patrickmurfin

The McHenry County Peace Coalition is a successor to the former McHenry County Peace Group, which succumbed to exhaustion last year after nearly five year of fervent activity to advance the cause of peace and end the war in Iraq.  After taking a deep breath many of the tireless activists who so long kept up the good fight, united with other peace advocates and members of the Congregational Unitarian Church’s peace group and are back doing what they do best.

This Thursday members will roll out two, count them two, first class educational programs.  Take your pick.  You can’t go wrong.

Jeremy Schroeder, the executive director of the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty will be talking about the status of the death penalty moratorium, at a meeting hosted by the Coalition on February 12, 7:00 PM at the Congregational Unitarian Church, 221 Dean Street, Woodstock.

 

The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is a grassroots membership organization committed to educating the public about the flaws and injustices in the Illinois capital punishment system and promoting humane alternatives to the punitive death penalty system.

 

The program is free and open to the public.

 

For more information call the church at 815 338-0731.

Todd Culp, PhD

Meanwhile, down the road at McHenry County College, the Coalition will join forces with a new MCC Student Peace Action Network to revive the popular Current American Issues public forum series.

 

On Thursday, February 12 at 7 PM in Room B177C they will present The Road to Gaza:  How Did We Get Here?

 

Dr. Todd Culp will be the featured speaker.  Culp teaches History and Political Science at MCC and holds a PhD in Political Science with intensive study in political violence, terrorism, and insurgency. 

 

Culp’s work for reconciliation between the Israelis and the Palestinians includes developing and leading study groups throughout the Middle East where he joins local organizations working to bring Israelis and Palestinians together and creating enduring friendships.  He organized and raised funds for a construction project, leading a group of volunteer builders from the Rockford community to assist in building an interfaith college in January 2009.  While there he became an eyewitness to the devastating results of the on-going conflict. He will discuss the current situation and analyze the key events leading up to the Gaza War.

 

The program is free and open to the public

.

 

At the third annual Thomas Jefferson Dinner of the Democratic Party of McHenry County, more than two hundred folks, almost half of them from organized labor, crowded the ball room of the Prairie Lodge at Sun City in Huntley on Saturday Night.

The room was buzzing with excitement.  And I must admit that I was a little excited myself.  I was on tap to receive the Robert McGarry Award for Community Service.  The Murfin contingent filled up two tables right up front.  Not only was my wife, Kathy Brady-Murfin, in attendance, but my daughters Heather Pearson and Maureen Buchanan were on hand with their families.  So were Evan Buchanan’s parents Laurie and Len, “Grandma” Pat Sorensen, and Libby Pappalardo of the McHenry County Peace Group and her husband Brian.  My former sister in law and dear friend Arlene Brennen was there with her husband Michael. A whole contingent of Wobblies came up from Chicago including Fellow Workers Judy Freeeman, Mike Hargis, Kathy Taylor, and Hannah Frish.  These folks surprised me with another gift I will treasure, an IWW belt buckle.

Here are some photos from the evening.

Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White kicked off the evening with remarks.  He made a special effort for all the candidates present to get photos with him to use in their publicity.  His advice to them:  “Use my name any way you like to help you and ask for permission later.”  White had to rush off to another event, but took time for everyone who wanted to shake his hand.

                                                 

McHenry County Democratic Party Chair Kathy Bergan Schmidt, was mistress of ceremonies.
                                

Congresswoman Melissa Bean was on hand telling the audience how frightened suburban Republicans in Congress are as they watch once reliable districts slip into the Democratic column. Bean has also been on the road for Barack Obama’s  Presidential Campaign.

                                                   
Sean McGarry, son of the late, beloved Party Chair Bob McGarry reminisced about his father and paid tribute to his mother Lois as he introduced the presentation of the Robert McGarry Award for Community Service.

                                

It was an overwhelming honor to receive the award.  I managed to get through my acceptance speech.  The prepared remarks, which were more or less what I actually said, are posted at the end of this entry.

Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias is a popular figure in McHenry County.  Last summer he made a point of marching with the Party in several local parades.  Giannoulias is also a high profile supporter of his good friend Senator Obama.

                                                   
 

Paula Yensen, Lake-in-the-Hills Turstee, candidate for District 2 McHenry County Board, and major domo of the Jefferson Dinner introduced the Thomas Jefferson Award for Lifetime Achievement.  Latter in the evening former Party Chair Patrick Quimet surprised her with a dozen roses in recognition her work on the dinner and the audience rose in a standing ovation.

                                                

Former Illinois AFL-CIO President Margaret Blackshere rose to accept the Thomas Jefferson Award.  Her rise from kindergarten teacher to leadership of the state labor  body is legendary.  She recounted ticking items off of her personal “Bucket List” since retiring last year.  She told inspiring stories of defying gun toting guards in Indonesia by singing Solidarity Forever  to young women workers barred from receiving her visit to their company housing  and aiding an injured girl in Cambodia.  But her biggest “bucket list” item this year is “Getting Barack Obama elected President.!”                   

The following is, more or less, what I said in my acceptance remarks.

This is an honor in so many ways.  I am so glad to be part of this celebration honoring a personal hero, Thomas Jefferson whose ringing words have been a major inspiration to me and whose flawed personal life reminds me of how difficult it can be to live up to our loftiest aims.

It is great to be here on a night that is so much a celebration of labor movement and our mutual dedication to the rights and welfare of working people.  I am humbled to be honored the same evening as Margaret Blackshere.  By the way, Margaret, we both are former Union officers.  You led the thousands of members of the ALF-CIO in Illinois.  At the age of 23 I was General Secretary Treasurer of the Industrial Workers of the World and literally sat in Big Bill Heywood’s old chair, the nominal leader of maybe 2000 member world wide.  Some of my oldest friends from my Wobbly days are in attendance.  It may be safe for them to share a few stories.  I believe the statue of limitations has run out.

It is humbling to receive an award in the name of Bob McGarry.  Not only was he a good friend—he was a friend to every one he met—but he was a personal mentor who dared bring me on as his vice chair at a time some in the Party fretted that I was a wild eyed radical.

I am also happy to see folks I have worked with over the years as I have tried to be of service to the causes of peace, justice, and equality in McHenry County.  Any thing that I might have accomplished has only been made possible by the hard work and sacrifice of so many as we worked together at the Congregational Unitarian Church, with the Interfaith Council for Social Justice and Diversity Day, and in the McHenry County Peace Group.

Of course my family has been patient with me.  They were often cheated from my full attention.  They got used to me being gone for meetings or finding me at the computer at 3 AM.  Special thanks to my wife, Kathy Brady Murfin; my daughters Heather Pearson and Maureen Buchanan who are here tonight with their families.

I was a stranger in McHenry County, lonesome and at a loss as to how to renew the activism that had been the center of my adult life when I responded to a little want ad placed by then Democratic Party Chair Richard Short for precinct committeemen.  Since then I have served under chairs Monty Yeats, Frank McClatchy, Bob McGarry, John Bartmann, Pat Ouimett, Tom Cynor, and Kathy Bergan Schmidt.  I even spent a couple of months in the chair myself.  That’s better than 18 years.  I realize I am receiving this award mostly for having hung around so long.

But I appreciate it more than I can say.

Wednesday the five year anniversary of the War in Iraq slipped by before I had an opportunity to comment.  Believe me, it was not because it does not weigh heavy on my mind and soul.  But I had work to do and I had a lot on my plate getting ready for the McHenry County Democratic Party meeting and preparing press materials (see the post below.)

About mid-afternoon I got a call from Tom Musick, a reporter for the Northwest Herald.   He was working on one of those “round-up” stories in which local folks with strong opinions share their views.  We had a nice conversation for about ten minutes or so.   This is how my portion of the story came out in the paper.  (click here for the full article.)

Patrick Murfin

McHenry County Peace Group members gather every Thursday evening near Route 14 and Main Street in Crystal Lake for a vigil.

The group’s size varies, but its mission stays the same: To call for an end to the U.S. war in Iraq and to prevent a future war with Iran from happening.

“Early on, we’d get mixed reviews,” said Patrick Murfin, a member of the group. “The longer this war has passed, the number of supportive honks and waves and peace signs has mounted. It’s really remarkable.”

Yet Murfin worries whether the Bush administration notices such changes.

“I’ve been giving this some considerable thought,” said Murfin, who watched the president’s speech Wednesday, a speech that urged patience and determination in Iraq. “It’s both astounding to me and totally wearisome that we find ourselves in this position after five years.

“To hear the Bush administration talk about no end in sight within a decade or longer ... the American public has long since made it clear that they regard the war as a mistake to begin with and want us to get out now.”

And all of that is fine, as far as it goes.  But understandably this snippet left a lot out.  Also—and I don’t mean to bite the hand the fed me—I was the only person of  those interviewed who was an outright opponent of the war.  The others were a recently returned solder; Rep. Don Manzullo whose own account shows that he gladly drank the Bush Kool-Aid about the war; the father of a soldier who was killed who now regards the war as a “mistake” but doesn’t take a position on getting out; and an Army recruiter.  That left the burden of speaking for the majority of Americans who oppose the war and want a way out sooner than later on my own inadequate shoulders.

This is what I wish I had the time and space to say.

It’s hard, very hard to match the unrelenting drum beat of war and more war propounded by a maladministration that will not allow itself to be fettered by Congress, Courts, or the People and which feels it has a divine right to do what ever it damn well pleases.  In five long years ever mounting casualties are compounded by daily atrocities (committed freely by all sides);  the very soul of the nation is stricken by a cynical embrace of torture;  our civil liberties are silently stripped from us;  our national reputation is sullied beyond repair;  unimaginable debt is saddled on our children, grandchildren, and their progeny;  we are plunged into a “war of civilization” without end;  our very democracy is threatened by an uncrowned king who brooks no limits on his power.  And we in the anti-war movement get tired, bone tired.

We have marched, vigiled, petitioned, organized, written and ranted.  Our ranks have swelled.  But year after year nothing we have done has saved one 19 year old Marine or one Iraqi child.  Small wonder that the spirit sometimes flags, that we get tired, that we are tempted to slip into simple resignation.

Worse, evidence mounts daily the Resident and the Dark Sith Lord Cheney will not rest until the launch another war, this time against Iran.  The recent resignation and retirement of Admiral William Fallon, top commander of American forces in the Mid East and the only high level commander to dare publicly warn about the danger of launching another war, may have been the clearest signal yet that the Neo-Con junta is determined to have another war.  Add the domestic political calculation that launching a war before the election will rally the public “be hind the troops” and put John McCain in the White House.

Peace activists a worn out trying to get us out of one war and now have to keep us out of another.

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that there has been a fall-off of coverage and commentary about the War and the movement to stop it in recent months.  Instead, it has been increasingly concerned with electoral politics, support for Barack Obama for President, and for Democrats in general.  Some might take this as evidence that I have given in to war weariness and like a bored two year old turned my attention to some other toy.

Nothing could be further from the truth. In point of fact my immersion in politics and my support of the Obama campaign in general now represents the most effective way I can work to end one bloodbath and prevent another.

I know there are folks in the Peace Movement who believe that this abandons the demand for immediate withdrawal, and trims sail in against the gale of adversity.  The taunts of “sell out” to others like MoveOn.org, who have advocated the same approach have been loud and raucous on the part of many in the purer-than-thou left.

But like it or not we cannot “Bring Them Home Now!” or throw our bodies in front of Naval launched cruise missiles or snatch possibly nuclear armed B-1 Bombers from the sky to stop an attack on Iran.  There are no prospects, despite our most ardent fantasies, that we can mobilize a Peoples Revolution to surround the White House with pots and pans clanking and bring down this regime as others fell in Moscow, Manila, Kiev, or Beirut.  There will be no General Strike to stop the war cold like the hands of a clock.  Richly deserved impeachment will not happen.

Our only real chance to bring the war to an end is—like it or not—to elect a Democrat President of the United State and large enough Democratic margins in the House and the Senate to prevent disciplined Republicans from ruling in the minority.  And I obviously believe that Senator Obama, a consistent opponent of the war, is our best chance to achieve such a victory.  But make no mistake about it, I will, even if it pains me, support Hillary Clinton if that is the hand we are dealt and then hold her to her promises to end the war.

The inevitable result, even with victory, will be for a phased withdrawal that insures the safety of American troops.  It’s not fast enough for many, but the war will finally end.

Even more critically, there will not be, if one has not already been launched, a war with Iran and the inevitable region-wide conflict that would ensue.

Is there any guarantee that this strategy will work?  Of course not.  Right now we see how cynically race is being used to divide the American people from their own best interests.  McCain, for the first time, is now polling better nationally than either Clinton or Obama—a direct result of the political strategy of the Clinton campaign, in my opinion.  But there is plenty of time to reverse those numbers and Obama has the persuasive skills to come back strong.

A plausible causa bellum can always be dug up like Hitler’s Polish raid on a border radio instillation post or LBJ’s phantom attack in the Gulf of Tonkin to justify an attack on Iran just before the election.

And there are the twin dangers that if faced with loss the election the Oligarchy will simply and boldly be steal it again or—more drastically—that a “national emergency” might occur that would “force the government to suspend the election.”  Feel free to conjure in you mind your most paranoid fantasies of what that emergency might be and it has probably already been gamed in some dark recess of the Pentagon or the Vice-President’s old secret bunker.

So, no, the electoral strategy is not perfect.  It’s just the last, bet hope we have.

Many of the poems featured at a special service at the Congregational Unitarian Church are drawn from the Skinner House Meditation Manual WE BUILD TEMPLES IN THE HEART.

Patrick Murfin will lead a unique worship service at this Sunday’s 10:45 worship services of the Congregational Unitarian Church, 221 Dean Street.  The service, Don’t Be Alarmed, Ma’am, He’s Only Committing Poetry, will feature Murfin’s poetry and commentary.

            Many of the selections will be drawn from Murfin's 2004 collection, WE BUILD TEMPLES IN THE HEART, published by Skinner House Books of Boston.  Several poems from that book and other sources have been used in Unitarian Universalist worship across the country and in Canada, Britain, Australia, and even in Hungarian translation in Transylvania.

            Other poems will be drawn from Murfin’s collection in progress and will include observations of nature, commentary on war and social justice and personal reflections.

            The Adult Choir, under the direction of Tom Steffens, will present the Midwest premier of Rainbows are Not Enough, one of Murfin’s poems set to music by California choral composer Scott Henderson.

            Murfin is a long time member of the congregation and a social activist as well as a writer.  He is best known locally as the on stage host of the Diversity Day Festival held annually on Woodstock Square and as a leading member of the McHenry County Peace Group and other organizations.

He has twice led Poets Against War public readings in the county and presented a special reader’s theater style production of his Four Hundred Years of Unitarian Universalist Poetry From John Milton to Sylvia Plath at conferences and academic forums.

            Copies of Murfin’s book will be available for sale during the social hour following the service.

Carolyn Quinn

Our contributor, Carolyn Quinn, Secretary of the McHenry County Democratic Party, attended the Tuesday night “workshop” meeting of the Crystal Lake City Council which considered funding requests from the city’s Hotel/Motel Tax.  The tax is earmarked to support tourism and economic development in the city.

The Crystal Lake Gala Committee was one of the groups with their hands out.  They requested a not inconsequential $40,000 allotment. The Committee, which produces the city’s annual Independence Day Parade, last year banned the McHenry County Peace Group from participating.  A ban also was extended to the Libertarian Party.

In protest to this attack on free speech and discrimination, the McHenry County Democratic Party voted to boycott last year’s parade and joined the Peace Group rallying around a giant Statue of Liberty erected in a private yard along the parade route.

In response to the resultant brouhaha, festival official made the ludicrous claims 1) that the parade did not receive tax payer support and was thus “private,” 2) that they were thus legally able to ban participation by any group for any reason, and 3} that the parade had nothing to do with the Fourth of July, even though the whole purpose for which the Gala Committee was originally created was to fund and produce the city holiday celebrations including the parade and fireworks.  In fact up until the controversy erupted, their own web site and publicity materials called the event the “Fourth of July Parade.”

Carolyn joined members of the Peace Group and local Democrats to monitor the meeting in hopes of being able to object to City funding unless the Committee changes it policy and renounces discrimination based on political content.  They were unable to do so.  But the issue will come up for final consideration and a vote by the full Council on February 15 at which time public comment will be permitted.  Carolyn and friends will be back.  We hope you join them.

This report was edited from an e-mail to interested parties.

 …We had a group of five people in a row.  The Gala Committee had a Power Point presentation and requested $40,000 to cover the fireworks, parade, and a third thing that did not make it into my notes.There were no decisions made tonight.  

The public did not get to speak at all.  It was officially a “workshop.”  Libby Pappalardo from the McHenry County Peace Group was ready with a prepared statement that she didn’t get to use.  I know she was disappointed…

…There were only five members of the board [City Council Members] present—lots of empty seats…

…The City Manager [Gary Mayerhofer] came over to shake my hand after they had adjourned and said that the February 15th meeting, when more members will be there, is the time to address our concerns.  I had asked if Libby could submit her written statement, and they almost took it, but didn’t.

The bottom line is that we [Democrats] should draw up a statement of our own.

A Continental Army Color Guard in the 2007 Independence Day Parade in Crystal Lake.  Will the values of the Founders be mocked again?

Will Crystal Lake tax payers once again fund discrimination at the Gala Parade or will there be Liberty at the city’s Independence Day celebration?

There will be a special workshop meeting with the Mayor and City Council of Crystal Lake "for the purpose of reviewing Hotel/Motel Tax Funding requests and discussing the allocation of Fiscal Year 2008-2009 Hotel/Motel Tax funding."

 
This has been the source of city funds to the Gala Festival in the past. Word is that the Gala Committee, sponsors of the Independence Day Parade that has discriminated against the Peace Group and others in the past, will be asking for another allocation  For a discussion of the issues on this blog last summer: McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP--Bringing Liberty to the Gala Parade

The meeting begins at 6:30 PM on Tuesday, January 8, at the City of Crystal Lake Municipal Complex, 100 W. Woodstock Street.

 
While everyone is encouraged to attend, I urge Crystal Lake residents, who will be able to speak, to attend and protest the allocation or at least demand that it be made contingent of the Gala Committee explicitly repudiating past practices and adopting a positive no-discrimination policy.

I am unable to attend because I work Tuesday nights.  I wish I could be.

Two interesting folks I know have recently set up blogs that might interest you. 

Ann Legg is a long time leader in the peace movement in this area.  I first met and worked with her in the earliest days of what is now the Diversity Day Festival.  Ann is now one of the main figures of the McHenry County Peace Group, and is a Precinct Representative in the McHenry County Democratic Party.  She has for years been an active member of the Ridgefield Presbyterian Church.  Ann has frequently traveled on peace missions.  She was in Latin America earlier this year.  Now she is in the Mid East with a delegation from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship.  Her new blog, PEACE WITH JUSTICE will document her journey.  She has already posted an entry from Amman, Jordon.

Gus Philpott’s THE WOODSTOCK ADVOCATE has been up a bit longer, but still qualifies as new.  Gus has been described many ways—citizen crusader, crank, fussbudget, squeaky wheel, tilter-at-windmills—depending on whether you’re the ox that being gored or the irate bull.  Gus is a stickler.  If the law says something should be just so, he expects that law to be applied rigidly, but uniformly with no favoritism or exceptions.  He calls it fairness.  If a law, rule, or regulation is muddle headed, stupid, counter productive, or patently unfair, Gus will be Johnny-on-the-spot at every possible meeting demanding the law/rule/regulation be changed.  Groans and eye rolls can be heard and seen all over town when Gus asks to speak to someone in authority or stands up at a meeting.  Gus has his bug-a-boos.  He is a stickler for by the book traffic enforcement.  If you are driving and disobey the law and Gus sees you, even if the police do not, you can expect to end up as an item on his blog.  I don’t always agree with Gus.  But I do admire his brazen and relentless determination to stand up and fight for what he believes.  He also does a pretty fair job of just keeping up with Woodstock news.         

Well, the Illinois Minuteman Project circus rolls into town tonight when they put on their $50-a-head show at McHenry County College featuring Ohio Sheriff Daniel Beck.  You may remember these folks as the eye of the hurricane that blew through McHenry County this summer when they tried to put on the same show at a local hotel.  This blog carried the ensuing drama blow by blow.  Check the archives to get up to speed or refresh your memory.

I’ve been asked why the McHenry County Peace Group and the Latino Coalition have not publicized protests to this meeting.  Good question.  First, neither group ever denied the right of the Minuteman group, or anyone else, to meet.  We only wanted to counter their support of draconian measures targeting immigrants and, inevitably, any one who looks or sounds like an immigrant.  Secondly, we agreed that Latinos Unitdos, the recognized college student group, should take the lead in plotting a response.

In speaking to the press shortly after this meeting was announced, I made clear that we were not opposed to allowing them to have a forum.  I did point out that when the Peace Group recently sponsored its Current American Issues forum on immigration with Salvadore Cicero, it was free and open to the public.  No attempt was made to screen out Minuteman members or other opposed to a fair and equitable immigration policy.  We accommodated written questions from the audience regardless of the perspective of the questioners.

On the other hand the Minuteman Project has gone out of its way to make its “public” meeting as private as possible.  The $50 admission charge and the refusal to sell tickets at the door are meant to screen out attendance by any possible opponents.  Minuteman front woman Rosanna Pulido, after denying that the high charge was meant to screen out opponents in the NORTHWEST HERALD was caught red handed admitting it in the DAILY HERALD. 

When the group was planning its first meeting, it even returned the money of Latino Coalition leader Carlos Acosta and refused to allow him to attend even to observe.  Acosta and others have secured tickets to the new program.  It will be interesting to see if they will honor their commitment to the college for an “open” meeting or will try to deny them entrance anyway.

The group also will ban cameras and recording devises from the meeting so no record of what is actually being said by whom will likely be made public.

Another interesting question is whether the group can fill the auditorium with paying customers.  $50 a head is quite a shot, even for many of their own supporters.  One wonders how many tickets will be “comped” to loyal supporters to avoid the embracement of a half-empty house.  Again, the wide spread use of free passes while soaking the general public would call into question their “public” meeting.

Latino Unidos students did take the lead and outlined ambitious plans for counter events.  But the administration, probably fearing confrontations, refused to allow the group to use the commons area near the Conference Center to set up alternative literature and programming.  They turned down a proposal to allow a teach-in  in classrooms any where near the Minuteman event or to allow the group to invite high school students to attend.  Hints were heavily dropped that any “disruptive” behavior by Latinos Unidos could result in the suspension of their recognition as an official student group.

When the group presented college President  Walter Packard, with a petition containing over 400 names, protesting the use of the college as a venue for the event, Packard used the media to paint Latinos Unidos as advocates of censorship and the college as a bastion of free speech.  But neither the President nor the College has ever explained how the Minuteman group’s restrictive admissions policy should qualify it to use college facilities under the tissue thin guise of presenting a “public” meeting.

Tonight Latino students, acting as individuals, will make their presence known to those attending the event.  In the course of their normal activities—going to classes, the library, commons, and the parking lot—they can be observed wearing identifying t-shirts.  Meanwhile supportive observers, including Peace Group and Latino Coalition members will be on hand to monitor the situation.  No demonstrations or disruptive activities are planned.

But the Minuteman group and their allies will not be able to slink into McHenry County unnoticed.

Look to this space for coverage of what takes place tonight.

G. Simon Harak, S.J

 

G. Simon Harak, S.J. will lead a discussion of War Profiteering and Blackwater: the Rise of Private Militaries at the Conference Center at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake on Tuesday, November 6 at 7 p.m.

            The private security firm Blackwater has been the focus of international controversy recently after being accused by the Iraqi government of the murder of civilians and has been the focus of Congressional hearings.

            Fr. Harak is a former Director of the War Resisters League in New York where he organized a National Speakers Bureau on war profiteering and has traveled extensively speaking on this issue.  In 2006, he was awarded Pax Christi‘s New York City Peacemaker of the Year

            The longtime peace activist helped found Voices in the Wilderness which has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize.  He is currently director of the newly formed Marquette University Center for Peacemaking.      

            “Fr. Harak will address the issue of corporations that sell war, then profit from the bloodshed,” according to Peace Group member Libby Pappalardo.  “Extensive research reveals who these companies are, how much they make, and how they literally ‘call the shots, when it comes to selling war.”

            He will also talk about Blackwater, which has opened a training facility recently in northern Illinois’s Joe Davies County, and the rapid rise of corporate armies. Since 9-11, the Bush administration has paid Blackwater more than one billion dollars for its trained civilian soldiers, while granting full immunity from prosecution in Iraq and allowing them to operate without oversight.         

            The program is sponsored by the McHenry County Peace Group and McHenry County Pax Christi as part of the Current American Issues series.  It is free and open to the public.  For more information call 815-455-3683 or e-mail lib4paz@comcast.net

Well, it’s been a week and I am finally getting around to posting a gallery of photos from DIVERSITY DAY 2007:  “…Skies Everywhere as Blue as Mine.”  It was a beautiful, but unseasonably hot day.  I made a very unattractive sight as co-host with my shirt soaked through with sweat.  Attendance was down a bit.  Whether that was due to the weather, competing events like near-by Marengo’s  big Settler’s Day Parade or the McHenry County Historical Society in Union  annual Cider Fest, lingering depression over the Chicago Cub loss the night before, or my failure to get adequate publicity is open to question.  Anyway, those who did come out seemed to enjoy the day.  This is what it looked like.
 

The festival opened with the fabulous Congregational Unitarian Church Choir.  Director Tom Steffens was on the injured list following an automobile accident earlier in the week—Get well, Tom.  Rebecca Strong stepped up to pinch hit.

                                              

A row of display tables.  That’s McHenry County Citizens for Choice (MCCC) under the white canopy, an unidentified table (sorry), the Latino Coalition, and the Woodstock Area Community Ministry (WACM.)

Carlos Acosta of the Latino Coalition.

                                   

A view from the Gazebo.

                                  

O Brother sang their traditional Appalachian music.  Brian Pappalardo, Harold Rail, Sam Jones, and Kemberly Dallay-Hohnson.

                               

SubZero Sandwich and Ice Cream Shop/Lucia’s Custom Catering kept the folks fed. 

                                

Gary Christ explained his Demine Cambodia project at his elaborate display.  He is raising funds to return to Cambodia and build more of his ingenious mine clearing devices.

Two of the Latinos Unidos dancers from McHenry County College show how to salsa.

Da Utes of the Congregational Unitarian Church did great business with their “Diverse Pumpkins for Diversity Day” table.  They probably made more money than the festival itself.
  
                              
Pat Young and Ray Eberhardt staffed the CUC booth under the cover of the pump house.  They sold—or tried to sell—Choir CDs, Wise Words From Women of a Certain Age books, and the CUC window booklet.  

                               

Rev. Dan Larsen chatted at the CUC Green Sanctuary Committee table.  That committee chair Margaret Fox-Hawthorne partially obscured by the display. The committee is the environmental voice of the church.

Lisa Haderlein of the Land Conservancy of McHenry County accepted the 2007 Peace and Justice Award on behalf the Quaker environmentalists Alice and Bill Howenstine.

                               

 The McHenry County Peace Group table was a busy place.

                              
McHenry County Pride was proud to have table.

                             
Joy Martin (left) was doing double duty for Family Alliance (senior services) and Home of the Sparrow (emergency housing for women and children

                                         
                            

The Family Health Partnership table.

                  
Betty Appleton (left) and the Woodstock Folk Dancers got the audience on their feet to dance the Macarana.

 The McHenry County Democratic Party, despite a large contingent marching in the Marengo parade the same day, had several volunteers at their table among them were District 3 Chair Pauline Walker (left) and John Darger.

                                         
                           
Kathy Bergan-Schmidt made sure that there was a Bill Richardson For President table.  That’s Rich Garling in the hat.

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The twenty plus voices of the Choir of the Congregational Unitarian Church under the Direction of Tom Steffens will present a special performance at Diversity Day 2007.

DIVERSITY DAY 2007:  “…Skies Everywhere as Blue as Mine” will be held in Woodstock Square on Sunday, October 7 from 1 to 4 p.m.  It is the twelfth annual edition of the festival which highlights and supports cultural, ethnic, language, religious, ability, gender, and sexual orientation diversity in McHenry County.

            Long time festival co-hosts Gloria Urch and Patrick Murfin will present an afternoon of varied entertainment.  The festival will open with a special performance by the Congregational Unitarian Church Choir under the direction of Tom Steffens.  Other musical performers include the O Brother Group, and Keith Johnson and Judy Martzen.

            Dance performances will include salsa and contemporary Latin social dancing by students at McHenry County College, and Corazon Boliviano Grupo de Danza Folklorica Boliviana (Heart of Bolivia, the Bolivian Folklore Dance Group.)  In addition Betty Appleton and friends will get the audience up on their feet by teaching some international folk dancers.

            Religious diversity will be celebrated by participation of the Rev. Dan Larsen of the Congregational Unitarian Church, Rabbi Maralee Gordon of the McHenry County Jewish Congregation, an Islamic muezzin who will sing the call to prayer, and representatives of Congregation Tikkun Olam, the Blue Lotus Buddhist Temple, and the Ten Directions Zen Group.

            Community leaders will highlight projects that encourage diversity, serve human need, and create peace in the community.  Speakers will include State Senator Pam Althoff, Joy Turner of Home of the Sparrow, Janie Galarza of Turning Point, Harold Rail of Principled Minds, Carlos Acosta of the Latino Coalition, Libby Pappalardo of the McHenry County Peace Group, Gary Christ of De-mining Cambodia, and others.

            As usual, a highlight of Diversity Day is the presentation of the annual Peace and Justice Award.  For the first time there will be co-winners, Alice and Bill Howenstine.  The Howenstines are long time leaders of the environmental movement in McHenry County and Quaker peace activists.

            On the grounds of the festival dozens of community organizations, social service agencies, issue advocacy groups, political and religious organization will have information tables.  Dr. Nelson Borelli will demonstrate his peace kites and the Peace Group’s Statue of Liberty float.

            The SubZero Sandwich and Ice Cream Shop and Lucia’s Custom Catering will provide food service on the square featuring burgers, hot dogs, Italian sausage, and veggie wraps.

            Diversity Day 2007 is presented by the Congregational Unitarian Church and enjoys the sponsorship of Home State Bank.

            For information about the festival call Patrick Murfin at 815 814-5645 or e-mail <DivDay@sbcglobal.net>.

 Rev. Dan Larsen of the Congregational Unitarian Church (left) and program host Dr. Nelson Borrelli (right) look on as Ann Legg and Patrick Murfin review questions for speaker Salvador Cicero at the September Current American Issues program.

 

            The hot topic of immigration received a cool and considered examination at the McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP’S first CURRENT AMERICAN ISSUES forum of the new season at McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE Thursday night.  Chicago attorney SALVADOR CICERO explained the myths and realities of immigration, especially Mexican immigration, to an audience of almost 150 in the college Conference Center.

            With graphic illustrations projected behind him, Cicero traced the roots of Mexican immigration to this country, the economic realities that fuel it in both countries, and the controversy over what some see as “an invasion.”

            Cicero was quick to point out that Mexicans make up only a portion, albeit a large portion, of overall immigration to the United States, both legal and undocumented.  And they are also only a part of a wider Latino immigration that includes people from Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Spain.  But Mexican immigrants have concentrated in four states—California, Texas, Arizona, and Illinois—and the Chicago metropolitan region is second only to Los Angeles as a destination.

            The misconceptions are that all Latinos are Mexican and that they are all “illegal.”  Cicero pointed out that huge swaths of the US were once Mexican and people in those areas have been citizens for generations.  Immigration patterns also reach back to the 19th and early 20th centuries when many Mexican railroad workers followed the tracks north and began settling in Chicago.  People from the same regions and villages tended to follow one another and establish communities.  Today a large majority of people of Mexican origin in the United States are American born, citizens, or in the country legally.

            Still, “illegal” immigration has risen dramatically in recent decades due to a population explosion in Mexico, economic necessity and the desire for family reunification.  For its part, American industry has welcomed the semi- and unskilled labor provided by the immigrants.

            Changes in immigration law may have actually acerbated the situation.  Earlier many Mexican workers came seasonally for agricultural work, returning to their homes yearly.  Others came to work for a few years and returned with their saving to their families.  But current immigration law makes such routine border crossing difficult and encourages worker to stay in the U.S.  rather than risk not being able to come back.

            Following the presentation, questions were collected from the audience on note cards and read by moderators ANN LEGG and PATRICK MURFIN.  Murfin acknowledged that the issues were emotional and that people of all shades of opinion would be in the audience.  He promised that all questions, even those that clearly arose from an exclusionist view point would be read, subject to time constraints and legibility.  Only questions that were “insulting” would be disregarded.  In the end, none were disallowed on that basis and a wide ranging discussion was possible.

            None of us who were alive and conscious at the time will ever be able to let a September 11 pass un-noticed.  The odd fact is that September 11 no longer exists.  It has been replaced by 9/11, an event both terrible and awesome—in the Biblical sense of those words—that it changed us all utterly.  It also united an often fractured nation in grief, fear, and outrage.  Everyone felt it, commented on it.  For a while there were no conservatives and liberals, no atheists and religious, no gays straights, not even any New Yorkers and heartlanders.

            It didn’t last long.  The toxic cloud still hung over the site of the Twin towers as that unity was being brazenly exploited to set the stage for an endless round of wars designed to create a new American Imperium.  TV preachers and reactionary fundraisers with enormous mailing lists were soon busy blaming the tragedy on moral weakness  laid at the feet of liberals, atheists, Gays, pro-choice women, and advocates of tolerance.  Then came the radio ranters and the rent-me-cheep cable talking heads—all busy taking that brief unity and smashing it to advance their own agendas.

            And it hasn’t ended.  The Resident, the Dark Sith Lord Cheney and their minions continue to use 9/11 as a bludgeon to demonize their opponents and rally their faithful.

            But I remember how it was.  I remember who we could be.

*************

            On the one year anniversary, I wrote and read the following poem at a commemoration vigil on the Square in WOODSTOCK, sponsored by the McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP.  We were trying to honor the dead, the injured and the wounded nation.  We were also trying to find ways to avert the war that we already knew was being plotted in our name.

THE DEAD OF 9/11 LEAVE A MESSAGE ON GEORGE W’S ANSWERING MACHINE

The Dead cry out--       

It is not lonely here.

     They come by the scores     

          and by the thousands

          everyday,                       

          as they have always come,          

          each soul here

          a tragedy for someone down there.

     They come as they have always come,

          each death a completion of journey,         

          the closing of a hoop of life.

     And we welcome each of them.

But we are not lonely here.

     We do not wander silent corridors,

          our footsteps echoing,

          yearning for a voice.

     We are not lonely

          for we are the Dead

          and we are everywhere, 

          united in that last breath

          and in eternity.

But you make haste to fill the unfillable, 

     to send us more,

     many more,

     out of their own time

     as we were out of ours,

     yanked here in violence and hatred.

Let them be.
    They will come in their own time.

                       
SPORTING ONLY THREE STARS, GENERAL PETRAEUS STILL HAD PLENTY OF MILITARY GLORY PINNED TO HIS CHEST WHEN HE TESTIFIED TO THE SENATE EARLIER ON HIS PLANS FOR THE GREAT "TROOP SURGE."

           It came as no surprise, really, when GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS trotted up to Capital Hill the day before 9/11. 

Memo to Democratic Congressional Leaders:  Hey, I know we have been promised this report from Petraeus since the abortive attempt to tie war funding to a withdrawal schedule earlier this summer, but how on earth did you allow this report to be made the very week of the annual 9/11 exploitation orgy?  You allowed the General’s predictably Pollyanna report to be showered in the Resident’s patented exploitation festival.  Don’t any of you pay any attention to this stuff?

Anyway, the General showed up in all of his dazzling military glory with so many ribbons stretching from pocket flap to shoulder that I suspected he had to stretched out on the Rack just to accommodate them all.  The General, erect and impressive and even in full possession of a genuine DOUGLAS MacARTHUR memorial hair cut, launched into his long awaited testimony without being encumbered by being placed under oath.

A good thing for him, because he was soon off and running with a bunch of whoppers in fact and fanciful exaggerations of expectations.  House Democrats, predictably, were skeptical and question the General closely.  But they were to some degree hamstrung by their own leadership, which had earlier pronounced Petraeus an “honorable man” who could be relied upon for a truly independent judgement.  The General proclaimed his independence and claimed that his testimony had been in no way vetted, guided or reviewed by the White House.

He did not need such guidance.  He knew exactly what he was supposed to report and he did so, regardless that portions contradicted published statements by some of his own subordinate commanders, the overwhelming opinion of many senior officers, both active duty and retired, the Iraqi government’s own assessments, and god-only-knows how many “independent” inquiries and assessments.  Only the easily hypnotized media (think KATIE COURIC) and nervous Democratic centrists (read HILLARY CLINTON) seem to have been taken in by a summer long public relations campaign touting military “progress” in BAGHDAD.

Never the less, Democratic leaders fear the Resident’s magic spell.  Despite overwhelming polling numbers indicating that Americans want action winding down the war NOW, they fear to be tarred as surrender monkeys and be blamed for a military disaster when a “retreat under fire” is conducted by the same inept leadership that got us into the war in the first place.  So some Democratic leaders are already thrashing about for some kind of “bi-partisan” compromise that will give the administration the green light to continue the war in exchange for un-enforceable promises of future troop reductions.  SENATOR DICK DURBIN and other war critics have vowed not to let that happen.

Meanwhile MOVEON.ORG and other grass roots organizations are planning to hold timid Democratic leadership’s feet to the fire. MoveOn has done a good job of exposing Petreaus’s con job.  For your information, I am copying their critique below.

·                                 Petraeus is using "funny math." According to the Washington Post, Petraeus and the Pentagon are using a bizarre formula for measuring violence in the country. For example, deaths by car bombs don't count.³ And assassinations count only if you're shot in the back of the head—not in the front.⁴

·                                 Iraqis believe the surge has failed. According to a massive new ABC/BBC poll, every single Iraqi polled in Baghdad, the primary target of the "surge," said it had made security worse. Iraqis themselves overwhelmingly think the situation in Iraq is deteriorating, in terms of security, political cooperation, the economy, and other measures. Overall, 70% think the escalation worsened rather than improved security conditions. ⁵

·                                 The independent GAO report found that violence is up. A comprehensive Government Accountability Office report ordered by Congress found that "average number of daily attacks against civilians have remained unchanged from February to July 2007."⁶  In August, things got worse, with civilian casualties rising according to the Associated Press⁷ and the Los Angeles Times.⁸ 

·                                 For our troops, it's the bloodiest summer yet. More U.S. troops died every month this year compared to the same month last year.⁹

Petraeus claimed that he compiled his report without conferring with the White House. But the Washington Post recently reported that Petraeus or his staff joined daily conference calls with the White House and former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie this summer to "map out ways of selling the surge." The Post reported that Gillespie's White House political unit was "hard-wired" to Petraeus' military unit.¹⁰

We would all like to see life improving in Iraq. But it's not—it's getting worse. And if US forces stay in Iraq both Americans and Iraqis will pay a terrible price.

Today is the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history. The wounds of 9/11 are still fresh for many of us. After 9/11, President Bush used fear, lies and trumped-up intelligence to stampede us into Iraq. Now, America is bogged down in an unwinnable civil war, and Al Qaeda has regained enough strength to once again menace the United States.¹¹

It would be a tragic irony if, six years later, the administration used skewed intelligence to head off the growing momentum for an exit strategy from Iraq.

 SOURCES
1.  Washington Post, "Petraeus Backs Initial Pullout," 9/11/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2958&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=5 2. Ibid.
3. New York Times, "Time to Take a Stand," 9/7/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2941&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=6
4. Washington Post, "Experts Doubt Drop in Violence in Iraq," 9/6/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2938&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=7
5. ABC News, "Iraqis' Own Surge Assessment," 9/10/07
http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=3571504
6. Washington Post, "Experts Doubt Drop in Violence in Iraq," 9/6/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2938&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=8
7. Associated Press, "1,809 Iraqi civilians killed in August," 9/1/07
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20543737/
8. Los Angeles Times, "Iraqi civilian deaths climb again," 9/1/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2956&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=9
9. http://www.iCasualties.org
10. Washington Post, "Among Top Officials, 'Surge' Has Sparked Dissent, Infighting," 9/9/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2957&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=10
11. Washington Post, "Scarier than Bin Laden," 9/9/07
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2959&id=11221-3430421-BAOq9I&t=11

            Now is the time to flood the in boxes of your Congressperson and Senators with demands that they not be mesmerized.  Now is the time we expect action to finally end this dreadful war.

            Let’s honor the Dead of 9/11 by not continuing to “fill the unfillable” with those “yanked here in violence and hatred.”

 
MCPG SPONSORS THE CURRENT AMERICAN ISSUES FORUMS AT McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE

THE TREE OF LIFE AND FLAMING CHALICE, SYMBOL OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH, HOST OF THE FRIDAY NIGHT SALONS.

The hot button immigration issue returns to the front burner again this week as the McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP sponsors a CURRENT AMERICAN ISSUES FORUM at McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE this Thursday at 7 p.m.

Immigration attorney and advocate SALVADOR A. CICERO, a leading member of the LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS (LULAC), will be the principle speaker.  The program will also include a welcome and introduction by DR. NELSON BORELLI and comments on the immigration controversy by the REV. DAN LARSEN of the CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH, who has long been an advocate for the Latino community.  PATRICK MURFIN will moderate the discussion following Cicero’s presentation.

Last Sunday, November 2, the NORTHWEST HERALD featured the upcoming program on its front page, linking the forum to the brouhaha that erupted earlier this summer when the ILLINOIS MINUTEMAN PROJECT announced an anti immigration program at a CRYSTAL LAKE hotel.  That meeting was scrubbed by the hotel because of “security concerns” and the apparent misrepresentation of who was sponsoring the event by Minuteman leaders.  A Peace Group vigil supported by the LATINO COALITION and the CARPENTERSVILLE CITIZEN ALLIANCE had to be moved to McCORMICK PARK when a second group of Minuteman vowed to stage counter demonstrations.

Although those competing events were peaceful, the discussions set of by this chain of events in the on-line comments section of the Herald have been anything but.  The tone has grown increasingly angry, insulting and threatening.  Several people say they plan to put pressure on the College to cancel the event and on Crystal Lake police to charge the Peace Group’s the same “security fee” that they sought from the HOLIDAY INN prior to the Minuteman event.  The college, which has hosted Current America Issues Forums for the last four years, remains undeterred and the police cannot charge security fees for such a public program at a public institution.

Although no group has announced plans to protest the Thursday meeting, many of the anonymous commentators on the Herald web site vow to “be there.”  Whether that means they plan to protest of just ask questions is unclear.

For its part the Peace group welcome the public no mater what their position on immigration issues and invites them to participate in the open discussion following the presentation.  “We ask only for a civil discussion of these divisive issues,” Murfin said.  “Written questions will be gathered from the audience.  I will select questions that reflect a wide variety of viewpoints, do not duplicate already asked questions, and are not insulting in tone.”

The next evening, the FRIDAY NIGHT SALON at the Congregational Unitarian Church will allow continued discussion in a more intimate venue.  Rev. Larsen will lead a small group conversation at 7 p.m. The Salon Series are free wheeling, informal discussions presented monthly by the church on a wide variety of philosophic, theological, political, economic, scientific, artistic, and literary issues in the tradition of the great European salons.

            The program is free and open to the public.

SALVADOR A CICERO, FEATURED SPEAKER AT SEPTEMBER CURRENT AMERICAN ISSUES FORUM

IMMIGRATION: MYTHS VS. REALITIES IN THE CURRENT DEBATE will be the topic of a public forum in the CURRENT AMERICAN ISSUES FORUM in the McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE CONFERENCE CENTER on Thursday, September 13 at 7 p.m.

            The featured speaker will be SALVADOR A. CICERO, an award winning Chicago attorney whose law practice focuses on civil rights, immigration, business law and international human rights.  Cicero, a former CONSUL OF MEXICO, is a volunteer with the LEAUGE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS (LULAC.)  He has directed projects for the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (ABA) and serves as a consulting expert for the ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (0AS.)  His scholarly articles have been published in peer reviewed law journals and he is qualified by U.S. COURTS as an expert in international law.  He has made a specialty of preventing trafficking in human beings.

            Cicero will offer his perspectives on U.S. immigration policy as it exists today and how international trade agreements have affected the influx of job seekers.

            The program follows a month of controversy about immigration touched off by an program, later cancelled, sponsored by ILLINOIS MINUTEMAN PROJECT and public demonstrations by both sides in CRYSTAL LAKE.

            The Current American Issues Series is sponsored monthly at MCC by the McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP.  There will be a period of open discussion following the program.  Admission is free and open to the public.

            For more information visit e-mail aglegg@sbcglobal.net or visit McHenry County Peace Group. 

LAURA ZAMBRANO AND ADAM RUIZ OF THE CARPENTERSVILLE COMMUNITY ALLIANCE.

            It was a beautiful day in CRYSTAL LAKE.   For the first time in days the sun returned and the rain did not. It was down right pleasant and refreshing in McCORMICK PARK—named for a beloved priest, not the inventor of the Reaper—in the shadow of the water tower on Rt. 14.

            Absent, too, was the storm und drang predicted by Crystal Lake Police Officials, who envisioned riots and brawls between the McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP and its allies on one side and the MINUTEMAN MIDWEST and those who responded to their call for “Patriots” in from a hundred miles all around on the other.  And it was literally on one side and another.  The Peace Group Vigil and the Minuteman counter protest were separated by white police saw horses and dozens of officers.  Roughly equal in numbers, the Minuteman group gathered at the northern corner by Florence Street—right across from the gas station where I work several nights a week as a clerk.  We were on the Southern corner by King Street with the Taco Bell across Rt. 14.  Everything proceeded perfectly peacefully as the two sides studiously avoided contact with each other or any outward sign of antagonism.

            It was a great day for the Peace Group and for the LATINO COALITION and the CARPENTERSVILLE COMMUNITY ALLIANCE who co-sponsored the event.  At its height nearly fifty folks were gathered to promote a peaceful, just, and rational discussion of the immigration issue.  And the vigil attracted folks from the NORTHBOOK PEACE COMMITTEE ,  a contingent from NORTH AURORA, individuals from ELGIN and all over Crystal Lake.

            The press was on hand, too with reporters and photographers from the NORTHWEST HERALD (for those who doubt that there are racist undertones to those who support the Minuteman groups read the comments under the article—it will curl your hair) and DAILY HERALD, as well a free-lance reporter for a Polish television news service, and Northbrook Peace Committee member LEE GOODMAN, who plans to post footage he shot on www.AtCenterNetwork.com (it’s not up yet, but check back in a day or so for it.)

            Perhaps most encouraging, in light of the vitriolic tone of so many letters to the editor on the immigration topic and those that stalk the NORTHWEST HERALD comments section, both of which would lead to believe that the whole of McHenry County is seething with barely contained rage about the “illegal invasion”, is that there was almost none of that reaction from the general public traveling busy Rt. 14.  There were no shouted insults, shaking fists, or single digit salutes.  There were some honks, and a lot of waves.  And some obvious encouragement.  Can it be that our neighbors do not really want to see their community ethnically cleansed?

            Below are more pictures from the event.  There are none of the Minuteman group because my camera does not have a telephoto lens and I was trying to honor the police request that we say separate.    The one picture I took showed tiny figures far in the distance.  

  

THE MINISTERS:  REV. DAN LARSEN OF THE CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH IN WOODSTOCK AND A MINISTER FROM THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHUCH OF MARENGO—WHOSE NAME HAS FALLEN COMPLETELY OUT OF MY HEAD.
                                 

MEET THE PRESS—PHOTOGRAPHERS AND VIDEOGRAPHERS COVER THE STORY.  THE MINUTMAN PROTEST IS BARELY VISIBLE BEHIND THE POLICE OFFICERS IN THE UPPER RIGHT.

MOST OF THE NEARLY 45 FOLKS STILL IN THE PARK AT THE VIGIL’S END.  THAT’S CARLOS ACOSTSTA OF THE LATINO COALITION KNEALING FRONT RIGHT IN THE STRAW HAT.

Three groups that had called for a vigil outside a meeting of the ILLINOIS MINUTEMAN PROJECT this Saturday announced alternative plans Thursday night after the HOLIDAY INN CRYSTAL LAKE canceled the anti-immigration group’s meeting.  Instead of rallying near the hotel, the groups will hold a quiet vigil at the corner of Rt. 14 and Main Street in Crystal Lake at 1 p.m. Saturday.

            THE McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP, LATINO COALITION and the CARPENTERSVILLE COMMUNITY ALLIANCE will sponsor the vigil. 

            According to PATRICK MURFIN, press spokesperson for the Peace Group, the vigil will be held, “to promote respect, diversity and a reasoned discussion on the immigration issue.”

            The Peace Group and the other organizations never intended to suppress the free speech and assembly rights of the Minuteman Project, Murfin said.  “Our intention in calling for a counter vigil to the original event was to provide the public with an alternative view on the volatile immigration issue.  We feel that the event we are now planning will also facilitate that dialogue.”

            The Peace Group has also publicly supported the right of the Minuteman Project to assemble, even when it vehemently disagrees with it.  “We oppose any form of ‘taxation’ on free speech, including “fees” for police protection which have the effect of stifling public discussion.  This is a matter of fundamental liberty,” according to Murfin.

            Participants in the vigil will gather on the sidewalk and quietly hold signs for about an hour and half before dispersing. 

            Murfin pointed out that “we have never had the slightest incident in the nearly two years the Peace Group has held weekly anti-war vigil at this sight, even when counter demonstrators occasionally assembled nearby.  We are, after all, a Peace Group.”

            Plans continue for a counter protest to the MINUTEMAN PROJECT meeting at the HOLIDAY INN CRYSTAL LAKE on Saturday, August 25 from 12:30 to 4 pm.  Joining the McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP will be a sizable contingent of members and supporters of the CARPENTERSVILLE COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (CCA) and the LATINO COALITION.

            The CCA is an association of largely Latino business people who have been prominent in the fight to oppose anti-immigrant ordinances in Carpentersville.  The Minuteman Project probably selected Crystal Lake for the site of its meeting largely because of its proximity to the highly publicized battles in Carpentersville and what they perceive as a high level of anti-immigrant sentiment in the region in general.

            The Latino Coalition is the leading advocacy and action organization on issues affecting the Latino community in McHenry County.

            Preliminary discussions with the CRYSTAL LAKE POLICE indicate that the designated protest area will likely be at the intersection of THREE OAKS and SANDS ROADS.  This site, while more visible from the hotel than the original proposed site at Three Oaks and Rt. 31, will be far less visible to the general public as it is more removed from heavily traveled Rt. 31.  There will, however be more space there for what looks like a large turn-out.

            Demonstrators will not be allowed on the hotel property and will not be able to park there.  The nearest parking will probably be in the lot of the shopping center at Sands and Rt. 14 which has Home Depot and other stores.

            Police say that banners and hand held signs only will be permitted—no sticks or poles on the signs.

            Some individuals have bought tickets to the event and will attempt to raise questions inside.  They will not be allowed to carry signs.

            All of these details are subject to some changes.  Members of all of the participating groups will be meeting with Crystal Lake Police officials on Wednesday morning to fine tune arrangements for a safe and peaceful protest.

The McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP has announced that it will hold a vigil near the Crystal Lake hotel where the ILLINOIS MINUTEMAN PROJECT plans to gather to oppose immigration.

            The anti-immigration group plans a meeting at the HOLIDAY INN CRYSTAL LAKE on the afternoon of Saturday, August 25.  That meeting will feature DANIEL BECK, an Ohio sheriff who has made a name for himself rounding up Hispanic looking “suspects” and turning those that are undocumented over to Federal authorities for deportation. Admission to the event limited to tickets sold in advance, in an apparent attempt to prevent “infiltration” by protestors or opponents.

The Minuteman Project is considered a “hate group” by the SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER, which has been monitoring KU KLUX KLAN, neo-nazi, skin head, militia, and other extremist groups for over a decade. 

The Peace Group and allies will conduct a vigil from 12:30 to 4 pm at the southwest corner of Route 31 and Three Oaks Road, near the hotel.

“Although the public identifies us with our opposition to the War in Iraq, the Peace Group’s mission has always been to broadly support peace in our communities, the nation and the world,” according to Peace Group member PATRICK MURFIN, “Immigration is a divisive issue in this country.  It deserves a serious discussion.  The Minutemen do not promote that discussion.  They promote hatred and discrimination by fanning the flames of fear.  Our job as peace makers is to oppose that fear mongering.”

The Peace Group will follow up the vigil with a program on immigration in its CURRENT AMERICAN ISSUES forum series at McHENRY COUNTY COLLEGE at 7 pm September 13.  SALVADOR A. CICERO, a Chicago Lawyer who specializes in civil rights, immigration and international human rights will be the principle speaker for the program, “Immigration:  Myths vs. Realities in the Current Debate.”  Cicero is a leader of the LEAGUE OF UNITED LATIN AMERICAN CITIZENS (LULAC) and a former MEXICAN Consul.

For more information call 815 455-3630, e-mail lib4paz@comcast.net or visit http://mcpg.org.