Vigil on Walpole Common, Saturday, May 1, 10:00 - 11:00 AM

Please join us for a peace vigil on Saturday, May 1 from 10:00 to 11:00 AM as we call for the end of Afghanistan and Iraqi wars and the redirection of funds to human needs. The vigil will be held at the Walpole Common at the corner of Main and West Streets across from the Walpole Cooperative Bank. Tragically, the number of U.S. service personnel killed in Afghanistan since the beginning of the war reached 1,000 on February 23, not to mention the thousands of Afghanistan troops and civilians killed and wounded and the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have fled the ongoing fighting.

Talk on U.S. budget on April 29

On Thursday, 7:00 – 9:00 PM, April 29, at the Natick Public Library, Chris Hellman, Communications liaison from National Priorities Project will present a powerpoint presentation entitled "Out of Balance". The topic will be the US budget and the huge disproportion in military spending vs human needs, with US defense spending almost equaling all other nations. The program is open to the public. Pax Christi Metrowest is organizing the event and Metrowest Peace Action and Military Families Speak Out are cosponsors.

Benjamin Day - The Need for a Massachusetts Single Payer Health Plan

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is sponsoring a talk by Benjamin Day on The Need for a Massachusetts Single Payer Health Plan on Tuesday, April 27th at 7:30 PM.
 
The health reform plan just passed by Congress leaves millions of people with no or limited health coverage and does little to control costs. Benjamin Day will speak on the MassCare campaign for a single, publicly financed health insurance plan. This plan will cut costs and provide comprehensive health care to all residents in Massachusetts. Almost all developed nations have some form of universal, publicly financed health care which covers all people while realizing enormous savings.  The single payer plan will give the Town of Walpole vital relief, removing the health insurance cost from the town budget, freeing up those funds for other badly needed town services and education.

Benjamin Day is the Executive Director of Mass-Care, the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care. Day's background is in labor research and labor education. He is the co-editor the Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History, and author of a number of articles on labor organizing and health care reform. Benjamin has had the privilege of becoming sick in England, where he lived for a year under socialized medicine. He currently organizes the campaign for single payer health care in Massachusetts and serves part-time as the state coordinator for Massachusetts Physicians for a National Health Program.
 
The talk is being held at the United Church in Walpole, 30 Common Street,  in the Bradford Lewis Hall. People should park in the parking lot to the right of the church, using the driveway after the Center for Community Counseling and Education house, and enter the church using the right side door.

Screening of "View from a Grain of Sand", Tuesday, April 13

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group will be showing the award winning documentary, View from a Grain of Sand, on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at 7:30 PM at the United Church in Walpole, 30 Common Street. Filmed by Meena Nanji, View from a Grain of Sand, documents the state of women in Afghanistan through the eyes of three Afghan women: a doctor, a teacher, and a rights activist.
 
 “Illustrated with vérité footage, interviews and archival material, their personal stories lead us through the minefield of Afghanistan’s complex history, and provide illuminating context for Afghanistan’s current situation and the ongoing battle women face, even now, to gain basic human rights. Shot over a four-year period in the sprawling refugee camps of north-western Pakistan and in the war-torn city of Kabul, the documentary constructs a harrowing, thought-provoking, yet intimate portrait of the plight of Afghan women over the last 30 years—from the rule of King Zahir Shah to the current Hamid Karzai government. The women are powerfully moving as they re-define strength and resilience in the face of on-going struggle, and give a full and visceral picture of a still divided and brutalized nation. As world attention has shifted to other crises, this project re-focuses the camera on Afghanistan, remembering the voices of those most vulnerable and most affected by the conflicts: women.”
 
People may park in the parking lot to the right of the church, using the driveway after the Center for Community Counseling and Education, and enter the church using the right side door.