It is better to "talk, talk, talk,..." for 10,000 years, than to waste even One Life for an Unjust and Unnecessary War.
Peace Vigils

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Honor our war dead

This Friday, from noon to 8 p.m., there will be an opportunity to remember and honor those who have died in the U.S.-Iraq war and occupation. Whether you can come to the First Christian Church on Vineville or not, please take a moment to think about all of those who have fallen or been injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, their families, their nations, and our world.

It's time to make time for peace. The display and 6:30 p.m. musical program are a part of Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition's "Nine Cities in Nine Days" tour that leads to this weekend's vigil held at Fort Benning by the School of the Americas Watch.

Craig Fluck
Macon
http://www.macon.com/209/story/187611.html
Posted on Fri, Nov. 16, 2007 p9A






Peace in Novemberr 2007
  - Silent Peace Vigils on Friday Afternoons 5 - 5:30pm
- Rain or Shine, let your silence be heard! 
- Pro-peace or Anti-war messages only, please.
- No personal nor political bashing.
- Join those who share your concerns and take a stand for your convictions. 
- Signs are provided.
-
Meet across the street from the Post Office on College Street in Macon, Georgia
http://www.macon.com/209/story/182473.html
Posted on Sun, Nov. 11, 2007

We must face the facts

Your front page story on local school children sending cards and letters to our soldiers in Iraq was moving. The coverage of this event on Channel 13 showed Col. Berry quoting one child's letter as saying, "I am so glad you are over there defending our freedoms."

Pardon me, but which of our freedoms are our soldiers in Iraq defending? Iraq never attacked us and never threatened to attack us. None of the 9/11 terrorists were Iraqis, and there is no evidence the Iraqi government was involved in the plot. None. Our freedoms are certainly at risk, but not from Iraq. It is the Bush administration that is whittling away our Bill of Rights.

Muslim extremists hate us all over the world. But there was no Muslim extremist threat in Iraq before we invaded them. Saddam Hussein, however evil, was thoroughly secular and no friend to al-Qaida.

I am not criticizing our troops. They are just following orders. I am not criticizing the child for assuming that we are the good guys and when we fight it is because our freedoms are threatened. I held the same beliefs at her age, along with a passionate conviction that Americans would never stoop to torturing our enemies.

However good it feels to cling to those convictions, responsible adults who through their votes set public policy must face the facts.

Mary Ann van Hartesveldt
Fort Valley




I must take issue

Lee Ballard's Perspectives' page article on Sept. 29 contains a few points I take issue with. He said, "Congress, via several public laws and resolutions, began the military push into Iraq for the second time long before Bush took office; their last action resulted in Public Law 105-338, the Iraq Liberation act of 1998."

Public Law 105-338 says nothing about attacking Iraq. On the contrary, it specifically forbids military action against Iraq. It consist of eight sections, the first seven (too long to list here) outlines what is to be done under the law. The last section says this: Sec. 8. "Rule of construction. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces. Public Law 107-243, the authorization for use of military forces Against Iraq, passed in 2002, "authorizes the president to use the military as he determines to be necessary and appropriate to implement Public Law 105-338."

Public Law 107-243 doesn't have anything even remotely to do with PL 105-338, which was implemented by Bill Clinton in 1998. The words Ballard attributed to David Kay, weapons inspector, and Sen. Ted Kennedy, were taken out of context. If he had kept reading he would have come to these words by David Kay: "My summary view, based on what I've seen, is we're very unlikely to find large stockpiles of weapons. I don't think they exist." So yes, it (is) Bush's war.

Oscar M. Coile
Byron



Ron Richards
January 14, 1940 -  October 05, 2007
Ron
(page)

Setting an example

Last week our community lost a real treasure with the passing of Ron Richards. Ron was a gentle soul who touched the lives of all those around him with kindness and love.

On a cold, blustery afternoon in late February 2003, Ron stood at the corner of Pio Nono and Vineville avenues holding aloft a sign protesting America's imminent invasion of Iraq. Some of the drivers passing by gave Ron a thumbs-up or honked their horns, while many others made obscene gestures toward him.

Last Friday, the weekly gathering to protest the war drew a much larger crowd than would have been possible four years ago. Those who honked in solidarity with the demonstrators far outnumbered those who directed obscene gestures. It seems that many have finally realized what Ron tried to tell us years four ago: That the invasion of Iraq was a tragic mistake, a fiasco of the first order, an immoral waste of human life and valuable resources, and a testimony to national arrogance and vanity.

We will miss you, Ron, but we will always remember the example you set for us, and we will try to keep faith.

Randy Harshbarger
Macon

Posted on Fri, Oct. 19, 2007
http://www.macon.com


Georgians for "Bringing Them Home" - Now!...
The job of a Citizen is to Speak-Out (Mouths Wide Open)
Peace Storm over Macon 9-14-07

 - Please join us -

The THIRD FRIDAY of every month 

 IRAQ-Moratorium!!

Moratorium weekends.  Nov. 16-18, Dec. 21-23; Jan. 18-20. 

Lee and Peggy
Sisters Lee A. Johnson of Macon, left, and Peggy Johnson, a Navy veteran of Lexington Okla. right,
 attend a peace rally at the Pentagon in Washington, DC







  http://www.answercoalition.org





 







Military members join the movement ---
 Appeal For Redress .org
and
Vote Vets.org



Macon-PEACE - Archives :
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Contact us - E-Mail







APRIL 25, 2007: "Buying the War"

Intro:
BILL MOYERS:
Four years ago this spring the Bush administration took leave of reality and plunged our country into a war so poorly planned it soon turned into a disaster. The story of how high officials misled the country has been told. But they couldn't have done it on their own; they needed a compliant press, to pass on their propaganda as news and cheer them on.

Since then thousands of people have died, and many are dying to this day. Yet the story of how the media bought what the White House was selling has not been told in depth on television. As the war rages into its fifth year, we look back at those months leading up to the invasion, when our press largely surrendered its independence and skepticism to join with our government in marching to war.

Summation:
The American number of troops killed in Iraq now exceeds the number of victims on 9/11. We have been fighting there longer than it took us to defeat the Nazis in World War II. The costs of the war are reckoned at one trillion dollars and counting. The number of Iraqis killed -- over thirty-five thousand last year alone-- is hard to pin down. The country is in chaos...

 Read the entire transcript:

<http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/transcript1.html>


"The Big Lie" 
Posted on Thu, Aug. 30, 2007

Continuing 'The Big Lie'

There have been four new TV political ads airing for a little more than a week across the U.S. that use wounded veterans or relatives of slain soldiers to explain what a tragedy it would be for Congress "for political reasons" to withdraw from the war in Iraq.

These are part of a $15 million, privately supported effort by a group of powerful Republicans who have strong ties to President Bush. It is the latest effort to shore up crumbling support in Congress for a war that has fallen out of favor with more than 70 percent of Americans.

These 30-second spots are being broadcast in 20 selected states and in more than five dozen congressional districts, preceding the report Gen. David Petraeus is to give to Congress concerning the success or failure of the U.S. surge effort in Iraq.

The campaign is spearheaded by Freedoms Watch, (online, Freedoms Watch.com) whose spokesman, according to The New York Times, is Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to President Bush and a member of the group's board.

Fleischer told The Times particular states were targeted because "Anyone who is considering switching their vote is somebody we care about."

And McClatchy newspapers reported that Freedoms Watch president, Bradley A. Blakeman, is a former senior assistant to President Bush. He says the mission "is to get out the message that surrender is not an option in Iraq - to stiffen the back of Congress to do the right thing and not to switch votes for political reasons."

Lucky us, Georgia is one of the states that the President's Men feel members of Congress need that extra spinal support to keep the war humming.

While one might disagree with the sentiment in the ads because they are deceptive in the way they are presented, everyone has a right to lobby for political causes, even bad ones. It would be nice, however, if the campaign were based on truth.

That's not the case here. These ads are disingenuous; three of the four TV spots are based on a continuation of The Big Lie, that there really is a connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11 attack by Islamic terrorists.

Well I'm sorry, but that just isn't so, and anybody capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time should know this by now.

There is absolutely no evidence that Saddam Hussein, a genuinely nasty piece of work, played any role in 9/11. When America unleashed its "shock and awe" attack on Iraq, it didn't target the Saudi Arabians who co-opted our jetliners and used them as flying bombs.

The U.S. went to war with Iraq supposedly to unseat Saddam because Mr. Bush and Congress mistakenly thought Iraq had those infamous Weapons of Mass Destruction and was a threat to the United States.

But here's the storyline of the first ad broadcast; the others follow the general tone. A injured veteran, in a home-like setting, says:

"Congress was right to vote to fight terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan. I re-enlisted after 9/11 because I don't want my sons to see what I saw.

"I want to be free and safe. I know what I have lost.

"I also know that if we pull out now everything that I've given up and sacrificed will mean nothing.

"They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop with Iraq.

"We are winning on the ground, and we are making real progress. It's no time to quit.

"It's no time for politics."

The ad shows the twin towers of the world trade center with smoke billowing from gaping holes where the airliners hit.

A later ad has a mother of a veteran who tell us that "we've already had one 9/11, we don't need another one."

These ads are slick - and sick. They make their point through deception while twisting reality. Incidentally, the phone number the ads give to call your congressional representative - 1-877-222-8001 - isn't Congress. It's a number at Freedoms Watch, and they are only looking for messages of support.

To call Congress direct, to give whatever message you might wish, the Senate's number is (202) 225-3121 and the House is (202) 225-3121.

Phil Dodson can be reached at 744-4239 or at pdodson@macontel.com.


  Christian vigils:
 
www.christianpeacewitness.org  

Jews, Christians, Moslems :
Old Testament links US All under One Law

Moses brought new laws and new regulations for his people. Moses (peace be upon him) not only gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites, but a very comprehensive ceremonial law for the guidance of his people.

As regards to Jesus (peace be upon him) he took a strong stand to assure the Jews that he had not come with a new religion or new regulations different from what Moses brought to the world. Jesus was quoted in the gospel of Matthew 5:17-18 saying "Think not that I am come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no way pass from the law, till all be fulfilled."

Mohammad (peace be upon him) took the pains to assure what Jesus had assured before him to the world. Mohammad also came to fulfill not to deny or destroy what Moses had established and what Jesus confirmed.

You can read in the Holy Quran chapter 2 verse 62 "Those who believe in the Quran, and those who follow the Jewish scriptures and the Christians and the Sabians, and any who believe in God and the last day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; On them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve."

Muslims have been warned many times in the Quran not to discriminate against any previous laws or scriptures that were revealed upon Abraham, Moses and Jesus and all must be believed in and must be admitted throughout Muslim behavior. The Quran stated in chapter 2, verse 136 "Say you: We believe in God, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ishmail, Isaac, Jacob, and the tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to all prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them, and we bow to God in peace."

That is why there has never been quoted any statement by a Muslim against the person of Abraham, Moses or Jesus. It always has and always will be, one law and one message from the Lord of Universe to the mankind.

Ahmed Yousef is a resident of Macon.
http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/editorial/letters/17002920.htm
Posted on Mon, Apr. 02, 2007

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