Monday, April 19, 2004

DC Doin's FEATURED ARTICLES     - Pro-Choice Forces Mustering for Capital March, San Francisco Chronicle     - Special Invite To A "Teach-In To Congress for Middle East Peace",        by Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, Cornel West, & Susannah Heschel QUOTE OF THE DAY "Men and women shall have equal rights throughout the United States and every place subject to its jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." - - Alice Paul (From the original Equal Rights Amendment, introduced into the U.S. Congress in 1923): KNOW YOUR HISTORY - APRIL 19th 1999 -- Puerto Rico: Two 500 pound US Marine bombs "accidentally" kills civilian guard David Sanes at a US bombing range in Vieques, sparking a revival of the anti-U.S. Navy struggle that results in more than a year without bombings & hundreds of people arrested in civil disobedience acts.  The US Navy confirmed that it had used napalm bombs & "accidentally" fired 267 cannon rounds tipped with depleted uranium on the range. http://www.thegully.com/essays/puertorico/000503vieques.html RHINO HERE: This coming Sunday in Washington DC, The March For Women's Lives will make history with thousands of concerned citizens descending on the nation's capitol to call attention to the imminent threat by the shrub gang on women's rights. Rhino's sez, "If you care, & if you dare, be there."  And if you need more than one reason to make your way to D.C., there's also a conference you're invited to participate in to educate Congress on alternative ways to look on US & Israeli foreign policy in the Mid East. Today's Blog calls attention to & offers information about, these 2 events. Pro-Choice Forces Mustering for Capital March Washington Rally to be First in 12 years for Abortion Rights by Manny Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, April 17, 2004 WASHINGTON - Suite 300 is deceptively quiet. Office workers sit at their computers in cluttered cubicles, the only sounds the tap-tap-tap on the keyboards, the endless chirp of the telephones and the low hum of conversations. But the numbers tell the real story. The workers in these four cramped rooms in a downtown office building get an average 1,000 e-mails a week and run a Web site that earlier this month logged 1 million hits in one day. They've ordered 700,000 purple and gold stickers and 800,000 palm-size leaflets. Some are trying to recruit more than 6,000 volunteers, while others are coordinating hundreds of delegations coming here from across the United States.  The goal, Alice Cohan explained this week, is to assemble a crowd on the National Mall that is "too big to ignore." The cause: women's abortion rights, which activists say are threatened as never before... MORE: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/17/MNGV666MFQ1.DTL FOR MORE INFO ON THE "March For Women's Lives" - April 25th. N.O.W.:  http://march.now.org CODE PINK: http://www.codepinkalert.org/National_Actions_March_For_Choice.shtml FAQ's for specifics about the march at:   on http://march.now.org/faqs.html And if you're planning to get to Washington for the march, consider also attending Tikkun's Teach-In To Congress for Middle East Peace taking place there April 25-27. Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is a letter sent to me by Peter Coyote, but written by Tikkun's founder Rabbi Michael Lerner along with Cornel West &  Susannah Heschel  inviting all interested parties to attend & contribute to the conference. 8:04:06 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Special Invite To A "Teach-In To Congress for Middle East Peace" Special Invite To A "Teach-In To Congress for Middle East Peace" by Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN Magazine Cornel West, Princeton University professor of Thelology Susannah Heschel, chair of Jewish Studies, Brown University Dear Friend of PETER COYOTE, The uprising in Iraq highlights the deeply mistaken direction that U.S. foreign policy has taken ever since the Bush Administration decided to allow the Israeli-Sharon policies to become the model for how to deal with the world (namely, the belief that you could repress the other into subservience). But this policy is not working for Bush or the U.S., and it's not working for Israel, either. We are writing to invite you to come to Washington, D.C. April 25-27 and challenge the war-makers with a different approach. We are sponsoring a "Teach-In To Congress" for Middle East Peace in which we will highlight the notion that it is generosity (both material and psychological), a sense of respect for the other, and  non-violent reconciliation rather than violent repression that could provide the greatest security for Israel and for the U.S.  These principles are embodied in The Geneva Accord negotiated by the peace forces in both Israel and Palestine, so even though we have some reservations about particular details, we are going to use this moment to try to put the Geneva Accord, and other possible two-state peace proposals, back onto the national agenda. Here is why we need YOU to be there. The media has largely blocked out the message of the peace forces, both with regard to Iraq and with regard to Israel/Palestine. It carries criticisms, but they are narrowly contained into tactical critiques ("maybe it wasn't the best timing to kill Sheikh Yassin" or "maybe the US should have more troops in Iraq to carry out repression"). But the world needs to hear a more substantive critique--with an alternative vision of how to bring peace to Israel and how to build peace in Iraq. In particular, we want to bring a spiritual vision--a vision of healing that is not about one side beating the other, not about the Left winning and the Right losing, but about a whole new way of people cooperating on this planet and building a world of ecological sanity and social justice. In May, Ariel Sharon's supporters will bring thousands of voters from every corner of the US to try to affirm the Occupation. Sharon is trying to get the US to back the construction of a Wall through much of the West Bank and the defacto annexation of this territory into Israel. So we will be presenting Congress and the media with a different voice. But it's not just about Israel--it's about the whole world view that underlies the Occupation both of Israel and Iraq. Getting Congress and the media to open to a different way of seeing requires that we have YOU there to help articulate these ideas. We scheduled this event so that people could go to the March for Women's Rights on the afternoon of April 25th, and then stay for our conference and teach-in. Among the speakers will be the three of us who are writing to you, plus Member of Knesset Naomi Chazan, Nabil Sha'ath of the Palestinian Authority, Professor Stephen Zunes, Bishop John Spong, Rabbi Athur Waskow, Robert Thurman, Rabbi Brian Walt (chair of rabbis for Human Rights), Rabbi Mordecai Liebling, Thandeka, psychoanalyst Michael Bader, Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, and many more. You can register for our event at www.tikkun.org or at 510 644 1200, and if there are financial problems with the registration fee, we might be able to offer some help. If you absolutely can't come, you could still help in the following ways: a. Let us know if you would work with us to create a meeting with your local Congresspeople at home in your home district. b. Let us know if you'd be willing to invite people over to your home for an afternoon or evening discussion of these issue using Tikkun magazine's articles as a jumping off point (or we can send you a video-tape with a presentation about Isael Palestine which some people have used very successfully in starting these meetings)  c. Or you could Join the Tikkun Community and donate some money to help defray the costs of someone else who wants to come but can't afford the transportation costs. Join on line at www.tikkun.org; or call 510 644 1200 or send a  tax-deductible contribution check to Tikkun, 951 Cragmont Ave, Berkeley, Ca. 94708.    Thanks so much for your support. Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN Magazine Cornel West, Princeton University professor of Thelology Susannah Heschel, chair of Jewish Studies, Brown University MORE INFO ABOUT, AND TO REGISTER FOR THE CONFERENCE, GO TO: http://www.tikkun.org/index.cfm/action/teachin2004 "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:01:49 AM    comment

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