STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS

Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment

May, 2001

A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication

Peace Community

“If we cannot be reconciled with those closest to us, it is futile to
think we can be instruments of peace in the world.”

                                                                                                            --Gandhi

The 16th annual Peace Essay Contest offered students an opportunity to explore and honor their own cultural heritages as well as someone’s from another background. The discussions and conversations leading up to their writing and their final compositions may be an important step in students’ understanding and appreciation of others’ cultures and experiences. This understanding can help them work through conflicts that arise as we live and work together: a step to peace.

Sponsored by the Modesto Peace/Life Center, this year there were 835 entries in the countywide contest.

Peace Essay Contest 2001
First Place Winner
Division IV (grades 5 &6)

A Culture Without a Country
By BRENDEN CASSIDY
Fremont Open Plan

My mom and dad were both raised in California; they met in Modesto in 1981 and left to live in several other places. After my sister and I were born, we moved back to Modesto because Mom and Dad thought it would be a nice place for kids to grow up and so that we could be closer to our grandparents. I am "mainstream American." My ancestors were European, more Irish than anything else. We celebrate traditional American/Christian holidays, even though we don't go to church. There are three big ways our family is different from most other Americans: we don't attend church, we aren't fans of any professional sports teams, and we don't have a TV. We like to spend time on community activities. My mom worked hard on the library campaign. My dad is on the Democratic Central Committee. am folding paper cranes for the library's holiday decorations. These are all volunteer jobs. We also value education, and spend a lot of time reading.

Our family's friend Janet came to America from Iran in 1975. Some of her relatives from Turlock sponsored her and her family. Janet is 100% Assyrian. Assyria has not been a country for 2600 years. When the Assyrian Empire was destroyed, the Assyrian people stuck together, and most of them became Christians at the time of Christ. Being a religious minority in their homeland has helped keep them together for 2000 years. Janet celebrates American and Assyrian holidays. One the Assyrian holidays she celebrates is Assyrian New Year, which is the first day of spring. This year is 6750 by the Assyrian calendar. Another holiday, Assyrian Martyr's Day, is not so happy. On August 7, 1933 Arab Muslims massacred an Assyrian village in Iraq because the Assyrians were Christian. Every year on August 7, Assyrians gather to tell stories about the massacre that has been passed on through generations. For a week, they light candies, one each day.

I find it astounding that the Assyrians have a culture without a country. There are one million Assyrians in Iraq, one hundred thousand in Chicago, and 15,000 in the Central Valley of California (which are the top three places where Assyrians live) but no official country. America is so big and powerful that we don't have to try to be American, and there are many different ways to be American. Janet and other Assyrians have to work really hard to preserve the wonderful language, holidays, and customs that make their culture unique.

The American culture is in no danger whatsoever; we are in a cocoon of power, and if we were destroyed, we probably wouldn't know what to do. The Assyrians survived the loss of their country, and are keeping their traditional culture alive. have gained much respect for the Assyrians. If we as a planet understand and respect each other, we will not have so many conflicts and we will have a more peaceful world.

“House of Peace” demolished for third time Wednesday, April 4, 2001
 From: Bat Shalom

 The re-built home of the Shawamreh family in Anata was demolished for the third time this April morning by bulldozers of Israel’s Civil Administration in the Occupied Territories. Although two Israeli peace activists, Jeff Halper of the Committee Against Home Demolitions and Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights, parked their car in the path of destruction and sat down in front of the bulldozers, the army removed them forcibly, moved the car, and then plowed through the home, garden, and water tanks, plowing up the foundations as well, to ensure that the home could not be rebuilt yet again. Rabbi Ascherman was arrested.

 This demolition was the fourth of the morning in the town of Anata - three Bedouin houses were bulldozed into rubble prior to the Shawamreh home - and the driver reported they were on their way to demolish two more homes in the town of Issawiye. Both Palestinian towns are in close proximity to Jerusalem. The stepping up of demolitions by the Civil Administration - 11 homes were destroyed in the past 2 days - suggests the determination of the authorities to assert absolute control over life in the territories through intimidation of the Palestinian residents, in addition to escalating the warfare.

 The Shawamreh home had become the ‘poster child’ of the movement to end demolitions, due to speaking tours in North America by Halper with Salim Shawamreh, the owner, in which they advocated an end to the violence and a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Extensive circulation of the story “Lena Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”, about the teenage daughter who witnessed her home being destroyed had also publicized the severity of the issue.

 The Shawamreh home has been repeatedly destroyed by the army and rebuilt by a coalition of Israeli, Palestinian, and international peace activists. The first demolition, witnessed by activists, took place in July 1998. Within two months the home was rebuilt, but the authorities demolished it the day after the construction was complete, in August 1998. It took time for the family to find the strength to rebuild their home yet again and risk another demolition, but finally they agreed and, at the second rebuilding, completed in July 1999, the house was dedicated “House of Peace” in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.

After the third demolition, nothing was left of the “House of Peace” sign that had been hanging on the front door.

ACTION: For further information: Jeff Halper, Committee Against Home Demolitions (050) 651-425.

Journalists seek to end “news embargo” on Iraq

By MARTIN BAILEY

 An international group of journalists, foreign policy experts and human rights advocates agreed to seek an end to what they called a “news embargo on Iraq.”

 They blamed the Clinton and Bush administrations and major Western media for “keeping the public in the dark” about “the real and tragic conditions” of Iraqi citizens who are the “victims of continued U.S. and British bombing” and of a trade embargo that is “effective only in isolating the U.S. and British policy makers from the rest of the world.”

 A two day meeting of secular and religious journalists was sponsored by the World Association of Christian Communication (WACC) and its North American regional body, NARA-WACC. Funding was provided by several denominations and ecumenical organizations, including Church World Service, the global service and witness ministry of the (U.S.) National Council of Churches.

 In a welcoming address on April 5, John McCullough, executive director of Church World Service, said that “the U.S. government stands alone” and called the present policy toward Iraq “morally intolerable.” He blamed a lack of access to complete information for the apathy of the American people.

 Two prominent former UN officials, Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, participated in the event and documented the humanitarian crisis. Both left the international agency because the U.S.-dominated Security Council made it impossible to get adequate food and medicines to needy Iraqis.

 Halliday, a U.S. citizen, said that “with its linkage to the establishment,” the American media has perpetuated “silence, racism and a misunderstood fear of Islam.”

 Von Sponeck, a German national, told the journalists that “you don’t need to be a fanatic nor an apologist for Iraq to insist that lawlessness of one kind is no free ticket for lawlessness of another kind.” Having served in Baghdad until last year, Von Sponeck insisted that reporting on Iraq is not complicated. But, he said, it requires “honesty, a balanced exposure to contacts, travel to and within Iraq, and training in Middle Eastern issues.”

 Several eye witnesses, including Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton of Detroit, described the seriousness of the food and health problems in Iraq. Several mentioned the “future burden effect,” which will be caused by a generation of children who have been malnourished from before birth, many of whom have been exposed to shelling and bombs that used depleted uranium.

 David Anderson, editor of Religion News Service, asked, “Where is the public outcry? We need the leverage of an aroused public to break the communication embargo.” A British journalist, Jake Lynch of Sky News, described the challenges of what he called “Europe’s peace building media.” He said that there is often too little time for analysis of events. “Journalists go from one bombing to another. We have a responsibility to “frame rather than to reflect” the events.

 Rania Masri, who coordinates the Iraq Action Coalition, asserted that in all the coverage of the so-called no-fly zone, no publications have yet pointed out that the United States and Britain have no UN mandate for taking such actions. She also criticized Western media for deliberately de-humanizing Saddam Hussein with such phrases as “keeping him on a leash.”

 None of the speakers defended the Iraqi leader. Several, like Ibrahim Ramey of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, said that “the reality is that Iraq has a repressive government.” He also pointed out that the media have generally lost sight of the fact that Iraq is an important country in the Middle East, with a significant culture. He suggested that reporters and peace activists need to commit themselves to positive interaction with Iraq “for the long haul. Our children will need to talk tomorrow with the children who are being bombed today.”

 During discussion led by Rena Yocom, a United Methodist who heads NARA-WACC, the group began developing strategies for what they called “the post-sanctions era.” They agreed that accuracy and accountability are essential in dealing with the secular media and that credibility as a reliable source is essential. They also acknowledged the importance of coordinating their networks and sharing information and resources.

 Mike Nahhal, who heads the humanitarian efforts of the Middle East Council of Churches in Baghdad pledged “to facilitate the travel in the region for journalists who want to see what’s really happening.”

Witness for Peace Reports from Colombia

Colombia: the United States’ Newest War

By STEVEN BENNETT

Excerpted from the March 2001 report of a delegation to Colombia
by Myrtle Osner

 I am here with 99 other Witness for Peace delegates in an unprecedented show of US solidarity with the people of Colombia, and the Colombian peace movement. We come from all over the US to put our lives on the line for peace.

 Subsistence farmers shared tragic stories of how US –funded anti-drug fumigation has destroyed their food crops and poisoned their wells. We took testimony from the brave human rights activists, labor organizers and others who told us that US funding has escalated the war, threatening to undermine ongoing peace efforts. We are here to publicly commit ourselves to change this murderous policy when we get home.

 Every day, about a dozen people are kille murdered by paramilitary groups engaged in the drug trade. Or by guerrillas, also engaged in drug trafficking, who are trying to consolidate their power. Or by the Colombian army—heavily funded by your tax dollars and tied to their paramilitary enforcers.

 The United States has responded to the spiral of destruction by massively increasing military assistance to the Colombian army. This year, the United States will send almost a billion dollars worth of direct military aid, an amount in one year as much as three years of funding to Central America during the Reagan years. And for what?

 The Colombian army is among the most abusive in the world. Fully half its officers learned their torture techniques at the US Army School of the Americas.

By every measure, the War on Drugs has been and will continue to be a total failure.

Since 1976, Colombia has bowed to US pressure and has experimented with various highly toxic chemicals, many of which are now illegal.

Almost two million acres of rainforest have been destroyed by “fumigation”.

Toxic herbicides have been sprayed over coca and poppy fields, doing substantial damage to food crops, banana plantations, community water sources and damaging the health of the people.

Despite this, net coca production has increased almost 100% since 1980

The street price for cocaine has dropped 400% since 1980

Narcotics addiction is up 25% since 1997.

ACTION: Send a letter to President Bush asking that he change the course of US policy towards Colombia.  Send a tax-deductible contribution to help support delegations, to Witness for Peace, 1229 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20005. For further into: www.witnessforpeace.org.

The author is the Executive Director  of Witness for Peace.