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Flyby News Returns <> Environment Under Assault <> Transformation Needed
Editors Note:
It has been a while since the last issue of Post Cassini Flyby News. My computer and I have been down for upgrades; slowly, we are picking up from where we left off. The news hasn't been good. The Corporate-driven US President has pushed one bad policy to the next in regards of saving our environment. The Bush Administration announced the U.S. backing down from the Kyoto Accords. Also, I believe on the same day that scientists announced visible proof of accumulating global warming gases in our atmosphere (from satellite images), George Bush announced his backing down on a campaign promise to make the lowering of pollution emissions mandatory by power producers. Now he says that would harm our economy during his Presidency, but what about our future? The new Bush proposed budget would slash $200 million from solar and other alternative energy programs. Yet, he would add $150 million to what is called "less polluting coal products." This is pretty weird.since coal-electric production is a leading contributor of global warming.
I hope some of you watched CBS TV's Sixty Minutes 2 last Tuesday April 3rd. They showed a segment of beached whales in the Bahamas during exercises of the U.S. Navy's use of high screeching sonar.
"Although active sonar has been suspected in previous strandings, analysis of the inner ears of several dead whales enabled scientists to confirm, for the first time, the dangerous role of active sonar to a level of certainty that even the Navy could not ignore. All but one of the whales suffered hemorrhages in the inner ear, almost certainly the result of a sonic blast.
And in February 2001, a marine scientist observed that at least one of the whale species that stranded in the Bahamas had virtually disappeared from the area, raising questions about impacts well beyond the initial strandings and deaths.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is accepting public comments through May 3, 2001, on whether to grant the Navy's LFA permit request. Use the form below to fax a message to the chief of the Fisheries Service's Marine Mammal Conservation Division, telling her to deny the Navy's request to deploy LFA sonar."
Act Now! http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp
For an easy way to Fax a Letter to help stop the terrorization of sea life!.
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Please Note:
Bart Jordan's website (www.bartjordan.com) is down due to nonpayment. Also, Bart has stopped sending new information to Flyby News. However, the fascinating background information that he posted on his website will soon be re-posted at FlybyNews.com. We expect to have this site online within a month. We look forward to announcing this new site for "all the news fit to print in the post Cassini flyby era." We have certainly established a record of breaking news reports regarding issues including sonar-impact on cetacean life, harm from exploded depleted uranium and critical human rights issues. FlybyNews.com will include an archive section from past issues, which will be listed according to their dates and subject titles. We also plan to post a bulletin board for an open exchange of information and ideas. Also, subscribing and removing will become automated.
Please keep the spirit alive and keep acting on policies of transformation that will change our current direction toward extinction and harming most all life on Earth.
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For a magical song/story of North Alaskan Indians and their struggle with the oil industry and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, you can download a "Song For The Gwich'in" by Marienne Kreitlow.
http://www.marienne.com
At the upper right corner of her homepage you can link for an MP3 download.
"Isn't there a way?
Isn't this a page that we have turned?
Isn't this a lesson we have learned?
Oh Sacredness of Life"
Marienne Kreitlow, Living Song, BMI
copyright 1993
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Following is a statement of resignation by Jonathan Mark as a Coordinator with the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England.
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On April 26, I will be stepping down as a Coordinator of the Leonard Peltier Support Group of Greater New England (LPSG/GNE). It is time for me to focus more on my other projects, especially development of an improved Stirling engine for cleaner and more efficient (thermoelectric) onsite power generation. I expect, too, it is a good time for the LPSG/GNE to expand its leadership base. Everyone is welcomed to join in this core work with Chris Groden, members of I.AIM, Paul Burton and others in support of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee (LPDC). Also, Paul Burton has agreed to serve as Manager for the LPSG/GNE LISTSERV. Paul will continue designing hard copy newsletters, too, for wider distribution of campaigns and events in our communities. I believe Jahfree Harp will be around again this spring, who has been key in producing wonderful music benefit events at the Iron Horse Music Hall for the last two years in October. Lahri Bond of Heartwork Graphics continues to be another significant force for our group in his creative artwork and design of fliers announcing events and actions to our communities. Stepping down as a Coordinator and a Founder of the LPSG/GNE is really an honor due to its ongoing work in support of the freedom of Leonard and the reconciliation of our government's relationship with indigenous peoples.
On the last day of my role as a Coordinator, four musicians will be performing at the Fire and Water Cafe (April 26) to benefit the LPSG/GNE. We hope to raise funds to pay off debts at Collective Copies and Paradise Copies, and purchase additional Peltier Congressional Briefing Videos for community access television. The talented performers for the benefit include Joy Sumberg, Tom Neilson, Paul Burton, and the Jennifer Greer Trio. A meeting will precede the music from 5-7pm at a one of a kind vegetarian cafe and performing place. Please join the fun and support the work. Leonard's book and beautiful artwork will remain as treasures through time. Yet, our united effort for his freedom is what gives the chance for breaking the cruel chains of arrogance and racism that have continued with his imprisonment for more than a quarter of a Century.
I helped found the LPSG/GNE in 1998 when the LPDC requested support for nonviolent civil disobedient actions to help expose the injustices of Leonard's case. I had lobbied the LPDC in 1996 to pursue such a campaign, figuring that this method used by Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., appropriate and could be effective in freeing Leonard Peltier. However, the LPDC abandoned this campaign due to opposition of some of their supporters, believing this method would be too confrontational. The LPSG/GNE, disagreed with this perspective, but, in any case, continues to support LPDC campaigns. Supporting the LPDC is really the best way to support Leonard. The LPDC coordinators, Gina Chuala and Pat Benabi, are continuing to work closely with Leonard and with others on his defense team. His attorneys and supporters are accomplished human rights activists, including those who gave testimonies at the Peltier Congressional Briefing in May 2000, which Congressman Porter sponsored. The LPSG/GNE recently showed a video of this at the Unitarian Society of Northampton. You can get a copy of this tape by sending $15 to the Defense Committee [ http://www.freepeltier.org ]. After viewing it, we suggest sending it to the LPSG/GNE or bring it directly to your local public access TV station or library. Many people responded in support of Leonard during the Countdown to Clemency campaign. This united effort at least received national attention when President Clinton announced his priority in reviewing Leonard's Clemency petition. However, the forces of the FBI and the independent investigators apparently blocked or influenced the denial of a Clemency pardon by President Clinton. Leonard Peltier remains in Leavenworth at this time, and is losing more rights for access to the media and to his defense team. Only an expanded and renewed effort will right the wrongs committed by the US government and its intolerance of traditional Native American rights and justice for all. Please respond and help distribute the Congressional Briefing video to our communities, and help pressure Congress for this call for justice and human rights, which is strongly supported by Amnesty International and leaders throughout the world.
Chris Groden, besides his role as Coordinator, also serves the LPSG/GNE as treasurer. Chris asked that I present another great opportunity to support the LPSG/GNE by making a $5 or higher donation to receive a lithographic print of the donated, inspired artwork by Lahri Bond. Chris invested his own money for printing costs to help support LPSG and LPDC campaigns. The lack of support and the false criticism of the LPSG's misuse of funds by some has been very frustrating. Anyone interested in a general accounting of funds at the LPSG/GNE, can write to Chris at cgroden@hotmail.com . The Spirit of Crazy Horse artwork is posted for viewing at http://earthlovers.org/leonard/ . Prints will also be available at upcoming LPSG/GNE events.
On a good note, I.AIM and Arise for Social Justice joined in a Coalition with the LPSG to demonstrate on the 25th anniversary of Leonard's arrest in Springfield, MA. This is a good beginning in joining with those supportive of a unified and nonviolent campaign in our area. However, this unity and show of support needs to expand, if we are ever to be successful in seeing Leonard Peltier free from prison. I don't understand why the LPDC did not report on our united actions on the International Day of Protest for the Arrest of Leonard Peltier. Perhaps the Clemency's denial came too unexpectedly and they weren't prepared for contingency plans. Yet everyone makes mistakes and learning from them are important. Keeping the momentum building from one campaign to the next is critical for achieving Leonard's freedom. For this purpose, the LPSG/GNE is supporting a greater distribution and broadcast of the Congressional Briefing to raise the awareness of the public to help push for Congressional hearings and investigations. Your support for such an initiative with the LPSG and the LPDC is vital in support of democracy, justice and racial harmony on land we share.
It is my conviction that the criminal justice system in the US and elsewhere needs a transformation. All nonviolent and nonvictim offenders are in essence political prisoners in a system that uses cruel and unusual punishment for most all stated crimes. The system is disproportionately unfair to those of minority races. Leonard's freedom is critical for truth and reconciliation for all races. I will continue reporting on this case in Flyby News, which is an E-mail news service covering such divergent and related issues as peace in outer space, disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, environmental, indigenous, and human rights concerns. This work comes from efforts to stop the Cassini plutonium-carrying space probe from a flyby of Earth in 1999. For those interested in the background of this work see http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby . You can subscribe for Flyby News by sending an E-mail to noflyby@yahoo.com .
I will continue supporting the LPSG/GNE and hope we keep the faith and actions for US human rights and integrity throughout our world.
In the spirit of Mitakuye Oyasin, All Our Relations
Jonathan Mark