"Celebrating a Community of Peace" Rally

CPJ, 18.03.2009 13:28

Major Peace Rally & March in Medford on March 21st

“Celebrating a Community of Peace”


John Frohnmayer, Jeff Golden and the Rogue Valley Peace Choir will headline what has become an annual event in downtown Medford: a big peace rally & march beginning at 11:30 am Saturday, March 21st, in Alba Park, marking the 6th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. More than 4,250 US troops have died in the Iraq War; more than 660 in Afghanistan.

Citizens for Peace & Justice of Medford is the principal sponsor of the event with help from Peace House, Southern Oregon Jobs with Justice, Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom – Ashland Branch, UNETE, PFLAG of Josephine County, Oregon Action, Veterans for Peace – Rogue Valley Chapter 156, Rural Organizing Project, Southern Oregon Health Care for America Now! and the Jackson County Pacific Green Party. We are celebrating the way all of these groups work together for peace and justice in our community. The local event is one of hundreds throughout the nation this month calling for all US troops to be pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan.



Author and former Jefferson Exchange radio talk show host Jeff Golden will serve as Master of Ceremonies. John Frohnmayer’s featured speech will focus on “Peace as a State of Mind.” A Medford native, Frohnmayer achieved fame by being fired from his post as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1992 for refusing to pull federal funding from a museum exhibiting the works of Robert Maplethorpe. He has written a book and a musical about the ordeal. Frohnmayer comes from a famous legal family (his brother is former Oregon AG David Frohnmayer, the outgoing president of the University of Oregon, and his late father Otto was a prominent Medford lawyer.) John is currently a liberal arts professor at Oregon State University.



After Frohnmayer’s speech and others, the Rogue Valley Peace Choir will perform. Then, the crowd -- with banners flying -- will march through downtown Medford and back to Alba Park where the Ashland Taiko drummers will entertain. Attendees are urged to bring lawn chairs to enjoy the program in comfort and peace & protest signs to carry during the march. Monitors will remain in the park during the march.

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Take Action - Show support for war resisters 16.03.2009 - 21:17 National Week of Letter Writing to Show Support for War Resisters March 16-23, 2009 Where: In your community (at your house, community center, religious space, etc.) Organize a letter-writing party in your community to show support for war resisters. Robin Long, recently deported from Canada, is serving a 15-month sentence for refusing to fight in Iraq. Tony Anderson is currently serving a 14-month sentencing for resisting deployment to Iraq. Many more war resisters are sitting in prison for refusing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and countless more live with that possibility. Several war resisters have been threatened with deportation from Canada, and Chris Teske and Cliff Cornell have already been forced to leave. We are asking allies of the G.I. resistance movement to gather together to write: Letters of support to war resisters in prison, awaiting court martial, or seeking refuge in Canada Letters to the Canadian government asking that war resisters be allowed to stay Letters to our own government demanding amnesty for war resisters War Resister Letter-Writing Parties provide a concrete way to show emotional support for war resisters and establish human connections between civilian support networks and troops refusing to fight. The idea is for a group of people to bring their community together to write letters and to use the occasion to build awareness and solidarity around the issue of G.I. resistance. We are asking folks to organize their letter-writing events around the sixth anniversary of the Iraq War so that we can take this somber occasion to recognize the brave troops who refuse to fight: the people who give us hope that an end to unjust war is possible. Courage to Resist will provide you with all of the materials and information you need to host your letter-writing party, including: information and contact info of war resisters, template letters for U.S. and Canadian governments, and literature about G.I. resistance. If you are interested in organizing a letter-writing party, or if you have any questions, please contact us at  courage@riseup.net or 510-488-3559. We are happy to walk you through the process of organizing a letter-writing party and brainstorm ways to tailor your event to the needs of your community. For more info go to  http://www.couragetoresist.org courage to resist supporter> Homepage:: http://