MIXED BAG

• I head out early tomorrow for Florida where I will be for the next week. I am meeting my cousin in Sarasota to watch three Baltimore Orioles spring training baseball games. I'll be staying at the home of Maine friends Selma & Hersch Sternlieb who spent the winter there. Selma has organized a talk for me on Friday, March 16 at 7:00 pm at the Unitarian Church in Bradenton. She has also arranged for me to do a radio interview while in town so I should be kept busy. I'll have my laptop and cell phone so can be easily contacted.
• Once I get home I will have two weeks to prepare for my 30-day west coast speaking tour that will be hosted in 23 cities from San Diego, California to Bellingham, Washington. I am really excited about this trip and have already sent two boxes of newsletters, books, and bumper stickers to early hosts.
  
• It was sad and disgusting to hear about the U.S. soldier who just killed 16 innocent people in Afghanistan. This comes on top of the recent burning of the Koran by U.S. troops stationed there. Our military occupation of that country, costing us at least $10 billion every month, is becoming more of a flash point every day. The people in the U.S. need to push hard and call for us to bring our troops and our war dollars home now.
• Now that the three members of Veterans For Peace are going to Jeju Island I will next start work on getting another group of three people to go there in early-to-mid April. Let me know if you are interested in spending two weeks protesting alongside the Gangjeong villagers.
• Vermonters went to their town meetings last week to settle questions about local governance. They also decided to take on the corrupt campaign system that is steering the nation toward catastrophe. 64 towns voted that we should amend the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that said corporations have the free speech rights of people. “The resounding results will send a strong message that corporations and billionaires should not be allowed to buy candidates and elections with unlimited, undisclosed spending on political campaigns,” declared U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt). Vermonters are not the first to move to amend. Referendums have already passed in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin. Cities across the country, including Los Angeles, have urged Congress to begin the amendment process. State legislatures in Hawaii and New Mexico have as well.