[Sosfbay-discuss] Cindy Sheehan calls Peace Summit in SF Jan 18-20th and letter from her

[Drew Johnson]

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/11/come-together-right-now/

COME TOGETHER, RIGHT NOW!
Cindy Sheehan

It is absolutely flabbergasting to me that our world will soon be
commemorating the 5th year since George Bush announced that the US had
commenced “Sock and Awe” against Iraq.

Millions of people marched against the impending invasion all over the
world on February 15th, 2003 in one of the most touching and amazing show
of solidarity against global aggression ever seen.  Since then, the
pro-peace/anti-war demonstrations have been mostly disjointed with not so
much solidarity.

I left the peace movement in May of this year partially out of frustration
over this lack of unity. At the time I was in despair over the fact that
our movement had been unable to stop anything because of the egos and the
infighting. Since then, the usurpation of our liberties and the killing of
our children and the Iraqi people has just grown worse. The movement was
unable to stop a funding bill or be united in demanding accountability for
the war criminals that have been instrumental in destroying three
countries, ours included.

Now after nearly 5 years of the illegal occupation of Iraq and over 5
years of the immoral occupation of Afghanistan, we all know, even those
who watch the propaganda news networks and are in denial, that this is not
only gone horribly wrong from day one, but  is a sham based on deceit.

Not only has our foreign policy suffered profoundly under BushCo and
Congress Inc, but the foreign war expenditures without a commensurate
raise in revenue has driven our country deeply into a quagmire of debt.
Out trade deficit is the largest that it has ever been and 54,000 homes
went into foreclosure in October. Gas is hovering a gallon mark in the
vicinity of San Francisco and is only going to go up. The degradation of
our environment is becoming catastrophic while closeted, deviate
Republican lawmakers are worried about people of the same sex having
intimate relations and Democrats are too busy trying to act like
Republicans while pretending to be Democrats. It is up to us---We the
People.

Our country is rapidly slipping into a corporate-militaristic fascism and
the peace/anti-war movement is worried about personalities and who gets a
bigger piece of the pie---and I am not sure what kind of pie it is. The
only thing I know about this work is that it is very difficult and
requires a lot of sacrifice and commitment without resulting in much
monetary reward. The rewards of true and lasting peace with an overthrow
of the pigs of war who think they are globally in charge is our reward and
seeing a better world for all the worlds’ children and grandchildren is
what we should be striving for.

This is why I am calling for The Dave Cline/MLK,Jr. Memorial Peace Summit
in January (18-20) to bring all of the various groups together so we can
strategize and brainstorm more effective ways of challenging war and
injustices.

We not only need to come together in a Year Five Committee to come up with
effective strategies to mourn the coming Sixth Year of a mistake that
should have never happened with the loss of life counted past one-million,
but we need to check egos at the door and bring a healthy longing for the
unity that can finally bring the peace that will bring health and
prosperity to our country and the world.

Please contact The Camp Casey Peace Institute  for more info about the
Summit.


____

Subject: [riccp] REPORT of Conference call with Cindy Sheehan and letter
from her


----- Original Message -----
From: Jamilla El-Shafei <mailto:jamillaelshafei at yahoo.com>
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 1:42 AM
Subject: [NEU-Regional] REPORT of Conference call with Cindy Sheehan and
letter from her

Greetings friends,

I have attached  two documents: a report from my conference call with Cindy
Sheehan today and a letter that Cindy is sending out to organizations and
activists regarding the DAVE CLINE MEMORIAL/MLK Jr. PEACE SUMMIT. Please
share the report and  letter with your organizations and comrades as soon as
possible.

Cindy has asked me to co-organize  the Summit with David Rubinson from San
Francisco.  I am grateful for the opportunity to join with you in building a
unified broad-based grassroots effort to stop the war and occupation.

 In August, I had hoped that the Kennebunkport  "Weekend of Solidarity"
would be the beginning of reconciliation  within the movement.  I had
stickers printed up with the slogan "UNITE FOR A CHANGE" and volunteers
slapped them on protesters.  Thanks to Cindy, my vision for creating another
opportunity to come together for the sake of peace within our movement, and
in the world  will become a reality.    I am also very happy to find a good
use for the left- over stickers!

How many times have we complained about the  fractures within the
peace/anti-war movement and felt almost despair at the resulting low turnout
of protesters at the mass mobilizations?

If something is fractured, it is weak and eventually will break.  We should
not allow that to happen to our movement. Although there are outside forces
which would love  to facilitate our demise..  The Peace Summit  will provide
us with an  opportunity to repair the fissures.  Even if you cannot
physically get to San Francisco  you can be involved as we will have LIVE
BLOGGING during the mass meeting.

We hope that your organization will consider sending a leader or delegate to
San Francisco to participate in what will be an historic event.

The web site will be up soon with more information. We will also have a
google group for volunteers. In the meantime, please contact me with your
ideas or questions. When you email me please put  the words "peace summit"in
the subject line:   jamillaelshafei at yahoo.com

Peace now,
Jamilla El-Shafei



------ End of Forwarded Message

PEACE SUMMIT CALL REPORT

DAVE CLINE MEMORIAL PEACE SUMMIT CONFERENCE CALL initiated by Cindy Sheehan

Thursday, November 29, 2007
Participants include: Cindy Sheehan, DeDe Miller, Tiffany Burns, Jamilla
El-Shafei and David Rubinson


Cindy Sheehan is convening the DAVE CLINE  MEMORIAL PEACE SUMMIT in San
Francisco on  January 18 and 19th and 20th.  Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday weekend was chosen by Cindy because he exemplified a uniter, a
peace maker  and an advocate for non-violent constructive action.

 The goal of the summit is to  bring together peace and justice leaders
and delegates from all across the country  so that we can begin to mend
divisions and come together in solidarity to end the war and occupation
in Iraq .

The agenda will include  analyzing our strengths and weaknesses and our
goals. We will be   creating a unified strategy  and an action plan which
will include effective tactics that will put real pressure on our
politicians.

We will work on a plan for a broad-based, grassroots,  unified national
mobilization in March to mark the 5th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
The idea of  bi-coastal demonstrations in San Francisco and Washington DC
will be explored before the peace summit.

We discussed a very rough schedule
Friday
 .  CHECK EGOS AT THE DOOR
 .  Workshops
 .  Evening:  community dinner, speakers and  free time in San Francisco :

Saturday
 .  YEAR FIVE COMMITTEE with emphasis on Achieving unity and peace within
our own peace community (facilitator to be
    announced ). This will be a mass gathering.  LIVE BLOGGING for those who
    cannot attend in person.
 .  Break-out into small groups or committees.  March Mobilization working
groups
    meet
 .  Evening—community dinner, entertainment  socializing.

Sunday
 . Committees meet
 . Closing

Monday
   For those who are interested in staying over for Martin Luther King’s
birthday San Francisco’s African American community has amazing events
(TBA).


  Cindy Sheehan and DeDe Miller appointed Jamilla El-Shafei and David
Rubinson
  as event organizers.        Jamilla and David will need your help!!!
Time is of the
  essence and we must move very quickly!

  ** If people are interested in volunteering to help make this event
possible
       We will need help with: a web site, out-reach,  logistics in San
Francisco,
        Creation of a google group for volunteers.
       Program workshop and     speakers, entertainment, housing and
coordinating
       Catering at the event site.


      To assist Jamilla and David please email Jamilla and put in the
subject line:
       Peace Conference. jamillaelshafei at yahoo.com  (in the near future I
will have
       A new email address to be used just for this event)
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