You Should Know About: Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

America has a serious issue. Our "criminal justice" system is notoriously and immorally biased, classist, and racist. Just recently I came upon a couple compelling articles that I wish to share. . .


http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/70441/ This article on AlterNet is a bit encouraging.

http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/50586.shtml Here is an extremely poignant article about mandatory minimum sentencing, from the perspective of a UU minister serving as a Prison Minister in a women`s correctional facility. My full disclosure: in university I volunteered 2-3x/week doing prison ministry with many convicts who were undeserving of their severe sentences.

http://www.famm.org/ Families Against Mandatory Minimums is an excellent website for grassroots activism. Inform yourself!

You Should Know About: Chaos in Congo

The following article excerpts are from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/07/world/africa/07congo.html?th&emc=th


Eastern Congo is going through another one of its convulsions of violence, and this time it seems that women are being systematically attacked on a scale never before seen here. According to the United Nations, 27,000 sexual assaults were reported in 2006 in South Kivu Province alone, and that may be just a fraction of the total number across the country.

“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s appalling.”

While rape has always been a weapon of war, researchers say they fear that Congo’s problem has metastasized into a wider social phenomenon.

“It’s gone beyond the conflict,” said Alexandra Bilak, who has studied various armed groups around Bukavu, on the shores of Lake Kivu. She said that the number of women abused and even killed by their husbands seemed to be going up and that brutality toward women had become “almost normal.”

Peace at Mt. Fuji

At Mt. Fuji in Japan, on Sunday May 20th, 10,000 people will gather for a Symphony of Peace Prayers Ceremony. Many others worldwide will also join for meditation and prayer. Early risers can meditate with this horde at the appointed hour of 6 AM on Sunday. If you're interested, there's a website: www.globalpeacemeditationprayerday.org

Standing to Save the World

http://www.standingwomen.org/english_story.html

Please stand with us for five minutes of silence at 1 p.m. your local time on May 13, 2007, in your local park, school yard, gathering place, or any place you deem appropriate, to signify your agreement with the statement below. We ask you to invite the men who you care about to join you. We ask that you bring bells to ring at 1 p.m. to signify the beginning of the five minutes of silence and to ring again to signify the end of the period of silence. During the silence, please think about what you individually and we collectively can do to attain this world. If you need to sit rather than stand, please feel free to do so. Afterwards, hopefully you and your loved ones can talk together about how we can bring about this world

Mo Mack and the Peacemakers

I received a number of questions about whether we are still doing our Thursday night gigs, and the answer is YES! Only two performances left!

1st and 3rd Thursdays
7:30 - 9:30
May 3 & 10

Star E Rose Cafe
NE 24th and Alberta

Free and open to the public. Come to hear us sing folk/peace music, and come to sing along!

Help the Vets

It seems our government is not prepared, not able, perhaps not even willing to help the men and women who were sent to war. The following post is written by Rev. Dr. Marilyn Sewell, minister of First Unitarian Church in Portland Oregon.
http://www.marilynsewell.com/Reflections/2007/03/psychological-casualties-of-war.html

PLEASE share the following information with your family and friends. Do you know someone who is a veteran? Who has a family member returning from war?

In good news, the Universe provides. There is help. At a meeting of the People of Faith for Peace, we were introduced to an organization that is offering free counseling to the veterans and families of those involved in the war in Iraq/Afghanistan. http://www.returningveterans.com/

"Mission Statement:
Returning Veterans Resource Project NW is a nonprofit organization comprised of politically unaffiliated and independent mental health professionals who offer free and confidential* counseling to veterans and their families of past and current Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. We believe it is our collective responsibility to offer education, support, and healing for the short and long-term repercussions of military combat on veterans and their families."

Blessings to all of you. Peace to your hearts. tk

Good news today!

Our voices are finally being heard. Some more encouraging NYT articles:

WASHINGTON March 28, 2007 Senate Supports a Pullout Date in Iraq War Bill
By JEFF ZELENY and CARL HULSE

And a hip, hip, hooray for Oregon and Nebraska, represented in this article:

"The outcome of the Senate vote took both parties by surprise. Republicans were stung by the defection of Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who has not supported a timetable for withdrawal before although he is his party’s most outspoken critic of the war in Congress.
“There will not be a military solution to Iraq,” Mr. Hagel declared. “Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there. It doesn’t belong to the United States. Iraq is not a prize to be won or lost.”
The Democrats also gained the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, who voted against a withdrawal date just two weeks ago.
“People want our troops home,” Mr. Nelson said.
The two other senators who crossed party lines were Gordon H. Smith, an Oregon Republican, who supported the withdrawal date. . ."



BUSINESS March 28, 2007 Burger King Shifts Policy on Animals
By ANDREW MARTIN Animal welfare advocates called the chain’s shift to more humane egg and meat production a “historic advance.”