Chatham Peace Initiative -a community gathering for peace . . . We are residents of Columbia County, NY, who first came together in the fall of 2002 to vigil in protest of the looming war in Iraq. We are deeply committed to peace and social justice and to the plight of detained immigrants.

Chatham Peace Initiative, P.O. Box 34, Chatham, NY 12037 www.chathampeace.org  Write the webmaster poetapoetus@taconic.net if you want to get on our email list of upcoming events and actions.

Last updated Thursday, 04/06/2008

 

For information on Walk to Fort Drum in May 8-17, 2008 click on:   http://nysmarchesforpeace.org/

 

Register Star article on 3 hour rally against 5 years of war held at Congresswoman Gillibrand’s office in Hudson.  60 protesters attended and signed the log in her office. 

 

 

 

Register Star 02/03/08

 

 

The picture below is of Congresswoman Gillibrand in front of the Hudson Opera House on February 2, 2008, with a bundle of completed impeachment petitions collected by the Chatham Peace Initiative, talking with Wendy Dwyer displaying an impeach sign with Martin Baumgold behind waving a peace flag.  Below that picture is Congresswoman Gillibrand inside the Hudson Opera House with Max Greishaber on her left who made and presented her with this banner entitled “Congress Gillibrand: Support the woman and children of Iraq!” Bob Elmendorf is on her right and Nancy Rothman is in the rear.

 

We handed out the following letter to those who attended the event:

 

Chatham Peace Initiative

P.O. Box 34

Chatham, NY 12037

www.chathampeace.org

 

February 2, 2008

 

We welcome Congressmember Kirsten Gillibrand to Columbia County and we welcome the opportunity to address the many concerns facing cournty today. Today’s event with Congressmember Gillibrand and author Dr. Alida Black focuses on the legacy and accomplishments of Eleanor Roosevelt, who is an eminent figure in our District’s history. In light of the daily tragedies besetting us, Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy is an inspiration for she faced challenges equal to and exceeding our current situation. We recognize her contributions empowering people in the struggle for human, women’s and children’s rights for history has taught us that these accomplishments offer greater human rewards to the world than even the noted efforts of her husband.

 

Out of the destruction, terror and tragedy of World War II Eleanor had the vision to guide the nation and world in the creation of the United Nations, an institution which implements actions for the betterment of human kind and mediates world disputes.

 

Today we are again engaged in the terror, torture, repression and tragedy of war. We know that the events that unfold before us each day cannot stand the review of law nor withstand the test of the Constitution. Were Eleanor with us today, she would combat this repression and war effort. Eleanor would not hesitate to bring our military back home.

 

Our demands are grounded in Eleanor’s legacy, and our loyalties, principles and convictions speak in harmony with hers. We citizens of the 20th District  feel reassured in the knowledge that Congressmember Gillibrand also embraces Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy.

 

We demand complete military withdrawal, respect for the human dignity and rights of the peoples, women and children of Iraq and Afghanistan, and demand total restitution for these nations, their peoples and infrastructures. In keeping with her promise to provide ethics in government, it’s time for Kirsten Gillibrand to take an ethical stand on these issues.

 

CPI: Susan Davies, Bob Elmendorf, Max Greishaber, James Rothenberg, Nancy Rothman

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following letter conveyed to petitions to Congresswoman Gillibrand:

 

The petition signatures here presented represent the modest collection efforts of a very small group of people. Most were gathered on the main street of Chatham, essentially in a matter of hours on a single Saturday.

 

We were greatly impressed not only by their number, but by the relative ease of obtaining them. The teeth were falling out by themselves, to reverse an expression. One quickly got the feeling that public resentment against the White House ran deep and wide. Indeed, public opinion polls seem to reflect this, is spite of the scant attention the matter receives in the Congress and from elite opinion.

 

Impeachment is only the first step in the search for justice. But failing to take it, for whatever reasons, is to push justice into an indefinite future. One must at least be able to say, I tried.

 

Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway.

                                                                                                           - Eleanor Roosevelt -

 

This search for justice goes beyond the President and Vice President having to answer to the American people for their crimes. The people they harmed on foreign shores are waiting as well.

 

Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

- Eleanor Roosevelt -

 

 

 

Chatham Peace Initiative

Susan Davies

Bob Elmendorf

Max Greishaber

James Rothenberg

Nancy Rothman

 

 

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From the Register Star

 

From The Independent

 

 

The Chatham Peace Initiative

 

Is Rallying To

 

Call for the Shutdown of Guantanamo Prison

Friday, January  11, 2008 from 4:00 -5:00 PM

 

Corner of Park and Main St. by the Converted Train Station

 Chatham Village Green, Chatham NY

STOP THE TORTURE

DEMAND JUSTICE

For more information call 766-2992

www.chathampeace.org

 

 

Go to http://www.witnesstorture.org/jan11_call for downloads of signs, and more background information.

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Thursday, December 6 at  7 p.m.

Screening of “Little Birds”

Tracy Memorial (Chatham Village) Hall, 77 Main Street, Chatham, NY

Presented by the Chatham Peace Initiative

 

 

 “This is a film that simply cries out to be seen more widely.” – Jasper Sharp, Midnighteye

 

Little Birds (Japan, 2005, Arabic etc. with English subtitles, DVCAM, 102 minutes) is a touching ,eye-opening documentary by Japanese freelance video journalist Takeharu Watai.. Watai went to Iraq before the US invasion and remained through “Shock and Awe” and for the first months of the occupation, capturing what critic Jasper Sharp calls “the kind of day-to-day footage that the sound bite-dominated mainstream Western media has by and large kept us shielded from.” 

 

"I tried to depict the devastation caused by air strikes and how attacks with cluster bombs cruelly involved ordinary Iraqis," said the 35-year-old Watai, "And such scenes seemed to be quite new to U.S. citizens. They told me after seeing the film that I should show it to Congress and that (President George W.) Bush should watch it."

 

The film provides an intimate look at the lives of Iraqi families during the invasion and after. It especially focuses on 31-year-old Ali Saqban who lost three of his four small children in the initial bombing of Baghdad, and on Hadeel Kadem, a 12-year-old girl, and her father who await an operation to remove a piece of shrapnel from her eye.

 

The film has no distributor in the United States although it has won many awards including the Human Rights award at the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival.

 

The Chatham Peace Initiative has arranged for a series of screenings in the area including at: The Sanctuary for Independent Media, 3361 – 6th Avenue, Troy, NY (518-272-2390) on Thursday, December 13 at 7 p.m.; the Rock Hill Bake House Café, 19 Exchange St Glens Falls, NY 12801 (518-615-0777) on Friday, December 14 at 7 p.m.; and at the Media Education Community Room, 60 Masonic St. Northampton, MA "Little Birds" on Fri. Dec. 14.

 

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As of October 27, 2007, twenty-two congress members have signed onto house resolution 333. 

 

 

Mass Grave in Lebanon from the Israeli attacks.  Note the shorter coffins for the children.

 

Amy Goodman posted a story on May 8, 2007 “One In Eight Iraqi Children Die Before the Age of Five Iraq's infant mortality rate has soared by 150 percent since 1990 according to a new report by the charity Save the Children. One in eight Iraqi children now die of disease or violence before the age of five. In 2005 alone, 122,000 Iraqi children died before reaching their fifth birthday. Save the Children said Iraq's child-survival ranking is now the lowest in the world.”

 

Click for information on Dr. Rafil Dhafir, unjustly imprisoned for 22 years for the false charge of medicare fraud because he sent aid to Iraq during the US/UN sanctions. click for link to Rafil’s appeal brief submitted to 2nd district federal court.

 

Click for information on the cases of Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain both sentenced to 15 years on evidence that Albany and Schenectady newspaper editorials said was non existent. Click for a special website on Yassin Aref.

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Call Congressional Switch Board free 1- 800-828-0498 and ask for your congresswoman/man or senator to oppose the escalation in Iraq and call for an immediate exit to be replaced by the UN, NATO, the Arab League and any other peaceful consortium of countries that can help rebuild Iraq or how about letting the Iraqis have their own country back and find their own internal solutions.  With war reparations from the US sent immediately to Iraq.  Also oppose any non-diplomatic solution with Iran.  Also call your congress person and ask that the President and Vice President be impeached.  For the months of July-October 2007 CPI has been collecting signatures on petitions calling for impeachment.

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The following statement from the Chatham Peace Initiative was published in local newspapers:

 

Dear Editor,

 

“The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right.” – Thomas Jefferson

 

The Chatham Peace Initiative joins many other members of our local and national community in an endeavor to restore a sense of humanity to our country and to ourselves as a people as we witness US war and destruction abroad being perpetrated in our name. Open public dissent and discussion are essential if we hope to peacefully effect changes in our national policies. The US Constitution defends this essential right:


Amendment 1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

 

Over the past four years the Chatham Village Board has on occasion arbitrarily refused use of public spaces within the village to CPI and other individuals seeking to express public grievance regarding the US’s illegal and immoral war. The village board’s actions contradict constitutional guarantees and appear in the end to promote a particular point of view on the Village Green. At a Village Board Meeting in January, one Board member characterized CPI’s actions in placing a peace wreath on the Green as “malicious.” This introduction of the question of motivation in the context of free speech is both a distraction  from the issue at hand and serves to intimidate members of the community who might dare to express dissent with US policy in public spaces.

 

The passage of the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, and other repressive anti-Constitutional legislation initiated and promoted by the Bush Administration is evidence that the American people are losing faith in the ability to maintain a free and open society.  CPI  wonders if the fear and doubt fostered by our government’s policies is causing us to check our liberties at the village gate and at the national border.

 

CPI firmly believes that free speech and community discourse are an indispensable part of a free society.  We will not be dissuaded from fulfilling our responsibility as citizens to verbalize our grievances against our government.

 

for the Chatham Peace Initiative: Susan Davies, Terry Dix, Bob Elmendorf, Max Grieshaber, Nancy Rothman, James Rothenberg

 

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 DONATIONS

 

We are in need of donations to cover the expense of speakers, meeting room rental, mailings, phone calls and printing.

Donations can be made out to Chatham Peace Initiative and mailed to: Chatham Peace Initiative, PO Box 34, Chatham, NY 12037

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A history of our work with Ansar Mahmood and championing the rights of immigrants

(Click on the pictures below to bring up a page.)

 

 

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