HEADING SOUTH

Jeju Catholic parish leader, Bishop Kang Woo Il said, "Gangjeong is a holy and living place where we can hold Mass anytime and as the parish leader I will allow mass at anytime."

We are packing up the car and preparing to head south to Massachusetts for the Global Network conference. This morning an email was waiting for me from GN board member Wooksik Cheong in Seoul, South Korea saying, "They [villagers] asked me that it is possible of next international conference of GN to be held Gangjeong? They think the int'l meeting will be a big help for stopping a base construction."

I immediately wrote him back and said that we would discuss the invitation at our meeting this weekend. How could we dare say no?

Professor Yang Yoon-Mo is now in his 67th day of hunger striking and appears to be in the hospital. We are all gravely concerned about him. Sung-Hee Choi, still in jail, has resumed her hunger strike in solidarity with Yang. The villagers are deeply worried about her as they have depended on her so heavily to be their link to the international peace community. She has brought people from all over the world repeatedly to the Gangjeong village and has been a key person in helping spread their message far and wide.

They all will be on our minds this weekend as we meet in Massachusetts. Looks like we have GN leaders coming from eight countries and from throughout the U.S. - from Florida to Oregon. We are grateful to the Merrimack Valley People for Peace for hosting us in their neck of the woods.

We meet our GN chairperson Dave Webb (CND) from England at noon today to go over everything before the conference begins on Friday with a protest vigil at Raytheon in Andover as the workers leave the facility. We are fortunate that Joanne Sheehan (War Resisters League), and renowned peace movement cook, will be preparing our dinners on Friday and Saturday night. It should be a great time.