- October 15 (WEDNESDAY) - "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism"

                                            Notes from the August 28 business meeting 

                                                 
                                            Oct. 18 Conference, "How to Prevent War on Iran AND on the U.S. Constitution"
    
                                            Berkshire Community College Events
                                                    - Global Issues Resource Organization (GIRO) meetings

                                            Quotes
                                                     -  Skipped this month due to October 18 Conference announcement
                                            About Peaceplans
  

                                            Cost of Iraq War (as of May 24, 2008)

                                                    - Bush's last request for war funding for the end of FY 2008 and start of FY 2009
   

                                            About Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice (BCP&J)
  

                                            Contact Information
   

                                            Fair Use Notice

Upcoming BCP&J Events

Thursday, September 4 -- Video, "Orwell Rolls in His Grave," followed by discussion.  Video starts at 7:30 pm at the UU Church in Pittsfield.

Thursday, September 11 -- We will have a regular business meetingg at the UU Church in Pittsfield.  The meeting will start at 7:30 pm.

Wednesday, September 17 -- Video, "Mad Hot Ballroom," followed by discussion.  Video starts at 7:30 pm at the UU Church in Pittsfield.

Thursday, September 25 -- We will have a regular business meetingg at the UU Church in Pittsfield.  The meeting will start at 7:30 pm.

Thursday, October 2 -- Video, "Iran is Not the Problem," followed by discussion.  Video starts at 7:30 pm at the UU Church in Pittsfield.

Thursday, October 9 -- We will have a regular business meetingg at the UU Church in Pittsfield.  The meeting will start at 7:30 pm.

Wednesday, October 15 -- Video, "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism,"  followed by
                                          discussion.  Video starts at 7:30 pm at the UU Church in Pittsfield.

Saturday, October 18 --  Conference at BCC -- "How to Prevent War on Iran AND on the U.S. Constitution"

Thursday, October 23 -- We will have a regular business meetingg at the UU Church in Pittsfield.  The meeting will start at 7:30 pm.

 

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Descriptions of Upcoming Thursday Videos

Videos are shown on first and third Thursdays of each month (and on most
5th Thursdays in months having them).  Discussion follows the showing of
each video.  Videos are shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church
at 175 Wendell Ave. in Pittsfield.  All are welcome.  There is no charge.

FILMS

Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice is happy to announce its latest film schedule.

This coming Thursday, September 4, we will show "Orwell Rolls in His Grave."  Details below. 

On Wednesday, (NOTE: Wednesday) September 17, we will have a family night.  Bring your kids, yourself and any friends whom you think might enjoy "Mad Hot Ballroom."  This film played to enthusiastic audiences at the Berkshire Museum a couple of years ago and documents young NYC children developing from zero ability to outstanding ballroom dance capabilities.  It's fun, exciting at times, and all round great entertainment. 

On Thursday, October 2, "Iran - is Not the Prooblem" will be shown.  This film serves as an excellent presentation of current Iranian realities and how they got that way, as well as our government's responses.  It is great preparation for our Oct. 18 Conference. 

On Wednesday, (NOTE: Wednesday) October 15, we will share a recent Bill Moyers interview with BU professor Andrew Bacevich on "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism." This program is a fascinating exploration of the limits of our power, so uniquely demonstrated by our response to the recent warfare in Georgia.  Again, this film is excellent preparation for our major conference on Saturday, October 18. 

All films are free and open to the public.  They are aired at 7:30 p.m. at the Unitarian/Universalist Church on the corner of Wendell Ave. and Broad St. in Pittsfield.

About our very next film, "Orwell Rolls in His Grave"

With the elections coming soon, this is a timely movie which examines the roll of the media in shaping our understandings of our realities.  BCP&J believes it's worth your time to stop by for a viewing.

Excerpts from the film's press release follow.

Director Robert Kane Pappas’ ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE is the consummate critical examination of the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy.  Asking whether America has entered an Orwellian world of doublespeak where outright lies can pass for the truth, Pappas explores what the media doesn’t talk about: itself.

Among Pappas’ subjects in ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE are Charles Lewis, director of the Center for Public Integrity, Robert McChesney, media historian and author, Vincent Bugliosi, former L.A. prosecutor and legal scholar, film director Michael Moore, Rep. Bernie Sanders, Danny Schechter, former producer for ABC and CNN, and Tony Benn, formerly of the British Parliament.

ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE provides a vital forum for ideas that will never be heard in mainstream media.  From Globalvision’s Danny Schechter: “We falsely think of our country as a democracy when it has evolved into a mediacracy - where a media that is supposed to check political abuse is part of the political abuse.”  NYU media professor Mark Crispin Miller says, “Goebbels said that what you want in a media system - he meant the Nazi media system - is to present the ostensible diversity that conceals an actual uniformity.”

From the very size of the media monopolies and how they got that way to who decides what gets on the air and what doesn’t, ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE moves through a troubling list of questions and news stories that go unanswered and unreported in the mainstream media.

ORWELL ROLLS IN HIS GRAVE reminds us that 1984 is not just a date in the future.

Back to Upcoming BCP&J Events

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Notes from recent business meeting

August 28 business meeting

    Major items of discussion were:

• Upcoming films

• Planning for the October 18 conference, and discussion of related flyer and conference handout

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How to Prevent War on Iran
  
AND on the U.S. Constitution

A conference exploring how we can
induce our federal government to:
  

Abide by the Constitution,

Honor the Truth, &

Serve the People

October 18, 2008
 

Primary Speakers
 

   
Scott Ritter, center, was the first American, and
also the first non-governmental speaker, to
address Iraq's National Assembly

   
Joseph Gerson shown addressing the
World Conference against A- and H-Bombs
in Hiroshima
 

DATE AND TIMES:  Saturday, October 18, 2008, 9 AM to 5 PM

PLACE:  Susan B. Anthony Building of Berkshire Community College (BCC)
                 1350 West St., Pittsfield, MA

REGISTRATION: 8:30 to 9:00 AM

DIRECTIONS TO COLLEGE: See DIRECTIONS at Bottom.

SCHEDULE:

   
8:30-9:00 AM  Registration and music by Mountain Laurel (EVENT TO BEGIN PROMPTLY AT 9:00 AM)

9:00-9:15  Opening remarks and introduction of Scott Ritter

9:15-10:15*  “Iran, Preemptive War, and the Constitution,” Scott Ritter

10:15-10:30  Break
   
 10:30-11:30*  “Waging Peace and Defending the Constitution,” Scott Ritter

11:30-11:40  Formation of discussion groups

11:40-12:20 PM  Discussion groups – 1st session

12:20-1:10  Lunch - Attendees may purchase lunch in the BCC cafeteria or bring their own

1:10-1:25  Music by Mountain Laurel and introduction of Joseph Gerson

1:25-2:25*  “Empire, Its Consequences, and the Search for Peace in a 'Post-American World',”
                     Joseph Gerson

2:30-3:10  Discussion groups – 2nd session

3:15-3:45  Discussion group clerks’ reports**

3:45-3:50  Introduction of panel members and format

3:50-4:50*  Plenary Panel (Scott Ritter, Joseph Gerson, Brian Corr, & Joe Lombardo)

4:50-5:00  Closing & announcements

        *Includes time for Q&A

      **An electronic composite report will be made available for attendees after the conference

PRIMARY SPEAKERS: Scott Ritter and Joseph Gerson.
 

Scott Ritter was a U.S. Marine for twelve years.   Following his Marine Corps stint he served in various intelligence roles, including one as a chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990's.  Prior to the 2003 invasion, he correctly predicted that there would be no usable weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq.  He said UNSCOM had verified the elimination of 95% of Iraq's WMDs in the 1990's, that there was no longer a nuclear program, and that, if any chemical or biological weapons were discovered following an invasion, they would be found to have degraded to a point of uselessness.

In both August and September of this year Mr. Ritter will be traveling to Iran.  On another occasion before the conference, he will meet with several Nobel Peace Prize winners on the subject of avoiding war with Iran, a topic on which he has written a book, Target Iran.  He has also written: Waging Peace - The Art of War for the Antiwar Movement, a fascinating and challenging account of how techniques used by the military can instead be used in the pursuit of peace.  Amazon's customer-reviewers have given Waging Peace an average rating of 4 1/2 stars (out of a possible 5).  Barnes & Noble's reader-reviewers give the book a similar high grade.

Doing a web search on "Scott Ritter" will provide many links to articles with information about him, including a lengthy article on Wikipedia.  One interesting link to open is http://www.grassrootspeace.org/iraqritter.html which has the full text of Mr. Ritter's September 8, 2002, address to Iraq's National Assembly.  Another good link is http://www.time.com/time/pow/article/0,8599,350809,00.html which is an article Time printed back on September 13, 2002, when Mr. Ritter was Time's "Person of the Week."  For a link pointing to some of Mr. Ritter's more recent work, go to http://www.mostlyfiction.com/adventure/ritter.htm which has both a short biography of Mr. Ritter and a lengthy review of his 2007 book, Waging Peace. 

Joseph Gerson is Program Director for the American Friends Service Committee in Cambridge, MA.  He has written numerous books on global affairs and has traveled widely in the Middle East and elsewhere.  He is familiar with Scott Ritter's sentiments and likewise aspires to the goals of warding off war with Iran and creating a more effective peace movement able to induce our government to abide by the Constitution, honor the truth and serve the people.  However, his many years of experience working with AFSC have led him to somewhat different views on strategies and tactics from those of Mr. Ritter.

For an up-to-date biographical sketch of Dr. Gerson, click here.  For another article which includes lists of his many books and articles, major speaking engagements, important honors received, and major events and campaigns he has organized, go to http://www.endusmilitarism.org/Gerson_bio_with_lists.html

PLENARY PANEL MEMBERS (In addition to Scott Ritter and Joseph Gerson)

Brian Corr has been the Executive Director of the Cambridge Peace Commission in the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, since April 2008. Prior to coming to Cambridge, he was the field organizer for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

Brian started working as an activist while at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and has been in Boston since 1987. He has been involved in a wide range of efforts, from electoral campaigns, to Jobs with Justice, to Technology for Social Change, to the American Civil Liberties Union. He serves as President of the Fair Economy Action Fund and is a member of the national board of directors of the American Friends Service Committee.  He stepped down from his position as co-chair of the national board of directors of Peace Action in December 2007.

Joe Lombardo is a founding member of Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace, and serves on its coordinating committee.  He is also a founding member of the Muslim Solidarity Committee, formed to defend two Muslim men in Albany who were framed by the FBI.

Recently, Mr. Lombardo helped organize the National Assembly in Cleveland Ohio.  The National Assembly was a large conference of anti-war activists with the goal of bringing national unity to the diverse sections of the anti-war movement.  He is a member of the Continuations Body that was formed by the conference.

During the Vietnam War Mr. Lombardo was a full time staff person for the National Peace Action Coalition, one of the two major anti-war coalitions during that period.
 

ADMISSION:
Fees to defray expenses are: Regular $10.00, Seniors $8.00, Students $5.00

LUNCH:

Attendees may either purchase lunch in the BCC cafeteria or bring their own lunch.

NOTE:

BECAUSE OF ITS HELPFULNESS TO US IN PREPARATION, NOTICE OF YOUR INTENTION TO ATTEND THE CONFERENCE WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

TO NOTIFY US OF YOUR PLAN TO ATTEND, OR FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
           George Desnoyers
           Tel.: 413-443-4298
           Email: gdesnoye@berkshire.rr.com

           P.O. Box 2035
           Pittsfield, MA 01202

           or

           Don or Merry Lathrop

           Tel.: 518-781-4681 (h)

DIRECTIONS TO BERKSHIRE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Berkshire Community College’s (BCC’s) main campus is located at 1350 West Street in Pittsfield, MA.  To get to the campus follow the directions below:

From the north:
Follow Rte. 7 to Park Square in downtown Pittsfield. At the traffic light, go downhill on West Street, pass the Big Y Supermarket on the right, and turn left at the stop sign. Continue on West Street for 3 1/2 miles. The college's main entrance is on the right.

From the east:
Follow Rte. 9 through Dalton and Pittsfield to the intersection with Rte. 7. Turn left at the traffic light and follow Rte. 7 to Park Square. Follow the directions from Park Square above.
   
OR
   
Follow the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90 West) to Exit 2 in Lee. Turn right onto Rte. 20. After Rte. 20 merges with Rte. 7 in Lenox, follow Rte. 7 to Park Square. Go around the traffic circle and follow the directions from Park Square above.

From the south:
Follow Rte. 7 to Park Square. Go around the traffic circle and follow the directions from Park Square above.

From the west:
Follow Rte. 20 to the NY/MA border. Continue on Rte. 20, pass the Citgo gas station on the right, and turn left onto Hungerford Street (about 1 1/2 miles past the gas station). Bear left onto Forthill Avenue underneath a railroad overpass. Turn left at the stop sign onto West Street.
 

Conference sponsored by:

Global Issues Resource Organization (GIRO) of Berkshire Community College
Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice (BCP&J)

Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace (BNP)

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Berkshire Community College Events

All are welcome to attend meetings of GIRO (Global Issues Resource Organization).  Meetings are now being held on Mondays at 12:00 noon in room 104 of Melville Hall.

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Some Other Events (Non-BCP&J and Non-BCC)

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About Peaceplans

Peaceplans is a web site for posting information about peace-related events and issues in Berkshire County, Massachusetts. Joining Peaceplans is a good way to stay in touch with events in the area. To join Peaceplans, visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Peaceplans/

Once you have joined, make it a habit to regularly check the latest messages at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Peaceplans/messages

You will also be able to post messages yourself.

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Cost of Iraq War as of May 24, 2008

Costs of the war in Iraq so far

According to CNN, there have been 4,391 coalition deaths - 4,079 Americans, two Australians, 176 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Czech, seven Danes, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Fijian, four Georgians, one Hungarian, 33 Italians, one Kazakh, one Korean, three Latvian, 22 Poles, three Romanians, five Salvadoran, four Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians - in the war in Iraq as of May 23, 2008.  In addition, according to the Pentagon, at least 30,112 U.S. troops have been wounded in action.  There have been more than 900 civilian contractor deaths, and more than 200 NGO (non-governmental organization) deaths.  The direct financial cost of the war to U.S. taxpayers as of May 24, 2008 is $422.4 billion.

(For more information on the cost of the war in Iraq, see www.costofiraqwar.org and http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home)

Direct Financial Cost of the War in Iraq as of May 24, 2008

  
Money authorized and spent as of May 24, 2008 (The money spent on the war in Iraq
to date is 99.33% of the $525.9 billion that has already been authorized.)

Trade-offs: How Pittsfield's share of the $425.9 billion already authorized
for the war in Iraq might have been better spent:

Taxpayers in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, will pay $75.7 million as their share of the total Iraq war
spending authorized to date.  For the same amount of money, the following could have been
provided:

• to provide 22,679 people with health care for one year, or

• to provide 28,375 children with health care for one year, or

• to provide 117,979 homes with renewable electricity for one year, or

• to pay yearly salaries and provide benefits for 1,484 public safety officers, or

• to pay yearly salaries and provide benefits for 1,296 music and arts teachers, or

• to provide 7,886 full one-year scholarships for public university students, or

• to build 5.6 elementary schools ($13,400,000 each), or

• to build 501 affordable housing units ($150,000 per unit), or

• to provide 9,051 children with one year of Head Start, or

• to pay yearly salaries and provide benefits for 1,083 elementary school teachers, or

• to pay yearly salaries and provide benefits for 274 port container inspectors.

For the Methodology of the National Priorities Project, see below or go to
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/cms/content/notes-and-sources-tradeoffs

    President's New War Request: Local Costs Updated
    
                              (Data from http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar0508)

As Congress considers additional war funding, NPP offers [on its website] a state-level table and breakdowns of the President's proposed Iraq war spending by congressional district, county and city.
  
The table below shows, for each state, how much money has already been allocated to the Iraq war, what the additional amount under consideration will cost, and what that money could buy in local services instead. For congressional district, county, and city data, click here.
  
Congress is currently considering a request for additional funding for the end of FY 2008 and beginning of FY 2009. NPP's analysis shows that of the President's $178 billion war spending request, $135.4 billion is dedicated to the Iraq War, with close to $83.7 billion allocated for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2008 and $51.7 billion allocated for the first three months of Fiscal Year 2009. The remainder of the $178 billion in war funding is for Afghanistan and other Global War on Terror activities.

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Some Useful Links

None currently listed here

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Quotes:

No quotes this month because of lengthy and more
important announcement of October 18 Conference.

About Berkshire Citizens for Peace and Justice

BCP&J is open to all people interested in promoting peace and justice who live, work, vacation in, or visit Berkshire County.

REGULAR MEETINGS are held every Thursday, 7:30 to 9:30 pm, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Pittsfield, 175 Wendell Avenue (one block up Broad St. from Rt. 7 & 20, and on the corner of Wendell Avenue and Broad St.).  Meetings on 1st and 3rd Thursdays (and some 5th Thursdays) are devoted to showing educational films/videos followed by discussion.

A representative sample of our other activities has included:

·         helping to clean up a Pittsfield neighborhood;

·         organizing bus trips to demonstrations in Washington, DC, and bus/train trips to demonstrations in NY City;

·         organizing and participating in demonstrations and events promoting peace & justice;

·         cooperating with GIRO to put on a program, "Is the military your best option?," which compared what the military says about itself - especially to potential recruits - with some of the realities of life in the military;

·         arranging and hosting workshops on the Selective Service System and conscientious objection;

·         [successfully] petitioning the Pittsfield City Council to go on record in opposition to harmful elements of the Patriot Act, and in opposition to the war in Iraq;

·         participating as a contingent in Pittsfield’s 4th of July parade;

·         working [successfully] to have the Pittsfield Public School System change its way of handling the No Child Left Behind Act's opt-out provision;

·         visiting local high schools in order to provide interested students with important career information, including information about military service that the recruiters don’t mention;

·         [successfully] encouraging Mayor James Ruberto of Pittsfield to support Mayors for Peace;

·         holding a “Peace Tea” so that people from area groups with interests similar to ours could meet each other;

·         arranging talks at the Berkshire Athenaeum on reductions in veterans’ benefits, and on the first hand experiences of an Israeli woman and American man in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;

·         helping to collect donated goods and packing them into four shipping containers (each 40’ x 8’ x 8’) for shipment to Honduras to aid the poor; and

·         serving as the local facilitating group for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Eyes Wide Open exhibit;

·         going on a field trip to Brattleboro to congratulate the town for voting to criminally indict Bush and Cheney, and to congratulate 200+ high school students for conducting a school walkout peace rally on the steps of their high school;

·         conducting a march and moving church service marking the fifth anniversary of the war against Iraq; reading the names of the home towns of all service men and women who were killed in Iraq during 2007, and displaying a map marked with pins to show the large scale and wide distribution of tragedy across the USA;

·         supporting petition campaigns to help guide legislators on important issues;

·         creating and distributing pamphlets and other literature on issues related to peace and justice; and

·         writing letters to newspaper editors.

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Contact Information

For comments or questions regarding this newsletter, contact George Desnoyers at 443-4298 or gdesnoye@berkshire.rr.com

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FAIR USE NOTICE. This newsletter may contain copyrighted material, and some uses of copyrighted material may not have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All copyrighted material in this newsletter is provided without charge and for educational purposes -- to advance the understanding of topics and issues important to the advancement of peace and justice in our time. All copyrighted material is provided in the belief that its use in this newsletter constitutes a “fair use” as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Determination of whether copyrighted material shall be used in this newsletter involves the consideration of the following factors: (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors. No copyrighted material in this newsletter should be reproduced or distributed if the reproduction or distribution would diminish the potential market or value of the copyrighted work. If you wish to use any copyrighted material provided in this newsletter for purposes of your own that go beyond “fair use” as provided for in Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. 

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End of Newsletter