KC Iraq Task Force Update 2-18-10
Ira Harritt
Dear KC Iraq Task Force Supporter,
This is to update you on work of the KC Iraq Task Force and let you know about a special meeting at the AFSC office, 4405 Gillham Rd., KCMO taking place on Monday, February 22 at 2:00pm to plan an event for the 7th anniversary of the Iraq war and actions to mark the death of the 1,000th U.S. military service person in Afghanistan which sadly is likely to take place in the next week.
Planning is under way for:
· Vigil to Mark the 1,000th U.S. military death in Afghanistan As of today, February 18, there have been 993 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan. Sadly we are likely to reach the 1,000th death within a week. (see below) After the vigil takes place we will begin a campaign to send 1,000 postcards to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi asking her to “stop the deaths of US troops and Afghans.” We invite you to help us collect signed postcards. Contact us at 816 931-5256.
· Activities to Mark the 7th Anniversary of the Start of the Iraq war. We are considering a “reunion” theme and events will include:
ÿ Readers theater based upon two listening projects conducted by AFSC in Pittsburg, PA. (See scripts and video here.) The performances are entitled “Through Their Mother's Eyes: the Impact of the Iraq War on Children” and “The Human Cost of War: Listening to Veterans and their Families.” The scripts are based upon comment made in listening sessions with Iraqi mothers, mothers of Iraq war veterans and U.S. soldiers.
ÿ A puppet show retelling how we got into the Iraq war
ÿ A showing of the local film “No War On Sundays”
ÿ Vigil…
ÿ
The normal fourth Monday 6:30pm (February 22) KC Iraq Task Force meeting will be devoted to planning for the Festival for Justice and Peace. You would be welcome to attend that meeting as well. The theme of the Festival will be “Stories of Justice and Peace.” We currently are seeking collaborations with arts organizations and exploring the possibility of holding the Festival in the Crossroads Arts District on a First Friday. Join us to plan this exciting event.
Copied below are: National AFSC Wage Peace E-Newsletter; flyer for the Candlelight Vigil to Mark the Death of the 1,000th U.S. military Serviceperson in Afghanistan; 6 Things You Could Do For A More Just And Peaceful World; Notes from last month’s KC Iraq Task Force meeting.
Thanks for your work for a just and peaceful world!
Sincerely,
Ira Harritt
KC AFSC
KC Iraq Task Force
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Sadly we also plan for a
Candlelight Vigil to Mark the Death
of the 1,000th U.S. military Serviceperson in Afghanistan.
As of today there were have been 993 U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan. Over the past six months fatalities have ranged from 32 to 77 (8 to 20 a week).
The vigil will begin at 6:00pm
the day after the death of the 1,000th soldier is announced at the
J.C. Nichols Fountain, 47th and Main, KCMO.
Contact us to find out about the 1,000 postcard campaign.
6 Things You Could Do
For A More Just And Peaceful World
ÿ 
Volunteer to be in
“Through Their Mother's Eyes” or and “The Human
Cost of War” readers theater project - The performances are based upon
comment made in listening sessions with Iraqi mothers, family members of Iraq
war veterans and U.S. soldiers.
ÿ Host or organize a showing of the ReThink Afghanistan documentary- Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary which raises critical questions about Afghanistan which inform the public and challenge policymakers.
ÿ Help plan the 2010 Festival for Justice and Peace -The Festival theme will be “Stories of Justice and Peace.” We are seeking collaborations with arts organizations and want to showcase artistic expressions and visions of peace and justice. Our next Festival planning meeting will take on Monday, February 22 at 6:30pm at the AFSC office
ÿ Organize a presentation on the Iraqi Refugee Crisis and What Can be Done to Help for your school or group – a 30 minute to one hour presentation can be scheduled for school, faith and community groups.
ÿ Bring the AFSC some old shoes to represent Afghan civilians killed in the war to use in the new Afghanistan Eyes Wide Open exhibit
ÿ Volunteer to collect signatures after the Vigil to mark the Death of the 1,000th service person in Afghanistan.
We welcome your help!
Contact us at 816 931-5256 or ihar...@afsc.org
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AFSC Wage Peace Newsletter:
Today’s newsletter focuses on the approaching milestone of the 1000th US troop death in Afghanistan. While we mark the deaths of the US troops, we also mourn the untold numbers of Afghans and Pakistanis who have perished. The exact number of Afghan deaths is unknown, though surveys from the United Nations show that last year marked the highest number of civilian deaths and the highest number of children being killed.
The newsletter has a link to find vigils in your area and a letter to the editor we urge you to send. We also have a postcard campaign geared towards the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
Milestone Approaching in Afghanistan (Newsletter actions: Vigils | Letter to the Editor)
http://support.afsc.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=9861.0&dlv_id=12801
******
Not One More Death | Not One More Dollar For War
Postcard Campaign to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi
One way to represent the U.S. casualties in Afghanistan is by displaying 1000
postcards, each with a handwritten soldier’s name on the front. The link
below has an image of the card and the text of the letter to Representative
Pelosi. We have some left if you are interested.
******
Upcoming Conference Call Briefings
Pakistan’s Role in Bringing Stability to Afghanistan
http://www.afsc.org/middleeast/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/86539/pid/673
Dr. Zia Mian, Wednesday 24 February
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March | Save the Date
*******************
Iraq: Elections, Occupation and the Withdrawal of US Forces
Raed Jarrar, AFSC Iraq Consultant
Wednesday 10 March
8:00 – 9:00 PM
March 20th will mark seven years since the post 9/11 US invasion and occupation of Iraq. It is a war that will define the 20th century in scale and scope. A war that began in 1991 with the international response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait transformed into 12 years of devastating economic sanctions that led to the current occupation since 2003.
It has turned peacebuilding and peacekeeping theories on their heads as overwhelming military force and regime change were pursued as a way to make the United States, the bordering countries and Iraqis more safe.
President Obama has committed the US to honoring a bi-lateral treaty with the Government of Iraq that will completely remove all US forces and bases from the country by 31 December 2011. By year’s end all US combat troops are to be removed.
In the meantime parliamentary elections and a referendum on the presence of US forces are to be help on March 7th after several delays. Join us for a briefing on the impact of the elections and steps we are taking to insure and monitor that removal of US troops.
Raed Jarrar is an Iraq consultant with AFSC. For four years he has helped to design education and advocacy campaigns for the organization. One success has been the inclusion in the defense authorization bill that the US military must give quarterly reports to Congress on the status of US forces in Iraq.
Raed Jarrar Photo
http://www.afsc.org/Iraq/ht/d/ContentDetails/i/34101
Peter Lems
Program Director, Education and Advocacy for Iraq and Afghanistan
American Friends Service Committee
1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, 19102
Tel: 215/241-7170 | Fax: 215/241-7177
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Notes from 1/25 KC Iraq Task Force meeting:
MLK Forum – people had very positive things to say about the forum. (I have not yet had the opportunity to compile the comments we received from the comment cards. However I did tally the responses to the question “How important was the information presented at this forum?” From the 36 comment cards we received responding to that question the average response was 4.222 <“0” being “Not important” and “5” being “Very important.”>)
Event to mark the 1,000th death. We discussed displaying the 1,000 postcards and felt that doing it on the night of the vigil was not a good option. It was decided that we would get volunteers to display and table with them on area college campuses- maybe using a patio umbrella or clothes dryer kind of apparatus to hang them and get people to sign blank ones.
For the vigil we discussed speakers. Ira will contact Pat McClelland (with Vets for Peace), Jackson Co. Legislator Scott Burnet, and will look for an academic.
Other Afghanistan work:
We discussed lobbying and when it would be worth to set up visits. (A 30+billion supplemental Afghanistan war bill could be introduced soon.) Mary will contact Kris and ask her to try and schedule a meeting with Cong. Cleaver. We were not very hopeful that visits would have much of an effect with the other area officials but may make visits also especially with Sen. McCaskill.
Cris is working on invitation to student groups to host showings of ReThink Afghanistan.
Readers Theater for 7th Iraq Anniversary:
We are planning to perform the readers theater (Through Their Mother’s Eyes: the Impact of the Iraq War on Children and The Human Cost of War: Listening to Voices of Veterans and Their Families)on Mike’s KKFI show on March 18, Thursday show and on Saturday, March 20 at the 7th Anniversary event, either as part of the vigil and rally or inside as part of other anniversary events.
Mike needs to fill the 60 minute show and the actual readings only take 18 minutes. We discussed the additional time being filled with call-ins, music (maybe from the CD compiled by Tomas Young), speeches or other content.
The Mothers’ reading takes about 8 mins and requires 4 women, two younger women as mothers and two older women as grandmothers and one person to ask the questions. We decided that it would be good to attempt to find two women who had Middle Eastern accents to play the Iraqi roles. Ira has spoken with Ashty who will speak with others. (She thinks she can do it but has a commitment in the evening.) The Veterans reading takes about 10 mins and requires five readers and one person to ask the questions. Ira sent out a request for readers in his last peace and justice alert.
Mike has spoken with Bill Clause about helping “direct” the readers. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn expressed interest in being a reader. We need four women for the Mothers script and six readers for the military and families script (at least one needs to be a man). We will recruit readers and then schedule a rehearsal.
We also discussed other activities for the 7th Anniversary. It was proposed that we have a “Reunion” theme and show the video “No War on Sundays.” We are working on finding a copy of the film and being in contact with the film maker, Jeff Stapleton. (The email I had received bounced back and so far I have not found any other way to get in touch with him.)
We also discussed creating a puppet show (fractured fairy tale about how we got into the Iraqi war) and getting people to visit and take pictures of themselves holding up a big “no” “X” symbol in front of war-profiteering businesses (maybe with a placard naming the business and how they are profiteering) .
Festival For Justice and Peace
A planning meeting will be scheduled within two weeks (Monday, February 8, 7pm) and past co-sponsors, and others will be invited. Proposed theme is “Stories of Justice and Peace”
Education and War Forum:
We discussed organizing a forum linking education and war spending. Cris will look into working with AFT teachers’ union. Andrea Flinders is the new KCAFT president. The forum could address issues such as school safety, military vs. education funding, how to teach about controversy issues in schools, etc.
We also discussed a request for workshop resources for a youth conference being planned by the Disciples of Christ for March 11-14. They specifically wanted someone who could relate to your (young) and speak to: conscientious objection; and separation of church and state and what congregations can do.
Ira Harritt
KC Program Coordinator
American Friends Service Committee
816 931-5256