Fascism Is No Longer Creeping, It's Galloping Now 17 Years After 9/11

I'm supposed to be blogging about 9/11 today, justifying the endlessly profitable "war on terror." But I think I'll blog about the uses that have been made of those events instead.

Fascism is no longer creeping, it's galloping now was my husband's response to news that my posts of the Peace Hub video from Saturday's climate march had been removed by Facebook. Allegedly it "looked like spam" or perhaps "violated community standards" so my account was locked temporarily also.

Here are their messages and then the actual video so you can judge for yourself why spybook didn't like my posts:

Here is the offending video:



Link in case the video does not play here on Blogger or in your email feed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mktdshvHN5c&feature=youtu.be

In possibly unrelated news, we found recently that the soup kitchen in the town where we hold our weekly peace vigil had closed. Word on the street is that the place where Skowhegan's large homeless population could count on getting a hot meal was closed down because suddenly the volunteers were required to prove they had background checks, and they didn't.

This was our response on the bridge. (If you're wondering, yes, I do have a background check because I was forced to get fingerprinted in order to keep my job as a public school teacher after 9/11.)

We'll be there again on Sundays, noon - 1pm. Spread the word.

Defeaning Silence On The Carbon Belching Elephant In The Climate Room

How lucky was I to be in action with family and friends at yesterday's Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice march in Portland, Maine. These powerful banners created by Ellen Davidson of Veterans for Peace in New York were trundled up to Maine by Ellen and Tarak Kauff, a VFP member who spoke at our Peace Hub preceding the funeral march for the cod.

Gigi, seen here helping grandpa and me hold the "Stop the Wars, Stop the Warming --People, Peace and the Planet" banner, held several signs throughout the course of the day. Gigi is a tireless social justice warrior whose mom, Selene Spivak, spoke at the end of the Peace Hub reminding us that the next generation is counting on us to leave a habitable world.

Videos of all the Peace Hub speakers will be available soon thanks to dedicated Peace Action Maine videographer Martha Spiess, and I will share them when I see them. For now here's a short video I made of Bruce Gagnon speaking about the need for conversion of the military-industrial factories to building sustainables: a win for jobs, a win for unions, a win for peace, and a win for the environment.

Maine Public Radio managed to cover the march without a whiff of the fumes constantly belching from the Pentagon's war machine. A glimpse of one banner did sneak in behind the dead cod puppet, but six hundred words was not enough to get "public" radio to mention the elephant in the global warming room. Their coverage was focused on the covert Democratic Party agenda for the entire climate march: register and get out voters. As if voting for Democrats would reduce Pentagon budgets and their CO2 exhaust, a bi-partisan problem that continues under any administration. ("Progressive" rep for Portland Chellie Pingree just voted along with Tea Party rep for the poorer half of Maine, Bruce Poliquin, to authorize the biggest Pentagon budget in history. Nuff said.)

The Maine Natural Guard was out in force yesterday reminding folks to connect the dots between militarism and climate change. Pictured here in our team shirt is Jason Rawn. Mary Beth Sullivan is wearing hers behind the banner, too, and Cynthia Howard rocked her shirt while holding this excellent banner which mimics the popular book series _____ for Dummies.

My remarks at the Peace Hub were excerpted from this excellent article by Stacy Bannerman, "Is Climate The Worst Casualty of War?" We handed out nearly 100 copies of Bannerman's article along the way of the New Orleans funeral-style march through Portland's downtown. And I continued to share these with high school students assembled at City Hall to hear many of their own, including water warrior Luke Sekera, who called out the Nestle Corporation for its theft of Maine's groundwater. Luke mentioned that he has been at this for seven years now. Yup, since he was 9 years old.

Colorful banners created by the Union of Maine Visual Artists' Artists Rapid Response Team (ARRT!) were everywhere, including this beauty created for and carried by the Maine Poor People's Campaign.

This national campaign -- founded to combat Martin Luther King Jr.'s evil triplets of racism, militarism and extreme materialism -- sees how all the pieces of our corporate oppression are connected.

It's time to stop pretending that the Democratic Party will do anything to save us.

Image: Anthony Freda

Peace Hub Shaping Up For September 8 Climate March In Portland, Maine

I'll admit to having mixed feelings about helping to organize the Peace Hub for an upcoming climate event in Portland, Maine on September 8. The event will coincide with events across the U.S. being styled as RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice. This will be essentially a Democratic Party get out the vote effort as all such "resistance" is these days. It is also unfortunately in direct conflict with the date for the annual Changing Maine conference put on by Resources for Organizing Social Change. The theme of the 24th annual conference this year is "Exploring diversity of tactics in Maine movements" and I'm sure it, like other Changing Maine's I've attended, will be highly educational and worthwhile.

So why am I going to the DNC's climate event instead?

The easy answer would be because I said I would help organize the Peace Hub before I knew the date of Changing Maine. Keeping my commitments has been a star I've navigated by as the always recovering adult child of an alcoholic.

But also, as a peace activist my special area is communications. And a huge audience for the Peace Hub's central message -- that the Pentagon's carbon boot print is the biggest one on the planet -- will be present in Portland on September 8.

Young people care about climate change. They don't usually think or care much about U.S. wars around the globe. After the crash of '08 there was a flurry of interest in bringing our war dollars home but now the Pentagon building a $100 million drone base in Niger is barely a blip on the screen. Much more important to pay attention to the twitter account of the demagogue with bad hair.

So I'm going where the crowds are, holding our pre-march Peace Hub with Maka the dolphin, and VFP members from New York like Tarak Kauff, who is bringing some of the great banners his group has made about militarism and climate. I'm proud to help carry one of those messages.

As a coordinator for the Maine Natural Guard I'll join others helping people connect the militarism and climate change dots. I'm bringing a handout that I hope will reach hundreds or even thousands of people, Is Climate The Worst Casualty of War? by Stacey Bannerman. Her opening paragraph says it all:

How do you clear a room of climate activists? Start talking about war. It’s not just environmentalists that leave; it’s pretty much everyone. Mission accomplished by the Bush Administration, which sent the military and their families to war and the rest of the country to an amusement park. The military-civilian divide has been called an “epidemic of disconnection.” But the biosphere doesn’t see uniforms, and the environmental devastation caused by bombs, burn pits, and depleted uranium cannot be contained to a combat zone. We haven’t counted the massive carbon footprint of America’s endless wars because military emissions abroad have a blanket exemption from both national reporting requirements and the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. There will be no exemptions in the coming climate collapse. 

We’ve all got skin in the war game now.

Maine Natural Guard At Peace Hub In Portland Climate Action Saturday, September 8 Noon

Calling all Maine Natural Guard members to help bring the essential message that the Pentagon is the biggest polluter on the planet to a climate action being organized by 350 Maine:

RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice

Saturday Sep 8 -- noon

Portland, Maine

The Maine Natural Guard will display our MNG t-shirts and messaging:

Click here to order your shirt

or other costumes:

That's Natasha Mayers holding her giant (cardboard) carbon footprint

That's Cynthia Howard as a polar bear who recognizes the largest cause of carbon polluting

We will carry signs such as:

​image: Suzanna Lasker

Image: Lisa Savage

Image: Jason Rawn 

Bruce Gagnon in action for life on the planet

Last Run (serigraph by Kenny Cole)

Also, since part of the call by organizers is for jobs (i.e. RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice) messages about the urgent need for conversion of the military-industrial mess we're in would also be a great fit. For example:

Mary Beth Sullivan showing that public transportation light rail could be built at Bath Iron Works instead of warships.

Jenny Gray sharing her conversion vision

You can join the Natural Guard campaign by signing the pledge here.

Be a communication worker and help bring news of the path of real resistance to people befuddled by corporate media messaging.

Add your name to join the Natural Guard effort from wherever you are!

I pledge to speak out about the effects of militarism on our environment, because the commons we all share that sustain life are valuable to me. 

In discussions about security and safety, I will remind others of the need to count in the cost in pollution and fuel consumption of waging wars all around the planet.

In discussions about acting soon to protect our loved ones from the effects of climate chaos, I will remind others of the need to examine the role of the Pentagon and its many contractors in contributing to planetary warming.

Mark Roman, Ridgely Fuller and other climate activists at Bath Iron Works bridge banner drop

We welcome all who want to help bring this important message on September 8, one which is very often omitted from climate events.  FMI call me at 399-7623

thanks!

Lisa

For more information on the September 8 event:

This is our invitation to participate in a joint action as part of the global RISE for Climate, Jobs and Justice  in Portland on Saturday, September 8th beginning at noon. It’s  part of a worldwide mobilization taking place four days before the  Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco. 350 Maine is  coordinating the event focused on the rising and warming waters of  the Gulf of Maine, but we expect the Maine Chapter of the Sierra  Club to join us as co-sponsors. Our goals for the event are to move the state legislature toward  climate action; get voters to ask what candidates in the November  election are going to do to take action on climate change; and to  register new voters. We want people to see and understand how much is at stake and how important it is to elect people willing to  work seriously on environmental issues as well as jobs and justice.    

The New Orleans Style Funeral procession we are planning will  pass through the center of town and end at a point currently being  determined, but at a place where a modest and active rally can take  place combined with voter registration.  We want as many people  as possible to be involved in the action with individual groups  taking responsibility for a specific components of the overall  program.  This should be a fun event that carries a serious message  and purpose.      Accordingly, some of the ideas being considered include:  ● The Leftist Marching Band to lead the funeral procession  ● A coffin containing a Gulf of Maine codfish and/or other  endangered species inside   ● Puppets, cheerleaders and dancers  ● People in costumes that emphasize mourning or sea level  rise  ● Floats or similar (e.g. Noah’s Ark, a giant lobster, fishermen  with empty nets, etc.)  ● Fishermen & lobstermen with empty traps and nets (income  & job loss)  ● Symbols of rising, warming seas (e.g. blue ribbon)  ● Children, teens, college students participating in any way  they see fit  ● Rally point activities that are lively and active:  o With local performers (singers, dancers, band)  o Limited talks that include funeral orations or memorial  addresses  o Tables with displays of Portland areas likely to be  flooded, climate action plans (simple, easy things  everyone can do), Children’s Trust, etc.  o Voter registration  ● YOUR IDEA PLEASE

The event wants to be big and memorable.  Would you be  interested in helping us pull it off?  Will you get involved and help  make it happen?    You, ------, are invited to play an active role in the overall  planning and event coordination and/or to simply take an active role  in the event itself.  Since we are working on a tight schedule, we’d  like to hear from you a.s.a.p. one way or another.     Let us know what you think.

With best regards, Espahbad Dodd & Chuck Spanger, 350 Maine 

Take the Natural Guard pledge 

to connect the dots between 

militarism and environmental harm.