November 15, 2006
Dear WESPAC Foundation friends and supporters,
I am writing to you at a time of great urgency, to ask for your support for an organization in your community which has a critical responsibility to help achieve justice and peace for people here in Westchester, in the Middle East, and across the United States and throughout the world. Please help WESPAC Foundation as much as you can – it is your local voice on global issues.
I was delighted to meet many of you at WESPAC Foundation’s annual Peace and Justice Awards Dinner last April, where I was honored to give the keynote address. I wish I could say that the world has improved since then, but unfortunately our peace and justice agenda continues to grow with issues of ever increasing urgency. The wars and devastation in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories continue without end and WESPAC needs to take action. Threats against Iran and North Korea are increasingly ominous with a movement towards sanctions and war, and WESPAC must and does take action. Here in the United States, your government is eroding civil liberties in the name of security and WESPAC must act. Global warming, health care, living wages, racial justice and human rights must remain high on WESPAC’s action agenda. WESPAC needs your help, your activism and your moral and financial support to keep up with this agenda.
For myself, I am finding myself in law courts as a defense witness for those in Britain and Ireland who have tried to stop US warplanes en route to kill in Iraq. Here in the US, I am a witness for Lieutenant Watada who very correctly refused to lead his men to Iraq to commit war crimes within a war crime, as he puts it. And BBC 4 has asked for comments on UN sanctions on North Korea; needless to say I am opposed to such an act of aggression and have advocated constructive dialogue, particularly listening rather than talking at. On the Middle East, Teheran Radio asked me to describe the added-value of Rice’s recent visit to the region … there was none … she cost innocent lives. Irish Radio and BBC Scotland raised the issue of the new Secretary-General; I explained the corruption of the Charter by member states and the need for Ban to publicly draw attention to such violations by the Security Council.
Back here at home, I know that WESPAC Foundation is an essential local advocate for a peace and justice agenda in the United States and around the world: for global economic justice, for an end to racism, for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, for justice in the Middle East, for the environment and for policies which will sustain our fragile planet. WESPAC Foundation needs your financial support to keep this progressive voice alive and active.
Most of us give money to many charities which help individual victims of war, poverty, disease and natural disasters made worse by institutional inaction. But fundamental change is essential if we want to prevent, rather than ameliorate these human tragedies. WESPAC Foundation is one of the few organizations in your local community which works to end such victimization by advancing essential social, political and economic change. Your financial and personal involvement strengthens and enables WESPAC’s work for peace and justice, facilitated by the dedicated and persistent hand of WESPAC’s Director, Nada Khader.
During 2006, all of us have worked hard to resist the slide to violence, polarization and injustice. Your past and future support has made the following recent WESPAC activities possible:
· No War Westchester Group providing counter military recruitment trainings, organizing weekly peace vigils and educational film screenings
· Progressive News Network (PNN) interviewing representatives of Military Families Speak Out, Voices in the Wilderness, Iraqi Veterans Against the War as well as courageous attorney Lynne Stewart
· WESPAC’s Middle East Committee bringing expert speakers to Westchester including Alison Weir, Rashid Khalidi, and Norman Finkelstein
· WESPAC’s Friends of Turtle Island raising awareness about the ongoing struggles of indigenous people to protect their land rights and cultural dignity
· WESPAC’s Economic Justice Committee exposing Wal-Mart and promoting FAIR TRADE at our upcoming Dec. 2nd International Crafts Fair in White Plains (please see flyer enclosed)
· WESPAC’s Racial Justice Committee bringing together people from all walks of life to discuss the harm and impact of institutionalized racism
· Our environmentally-minded members who work to promote a clean, safe and sustainable planet and protection for the last wildlife havens that still exist
Your support is essential to WESPAC Foundation’s existence. All it takes is for 800 people to give $100 each to WESPAC Foundation every year for WESPAC to survive and flourish. Please be counted. And, if you can give $1,000 or even $500, WESPAC will set up a matching fund, to double your contribution. Please send your tax-deductible contribution made payable to WESPAC Foundation by December 15th 2006. Make a note if you can pledge an amount every month, automatically through online banking or by sending WESPAC a check.
Working together, we can help to build a compassionate and caring world,
where we take care of each other and take care of the Earth.
For a more peaceful and just tomorrow,
Denis J. Halliday