NOTES FROM INSIDE NEW ORLEANS

By Jordan Flaherty

Friday, September 2, 2005

I just left New Orleans a couple hours ago. I traveled from the apartment
I was staying in by boat to a helicopter to a refugee camp. If anyone
wants to examine the attitude of federal and state officials towards the victims
of hurricane Katrina, I advise you to visit one of the refugee camps.

In the refugee camp I just left, on the I-10 freeway near Causeway,
thousands of people (at least 90% black and poor) stood and squatted in
mud and trash behind metal barricades, under an unforgiving sun, with heavily
armed soldiers standing guard over them. When a bus would come through,
it would stop at a random spot, state police would open a gap in one of the
barricades, and people would rush for the bus, with no information given
about where the bus was going. Once inside (we were told) evacuees would
be told where the bus was taking them - Baton Rouge, Houston, Arkansas,
Dallas, or other locations. I was told that if you boarded a bus bound
for Arkansas (for example), even people with family and a place to stay in
Baton Rouge would not be allowed to get out of the bus as it passed
through Baton Rouge. You had no choice but to go to the shelter in Arkansas. If
you had people willing to come to New Orleans to pick you up, they could
not come within 17 miles of the camp.

I traveled throughout the camp and spoke to Red Cross workers, Salvation
Army workers, National Guard, and state police, and although they were
friendly, no one could give me any details on when buses would arrive, how
many, where they would go to, or any other information. I spoke to the
several teams of journalists nearby, and asked if any of them had been
able to get any information from any federal or state officials on any of these
questions, and all of them, from Australian tv to local Fox affiliates
complained of an unorganized, non-communicative, mess. One cameraman told
me "as someone who's been here in this camp for two days, the only
information I can give you is this: get out by nightfall. You don't want
to be here at night."

There was also no visible attempt by any of those running the camp to set
up any sort of transparent and consistent system, for instance a line to
get on buses, a way to register contact information or find family
members, special needs services for children and infirm, phone services, treatment
for possible disease exposure, nor even a single trash can.

To understand the dimensions of this tragedy, its important to look at New
Orleans itself.

For those who have not lived in New Orleans, you have missed a incredible,
glorious, vital, city. A place with a culture and energy unlike anywhere
else in the world. A 70% African-American city where resistance to white
supremacy has supported a generous, subversive and unique culture of vivid
beauty. From jazz, blues and hiphop, to secondlines, Mardi Gras Indians,
Parades, Beads, Jazz Funerals, and red beans and rice on Monday nights,
New Orleans is a place of art and music and dance and sexuality and liberation
unlike anywhere else in the world.

It is a city of kindness and hospitality, where walking down the block can
take two hours because you stop and talk to someone on every porch, and
where a community pulls together when someone is in need. It is a city of
extended families and social networks filling the gaps left by city, state
and federal governments that have abdicated their responsibility for the
public welfare. It is a city where someone you walk past on the street not
only asks how you are, they wait for an answer.

It is also a city of exploitation and segregation and fear. The city of
New Orleans has a population of just over 500,000 and was expecting 300
murders this year, most of them centered on just a few, overwhelmingly
black, neighborhoods. Police have been quoted as saying that they don't
need to search out the perpetrators, because usually a few days after as shooting, the attacker is shot in revenge.

There is an atmosphere of intense hostility and distrust between much of
Black New Orleans and the N.O. Police Department. In recent months,
officers have been accused of everything from drug running to corruption
to theft. In separate incidents, two New Orleans police officers were
recently charged with rape (while in uniform), and there have been several
high profile police killings of unarmed youth, including the murder of
Jenard Thomas, which has inspired ongoing weekly protests for several
months.

The city has a 40% illiteracy rate, and over 50% of black ninth graders
will not graduate in four years. Louisiana spends on average $4,724 per
child's education and ranks 48th in the country for lowest teacher
salaries. The equivalent of more than two classrooms of young people drop
out of Louisiana schools every day and about 50,000 students are absent
from school on any given day. Far too many young black men from New
Orleans end up enslaved in Angola Prison, a former slave plantation where
inmates still do manual farm labor, and over 90% of inmates eventually die
in the prison. It is a city where industry has left, and most remaining
jobs are are low-paying, transient, insecure jobs in the service economy.

Race has always been the undercurrent of Louisiana politics. This
disaster is one that was constructed out of racism, neglect and
incompetence. Hurricane Katrina was the inevitable spark igniting the
gasoline of cruelty and corruption. From the neighborhoods left most at
risk, to the treatment of the refugees to the the media portrayal of the
victims, this disaster is shaped by race.

Louisiana politics is famously corrupt, but with the tragedies of this
week our political leaders have defined a new level of incompetence. As
hurricane Katrina approached, our Governor urged us to "Pray the hurricane
down" to a level two. Trapped in a building two days after the hurricane,
we tuned our battery-operated radio into local radio and tv stations,
hoping for vital news, and were told that our governor had called for a
day of prayer. As rumors and panic began to rule, they was no source of solid
dependable information. Tuesday night, politicians and reporters said the
water level would rise another 12 feet - instead it stabilized. Rumors
spread like wildfire, and the politicians and media only made it worse.

While the rich escaped New Orleans, those with nowhere to go and no way to
get there were left behind. Adding salt to the wound, the local and
national media have spent the last week demonizing those left behind. As
someone that loves New Orleans and the people in it, this is the part of
this tragedy that hurts me the most, and it hurts me deeply.

No sane person should classify someone who takes food from indefinitely
closed stores in a desperate, starving city as a "looter," but that's just
what the media did over and over again. Sheriffs and politicians talked
of having troops protect stores instead of perform rescue operations.

Images of New Orleans' hurricane-ravaged population were transformed into
black, out-of-control, criminals. As if taking a stereo from a store that
will clearly be insured against loss is a greater crime than the
governmental neglect and incompetence that did billions of dollars of
damage and destroyed a city. This media focus is a tactic, just as the
eighties focus on "welfare queens" and "super-predators" obscured the
simultaneous and much larger crimes of the Savings and Loan scams and mass
layoffs, the hyper-exploited people of New Orleans are being used as a
scapegoat to cover up much larger crimes.

City, state and national politicians are the real criminals here. Since
at least the mid-1800s, its been widely known the danger faced by flooding to
New Orleans. The flood of 1927, which, like this week's events, was more
about politics and racism than any kind of natural disaster, illustrated
exactly the danger faced. Yet government officials have consistently
refused to spend the money to protect this poor, overwhelmingly black,
city. While FEMA and others warned of the urgent impending danger to New
Orleans and put forward proposals for funding to reinforce and protect the
city, the Bush administration, in every year since 2001, has cut or
refused to fund New Orleans flood control, and ignored scientists warnings of
increased hurricanes as a result of global warming. And, as the dangers
rose with the floodlines, the lack of coordinated response dramatized
vividly the callous disregard of our elected leaders.

The aftermath from the 1927 flood helped shape the elections of both a US
President and a Governor, and ushered in the southern populist politics of
Huey Long.

In the coming months, billions of dollars will likely flood into New
Orleans. This money can either be spent to usher in a "New Deal" for the
city, with public investment, creation of stable union jobs, new schools,
cultural programs and housing restoration, or the city can be "rebuilt and
revitalized" to a shell of its former self, with newer hotels, more
casinos, and with chain stores and theme parks replacing the former
neighborhoods, cultural centers and corner jazz clubs.

Long before Katrina, New Orleans was hit by a hurricane of poverty,
racism, disinvestment, deindustrialization and corruption. Simply the damage from
this pre-Katrina hurricane will take billions to repair.

Now that the money is flowing in, and the world's eyes are focused on
Katrina, its vital that progressive-minded people take this opportunity to
fight for a rebuilding with justice. New Orleans is a special place, and
we need to fight for its rebirth.

-----------------------------------------------
Jordan Flaherty is a union organizer and an editor of Left Turn Magazine
(www.leftturn.org). He is not planning on moving out of New Orleans.

RICH GET OUT - POOR LEFT BEHIND

The U.S. Senate is now poised to vote on the repeal of the estate tax. At a time when our nation is hemorrhaging, our wise "leaders" want to give more tax cuts to the rich. Can you believe it?

I heard people in New Orleans, in the last 24 hours, tell how rich folks in fancy hotels were taken out of the city in SUV's while working class people, holed up in the same hotels, were not allowed to escape in those same SUV's. They were told there was no room for them as the rich folks filled the vehicles with their luggage and expensive possessions.

Another story is about two hospitals in New Orleans. One is at the private Tulane University and the other, just across the street is called Charity Hospital. Tulane University Medical Center has a helicopter pad on the roof. They had 1,000 of their patients evacuated soon after the hurricane. The patients in Charity Hospital, poor people, are still sitting in their squalid conditions. Someone at Charity got the good idea to move their most dire cases across the flooded road on canoes to Tulane Med Center. Then up eight flights of stairs they carried the critical patients to the helicopter pad. They had finally made some arrangements to get a chopper to pick up these folks. The helicopter took the patients to the New Orleans international airport which has, in part, been turned into an emergency medical evacuation center. When the helicopter put down they were turned away. No word yet what happened to the Charity Hospital patients on the chopper. Many more of the suffering poor still sit inside of Charity Hospital waiting for help.

I heard the FEMA director say last night on TV that his office has "just heard" about the thousands of people stranded at the Convention Center in the city. Eyewitnesses told the media that 10 people had already died there and the people there are without food and water now for the 5th day. Now I had known about the people at the Convention Center for the past couple of days. It has been all over the news....but somehow the head of FEMA (the emergency management agency for the federal government) had just heard of this situation. Can this be believed?

The news has reported that 30% of the population of New Orleans had incomes below the national poverty guidelines. It was a city of workers who served the tourist industry - hotel workers, cooks, dishwashers, and the like. The federal government does not give a damn about the poor in this country, we all know that, and we are now seeing the results of this attitude.

It ought to make all of us come to our senses. This country is run by the rich, for the rich and the rest of us are on our own when the shit hits the fan. And on top of all that, the rich want even more tax cuts by repealing the estate tax. By repealing that tax the rich will ensure that they can pass on even more wealth to their children. So for the next generation the divide between the rich and the poor will grow even wider.

The tragedy in New Orleans is a warning sign. Put your ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train coming. See how the working class and the poor will be treated as our economy begins its collapse. Jobs are moving out of America. Scientists are now saying, that because of global warming, the hurricanes in the future will be more severe because the oceans are becoming warmer and this causes hurricanes to increase in ferocity. So there will be more devastations like New Orlenas in the future. Open you eyes and see what is going on. You might be next.

In the meantime we are blowing YOUR TAX DOLLAR$ on a war for oil in Iraq. Star Wars research and development is eating up tens of billions of YOUR TAX DOLLAR$ every year. It's your future we are talking about here.

NATIONALIZE THE OIL CORPORATIONS

This picture speaks for itself...the oil corporations will make out like bandits from this human and ecological disaster. Isn't it time to nationalize the oil corporations?

A city scene from New Orleans with the Superdome in the fore ground. It is devastating to see the human, physical, and environmental damage that has been done to these three states coastal regions as a result of the hurricane. It is hard to imagine how the government(s) will be able to afford to rebuild these communities any time soon. What will happen to the hundreds of thousands of people who now have no home, no job, and little future? The states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama have very low tax bases so they won't have many resources to apply. The federal government, already spending over $4 billion a month on the Iraq war, is now in fiscal crisis. How will the nation be able to help these people? What will happen?

The Portland and Bangor newspapers in Maine reported today, on the front page, our plans for a peaceful protest on Sept 10. The Navy's Blue Angels will come to the Brunswick Naval Air Station to "perform." The protest is being sponsored by Maine Veterans for Peace and I am coordinating the event. Cindy Sheehan and Kathy Kelly will be speaking at the protest. Already hate mail has begun to pour into the VfP web site and I have received angry phone calls at my office. Some people feel we have no right to protest at the Navy base. They say the airshow is family entertainment. VfP maintains that it is a recruiting gimmick for the military - in these days when enlistment numbers are sagging. Others say, that because the Navy base has just been put on the base closure list (set to shut down in 2011) we have no right to protest there. Others say Cindy Sheehan has no right to come to Maine to protest. Should the peace movement have to request permission in order to protest in public? Should we take a poll of the public and if the public thinks the protest "not at the right time or place" should we back off? I think not. Did Martin Luther King ask for permission before he led civil rights activists over the Edmund Pettis bridge into Selma, Alabama? Did King cancel the protest because controversy would ensue? Did Gandhi cancel plans for his salt march knowing that it would be controversial? Should Cindy Sheehan not have gone to Crawford, Texas because it would open up "wounds" in the hearts of Americans? I think the peace movement must shine a light on the manifestations of violence in our culture. We must do so with a non-violent spirit, but we must not fear the inevitable conflict that will result. The great American abolitionist Frederick Douglas said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning."

Growing numbers of U.S. soldiers in Iraq are showing their disenchantment with the war. The Bush team has responded by increasing their recruitment of mercenary troops from Latin American countries (El Salvador, Honduras, Columbia, etc). Some in the peace movement predict a coming draft. I don't see it happening any time soon. The legions of jobs leaving the U.S. will ensure that poor and working class kids will keep joining the military as few other options exist for them.

The Lewiston office window of Maine Republican Senator Susan Collins sported an anti-war sign for six hours on Friday. Inside the office we read the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and an equal number of innocent Iraqi civilians. A high proportion of the Iraqi names were children and elderly. We are demanding that the senator hold a public town hall meeting on Iraq in the state. Her staff has advised us that she does not feel comfortable with large crowds.

READING THE NAMES IN LEWISTON, MAINE

Today for six hours, in the Lewiston ground-floor office window of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), sat the blue anti-war yard sign that reads "War is not the answer." Inside the office about 50 people participated at some point during the long six-hour day of reading the names of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq and an equal number of innocent Iraqi civilians who have been killed since the U.S. "preemptive" shock and awe attack in 2003.

Today was the fifth time in recent months that peace activists from around Maine occupied a congressional office to bring the reality of war to the politicians who continue to ignore growing public opinion. Previous readings have been done in Portland, Bangor and now today in the working-class town of Lewiston.

The office of Sen. Collins sits on the busy downtown Lisbon Street which was full of cars and pedestrian traffic all day long. Just across the street from the senator's office sits a small park where we set up a staging area with many signs, banners, a table and literature. Peter Stewart (South Montville) sat at the table all day long talking with passers-by and was even successful in getting a few of them to cross the street and join the office occupation for awhile. One mother and her child entered the office and rang the bell for a spell that chimed for six long hours after each name was read.

The local Lewiston Sun Journal sent a reporter and photographer. The photographer stayed for what seemed like several hours taking an enormous amount of pictures. One particular photo background shot he worked on for some time was the one of the Bush and Cheney pictures on the office wall. One local TV station also came and took extensive footage and did an interview.

Dud Hendrick and Pat Wheeler once again came down from Deer Isle and brought the huge banner that was blank except for the words "Iraq War Dead." As each name was read an X ( red or black) was marked. By the end of the day the banner was completely covered in X-marks.

At one point I stepped outside for a break. When I came back in I noticed that the framed pictures of Bush and Cheney had been taken off the wall and were sitting face down on a table. I later learned that Maureen Block (Swanville) had taken them down - surely noticed at some point by the staffpersons who took turns at the reception desk - but never to be returned to the wall.

Richard Clement (Gardiner), one of many Veterans for Peace members present today, once again brought his large notebook full of U.S. soldier names. There was one difference today though. Richard has now had to go to a second notebook to hold the growing list of names of dead GI's. Richard's own son just recently returned from a year in Iraq. At one point, when Casey Sheehan's name was read, the whole room froze as his name is one we all know.

Months ago Karen Wainberg (Portland), Mary Beth Sullivan (Brunswick), and I met with some folks from the Lewiston area to plan today's action. We were impressed with the way they spread the word throughout their community, did media work (one local radio newsman did an advance story and it ran on five local stations), and they showed up and were there until the end. Judy & Kevin Simpson, Bonnie Shulman, and Bonnie Lounsbury (all from the Lewiston/Auburn area) were great organizers for this reading of the names and we are grateful to them.

After the action several asked when do we do it again. They felt we must continue to put pressure on our senators to hold a town hall meeting on Iraq. (Our pressure on Rep. Tom Allen eventually forced him to hold one on July 17 in Portland that 500 people attended.)

We will be doing this again soon. We are now talking about visiting the office of Sen. Olympia Snowe in Biddeford next, perhaps sometime in mid-October. First we need to line up some local organizers, have a meeting with them, and then promote the action.

Each time we hold these reading of the names we get more new people to turn out. This is what we are trying to do. We are trying to get people who feel strongly about the war to take a step out into action. The reading of the names is a heart-rending and effective way to bring the war home. Please join us in the future.

Oops! Guess I got my facts wrong again. Just wishful thinking on my part. It is interesting to note these days that Bush likes to hang out in places with very little human population - Utah, Idaho. Where next? Maybe the moon or Mars? Bang zoom to the moon G.W.!!! Hey not a bad idea. Atomic Bob, Dunbar and Vic will lead the way on a nuclear rocket! (Sorry guys, just funnin. You know how G.W. likes to tease.)

Here is a photo of a real, live, U.S. Army tank in Iraq. Several of my ardent critics have clearly shown that my earlier photo of a tank was not in Iraq but Israel. (Though I'd strongly claim it was made in the USA - one of the few things that are these days.) So it is actually true that the U.S. has tanks in Iraq and is daily using them to destroy people, fire depleted uranium shells that will leave radioactive toxic contamination for thousands of years to come, and kill many innocent Iraqi people. Let the critics have at it now!

Bush is having to get back out on the road to sell his war to a public growing increasingly opposed to the failing policy of occupation in Iraq. I watched much of his speech to the VFW in Salt Lake City via C-SPAN today and the tepid applause from the audience throughout the speech indicated it was not going over well. The mayor of Salt Lake City had called for protests of the Bush visit and another mother of a dead GI in Iraq, from the Gold Star Families for Peace, traveled there to speak against the Bush war plan. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) was all over the news yesterday calling Bush's war "another Vietnam." Humpty dumpty had a great fall, and all the kings horses and all the kings men could not put humpty back together again!

The Army has announced that they are planning for the U.S. to continue its occupation of Iraq for at least the next four years. Is there any doubt that the U.S. government (controlled today by the oil and weapons industries) has no intention of ever leaving? Last night I got an e-mail from a Maine friend who has a son in Iraq. He just got there and killed his first Iraqi a couple of days ago. He told his parents he barely missed being killed himself. Why do we have to stay in Iraq any longer? How many more innocent lives must be lost? How much more of our hard-earned tax dollars must be wasted there before the American people speak out with a resounding and emphatic NO?

BULLDOG CAMP

Just back from five lovely nights at Bulldog Camp up in northern Maine. The rustic camp of about 8 small log cabins sits next to Enchanted Pond.

Mary Beth, and our friend from Portland Karen Wainberg, and I shared the expenses and the cabin. We took a couple long hikes, heard the loons sing one evening, took a couple canoe trips, picked wild blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. We took turns cooking for each other and read while sitting on the cabin's porch overlooking the pond (it was quite a large lake but Mainers call them ponds. Don't know why.) On the other side of the pond was a large mountain that some said looks like a bulldog. I didn't see it.

I read two books while there, one a historical novel about the Haymarket affair in Chicago in the late 1880's when political activists were framed and hung for a riot that was largely caused by the police. It was a moving story and illustrated how the powers that be will use all resources at hand (media, police, courts, etc) to try to stop social justice movements -- in this particular instance the movement for the 8-hour work day. The leading economic elites of the time were determined to kill the movement.

Mary Beth and Karen read my new book and gave me good reviews. Since I got home I've heard from three others giving me the high sign so I am feeling quite good about the early reactions to it.

The cabins had no electricity and no hot water. We used gas lamps for light and had to heat water on the stove to wash up with. It was truly a Maine woods experience and I would have liked to stay for two weeks - the only downside was the bed's mattress was bad and my back is crying out. Our two dogs loved the trip and were free to run wild and they surely did.

So now back to work but the memory of Bulldog camp will linger for awhile....

Cindy Sheehan speaking outside of Bush's Texas vacation ranch. Cindy will be in Brunswick, Maine on September 10 to speak at the Veterans for Peace march that will protest the Navy's Blue (Hell's) Angels jet performance team. Brunswick Naval Air Station will host the Hell's Angels the weekend of September 10-11. The slogan of the protest will be - Real angels don't drop bombs!

COORDINATOR TRIP REPORT - NORTHWEST

This report covers the period of July 28 - Aug 10 as I traveled to the northwest for a speaking tour in Oregon, Washington, and Canada.

Before I left I did several radio interviews on Oregon stations promoting the trip. Stuart Henderson (Florence) served as the coordinator for my Oregon trip that took me to Portland, Corvallis, Florence, Eugene, Salem and Hood River. In Washington I spoke in Olympia, Seattle, Suquamish, at the Ground Zero peace community near the Bangor Trident submarine base, and in Bellingham. Then my last stop was in Victoria, British Columbia. All together I drove 1,200 miles and took several ferry rides in the beautiful Pacific ocean waters.

The Florence, Oregon talk was especially exciting as Stuart worked hard to turn out double the crowd they normally get for such events. Stuart even put flyers on cars in this tourist-busy coastal town in order to spread the word.

In Eugene my host, Michael Carrigan, took me to a noon-time hour-long interview on the local college public radio station that is heard throughout the region. My talk that evening in Eugene was again well attended and I was particularly pleased that Lane County Commissioner Peter Sorenson attended. Sorenson is now a candidate for governor - running against the unpopular incumbent governor who is a Democrat. One of his major themes in the campaign is opposition to the war in Iraq. This was the first day my new book, Come Together Right Now, was available and I sold one box of them that evening. Michael also arranged for me to meet with the editorial board at his local newspaper.

I was in Seattle for several days thanks to retired Episcopal minister Bob Beveridge. Bob, and his wife Berta, took good care of me. They led me to several great events held around the 60th anniversary of the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. My talk at Bob's church, St. Mark's Cathedral was well attended and the next day Bob and I took a ferry out to Bainbridge island to join a Buddhist Peace Walk. It was nice to walk the 12 miles that day after having been in a car for a week straight. The three-week walk began at the Hanford nuclear facility, and ended at the Bangor submarine base. On August 8, about 75 of us gathered at the base gates at 5:00 am to greet the thousands of sailors entering the base for work. Twenty folks blockaded the front gate and backed the traffic up for at least a half-hour before they were arrested and taken away.

While participating in the walk I was able to speak to two different gatherings of folks who turned out to support the walk. A member of Veterans for Peace, Mark Wilson, also spoke. He announced he is running for the U.S. Senate in Washington. It was good to hear a candidate speaking the truth about the war and the need for economic conversion. Very refreshing stuff.

On August 6, Bob and Beta took me to Seattle's "From Hiroshima to Hope" lantern floating ceremony at Green Lake. Well over 1,200 people attended this moving event that began with music and theatrical remembrances of the tragic nuclear bombing. This was the 20th year of the ceremony where people placed candlelit lanterns in the lake at dusk, creating a magical scene. I was very touched by the whole event.

On August 8, after the dawn demonstration at the submarine base, I drove north and spoke in Bellingham, just a few miles below the Canadian border. Long-time friends Dorie and John Belisle moved there about nine years ago from Florida and started an apple farm. Their kids had come to the Florida Youth Peace Camp for several years that I ran while working with the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. Today, in addition to the farm, Dorie works with local farmers to get them to plant trees along creeks and river beds on their land in order to protect the water bodies and ensure salmon survival -- as the fish are diminishing these days. John serves on the local planning commission to try to stop the rapid destruction of farm land for suburban living. He and I spent time talking about how peak oil will impact farm life and suburbia as prices of oil rise and supplies dramatically diminish in coming years.

From the Belisle farm I drove seven miles north to the Canadian border. Canadian immigration made me sit for 30 minutes as they ran computer background checks on me after hearing I was a political activist. They got hung up on my past arrests for non-violent civil disobedience and I had to spend time explaining the nature of the actions over the phone to one of their supervisors. Fortunately I finally was allowed into the country, but as a result of the delay I missed my scheduled ferry ride to Victoria.

After a wait I took the next ferry ride to Victoria and was amazed at the beautiful islands along the trip. (On the ferry ride back to Washington I was to see several Orca whales jumping out of the water.) Immediately after arriving in Victoria I was taken to a CBC radio interview to promote my talk at the university that evening. A potluck supper was held at the home of my host Susan Clarke. There I met several transplanted Americans who had moved to Salt Spring Island, just off the coast of Victoria. They had much to say about their reasons for leaving the U.S. - something I hear many people say they'd like to do these days.

My talk at the university was well attended and well received. I read from my new book at the start and end of the talk. My last chapter in the book is about America's addiction to war and violence and the need for a national 12-step program to heal our passion for war. Before I read from the last chapter I shared the story about my own family life - one of alcoholism and domestic violence. My military step-father had returned from Korea and Vietnam, never dealing with his emotions from the war experiences, and turned to drinking and violence to relieve his suffering soul. I told how he had often beaten me. Throughout this trip I had seven people approach me telling me that this was their story as well.

During the Buddhist Peace Walk one monk told me that a woman had been crying in their temple the night before when they returned there to sleep after my talk. They asked her why she was crying and she said that her husband had come back from Vietnam with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and had turned to alcohol and regularly beat her son. Her son had significant problems as a result and was now in prison. The monk told me my story had touched her heart.

Conversion was the central message of my trip. I said over and over again that we must convert the military industrial complex to sustainable technology development. And I said, we must heal the broken hoop - we need to convert the warlike heart of the American nation and the American people.

While in Seattle the Navy's "Blue Angels" jet performance team was making tremendous noise over that city. I began to refer to them as the "Hell's Angels" in my talks. That same Navy Hells Angels flight team comes to Brunswick, Maine on September 10-11 and I am now organizing a statewide demonstration to oppose their visit on Saturday, September 10. Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier that died in Iraq who is camping outside George W. Bush's Texas ranch at this very minute, will be one of the speakers at our event. Our theme is that real angels don't drop bombs.

In the closing chapter of my book I say this, "After awhile this proclivity to violence turns to ugly addiction. We, as a culture, begin to celebrate it and brag on our prowess. We romanticize the wars and the warriors. We idolize the weapons and stand in wonder as the warplanes fly overhead in celebration of our collective insanity. And insanity it is. If you doubt it, just ask some of the people whose countries we have invaded."

JUST BACK AND WORN OUT

Just got back at noon today from my trip out west. Was supposed to arrive last night but once again the airlines are falling apart at the seams and my plane out of Seattle was delayed 3 hours so I missed my connection home to Portland. Had to spend the night in Atlanta, thankfully Delta paid for the hotel, but I didn't get alot of sleep last night.

My last couple of trips have all had serious airline delays and cancellations. The whole airport scene, not matter which major airline hub I fly into, is very chaotic these days. I know most airlines are in financial trouble but their service is getting worse, and their flying customers are frustrated and furious.

My last talk (Aug 9) in Victoria, British Columbia was outstanding as the audience was alive and engaged. The Canadians are really paying attention to the issues, frankly generally more educated than the Americans I speak with. And they are much more responsive and furious about what they see the U.S. doing. If only more folks in the U.S. were as passionate we'd be better off today than we are.

I am busy signing books this evening and putting them in envelopes as we can now fill our hundreds of orders for my new book. I hope to have all the orders filled by this weekend.

I plan to post my northwest trip report on the blog in the next day or so.

Next week I go on a week long vacation to a northern Maine camp and will not be writing on the blog. No phones, internet, e-mails or anything. I need a rest. I am tired but my spirit is strong as ever. See you all soon.

This is the apple farm outside of Bellingham, Washington that I just visited. Friends John & Dorie Belisle at Bellewood Acres struggle to keep their business alive by hard work, smart marketing, and community service. Dorie is a leader in local sustainable agriculture programs and John serves on the county planning commission to try to limit growth that is chewing up available farm lands for suburban living. They made it possible for me to bring the Global Network message to their community.

SUB BASE PROTEST

I was up at 4am to get ready for a 5am protest at the Bangor, Washington submarine base. Abut 75 folks folks gathered at the front gate as the navy personnel entered the base. Twenty folks blocked the front gate and were arrested. Buddhist monks, who lead a 3-week walk to the base, were there at the front gate drumming and chanting. Everyone was surprised at the lack of negative response as the folks drove into the base after having traffice backed up for well over 1/2 hour. Only saw a couple of very negative responses. The sub base is home of the west coast Trident nuclear submarine fleet.

Following the action I drover further north to Bellingham and will speak here tonight and in the morning head on to Victoria in Canada for a talk there. Then on Aug 10 I head back to Seattle to fly home.

Am visiting old friends from Florida who have an apple orchard outside of Bellingham. They've been here about 10 years and have been inviting me to visit for many years.

BANGOR PEACE WALK

Yesterday I join the Hanford to Bangor Peace Walk that is heading to the submarine base where the Trident II missile subs are docked. I walked about 14 miles along with 30 other folks. The walk is being led by the Buddhist order Nipponzan Myohoji, the order that does peace walks around the world. The walk made it as far as Squamish, the place where Chief Seattle is buried.

Thursday night I spoke to a good audience at the St. Marks Episcopal Church in Seattle. Retired Episcopal minister Bob Beveridge has scheduled me four days worth of activities in the Seattle area. This evening we will attend the Hiroshima memorial service and lantern floating ceremony. On Sunday we will head back to the walk and to a day long non-violence program at Ground Zero, the name of the anti-nuclear activist group that has been protesting at the Bangor sub base for 30 or so years. I will speak there, stay the night, and then attend a protest at the base gates early Monday morning. Monday afternoon I will be back on the road heading north to speak in Bellingham, WA.

Long-time Florida friends John & Dorie Belisle moved to Bellingham years ago and bought an apple orchard there. They've been inviting me up for a visit for many years and now it will be possible to make the trip.

OLYMPIA

I spoke in Olympia, WA tonight on a panel talking about the need to get rid of nuclear weapons and Star Wars. I dragged my weary bones up here today from Hood River, Oregon where I spoke last night. I swam yesterday in the beautiful river that flows from the nearby mountains. Before that I was in Salem and Eugene. After one week on the road I am feeling the road weariness and look forward to getting to bed as soon as I get this written. In the morning I prepare to head to Seattle for a couple days of events there.

I am staying at the home long long-time Global Network member Holly Gwinn Graham who is also one of our great singer/songwriters who has written many fine space protest songs. Jackie Cabasso, from the group Abolition Now, is staying here and also spoke on the panel this evening.

Holly's home has a great view of the water, which is part of the lower fingers of Puget Sound, from her from door. A very special spot.

BOOK SELLS

Spoke to 75 people in Eugene last night and had the first test of how my book would sell. I had one box (32 books) shipped overnight to Eugene. After the talk sold 29 of them so was pleasantly surprised at the reaction. Folks were pleased with the turnout on a hot summer Sunday night. Said it was more than they had expected.

Earlier in the day, at noon, I did a one-hour radio interview on the local college NPR station. Show beams out throughout the region and got a great response from it when people arrived at the meeting last night. Got an e-mail from the host of the show this morning saying the station is already getting very positive reaction to the interview. Nice to hear.

Today I meet with a person at the editorial board of the local Eugene newspaper and then drive to Salem for a talk there tonight. Unfortunately I will only have 3 books with me. Don't get another box until I get to Olympa, WA.

Hope you all are doing well. I always enjoy reading the comments, even those from my critics. Think peace.

COASTAL FOG AND MAGIC

Spoke to a packed room at the Florence library last night - a beautiful coastal town in Oregon. Stuart Henderson worked hard, including sticking over 200 flyers on cars around town, to turn folks out. People said half the audience was not the regulars. Great energy in the room and it was a fun evening for me.

It's foggy along the coast as I look out the window now. Going for breakfast with my hosts to a place on the beach this morning so I can get a look at the ocean.

Today I head to Eugene for a radio interview on the college NPR radio station and then another talk in the evening.

Enjoying my Oregon visit. Have added another talk to my schedule as Bellingham, WA has now filled my only free day, Aug 8.

One thing I notice about Oregon, different from most places I visit, is that they seem to have more access to radio. Already done about 5 radio interviews and have just gotten started. Oregon also appears to be one state with very little military industrial complex presence....maybe there is a connection there. Hope they can keep it this way.

OREGON TRAILS

Hotter than hell here in Oregon. Took me 13 hours to get here, flying via Atlanta. Not the most direct route. Got to bed after 2:00 am Friday morning and had to wake up early for a radio interview with Thom Hartman who has a show on a local Portland station. Did three radio interviews yesterday promoting the trip. Spoke last night at the Unitarian church in Portland.

Today I head south to Corvallis for a lunch talk and then out to the coast for a talk this evening in Florence. My books arrived in Brunswick on Friday and some will be overnighted to me so I can have them for the rest of the trip. People were disappointed last night after the talk wanting to buy a copy but I had none to offer - just an order form.

The thing going through my mind this morning is the dispair and hope message. People feel very down right now as they look at the world and the question is what is my role in helping to bring hope to them? Having to talk about the plans for space control and domination, the enormous cost, the resulting global instability of a new arms race are not hopeful themes.

I end my talks by talking about a transformative vision being needed. I paint a visual picture of what economic conversion would look like and appeal to folks to help us create the momentum and political demand to make it a reality. I suggest we have to move from addiction to militarism and war to a collective transformation as a people.

I try to tell the truth and give some hope through a positive vision for the future. I keep in mind those who came before us and who have struggled to make life better. I try to honor their memories. I also pray before each talk that I will be able to remember our relatives: the things that swim, the things that fly, and the things that crawl. I try to remember my connection to all that is sacred.

I leave on Thursday for a two-week speaking tour out to Oregon, Washington and Victoria BC. Will stop in about 10 locations along the trip for talks. Should be quite exciting. Hope the weather, yes we have global warming, will cool off by then. Will try to get some small tidbits about the trip onto the blog while I travel. My book arrives from the printer on Friday....at last! Best wishes to all. Stop the Bush madness.

PROTEST AT AEGIS "CHRISTENING"

Christ's blessings were given to a new Aegis destroyer yesterday in nearby Bath, Maine. (Do you think the Prince of Peace would really have given his blessing to a war ship that basically took food and clothing from the poor to build it?) Several thousand navy personnel and shipyard workers lined up at 8:30 am to attend the event. Outside the gates stood 20 of us, half were members of Veterans for Peace, as we held signs calling for the conversion of the shipyard to peaceful production.

We stood outside the gates for 2 1/2 hours as the people filed past us. A few took our pictures, a few gave us the finger or thumbs down. An occasional person driving by gave us a honk on the horn or flashed a peace sign. But the outright hostility that I have seen at other "christenings" was not evident yesterday.

The entire Maine congressional delegation was inside - Republican and Democrat alike. In today's paper Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) was quoted as saying that we need to build more of the destroyers because China's navy is now "rapidly overtaking our own." Total garbage. China is being dragged out by the supporters of the military industrial complex as the justification for a massive expansion of the Navy, Star Wars and the like.

The Aegis, launched yesterday in Bath, is being outfitted with Theatre Missile Defense (TMD) systems that would be used to hit "rogue state" missiles right after they were launched in their boost phase. In order to do this you'd have to park the ships just off the coast of the "offending" nation. Since China is now put in the rogue state category by many, including Sen. Snowe, the U.S. plans are to deploy the ships in Japan, South Korea, Australia, and even likely in Taiwan, just 90 miles off the coast of mainland China. If you check your map you will see that this will essentially be a naval encirclement of China's coast. Imagine how China, who today has 20 nuclear missiles capable of hitting the west coast of the U.S., will respond. (By the way the U.S. today has over 7,500 nuclear weapons in our arsenal of hypocrisy.) China has said that U.S. deployments of Aegis off their coast will force them to build more nuclear weapons. Off to a new arms race. Who benefits from that here in the good ole US of A?

I don't shop at Wal-Mart but I do like to walk through the big box stores now and then to see where their products are produced. These days it is hard to find many products that are not made in China. We've become one of China's best customers in the world. Is it likely that China wants to nuke one of its best customers? I think not.

What the U.S. really fears is that China is becoming a major economic power. The U.S. wants to manage China to ensure U.S. global economic dominance. By militarily surrounding China the U.S. thinks it will be able to dictate policy to China. The war in Iraq is about oil. China's oil. The U.S. does not rely on Iraq's oil but China and other countries in the Asian-Pacific do. If the U.S. has permanent bases in Iraq, and controls that oil, then the U.S. holds the key to the Chinese economic engine.

We the American taxpayers will be bled to pay for this new military expansion to surround and "manage" China. We will have our education, health care, social security, and other social programs defunded so the global corporate machine can play games with China. But first they must be demonized and Americans must be made to fear China. That job is now well underway.

The House of Representatives voted yesterday, 291-137, to reject a call for a planned and timely withdrawl from Iraq. The House instead said the U.S. must stay to make Iraq free. Free for who? For the people of Iraq or free and easy for the big corporations to slice and dice the country up.....spoils go to the winner.

MASSIVE SPACE COST OVERRUNS AT PENTAGON

by Martin Sieff
UPI Senior News Analyst
Washington (UPI) Jul 19, 2005

In testimony before the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Committee on Armed Services delivered last week, Robert E. Levin, director of Acquisitions and Sourcing Management at the GAO, delivered a devastating critique of the Bush administration and the Pentagon's space acquisitions' record.

"The results are discouraging," he said. "Systems cost more and take much longer to acquire than promised when initially approved.

"Overall, we have found that DOD (the Department of Defense) has been unable to match resources (technology, time, money) to requirements before beginning individual programs, setting the stage for technical and other problems, which lead to cost and schedule increases," Levin said.

Many of the problems, Levin said, came from sloppiness on the part of DOD leaders or senior officials in defining what they specifically wanted their new space-based high-tech systems to do, or in being too visionary -- approving programs when the technology did not yet exist, or had not yet been developed sufficiently to ! assure the necessary reliable performance.

"Technologies are not mature enough (in some cases) to be included in product development," Levin said. "Cost estimates are unreliable -- largely because requirements have not been fully defined and because programs start with many unknowns about technologies."

Levin painted a picture of thousands of hardworking and dedicated individuals stymied by the complexities and cross-purposes of the bureaucratic structures in which they had to function.

"Factors that make it more difficult for DOD to achieve a match between resources and requirements for space acquisitions," he said "... include: a diverse array of organizations with competing interests; a desire to satisfy all requirements in a single step, regardless of the design or technology challenge; and a tendency for acquisition programs to take on technology development that should occur within the S & T (science and technolo! gy) environment."

Also, he said, "DOD starts more programs than it can afford in the long run, forcing programs to underestimate costs and over promise capability."

"As a result," he said, "there is pressure to suppress bad news about programs, which could endanger funding and support, as well as to skip testing because of its high cost."

Levin acknowledged that the Department of Defense "has recently revised its space acquisition policy, in part to attain more knowledge about technologies before beginning an acquisition program."

"However," he continued, "we remain concerned that this policy still allows programs to begin before demonstrating technologies in an operational or simulated environment."

The results of these shortcomings have cost billions of dollars and seriously reduced the space capabilities that the Department of Defense has been able to deliver, Levin said.

"For decades, space acquisition programs have been encountering large cost and increases and schedule delays," he said," As a result, DOD has been unable to deliver capabilities as promised.

"This year alone," Levin said, "... costs have continued to climb on the Space-Based Infrared System High (SBIRS-High) program ... pushing DOD's investment in this critical missile warning system to over $9.9 billion from the initial $3.9 billion made nine years ago."

Also, he said, "the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System has been restructured and is facing cost increases and schedule delays."

Even the simplest and most straightforward part of the military space program -- launching satellites into space on reliable, cost-effective rockets -- is becoming more difficult and vastly more expensive, Levin warned.

"Unit cost increases for launch vehicles have now increased! by 81 percent since 2002 due to erroneous assumptions about the commercial launch market upon which the program's business case was based," he said.

In the case of many programs, Levin said, there would be no improvement in sight and cost over-runs would continue for many years.

"DOD originally planned to complete expenditures for SBIRS-High in fiscal year 2005, for example, but currently plans to spend about $3.4 billion in fiscal years 2007 through 2013," he said.

Levin and his GAO analysts were not alone in their indictment.

Pedro "Pete" Rustan, director of Advanced Systems and Technology at the National Reconnaissance Office, told a congressional subcommittee, "I think space acquisitions procedures are the biggest challenge facing our space systems today. "We must do things differently."

"Unless decisive actions are taken," Rustan said, "I think we will continue to spend lar! ge amounts of money without returning a commensurate capability to our stakeholders."

Rep. Terry Everett, R-Ala, the subcommittee chairman who called the hearing, made clear he took the criticisms seriously. "Acquisition and management practices, as well as industry standards and quality control must be vastly improved," he said in his opening statement.

FULL REPORT ON RECENT ORGANIZING TRIPS

This report covers the period of July 11-18 when I traveled to northwest Michigan for a six-city tour, and then participated in two events in Maine.

My trip to Michigan was initiated by an old friend, Carol Still, whom I knew long ago in Florida. She was a member of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and some years ago moved to Michigan to be near family. Carol had recently shown our video, Arsenal of Hypocrisy, on her local cable TV station and received quite a number of phone calls from new people expressing interest in the video. As a result a task force was created to begin working on the space issue and they then sent representatives from their new group to the recent Global Network annual conference in New York City. The group, called the Interfaith Peace & Justice Network of NW Michigan, also decided to host me on a speaking tour.

I had never been to northwest Michigan before and was to see much of the region as talks were scheduled for me in Traverse City, Suttons Bay, Petoskey, Alden, Charlevoix, and Manistee County. This part of Michigan is along beautiful Lake Michigan and is also the cherry capital of the world. The organizing committee took turns driving me from place to place throughout the rural countryside that is heavy populated with tourists during the summer. Tom Shea, in Traverse City, was the hub who kept things coordinated throughout the week. Unseasonably hot weather was on everyone's mind and needless to say I ate a lot of cherries during the trip. During each of my talks I read bits from my new book, Come Together Right Now, that is currently at the printer and should be finished within a week.

A young journalist from a small newspaper in Manistee County came to my first talk that was held in Traverse City. He taped the presentation, and then wrote a strong front-page story for his local paper promoting my talk that would take place in his community at the end of my tour. As I was packing up my things from my literature table after my talk he asked if he could take the handful of Keep Space for Week posters that I had left. He said he'd like to put them up around the county. It is not often that a journalist volunteers to do that. He had a special light in his eye and you could see that this young man was alive and was going to amount to something.

After speaking in Petoskey, I was driven to the small town of Alden to speak at a local library. I was told this is the community where filmmaker Michael Moore lives, and that he is often active with the local progressive community. Folks reported that Moore is now working on his next film, to be called Sick-O. Apparently it will be about the fact that health care is not available to legions of citizens in our country. One of my hosts took two of our Global Network videos and promised to give them to Moore.

That evening I stayed at the home of Barbara and Bruce MacArthur in Charlevoix, overlooking Lake Michigan. The next morning Bruce took me to his Rotary Club meeting, where he had arranged for me to speak. Thirty people were there to hear me, including the chief of police and the county prosecutor. I began by asking how many of them relied on cell phones, computers, cable TV and GPS receivers. I talked about the growing problem with space junk and Bush's plans to deploy weapons in space. Of course this plan would dramatically increase the likelihood that civilian satellites would be destroyed by the debris created when the Pentagon knocked-out other countries' "space assets" in order for the U.S. to "control and dominate" space. I got a good reception.

During my last stop, I stayed at the home of Robert and Diane Burnett in Frankfort. They live on a small piece of land not far from Lake Michigan where they raise animals and have a large garden. I enjoyed my time with Robert, who loves baseball as much as I do. He took me swimming in cold Lake Michigan early on my last morning there. They have a 16-year-old dog named Bobo who they described as the "town bum." Bobo loves to wander through town and various shops have a spot set aside for Bobo to rest. One local man always waits for Bobo to visit and then he takes the dog to the local hamburger joint and buys him a burger. While I was there Diane had to drive into town to pick up Bobo after they discovered he had once again slipped off for another one of his jaunts to town.

Folks in northwest Michigan are now discussing active participation during the GN's October 1-8 Keep Space for Week. It was a great visit and I am grateful to all of my hosts.

I returned to Maine just in time for a July 17 Town Hall Meeting on Iraq that our Congressman Tom Allen (D-ME) had agreed to hold after months of pressure from the peace movement. Phone calls, letters, following him to speaking events, and an occupation of his office in Portland finally convinced him to hold the public event. Well over 500 citizens turned out to give testimony against the war in Iraq and called on the congressman to vote against further funding for the occupation. He recently introduced a bill that says the U.S. should not permanently stay in Iraq but he has not yet been willing to vote for legislation calling for an exit strategy and a timeline for withdrawal to be set. Much to our dismay, but of no surprise to us, the local newspaper failed to cover the event.

On July 18 I drove three hours north to Deer Isle where I joined about 25 people from the group called Island Peace & Justice for their weekly anti-war vigil. Later that evening I spoke at The Good Life Center, the former home of Helen and Scott Nearing, who became famous for their back-to-the-land efforts. The center today hosts speakers throughout the summer and holds programs on homesteading and sustainable living. Among the many books published by the Nearings are titles such as Living the Good Life and The Conscience of a Radical. The Nearings built their home of stone, made much of their own furniture, grew their own food, and served as teachers and inspiration for millions. It was an honor to sleep in their bedroom and feel the power and simplicity of their lives. The caretakers suggested I read an anti-war pamphlet written in 1946 by Scott. I was struck by how little things have changed since that time. The military industrial complex still promotes war between "good and evil" and still suggests that the U.S. is the nation of great virtue. During my talk at the center I emphasized the current campaign underway in Maine to bring the economic conversion theme into the consciousness of the people. If we ever hope to end war we must get a handle on how people make a living. Why can't we make rail cars, solar, and windmills at the military production facilities in Maine and throughout the U.S.?

My next speaking trip takes me to Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia from July 28 - August 10.

IRAQ TOWN HALL MEETING

Under intense pressure from the peace movement in Maine, Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) held a town hall meeting today at Portland High School on the Iraq issue. Several months ago the peace movement in the state began a coordinated campaign to get our congressional delegation to agree to hold a town meeting. We've been calling, writing, and holding occupations of their offices reading the names of U.S. and Iraqi civilian war dead. Today well over 500 people turned out for the event.

At first Rep. Allen would not hold such an event. Rep. Allen maintains that we can't leave Iraq because if we do there might be a civil war and innocent Iraqi people will suffer. It appears that is happening now. His position is the basic Democratic party position, and at one point in the event he suggested we all go and read the statement of Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) who forcefully articulates this position that we must stay in Iraq and stabilize it until the Iraqi government asks us to leave. One Veterans for Peace member reminded the congressman that the Iraqi government, like the one the U.S. installed in Vietnam during that war, is a puppet government and is not likely to ask us to leave.

Two parents of GI's now in Iraq both spoke out strongly against the war calling for the troops to be brought home ASAP. None of the people who spoke up during the event expressed the slightest support for the war.

At least half a dozen of the people who spoke up called for the conversion of the military industrial complex. This, I think, indicates that our campaign to bring that issue alive here in Maine is making progress. People are seeing the common sense of using our tax dollars to build mass transit rail systems, solar power, and wind power at the weapons production facilities in the state that now produce weapons for endless war.

When I spoke I asked the audience what the nation's number one industrial export was. WEAPONS they yelled out. And when weapons are your number one industrial export, what is your global marketing strategy, I asked? WAR they yelled back.

This was a great day for the peace movement in Maine. We showed that we can mobilize people, we got very little help from the mainstream media who basically refused to give any advance coverage to the event. We also showed the growing power of ordinary people who are moving to oppose the war. Rep. Allen continues to say that we can't leave Iraq but he is moving in our direction as he clearly is feeling the pressure to change his position. We will keep working, and building, in order to grow this anti-war movement.

Next month we will again occupy the office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) where we will read the names of dead GI's and Iraqi civilians. Each time we read them it takes us longer - the last time it took six hours. But each time we read the names our numbers grow.

The terrorist bombings in London were indeed a tragic event. Violence for violence breeds an endless cycle of destruction. But is it not terrorism when the U.S. and Britain launch a "shock and awe" attack on Iraq that leads to the death of over 100,000 civilians? The deaths in London are widely reported and mourned in the U.S. Just days before the London attack though, the U.S. killed 17 innocent civilians in a bombing attack of a village in Afghanistan. Are those tragic deaths reported and mourned with as much fervor in the U.S.? Are those lives any less important? Do the loved ones of innocents in Iraq or Afghanistan not consider their deaths an act of terrorism by the U.S. and Britain? Former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, David Kay, commented yesterday that, "We've now put a group of terrorists on steroids [in Iraq] and given them training. The easiest place for them to move, and there are signs they are moving already, is Europe." So has the war in Iraq made us more secure? Has the Bush and Blair plan to take the fight to the terrorists worked or have they only succeeded in making a colossal mess of the entire world?

At long last my book, Come Together Right Now - Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire, is at the printer. Can order it directly from the Global Network for $16 (covers s/h). Send check to PO Box 652, Brunswick, ME 04011. Should be printed in the next couple of weeks. The endorsements on the left side are hard for you to read. They are from Journalism professor Karl Grossman, Daniel Ellsberg who released the infamous Pentagon Papers, Sr. Ardeth Platte the Dominican nun in prison for her act of disarmament, and Dr. Helen Caldicott. Wish me luck with the book.

Hillary Clinton has been hanging out with Republicans a lot lately, like Newt Gingrich. Just this past weekend she was at the last evangelical rally held by Billy Graham. In fact the Rev. Graham said that her husband should become a preacher while Hillary "runs the country." A couple questions. Why would the Rev. Billy Graham, long associated with right-wing Republicans, have the Clinton duo sitting in the front row of his last big event? Why did Bill recently hang out for a weekend with George H.W. Bush and the word is they are big friends these days. Just today on CNN I heard a Republican party leader say that the Democrats should listen to the "hawk" Hillary on the Iraq war issue. Has the power structure made a decision to make Hillary the next president? Are they now redefining Hillary to the conservative base by having her hang out with Gingrich, Frist, Bill Graham, etc.? Could a fix be on the way? Keep posted.

Wouldn't it be better to have windmills, solar power, and public mass transit rather than an endless war for oil in the Middle East and Central Asia? Why can't the public begin to demand the conversion of the military industrial complex? After all, it is our money.

IRAQ WAR ACTION IN BANGOR

Yesterday Mary Beth and I joined over 80 others in Bangor at the federal building were we held a five-hour vigil reading the names of the more than 1,700 GI's killed in Iraq and an equal number of innocent Iraqi civilians.

While we read the names on the federal building plaza, we also had six people at a time inside the office of Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) reading the names. Throughout the day we rotated people into the office to take a turn reading names and marking an X on a banner that read "Iraq War Dead." We had one banner inside the building and one outside on the plaza.

It appeared that a good number of media outlets covered the event. WERU radio covered the beginning and end of the vigil by having several of us speak live on the radio explaining why we were protesting.

Throughout the day we handed out our statement to people passing by the federal building and we also were able to gather over 250 signatures on a petition calling for an end to the war.

People from many different peace groups came during the day. Some stayed the whole day and others came for a couple hours. Two young kids came by and joined us and did a great job of gathering petition signatures.

We next plan to organize another of these readings in the Portland area in coming months. We've already shown that our efforts have forced Rep. Tom Allen to agree to hold a public town hall meeting on the war. Now we intend to keep the pressure on our two Republican senators until they both agree to do the same. We must turn these politicians away from their support for the war. To accomplish that task will take many more days of hard work like yesterday. But it was not all hard work in Bangor. What we also did was build community by gathering good sprited people to stand together. No one left this event untouched by the event.

Condi is on the road explaining to the world how much the U.S. loves democracy and how our troops are fighting so people can be free from tyranny. How can she keep a straight face?

CUTS IN BIDDEFORD - SINGING THE BLUES

Last night I drove south to Biddeford, Maine to be on a local cable TV show called "Out in left field." I was on the show a couple months ago and had such a good time with the hour-long interview, they asked me to come back. Three folks do the interview and I've never had so much fun talking politics.

When I got back from Biddeford last time I told the story on my blog about the cable facility being inside an old school. They also have a free clinic inside the building and, like last time I was there, it was full of people last night.

I was told by my hosts that Biddeford is having one hell of a time with its town budget. They are having social problems dumped on them as the feds dump onto the states and then the states dump onto the local governments. The local government then gets to be the bearer of bad news. In the case of Biddeford, the bad news is that the local education budget must be cut.

On the cable show we talked about the costs of endless war. We talked about space technology coordinating modern warfare. We talked about America's empire and how the hopes and dreams of the people are fading as the Pentagon eats up our hard-earned tax dollars.

After the show was over I told my hosts about Cornell West's latest book, Democracy Matters, and how he has a chapter in it on the "blues." West says that white folks had better quickly learn how to sing the blues. Blacks have been singing them for hundreds of years in the U.S. as they have learned how to survive in this mean-spirited capitalist system where the dog eats the dog. White folks, not just Indians, are now being put onto the reservation. White folks will now face the humiliation of mass unemployment, no health care, bad education, losing hope. This will mean more social dysfunction for our children.

There is an alternative. But that would require a political fight. It would require people to quickly organize to oppose the expansion of the military industrial complex and endless war. It would require a political demand that we not spend $100 billion or more a year in Iraq and instead use that money for education, health care, public transportation and the like. So it is really up to you. Do you want to have to sing the blues?

Recently two separate sources have claimed that the U.S. military is dramatically underestimating the number of GI's killed in Iraq. The claim is the current estimates of 1,700 dead do not count those who died after being evacuated to Germany or other destinations. The sources state that internal Pentagon documents reveal over 9,000 have died. Wouldn't it be nice if the media would lock onto this story as hard as they did the Michael Jackson trial? By keeping the public honoring of U.S. war dead to a bare minimum, Bush has so far been successful in keeping the inquires suppressed.

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) was joined by 10 members of Congress last Thursday as he delivered a letter with 560,000 signatures to the White House. The letter called on the Bush administration to provide answers about the Downing Street memo that clearly indicates Bush lied in order to drag the nation into war. We need more of this congressional direct action. The people are starving for leadership and John Conyers is showing it.

VISION OFFENSIVE NEEDED

I drove to Norway, Maine last night to speak to a group of people about the conversion of the military industrial complex. I had to leave the office early in order to get there in time to meet my hosts for dinner. Along the way I listened to National Public Radio's report on the Democrat's hearing about the Downing Street memo. Before I left I had heard the testimony of Cindy Sheehan, mother of Casey who was killed in Iraq on 4/4/04. Last winter I had Cindy, who lives in California, on my local cable TV show and had organized a dinner talk for her at a local restaurant. She spoke powerfully yesterday about the betrayal she, and other parents of GI's killed in Iraq, felt by our current war-hungry government.

During the Q & A time after my talk we spent a lot of time dealing with the profound feeling of powerlessness felt by many in the public at this moment. Even though polls show that 60% of the American people want the troops to come home, there is still strong support for the war among key leaders of the Democratic party. If the opposition party still supports the war, how can we expect Bush to feel the heat? Even Howard Dean has stopped talking about Iraq since becoming the chair of the Democratic party.

It is clear to me that we need to urge local activists to run people in primaries all over the U.S. during the next election cycle. They need to run as Democrats and Greens and speak out strongly against the war, military spending, and the need to offer an alternative economic vision for the nation. They need to talk about conversion of the military industrial complex, the need for rapid development of sustainable technologies (wind, solar, public transporation, etc) and they need to call for a reinvigoration of funding for our human infrastructure including education, health care, child care, environmental clean-up and the like. We need to go on a vision offensive. We can't wait for the Democrats to wake up from their corporate funded decade drinking binge. They (with a few noble exceptions) are an unreliable political partner.

Bush tells the American people that he did not plan, long before 9-11, to go to war with Iraq. The Downing Street memo from London reveals that Bush faked the intelligence that led to war. The media has been slow to report this blockbuster story. The Republican-controlled Congress refuses to investigate. How is this not an impeachable offense? Bigger than a Monica Lewinsky?

Space industry depiction of the "Rods from God" space weapon the Bush administration is now developing. Bush is expected to release a new national space policy this month giving the green light for further development and possible deployment of offensive space weapons.

APPLAUSE IN MAINE HOUSE

Yesterday our Veterans for Peace (VfP) chapter went to the capitol in Augusta to be with Russ Christensen who has walked 130 miles since May 4 calling for an end to the war in Iraq. Russ is a Korean war veteran and is 73 years old. As he walked he passed out a proclamation calling on Maine's Governor Baldacci and leaders of the Maine State House and Senate to demand a recall of U.S. military forces stationed in Iraq.

A dozen VfP members met Russ at the capitol for a news conference. I brought along a handful of signs saying things like: Money for jobs not war; Fund human needs not warfare; Healthcare not warfare; War drains economy. As we were preparing to set up our vigil and news conference inside the capitol rotunda two women approached us and suggested we move up one floor and stand in the hallway between the entrances to the senate and house chambers. The two women then went around looking for media folks and tried to steer them our way. One of the women then asked us for a list of all the VfP members present and our home towns. Come to find out she was a state representative from Lewiston, called herself a pacifist, and after we had held the signs for about an hour in the hallway, she told us to go sit in the balcony of the house and she would have us recognized from the floor.

So we moved to the balcony, carrying our protest signs with us. After the house had taken a few more votes they moved to announcements and the leader of the house said there was a motion to recognize members of Maine Veterans for Peace who were sitting in the balcony. So the house leader began reading our names and home towns and we all stood up. We lifted up our signs so the house members below us could see them. One person on the floor began to boo us and about 1/3 of the house members stood up and applauded us. Many who remained sitting also applauded.

It was quite a moment. I'd never done a protest action inside a legislative assembly before and have them applaud on top of that. Russ made sure that he got a member of the house and senate to sponsor the passing out of the VfP proclamation to each member.

The two-page proclamation ended with this statement, "It is time for you, as our elected leaders, to stop quarreling among yourselves and to unite in a demand that the federal government stop squandering the wealth and the lives of the American people in service to a dream of world domination. The resources that the Bush administration is spending in the futile attempt to seize control over Iraq are needed at home to care for the American people; and you, as our elected leaders, need to say that to Washington. Such a forthright stand, beginning in Maine, might well spread throughout the country, thereby reversing the disastrous course upon which our nation is now embarked, under the disastrously short-sighted leadership of the Bush administration."

We are now talking about another walk in Maine. I've suggested that we do a walk to Brunswick before the planned September 10 Veterans for Peace demonstration at the Naval air station where the Blue Angels will be performing that weekend. This would help extend the demonstration beyond Brunswick and bring out message of opposition to the war in Iraq to a larger audience in Maine.

It was another bright moment for our VfP chapter. It came one day after a man wrote a letter to the editor of the Brunswick Times Record complaining about our VfP participation in the recent Memorial Day parade. He contended that our presence in the parade "was discouraging and sad" and had "tainted the uplifting event that a Memorial Day parade should be." "If the Veterans for Peace insist on marching again, I would encourage the parade committee to refuse its entry due to the fact that its intentions are politically motivated," the letter writer concluded.

Once more we see how some American citizens wish to ignore the insanity of war. It is a pleasure to belong to a group like VfP that is determined to stand in the face of silence.

SPRING GARDENS AND CAPITAL MARCHERS

I took a couple days off this week as my sister who lives in Iowa came for a visit. We went out exploring some of the beautiful lobster fishing villages along the coast here in Maine and ate our share of seafood. I took her around to meet some of our new friends in the area and she loved seeing the gardens blooming all around. Mainers love to garden once spring comes after having been inside so much during the long, hard winter. Even my flower and vegetable garden is looking good.

The first layout of my book came back from my publisher today. There were a few minor things that needed to be fixed but not much. She had plugged the artwork into the book and it looks quite good. She told me she already found it hard to stop reading it as she was doing the desktop publishing so I took that as a good sign. I've already begun to work on getting publicity about the book into peace group newsletters across the country and have had a positive response from people who I asked to give it some promo. So things are moving along nicely.

On Friday I will join some Maine Veterans for Peace who will be marching to the state capital in Augusta and holding a news conference. The state is in fiscal crisis and the walkers, who will have been on the road for several days, are calling on state political leaders to make statements opposing the war in Iraq. That is where the big money is going. The federal government says they have no money for social spending and are dumping social programs onto the state's backs. The states have no money so they are cutting programs and social services. We need to get the state political leaders around the country to be more vocal in opposition to the war. What could your state do with your share of $200 billion wasted on the war?

MARINE RECRUITERS KIDNAPP KID

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/paynter/227497_paynter08.html

When Marine recruiters go way beyond the call

By SUSAN PAYNTER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

For mom Marcia Cobb and her teenage son Axel, the white letters USMC
on their caller ID soon spelled, "Don't answer the phone!"

Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel as soon
as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his
17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the
seekers of a few good men off the line.

With early and late calls ringing in their ears, Marcia tried using
call blocking. And that's when she learned her first hard lesson. You
can't block calls from the government, her server said. So, after
pleas to "Please stop calling" went unanswered, the family's "do not
answer" order ensued.

But warnings and liquid crystal lettering can fade. So, two weeks ago
when Marcia was cooking dinner Axel goofed and answered the call.
And, faster than you can say "semper fi," an odyssey kicked into
action that illustrates just how desperate some of the recruiters
we've read about really are to fill severely sagging quotas.

Let what we learned serve as a warning to other moms, dads and teens,
the Cobbs now say. Even if your kids actually may want to join the
military, if they hope to do it on their own terms, after a deep
breath and due consideration, repeat these words after them: "No,"
"Not now" and "Back off!"

"I've been trained to be pretty friendly. I guess you might even say
I'm kind of passive," Axel told me last week, just after his mother
and older sister had tracked him to a Seattle testing center and
sprung him on a ruse.

The next step of Axel's misadventure came when he heard about a cool
"chin-ups" contest in Bellingham, where the prize was a free Xbox.
The now 18-year-old Skagit Valley Community College student dragged
his tail feathers home uncharacteristically late that night. And, in
the morning, Marcia learned the Marines had hosted the event and
"then had him out all night, drilling him to join."

A single mom with a meager income, Marcia raised her kids on the farm
where, until recently, she grew salad greens for restaurants.

Axel's father, a Marine Corps vet who served in Vietnam, died when Axel was 4.

Clearly the recruiters knew all that and more.

"You don't want to be a burden to your mom," they told him. "Be a
man." "Make your father proud." Never mind that, because of his own
experience in the service, Marcia says enlistment for his son is the
last thing Axel's dad would have wanted.

The next weekend, when Marcia went to Seattle for the Folklife
Festival and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the
door.

Axel repeated the family mantra, but he was feeling frazzled and worn
down by then. The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time,
aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested,"
the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big (bleeping)
mistake!"

Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed
up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And
before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood
what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.

"They said we were going somewhere but I didn't know we were going
all the way to Seattle," Axel said.

Just a few tests. And so many free opportunities, the recruiters told him.

He could pursue his love of chemistry. He could serve anywhere he
chose and leave any time he wanted on an "apathy discharge" if he
didn't like it. And he wouldn't have to go to Iraq if he didn't want
to.

At about 3:30 in the morning, Alex was awakened in the motel and fed
a little something. Twelve hours later, without further sleep or
food, he had taken a battery of tests and signed a lot of papers he
hadn't gotten a chance to read. "Just formalities," he was told.
"Sign here. And here. Nothing to worry about."

By then Marcia had "freaked out."

She went to the Burlington recruiting center where the door was open
but no one was home. So she grabbed all the cards and numbers she
could find, including the address of the Seattle-area testing center.

Then, with her grown daughter in tow, she high-tailed it south,
frantically phoning Axel whose cell phone had been confiscated "so he
wouldn't be distracted during tests."

Axel's grandfather was in the hospital dying, she told the people at
the desk. He needed to come home right away. She would have said just
about anything.

But, even after being told her son would be brought right out, her
daughter spied him being taken down a separate hall and into another
room. So she dashed down the hall and grabbed him by the arm.

"They were telling me I needed to 'be a man' and stand up to my
family," Axel said.

What he needed, it turned out, was a lawyer.

Five minutes and $250 after an attorney called the recruiters, Axel's
signed papers and his cell phone were in the mail.

My request to speak with the sergeant who recruited Axel and with the
Burlington office about recruitment procedures went unanswered.

And so should your phone, Marcia Cobb advised. Take your own sweet
time. Keep your own counsel. And, if you see USMC on caller ID,
remember what answering the call could mean.

This is how the military recruits kids. War is fun, like a play ground. On September 10 the Navy's Blue Angels will perform an "airshow" at the Naval air station in Brunswick, Maine and Veterans for Peace will organize a demonstration. Over 100,000 people are expected to turn out for that "Gods of metal" worshipping.

Open house at Peterson AFB in Colorado Springs - home of the Air Force Space Command. Tell me the military is not promoting war and violence. We need a non-violent revolution for sure.

JANE'S REVOLUTION

Jane's Revolution
By Ed Rampell, AlterNet
Posted on June 4, 2005

Jane Fonda, whose trips to north Vietnam during that war propeled her onto the world stage, has returned to public life with her autobiography, My Life So Far, and the release of Monster-in-Law, her first feature film in 15 years. At a special Hollywood double feature of two suppressed documentaries, the feisty two-time Academy Award winner also showed herself to be as antiwar as ever.

The rare screening at the Directors Guild of America's theaters last month was only the third projection of the restored print of FTA (Fuck The Army). Fonda told the overflowing crowd: "I haven't seen FTA on the big screen in thirty-some years."

The 90-minute documentary, made in 1972, chronicles the tour of antiwar entertainers to venues near U.S. bases around the Pacific Rim, where they agitated against the Vietnam War and military policies. The FTA troupe included Fonda, actor Donald Sutherland, singer Holly Near, comic Paul Mooney, Peter Boyle of TV's "Everybody Loves Raymond" and singer/songwriter Country Joe McDonald.

David O. Russell, director of Three Kings (1999) and Soldiers Pay, the other doc on the double bill, declared: "I was shocked by the intensity of FTA, and the fact that all these soldiers were going to this, and by the boldness. It's about a very spirited pinnacle of the counterculture."

Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone, director of the '80s films Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July, called FTA "The highest form of free expression we've seen in America in a long, long time."

G.I. Resistance

FTA grew largely out of the G.I. resistance movement to the Vietnam war, as well as the classism, racism and sexism perpetrated by the military brass against soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen and women. The shows consisted of songs and skits, often with a comic panache, always with an anti-militaristic thrust and sometimes with a feminist consciousness. A counterpoint to Bob Hope's pro-war USO tours, the FTA pro-peace troupers performed in Hawaii, the Philippines and Japan, but were refused entry to south Vietnam. The overseas audiences for what Fonda called FTA's "political vaudeville" was composed mainly of 64,000 disaffected servicemen and women.

"There were great reviews of the film made from that tour," said Stone. "And it played exactly for a week in the United States." According to Stone, FTA's director, Francine Parker, said "calls were made from high up in Washington, possibly from the Nixon White House, and the film was just disappeared."

Following the screenings Stone moderated a panel discussion with Fonda, Parker and Russell. Commenting on FTA's removal from distribution, Fonda said, "I must say, looking at it now, it's no wonder. Think of all the propaganda that those of us who opposed the war were 'anti-troops.' When you see thousands of guys and women with their fists in the air who were active duty military personnel, it's a different slant. Now, in the context of Iraq, it's very -- what's the word? Subversive."

"By the way, it's happening today with the Iraq veterans," Fonda added. "For example at the second invasion of Iraq, at Fort Bragg, in Fayetteville, North Carolina, there was the largest [antiwar] rally since 1970, which I was at. This time, all the speeches were made by returned American veterans of the Iraq war, and families and parents. It's an example of what's happening now within the military in Iraq. They're not getting the kind of help that they need."

Fonda denounced "the cutback of hundreds of millions of dollars to the VA administration the day after the troops were sent to Iraq to invade, just after the 'Support Our Troops' resolution. Reach out to military families because they're living it, and give support to them," she encouraged the audience.

Stone asked: "Is it possible for what you call the Iraq protest movement in the military to ever get recognized publicly?" Fonda replied to applause from the audience: "Well, we have to make sure that it is. Yes, I think so. The movement is definitely growing."

In today's military, Fonda said, "Classism is the biggie right now, because there's no draft, and that's not fair. You're only getting the poor kids." Perhaps in jest, the actress urged Russell to tour the country with Soldiers Pay, and Russell said he'd do it if she'd come. Always game, Fonda responded, "I will!" and the audience applauded.

War Revisionism

Stone asked Fonda how America had changed since 1971. "We never came to terms with the war," she replied. "Revisionism set in and Americans were made to believe that we could have won the war, if it hadn't been for the antiwar movement and so-called 'liberal media.' That was during the Reagan administration and it was very handy for the first Bush administration when we went into the Gulf War.

"Remember what happened? 'Oh, if you're against this war you're going to be a traitor like those people back in the sixties and seventies.' People got scared because they didn't know what the truth was. That's continuing today. Of course, this administration is just totally brilliant at playing on our fears. With the invasion of Iraq, it was raised to an art form. You know, 'you're either with us or against us.' If you speak out against the war you're [considered] a terrorist," Fonda said.

On a more upbeat note she mused, "Today, Nixon and Reagan are looking mighty good. I think this is the scariest time I've ever lived through. It's a dying beast, and they're always the scariest and most dangerous. Just below the crust of the surface there is a volcano ready to erupt. It's our job to create critical mass and ignite it.

"It's a really confusing time; it's more complicated than Vietnam," she continued. "There was no Saddam Hussein during Vietnam. Everybody agreed Saddam had to go. Did there need to be an invasion where 100,000 innocent civilians die in the process? I don't think so. People are waiting out there for leadership. I was asked: 'What's happened to the Left?' Progressivism is alive and well, but it's women who are going to have to rise up and lead it now."

"Jane is a great revolutionary," Stone said admiringly. "We need that type. 'Storm the barricades.'"

Since the rights to FTA are owned by Fonda, Sutherland and director Parker, Stone suggesting re-releasing the film. "You've got to get it out there, Jane. You can do a lot with digital now. Would you like to see it on the Internet?"

"We'd have to think very hard about who we would try to get the film distributed to," Fonda said. "I'm not sure that our main audience isn't the military. Technology has made it possible for us to get stuff out there in such an easier, democratic and inexpensive way.

"I just spent five weeks traveling around the country, and except for one incident where a vet spit at me, what I'm seeing is that people are ready and hungry for statements like this. They really are. I'm talking in the heartland, in those red states."

Ed Rampell is an L.A.-based film critic and freelancer. His latest book, "Progressive Hollywood, A People's Film History of the United States," was published by DisInfo in May.

BUSH SEEKS MILITARY CONTROL OF SPACE

The Bush administration is expected to soon announce a new national space policy that will give the Pentagon the green light to move toward deployment of offensive weapons in space.

The new directive could allow deployment of lasers in space; attack planes that descend on targets from space; anti-satellite weapons, which would disrupt or destroy other nation's satellites; and tungsten rods fired from space platforms that would gather speeds of over 7,000 mph and be able to penetrate underground targets.

In the Air Force Space Command’s Strategic Master Plan, FY06 and Beyond, the military said, “Our vision calls for prompt global strike space systems with the capability to apply force from or through space against terrestrial targets. International treaties and laws do not prohibit the use or presence of conventional weapons in space.”

There was a treaty that limited the research, development, testing and deployment of such offensive space systems. It was the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty with Russia. Once in office, George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from the treaty and moved forward with expanded research and development on offensive space weapons.

The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was largely coordinated from space. Over 70% of the weapons used in the war were guided to their targets by military satellites. Thus the Pentagon maintains that the U.S. must “deny” other nations the use of space in order to maintain “full spectrum dominance.”

In order to sell this space warfare program to the American people, the Pentagon has labeled it “missile defense.” But in reality the program is all about offensive engagement and was first spelled out in the 1997 Space Command plan, Vision for 2020, that called for U.S. “control and domination” of space.

The Pentagon and its aerospace corporation allies understand that they cannot come to the American people and ask for hundreds of billions of dollars for offensive weapons in space. Thus the claim of “missile defense.” The U.S. has to date spent well over $130 billion on Star Wars research and development. The budget for military-related space activity in 2003 was $18 billion and is expected to top $25 billion a year by 2010.

With growing budget deficits in the U.S., Congress will have to drastically cut needed programs like Medicare, Medicaid, education, public transit, and environmental clean-up in order to pay the growing cost of space weapons technology.

The world has become reliant on satellites for cell phones, cable TV, ATM bank machines and the like. Space debris is already a problem as space shuttles have had windshields cracked by bits of paint orbiting the Earth at enormous speeds. Imagine what would happen if the U.S. began destroying satellites in space, creating massive amounts of orbiting space junk, that made access to space virtually impossible for everyone.

For the last several years the Space Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, held a computer simulation space war game set in the year 2017. The game pitted the “Blues” (U.S.) against the “Reds” (China). In the war game the U.S. launched a preemptive first strike attack against China using the military space plane (called Global Strike). Armed with a half-ton of precision-guided munitions the space plane would fly down from orbit and strike anywhere in the world in 45 minutes.

It is easy to see why Canada, Russia, and China have repeatedly gone to the United Nations asking the U.S. to join them in negotiating a new global ban on weapons in space. Why not close the door to the barn before the horse gets out? So far the U.S., during both the Clinton and Bush administrations, refuses to even discuss the idea of a new space treaty.

Gen. Lance Lord, head of the Air Force Space Command, recently told Congress, “Space superiority is not our birthright, but it is our destiny.” The idea that the U.S. is destined to rule the Earth and space militarily needs to be seriously debated by the citizens of our nation. Not only is this a provocative and immoral notion, it is also one that will lead to a massive waste of our hard-earned tax dollars and create a dangerous new arms race. Do we really want war in the heavens?

BOOK UNDERWAY - COME TOGETHER RIGHT NOW

I took my book to my production and lay-out person yesterday. She told me it would take about 6 weeks to get it printed. I handed over the last of the artwork that will be going into it and had earlier sent her the final edited copy. Had three volunteers do the editing on the book and my long-time friend W.B. Park in Florida has kindly agreed to allow me to include about 25 of his illustrations in the book. He has illustrated my organizing work for the last 20 years -- doing the cartoons and drawings for posters, leaflets, and newsletters. I think it will add much to the book.

After consulting with many people I settled on the title Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire. The use of the word fading illustrates for me the disinvestment that our corporate-dominated government is doing in America. As corporations move overseas to maximize profits, they don't care about country anymore. So we see cuts in education, health care, the infrastructure of the country (roads, bridges, rail systems crumbling), the psychological health of the people declining (40% of American's are taking drugs for depression) and the like. We've become a military empire but the well is running dry.

So my prescription for our survival as people is that we have to come together right now and fight back to hang onto some degree of dignity. If we don't watch out, pretty soon the only jobs in the U.S. will be working at Wal-Mart for substandard wages that have no benefits. (Many workers at Wal-Mart have to apply for welfare and food stamps in order to get by. Thus the taxpayers ends up subsidizing Wal-Mart. Call it what it is -- corporate welfare or socialism for the rich!)