UPCOMING EVENTS CALENDAR BY DANCEWATER

07/02/18 DINNER WITH PROGRESSIVES

Next Dinner with Progressives is on Monday, July 2, 2018 from 5:30-7pm at Green Sage Cafe, Westgate, next to Earth Fare. Join fellow progressives at the Green Sage Cafe Monday, July 2 because now more than ever we need to be together, learn together and work together. The November election is crucial to our city, county, state and country so the next 4 gatherings will include speakers who will discuss issues, candidates and/or volunteer opportunities. All are invited who wish to move forward. There is no membership fee but we ask that attendees purchase dinner, a beverage and/or dessert and RSVP so we can give our gracious friends at Green Sage a headcount. Invite your friends and neighbors to join us! Anyone is invited to give an announcement, ask for signature for a petition or discuss volunteer opportunities. Please send Cheryl a quick email to let her know how much time you will need (first come, first serve basis). Our speaker(s) for July 2nd will be David Brown's campaign manager, Kathie Kline. David is running for the US House of Representatives and we are hoping that he will also attend but he will be in Charlotte that day so he may not be able to make it to Asheville by 6 pm. David Wilson Brown is a Progressive Democratic candidate for the 10th Congressional District of North Carolina. Contact Cheryl at ctorengo@gmail.com for more information.

07/02/18 ASHEVILLE SURJ WEEKLY MEETING - SUSPENDED FOR THE SUMMER

Asheville SURJ weekly evening meeting: Monday, 6:30-8:30pm at Asheville Unitarian Universalist Congregation (downstairs main building). Accountability group for folks seeking to focus on anti-racism work. Meetings include opportunities such as discussion, educational opportunities, or role-playing difficult conversations, and building connections. For more info email avlsurj@gmail.com.

07/03/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

Every Tuesday, Veterans for Peace Chapter 099 holds a vigil at Vance Monument in downtown Asheville. Time is 4:30 PM. This has been happening since 2002. No matter the weather, no matter if it falls on a holiday, they are out there standing for peace.

07/03/18 CURRENT EVENTS BOOK CLUB

Join host Bruce Roth for a lively discussion on topics of current interest including war and peace, the economy, the environment, and other hot political topics. The selection for July is “No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria” by Rania Abouzeid. Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café at 55 Haywood Street in Asheville. Time is 7 PM. Contact Malaprops at 828-254-6734 for more information.

07/04/18 INDEPENDENCE FROM FOSSIL FUELS DAY

I’m excited to celebrate Independence from Fossil Fuels Day on July 4th from 6-10pm in downtown Asheville and I hope, with you. I invite you to join the Community Roots crew in a Banner Stand on the I-240 pedestrian bridges, followed by a March with a 50’ inflatable pipeline around Pack Square. We’re making a stand with art and our bodies for the swift and equitable transition to 100% renewable energy. Here’s our schedule: 6 pm - meet in the parking lot across from High Five Cafe on Broadway for check in, prayer, distribute banners and do the dance of hope. At 6:30pm - we stand with two banners at each of the Charlotte St., Flint St. and Montford Ave bridges. At 8pm - meet in the parking lot across from High Five Cafe for prayer, check in and prep for second action. At 8:45pm - march downtown with pipeline. At 10pm - finish, return to parking lot and get lots of hugs. Since this action has two parts, if you can’t attend for the full four hours you are welcome to join us for either the banner stand and following prayer from 6 to 8.30pm or arrive for the prayer at 7.45pm and join the march until 10pm. Our Art Team is making some beautiful banners (designed by our team member Maysun Greenwald of yonderday.com - thanks again Maysun) for us to hold. Please let me know if you have any questions. I so look forward to standing with you and helping accelerate our beautiful City towards a sustainable and just future. Contact Steve at earthsun2@gmail.com for more information and to confirm this action is happening (it will be cancelled if there is not enough people making a commitment).

07/04/18 BENEFIT FOR COMPANEROS IMMIGRANTS DE LAS MONTANAS EN ACCION (CIMA)

This is a country music event to benefit CIMA. Esther Rose, Megg Farrel & Friends, Sabra Gazman, Vaden Landers & the Do-Rights, Gracie Lane, and El Musico (Michael Luchtan) will preform. Food by Belly-Up food truck. Location is Double Crown at 375 Haywood Road in west Asheville. Time not listed, but the location opens at 5 PM normally. For more information, contact WNC Sanctuary at sanctuarymovement@cimawnc.org.

07/05/18 DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST OF AMERICA MEETING

Asheville DSA Monthly Meeting is July 5 from 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm. The location is The Block off biltmore at 39 S. Market Street in Asheville. Call 828-254-9277 for more information.

07/05/18 HOMEWARD BOUND OF WNC TOUR

“Welcome Home Tour” is a tour of Asheville organizations that serve the homeless population. This will cover how Homeward Bound is working to end homelessness and how the public can help. Registration required at tours@homewardboundwnc.org, free to attend. Time is 11 AM. Call 258-1695 for more information.

07/05/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

This is a multimedia facilitated class series based on talks about personal peace by Prem Rawat. Free. Time is 6:30 to 7:30 PM and this will be held at the Montford Community Center at 34 Pearson Drive in Asheville. This started on 06/21/18 and goes until 08/23/18. Contact jtfbuilder@gmail.com.

07/05/18 GREEN DRINKS

Eco-presentations, discussions and community connection. Free. Held at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville at Edwin Place and Charlotte Street in north Asheville.

07/06/18 JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE MEETING

Fri, Jul 6 at 4:30 pm will be the Jewish Voice for Peace meeting. A monthly meeting for Asheville's JVA chapter, a national organization dedicated to a U.S. foreign policy based on peace, human rights, and respect for international law. Firestorm is located at 610 Haywood Road in west Asheville. Please contact them for more information on the event.

07/06/18 TROUBLE SCREENING AT FIRESTORM

Friday, July 6th at 6:30pm there will be a “Trouble” screening at Firestorm at 610 Haywood in west Asheville. Sub-Media offers Trouble, a brand-new monthly show offering an in-depth anarchist analysis of current struggles, tactics, and movement dynamics. Trouble broadcasts first-hand accounts and perspectives from organizers on the ground, with the aim of cutting through the fog of misinformation that often clouds our understanding of the world, and provoking people into taking bold, collective action. This monthly, half-hour film on topics of interest to people fighting the settler colonial capitalism is hosted by Blue Ridge Anarchist Black Cross and will include a discussion of the film with questions provided by the filmmakers. This month's film is “Defend the Block: Fighting Back Against Gentrification.” Gentrification, like all facets of capitalism, is often presented to its victims as a natural process. Shrouded in the logic of progress and polished up with euphemisms like neighborhood revitalization or urban renewal, the violent displacement that it brings in its wake is carefully hidden behind a cover of market forces, zoning changes, public consultations and glitzy marketing campaigns. But those who have felt the force of the 'invisible hand' plucking them from their communities and pushing them out of their homes are not so easily fooled. The illusion that gentrification is natural, or even inevitable fact of life, is shattered when people decide to take a stand and fight back. Attacks targeting the front-line agents of gentrification force people to take sides. Often, the resulting sense of clarity can cut through the smokescreen of inclusivity and social peace that states and capitalists use to lull us into believing our communities are nothing more than potential sites of investment. They remind us that our neighborhoods have a pulse, and that they are physical territories whose futures can be contested, and ultimately shaped, by the people who live in them. In this month's episode of Trouble, the second of a two-part series on gentrification, sub-Media talks to comrades in Montreal, the Bay Area and Berlin to see how people in these cities are fighting back on attacks on their communities by developers, real estate speculators and the tech industry. Please contact Firestorm for more information.

07/07/18 PUERTO RICO BENEFIT SHOW IN ASHEVILLE

Despite Hurricane Maria being nine months past, the people of Puerto Rico are still experiencing a deep humanitarian crisis. In an effort to raise awareness and financial support, five Asheville acts will be performing at the Salvage Station on July 7, in partnership with Pop Ed, a local social justice activists collective. Proceeds from the event will go to Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico Teachers Federation), an educators union in Puerto Rico that has been a driving force in rebuilding devastated communities since the hurricane hit. Tickets to Resist! A Benefit to Fight Unnatural Disasters, can be purchased at the Salvage Station website. Volunteers to run kids activities needed! Additional event details will be announced throughout the month of June, and can be followed via the web listings at salvagestation dot com. Call (828) 484- 6587 for more info or to get involved.

07/09/18 TEACH IN EVENT AT MALAPROPS

Teach in with Jeff Biggers. He presents “Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition.” As we face an increasingly authoritarian American political climate, Biggers underlines the dense history of opposition in America and reminds us of the vital role civil resistance has played in defining our national identity. Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café at 55 Haywood Street in Asheville. Time is 6 PM. Contact Malaprops at 828-254-6734 for more information.

07/09/18 TEACHING WITH SLAVE DEEDS COURSE AT MARS HILL UNIVERSITY

People Not Property: Teaching with Slave Deeds as Primary Sources at Mars Hill University on July 9 - 14 from 9:00 - 4:00PM. Teaching with Primary Source Documents at Mars Hill College is collaborating with the UNC Asheville Center for Diversity Education to host a summer institute at Mars Hill University. Before the end of the Civil War, the “bill of sale” for an enslaved person was documented at the Buncombe County Courthouse - the site of the current Vance Monument. In 2013, Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger digitized the documents which are now viewable at the Register of Deeds website. This important research has spread to other NC counties as well as other states. The workshop is limited to 20 participants and is open to all teachers, but may be most effectively implemented in high school, college, or community college settings. The week will include scholarly lectures, presentations by teachers who use the deeds in the classroom, field trips to sites across Buncombe County, and opportunities to create lesson plans for the classroom. Participants will receive a certification of completion for 40 content hours. This certificate should be eligible for 4 CEUs in most school systems. For more information, contact UNC Asheville Center for Diversity Education at 828-232-5024 or dmiles@unca.edu.

07/09/18 TRANSYLVANIA NAACP MEETING

NAACP General Membership and Executive Committee meeting: 6:15 p.m., Bethel A Baptist Church, 290 Oakdale Street in Brevard. Our meetings are always on the second Monday of the month. All are welcome!

07/09/18 PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS MONTHLY MEETING

When: Monday July 9th, 6:15pm – 8:00pm. Where: Buncombe County Democratic Party HQ, 951 Old Fairview Rd, Asheville. Description: Doors open by 6:15 for sign in and conversation. Meeting begins promptly at 6:30. We encourage candidates and motivate voters while promoting the most progressive parts of the DNC platform: campaign finance reform, clean energy policy, universal healthcare, and much more. Contact: Larry Dodson at pdobPRESIDENT@gmail.com.

07/09/18 LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF ASHEVILLE-BUNCOMBE COUNTY MEETING

Voter Engagement Coalition meeting is on Monday, July 9 from 3:00 – 4:30pm. We meet monthly on the second Monday of the month. Location is 50 South French Broad Avenue in Asheville, NC 28801, USA. Organizer: Voter Engagement Coalition Events. See their website for further information.

07/09/18 TEACH-IN AT MALAPROPS

Jeff Biggers presents “Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition.” About Malaprops Teach-Ins: Malaprop's Teach-Ins are events that speak to the current times. Sometimes the books address politics, but we have also hosted teach-ins with healers and spiritual leaders. We invite the authors to take the time to go in-depth into their subject and to then lead a community dialogue. As ever, Malaprops is committed to being a space for our community to come together for meaningful conversations and we choose the teach-ins according to what our customers care about and want to better understand. About the book: Across cities, towns, and campuses, Americans are grappling with overwhelming challenges and the daily fallout from the most authoritarian White House policies in recent memory. In an inspiring narrative history, Jeff Biggers reframes today's battles as a continuum of a vibrant American tradition. Resistance is a chronicle of the courageous resistance movements that have insured the benchmarks of our democracy--movements that served on the front lines of the defense of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and landmark civil rights and environmental protection achievements. Time is 6 PM and location is Malaprops at 55 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville. Contact Malaprops for more information.

07/10/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

07/12/18 GREEN NETWORKING EVENT

Sustainable Drinks: Green Networking is on July 12 from 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm. A place and time for green minded folks and local business owners to get together and see what kind of game changing projects we can cook up together. Live jazz music. Vegan drinks. Community Roots and The BLOCK off Biltmore decided to host 2 of these events over the summer. If there is enough interest we will set up a series in the fall that will include speakers so we can all learn a little more while we enjoy each other’s company. Let us know if you’d like to be a speaker. Location is THE BLOCK off biltmore at 39 South Market Street in downtown Asheville. Call 828-254-9277 for more information.

07/12/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

07/14/18 SOUTHSIDE RISING FOR JUSTCE EVENT

Southside Rising For Justice is a family-friendly community celebration featuring food, music, cultural performances, and hands-on interactive social justice activities for residents of the neighborhood. Join community partners, Southside residents, and businesses to rise for a future that ensures everyone has a beautiful and healthy place to live, work, and play. Date is Saturday, July 14th from1pm to 9pm. Location is the Arthur Edington Center at 133 Livingston Street in Asheville. Schedule of Events: 1:00 Opening; 1:30 Southside community walking tour; 3:00 Justice First Design Jam; 5:00 Community showcase; and 8:30 Closing. Asheville’s Southside community is a historic and seldom celebrated black neighborhood threatened by equally high levels of poverty and gentrification. The Southside Arts & Agricultural Center (SAAC) is a collaborative team of organizations, grassroots leaders and community members creating a new narrative of hope in the Southside through pathways to healing and economic mobility involving arts, culture and food justice. The Justice First Tour is partnering with SAAC to bring you Southside Rising for Justice. Southside Rising For Justice is the result of a strategic partnership between SAAC and The Justice First Tour. The collaborating partners of SAAC include: Hood Huggers International, Green Opportunities, Bountiful Cities, the Residents Council of HACA, Southside Community Gardens, Word On The Street and an intergenerational cohort of longtime community residents. The Justice First Tour, coordinated by Dogwood Alliance, New Alpha Community Development, Kingdom Living Temple, and Sierra Club Ready for 100, aims to unify and strengthen disparate communities and movements in order to create a more intersectional Southern movement centered around justice. For more information, contact Danna at danna@dogwoodalliance.org.

07/15/18 ETHICAL HUMANIST SOCIETY EVENT

Sunday, July 15 “Do No Harm – Harm Reduction” by Dr. Jennifer Mullendore and Michael Harney. Jenni and Michael will explore several controversial Western NC initiatives including Needle Exchange Programs – where sterile syringes, life-saving overdose-reversing naloxone (Narcan) and other harm reduction supplies are available; HIV & viral hepatitis prevention programs – including free HIV and hepatitis C testing and info on the HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis pill; and other programs. Hear inspiring stories, explore individual and social bias, consider how we can practice compassion over judgment and whether “Do No Harm” extends to taking ethical action toward “Harm Reduction”. Dr. Jennifer Mullendore is the Medical Director at Buncombe County Health & Human Services, is a graduate of Georgetown University School of Medicine and has a MSPH from UNC–Chapel Hill, School of Global Public Health. Michael Harney co-founded the Needle Exchange Program of Asheville (circa 1994), is an HIV/AIDS/STD/Hepatitis prevention educator with Western NC AIDS Project (WNCAP), and a street outreach worker sometimes known as “The Rubberman.” All are welcome. Time is 2:00 PM. Location is Asheville Friends Meeting House at 227 Edgewood Road in north Asheville. Contact the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville at EHSAsheville@gmail.com for more information.

07/16/18 CITIZEN CLIMATE LOBBY MEETING

CCL June Monthly Chapter Meeting (every 3rd Monday each month) is on June 16 from 6:30-8:30PM. Location is Habitat Brewing Tavern & Commons at 174 Broadway Street in Asheville. Come hear about our meetings with Congress during Lobby Day and how you can help with better outreach for this year. All political parties are welcome to join in this effort - conservative, liberal , progressive, libertarian, etc. Come have a beer or just plain good conversation with positive actionable items to help move us forward on the most important topic of our time. Contact asheville@citizensclimatelobby.org for more information.

07/17/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

07/17/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE MEETING

On the third Tuesday of each month, Western North Carolina Veterans for Peace meets to coordinate group activities and programs.Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars. Time is 5:45 PM and location is the Block Off Biltmore at Eagle and Market Streets in downtown Asheville. For more information, contact Gerry at gwerhan@gmail.com.

07/19/18 NOTORIOUS HBC* (*HISTORY BOOK CLUB)

Join host and Malaprop’s bookseller Patricia Furnish to discuss a range of books across different periods of history. We’re creating a book club that tackles the challenging subjects, hence the Notorious in the name. This month’s pick is “Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala” by Stephen Schlesinger and Stephen Kinzer. Malaprop’s Bookstore & Café at 55 Haywood Street in Asheville. Time is 7 PM. Contact Malaprops at 828-254-6734 for more information.

07/19/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

07/20/18 WNC PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY MEETING

Physicians, health personnel and everyone; all are welcomed at our monthly meetings held on the third Friday of each month. Bring a brown bag lunch around noon. This will be held at The First Congregational United Church of Christ, Room E205, at 20 Oak Street (just off College St. in downtown Asheville). Time is noon to 2 PM. Meeting starts at 12:30. Parking is available behind the church. Enter the church or ring doorbell at the glass doors on Oak Street. For more information contact Dr. Terry Clark, Chair, 633-0892 or Dr. Lew Patrie, 285-2599.

07/21/18 SIERRA CLUB PICNIC

Sierra Club July 21: 9th Annual Summer Picnic. Come one, come all to the 9th Annual Sierra Club Summer Picnic on Saturday, July 21. The picnic is scheduled from noon to 4:00 p.m. at the Blue Ridge Parkway sheltered picnic grounds located on Bull Mt. Road near the VA Hospital on Riceville Road. This event is free and will be held rain or shine. Please bring a pot luck dish to share and your own place settings. Drinks will be provided. Badminton, horseshoes and music will add to the festivities. Directions: Exit 7 on I-240; go east on Tunnel Rd for 2 miles; turn north on Riceville Road Pass the VA Hospital and turn left on Bull Mt. Road. The fenced-in, sheltered picnic area is on the left about ½ mile up the road. Contact Judy Mattox, judymattox@sbcglobal.net, or 828-683-2176 for more information.

07/22/18 SUPPORT YOUR NAACP AND BREVARD MUSIC CENTER

The Brevard Music Center has graciously donated tickets to a wonderful concert as a Transylvania NAACP fundraiser. We’ll say this to you--our members and friends—that funds are urgently needed since our treasury is in the double digits right now! Here’s the deal: We have a variety of tickets for the July 22 performance of “Pines of Rome” by Respighi with featured solo violinist Annelle Gregory, a woman of color who was the first place winner in the 2017 Sphinx Organization’s annual competition honoring excellence and diversity in the arts. Here’s how you can get in the game: We are auctioning 60 tickets at all levels. All proceeds go to us (thanks, Brevard Music Center!), so you win by getting to see a great concert and we win by increasing our ability to continue our work for justice in our community, our state and our nation. We all win by getting to spend some fun time together for a Thank You picnic for winners only before the 3 p.m. performance. We have: 10 $54 tickets (great orchestra seats); 10 $44 tickets (excellent seats); 10 $38 tickets (sides, still good!); 10 $28 seats (inside back, can still see and hear wonderfully) and 20 $20 lawn seats (outside and really fun because you can sit and sip your beverages of choice). We’d love it if you’d at least pay the ticket price and more if you’re wiling. How to get in the game: Send us your bid by e-mail no later than July 9, 2018. Send bid to transnaacpauction@gmail.com and let us know what level seats you want, how many and how much you are willing to donate. It’s as simple as that. We will notify the winner on Wednesday, July 11 and arrange to get your tickets to you. You can buy as many tickets as you want and the sky’s the limit. You can give us $1,000 for a $20 lawn seat, if you like, and we will thank you heartily. Please feel free to share this with your friends. From facebook.

07/24/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

07/26/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

07/27/18 BENEFIT FOR PISGAH LEGAL

Amplify Pisgah is back this summer on July 27 at 6:30 pm, featuring The Mavericks at Pisgah Brewing Company's outdoor stage in Black Mountain. Proceeds from the concert benefit Pisgah Legal Services. Don't miss your chance to purchase discounted early bird tickets for $29.50. Thank you to Amplify My Community and Pisgah Brewing Company for their continued partnership and support! To learn more about sponsoring the event or for more information including how to get tickets, contact Michelle Spiegel at 828-210-3773 for details.

07/31/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

08/02/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

08/02/18 GREEN DRINKS

Eco-presentations, discussions and community connection. Free. Held at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville at Edwin Place and Charlotte Street in north Asheville. Also, this is the Sierra Club Meeting. See listing for more information.

08/02/18 CREATION CARE ALLIANCE MEETING

Creation Care Gathering-our regular CCA meeting is on Thursday, August 2 from 6-7:30 PM. Location is Piney Mountain United Methodist Church at 14 Piney Mountain Church Road in Candler. Coming together to share compassion and ideas. We will learn about the creation care work of our host congregation through a conversation and tour, hear about CCA and community events and work, as well as hear ideas. If you are connected to a faith community, a green team or creation care team member, clergy, or are interested in learning more about LED Light Bulb Outreach or the Creation Care Alliance this meeting is for you.

08/07/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

08/09/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

08/13/18 TRANSYLVANIA NAACP MEETING

08/14/18 VETERANS FOR PEACE VIGIL - BECAUSE THE WARS STILL GO ON

08/16/18 PEACE EDUCATION PROGRAM

08/19/18 ETHICAL HUMANIST SOCIETY OF ASHEVILLE EVENT

Sunday, August 19th at 2 PM “Wilma Dykeman: The Mountain South's Great Humanist of the 20th Century” by Jim Stokely. Wilma Dykeman was a best-selling novelist, teacher, and pioneer in environmental thinking, civil rights, and feminism. As a humanist, Wilma was a deep thinker who was less interested in our place in some great chain of being, but more interested in our current task: Now that we're here, what should we do? The talk will begin with a 20-minute video of Wilma Dykeman’s life, followed by her perspective on becoming the best we can be as individuals and as a society through her writings, lectures and personal story as told by her son Jim Stokely. Jim is President of the Wilma Dykeman Legacy and lectures and produces events to sustain and foster the core values of Wilma Dykeman. Time is 2:00 PM. Location is Asheville Friends Meeting House at 227 Edgewood Road in north Asheville. Contact the Ethical Humanist Society of Asheville at EHSAsheville@gmail.com for more information.

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

ONGOING EVENTS

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

MONDAY

Asheville SURJ weekly meeting at 6:30 pm at UU Congregation in Asheville, downstairs - suspended for summer 2018

Citizens’ Climate Lobby meeting on the third Monday at 6:30 at Habitat Tavern & Commons.

TUESDAY

Veterans for Peace have a weekly vigil at 4:30 PM at Pack Square, Vance Monument

Rally at historic Courthouse in Hendersonville at 5 PM on the first Tuesday of the month. Organized by the Progressive Organized Women.

WEDNESDAY

Haywood Peace Vigilers have a weekly vigil at 4 PM at Haywood County Courthouse in Waynesville

French Broad Riverkeeper has a paddle-n-plant to prevent sediment erosion most Wednesdays and Saturdays. Registration required at anna@mountaintrue.org.

Green Drinks meets at 6 PM at The Block Off Biltmore on the second Wednesday of the month.

Indivisible Asheville does political letter writing at 5:30 to 7 PM on the first and third Wednesdays at The Block Off Biltmore.

THURSDAY

Welcome Home Tour by Homeward Bound on the third Thursday of the month at 11 AM. Call 258-1695 for more information.

Haywood Peace Vigilers have a weekly vigil at 4 PM at Haywood County Courthouse in Waynesville.

Sierra Club meets at 7 PM at Unitarian Universalist in Asheville on the first Thursday of the month.

FRIDAY

Women in Black have a weekly vigil at noon at the City Hall in Hendersonville.

Progressive Women of Hendersonville hold a letter/postcard writing to government representatives from 4 to 7 PM at Sanctuary Brewing Company at 147 First Avenue in Hendersonville.

SATURDAY

French Broad Riverkeeper has a paddle-n-plant to prevent sediment erosion most Wednesdays and Saturdays. Registration required at anna@mountaintrue.org.

Mountain True holds urban forest workdays on the second Saturday of the month at Richmond Hill Park from 9 AM to 1 PM. Call 258-8737 for more information.

Food Not Bombs serves free vegan/vegetarian food Saturday at noon at Pritchard Park.

Dances of Universal Peace on the third Saturdays at 7:30 at 1 School Road in Asheville.

SUNDAY

Asheville National Organization for Women meeting at 2:30 PM at YWCA of Asheville on second Sunday of the month.

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

ACTIONS AND READINGS

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

Hey there, an update from ASURJ:

We will be suspending Monday evenings and Tuesday morning sessions for the summer as we retool and revision for our work. The leadership team will not be taking a break, but will instead be meeting weekly over the summer to do some deep internal work to better focus ourselves as a team in relation to accountability, class issues, and base-building. Stay tuned in the fall for new programming and engagement opportunities. Meanwhile we will continue to send out the weekly Show Up Schedule (via email and FB post) with ways to engage and show up. People can get on our list by sending their email to avlsurj@gmail.com . This is a critical time in our city to keep being present to issues - by being present at meetings and/or keeping pressure on local officials relating to issues. A budget passed that didn't represent the people's needs and interests. This is not a time to give up but to continue to do the work to move our city towards a more just and equitable future. Keep up the work y'all! (-Elizabeth)

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

Altruism and Sadism in Public Policy

By David Swanson

Remarks at Peace Resource Center of San Diego, June 23, 2018.

There are three things that are almost always underestimated: the U.S. military budget, altruism, and sadism.

First, the military budget.

The U.S. military budget, including all things military in various departments, is roughly 60% of federal discretionary spending, meaning the spending that Congress members decide on each year. It is also, by my very rough estimate, the topic of well under 1% of the discussions of government spending engaged in by candidates for Congress. Most Democrats running for Congress this year have websites that don’t even acknowledge the existence of foreign policy, beyond expressing their passionate love for veterans. They’re campaigning for 40% of a job.

U.S. political debate for decades has been framed between those who want a smaller government with fewer social benefits, and those who want a larger government with more social benefits. Someone like myself who wants a smaller government with more social benefits can’t even be comprehended. Yet it shouldn’t be so very hard to grasp that if you were to eliminate one little program that makes up 60% of discretionary spending, you could increase many other things and still have a smaller government.

The U.S. military budget is over $1 trillion. When you hear an advocate for peace tell you that U.S. wars in recent years have cost some outrageous figure in the hundreds of billions or low trillions, what they are doing is normalizing most military spending as somehow being for something other than wars. But military spending is, by definition, spending on wars and preparations for wars. And it is $1 trillion each and every year for that and nothing else.

When you hear an advocate for economic fairness tell you how much money you could get by taxing billionaires, it’s less than one year’s military budget. If you taxed every dime away from every billionaire, I’d throw you a party and raise a toast, but the next year you’d have to tax millionaires instead, as there wouldn’t be any billionaires left. In contrast, the trillions for militarism just keep flowing, year after year. For a little over 1% of a trillion dollars a year, you could end the lack of clean drinking water everywhere on earth. For about 3% of a trillion dollars a year, you could end starvation everywhere on earth. For larger fractions you could put up a serious struggle against climate chaos. You could provide much of the world with cleaner energy, better education, happier lives.

You could make yourself widely loved in the process. While 95% of suicide terrorist attacks are motivated by a desire to get a military occupier to end an occupation, exactly 0% of such attacks thus far have been motivated by resentment of gifts of food, medicine, schools, or clean energy.

Militarism threatens nuclear apocalypse and is the single biggest cause of climate and environmental collapse, but in the short term it kills more by the diversion of funds from useful projects than through all the mass-murdering horrors of war. That’s how big the military budget is. And by “horrors of war” I mean to include the intentional creation of famine and disease epidemics in places like Yemen, and the creation of life-shortening hells from which refugees flee only to get themselves resented as illegal alien immigrants.

Global military spending is roughly $2 trillion, meaning that the rest of the world combined makes up roughly another $1 trillion, to match the United States’ trillion. So, now you’re talking about a doubly incomprehensible number, and a sum capable of doing doubly unimaginable good if converted, redirected, and put to moral use. And I’m not even counting the trillions of dollars of damage that the violence of war does to property each year. Well over three-quarters of world military spending is spent by the United States and its close allies and weapons customers whom the U.S. government leans on hard to increase their spending. China spends a fraction of what the U.S. does, Russia a tiny fraction (and Russia has been reducing its military spending dramatically); Iran and North Korea each spend 1 to 2 percent what the U.S. does.

This is why the Pentagon has struggled for years to identify an enemy to justify U.S. spending. Military officials in recent years, including before and after Trump’s arrival in the White House, have openly told reporters that the motivations behind the new Cold War with Russia are bureaucratic and profit driven. The lack of a credible national enemy has clearly also been a motivation behind the generation, exaggeration, and demonization of smaller, non-governmental enemies, as well as the marketing of wars as means to rid small non-threatening nations of non-existent weapons and to prevent imminent if fictional massacres. With the United States in the lead as the top weapons dealer to the world, to poor nations, and to dictatorships, it has become unusual not to have U.S. weapons on both sides of a war. And the counter-productive nature of the wars, generating more enemies than they eliminate, has been well established and conscientiously ignored. As I’ve said before, given the record of the war on terrorism spreading terrorism, the war on drugs spreading drugs, and the war on poverty increasing poverty, I would strongly support a war on prosperity, sustainability, and joy.

A big chunk of U.S. military spending goes to maintain some 1,000 military bases in other people’s countries. The rest of the world’s nations combined maintain a couple of dozen bases outside their borders. When President Trump recently mentioned ending war rehearsals in Korea and the bare possibility of bringing U.S. troops home from there, many Democratic Party members in Washington, D.C., and in the corporate media nearly lost their minds. Senator Tammy Duckworth immediately introduced legislation to forbid bringing any troops home, an action she seemed to consider would be an attack on those troops.

I need to pause in my remarks here for a few sadly necessary diversions related to personalities, parties, and troops. First, personalities. I don’t think any cause is helped by the deification or demonization of any individual politician. I think the best of them in the U.S. government do far more harm than good, and the worst of them do good sometimes. I think activists need to focus on policy, not personality. When Trump was threatening nuclear war on North Korea, I was demanding his impeachment for it. I still am demanding his impeachment for a long list of quintessentially impeachable offenses, none of which involve unproven and ridiculous accusations of having conspired with Vladimir Putin to besmirch the utterly corrupt, antidemocratic, unverifiable, broken beyond belief U.S. election system. But when Trump stopped threatening North Korea and began talking about peace, I didn’t need to turn against peace because I’m on the anti-Trump team or a card-carrying member of the so-called Resistance that steadily votes Trump bigger war budgets and expanded tyrannical powers. It’s fair to recognize that the main thing Trump has done is cease prolonging a crisis of his own buffoonish creation. It’s fair to be embarrassed by the propaganda video he showed in Singapore, and his dishonest and ignorant discussion of recent events. But the people of South Korea and the world have been demanding an end to the war rehearsals, the so-called war games. When Trump announces something we’ve been demanding, we ought to express our approval and insist on follow-through, because we ought to be on the side of peace and not care a fig for being on the side for or against the current king of the kakistocracy. In saying that, I’m about a trillion miles away from supporting Trump for a Nobel peace prize. Even President Moon, who is far more deserving, is not a peace activist in need of funding for the work of abolishing war. Others in Korea and around the world actually qualify under Alfred Nobel’s will.

Second, parties. I want to offer a similar caveat. Activism is not served by devotion to a lesser evil political party. If you want to do lesser evil voting on election day, knock yourself out. But if you can’t do it without becoming an apologist for the evils of a particular party throughout the year, then it’s not a good trade off. What we do on non-election days is more important than what we do on election days. Nonviolent activism in all of its millions of forms is what has always changed the world. And the fact that both the lesser and the greater evil continue to steadily grow more evil is not an argument for or against lesser evil voting, and certainly not an argument for lesser evil activism.

Third, troops. The United States has a poverty draft. No volunteer in its so-called volunteer military is permitted to cease volunteering. The massive budget increases for more weapons are not actually for the troops. No war has ever actually been extended for the benefit of the troops; nor has the ending of any war ever damaged the troops. The top killer of U.S. troops is suicide. The top cause of troop suicide is moral injury, which is to say deep regret for what these young men and women come to realize they were swindled into taking part in, namely mass murder. There are zero recorded cases of moral injury or PTSD or brain injury from war deprivation. Admitting that this is a cruel system is a first step in fixing it, not a treasonous attack on troops. Demanding basic human rights, like free college, guaranteed retirement, or a habitable future climate for troops and non-troops alike is not anti-troop. Demanding free job retraining for all former troops during a process of conversion to a peaceful economy is not anti-troop, even if one believes that we ought to stop calling mass murder a service and stop thanking anyone for it, that people should board airplanes in the fastest rather than the most militarist or the most profitable order, that the handicapped rather than the uniformed should get the close parking places at the supermarket, and that aircraft carriers should not be used as tourist attractions in non-sociopathic societies. So, in my view pollsters who ask if you are pro-war or anti-troop are engaged in a nasty sort of deception, while hash tags that encourage veterans of recent wars to make up their own personal beliefs about what they claim to have been fighting for is pure anti-intellectualism of the worst sort. You may very well favor democracy or freedom or faith or family or any number of other phrases, but that doesn’t mean you were sent to Iraq for that purpose or that your being in Iraq served that purpose, or that I can’t denounce the criminal enterprise you were part of without opposing you and your noble sentiments.

A final word on the underestimated military budget before I turn to underestimated altruism and sadism. Trump has just proposed saving money by merging the Education and Labor Departments which have nothing to do with each other and now cost a combined 7 percent or so of the military budget, while Congress is busy cutting food stamps. At the same time, Trump has proposed to create a whole new branch of the U.S. military: a space force. The idea of weaponizing space has been prevalent in the U.S. military since Operation Paperclip brought hundreds of former Nazis from Germany to the United States to work in the U.S. military and to develop U.S. rockets and a U.S. space program. The Nazi scientists who worked in Huntsville, Alabama, were widely considered by the locals to be what Trump called the fascists who marched through my town of Charlottesville last year, namely very fine people. A space force is a misnomer working off troopist propaganda. Trump’s proposal is not to send armies into space, but to expand current efforts to send weapons into space. In other words, a space force would consist of weapons makers and make weapons makers into troops whose supposed wishes must be religiously obeyed, even though the only thing preventing a global treaty banning all weapons from space has for many years been the United States government. With weapons companies now flying their own drones for the U.S. military and mercenaries widely employed, the merging of profiteering with the status of troops is already underway.

*****

The second thing that is often underestimated is altruism. That sounds odd in a conversation about war and peace, but I think it’s true nonetheless. Why are people rallying to prevent the separation of refugee parents and children? It’s not just taking sides for a political team. People generally do that while solidly seated on their sofas. And it’s not selfishness.

People are rallying against this cruelty to children and parents, because people care about children and parents. Why do millions of people walk and run and otherwise fundraise against cancer and autism? Why do white people wave Black Lives Matter signs and men join in women’s marches? Why do people demand rights for other species and ecosystems? Why do people donate to many charities? Why are non-poor people participating in the Poor People’s Campaign today? The answer is altruism. Altruism is not some sort of logical mystery that needs to be explained any more than air is. We can try to better understand it, but its existence is self-evident.

When I wrote a book called When the World Outlawed War about the peace movement in the 1920s, I found that the arguments people used for ending war were moral arguments much more often than today, and that they were much more often successful. In contrast, today, and for decades now, we’ve heard from peace activists that to mobilize people for peace you must focus on something that impacts them directly and selfishly. You must focus on U.S. troops with whom they can relate. You must focus on the financial cost to their own bank accounts. You must not expect people to be good or decent or caring.

We even have peace activists who join in with the Democratic Congress members who want to compel 18-year-old women to register for any possible draft along with men, so that they can be compelled to go to war against their wishes as a remedy for sexist discrimination. Peace activists argue that a draft would mobilize selfish imaginary right-wing-economic-theory persons to finally care about war. But drafts don’t have a good record of ending wars, and do have a good record of facilitating wars. The U.S. draft during the war on Vietnam didn’t prevent the killing of some 6 million people, which I don’t consider a price worth paying for a larger peace movement, which I think we can get by other means.

I think the fact that people will take action for refugee families as soon as the corporate media tells them about those families provides good reason to believe that many would similarly take action for Yemeni or Afghan or Palestinian or other people if they were told about them by corporate or enlarged independent media. If war victims had names and faces and stories and loved ones, nothing else would be likely to prevent those who care about separating families to care also about killing families or creating orphans via murder instead of via deportation.

*****

The third thing that is quite often underestimated is sadism. Just as we’re trained to find some so-called rational explanation for altruism, we’re solidly in the habit of seeking out sensible motivations behind actions driven by irrational urges, especially evil ones. When someone claims he cannot possibly end the policy of separating children from parents and then does so, our inclination is to assume that at least he’s being honest with himself, that somewhere there is a secret explanation that makes sense and it’s just not being shared with us. But locking up little children at a greater cost than what it would be to place them and their families in luxury hotels or top boarding schools or hospitals or job training programs, and instead depriving them of basic needs, doesn’t scream out for a rational explanation.

The U.S. practice of mass incarceration of refugees and non-refugees makes zero financial or public policy sense. It doesn’t reduce crime in the way that a smaller expense put into education and health would. It’s not designed around protecting the public, as most of the people locked up are no particular threat and many of them never were. You can call it correctional, but it’s not designed to correct anything. Incarceration and the torture of solitary confinement and the horror of state execution are, however, often openly justified as vengeance — meaning that the point is not forward looking at all but backward, the point is cruelty toward someone being blamed for something — just as I’ve seen on social media people blaming the victims of the separation policy for their own hardships.

Why do some people scream for environmental destruction, yell “drill baby drill,” spend the money for the biggest gas guzzling vehicles possible, or hunt the biggest animals possible? It isn’t all profit motive. Most people don’t own oil companies. It isn’t all ignorance or denial. People may pretend that the earth isn’t dying, or that the livestock industry isn’t a big part of what’s killing it, or that the animals grown for human consumption don’t suffer. But other people, and often the very same people, take glee in the creation of suffering. That we are engaged in a mass suicide, taking many other species with us, is not all an accident, not all a tragedy of the commons. In fact there’s no such thing as a tragedy of the commons — there’s a tragedy of privatization.

I wrote a book called War Is a Lie in which I examined various types of lies used to initiate or extend wars, and then tried to also answer what really motivates the wars for which the lies are told. I found that I just couldn’t explain all wars with profit motives or political calculation or even misguided national defense. I found that I needed the mad drive toward domination and the willful cruelty of pointless destruction to explain wars. When U.S. war planners would privately discuss extending the war on Vietnam they would consider what reasons to give the public, and they would separately discuss what reasons to give each other, but they would never discuss whether or not to extend the war. That was simply understood. The Pentagon Papers’ analysis put percentages on motivations, including 70 percent of the motivation being that of saving face — continuing a war purely so as not to end it. That seems mad enough, but where in that analysis was the motivation of sadism? This was a war full of the massacre of innocents, their ears collected as trophies, with war supporters back home screaming for racist killing.

In recent wars, you can — as a fraction of the U.S. population does — claim to be supporting the destruction of Iraq or Libya as an act of philanthropy for the benefit of its victims, but you’ll find yourself on the same side of the issue with those shouting for blood and urging the use of nuclear weapons. Participants in these wars painfully catch on to what they’ve been engaged in. Some of them can’t handle the realization. Some of them become dedicated whistleblowers. And yet others publicly proclaim the great service they’ve rendered and appreciate being thanked for it. And we’re supposed to think ourselves cruel if we don’t offer up our gratitude, including to those who’ve supposedly given their lives. No matter how courageously or misguidedly they acted, I say their lives were not given but taken from them by the monstrous urges of those in power who pursue pointless counter-productive policies while chanting “There is no military solution,” “There is no military solution” and knowing perfectly well that those words are true.

When George W. Bush proposed painting a plane with UN colors and flying it low to try to get it shot at to start a war that he said God had instructed him to wage and which was needed because Saddam Hussein had supposedly tried to kill his daddy, or when Lyndon Johnson gloated, “I didn’t just screw Ho Chi Minh, I cut his pecker off,” or when Bill Clinton remarked about Somalis “We’re not inflicting pain on these fuckers . . . I can’t believe we’re being pushed around by these two-bit pricks,” or when New York Times columnist Tom Friedman said the purpose of the Iraq war was to kick in doors and declare “Suck on this!” or when people have sent me death threats for advocating peace, or when Barack Obama announced immunity for crimes through a policy of “looking forward” but rolled out a new sort of war using flying robots targeting small numbers of people, the majority of them never identified — in these and countless other cases, what we’re dealing with is not sanity, not logic, and not tough love. What we’re dealing with is cruelty run amok.

What else could one call the idea of building smaller, more supposedly usable nukes, meaning nukes roughly the strength of those dropped on Japan, and knowing full well that an exchange of nuclear weapons could black out the sun and starve us? Attempts to rationalize Harry Truman’s approval of nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rather than following the advice of his top generals who opposed it, rather than listening to the top strategists who said it wasn’t needed, rather than demonstrating a nuclear weapon on an unpopulated area and threatening to use it on people, rather than allowing one rather than two nukings to suffice — these attempts fall short. Truman was the same man who had said that if the Germans were winning the United States should help the Russians and if the Russians were winning the United States should help the Nazis, because that way more people would die. The notion that he saw maximizing Japanese deaths as a downside of any decision is not supported by any evidence. U.S. support for multiple sides in wars like the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s or the current war in Syria is not purely incompetence. Like much of public policy, like arresting homeless people in San Diego for being homeless rather than giving them homes, we can better understand what we’re dealing with if we admit to each other that we’re dealing with sadism.

This doesn’t mean that wars don’t also have lots of more rational motivations, and it doesn’t means that all war supporters are drooling lunatics. I’ve done civil public debates with war supporters and found through polling the room before and after the debates that such rational discussion changes minds. The lesson that everyone has learned about believers in WMDs holding their beliefs all the more firmly after being presented with facts should not be overblown. Persuading people of what they’d rather not know is difficult, not impossible. But for many supporters of wars some factors are not fact-based thoughtful considerations.

A preacher in Alabama wants any football player who doesn’t properly worship the U.S. flag and national anthem to be killed. President Trump merely wants them fired. He also claims that anyone who cares about refugee families must hate the victims of any murders committed by refugees (while presumably caring compassionately for the victims of any murders committed by non-refugees). Sadism and patriotism and exceptionalism mesh nicely together, and none of them makes any sense. There’s no particular reason that people should identify with other people at the level of a nation more so than at the level of a family or neighborhood or city or state or continent or planet. Belief in national exceptionalism (in U.S. superiority to other places) is — and this is the topic of my new book Curing Exceptionalism — no more fact-based and no less harmful than racism, sexism, or other sorts of bigotry. While poor white people could for centuries proclaim “At least I’m better than non-white people,” anyone in the United States can claim “At least I’m better than non-Americans.” And anyone can try to believe that, but it doesn’t make sense and it does do great damage.

In Curing Exceptionalism I review ways in which the United States might be the greatest nation on earth, and I’m unable to find any. It’s not by anybody’s measure most free or most democratic or richest or most prosperous or best educated or healthiest or holding the longest life expectancy or the greatest happiness or the most environmental sustainability or anything else that one might want to use to provide substance to chants of “We’re Number One.” The United States is number one in locking people in cages, in military spending, in various measures of environmental destruction, and other sources of shame rather than pride. But basically it is a worse place to live by most quantifiable measurements than any other wealthy country, while still being a better place to live than a poor country or a country where the CIA is assisting a coup or a country being endlessly liberated by NATO.

The fact that people try to immigrate to the United States is not actually evidence of greatest nation on earth status. The United States is not the most preferred destination, does not accept the most immigrants, is not kindest to immigrants when they arrive, and does not shape its immigration policies around aiding those most in need but rather around preferences for Europeans. The fact that people need to escape danger and poverty in poor nations is just not relevant to the question of whether the United States can bring itself up to the standards of other wealthy nations. Or it’s only relevant in the sense that by redirecting priorities to human and environmental needs at home and abroad, the U.S. government could catch up to the rich countries while ceasing to contribute to the suffering of many poor countries, and in fact help to make many countries places where people prefer to remain. Do we need a slightly less cruel immigration policy and a larger wall, or do we need open borders that will allow in billions of people? Neither. We need open borders combined with unimaginably enormous efforts to make people’s own countries desirable places to live, and a halt to policies that help make them unlivable. And this we can do by redirecting a fraction of military spending.

But people in the United States view the United States as exceptionally great. Their patriotism, their belief in unique superiority, the prevalence of flags and national anthems outpaces those in other countries. Even the poor in the United States who have it worse than the poor in other wealthy countries are more patriotic than the poor in other countries or than the wealthy in their own country. The damage this does takes many forms. It distracts people from organizing and acting for change. It leads people to support politicians, not because they will do them any good, but because they are patriotic. (The least likely person to be elected U.S. president is not actually an atheist. It is a non-patriot.) Exceptionalism leads people to support wars and to oppose international cooperation and law. It leads people to reject proven solutions to gun control and healthcare and education because they’ve been proven in other countries that ought to learn from this one rather than the other way around. It leads to indifference to United Nations’ reports on the cruelty of poverty in the United States. It leads to the rejection of foreign aid following so-called natural disasters in the United States.

We need to come around to the understanding that patriotism, nationalism, exceptionalism is not something to be done properly, but a nightmare from which to awaken. Peace is not patriotic. Peace is globalist. Peace depends on our identifying as humans rather than as Americans. This does not mean feeling national shame instead of national pride. It does not mean identifying with some other nation. It means diminishing one’s identification with nationalism in order to identify as an individual, a member of various communities, a global citizen, part of a fragile ecosystem.

When the U.S. government raises your taxes or claims the right to part of your land or bails out Wall Street or expands the rights of corporations or any of the other things it does, people don’t tend to place those actions in the first person. Few people say “We just re-gerrymandered the districts,” or “We gave more war weapons to local police departments,” or “We take in billions in campaign contributions.” Instead, people talk about the government using the word “government.” They say “the government raised my taxes,” or “the state government made voter registration automatic,” or “the local government built a park.” But when it comes to war, even peace activists announce that “We just bombed another country.” That identification needs to end. We need to remember and increase our awareness of our responsibility to change things. But we don’t need to make our identity into one that looks better to us if we imagine the Pentagon must have some good reason for helping to starve the people of Yemen.

In Curing Exceptionalism I look at various techniques for curing exceptionalism, including role reversal. Let me just quote one paragraph:

Let’s imagine that for whatever reasons, beginning some seventy years ago North Korea drew a line through the United States, from sea to shining sea, and divided it, and educated and trained and armed a brutal dictator in the South United States, and destroyed 80 percent of the cities in the North United States, and killed millions of North USians. Then North Korea refused to allow any U.S. reunification or official end to the war, maintained wartime control of the South United States military, built major North Korean military bases in the South United States, placed missiles just south of the U.S. demilitarized zone that ran through the middle of the country, and imposed brutal economic sanctions on the North United States for decades. As a resident of the North United States, what might you think when the president of North Korea threatened your country with “fire and fury”? Your own government might have gazillions of current and historical crimes and shortcomings to its credit, but what would you think of threats coming from the country that killed your grandparents and walled you off from your cousins? Or would you be too scared to think rationally? This experiment is possible in hundreds of variations, and I recommend trying it repeatedly in your own mind and in groups, so that people’s creativity can feed into the imagination of others.

What is my point in suggesting that we underestimate military spending, altruism, and sadism? Well, mainly to come up with an accurate understanding. Then we can try to draw lessons for how to act. One lesson might be this: in undoing sadism, we need interventions that recognize the possibility of altruism. Members of the Ku Klux Klan have been converted into advocates for racial justice. People have joined across racial lines for economic justice in poor people’s campaigns, old and new. Those who identify with imagined U.S. greatness often fantasize about levels of U.S. generosity and goodness which, if made real, would transform the world for the better. Learning a little bit about another culture or language is not hard, and may not meet as much resistance as a peace demonstration, but can make all the difference. Studies have found that willingness to bomb a country is inversely proportional to ability to accurately locate it on a map. What if super-patriots could somehow be tricked into learning the geography of the globe that they seek to rule?

And ultimately, what would happen if people could be made aware of the size of the U.S. military budget, and the fact that it reduces jobs rather than creating them, endangers Americans rather than protecting them, destroys the natural environment rather than preserving it, erodes liberties rather than creating freedom, shortens our lives, reduces our health, and threatens our security. What if those who want the United States to be generous could join forces with those who pretend it is generous and act on the basis of facts to make it into the sort of government that not only doesn’t remove children from their living parents, but also doesn’t create millions of orphans by killing their parents with wars?

People do care about cruelty they find out about. But cruelty in foreign policy is the least found out about, because no major political party wants it known, because the corporate media wants it unknown, because school boards consider such knowledge treasonous, and because people do not want to know. George Orwell said that nationalists will not just excuse atrocities committed by their nation, but they will show a remarkable ability never to find out about them. Yet, we know that if people could be compelled to find out about them, they would care. And if they found out about them through a communications system that made them aware that others were finding out as well, they would act.

As things stand, with our very limited awareness, we are not powerless. Preventing the 2013 bombing of Syria, upholding for a few years the 2015 Iran agreement, halting the threats of fire and fury, stopping the removal of children from families — these are all partial victories that point to far greater potential.

I’ve written a children’s book called Tube World that tries to give children a non-exceptionalist, kind, and constructive perspective on things. I’ve also written and brought with me today a book called War Is Never Just which I wrote in preparing for a debate and which is a critique of so-called just war theory. In it I make a case that many criteria of just war theory can never be met, but that if they could then a miraculous just war would still — in order to be morally justified — need to outweigh the damage done by keeping the institution of war around and dumping a trillion dollars a year into it. Such a feat is impossible, given the alternatives we have developed in non-violent action, unarmed peace keeping, truth and reconciliation, diplomacy, aid, and the rule of law.

This perspective of taking on the entire institution of war is that of an organization I work for called World BEYOND War. We have a very short pledge that people have signed in 158 countries, and which I’ll pass around on a clipboard in just a moment in case you’d like to sign it too, and put down your email address if you’d like to be more involved, and put it down really super legibly if you’d like us to not accidentally email somebody else. I’ll read you the pledge so you don’t have to read it off the clipboard:

“I understand that wars and militarism make us less safe rather than protect us, that they kill, injure and traumatize adults, children and infants, severely damage the natural environment, erode civil liberties, and drain our economies, siphoning resources from life-affirming activities. I commit to engage in and support nonviolent efforts to end all war and preparations for war and to create a sustainable and just peace.”

We work on educational and activist efforts to advance this goal and steps in its direction. We seek the closure of bases, divestment from weapons, accountability for crimes, shifts in budgets, etc. And sometimes we plan big days of actions. One that’s coming up on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, exactly 100 years since the ending of World War I, is Armistice Day, which was a holiday for peace up until its conversion into Veterans Day during the destruction of North Korea in the 1950s. Now it’s a holiday on which Veterans For Peace groups in various cities are forbidden to participate in parades. We need to turn it back into Armistice Day, and in particular we need to overwhelm with our celebration of Armistice Day the celebration of weaponry of war (and the implicit threat to the world) that Donald Trump has planned for the day in Washington, D.C.

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

A STATMENT FROM CIMA AND ALLY LEADERS FROM THE WNC SANCTUARY MOVEMENT

ON THE FAMILIES BELONG TOGETHER INITIATIVE

**CIMA Allies will be Present at the Families Belong Together to present this statement and stand in Solidarity at on 6.30 at 11AM on 68 Haywood St.**

CIMA connects, strengthens and organizes communities to take action for immigrants rights in Western North Carolina. CIMA strives for inclusive communities with justice, freedom, and equality for all.

At its heart, the Western NC Sanctuary Movement is an extension of this mission. Sanctuary, as defined by CIMA, is a space for refuge for all targeted communities such as black and brown bodies, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, the Latinx community, etc. We are committed to weaving an intersectionality of protection, active resistance, education, resilience, resources, healing, critical thinking, contemplative action and transformation.

We understand the current administration has a very clear, abusive, strategized and racist agenda to deliberately maximize oppression. The pre-existing immigration and legal system has been set up to purposely inflict harm on immigrants and long term traditionally disenfranchised communities. Proposed and enacted policies continue to bolster these dynamics: Clear examples are the breaking families at the border and the travel ban that was upheld by the Supreme Court this past Tuesday. They are attacks against immigrants and refugees fueled by deep seeded racism and xenophobia.

Hence, we want to name that what is happening now is part of a very premeditated strategy and structure: the deportation pipeline. With CIMA and as allies we urge everyone who is outraged by the current display of dehumanization to take a step further. Can you let your outrage deep into your bones and let it bring you to a point of both broken heartedness but most importantly, a radical shift in what has been normalized and accepted? Can you make a daily commitment to dismantle these systems of abuse and oppression? The Families Belong Together Initiative is a great moment for becoming permeable to the reality that millions of immigrants have been facing for so long. And for that long, Latinx and targeted communities have been leading comprehensive strategies and movements of resistance. This is not new. This work is not new. But the awakening to it, for so many of us. is. So we urge you to be fully awake, to be a true accomplice in the eradication of ICE and in the abolishment of the systems that have allowed for such a gruesome institution to exist.

If the national coverage of families being separated in the border have disturbed you, then let that opening invade your consciousness to be disturbed, mobilized and become vigilant of these historical and complex intersections. We urge you to become a witness to what has been happening here, in OURcity: just two months ago, 28 members of our community were taken on a week long raid that started on April 14th and that has left immeasurable impact and harm to the families affected. CIMA and the Sanctuary Movement have been working tirelessly to provide support and access to resource to these families; and to deepen the mobilization against policies, rhetoric, socio-economic injustices, educational systems, and the legislation and institutions that perpetually brutalize us. This has not been the first raid, it will not be the last. We have to commit ourselves to a rapid resistance FOR THE LONG HAUL; the demand to keep families together is but one tenth of an inch of the complexity of the deportation machine, and there is danger in holding on to that messaging and that demand as a sole purpose. Last week’s response from the President to Keep families together IN detention, INDEFINITELY is a clear example of why.

What we have come to know, both as a white allies, and as Faith Leaders is that inaction is not an option. Prayers will never be enough. As souls that commit to love of neighbor we must be God’s love, hands, feet and consciousness in action. As allies, we have a responsibility, to ourselves and to our communities, to name, resist and hold accountable the ways we are complicit in using privilege to perpetuate oppression. And instead use that privilege for the purpose of dignity and liberation for all. It is what good humans are called to. It is what people who serve a God of love and justice are called to.

Showing up today is one step. And in this space, I want to ask you: How far are you willing to go not to reform an inhumane immigration system with symptoms such as ICE and border patrol abuses, but to actually abolish ICE and eradicate the racist and dehumanizing policies that have gotten us here? As an example, In Atlanta, the mayor recently decided to stop honoring the ICE detainers; In Texas the Hutto Detention Center was shut down. In Portland, protesters committed to a daily demonstration that resulted in the temporary shutting down of a detention facility. Use your power; help us hold our local government bodies and officials accountable and ask them, what are they willing to do? We need them to do the right thing, the humane thing; we can not continue to turn our heads the other way in this point in time of history; we NEED to get some of these policies and changes moving forward to resist and abolish ICE, NOW.

Do you find yourself wondering what you can do? CIMA has concrete steps available for allies. And there is no one action that will be enough. We need consistent, committed hearts to caring for our immigrant neighbors and dismantling the current mechanisms of white supremacy and patriarchy that drive our immigration policies. We need hearts committed to listening to those most impacted, knowing their stories and using their power to protect them and change what is inhumane and unjust.

THESE ARE SOME CONCRETE WAYS IN WHICH YOU CAN HELP!

DONATE THROUGH THE LINKS BELOW!
FOLLOW THE LINKS ON THE POSTCARD AND SIGN ON!
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES DEMANDING THE RELEASE OF THE WNC9 AS WELL AS TO EXPRESS YOUR DISSENT WITH THE CURRENT IMMIGRATION POLICIES
SIGN ON AS A VOLUNTEER AND GET IN TOUCH WITH US TO LEARN ABOUT HOW TO DIRECTLY HELP THE COMMUNITY
ATTEND THE 4TH OF JULY FUNDRAISER AT DOUBLE CROWN @6PM!

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

dancewater

Sunday, July 01, 2018

Upcoming events for the week of July 1, 2018

Altruism and Sadism in Public Policy

No comments: