Peace

Photo taken Feb. 7, 2007, evening rush hour
Gulf Freeway, Houston
Picture showing some of the signs in the "Impeach Bush/End Iraq Occupation" themes

Photo taken Nov. 15, 2006, evening rush hour
Southwest Freeway, Houston
Picture showing some of the signs in the "Stop Israel Agression/No war with Iran" theme
This theme is usually on Wednesdays.

Morning drive time. One sign shown to north bound traffic from a Gulf Freeway pedestrian bridge just south of the Loop 610. Although traffic is dense here, this site is not as interactive as blogging over the Southwest Freeway.

Photo collage by Massoud Nayeri, from Iraq War Summit and March, organized by Congressperson Sheila Jackson-Lee

Sherry Glover read the following piece by Steve Young, with permission, at the Jan. 14, 2007 ceremony for the 3000th casualty memorial in Houston. She said, "I felt that it expressed what I could no longer find words for. I think it was most effective to read it while having the audience look toward those flags."

COMMENTS ON THE 3000TH MEMORIAL TO THE PEOPLE KILLED IN IRAQ
(Memorial Park, Houston, January 17, 2007)

The 3000th Memorial in Houston is very moving and I want to thank the people who created it - Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out and others. The Memorial honors not only the 3000 plus U.S. military and contract personnel who have died in thie Iraq war, but also the thousands of Iraqi citizens who have died. We don't like to talk about the Iraqis who have died, but they are also our brothers and sisters.

Memorial for Casualties of the Iraq War
January 14, 2007

Thousands Dead, Thousands More Picking Up the Pieces

We are all here to honor these fallen U.S. Military Personnel, Iraqi and civilians from all over the world that have died as a result of the Iraq war. You may be wondering why we chose to honor ALL people who have died in this war. There are many reasons that this should be done. It’s important that as human beings we memorialize this great loss of humanity to the world. It is important that as human beings we realize the toll that war takes on this entire world for generations to come. It is important because until human beings acknowledge the total losses, we will continue to spend the lives of valuable human beings trying to conquer one another in a futile bid for everlasting power. It is important because histories of wars are often untold, rewritten, or forgotten, and so the lessons are not learned by future generations.

This article has links to speeches, photos, and the event description for the 3000th casualty memorial, at Memorial Park in Houston, Jan. 14-20, 2007. This event was held to memorialize the terrible loss of life, (US and Iraqi), that we have had so far during the Iraq invasion and occupation.

Kucinich to announce for President
‘Deeply concerned’ by failure of Democratic leadership to heed voters’ November call to end war

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, December 11, 2006

Photo taken Nov. 15, 2006, evening rush hour
Southwest Freeway, Houston
Picture showing some of the signs in the "Stop Israel Agression/No war with Iran" theme
This theme is usually on Wednesdays.

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS, Israel has illegally occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem for 40 years in violation of U. N. Resolution no. 242; and

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS members of the U.S. military in Iraq have killed many thousands of Iraq civilians; and

To get a copy of this resolution formatted for printing, so you can take it with you to your precinct convention, click on the link in the Attachment box below.

WHEREAS, The Palestinian people participated in January 2006 in an election of the members of their parliament; and WHEREAS, The elections were internationally monitored and widely declared to be fair and clean; and WHEREAS, The result of the election was the ouster of the long-reigning Fatah faction and the induction of the Islamic Hamas faction; and WHEREAS, The only way to resolve a conflict is to negotiate directly with one's adversary, no matter how strongly contemned; and WHEREAS, A third party has no standing to name the representatives of a democratic government to which it is not a constituent; be it therefore RESOLVED, That the President of the United States, the Secretary of State, and all other officials duly appointed by our government negotiate directly, and without precondition, with the Palestinian counterparts appointed and empowered by the current democratically elected Hamas-led government of the Palestinian people.

The two flyers here (see attachments below) are the ones PAA produced for the 2006 and 2007 Martin Luther King, Jr. parades and related events in Houston.

They contrast King's ideas with Bush's policies -- on peace, diplomacy, nonviolence, racial equality, the environment, civil liberties. They explain how 3 more years of Bush in the White House will shatter King's dream of a just society, and why we should push for impeachment.

See below for more updates on last night's protest from John Cobarruvias of Bay Area New Democrats.  He was one of the organizers of the event.  BAND can be counted on to have a significant prescence whenever DeLay is in town, even (like last night) when the event isn't even in the Clear Lake area nor in DeLay's district.

John counted 287 protestors.  I think that's a fairly accurate number, although it was difficult to count because we were spread out over such a big area, some people came late, etc.  The Houston Chronicle said police estimated about 250.

Sent by Rochelle Bracken
Referenced from The Nation

Here is an open letter from the poet Sharon Olds to Laura Bush declining the invitation to read and speak at the National Book Critics Circle Award in Washington, DC.  Forward it  along if  you feel more people should read it.

Sharon Olds is one of most widely read and critically acclaimed poets living in America today. Read to the end of  the letter to experience her restrained, chilling eloquence.

The Iraq Notebook is a collection of articles that give you an insight into what's really going on in Iraq, that you won't see on TV.
Download the 2005 edition of the Iraq Notebook (all in one file), or the 2006 edition (each file in a separate page) by clicking on the attachments below.

Note:  This is an old resolution and has been superceded by a new version. 

WHEREAS, The Israeli-Palestinian conflict killed 920 Israelis and 2,682 Palestinians between September 29, 2000 and February 11, 2004; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. gives almost thirty times as much money to the Israeli government and military ($15,000,000) daily, as to Palestinian, non-governmental organizations ($570,000); and

WHEREAS, The U.S. reliance on force rather than diplomacy and its unbalanced support of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians have greatly injured the credibility of the United States, especially in the Arab and Muslim world; and

WHEREAS, Nearly 60% of Europeans believe Israel presents a threat to peace, putting it ahead of Iran, North Korea and the United States, each of which polled 53%; and

WHEREAS, The U.S. decries extremist Palestinian suicide bombers sent to kill Israeli civilians, but ignores Israel’s violations of international law when it confiscates Palestinian land for Israeli settlements and builds walls that cage and impoverish Palestinians; and

WHEREAS, The Palestinian struggle for self determination should not be equated to the terrorist activities of the criminal organization, Al Queda; and

WHEREAS, The only way for Israelis to be secure is for Palestinians to be secure; therefore be it

RESOLVED