| September 27, 2008 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 4:00 pm |
What Do the People Say?
Conscience and Faith
US Policies at Home and Abroad
September 27, 2008
Duluth, MN
Click on MN State Assembly for more information and to sign up!
| August 6, 2008 | ||
| 7:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
Peace Lantern Float
Remembering the
63rd Anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
As it enters Hiroshima, the Ohta River splits into six fingers. It was to these waters that tens of thousands fled seeking shelter from the flames of the atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. It is here each August that people gather, as they do in Nagasaki three days later, to float lanterns and to remember: never again.
In Rochester we remember those days to remind ourselves of what we are capable of doing. With nuclear weapons we are capable of destroying the world’s civilization. We are also capable of preventing that destruction. We gather to remind ourselves that the choice is ours.
Rochester commemorates the event in an annual Peace Lantern Floating Ceremony at Silver Lake Park.
WHERE: East picnic shelter at Silver Lake
WHEN: August 6th (Wednesday). If heavy rain, August 10th (Sunday)
7pm: Gather to make lanterns; kits and instructions for making lanterns will be provided.
7:45pm: Ceremony followed by lantern floating at sunset
SPEAKERS: Mayor Ardell Brede and Professor Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer
MUSIC: Campfire II
PLAY: A short play presented by Rochester students
WHY: George Shultz, Sec. of State 1982-89; William Perry, Sec. of Defense 1994-97; Henry Kissinger, Sec. of State 1973-77; Sam Nunn, former chair Senate Armed Services Committee: in an article in the Wall Street Journal Jan. 15, 2008 again point out that the world has reached “a nuclear tipping point” and call for an immediate move toward destruction of all nuclear weapons. They are joined by James Baker, Warren Christopher, William Cohen, Lawrence Eagleburger, Melvin Laird, Robert McNamara and Colin Powell.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB120036422673589947.html
“For the first time in history, both main party candidates have agreed to put America on a path toward a world without nuclear weapons and all the risks they bring.” (June 24, 2008)
http://www.johnkerry.com/news/entry/america_looks_to_a_nuclear_free_world/
WHAT TO DO: Check these web sites for information and suggested actions:
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
http://www.ippnw.org/
International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)
http://www.ippnw.org/Programs/ICAN/index.html
Mayors for Peace http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/index.html
Cities Are Not Targets (CANT) project Petition Drive
http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/topic/list/36.htm
https://www.ssl-hiroins.city.hiroshima.jp/pcf/en/form.htm
WHO: You! Everyone is welcome. All ages please come.
Hire Your Own Cop!
By Steve Clemens. June 2008
For the past twelve years, AlliantACTION has vigiled in front of Alliant Techsystems, Minnesota’s largest arms merchant. After being spun off from Honeywell who grew tired of the protests from the Honeywell Project, Alliant Techsystems, or ATK as it is known by their company logo and in the stock market, first located in an old Honeywell facility in Hopkins, MN. The weekly vigil by local activists started in 1996, focusing on ATK’s manufacture and sale of anti-personnel landmines. After a significant victory in court in 1997 when 79 people were acquitted of trespassing charges under a defense claiming International Law, the Wednesday morning vigil continued to grow in size.
A Prayer Campaign to End the War in Iraq
Franz Jägerstätter: Family Man & Martyr
Because he would not be part of Hitler’s unjust war, he is now Blessed Franz Jägerstätter.
In his cause for sainthood, let the American Church
pray for his intercession for this miracle–that the
war in Iraq will end, with all U.S. troops being
brought home, and hostilities to cease, by the end of
2009. Blessed Franz knows the cost of unjust war, as
do many other holy ones killed by Germany and all
sides in World War II. He is close to God in his
rejection of violence and war as a solution to our
conflicts. Scripture tells us sincere prayer will
always be answered, even if not in the way most
directly expected. Franz is perfectly placed in
eternity to be our intercessor helping end this unjust
war, which harms the American and Iraqi people so
grievously in body and soul.
Reintroducing JFK: Seeing Our Slain President Through a New Lens
by Steve Clemens
Review of James W. Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. 2008)
I had just turned 13 the month before the startling news was broadcast into my 8th grade classroom: President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas and had been rushed to the hospital. It was followed by the bulletin that the President was dead. Lorenzo, my fellow classmate, an Italian Catholic, burst into tears. I sat quietly thinking: at least we got that Papist out of the White House! The anti-Catholic indoctrination I received from my church and parents never allowed me to see JFK as a person, only a symbol of a false religion to reject. Oh, and he was a Democrat as well!
