Kucinich, Kucinich, Kucinich...for the earth's sake

Forget About the War, Shop Till You Drop

Unable to travel to Georgia for the SOA rally and protest, we decided to make some waves of our own in Asheville. This weekend was the Asheville Holiday Parade and thousands of people were gathered downtown to see the spectacle. We couldn't pass this opportunity by. Although the police stopped us before we could get barely over a block up the street, the crowd gave us positive responses and we collected about 150 impeachment signatures. Many people received our special holiday message.




There is a tragic statistic of suicides for Iraq vets. Even the Asheville IVAW president, Jason Hurd, had suicidal thoughts upon returning to civilian life. When he visited the VA for help, they prescribed him some pills and sent him on his way.

120 US War Veteran Suicides a Week

From correspondents in New York

November 15, 2007 09:47am

THE US military is experiencing a "suicide epidemic" with veterans killing themselves at the rate of 120 a week, according to an investigation by US television network CBS.

At least 6256 US veterans committed suicide in 2005 - an average of 17 a day - the network reported, with veterans overall more than twice as likely to take their own lives as the rest of the general population.

While the suicide rate among the general population was 8.9 per 100,000, the level among veterans was between 18.7 and 20.8 per 100,000.

That figure rose to 22.9 to 31.9 suicides per 100,000 among veterans aged 20 to 24 - almost four times the non-veteran average for the age group.

"Those numbers clearly show an epidemic of mental health problems,'' CBS quoted veterans' rights advocate Paul Sullivan as saying.

CBS quoted the father of a 23-year-old soldier who shot himself in 2005 as saying the military did not want the true scale of the problem to be known.

"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total,'' Mike Bowman said.

"They don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known.''

There are 25 million veterans in the United States, 1.6 million of whom served in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to CBS.

"Not everyone comes home from the war wounded, but the bottom line is nobody comes home unchanged,'' Paul Rieckhoff, a former Marine and founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America said on CBS.

The network said it was the first time that a nationwide count of veteran suicides had been conducted.

The tally was reached by collating suicide data from individual states for both veterans and the general population from 1995.

Divine Women in Black

The Women in Black are the most beautiful bunch of women I have ever met. They are mothers, wives, grandmothers and sisters. They are young and old. They are all lovely. In Asheville, they have been standing downtown for six years now. Every Friday, they are a moral rock standing vigilantly through rain, snow or sunny weather. They are Buddhists, Agnostics, Christians and Jews. They are all Divine. They are all women of the Goddess.

Sisterhood

I follow you You follow me I walk in your footsteps You walk in mine Round and round We circle A sisterhood in black We flock together In Madrid In New York In Buenos Aires In Toronto In Rome Silently asking To stop violence To have peace Our footsteps Sigh How long? Will we learn?

We are tall We are short We are old We are young Mujeres de Negro Para la Paz We are experienced We are patient We are dedicated We want to stop violence We want to have peace From Bethlehem To Belfast To Baghdad To Belgrade To Beijing I walk in your footsteps. You walk in mine - Carla Rodio © 2002

Join us sisters, young and old. This concerns us all. Women have been repressed for too long. The patriarchal religions have forced us down. No longer! Women rise up! Stand for the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, stand up for your sister abused, rise up for the women who cannot across the world. It is our time.

Jonas Goes To Court

Court was today. It has been continued and will go to trial. The next court day is December 5th. We will need an additional $225 to give our lawyer before then. If anyone can donate, we need it now. I hate to beg but we do not have it. If you know anyone who can donate, tell them, now is the time.
Jonas said that he had "the stupidest case on the docket". He was dismissed before court even started. I guess the prosecution was not ready to try the case. The have to research what they can actually charge him with.
As a coincidence, I have jury duty the week before his court date.