[Sosfbay-discuss] Michael Berg says break the cycle of violence

Mon Aug 7 20:03:23 PDT 2006

Here's the press release I arranged for the Michael Berg press
conference I'd set up that followed the Berkeley talk that I
substituted for the house party I originally had scheduled at Fred's
club house (gee there's four I's in there. ;-) ).  Yes I was very busy
this week setting this and another appearance he did with CodePink in
SF Saturday.  My point?  Working with the Alameda Green Party, Richmond
Progressive Alliance and Code Pink in just a few days we put together
all this.  This is something we CAN do.  We can put together events and
we can do press conferences.  Its not that hard.  We CAN do this and we
CAN make a difference here in Silicon Valley.  And BTW, it may be
possible to invite Michael Berg here again (in a more planned out ahead
of time way) in the future. ;-)

URGENT NEWS ADVISORY
Sunday, August 6, 2006
Contact: Fred Hosea 510-684 6925

Father who has forgiven al Qaida leader
for beheading son in Iraq makes
Bay Area stops Sunday

BERKELEY – Michael Berg – the father who says he forgives Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi, the al Qaida leader for allegedly beheading Berg's son,
Nicholas Berg – will make several special appearances in the Bay Area
Sunday.

Berg will hold a NEWS BRIEFING on SUNDAY at 4 p.m. at the North
Berkeley
BART Station with Gayle McLaughlin, candidate for Richmond mayor.

Now running as a Green Party peace candidate for Congress in Delaware,
Berg will also be available for interview at the following Bay Area
events:

 	2:30 p.m. Sunday, where he will speak at the Berkeley Unitarian
Universalist Unitarian Church.

 	7 p.m. Sunday, at the 10th annual International Forgiveness Day event
at Dominican University (Angelico Hall) in San Rafael, where he will be
honored. Also among those feted will be the Bay Area's Nadia McCaffrey,
who son, Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, was killed in Iraq.

Berg was thrust into the media spotlight when his son Nick was abducted
and killed in May, 2004 in Iraq in retaliation for the murders, rapes,
and torture of Iraqis in Abu Ghraib prison. Out of his profound grief
Michael became famous with his statement, Nicholas Berg died for the
sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. Now he is known for his stand
to end the war.

"Revenge Stops Here. Responsibility Starts Here. This war took the life
of my son Nick, and it takes the life of another son or daughter every
12
minutes. Not one more should die in this immoral and illegal war. Those
who committed the betrayal of trust about Iraq and the weakening of our
country must be held accountable. Bring the troops home now," said
Berg.
-30-

--- Tian Harter <tnharter at ispwest.com> wrote:

> Yesterday afternoon Michael Berg gave a speech at the UU Church at
> Bonita
> & Cedar in Berkeley. Unfortunately, I didn't realize it takes two
> hours 
> to get
> there by transit on Sunday afternoon until I was well on the way. I 
> missed the
> first part of the speech. When I got there a couple of dozen people
> were 
> listening
> with rapt attention to a gray haired man in a T shirt with a large
> pink 
> peace sign.
> He was explaining that the CIA had locked up his son, Nicholas Berg,
> for 
> twelve
> days during the time the news of Abu Ghraib. When they released Nick,
> they
> warned him that their sleepy war had been radicalized by the news,
> but he
> apparently didn't get the news on a visceral enough level.
> 
> Michael Berg said that the last contact he'd gotten directly from his
> 
> son was
> an email saying Nick was leaving Iraq soon, but he didn't know how
> just yet.
> Then he told us of a vision he had soon after that. Michael saw his
> son 
> being
> kidnapped on a bus, which he later found out to be about what
> happened.
> The next thing he knew, he was finding out his son had been beheaded
> by
> people that were taking revenge on America for our prisoner abuses
> and
> other crimes. He indicated that a lot of people had seen Nick's
> beheading
> on the Internet.
> 
> Michael Berg then talked about restorative justice. He told us that 
> after his
> son had died he had taken a course in theology, and they had
> explained that
> revenge for revenge was not the way. Bush's war was wrong, and
> Zarquowi
> (if that's who it was) had been radicalized by news of prisoner
> abuses. The
> time to break the cycle of violence was now. The Sister who taught
> the 
> course
> explained to him that if the person who had wronged him wasn't 
> available, he
> should find a proxy to talk out the issue with. He talked about
> talking 
> to an
> empty chair, asking "why did you do it?" Finally he realized that 
> revenge has
> to stop with himself. He sees President Bush as a deeply wounded man.
> 
> Michael Berg didn't really talk much about running for Congress as a
> Green
> Party Candidate in Delaware. He mentioned being in favor of single
> payer
> health care, but mostly his talk was about the spiritual aspects of 
> restorative
> justice. After the speech there were a couple of questions about it,
> but he
> didn't want to jeopardize the church's 501.c.3 status by answering
> them.
> 
> After he sat down, somebody asked people to donate to his campaign,
> and I
> did. I also saw several people writing checks. It was the softest
> pitch 
> I can
> remember. A few minutes later he ran off to a press conference at the
> BART
> station, where the sound bite he put out there was "My son's death
> was
> wrong, but Bush's war is worse. We need to bring the troops home
> NOW!"
> 
> -- 
> Tian
> http://tian.greens.org
> I went camping a week or so ago. Looking at the stars,
> I got to thinking that reading words about them probably hits
> the eye with way more light then they actually send us.
> 
> _______________________________________________
> sosfbay-discuss mailing list
> sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> http://lists.cagreens.org/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
> 

JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cows Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

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