4 Feb
The Alaska Peace Center monthly meeting will take place at 7 pm on Thursday, February 3.
The link to join the meeting is:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82408901547?pwd=WjZLZ2FMRGZXaWFibjJSdGNUY2xtUT09
This link will be used for all monthly meetings this winter (first Thursday of each month) through May 2022.
More Zoom specifics: Meeting ID: 824 0890 1547, Passcode: 492648
All welcome!
27 Jan
The Alaska Peace Center will view a recording of a very recent CodePink webinar to come to a deeper understanding of what is happening in Ukraine and the approaches that are being taken by the United States and Russia. The webinar features Medea Benjamin from CodePink and Larry Wilkerson. Larry was the Chief of Staff to Colin Powell during the G. W. Bush administration and is currently a professor at the College of William & Mary. After ending his military career, Wilkerson publicly criticized many aspects of the Iraq War, including his own preparation of Powell’s presentation to the UN about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, as well as other aspects of US policy in the Middle East.
Here is the zoom link and other info:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83043794391?pwd=OE5KR3VlcGdmQTZodHZ5R25PcHQxdz09
Meeting ID: 830 4379 4391
Passcode: 653022
The Biden administration is using very bellicose rhetoric and appears to be playing a game of “chicken” with Russia. Needless to say, each country possesses a surfeit of nuclear weapons, making this a very dangerous situation.
We will view a 40-minute recording of the webinar, via zoom, at 7:00 pm and will have time to discuss it afterward. The webinar was made to give context to the current situation, and to motivate viewers to contact the White House and their members of Congress to suggest changes in the United States’ approach.
4 Jan
Our monthly meeting will take place on Thursday, January 6, at 7 pm via Zoom. The link to join the meeting is:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82408901547?pwd=WjZLZ2FMRGZXaWFibjJSdGNUY2xtUT09
This link will be used for all monthly meetings this winter (first Thursday of each month) through May 2022.
More Zoom specifics: Meeting ID: 824 0890 1547, Passcode: 492648
All welcome! We need to decide about programs for this winter.
2 Dec
Please consider joining us to view the documentary film “The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons,” filmed by Alvaro Orús. There will be time for a discussion of the movie afterward. This is one of many fine films at the 2021 Taos Environmental Film Festival (TEFF) that can be viewed for free at the TEFF website (https://taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/).
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82645874589?pwd=Zml3ZkR1UFFHclpJV3dJODViN2UxUT09
Meeting ID: 826 4587 4589
Passcode: 278105
This 56-minute documentary film takes the viewer through a brief history of nuclear weapons and the anti-nuclear activism that has pushed to eliminate them ever since their invention. It moves into a consideration of the humanitarian initiative that successfully challenged the dominant security narrative and the historic steps taken since 2010 to turn the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons from a dream into reality. Finally, the film shows what can be done by anyone to help bring the treaty into force and to stigmatize nuclear weapons until they are finally eradicated.
It includes interviews with activists working to abolish nuclear weapons, including Setsuko Thurlow and Beatrice Finn. Setsuko is a Hibakusha (survivor of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan), having survived the bombing of her native Hiroshima. She is a powerful voice for abolishing nuclear weapons and was a founding member of the International Campaign for the Abolishment of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) in 2007. Beatrice is the executive director of ICAN. Her determination and passion for releasing us all from the threat of nuclear annihilation is very inspiring. She and Setsuko together accepted the Nobel Peace Prize when it was awarded to ICAN in 2017. The Alaska Peace Center is a partner organization of ICAN.
30 Nov
Our monthly meeting will take place on Thursday, December 2, at 7 pm via Zoom. The link to join the meeting is:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82408901547?pwd=WjZLZ2FMRGZXaWFibjJSdGNUY2xtUT09
This link will be used for all monthly meetings this winter (first Thursday of each month) through May 2022.
More Zoom specifics: Meeting ID: 824 0890 1547, Passcode: 492648
All welcome! New member Barb Carlin will introduce herself and the Avatar self empowered training course that she is involved with. We will also finalize plans for our December 10th screening via Zoom of the documentary “The Beginning of the End of Nuclear Weapons.”
3 Nov
Alaska Peace Center and Veterans For Peace North Star Chapter 146 invite the Fairbanks community to ring bells at 11:00 am at Veterans Memorial Park, 700 Cushman Street in Fairbanks, in celebration of Armistice Day. Bring a bell if you have one (we’ll have extras if you don’t), in any case bring a friend. Masks and social distancing recommended.
Bell-ringing has been a traditional way of celebrating Armistice Day ever since the end of World War One (known at the time as “The Great War”) 102 years ago. It signifies the relief and joy felt around the world when the Armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Bells were rung to celebrate peace and the end of four years of war that killed or wounded more than 21 million people. In the wake of so much carnage, it was then clear to millions of people that wars were not about valor or romantic ideals, but about empire, which benefits a few at the expense of many. A tradition of observing the anniversary of the Armistice by ringing bells to honor veterans and promote peace spread throughout the world.
Armistice Day became a legal holiday nationwide by an act of Congress in 1938, dedicated to the cause of world peace. In 1954 President Eisenhower changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day by presidential proclamation, admonishing us to “reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain.” However, in contrast to Eisenhower’s intention, rebranding Armistice Day as Veterans Day has led to a change from celebrating peace to celebrating the military and glorifying war. Armistice Day has been flipped from a day for peace into a day for displays of militarism.
The Alaska Peace Center, along with Veterans For Peace nationally and locally, celebrates the original intent of November 11th – as a day to rededicate ourselves to work toward finding peaceful solutions to the world’s problems. Peace, not war, is the best way to honor the sacrifices of veterans. We want generations after us to never know the destruction war has wrought on people and the earth.
For more reflections on the significance of Armistice Day see essays by Rory Fanning and Skip Oliver.
28 Oct
Our monthly meeting will take place on Thursday, November 4, at 7 pm via Zoom. The link to join the meeting is:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82408901547?pwd=WjZLZ2FMRGZXaWFibjJSdGNUY2xtUT09
This link will be used for all monthly meetings this winter (first Thursday of each month) through May 2022.
More Zoom specifics: Meeting ID: 824 0890 1547, Passcode: 492648
All welcome! We will be planning the Armistice Day (November 11) bell-ringing event at Veterans Park, and discussing other plans for the winter.
5 Oct
Our monthly meeting will take place on Thursday, October 7, at 7 pm via Zoom. The link to join the meeting is:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82408901547?pwd=WjZLZ2FMRGZXaWFibjJSdGNUY2xtUT09
This link will be used for all monthly meetings this winter (first Thursday of each month) through May 2022.
More Zoom specifics: Meeting ID: 824 0890 1547, Passcode: 492648
All welcome! We would like to get back to meeting in person, but considering our current struggles with the Delta variant, now is not the time. Now that snow is on the ground we need to start planning winter activities.
29 Aug
Our monthly meeting will take place on Tuesday, September 7, at 7 pm via Zoom. Note that for this month only, we are meeting on the first Tuesday of the month instead of on the first Thursday as we normally do. We need to be really efficient since Karl and Maia will be Zooming in from the East Coast and it will be very late there. Here is the Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86544114475?pwd=UlRmeExnNmJWOW5Oa1VEczVIQXFBQT09
All are welcome! This is somewhat of a transitional time for the Alaska Peace Center. It is important to review our values and priorities, and to make decisions about where we are going. The more inputs from different points of view that we can get from our members, the better off we will be.
Some ideas for things to work on:
Contact info@alaskapeace.org with questions.
Further Zoom details for those who need them:
Meeting ID: 865 4411 4475
Passcode: 888362
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29 Aug
First: A joyful, heartfelt thank you to each volunteer for the time and positive energies you gave to a very successful Alaska Peace Center booth at this year’s Tanana Valley State Fair! Even though traffic past the booth was somewhat lower this year, donations and sales were excellent, including our support for KWRK radio. You reported many valuable conversations, and more folks than usual expressed interest in the Alaska Peace Center. Your Presence for Peace resonated in a very special way this year. Thank you!
Second: Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by! It was wonderful to greet folks again after the more-than-a-year shutdown. The next APC meeting will be announced shortly, including a current Zoom link.
Third: The results of the Bean Poll are attached and discussed below. This was an opportunity to designate how you would like your federal income tax dollars distributed, instead of how they actually go.
Finally: Our latest newsletter, from March 2021, highlights the projects, events and our partner news from the past year and more. If you have suggestions for APC activities or goals that would mean a lot to you, please reply with your input!
Thank you so much to everyone. Peace and blessings, Maia Genaux for the Alaska Peace Center, in the unceded territory of the Chena and Tanana peoples.
Bean Poll Results: The question was: If you have 20 beans representing the federal income tax you pay, how would you choose to distribute them among the 6 categories we offered, listed here.
The results were:1) Environment 23%, 2) Healthcare 21%, 3) Education 20%, 4) Infrastructure 17%, 5) Other 10%, 6) Military 9%.
We offered this Bean Poll at the Tanana Valley State Fair, July 30-August 8, and also at the Renewable Energy Fair the following weekend. This was not a scientific poll! It was done out of informal curiosity and a desire to engage the public a bit.
Nonetheless, the results are interesting, and my effort (moderately defensible) to understand the results, in the context of the actual proposed 2022 federal budget (spending), is presented in the document linked to below. It might change the structure of next year’s poll — or not!
A summary of the total proposed 2022 federal spending, by our categories could look like:
1) Other 39% (w/ Social Security), 2) Military 28% (w/ interest on debt), 3) Healthcare 21% (w/ Medicare and Medicaid), 4) Education 3%, 5) Infrastructure 2%, 6) Environment 0-1%
Bean Poll Analysis (with pie charts).
Note: Income tax is about 1/2 of total revenue, and total revenue does not cover the total spending.
Don’t get me started on all the other things I learned! But feedback is welcome!
Peace and blessings, Maia
3535 College Road Suite 203, Fairbanks, AK 99709-3722. Message phone: 907-374-0577. Open hours by appointment via email info@alaskapeace.org.
Alaska Peace Center 