Feel free to copy and post, get the word out!!!
Several cars are leaving from San Diego beginning Monday afternoon around 200pm through Friday Morning to join in some or several of the activities, join us, not too late. For more info on MARCHA MIGRANTE V or to support us as there are lots of costs. (ps also need crosses) www.borderangels.org marcha migrante gracias enrique
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Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and whose books, such as "A People's History of the United States," inspired young and old to rethink the way textbooks present the American experience, died today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling. He was 87.
His daughter, Myla Kabat-Zinn of Lexington, said he suffered a heart attack.
"He's made an amazing contribution to American intellectual and moral culture," Noam Chomsky, the left-wing activist and MIT professor, said tonight. "He's changed the conscience of America in a highly constructive way. I really can't think of anyone I can compare him to in this respect."
Chomsky added that Dr. Zinn's writings "simply changed perspective and understanding for a whole generation. He opened up approaches to history that were novel and highly significant. Both by his actions, and his writings for 50 years, he played a powerful role in helping and in many ways inspiring the Civil rights movement and the anti-war movement."
For Dr. Zinn, activism was a natural extension of the revisionist brand of history he taught. "A People’s History of the United States" (1980), his best-known book, had for its heroes not the Founding Fathers -- many of them slaveholders and deeply attached to the status quo, as Dr. Zinn was quick to point out -- but rather the farmers of Shays' Rebellion and union organizers of the 1930s.
As he wrote in his autobiography, "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train" (1994), "From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than 'objectivity'; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble."
Certainly, it was a recipe for rancor between Dr. Zinn and John Silber, former president of Boston University. Dr. Zinn, a leading critic of Silber, twice helped lead faculty votes to oust the BU president, who in turn once accused Dr. Zinn of arson (a charge he quickly retracted) and cited him as a prime example of teachers "who poison the well of academe."
Dr. Zinn was a cochairman of the strike committee when BU professors walked out in 1979. After the strike was settled, he and four colleagues were charged with violating their contract when they refused to cross a picket line of striking secretaries. The charges against "the BU Five" were soon dropped.
In 1997, Dr. Zinn slipped into popular culture when his writing made a cameo appearance in the film "Good Will Hunting." The title character, played by Matt Damon, lauds "A People’s History" and urges Robin Williams’s character to read it. Damon, who co-wrote the script, was a neighbor of the Zinns growing up.
"Howard had a great mind and was one of the great voices in the American political life," Ben Affleck, also a family friend growing up and Damon's co-star in "Good Will Hunting," said in a statement. "He taught me how valuable -- how necessary -- dissent was to democracy and to America itself. He taught that history was made by the everyman, not the elites. I was lucky enough to know him personally and I will carry with me what I learned from him -- and try to impart it to my own children -- in his memory."
Damon was later involved in a television version of the book, "The People Speak," which ran on the History Channel in 2009, and he narrated a 2004 biographical documentary, "Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train."
"Howard had a genius for the shape of public morality and for articulating the great alternative vision of peace as more than a dream," said James Carroll a columnist for the Globe's opinion pages whose friendship with Dr. Zinn dates to when Carroll was a Catholic chaplain at BU. "But above all, he had a genius for the practical meaning of love. That is what drew legions of the young to him and what made the wide circle of his friends so constantly amazed and grateful."
Dr. Zinn was born in New York City on Aug. 24, 1922, the son of Jewish immigrants, Edward Zinn, a waiter, and Jennie (Rabinowitz) Zinn, a housewife. He attended New York public schools and was working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard when he met Roslyn Shechter.
"She was working as a secretary," Dr. Zinn said in an interview with the Globe nearly two years ago. "We were both working in the same neighborhood, but we didn't know each other. A mutual friend asked me to deliver something to her. She opened the door, I saw her, and that was it."
He joined the Army Air Corps, and they courted through the mail before marrying in October 1944 while he was on his first furlough. She died in 2008.
During World War II, he served as a bombardier, was awarded the Air Medal, and attained the rank of second lieutenant.
After the war, Dr. Zinn worked at a series of menial jobs until entering New York University on the GI Bill as a 27-year-old freshman. He worked nights in a warehouse loading trucks to support his studies. He received his bachelor’s degree from NYU, followed by master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Columbia University.
Dr. Zinn was an instructor at Upsala College and lecturer at Brooklyn College before joining the faculty of Spelman College in Atlanta, in 1956. He served at the historically black women’s institution as chairman of the history department. Among his students were novelist Alice Walker, who called him "the best teacher I ever had," and Marian Wright Edelman, future head of the Children's Defense Fund.
During this time, Dr. Zinn became active in the civil rights movement. He served on the executive committee of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the most aggressive civil rights organization of the time, and participated in numerous demonstrations.
Dr. Zinn became an associate professor of political science at BU in 1964 and was named full professor in 1966.
The focus of his activism became the Vietnam War. Dr. Zinn spoke at many rallies and teach-ins and drew national attention when he and the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, another leading antiwar activist, went to Hanoi in 1968 to receive three prisoners released by the North Vietnamese.
Dr. Zinn’s involvement in the antiwar movement led to his publishing two books: "Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal" (1967) and "Disobedience and Democracy" (1968). He had previously published "LaGuardia in Congress" (1959), which had won the American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Prize; "SNCC: The New Abolitionists" (1964); "The Southern Mystique" (1964); and "New Deal Thought" (1966).
He also was the author of "The Politics of History" (1970); "Postwar America" (1973); "Justice in Everyday Life" (1974); and "Declarations of Independence" (1990).
In 1988, Dr. Zinn took early retirement to concentrate on speaking and writing. The latter activity included writing for the stage. Dr. Zinn had two plays produced: "Emma," about the anarchist leader Emma Goldman, and "Daughter of Venus."
On his last day at BU, Dr. Zinn ended class 30 minutes early so he could join a picket line and urged the 500 students attending his lecture to come along. A hundred did.
"Howard was an old and very close friend," Chomsky said. "He was a person of real courage and integrity, warmth and humor. He was just a remarkable person."
Carroll called Dr. Zinn "simply one of the greatest Americans of our time. He will not be replaced -- or soon forgotten. How we loved him back."
In addition to his daughter, Dr. Zinn leaves a son, Jeff of Wellfleet; three granddaughters; and two grandsons.
Funeral plans were not available.
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| Since President Obama announced Dec. 1 that he will escalate the Afghanistan war by sending 30,000 additional troops, the disastrous failure of the Administration's war policy is becoming more apparent. This week, U.S., UK, European, UN, and Afghan leaders will hold an international conference on Afghanistan. The purpose of the meeting is to turn the tide of European and international public opinion which is running strongly against a futile, unwinnable war, and to extract pledges of additional troops. The British antiwar movement will be out in force to blockade it, and we must also keep up the pressure in the U.S.
Afghanistan cannot be subdued by force. The Taliban showed last week that it can freely strike in the heart of Kabul, only yards from the Presidential palace. It has shadow governors in all but one of Afghanistan's provinces. And the killing of 5 CIA officers, including the agency's leading experts on Al Qaeda, by a double agent at a CIA base in Khost province Dec. 30, illustrates that the U.S. is facing sophisticated and disciplined adversaries. The war is causing rising civilian casualties and Afghan resentment of foreign forces. 2009 was the worst year since 2001 for Afghan children. Just in the past month, NATO forces killed 10 civilians including 8 schoolboys in Kunar province, 4 civilians in Nangarhar province (arousing a 5,000-person protest), 10 protesters in Helmand province, and 4 people in Ghazni province whom the Americans said were Taliban, but who the local people said were civilians. The UN reported that 2,412 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2009, a 14% increase over 2008. Pressure is increasing on the U.S. for a diplomatic settlement. An International Herald Tribune op-ed last week joined a growing number of experts calling for restoring Afghanistan's neutrality, including the departure of U.S. forces and bases. And opposition to Obama's war is stirring in Congress, too. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) plans to introduce a privileged resolution repealing Congressional authorization for the war. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) will offer a bill to require an exit strategy. And Rep. Barbara Lee's (D-CA) HR.3699 withholds funds to pay for any increased troop levels. On February 1, the White House will present its FY2001 budget, which is expected to include a record-shattering $709 billion for "defense" with $159 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Congress will also vote this spring on President Obama's request for another $33 billion for the Afghanistan escalation on top of the $709 billion. At a time when millions of Americans are jobless and cities and towns across the country are slashing budgets for basic services, we urgently need to challenge the Administration's budgetary priorities. Starve the war, not the nation! Across the country students, teachers, women, the disabled, hospital and healthcare workers, the homeless, domestic workers, the unemployed, seniors and many others are protesting deep budget cuts to essential programs. It's time to join our efforts for a just economy with our call for peace and to tell Congress we can't afford war anymore. Find out who in your community is organizing in support of economic justice. Invite them to join peace activists in a monthly Brown Bag Lunch Vigil (BBLV) at your local congressional office. The next set of vigils, initiated by Progressive Democrats for America, will be on Thursday, February 17. Update us at ufpjafghanistan@gmail.com! |
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| Help us continue to do this critical work: Make a donation to UFPJ today. UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE |
Agenda for January 23 Summit
Agenda
Introductions
History, Guest Speaker, Discussion
Points of Unity, Discussion
March 4 Planning, Guest Speaker, Discussion
Introductions
12:00-12:15pm
!st Agenda Item
History of Movement To Include Guest Speaker
12:15-1:00pm
Introduction of History
Speaker: Marcos Perez, City College Student, EFA
Approx Time: 5 Min
Guest Speaker: Dr. Jorge Mariscal, Prof. UCSD
Subject Matter: History, Budget Cuts, Future (To Be Discussed w/Wayne)
Time: 10-15 min.
Open Discussions
Time: 25 Minutes
2nd Agenda Item
Points of Unity
1:00pm-1:45pm
Introduce Points of Unity
Speaker: Elizabeth Rodriguez, City College Student, EFA
Time: 10 Minutes
Open Discussion
35 Minutes
3rd Agenda Item
March 4 Planning
1:45-3:00pm
Introduction March 4 Planning
Speaker: Wayne Scherer, City College Student, EFA
Time: 5 Minutes
Guest Speaker: Kiki Ochoa, A.R.E, Lincoln High School, MeCha
Subject Matter: To Be Discussed w/Wayne
Time:10 Minutes
Open Planning Discussions
Time: 50 Minutes
Closing/Future Meeting Dates
Time: 10 Minutes
*IRC Volunteer and Internship Opportunities*
* *
*PLEASE NOTE:*
§ All positions are unpaid.
§ All positions have a minimum age requirement of 18.
§ All volunteers must complete an online background check and contribute
$20 towards its cost. **
§ All volunteers or interns must attend an IRC Volunteer Orientation.**
§ The dates and times listed are somewhat flexible, but those who are
able to commit the most time are preferred.
* *
*COMMUNITY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:*
*_Vocational ESL Program Tutor^ _*
*Starting: January – May *
*Monday – Friday 9:30am – 12:00pm 2 – 5 days per week***
Our students are Iraqi refugees living in El Cajon, and they usually
form a multi-level group with varying degrees of English skills. We are
seeking self motivated applicants with ESL tutoring experience or
experience learning a foreign language.
*_Job Development Assistant_*
*Starting: January – May*
*Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm 6 – 16 hours per week*
Job Development Assistants will work in the Community and Economic
Development Department to help refugees find employment.
*_Career Development Assistant_*
*Starting: January – June*
*Monday – Friday 9am – 5pm 6 – 10 hours per week*
The Career Development Assistant will assist our Career Development
Coordinator ensure that our refugee clients are able to pursue their
previous careers and explore new career paths. **
*_Microenterprise Program Research and Administrative Intern_*
*4 month Commitment*
*4 – 8 per week, Monday – Friday*
*_Volunteer Income Tax Assistant_*
*Starting: January – April*
*3 hour shifts from 10am – 1pm and 1pm – 4pm Monday – Friday *
*_ _*
*IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT:*
*_Immigration Department Assistant_*
* Starting: December - April*
* 1pm – 5pm 10 – 15 hours per week*
Experience with a second language is preferred, specifically Arabic,
Spanish or Vietnamese.
*LITERACY AND EDUCATION DEPARTMENT:*
*_Students Plus Program Tutor_*
*Starting: November – April *
*Monday – Friday 2 – 5pm 2 – 5 days per week *
The Students Plus program is for refugee teens at Crawford High School.
*_First Things First Childcare Assistant_*
*Starting: September – December ^ *
*Monday – Thursday 8:30am – 11:30am 2 - 4 days per week*
Assist in the childcare for refugee children ages 1 year to 6 years old.**
*FOOD SECURITY AND COMMUNITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT:*
*_Food and Farming Outreach Intern^ _*
*Starting: November – April *
*Days and times are flexible. 10-15 hours per week*
Assist with the New Roots Community Farm outreach program.
*_Food and Farming Volunteer^ _*
*Starting: November – April *
*Days and times are flexible. 3 – 6 hours per week*
Assist with general maintenance and development of the New Roots
Community Farm.
*_ _*
*_Crawford Garden Assistant_***
*Starting: November – April *
*2 weekdays in the afternoon and Saturday 10am – 2pm. 3 – 5 hours per
week^ *
Help refugee teens garden at Crawford High School.
*_ _*
*_Pantry Volunteer_** *
*Starting: November – April *
*Must be available on Wednesdays! 8-12 hours per week during office hours*
Assist refugees with food needs at the pantry.
*_ _*
*_City Heights Farmers Market Volunteer_*
*Must be available Saturdays between 7am and 2:30pm! 3 - 6 hours per week*
Help with set-up, maintenance, and breakdown of the City Heights
Farmer's Market.
*_City Heights Farmers Market Fresh Fund Assistant_*
*Must be available on Saturdays from 9am – 1pm. 4 – 6 hours per week*
The fresh fund provides vouchers for residents who use their food stamps
at the City Heights Farmers Market.
*_City Heights Farmers Market Film Documentarian_*
*Days include occasional Saturdays and flexible times during the week. 4
– 6 hours per week*
Make short films about the City Heights Farmers Market and related projects.
*_City Heights Farmers Market Graphic Designer_*
*Days and times are flexible; can work from home. 3 hours per week*
Work to create posters and flyers for events at the City Heights Farmers
Market. Work from home.
*_City Heights Farmers Market Environmental Outreach Facilitator_*
*Must be available on Saturday mornings and/or early afternoons 4 – 6
hours per week*
Create information and activities that address waste reduction, energy
and water conservation, and sustainability in relation to food justice
and daily practices.
*_ _*
*_City Heights Farmers Market Wellness Booth Facilitator_*
*Must be available on Saturday mornings and/or early afternoons 4 – 6
hours per week*
Develop nutrition and physical activity information and activities
relevant to the City Heights community.
* *
*MENTORING PROGRAMS: *
(These offer scheduling flexibility and are great for those who work
full time!!!)**
*_ESL Mentor_* (in the IRC's *Families Connect Program*)
*Starting: November – June *
*Days and times are flexible. 3 – 5 hours per week*
The IRC's Families Connect* *matches you with one refugee family and you
provide in-home ESL tutoring.
*_ _*
*_Job Mentor_* (working with the *Employment Department)*
*Starting: November – April *
*Days and times are flexible. 3 – 5 hours per week*
Work intensively 1 on 1 with a refugee to help them obtain employment.
*_In-home Citizenship Tutor for Seniors_*
*Starting: November – April *
*Days and times are flexible. 3 – 5 hours per week*
In-home tutors will spend 3-5 hours weekly with a naturalization
applicant preparing them for their final test.
*_Financial Home Educator_* (working with the *Financial Education
Department)*
*Starting: July - December*
*Days and times are flexible. 3 – 5 hours per week*
The Financial Education program is designed to aid refugees in
navigating the complex American economy.
If you have any questions or inquiries please do not hesitate to contact
me. We hope to make your experience with the IRC as enjoyable as
possible and look forward to working with you in the future.
All the best,
Gabriel N. Davis
Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator
International Rescue Committee
5348 University Ave, Suite 205 C
San Diego, CA 92105
facebook.com/gabriel.n.davis
Office: (619) 641-7510 ext. 272
www.theIRC.org/sandiego <http://www.theIRC.org/sandiego>
irc_75th_email
_______________________________________________
Sdcpj mailing list
Sdcpj@lists.quantumimagery.com
http://lists.quantumimagery.com/listinfo.cgi/sdcpj-quantumimagery.com
Wars bleed the
occupations of
While trillions are spent on military occupations, we starve our schools of the ability to prepare our children for the future!
We are squandering our children’s future for the sake of military-corporate profits.
While trillions are spent on military occupations, health care remains unavailable to tens of millions of Americans. We use our children as cannon fodder, while making health for them unavailable.
This is not the world we, or Dr. King, would want. Take action.
Saturday, February 6, showing of the film "Rethink Afghanistan" with speaker Jacob Diliberto
from Rethink Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
7 p.m., First Church of the Brethren, 3850 Westgate Place, San Diego 92105
Saturday, March 20, 7th Anniversary of the Iraq War
Events will include a car caravan, bannering and a candlelight vigil with San Diego Veterans for Peace
(Details being developed)
Sponsored by San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice
www.sdcpj.org
***************************
EVEN MORE TODAY THAN IN 1967
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967
A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on.
Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision. But we must speak. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.
We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls ''enemy.'' For no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.
I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, ''this way of settling differences is not just.'' A nation that continues year and year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities over the pursuit of war. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate, or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.
We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence, or violent co-annihilation. We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who posses power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight.
Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves in the long and bitter but beautiful struggle for a new world. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
May our country, on the brink of war, take to heart the final refrain of America, the Beautiful:
America! America! / God mend thine ev'ry flaw / Confirm thy soul in self-control / Thy liberty in law
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PowerPoint Presentation Part 1: 
