Spirituality of Activism: The Path of Morality, Justice, and Peace

In a world that begs of attention to injustice, affliction, and suffering, one has to wonder about the role of the humanity collective in alleviating those conditions. Aside from a limited number of natural disasters and certain health conditions, the history of the human species is rampant with manmade afflictions. Violence on different levels, spiritual hunger, emotional need, obsession with anger and vengeance, punitive approaches to non-conformity, disrespect for the environment and its inhabitants, and the need to emphasize our differences and, therefore, superiority, contribute directly to such afflictions.

Many engage in soul-searching exploration to answer the question. Along the way, some become disenchanted and resign themselves to the belief that nothing will change. They feel that their efforts will not impact the larger part of human suffering. Some will take the violent approach to avenge wrongdoing and to correct an injustice. Some will engage in charitable and community work to help those less fortunate. They will do it out of personal, religious, or spiritual conviction. Others yet will choose to remain completely passive and withdraw into the solitude of their inner selves to pray and contemplate believing that the best way to help humanity is by detaching from the negativity that plagues our political, social, and spiritual existence.

Is there really one true approach to help and is it worth the effort?

Everything anyone does is worth the effort, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem. What may appear important to one person may not be important to another. Sometimes difficult choices need to be made. The usual moral questions come up: In a life and death situation where only a few can be helped, what criteria should be used to determine who is helped first? How is human worth measured? Is it based on gender, age, mental status, social status, criminal behavior, etc.? Some may remember the agonizing decision one Australian mother had to make during the 2004 Southeast Asia tsunami. She could only hold on to one of her two boys because she knew that trying to hold on to both would mean losing both of them. She made a conscious decision to let go of the older one.

Whatever the outcome of that mother’s decision, her decision was made from a deeply visceral, existential, and spiritual perspective. Luckily, most of us do not have to engage in such agonizing choices, but many people around the world do on a regular basis. It is from this perspective that spirituality and activism will be addressed.

Activism is meaningless without the effort. Spirituality and activism are not “comfortable” acts to be exercised in our spare time and away from the concerns of the world. Western spirituality sometimes lacks a grasp of the human condition and its relationship to the divine. If humans are a reflection of that which is divine, it follows that whatever manifests in our reality is part of the divine, including violence and negativity. The divine is neither male nor female; it is neither good nor bad. It just is. At the same time, injustices can be committed due to inaction. Witnessing violence and abuse and not intervening to try stopping them is morally reprehensible. Most prophets and spiritual leaders encourage active participation to alleviate suffering and wrongdoing. Ghandi encouraged people to be the change they would like to see happen. Islam is specific about social justice and the role of the Muslim community: those who witness injustice should do everything within their power to stop it. If they cannot, they should speak out against it. If they are unable to speak out against it, they should abhor it in their hearts. Jesus preached and practiced compassion and charity, acts only accomplished with political and social activism in all spheres of life.

Spirituality and morality become empty in the absence of mindful physical, mental, and verbal efforts. Praying can be part of activism but, alone, it is not good enough and only satisfies the egos of those engaged in it and creates a class of “spiritual” seekers who set themselves apart from the rest of humanity to become elitists.

Spirituality is an ever-evolving way of being. It is a process designed to cause change for the better. It is most effective when practiced within the whole framework of our existence. It permeates every aspect of our lives, from the most mundane to the most sublime. It is practiced by pacifists and killers and by criminals and saints. It is evident in the way we talk to and treat our children, spouses, friends, and enemies. It is used consciously every minute of the day. Spirituality and activism are mutually inclusive. Both are a learning process in humanity’s effort to get close to balance and harmony, to the ideal. They are based in action intended for the benefit of all.

The best spiritual teachers and activists are those who set an example by their thoughts, words, and deeds, not just their faith, prayer, and meditation. Thinking and meditating about love are meaningless if that love is not expressed in action towards others. People “feel” love when love is expressed openly and honestly and when given respectfully.

God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty

Words uttered by the Prophet Muhammad: "God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty."

An Islamic Hadith also states: "God Likes that when you do anything, you do it excellently."

Islamic art certainly manifests such aspirations. The simplicity of its intricacy, the divine sensuality of its curves, its capacity to stretch the soul and mind towards that which is loving and perfect--all create a refuge in the struggles of life, for life is a melding of opposites: of the human and the divine, of the sacred and the profane.

Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq Invasion

March 19th marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Since then, an estimated 1.2 million Iraqis, 4,000 U.S. soldiers, hundreds of contractors and foreign workers, and many more civilians across the Middle East have died because of the "War on Terror."

War remembrances are usually occasions where we reflect on our decisions as individuals and as a nation and where we weigh the positive and negative consequences of those decisions. Whatever we come up with, it has to come from the perspective of the people affected by war.

Individual and collective acts of violence create their own life force and the cycle of violence and counter-violence continues across generations. In order to break the cycle, two things have to happen: (1) complete cessation of killing and occupation and (2) the public acknowledgment of injustices where the victims openly confront the victimizers. But it is also a process which involves the public declaration of the victimizer of their crime and their promise to make amends to the victims and their families. Such approaches have helped in the healing of fractured societies in Rwanda and other areas of Africa.

War is a military and male dominated violent act. Victims are civilians and include children and women. 90% of all victims of modern warfare are civilian. They usually have little say in the decisions that impact their well-being. By continuing to advocate on their behalf, we are sending a clear message that war is never an option because war is an assault on innocent people. It is not a strategy to eradicate terrorism or to capture a handful of warlords.

Thousands of American soldiers are returning home with physical and psychological imbalances due to their war experiences. Their ailments are exacerbated when they come home because of the disconnect between their war experiences and the environment at home. They lack an appropriate framework of reference from which to make American civilians understand the real issues facing them. In addition to their physical and psychological difficulties, they face economic hardship, a country and a veteran administration system bogged down by a bureaucracy that demands constant vigilance on the part of veterans who neither have the will nor the energy to wade through the countless rules and regulations that grant them their benefits. They have to battle disinterested or frustrated employees who are anxious to get the day over with as long as the paperwork is in order. National guardsmen and women have to battle unsympathetic employers and sometimes travel two or three hours just to get to a VA physician. That is a very disrespectful way to treat those who were on the verge of paying the ultimate sacrifice while the rest of us continued to carry on with our lives.

Health statistics have shown a sharp rise in survivable spinal cord injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder cases. Due to advances in medicine and the availability of hospitals close to the combat areas, soldiers and civilians are surviving wounds that traditionally have taken the lives of their predecessors. While that is a good thing on the outset, the numbers of individuals with severe and permanent disabilities are rising. When you walk around any town or city in the United States, look closely and see how many limbless or wheelchair-bound veterans you can pick out. That is not including those who are in comas, bed-bound, in mental institutions, and in prison.

Studies conducted by the VA have shown that those affected by PTSD the most are those who have killed in battle. Believe it or not, that is a good sign. It shows that those who have had to kill do have a conscience. It is the struggle between the part of the soldier that committed the act and the moral side of the individual that creates this fractured personality and pushes a soldier into dissociation. It is not normal to kill another human being. Killing once is bad enough. Doing it over and over is blasphemy and destroys the soul. People who have no conscience (psychopaths) usually do not engage in that internal struggle because their capacity for empathy is minimal or non-existent. They do not "feel" for their victims. The "James Bond" type psychopath we so much admire in the movies is very detrimental to society.

Hopedance magazine, in its current issue, hopedance.org, has a couple of good articles about veterans and some of the positive gains made in trying to heal the fractured bodies and souls. Collective healing needs to take place since the agonies of the returning soldiers are seeping into the society through their families, friends, and communities. The lessons of the Vietnam veterans should keep us focused on the importance of those who are struggling, in a humane manner. They should never be discarded because they have outlived their purpose.

The military model is counter-human. It can destroy and win territory. It can defeat strong and weak alike. It can never win the minds or the bodies of people.

Squatters on their Own Lands: The Bedouin of the Negev

As the "peace talks" Theater of the Absurd was taking place in Annapolis, aggression and land grabbing continued in the colonized areas of Israel. The Jewish National Fund is in the process of planning to remove thousands of Bedouin Arabs, who also happen to hold Israeli citizenship, from their ancestral homelands in the Negev Desert to settle Jewish colonists.


Israel’s quiet war
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3490720,00.html
YNet News.

Bedouin lands in south confiscated to make room for more Jewish communities

Fred Schlomka

Published:

01.06.08, 09:06 / Israel Opinion

While Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas were wheeling and dealing at Annapolis, several Israeli government ministries and security agencies were deploying their combined resources in a massive operation aimed at Israel’s southern Negev Desert. While the eyes of the world are on the West Bank and Gaza, Israel is in the middle of a campaign to complete the displacement of Palestinian Arabs who are also Israeli citizens.

The indigenous Bedouin are the target, and their lands are required by the state in order to complete the implementation a master plan for the Negev. The plan relegates the Bedouin to ghetto enclaves while allocating huge swathes of territory for Jewish suburban development and agricultural communities. The Negev is the final frontier inside Israel, the last tract of largely undeveloped land in the state. Israel has virtually completed the dismemberment of Palestinian lands in the center and north of the country, and now is consolidating the “Jewish redemption” of the southern desert.

These Bedouin lands are coveted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) which has published plans to move large numbers of Jews to the Negev. To make way for new JNF communities, the “unrecognized” villages of A-Tir, Um Al-Hiran, and Twail Abu Jarwal were destroyed during 2007 in military-style operations involving large forces of police and soldiers, displacing hundreds of families. The Interior ministry has also sent airborne crop dusters to poison the Bedouin fields with broad-spectrum herbicides. The feared Green Patrol, a paramilitary unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, conducts these operations.

There are over 150,000 Bedouin in the Negev desert, with well-established territorial rights dating back to the Ottoman Era. However, immediately after the founding of the state in 1948, the government began to confiscate land and move the Bedouin to ever decreasing areas, while allocating state resources for the development of new Jewish-only towns and agricultural settlements. Although the Bedouin were eventually granted citizenship of Israel, they were under military rule until 1966.

The cost might be high

Through legislation and various legal mechanisms the state has decreed the Bedouin to be squatters on their own land and thus the courts support the demolition of homes and expulsion of the inhabitants. The JNF, through its “Blueprint Negev” plan, intends to create 25 new towns in the Negev over the coming years, bringing 250,000 new Jewish residents to the region according to its website. The JNF is also planting forests on Bedouin land, such as the Ambassador Forest on the lands of the Elokbi Tribe north of Be’er Sheva.

Such measures would never be taken against Jewish citizens of Israel, who enjoy the right to live almost anywhere in the country in relative luxury, while the Bedouin are relegated to a pitiful remnant of their patrimony. This institutional racism is supported by tax-deductible donations from the USA.

The Bedouin have a long and proud tradition as a people. During the first decades of the state, they gave allegiance to Israel, sent their sons to the army and expected the respect they deserve. They received none. Instead the state as continued its mission to serve only the interests of Jewish citizens, and as a result few Bedouin serve in the IDF today. The cost might be high. Bedouin leaders have warned that the anger simmering under the surface may erupt, and Israel may face a Bedouin uprising, an Intifada within the state. Perhaps it’s time for the State of Israel to become a democracy for the benefit of all its citizens, before it’s too late.

Fred Schlomka is an Israeli businessman and a board member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). He is a 2003 Fellow of the Echoing Green Foundation and the founder of Mosaic Communities in Israel.

Americans are NOT Stupid - Someone Went to Find Out

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

On Veterans' Day - By Veterans

A disabled Navy veteran from California tackles Snowmass Mountain on a mono-ski during the 20th National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic. He called it "the best day of [his] year." 2006

Iraq War Veteran

Beirut, Lebanon, Veterans

THE THINGS THEY CARRIED

They carried P-38 can openers and heat tabs, watches and dog tags, insect repellent, gum, cigarettes, Zippo lighters, salt tablets, compress bandages, ponchos, Kool-Aid, two or three canteens of water, iodine tablets, sterno, LRRP- rations, and C-rations stuffed in socks.

They carried standard fatigues, jungle boots, bush hats, flak jackets and steel pots.

They carried the M-16 assault rifle.

They carried trip flares and Claymore mines, M-60 machine-guns, the M-70 grenade launcher, M-14's, CAR-15's, Stoners, Swedish K's, 66mm Laws, shotguns, .45 caliber pistols, silencers, the sound of bullets, rockets, and choppers, and sometimes the sound of silence.

They carried C-4plastic explosives, an assortment of hand grenades, PRC-25 radios, knives and machetes. Some carried napalm, CBU's and large bombs; some risked their lives to rescue others. Some escaped the fear, but dealt with the death and damage. Some made very hard decisions, and some just tried to survive.

They carried malaria, dysentery, ringworm's and leaches. They carried the land itself as it hardened on their boots. They carried stationery, pencils, and pictures of their loved ones - real and imagined. They carried love for people in the real world and love for one another. And sometimes they disguised that love: "Don't mean nothin'!" They carried memories and, for the most part they carried themselves with poise and a kind of dignity.

Now and then, there were times when panic set in, and people squealed or wanted to, but couldn't; when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said "Dear God" and hugged the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and God and their parents, hoping not to die. They carried the traditions of the United States military, and memories and images of those who served before them.

They carried grief, terror, longing and their reputations. They carried the soldier's greatest fear: the embarrassment of dishonor. They crawled into tunnels, walked point, and advanced under fire, so as not to die of embarrassment. They were afraid of dying, but too afraid to show it. They carried the emotional baggage of men and women who might die at any moment. They carried the weight of the world.

THEY CARRIED EACH OTHER

©Copyright 1990 by Tim O'Brien

from his book, "The Things They Carried"
First Broadway Books trade paperback edition published 1998

AWAKENING

I'm afraid but cannot run
Inside me beats the Celt and Hun
Inside me Turk and Viking too
I have a duty I must do.

Afraid of each other
These different tribes
But, we're all brothers
Claim the scribes.

I see him clear now, he's a Man
coming closer, gun in hand
He sees me hiding, it's too late
With one swift round, I've sealed his fate

He could not run, despite his fears.
I could not run, my eyes run tears.
I killed my brother on that day.
At war the Huns and Vikings play...

©Copyright 2006 by Edward M. McGuire

LIVING WITH ONESELF

How can I forget the look of surprise on her face as my bullets cut her young body in to pieces?

By the time the shooting stopped all innocence had been lost, as we baptised ourselves with the blood of women and children, all in the name of democracy.

The single order to open fire that has led to the loss of so much innocence on the battlefields of war, now robs me of mine also.

Knowing that an eight year old girl is not the enemy, yet obeying the order to kill her anyway.

My conscience seared in order to bury the feelings of remorse even deeper and to hide my guilt from my memory.

What have I done?
Selling my soul to the demonic master of obedience.

©Copyright July 29, 1995 by Richard J. O'Brien

TO MOTHER

Before the battle's started
I think of them departed
But do not dwell as time will tell
If I'm with them soon parted.

Into the shadow of a shadow I crawl
Body wet from putrid earth
I'm wishing as a child I cannot be seen.
The dreaded beast of battle now raises its ugly head
The wounded scream
Have I been seen
Oh God.......................
Mother where are you!

©Copyright 2005 by Ed Orr

A WARRIOR SOUL

She steps out of a dream, stands dark blue cloak, beside my bed
calls me by a name I do not know
Who are you I ask
This lady with hair of flaming red
A smile but answer not
She holds her hand out instead
It seems we must go, but why I ask
A question you asked, she said, so now I show
The fields of battle, you have often walked
and seen and felt the fear of man
Cursed with a warrior soul you are
curse or perhaps for you a blessing it may be
She took me to see the dead on the fields of Gall
picked clean by the women, battle followers there
Baskets full with treasures these men left behind
treasures mean nothing now, the warrior soul has gone away
She said you have walked though many times
returning each time to learn your way

At the hand of battle many a death I have died
still the battle lust runs deep and clear
Memories of blood, the sword as it rings metal to metal
the Gatling as the chopper comes in low
With the hunter's moon, memories of the soul cry out
within shadows we can hide

Forever lonesome is the warrior soul
Then a lesson I did learn
It is I the warrior soul that must reach out
to touch those who care
My own feelings my thoughts my lonesomeness
is a making of but my own
For if I wait for others
I will but find the darkness of my own pity and despair

I have seen death of battle from Gall to Scotland to Asia
I have listened to men cry out as they died
I have seen bodies ripped by sword and gun
And held a friend as his blood bled to the ground
On every field of battle there is beauty
If one but opens their eye's to see
At Gall the wild yellow rose
a promise of life continuing and love and hope
Scotland, a missing arm and eye, I stopped to smell the honeysuckle
I am lucky many will never come this way again
Viet Nam the warrior stops to help a child
beauty is found in the warrior's heart and the smile of the child

This life I think has passed the warrior stage
but was I not meant to die along the way
Some lessons I must have learned
to find gray hair now upon my head
Look at your body, the cloaked lady said
see the marks of battle long past
The place the skin is white and the hair won't grow
It's just a reminder of the African desert campaign
The red mole shaped like a saber wound
just something that came from Scotland long past
You are learning to be humble (not the warrior's lot)
So now remember Russia and the party of the Czar

An officer, blue and red uniform all pressed and proper
To a Lady I did brag, I would kill then all
And in short order be home to her before next year's fall
A brag, then a bullet in my knee I did receive
I lay there in the Russian winter and froze to death
I hope the Lady shed a tear
The Alps I have a small home and family
I walk home after the battle lost, my only treasure my family waiting there
Gone is my home, gone as is my family; to where I do not know
I sit on the rocks of my yard and cry
The warrior soul learns many things
Battle being only one, also how to shed many a tear

I have seen the young in battle fall and return too soon
to but another battle they come, no lessons have they learned
Her red hair flashes as she talks of the dark rain that falls on the field of battle
the rain is but the tears of the warrior whose lesson has been lost
The hunter's moon is in the sky my blood it does make run wild
The streets of Berlin I find myself; it's 1941
The Lady I meet is of the moment a single night but for to spend
The lure of the moon the lust of the night does a passion make to bloom
A quick kind of love does blossom, for tomorrow I am battle bound
An officer of the SS and to Africa I am being sent
A kiss, a wave and off I go, with a promise
thought's of my wife and child, it is to them I must return
I sit upon the sandy hill, to look upon death below
I walk down to help the poor souls there
Before me do I lay, dead not dying
the shell exploded and took us all, no more to live today
Hold to love with all you can
for it may soon be taken away
Grasp and hold every second for
what moment in time do we have but now
Yesterday is gone with tomorrow yet to come
Today could be the last day we are allowed to stay

Many times have come and gone, my warriors memories are near
The body that I dwell in now, not a sword battle has it seen
But the hands love the feel of the hilt, the smell of powder
these make the heart a battle rhythm beat
The warrior soul is challenged now with new wondrous ways
Come now my warrior soul, the new challenge me must meet
I sit and think of many things, many questions do arise
Many times I have returned with old friends soon at my side
Must we all come to learn over and over again
or is it to help a brother or sister warrior soul in need
These questions I cannot answer only God knows for sure
Could it be we need to drop the warrior from our name and just be souls all one and the same

©Copyright June 2007 by James H. Smith

Author's Note: This is the first poem I wrote after returning home from Vietnam. I think it was on an old yellow tablet about ten pages long. Over the years whenever I stumbled upon it, I've rewritten, cleaned it up, and thinned it down. I'm sure I still need to work on it more and will at some later date. Right now I can no longer see what I'm reading when I read it. This is the latest rewrite and I thought I would share. This is based somewhat around a dream. I have no idea what or where the fields of Gall are. Warning! For me it's a long poem.

International War Veterans' Poetry Archives

Judge Allows Torture Lawsuit Against CACI

As public attention is belatedly turned to the abuses by Blackwater, another private contracting company is under scrutiny, this time for alleged prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib in Iraq. The company is California Analysis Center, Inc. (CACI). There is strong evidence to suggest that CACI and another contracting company, TITAN, through an employee by the name of John Israel, have had a hand in the techniques used in the "interrogation" of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. Both CACI and TITAN have strong business ties to the Israeli military and all have used similar physical and psychological torture techniques usually seen used on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody.

Recently, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit to proceed against CACI, for torture crimes by its interrogators. CACI had extensive oversight over its employees during the interrogations.

Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out

A searing interview with Avichai Sharon and Noam Chayut, both veterans of the Israeli Defense Forces and members of Breaking the Silence. Sharon and Chayut served during the second intifada, an on-going bloodbath that has claimed the lives of over three thousand Palestinians and nine-hundred-fifty Israelis. After thorough introspection, these young men have chosen to speak out about their experiences as self-described "brutal occupiers of a disputed land." Producer: Sat Gwin.

Academic Freedom and Overcoming Zionism

'T

''This book is absolutely fundamental for those who reject the unfortunate confusion between Jews, Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel -- a confusion which is the basis for systematic manipulation by the imperialist power system. It convincingly argues in favour of a single secular state for Israelis and Palestinians as the only democratic solution for the region."

Samir Amin, Director of the Third World Forum

Joel Kovel's latest book, Overcoming Zionism, has unleashed the expected systematic attack and repression that academics and politicians have become accustomed to when critiquing Zionist ideology or the Palestinian oppression under a brutal occupation, an occupation that has lasted for over 60 years. Kovel, previously a psychiatrist and psycho-analyst and, currently, Professor of Social Studies at Bard College in New York, is the latest target. But he is not the only one. Pluto Press in London, the United Kingdom, is being targeted by strong Zionist forces.

According to Howard Zinn, historian, playwright, and activist, the University of Michigan Press, after receiving a series of complaining and threatening emails and letters from an ultra-Zionist group called StandWithUs, an offshoot of Campus Watch, a group which monitors Middle East studies in North America under the guise of "improving them," (in reality it acts to censor academic freedoms in areas related to Israel and Zionism) withdrew from distribution Professor Kovel's book, Overcoming Zionism, published by Pluto Press in London, United Kingdom. Since then, following numerous protests by fellow academics and scholars, The University of Michigan Press Executive Board has restored the book to its distribution listings but, ominously, the Board has indicated its intention to reconsider its contract with Pluto Press in mid October.

"The suppression of discussion of Zionism occurs within the context of a broader assault on academic freedom and critical thought; it is a concentrated expression of that assault. We need only look at the tenure battles of Norman Finkelstein (DePaul) and Nadia Abu El-Haj (Barnard), the assault on books written by Mearsheimer and Walt and by former President Jimmy Carter, and the canceling of the play 'My Name is Rachel Corrie' by the New York Theater Workshop."

Professor Kovel's book provides a humanitarian approach to resolving the deadly stalemate that Palestinians and Israelis exist under due to a strongly religious and ideological paradigm cloaked in a guise of quasi-democracy. His argument is that justice for both peoples can only occur under a secular democracy for all the people, unified under one state. That framework is becoming more substantial among many Jews and non-Jews in Israel/Palestine and warrants serious exploration, but strongly ideological forces are resisting even a debate.

Below is the body of the letter sent by Howard Zinn with a request to contact the University of Michigan to encourage them to reconsider terminating their contract with Pluto Press.


Dear Friend:

As you may have heard, in late August of this year, The University of Michigan Press, after receiving a series of complaining and threatening emails and letters from an ultra-Zionist group called StandWithUs, an offshoot of Campus Watch, withdrew from distribution Prof. Joel Kovel's book Overcoming Zionism, published by Pluto Press in London, United Kingdom. Since then, following numerous protests by fellow academics and scholars, The U. of M. Press Executive Board has restored the book to its distribution listings. But, ominously, the Board has indicated its intention to reconsider its contract with Pluto Press in mid October.

Overcoming Zionism is a serious, well researched work espousing a humanistic resolution. It is a valuable addition to the growing debate, in and out of American academia, that is re-examining long held assumptions about the sources of conflict in the Middle East. It should be discussed - supported or refuted ­ but not suppressed.

But even more serious is the University's threat to cancel its distribution contract with Pluto Press. Pluto is a valuable and unique intellectual resource, publishing progressive books of a consistently high quality. It provides an alternative viewpoint essential to discussion and debate of important social issues, such as those concerning Israel/Palestine and the Middle East. The cancellation of Pluto's contract with the University would be a serious blow to the principles of pluralism, academic freedom and free speech.

We urge you to add your voice to those of the many professors and authors that have vigorously protested these actions. We ask that you send a letter or, better yet, an email to U. of M. Press Executive Board Chair Peggy McCracken with copies to University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, Dean Janet A Weiss; and Provost Teresa Sullivan, demanding that the University of Michigan Press continue its contract with Pluto Press. Further, we ask that you forward this request for support and suggested support letter to those on any list that you may maintain or have access to.

We attach a sample letter, below, along with email and postal addressees, for your convenience. Please send this immediately, or feel free to compose your own. Time is of the essence so please act quickly.

Thank you for your kind support.

Sincerely, Howard Zinn For the Committee for an Open Discussion of Zionism www.CODZ.org

Please send your letters and emails to:

Professor Peggy McCracken, Executive Board Chair
University of Michigan Press
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109
peggymcc@umich. edu

President Susan Coleman University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109
presoff@umich. edu

Janet A. Weiss, Dean of the Rackham Graduate School and Vice Provost
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1070
janetw@umich. edu

Teresa A. Sullivan, Provost and Executive Vice-President for Academic Affairs
3074 Fleming Building
University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1340
tsull@umich. edu

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear Professor McCracken: It has come to my attention that The University of Michigan Press has recently withdrawn its distribution of Prof. Joel Kovel's book, Overcoming Zionism and has indicated its intention to review, and perhaps cancel, its distribution contract with the publisher of Prof. Kovel's book, Pluto Press. It is my understanding that these steps were taken immediately following a barrage of complaints from a group called StandWithUs Michgan, an offshoot of the notorious Campus Watch censorship organization. I have heard that distribution of Prof. Kovel's book has been resumed but that the Pluto Press contract remains under a cloud.

Pluto is a valuable intellectual resource, publishing critical and progressive books of consistently high quality. It is a highly respected alternative academic press. Its discontinuation by the U.of M. Press would directly inhibit people?s access to non-mainstream material and would impede critical thought, discussion and debate on important issues, especially those concerning Israel/Palestine and the Middle East.

Further, the University?s suspension of its distribution contract with Pluto Press under these circumstances would constitute a flagrant violation of the principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech. I strongly protest against any such move. My high regard for the University of Michigan would be seriously diminished if such a suspension took place and it would affect any future relationship I might have with the University.

Sincerely,

[SIGN YOUR NAME]

Blackwater, America's Private Army

Blackwater: Blood for Sale

International Day of Peace

The International Day of Peace was established by a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly in 1981 and was celebrated on the Third Tuesday in September. In September 2001, and after the efforts of Jeremy Gilley and the Peace One Day organization, the United Nations, with the leadership of Great Britain and Costa Rica, passed another resolution identifying September 21st as the official day of global peace and as Ceasefire Day. The resolution took effect September 21st 2002 amidst a world embroiled in constant war and turmoil. The first anniversary of the new peace day passed without anyone observing a ceasefire. Since then, however, more governments, countries, groups, businesses, and individuals are celebrating the day in their cities and homes.

The vast majority of war victims are women and children and there are currently at least 45 conflicts in progress around the world.

It is thanks to the efforts of Jeremy Gilley and his volunteers, efforts that spanned years and countless hours of travel, work, filming, and meetings with heads of state and United Nations officials that the day is being observed on a designated date.

According to Ahmad Fawzi, the UN Director of News and Media at the time, people should be patient and not feel discouraged that there were no ceasefire observances on the first anniversary of Ceasefire Day. The seed has been planted and it grows slowly through interviews, lectures, books, peace rallies, informational meetings, press releases, and one person and group at a time. Per Fawzi's words, we have to change our global culture from a culture of war to one of peace and that begins with every one of us.

Gilley captures his journey, the challenges, the hopes, and the process in a movie called PEACE ONE DAY. The world today seems more violent since September 11th, 2001, ironically the day that Ceasefire Day was to be announced by Kofi Annan when the two airplanes struck the World Trade Center.

Civilians killed in the clash in Lebanon

Civilian casualties inside Nahr Al-Bared Refugee Camp. Shelled by the Lebanese Army.

Hot Summer in Lebanon

Possible reasons for the fighting in North Lebanon: from Link T.V.