Solidarity with the people of Jeju Island - an URGENT PLEA!

Dear Friends of Jeju Island – Island of WorldPeace,

Last week, we heard reports that 700 police from the South Korean mainland arrived at Jeju Harbor with buses and trucks bearing three large water cannons. The villagers have been vigilantly waiting for the police to strike.

They did the morning of August 24th. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright wrote to us from Gangjeong village, “The sirens are blaring for citizens to come to the main gate of the Naval Base where construction is about to begin in an area that will destroy pristine lava fields and endanger marine life. The siren sounds like a tsunami siren in Hawaii signaling an emergency. And that is what it is.”

At 2 pm that day, Gangjeong Village Mayor Kang Dong-kyun approached military contractors who started the operation of a 250-ton crane that had been smuggled into the village in the middle of the night years ago. In asking that the illegal crane be dismantled and removed, the Mayor was forcefully taken into a police vanalong with a villager, Mr. Kim Jong-Hwan, and other civil society activists.For 10 hard and long hours, 100 villagers and peace activists used their bodie sand cars to prevent the police from taking away the Mayor and others. While two activists have been released, the Mayor, Mr. Kim, Dongwan and Father Moon are still detained.  

The villagers at Gangjeong know that orders have been sent from the top. Their resistance must be dealt with once and for all.

Why now? Because we’re starting to win the battle of public opinion. In one week, The New York Times published an Op Ed and the International Herald Tribune published another, both supporting the peaceful four-year resistance ofthe villagers with facts showing that this naval base would destroy unique environments, provoke China by surrounding it with a US anti-ballistic system, but would be incapable of protecting South Korea from North Korea.

One was by Gloria Steinem, a women’s movement organizer and peace activist. The other was by Christine Ahn of the Korea Policy Institute. Their factual pleas have set off more voices, including an Op Ed in the conservative-leaning KoreaTimes entitled, “Save Jeju Island – Island of Peace,” and an Open Letter from South Korean opposition leader Chung Dong-young, who not only opposed the naval base but once it is defeated, pledged to make its site into a peace park.

And with more voices has come greater coverage, from a feature article in The New York Times to CNN and Al-Jazeera’s coverage of recent protests.

As the world learns more and more about the danger to its treasure of global environment and culture, Jeju Island, and also more about the heroic efforts by ordinary farmers, fishermen, the legendary women sea divers and children to preserve their home and way of life, all are inspired and emboldened to believe that the side of peace, the environment and democracy does have a chance of prevailing.

But with more visibility comes fear and greater repression for those who are accustomed to dictating from above. That’s what we are now witnessing as hundreds of police join forces with the 1,000 already on Jeju.

In order to stay one step ahead, we need the support of friends far away, justas the military has friends in the Pentagon.

All of us—the nearly 5,000 people from 50 countries who have signed the petition to President Lee urging him to stop the naval base – are building global awareness of the danger to our global natural and cultural heritage on Jeju Island.

This takes regularly communicating with the world on what is happening in Gangjeong village, sowing seeds of peace in the media and among allies in the peace, environmental, human rights and women’s rights communities, and regularly updating the www.savejejuisland.orgwebsite with bilingual and multi-lingual bulletins.

We have an urgent appeal to all of you to join us in our effort to Save Jeju Island.

Please go to this website to get more informationon how you can act now:
http://savejejuisland.org/Save_Jeju_Island/Get_Involved.html
 
Just as no human being is an island, Jeju belongs to us all.

With hope,

Global Campaign to Save Jeju Island Advisory Board
Christine Ahn, Korea Policy Institute
Imok Cha, M.D.
Wooksik Cheong, Korea Peace Network
MacGregor Eddy, Women’s International League forPeace and Freedom (WILPF)
Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space
Matt Hoey, Save Jeju Island Campaign Coordinator 
Gilchun Ko, Jeju artist
Iara Lee, filmmaker and founder of Cultures ofResistance
Regina Pyon, Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea (SPARK)
Gloria Steinem, author and co-founder of Women’s Media Center
Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Colonel

Blogger's Note: Click here to see the Jeju Island Press Packet.  To learn more and get involved, check out the SAVE JEJU ISLAND Website!

Jeju Island, or The Empire Strikes Back

Friends,

In a January post I explained the plight of the gentle people of Jeju Island (a UNESCO World Heritage Stie), and made a plea to support their resistance to a new U.S. Naval base to be built there.  Since then things have heated up dramatically; the bulldozers are rolling, and the peaceful Jeju Islanders are engaged in a desparate struggle to save their island from the crushing grip of militarism and empire.

The South Korean government, continues to move ahead with its plans for yet another military base that will be dominated by the U.S. Navy and Marines (Hey, who's gonna notice when the U.S.already has roughly 1000 military bases scattered all over the globe on other nations' soil).  This base will further U.S. plans to encircle Russian and China (and don't forget teeny weeny North Korea) militarily.

It is time to stop the madness of the military machinery that continues to grind everything it touches into dust.  If you are not yet engaged in the effort to support the people of Jeju Island - officially named an “Island of Peace” by the late President Roh Moo Hyun - and stop the destruction, please check out the new Website SAVE JEJU ISLAND.  Sign the petition, call and write letters, donate to support the protesters.

It is time to put a stop to the stranglehold of the U.S. Empire on the rest of the world.

Peace and Hope for Jeju Island,

Leonard

WHAT IS THE PRESIDENT'S GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY?

Editor's Note:  Thanks to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists for this provocative (and convincing) explanation of the President's responsibility to the Constitution.  We're talking smoke and mirrors people!  Anything to continue the ENDLESS War on Terror!

*******

According to President Obama, he has no higher duty than to protect the American people. But that's not what the Constitution says.

"As President, I have often said that I have no greater responsibility than protecting the American people," wrote President Obama in the new "National Strategy for Counterterrorism" (pdf) that was released by the White House yesterday. A similar sentiment appears in the Introduction to the new Strategy, which states that the President "bears no greater responsibility than ensuring the safety and security of the American people."

This seems like a fateful misunderstanding. As chief executive and commander in chief of the armed forces, the President obviously has responsibility for national security. But to claim that he has no greater responsibility than "protecting the American people" is a paternalistic invention that is historically unfounded and potentially damaging to the political heritage of the nation.

The presidential oath of office that is prescribed by the U.S. Constitution (Art. II, sect. 1) makes it clear that the President's supreme responsibility is to "...preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." There is no mention of public safety. It is the constitutional order that the President is sworn to protect, even if doing so entails risks to the safety and security of the American people.

The new Strategy document attempts to foreclose the possibility of any conflict between constitutional values and public security by asserting that the two always coincide. "We are committed to upholding our most cherished values as a nation not just because doing so is right but also because doing so enhances our security." It just so happens, the document says, that constitutional values are instrumentally useful in advancing security. "Adherence to those core values -- respecting human rights, fostering good governance, respecting privacy and civil liberties,committing to security and transparency, and upholding the rule of law --enables us to build broad international coalitions to act against thecommon threat posed by our adversaries while further delegitimizing, isolating, and weakening their efforts." (p.4).

But the idea that adherence to constitutional values always enhances security is wishful thinking. The Constitution imposes burdensome limits on government authority and guarantees various rights in order to advance individual freedom, not collective security. As a result, the interests of security and constitutional freedom are often in conflict, and it isnecessary to give priority to one or the other. One has to choose.

###
End Notes:  This post originally appeared in SECRECY NEWS from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, Volume 2011, Issue No.63, June 30, 2011, written by Steven Aftergood.  Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/.  To SUBSCRIBE to Secrecy News, go to: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/secrecy/subscribe.html 
Steven Aftergood
Project onGovernment Secrecy
Federation of American Scientists
web:    www.fas.org/sgp/index.html
email:  saftergood@fas.org
voice: (202)454-4691
twitter:  @saftergood

"Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of Justice."

Dear Friends,

Today is a day in which we tend to honor mothers; generally with cards, flowers and perhaps a nice meal.  Mother's Day, like many holidays, has become a routine and, in a very real sense, diluted in terms of its original meaning.  Yes, we need to honor our mothers, and all the women in our lives, who have nurtured us to fulfill our potential.  Yet, the original Mother's Day was something far different than a day of cards and flowers; it was a day intended to recognize that women create and nurture life, while men have, for the better part of human existence, destroyed that very potential that we all wish to fulfill.  It was meant to be a very real and powerful statement directed at those who perpetrated and perpetuated war.

When Julia Ward Howe wrote her Mother's Day Proclamation, she was responding to the horrible carnage of the U.S. Civil War, in which so many women lost their sons.  Howe and so many other women were committed to abolishing war, and in 1872 Howe proposed the establishment of an annual Mother's Day for Peace.  Long since that time (the commercialized version of) Mother's Day has, for the most part, been sanitized to remove any trace of women's civil, political activism.  And - Men continue to perpetuate the horrific trans-national violence and war that consumes our young, our treasure, our future.

Fortunately for our world, today's women have not forgotten the message and intent of Howe and all the other uppity women who came before them trying to make the world a more peaceful place where all children can grow up and realize their potential.  I am thankful for all those women who not only dream of a better world, but work to make it so.    
Peace and Thanks to Nurturing Women Everywhere,

Leonard

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Mothers' Day Proclamation: Julia Ward Howe, Boston, 1870

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870

A Prayer To Live Mercifully

Friends,

I was reminded this morning of a prayer by Fr. Emmanual Charles McCarthy, and in light of the public Bacchanalia in response to the news of the killing of Osama Bin Ladin I find this prayer a most suitable meditation for our time. 

Among many other things, Fr. McCarthy is one of the co-founders of Pax Christi-USA.  May we all find peace deep within our hearts, and may each of us learn to live mercifully.

Peace,

Leonard

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Prayer To Live Mercifully

O God,
Teach me
Not to envy,
to hate,
to justify,
to imitate,
to support,
to ennoble,
or to kill for,
Those who take the food from the table of others and then teach contentment,
Those for whom the taxes are destined, who demand sacrifice,
Those who eat their fill, who speak to the hungry of good times to come,
Those who lead humanity into the abyss, calling
Hate, love,
Unfaithfulness, faithfulness,
Lies, truth,
Slavery, freedom,
Too much, not enough,
Homicide, heroism,
Evil, good.

And, O God,
Teach me
when I have food, to remember the hungry;
when I have work, to remember the jobless;
when I have a home, to remember the homeless;
when I am free, to remember the imprisoned;
when I am without pain, to remember the suffering;
when I am loved, to remember the unloved;
when I am living, to remember the dying;
when I am dead, to remember the living.

And remembering, help me to destroy
my complacency; bestir my compassion, and thereby
spend my time and my eternity
doing good upon earth, helping
by word and deed, by prayer and sacrifice of self
those who cry out
for what I take for granted.
Amen.

-- Fr. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy

U.S. rejects violence "under any circumstances" - REALLY???

Friends,

It's official!!!  Well, sort of official.  Perhaps unofficially official or something like that.  At any rate, The White House quite recently went on record (for whatever that might be worth) that the government of the United States rejects "the use of violence under any circumstances."  You can read the statement in the context of the entire March 24th news release by the White House Press Secretary regarding the violence in Syria. 

Don't you think, now that its on the record, that we should hold our government accountable for that statement???  At very least each of us should be holding ourselves, and the government that is supposed to represent us, "accountable," just as the Press Secretary says that we should hold those accountable for the Syrian violence.

Just what do we stand for as a nation as we consider our current actions around the world - Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya...???

We are ALL responsible for the violence perpetrated on our name! 


Peace,

Leonard

********************

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release March 24, 2011

Statement by the Press Secretary on Violence in Syria

The United States strongly condemns the Syrian government’s brutal repression of demonstrations, in particular the violence and killings of civilians at the hands of security forces. We reject the use of violence under any circumstances. We are also deeply troubled by the arbitrary arrests of human rights activists and others. Those responsible for the violence must be held accountable. The United States stands for a set of universal rights, including the freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and believes that governments must be responsive to the legitimate aspirations of their people. We call on the Syrian government to exercise restraint and respect the rights of its people and call on all citizens to exercise their rights peacefully.

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/24/statement-press-secretary-violence-syria