If Traverse City were in Iran . . . this location would be a target

February 28th, 2007 by Moderator

Over 4 years ago, on February 26, 2003, the Traverse Area Peace and Justice Community was trying to stop the Iraq war. One of our actions was to educated the public about the horrific possibilities of the war — especially the impact on the civilian populations.

We created an action called “If Traverse City were Baghdad . . . “
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This sign appeared at eight local military/civilian — so-called “dual use — targets in order to educate our citizens to the impact of war on Iraq.

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If Traverse City were Baghdad, these sites would likely have been destroyed by enemy bombs. Information about this past action is here and a video clip of it can be seen on VentingMedia - here.

It might now be time for this action again, but this time it would be call “If Traverse City were in Iran . . .”
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An article published on Wednesday, February 28, 2007, “The Words None Dare Say: Nuclear War“, by George Lakoff contained . . .

“Then, there is the scale of the proposed attack. Military reports leaking out suggest a huge (mostly or entirely non-nuclear) airstrike on as many as 10,000 targets — a “shock and awe” attack that would destroy Iran’s infrastructure the way the US bombing destroyed Iraq’s. The targets would not just be “military targets.” As Dan Plesch reports in the New Statesman, February 19, 2007, such an attack would wipe out Iran’s military, business, and political infrastructure. Not just nuclear installations, missile launching sites, tanks, and ammunition dumps, but also airports, rail lines, highways, bridges, ports, communications centers, power grids, industrial centers, hospitals, public buildings, and even the homes of political leaders. That is what was attacked in Iraq: the “critical infrastructure.” It is not just military in the traditional sense. It leaves a nation in rubble, and leads to death, maiming, disease, joblessness, impoverishment, starvation, mass refugees, lawlessness, rape, and incalculable pain and suffering.”

The military supports this kind of action with the “Christian Just-War Ethic”. An excerpt from an article on Military dual-use targeting — Bombing Dual-Use Targets: Legal, Ethical, and Doctrinal Perspectives, by Kenneth R. Rizer, From: Air & Space Power Chronicles, May 2001.

… Finally, the US Air Force has a vested interest in attacking dual-use targets so long as dual-use target destruction serves the double role of destroying legitimate military capabilities and indirectly targeting civilian morale. So long as this remains within the letter if not the spirit of the law and the Christian Just-War Ethic, the Air Force will cling to the status quo.” The full article can be found on the web:
http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/cc/Rizer.html

This is what happened in Iraq. Are we going to let this happen to the people of Iran in our name? Get involved, help stop the war against Iran before it starts.

Rarely seen pictures of the other side of Tehran, with music from Cat Stevens - here. This is who and what our country will be destroying!

More on the Pentagon war planning for Iran - here

Go to TraverePeaceAlerts.org to get involved.

Seriously — What is congress doing?

February 13th, 2007 by Moderator

The senate can’t even talk about “it” and the house debates a resolution that is so thin, it reminds me of “Coors Light“. Here it is in case you haven’t heard it or read it somewhere else:

Concurrent Resolution
Disapproving of the decision of the President announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That-
(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and
(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq

After four years of war, 100s of billions of dollars, falsified intelligence by the administration, over 3100 U.S. troops and, who knows, but over 100,000 Iraqi deaths the senate debates procedures and the house “. . . disapproves of the decision . . . “? All I can say is wow!

And some Americans thought that when they vote in our “democracy” it matters. Vote with a message to stop the war and you get this?

Blog problems

February 12th, 2007 by Moderator

Due to technical problems, some of the past blogs have been lost. I’m working on restoring some of them. They are in the document named “Lost Blogs” on the right under - Pages

Mysteries of coinciding events

February 12th, 2007 by Moderator

Two years ago, on February 10, 2005, my good friend and colleague Dirk Koning died. He was a world leader in community media working from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I first met him in 1992 when I contacted him to help our community establish public access television. The Traverse City region was in the process of negotiating a new franchise agreement with C-tec cable (now Charter Communication) and I knew we needed help. Dirk was incredibly helpful. With his help and guidance, along with other colleagues of his — Lauren-Glen Davitian and Fred Johnson, we held several small conferences about community media to help educate our community on the importance and need for the publics access to media. We were successful in getting a franchise agreement in 1994 that established tctv2, our public access community television in the Traverse City region.

On February 9, 2007– the eve of the 2nd anniversary of his death Dirk’s death — the local NPR affiliate ask me to be on their locally-produced live talk radio show, Points North . The topic was tctv2. The issue: is it important and should local units of government keep funding it? You can listen to the audio archive here.

I had been thinking a lot about Dirk as the 2nd anniversary of his death approached. It seemed so cosmic that I was given an opportunity to speak on the very topic of community access television on the eve of his passing — the spirit of Dirk was with me in the radio studio yesterday.

There is much to do in the area of media reform. Locally there is an immediate need to support tctv2.

The Cherry Capital Cable Council (4Cs), a council of the local units of government that each have a local franchise agreement with Charter Communications, is debating whether to continue providing funding to tctv2. Currently 9 of the 12 members are contributing some of the money they receive from the franchise fee assessed on Charter Communication’s subscribers; three stopped contributing to tctv2. This fee leveed on cable subscribers generated $821,461.44 in 2005 for the local governmental treasuries. The local units keep the majority of this fee for their general funds and pass on a small amount to tctv2. The fees from the nine remaining units is projected to be only $165, 260.00 in 2007, if the nine remaining continue. Those nine are: Acme, Blair, Elmwood, Garfield, Green Lake, Long Lake, Paradise townships and Kingsley Village and the City of Traverse City. The units that dropped out are Bingham, East Bay and Peninsula townships.

What can you do? If you are a citizen in one of the local units of government that still supports tctv2, urge them to continue or if you are in one that has stopped funding tctv2, urge them to reconsider their decision.

Acme Township
6042 Acme Road
Williamsburg MI 49690
(231) 938-1350
http://www.acmetownship.org

Bingham Township
7171 S. Center Highway
Traverse City, MI 49684
(231) 922-6767
http://www.leelanaucounty.com/binghamdir.asp

Blair Township
2121 County Road 633
Grawn, Michigan 49637
(231) 276-9263
http://www.blairtownship.org

East Bay Township (stopped funding)
1965 North Three Mile Road
Traverse City, Michigan 49686
(231) 947-8647
http://www.eastbaytwp.org

Elmwood Township
10090 E. Lincoln Road
Traverse City, MI 49684
(231) 946 - 0921
http://www.leelanaucounty.com/elmwooddir.asp

Chart Township of Garfield
3848 Veterans Drive
Traverse City 49684
(231) 941-1620
http://www.garfield-twp.com

Green Lake Township
9394 10th Street
P.O. Box 157
Interlochen, MI 49643
(231) 276-9329
http://www.greenlaketownship.org

Long Lake Township
8870 North Long Lake Road
Traverse City, Michigan
(231) 946-2249
http://www.longlaketownship.com

Paradise Township
2300 E. M-113
Kingsley, MI 49649
(231) 263-5251
http://www.paradisetwp.org

Peninsula Township (stopped funding)
13235 Center Road
Traverse City MI 49686
(231) 223-7322
http://www.peninsulatownship.com

Kingsley Village
115 E. Blair Street
PO Box 208
Kingsley, MI 49649
(231) 263-7778
http://www.villageofkingsley.com

City of Traverse City
400 Boardman Ave
Traverse City, MI 49684
(231) 922-4440
http://www.ci.traverse-city.mi.us