Peace Vigil - Cut miltary spending - fund our Communities - Saturday, July 2, 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM

You are invited to join with the Walpole Peace and Justice Group at a peace vigil this Saturday morning, July 2, to support cutting the military budget and funding our communities. We are calling for a reduction of military spending by 25% and redirection of our tax money to meet human needs. The vigil will be held on Saturday, April 16, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon on the Walpole Common, along Common and Front Streets, across from the Post Office.

The United States spends almost as much on its military as all the other countries of the world combined. More than half of all US annual discretionary spending goes to the military and war fighting. The 25% solution is the focus of a nation-wide campaign to cut military spending and fund urgent needs- jobs in housing, health care, education, clean energy and infrastructure repairs, programs that benefit our communities and vulnerable, hungry, and poor people in the US and abroad. We will be participating in the vigil as part of the Massachusetts 25% Solution campaign.

Walpole Peace and Justice Group Peace Vigil - Cut miltary spending - fund our communities - Saturday, April 16, 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon

You are invited to join with the Walpole Peace and Justice Group, standing in vigil this Saturday morning, to support cutting the military budget and funding our communities. We will be calling for a reduction of military spending by 25% and redirection of our tax money to meet human needs.
The United States spends almost as much on its military as all the other countries of the world combined. More than half of all US annual discretionary spending goes to the military and war fighting. The 25% solution is the focus of a nation-wide campaign to cut military spending and fund urgent needs- jobs in housing, health care, education, clean energy and infrastructure repairs, programs that benefit our communities and vulnerable, hungry, and poor people in the US and abroad. We will be participating in the vigil as part of the Massachusetts 25% Solution campaign.

The vigil will be held on Saturday, April 16, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 noon on the Walpole Common, along Common and Front Streets, across from the Post Office. We will be holding a ‘budget banner’ showing the proportional spending across the budgets. We will also be handing out a fact sheet and gathering signatures for a petition. Since the budget banner is so long (due in large part to the lengthy military spending component!) we will need many hands to hold it. Additional people will be needed to distribute the fact sheets and gather signatures. Your help in taking a stand and making this statement will be very much appreciated.

Peace Vigil Saturday, March 5th at 10am

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is holding a peace vigil on Saturday, March 5th, 10:00 to 11:00 AM at the Walpole Common across from the Walpole Cooperative Bank, or the next corner up depending on snow conditions.

"Broken Promises, Broken Dreams, Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience" on March 8, 2011

Dr. Alice Rothchild will speak on “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams, Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience” on Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 7:30 PM at the United Church in Walpole. Alice Rothchild is a Boston based physician, activist and writer who has worked for many years on public health and human rights issues in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

Having just returned from a January 2011 trip to Israel/Palestine, Dr. Rothchild will share her latest experiences and insights on the region. She will also discuss her book, “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams.” This account of seven visits to Israel is based on hundreds of taped interviews with both Israelis and Palestinians. In her book, Dr. Rothchild grapples with the reality of life in Israel, the complexity of Jewish Israeli attitudes, and the hardship of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.

Dr. Rothchild cofounded and co-chairs American Jews for a Just Peace Boston and co-organized the AJJP Health and Human Rights Project. An obstetrician-gynecologist who has worked in the health care reform and women’s movements for many years, Dr. Rothchild was a contributor to the first “Our Bodies, Ourselves.” Medical Director of the Women’s Community Health Center in Cambridge, Mass. from 1977-1979 and co-founder of Urban Woman and Child Health, Inc., Dr. Rothchild is active in a number of social justice organizations.

Rothchild’s talk is being sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group. People may 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 by the side door (directions here).

Chomsky/Bennis on Economic Crisis, Unending War, Rightwing Resurgence ... and Egypt

Walpole Peace & Justice Group pleased to sponsor:
Noam Chomsky & Phyllis Bennis in Conversation

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Get Your Tickets Now to hear Noam Chomsky and Phyllis Bennis!

Economic Crisis, Unending War, and Rightwing Resurgence
Noam Chomsky & Phyllis Bennis in Conversation
(including analysis of events in Egypt)

Thursday, February 10, 2011, 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $15 ($10 student/low income/unemployed)

Pleasant Street Church, Arlington
75 Pleasant Street, out of Arlington Center, MA 02476

Come to part or all of this exciting program!

5:30 – 6:30: Pre-event reception with Noam and Phyllis. tickets $50 (advance reservation requested. Includes admission to the 6:30 talk )
6:30 – 8:15: Main event with Noam Chomsky and Phyllis Bennis
8:30 – 9:30: breakout groups built around specific campaigns or initiatives with introduction by Phyllis Bennis.

For Information call 888-400-1225
Or go to http://www.chomskyspeaks.org for directions to the Church, updates, and to purchase tickets online so you will be guaranteed a seat.

Lead sponsors: Mass. Global Action & the Majority Agenda Project. Other sponsors include Arlington United for Justice with Peace, Watertown Citizens for Environmental Security, Military Families Speak Out, Mass. Peace Action, American Friends Service Committee and United for Justice with Peace

http://www.MassGlobalAction.org & http://www.MajorityAgendaProject.org

Peace Group Talks

So My Heart Can Speak:
A Story of Courage in Rwanda

Sister M. Juvenal of the Benebikira Sisters of Rwanda and Sister Ann Fox will discuss the time of the genocide in Rwanda during 1994 in which over one million people were killed in 100 days. During this time the Benebikira Sisters provided singular and heroic leadership and courage in sheltering children, women and elders, and boldly facing those responsible for the genocide. They will also discuss their central role in the remarkable recovery and transformation now taking place throughout Rwanda and share their insights about the country, culture and history of Rwanda.

For their outstanding courage and compassion the Benebikira Sisters were presented with the Courage of Conscience Award by The Peace Abbey on September 26, 2010.

Sister M. Juvenal Mukamurama is the former Superior General of the Benebikira Sisters and is currently studying in the graduate programs at Lesley University and Boston College. Sister Ann Fox is the Co-Director of the Paraclete Foundation that has overseen fund-raising and construction of schools for children, as well as many other services and projects in Rwanda.

The talk is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group and is being held on Sunday, November 14, 2010, at 7:00 PM at the United Church in Walpole, 30 Common Street. 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 door at the front of the church.

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Practices of Peace and Nonviolence

Claude AnShin Thomas, the author of the best selling book “AT HELL'S GATE: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace” will speak on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 at 7:30 PM at the Walpole Public Library. The talk is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group. In this talk Claude AnShin recounts his dramatic coming-of-age story and spiritual odyssey from combat soldier to Zen Buddhist Monk, International Advocate of Nonviolence, and Author. He offers profound insight into ways we can transform suffering and violence in our own lives and therefore in our world. His struggle to deal with the trauma of his childhood and the war in Vietnam and to find personal peace and spiritual insight is a prism through which to view America over the last thirty years – our difficulty in coming to terms with the legacy of Vietnam, our spiritual hunger, and our need to come to terms with our massive power and our use of violence.

“Everyone has their Vietnam,” Claude writes, “everyone has experienced trauma and everyone, if they want, can find healing and peace through looking deeply at the nature of their suffering. War is a collective expression of individual suffering.” The seeds of war and violence are planted early and often, and it is only through our actions and insights personally that we can hope to end war globally. What is startling in these days of the “war on terrorism” is that we rarely hear from the soldiers themselves. As a highly decorated helicopter crew chief who was wounded in battle and received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Purple Heart, Claude AnShin speaks with an authenticity and an honesty that is extremely compelling to a wide audience. He can speak with direct experience about the realities of war, about what we are sending young men and women to do, and about the effect that making war has on all of us.

Talk by Benebira Sisters on Rwanda on November 14

Please join us for a talk by the Benebikira Sisters of Rwanda on their heroic leadership during the time of the genocide and their role in the recovery and transformation afterwards.

So My Heart Can Speak:
A Story of Courage in Rwanda

Sister M. Juvenal of the Benebikira Sisters of Rwanda and Sister Ann Fox will discuss the time of the genocide in Rwanda during 1994 in which over one million people were killed in 100 days. During this time the Benebikira Sisters provided singular and heroic leadership and courage in sheltering children, women and elders, and boldly facing those responsible for the genocide. They will also discuss their central role in the remarkable recovery and transformation now taking place throughout Rwanda and share their insights about the country, culture and history of Rwanda.

For their outstanding courage and compassion the Benebikira Sisters were presented with the Courage of Conscience Award by The Peace Abbey on September 26, 2010.

Sister M. Juvenal Mukamurama is the former Superior General of the Benebikira Sisters and is currently studying in the graduate programs at Lesley University and Boston College. Sister Ann Fox is the Co-Director of the Paraclete Foundation that has overseen fund-raising and construction of schools for children, as well as many other services and projects in Rwanda.

The talk is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group and is being held on Sunday, November 14, 2010, at 7:00 PM at the United Church in Walpole, 30 Common Street. 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 door at the front of the church.