The PB&J Campaign

The PB&J Campaign
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Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich
Who knew it was so easy to change the world? The next time you pack this all-American sandwich for lunch, you're helping the environment. You don't have to change your whole diet to change the world. Just start with lunch.
How to Help the Environment at Lunch
A PB&J will slow global warming. Next time you have one you'll reduce your carbon footprint by saving the equivalent of 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions over an average animal-based lunch like a hamburger, a tuna sandwich, grilled cheese, or chicken nuggets. That's about forty percent of what you'd save driving around for the day in a hybrid instead of a standard sedan. If you have a PB&J instead of a ham sandwich or a hamburger, you save the equivalent almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions. A PB&J will also save water. That's about 280 gallons of water over the hamburger. To put this in perspective, three PB&Js a month instead of hamburgers will save about as much water as switching to a low-flow showerhead. A PB&J will save land. Have a PB&J and save 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, over-grazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

--
"…Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Letter from the Birmingham Jail

Memoir Goes Behind Iran's Prison Gates

By Juhie Bhatia - WeNews correspondent

(WOMENSENEWS)--On the evening of Jan. 15, 1982, Marina Nemat was arrested in Tehran, the capital of Iran. She was sent to Evin prison, notorious for its political prisoners' wing, and sentenced to death for political crimes. Nemat was 16 years old.

It was the early days of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution. Nemat didn't consider herself to be an activist, but she protested when her calculus teacher taught a lesson on Islam instead of math. Her teacher said, "If you don't like what I'm teaching, you can leave." So Nemat did, and other students followed.

As a result, Nemat was rounded up and sent to Evin. She escaped execution at the very last minute, though, and was released from prison just over two years later. But Nemat kept secret the story of how she was saved and what happened in Evin. Even her parents and husband were in the dark.

Now, more than 20 years after being freed, Nemat is finally sharing what happened in Evin in her memoir "Prisoner of Tehran." The rights to her book have been sold in 21 countries, providing a rare glimpse at the life of a political prisoner in Iran.

"My book isn't political, but it's ended up being portrayed as political," said Nemat. "It's about what happened to me as a young, clueless Christian girl who was thrown into a strange situation and happened to live to tell the tale."

Marriage Behind Bars

When Nemat arrived at Evin in 1982 she was interrogated by two guards. One of them, Ali, fell in love with her. Just as Nemat was about to be executed Ali removed her from the firing squad. He got her death sentence reduced to life imprisonment. In exchange, though, he asked her to marry him, which required her to convert to Islam. Nemat spent the next two years as a prisoner in Evin and as her interrogator's wife.

What's most poignant about the book, said Lee Gowan, one of Nemat's writing instructors, is the way she tells the story of how Ali made her marry him, and essentially raped her, without making him into a stock villain. "Objective writers need to understand the human heart and she does," he added.

Nemat said that Ali, like her, was a good person who had been imprisoned and tortured, but he chose to focus his subsequent hatred and anger on those who were against his religion or beliefs. "We're all in danger of becoming fundamentalists, whether we're Christian, Muslim, et cetera, when we allow ourselves to become blinded by basic emotions," she said.

Nemat's relationship with Ali ended abruptly when he was gunned down by rival revolutionaries. When she was released from Evin in 1984 she never talked about her marriage, or what happened to her or the other women she lived with in Evin. Some of these women, unlike Nemat, didn't escape execution; each had her own story.

"There was a wall of silence after I got out. There was an absolute fear that dominated us. The past is the past, we didn't dare mention it, we just move on," said Nemat.

Writing From Memories

Nemat married her teenage sweetheart and moved to Toronto in 1991 when she was 26. She worked part time as a waitress and was a housewife, raising her two sons. She wanted to forget Iran and put all her effort into being Canadian, she said. But her mother's death in 2000 triggered something. She wondered if she should have told her mother about what happened in Evin. Once Nemat started to remember, the memories flooded.

In 2002 Nemat went to an office supply store, bought some notebooks and started writing it all down. At first she wrote for herself, but as time went on she decided she wanted to reach more people. She finally revealed the details of her time at Evin to her husband of 17 years, and then started taking writing classes.

"She was the most determined student I'd come across," said Gowan, program head of creative writing at the School of Continuing Studies at the University of Toronto in Canada. "She wanted to tell her story. Beyond anything personal to her, though, she wanted to tell the story of the other women in that prison, to give them a voice."

Nemat wrote her story in English, though it's not her first or second language, and completed the book in four years. Her memoir was published in Canada in April and in the United States in May. Since then she has spoken at many different high schools and universities across Canada and has sold the television film rights to her memoir.

Reminded of Prison

Nemat had just written the third draft of her memoir when Iranian Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was arrested for taking photographs in front of Evin. Almost three weeks later, in July 2003, she died in Iranian custody.

In 2005 an Iranian doctor who had examined Kazemi's body revealed that he found evidence of torture, including rape, broken fingers, missing fingernails, flogging on the legs and a skull fracture.

"When she died I felt guilty because I was a witness who never testified," said Nemat. "But her death, as sad as it was, shone some light on political prisoners in Iran. All I can do is tell my own story, but by doing so hopefully also shed some light. Maybe then the world will be more willing to listen to other stories. Maybe a collection of these stories will eventually change things and the way people think."

Michelle Shephard, Nemat's friend and a reporter for the Toronto Star said Nemat's book is important now, even though it recounts events from the past. "Iran is still a closed country to report on and her book is a little window, even though it was 20 years ago. It's hard with Iran and other closed societies because it's difficult for people to be brave enough to tell their story, since they assume risks by doing so," Shepard said. "Hers is an important voice. She's a mother of two who has lived through this and come forward. What she's saying carries a lot of weight."

Now that the book is complete, Nemat is ready to leave it behind. She is working on and off on a novel. She still lives in Toronto and has not been back to Iran.

"Iran has changed, but it's not become better. People have learned to deal with the dictatorship and how to stay under the radar," Nemat said. "Even Evin is the same, but the number of prisoners is lower since people aren't getting into trouble as much. But if they get into trouble the evidence suggests people are as badly treated as back then."

Juhie Bhatia is a writer in New York City.

Women's eNews welcomes your comments. E-mail us at - editors@womensenews.org .

For more information:

Zahra Kazemi: - http://www.zibakazemi.org/

"Ardalan Tells Story of U.S.-Iranian Tensions": - http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/3016

"Iranian American Women Caught Between Homelands": - http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2624/

Gender and Finance

The United States of America (USA) is one of the few countries not to have ratified the

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). At the subnational level, several states, counties and cities have passed resolutions urging

ratification. San Francisco has gone further by enacting its own ordinance incorporating

CEDAW principles. The city’s Commission on the Status of Women was given responsibility for implementation, with oversight from an eleven-member CEDAW task force which included elected officials, government employees, organised labour and community advocates.

The first step in implementing the new ordinance was to develop a set of guidelines for a

gender analysis that would assist in examining two departments for discrimination in

32 respect of employment practices, budget allocation and provision of direct and indirect

services (see http://www.ci.sf.uf/cosw/cedaw/guidelines.htm). The Department of Public Works was chosen because of its size, because traditionally it provides few jobs for women, and because services are provided indirectly rather than to individuals. The Juvenile Probation Department was the second choice, as it provides services to an increasing number of women who are also very diverse. The Commission worked with the international consulting group Strategic Analysis for Gender Equity in developing the gender analysis guidelines. It completed its first report during 2000. It is currently looking at four more city departments and also at City-wide practices, such as work-life policies and practices.

In a separate initiative, Jane Midgley has done work on women's budgets in the US and is

currently writing The Women's Guide to the US Budget.

ANGLICAN WOMEN “GO PUBLIC”

CLAIMING AND DEVELOPING A PUBLIC VOICE

ANGLICAN WOMEN “GO PUBLIC”

May 2007, The Rev. Margaret Rose

For the past four years our office, in partnership with the Anglican Observer’s Office has brought women from around the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion to participate at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Through a movement called AWE, Anglican Women’s Empowerment, the women—and this year there were fifty—participated in forums at the UN, met with government officials and led strategic regional caucuses. Their voice, along with others, claimed that the voice of faith is vital as we seek to make the world a better place to live, not only through churches but also through so called secular means, as in governments, non profit institutions and civil society. Often in national dress, the international women carried their AWE tote bags, which served as a name tag and gave visible proof that the Anglican delegation was the largest Non Governmental Organization present at the UN meeting.

As important as their work at the UN however, was the work the women did together as leaders in their churches, dioceses and communities gathered from around the Anglican Communion.

None is unaware of the controversies facing us as a church and as a communion. Yet in our years together we have been clear that our work is about poverty, AIDs and the issues of survival which face so many around the globe. These take top priority. The women working at the UN, and among ourselves, saw that when our voices were joined in community—out loud and in public, we could indeed make a difference in the church and in the world. At the close of this year’s meeting, the women issued a unanimous statement, sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Primates of the Communion, which read in part:

“Given the global tensions so evident in our Church today, we do not accept that there is any one issue of difference or contention which can, or indeed would ever cause us to break our unity as represented by our common baptism. Neither would we ever consider severing the deep and abiding bonds of affection which characterize our relationships as Anglican women. This sisterhood of suffering is at the heart of our theology and our commitment to transforming the world through peace with justice. Rebuilding and reconciling the world is central to our faith.”

But it is not just those women who come to the UN, but all of us, who have the gifts and talents to claim what I call a PUBLIC voice in the church and in the world. Our call is to use that PUBLIC voice for the Gospel mandate of reconciliation in a world riven by controversy and polarization, to say nothing of disease and violence and hunger. Let me explain myself with a story:

One Sunday some weeks ago, when I should definitely have been at church, I was at the gym running on the treadmill. It was a treadmill where you put the ear phones in and watch the television in front of you. I chose to watch Meet the Press. The subject of the day was the recent vote in Congress about military appropriations for Iraq. Around the circle were the moderator and various congress men—from both sides of the aisle. As I listened and watched, (realize of course that I am huffing and puffing two inches in front of them on the treadmill) I suddenly had this image of Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Annie Get your Gun. “I can do anything you can do better. I can do anything better than you. No you can’t . Yes I can. No you can’t . Yes, I can, yes, I can.” It was not long before it became clear that the conversation was not about how to make the situation better but about who was going to get his way—a familiar power struggle! Clearly these men have, via the media and many other means, a public voice. A loud voice. A political voice. And they are making decisions which will affect not only their communities and our country but the world!

Aware that there were no women or people of color in this particular conversation, I wondered how that might have made a difference. Upon reflection, I was drawn to the work we are doing among women at the Office of Women’s Ministries and to my conviction or rather to my evangelistic message and witness, that when there is gender equality, when women and men together are sitting at the decision making tables, be it in church, in communities or in Congress, then the conversation is richer and more balanced. And there is the distant hope that the outcome will be one which truly seeks the common good. But as long as there is no balance, then the leadership of church and civil society and governments will list toward the traditional solutions of power and control rather than wisdom and relationship.

This is not a new idea of course. But I believe it is the idea for now, a wave that we as women of faith are called to catch, indeed impelled by the Gospel of Jesus Christ to do so. I believe that Now is the time for women to claim our own public voice in every area of social and political life. It is the time for women to come out of the closet, to do and be in public what we have been doing in private for eons.

What do I mean exactly? And how will this make a difference? Do I want women to appear on Meet the Press? Do I want to dredge up the Equal Rights Amendment and argue about that? Not exactly. Let us look at a little “Church History”. Remember that in the early church, before we had the big buildings and all the worry about heating bills and wardens, there were essentially house churches, often led by women.

In 1 Corinthians 16:10 Paul writes, “Warm greetings to Priscilla and Aquilla and the church that meets at their house.” In Colossians 4 we read “Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters in Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.” And in Romans 16, though the greeting is to Gaius in whose house the church meets, I suspect there was a Mrs. Gaius in there too. The roles of women were very clear. They were the presiders at the meal. They prepared and served the food and drink. When those small gatherings shared bread and wine “in memory of Jesus”, the roles did not change. The women were in charge of the private sphere and the meal, even when it included what we today would call the Eucharist.

With Constantine, however, in the 4^th century, for better and for worse, the Church itself went Public and became the established religion of the Roman Empire. Christianity was no longer a private affair. Gathering as Christian community was legal, and certainly a good thing for those who were persecuted. But as it went Public, men continued to play the same roles they always had, becoming the public purveyors of religious ritual. And the women, still presiding at the home table, no longer had a role at this now public table. Culturally we did not rock the boat.

Some did of course, and always had. There is precedent for women speaking out and getting called uppity even in biblical times. Remember Paul’s insistence that women keep silent in church? No one would make such a rule if it weren’t in danger of being breached. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect some of the women who had been in charge of churches as a more private affair—were speaking out in public. So even in the early days before Constantine, there was a move afoot to silence the uppity women even from the house churches.

Nevertheless for two thousand years most of us have been pretty quiet. There have been of course notable exceptions. There are the ancient ones, Blandina, later Joan of Arc and more you could name. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Sojourner Truth, Amelia Bloomer, Susan B Anthony ( all of whom are commemorated in our Prayer Book as Saints) Others more recent would include Bella Abzug, Margaret Chase Smith, and Jeannette Rankin . You could name your own of course.

In recent years the movement of women into public life and decision making has been astounding. And today, there is a woman who is Speaker of the House, another who is seen as a viable Presidential candidate, and women heads of state elected in their own right in Germany, Liberia, Chile to name just three. Another who was, at least for a while, the leading candidate in France. And much to my own faithless surprise and delight, a woman who is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

A good start I would say---but what about us? What about those of us whose ambitions are not necessarily to be quite so public. What about us who are seeking to be disciples of Jesus in our own churches and communities? I believe there is a public vocation for each of us as well, a call to speak and act in the world in a way that demands in public what women have always demanded in private for the good of their families and communities. We must develop and claim - a public voice that is different from the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of Meet the Press, one which reflects what some have called women’s moral authority, values which the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington has stated as Women’s Public Vision.

I am on an advisory group for this organization--- which includes women from religious groups—Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and so called secular groups. We have written a values statement which we hope to use in public policy work which offers a public moral vision we believe should under gird all our work in church and society. It simply includes basic values and insists that these should inform our public policy and our ways of working. It insists on a conversation whose premise is the common good as the primary value before even individual rights. Community, balance, equality, and family are its basic tenets. Such conversation should not be too difficult, partially because women have often had different ways of talking to each other, ways of being together which have been different from the ways of men.

Let me be clear, however, I am not suggesting that women should now be “in charge”. It is rather that women’s voices in public have been a missing piece. Neither am I appealing to some notion of women’s essential nature as nurturers or even that women’s voices are guaranteed good and effective. But care giving is what we have been schooled to do and for thousands of years women’s work has been the home--care and nurture of children and families and keeping folks – often even warring family members - together at the dinner table.

It is like my Aunt Roberta when the cousins would gather in my hometown of Carrollton, Georgia—cousins who included what my part of the family called “Yankees” who all gathered for a week or so in the summer. Meals were the time for discussion—and loud disagreements. Aunt Roberta, whose spirit was not particularly conciliatory or irenic, would take her weapon of choice, the fly swatter and wave it around the table and say: “Okay everyone, we are going to have a nice quiet meal.” It wasn’t quiet, but it was nice and we all stayed together continuing to state our particular viewpoints. Women have always been charged as peacemakers in families and communities.

Women whose lives have been shaped by the care and nurture of children have claimed relationship as the priority for their lives and only secondarily have they insisted on autonomy, increasing authority or my way or the highway. Any of you who has read psychologist Carol Gilligan know of her work in this area. Segolene Royal, a candidate for President of France knew this well. It didn’t get her the election but here is what Patrick Jarreau of Le Monde said about her as quoted in a recent New Yorker (April 23, 2007) article: “You have to realize that she has strong convictions, it’s just that they aren’t about the usual political subjects. She talks about family, the relations between generations. She worries about the media, about pornography and violence. Her style is very different from Sarko’s. She has the ability to listen, to focus on the daily lives of people—the people who feel that “politics’, for all its details, never really took them into account before. Royal is a feminist and French politics has been a male preserve for so long that “daily life” and “family” had all but disappeared from the discourse until she came along. Her manifesto and web site title is: desirsdavinir.org or “wishes for the future.”

The priority of relationship—women’s ways of knowing and speaking--- offers us a language which is different from Meet the Press. It offers us the possibility of a word –indeed a language --which does not diminish the other but makes connections. It is a language which science fiction writer Ursula Leguin, who has been working in word and language for a long time, describes in a graduation address to Bryn Mawr College in 1986. Here is what she says: Our first language is what she calls the Mother tongue. Whether spoken by men or women, it is the language of early caring and nurture: Eat your vegetables; I love you precious one; Don’t forget your umbrella; DON’T HIT YOUR BROTHER. The Father tongue is the one we all learned when we went to school and especially college. It is the language of objectivity, the one that allows us to observe from the outside, see the big picture and analyze what is going on. It is the language of science. Most of us learned that well too.

The language Leguin searches for, desires us all to learn, brings both together. She calls it the native tongue, one that lies deep within our cosmic and organic memory but which most of us have forgotten. It is the language that lets us know that not hitting your brother suggests that not hitting another country could have a relationship to each other. Or that the combination of eating your vegetables and the science of gardening and climate change are connected. It is the Word made Flesh—incarnational language—every day living in the world language - that connects the dinner table to alleviating the causes of hunger around the world. Most of all it breaks the boundaries between public and private as it lives out the adage that the personal is political. It claims, like Paul in the Book of Acts at Pentecost that diversity is a requirement for true community; that conformity is not an ingredient of unity and we do not have to all agree to stay together. This is the voice that women can offer to the church and to the world. The intimate language of love and caring becomes the public language of caring for the world.

The women of AWE who came to the UN are a vivid example. One delegate was Amelia Ward, of Liberia—where young boys were abducted as child soldiers to take the place of too many men killed in civil warfare. Tired of her friends’ children being kidnapped for battle, Amelia and other women formed the Mano River Peace Initiative. They gathered the women and went out into the bush to find the boys of 8 and 10 or 12. Basically they said to them as only a mother can, “You don’t belong here. Go home to dinner and to your family.” And amazingly they did. Today there is a fragile peace in Liberia and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is a President with a different voice.

This year the theme of the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting was “The Elimination of Discrimination and Violence against the Girl Child”. In addition to the women who came we also hosted 11 girls who engaged in work at the UN and with each other. The DVD clip at http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/welcome/?article&id=860 is part of an event we sponsored at Trinity Church Wall Street , with panelists and the girls engaging each other on the question of hopes and dreams for girls. Notice in particular the conversation between Chantelle, an Australian indigenous girl, and the Presiding Bishop.

These young Anglican girls are learning to have a public voice---a different voice, not one devoid of feeling and intimacy—but not sentimental either. A change the world voice. And the dialogue between Chantelle and the Presiding Bishop is one of both deep intimacy and pastoral care alongside boundless public importance It asks the hard questions: Where were you –where was the church when the abuse was happening? How can the church respond to families like mine? And then the Presiding Bishop’s Response as she looked her in the eye, “The church can only stand in solidarity with you.”

What does it mean for us, for the church to stand in solidarity? What does it mean for us who claim to be disciples of Christ who hear this word and can speak and act? Solidarity is a political word—a call to action. The personal IS the political. The public and private boundaries here are broken, yet still respect the dignity of every human being.

Katharine and Chantelle’s moment is a moment of native language---neither the public objective language of the father tongue nor the private intimate language of the mother tongue but the one we seek to speak in the church will also be the language which makes a difference in our world if we have the courage to act on it. Speaking the native language will move us beyond infighting, polarization and the power struggles which insist that only one way is right.

Women have this gift to offer the church and the world at this moment. It is, I believe, the disciple’s vocation of the 21^st century. We have been quiet too long. Now is the time for us to join together –women and men-- not just for service projects as valuable as they are, but for remaking the dialogue, remaking the discourse to claim the conversation that moves us as disciples of Christ to action---not just far away but in our own cities. How can the church be in solidarity with girls who are abused? What are the ways we seek to work together for the common good? What do we do which leads to the full flourishing of the public good? One tool from the Office for Women’s Ministries is Beijing Circles. This action reflection model gathers women for bible study, education, reflection and action on the issues of the Beijing Platform for Action connecting local issues with the global context.

So much of this work is already happening around the church. Many of us have been at it a long time and like the widow who kept pestering Jesus, we have persisted. When we look at the future and the road ahead seems too long or too rocky or steep, I call on all of you and on those in heaven who never gave up—even when they did not see the fruits of their labors. They encourage us to carry on, to hang on to our faith, to the biblical witness of our ancestors and a whole host of uppity women saints who are praying for us and cheering in heaven!!

For more info about Beijing Circles go to http://www.episcopalchurch.org/41685_73656_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=73689

For more on Women’s Public Vision go to http://www.iwpr.org/Politics_Religion_PublicVision/index.htm

Thought for the day

Growth in the ranks of India's sex workers in general has been five times that of the annual population growth rate of around 5 percent, according to the study.

"Preteens in Indian Caste Forced Into Prostitution": - http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/893/

CEDAW

The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) acknowledges the importance of protections for and empowering of women. It is the only international human rights treaty that comprehensively addresses the fundamental rights of women and girls in political, legal, economic, cultural, social, and family life. In many of the 185 countries that have ratified CEDAW, the treaty has become a crucial tool for addressing the lives and well-being of women and girls.

Shockingly, the United States is NOT one of the 185 countries that have signed the treaty. Ratification would require a two/thirds vote (67) of the U.S. Senate and the President’s signature. In order to ratify CEDAW, we need your help to raise awareness of this issue, both in the Senate and with the President, and in our churches and local communities. Nations that ratify CEDAW commit to overcoming barriers to discrimination against women in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, health care, political life and finance. It sets out “best practices” for ensuring basic human rights for women without imposing any laws on governments.

Eric Volz case TONIGHT!!!

*Dateline NBC* will air their story about Eric Volz story on THIS SUNDAY
night, April 22.
The show airs 8pm - 9pm (in all time zones), but please watch NBC for more
information, double-check your local schedule or go to
http://www.nbc.com/for current listings.

*CNN Anderson Cooper 360* is scheduled to air their Eric Volz story on THIS
MONDAY night, April 23.
The show airs at 10pm ET / 9pm CT /  8pm MT / 7pm PT, but please watch for
more information, double-check your local schedule or go to
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/ for current listings.

Thanks,
Alyssa

--
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Day 3 Strategy: Supporting Eric

Today is a 2-part strategy in the FREE ERIC V. Avalanche.

First, donate to Eric's legal defense.

Preparing for the appeals process has been incredibly costly. The financial
demands have exhausted the resources of Eric's friends and family. As a
result, the FREE ERIC V. team has asked for donations from those who have
heard about the case and share the same passion for justice and for Eric's
freedom. Please give what you can by going to
http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/donate.htm

Second, for those not able to make a monetary donation, we urge you to write
a support letter to Eric. These support letters have become a life force
for him during this journey.

Eric said of those who have reached out to him, "A friend asked in a letter,
'Where are you pulling your strength from?' The answer is — all of you are
my strength. The prayers, the campaigns, the letters, the movement — without
you I would be lost."

If you are unable to give a donation, please take the time to write Eric by
linking here: http://www.friendsofericvolz.com/write.htm

As we move into each day approaching the appeal — TEAM FREE ERIC V. will not
be stopped!

~~~~~~

For those interested in the latest letter from Eric, please continue
reading. These are his words below:
Tuesday
4/17/07

Today is my day to go out in to the yard. It's called "el patio sol" here.
The yard is a dirt square a little bigger than a basketball court. They give
me two hours alone so I usually jog the perimeter for an hour and stretch
and do pull-ups on the fence for the other hour. (I calculated this morning
that since my arrest in Nov. 2006, I've been outside for more than 15
minutes only 12 times, with the maximum being 3 hours. Needless to say, I
ain't got no suntan going on!)

Today is special though cause I got permission to go to the "iron pile"
(gym) and work out for an hour. After the yard, this will be a nice
variation to my normal, weightless, workout in the gallery. Anyways, I have
about 25 minutes to write this letter so here goes...

I would like to start by sharing a couple of excerpts from letters I have
received in the last month:

"ERIC, your suffering is producing good fruit in my life. God is using your
story to sober me, to wake me, to call me to action, to shake me up. He is
taking a blade to the roots of sin in my life; sloth, greed, and
complacency. He just keeps whispering your name to me."
(A letter from a stranger)

"Hang in there brother. The boys of H BLOCK got your back."
(Prisoner sentenced to life in a jail in the U.S.)

"Your story will change lives: your story already has changed lives. It is
just the beginning and there is a world waiting to hear it." (Young woman
from California)

"I read about what happened to you and for some reason it has really
affected me."
(Letter from Portugal)

"Right now your life is the heartbeat for about a million others!"
(Letter from Mexico)

"I have never protested anything publicly and I have no interest in trying
for political office to improve society. But since I've been reading blogs,
sending mails, and seeing people respond to your situation, I've felt this
wonderful sense of POSSIBILITY. People are actually getting involved and it
has rejuvenated my hope democracy."
(Computer consultant, U.S.A)

"You are teaching a lot of people many different things while going through
this, however hard it may be."
(Unknown)

"We are fighting for you!"
(9 year old)

I, like thousands of others, would like you to know that I am praying for
you and your family. You are obviously a very special child of the universe;
otherwise, the adversary would not have worked so hard against you, it must
be hard to believe that now, but it is true."
(Support letter through the website)

"I just learned about you on You Tube. This video has really captured me and
I'm going to write my Congressman and a friend who works at the State Dept."
(University of CA, San Diego alumni)

These are just a few excerpts from a small batch of letters. The letters
touch on people's emotions, social views, how they found out, their outrage,
ways they have been reflecting on themselves, etc. (there have been some
pretty insane hate mails as well, but I will have to get into that some
other time.).

So that people can visualize: I read the letters in my cell. They are
printed on paper and are brought to me about once every 2-3 weeks. I do
receive them all. I have to be somewhat secretive with the letters so the
others prisoners don't get jealous so I stash them under my mattress. I
encourage people to keep writing even if it is just a couple lines, I get to
see who is writing and subsequently, it allows me to grasp the size of the
awareness network.

Most important regarding the support I want to say the following: a man can
live weeks without food, days without water, but can't go minutes without
HOPE.

The letters of support reporting the many ways in which people are fighting
for me, give me tremendous hope. It shows me extent of the fellowship that
is sharing in my suffering and this takes much of the burden off my
shoulders. It makes the time I'm doing less painful and frees my spirit. I
have no idea why I have been appointed to be the lightning rod for all of
this, but you can imagine how it makes me feel to read from in these walls
that "my suffering is producing good fruit" in people's lives around the
world. It overwhelms me with deep strength and peace.

At times the is despair so overwhelming there are no words, there is pain so
deep it does not have a name, and the fear is so powerful we cannot paint
his face. Yet, as a result of those who love and support me I see beauty
above it all.

I am holding firm, for I know that I'm not meant to stay here and a great
adventure lies ahead. I'm writing. I have documented as much as possible. I
have filled many journals and look forward to the day when I can share the
details.

What a story it is! A story of injustice, of danger, of near death
experience, of courage, of moral strength, of hate, corruption, romance,
guns, politics, media, of death, of collective energy, of spiritual
pilgrimage, of love, of faith, and of the creator filling the hearts of
ordinary people with the energy, wisdom, and might to do extraordinary
things that without his help would be completely out of our mortal grasp.
Perhaps most intense for me is that its not over yet…

In closing I would like to ask that people send positive thoughts and
prayers to DORIS, her family, my family, the defense team in Nicaragua,
safety in prison, and lastly the gate keeper who will be overseeing my
appeal.

With much love,
ERIC V.

Eric Volz case in Nicaragua

I am going to be covering a very urgent case of a young man, Eric Volz, unjustly accused of murder in Nacaragua. He happens to be the son of an aquaintance of mine. The appeal is going to court this week and the urgency of contacting the media, etc. is crucial. There is international attention on this case right now, and the media could play a huge role if it will report the happenings honestly and consistently. Here's how you can read mor about the case:

www.friendsofericvolz.com or
www.myspace.com/freeericvolzas

More to follow.

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks

Quiet Hours. © Graywolf Press. Reprinted with permission.

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks

I am the blossom pressed in a book,
found again after two hundred years... .

I am the maker, the lover, and the keeper... .

When the young girl who starves
sits down to a table
she will sit beside me... .

I am food on the prisoner's plate... .

I am water rushing to the wellhead,
filling the pitcher until it spills... .

I am the patient gardener
of the dry and weedy garden... .

I am the stone step,
the latch, and the working hinge... .

I am the heart contracted by joy... .
the longest hair, white
before the rest... .
I am there in the basket of fruit
presented to the widow... .

I am the musk rose opening
unattended, the fern on the boggy summit... .

I am the one whose love
overcomes you, already with you
when you think to call my name... .

How They Voted on UNCSW

Economic and Social Council
WOM/1622
Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York
Commission on the Status of Women
Fifty-first Session
13th Meeting* (PM)

AS SESSION ENDS, COMMISSION ON STATUS OF WOMEN APPROVES TEXTS ON PALESTINIAN

WOMEN, PROTECTION FROM HIV/AIDS, FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION, FORCED MARRIAGE

Members Adopt Provisional Agenda; Elect Chair, Other Officials of Bureau


Background

The Commission on the Status of Women met this afternoon to take action on several draft resolutions and adopt its agreed conclusions.

/...

Action on Draft Resolutions

/...

The Chairperson then turned the Commission's attention to the draft resolution on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (document E/CN.6/2007/L.2), saying it also contained no budget implications.

The representative of Pakistan made oral amendments to the text, after which the Chairperson said a recorded vote had been requested.

Asked by the representative of Pakistan who had asked for the vote, the Chairperson said the United States delegate had requested it.

The representative of Israel, making a general statement, said that, as in previous years, the Commission had before it a politically motivated text. Since it did not address the Palestinians' internal human rights abuses and continued terror -- which caused suffering to both Palestinian and Israeli women -- the draft left much to be desired.

Human Rights Watch had reported abuse of women, such as honour killings, she said, adding that other instances of human rights abuses had been reported to the Commission by the Secretary-General and others. The deliberate exclusion of those instances distorted the draft resolution. Indeed, it was in the interest of all parties to improve Palestinian women's quality of life, but the current Palestinian leadership had not fulfilled it obligations, as stipulated by the Quartet. If Hamas did not embrace its responsibility to end terror, women on both sides would continue to suffer. The draft resolution was another reminder of the "stark contrast between reality and rhetoric on First Avenue".

The Commission then approved the text by a recorded vote of 40 in favour to 2 against ( Canada, United States), with no abstentions. (See Annex.)

The representative of the United States, speaking in explanation of vote, said her country remained deeply concerned about the impact of the current crisis on Palestinian women and the entire Palestinian population. The United States was the largest bilateral donor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), and contributed significant amounts to other programmes of the Organization, besides bilateral assistance to needy Palestinians. However, it grieved for innocent Israelis, including Israeli women, who had suffered and died due to Palestinian terror attacks -- a reality that many did not recognize. The international focus should be on helping both parties to maintain progress. One-sided resolutions undermined the ability of the United Nations to play a constructive role in furthering peace, which would improve the lot of Palestinian women more than anything else.

The representative of Germany, speaking on behalf of the European Union, said the text was of a primarily humanitarian nature. The European Union remained the largest contributor of assistance to the Palestinian people and had voted in favour of the text. Deeply concerned about the impact of the conflict on all women in the region, including both Palestinian and Israeli women, the European Union underscored the need for an approach that took into consideration the impact of the conflict on all sides. The role of women in the peace process was worthy of further investment, and the European Union invited the delegation of the Palestinian Permanent Observer Mission to engage in a dialogue on how best to address the issue at the United Nations. The European Union's vote today was without prejudice to future positions it might take in the Commission and other fora.

The representative of Canada said his country was committed to alleviating poverty and addressing socio-economic inequities throughout the world, including those affecting Palestinian women. However, Canada was concerned about operative paragraph 4 of the text, which called on Israel to facilitate the return of refugees and displaced Palestinian women and children to their homes. It seemed to prejudge negotiations on key issues arising from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which could only be addressed through a settlement on final status issues.

The observer for Palestine thanked those who had voted in favour of the draft resolution, especially the "Group of 77" developing countries and China. The text sent a strong message of solidarity with the women of Palestine. Though some said it was one-sided, it was not the text, but rather the situation as a whole, that was unbalanced. The occupying Power had continued to carry out illegal measures with complete impunity for 40 years, causing misery to Palestinians, whom it held hostage. The statement by its representative seemed to have distorted the issue at hand. Israel should take care to examine its own domestic situation by looking at abuses occurring at the highest levels of its own Government. The only way to guarantee the rights of Palestinian women was for Israel to end its occupation.

/...

The representative of Zambia requested the floor regarding the draft resolution on Palestinian women, saying she would have voted in favour of the text had her delegation been in the room.

The representative of Lesotho said she also would have voted in favour had she been present.

/...


ANNEX

Vote on Palestinian Women

The draft resolution on the situation of and assistance to Palestinian women (document E/CN.6/2007/L.2) was approved by a recorded vote of 40 in favour to 2 against, as follows:

In favour: Algeria, Armenia, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Congo, Croatia, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mali, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, Suriname, Thailand, Togo, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania.

Against: Canada, United States.

Absent: Cameroon, Lesotho, Zambia.

* *** *

__________

* The 12th Meeting was closed.

For information media • not an official record