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ACTION ALERT: JUSTICE FOR BRAD WILL PROTEST

Mon, 07/13/2009 - 17:32

MEDIA ADVISORY * MEDIA ADVISORY * MEDIA ADVISORY

PROTEST AT MEXICAN CONSULATE IN NYC!

JULY 13, 4 PM

FRIENDS OF SLAIN U.S. JOURNALIST BRAD WILL RESPOND TO RAILROADING OF

OAXACA ACTIVIST JUAN MANUEL MARTINEZ MORENO!

WHAT: Protest against Mexican judicial corruption and the practice of impunity

WHERE: Mexican Consulate in New York City, 27 East 39th Street.

WHO: Friends of Brad Will

A Philosophers Take on Fierce Light

Mon, 06/29/2009 - 18:33

Progressive politics was dealt a dramatic blow by Karl Marx, who emphasized the importance of the material dimensions politics and argued that religion was the opium of the masses. On the other hand, theologians and believers have long claimed that faith required turning away from the fallen mundane world towards contemplative stillness and hopes for eternal life. As a result, religion and politics have been difficult bedfellows; many insist we don't politicize religion or bring religion into the political realm. Yet how can meaningful and lasting change transpire?

In Fierce Light: where spirit meets action, Velcrow Ripper aims to reconcile the two so as to renew and reinvigorate progressive political movements across the globe. Drawing from a variety of movements, activists, leaders, and intellectuals, he shifts our ways of thinking about politics towards a more holistic and sustainable view of activism. At times heartbreaking and at times uplifting, the viewer is taken from war zones to urban gardens, from the March on Washington to Vietnam to South Africa in a storyline linked by a clear sense of vision and narrated by the director himself.

Through a combination of powerful footage, dramatic music, and compelling narrative this film brings out themes of community, resilience, and hope in the face of despair, violence and power. Stillness within is required to sustain political engagement so that one's motives are not simply reactionary but rather motivated by a positive vision of political alternatives. The "Fierce Light" of the title emerges from that stillness, and sustains and inspires those who seek justice in this world and hope to keep alive the bright light of hope. But the Fierce Light is also something larger, not so much nestled within us as hidden in the interconnectedness of seemingly disparate political movements.

HELP SHUT DOWN THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICA'S!

Wed, 06/24/2009 - 18:58

An important day for the campaign to shut down the School of the America's. Congress is voting on a bill to require the names of all graduates of the school to be released. Nicknamed "The School of the Assassins", the school is infamous for training Latin American death squad leaders. The story of the annual vigil is featured in Fierce Light.

Congressman John Lewis, also featured in the film, is helping to spearhead the call for justice in this important issue.

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Thousands have already called Congress and urged their Representatives to vote to end the Pentagon secrecy and to release the names of the SOA/ WHINSEC graduates and instructors to the public. However, we have received word from Capitol Hill that more phone calls are needed TODAY to ensure success. We expect a VERY close vote and every phone call, email and fax may make the difference!

Please add your voice to the chorus and call your Representative now at 1-800-473-6711 (toll-free). Urge your Representative to vote YES on the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop (GA)-Lewis (GA) amendment, to vote FOR human rights and FOR transparency (see the email below for a sample call-script). To also send an email and a fax to your Representative, click here!

Please email me at pbowman@soaw.org with the response that you are getting from your Representative's office! Thank you!

In Solidarity and Peace,

Pam Bowman

SOA Watch Legislative Coordinator

A World That Works for Everyone

Sat, 06/06/2009 - 17:54

This is the fourth week of Fierce Light's Canadian national theatrical release. Exciting times! To have lasted this long is a huge accomplishment for an independent feature documentary with a life affirming message.

Every Monday, the box office is added up, and we find out if the film will get another week in the theatres. Our run has been extraordinary so far. We are still number two in the box office for Canadian films, and have remained in the top ten at Cinema Clock, Canada's national viewers ratings, throughout our run, often beating out Star Trek!

What's particularily exciting to me is that this provides concrete evidence that audiences are hungry for this kind of meaningful cinema, that they are ready for films that offer positive solutions, and a vision of "a world that works for everyone", as Michael Beckwith says in the film.

Fierce Light is about stepping up to the plate, and becoming the change we want to see in the world. Joanna Macy, one of the visionaries in the film, describes this era we're in as being a time of "The Great Turning", a time when we have the opportunity, fueled by necessity, to move from the industrial growth society, to a life sustaining society.

As consciousness evolves, we move through stages not unlike the development of a child, from the egocentric perspective - "me, me, me" - to the ethnocentric - "us", but the us of a specific identity group, be it a tribe, a gang, a nation, a culture - to the worldcentric. This is the "all of us" perspective.