October 2009
Lessons in Neutrality From a UB "Distinguished Speaker"
By Nicolas Kabat
There are many lessons to learn from “distinguished speakers” such as Tony Blair, the current Mideast Quartet Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, who spoke at the University of Buffalo last Wednesday. One statement in particular by the former Prime Minster struck a chord: “you never solve these conflicts by taking one view and forgetting about the other.” Of course, he was referencing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Later, he demanded that captured Israeli Soldier Gilad Shalit be released. However, he seemed to have forgotten the Palestinian prisoner story. So, I will tell the other side of the Gilad Shalit story.
In its 2007 annual report, B’tselem, the Israeli human rights organization, noted that Israeli military forces arbitrarily detained about 830 Palestinians a month. These “administrative detentions” amount to midnight kidnappings of Palestinians without any justification or proper legal proceeding. Detainees are rarely informed of the nature of their infraction, and they face a military, not civilian, tribunal. These detentions can last up to 6 months, but may be renewed as many times as the military deems them necessary. As a result, Israel often holds Palestinians indefinitely and without charge.
There have been many cases of minors being detained by Israeli forces, who seldom inform parents of the whereabouts of the children or about the nature of their supposed violations. In 2008, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Israeli forces detained two Palestinian girls from a West Bank town near Bethlehem for unexplained reasons. Family members and friends said that the girls had avoided political matters. Four months after their detention, they were still in Israeli prisons. This was not reported in the American media. However, the story of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held captive in Gaza by Hamas, has made international headlines for months.
A Different Kind of Green: The Clean Air Coalition of WNY Mobilizes for Cleaner Air in Tonawanda
By Erin Heaney
At first glance, it doesn’t appear the green movement has hit Kaufman Avenue. The three-block street is nestled in the heart of industrial Tonawanda. Her neighbors are FMC Industrial Chemicals, Noco and Tonawanda Coke. A walk down the street reveals more clunkers than hybrids, more power lines than gardens. Kids play in the shadows of ominous smoke stacks and the towering Huntley power plant ensures that the residents have no view of the Niagara River.
But appearances can be deceiving. Despite the odds, Kaufman Avenue is home to Western New York’s most powerful environmental movement. In spite of the stench that oozes from their industrial neighbors, they’ve gone outside, talked to one another and collectively decided that they deserve better. The families on this street are serious about reducing pollution in their neighborhood and they are building the political will to ensure that they get the results they want.
Their story begins humbly. When Jackie James-Creedon was diagnosed with fibromyalgia she suspected that what she was breathing had something to do with her illness. She began to speak out and quickly found others who had similar suspicions.
Jackie met people like Jen Ratajczak, a mom from Kenmore, who was battling leukemia, and Jeani Thomson, who had lived in Tonawanda 40 years and battled four different forms of cancer. Together, they decided to find out what was in the air they were breathing. They partnered with the Global Community Monitor to create their own air monitoring devices using equipment they bought at Home Depot. Their findings were astonishing. The buckets revealed extremely high levels of benzene, formaldehyde and ammonia.
But Jackie, a chemistry student, knew they would need more proof. So she and others named themselves the Clean Air Coalition of WNY and headed off to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Using the data they had already collected and a lot of persistence, the CACWNY convinced the DEC to fund a year long air quality study in the area around Kaufman Avenue. Read more »
Free Speech Censored at Public University
By James Holstun
At UB, I frequently teach the poetry and prose of the great Puritan radical, John Milton, including his Areopagitica, one of the great documents in the history of free speech. Milton is disgusted by petty bureaucrats who think they have the right to screen potential publications, deciding what sentiments may and may not be voiced and printed. Recent events suggest that UB administrators may need a remedial Milton course (I’m available for a modest fee—contact me!). Particularly for the large-scale community-oriented “Distinguished Speakers Series,” they frequently demand that all questions be pre-submitted for screening and censoring.
Where did this odious notion come from? I don’t remember ever hearing of such a thing ten or twenty years ago, but lately, it seems to be everywhere. Perhaps some hack wrote an article for Nervous University Managers Fortnightly, saying, “Now you can give the appearance of actual free speech without any of the risks!!!” The idea might then have spread like kudzu among anxious bureaucrats, like that other misbegotten post 9-11 invention, “the free speech zone,” which herds demonstrators into discreet corrals.
Most recently, for the October 7 UB lecture by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, the censorship took the form of “The Blair Student Question Contest”: students presubmitted questions for review, and the lucky winners were invited up on the podium to deliver their approved questions in person. When questioned about the practice, Mr. Dennis R. Black, UB Vice President of Students and emcee for the evening, “said that there was no attempt at censorship and that the questions were merely moderated“—an interesting distinction. Another article summarizes Black’s explanation: “The screening was put in place to prevent repeated questions, condense similar questions and displace irrelevant questions like that of Blair’s age, height, favorite color, and other questions that didn’t pertain to the speech.”
This excuse seems less than persuasive. Anyone who has stood in the cavernous Alumni Arena knows that no one would be likely to stand up in front of five thousand people and ask Tony Blair about his favorite color. And some Distinguished Speakers (such as Michael Moore and Steven Colbert) don’t seem to have any trouble answering direct, uncensored questions. Strangely, those who do tend to be ex-politicians on the make (like Blair, Colin Powell, Karl Rove, and Wesley Clark) who have helped kill thousands of people in the Balkans and West Asia. Do they demand protection from real questions in their appearance contracts? Or do UB organizers obligingly offer the service? We can’t say for sure. But we can say that this sort of censorship stinks like week-old fish, particularly at a public university.
But the best-laid plans of mice, men, and even university administrators often go awry. On October 7th, the Peace, Justice, and Anti-War Coalition of Western New York gathered outside the entrance to Alumni Arena, herded inside a corral made of bike racks—UB’s first “free speech zone,” I think. We mooed, chanted, drummed, and leafleted, trying to draw some attention to Tony Blair’s war crimes. We also protested the censorship of questions and Blair’s staggering speaker’s fee: $150,000, as confirmed by his exclusive agent. Since 2007, when he left office under a cloud named “Iraq,” Tony Blair has become the highest paid public speaker in the world, racking up over $25 million worldwide, not to mention the millions he has “earned” from an Israeli peace prize and from consulting fees and bonuses paid by banks such as J. P. Morgan Chase and Zurich Financial Services. Read more »
Kathy Kelly comes to Buffalo
The WNY Peace Center’s Annual Dinner Keynote Speaker shares decades of experience in nonviolent direct action
By Irene Morrison
It’s not easy to summarize Kathy Kelly’s work; she is anything but an armchair activist. As co-founder and coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (VCNV at vcnv.org), Kelly’s version of activism is one of civil disobedience and direct action against violations of national and international law, and she is one of those rare people willing to go to jail for what she believes in. Unlike so many activists who quickly burn out, Kelly is still going strong after decades of work for peace and justice all over the world.
VCNV came out of Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end UN/US sanctions in Iraq. Kelly and other members of Voices were in Baghdad during the 2004 invasion, after refusing to leave and hoping that they could still help prevent the war. For their humanitarian aid work, which violated the sanctions, Kelly and others faced jail time, but eventually were fined—but refused to pay—$20,000. Additionally, Kelly and Voices were in Beirut, Lebanon, during the end of the Israel-Hezbollah war, providing humanitarian assistance and reporting. They have also spent time in Pakistan with Swat Valley refugees and in the Gaza Strip during Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” assault, bringing back the stories of these people to an American public who would often rather not hear about the consequences of their country’s violent actions.
Kelly first became involved in activism through protesting the reinstatement of draft registration and supporting resistors in 1980, and then through “numerous demonstrations, fasts, delegations, and nonviolent direct actions” directed at ending US intervention in Central America. Then, in August 1988, Kelly participated in “The Missouri Peace Planting,” in which she planted corn on nuclear missile silo sites to draw attention to the use of farm-land for violent, highly destructive purposes.
Kelly was sentenced to one year in prison for her role in the action, of which she served nine months. She also served 3 months for direct actions with the School of the Americas Watch (soaw.org) against the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA, a military installation which has trained members of brutal regimes in Latin America in violent suppression tactics, including torture.
When asked about her mission, Kelly explains: “Often, our community agrees that my role should also be that of an itinerant teacher. If other groups invite me to speak, or to offer a retreat or teach in a classroom, we try to arrange our calendar so that I can travel, ideally by train or bus. When we plan a nonviolent direct action, one or more of us often commit civil disobedience, and so I have spent considerable time in courts, jails, and prisons. I’ve also tried to nonviolently resist war by going to war zones and living alongside people who bear the brunt of military attacks.” Read more »
Doing Justice in an Economic Tsunami
Sponsored by The St Lawrence District Social Justice Council
November 7, 2009 from 9:00 am to 4 pm
Theme Speaker: Rev. JOHN BUEHRENS
Former President, Unitarian Universalist Association, Parish Minister, First Parish, Needham, MA (UU )
The economic meltdown at the national and world levels has pervaded the religious consciousness. The recession has not only social, political and economic consequences, but also moral and spiritual implications as well. How do we respond as individuals, as a congregation, as a religious movement?
This fourth annual conference of the St. Lawrence District Social Justice Council features John Buehrens, former President of the UUA. John brings not only a national perspective on economic justice, but also the understanding of a parish minister. He has been a prominent figure on the national religious scene for years, has served as special advisor to the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and is a prolific author. Skinner House Books will soon publish his book, co-authored by Rebecca Parker of Starr King School for the Ministry, Maintaining a House of Hope. Read more »