31 Jan
In This Issue:
Upcoming APC Events; Protect ANWR; A Culture of Peace; KWRK Fairbanks Open Radio Update; Modernizing Destruction; Alternatives to Violence; Get Up, Relatives!; Recent APC Action; Viet Nam Full Disclosure Campaign; Quaker Lobbying; The Children vs. USA
Read the newsletter by clicking: Alaska Peace Center Newsletter #14 – January 2018
15 Jan
The monthly potluck and movie for January will be a joint meeting of the Alaska Peace Center and the University Community Presbyterian Church. It will be held in the Church basement on Friday, January 26. The Church is across College Road from the Peace Center and next door to Beaver Sports (3510 College Road). Potluck at 6:00, Program at 7:00. We will watch a movie about the Syrian White Helmets and have a discussion afterwards. The White Helmets are an urban volunteer search and rescue organization that was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016. Pastor Neill McKay has personal knowledge of Syria so this is an opportunity to get some local insights.
25 Dec
The monthly business meeting of the Alaska Peace Center will take place at 7 pm on Thursday, January 4, at the APC office, upstairs in the College Mall, 3535 College Road Suite 203 (the stairs are at the west end sharing an external door with the Fuji Restaurant). All are welcome.
25 Dec
Join us for this month’s Alaska Peace Center potluck on Friday, 29 December 2017 at the Koponen homestead at 2.2 mile (710) Chena Ridge Road. It is on the left just past the fire station. There will be a peace flag out at the road. The potluck will begin at 6 pm and the program will begin at 7 pm.
The program will be a video about the life and work of Pete Seeger, “Pete Seeger: The Power of Song”. It has been rated 4 stars by film critic Roger Ebert, who wrote, “I don’t know if Pete Seeger believes in saints, but I believe he is one. He’s the one in the front as they go marching in. ‘Pete Seeger: The Power of Song’ is a tribute to the legendary singer & composer who thought music could be a force for good, and proved it by writing songs that have actually helped shape our times (‘If I Had a Hammer’ & ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’) and popularizing ‘We Shall Overcome’ & Woody Guthrie’s unofficial national anthem, ‘This Land Is Your Land’.”
For more information call 479-0981.
25 Dec
Heather Koponen in front of the Drones Quilt Project display at the Noel Wien Library, December 2017. Photo by Rob Mulford.
Two quilts from the Drones Quilt Project are on display in the Noel Wien Library lobby throughout the month of December. The Drones Quilt Project was created as a way to remember the thousands of people who have been murdered by missiles launched from American combat drones. The use of combat drones is immoral, illegal and ineffective, yet the U.S. continues to use them, killing countless people whose names they don’t know, and don’t want to know.
Combat drones were first used by President Bush, then expanded rapidly during the Obama administration. Recently President Trump gave carte blanch to the CIA to target and kill people with drones.
The idea for a Drones Quilt came from some women in the UK who started the project as a way to memorialize the victims of U.S. combat drones. Anti-drone activists in the U.S. wanted to make their own version of a Drones Quilt, and so the idea traveled across the Atlantic. The idea is to collectively create a piece of artwork which connects the names of activists with those killed. The names humanize the victims and point out the connectivity between human beings.
In addition to the two quilts that will hang in the Library, there will be a quilt on display at the Friends (Quakers) meeting house and another at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall. The Alaska Peace Center and North Star Veterans for Peace are sponsoring the display. Thanks to John Spitzberg, Veterans for Peace, Wasilla for initiating the idea. The flyer for this display is here.
11 Dec
The monthly business meeting of the Alaska Peace Center will take place at 5 pm on Thursday, December 14, at the APC office, upstairs in the College Mall, 3535 College Road Suite 203 (the stairs are at the west end sharing an external door with the Fuji Restaurant). Among agenda items will be whether & where to put up signs from worldbeyondwar.org/billboards. All are welcome.
23 Nov
Join us for this month’s Alaska Peace Center potluck on Friday, 24 November 2017 at the APC office. The potluck will begin at 6 pm and the program will begin at 7 pm. The Alaska Peace Center is upstairs (Suite 203) in the College Mall building, 3535 College Road, above the Fuji Steakhouse. The stairs are at the west end of the building, adjacent to and sharing a common entrance with the Fuji Steakhouse.
All are welcome!
18 Nov
One of the quilts of the Drones Quilt Project. Squares honor individuals killed in drone attacks.
The Drones Quilt Project was created as a way to remember the thousands of people who have been murdered by missiles launched from American combat drones. The use of combat drones is immoral, illegal and ineffective, yet the U.S. continues to use them, killing countless people whose names they don’t know, and don’t want to know.
Combat drones were first used by President Bush, then expanded rapidly during the Obama administration. Recently President Trump gave carte blanch to the CIA to target and kill people with drones.
The idea for a Drones Quilt came from some women in the UK who started the project as a way to memorialize the victims of U.S. combat drones. Anti-drone activists in the U.S. wanted to make their own version of a Drones Quilt, and so the idea traveled across the Atlantic. The idea is to collectively create a piece of artwork which connects the names of activists with those killed. The names humanize the victims and point out the connectivity between human beings.
As long as people continue to be murdered by drones, the Drones Quilt Project will continue in an effort to educate the public, and to remember the victims, named and unnamed. In addition to the two quilts that will hang in the Library, there will be a quilt on display at the Friends (Quakers) meeting house and another at the Unitarian Fellowship Hall.
The Alaska Peace Center and North Star Veterans for Peace are sponsoring the display. Thanks to John Spitzberg, Veterans for Peace, Wasilla for initiating the idea. The flyer for this display is here.
7 Nov
Writer Kurt Vonnegut, a WWII Prisoner of war wrote: “…November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy all the people of all nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.”
“It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.” (Breakfast of Champions, 1973)
In remembrance of the universal sense of joy felt around the world when World War One ended, and in renewal of the call for world peace, a world-wide tradition of ringing bells on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month was observed for over 35 years.
Congress declared November 11 a holiday in 1938, “ …a day to be dedicated to the
cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”
On June 1, 1954, Congress amended the Act of 1938 by deleting the word “Armistice” and
inserting the word “Veterans”.
With rhetoric and patriotic symbolism have we been distracting ourselves from recognizing the majority of war’s victims?
Can we envision a world without war and still appreciate friends, family, and neighbors who have made great sacrifice?
Maybe the best way we can honor our veterans is to stop making them. In the meantime, can we honor the original meaning of this holiday?
Please consider joining us in ringing bells for peace. You have no bell to ring? Come
anyway or be creative and make your own. This could be a great art project for children.
Download the flyer
8 Aug
Dick Farris mans the Alaska Peace Center booth at the 2017 Fair
The Peace Center booth in the Borealis Building at the Tanana Valley Fair is staffed from noon to 10 pm through the duration of the Fair, which closes Sunday. If you’re at the Fair, drop by and say hello! We’re near the east end of the building, in the center row.
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 