NEWSLETTER July/August 2013  

Grounding the drones – Bonny Mahoney

This is a brief update on our continued battle against the use of drones as an assassination tool. On April 28, 2013 three WNY Peace board members (Russell Brown, Valerie Niederhoffer and I) were arrested for participating in a peaceful protest at the Hancock Airfield in Syracuse, NY. Although we are currently working through the “due process” of the court system until our trial, the battle is still being waged against drone warfare. On August 2, 2013 the No Drones Niagara group staged a rally outside the Niagara Falls Airbase that produced media coverage by Channel 4. The media appear to believe that the only way for people to keep their jobs is to participate in our government’s terrorism by drone program. The Niagara Falls airbase has been chosen as yet another training area for drone operators. And as of recently, drones have been cleared by the FAA to fly over central New York. How long will it be before we are hearing the buzzing of these terror machines over our homes? Thanks to all who stood in the “wind tunnel” holding signs and chanting as the soldiers from the base came and went. And thanks again for the hospitality of Kim's International Cafe for use of their parking lot.

Resist Militarism! Task Force report – Russell Brown

In August, two defendants who were arrested on April 28 for non-violently protesting against the drone warfare being conducted at the Hancock Air Base, in Syracuse, were required to return to court. Bonny Mahoney and Valerie Niederhoffer, both members of the Peace Center and its coordinating board, like some other defendants, have been ordered to appear several times before their trial, without an opportunity to argue their motions

yet. Their next appearances – Bonny’s on September 12, Valerie’s on September 24 – will probably move the cases forward. The judge hasn’t decided whether the cases will be heard together or separately, but he has said that the trial(s) will likely occur in January.

My motion for a change of venue was denied, as were most other motions other than the standard ones like a demand to produce. I argued that we couldn’t get a fair trial in Onondaga County because DeWitt town court, perversely using a tool designed to protect victims of domestic abuse and harassment, had automatically issued us orders of protection to keep us away from the base commander’s place of work, the base that operates the killer drones, thus preemptively denying us our First Amendment Right to free speech and assembly there. [Please see the cartoon by Jason Yungbluth, below. –the Editor]

The judges also set extremely high bail; mine was $2000, although past defendants had token bail or were released on their own recognizance. Bail is supposed to guarantee the return of defendants to court, but one of the main purposes of our actions, as they surely know, is to appear and argue in court against the war crimes being committed at the base, with the goal of ending these crimes.

The police and DA also charged us with obstructing government administration, a misdemeanor with a possible one-year prison sentence, though we merely lay down on a road that was closed for a permitted demonstration. In the past the maximum sentence defendants received was 15 days in jail, and most got less.

In the meantime, many people have been killed by the drones in recent weeks.

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Jason  Yungbluth  8-­‐13  

Jason  Yungbluth    7/2013  

New Task Force! – Charley Bowman

The WNY Peace Center is proud to announce a new group: Renewable Energy Task Force. We will focus on the problems of global warming and climate change and their only solution: stop using fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy (solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower).

Why should the Peace Center, with its focus on issues of war and peaceful conflict resolution, advocate for renewable energy? The primary driver of war nowadays is access to limited life-sustaining resources such as potable water and fossil fuels. We went to war in Iraq at least in part to assure access to its oil reserves. Our burning of fossil fuels has elevated the world's average temperature, and our climate is gradually changing as a result. Inhabited islands are about to disappear beneath the waves, the ocean is being acidified, destroying the ocean's coral reefs, and the ocean is heating up, providing more energy for future hurricanes. Agricultural conditions are changing; long droughts will force shifts in population. Climate change is a perfect recipe for war, but switching to renewable energy can remove that incentive for future wars.

The task force's global vision is to see all power supplied by renewable energy. Since global warming is a world problem with no single-state solution, we will also work to convince world governments to make the switch to renewable energy. However, the first steps must be local.

Our primary mission is to get New York State to generate all its electricity from renewable energy and to run all vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, etc.) on electricity or hydrogen. It's possible within 17 years, according to a detailed plan recently authored by Stanford University's Marc Jacobson and his colleagues.

The task force is already advocating two specific projects: to repower Dunkirk and Cayuga Coal Plants with solar or wind, and to create gigantic solar arrays at the former Seneca Army Depot (between Seneca and Cayuga Lakes) and at the unneeded Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station and Lewiston Reservoir. Details of both plans can be viewed at: http://wnypeace.org/new/projects.html

Our email address is RenewableEnergy@WNYPeace.org. Please write if you want to join our task force.

A Dream Deferred – John Washington

On August 28, 1963 hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the National Mall to cash in on the promise of freedom so eloquently described in the Constitution. The March for Jobs and Freedom was the climax of a movement that had been going on for almost 400 years, still facing vicious Jim Crow segregation. Union leaders, clergy and civil rights leaders contrasted the status quo to the patriotic rhetoric of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The event and Dr. Martin Luther King’s monumental "I Have a Dream" speech have been oversimplified since then. The dream was much more than for little black and white kids to play and study together, it was to create a beloved community of social justice for all. America has yet to make good on its promise to all Americans.

Fifty years later it seems that Dr. King’s dream is still deferred. The mass incarceration of black youth, the murder of Trayvon Martin and recent acquittal of his murderer, George Zimmerman, and the less publicized murders by police, security officers and vigilantes of many other innocent people of color across the USA – all theses acts of violence show that the culture of injustice has not changed.

“With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to

transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day." (Martin Luther King)

“What happens to a dream deferred?” asked Langston Hughes in his poem, Harlem.

It gets capitalized, corporatized, homogenized, monopolized, but as long as we still fight for it, a Dream - unlike a man - cannot die.

Help! We Need YOU to Help Plan Our Annual Dinner! – Deb Ebel

Calling all Peace Center members to assist in the preparation for the Annual Dinner on November 9th, 2013! Anyone who might be able to contribute time to updating lists, calling advertisers, getting basket donations, putting up posters, etc., please call the WNYPC and leave your name/contact info.

AND – please get involved in YOUR peace center program! There are several task forces that could use your help, as well as committees. Here is the list of both:

Prison Action Committee Resist Militarism! Latin American Solidarity Committee Global Economic Task Force Anti-Fracking Task Force Economic Empowerment Task Force Middle East Task Force Renewable Energy Task Force Media Committee Finance & Fundraising Committee Membership Committee

Camp Peaceprints Launches "I Will Not Kill" Campaign – Vicki Ross

Camp Peaceprints, a camp for 8-13 year olds, launched the I Will Not Kill campaign in Buffalo on July 24, 2013, inviting Mayor Byron Brown to sign the pledge in his office on July 24. He agreed to sign and became the first mayor to do so.

The campaign originated with the Fellowship of Reconciliation (a camp cosponsor, the Interfaith Peace Network, is affiliated with the Fellowship). I Will Not Kill is a campaign for our communities, a call for an end to the violence and warfare around the world, in our neighborhoods and our homes. It is a pledge that we will not participate in any violence.

After the mayor and others signed the pledge, the children placed papier-maché bones that they made in Niagara Square, as an installation of the Million Bones Project, intended to recognize and mourn all those killed by violence-- through genocide, murder, street violence, and warfare. The children chanted a “Million Bones" chant that they had written.

The camp, in its 6th year, served over 50 children. It is a collaboration between the Sr. Karen Center for Nonviolence, the WNY Peace Center and the Interfaith Peace Network, and is generously supported by the Network of Religious Communities and many community organizations and individuals. Vicki Ross, one of the Peace Center’s two non-violence consultants, and Vivian Waltz were the directors of the camp, which was held at St. Margaret School on Hertel Avenue for 2 weeks in July. Campers enjoyed several field trips to the History Museum, the Central Public Library, the Burchfield-Penney art museum, and 2  

Delaware Park, while learning about peace and non-violence through stories and activities.

Death Penalty Protest at U.S. Supreme Court – Chuck Culhane

The 20th Annual Fast and Vigil in front of the U.S. Supreme Court ran from June 29th to July 3rd. The dates are important because it was June 29, 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court knocked out the death penalty across the country, sparing the lives of more than 600 women and men on death row. Unfortunately, the decision left a lot of wiggle room for new statutes, and the states fell over each other in attempts to restore the death penalty, following the whining (demagogic) pleas of Nixon, Reagan, Wallace and others of their ilk, threatening that without the death penalty, there would be anarchy. Rhode Island didn’t even have a death statute before the 1972 decision (known as Furman v. Georgia) but they passed a bill reinstating it, along with 37 other states. On July 3, 1976, the Supreme Court said the new death penalty (Gregg v. Georgia) was constitutional and the States could again execute criminals with the proviso that only murder was a capital offense. Only the federal government has laws allowing for executions for crimes other than murder, treason for example. The Gregg bill, ironically, was signed by Jimmy Carter as governor of Georgia; he has since denounced the death penalty and fights against it worldwide.

The Western New York Peace Center was represented by Martin Gugino and a friend. The event was a great success. The little man in the picture above was an inspiration in a number of ways. One of the sign he’s holding says, “The death penalty is dead wrong.” His name is Rafi, short for Raphael, and he’s been accompanying his Mom to the vigils for some time. He handed out flyers and info booklets to people passing by, and people accepted literature from him, although they often refused it from older protesters. When asked how old he was, he said “Seven.” And how long have you been doing this anti-death penalty work? He paused a moment and said, “I guess all of my life.”

There have been 1,343 executions in the U.S. since 1976, more than 500 of them in Texas. More than 3,000 women and men currently sit on death rows. On a positive note, Maryland became the sixth State in the last six years to abolish the death penalty. Hundreds of people converge on the Supreme Court each year: activists, family members of murder victims, family members of people on death row or who have been executed, men and women who have been exonerated, and they come strong with hope to put an end to state murder. The Peace Center is a proud supporter and participant in the fight to abolish the death penalty, at home and abroad.

Black Hawk Down author defends Obama the drone warrior – Jean Dickson

In the September issue of Atlantic magazine, Mark Bowden, whose book on the bloody US fiasco in Somalia was made into

a popular movie, defends drone attacks as less likely to kill large numbers of innocent civilians than ground attacks by US troops. His ethical and legal arguments are interesting but all rest on a faulty assumption that we have a right to go to foreign countries and execute people preemptively for violent acts that they might be planning to commit. Other huge unstated assumptions: the US has legitimate reasons for having hundreds of military bases all over the world, and we as a people have a “national interest” in being the cops of the world.

Anti-fracking Task Force Report for August – Rita Yelda

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a highly dangerous method of drilling for natural gas that threatens our drinking water, health, communities, and environment. Fracking involves the injection of water, chemicals, and sand underground to crack open rock formations that contain gas. Documented risks include contaminated groundwater, wastewater that contains radioactive elements, and air pollution. There are alternatives to gas, but there are no alternatives to water!

The Anti-fracking Task Force has been aiding in the fight to ban fracking in New York and has spearheaded the campaign to ban fracking in Erie County. The Anti-fracking Task Force has regular open monthly meetings, where members are incorporated in to teams: promotion, lobbying, and media, to help further the campaign. To get involved, the next meeting is on Thursday, August 29th at 7 p.m. at the Network of Religious Communities 1272 Delaware Ave. Buffalo.

The Anti-fracking Task Force engaged the community to call their Erie County legislator during the week of July 22nd by distributing flyers at five different farmer's markets in five days. It was a huge success and hundreds of flyers were dispersed. If you have not yet called your county legislator, you can find their phone number at http://www.erie.gov. Join people across Erie County in calling our legislators and make your voice heard! Simply tell them to put the safety of our water, land, and air before the profits of the oil and gas industry and ask them to support a ban on fracking in Erie County.

Also in support of the county fracking ban, Task Force members conducted a banner drop over four different overpasses on Friday August 2nd, which was then covered on WGRZ News. The Task Force continues to increase visibility of the issue through tabling at the Superflea & Farmer's Market in Cheektowaga on the weekends in August and at the upcoming Elmwood Avenue Festival of the Arts at the end of August. Stop by our table and say hello! And be sure to join us on August 29th for our next community meeting to ban fracking.

Middle East Task Force hosts speaker on Turkey – Jean Dickson

On August 7th a Turkish-American friend of the Peace Center shared photos, maps, and political insights on the current upheavals in Turkey with a rapt audience of about 20 people. She explained the complex electoral structures that exclude smaller parties and reward incumbency, giving the current president more power to act unilaterally. She said that the on-going demonstrations in Istanbul and several other cities are not motivated primarily by the destruction of green space, but rather by the brutal attacks on civil liberties. The Middle East task force hopes to meet again in September to plan more programs on this

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region. If you are interested, please contact the Peace Center to get on our email list!

Share your house or apartment with other peaceniks!

Let’s develop a list of WNYPC ambassadors, Peace Center members who are willing to open their homes to like-minded visitors to the area -- folks who come to Buffalo to attend/present a program or participate in an action and need a place to sleep and have a meal. Call Deb at 308-3376 if you are interested.

An Update from the Chair – (Rev.) Pierre Albrecht-Carrié

As you may know, Charley Bowman, our volunteer interim Executive Director (E.D.) has resigned for health reasons. We’ll miss his leadership enormously, but we are glad that he’s not too sick to continue his activism, opposing drones and advocating for renewable energy. Having an unpaid E.D. was a blessing while we were getting our feet back on the ground. We were able to strengthen our financial position again.

The good work you are reading about here costs money. The Peace Center Task Forces have been very active. This newsletter itself has been one of the expensive but worthwhile efforts we’ve made to get the word out on a bi-monthly basis. We have a paid office staff worker and pay two Peaceful Conflict Resolution professionals.

In the past, we had benefactors whose contributions paid the salary of the former paid Executive Director, but these gifts we no longer receive. We had a great response to our appeal in June, but

need to keep up the fund-raising. The Coordinating Board is committed to keep things going and growing and we’re looking at all aspects of our operations. The support we have from our membership – both volunteer and financial – is critical. We need YOUR help! We need more people to volunteer: 1) to help with the Annual Dinner; 2) to work with several of our standing committees (especially Finance & Fund Raising, and Membership); 3) to help out in the office. We need those who have not renewed membership or made recent donations to do so now!

Your volunteer Coordinating Board all have busy schedules, but are working extra hard during this period of transition and change. Please be patient and let us know you’re behind the Peace Center. Thank You!

Important Notice: We are sending printed copies of the newsletter only to WNY

Peace Center members. We will also send the newsletter by e-mail to all on the mailing list for whom we have e-mail addresses, and it will be available on the WNY Peace Center web site (www.WNYPeace.org). We also encourage members who do not need a printed copy to let us know so we can reduce our “snail-mail.”

We encourage non-members who would like to continue receiving the newsletter to join the Peace Center at whatever level you can afford (minimum membership fee is $10 a year), and more importantly – please become a Peace Center activist! Thank you all for your support.