Tag: Peace

Peace & Justice History for 11/26

November 26, 1968
U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution against capital punishment following an official report which said, “Examination of the number of murders before and after the abolition of the death penalty does not support the theory that capital punishment has a unique deterrent effect.”
More on capital punishment and homicide 
November 26, 1970
American Indian activists marked Thanksgiving with a National Day of Mourning for Native Americans by occupying Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts, the alleged landing spot of the Pilgrims’ arrival in Massachusetts colony. Led by Wamsutta Frank James, an Aquinnah Wampanoag elder and music teacher, over 200 Indians seized the Mayflower II and painted Plymouth Rock red.

Day of Mourning demo in downtown Plymouth
James had refused to speak at a state dinner the night before commemorating the 350th anniversary of the landing, and went on to organize United American Indians of New England.
Wamsutta Frank James’ suppressed speech 
video footage 2022 National Day of Mourning
November 26, 1983
President Ronald Reagan ordered military assistance to Iraq in the war Saddam Hussein had begun by invading Iran. To prevent an Iraqi military collapse, the Reagan administration supplied battlefield intelligence on Iranian troop buildups to the Iraqis, sometimes through third parties such as Saudi Arabia.
National Security Decision Directive 114, signed on that day, stated that the United States would do “whatever was necessary and legal” to prevent Iraq from losing the war with Iran. It called for heightened regional military cooperation to defend oil facilities, and measures to improve U.S. military capabilities in the Persian Gulf.
The assistance was granted despite frequent and consistent reports of Iraqi use of chemical weapons, a clear violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol. Mustard gas had been used against Iranian troops and against “human wave” attacks by thousands of Basij (Popular Mobilization Army or People’s Army) volunteers.
The full story on U.S.-Iraq relations at that time 
The Geneva Protocol 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november26

“Delayza’s Necklace” by Max Early

(Tuesday’s poem.)

We enter to sounds of bells.
The hall’s warmth evokes
an imprint of my small self
standing by my grandparents.
Their presence I sense
in drums and singers’ voices.

Collective breath of all colors
hovers above the leaping herd.
Eagle and hawk feathers adorn
the deer dance’s rhythmic scent—
forest evergreen, damp earth.

Delayza puts her hand in mine.
The seated crowd hinders her view.
I lift her above the masses—
a butterfly beyond reach.

Her irises bloom to the choir
and drumbeats rumbling
nearby snowflakes.

I set her among the gold straw flecks
glistening on the mud plastered floor.
Her body sways back and forth,
she stands on tiptoe
to see over the crowd.

A charcoal faced hunter
in camouflage shirt and jeans
trots towards the small child.
He places a coral bead necklace
over her head as she smiles
at her new delight.

Copyright © 2024 by Max Early. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 25, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

Read more about this poem, and this poet, here.

A reblogged reblog from our good friend Suze!

Always safe here

Peace & Justice History for 11/24

November 24, 1859
British naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which explained his theory of evolution.The basis for the theory is natural selection, the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable (genetically based) physical or behavioral traits. Such changes allow an organism to better adapt to its environment and help it survive and have more offspring.
Evolution is now universally accepted among scientists, and is the organizing principle upon which modern biological and related sciences are based.


Darwin and “On the Origin of Species” 
November 24, 1869
Women and men from 21 states met in Cleveland to organize the American Women Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, Henry Blackwell, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Julia Ward Howe. The group’s approach to enfranchisement for women was through acquiring the right to vote state-by-state.
Those in Cleveland had broken with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton of the National Women Suffrage Association over the 15th amendment to the Constitution, which had granted the vote to black male Americans following the end of slavery, but had not enfranchised women, whether white or black. Anthony and Stanton protested the protection of black rights over universal suffrage.
Original document from AWSA in the National Archives 
November 24, 1947
A group of writers, producers and directors that became known as the “Hollywood 10” were cited for contempt of Congress when they refused to cooperate at hearings about alleged Communist influence in the movie industry.

The Hollywood 10
Following their appearance in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) under Representative John Parnell Thomas (R-New Jersey), the House of Representatives voted 346-17 for the citations. All were convicted and sentenced to 6-12 months in prison. The charges were upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Invoking their 5th Amendment right not to be witnesses against themselves, and their 1st Amendment right to freely associate with whom they choose, the Hollywood 10 refused to answer the question, “Are you a member of the Communist Party or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”
Others cooperated: the mother of actor and dancer Ginger Rogers testified her daughter had been asked to say in a film, “Share and share alike, that’s democracy,” a line from a script written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo. Rogers said this was “definitely Communist propaganda.”

Free The Hollywood 10 demo 
Read more  (2 links)
November 24, 1970
14 American students met with Vietnamese in Hanoi to plan the “Peoples’ Peace Treaty” between the peoples of the United States, South Vietnam and North Vietnam.

It begins, “Be it known that the American people and the Vietnamese people are not enemies. The war is carried out in the names of the people of the United States and South Vietnam, but without our consent. It destroys the land and people of Vietnam. It drains America of its resources, its youth, and its honor.”
The treaty was ultimately endorsed by millions.
Read the treaty 
November 24, 1983
On Thanksgiving Day seven Plowshares activists hammered and poured blood on B-52 bombers converted to carry cruise missiles at Griffiss Air Force Base near Syracuse, New York.
Bloody handprint on missile.
Watch Plowshares history video 
Read more  (2 links)
November 24, 1987
The United States and the Soviet Union agreed to scrap short- and medium-range missiles in the first superpower treaty to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons. The Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF treaty), signed by Reagan and Gorbachev, was the first to actually reduce the number of nuclear weapons held by the two sides.
November 24, 1993

Queen Lydia Liliuokalani
Congress voted to formally apologize to Hawaii for the 1893 overthrow of the government of Queen Lydia Liliuokalani.
What the apology was for 
Read the apology 
An Hawaiian Declaration of Independence 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november24

’tis True.

Same with watching a pet hedgehog eat watermelon, which is also out there on YT somewhere. Meanwhile, this is right here. 17% lower is a good thing. Watch it 2x!

Well, OK Then …

Peace & Justice History for 11/23

November 23, 1170 BCE
 
The first recorded strike took place in Egypt when necropolis workers who had not been paid for their work in more than two months sat down and refused to work until they were paid and able to eat.
More about this 1st strike 
November 23, 1887
Black Louisiana sugarcane workers, in cooperation with the racially integrated Knights of Labor, had gone on strike at the beginning of the month over their meager pay issued in script (not cash). The script was redeemable only at the company store where excessive prices were charged. When the first freeze of the season arrived and damaged the crop, the plantation owners were angered. The Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of “prominent citizens,” shot and killed at least 35 unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, and lynched two strike leaders in what became known as the Thibodaux Massacre.
More on the Thibodaux Massacre
November 23, 1981
President Ronald Reagan signed off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gave the Central Intelligence Agency a budget of $19 million to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan insurgents to conduct covert actions against the leftist Sandinista elected government. This marked the beginning of official U.S. support for the so-called contras in their war against the Nicaraguans.

Read (most of) the memo 
More on the Reagan policy 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november23

“Arctic Avian”

Lapland Longspur

Peace & Justice History for 11/22:

November 22, 1909

In New York City, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union went on strike against sweatshop conditions in what became known as the “Uprising of the 20,000” and the “Girl’s Revolt.”
The strikers won the support of other workers and the women’s suffrage movement for their persistence and unity in the face of police brutality and biased courts. A judge told arrested pickets: “You are on strike against God.” This was the first mass strike by women in the U.S.
ILGWU timeline 
November 22, 1963
President John F. Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas during a motorcade.
Vice President Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president within hours.
November 22, 1968

What is believed to be the first interracial kiss on U.S. broadcast television occurred in an episode of Star Trek between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols.
More about this kiss 
November 22, 1998
7,000 marched on the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas (SOA) at Fort Benning, outside Columbus, Georgia.They were protesting the school’s training of Latin American soldiers and other security personnel who return to their countries and are involved in violence and oppression of their populations. 2,319 people were arrested for trespassing.
Protests at the School of the Americas, organized by SOA Watch, occur every November. The school is now known by the U.S. Army as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

2002 protest at SOA
Visit School of the Americas watch.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistorynovember.htm#november22

Reblog from Ten Bears

Wodin’sday Waste of Words …

All the links are worthy; today I’m partial to both the one about a Trump-proof climate action Pres. Biden could take that would benefit the entire world, and the story about the “Indian peach”.

NoVember 20, 2024

Honoring Lives Lost: Transgender Day of Remembrance 2024

I have only a little to add to Janet’s eloquent observance post. But I want to say, especially to those who believe that people would not die if they kept “their business” to themselves, that these people were doing no more than any person does: they were just trying to get by. Every human bleeds the same color blood as every other human, and all of us humans are the same: human. It is way past time for people to be treating every other human as they themselves want to be treated.