breakfast, speak out for living wages and fair treatment as Dr. King did. WON'T YOU JOIN US?!

Standing with our friends, seeking justice together, ZH

Don't Even Think About It!

There were interesting conversations at the table last night when I joined friends for the Drinking Liberally gathering at Asheville Brewing Company. Topics ranged from the perennial debate of the differences between Democrats and Republicans, to the dangers posed by Senate Bill 1959, the so-called Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. Dennis Kucinich was one of only 6 who voted against this thought criminalizing legislation which passed the House 404-6 on Oct. 23. This bill is now before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Presidential candidate Obama sits on this committee and Joe Lieberman is the chair. If you aren't aware of this dangerous legislation, don't remain in the dark. It also threatens the Internet as a potential source for development of radical thinking.

The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.

Image lifted from Common Courage Press

Headlong into the Fray

Asheville is known far and wide as a place where political and social activism thrives in the midst of the profiteering and panhandling in this little mountain town that a recent ABC news 20/20 program called the happiest city.

We who are on the ground here know that wherever greed and poverty clash, not everyone is smiling. We are kept busy every night of the week with meetings and demonstrations, workshops and lectures. And, with the added dimension of participation in the blogosphere, and producing programs and articles for independent community media, we are all stretched thin. It takes many hands and many dedicated hours to amplify our message, to make visible our call for a world free of exploitation, poverty, and war, and all the while, the environmental destruction is escalating.

There are well-financed forces at work that would deprive the people of a voice. Just look at how MSNBC tries to thwart the message of Dennis Kucinich and other candidates in the Presidential debates. So we must keep on.

Martin King’s recognition of the “fierce urgency of now,” is still true. But the challenge always is to sustain for the long haul, and this requires taking the time to nurture ourselves and each other. We must heed the wise counsel to pause and reflect now and again, to ground ourselves, and find a center point before we plunge headlong again into the fray.

Speaking out for justice, questioning the war, binding the wounds of the broken, making room for one another in this beautiful city, standing up for the right of future generations to clean air, and water, green spaces and nature preserves, asserting our rights to equal justice and fair treatment –all of this is urgent work, critical to our very survival.

Those of us who have taken to the public square week after week, calling for an end to war, holding the ground for years, in cold and rain, on cloudy and clear days, while the life of the city swirls around us, have endured taunting and insult, honor and support. And yet the wars persist, and our Constitutional freedoms seep through the cracks of Congressional indifference and corruption, and some people say it is too late to impeach! And some say we are wasting our time.

The people’s historian, Howard Zinn, had this to say about such situations:

One thing is that even if you're engaged in a movement where the future of that movement is uncertain, even if you're trying to achieve an objective which looks very very far away, simply working for it makes life more interesting and more worthwhile. So you don't have to look for some victory in the future. The very engagement with other people in a common struggle for something that you all believe in, that is a victory in itself.

"War Makes You Comfortable"

Scapegoat Theatre Collective’s most recent offering, “References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot,” opened Thursday night in Asheville with a “pay what you can” performance that lives up to the Collective’s aim, “to bring relevant, transformative theatre to Asheville audiences.” The performance is part of the North Carolina Stage Company’s 2007-08 Catalyst Series. Playwright Jose Rivera, who dedicated the play to his soldier-brothers, has crafted a story as relevant today as when it first opened after the firestorms of the first Persian Gulf War. The post-traumatic stress of returning soldiers continues. And tragically, in 2005 alone, as many as 120 veterans committed suicide each and every week. And the hardships and fears faced by military families whose soldier loved ones have been utterly changed by war, still takes its toll.

Producer Taryn Strauss, a founding member of the theater collective, warmly welcomed the Veterans for Peace, Chapter 99 and WNC Peace Coalition volunteers who set up an information table at the show.

In the program’s “Producer’s Notes,” Strauss writes: “We do not desire to show you a piece of art for you to merely stand by in witness, rather we hope to connect with you in the spirit of accountability and outrage.”

The cast of six, including a randy coyote, a seductive kitten who plays the violin, a crooning moon, wise and watchful over the pain of a traumatized soldier on leave from war, and his lonely wife, left to await his return in a military town where she has found but three friends: her kitten, who strays into the arms of the wild coyote, and a fourteen -ear old neighbor boy, eager to lose his virginity while buried in her ample thighs. It’s evocative, sad, steamy and as hot as the Barstow, California desert town where the play is set. Don’t miss this one!

Shrinking Public Commons

The shrinking public commons at Vance Monument is an insult to the people's Constitutional right to peaceably assemble. Why has this public space been left unfinished for so long, with broken pavement, deep holes and rocks strewn about? It seems an intentional effort to discourage free-speech gatherings there. While a few blocks away at Pritchard Park, a little guard house has been erected so the surveillance officer won't have to endure the cold while spying on the unhoused who gather there for community and an occasional meal.

Last night, members of Veterans for Peace 99 and Iraq Veterans Against the War, along with our friends from Zaccheaus House, still weary from their ongoing efforts to assure that no more of the unhoused and dispossessed of Asheville freeze to death, joined with folks from the Buncombe Green Party, and other Asheville activist groups, to continue our weekly call for an end to this war and the impeachment of this criminal regime. Over thirty were crowded into that shrinking public square, determined to practice Democracy despite the many municipal impediments.

I only noticed two crude middle finger gestures from passing motorists. Most honked, waved, or flashed the peace sign. Kindra Phillips dressed as the statute of liberty, gagged. While James Lattimore wore an Uncle Sam top hat. The Asheville-Citizen Times sent a reporter and a photographer, but we have learned to have our own reporters and cameras there as well to record our own peoples' history. Thanks to Robert Baldwin for the above image.

Jonas Phillips, known locally as the "freeway blogger" is still holding strong with a not guilty plea against the police and prosecutor's preposterous charge that he was blocking pedestrian right of way back in August. Repeated efforts by many local activists in letters to the city officials and police, have failed to bring any clear answer regarding the legal justification for harassing and arresting freeway bloggers. Many of us have stood on the highway overpass before and since Jonas' arrest. Jonas' trial is set for February--six months after his arrest. If you can help with legal fees, do so. And remember. He's bravely asserting the First Amendment right to free speech in a public arena. This battle is everyone's battle.

As for impeding the flow of pedestrian traffic? Take a look at the space around Vance monument. Can we make a citizen arrest for the pedestrian hazards in this construction site?

A Trail of Broken Treaties: Lakota Declare Independence

With the stiff cold winds blowing and the snowfall covering my garden, I'm thinking again of the brave Lakota, who have so long endured hardship and oppression, and have now so boldly again declared independence from the treaty-breaking U.S. government. These First Nation people of Turtle Island have had enough of subjugation. They have reclaimed their sovereignty, and have invited all freedom-loving people to join them in the resistance.

At the West Asheville library last week, well over 150 heard Canupa Gluha Mani (One who walks as he protects the fight), aka Duane Martin, Sr., a warrior leader with Cante Tenza, the Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement. He was just back from Washington, DC where with eight other delegates of various Lakota tribes, they delivered documents to the U. S. State Department advising of a unilateral withdrawal from the trail of broken treaties.
"I never ever seen a man's face stretched as long as a rubber band," he said of the State Department employee on whom the Lakota served notice of their independence.

Calling the colonial oppressors by Lakota words meaning, "the people who like to steal fat," and "guy that can only smile for greed," Canupa Gluha Mani detailed some of the dire circumstances endured by the Lakota, including an epidemic of alcoholism, the removal of thousands of Lakota children to foster homes off the reservation, and the diminished life expectancy of Lakota men, many of whom fought in U.S. wars. "To this Godforsaken day it is always people of color going off to kill poor people."

Canupa Gluha Mani delivered no ordinary message and held the rapt attention of Asheville folk for over three hours. He's a story-teller, a keeper of native chants, and a fluent speaker of his native language, which he slipped into often during his presentation, gracing listeners' ears with the long-suppressed tongue of the Lakota.

Wearing a black beret adorned with sacred feathers and with two coal-black braids draped over his shoulders, this hefty warrior leader, with disarming humility, challenged listeners to act boldly in defense of all the people, particularly the elders and the children. "Enough is enough. Your rights are being targeted," the Lakota warrior said. "My people did the undoable. It's time for you people to take back your freedom."

"I'm not a holy man. I'm no spiritual person. I'm a warrior," Canupa Gluha Mani, asserted. His grandfather was a police chief on the Pine Ridge reservation, and he is a veteran of the 1973 Siege at Wounded Knee. He spent nine years in Alcatraz. His artwork, raffled at the West Asheville gathering, reflects his experiences. Among other native imagery, one piece depicted the guard tower at Alcatraz and the weapon he used to hold the ground at the Siege at Wounded Knee.

"Sometimes its difficult being who we are as red people in America," he said. "We're going to be feeling great repercussions. I'm ready for it." Canupa Gluha Mani alluded many times during his presentation to the possibility that he might not make it back to his home. He seemed resigned to whatever the outcome. "Whether I live tomorrow, I am honored to be here to give you this teaching." And later he added, "If I should leave while I'm doing this, I'll know I'm on the right track. When I finally reach the star nation, I'll look down and thank you people for listening to me. Thank you for believing in freedom."

"Any Federal informants here?" he asked, somewhat tongue in cheek. "I've been monitored, phone tapped, and watched, just like I was outside when I first got here," he said.

"If you are met with violence," one listener inquired, "will you respond non-violently?" The warrior replied, "I will revert to violence if they give me no alternative." When asked how supportive people could help the Lakota independence movement, Canupa Gluha Mani was clear: "Rise up and do the same. ...It's up to you." And pointing to some of the many children sitting at his feet, he said, "These kids' freedom is at stake. It's coming."

This remarkable Asheville event was made possible through the efforts of Naomi Archer, a liaison for the delegation, and the group Sustainable Asheville.

map lifted from website: Censored

"Worthless Words on Worthless Paper"

The Lakota have seceded from the U. S., declaring sovereign nation status and unilaterally nullifying all treaties with the U.S. which they characterize as "Worthless words on worthless paper."

Something in me shifted when I read that first email announcement, appearing in my inbox like a hint of sun behind a low-hanging storm cloud. That persistent sadness I feel with every new revelation of deception and meanness, and with each instance of corruption at all levels of this out-law U.S. government, has eased a bit with the knowledge of this bold and brave and dignified act.

Lakota delegates Phyllis Young and Russell Means

by via lakotafreedom.com Friday Dec 21st, 2007 12:33 AM

Canupa Gluha Mani, one of the coordinators of the Lakota sovereignty movement, will be speaking at the West Asheville library this Saturday, Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. That's tomorrow.

It seems like a great opportunity to hear a voice of courage that might help inspire us into further action in solidarity with the Lakota and on behalf of our own independence from a torture regime that has broken its contract with and violated the sovereignty of we, the people.

A New World Coming?

The bright red 4x4 pick-up truck was parked squarely in front of the path to my door last night. It was huge. There was a German Shepherd in the front seat and a kayak or a similar sort of single-person rivercraft in the truck bed. This morning I was awakened when the ower cranked up the engine and left it idling in front while he went back inside. By the time I made my way outside he had appeared again. I asked him, rather tersely, if he had heard of global warming, or peak oil. He just laughed.

"I don't believe it," he said. He was good natured when I asked that next time he be mindful not to block the path to my door. I thought surely he was kidding me about not believing in the climate crises and resource depletion.

"You don't believe in global warming, or peak oil?" I asked again. "What about leaving some resources for your children to use?"

"They'll be okay," he said. "I believe in God. There's a new world coming."

This afternoon I spoke with a young man on Lexington, Ave. warming himself in the sun with a friend. He was in the Army National Guard, he said, though he had not yet been sent to war.

"If I could nail your feet to the sidewalk to keep you from going, I would," I told him. "Do you think that war is right? Is it worth your life?"

"I'm willing to risk my life. I think we're fighting for our freedoms over there," he said.

"I believe that war is wrong," I told him, "but I want you to know that I appreciate your courage and willingness to risk your own well being for your beliefs." He reminded me of my own brothers before they went off to war. "The men giving the orders don't have your best interests in mind," I said. "If they ask you to do something that you know in your heart is wrong? Will you be strong enough to refuse such an order?"

"I think I will be," he said. I believed him. He said he was promised some very good educational benefits from the Army. I hope he lives to realize that promise.

Earlier this week, I sat around a table of friends, lamenting the state of the world (as we often do) and exploring possible strategies that might bring about change.

"Nothing we are doing seems to make any difference," one person said.

"Its because you folks aren't willing to make any sacrifices," another suggested. He was one who knew about such things, having worked in Mississippi as a young African-American during Civil Rights days. "Those folks were risking their lives," he said. "Every day."

We who abhor this war. We who hold no sway with the youth who are so deftly deceived into the military machine. We who believe in a new world coming, what risks are we willing to take.

The words of Philip Berigan, the late and often imprisoned peace worker resonate:

People have to get back to the streets. They have to make the exposé in a corporate way, by investing their lives. Going through the expense of planning, of working with others, of drawing together--demonstrations, protest, and resistance. That's essential. Change has come only from this expensive way of exerting public responsibility.

Right now Americans tend to be cynical. They are burnt out. They haven't got the moral and political energy for the long haul, which is necessary to cultivate a life of stamina.

Instead, it seems that we live our lives on idle, letting our engines burn out while we fume the air with our laments, going nowhere in our shiny red truck.

Let Every Empty House Be Opened

The workmen on Flint Street are hammering away adding an extension to an already large house that has flipped once or twice in the past year. Next door to that, a three-story house,recently converted to condominiums and offered for sale well beyond the means of local working folks, stands empty. Two doors from that, yet another is cold and dark, awaiting no doubt the buyer with top dollar, and a few doors from that, yet another "For Sale" sign.
The house beside mine has been empty nearly two years. Ah, gentrification. Now, if Asheville's ten year plan to end homelessness was truly effective, and if everyone in need had a safe and certain place to call home, then this kind of profit-driven housing renovation would not concern me as much.

How many more human beings have to be found frozen under a bridge before we realize the horror of this system of profit over people?
Three of Asheville's ten homicides to date in 2007 were homeless men. I understand that on December 21, the Solstice, local advocates for the homeless will hold a memorial for homeless folks, particularly those who have died in the past year. As Asheville courts the wealthy at the expense of the most vulnerable among us, there must be some real change, and soon. Otherwise, we will have to callous ourselves to even more deaths of the poor and vulnerable.

As to those boxes downtown, "Spare Change for Real Change," they provide opportunity for one to feel charitable without actually having to look a homeless person in the eye; assuaging guilt, perhaps, with a pittance, but not dealing with the systemic injustice that sustains homelessness. Already we are quite a few years into the city's ten-year plan to end homelessness. Still, people are dying in the streets in the center of our wealthy city.

Recently I came upon an editorial published in The Nation on August 28, 1920. The words are true today:

In a crisis such as now confronts us, no man has a moral right to close the doors of a building which he does not use; and if he will not rent at a fair rate, the municipal government should not hesitate to take possession, fix a fair rental, and let the people in....The crisis is too acute and too near to wait for slow and formal processes. The emergency is as great, and calls for as prompt and energetic action as any that could arise out of a war. Let every empty house be opened for people who have no homes.

On another note:
When I check my web traffic to this site I see a frequent visitor from Reston, Va.
Could it be my musings have caught the eye of the CIA? Anyone else having such frequent visitors from Virginia?

Images lifted from this River District site.

In Memory of Sammantha

Asheville's Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) stood facing the glaring lights of oncoming traffic at Vance monument tonight as the bitter-cold winds blew against the group's banner. Other veterans and supporters with Veterans for Peace stood nearby. One held an American flag aloft, while another, clad in black and hooded to symbolize death, stood on a pedestal holding a figure of a dead soldier.

Tonight was a special vigil, and a particularly poignant one.

Three Iraq war veterans, dressed in desert combat shirts, gathered around a pair of empty military boots set down beside a small wreath. With guitar in hand, one sang a song he wrote about post traumatic stress. Jason Hurd, IVAW Asheville co-founder, then read a statement in memoriam of Sammantha Owen-Ewing, an Army medic who took her own life by hanging on November 26. She was just twenty years old.

Several other veterans of earlier wars saluted in unison and observed a moment of silence in respect for the life of a fallen comrade.

"She was one of us," Jason Hurd commented.

According to Kelly Dougherty, Executive Director of the national Iraq Veterans Against the War, Sammantha was receiving psychiatric care at Walter Reed hospital where she was in training to become a nurse when she began experiencing the mental and emotional stress that contributed to her suicide. Instead of the help she needed, according to her husband, this young woman was abruptly discharged by the Army and dropped off at a nearby hotel with just a plane ticket. This kind of shabby and shameful treatment of soldiers by the Army they served is painfully commonplace.

Standing week after week at Vance monument in visible opposition to this seemingly endless war sometimes becomes a predictable routine. But with the haunting words of a veteran's song, and the sad memorial for Sammantha Owen-Ewing, tonight at Vance monument, standing together as a cold dusk settled over Asheville with rose colored clouds hanging low, was exactly the right place to be. This ritual of remembrance is important.

According to a CBS news investigation:

Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror... had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)

Solidarity & Power: Fort Benning to New Orleans

The gathering at the gates of Fort Benning was again powerful and infused with solidarity. You can catch the spirit of the weekend by streaming the audio of Easy Mark's Afternoon Slacken show on WPVM. I addressed the 25,000 strong crowd on Sunday on behalf of the 1,000 Grandmothers. We converged at the gates with weeping, wailing and keening for the war dead. Expressing the grief of all the killing is a liberating act.

From Georgia I traveled to Texas for two weeks with my daughter's family. Two weeks in a suburb between Dallas and Fort Worth, surrounded by high-speed, multi-lane highways with an endless stream of automobiles and big box stores selling to the frenzied holiday crowds. Whew! Glad to be back home, getting around on foot, keeping warm by the wood stove, and moving through this waning year with gratitude for friends and family and for my vital connections with so many working for justice.

One of these friends is Attorney Bill Quiqley, who has defended hundreds of our SOA Watch political prisoners over the years. He was arrested this week in New Orleans for defending the people in public housing who are resisting the imminent demolition of their homes.

"We live in a system where if you cheer or chant in the City Council you get arrested, but you can demolish 4,500 people's apartments and everybody's supposed to go along with that? That's not going to happen," Quiqley declared after his arrest.

Click here for the video news account of the arrest. The work goes on and on.

Six Years and Holding: Asheville Women in Black

Since November, 2001, Asheville Women in Black have gathered in silent community at Vance Monument downtown each Friday from 5-6 p.m. Week after week, regardless of weather, we have stood together. And we will be there again this Friday marking our sixth year of silent witness. We invite all women to come, to stand with us, to grieve together for our sisters who have been raped, tortured, or killed—for those held in concentration camps and refugee centers, for the women locked away in our prisons. Grieve with us for all women who have been disappeared, or whose loved ones have vanished for speaking out or organizing for change; stand with us for women who suffer the violence of poverty while the weapons makers flourish and the arms merchants thrive; stand with us for all who have no safe and certain home place, or those whose homes have been demolished by fires or floods or soldiers of occupation. Grieve for the theft of our sons and daughters into the armed forces; for the poisoning of our mother Earth by the weapons industries, and the extortion by taxation that fuels militarism at an intolerable cost to social services and environmental protection.

We wear black as a symbol of mourning for all victims of war: the child soldiers and their child victims, we mourn the blindness of politicians and corporate officers who promote war and profit from its continuation. War claims more civilian lives than combatants. It is women and children who have borne the brunt of this brutality.

We women today must find the way through the darkness.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead said: “It has been women’s task throughout history to go on believing in life when there was almost no hope.” And the Quaker Lucretia Mott wanted us to “hold to the belief, the faith, in the possibility of removing mountains to the side of right. If we believe that war is wrong, as everyone must,” she said, “then we ought to believe that by proper efforts on our part, it may be done away with.
But first, somehow, we must find the way to express our pain for the world. Joanna Macy believes that this will wake us up, bring us out of the stupor of despair. “We must, as women,” she said, “help this sick society to get in touch with our fear and our pain for the world—we must find ways to honor the grief—the appropriate grief of all this killing.”

The international peace movement known as Women in Black is one important way to honor the grief. Women in Black began in Jerusalem about fifteen years ago in response to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza by the Israeli military. A small group of women gathered once a week at the same hour at a major traffic intersection. They wore black clothing and raised a black sign in the shape of a hand with white lettering that read "Stop the Occupation.”

Within months, vigils sprang up throughout Israel. Then solidarity vigils began in other countries. Women in Black has become a worldwide movement. What unites us is the commitment to justice and a world free from violence in our homes and from the organized violence of militarism and war.

We stand as a radical act against the patriarchal, militarist regimes that dominate and destroy; we stand as a powerful non-violent act of resistance to policies that annihilate all that we hold holy and sacred and dear.

Join with us Friday and help us make a powerful presence to mark our sixth year.

The Art of War?

A persistent group of anti-war Quakers have been promoting truth in recruiting and helping soldiers and sailors make informed decisions about their military obligations and options since 1969. Chuck Fager, director of Quaker House, and a counselor with the GI Rights Hotline, spoke in Asheville Friday evening on a panel which included Iraq veterans Jimmy Massey and Jason Hurd, founders of the newly launched Asheville Chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Both Hurd and Massey are outspoken critics of the war and have often stood in Asheville with the local Veterans for Peace group in the Tuesday vigils at Vance Monument. Fager, who described himself as "an Air Force brat raised on military bases," said the GI Rights Hotline received 8,100 calls this year, and he expects the number could reach 10,000 by years end. Quaker House is close to Fort Bragg, a town that has suffered the loss of many soldiers throughout the course of the war. "The military's weakest point is recruitment and retention," he said, and they are coming to Buncombe County to recruit. "They're on your turf, that is your strength," he advised.

"It is largely a mistake to focus on Washington, D.C. where we don't have the equipment or the leverage needed to be a player," Fager said. "Resistance at home is a lot easier to organize."He urged the twenty-five gathered in the North Asheville library to "think like a warrior and redirect your energy in a more strategic way." The peace movement, he said, has a lot to learn from the military.

Jimmy Massey said that the ancient text by Sun Tzu on The Art of War was required reading for all Privates in the military. "Do your homework," he said.

Massey's memoir Kill! Kill! Kill! has been widely published throughout the world, though not in the United States ("Its because I tell the truth," he explained). The Waynesville native worked as a Marine recruiter in Buncombe for three years. He provided some practical suggestions for activists who want to do counter-recruitment work, but spoke primarily of his time as a Marine Staff Sargent in Iraq, describing several circumstances where he participated in missions resulting in numerous civilian causalities.

"I am beyond certain that we Marines were violating International Law and the Geneva Conventions," he said. "Bush says we went to Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction. But we are using a weapon of mass destruction on Iraq...Depleted Uranium--
my generation's Agent Orange."

Jason Hurd, a graduate in Philosophy from East Tennessee State University, who served ten years in the U.S. Army after enlisting at age 17, said that the Iraq Veterans Against the War want to re-energize the peace movement in Western North Carolina. "We are about direct action." Iraq veterans have most influence on the military and its support for this war, he said. "IVAW of Asheville will organize events to help shut down the recruiting offices. ...We support war resisters."

Fager participated in an October 27 demonstration in Smithfield, N.C. at Aero Contractors, linked to the CIA's practice of "extraordinary rendition," through operation of the "torture taxi's" that take off from Johnston County Airport. "These two were there," he said, indicating Hurd and Massey. "Where were the rest of you? The group North Carolina Stop Torture Now is attempting to dismantle North Carolina's "Torture Industrial Complex."

During the question and answer session a woman rose to say "My two sons are in the Marines. I'm here out of respect for you Iraq veterans. I wanted to hear what you had to say."
While both her sons have returned from duty in Iraq, she still has a nephew there. "I was on my knees the whole time my sons were away," she said, expressing the heartache of so many military mothers. It was a poignant moment. One of the peace activists in the audience addressed the military mother saying, "I want you to know, if you see me on the street holding a sign against this war, it does not mean I am against the soldiers. I want this war to end and I want them home safely."
"I do too,"the military mother agreed.

The panel was sponsored by WNC Peace Coalition, Buncombe Greens, and Veterans for Peace, Chapter 99.

Depleted Uranium: Telling the Story in Jonesborough

I' m just back from Jonesborough, Tennessee, home of the wonderfully creative International Storytelling Festival, and the destructive menace of the Aerojet Ordinance plant where so-called depleted uranium is fashioned into artillery weapons that keep on killing and maiming long after they reach their target.

About 20 Asheville area folks joined the caravan to support the regional peace action in Jonesborough, part of a national mobilization called by United for Peace & Justice. It was an extraordinarily beautiful drive over the mountains. At the small park, local police set up a checkpoint "for safety reasons." I hesitated before complying to this violation of rights, asking "What is the probable cause?" An organizer said that there had been threats against one of the speakers, an Iraq veteran against the war, so I decided not to contest the "safety check."

Just outside the park perimeter a boisterous group of about fifty holding flags and signs such as: "We support our Troops and their Mission," and a mounted contingent of "Rolling Thunder" motorcyclists, was kept at a distance by about 20 police. The counter demonstrators chanted "USA, USA" and "Get out of Jonesborough." At one point there was a call and response, with an answering chant of "USA, USA" from inside the park. But organizers urged that we just let them be "background" to our event, and celebrate the fact that free speech includes all speech.

We 200 or so folks calling for an end to the war sat on a sloping hillside beneath a sky where hawks soared and a few monarch butterflys still lingered. A long train passed behind us, its thunderous sound overpowering the words of a Native American speaking from the old-fashioned band stand and calling for impeachment.

Jonesborough is a gem of a town, but some residents' have suffered bodily injury due to the production of the weaponized uranium. We, who travel from nearby communities are learning of the dangers of this deadly weapon. We heard testimony from an Iraq veteran suffering from exposure during his 2003 tour, and learned some of the more technical aspects of the weaponized uranium from a nuclear scientist. This was interspersed with hauntingly beautiful Celtic laments from Tennessean Retha Ferrell.

Friends from the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance were there and organizers from throughout the country. It was a grand day to connect on a regional level with workers for peace & Justice.

Enlightened by the Spirit Walker

This comment came via email today from Anne Whitefield, of our Asheville Women in Black group:

"Comment to Asheville on the Ground October 14

Tim Bullock, Spirit Walker, enlightened my Friday. There was a twinkle in his eyes that responded to the goodwill at our table. We were seven white women and Tim at the Bakery on Biltmore.

Somehow in meeting Tim Bullock, there was recognition and affirmation of goodwill (aka love). A fun group of eight. We broke bread together and laughed about the symbol. Laughter cuts inward and establishes intimacy.

Wonderful that Tim could sell everything and trust in the world. Reminds me of Peace Pilgrim. Reminds me of other pilgrims.

Life is good when we look beyond the troubling facade politically imposed by interests that be. Economics and politics represents only part of the swirl of culture we've inherited."

Spirit Walkers

We Women in Black were joined Friday by Tim Bullock for our silent hour at Vance Monument. Tim is a Spirit Walker who said his life was transformed in 1998 when he joined the Middle Passage Pilgrimage along the eastern United States, the Caribbean, Brazil, West Africa and South Africa that retraced the journey of tens of millions of slaves, by foot and by boat, reversing the direction of the Middle Passage. Tim has kept his feet on the ground ever since. He is working now with the international effort Mayors for Peace, a network of over 1,793 mayors from 122 countries and regions who have committed their cities to stand for the abolition of all nuclear weapons from the Earth. The group is planning the Walk for a New Spring starting out in Boston January 6 and arriving DC in mid-February and speaking with Mayors in cities and towns all along the route.

Locally Rae Hearne has been leading the effort to have Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy sign on as a Mayor for Peace, though the Mayor's schedule this time around precluded a visit with Tim, he says he felt she was open to the idea.

There are many peace walks each year throughout the country and the world, including several recent ones in solidarity with the brave monks in Burma , who took to the streets calling for Democracy in the face of the most repressive military regime in modern times.

In November, folks with the 8th Annual peace pilgrimage will be walking from Atlanta to the gates of Fort Benning to join 20,000 more who travel to Columbus, Ga. each year to participate in the November 15-18 SOA Watch vigil to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, a school long associated with the deadly and torturous tactics of counterinsurgency.

If you haven't made that journey, this would be a good year to lend your voice to the determined and growing numbers who gather there. Motel rooms are filling fast, but the WNC SOA Watch group still has some reserved. Contact me: mariahsage at gmail.com. if you are interested.

The VFP99 Street Action Planning group met again today. We are brainstorming creative ideas for exercising our free speech rights in bold and exciting ways. We had a good gathering. Join us on Tuesday, 5-6 p.m. at Vance monument to keep in the loop and get directions to next Sunday's SAP gathering. Meanwhile, I must believe that there is power in the small ways, the step by step efforts, the community building gatherings, the pilgrimages of spirit that transform us, one by one.

A shaft of a Building where the Magnolias now stand

This afternoon I crowded into a fifth-floor meeting room in the BB&T building to hear Charlotte Architect Mark Fishero make a presentation of the design for Black Dog Realty owner Stewart Coleman's planned eleven-story condominium on City-County Plaza, including the controversial park land with the magnolia trees bequeathed to the people. Coleman stood along one side of the room flanked by an entourage of men from S.B. Coleman Construction.

Pack Square Conservancy members were seated at a long conference table and surrounded by interested others, including reporters from Citizen-Times, Mountain Xpress, and WLOS TV as well as this blogger and other interested citizens. Steve Rasmussen of Coven Oldenwilde, was there as well as city council candidate Bill Russell, (recipient of a $1,000 campaign donation from Stewart Coleman), and a woman with the Girl Scouts (remember, they have a peace pole on the public parkland sold out from under the people).
The "design review" was a half-hour presentation, without comment, on the proposed building, though we were advised that opportunity for public comment may come at a later meeting.

The architect noted that the building was designed "to make it look compatible with its neighbors," and "consistent with the fiber of Asheville." The artistic renderings included a simulation of sun shadow and solar angles as they might appear throughout the day with the building in place. The building will "fill in the gap-toothed piece of perimeter of the park," the architect said, though there was no mention of the Magnolia trees, that have so beautifully held the edges for decades.

The presenter said little about the view corridor to the mountains. It did seem that from one angle in the artist's sketch one might still be able to glimpse a sliver of a mountain view not obliterated by the building shaft.

The building is one that "does not thumb its nose at the neighbors," the architect said. Though he pointed out that by putting housing on the site it will "activate the area and bring life to the park." The condo residents would be the 24/7 "eyes on the park" to eliminate "bad guys" potential to get away with anything."

It was a nice-looking building, just misplaced on city-county plaza where it essentially turns the shrinking public parkland into a front yard for the privileged. Now if they had proposed leveling the BB&T and replacing it with this design, that might serve the city well.

Let's keep our "eyes on the park" to be sure these "bad guys" don't get away with this one!

Photo from UNCA collection of City-County Plaza in better days.

Order in the Court

I walked to the Buncombe County courthouse today to witness the court proceedings for one of the four young activists arrested at the Bank of America in August following the S.E.Convergence for Climate Action camp. George Silva was charged with several misdemeanor offenses: "Failure to disperse, resisting a public officer, refusing to follow commands, and creating a threat of a riot," for his part in the direct action that drew an enormous police response to downtown Asheville. Outside the courtroom, Silva's attorney Bruce Elmore characterized the police response as a "comedy of some of the worst assumptions one could make." Silva pled guilty to all charges and was fined $200, plus court costs, and given a 30-day suspended jail sentence, and one year unsupervised probation. He seemed relieved with the outcome.

Its always interesting to sit in the courtroom and listen to the folks that come before the judge to be dispatched quickly, assembly-line fashion, with fines or probation, and court costs. The officer in the courtroom warned everyone of the possibility of "Contempt of Court" charges with a penalty of thirty days jail, without bond. She cautioned that all cell phones be turned off, otherwise, she said, they would be seized. I was amused at the dress code, which prohibited belly shirts, mini skirts, and t-shirts with "inappropriate" writing. That seems a rather subjective call. Just what is "inappropriate?"

Mary Olsen, our Asheville are representative of the national group, Nuclear Information Resource Services, was there, and several other supporters as Defendant George Silva was called before the judge, whose long, platinum-blonde hair spilled over her black judicial robe in an incongruous way. Throughout the proceedings, a sustained jackhammer-like noise from outside the courtroom was so loud that no one beyond the first few rows of seating could hear either judge, attorney, or defendant.

You can read a good interview by Mike Hopping in this week's Indie newspaper, on the stands now, with Mary Olsen and Abigail Singer.

Great Souls Rising

The Impeach Bush bus rolled through town last night, stopping for a few hours in the Earth Fare parking lot.It drew a crowd with its huge neon peace sign mounted on top. Two State Trooper vehicles pulled into the lot and drove past while we were there. A dozen or so from the VFP 99 came to greet the bus riders and listen to their stories from the DC peace rally. It was encouraging all around and a good way to spend a cool evening in Asheville.

Over two weeks ago I fasted for one day to lend some focused energy to the work of the Climate Emergency Council. The founder,Ted Glick, is so concerned about global warming and the climate emergency that he hasn't eaten for 17 days. "This is my way of saying, as strongly as I know how, with everything that I have--my mouth, my body, my mind, my soul, my heart--we have to take action on this issue now!"

It seems some great souls are rising among us now even as the wars continue with millions of victims, as the toll of environmental abuses escalates, as governmental repression deepens.

I went to the public welcome for ten-year old Salee, whose legs were severed in Faluja by a U.S. missile attack. The family to family work of the group No More Victims! is remarkable. It is very hard to face the reality that one million non-combatants have been killed in Iraq. One million! It was difficult just to see this one child.

Robin Cape stood with us tonight at Women in Black and read a Proclamation signed by Mayor Bellamy for the International Day of Peace. Tomorrow several of us will go to Johnson City to give support to a peace march and rally over the mountain. People are rising.

Wash Day and the Chores of Democracy

The nearest laundromat to my Montford home closed. Alas. So I've been washing clothes out on the back deck, using water I caught in the barrel from the last great rain, hanging them to dry in the bright afternoon sun, and refreshing the garden with the gray water. The next closest laundromat is across from Ingles on Merrimon. Without a car, and with my bicycle stolen, the prospect of hauling my laundry in a rolling suitcase that far, or dragging it to the bus stop and hefting it up the steps of the bus, is just too much. Just another domminoe effect of the gentrification. But washing by hand is good practice. Keeps me mindful of the unnecessary volume of clothing I've accumulated from my occasional sprees at the thrift store. I sure wouldn't mind one of those squeegee-things to wring them out with. I guess the sight of me at work will make the mixed economics in this gentrifying neighborhood more obvious to whoever comes looking to buy the $385,000 house for sale next door.

Yesterday I gave some time to freeing up one of the evergreens across the street from its burden of kudzu vine. It was a labor of love but hot and sweaty work with a very tenacious vine. I was rewarded by a burst of fragrance from the tree. The aroma evoked wonderful feelings. I guess we all give what we have to share. There are about five more that need freeing, and each takes about 30 to 45 minutes to untangle, so I'll work it in to the day over the next week. By that time, of course, the vine will have crept back up the trunks.

I've been researching the life of Aung San Sui Kyi, the Burma Nobel Peace Prize winner who has been on house arrest for much of the last two decades for her civil resistance to the repressive military junta there. I'll be presenting at UNCA college for seniors in the "It Takes A Woman!" course. I am greatly inspired by her dedication and spirit. Things are heating up again in Burma after the junta suddenly increased the price of fuel way beyond the means of the working poor. Now the monks are taking to the streets in this mostly-Buddhist country. This is a good sign. But resistance there brings swift and harsh reprisals. Yet the people of Burma so yearn for the freedom and Democracy that we have hung out on the line and forgotten here. Its the everyday vigilance that keeps our freedoms intact, keeps that kudzu from getting a stranglehold, and we've let that go, left it in the hands of politicians who are seldom held accountable. It's time we took back some of the work of Democracy here, while we can still do so without risking much more than our time.