CODE PINK: Women for Peace, Tucson Chapter, Responds to Massacre (press release)

TIME & DATE: 12:00 Noon, Tuesday, January 11, 2011

LOCATION: University Medical Center, 1501 North Campbell Ave., Tucson, AZ 85724

CONTACT: Mary DeCamp (520) 408-4974 mdecamp@q.com

ANNOUNCEMENT: A Press Conference will be held at 12:00 noon tomorrow, Tuesday, 1/11/11, at the University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, to allow our community’s many peace-minded groups to offer prepared statements in response to the Saturday Safeway Massacre targeting Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

Representatives from Code Pink: Women for Peace, Physicians for Social Responsibility, AZ4NORML, the Tikkun Community & Jewish Voice for Peace, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee-Tucson Chapter, Middle East Justice Now!, the independent producer of Access TV’s Lovolution Village, Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Tucson’s Raging Grannies, and a growing list of other Tucson peace activists will be on hand to offer statements and answer questions.

BACKGROUND: Code Pink was born out of the 9/11 terror attacks. When the twin towers fell, the Department of Homeland Security responded by adopting a color code to alert air travels of the degree of danger – air travelers hear it is a “Code Orange” or “Code Yellow” day while awaiting their pat-downs down.

But our administration forgot to include a color for peace. So Code Pink: Women for Peace was born in 2002 with the mission to use creative ways to call for peace to replace terror in our lives.

Code Pink invites all those who are interested in working locally to promote peaceful alternatives to join together to alleviate the grief and to supplant violence with more sustainable alternatives.

Group Statement from some of these organizations about the mass shooting on January 8, 2011:

“Tucson peace activists, represented by the undersigned organizations, express their deepest sympathy for the anguish experienced by the victims and their families of the shooting on January 8, 2011, and their fervent hopes for the full recovery of Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the others who were injured.

Tucson peace activists also wish to state their abhorrence of the rhetorical-political context for the shooting. That context includes Arizona’s near-bottom position in expenditures on education and mental health services and near-top position in laws favorable to gun ownership and use.

We believe the political climate and ordinary political discourse in Arizona, as reflected in statements by particular elected officials and by actions taken by the Arizona legislature as well as in violence expressed on talk shows and in threatening activities in various political campaigns, is a toxic brew. It expresses violence, encourages it, and then, with its lax gun laws, makes it easy to turn suggestions of violence into actual physical violence. Tucson peace activists reaffirm their commitment to non-violent actions in promoting peace locally, nationally and globally for all human beings.”

signed by WILPF, Tucson Raging Grannies, Tucson Tikkun Community, Jewish Voice for Peace

“White Light Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” documentary

Hiroshima after the A-bomb

Monday, March 1, at 7 pm

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (AME) Auditorium on UA campus, 1130 N. Mountain,
Northeast corner of E. Speedway Blvd. and N. Mountain Ave.

Free, and open to the public
Free, easy parking east of building
sponsored by Voices of Opposition, http://www.voicesofopposition.com/, call 520-622-6419

“With shocking archival footage, stunning photography, and heartrending interviews, this extraordinary documentary gives a deeply moving look at the painful legacy of the first use of nuclear weapons in war. Featuring interviews with fourteen atomic bomb survivors – many who have never spoken publicly before – and four Americans intimately involved in the bombings, this film provides a detailed exploration of the bombings. It is an important documentary for all to see in this nuclear age.” (from email sent from the Tucson branch of WILPF the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom)

Released on August 6, 2007 (on the 62nd anniversary of the bombing on Hiroshima), this HBO documentary is by Japanese American Sansei (3rd generation) filmmaker Steven Okazaki who met with 500 survivors. Read more here.

I wrote about a Hiroshima/Nagasaki Never Again event back in August, 2009 (click here), since my paternal grandfathers left Hiroshima in 1892 for the Kingdom of Hawaii, but we must have had relatives still living there in 1945.

peace sign

It’s been 28 years now that the Annual Tucson Peace Fair & Music Festival has been sponsored by the Tucson Peace Center, and still no world peace in sight. We have more troops than before in Afghanistan.

Coming up Saturday Feb. 27, 11 to 5 p.m. the usual large gathering of social justice, labor, peace, and environmental groups will be congregating at Reid Park DeMeester Outdoor Performance Center, east of Country Club, north of E. 22nd Street.

Previously scheduled to be in attendance this year –well known peace activist Cindy Sheehan (mother of deceased Army Specialist Casey Sheehan, a 25 year old soldier who was killed near Baghdad on April 4, 2004.) She was supposed to be at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) booth.

Cindy Sheehan

Feb. 22 update: Sheehan cancelled as she was invited by Hugo Chavez to fly to Venezuela, then to join him to Uruguay for the inauguration of the new leftist leader of that country (which happens to be Feb 27).

This is a community wide event with lots of political and informational booths, great music on the stage, food, and an array of raffles prizes, plus the Grand Prize of a Trip to Disneyland (hotel & admission). Raffle tickets are 3 for $20, by contacting Nancyastro@yahoo.com, phone 520-293-3331.

Peace groups please call 520-235-0694, or email stelnik@webtv.net if you wish to participate.

The Tucson Peace Center publishes a monthly print edition of the Tucson Peace Calendar containing numerous events that promote peace and justice in southern Arizona.