You are invited to join the:
2008 Resource Center for Nonviolence and Interfaith Peace-Builders
Study Tour to Israel and the Palestinian Territories
August 4-11, 2008

This is a truly exceptional opportunity to visit the region at a critical moment in history and to learn about the ongoing conflict from a variety of perspectives, while meeting with and learning from locals working for a sustainable, just solution. You will visit various points of interest in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel, stay with Israeli and Palestinian families and have the opportunity to participate in ongoing nonviolent campaigns as well as witness the daily reality of people in the region.
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FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 7:30P.M., Resource Center for Nonviolence, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz.  Andrea Licata will speak on The Cost of US Militarism on Civilian Communities Around the World and the potential to convert these implements of war into peaceful civilian usage. The United States maintains over 737 recognized military bases as well as hundreds of secret installations in 137 countries around the world. These bases directly threaten local communities and cause geopolitical destabilization. Hear Andrea Licata (from Italy) who has been fighting a US base expansion in Italy and Sabina Perez (Guam and Bay Area) a key organizer of Famoksaiyan fighting for cultural survival and against US military buildup in Guam.

From our friends at the Ameirican Friends Service Committee:

An Interesting look at our tax dollars:American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has just released a new 2 min. video to help people understand the outrageous amount of money that is being spent daily on the Iraq war — at the expense of meeting human needs.To reach the widest audience, we need your help. On YouTube, the more views a video gets, the more visibility it gets. So we are asking all our friends and supporters to- watch this video (at least once)- rate it (be honest) and- send it to your whole network of friends and family with the same message.We hope to get at least 1,000 views the first week and maybe much higher.Please take a minute now - click here and watch the video:After you view the video and send it to your friends, if you have a few more moments, please sign our petition to Congress to DEFUND the Iraq War and RE-FUND human needs at home and in Iraq.

(From Left to Right: Scott Kennedy, Anita Heckman, Grace Paley, Phil McManus, Deena Hurwitz, Betsy Fairbanks, Doug Rand, Judy Bloomgardener) Please join us for a celebration of the life and work of Grace Paley. A notable list of local poets, feminists, activists, pacifists, writers and rascals will read from Paley’s work, including, Lee Swenson, Julie Olsen Edwards, Darrell Darling, Emily Reilly, Betsy Fairbanks, Cappy Israel, Bill Monning, Morton Marcus, Nanlouise Wolfe, Barbara Hayes, Richard Moss, Shannon Spencer, Merrie Shaller, Lynn Zachreson, Nick Zachreson, Marion Vittitow and Ellen Bass. At the Mill Gallery, 131-B Front Street in Santa Cruz (south of Laurel). Come join us to celebrate this extraordinary woman and a life well-lived! $5-$20 suggested sliding-scale donation (no one turned away for lack of funds).Grace Paley, who died August 22, 2007, was most famously a writer of short stories. But folks at the Resource Center for Nonviolence knew her as a political activist, friend, ally and supporter who spoke at the Center’s Annual Dinner and Program in 1987. Grace Paley was, according to the LA Times, “an acclaimed writer and activist who in only three collections of short stories gave earthy voice to the interior life of the Bronx Everywoman.” Grace’s three collections of short stories, again according to the LA Times, “won her critical acclaim and the prestigious Rea Award for short-story writing. But Paley, known as a passionate activist for causes ranging from the Vietnam War to feminism to the Iraq War, was perhaps less prolific for those efforts - a diversity of experience she embraced in a June interview, saying, ‘It’s not as if anybody is one thing.’” A descendant of the East European Jewish socialist tradition, who came to her own as a writer in the tumultuous 1960s, Grace embodied good humor, imagination, working with other people, radical politics, and a dogged persistence — all necessary ingredient for times such as those in which we live.