Kenapocomoco
Newsnotes

This Month: 

• March Calendar
• Weekly Reminders
• Upcoming Events
• Opportunities for Action
• Websites of Interest
• Summer Opportunities
• News, Headlines, and Interesting Info

March Calendar

Note: This Calendar will be updated throughout the month as new events and activities are announced.

[Top]

Weekly Reminders:

• Kenapoc: Mondays at 9 PM @ Ken's House (702 East 9th Street)

• United Sexualities: Wednesdays at 9 PM in the Chapel Lounge

• Movie Nights: Thursdays at 10 PM @ The Peace House (across Wayne St. from Helman Hall)

• MSAS (Manchester Students Against Sweatshops): Wednesdays at 5:30 PM @ The Oaks

• Amnesty International: 9 PM @ The Peace House (across Wayne St. from Helman Hall)

[Top]

Upcoming Events:

Things to look forward to:

• Discussion Days  March 7-10
• Exercising Democracy: A Midwest Peace Summit, in Indianapolis   March 18-20
• 2005 Annual Student Peace Conference "Crossing Boundaries in the Name of Peace" Notre Dame   April 1-2
• Brethren Mennonite Council Spring Retreat for Queer students of Brethren and Mennonite Colleges April 8-10
• National Collegiate Global Women's and Human Rights Conference Washington DC April 9-11
• Cross-Currents of Global Social Justice: Class, Gender, and Race Knoxville TN May 13-15
• Replenishing Democracy: Summer Institute on Civic Engagement and Political Activism, Amherst College June 13-24

[Top]

Opportunities for Action:

• Help Fight Bush's Plan to Stack the Courts President Bush has just re-nominated 20 highly partisan, pro-corporate candidates for the U.S. Courts of Appeals -- the second highest courts in the land. All 20 of these nominees already been rejected by Senate Democrats, compared to over 200 approved, because they so consistently favor special interest greed over the rights of average Americans. They were stopped before, they should be stopped again.  Sign the petition found here:
  
  http://www.moveonpac.org/judges/

• Tell President Bush and Secretary Rice to reaffirm the United Nations Platform of Action on Women's Rights   Raju With both President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaking about democracy and freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, we must ensure that the United States stands up for women’s rights and freedom worldwide, not for retreating from women’s equality. Contact President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice immediately, and tell them to support women’s rights worldwide by reaffirming the UN Platform of Action.

          http://capwiz.com/fmf1/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7121641

[Top]

We could have peace in one year if women were organized.

~Jeanette Rankin

Websites of Interest:

• Oreo Cookie Budget

  It's budget time again, and President Bush has released another budget plan that is hundreds of pages long and really hard to decipher. TrueMajority has plowed though the rows of figures, and it's just more guns and less butter. Ben Cohen (the ice cream guy), says there’s an easier way to see how Washington really spends our dough. He’s a food guy, so he uses stacks of Oreos to show people where their taxes really go – and how easy it would be to spend them more wisely. He even made a short cartoon of his demonstration, and over a million people have seen it.

  http://www.e-tractions.com/truemajority/run/oreo?rd=436

• Scholarship for undergraduate students actively working for peace and justice

  The Davis-Putter Scholarship Fund provides grants to students actively working for peace and justice. These need-based scholarships are awarded to those able to do academic work at the university level and who are part of the progressive movement on the campus and in the community. Early recipients worked for civil rights, against McCarthyism, and for peace in Vietnam. Recent grantees have been active in the struggle against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression; building the movement for economic justice; and creating peace through international anti-imperialist solidarity.

  http://www.davisputter.org/

• Purple Hearts photo gallery

  This website has just a few photos and stories from Nina Berman's book, Purple Hearts: Back from Iraq.  Berman photographed soldiers seriously wounded in Iraq when they returned to this country, mostly in their homes, but also at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The accompanying text is comprised of the words of the soldiers themselves, faithfully transcribed from interviews that the author did with them. Their voices are sometimes hauntingly surreal, the result of brain damage and shock, with relatives or friends trying to explain what the jumble of words means.

  http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0412/purplehearts__thumbs.html

[Top]

Summer Opportunities:

• Institute on Philanthropy and Voluntary Service

  ...a dynamic summer program for undergraduate students interested in volunteerism and careers in the nonprofit sector. This face-paced Institute offers a rigorous combination of professional experience, academic learning and service projects that will provide students with an unparalleled experience in the nation’s capital.

  www.dcinternships.org/ipvs

• Project Vote Smart

  Project Vote Smart's National Internship Program provides students with unique practical and educational experiences. We seek students who are genuinely interested in working to accomplish our goal of making factual, unbiased political information easily and freely accessible to all. The overriding qualification for securing an internship position is your willingness to commit 100% to the Project's goals and mission.

  http://www.vote-smart.org/program_internships.php

• Union Summer

  Union Summer is a five-week educational internship to participate in and develop skills useful for union organizing drives and other campaigns for workers' rights and social justice.  Heidi is a graduate of this program, and would be happy to share with you about her experiences during one of the best summers of her life.

  http://www.aflcio.org/aboutunions/unionsummer/

[Top]

News, Headlines, and Interesting Info:

Harper's Index from Harpers Magazine (January 2005):

• Factor by which an Iraqi is more likely to die today than in the last year of the Hussein regime : 2.5
• Factor by which the cause of death is more likely to be violence : 58
• Average number of Americans injured every year by air rifles, paintball weapons, and BB guns : 22,000
• Percentage of Pentagon contracts since 1998 that have been awarded on a no-bid basis : 44
• Percentage change since 2002 in the average U.S. price of gasoline : +35.2
• Change since then in the amount of gasoline Americans consume per capita : 0
• Number of American five-year-olds named Lexus : 353
• Percentage of South African farmland owned by whites in 1994 and today, respectively : 87, 84
• Ratio of the number of people in Haiti to the number of permanent full-time jobs there : 80:1
• Number of states, provinces, or territories of the United States, Canada, and Mexico that lack a McDonald's : 1
• Population per square mile of that territory, the Nunavut region of Canada : 0.03
• Average number of suicides per 100,000 residents in states carried by President Bush in November : 13.5
• Average number of suicides in states carried by John Kerry : 9.9

[Top]

~Peace Pilgrim 

 [Peace Studies Website]