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Join Our Anti-War Demonstration This Thursday

By Bryan McKenzie, Charlottesville Daily Progress

It was an exciting weekend of patriotic fervor with a presidential appearance, minting of new citizens, protests and other fireworks.

The events and surrounding media hoopla, however, begged questions of what patriotism is and why it’s useful, so we sought answers in many different places. Here’s what we found: READ THE REST AND POST YOUR COMMENT.

The Interfaith Cooperation Circle has been offered the use of the Gravity Lounge in downtown Charlottesville for our next event: a celebration for the International Day of Peace on Sunday, September 21.

What would it take to get one person to post one article on this website? Prizes, money, fame, glory, a sense of peaceful bliss? What would be required?

Admittedly, the site has been changed around so that it's much less obvious, but you CAN and are ENCOURAGED TO post your news on peace and justice on this website. First log in at right. Then click on "Contribute Content" on the left.

A Letter to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation

George W. Bush has replicated more of the ill deeds charged by the Declaration of Independence against King George III than any other President in our history. He is the first President to claim that torture is legitimate and to proclaim that he is violating the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution (requiring warrants to examine citizen's communications).

Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration precisely to resist that kind of usurpation of power. To invite Mr. Bush to speak on the Fourth of July at Monticello makes a travesty of that sacred day and the sacred work of Mr. Jefferson. I have strongly urged the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to withdraw the invitation.

With joy in the blessings of freedom,

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Ph. D., director, The Shalom Center
http://www.shalomctr.org

Documents that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently released as a result of the lawsuit "Veterans for Common Sense v. Peake" reveal that vets are suffering suicide at a rate of 500 a month. This statistic means that more veterans die by suicide than in combat. To read this yourself, go to the following and look at News Brief, page 2:

It certainly is the height of hypocrisy for George W. Bush to come to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.

Pass on the attached handbill art if you like, or print it out, cut into four and pass it on.

Josef Beery

By David Swanson

The Unitary Executive is scheduled to disgrace the grounds of Thomas Jefferson's house, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va., making a speech on the morning of July 4, 2008. The event is open to the public, and is Monticello's annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. Numerous immigrants will become citizens in an event besmirched by the presence of a war criminal, and held in the district of Congressman Virgil Goode, whose entire reelection campaign platform consists of hatred for immigrants.

If you support the complaints against the first King George III enumerated on the first Fourth of July in the Declaration of Independence, I encourage you to attend the event. Go early. Wear an impeachment shirt. And bring a copy of our poor abused Constitution. This is not a time for fear and timidity. How dare this fascist blood-soaked murderer set foot in Charlottesville or on the grounds of Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson?

Thomas Jefferson who said: "As to myself, I love peace, and I am anxious that we should give the world still another useful lesson, by showing to them other modes of punishing injuries than by war, which is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer."

Thomas Jefferson who said: "If there be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in the mind of every American it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."

Thomas Jefferson who said that to check "the dog of war'' we had to take the war-making power out of the hands of a single person, and give it to Congress.

Thomas Jefferson who said that the people's house of representatives could hold the executive and judicial branches in check only through the power of impeachment.

Thomas Jefferson who authored the Declaration of Independence.

Thanks to vigilant young people in Richmond, the community has been alerted that Virginia Commonwealth University has purchased the parking lot that covers Richmond's "Burial Ground for Negroes." VCU intends to "upgrade" the parking lot - further desecrating the Burial Ground below.

A month-long Vigil has been called for noon every day through June 30 at the site of the Gabriel historical highway marker on E. Broad St between the I95 on-ramp and the overhead train trellis.

Bring your banners, signs, music, poetry, performances, your simple presence to the site any day at noon to the site and let others see and hear your voice for a burial ground that must be respected, for ancestors lives and contributions to be honored, for truth in history to be fulfilled.

To stand in hand-in-hand with the respectful restoration of Richmond's Black History is to stand in respectful restoration of a more complete and truthful history. LEARN MORE.

Please Excuse Cross-Posts
Please Forward

Greetings All,

Percy Walton is scheduled to be killed by the people of Virginia at 9pm
on June 10, 2008 in revenge for the murders of Jessie Kendrick,
Elizabeth Kendrick and Archie Moore. Background information is below.

At a time when much of the country is turning away from the death

By David Swanson

The United States maintains secret prisons on ships in the ocean in order to detain people outside the reach or even the knowledge of any system of law, the better to torture the ever-living cheney out of them. Over at the Black Commentator, Glen Ford (now at the Black Agenda Report) has been calling the Bush Cheney gang pirates for years. And the point is not just that they're criminals, but that they are outlaws, killers, and thieves who operate outside any national allegiance or system of laws or morality.

The Bilderberg Group brings together these representatives of corporate and financial and military power, to meet in secret without any interference from YOU. This year's meeting will be held on June 5-8, 2008, at the Westfields Marriott hotel at 14750 Conference Center Drive near Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, which is handily located directly behind the United States National Reconnaissance Office at 14675 Lee Rd. in Chantilly, VA. So, apparently spying on this conference is WELCOME. Feel free to join in! See how many presidential candidates you can spot!

The Richmond Peace Education Center is seeking nominations for this year's Peacemaker of the Year. Nominate someone who deserves to be recognized for his or her work for peace, justice, violence prevention, or nonviolent social change. The nomination form is on the RPEC website, www.rpec.org. The deadline is June 15.

Our plan is to go downtown and write petitions to see the people who are against the death penalty. We want to know who cares and done care about the death penalty. The death penalty should only be used for people that are serial killers.

Our plan is to go downtown and write petitions to see the people who are against the death penalty. We want to know who cares and done care about the death penalty. The death penalty should only be used for people that are serial killers.

May 9, 2008 - In anticipation of Amtrak National Train Day on May 10th, Delegate David J. Toscano
(D-Charlottesville) today announced several significant rail initiatives that will likely affect the Charlottesville/Albemarle area. First, the recently passed state budget includes $2.2 million in new money per year for major roadbed improvements to the CSX railroad lines operated by the Buckingham Branch, which serve passenger rail from Washington to Chicago through Charlottesville. "If we can improve the roadbed, we can increase the speed and efficiency of trains, thereby providing a higher level of customer service to Amtrak passengers," Toscano said. "This funding represents a major investment in this process." The Rail Enhancement Fund, created by Governor Warner, will receive $26 million in fiscal year 2009 and continuing appropriations in the future. This fund directs investments to freight and passenger rail improvements that will have significant public benefits. The Rail Preservation Program, which benefits Short Line carriers, will receive $3 million.

Let's start treating the world's 6 billion non-Americans as equals.
By Helena Cobban, Christian Science Monitor

Washington - What kind of relationship do Americans want to build with the world's 6 billion other people in the years ahead? This question is urgent, since the past seven years have seen an unprecedented drop in our country's global favorability rating. In today's hyper-connected world, that has huge consequences for Washington's ability to protect American interests.

The Fall & Rise of American Liberalism
Media, Race, Religion & Bruce Springsteen

WEDNESDAY, April 30, 2008
12 Noon - 1:30pm (book signing to follow)
Harrison Institute Auditorium
Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia

American 20th-century liberalism may be poised for a comeback. Attacks from aggressive conservatives and trenchant criticism from the multicultural left have rendered consensus liberalism a shell of a political movement and a label that liberal candidates tend to shun. But is all this changing? This panel discussion will ask the following questions: What aspects of 20th-century American liberalism are inappropriate for the 21st century? Is the United States a fundamentally conservative nation? Can our fractured and hyperactive media environment foster a sense of common purpose or tolerate the deliberate temperament of liberalism? Can liberalism thrive in an increasingly diverse United States - i.e., can it contain multitudes?

Panelists:

* Angela Dillard is an associate professor of Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan and author of Faith in the City: Preaching Radical Social Change in Detroit (University of Michigan Press, 2007) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now?: Multicultural Conservatism in America (NYU Press, 2001).

* Eric Alterman is a Distinguished Professor of English and Journalism at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. He is the media columnist for The Nation and the author of seven books, most recently Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America (Viking, 2008).

* Todd Gitlin, professor of journalism and sociology and chair of the Ph. D. program in communications at Columbia University, is a sociologist, cultural analyst, and award-winning novelist. He is the author of 12 books, most recently The Bulldozer and the Big Tent: Blind Republicans, Lame Democrats, and the Recovery of American Ideals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007).

Moderated by Bruce A. Williams, professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and the co-author (with Michael X. Delli Carpini) of the forthcoming book, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: The Eroding Boundaries Between News and Entertainment and What They Mean for Mediated Politics in The 21st Century

CCPJ marched in the Dogwood Parade on Saturday and was enthusiastically cheered by onlookers.

Here is a list of the sponsors of this Virginia sporting event. Is this OK with you?

Peace Studies
By 16 Blocks

The future of Norris Hall as the home of Virginia Tech's new center for peace studies and violence prevention.

Professor Jocelyne Couture-Nowak was one of the 32. Her daughter's inspired reaction to a question from the press helped change the fate of Norris Hall.

"The history was very simple. Our middle daughter, Francine, arrived from the University of British Columbia. She handled the press," said Professor Couture-Nowak's husband, Dr. Jerzy Nowak of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech.