Handful of Salt
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1 Handful of Salt Volume XXXVIV, Number 1 March –April-May 2015 PJALS hosts Chris Hedges “Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt” Peace and Justice Action Chris Hedges Evening League is excited Appearance to host Pulitzer Tuesday March 10, 2015, at 7:00 pm Prize-winning at the Bing Crosby Theater, journalist and 901 W. Sprague writer Chris Tickets at pjals.org/hedges or TicketsWest Hedges in $18 in advance/ $20 at the door Spokane! $10 student Called Group Rates: Contact Liz: [email protected] “Champion of the 99% – Mortal Special Reception & Dinner Enemy of the 1%” by the LA with Chris Hedges Press Club, Hedges asserts we are riding the Join us for a limited-seat reception & Thai crest of a revolutionary epic, from the Arab dinner with Chris Hedges, 4:00 pm to 6:00 Spring to movements against austerity in pm on Tuesday March 10. Tickets to the Greece to the Occupy movement and beyond. Special Reception and Dinner include From the vantage point of a world on the edge, admission to the Evening Appearance. Chris Hedges investigates what social and Tickets $65. Limited tickets are available psychological factors cause revolution, now only at pjals.org/hedges rebellion and resistance. Hedges’ message is clear: popular uprisings in the United States In This Issue Page and around the world are inevitable in the face of environmental destruction and wealth “My Name is Rachel Corrie” play 4 polarization. Death Penalty Repeal News 5 and 8 Hedges – a graduate of Harvard Divinity School and a foreign correspondent 6th annual Action Conference 6 for nearly two decades in Latin America, (Continued on page 7) Young Activist Leaders & interns 8, 9, 11 Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane Affiliate of the Fellowship of Reconciliation 35 W. Main, Ste 120M, Spokane, WA 99201 · 509-838-7870 · www.pjals.org 2 The Handful of Salt is published quarterly by the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane. Its name comes from Mohandas Gandhi’s salt tax protest in India, a successful, nonviolent, grassroots action that created significant social change against overwhelming resource advantages. Steering Committee: Louise Chadez, Cly Evans, Jessica Jahn, Darlene McCarty, Taylor Weech (Secretary), Deb Svoboda (Chair) Staff: Liz Moore, Director; Shar Lichty, Organizer, Suzy Vennard Halberstadt, Office Manager Interns: Victoria Huckabee, Teresa Kinder, Jamie McDaniel, EWU School of Social Work Volunteers: Ann Donahue, Blaine Stum, Bobby Kirl, Chris Nerison, Elaine Tyrie, Greg Jacobson, Jennifer Calvert, Justin Mauger, Ken Isserlis, Kris Hannigan-Luther, Lea Chilberg, Marianne Torres, Mark Hamlin, Maurina Ladich, Michael Poulin, Mike Nuess, Mike & Kim Edwards, Phil Svoboda, Richard Smith, Rusty & Nancy Nelson, Suzy Vennard, Tim Leadingham, Tom Schmidt, Walt Kloefkorn Contact PJALS: 509-838-7870, www.pjals.org, [email protected] Volunteers Make It Happen Contact Shar at 838-7870 or [email protected] to share your time and talents. WANTED: Bookkeeping Assistant, Steering Committee Nominations Bookkeeper, Treasurer, or CPA are now open! We’re seeking new members of our financial The PJALS Steering Committee is our gov- team! We need volunteers to work with and erning board. Steering Committee members eventually replace our current interim serve for 3 years to set forth the vision of our Treasurer and bookkeeper, Mike Nuess. work, approve and oversee programs, raise Duties include tracking income and expenses funds. For more information and a nomination in Quickbooks, issuing checks to vendors, form, contact Liz Moore at [email protected]. semi-monthly payroll, reconciling bank statements, filing various reports and information with the state, completing annual WANTED: Volunteer Coordinator IRS reporting, and reporting monthly to the Recruits volunteers via email/telephone; tracks PJALS Steering Committee. volunteer hours in database. Plans for volunteer needs for events of various sizes and Become a Handful Contributor. schedules accordingly. Must posses excellent We welcome your articles, subject to editing verbal & written communication skills & have for space and appropriateness of content. knowledge of Word/Excel and Google Docs; Contact [email protected] knowledge of Salesforce preferred. 10+ hours a month. Training provided! 3 Rusty Nelson on dared to break away from the herd, assert their Peace and War individuality, and distance themselves from the senseless killing that is part of every war. I Trying to Support knew the military could not be trusted to spare the Troops Manning for her courageous display of integrity, but I'm not ready to accept her harsh It must have been sentence, either. Most of Bergdahl's story several years ago because remains mysterious, but it seems to me that he the signs we held said “Free Bradley could not justify what he was being told to do Manning,” and we Vets for Peace didn't have regarding people he did not hate. I don't to defend Chelsea Manning's transgender expect him to be treated very well. rights while bringing attention to the Manning's supporters are struggling to persecuted, military whistle-blower Americans raise legal funds, but the media are tired of the were trying to ignore. At an event in story, which never had Riverfront Park, I was approached by two much traction with them, burly young men who said they were active anyway. Bergdahl's case, duty military and considered Manning to be a too, is slipping out of the traitor. They thought the army intelligence public eye, as we are analyst's reporting a massacre by U.S. quietly told, every week or helicopter crews was insignificant compared two, that a decision will to the release of other classified information to be made, soon. The Wikileaks. At least they knew something Pentagon spin doctors about the case. But then, they issued a don't want you to challenge they might like to have back, now. remember the soldiers whom they can't “If you want to do something for an American squeeze into the hero mold. For instance, soldier, put our government to work to free they're not going to email you updates on how Beau Bergdahl.” Sgt. Bales is getting along in prison for How things change. Private Manning, practicing his military craft on randomly known now as Chelsea, is serving a 45-year selected Afghan civilians. It's hard enough for prison sentence while the soldiers she reported them to keep a lid on the most egregious cases remain uncharged and unpunished. Sgt. Beau of military sexual trauma. Bergdahl is back in the U.S. after a Meanwhile, we are treated to plenty of controversial hostage/prisoner exchange, media coverage of other byproducts of awaiting a decision on whether he will be perpetual war, and we're warned about public charged with a crime. The story is different comments regarding our military adventures from the one several years ago, and several and adventurers. The Brian Williams kerfuffle men from his unit want to see Bergdahl reminds us that we can even get into trouble punished for being a deserter and putting them for the way we praise our heroes in the armed at risk. forces. In fact, I contemplated writing about I have an affinity for Chelsea Williams' problems, myself, until it became Manning and Beau Bergdahl, not because they clear that every valid observation and found themselves in the midst of a stupid, conjecture on the subject has already been illegal war, as I once did, but because they (Continued on page 10) 4 Powerful award-winning play, demolition of a Palestinian family’s home in the city of Rafah. My Name is Rachel Corrie, to Following her death, Rachel Corrie’s be shown in Spokane emails from Palestine received global By Justin Mauger attention. In 2005, her emails and earlier nd On March 2 , 7pm, the award- writings were presented as the play “My winning play, My Name is Rachel Corrie will Name is Rachel Corrie”. The award-winning be shown at the Magnuson Theater on the play, edited by Alan Rickman and journalist campus of Gonzaga University. This play is Katharine Viner was initially shown at the brought to the Gonzaga Campus by Spokane’s Royal Court Theatre in London, and now, Palestine-Israel Human Rights Committee in despite attempts at censorship, protests and collaboration with Gonzaga student Forrest much controversy, has traveled the world. Potter and featuring actress Erin Fitzgerald. The play has been shown in cities as varied as This play is presented free of charge and open Dublin and Dallas, and Jerusalem and New to the public. We hope that PJALS members York City, and now Spokane for a single will join us in attendance at this important showing. event. The New Yorker magazine said “The Rachel Corrie was a gifted writer and play shrewdly does not show Corrie dying; it peace activist from Olympia Washington. As shows her living, in all her funny, lively, a student at The Evergreen State College, she melancholy and manipulative immediacy… proposed an independent-study program and Her words bear witness to the deracinating went to the Gaza Strip, Palestine, to create a madness of war, a hysteria that infects not Rafah-Olympia Sister City relationship, only those doing the fighting but also those where, in her work as a peace and human ambitious to do the saving.” rights activist she helped protect Palestinian This play is a project of Spokane’s homes from illegal demolition. While Palestine-Israel Human Rights Committee, a practicing Gandhian nonviolence, clad in group that creates opportunities for the fluorescent orange and shouting over a Spokane community to engage and learn about bullhorn, she was crushed to death by an the situation in Palestine-Israel. We support Israeli bulldozer as she attempted to stop the equal human rights for all in Palestine and Israel and see justice as a requisite for peace.