Lancaster's Video Surveillance Program
by Bill Adams

The attention of the nation was focused on Lancaster for a brief moment due to its unique video surveillance program.  No where else nationally is blanket video surveillance utilized to surveil whole neighborhoods  with a ratio of one camera to 300 residents.  Why Lancaster?  How did this occur without extensive public dialogue?  What are the results?  Is it effective?  What type of oversight exists at a federal, state and local levels?  All reasonable questions.

Read more...

Help Haiti
The Lancaster Coalition for Peace & Justice encourages its members and readers to donate to the Haitian relief effort through the Mennonite Central Committee.  Use the link below to make a donation.

Click here: Home - Haiti Earthquake | Mennonite Central Committee

Bus Trip to the March 20 Rally in DC

March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the war of aggression launched against Iraq. The demonstration will demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.

Tentative Cost: $20 for the round trip, which will be collected in advance.

To reserve a seat and get more information please contact Paul Sayko (pnsayko@yahoo.com) or Josh Redd (jtredd05@gmail.com).

Interested parties can also find an event page on Facebook here.

Spring Peace forum with Dr. Trita Parsi
Thursday, 8 APR 2010 • 7:30 PM
Franklin & Marshall, Stahr Auditorium • College Avenue • Lancaster PA
Dr. Trita Parsi will speak on the topic:   "Between War and Democracy – Iran, Israel and the US." Dr. Parsi is founder and president of the National Iranian American Council and an expert on US-Iranian relations, Iranian politics, and the balance of power in the Middle East. He is the author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Iran, Israel and the United States (Yale University Press 2007), for which he conducted more than 130 interviews with senior Israeli, Iranian and American decision-makers. Treacherous Alliance is the silver medal winner of the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations.

Parsi was born in Iran but moved with his family at the age of four to Sweden in order to escape political repression in Iran. His father was an outspoken academic and non-Muslim who was jailed by the Shah and then by the Ayatollah. He moved to the United States as an adult and studied foreign policy at Johns Hopkins' School for Advanced International Studies where he received his Ph.D.

Parsi has followed Middle East politics through work in the field and extensive experience on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations. He is frequently consulted by Western and Asian governments on foreign policy matters. Parsi has worked for the Swedish Permanent Mission to the UN, where he served in the Security Council, handling the affairs of Afghanistan, Iraq, Tajikistan and Western Sahara, and in the General Assembly's Third Committee, addressing human rights in Iran, Afghanistan, Myanmar and Iraq.

Health Care Rally at Penn Square

A health care rally was held Saturday between between 10:00AM and 1:00PM at Penn Square in downtown Lancaster. The rally was sponsored by the Social Justice Advocates of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Lancaster and included participation by other community churches and health care advocacy groups.

View pictures of this event...

Single Payer Health Care Rally at Capitol Draws over 1,000

Over 1,000 supporters of HB 1660 and SB 400 currently before the state legislature rallied in the Capitol Rotunda yesterday, Tuesday, Oct. 20, in support of a single-payer health care system for the Commonwealth. Activist  from seven states and 20 regional health care advocacy organizations that support the proposed single-payer system joined the Healthcare for All Pennsylvania, organizer the event.

Jerry Policoff from Progressives 4 Pennsylvania estimated that Lancaster County had the largest delegation present counting at least 50 residents among the estimated 1200 participants.

The rally featured several speakers, including Sen. Jim Ferlo, sponsor of Pennsylvania Senate Bill 400 creating a statewide health care plan; Wendell Potter, former Cigna executive turned health care reform spokesman; and Bill George, president of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO.

A report released on the day of the event by Healthcare for All Pennsylvania estimates that the combined saving on employee healthcare for nearly all taxing bodies within PA's 66 counties and the Commonwealth would top $2 billion. Under the PA House and Senate bills, the single payer system would operate like Medicare, funneling healthcare payments directly to private providers. Individuals would pay a tax of 3% on personal income and employers would pay a 10% charge, a savings on average of 5% for workers and five to ten percent for employers.

View pictures of this event...

View fact sheet about the proposed single-payer plan...

View cost savings document on estimated savings per county...

LCPJ and Local Area Health Advocates Mount Counter-Protest at Buchanan Park on Monday

Thank you to all who came out on Monday in the heat to support healthcare reform. Despite such short notice to counter-protest the "Patients First " teabagger bus stop at Buchanan Park in Lancaster, 69 people joined forces to rally and speak out against the fear mongers trying to derail healthcare reform. Only 4 teabagger supporters attended.

CBS 21, WGAL, FOX43 and Intell/New Era reporter P.J. Reilly covered the event. CBS aired a fair story on the 5:00 news, although  they stated the number of people gathered as 30, instead of  69. Seems the media consistently minimizes participants in progressive events. I did a head count twice, so my figure was accurate. But overall the afternoon was a success !

Sherry Wolfe
APR585@aol.com
717-341-3056

The LCPJ and local health care reform advocates, and peace and justice advocates organized a counter-protest rally at Buchanan Park on Monday to protest a planned anti-health care rally by a group called "Patients First."

The “Patients First” Bus Tour will be coming to Lancaster Monday, Aug. 10 to pursue their “grass roots” protest against health care reform.  This group is bankrolled by wealthy right wing special interest as well as the Republican Party and the health insurance pharmaceutical industries.

The protest being organized on Monday by Patients First has been advertised as a "grass-roots rally". However, Patients First is operated by the well-known national right-wing organization known as the Americans for Prosperity, the same organization involved in the planning of other right-wing "grassroots" protests including February's anti-stimulus rallies, and the infamous "Tea Parties" held in April and July.

Afghanistan Working Group

The Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice is forming a working group to gather background material on Afghanistan and to keep current on the situation there. The group will also keep track of the growth of militarism in the United States.

Louise Imm-Cooper will be leading this working group. Anyone interested in being part of this group - which will meet periodically - should contact Louise at (717) 393-5042 or at bookwitch@msn.com.

Protest Against Lancaster's Surveillance Cameras
by Bill Adams

This past Saturday a Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice working group staged a demonstration to oppose the blanket video surveillance of Lancaster and to express their issues with this form of surveillance.  Bob Drogin, an award winning  investigative  reporter and author for the LA Times,  wrote a now well publicized article regarding Lancaster's video surveillance's  published in the June 21 edition.  An article that while accurately describing Lancaster's situation regarding video surveillance , it  failed to  mention local organized resistance.  This organized opposition was visible Saturday to an audience estimated to be approximately 125. The group assembled and presented a program including four speakers, Alan Nitchman  a senior at McCaskey representing Lancaster Youth for Peace and Justice,  Renee Baumgartner a representative of  Restore Liberty and the Campaign for Liberty, Charlie Crystle a technology entrepreneur and the CEO of Mission Research, and Mary Bonventre an Advocacy Coordinator for the ACLU's  Technology and Liberty program. Read more...

View pictures of this event...

LCPJ to Sponsor a Day of Remembrance

The Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice is marking the beginning of the seventh year of the war in Iraq with Remembering the Fallen, an event honoring those who lost their lives in the ongoing conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan. The event will take place at Binns Park in Lancaster on March 14 from 11:00 AM until 4:00 PM. It includes “Eyes Wide Open across Pennsylvania,” the “Wall of Fallen Heroes,” and a reading of the names of American service personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The day will feature “Eyes Wide Open across Pennsylvania,” which is part of American Friends Service Committee’s widely acclaimed exhibit on the Iraq War. The traveling exhibit includes an installation of pairs of boots representing every U.S. military casualty from Pennsylvania, and pairs of shoes to memorialize the Iraqis killed in the conflict. This exhibit is co-sponsored by the Millersville Chapter of Amnesty International. Another exhibit that will be on display, the “Wall of Fallen Heroes,” lists the names of 215 Pennsylvania service personnel killed in Iraq.

Concurrent with these exhibits the names of those lost in these conflicts, more than 4,200 in Iraq and more than 600 in Afghanistan, will be read. The Coalition invites those who wish to help in this reading to volunteer by calling 717-684-3877 or by emailing tonychris1971@yahoo.com.

March 21st Rally for Peace to Mark 6th Anniversary of the War In Iraq

This year’s event in downtown Lancaster, Peace for a Change, will begin at noon, Saturday, March 21, in Binns Park on Queen Street. The rally, organized and hosted by the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice, will stress the cost of war and the need to stay on the path to peace. The program will begin at approximately 12:30 with speakers such as Chuck Pennacchio, the Executive Director of HealthCare4AllPA. The speakers will address the crowd on topics covering the human, political, and economic costs of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the conclusion of the speeches, at approximately 1:30, ushers will lead a march south on Queen Street to Orange Street and then Lime Street to the steps of the old courthouse. The group will assemble for a silent vigil of approximately a half hour in support of peace.

This annual peace rally is a reminder that individuals and communities can come out and make their voices heard and work together for change. The rally is sponsored in part by Progressives for Pennsylvania.

Founded in 2003, The Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice welcomes groups and individuals who wish to promote peace and justice issues. We strive to build holistic sustainable communities that foster long-lasting partnerships for change. We consider the tradition of dissent to be democratic and patriotic.

For additional information call or email  Bill Adams at 717-872-1861 or badams048@gmail.com.  If you choose to make a donation, mail it to the LCPJ, PO Box 274, Lancaster, PA, 17603-4712.

The Price of Comfort
by Anthony T. Crocamo

Has World War III begun? President Bush refers to the "Global War on Terror" and has compared it to World War II, and Vice President Cheney has said, "An enemy that operates in the shadows and views the entire world as a battlefield is not one that can be contained...The only option for our security and survival is to go on the offensive, face the threat directly, patiently, and systematically till the enemy is destroyed."

Global War, the entire world as a battlefield, only option for survival is to stay on the offensive until the enemy is destroyed... They certainly talk like it's World War III.

But they don't act like it. Read more...

Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us?
by Ray McGovern, Anti-War.com

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

This time it will be largely the Air Force's show, punctuated by missile and air strikes by the Navy. Israeli-American agreement has now been reached at the highest level; the armed forces planners, plotters and pilots are working out the details.

Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:

"We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House."

Does that sound like a man concerned that Bush is just bluff and bluster? Read more...

SPP, NAFTA, and Economic Violence
by John Mateyko

At the 4th Leaders Summit of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) held in April at a still ravaged New Orleans, the National Guard and private, military-style security forces were required, not because of terrorist threats but because of democratic threats: outraged citizens objecting to yet another NAFTA-style trade deal. Anticipating a backlash against the SPP, the "three Amigos"—President Bush and the conservative presidents of Canada and Mexico--met behind police barricades and razor wire with corporate CEOs. Read more...

Responding To Crime In A Restorative Way
By Charito Calvachi-Mateyko

The way our communities react to crime and wrongdoing may illustrate the kind of society we are. Restorative justice may be a new idea here, but it is also an old idea –a nonviolent approach to crime– that may broaden our centuries-old assumptions about crime and punishment, which precede the creation of the state, so we can start our collective journey from the present adversarial criminal justice system towards a restorative one. Read more...