Author Archive

Reversal — Article by Kathy Kelly

August 6, 2020

Today, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the atomic attack on Hiroshima, should be a day for quiet introspection. I recall a summer morning following the U.S. 2003 “Shock and Awe” invasion of Iraq when the segment of the Chicago River flowing past the headquarters of the world’s second largest defense contractor, Boeing, turned the rich, red color of blood.  At the water’s edge, Chicago activists, long accustomed to the river being dyed green on St. Patrick’s Day turned the river red to symbolize the bloodshed caused by Boeing products. On the bridge outside of Boeing’s entrance, activists held placards urging Boeing to stop making weapons.

This summer, orders for Boeing’s commercial jets have cratered during the pandemic, but the company’s revenue from weapon-making contracts remains steady. David Calhoun, Boeing’s CEO, recently expressed confidence the U.S. government will support defense industries no matter who occupies the Oval Office. Both presidential candidates appear “globally oriented,” he said, “and interested in the defense of our country.”

Investors should ask how Boeing’s contract to deliver 1,000 SLAM- ER weapons (Standoff Land Attack Missiles-Expanded Response) to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia “defends” the United States.

Here are excerpts from Jeffrey Stern’s account of a missile’s impact on the town of Arhab in a remote area of Yemen. In this case, the missile was manufactured by Raytheon:

Now, as Fahd walked into the hut, a weapon about the length of a compact car was wobbling gracelessly down through the air toward him, losing altitude and unspooling an arming wire that connected it to the jet until, once it had extended a few feet, the wire ran out and ripped from the bomb.

Then it was as if the weapon woke up. A thermal battery was activated. Three fins on the rear extended all the way and locked in place. The bomb stabilized in the air. A guidance-control unit on the nose locked onto a laser reflection — invisible to the naked eye but meaningful to the bomb — sparkling on the rocks Fahd walked over.

At the well,at the moment of impact, a series of events happened almost instantaneously. The nose of the weapon hit rock, tripping a fuse in its tail section that detonated the equivalent of 200 pounds of TNT. When a bomb like this explodes, the shell fractures into several thousand pieces, becoming a jigsaw puzzle of steel shards flying through the air at up to eight times the speed of sound. Steel moving that fast doesn’t just kill people; it rearranges them. It removes appendages from torsos; it disassembles bodies and redistributes their parts.

Fahd had just stepped into the stone shelter and registered only a sudden brightness. He heard nothing. He was picked up, pierced with shrapnel, spun around and then slammed into the back wall, both of his arms shattering — the explosion so forceful that it excised seconds from his memory. Metal had bit into leg, trunk, jaw, eye; one piece entered his back and exited his chest, leaving a hole that air and liquid began to fill, collapsing his lungs. By the time he woke up, crumpled against stone, he was suffocating. Somehow he had survived, but he was killing himself with every breath, and he was bleeding badly. But he wasn’t even aware of any of these things, because his brain had been taken over by pain that seemed to come from another world.

In 2019, the UN Group of Eminent Experts on Yemen observed “the continued supply of weapons to parties involved in Yemen perpetuates the conflict and the suffering of the population.”

These experts say “the conduct of hostilities by the parties to the conflict, including by airstrikes and shelling, may amount to serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

A year and a half ago, were it not for a presidential veto, both houses of the U.S. Congress would have enacted a law banning weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

Another end-user of Boeing’s weapons is the Israeli Defense Force.

The company has provided Israel with AH-64 Apache helicopters, F-15 fighter jetsHellfire missiles (produced with Lockheed Martin), MK-84 2000-lb bombs, MK-82 500-lb bombs, and Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) kits that turn bombs into “smart” GPS-equipped guided bombs. Boeing’s Harpoon sea-to-sea missile system is installed on the upgraded 4.5 Sa’ar missile ships of the Israeli Navy.

UN World Indigenous Peoples & NuclearFree Future Day; Weekend marches and more

August 5th, 2020        wnypeace.org     

Dear Friends

These exciting days remind us of what has been told as an old curse: “And may you lead an interesting life!” It’s been all too interesting and plenty busy!

We hope you’ll watch our press conference tomorrow August 6 @ 1:00 pm when Indigenous Women’s Initiatives & WNYPC will present a gift from the Hibakusha to the Buffalo History Museum 75 years after the bombing of Hiroshima. We will present photos and petition to abolish nuclear weapons, and info about the August 9 – United Nations International Day of World Indigenous Peoples and day for a NuclearFree Future!

We also invite you to join us on August 9, 4pm-dusk, on United Nations (UN) declared International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. The event celebrates the United Nations’ Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights to exist with prior, free and informed consent.  We celebrate by acknowledging an oldest continuing government in North America the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy- the Seneca, Tuscarora, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk. We’ll start and end with the traditional Haudenosaunee Ganonyok, and have much singing and dancing, as well as multiple speakers – and Poet Jillian Hanesworth!

You’ll be able to watch it on Facebook live, at https://www.facebook.com/WesternNewYorkPeaceCenter/    or https://www.facebook.com/IndigenousWomensInitiatives/  or  https://www.facebook.com/TheBuffaloHistoryMuseum/

We’ll also have an Interfaith Prayer service with Toro Nagashi, the Japanese Lantern Ceremony, From 7:15 to dusk, it will also be on The Buffalo History Museum ZOOM (https://zoom.us/j/94367842616…
Passcode: 735284) We’ll be commemorating those lost to the nuclear bombs, racism (Black Lives Matter!), COVID, cancer, children and others who died at the Border, and more. You can make your own lantern, too, at home to participate more fully and intentionally. Instructional videos are on the event calendar on our website here. So is the day’s agenda, the names of those who’ve died at the Erie County Holding Center, and more.

There are two marches as well this weekend, at 3pm Saturday, 8/8, starting and ending in Cazenovia Park in South Buffalo (from the center of the Seneca St side), and at Harlem Rd Community Center on Sunday, 8/9, 1-4pm. Both are sponsored by the WNY Liberation Collective and the WNY Peace Center.

We want to remind you that through August, contributions of $100 are fully match funded by the Fr. Joe Bissonette Fund for the WNY Peace Center! We cannot say it enough – this work can only be done with your support, for which we are so grateful!

You can also go to Resource:Art to purchase artist Amanda Besl special original portfolio of 20 limited edition linoleum prints each, of ‘React’, ‘Resist’, and ‘Reform,’ reflecting “ the current social justice crisis facing our nation.” They can be purchased on ArtFare, Facebook, and Instagram. She’s donating the full proceeds to the WNYPC, and so you’d get the inspiring art, a peacenik WNYPC membership, your choice of membership gift, and your donation fully matched.

Lastly, we are excited to announce that we’ll be holding a series of Collective Nonviolent Direct Action Studies with the WNY Liberation Collective cosponsoring. The first – held July 26 with 35 enthusiastic participants – will be repeated and recorded by popular request. Date TBD.

Please see other special events etc this week below, and regularly scheduled events, campaigns, fundraisers, and more elsewhere on wnypeace.org, on our Facebook page, Twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (@wnypeace)!

Peace, thanks, solidarity and yes – love.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Victory! – All Charges against Myles Carter DROPPED!!

Friday, July 17, 2020

So – Victory!! In court this morning, all charges against Myles Carter were dropped.

Many thanks to all who supported him and the campaign we’ve engaged together to see that his first amendment rights are respected and all charges – happily and appropriately – DROPPED!!

Many thanks too to DA Flynn and the justice system for this good decision.

“Justice is what love looks like in public.” – Dr. Cornel West.

Our love and Unarmed Truth has won the day!! Hallelujah/Alhumdulillah! Om Shanti! Hotep!! #BlackLivesMatter #RacialJustice #RuleofLaw #BuffaloNY