KC AFSC Peace and Justice Alert – September 27, 2013

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"We make the rules of the economy –

and we have the power to change those rules."

~Robert Reich

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Dear Peacemakers, Our elected officials in Washington are severely out of touch with the needs, the realities and the hopes we have here at home. They are still debating the wrong issues and taking destructive actions on budget and spending allocations. The House recently passes a bill to cut SNAP (Food Stamps) by almost $40 billion over the next ten years. The action would deprive 4 million people of nutrition assistance45% of whom are children. Some might say this is just the extreme right acting out, but unbelievably instead of increasing the highly effective food stamp program serving those in great need during this time of job loss, wage decline and economic stagnation, the Senate passed a Farm Bill with $5 billion in cuts to SNAP, which would deprive about 1/2 million needy people of food stamps. Instead of addressing what is needed the House further is playing “chicken” with the U.S. economy and debt ceiling and the Affordable Care Act (and Social Security and Medicare) hostage.

AFSC interns

created this Budget Mania

game to engage youth in learning about federal

spending and revenue policies and needs in our community.

You know that cuts to crucial social programs will not help the economy, nor make much difference in the deficit. It will only hurt those in need and rest of us. And it continues economic policy that favors the 1%, illustrated by the fact that they received 95% of recovery income gains between 2009 and the end of 2012 and that since 2007 the median income had dropped 10%.. Please join us at our next Move the Money Budget Priorities meeting, on October 8, Tuesday, 5:30pm at the AFSC office, 4405 Gillham Rd., KCMO. And join us on Friday evening, October 11 for the premiere Kansas City showing of “Inequality for All” featuring Robert Reich at the Tivoli Theater, Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO (Exact time to be scheduled). We will have a short talk and discussion following the screening of the film. The event is cosponsored by AFSC, Friends of Community Media, KC Move to Amend, and Jobs Now! Coalition Thanks for all of your work for our community.

Sincerely,

Ira Harritt KC Program Coordinator American Friends Service Committee 816 931-5256, iharritt@afsc.org

See below for the following calendar events, articles, alerts and more: October 6, 4:00pm, Government Spying In The U.S.: A Forum

October 8, 5:30pm, Budget Priorities Campaign Meeting

October 18–20: 20th Annual Peace Colloquy

October 21, Monday, 6:00 to 7:30pm, Nonviolence Action Brainstorm

Recovery Hype: American Capitalism's Weapon of Mass Distraction

Inequality for All: Documentary Antidote to "Elysium Economy"

A New Voice of Morality Responds Bluntly to Right-Wing Rants Against Anti-Poverty Programs by Jim Hightower

NSA Spied on MLK, US Senators and Other Vietnam War Critics, Documents Show

Reading Obama’s Iran Speech by Phyllis Bennis

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Upcoming Peace and Justice Activities

Click on link or scroll down for more information about the peace and justice activity

September 28, Saturday, 11 am to 6 pm. Concert for the Climate is a FREE, ALL

AGES event at Kaw Point Riverfront Park, for the whole family. You will learn how to save money, save energy, and reduce your impact on our planet. Did we mention live music, food trucks and a Native American performance? It'll blow you away!

October 4, Friday, 5:30pm, Citizen Koch: A film about money, power and

democracy. Glenwood Arts Theater, 95 & Metcalf, Overland Park, KS October 6, 4:00pm, Government Spying In The U.S.: A Forum, Featured Speaker:

Gary Brunk, Executive Director, ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church 4501 Walnut Street, KCMO

October 7, Monday, 1:30pm, Court Support: Twenty-four resisters crossed the

property line at KC's new nuclear weapons parts plant on July and 3 hearings are scheduled. You can do "court support." Come listen to our proceedings, all at Municipal Court, 1101 Locust,

October 8, Tuesday, 5:30pm, Budget Priorities Campaign Meeting, Join us to help

identify and plan a campaign around one or more local issues to showcase misdirected federal budget priorities and the resulting local unmet needs. We will update each other on the current budget debate / actions (debt ceiling threats, deficit driven actions, sequestration, austerity, etc.). And we will consider other ways we can impact the budget discussion in the media and around the “water cooler” and build a movement to change spending and tax policy.

October 18–20: 20th Annual Peace Colloquy at Community of Christ Temple, 201 S.

River Blvd., Independence, MO 64050. Programming for ages 5 and up at this “Peace, Justice, and Song” weekend will create experiences of the transformational power of song as it gives witness, proclaims the gospel, promotes peace with justice, and inspires us to act. Highlights include a kick-off hymn festival, more than 20 inspiring workshops, and a complimentary hymnal. See rates for children, youth, college students, and adults, and register online at www.CofChrist.org/peacecolloquy.

October 21, Monday, 6:00 to 7:30pm, Strategies for Social Change: Nonviolence

Action Brainstorm, We will use a “critical path analysis” process and brainstorm and evaluate tactics for social change. Imagine a public policy goal where a corporate player resists change that you want to explore. Bring your ideas and help innovate. At the AFSC office, 4405 Gillham Rd., KCMO

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1st and 3rdSaturdays, 1:00pm, Bradley Manning Support Rally, Join us outside the gates of

Ft. Leavenworth, in support of Bradley Manning through his court martial trial in February.

EVERY Tuesday, JOIN THIS Peace Demonstration between 5PM - 6 PM in the median strip on the south corner of the intersection at 63rd & Ward Parkway, Kansas City, Mo. For more information email '63rd Street Patriots' at schwartzkatz@sbcglobal.net

Weekly Wednesday, Noon, Jericho Walk for Immigrant Rights gather outside KansasCity

Immigration Court, 2345 Grand Blvd., KCMO Info at http://www.ijamkc.org/

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SPYING! GOVERNMENT SPYING IN THE U.S.: A FORUM

Where: All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church

4501 Walnut Street, Kansas City, MO 64111

When: October 6, 2013, 4:00 PM

Featured Speaker: Gary Brunk, Executive Director, ACLU of

Kansas & Western Missouri

The speaker will be followed by a panel of legal experts for audience

inter-action & discussion about the current nature of surveillance & the

rights of citizens.

Meet & greet reception following panel. Meet local leaders actively pro-

testing and resisting the military-industrial complex and the surveillance

state.

Sponsored by: United Progressives of Kansas City, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, Kansas City Greens Foundation, ACLU of Kansas & Western Missouri, Gray Panthers of Kansas & Western Missouri, Peace Works, National Lawyers Guild,

Consolidated Social Work Services, American Friends Service Committee, Children of Incarcerated Parents, Voices of the People

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News and Alerts

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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on Friday, September 27, 2013 by The Guardian

Recovery Hype: American Capitalism's Weapon of Mass Distraction

You don't have to be a Marxist to see how the 1% tries to fool us that we too are sharing in their renewed wealth. But it helps by Richard Wolff

From President Obama on down, defenders of the status quo insist that the US economy has

"recovered" or "is recovering". Some actually see the world that way. They inhabit, imagine they

inhabit, or plan to soon inhabit the world of the infamous top 1%. Others simply seek security in

life by loyally repeating whatever that 1% is saying.

Here is the "recovery" that they see. The top 1% of income-earners in the US took 19% of the

national income in 2012, the largest share since 1928. That 1% also saw their average income

rise by 31.4% from the current crisis's low point in 2009, through 2012. The top 1% certainly

enjoyed a recovery.

In total contrast, income for the other 99% rose by an average of 0.4% during the same period.

Many of those people actually saw their earnings drop. That was not a recovery, not even close.

For the vast majority of Americans, the recovery hype is just a weapon of mass distraction.

The economic reality is driven home by this graph from the Wall Street Journal.

From 2007 – the last year before the current recession hit – until now, the median income of

Americans has dropped by nearly 10% with no recovery evident.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/27-4

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 by YES! Magazine

Inequality for All: Documentary Antidote to "Elysium Economy"

From gated communities in outer space to graphs about who owns the wealth, two new films are giving Americans a window into the issue of income inequality by Chuck Collins

Two cinematic experiences about extreme wealth inequality are worth seeing, one dramatic and

the other documentary.

I recently saw the Hollywood blockbuster film Elysium, directed by Neill Blomkamp (District 9)

and starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster. The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in 2154,

degraded by ecological disasters and extreme inequalities of wealth.

In the film, the super-rich have relocated to the ultimate gated community, a pristine orbital

station called "Elysium," which is based on location shots from Malibu, Calif., and replete with

turquoise swimming pools and palatial mansions. On Elysium, all physical illnesses are instantly

cured by climbing into a "med-bay," a contraption that looks like a designer MRI machine. As a

result, life expectancy is three time longer on Elysium than on earth.

Which brings us to the film's scenes of earth, which were filmed in a populated garbage dump in

Mexico City. There, people dream of getting to Elysium to cure their cancers and other illnesses.

Max DeCosta, played by Matt Damon, is exposed to a lethal dose of radiation and his only

chance of survival is to get to Elysium. In his quest to get to Elysium, he becomes an unwitting

hero.

Elysium is a metaphor for immigration but also a dire warning about our society's extreme

inequalities of wealth. I recommend it for the powerful images of science fiction inequality—if

you can stomach the Hollywood combat and chase scenes. If you abhor action pictures, I

recommend the film's amusing website, which includes advertisements for businesses like

"Elysium Realty," whose slogan is "Live Above It All," and lists homes starting at $250 million.

The antidote to the Elysium economy comes in the form of a new documentary, Inequality for

All, which appears in theaters on Friday, September 27. The documentary stars former Secretary

of Labor Robert Reich, who serves as storyteller and tour guide.

The filmmakers hope that Inequality for All will give the economic justice movement boost,

similar to the one the climate movement got from Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth.

This is a powerful documentary, in part because the dramatic realities of U.S. inequality are

revealed with powerful graphics, memorable examples, and Reich's self-effacing humor. We are

now living through a second "Gilded Age," a period of extreme wealth inequality that mirrors the

dizzying disparities that came after the Industrial Revolution, from the 1890s to 1920.

A recent study by economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty reveals that the top 10

percent of U.S. income earners took home more than 50 percent of all income in 2012, the

highest share recorded since modern data collection on income began in 1917.

Inequality for All offers a number of possible solutions for this problem, such as raising the

minimum wage, campaign finance reform, restoring tax progressivity, and expanding workers

rights to organize and join unions. But as I argue in my book, 99 to 1: How Wealth Inequality is

Wrecking the World, we need to press for bold policies to reduce the concentration of wealth and

power.

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/25-1

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on Wednesday, September 25, 2013 by Creators.com

A New Voice of Morality Responds Bluntly to Right-Wing Rants Against Anti-Poverty Programs by Jim Hightower

The bluebirds of happiness are chirping away in our nation's treetops these days, for America is

now in the fifth year of economic recovery. Let's all sing "Happy Days Are Here Again," for

stock prices are reaching record highs, corporate profits are soaring, and even the unemployment

numbers are on the mend.

But wait, what's this? Down below the treetops, way down there at the grassroots, poverty not

only persists, but is spreading. Also, America's income disparity is worsening as middle-class

workers are pushed into lower-wage jobs and poor people are pushed out entirely. Far from

"Happy Days," joblessness among our lowest-income families is now the worst on record,

having reached the staggering rate of 21 percent.

The plight of the poor in our Land of Plenty is so dramatic that even the Republican leaders of

the U.S. House have noticed them and are reaching out with open hands. Unfortunately, they are

not offering a helping hand to the needy, but a cold, hard slap in the face. On Sept. 19, in a

gratuitous act of political pettiness and human callousness, the GOP slashed $4 billion-a-year out

of the food stamp program. Well, they explained, the food stamp subsidy just keeps expanding,

despite the recovery our economy is enjoying, so we have to stop the excess.

Apparently these congress critters never even visit reality. Hello, boneheads — the program has

expanded only because all of the "recovery" benefits went to the privileged few at the top, with

those at the ground level losing income, thus having to reach desperately for food stamps as a life

preserver. In fact, the program lifted about four million Americans above the poverty level last

year and kept millions more from sinking deeper into destitution. It's a safety net that's been

working exactly as it's supposed to — and GOP ideologues don't want government programs that

work.

Also, just for the hell of it, these laissez-fairyland Dickensians added insult to the injury that their

cuts would cause for millions of America's hard-hit people.

They tacked on a provision to let the meanest of states force the needy families to submit to

humiliating drug tests as the price of obtaining food for their families.

In case you're wondering just how far Republican lawmakers have wandered into the wacky

weeds of far-right ideology, note the babbling of Rep. Paul Ryan. Chairman of the House budget

committee, this champion of extreme austerity has pushed feverishly for gutting the food stamp

program. Why? Because, he rants, it's a government giveaway that turns our safety net into "a

hammock that lulls able-bodied people to lives of dependency and complacency."

A hammock? Food stamp allotments average under $4.50 a day. As for "able-bodied people,"

does he not know that two-thirds of the program's benefits go to children, the elderly and

disabled people?

In a society of gross and growing economic disparity, with mass unemployment and

underemployment, food stamps are a minimal measure of our humanity and social morality.

Forget the Paul Ryans — here's the guy we should be listening to: "Excuse me if I use strong

words," he recently said, "but where there is no work there is no dignity ... We don't want this

globalized economic system which does us so much harm."

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/25-3

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NSA Spied on MLK, US Senators and Other Vietnam War Critics, Documents Show

Agency's self-proclaimed 'disreputable if not outright illegal' practices threaten civil liberties then and now, critics warn - Jacob Chamberlain, staff writer

NSA documents that were declassified this week show that the agency—which has come under

increased scrutiny for its dragnet surveillance practices—heavily surveilled and tapped the

phones of high-profile critics of the Vietnam War, including Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad

Ali, and two U.S. senators including Idaho Democrat Frank Church.

These revelations raise the obvious question: If the NSA was targeting people like Sen. Frank

Church, who were in a position to oversee the NSA—is that happening now?

They were joined on the NSA's "watch list" by roughly 1,600 other prominent war critics whose

overseas phone calls, telexes and cables were monitored.

While Vietnam-era spying on U.S. citizens, conducted under the codename Operation Minaret,

was known at the time, the targets of this surveillance were not public until now.

The documents were forced to be declassified this week following an appeal to the Interagency

Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP) by an independent research institute, the National

Security Archive.

Kevin Gosztola at FireDogLake reports Thursday, the documents, which comprise of the NSA's

own multi-volume history of the agency, show that the Minaret project “employed unusual

procedures.”

"For example," Gosztola writes, "the NSA did not use the 'usual serialization' to distribute the

reports. The reports were made to look like human intelligence reports instead of signals

intelligence reports."

At one point the documents show that the NSA was all too aware of its "disreputable" tactics.

The document states, “Years later, the NSA lawyer who first looked at the procedural aspects

stated that the people involved seemed to understand that the operation was disreputable if not

outright illegal.”

The documents also mention that the NSA director at the time, Lew Allen, also felt it “appeared

to be a possible violation of constitutional guarantees."

More: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/26-2

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on Thursday, September 26, 2013 by The Nation

Reading Obama’s Iran Speech by Phyllis Bennis

All of a sudden we’re talking to Iran. Now, granted, that shouldn’t be such an astonishing

bombshell. But given the reality of the last several decades, it pretty much is. And that’s all

good. It’s been too long coming, it’s still too hesitant, there’s still too much hinting about

military force behind it… but we’re talking. Foreign minister to foreign minister, Kerry to Zarif,

it’s all a good sign.

There were lots of problem areas in the speech—President Obama was right when he said that

US policy in the Middle East would lead to charges of “hypocrisy and inconsistency.” US

policy—its protection of Israeli violations of international law, its privileging of petro-

monarchies over human rights, its coddling of military dictators—remains rank with hypocrisy

and inconsistency. And Obama’s speech reflected much of it.

But President Obama’s speech at the United Nations General Assembly reflected some of the

extraordinary shifts in global—especially Middle East and most especially Syria-related—

politics that have taken shape in the last six or eight weeks. And on Iran, that was good news.

Yes the president trotted out his familiar litany that “we are determined to prevent Iran from

developing a nuclear weapon.” But this time, there was no “all options on the table” threat. He

added explicitly that “we are not seeking regime change and we respect the right of the Iranian

people to access peaceful nuclear energy.” The reference to Iran’s right to nuclear energy

represented a major shift away from the longstanding claim among many US hawks and the

Israeli government that Iran must give up all nuclear enrichment.

Respecting Iran’s right to “access” nuclear energy is still a bit of a dodge, of course—Article IV

of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) recognizes not just access but “the inalienable right of all

the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful

purposes without discrimination.” Iran is a longstanding signatory to the NPT, and is entitled to

all those rights. Obama referred only that “we insist that the Iranian government meet its

responsibilities” under the NPT, while saying nothing about Iran’s rights under the treaty. But

the high visibility US recognition of any Iranian right to nuclear power—in the context of a new

willingness to open talks—is still enormously important.

It was also important that President Obama spoke of Iran with respect, acknowledging Iranian

interests and opinions as legitimate and parallel to Washington’s. He recognized that Iranian

mistrust of the United States has “deep roots,” referencing (however carefully) the “history of

US interference in their affairs and of America’s role in overthrowing an Iranian government

during the Cold War.” In fact, his identification of the 1953 US-backed coup that overthrew

Iran’s democratically elected President Mohamed Mossadegh as a product of the Cold War may

have been part of an effort to distance himself and his administration from those actions. (It’s a

bit disingenuous, of course. The primary rationale for the coup was far more a response to

Mossadegh’s nationalization of Iran’s oil than to his ties to the Soviet Union.)

More: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/09/26-6

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(816) 931-5256

The information and events described in AFSC Peace and Justice Alerts are intended to educate and assist

members of our community in becoming active in working for a more just and peaceful world. Inclusion of a listing does not necessarily imply that AFSC KC agrees with all points of view that will be represented at the

event.

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace, and humanitarian service.

Its work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice

Ira Harritt KC Program Coordinator

American Friends Service Committee 816 931-5256 iharritt@afsc.org http://afsc.org/office/kansas-city-mo