PeaceWorks' July 2009 Newsletter
Dear Friend,
July 19 marked the 30th anniversary of Nicaragua's revolution. That tremendous achievement by the people of Nicaragua - and the subsequent reaction of the U.S. government to counter if not destroy the gains of the revolution - triggered an equally tremendous and amazing reaction on the part of many communities and thousands of people throughout our nation and the world.
The inspiration of the revolution, the hope engendered by the gains brought to the people of Nicaragua, together with the sadness and anger brought on by the violence of the 1980's that ensued, reverberated through religious, peace, progressive, and solidarity communities throughout the United States - along with similar responses to the struggles for liberation in El Salvador and Guatemala, leading to a tsunami of organizing and transformation that still continues today. Just as those nations were forever changed by the events of those decades, so has our nation, so have our communities, our religious and peace organizations, as well as thousands upon thousands of individuals.
Coming out of these struggles have been connections, relationships that developed over these 30 years and that continue today, all infused with the spirit of Thelma Fernandez Solis, the deceased founder Masaya Without Frontiers, our original Nicaraguan partner organization, as we continue with ìthis task of human dignity that unites men and women from faraway lands, of distinct colors and races, of different histories, but with a common denominator - to give true meaning to our lives."
The news coming out of Central America may have changed, but the relationships continue. Through those relationships we not only continue to directly help people in great need, but we put a human face on global issues, shedding their abstraction, bringing understanding by seeing how our partner organizations confront deforestation, child exploitation, lack of economic opportunity, violence against women, and more. Through that understanding and, importantly, through the opportunity PeaceWorks provides to make a difference, we help dispel hopelessness, despair, and cynicism as we "give true meaning to our lives."
Please continue to help PeaceWorks nurture the relationships we have developed with our Nicaraguan partner organizations as well as among our community of sharing, action, and concern. These are very difficult times for non-profit organizations such as PeaceWorks. With summer usually being a difficult time to raise funds and the major expenses of our October 3 aid shipment to Nicaragua coming up, we are in need of your continuing support.
Please donate generously today. Please think of ways to reach out to friends and family. By tapping into the resources on our website, you can easily share the news of our mission and work. Gather a group of friends for a house party and we will come, show some photos of our work, and perhaps share some recipes and good food.
Thank you for granting us the good fortune of tilling our little garden of hope for all these years. Thank you for accompanying PeaceWorks, for helping sustain our work and our commitments borne of friendship and love. Please just help us get through this difficult spot so we can continue tilling, harvesting, and sharing.
We hope you will help. Please make a tax-deductible donation today. Here are some upcoming events and work projects, as well as resources for thought and action.
Continuing the Values of the Revolution. With the 30th anniversary of Nicaraguaís revolution, there may be articles and perspectives offered on the outcome, successes, failures, and future of the revolution. We will try to post several on our web site as they come out. We have enclosed one such perspective written by Father Arnaldo Zenteno of the Christain Base Communities of Nicaragua. The base communities were an important part of the Latin America social justice and revolutionary movements during the 70's and 80's, but have faced opposition and harassment from the church hierarchy since then. PeaceWorks shares their determination that their and our ìcommitment to the cause of the poor and the cause of justice is authentic and not mere wordsî.
The Honduran Coup. We have enclosed an article that provides an overview and analysis of the June 28 coup in Honduras that was led by a graduate of the School of the Americas, also known as the School of the Coup - go to the web site of the SOA Watch to learn more about this aspect of the coup, www.soa.org. Witness for Peace has sent the following alert asking people to call their Representatives in Congress: "Last week allies in Congress unveiled a new resolution condemning the lethal coup in Honduras. The resolution, introduced by Representatives Bill Delahunt and Jim McGovern, echoes the resounding demands of thousands of Hondurans, the international community, and organizations like Witness for Peace: that President Zelaya be immediately reinstated as the legitimate leader and that the Obama Administration cut off all non-humanitarian assistance to Honduras until that time. Please call your representative today to ask that she/he cosponsor the Delahunt-McGovern resolution. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your House representative." - Witness for Peace, 202.547.6112 — 202.536.4708 — witness@witnessforpeace.org.
Please Come to our 18th Annual Solidarity Roast on September 12. We hope you will come to our annual celebration for the peoples of the Americas. Please come for an afternoon of great food and inspirational entertainment and presentations. We will provide a program update in the next newsletter. We cook a large amount of food so please spread the word and bring some friends. See the enclosed flyer for more information.
Our 56th Aid Shipment to Nicaragua - October 3. Please check out the enclosed flyer to see how you can take part in another leap of faith, sharing, and the expression of the commitment to the poor mentioned above. Take note once again of the changes we have to make in our labeling and inventory procedures. Use generic boxes or boxes that do not indicate that there might be valuable items inside. After packing your items, do not write the contents onto the box ó attach the inventory on a piece of paper and we will provide a coded label for the box. It is unfortunate that we have to do this, but we want our aid to get to our partners! Please also go to our website (www.peaceworks.org) for more specifics and possibly network with others to help collect, pack, and get the materials to United Presbyterian on October 3. By going to our website you can download labels to identify the contents of the boxes you pack and/or you can let us know about how much you are collecting or if you plan to help on loading day. Please help us use our website as a tool to make our shipments more effective.
Outreach, Networking, Promoting PeaceWorks. As we mentioned before, in these times of challenge and scarcity, PeaceWorks needs your help to reach more supporters to strengthen our aid shipments, events, and fundraising. We are appealing to you to help us reach more people. One way to do this is through our website, www.peaceworks.org. Please consider signing up on the web site. This enables you to receive our mailings electronically, to share our activities with your friends and networks with a click of the share button, and to work with us more directly with our events and shipments. We are also trying to tap into Facebook and other networking tools. Become a fan of PeaceWorks through Facebook and inform your online networks of our work, inviting others to learn more, take part, and donate. Just send me an email message at peaceworks@peaceworks.org to get you started and networked.
Our Mid-Summer PeaceWorks Update. Please check out the enclosed update about our work thus far this year and our plans for the coming months. We hope you will take part in some of our events and activities.
I hope you will support PeaceWorks through taking part in our activities and by making tax-deductible contributions. Start collecting and packing. Come to our Solidarity Roast. Network with PeaceWorks. Change and challenge the world.
Peace,
Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks
Jim's glog: First weeks and weeks of rain, now only threats of moisture. Weíll see what survives. I finally saved my blueberry crop from voracious birds by draping netting over them — an amazing crop. Lots of currants and now blackberries. Perhaps I'll bring some homemade jam to our dinner forums. We'll see how the tomatoes and corn survive.
Upcoming Events
Attachements:
30 years of revolution.pdf
Behind the Honduran Coup Geoff Thale.pdf
Pages Aid Brochure 10.3.pdf
PW2009 UPDATE.pdf
solidarity roast flyer 2009 1st.pdf
July 19 marked the 30th anniversary of Nicaragua's revolution. That tremendous achievement by the people of Nicaragua - and the subsequent reaction of the U.S. government to counter if not destroy the gains of the revolution - triggered an equally tremendous and amazing reaction on the part of many communities and thousands of people throughout our nation and the world.
The inspiration of the revolution, the hope engendered by the gains brought to the people of Nicaragua, together with the sadness and anger brought on by the violence of the 1980's that ensued, reverberated through religious, peace, progressive, and solidarity communities throughout the United States - along with similar responses to the struggles for liberation in El Salvador and Guatemala, leading to a tsunami of organizing and transformation that still continues today. Just as those nations were forever changed by the events of those decades, so has our nation, so have our communities, our religious and peace organizations, as well as thousands upon thousands of individuals.
Coming out of these struggles have been connections, relationships that developed over these 30 years and that continue today, all infused with the spirit of Thelma Fernandez Solis, the deceased founder Masaya Without Frontiers, our original Nicaraguan partner organization, as we continue with ìthis task of human dignity that unites men and women from faraway lands, of distinct colors and races, of different histories, but with a common denominator - to give true meaning to our lives."
The news coming out of Central America may have changed, but the relationships continue. Through those relationships we not only continue to directly help people in great need, but we put a human face on global issues, shedding their abstraction, bringing understanding by seeing how our partner organizations confront deforestation, child exploitation, lack of economic opportunity, violence against women, and more. Through that understanding and, importantly, through the opportunity PeaceWorks provides to make a difference, we help dispel hopelessness, despair, and cynicism as we "give true meaning to our lives."
Please continue to help PeaceWorks nurture the relationships we have developed with our Nicaraguan partner organizations as well as among our community of sharing, action, and concern. These are very difficult times for non-profit organizations such as PeaceWorks. With summer usually being a difficult time to raise funds and the major expenses of our October 3 aid shipment to Nicaragua coming up, we are in need of your continuing support.
Please donate generously today. Please think of ways to reach out to friends and family. By tapping into the resources on our website, you can easily share the news of our mission and work. Gather a group of friends for a house party and we will come, show some photos of our work, and perhaps share some recipes and good food.
Thank you for granting us the good fortune of tilling our little garden of hope for all these years. Thank you for accompanying PeaceWorks, for helping sustain our work and our commitments borne of friendship and love. Please just help us get through this difficult spot so we can continue tilling, harvesting, and sharing.
We hope you will help. Please make a tax-deductible donation today. Here are some upcoming events and work projects, as well as resources for thought and action.
Continuing the Values of the Revolution. With the 30th anniversary of Nicaraguaís revolution, there may be articles and perspectives offered on the outcome, successes, failures, and future of the revolution. We will try to post several on our web site as they come out. We have enclosed one such perspective written by Father Arnaldo Zenteno of the Christain Base Communities of Nicaragua. The base communities were an important part of the Latin America social justice and revolutionary movements during the 70's and 80's, but have faced opposition and harassment from the church hierarchy since then. PeaceWorks shares their determination that their and our ìcommitment to the cause of the poor and the cause of justice is authentic and not mere wordsî.
The Honduran Coup. We have enclosed an article that provides an overview and analysis of the June 28 coup in Honduras that was led by a graduate of the School of the Americas, also known as the School of the Coup - go to the web site of the SOA Watch to learn more about this aspect of the coup, www.soa.org. Witness for Peace has sent the following alert asking people to call their Representatives in Congress: "Last week allies in Congress unveiled a new resolution condemning the lethal coup in Honduras. The resolution, introduced by Representatives Bill Delahunt and Jim McGovern, echoes the resounding demands of thousands of Hondurans, the international community, and organizations like Witness for Peace: that President Zelaya be immediately reinstated as the legitimate leader and that the Obama Administration cut off all non-humanitarian assistance to Honduras until that time. Please call your representative today to ask that she/he cosponsor the Delahunt-McGovern resolution. Call the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to be connected to your House representative." - Witness for Peace, 202.547.6112 — 202.536.4708 — witness@witnessforpeace.org.
Please Come to our 18th Annual Solidarity Roast on September 12. We hope you will come to our annual celebration for the peoples of the Americas. Please come for an afternoon of great food and inspirational entertainment and presentations. We will provide a program update in the next newsletter. We cook a large amount of food so please spread the word and bring some friends. See the enclosed flyer for more information.
Our 56th Aid Shipment to Nicaragua - October 3. Please check out the enclosed flyer to see how you can take part in another leap of faith, sharing, and the expression of the commitment to the poor mentioned above. Take note once again of the changes we have to make in our labeling and inventory procedures. Use generic boxes or boxes that do not indicate that there might be valuable items inside. After packing your items, do not write the contents onto the box ó attach the inventory on a piece of paper and we will provide a coded label for the box. It is unfortunate that we have to do this, but we want our aid to get to our partners! Please also go to our website (www.peaceworks.org) for more specifics and possibly network with others to help collect, pack, and get the materials to United Presbyterian on October 3. By going to our website you can download labels to identify the contents of the boxes you pack and/or you can let us know about how much you are collecting or if you plan to help on loading day. Please help us use our website as a tool to make our shipments more effective.
Outreach, Networking, Promoting PeaceWorks. As we mentioned before, in these times of challenge and scarcity, PeaceWorks needs your help to reach more supporters to strengthen our aid shipments, events, and fundraising. We are appealing to you to help us reach more people. One way to do this is through our website, www.peaceworks.org. Please consider signing up on the web site. This enables you to receive our mailings electronically, to share our activities with your friends and networks with a click of the share button, and to work with us more directly with our events and shipments. We are also trying to tap into Facebook and other networking tools. Become a fan of PeaceWorks through Facebook and inform your online networks of our work, inviting others to learn more, take part, and donate. Just send me an email message at peaceworks@peaceworks.org to get you started and networked.
Our Mid-Summer PeaceWorks Update. Please check out the enclosed update about our work thus far this year and our plans for the coming months. We hope you will take part in some of our events and activities.
I hope you will support PeaceWorks through taking part in our activities and by making tax-deductible contributions. Start collecting and packing. Come to our Solidarity Roast. Network with PeaceWorks. Change and challenge the world.
Peace,
Jim Burchell, PeaceWorks
Jim's glog: First weeks and weeks of rain, now only threats of moisture. Weíll see what survives. I finally saved my blueberry crop from voracious birds by draping netting over them — an amazing crop. Lots of currants and now blackberries. Perhaps I'll bring some homemade jam to our dinner forums. We'll see how the tomatoes and corn survive.
Upcoming Events
Attachements:
30 years of revolution.pdf
Behind the Honduran Coup Geoff Thale.pdf
Pages Aid Brochure 10.3.pdf
PW2009 UPDATE.pdf
solidarity roast flyer 2009 1st.pdf
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