Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars

The documentary film,  “Unmanned: America’s Drone Wars” will be shown on Tuesday, May 13, 2014,  7:00 PM, at the Walpole Public Library. In this film from Brave New Films, director Robert Greenwald investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and elsewhere. The film highlights the stories of 16 year old Tariq Aziz, killed by a drone in 2011; and school teacher, Rafiq ur Rehamn, whose mother was killed and children hospitalized due to a drone strike in 2012. “Unmanned” includes more than 70 interviews. Prominent among these are a former American drone operator; Pakistani families of drone victims who are seeking legal redress; high ranking politicians and some of the military’s top brass, warning against blowback from the loss of innocent life. Following the film Eileen Kurkoski and Susan McLucas from the Eastern Massachusetts Anti-Drone Network will lead a discussion. The presentation is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group. It will be held in the Community Room at the Walpole Public Library, 143 School Street, Walpole, MA. The presentation is free and open to the public.  It’s important for people to learn what our government is doing in our name.

Reminder of a Tax Day Vigil on Saturday, April 12, in Walpole, from 10 to 11:30 AM

 Please join us on Saturday,  April 12, from 10 to 11:30 AM, the Walpole Common at the corner of Main and West Streets.  Tax Day, April 15, is right around the corner.  On Saturday, we will stand in support of the Budget for All,  bringing attention to how our federal  tax dollars are used .   The U.S. military budget commands over 50% of all discretionary spending, dwarfing the amount spent for critical programs like transportation, veterans affairs, education, and housing.  Our country devotes more money to the military than the next 13 biggest military spenders in the world, combined!  The current Ryan budget proposal  targets  social services for even more devastating cuts.  

We need the Budget for All that supports social services and the needs of people. 

Walpole voters in precincts 1, 2, 6, and 7 sent a clear message to Washington on November 6, 2012 by voting 2  to 1 on the Budget for All ballot question.

The Budget for All calls on Congress to enact a budget for prosperity, not austerity. Its full text reads:

Shall the state Representative (or Senator) from this district be instructed to vote in favor of a resolution calling upon the Congress and the President to:

1.    Prevent cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans benefits, or to housing, food and\unemployment assistance;

2.    Create and protect jobs by investing in manufacturing, schools, housing, renewable energy, transportation and other public services;

3.    Provide new revenues for these purposes and to reduce the long-term federal deficit by closing corporate tax loopholes, ending offshore tax havens, and raising taxes on incomes over $250,000; and

4.       Redirect military spending to these domestic needs by reducing the military budget, ending the war in Afghanistan and bringing U.S. troops home safely now.

See the below leaflet with a Fact Sheet on the Budget for All and an invitation to a Boston Tax Day Rally and Forum on ‘We pay our taxes. Are we getting what we need?’, Saturday, April 12, 2014,  2 PM, Emmanuel Church  15 Newbury St.   Boston.

Peace Vigil on April 12, from 10 to 11:30 AM: for Tax Day

Please join us on Saturday, April 12, from 10 to 11:30 AM on the Walpole Common at the corner of Main and West Streets, bringing attention to how our U.S. tax dollars are used. April 15 is right around the corner, the day our Federal tax returns are due. We will be holding a  40 foot “Budget Banner”. The banner is comprised of multiple colored segments, graphically illustrating the federal government’s discretionary budget, including military, education, health and human services, housing, justice, labor, and environment. The length of each segment is proportional to the size of that program’s budget, clearly showing how much is spent for each. Discretionary spending accounts for  $1.15 trillion of the proposed 2014 budget. The banner gives visual significance to the large amount the US spends on Pentagon programs and the military. Our country spends more on the military than the next 13 biggest military spenders in the world, combined. The banner also illustrates how tiny are the portions going to social services, programs that are important to each one of us. The Ryan budget proposal particularly targets these social services for devastating cuts. We need the Budget for All that supports social services and the needs of people.

Talk by Dr. Bacevich on his book 'Breach of Trust' on Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at 6:30 PM at the Walpole Public Library

Dr. Andrew Bacevich will talk about his book ‘Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country’ on  Tuesday, April 8, 2014 at 6:30 PM at the Walpole Public Library. In his book, Dr. Bacevich makes a  blistering critique of a gulf that exists between America’s soldiers and the society that sends them off to war. He traces the origins of that separation to the Vietnam era and explores its pernicious implications: a nation with an abiding appetite for war waged at enormous expense by a standing army demonstrably unable to achieve victory. Among the collateral casualties is the core democratic principle that responsibility for defending the country should rest with its citizens.  Should Americans refuse to shoulder this responsibility, Bacevich warns, we face the prospect of endless war, waged by a “foreign legion” of professionals and contractor-mercenaries, and societal bankruptcy—moral as well as fiscal.

Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy, he received his PhD from Princeton University. Dr. Bacevich is the author of several books, including ‘Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War’ and ‘The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.’  His essays, reviews, and op-eds have appeared in publications of The Wilson Quarterly , Foreign Affair, the New York Times and the Boston Globe.

Dr. Bacevich’s talk is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group. It will be held in the Community Room at the Walpole Public Library, 143 School Street, Walpole, MA.