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Past EventsVigil and rally with BuxMont CFPA on Friday March 19th, the Seventh Anniversary of the war in Iraq. From 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. we will have a peaceful vigil at Silver Lake Park on the Route 413 Bypass in Newtown. This is directly next to Lockheed Martin. There is a small parking lot that you can park in. From H-Bombs to Handguns: Creating a Safer WorldSaturday, March 6, 3:00 p.m. - Rescheduled from the February date. Ward Wilson, a nuclear weapons scholar who is increasingly the source of fundamental challenges to the nuclear status quo. Ward will speak about rethinking nuclear weapons in light of Hiroshima. His work has been described as “some of the most original and exacting thinking being done about nuclear weapons today.” Directions: View Larger Map BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action is proud to sponsor this event. March Meetings and EventsSunday, March 7, 6:00 p.m. Campaign to Close the Army Experience Center Please join us as we listen to readings and recordings from Dr. King’s Riverside speech as well as hear from guest speakers including Reverend Robert Moore, Executive Director of Coalition for Peace Action. One year before he was tragically killed at New York City's Riverside Church King delivered the lines: "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." Forty years later, there is still ever-increasing military spending. The Department of Defense 2010 budget, which runs from October 1, 2009 to September 30, 2010, is almost $663 billion. This money is used to support war and militarization. Obama's Fiscal 2011 spending plan, set for release on February 1, is expected to seek $700 billion for Department of Defense expenses! This record high request includes money for additional troops in Afghanistan. In his same Riverside Church speech, King said "There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war." As part of its ongoing campaign to close the Army Experience Center (AEC) in Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philadelphia, CFPA will spearhead a demonstration on Saturday, January 16 during the weekend commemorating the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. The AEC uses actual machine guns, humvees, and electronic war games to entice children as young as 13 to consider enlisting in the US Army. The Demonstration will begin with a Vigil at 11:30 AM at the corner of Knights and Woodhaven Roads, near the entrance of the Franklin Mills Mall. It will tentatively include a March to the AEC and a Rally in front of it, with dynamic speakers in the prophetic tradition of Dr. King. Plans are for the event to conclude at approximately 1:30 PM. For further information contact CFPA Pennsylvania staffer Bill Deckhart at (215) 380-6804 or through the contact page. War is Not a Game, but that is how the Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia portrays it to teens as young as 13 years of age. We have an ongoing campaign to close the Army Experience Center. We Won't Shop at the Franklin Mills Mall until the Army Experience Center is Out of There! “This is so cool! This is so cool!” a thirteen-year-old boy repeated as he squeezed rounds from a real M-16, picking off “enemy combatants” in a video game while perched atop a real Army Humvee. “I just came to the mall to skateboard but everyone said this was pretty cool. …" This is how the U.S. Army recruits at its large Army Experience Center, located in the Franklin Mills Mall in Northeast Philadelphia. The Army Experience Center at the Franklin Mills Mall teaches children war and violence, luring them into the ways of militarism, through a computer or simulation game. Bucks and Eastern Montgomery County Chapters of the Coalition for Peace Action held a vigil after the 1000th death a US soldier in Afghanistan on Tuesday February 23rd from 5:00 - 6:00 PM at the Trenton Makes bridge in Morrisville, PA. Dear Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) Contact,
The Rev. Robert Moore EMERGENCY EVENTS PLANNED THROUGHOUT DELAWARE VALLEY REGION IN RESPONSE TO IMPENDING DEATH OF 1000TH US SOLDIER IN AFGHANISTAN Action plans for Black Friday Event at the Army Experience Center: At noon on Friday, November 27, the busiest shopping day of the year known as BLACK FRIDAY, join the noon vigil at the corner of Knights and Woodhaven Roads to let thousands of shoppers know that we are not shopping the Mall and we are encouraging others to do the same as long as it is home to the Army Experience Center. Walk with us into the Franklin Mills Mall to the let store owners and Mall management know that they have the power to Close the Army Experience Center. The current plan is to gather at the corner of Knights and Woodhaven road at 12:00 noon for a one-hour vigil. There is a shopper’s pledge that we will sign publicly at the vigil. Following the vigil we will divide up into small groups and everyone will go into the mall, where we will split up and visit the shop owners and store managers and give them our flyer that states that we will not shop this holiday season at Franklin Mills because the Army Experience Center is there. The mall is divided into sections by color, so different groups will go to different areas of the mall and we can get as many stores covered as possible. At a designated time we will then meet at the Army Experience Center and let them know that this is the next step we have taken to keep our campaign going to close the Army Experience Center. This will be a peaceful, nonviolent day and we are not planning any civil disobedience that would get anyone arrested. Please plan on keeping to these criteria if you are joining us. We do not want to disrespect the shop owners and managers; we just want to let them know what our reasons are for not shopping at Franklin Mills. Public transportation, visit www.septa.com. From Philadelphia's Frankford Terminal take the #67 or #84 bus. The #84 bus, which runs hourly to the Franklin Mills Mall, passes right in front of the corner of Knights and Woodhaven Roads. Organized by the United for Peace and Justice - Delaware Valley Network BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action sponsored renowned author David Swanson BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action is proud to sponsor renowned author David Swanson at a speaking engagement on November 4, 2009, 1:00 p.m. at Bucks County Community College, Newtown Campus, in the Fireside Lounge. The Fireside Lounge is located in the lower level of the Rollins Center (Student Union) on the campus at 275 Swamp Road, Newtown, PA. How the Bush years fundamentally changed US government,
BOOK TOPIC: Daybreak is a prescription for political reform that literally ends with a to-do list for citizens, and draws inspiration from the misdeeds and missteps of the Bush and Obama presidencies. What powers were stripped from Congress and handed to the White House while George W. Bush lived there, and what would it take to permanently move them back? Which of these powers is Barack Obama making use of or even expanding upon? And in the future, how can we expand our rights, create democratic representation in Congress, and make presidents into executives rather than emperors? This is a citizens' guide to the long-term task of removing power from the hands of one person, placing it in a body of representatives, and (here's the hard part) making that body truly representative of the American people. Swanson's analysis makes clear that the imperial presidency, which advanced so dramatically during the Bush-Cheney era, will not be stopped merely by electing better presidents. Major structural changes are needed in our system of government to rein in both the imperial presidency and, at the same time, the presidential empire. Only through the active efforts of citizens, Swanson argues, can we restore and protect our rights, and expand our conception of political rights to meet new challenges. From H-Bomb to Handguns:
Making the World Safe Sponsored by Buxmont Coalition for Peace Action and Northeast Philadelphia for Peace and Justice Hiroshima Day Events Commemoration of the Anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing: Thursday, August 6 BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action had a picnic!! This is a chance for everyone to come together and enjoy a potluck picnic in this beautiful setting. Please bring a potluck dish to share with others. We will provide drinks and there will be a cake for dessert. The website states there are grills provided. If you would like to grill something please let me know so that we provide charcoal. This is a family picnic! Please bring your children, parents, and friends. We would like to make sure we have appropriate games for the children so please RSVP if you intend on joining us for the picnic and include the ages of the children who will be joining us. Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox and Myth America Tour came to Northeast Philadelphia and Warrington, Bucks County... Cindy Sheehan What’s next for the peace movement? Cindy Sheehan shared her ideas for re-invigorating the movement for peace & justice in two well-attended, pertinent, and informative lectures in our area. CINDY SHEEHAN is barnstorming across America, RE-framing the Debate, RE-invigorating the Peace Movement, and RE-energizing our Sisters and Brothers in the Peace and Justice Movement. presented by BuxMont Coalition For Peace Action, Delaware Valley Veterans for America, St. Luke’s UCC, and BuxMont UU
Cindy's world changed forever on April 4, 2004, when her eldest child, Casey Austin, was killed while serving in Iraq. He was 24 years old. Casey, who was a Specialist in the First Cavalry Unit in Sadr City, was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star posthumously for his valor in combat. In response to this tragedy, Cindy Sheehan founded the Gold Star Families for Peace in January 2005. This organization, which is comprised of family members who have had relatives die as a result of war, is dedicated to ending the occupation in Iraq and bringing our troops home. In August 2005, Cindy traveled to Crawford, Texas, with the goal of speaking personally to President Bush to demand an end to the occupation of Iraq. Other peace activists joined Cindy's efforts and the demonstrations that came to be known as "Camp Casey" began. Camp Casey was a regular gathering held whenever Bush was in Crawford, Texas, and it drew thousands of activists and celebrities from all over the world to protest the Iraq conflict. Between Camp Casey events, Cindy traveled to numerous countries to speak to world leaders about diplomatic resolution to conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan. She has met with foreign leaders and legislators from South Korea, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, Egypt, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. Cindy Sheehan has received special recognition for her diplomatic missions from the U.S. Congress and the governments of South Korea, Scotland, and Canada. Cindy Sheehan has been a keynote speaker and honored guest at numerous conferences and organizations around the world. She has received dozens of peace awards and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. Nobel Literature Laureate Dario Fo has written a play about Cindy, called Peace Mom. Known worldwide for her determined efforts to promote peace, Cindy Sheehan has been dubbed "the Rosa Parks of the antiwar movement" and "Peace Mom" by the mainstream press. Specifically, she has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, The Nation, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, and Vanity Fair, along with scores of alternative media publications. Cindy is an accomplished author, having written numerous newspaper columns and magazine articles. She has written three books: Not One More Mother's Child, Dear President Bush, and Peace Mom. In addition, Cindy has authored several articles that have been published in compilations and written forwards to many others. Cindy has a blog called Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox. She also has an upcoming book entitled Myth America: 10 Greatest Myths of the Robber Class and the Case for Revolution!
First Friday Film Forum presented "The Dark Side" June 5 at 7 p.m. On Friday June 5th at 7 p.m. at The Peace Center, Maple and Bellevue Avenues in Langhorne, the First Friday Film Forum will present a free screening of “The Dark Side.” Incredibly thorough investigative reporting by Frontline has produced this powerful documentary on the behind-the-scenes events in the Bush Administration White House leading up to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq. Frontline’s investigation contains more that 40 interviews, thousands of pages of documentary evidence, and a substantial photographic archive. Not long after the attack on September 11, 2001, while Vice President Dick Cheney was ordering U.S fighter planes to shoot down commercial airliners, CIA Director George Tenet was preparing his counter-terrorism team for a new kind of war. Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and others saw Iraq as an important part of a broader plan to remake the Middle Ease and project American power worldwide. Tenet, on the other hand, saw non-state actors such as Al Qaeda as the highest priority. The ensuing debate, media leaks, misinformation and internal maneuverings makes a fascinating study on how our country has been “bungled” into the current no-win situation. The 90-minute documentary will be followed by a 30-minute discussion and refreshments. First Friday Film Forum, started in 2006, is dedicated to the public showing of films and documentaries that generate critical thinking about U.S. foreign and domestic policies. Most of the films in the series are also available to borrow free of charge for private showings. Father Louis VitaleWednesday, May 20, 2009 at 7 p.m.“Torture: Spiritual and Moral Perspectives”Presented at United Christian Church, 8525 New Falls Road, Levittown PA
With a background in sociology and a focus on the Sociology of Religion and social movements, Father Vitale is a long-time social activist. He is a Franciscan priest who served as the provincial of the California Franciscan. For twelve years, he was the pastor of St. Boniface Catholic Church in a low-income neighborhood in San Francisco, California. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Father Vitale has been active in social justice movements for over four decades. During that time, he has been arrested hundreds of times and has accumulated over a year in jail time for his involvement in a number of local and international causes. Vitale, who lives at St. Elizabeth's Friary in Oakland, is one of a small number of religious figures around the nation who seek to go to jail for their beliefs. "By taking on the suffering of others, we change the world," he says. "We are willing to put our bodies where they are and suffer the consequences, be what they may." Father Vitale finished serving a six-month sentence for his nonviolent action in trying to draw attention to and to close the School of the Americas/Whinsec at Ft. Benning, GA in 2006. He is currently the “Action Advocate” for Pace e Bene and is involved in trying to raise awareness about issues of torture and US involvement in it. To that end, he was arrested at Ft. Huachuca in Nov 2006 and served five months in prison from October 2007 to March 2008 for nonviolent action taken at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, where US military personnel are taught torture techniques at the base’s intelligence school. In March 2009, as he appeared before a federal magistrate in Santa Barbara dressed in the traditional brown robe and the knotted rope belt that signifies vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, Vitale explained that he had a higher purpose when he trespassed two years ago at Vandenberg Air Force Base: calling attention to the perils of nuclear war and persuading military personnel to embrace nonviolence. He told the magistrate, "The biggest threat to the world is our nuclear arsenal.” Father Vitale’s next protest will be fasting and holding vigils at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. Pilots there remotely fly Predator drones, which target terrorists but sometimes also hit civilians. Fr. Vitale's talk was sponsored by the Coalition for Peace Action (CFPA) U. S. Policy in Afghanistan Please join us for this opportunity to hear U.S. State Department Foreign Affairs Officer, Joseph Mata speak on official U.S. Policy in Afghanistan. Bring your questions! Mr. Mata has worked in the Department of State’s Office for Afghanistan since early 2006. He currently covers issues related to governance and internal political affairs in Afghanistan. Prior to joining the Department of State, Mr. Mata worked for nearly two and a half years as a political affairs officer in Afghanistan with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA. Mr. Mata holds an MA in International Affairs from the George Washington University. Organized by Bill Deckhart, BuxMont CFPA and Robin Stelly, Penn Action Teaching Micro Finance in Afghanistan Sunday, May 3, 2009,
5:00 p.m. Brenda’s travels to Africa, Central America, and Central Asia have resulted in a collection of hopeful and inspiring stories about children, women’s empowerment and peace. She visited MCC work in Kenya, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Uganda. She has also traveled to Nicaragua , El Salvador and Brazil. Sponsored by BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action and Penn Action Saturday, May 2 - Protest at Franklin Mills Mall Army Experience Center Regional Groups to Converge on Philadelphia Shopping Mall to Protest the Army Experience Center Franklin Mills Mall in Philadelphia Strolling through Franklin Mills Mall in suburban Philadelphia is a lot like any other mall in the United States. There's an Old Navy and a Gap Outlet, a Food Court and even a Neiman Marcus. But there's something different and deeply disturbing here. Next to Dave and Buster's Grand Sports Café, the United States Army has opened; the Army Experience Center, a one-of-a-kind, 14,500-square-foot "virtual educational facility" where it seduces vulnerable teens into military service by dazzling them with electronic killing games. They're teaching 13 year-olds to kill and they may have plans to open one in a mall near you. Video games offer the perfect segues between childhood innocence and institutionalized killing. That's why the Army opened the Army Experience Center, (AEC). Although the Army says it's not about recruiting, it admits all 20 soldiers stationed at the mall are active duty recruiters. Youth, who are attracted to the mall by the popular skate park adjacent to the AEC, find the free, interactive video games to be irresistible. Have we gone irrecoverably mad? We must stop this abomination before it takes hold across the country. The Army is proud of its pilot project and says it is pulling in the same number of recruits as five of its traditional recruiting stations. At 2:00 pm people will emerge from “shopping” throughout the mall and converge on the Army Experience Center. We are committed to creative nonviolence. We are people of peace. For more information go to www.shutdowntheaec.net and at the Coalition For Peace Action website. Franklin Mills Mall is located at 1455 Franklin Mills Circle, Philadelphia, PA Thursday, April 23 from 8:30 a.m. to Noon - Demonstrate at the Lockheed-Martin shareholders' meeting in Philadelphia. CFPA is a co-sponsor of this event. We will be taking the train from Lower Bucks into Center City on Thursday morning - meeting time will be posted at the Langhorne train station later this week but we expect to leave by 7 a.m. Lockheed Martin is the world's largest weapons corporation, the U.S.'s chief nuclear bomb and space weapons contractor, the world's largest international arms dealer, Israel's largest arms partner, and the Iraq War's chief weapons profiteer. Lockheed Martin, which received $42.7 billion in 2008 from the public treasury for weapons and war, is the very center of the corporate war economy and the "elephant in the room" of the current economic meltdown and enabler of war and violence around the world. Thursday, APRIL 23, ANNUAL SHAREHOLDERS MEETING OF LOCKHEED MARTIN, Double Tree Hotel, 237 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA. PROTEST LOCKHEED MARTIN, WORLD'S LARGEST WAR PROFITEER! Phila. City Hall (west side) - Double Tree Hotel 8:30 a.m.. - Center City protest vigil, music, large banners and props including coffin and "LockMar," the purple eight-foot tall inflatable "800 pound gorilla in the room" of the current economic collapse, and leafleting, at Philadelphia City Hall (west side), 15th & Market Streets. 9:30A.M. - Short coffin-lead March to Double Tree Hotel, Lockheed Martin Shareholders Meeting (which runs from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a..m.) for protest demonstration. Join us in bringing to Lockheed Martin CEO and management the deadly consequences of Lockheed Martin's war and weapons profiteering here and around the world. Stop Lockheed Martin: Make it loud, make it a sight; join us April 23 in Organized by the Brandywine Peace Community, www.brandywinepeace.com and Co-sponsored by: BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action, Catholic Peace Fellowship, and Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace. We returned to protest at Lockheed-Martin on April 15th from 4:30-5:30.We held a vigil at Silver Lake Park (on the Rt. 413/ Newtown bypass) on April 15 from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. The Tax Day message will be "Invest our Tax Dollars in a Peace Economy - Tax Dollars for Health Care Not Warfare - Windmills Not Weapons - Books Not Bombs.” You can use these slogans to make signs to bring. Lockheed-Martin's role as the largest war profiteer in the country makes it an appropriate venue for our message that we must move from a war economy to a peace economy. March with Coalition For Peace Action in New York City on Saturday, April 4th HEALTH CARE REFORM WORKSHOP
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Cindy will be coming to speak during her current national tour. She is calling this the Seat of OUR Pants Tour. She writes: "I am now very excited to hit the road again by myself, by the seat of my pants doing what I can to Rally the Robbed Class to become the Independent Class. To build upon existing friendships and organization and build new relationships and structures where needed.
I am calling it the Seat of OUR Pants, because like my Congressional Run and my Online Show, these movements must spring up organically from the literal grassroots to be effective and I need your help!"
Father Louis Vitale is the founder of Pace e Bene Action Nonviolence Service. Pace e Bene fosters a more peaceful and just world through nonviolence education, community building, and action. Fr. Vitale also co-founded The Nevada Desert Experience (NDE), and its enduring movement to end nuclear weapons testing. He has accompanied a peace and friendship delegation to Iran with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. 
