The Peace & Justice Report

Last week on the Peace & Justice Report we spoke with Bridget Mary Meehan, she is the author of twenty books including Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God, a story about her journey to priesthood in the women priest movement that is rocking the foundation of the Roman Catholic Church, a holy shakeup that is bringing new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond. Bridget Mary has a MA in Religious Studies and a DMin from Virginia Episcopal Seminary. She is currently Dean of the Doctor of Ministry Program for Global Ministries University. Her work in communications media include programs about women priests on Google and youtube and articles on BridgetMary's Blogspot. Bridget Mary was ordained a priest in the first USA ordination in Pittsburgh on July 31, 2006 and was ordained a bishop in Santa Barbara, California in the historic ordination of our bishops in the United States on April 19, 2009

Last week we celebrated Martin Luther King’s birthday by interviewing Rosalie Riegle. Rosalie is the author of Doing Time For Peace : Resistance, Family and Community. In this compelling collection of oral histories, more than 75 peacemakers describe how they say no to war in the strongest way possible - by engaging in civil disobedience and paying the consequences in jail or prison.These courageous resisters leave family and community and life on the outside in their efforts to direct U.S. policy away from militarism

For a limited time only, both books from Dr. Riegle's oral history project on war resisters will be available from the publisher for a 40% discount. Until March 14, 2013, Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community will be available from http://www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/index.php/books/492/doing-time-for-peace. Enter the sale code VPEACE at checkout. Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak out for Peace will be available from https://wipfandstock.com/store/Crossing_the_Line_Nonviolent_Resisters_Speak_Out_for_Peace. Enter the sale code PEACE at checkout.

On New Year's Day Charley Caniff came into the studio to talk
with us about the history of Labor Unions. Charley was a plan representative with the California Federation of Teachers (AFL-CIO) from 1973-1994,he was a teacher in California for 12 years before he went to work with the CFT.
Charley gives us a history lesson during the show highlighting his presentation with information about little known incidents that were
instrumental in shaping the course of Labor Union history. Charley gives
his thoughts on the recent Chicago Teacher's Strike as well as today's
Education System

This past Tuesday on the Peace & Justice Report we interviewed Rocky Anderson, Presidential Candidate of the newly formed Justice Party. Rocky was mayor of Salt Lake City from 2000-2008, Anderson rose to nationwide prominence as a champion of several national and international causes, including climate protection, immigration reform, restorative criminal justice,LGBT rights,and an end to the "war on drugs"
Before and after the invasion by the U.S. of Iraq in 2003, Anderson was a leading opponent of the invasion and occupation of Iraq and related human rights abuses. Anderson was the only mayor of a major U.S.city who advocated for the impeachment of President George W.Bush, which he did in many venues throughout the United States.

Earlier this campaign season we interviewed Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for President of the United States. Dr Stein promises a Manhattan-project jobs program that would ignite our economy, repair our crumbling infrastructure, and put the US in the lead at the forefront of the world’s newest and hottest technologies. She will put forward the health care policy most of us wanted in 2009: the public option, effectively Medicare for everyone. She will withdraw our troops out of Afghanistan and implement the advice George Washington gave in his farewell address: “The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.” Jill Stein will bring to the table a demand for an equitable tax system, not one in which the wealthy pay too little and we the 99% have to close schools, fire police, and shutter fire stations to make up the difference. Climate change and food security are at the top of her agenda.

John Welch interviewed Jamail Kanj last week on the Peace & Justice Report
This book reveals his story from childhood in Nahr El Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, becoming a PLO activist, eventual emigration, a new life as an engineer in the United States, and a 'return' trip to historic Palestine.

Running parallel to the personal narrative, the book also documents the story of Nahr El Bared itself: the story of a refugee camp that grew from an initial clump of muddy UN tents to become a vibrant trading centre in north Lebanon, before its eventual destruction at the hands of the Lebanese army as they battled with militants from Fatah Al Islam group in the summer of 2007.

Throughout it all, the spirit of the remarkable people of the camp shines through, and the book provides a moving testament to how refugees in Lebanon have managed to persist in their struggle for their "right to return", as well as survive socially, economically and politically despite more than sixty two years of dispossession, war and repression.

The book illustrates how refugees are able to remain uniquely Palestinians, and to survive socially, economically, and politically during the hypothetically “temporary” resident status in Lebanon. The refugees have indefatigably remained part of a nation, without the state. Israeli writer Danny Rubinstein said it best when describing the Palestinians in his book:

Medea Benjamin spoke with the Peace & Justice Report several weeks back. Medea is cofounder of Global Exchange & CODEPINK: Women for Peace. Described as "one of America’s most committed -- and most effective -- fighters for human rights" by Newsday, and called "one of the high profile leaders of the peace movement"
“In this remarkably cogent and carefully researched book, Medea Benjamin makes it clear that drones are not just another high-tech military trinket. Drone Warfare sketches out the nightmare possibilities posed by this insane proliferation.” —Barbara Ehrenreich

“Activist extraordinaire Medea Benjamin has documented how the U.S. government’s use of drones to murder hundreds of innocent civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen has increased the danger to our national security —Ann Wright, retired US Army Reserve Colonel and former US diplomat

Last week Robert Sublett came on the Peace and Justice Report to discuss
his write-in candidacy to become Sarasota County's Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller.Bob has been working with the Mortgage Justice
Group for many months now and is acutely aware of how the Mortgage crisis
has had a profound impact on the population of Sarasota Gounty.
He feels the imcumbent has been anything but proactive in looking out
for the welfare of the county and its residents.He says its time for a change and he's the right person to work for the interests of all the residents of Sarasota County.

Last month Don Thompson interviewed Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. He was a co-founder of the Global Network when it was created in 1992.Between 1983–1998 Bruce was the State Coordinator of the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice and has worked on space issues for 27 years. In 1987 he organized the largest peace protest in Florida history when over 5,000 people marched on Cape Canaveral in opposition to the first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile

Last month we spoke with Barbara Stephens and Woody Ryan of the Mortgage Justice Group of Sarasota.this is an organization
of citizens helping citizens in foreclosure.They educate and give support to anyone who is going through the foreclosure process.Last month members of the group played a key role in helping to stop the passage of Several Florida legislature bills, including HB 213 and the amended PCB, sponsored by Kathleen Passidomo backed by The Bankers Association,attempted to make Florida a non-judicial state which would preclude homeowners from defending a foreclosure in order to “fast track” the foreclosure process, denying Floridians their day in court.

On this show we talk with David Swanson about his new book The Military Industrial Complex at 50.This is the most comprehensive collection available explaining what the military industrial complex (MIC) is, where it comes from, what damage it does, what further destruction it threatens, and what can be done and is being done to chart a different course.
Authors (from within and without the MIC) contribute chapters to this book. The MIC, this book expertly argues, kills large numbers of people, endangers us, hollows out our economy, transfers our wealth to a tiny elite, devastates the natural environment, and threatens civil liberties, the rule of law, and representative government.
David Swanson is the author of When the World Outlawed War, War Is A Lie, and Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union. He blogs at davidswanson.org and warisacrime.org and works for the online activist organizations rootsaction.org and democrats.com.

This election year, the Freedom Socialist Party (FSP) is running New Yorker Stephen Durham for U.S. president and Seattleite Christina López for vice president in an energetic national write-in campaign The FSP campaign platform calls for taxing corporate wealth, ending all U.S. military involvement abroad, creating full employment through a massive public jobs program and reducing the standard workweek to 30 hours with no cut in pay. The campaign also stands for bringing back and expanding social services, restoring civil liberties, and a host of other measures designed to eliminate poverty and discrimination and raise workers’ standard of living.
Durham and López are respected activists with a wealth of experience gained fighting for reforms like these while popularizing socialist ideas and the need for radical change
We join the interview in progress with Stephen responding to John's question about the process in which the Freedom Socialist Party separated from the Socialist Workers Party.

Last week,Don&Bob interviewed Deborah Sweet on the Peace & Justice Report.Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can’t Wait, initiated in 2005 to “drive out the Bush regime” by repudiating its program, forcing it from office through a mass, independent movement and reversing the direction it had launched. Based in New York City, she leads World Can’t Wait in its continuing efforts to stop the crimes of our government, including the unjust occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and the torture and detention codes, as well as reversing the fascist direction of U.S. society, from the surveillance state to the criminalization of abortion and immigrants. She has worked with abortion providers for twenty-five years, organizing community support and helping them withstand anti-abortion violence. Since the age of 19, when she confronted Richard Nixon during a face-to-face meeting and told him to stop the war in Vietnam, she has been a leader in the opposition to U.S. wars and invasions. Debra says, “Stop thinking like an American, and start thinking about humanity!”

Roy Bourgeois was on the phone this past Tuesday with us,he spoke from his office outside the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus,Ga where thousands will gather from Nov 18-20 for the annual SOA Vigil where they will take a stand for justice, to close down
the SOA and to resist US militarization. In 1990, Roy Bourgeois founded the School of Americas Watch, an office that does research on the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). Each year the school trains hundreds of soldiers from Latin America in combat skills all paid for by U.S. taxpayers. Since Roy began the SOA WATCH he has spent over four years in US federal prisons for nonviolent protests against the training of Latin American soldiers at Ft. Benning, Georgia. www.soaw.org
Roy also spoke to us about the ongoing struggle within the Catholic Church around the issue of women being ordained priests.

This past Tuesday we featured interviews with Kathy Kelly and Ann Wright.
We also played a recording of Marian Wright Edelman,she spoke at the
dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial(10/16/11)
Kathy Kelly is an American peace activist, pacifist and author, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, one of the founding members of Voices in the Wilderness, and currently a co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She has been described as "probably the most respected leader in the American peace movement".[1] As part of peace team work in several countries, she has traveled to Iraq twenty-six times, notably remaining in combat zones during the early days of both US-Iraq wars. She has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad, and written of her experiences among targets of U.S. military bombardment and inmates of US prisons. Ann Wright is a former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She received the State Department Award for Heroism in 1997, after helping to evacuate several thousand people during the civil war in Sierra Leone She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Marian Wright Edelman is an American activist for the rights of children. She is president and founder of the Children's Defense Fund.

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