STANISLAUS CONNECTIONS

Working For Peace, Justice, and A Sustainable Environment

April 2004

A Modesto Peace/Life Center Publication

Peace & Justice

Peace Camp calls you from the Sierra

This year's Peace Camp will be the twenty-second time we've gathered at Camp Peaceful Pines on Clark Fork of the Stanislaus River. Glowing reports came to us last year from John Moriarty, who experienced it as a life-affirming, restoring weekend. Coming from Stockton, he joined a group from Tuolumne County and those of us from Stanislaus and other far-flung parts.

Over the years we have built many traditions related to peace, justice, and a sustainable environment. We've talked, learned, sung, hiked, relaxed, and oh yes! eaten together! (The best camp food you'll ever hope to eat.)

The mountain setting is incomparable and the relief from the Valley heat is welcome. The night sky is awe-inspiring. Children and adults all find their own way to joy in the Sierra Nevada.

ACTION: Camp will be held from June 25 –27. Sign up using the registration blank in next month's Connections. Call the Center, 529-5750 for more info. And, yes, we will need volunteers to help with everything.

"Celebrate Camp Peaceful Pines" dinner and concert features folksinger, Michael Stern

You are invited to a dinner, auction, and concert, Saturday April 24, 2004 at the Modesto Church of the Brethren, 2301 Woodland Ave., Modesto, featuring folksinger Michael Stern, to support Camp Peaceful Pines, the camp where the Modesto Peace/Life Center hold its annual Peace Camp.

Dinner begins at 5:30 p.m., and an auction to raise money for the camp will be held. Mike Stern's concert will start between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. For those who only wish to attend the concert, there is no charge, but contributions will be welcome.

The voice and original music of Seattle folksinger/songwriter Michael Stern has become familiar to many active in anti-war events over the past 25 years. His songs chronicle a journey of social activism throughout the '80's, Gulf War opposition during the '90's, & the peace movement of today.

One of Mike's most recognized songs, "Stand Up", is based on the words of Martin Niemoller: "First they came for the communists, then they came for the Jews ". Others like "Fight No More Forever" (the ballad of Chief Joseph), "You Don't Have To Carry a Gun" and "One World" are also well-known. His latest CD, "Dance,” continues in peace activist traditions.

Visit www.mikesongs.net for more about Michael's music.

ACTION: Tickets prices are: 5 and under, no charge, 6 through 13, $5.00, and 14 and up $15.00 each. Advance tickets encouraged. Call 523-9490 at least one week before the dinner.

2004 Peace Essay Contest Winners

Friday Peace Vigils

The Peace/Life Center invites all who can to join in a peace vigil each Friday for the next six weeks.  We'll be in front of the federal post office on 12th and I Streets, 4:30 TO 5:30 P.M. Help send a message that our national priorities need to be changed. We want international cooperation not imperial domination. We want investment in human uplift, here and abroad, not in ever more destructive weaponry, here or in outer space. We want less money for the Pentagon and more for pressing social needs: jobs and job retraining, health care for all, good education for poor and rich alike, a restored environment, affordable housing, and food and shelter for the homeless.

Please bring a sign that reflects this message. Make sure the printing is big enough for all to see from a distance.

Everyone is invited to join us. For those who maintain some practice of sacrifice and generosity during Lent, you might see this as part of your Lenten effort toward inner conversion. In working on inner change we are working on social change. Our personal expense of time and energy will help promote the renewal of our society, a society marked by wisdom and compassion and recommitted to social justice and peace.

Peace Life Center reflects on a year’s passing

By MYRTLE OSNER

At its Annual Meeting Feb. 28, 2004, reports were received by the committees of the Center, reflecting the wide variety of work we continue to do.

This year’s 18th Annual Peace Essay Contest focused on “Unsung Heroes,” most of them in our midst. 648 students from Stanislaus County submitted entries. Winners and participants were celebrated on March 14 at Johansen High School. Pastor Russ Matteson of the Modesto Church of the Brethren was MC, and Dan Onorato, professor of English at Modesto junior College gave out the awards. The annual October Harvest Supper is the main fundraiser contest.

Stanislaus Connections continues with eleven issues a year with the motto, “Working for Peace, Justice and a Sustainable Environment. The staff needs more volunteers. The yearly Auction held in September brought in $3,316. We continue to get a few subscriptions, and anyone who makes a donation to the Center automatically is put on the mailing list.

The John McCutcheon concert was sold out and made money. It’s a yearly project of the Song Circle which meets monthly in people’s homes.

Spearheaded by Ken Schroeder outreach tables at many community events made money. This activity also gets our name and purpose out in the community, a function at least as important as selling buttons and bumper stickers.

Peace Camp, held the last weekend in June, broke even and a bit more, with the usual enthusiastic participation of not only our Modesto family, but some from Tuolumne and as far away as Oakland and Stockton.

The Committee for Peace in the Middle East reported on its many demonstrations, vigils, and events. It sponsored Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly from Voices in the Wilderness, and promoted the International Days of Action, the largest anti-war mobilization since the Vietnam War. The film, Palestine is Still the Issue was shown and the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour supported in it visit to Modesto, with new Modesto High graduate Sharona Ovrahim serving as its tour manager It promoted the Pledge of Resistance, which appeared in Connections and MJC’s Pirates Log. The Committee continues to work for peace in Iraq and the Middle East.

The Martin Luther King Commemoration Committee with the Center and other’s help brought dynamic speaker, Cornel West to Modesto. West packed the MJC auditorium on January 24, and smoked the audience with oratory and exhortation. This was one of the best events yet for the MLK remembrance.

The office staff asked that all users of the center follow “good housekeeping” rules and posted them on the Bulletin Board. The Bookkeeper reported yearly income of $45,436.44, with expenses of $46,975.60. We still have over $30,000 in the bank and some investments. But we still need regular donations by those who support us.

New Board members were elected to replace vacancies. They serve for two-year terms and can be re-elected. Beth Au and Lee Ryan Miller will serve to 2006, and Shelly Scribner and Ruben Villalobos until 2005. Other board members continuing are: John Lucas, John Frailing, David Rockwell, Jim Costello, Karen Lee, Michael Napp, Dan Onorato, Tracy Herbeck and Norma Ovrahim.

Complete reports are filed at the Peace Life Center.

PROFILES: new members on the Board of the Modesto Peace/Life Center

These new board members were elected on February 28, 2004 at the Annual Meeting. Other board members will be profiled in the next issue.

SHELLY SCRIBNER

OCCUPATION: Special Education Teacher in Infant Program working with babies and young children up to 3 years of age who have disabilities, and with their families.

WHAT BROUGHT ME TO THE CENTER AND WHEN: When my daughter, Juniper and I first moved here from Napa to the Central Valley we went to Peace Camp in the early 1980's. We went every year after that and went to other activities also and liked the ideas and especially the people who were working for Peace and Justice. Many families also had children in Fremont’s Open Plan and it was wonderful to know people who really wanted a Peaceful World. I have since volunteered at different Peace Center activities such as the Harvest Dinner, selling buttons, song-circle and marches.

WHAT SPECIAL FOCUS AREAS DO YOU BRING TO THE BOARD: I would like to see more people get a better understanding of what is going on in this country and this world. I have taught for over 25 years, worked with homeless children, worked in poor sections of a major city and do want a better world for all children and their parents. Modesto seems like quite a challenge. I would also like to see more conversations about the conditions in the Middle East. I hope that I can contribute to the board in a meaningful way.

LEE RYAN MILLER

OCCUPATION: I am the author of 3 books, including two on how inequality in society has a detrimental effect on government policymaking. I have a Ph.D. in political science and I teach at California State University, Stanislaus.

WHAT BROUGHT ME TO THE CENTER AND WHEN: After my wife and I moved to Modesto in early 2002, I came across a copy of Stanislaus Connections in Borders Books. I was excited to learn that there existed an organization locally that was concerned with peace and justice issues. I attended a pancake breakfast and got recruited to write for and help to edit Stanislaus Connections.

WHAT SPECIAL FOCUS AREAS DO YOU BRING TO THE BOARD: As someone who teaches and writes about politics and international relations for a living, I can contribute knowledge and expertise. I plan to be open-minded and objectively examine all issues under discussion, rather than trying to promote an ideological agenda.

BETH AU

OCCUPATION: Director of the California Community Colleges Equal Employment Opportunity Registry (I help people to find jobs at the 108 California community colleges).

WHAT BROUGHT ME TO THE CENTER AND WHEN: I have been involved since 2003. I have enjoyed attending a number of Modesto Peace/Life Center events, and I've volunteered at the Harvest Supper.

WHAT SPECIAL FOCUS AREAS DO YOU BRING TO THE BOARD: I am a concerned citizen and a good listener. My background is in Asian American Studies/History and civil rights advocacy. My prior jobs included serving as the Pacific Southwest Regional Director of the Japanese American Citizens League and serving as U.S. Senator Harry Reid's primary liaison with the Asian American community in Nevada.

RUBEN A. VILLALOBOS

OCCUPATION: I am a criminal defense attorney in Modesto, and partner in the law firm of Meyer and Villalobos. Before private practice, I was a public defender, both locally and in Federal court for the District of Nevada.

WHAT BROUGHT ME TO THE CENTER AND WHEN: I was raised in the PLC, and have served on the editorial board of Connections.

WHAT SPECIAL FOCUS AREAS DO YOU BRING TO THE BOARD: I am most interested in social justice issues, such as immigration and constitutional law.

Iraq war creates problems for Americans in India

By LEE RYAN MILLER

Ninth in a series

January to May 2003 I lived on a ship that circumnavigated the globe. I was teaching political science on Semester at Sea, a program run by the University of Pittsburgh. 650 students participated, visiting nine countries and ten ports.

In this series, I present excerpts from my journal and commentary on the societiest we visited.

As the S.S. Universe Explorer approached India, there was great tension in the world. Just a few weeks earlier, Indian troops had massed on the border with Pakistan, and there was a real danger of a nuclear war between these two countries. Now, the American government was on the verge of invading Iraq.

We were not insulated from these events. While we were in Cuba, several students’ passports had been stolen. Although the students had been able to obtain new passports from the U.S. consulate during our visit to Brazil, they had been unable to obtain new visas from the Indian government. As a result of tensions between the U.S. and Indian governments over the impending war in Iraq, these students were not permitted to set foot ashore. Furthermore, whenever we wished to disembark or board the ship, we had to pass through a phalanx of Indian troops and have our identification checked twice—by military and immigration officials.

We visited the port of Chennai, also known as Madras, a city of 4.5 million inhabitants in southeastern India. We arrived at dawn on March 15, 2003. It took customs and immigration until afternoon to clear the ship. Unlike other ports, they insisted on meeting with each passenger individually to check his/her passport.

Afterwards, we waited in line for hours to leave the ship. The Indian officials had given each person a customs form and a disembarkation form, and as we exited the ship, additional officials scrutinized each form. Then we walked about fifty yards to a checkpoint manned by soldiers. They checked our papers as well. Finally, when we reached the exit of the port, a third set of guards checked our papers. Was the Indian government nervous about threats to their national security posed by a group of American college students and faculty, I wondered, or was this some sort of elaborate jobs program?

On the day we arrived in Chennai, I decided to explore the streets near the port for an hour on foot. All along the sidewalks were street vendors selling just about everything imaginable. Food to clothing to cell phones—it was all there. I even saw a couple of men making keys. Unlike in the US, however, they were sitting on the ground duplicating keys by hand with a file.

Beggars were constantly coming up to me and asking for money. Lots of them were kids. Vendors were constantly trying to get me to buy their wares. But a smile and a polite “no thank you” was enough to send them away.

India is not immune to globalization. At one point, a little boy came up and started talking to me. I assume he was speaking Tamil (the local language), and I did not understand him. He was wearing a Nike T-shirt. I pointed to the Nike swoosh on his shirt and said, “Nike.” Then I pointed to the swoosh on my own Nike T-shirt said, “Nike.” I pointed back and forth between his T-shirt and mine, and he indicated his understanding by smiling and shaking his head in Indian fashion.

Indians often tend to shake their heads in a peculiar way that I’ve seen nowhere else. They rapidly tip their heads a couple of inches toward one shoulder, then the other, repeating it several times in quick succession. As far as I can tell, this means neither yes nor no, but instead merely that they are listening to what you’re saying. (Sort of like an American murmuring “uh-huh.”)

After half an hour or so I turned down a side street and came back along a street parallel to the one I had been following. That street seemed mostly residential, with many people about, and most of the men were wearing flat-topped, brim-less hats. I heard chanting coming from a building that appeared to be a mosque. No one approached to sell me anything or to beg. They just stared at me. No one smiled. I did not feel welcome. At the next intersection, I went up a side street and returned to the street I had been following earlier.

A few minutes later, a man came up to me and gave me a bear hug. I had no idea what he was saying to me, and after he released me, I continued walking. He did not follow. A while later a man grabbed my sunglasses, which were hanging on a band around my neck. He put them on his own face, but since they were still connected to me, the glasses immediately fell off, and bounced onto my chest. Another man started shouting at the man who had taken my glasses. I had no idea what they were saying, and I just kept walking. Soon, I reached the port, and after passing through numerous security checks, boarded the ship.

Next month: Limbless beggars greet visitors to an ancient Hindu temple.

 

Israeli and Palestinian peace and justice websites