From those lovely ladies at CODEPINK: 

Dear Friend,

We are in love with our planet. One of the reasons we work for peace is to nurture our entire planet; we want our beautiful Mother Earth to flourish. CODEPINK is one of the few groups that connect war and the environment. Pink and green are gorgeous together, don’t you think? As natural as a stem and a flower.

War is definitely not green. It is, in fact, quite the opposite. The U.S. military is the single largest consumer of oil in the world and the world’s larger polluter, generating 750,000 tons of toxic waste annually. If we stop funding the war for oil in Iraq, our tax dollars can go toward developing clean, green sources of energy that will help us build a healthy, peaceful planet.

We like to think of CODEPINK as a perennial garden; we plant seeds of love and peace that flower throughout the year–often in surprising places (did you see the parody of CODEPINK on Saturday Night Live this weekend?) Help the CODEPINK garden grow. You can spread seeds of peace by signing our War is Not Green petition and sending it along to five friends. The more people who join us, the more we can work for the Earth.

It is deeply inspiring to see what we can create when we come together. We witnessed a glorious blossoming in New Orleans, where we just planted a beautiful community garden in the still devastated Lower Ninth Ward. Click here to see pictures of the garden and photos from the phenomenal tribute to the women of New Orleans organized by V-Day–the campaign to end violence against women and girls. It was a true honor to bring love and beauty and hope to a community so desperately in need of healing.

You can plant seeds of peace in your own community by downloading our War is Not Green petition and flyer and bringing them to your local Earth Day celebrations; you can also put our War is Not Green sign in your window. We need to remind our friends and neighbors how war hurts the Earth as well as her citizens. We need to remind them that we can all stand up and nurture both peace and the environment.

Thank you for helping us spread seeds of peace throughout the world!

With love (and love for our amazing Mother Earth),
Alicia, Dana, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jodie, Liz, Medea, Nancy, Rae, and Tighe

P.S.

• Gather even more seeds of peace at our Summer of Hope in DC! We will be hosting weekly activist training camps in June and July at the CODEPINK house; you and other passionate, engaged women will learn powerful and creative activism tools, and will then bring your new knowledge straight to the halls of Congress! To join us, click here.

• Thanks to those who resisted as the filed their taxes this week and did not BUY BUSH’S WAR.

From the Friends Committee on National Legislation — a Lobby in the Public Interest

US Diplomacy with Iran is the Key to Iraq

This week, members of Congress spent long hours questioning generals and administration officials about U.S. strategy in Iraq. According to the top general in Iraq, the war isn’t going to end soon. “We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel,” General David Petraeus said. The general went on to blame many of the problems in Iraq on Iran. President Bush this morning added his voice to the chorus blaming Iran for the problems in Iraq and insisted that Congress should now approve more money for war.

The tragedy is there is a way to achieve peace in Iraq. The administration needs to be willing to stop blaming Iran and start working with that country. Yet administration officials this week appeared intent on ratcheting up the diplomatic and military pressure on Iran. In testimony that was at times confusing and contradictory, the top U.S. officials said Iran was both responsible for inciting some of the recent fighting in Iraq and responsible for negotiating a ceasefire to stop the violence.

If Iran has this much influence, shouldn’t the United States start talking to Iran about how to end the Iraq war? Negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, without preconditions, were a key recommendation of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group. A bipartisan group of senators and many people in the U.S. military also have endorsed negotiations.

Take Action

Urge your senators to cosponsor legislation introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Robert Casey (S. 2130) that would organize a diplomatic offensive in the region to talk with Iraq’s neighbors and help bring an end to the war in Iraq.

This legislation will not end the war in Iraq, but it will encourage the administration to engage in the type of substantive diplomatic negotiations that could open up the possibility of a way out of Iraq. If the administration can’t see light at the end of the tunnel, then perhaps Congress needs to begin looking for that light.

Find Out More
FCNL’s response to the administration’s testimony.

What senators from both sides of the aisle said this week about the importance of diplomacy and talking with Iran.

More about FCNL’s Iraq Peace Campaign.

Background on the bill, S. 2130.

Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

“Political Observations” (1795-04-20); also in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. IV, p. 491

– Sandra R Mackie
    Gettysburg, PA
    Sponsor a woman survivor of war @
    www.womenforwomen.org

40 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and this nation lost one of the greatest leaders for peace and justice that we have ever known. Read his words. Listen to his speech in the video below. He could easily be speaking to the American people today regarding our “new war”… it is eerie.

* * *

“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”

* * *

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality… I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.”

* * *

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

* * *

Here’s a clip from one of Dr. King’s most powerful speeches:

P.S. If you had trouble clicking on the video above, try this link:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=b80Bsw0UG-U

Brought to us by our friends at http://pol.moveon.org/ – Aisling, Adam G, Adam R, Anna, Carrie, Daniel, Eli, Ilyse, Joan, Justin, Karin, Laura, Lenore, Marika, Matt, Nita, Noah, Patrick, Peter, Stephanie, Tanya, and Wes
MoveOn.org Political Action
Friday, April 4th, 2008

Dear Friend of United for Peace and Justice,

Last night the announcement came: The 4,000th U.S. serviceperson has died in Iraq.Last week, in more than 700 activities in all 50 states, we marked the 5th anniversary of the war that never should have happened. Now, United for Peace and Justice and many of our member groups urge you to once again make a public statement against the war and occupation in Iraq.

Check the American Friends Service Committee calendar, or the UFPJ calendar, to find a vigil or other protest near you.

If you don’t see anything listed, we urge you to take the time to plan something. It doesn’t have to be complicated; it just needs to be visible:

• Hold a candlelight vigil tomorrow evening, Tuesday, March 25. Do this in a busy part of your city or town.
• During rush hour, hang a banner from an overpass of a busy highway.
• Make some signs and stand on the corners of the busiest intersection during the busiest time of the day.
• Hold a vigil or a picket line in front of the district office of your member of Congress and call on them to use their power to bring all the troops home.

Whatever you decide to do, be sure to:

• Send an email notice to everyone you know.
• Call any groups you think might be interested and urge them to help get the word out.
• Let your local media outlets know what you are doing, and why.
• Post your plans on our website so other people can find out what’s happening and join you.

As we mourn the 4,000 U.S. servicepeople and the more than one million Iraqis who have already died, let us renew our determination to end this criminal war and occupation. Now is the time to bring all of the troops home!Yours, for peace and justice,

Leslie Cagan
National Coordinator, UFPJ

 

A new Photo Slideshow by singer/songwriter Ed Hale shows NYC tourists that it’s not all Sex and the City in the Big Apple

“On March 19th, 2008 people all over the world took actions of all shapes and kinds to protest the fifth anniversary of the United States Government’s illegal invasion of the country of Iraq. There were protest marches, candle-light vigils, lobbying and petitions in Washington DC, and of course thousands of telephone calls and emails to the US Congress and the White House. Our idea was a simple one, and coincided with an observation I had made that disturbed me a few weeks prior while taking a shower . We live on a very busy street in a very busy city — New York City to be exact. And two or three times a day those BIG RED NEW YORK DOUBLE DECKER TOUR BUSES drive tourists from all over the world around the beautiful city of Manhattan. It bothered me greatly to realize that your average visitor to NYC would not see much anti-war sentiment in this very progressive and otherwise intelligent city. So what to do? Simple: hang a giant flag outside an apartment building for tourists from all nations to see as they drove by and snapped photos for their scrapbooks that had a simple message: WORLD WE’RE SORRY! As long as the US stays in Iraq, the flag will remain. The hope is that at least a few foriegners can go home and report to friends and family that there are at least some Americans who are aware and truly sorry for all the innocent bloodshed and lives lost.”

View Slideshow here