The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund bill, H.R. 1921, submitted to Congress by John Lewis in April, 2007, is soon to be submitted again.

When enacted, this law will restore the rights of citizens whose conscience does not permit physical or financial participation in all war. Federal taxes of designated conscientious objectors will be placed in a non-military trust fund, enabling these citizens to be free from spiritual bondage, increasing federal revenue, and restoring the balance of government between collective security and non-interference in an individual's free exercise of belief.

Write to Rep Higgins or Rep Massa, since neither of them are among the 45 co-sponsors of the bill.  Your personal letter could be from the perspective of a conscientious objector and/or a supporter of civil liberties.    Your letter could also become a letter to the editor for the Observer or the papers in Massa's district.

For more information and two sample letters, go to the website of The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund (NCPTF), based in Washington, D.C., a not-for-profit organization which advocates for passage of the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill:    http://www.peacetaxfund.org


Addresses:

Rep. Brian Higgins: 27th District (Chautauqua and most of Erie county)
431 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3306


Rep. Eric Massa: 29th District (Cattaraugus, Allegany, Steuben,
Chemung, Schyler, Yates, Ontario, Southern Monroe counties)
1208 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515

Phone: (202) 225-3161

For upcoming Western New York Peace Center events (based in Buffalo), see: 

http://wnypeace.org/join/events.php

The following, "The Election - The Inspiring and the Ugly," by CPJ member and regular columnist in the Dunkirk Observer, Daniel O'Rourke, was published on Thursday November 27.  Dan's previous columns can be found on this website under the CPJ News/Opinion link at the left of the screen.  Click on "Daniel O'Rourke's columns."

I wasn’t going to write about the presidential election.  The print  media has already poured barrels of ink over it. To call it historic  is now a cliché.  On election night both McCain’s concession speech  and Obama’s victory acknowledgment were eloquent, magnanimous and  healing. Wiser columnists than I have written sagely about the  election, but here are some thoughts on the election’s aftermath.

Jesse Jackson’s tears caught on TV in Chicago’s Grant Park as the  networks flashed the news of the election of the first Black president  moved me. Subsequent coverage of enthusiastic worldwide reactions from  old Europe, to emerging Asia, to ancient Africa also made me proud to  be an American.

The White House visit of the President Elect and his wife and the gracious welcome by President and Laura Bush were lessons in how a  true democracy hands over power. It was a dramatic example to the  world. The winners in many elections are fortunate if the loser  doesn’t poison, assassinate or exile them.  Think Viktor Yushchenko in  the Ukraine, Benazir Bhuto in Pakistan, or Morgan Tsvanirai in Zimbabwe.

I listened in admiration to the President-Elect’s calm, intelligent  answers on “Sixty Minutes” during Steve Kroft’s wide-ranging  interview. President Bill Clinton could also speak intelligently in  complete grammatical paragraphs, but unlike Clinton the president-to-be also exhibited calmness and discipline.  Bill Clinton might have  been a Rhodes Scholar, but he had the discipline of a tomcat.  Obama  has the discipline of a Zen monk -- without, of course, the celibacy.

Michelle Obama has emerged in this post election period as a strong,  intelligent and loving wife.   The interplay between her and her  husband on “60 Minutes” was tender and endearing. She will speak up  and he will listen.  She will bring him back to earth if he tends to  get too full of himself.  She will point out his humanity and  limitations.  She will be no Nancy Reagan staring star-struck at her  man, nor a Hillary Clinton competing fiercely with hers, but she will  be a strong, influential and steadying influence.

Napoleon Bonaparte once told his French colleagues, "A leader is a  "dealer in hope." That’s what Franklin Roosevelt gave this nation in  the 1930s.  That’s what Ronald Reagan gave us in the 1980s. And  whatever our politics, we should anticipate that our young president  can also galvanize this nation with hope.  Today we sorely need that  optimism.

Obama will need all the help he can get.  In many ways he’s inheriting  a broken country.  We’re facing a global financial meltdown with two  wars and an over-stretched military. Unemployment is up and housing  starts down. The auto industry is on the verge of bankruptcy. The  stock market gyrates dangerously like a drunk on a roller coaster. No  matter for whom we voted, Obama is our President and we must unite 
behind him.

Some have criticized Obama’s appointments as overly representative of  those who once served President Clinton.  The same folks who once  labeled Obama too inexperienced are now knocking him for appointing  experienced Washington hands, but he’s not appointing cronies.  There  are no old friends like Alberto Gonzales from Texas or Mack McLarty, a  crony from Arkansas who was Bill Clinton’s first chief of staff.   McLarty only lasted one year; he was a disaster. So was Gonzales.   Sadly, as Attorney General he lasted much longer.

The intellectual quality of Obama’s appointments, moreover,  underscores his self-confidence.  He has not surrounded himself with  “yes” men or women. He likes the clash of ideas.  He will hear them  out and make his own decisions.  In that way his cabinet will be more  like Franklin Roosevelt’s than Abraham Lincoln’s team of rivals.

On the shadow side, Obama’s election has given rise to a wave of  racial hate. The Associate Press reported that William Ferris from the  University of South Carolina explained that a Black president is “the  most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced  since the Civil War.  It’s shaking the foundation on which the country  has existed for centuries.” That foundation regrettably, especially  but not only in the South, was slavery, bigotry and discrimination.

The AP reported that far from the South “in Standish, Maine a sign  inside the Oak Hill General Store read: Osama Obama Shotgun Pool.  Customers could sign up to bet a dollar on a date when Obama would be  killed.”

A district official in Rexburg, Idaho said second and third grade  students on a school bus chanted “assassinate Obama.” Bigots burned  crosses in Obama supporters’ front yards in Hardwick, NJ and Apolacan  Township, PA. What does this say about this country’s racism?  It  would be naïve to think this election has excised it from the national  soul. As William Ferris remarked, “Racism is like cancer.  It’s never  totally wiped out, it’s in remission” -- and after this election it 
has again metastasized.

Obama’s election has been a recruitment boon for the Ku Klux Klan. A  newly energized KKK is using the Internet to recruit others who think they should eliminate the national humiliation of a Black family in  the White House. According to authorities reported by the Associate  Press, Obama has received more threats of violence than any other  president-elect.

In Swahili the word “Barak” means blessing. All of us should hope that  his administration will deliver that blessing.  We should pray that  the benevolent universe that has somehow brought him to us would guide  him in his judgments and protect him from the racial hate and violence  that still lurks in too many twisted minds.

Retired from the administration at SUNY Fredonia, Daniel O’Rourke  lives in Cassadaga, NY.  His column appears in the Observer, Dunkirk,  NY on the second and fourth Thursday each month. A grandfather, Dan is  a married Catholic priest. He has published "The Spirit at Your Back,"  a book of his previous columns. To read about the book or send  comments on this column visit his website: danielcorourke.com

CPJ member Dan O'Rourke submitted the following letter to the Buffalo News, which was published in the March 4, 2008 issue:

Dear Editor,

Congratulations to the Buffalo News (2/25/08) and to Charity Vogel  for her courage in spotlighting the horrors female inmates suffer in our prisons.

I hope the Buffalo News will continue to shed light on the treatment  of the incarcerated. I once worked in prisons and know the difficult job correction officers have, but I also know that they, like all  with controlling authority over others, are tempted to abuse that  authority. Like some educators, clergy, psychologists and doctors,  some guards delude themselves into believing they can misuse those in  their care for their own purpose and pleasure.  In a horrible  perversion, they can debase and abuse those they are meant to protect  and help.

Senator Hubert Humphrey once said that the quality of a society "is  measured by how it treats those in the dawn of life, in the dusk of  life, and most importantly in the shadow of life.” These women are in  the shadows of life. What does their treatment say about the quality  of our society?

 Daniel O’Rourke
8002 Frisbee Road
Casadaga, NY 14718
595-2704

DFCPJ has supported the work of Dr. Tom Potts, a dentist who has volunteered for many years to help the poor in Chiapas, Mexico.  In October 2006, he and Dr. Bill Jungles gave a presentation at a DFCPJ meeting about the dental clinic in Chiapas.   The following was received from Dr. Potts on December 22, 2007:

Chiapas Dental Clinic Update

The Latin American Solidarity Committee (a task force of the Western New York Peace Center) has been operating a dental clinic in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico for the last 20 years.  In the beginning the clinic served primarily emergency needs, with the majority of services oriented toward the treatment of infections and extractions.  Subsequently, we have enlarged our services and now deliver a full complement of restorative services (fillings).

This year about 75% of our services have been oriented toward saving teeth rather  than extractions.  This represents a major change in the nature of the services and an improvement in our ability to deliver a higher quality of health to this impoverished community.  This year also was the first time that we have provided for root canal treatments, and this was only possible because of the X-ray machine installed in 2005 by one of your members (Bill Stock).

A Mexican dentist is at the clinic on Saturdays throughout the year, while I am there for five days a week usually for the months of November and February.  However, this year we plan to start helping a clinic in El Sauce, Nicaragua in February, and for that reason I'll only be in Chiapas for a week.

The clinic in Nicaragua is currently only doing extractions, so we hope to accomplish some improvements in the equipment and services there as well.  This work is only possible because of the generous donations to the Dental Clinic Project by many individuals and groups like the Dunkirk-Fredonia Peace and Justice Center.   Thanks again for your generous help!

Elia Mihou, Executive Director of the Western New York Peace Center since August, was featured in the Tuesday November 20 issue of the Buffalo News.   For the next few days, it can be read at no charge by going to http://buffalonews.com and clicking on the Archives link. 

Three truckloads of materials and $500 were donated during the CPJ's July 2007 Nicarauguan Appeal.   Each year, CPJ organizes a collection to help the impoverished people of the Central American country.  This effort is led by Ann Marie Zon, a Catholic social worker who spends several months each year at a mission in Nicaragua.  Thanks to all who donated!

CPJ is donating $140 to Rural Ministry in honor of the organization's 40th anniversary.    

Headquartered in Dunkirk, Rural Ministry has provided the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter to the less fortunate and those in crisis situations.  Some have lost jobs, some face personal crises, some have come to harvest crops but do not find work, some are subjects of abuse, neglect, government reductions, or deteriorating health.   See http://www.ccrm.netsync.net/ for more information

Each year, DFCPJ collects items and funds to help the poor in Nicaragua, coordinating with the leadership of Ann Marie Zon, a Catholic social worker who works several months of the year at a mission in Nicaraugua.  (DFCPJ will again have  a drive this July.)  The following is from a recent note Ann Marie wrote to DFCPJ, thanking the group for its help:

My Dear-Most Faithful Friends,

You are so very much a part of Nicaragua and our efforts for the people there.  To be honest, you are most important to our projects - our work. 

We put the sum total of the funds you collected into digging wells - getting water for mission settlements that do not have the luxury of having water close at hand.

You can't even come close to imagining what this has done for the three areas - for all those people.  For them, it is like being given a gift that never ends.  We are presently installing the pumps so the projects are complete!

Thank you again and again.  We can only ask Our Lord, who used water in so many of His miracles, to bless each and all of you for every drop you've offered to  others.

--Ann Marie Zon

At its May 28 meeting, CPJ decided to contribute $100 to Church World Service for its effort to help those suffering from the genocidal crisis in Darfur, Sudan. 

Recently, CPJ donated $100 to the Agnes Safe House in Jamestown, which provides a safe haven for women who are affected by violence.

In conjunction with their recent week-long effort to raise awareness about the crisis in Darfur, students at SUNY Fredonia raised funds to benefit Doctors Without Borders.  In March, CPJ donated $25 to this cause. 

On Sunday January 28, Daniel O'Rourke was the guest speaker at the service of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Northern Chautauqua in Fredonia.  The title of Dan's presentation was "Peace is Relationships," a variation on Louise Diamond's insight that peace is connections.  Among others, Dan cites Eckhart Tolle, the author of The Power of Now, who said that if the present collective madness continues, it is unlikely that our planet will survive another hundred years. >> Read the entire text of Dan's speech, "Peace is Relationships".

At the January 11, 2007 CPJ meeting, members voted to donate $50 to Iraq Veterans Against the War, and $100 to the scholarship fund of the Dunkirk-Fredonia branch of the NAACP, in commemoration of Martin Luther King's birthday.

The following Letter to the Editor, written by CPJ member Dan O'Rourke, was published in the January 6, 2007 issue of the Buffalo News (title was provided by the News):

"Bush must not rush into a war with Iran"
Dear Editor:
President Bush is proud of his reputation as a decider. What then has taken him so long to decide on “a new way forward” in Iraq?  Part of the delay probably is that many of his generals have opposed his escalation of troops levels. But I have another concern.  Does the President intend to take the spotlight off his politically unpopular troop surge with an announcement of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program?  Such a decision would be disastrous.  It would unite the Muslim world even more fiercely against us. Admittedly Iran’s President Ahmadinejad deliberately provokes us.  He calls for the destruction of Israel.  He sponsors conferences for Holocaust deniers.  He flaunts the United Nations.  But patience not a military strike is America’s best policy. Ahmadinejad’s party has already lost support in local elections. Students have jeered him publicly. Iran’s state-run television has reported this. The Iranian people recognize his extremism.  He will self-destruct.  We do not have to destroy him militarily.

Daniel O’Rourke

CPJ member Nancy Stock attended the October 10 Phyllis Bennis lecture co-sponsored by the Western New York Peace Center held at the University of Buffalo.  (See the "Previous Events" section of the DFCPJ website for more information.)  Nancy wrote the following after hearing Ms. Bennis: