e-newsletter

Colombia Peace News: March 2009

Submitted by FOR on April 8, 2009 - 11:19am.
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Help FOR support peace efforts in Colombia and demilitarize U.S. policy.

Colombia Peace News: February 2009

Submitted by FOR on March 10, 2009 - 3:12pm.
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Help FOR support peace efforts in Colombia and demilitarize U.S. policy.

  1. April 20 National Day of Action for Colombia
  2. U.S. and Colombian Organizations Call on President Obama: End Plan Colombia and Change U.S. Drug Policy
  3. Colombia Inviting U.S. Military Operations Kicked out of Ecuador
  4. More Illegal Wiretapping Uncovered
  5. School of Americas Graduate Threatens Peace Community Leader
  6. Commemoration
  7. August 2009 Delegation to Colombia

FOR and Black History (or "We need you like Fred needs Ginger")

Submitted by FOR on February 25, 2009 - 12:03pm.
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A letter from the Chair of FOR's National Council.

February 25, 2009

Dear friend,

Journey of Reconciliation Commemoration

[the first freedom riders]

This week, we are participating in the installation of a historic marker at the site where the first freedom riders, led by FOR's Bayard Rustin and George Houser, were beaten and arrested by a racist mob in Chapel Hill, N.C. in 1947.

Learn more about the events this Thursday through Saturday, or consider making a contribution if you can't join us in person.

Between September 1965 and May 1967, I was a student at Colgate Rochester Divinity School in upstate New York. Gene Bartlett was the Seminary's President. I did not know then of Dr. Bartlett's involvement with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, or that he was involved in creating a Baptist Pacifist Fellowship during World War II. He encouraged me, as he did others, working against the Vietnam War.

[King speaks]On April 4, 1967 in a now famous speech A Time to Break Silence delivered at Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., urged ministers to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. Thus confirmed in the direction my newly formed pacifist beliefs were taking me, I finalized a decision. With needed support from the FOR, my future wife Nancy, and others, I took leave from seminary, appealed my draft board status, and did alternative service.

As much as any single twentieth-century figure, Dr. King has shaped my life and the lives of many FOR members. Inspired to seek peace in a war-wearied, war-worried world, we have not elevated Dr. King to iconic status. Dr. King's ideas and words still matter. It matters that we continue his unfinished work, building a culture of peace.

Colombia Peace News: January 2009

Submitted by FOR on February 3, 2009 - 6:50pm.
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Protect a Colombian Youth Ally

Yury Neira seeks justice for the murder of his son who was killed at the hands of Bogota riot police in 2005. Join us in calling on Colombia's Attorney General for justice.

Learn more below.

In this month’s update you’ll find news on an exciting conference, prospects for U.S. policy, a letter from the Colombia-Venezuela border, an action alert, and more.

  1. Security without Empire: National Organizing Conference on Foreign Military Bases
  2. Letter from the field: Between Colombia and Venezuela
  3. Obama's Colombia Policy: "Caution can't paralyze us"
  4. Body Count Mentalities: Colombia's false positives scandal, declassified
  5. San José Peace Community: Some justice, but lots of threats
  6. Yury Neira – Youth advocate and ally

THANKS to you--

-- all of you who sent faxes to oppose Colombian spying on human rights organizations, including FOR! 713 of you responded to our appeal and sent letters to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Kramer.

The Progressive magazine ran an online story as has Colombia Journal.

FOR is digging deeper and meeting with officials to pursue both more information about the U.S. role in the spying and to obtain Colombian officials’ commitment that such surveillance and harassment doesn’t continue. Stay tuned.

What is Dr. King's legacy for the Obama administration?

Submitted by FOR on January 19, 2009 - 2:31pm.
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When Barack Obama was elected as our country's first African-American president in November, many peace activists raised our voices in celebration. On the FORpeace blog, we discussed our reactions - a lot of joy mixed with some skepticism - about what changes this might bring to Washington, D.C. and to the nation. Today we observe Martin Luther King Day on the cusp of Obama's inauguration, and the juxtaposition of these two events couldn't be more powerful.

Colombia Peace News: December 2008

Submitted by FOR on December 24, 2008 - 4:17pm.
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Stand up against Colombian government spying on nonviolent organizations!

Call on the State department to act and make a donation to ensure that this vital peace work continues.

  1. FOR Under Surveillance!
  2. Indigenous: "We Continue Resisting the Armed Groups that Attack Us"
  3. Raffle Winners
  4. Powerful Video on Extrajudicial Killings
  5. U.S. Presbyterians Call for Engagement with Colombia, End to Military Aid
  6. Colombia: Social Conflict Replaces Warfare
  7. Upcoming: No Bases Conference; Volunteer Training; Delegations

 

Colombia Peace News: November 2008

Submitted by FOR on December 5, 2008 - 3:57pm.
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Help FOR support peace efforts in Colombia and demilitarize U.S. policy.

  1. Letter from the Field: Resisting Displacement
  2. Indigenous Protests Arrive in Bogota
  3. Human Rights March and Carnaval in Medellin
  4. Drop Beats Not Bombs:
    Everything Changed, Everything the Same
  5. Upcoming Events

Peace News: Changing the face of activism

Submitted by FOR on December 3, 2008 - 12:48pm.
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This newsletter brings you updates from a busy October and November at the Fellowship of Reconciliation. If you haven't yet responded to our 2008 supporter survey, please take a few moments to do so now. Your investment of 10 minutes can help us work more effectively for the issues that you care about.

[catalog]
Remember the FOR bookstore when gift shopping! If you haven't received your catalog in the mail yet, contact bookstore@forusa.org to request one.

  1. Peace community reacts to the election
  2. Please act now to stem paramilitary threats to the Colombian peace community
  3. Drop Beats Not Bombs tour rocks the Midwest and Northeast
  4. Updates from 8th Iran delegation
  5. Creative responses to militarism bloom in spring of 2009
  6. New Fellowship issue: The Costs of Peace
  7. FOR cited on New York Times front page
  8. Upcoming events including inaugural activities

Colombia Peace News for October 2008

Submitted by FOR on November 4, 2008 - 2:15pm.
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While you watch and wait for the U.S. election returns, here's your monthly update on FOR's Colombian Peace Presence:

Raffle to benefit the FOR Human Rights Team in Colombia

Grand prize: Two Round-trip air tickets to Colombia
Dozens of other prizes, including gift certificates, massage, organic coffee, photo prints, films, and music. Tickets are only $5 each. Get yours here.

Bay Area residents, save the date:
December 7 - raffle drawing, presentation by extraordinary Colombian activist Amanda Romero, poetry, and concert by Aluna.
San Francisco Women's Building, Sunday December 7, 7pm

  1. The Drop Beats Not Bombs Tour Hits the Road!
  2. Take Action Now: Indigenous Protesters and Striking Workers are Under Attack by the Colombian Government
  3. "Widespread and systematic" army killings: Who replaces General Montoya?
  4. Paramilitary Resurgence in Northwestern Colombia
  5. Letter from the Field: Will Walk for Peace

Colombia Monthly Update: September 2008

Submitted by FOR on October 2, 2008 - 3:50pm.
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Help FOR support peace efforts in Colombia and demilitarize U.S. policy.

  1. Action alert: No guns for army commander implicated in death squads
  2. Wave of violence and threats against grassroots groups
  3. Peace Community: Judicial Advances, but Paramilitaries Threaten
  4. Extradition: Shipping Out the Truth
  5. Events in Bay Area & Drop Beats not Bombs tour
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