Ron Faust waits for a new administration, condemns the federal executions, and observes: Warming the transition are colored lights / Hung on trees inside homes shining through / The doubts and fears of a shivering nation / While outside squirrels chase hope around.
PeaceWorks leaders speak up for monitoring KCK police
“We, as citizens of Kansas City, Kansas, have no trust in the KCK police department,” Christopher Overfelt testified July 13 at a budget hearing for the Unified Government of Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County. Overfelt and three others from the PeaceWorks Board, speaking at the hearing, called for independent oversight of police. And by July 16, the Unified Government commissioners passed a budget including a new watchdog over the police.
Use funds from war economy for health care and education for all, says vet
“We need to work to stop funding systems of brutality and violence, and begin to fund systems of love that support everyone in our communities,” said Chris Overfelt in his talk on the June 20 online program sponsored by the Poor People’s Campaign and the Institute for Policy Studies.
Videos give glimpse of Memorial Day action, ‘Human Care, Not Warfare’
CARE-a-vans and speakers combined on Memorial Day in Kansas City, Mo., with this focus: “Human Care, Not Warfare.” Videos share the impact of speaker after speaker calling for a pandemic pivot from war and weapons to care for humanity and our home, our planet.
Choking Racism
Ron Faust, a former Disciples of Christ minister, wrote this poem May 31 on the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis by police May 25. Faust’s poem begins:
It was so visible, so wrong/In contrast to the death snarl/Of an invisible pandemic attack
When an officer pressed the wind pipe/Of George Floyd to his death
Even after he pleaded, “I can’t breathe”/Which took the whole world’s breath away
Film portrays 4 young Palestinians detained/imprisoned
“Imprisoning a Generation,” a documentary film, follows the stories of four young Palestinians detained and imprisoned under Israeli military and political systems. The free film, cosponsored by Community of Reason and Citizens for Justice in the Middle East, will be shown Sun., Feb. 16, at 2 pm at UMKC in Haig Hall, Room 301.
Rally to protest family separation at U.S. borders
"We have to stand and fight this, because if we don’t at the end of the day, it’s not about them, it’s about us." This was a statement by Kansas City Missouri's Mayor Sly James at the "Rally to protest family separation at U.S. borders" June 24, 2018.
Newsletter: November 2017
'Ban the Bomb butterfly effect' // UNplaza Art Fair--beauty in the park // Activists aim to oust US nuclear weapons from Germany // Afghanistan--the forgotten war // Abolish prison slavery--write prisoners // How to keep our children safe from guns // Coalition forms to tackle contamination at Bannister Federal Complex
Rally and petition seek freedom for whistleblower Chelsea Manning
Roughly 50 PeaceWorks members and friends rallied outside Fort Leavenworth in Kansas Nov. 20 in support of Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning’s petition to President Obama to reduce her sentence to time served—6 years. Manning is incarcerated at Fort Leavenworth.