CAMPAIGN FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE SCORES TREMENDOUS
VICTORY ON PORTLAND REFERENDUM QUESTION
GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING OVERCOMES CORPORATE MONEY
Members of the Campaign for Universal Health Care, the coalition that backed the victorious Portland referendum question for universal health care, celebrated a tremendous grassroots victory over the unprecedented spending by Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield in a municipal referendum campaign. Unofficial results had the referendum backers garnering 6,979 votes, nearly 52%, to 6,447 for the no side.
Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield was attempting to use what normally would be a low-key non-binding referendum question and turn it into a statewide referendum on universal single payer health care. The citizens overcame corporate intimidation as Portland voters saw through Anthems distortions and rejected their scare campaign. We think state legislators will do the same, declared campaign co-manager Tammy Greaton who is also co-director of the Maine Peoples Alliance, a leader of the successful effort this past June to enact state legislation to create a single payer system. Greaton estimated her side spent about $25,000 to win.
The referendum question, initiated by the Southern Maine Labor Party, asked Portland voters if they wanted the city council to support a resolution supporting the creation of a system of universal health care. The question also asks that an annual analysis be performed by the Director of the Citys Health and Human Services Department to assess the effects of a universal system on the citys budget and residents.
Dr. Duncan Wright, co-chair of the campaign, said, Voting yes on the referendum meant that Portland citizens support guaranteed, affordable health insurance with choice of doctor. This is in the best spirit of insurance and medical care and Portland citizens are for it.
Campaign members see the Portland referendum victory as a huge boost to their efforts to enact a statewide universal single payer program. Legislation passed last June created a 19-member Health Security Board charged with creating a single payer system designed for Maine and accompanying implementation legislation. The recommendations and legislation proposed by the board will be considered by the legislature next March.
I have done dozens of presentations across Maine to groups as diverse as the Rotary and Chamber of Commerce to unions. There is near unanimity that our health care system is broken and has to be changed. A universal single payer system is the only solution, remarked Janet Jay Houghton, a registered nurse and chair of MPAs Health Care Coordinating Committee.
Campaign co-chairs Tammy Greaton and Duncan Wright credited the dozens of volunteers and 14 partner organizations for one of the most incredible political victories in Maine history. Organizational members of the campaign include the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland, Maine Council of Senior Citizens, League of Women Voters, Portland City Democratic Committee, Maine AFL-CIO, Southern Maine Central Labor Council, Maine Peoples Alliance, National Association of Social Workers (Maine Chapter), Maine State Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Plan, Portland Independent Green Party, Consumers for Affordable Health Care, Labor Party of Southern Maine, and Maine Public Health Association.
Portland residents get final say on health care vote after lopsided campaign
<http://www.boston.com/dailynews/310/region/Portland_residents_get_final_sP.shtml>
by David Sharp, Associated Press, November 6, 2001
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A referendum testing public sentiment for universal health care was approved by a narrow margin by city voters on Tuesday despite a lopsided campaign against the proposal. The final unofficial tally showed the advisory referendum passing by 532 votes, or a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent. All told, 6,979 residents voted for the referendum and 6,447 residents voted against it. About 300 supporters fanned across the city in the final month to overcome a television blitz launched by the opposition. ...
Health-care initiative passes
<http://www.portland.com/news/local/011107singlepay.shtml>
by Josie Huang, Portland Press Herald, November 7, 2001
Advocates of government-run health care in Maine claimed a narrow victory in Portland on Tuesday, overcoming an expensive campaign against their advisory referendum. Nearly 52 percent, or 6,979 city residents, supported the concept of universal health care. Just over 48 percent, or 6,447, voted against it, according to unofficial tallies. The vote is non-binding, meaning that the City Council is not required to approve any of the referendum's proposals, such as approving a city resolution supporting universal health care. Still, those who initiated a signature drive to put the question on the ballot are treating the results as a major step forward for a grass-roots movement to install a single-payer system in Maine. They contend it is the most cost-efficient way to meet a moral obligation to provide health insurance to all residents. ...
Portland vote sets stage for panel to weigh single-payer health care
<http://www.boston.com/dailynews/311/region/Portland_vote_sets_stage_for_p:.shtml>
by Jerry Harkavy, Associated Press, November 7, 2001
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A lawmaker spearheading the fight for a single-payer health care system for Maine applauded Portland voters Wednesday for endorsing the concept despite a television advertising blitz by the state's largest health insurer. But a spokesman for Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield said the insurer had no regrets about its expensive ad campaign and suggested that the outcome was more an expression of voter frustration with rising health care costs than of support for a Canadian-style system run by the state. By a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent, residents of Maine's largest city endorsed the idea of a single-payer plan that would guarantee coverage to everyone. The unofficial tally Tuesday was 6,979 in favor and 6,447 opposed. Although the nonbinding measure makes no changes in the health care system, the vote was the first in Maine on the single-payer concept and came as the Health Security Board, a panel established this year by the Legislature, launched a study of the idea. ...
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Brockton Hospital Nurses hold "Fundraising Walkathon" for Children
of Colleague Who Died Suddenly Shortly after Strike Ended
On Saturday, November 17th, the nurses of Brockton Hospital, along with other community supporters, will hold a fundraising "Walkathon" for the children of Roberta J. Berry, a long-time Brockton Hospital nurse who died suddenly and unexpectedly on September 13, 2001, shortly after the nurse's 103-day strike had ended. Berry left two young children.
Berry, 34, of West Bridgewater, had worked at Brockton Hospital since 1987. Despite the fact that the strike had been settled and the contract ratified, the nurses hadn't yet returned to work, although many of the nurses, including Berry had begun meeting with their managers for orientation meetings to prepare them for their official return date. The hospital administration, citing the fact that Berry hadn't yet officially returned to work, has since denied payment of Berry's life insurance to her children.
In lieu of the hospital's refusal to honor Berry's life insurance benefit, the nurses decided to organize the walkathon to raise money to help the children of their colleague. The Walkathon will take place from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and will start at the Brockton Nurses Office (707A Centre Street, Brockton, MA).
The office will be open during the walk for check-in/out and use of facilities. The route will be Quincy Street to Quincy Avenue to Adams Street to Centre Street (approximately one mile around Brockton Hospital). This is the same familiar route the nurses' took in picketing the hospital during their strike.
Those interested in walking or making a pledge should email the Brockton Nurses' Union Headquarters at <mailto:BHNURSES@aol.com> BHNURSES@aol.com, or call 508-427-5833.
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COME TO THE HISTORIC NADER "GLOBAL JUSTICE" SUPER RALLY
On November 10th, Ralph Nader's "People Have The Power Tour" will have a Global Justice Super Rally at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts. This will be the fifth event of a brand new tour to help revitalize American democracy, build a long-lasting progressive movement and fight for global justice. The rally, which starts at 7:30 PM, will also provide a tremendous boost to local campaigns organizing for international human rights, universal health care and Massachusetts publicly-funded elections.
Join: RALPH NADER; nationally known recording artist PATTI SMITH; Democracy Now's AMY GOODMAN; Green Party Gubernatorial candidate JILL STEIN MD (author "In Harm's Way," on toxic exposures in child development); Boston City Councilor CHUCK TURNER; Boston University Law School Professor SUSAN AKRAM; Green Party candidate for Treasurer JAMES O'KEEFE; activist celebrities, and other community leaders working for progressive social change.
TICKET INFORMATION: $12 in advance, $15 at the door. To purchase tickets, visit <http://www.democracyrising.org> or call 617-627-9955.
In conjunction with:
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Swift cuts funds for school nurses
by Jennifer Fenn, Berkshire Eagle, November 05, 2001
BOSTON -- More than 100 school districts will lose a combined $9 million this year, money that was slated to enhance school health services, the latest victims of the state's budget woes.
The Swift administration cut funding for the program by 57 percent: The Pittsfield school district was initially awarded a $183,444 state grant to supplement school health services such as nurses, but that will be scaled back to $78,861. The Berkshire Hills Regional School District grant was scaled back from $118,000 to $50,740; Central Berkshire Regional School District, from $172,000 to $73,960; Clarksburg, from $85,000 to $36,550; and Mount Greylock School Union, from $85,000 to $36,550.
State Rep. Mary Jane Simmons, D-Leominster, a longtime advocate of increased funding for school nurses, said she questions acting Gov. Jane Swift's priorities.
"If Governor Swift gets her way, we'll lose 300 nurses,'' said Simmons, who estimates that the reductions will force districts to cut between 300 and 400 nurses.
"Given the heightened health needs, this is one program we really need to keep. This is not a wasteful program. It's not one that is frivolous. It's important to the children of Massachusetts."
The faltering economy has caused a $1.1 billion budget shortfall.
Administration officials have said that they hope to avoid budget cuts in education and health care, but admitted that all programs must be on the table -- especially new or expanded ones. About $600 million of the shortfall will come from cuts in programs and services. The Enhanced School Health Services grant program started two years ago, said Paul Jacobsen, the deputy commissioner of the Department of Public Health.
"When it comes to education, the top priority is K-12 funding, and with health care it's Medicaid," said Dominick Ianno, a spokesman for the state budget office. "Outside of those, there are other areas of health care and education that could be looked at for cuts."
In its budget proposal known as House 1, the administration recommended $6.5 million for the grant program this year. The House and Senate budget proposals included $16.1 million for the program, the same as last year.
But with no final budget in place, the Swift administration directed the Department of Public Health to use its figure.
Last chance to avert big health strike
<http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1008,1000944a11,FF.html>
07 November 2001
Crucial talks were being held today in a bid to prevent a major health strike in Canterbury going ahead next week. Up to 3200 nurses, midwives, and health and hospital staff plan to strike for 24 hours next Monday as a result of failure to settle contract talks. ...
Nurses Organisation Welcomes Paid Parental Leave
<http://www.newsroom.co.nz/story/72812-99999.html>
Press Release by New Zealand Nurses Organisation at 4:17pm, 7th November 2001
The Nurses Organisation (NZNO) welcomes the introduction of 12 weeks' paid parental leave and believes it is long overdue. The public health sector is currently short of around 2000 nurses. NZNO believes paid parental leave is an employment condition that will assist recruit and retain nurses. "Women's work has traditionally been under-valued in New Zealand," NZNO president Jane O'Malley said. "Paid parental leave is one important way of valuing what women do." ...
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Group to recruit nurses from Scotland
<http://www.canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=FBBFDFA7-A0A5-484A-8268-877A393E170A>
by Bernice Trick, Prince George Citizen, November 4, 2001
The Northern Medical Society is determined to tackle the problem of a severe nursing shortage at Prince George Regional Hospital (PGRH), Dr. Bert Kelly, vice-president, said this week. "You can't run a hospital without nurses. We have a monumental task here, but it has to be done," said Kelly, who, along with Dr. Tony Eckersley, are about to undertake some recruiting themselves, in Scotland with the blessing of administration at PGRH. ...
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Hospital staff bullied at work
ALMOST half of staff working for a leading hospitals trust had been bullied at work, a new report reveals. The confidential survey by Grampian University Hospitals Trust, passed to The Scotsman, highlighted "undue pressure to produce work" as the largest single cause of bullying, prompting urgent calls for ministers to review NHS performance targets and funding. The report also put the Scottish executive¹s running of the National Health Service under renewed fire last night. Unions said the report, which claimed 47 per cent of staff had been bullied, proved the workload placed on staff was reaching critical levels. ...
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As bombing continues, US support takes pounding
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/308/nation/As_bombing_continues_US_support_takes_pounding+.shtml>
by Anne Barnard, Boston Globe, November 4, 2001
ISLAMABAD - Khalid Mahmood, 37, idolizes Benjamin Franklin and Bill Gates. Mansoor Abbasi, 21, is writing a thesis on Walt Whitman. Shazia Muzaffar has six cousins in the United States, and her husband earns a living selling American-made air conditioners.
These Pakistanis say they would never support a radical religious political party. Flag burning makes them cringe. They envision the United States as a place of prosperity, of inspiring ideas, of friendly people.
But all three are angry at America, and getting angrier. Every night for three weeks, they have switched on the news to see mushrooming explosions, ruined houses, and crying children in Afghanistan - a neighboring country that shares their religion, and whose poverty and desperation have been in the forefront of Pakistani consciousness for decades.
''In your country, innocent people were killed. Now innocent people are being killed again,'' said Muzaffar, who was eating fried fish with her husband and three children at the Prince Restaurant in Hasanabdul, a half-hour's drive west of the capital, Islamabad.
''I think there is really no connection between Osama bin Laden and the people who are being bombed,'' said Abbasi, a student at International Islamic University in Islamabad, where his father sent him, he said, in a fruitless attempt to curb his free-thinking ways. ''We didn't expect this from America.''
A growing number of Pakistani intellectuals say that by continuing to bomb Afghanistan, and particularly by killing and displacing civilians, the United States is making a blunder that could poison a deep well of support among mainstream Muslims here.
''This is giving people a great shock, as well as a sense of reawakening,'' said Ahsan Iqbal, a former minister in the civilian government ousted two years ago by General Pervez Musharraf. ''Many very modern, very liberal families here, they are becoming very radical. Their whole attitude toward the West and to their own fate has changed.''
Only a tiny fraction of Pakistanis have ever voted for the fundamentalist political parties that support the Taliban and have called a national strike for Friday to protest Musharraf's support for the war. But even Mahmood, a professor of English literature who dislikes the fundamentalists' rigidity, finds himself on their side when it comes to opposing the US bombing.
Most analysts believe such fundamentalist groups lack the popular base to force a change in government. But last week, the Pakistani Muslim League became the first mainstream political party to announce support for Friday's strikes.
Two days after the Muslim League's announcement, its chief, Javed Hashmi, was arrested on corruption charges. Political analyst Rifaat Hussein said that was an indication that Musharraf feared Hashmi could use concerns about the war to mobilize moderates against him.
Pakistanis' faith in the United States was shaken after the Cold War, when the United States reached out to India and left Pakistan to deal with the vacuum left in Afghanistan after US-backed mujahideen repelled the Soviet invasion.
These days, whether they watch CNN, the BBC, Pakistani state television, or the Arabic channel Al-Jazeera, they see a new image of America: a high-tech superpower dropping bombs on a destitute, war-torn land.
The plight of Afghan refugees was a common theme in Pakistani media even before the latest bombings; more than 2 million fled here from previous wars, many living in tents for years, supported by Pakistani relatives.
Now, the more sensational Urdu-language papers accuse the United States of planning a nuclear strike, and mainstream outlets print Taliban casualty claims largely unchallenged. Yesterday, the front page of The Nation, an English-language paper that appeals to moderates, pictured an Afghan woman with downcast eyes, holding a fretful child.
''Pako was seven-month pregnant when a merciless American bomb turned her house into rubbles,'' correspondent Shahzad Raza wrote from a refugee camp near Quetta.
Shazia's husband, Walid Muzaffar, 34, remembered seeing a photo of a young girl who had lost her whole family. ''I feel a lot of pity for that child,'' he said, putting out a hand to steady his curly- haired 9-month-old, Izaz.
''Children are equal everywhere in the world,'' his wife said.
Abbasi, the student, wants to know what happened to the American philosophy he found in Whitman's poems, ''a philosophy of equality, with no bigotry.'' He comes from Kashmir, the disputed area where Pakistanis and Indians accuse each other of terrorism. He wonders why the United States is labeling only Muslim groups as terrorists - what about the Irish Republican Army?
Mahmood says he sometimes defends the United States to his students, who support the Taliban, and to his wife, who says, ''America is on a killing binge.'' Yet his voice shakes with anger when he speaks of the bombing. ''It is creating hatred,'' he said. ''Families are divided.''
And these, of course, are the pro-US Pakistanis. Mahmood never thought he would have anything in common with Jamaat-e-Islami, a fundamentalist party that rallied in the Northwest Frontier Province town of Mardan on Friday, urging young men to help bring down Musharraf and go to Afghanistan to fight Americans.
But there on a dusty market street packed with young men bused in from madrassas, the party's leaders also had civilian casualties on their minds. They mixed tales of refugees' woe with calls to fight the United States and allegations that Jews planned the World Trade Center disaster.
Ahsan Ullah Bacha, president of the local merchants' organization and a member of the fundamentalist party, presided like a gracious host over a balcony where police had confined foreign journalists, saying they might otherwise be attacked.
He said he plans to participate in this Friday's strike and wants to see Musharraf replaced by an Islamic government.
''After Sept. 11, all Muslims supported the US,'' he said. ''Now because of what the US is doing in Afghanistan, they are getting angry.''
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Bombing with blindfolds on
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/310/oped/Bombing_with_blindfolds_on+.shtml>
by James Carroll, Boston Globe, November 6, 2001
WHEN I FIRST LAID eyes on a B-52 bomber in the mid-'50s, I was struck by the motto of the Strategic Air Command emblazoned on the fuselage: ''Peace is our profession.'' Such words on a fearsome warplane were a consolation, and I wanted to believe them. Even as a boy, though, I was instinctively attuned to the moral complexity of bombing, and I wasn't that surprised when, during Vietnam, that motto was revealed to be a big lie. The profession of those planes was to wreck havoc, period.
Last week, B-52s were sent into action over Afghanistan, a first exercise in ''carpet bombing.'' The unleashing of this crude ghost plane, which drops imprecise ordnance from 40,000 feet, is a chilling harbinger. Whatever the broad justifications of the US-led war against terrorism, the way in which that war centers on an increasingly brutal bombing campaign cries out to be reconsidered.
What are the purposes and effects of bombing? That straightforward question has hardly ever been answered truthfully by our government. The air war in Afghanistan is being conducted behind a veil of secrecy - but a veil of secrecy shielding Americans, not the Afghans on whom the bombs explode. Our government insists that civilians are not being targeted and that Taliban claims of large numbers of civilian casualties are propaganda.
But however much we long to be consoled by a distinction between military and civilian targets (''carpet bombing'' notwithstanding), the history of bombing suggests that that distinction itself is a lie. ''A History of Bombing'' is the title of a book by the Swedish writer Sven Lindqvist, and his findings are instructive.
One of the first countries to be bombed from the air, ironically, was Afghanistan during Britain's imperial adventurism in 1919. After World War I, the British air staff declared that it would impose civilian-protecting limits on bombing, but an internal memo defined that declaration as having been made ''to preserve appearances'' because ''the truth [is] that air warfare has made such restriction obsolete and impossible.''
Thus the dilemma presented itself at the very onset of the age of bombing. In 1940, the British definition of a ''military target'' was extended to include industrial centers and the homes of industrial workers - which meant city centers could be hit. American strategists resisted such blatant targeting of civilians for a time, but by the end of World War II, the United States blithely engaged in mass fire-bombing of entire Japanese cities, especially Tokyo.
Even then, lip service was paid to the consoling distinction between military and civilian, as if still being observed. It is stunning to recall, with Lindqvist, that when Harry Truman announced to the world that America had used the atomic bomb, he defined its target as having been ''an important Japanese army base.''
The atomic bomb was dropped on the ''base,'' he said, because ''we wished in the first attack to avoid as much as possible the killing of civilians.'' At least 95 percent of the 100,000 killed immediately at that ''base,'' also known as Hiroshima, were civilians, as Truman surely knew. But he also knew the importance of ''preserving appearances.''
The US lies about bombing in Vietnam, where dead civilians were routinely added to the military body count, are well known. After the revelations of the immorality of that war, Americans had a right to assume that ''carpet bombing'' by B-52s was a thing of the past. During the Gulf War, with the advent of ''smart'' bombs and laser-guided missiles, ''ethical'' bombing that spared civilians seemed to have arrived, but those claims, too, turned out to be false. And the B-52 operated there as well.
The NATO air war against Serbia in 1999, despite great claims for its ''humanitarian'' purpose, was distinguished by strategy that kept bombers flying high enough to protect pilots but too high to protect civilians on the ground. History suggests that war managers have never told the truth about the real purposes and effects of their bombing campaigns.
And now? Last week the moral bankruptcy of bombing was on display when Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld refused to rule out American use of nuclear weapons in this war. We should be clear what this means: The United States is prepared, under some circumstance, to cross the nuclear threshold into the realm of massive civilian death - what, to protect civilian life?
How does the motto ''Peace is our profession'' translate into Arabic? These contradictions suggest that a kind of moral blindness has accompanied the phenomenon of bombing from the start. Indeed, moral blindness is necessary for it, blocking our view, for example, of the way US bombing, at very least, is creating conditions of humanitarian catastrophe this winter.
I believe that bin Laden is counting on such blindness and that with our bombing, we have not disappointed him.
James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
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Petitioners decry airstrikes
<http://www.telegram.com/news/page_one/14nobombs.html>
by Kathleen A. Shaw, Worcester (Massachusetts) Telegram & Gazette, November 5, 2001
WORCESTER-- Area peace activists have joined priests, religious brothers and sisters and Roman Catholic laity in a petition drive against the US military attacks on Afghanistan.
The petitions will be sent to Cardinal Bernard Law of the Boston Archdiocese, who some area peace activists believe is too close to President Bush and is being reticent about condemning the bombing attacks on Afghanistan that they say are killing noncombatant civilians. The petitions also will go to Bishop Daniel P. Reilly of the Worcester Diocese.
Cardinal Law met yesterday with Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who was in Boston to be honored by Roman Catholic lawyers of the archdiocese.
The peace activists, including the Faith into Action Committee of St. George's Church, the Rev. Richard Trainor of St. Bernard's Parish, members of the Sts. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker Community and members of the Agape Community of Ware, have joined in a petition drive named Call for Peacemaking.
John Paul Marosy, chairman of the Faith Into Action Committee, said petitions are being circulated in his parish. He expects the drive to go another two weeks.
He attended a speech by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas K. Gandhi, on Friday at Assumption College. Mr. Gandhi's appearance there furthered interest in the petition drive, Mr. Marosy said, noting that ³there were a lot of signers.²
Catholic peace activists are concerned about Cardinal Law's statements urging people to support President Bush and the U.S. government in its actions, Mr. Marosy said.
Brayton Shanley, a founder of the Agape Community who helped to draft the document, said Cardinal Law has become a confidant of President Bush, and he wondered whether Cardinal Law feels comfortable ³telling the truth.²
³He's not doing his job if he's not condemning the bombing,² Mr. Shanley said. While making arguments against restoring the death penalty in Massachusetts, Cardinal Law ³said he was just doing his job. Well, he's not doing his job if he's not condemning the bombing.²
Copies of the statement and petition forms are available by calling Agape Community at (413) 967-9369.
³Our bombs cannot bring peace. Dropping technologically advanced weapons of a superpower on the poorest people on Earth can only be a cruel and futile retaliation, adding further devastation on the already war-torn land,² the statement said.
The statement acknowledges the trauma that Americans experienced during the Sept. 11 attacks and said it is understandable that many would consider the bombing of Afghanistan to be a ³just war.²
³While this bombing may be termed 'just,' such killing of innocents is morally wrong and radically separates us from the love, teaching and example of Jesus Christ,² the peace leaders said.
The statement was drafted by Brayton Shanley and Suzanne Belote Shanley, the founders of the Agape Community, and has been endorsed by 18 other clergy and religious groups.
Mr. Shanley said the United States must halt the bombing and work toward a peaceful and just solution to the terrorism problem. ³We need to show love and compassion,² he said.
The Call for Peacemaking petition drive has been endorsed by the Rev. David Gill, S.J., of Boston College; Sister Jane Morrissey, S.S.J., president of Mont Marie, Holyoke; Sister Rena Mae Gagnon, P.F.M.; Sister Maureen Brougham, S.S.J., vice president of Pax Christi Massachusetts; the Rev. Warren Savage of Springfield; sisters Catherine Leary, Patricia McConnell and Frances White, leadership team of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield; the Rev. William Mullen of Quincy; Sister Mary Dugas, S.S.A., peace and justice committee, Marlboro; Brother Paul Feeney, C.F.X., of Worcester; the Rev. Joachim Lally, C.P.S., of Lawrence; the Rev. William Kremmell of Regis College; Sister Yvette Belrose, S.S.A., of Paxton; the Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy of Brockton; Sister Ellen Power, C.S.J., principal of North Cambridge Catholic High School; the Sts. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker Community of Worcester; Rev. Trainor; the Agape Community; and the House of Peace of Ipswich.
©2001 Worcester Telegram & Gazette Corp.
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United for Justice With Peace
Join us:
"It's as if a mass grave has been dug behind millions of people. We can drag them back from it or push them in. We could be looking at millions of deaths." -- Dominic Nutt, Christian Aid emergency officer.
With the onset of winter, millions of Afghans are in desperate need of food supplies which cannot be delivered because of U.S. bombing. We will be urging our congressional leaders to stop the bombing to prevent thousands, if not millions of people from starving.
Please spread the word!
"As many as 100,000 Afghan children could die this winter unless food reaches them in sufficient quantities in the next six weeks." --Eric Laroche, UN Children's Fund
Please bring a blanket to donate to the American Friends Service Committee for humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan.
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Join us:
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