Tricounty DFA Update: "Day In The Life Of Glens Falls" Peace Vigil Thursday, more
Hello Everyone;

In This Update:

1. Special Vigil: Day In The Life of Glens Falls, Thursday, 5:15pm
2. Saturday Vigil 11am
3. Iraq War Vote Still Looms: Kucinich Speaks Out
4. Rockhill Friday Night Progressive Film Festival
5. On The Lighter Side: Amy Poler on SNL


1. Special Vigil: Day In The Life of Glens Falls, Thursday, 5:15pm

At our meeting Wednesday, it was pointed out (my apologies, I forget who it was!) that the Post Star on Thursday will be recording events around the community for a special "Day In The Life Of Glens Falls," chronicling life in the city over a 24 hour period, much the way has been done with other countries and communities.

We decided to participate by holding a special vigil for peace and to support our troops on Thursday from 5:15pm to 6:15pm at the corner of Bay and Glen Street in front of the Civil War Monument.

Please come down and bring a friend and a sign if you have one-- what we do helps determine the nature of the face that Glens Falls puts forward. We want it to accurately reflect how the community has changed in recent years.

2. Saturday Vigil 11am

We will again be holding our regular vigil for peace and to support our troops on Saturday from 11am until Noon, again, at the corner of Bay and Glen Streets in front of the Civil War monument in downtown Glens Falls. Two vigils in one week really isn't that much: attendance at the weekly vigil has been growing. Help us keep the ball rolling.


3. Iraq War Vote Still Looms: Kucinich Speaks Out

The proposed House of Representatives Bill to fund the Iraq War for another year, and probably continue it into 2010, is still pending, and the scandal of what it represents is still growing. Representative Maurice Hinchey publicly attacked the Blue Dog Coalition of conservative Democrats for attempting to strip veterans educational benefits from the bill. Said Hinchey:

"It is absolutely shameful that members of the Blue Dog coalition would vote to take this country into Iraq on false intelligence and lies, repeatedly vote to fund the disastrous military occupation of that country, but choose to turn their backs on the brave members of our armed forces by refusing to support an expansion of education benefits for them when they come home," Hinchey said in a statement.

Read about Hinchey's statement at: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050908O.shtml

Bert sends along this link to a short speech by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, asking the simple question "why are we in Iraq?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYgI7NhDQ5A

The "must read" of the week is probably this piece on Salon.com, by oil scholar Michael Klare. Klare argues that the rising price of oil represents the end of American power-- unless really radical changes are made quickly, specifically getting out of Iraq now. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/12/russian_oil/index1.html

Indeed, our imperial pretensions are almost the end of America as a country. http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/05/12/russian_oil/index1.html

If you are in for some additional bleak reading, Thomas Powers latest article in the New York Review of Books asks whether the US really has the resolve to avert its own destruction: http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/051108Z.shtml


4. Rockhill Friday Night Progressive Film Festival

The Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe's Friday Night Progressive Film Festival continues this week with:

OT: OUR TOWN (2003) Scott Hamilton Kennedy 77 min. RT Rating = 88 %
This inspiring documentary tracks the progress of Catherine Borek, a high school teacher in Compton California who is determined to start a drama troupe in a school that is dominated by a champion basketball team and is otherwise full of hopeless, helpless kids. Pulling her students together and motivating them by telling them that they are talented and they can prove themselves, she gives them the script for Our Town, the classic play by Thornton Wilder about a small community in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire. With frequent cuts to the 1977 television rendition of the play starring Hal Holbrook, OT: OUR TOWN slowly but surely establishes the gigantic differences between the crime-ridden ghetto that is Compton and the idyllic homogeneous safe haven of Grover's Corners. The kids who are to star in the play first approach it with amusement, coloring the actions of the play with their own music, insights, and experiences. But they soon encounter seemingly insurmountable challenges, ad that is when the film diverges from the play's production to show the real family and friends behind these struggling students. An inspiring and honest piece of filmmaking directed and produced by Scott Hamilton Kennedy, OT: OUR TOWN is a tale of modern urban struggle and strife with a happy ending.


5. On The Lighter Side: Amy Poler on SNL

And finally, this sketch of Amy Poler from the last Saturday Night Live is the funniest thing all week: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/11/6490/23273/998/513606

See you all Thursday!

Larry

Labels: Democracy For America, Democracy For The Greater Glens Falls Area, DFA, Iraq, Iraq War, Rockhill Bakehouse Cafe, Supplemental Bill, vigil

- posted by Larry Dudley @ 11:05 PM