In
this Issue:
Michael
Piazza to Speak in Crawford
Join the Bus ride on April 15
 Hope
for Peace & Justice and the Cathedral of Hope’s
Order of St. Martin is planning a daytrip to Crawford, TX
to join other peace activists from around the country for
an Easter Revival at Camp Casey and the Crawford Peace House.
With President Bush planning to take his usual Easter vacation
at his ranch, this will be the perfect time to rally for
an Easter of peace, love and hope.
Buses will leave Cathedral of Hope at 9 a.m. to arrive in
Crawford at approximately 11 a.m. The buses will depart Crawford
around 6 p.m. Lunch will be provided at no charge, though
donations will be accepted. You can also carry snacks and
other things aboard the buses. Cost is $20 per seat. Families
are more than welcome to attend.
Rev.
Michael Piazza, President of Hope for Peace & Justice
is scheduled to speak, and there will be rallies, performances
and teach-ins. The Crawford Peace House cultivates an atmosphere
of peaceful respite. Individuals are invited to explore the
peace garden and labyrinth in meditative reflection.
For more information, or to reserve your seat aboard a bus,
please contact
Jason Bradberry at jwbradberry@yahoo.com.
Take
it to the Streets:
Opportunities to Work for Peace & Justice
Immigration
March: Sunday, April 9 | 1pm | Dallas
 The
League of United Latin American Citizens is coordinating
a march to support t he McCain-Kennedy immigration
bill. The march will start at the Cathedral Shrine
of the Virgin of Guadalupe at 1 p.m. and end at City
Hall Plaza. Thousands of people, including many from
all over the country, are expected to attend.
The
organizers have asked everyone to observe the following
rules:
- No
Mexican Flags will be flown. Only U.S. flags will
be displayed.
- Everyone
is asked to wear white, to signify peace.
- Please
no negative messages. All banners must be positive.
National
Immigrant Civil Rights Day: Monday, April 10
On April 10, people in the Dallas area will wear white ribbons, arm bands or
wristbands to remind people of the importance of dealing with immigrants civilly
and justly. April 10 is also "Not a Penny" day. Everyone is asked
not to spend a single cent on April 10. Don't buy gas; don't go to Wal-Mart;
don't go to lunch. This is meant to show the impact and importance of the immigrant
on our economy.
All nationalities need to be united as one because we all have the same dream
for ourselves, our family, and for our future.
Day
Trip to Crawford: Saturday, April 15 | 11am | Cathedral
of Hope
Buses
will leave Cathedral of Hope at 9 a.m. to arrive in
Crawford at approximately 11 a.m. The buses will depart
Crawford around 6 p.m. Lunch will be provided at no
charge, though donations will be accepted. You can
also carry snacks and other things aboard the buses.
Cost is $20 per seat. Families are more than welcome
to attend. For more information, or to reserve your
seat aboard a bus, please contact Jason Bradberry at
jwbradberry@yahoo.com.
Related Link
League
of United Latin America Citizens (LULAC)
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Protesters Start Two-week March
ExxonMobil headquarters site of launch
by Angela Brown
Originally Published by the Associated Press
 About 50 war protesters rallied outside Exxon Mobil Corp.'s
headquarters Saturday, saying that $7 billion of its record
2005 profits were earned from the war with Iraq and should
be paid to injured veterans and those with health problems
living near refineries.
After
chanting "Boycott Exxon! Stop the war!" the
group marched down the street in the rain, with a police
escort for safety reasons. Some held banners that read "Spare
the innocents" and "No war for oil."
The rally kicked off the "March to Redeem the Soul of
America" that is to end up about 120 miles away in Crawford
near President Bush's ranch on Easter weekend for a third
war protest in less than a year.
"This two-week march is to bring attention to the sins
of corporate America," said state Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort
Worth, who also is the director of the Dallas Peace Center.
 Mark Boudreaux, an Exxon Mobil spokesman, said the company
was offended by the way such groups claim to represent
the public's interest by making "inflammatory statements" that
he said were "blatantly untrue."
"They're living in a fantasy world," Boudreaux said,
adding that the company has donated $3.5 billion to charities
the past several years.
He also said employees and retirees gave $60 million
to charitable organizations and volunteered 800,000 hours
last year.
Irving-based Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly
traded oil company, earned $36.13 billion last year,
the highest profit ever for a U.S. company.
Economic studies show that about 20 percent of that can
be attributed to the war that has sent oil prices soaring,
said Nick Mottern, director of ConsumersforPeace.org.
He is compiling a list of people - including injured
Iraq war veterans and Beaumont and Baytown residents
with health problems living near Exxon refineries - who
peace activists believe should receive some of Exxon's
$7 billion.
Protesters
plan to drive south to several cities, marching along part
of the way each day, and will arrive the week of Easter
in Crawford. There they will be joined by Cindy Sheehan,
the California woman who camped near Bush's ranch last
summer, demanding to ask him for what noble cause her soldier
son died in Iraq in 2004. Two of his top aides met with
Sheehan, but Bush never did.
 Her August vigil galvanized the peace movement while
drawing thousands of anti-war demonstrators to the
tiny Texas town, but it also attracted scores of
Bush supporters who said Sheehan was hurting troop
morale.
Sheehan and a few hundred protesters returned to Crawford
for a second protest the week of Thanksgiving while Bush
again was at his ranch.
Related Links
March
to Redeem the Soul of America
Dallas
Peace Center
Exxpose Exxon
Exxon
Secrets
H4PJ Peacemaker Training
Empowering Cultures of Peace Scheduled on April
21 & 22
Hope for Peace & Justice is an organization
dedicated to healing violence while working for
peace and justice in all types of human relationships.
We are working to achieve that goal through education
and nonviolent activism. Our task as Peace Practitioners
and Advocates is to call people into relationship
and community by equipping and empowering them
to transform conflict in ways that are healing,
loving, and reconciling.
Sound like a monumental task? You would be correct.
However, the need for peace in our lives, communities,
nations, and the world is urgent. To that end, the
H4PJ Curriculum Team is completing work on our first
seminar: Empowering Cultures of Peace: A Two Part Basic
Seminar for Peace Practitioners. We
need your critical analysis of the work we are doing
so that we can take this training on the road. So…for
your benefit (and ours), we are inviting you to a
sneak preview. Here is the agenda:
| Friday, April 21 |
6:30pm |
Dinner Together |
|
7:00 |
Plenary
Address and Q&A |
Rev. Michael Piazza |
8:00 |
Overview – Culture
of Peace, Conflict and Violence |
Rev. Shelley Hamilton |
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| Saturday,
April 22 |
8:30am |
Gathering and Continental Breakfast |
|
9:00 |
Understanding
Conflict- Ourselves, & Others |
Rev.
Shelley Hamilton
and Dennis
Bolin (Credentials)
|
12:00 |
Lunch |
|
1:00 |
Using Creativity to Resolve and Transform Conflict |
Rev. Shelley Hamilton and Dennis Bolin (Credentials)
|
4:30 |
Seminar Feedback |
Rev. Shelley Hamilton |
We
invite you to participate in this process because
we know you to be people striving for peace and justice.
We want to offer the best possible training program
through Hope for Peace & Justice and we believe
you can help us accomplish that. Come and share your
insights, suggestions, and creativity. If you would
like to attend, please email Rev. Shelley Hamilton
at shamilton@h4pj.org.
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Bob
Munro has generously offered a 15% donation to H4PJ
for every piece of art sold through Hope for Peace & Justice.
Please visit Sacred
Pause online. |
Big oil companies reap windfall profits on U.S. incentives
for drilling
By Edmund L. Andrews
March 27, 2006
Originally published by the New York Times
It was after midnight, and every lawmaker in the committee
room wanted to go home, but there was still time to sweeten
a deal encouraging oil and gas companies to drill in the
Gulf of Mexico.
"There is no cost," declared Representative Joe
Barton, Republican of Texas, who was presiding over Congressional
negotiations on the sprawling energy bill last July. An
obscure provision on new drilling incentives was "so
non-controversial," he added, that senior House and
Senate negotiators had not even discussed it.
Barton's claim had a long history. For more than a decade,
lawmakers and administration officials, both Republicans
and Democrats, have promised there would be no cost to
taxpayers for a program allowing companies to avoid royalties
on oil and gas produced in publicly owned waters in the
gulf.
But last month, the Bush administration confirmed that
it expected to waive about $7 billion in royalties over
the next five years, even though the benefits were conceived
of for times when energy prices were low. And that number
could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit
filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining
restrictions proves successful.
"The big lie about this whole program is that it doesn't
cost anything," said Representative Edward Markey,
Democrat of Massachusetts, who tried to block its expansion
last July. "Taxpayers are being asked to provide huge
subsidies to oil companies to produce oil - it's like subsidizing
a fish to swim."
How did a supposedly cost-free incentive become a multibillion-dollar
break to an industry making record profits?
The answer is a familiar Washington story of special-interest
politics. It is an account of legislators who passed a
law riddled with ambiguities; of crucial errors by midlevel
bureaucrats under President Bill Clinton; of $2 billion
in inducements from the Bush administration, which was
intent on promoting energy production; and of Republican
lawmakers who wanted to do even more. At each turn, through
shrewd lobbying and litigation, oil and gas companies
ended up with bigger incentives than before.
Click
here to continue reading
Keeping It Secret as the Family Car Becomes a Home
By Keith Meyers
April 2, 2006
Originally published in the New York Times
FAIRFAX,
Va. — After
being evicted from his apartment last year, Larry Chaney
lived in his car for five months in Erie, Pa. As he passed
the time at local cafes, he always put a ring of old house
keys and several envelopes with bills on the table to give
the impression that he had a home like everyone else.
 Richard Pyne, his daughter, Kristinlyn, and wife, Suzanne,
moved into a shelter after living in their car.
While
Michelle Kennedy was living in her car with her three children
in Belfast, Me., she parked someplace different each night
so no one would notice them, and she instructed the children
to tell anyone who asked that they were "staying
with friends."
Last
year, William R. Alford started keeping a car cover over
the station wagon where he sleeps. "I originally
just had drapes, but the condensation on the inside of the
windows was a dead giveaway," said Mr. Alford, who has
been homeless here in Fairfax since May 2005.
As
with all homeless people, finding food, warmth and a place
to clean up is a constant struggle. But for those who live
in their cars, remaining inconspicuous is its own challenge,
and though living this way is illegal in most places, experts
and advocates believe it is a growing trend.
"It's most often the working poor who find themselves
in this situation, teetering on the border between the possessed
and the dispossessed," said Kim Hopper, a researcher
on homelessness for the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric
Research, which is based in New York.
The
number of "mobile homeless," as
they are often called, tends to climb whenever the cost
of housing outpaces wages, Dr. Hopper said. Last year was
the first year on record, according to an annual study
conducted by the National Low Income Housing Coalition,
that a full-time worker at minimum wage could not afford
a one-bedroom apartment anywhere in the country at average
market rates.
Click
here to continue reading
Support
H4PJ at PAGEANT
Presented by Hope for Peace & Justice
An Uptown Players Production
Special One-Time Benefit Performance
Sunday, April 30
7pm | Trinity River Arts Center
 Support
Hope for Peace & Justice on this special night. The cast of Pageant has donated
a special performance to Hope for Peace & Justice. By purchasing your tickets
to Pageant through Hope for Peace & Justice, you help us raise money for
important campaigns, programs and workshops.Your $50 ticket includes an invitation
to a post-show dessert reception.
Click
here to buy your tickets.
Book
and Lyrics by Bill Russell and Frank Kelly
Music by Albert Evans
Conceived by Robert Longbottom
You've
never seen a beauty pageant like this one! Pageant pits six beauty queens (all
played by men) against each other in an extravaganza of evening gowns, bathing
suits, and not-to-be-missed talent.
While
les girls swirl around the charming host in the funniest beauty contest ever
seen, judges selected from the audience decide who will be crowned Miss Glamouresse.
A different winner each night ensures non-stop nail-biting fun!
Theatre:
Trinity River Arts Center
2600 Stemmons Freeway, Suite 180, Dallas, Texas 75207
The Trinity River Arts Center Theatre is located across from the KD Studio in
the same building complex.
Click
here for more information.
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