Most of the world was moved by Tank Man, the unknown rebel to the Chinese government’s violent crackdown on the student democracy movement in Tienanmen Square during the Spring of 1989.

But I was moved intensely enough write a poem that those who have seen my small body of work say is probably the best I’ve written. Anyway, I really identified with the man, since I was working then (much as now) as virtually a full time peace and justice activist. His solitary statement was a symbol of individual resistance, the importance of even just one person making a stand for what is right.

Today is the 20th anniversary of Tank Man’s stand. In some ways, it seems to me like much longer, but I also feel like it was not but a year or two ago. Most of those 20 years have not been particularly productive ones for me — but that’s another post. It’s a time to remember, and to be grateful that democracy continues to be sought and practiced more and more around the world, however imperfectly. Some of the students who were at Tienanmen Square 20 years ago even say that China itself has become better (an article in today’s Oklahoman quotes a man who now teaches as OSU), though there are many who would argue with that. There are protests taking place in cities around the world, to call for real change for the people in China.

The fact that China has blocked a lot of internet sites for the past week or so doesn’t indicate much improvement to me — except for the fact that the intrinsically democratic medium of the Internet is a bloody headache for tyrants to control. In my opinion, if the US really wanted to spread democracy around the globe, they would make broadband freely available via satellites to every spot on the globe.

Images of Tank Man are continuing to be newly revealed — enhancing our understanding of that moment — and art created. Because passion for and commitment to love, peace and human rights will always inspire.

So here’s my little contribution to the genre. I have only altered it from the version I produced in a few hours 20 years ago in that I removed Roman numerals over each stanza, which I now do not know why I thought was a good idea. It was previously published in the Palmetto Post, a newspaper of the Florida Green Party.

(I’ve posted the poem as an image, because I have not figured out yet how I want to publish my poetry, if at all, and would like to lessen the chance of it being used until that time. I would ask that if you want to share it, that you link to this post rather than download the image. Contact me for other arrangements. Thanks.)

With apologies for the last minute nature of this event, you are invited to join us to support an Oklahoma man who is one of the Iraq war resisters in Canada who is facing deportation. Let’s show support for one of our own.

[And please pass this info on if you have time in the short time frame.]

Date/time: 10-11 AM, 6/3/09
Place: Joy Mennonite Church, 504 NE 16th, Oklahoma City (just a few blocks south of Capitol on Lincoln)

There will be an event for Joshua in Toronto tomorrow, and we decided to do a solidarity event here in Oklahoma. Here’s details from the event organizer, James M. Branum, one of Joshua Key’s attorneys.

Josh grew up in Guthrie, Oklahoma. After joining the Army, he later deployed to Iraq where he had a horrific time (as detailed in his book “The Deserter’s Tale”).

He then came back to the US and while on leave, left his unit and hid out for some time before making his way to Canada.

Josh is now fighting it out in the court-system in Canada to get to stay and on June 3rd he will be facing one of the most significant fights of this struggle.

Our friends in Canada are holding a vigil tomorrow in Toronto outside the Immigration and Refugee Board while the hearing is taking place, so I would like for us to have a similar demonstration here.

So starting at 10 a.m., I’m asking participants to meet at the Peace Pole on the grounds of Joy Mennonite Church, We’ll have a time of quiet meditation and/or prayers (for those so inclined) and then we’ll walk a few blocks north to the state capitol, where we will deliver a statement in support of Joshua Key to the Governor’s office, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the state legislature and to the press.

Participants are welcome to bring small signs and banners for the walk but know that they probably won’t let you take them into the state capitol building.

And if you can’t come to the walk, please write a letter of encouragement to Josh and send it to:

Joshua Key
c/o Joy Mennonite Church
504 NE 16th St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73104

You can also email letters to me at girightslawyer@gmail.com

We’ll then forward the letters to Josh by way of his attorney in Canada.

Lastly, I’ll post more information soon on other ways we in Oklahoma can support Josh from a-far.

–*– end of message from James

This morning I got a phone call from an activist friend because her Internet service provider was not letting her send out emails to 200 addresses at a time from within her own personal email account.

Um, yeah they do that, because, as far as they are concerned you are spamming! They really don’t care if you have a coffee-stained form where folks printed out their address for you at that big rally in 2003. Oh, they might care, if you could just explain it to them — but that office is in India somewhere, and I don’t think it’s been staffed since 1999. Closed tight without a forwarding address, or a farewell wave or anything. AOL, Yahoo, Gmail, are notoriously unavailable for such issues. I doubt Cox or ATT, etc.  are much better.

Recently another Oklahoma activist got their email account completely shut off by a large ISP without warning for this very behavior. So that list of thousands of addresses is … who knows where? Maybe India? No, it wasn’t backed up locally — ever.

Arrggghhh!

Look, thanks for your hard work on keeping people connected and informed,  organizing events for change, and sacrificing your personal life for the betterment of your community and world, but please be smart about it!

Any list of people (over say, 20 of your closest friends) that you send to regularly, should NOT be mailed to individually, not from your home computer with Outlook Express, not with your laptop using your Yahoo/Gmail account, etc. etc. Instead, you make a listserve, and send to the list’s email address, and everyone on that list gets the message and everybody’s happy — especially the business providing you with email service.

(I don’t want to get too technical here, but just because it’s quick and easy to send email, and it feels like it’s just freely flying off into the air towards its intended recipient, that “air” or bandwidth, is not free. Every typed character sent takes up room in that “air” and somebody pays for that.)

Fortunately, there are free listserv services available, notably Yahoo Groups and Google Groups. Riseup also provides free lists for progressive activists.  All of these also provide list owners the ability to download and store, in a safe location (i.e. on your hard drive AND a CD-ROM), the names and addresses of your group members. (By the way, your personal address book should also be backed up regularly.)

If you or your organization has a hosted account for your Web site, then chances are you have an install of Mailman or some other list manager available (check your control panel — in cPanel, for instance, look for “Mailing Lists” under the Mail section). This is a good option if you are concerned about privacy (but know that only operating your own highly secured server will really address all those concerns). If your host doesn’t have it available pre-installed, Mailman is a free download and can be installed on your account by your favorite techie.

There are also other means of mass communicating to folks for activists, and those options are expanding rapidly; I’ll write about some of those options later.

Several upcoming events are designed to help citizens do their civic duty of participation during the 2009 session of the Oklahoma Legislature. These are some that focus on progressive issues (content copied from emails and online sources). If you can, please participate in one of these activities to hone your knowledge or skills, or make your advocacy for peace and justice on your own during this legislative session (Feb. 2 – May 29).

I hope to do a compendium of bills proposed in this session that concern progressives. Stay tuned.

ACLU of Oklahoma Legislative Workshop

The ACLU of Oklahoma will be hosting the 3rd annual Keith Smith Legislative Workshop on January 31, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The event location is at the First Unitarian Church, 600 NW 13th St., Oklahoma City. The workshop will be free, with an optional lunch available for $5. Come learn how you, as a regular citizen, can approach your representatives.

For more information or to RSVP, please call (405) 524-8511 or email katyj @ acluok . org.

Oklahoma Conference of Churches Day at the Legislature

Tue Feb 10, 7:45am – 3:15pm – Oklahoma State Capitol

I’m trying to get more info on this, and I’ll update this if and when I do. The group’s web site does not include this event as of this writing. But I did hear that this year they are focusing on addressing poverty, thus the inclusion here.

State Capitol “Teach In” on Equal Rights for LGBT

On February 14th, 2009 there will be an “Equal Rights In Every State” Teach In from noon to 6 p.m. on the South steps of the State House in Oklahoma City. This event will focus on creating a better understanding of the struggle for equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens, with a goal of enlightening each other and non-LGBT members of society on the importance of providing civil protections and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered people.

In the State of Oklahoma, and 31 other states, it is currently legal to discriminate in housing and employment based on sexual orientation. While race, age, gender, and disability are all covered under federal and state anti-discrimination laws, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens of Oklahoma remain at risk. It wasn’t until 1964 that race was included under protection and as recent as 1991 that disability was added. It’s time to work for our inclusion.

Speakers from the Faith oriented community, Political community, Science community and Social Services community will speak about the importance of acceptance and the justice of inclusion in equality for all at the event on February 14, 2009.

Some of the speakers scheduled to attend:

Mary Lou Wallner, Teach Ministries
Featured in the movie “For the bible tells me so”
PFLAG

President Barack Obama recently invited us, the citizens of the United States, to bring about change in our communities in order to bring change to America. Those citizens in the LGBT community want change and deserve protection. Now is the time to make it happen. But, as we’ve seen in other states that have had ballots or laws that effect the LGBT community, we have to be READY when those laws and ballots come up to the voters on election day. We must first bring about a clear understanding to the citizens that vote. We need to teach every man, woman, and child in Oklahoma that we are their friends, neighbors, sisters, brothers, church members, caregivers, co-workers, doctors, and teachers. Most importantly, we have to teach them to accept that we are their equal.

We’re not going to get our rights without asking for them and we’re not going to get our rights without teaching….

Be a part of the pledge “…with liberty and justice for all.”

For further information, contact Peter Myers at 405-815-4059

I got the above from a email forward. If you have more info about who is sponsoring the event, please let me know.

Women’s Coalition Advocacy Day at the Capitol, February 18

Did you know Oklahoma has been ranked the 3rd worst state for women?? We rank #1 in Incarcerated Women, #1 in Child Abuse, #1 in the Divorce Rate, #7 in Teen Births, #42 in overall women’s health, #45 in women in professional jobs. The list goes on and on.

The newly formed, non-partisan Oklahoma Women’s Coalition is out to change these statistics. Please join us for Oklahoma Women: Advocate! on February 18 at the State Capitol as we make history for Oklahoma women and girls.

The day will begin with a press conference to officially launch the Coalition, followed by sessions where state leaders will provide updates on key issues and legislation affecting women and girls. We will also learn effective advocacy techniques to have our voices heard.

To download a registration form for Oklahoma Women: Advocate! just click HERE. Seating is limited, so send in your registration as soon as possible.

Whether or not you are able attend the Advocacy Day in February, I urge you to become a member of the Oklahoma Women’s Coalition now. Together, we can create significant change for Oklahoma women and girls! To download the Membership Application Form, just click HERE.

Other resources:

• Oklahoma Sierra Club Legislative action alert email list

I’ll add more here as I find them.

I had two meetings today, have two paying (!) jobs on my plate, one of them with a tight deadline, and Mom is feeling better and want to get back to car shopping. So don’t be surprised if I don’t post much for the next few days — if I do, it probably means I’m procrastinating.

In the meantime, please peruse the Oklahoma City Progressive Events Calendar (covering the greater Metro area, including Norman), which I’ve been working hard to keep better updated this year. I make no claims that it’s comprehensive, but I’m putting as much on it as I can find and have time and sanity to keep up with.

Here’s the current list of events. If you have more time than I this coming week, you can surely find something to do. I’ll be tweeting and checking in at Facebook when I can.

Join us to celebrate release of war resister Daniel Sandate on his release from Ft. Sill & welcome him to OKC, Thursday, Jan. 22 at 6 pm (after 5 pm press conference)

The Oklahoma Center for Conscience and Joy Mennonite Church would like to invite you to help us celebrate the release of war resister Daniel Sandate from military prison.

Daniel is a veteran of the Iraq War who came to see the war as wrong and to resist it. He fled to Canada after his first deployment to Iraq because his unit refused to give him treatment for his PTSD. Daniel lived underground in Canada until last year when he was deported to the US and sent to Fort Carson, CO. He was court martialed there, given an Other Than Honorable discharge, and sentenced to 8 months.

He was released from the brig at Ft. Sill this past Tuesday (in time to watch President Obama be inaugurated).

We are having this event to show Daniel and our community that we stand with him and support him. Please join us and welcome Daniel to Oklahoma City. Bring a dish of your favorite food, and your friends. We want to pack the house with supporters of Daniel!

OCC helped sponsor Daniel’s lead attorney, James M. Branum, in his case at Ft. Carson. OCC is supported by Joy MCC, Veterans for Peace, Oklahoma City Friends Meeting, Oklahoma Catholic Peace Fellowship and Tulsa Peace Fellowship.

The event is free, though we will gratefully accept donations so we may continue to provide legal support for Iraq war resisters and conscientious objectors seeking discharge from the military.

WHERE: Joy Mennonite Church, 504 NE 16th St, Oklahoma City, OK 73104

WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 22, 2009

SCHEDULE:

5 p.m. (press conference — if you can come for this to show support for any media attending, it would be great)

6 p.m. (potluck dinner)

6:30 p.m. (Daniel will speak and answer questions)

***

Handwritten statement by Daniel while in jail: http://centerforconscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/sandate_on_war.pdf

Can you help out a local activist whose home was completely lost to a fire two days before Christmas?

This note from local peace activist Moses and Sadie Mast explains.

Here’s a chance for you to help a local activist for peace and justice.

The evening of December 23, Camille Landry’s house burnt to the ground. There was no time to save anything. There will be a time to meet the family and offer our assistance at the Joy Mennonite church: 504 NE 16th, OKC.

This meeting will be held Sunday, January 18 from 12:30- 4. Feel free to come and go as you please. You can offer groceries, kitchen supplies or money. Up to $500 will be matched. Make sure checks are
made payable to Joy Mennonite Church. If you cannot come on this day and wish to contribute, you can send your donation to Sadie Mast at 4708 Outpost Drive, Spencer, OK 73084.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Moses and Sadie Mast

Camille has been involved in peace and justice work in Oklahoma City for years. She’s worked on nonviolence education, opposing the death penalty, and many other issues. She constantly volunteers her time and talents to our community. There has already been a good response, but this is an opportunity for her fellow peaceworkers to give back as a community and show the family our support.

Here’s a local news story and video about the fire from KOCO.

Bill Holloway, Texas peace and justice activist, passed away yesterday

Bill lived in Austin, but I believe he was from Oklahoma. He was very active with the Texas Green Party, and I met him in Crawford in August 2006, where this photo was taken.

Kat Swift, of the Texas Greens, sent out this statement.

The Passing of Green Party Leader Bill Holloway

The Green Party of Texas mourns the tragic loss of Bill Holloway. Bill was a dedicated leader who was currently serving as the Co-Chair of the Travis County Green Party in Austin, TX. He will be missed as a mentor and a friend.

Through his kind-hearted activism, Bill touched the lives of so many people. He was an active Green Party contributor at the local, state and national levels. Bill served on numerous committees in the Green Party and in other organizations as well.

Bill Holloway passed away unexpectedly last weekend at his home in Austin, Texas. Given the unexpected nature of his death, we know many will have questions regarding details. Out of respect for Bill, his family, and his lengthy legacy of community service, we hope you understand our reluctance to speculate and request that others will also be circumspect in their communication.

Our heart-felt condolences go out to all of Bill’s friends and family. Bill was a very special person who will be sorely missed.

There will be a memorial service in Austin, TX, on Friday, January 16, and his funeral will be in Oklahoma City, OK, on Wednesday, January 14.

For the memorial, a book is being compiled for his parents. If you would like to contribute, please write down a story or memory of Bill, with a photo if you have one and send it to Sondra – lonestarsondra@gmail.com by January 15th. His family never met most of his friends and, we suspect, had no idea of the difference he made in so many lives. The book is being put together to let them know how many people were touched by and loved him. If the photo and the text can be pasted onto one page, that would be ideal, but whatever people can contribute would be appreciated.

Whatever your beliefs, please keep Bill and his family and vast network of friends in your thoughts, prayers, and/or rituals.

In solidarity,

kat swift
co-chair
Green Party of Texas
210.471.1791 – txt okay
kat@txgreens.org

Bill impressed me very much during our brief meeting (we also corresponded a little by email, though not recently). He was gentle and very kind. He worked hard and gave generously. What a great loss for our movement.

All sides should stop the violence and meet to work out a diplomatic and political compromise. But aggression, oppression, invasion, killing and wounding of civilians cannot be allowed and must be condemned.

Pray, if you pray. Contact your representatives, and especially President-Elect Obama. I’ll post analysis and action alerts later.

1.
Announcement: There will be a prayer vigil for peace in Gazaand the
world on Saturday evening, January 3, 2009, from 5-6 pm at the
Oklahoma Capitol building in Oklahoma City, OK. If you plan to attend,
you should bring blankets and a flash light, candles are not allowed.

Item 2:

CAIR-OK to Host Press Conference, Vigil for Middle East Peace

(OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – 12/31/08) ­ On Monday, January 5, the
Oklahomachapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK)
will hold apress conference and a “Peace Vigil for Gaza” at the state
Capitol building inOklahoma City.
Vigil participants will call on public officials to help stop Israeli
attacks onthe Gaza Strip, restore the cease-fire and promote peace
with justice in theMiddle East during the coming year.

WHAT: Press Conference on GazaWHEN: Monday, January 5, 2009, 11:30 a.m.
WHERE: Oklahoma State Capitol. 2300 N. Lincoln Blvd., Room 432 B.
OklahomaCity, OK

WHAT: Peace Vigil for GazaWHEN: Monday, January 5, 2009, Noon – 1 p.m.
(Please dress warmly and arriveby 11:30 a.m.)
WHERE: South Plaza of the Oklahoma State Capitol. 2300 N. Lincoln
Blvd.,Oklahoma City,
OKCONTACT: Razi Hashmi, CAIR-OK Executive Director,
405-415-6851,rhashmi@cair. com

Richard Falk, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the
Palestinianterritories, told the BBC: “Israel is committing a shocking
series ofatrocities by using modern weaponry against a defenseless
population -attacking a population that has been enduring a severe
blockade for manymonths.”

SEE: Gaza Air Campaign ‘a First Stage’ (BBC)http://news. bbc.co.uk/
2/hi/middle_ east/7804218. stm east/7804218. stm>SEE ALSO: Family Mourns 5 Daughters as Civilian
Death Toll Mounts (Wash.Post)http://tinyurl. com/9ckcjo

CAIR, America’s largest Muslim civil liberties group, has 35 offices
andchapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance
understandingof Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties,
empower AmericanMuslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and
mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-OK Executive Director Razi Hashmi, E-Mail: rhashmi@cair.
com; CAIR-OK Chairperson Lobna Hewedi, E-Mail: lhewedi@cair. com

Razi HashmiExecutive DirectorCouncil on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR)Oklahoma Chapter
CAIR National: http://www.cair. com