>Homepage > Archives > Chris Mills' email digest # 11
February 12, 2003

O.k., I know the A is a bit wonky, but I'm a beginner!  The armband workshop was quite small tonight - I'm hoping for more on Friday.  NB Ottawa folks - the rally on Saturday starts in Gatineau (Hull) at 1:30) and the march is expected to reach the US Embassy between 2:15 and 2:45 - if that bridge seems just too long, you could meet us at the Embassy at 2:30. I still have lots of material left to make more peace armbands on Friday night - give me a call at 722-7386 if you want to try your hand (you don't have to know how to sew - there is also work for cutters and glue-ers).  There is just so much going around this week I hardly know what to include!  This is an arbitrary selection - I didn't want to make this too long.  Hope to see some of you on Saturday.

Peace,

Chris

Calls to Action   

Read Lawrence Martin on White House fearmongering (go to www.globeandmail.com and search "Lawrence Martin"); he mentions a few little facts that Colin Powell left out of his speech:  (a) the United States
rejected an international biological weapons pact two years ago, (b) Mr.
Hussein had bio-chem weapons available in the gulf war but didn't use them,
(c) when he did use such weapons in the 1980s, the U.S., then a
semi-supporter of Mr. Hussein, gave him the old wink wink, and (d) for all
the fear that Washington is trying to generate over these weapons, the death toll in modern times is greater from the flu bug and soccer hooliganism."

News /information

A judge's decision to ban Saturday's Peace March in NYC (a rally is permitted) is being appealed by United for Peace and Justice.  "Ms. Cagan and others who support the effort to march said the city's denial of a parade permit had nothing to do with safety. At a news conference yesterday, City Councilman Bill Perkins said: "This is meant to send a message beyond New York City and it is going to have a chilling effect nationally. I think the Bush administration does not like political dissent and has influenced the Bloomberg administration to stop it."

When the going gets tough, it seems, Mr. Bush changes the subject," according to Paul Krugman.

Commentary/inspiration
 

A World at Odds:  Conscience in a Time of Terror is a study guide "focused on the U.S. conflict with Iraq; the global economy; fundamentalism and religious diversity; and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."  This is a fantastically rich site, definitely worth bookmarking.   Includes David Cortwright's "Ten Reasons Not to Attack Iraq," which is deservedly one of the most circulated essays on the net

a powerful essay about why each and every one of us is necessary in the movement to oppose war in Iraq.  " If you haven't marched, if you have been immersed in the demands of your own life, if you feel that your small voice makes no difference, now is the time to speak anyway, to interrupt your ordinary pursuits, to become the one small drop that just might turn the tide... Be public.  Be visible.  Be the loud, uncomfortable conscience that has disappeared from the halls of power."

Maureen Dowd on how Osama came to W's rescue yesterday. "In the past, Condi Rice has implored the networks not to broadcast the tapes outright, fearing he might be activating sleeper cells in code.  But this time the administration flacked the tape. And Fox, the official Bush news agency, rushed the entire tape onto the air. So the Bushies no longer care if Osama sends a coded message to his thugs as long as he stays on message for the White House?"

Janet Eaton's site, with photos from the World Social Forum at Porto Alegre.

poets against the war turn the tables on the White House.

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