Tag: Human Rights
“There is not peace in many of our cities because there is not freedom.” – Pres. John F. Kennedy
| September 10, 1897 Nineteen unarmed striking coal miners were killed and 36 more wounded in Lattimer (near Hazleton), Pennsylvania, for refusing to disperse, by a posse organized by the Luzerne County sheriff. The strikers, most of whom were shot in the back, were originally brought in as strike-breakers, but later created their own union. The background and details |
| September 10, 1963 Twenty black students entered public schools in Birmingham, Tuskegee and Mobile, Alabama. The Governor George C. Wallace had ordered Alabama state troopers to stop the federal court-ordered integration of Alabama’s elementary and high schools. President John Kennedy responded by calling out the Alabama National Guard to protect the students and to see the order enforced. President Kennedy spoke that day at American University’s commencement, saying, “Peace need not be impractical, war not inevitable . . . There is not peace in many of our cities because there is not freedom.” |
September 10, 1996 Sheryl Crow’s second album was banned from Wal-Mart stores because the song she co-wrote with Tad Wadhams, “Love Is A Good Thing” opens with “Watch out sister, watch out brother, Watch our children while they kill each other With a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores….” Read more about this event and an update |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september10
He Still Did It, & He Still Owes
This is a succinct summary and discussion of the decision and its import.
Affirmed: E. Jean Carroll Case by Joyce Vance
Read on Substack
I asked Robbie Kaplan, the lawyer who tried the case, how she felt after learning that the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the $83.3 million verdict a jury awarded E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case against Donald Trump. This is what Kaplan told me: “Both the amazing and brave E. Jean Carroll and I could hardly be happier about today’s decision from the Second Circuit. It has been a long road to get here, and we are not at the end of the road yet, but as the opinion makes clear: ‘The starting point is the now-indisputable fact that a jury found in Carroll II that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996, and … that, based on the jury’s findings, Carroll did not lie and that Trump uttered falsehoods in his statements accusing her of lying and acting with improper motivations.’”
The Second Circuit affirmed the verdict against Trump on the same day that Trump’s birthday missive to Jeffrey Epstein became public. Trump says he didn’t send it, but the signature is extremely similar to verified Trump signatures on notes he wrote to both George Conway and Hillary Clinton. The birthday message is in the distinctive Sharpie marker scrawl Trump is known for. But Trump is insisting it isn’t his, a strange hill to die on since his friendship with Epstein is well documented. A jury believed E. Jean when she said Trump sexually assaulted her. The jury of public opinion may well believe Trump sent this incriminating note to Epstein.
Trump will undoubtedly try to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. It will be up to the Court to decide whether to hear the case or let the Second Circuit’s opinion stand.
The 70-page opinion starts like this: “A jury found that then-President Trump acted with common law malice when he made defamatory statements about Carroll in June 2019 and awarded compensatory and punitive damages. Trump appeals, arguing that he is entitled to presidential immunity or, in the alternative, a new trial. Trump also contends that the jury’s damages award is excessive and must be remitted.” The court then writes one word, “AFFIRMED,” which means that the jury’s verdict stands. You can read the full opinion here.
Last December, the Second Circuit affirmed the verdict in the case referred to as “Carroll II”—the second defamation case Carroll filed against Trump, which confusingly went to trial first (because Trump bogged down “Carroll I” in appeals). The jury in Carroll II returned a $5 million verdict against Trump.
In this case, Carroll I, Carroll’s lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, argued to the jury that if a $5 million verdict was insufficient to stop Trump’s defamation of Carroll, then they needed to return a larger verdict that they believed would stop his misconduct. That’s what they did. The verdict was for $83.3 million.
Trump asked the Court of Appeals to reverse for two reasons:
- He argued that the Supreme Court’s decision about presidential immunity in criminal cases in Trump v. United States means the Second Circuit erred when it refused to afford him immunity in this civil case, even though it involves an assault that occurred decades before he became the president. Beyond that, while he defamed Carroll while he was in office the first time, his comments were about an entirely personal matter that had nothing to do with the office he held. The court declined to reverse on this ground. They held Trump had waived the immunity argument by not making it at the proper time before the lower court.
- Trump also challenged the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of Carroll and other procedural rulings. The trial court held that a jury had already found that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in the first trial and that finding was binding in the second case. That decision reflects the well-known principle of collateral estoppel, and the Court ruled there was no reason to disturb it because the identical issue was decided in the prior action and Trump had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue during those proceedings.
Trump has frequently been able to twist courts and delays to his advantage. He did that here for a time. But that clock seems to have run out on him. The Supreme Court would have to up end its existing jurisprudence on basic procedural issues to rule for Trump here.
A jury believed E. Jean Carroll. That’s the bottom line. In our system, we leave decisions about disputed facts and what happened to juries. The jury here deliberated and found against Donald Trump. That decision should remain in place. In an era where so much damage is being done to women’s legal standing, it’s essential that we be believed when we have the courage to speak out about sexual assault. Carroll did that. She told friends about the attack at the time in occurred but had been too intimidated by threats she would lose her job and her livelihood if she spoke up to move forward then.
If we can do nothing else for women in an era where abortion rights, more properly understood as the right to receive lifesaving medical care, and other rights have been taken away, we can do this: we can believe them when they summon the courage to come forward and reveal a rape or a sexual assault. Maybe if our nation had done that sooner, we wouldn’t have had a Trump presidency at all.
We’re in this together,
Joyce
From Personnelente:
Corbett Bishop, The Attica Pen. Revolt, The Plowshares 8 “Strike” Again, & More, In Peace & Justice History For 9/9
| September 9, 1862 Minnesota Governor Alexander Ramsey declared that “The Sioux Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of the state.” The previous month the Dakota, or Santee, Sioux, long burdened by treaty violations and late or unfair payments from Indian agents, killed four settlers and decided to attack settlers throughout the Minnesota River valley. The number killed was estimated between 300 and 800, until 9/11 the largest civilian death toll in the U.S. The number of Indian deaths was not recorded. |
| September 9, 1944 Religious conscientious objector Corbett Bishop was arrested after walking out of a Civilian Public Service Camp. During subsequent trials and imprisonments, he refused any type of cooperation with the government until he was released 193 days later.  “I’m not going to cooperate in any way, shape or form. I was carried in here. If you hold me, you’ll have to carry me out. War is wrong. I don’t want any part of it.” – Corbett Bishop, 1906-1961 |
| September 9, 1963 Students at Chu Van An boys’ high school in Saigon tore down the government flag and raised a Buddhist flag to protest the corrupt Diem regime in South Vietnam; 1,000 were arrested. |
| September 9, 1971 The Attica (New York) State Penitentiary revolt began. The interracial revolt was led by blacks but featured cooperation between prisoners of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.  It was finally brutally suppressed by the state five days later, upon orders from Governor Nelson Rockefeller who refused to become directly involved. 29 prisoners and 10 guards were shot and killed by attacking state troopers in the bloodiest prison confrontation in U.S. history.  The prisoners had been demanding improvements in their living and working conditions at the increasingly overcrowded facility. Read about Heather Anne Thompson’s recent book “Blood in the Water: . . .” |
| September 9, 1980 Eight activists from the Atlantic Life Community were arrested after hammering the nose cones of two missiles at the General Electric plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Read about Plowshares 8  The Plowshares 8 (in alphabetical order): Daniel Berrigan, Philip Berrigan, Dean Hammer, Carl Kabat, Elmer Maas, Anne Montgomery, Molly Rush, and John Schuchardt.  This action would become the first of an international movement of dozens of “Plowshares” anti-nuclear direct actions. A chronology of Plowshares actions |
| September 9, 1997 Sinn Fein (pronounced shin fayn), the Irish Republican Army’s allied political party, formally renounced violence by accepting the principles put forward by former U.S. Senator George Mitchell (D-Maine) who was mediating the talks between the Irish Republicans and the British Unionists on Northern Ireland’s future.  Senator George Mitchell The Mitchell Principles: • To democratic and exclusively peaceful means of resolving political issues; • To the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations; • To agree that such disarmament must be verifiable to the satisfaction of an independent commission; • To renounce for themselves, and to oppose any effort by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations; • To agree to abide by the terms of any agreement reached in all-party negotiations and to resort to democratic and exclusively peaceful methods in trying to alter any aspect of that outcome with which they may disagree; and, • To urge that “punishment” killings and beatings stop and to take effective steps to prevent such actions. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september9
Some Diverse Stuff
I had a little wait time yesterday, and these were lined up on my phone. I saved the best for first!
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This one hurts my heart.
A decades-long peace vigil outside the White House is dismantled after Trump’s order
WASHINGTON (AP) — Law enforcement officials on Sunday removed a peace vigil that had stood outside the White House for more than four decades after President Donald Trump ordered it to be taken down as part of the clearing of homeless encampments in the nation’s capital.
Philipos Melaku-Bello, a volunteer who has manned the vigil for years, told The Associated Press that the Park Police removed it early Sunday morning. He said officials justified the removal by mislabeling the memorial as a shelter.
“The difference between an encampment and a vigil is that an encampment is where homeless people live,” Melaku-Bello said. “As you can see, I don’t have a bed. I have signs and it is covered by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression.”
The White House confirmed the removal, telling AP in a statement that the vigil was a “hazard to those visiting the White House and the surrounding areas.” (snip)
The vigil was started in 1981 by activist William Thomas to promote nuclear disarmament and an end to global conflicts. It is believed to be the longest continuous anti-war protest in U.S. history. When Thomas died in 2009, other protesters like Melaku-Bello manned the tiny tent and the banner, which read “Live by the bomb, die by the bomb,” around the clock to avoid it being dismantled by authorities. (snip-MORE)
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This is very good. Wish more people had thought of this earlier in time.
nazis Punish Oslo For Norway Milk Strike, AWOC Strikes In US, US Military Destroys Native Village In Peace & Justice History For 9/8
| September 8, 1756 Colonel John Armstrong and troops under his command destroyed the Indian village of Kittanning. The Corporation of the City of Philadelphia awarded a silver medal to Armstrong and his officers for their action. |
| September 8, 1941 In Norway, 2000 workers in the shipyards went on strike against diversion of milk, “depriving mothers and babies,” to military use by the German soldiers in Finland. In retaliation, Oslo was placed under a 7 o’clock nightly curfew, after which transportation was stopped, public meetings prohibited, radios seized, dancing forbidden. Boy Scouts, Girl Guides and Salvation Army organizations were all dissolved. More about the Milk strike |
September 8, 1965 Table grape pickers, the mostly Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC), led by Larry Itliong, went on strike for higher wages in Delano, California.  Larry Itliong More about Larry Itliong |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september8
Barbara Gittings, Ciskei Fights For Proper Recognition, 2 Women Arrested For Trespassing While Encouraging Loving Their Neighbors, & More in Peace & Justice History Today
| September 7, 1948 3,000 attended a rally to publicly launch the Peace Council in Melbourne, Australia. |
September 7, 1957 Barabara Gittings leading a picket in the ’60s Barbara Gittings organized the first New York meeting held for the Daughters of Bilitis, a pioneer lesbian organization. The group was founded two years earlier in San Francisco. Barbara Gittings: Mother of the Gay Rights Movement Cover from their magazine “The Ladder”, October,1968  |
| September 7, 1990 Two British peace activists, Stephen Hancock and Mike Hutchinson known as the Upper Heyford Plowshares were sentenced to 15 months in prison for disabling an F-111 bomber in Oxford, England. A brief History of Direct Disarmament Actions |
| September 7, 1992 South African troops killed at least 24 people and injured 150 more at an African National Congress (ANC) rally on the border of Ciskei, in South Africa. 50,000 ANC supporters had turned out to demand Ciskei’s re-absorption into South Africa. Ciskei was one of ten black “homelands,” so designated to keep blacks from claiming citizenship in South Africa itself. They were a legal fiction, not recognized by any other country, that was part of the racially separatist apartheid regime.  News at the time BBC |
| September 7, 1996 Two women were arrested for trespass at the Norfolk (Virginia) Naval Base after walking into the base with a banner reading, “Love Your Enemies.” |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september7
Well, This Is A Shame, But Vote For Pedophiles, Get
a pedophile golf coach/Schools Superintendent as well as pedophile enabling officials, I guess. I hope these parents not only protect their kids, but learn from this: normalizing pedophilia, abuse, and bullying is bad. Two stories here, so the post is a bit long. The Newscow is my area’s local news site; the coverage is due to the accused being a local high school graduate. The Reflector story has more background and detail than alluded in the Newscow story, and is best read in whole, on site, for continuity. Again, normalizing pedophilia, abuse, and bullying is bad. As we here know. There is official description of what is alleged. I don’t think it’s triggering, but wanted to state that for everyone.
A Kansas student reported her coach for harassment and touching. School leaders kept it quiet.
Comanche County school board leaders, principal strive to blunt public outrage
By:Tim Carpenter-September 2, 20252:57 pm
COLDWATER — After the father of a small-town, southwest Kansas high school junior reported his daughter was the victim of sexual harassment and unwanted touching by her golf coach, he met with the coach and principal to lay out the teenager’s concerns and disgust.
By the end of that meeting in May, the father said, the three men seemed to have an understanding that the coach violated policy — if not the law — when he made a stunning comment to the girl during golf practice: He told her to grip a club like it was a penis.
At the meeting, the coach signed a document affirming he directed lurid comments at the girl, according to a copy of the document obtained by Kansas Reflector. The student confirmed the accusations in a report with law enforcement and in an interview with Kansas Reflector.
The document said the coach on multiple occasions grabbed the student’s hips, waist and shoulders while standing behind her. She also said that he held the back of her thigh, purportedly to improve her golf posture.
Ty Theurer eventually resigned as the South Central High School golf coach, which was his part-time assignment in the Comanche County School District. He didn’t surrender a much more influential position in the district: Superintendent.
Kansas Reflector interviews with students, parents, educators and elected officials tied to Comanche County schools revealed a concerted effort by insiders to shield the district’s top administrator, despite ongoing law enforcement and Title IX investigations. People with knowledge of Theurer’s past said the golf practice incident wasn’t the only example of inappropriate behavior by the superintendent, who for years personally controlled how the district responded to alleged sexual harassment.
Kansas Reflector reporting shows the Comanche County school board president and vice president along with the high school principal collaborated to minimize disciplinary action against Theurer. It indicated the president sought to tamp down scrutiny of the superintendent as word of the student’s allegation made its way through the sparsely populated district.
In a brief interview with Kansas Reflector, Theurer declined to respond to questions about the complaint.
“I’m not going to answer any of those questions,” he said. “I am under investigation. I’m not allowed to speak about it.”
(snip)
In May, the student’s father reported the behavior to Andy Uhl, the Comanche County school board’s vice president. Uhl apparently passed the dad’s complaint up the chain of command. That resulted in the father’s meeting with Theurer and South Central High School principal Bud Valerius.
But instead of all seven members of the school board assuming a role in a personnel issue involving the person hired by the board to serve as superintendent, Valerius dealt with the student’s complaint as if it were a clash between coach and athlete, emails show. Valerius took that approach despite conflicts of interest, including his job as a direct subordinate of Theurer, his assignment as assistant golf coach and his friendship with Theurer.
School board president Kelly Herd said in an email to other board members that in her opinion, “There was nothing in the complaint that would warrant administrative leave” for superintendent Theurer. Instead, she told board members, coach Theurer had been given a “warning” to not offend again.
The school board replaced the superintendent as the district’s Title IX coordinator with oversight of sexual harassment or sex discrimination complaints because it would be improper for Theurer to investigate himself. Those duties were passed several months ago to the district’s elementary school principal, who would be expected to initiate an investigation of the superintendent.
In June, the student’s parents attended a regularly scheduled Comanche County school board meeting with the goal of sharing information about what their daughter said she endured while coached by Theurer.
Herd, the board president, called the mother before the meeting in an attempt to dissuade her from making public comments about the superintendent, the mother said.
The mother decided to go to the board meeting. She attempted to read from a written statement. Herd cut her off by adjourning the meeting. A video obtained by Kansas Reflector showed Herd and other board members walking out of the room with the mother still reading from her prepared remarks.
“How could this not be a priority? Not for my family alone, but for the school community?” the mother said in an interview. “The sudden adjournment and insistence that such an issue of import was literally worth walking out on is deeply troubling.”
She said the school board president’s attempt to bury the complaint was “completely unacceptable” and risked the health and safety of students in the district’s three schools. Failure of the school board to address the superintendent’s misconduct ran “the risk of appearing complicit in continuing toxic and dangerous situations,” the mother said.
“There is no result that can serve justice other than immediate termination,” she said.
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Wellington grad placed on administrative leave at Comanche County School District via sexual harassment allegations
September 05, 2025 Cueball
Sumner Newscow report — A Wellington High School graduate has been placed on paid administrative leave as superintendent of the Comanche County School District.
Ty Theurer has been accused of sexually harassing a student. The story first appeared in the Kansas Reflector, in which a father of a small-town, southwest Kansas high school junior reported his daughter was the victim of sexual harassment and unwanted touching by her South Central High School golf coach.
The school district voted to place Theurer on administrative paid leave. According to the Reflector, the school board didn’t discuss publicly the reason for taking action against Theurer at this time. There was no board disclosure about who would temporarily lead the district or for how long.
The board adopted a vague motion to proceed with “next steps,” which the board president said had been discussed in an executive session. None of that information was shared with the audience, according to the Reflector report.
More than 100 residents of the rural southwest Kansas school district — including some displaying raw, intense emotion — descended on the high school Wednesday night to demand ouster or suspension of Theurer. He is accused of, while serving as golf coach, advising a female student to hold clubs like she were gripping a penis. The girl had also complained of unwanted touching by Theurer.
“How in the world did we get here?” said Zach Ellis, a county commissioner who has children in the district. “Does this board not have a responsibility to the kids of this district to do the right thing? Kids don’t feel safe in this building. You have created a hostile and toxic learning environment as well as a toxic working environment.”
School board president Kelly Herd, who became aware of the student’s harassment complaint four months ago, had resisted punishment of Theurer beyond the warning placed in his personnel file. She had told fellow board members no additional sanction was necessary in response to the allegations.
Theurer signed a summary of the student’s complaint months ago, which was viewed by the student’s parents as an admission of guilt.
Herd also sent emails to other board members saying Theurer “did not deny nor make excuses” and “has been written up.”
In front of an unusually large crowd, the seven-member board moved in and out of executive session several times before Herd sought a motion to relieve Theurer of administrative duties in the 300-student district. According to the Reflector, he wasn’t at work on Wednesday and didn’t attend the school board meeting after the Kansas Reflector article was published on Tuesday detailing allegations against the superintendent and the school board’s tepid response.
Yellow Stars Of David, Anti-Nuke Marchers In Peace & Justice History for 9/6
| September 6, 1941 All Jews over the age of six in German-occupied territories were ordered by the Nazi regime to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing.  More about The Yellow Star |
| September 6, 1963 Anti-nuclear marchers who began in Glasgow, Scotland, arrived in London and attempted to present a dummy missile to the British Imperial War Museum. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryseptember.htm#september6
