Community Signing for Peace and Justice

Sunday, Mar 21, 2010 - 12 noon to 1 PM

16th Avenue and Nob Hill Blvd in Yakima

Make your own signs!!!   but here are some ideas we had

• Support negotiations
• Talk, don't shoot!
• No Afghan War
• Pray for Peace
• War: Who dies? Who pays? Who Profits?
• Tired of paying for war????

They plunder, they slaughter, and they steal: this they falsely name Empire, and where they make a wasteland, they call it peace. --Tacitus, Roman historian

We have signs if you don't have one.

 

Photo: Taking a stand for peace

SARA GETTYS/Yakima Herald-Republic
Ed Patton and several others with the Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network protest the loophole that allows unlicensed dealers to sell guns at gunshows without background checks on the corner of Fair Ave. and Nob Hill Ave. while a gun show is going on at the fairgrounds behind them. The group holds monthly peace protests at Nob Hill and 16th Ave. but moved their location Sunday to include their views on the gun law loophole. "Violence and crime are pretty much a part of standing up for peace, wouldn't you say?" Patton said.
   

--End the Gun Show Loophole.  Sports Connection Gunshow is at the Modern Living Building at the State Fair this weekend.

The term "Gun Show Loophole" refers to laws that allows private individuals "not engaged in the business" of dealing firearms to sell guns at gun shows without conducting background checks on purchasers or maintaining records of sale. The term has been in use since at least 1996, when the Violence Policy Center used it in a published study.^[10]

U.S. federal law requires persons engaged in interstate firearm commerce, or those who are "engaged in the business" of dealing firearms, to hold a Federal Firearms License and perform background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System maintained by the FBI prior to transferring a firearm. Under the terms of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986, however, individuals "not engaged in the business" of dealing firearms, or who only make "occasional" sales within their state of residence, are under no requirement to conduct background checks on purchasers or maintain records of sale (although even private sellers are forbidden under federal law from selling firearms to persons they have reason to believe are felons or otherwise prohibited from purchasing firearms).

see more pictures on our Archive page click here

Military Recruiting in Public Schools: Protecting Students First

On Monday, December 8, 2008 Washington Truth in Recruiting (WaTiR), a charitable, educational non-profit established in 2004, presented a workshop for students, parents, educators and everyone interested in learning more about military recruiting in our public schools.  The leaders of the workshop were Marion Ward, the President of WaTiR, a retired accountant from Vancouver, Molly Gibbs an activist and educator from Olympia, and Todd Boyle, a board member and webmaster for WaTiR, father of two teenagers, retired accountant from Kirkland.  

 

Topics discussed during  the workshop included protecting privacy rights of students, the Armed Services Vocational Apptitude Battery test, school board

policies regarding recruiter access to minor students, availablity of

opt-out information to students,  career alternatives, etc.

 

 

Pamphlets: "Do you know enough to enlist?" and "What Every Girl Should Know About the U.S. Military" 

 

 

High school students and their parents have what may be a life altering decision to make on or before Oct. 1^st . The Federal Family Education Rights Act (FERPA) allows school districts to release directory information and/or your child’s photo to media and others(military recruiters) unless you request that information not be released.

          If you do not want recruiters to contact your child, the parent and the student must sign an OPT OUT form and just say no. The form can be downloaded at www.militaryfreezone.org or the student should have received one in the back to school packet.

         People of conscience have a moral mandate to redirect resources and human energy away from war if we are to save this beautiful blue nest of ours.

 

          Ed Patton

          1304 So. 16^th Ave.

          Yakima,WA  98902    509-248-1838

Arlington Northwest

Hosted by YVPAN/Pax Christi/Veterans for Peace

Saturday and Sunday April 26-27, 2008

Franklin Park in Yakima

click here for news article, link to video, photos

Youth and Countermilitarism Program
War Resisters League

click here for their website

From NCW Peace (Wenatchee)

 As you may know, the "No Child Left Behind" Act requires high schools to 
give the names, phone numbers, and addresses of all students to military 
recruiters.  It also requires that students and parents be given the 
opportunity to "opt-out"; that is, to request that their information be kept 
private and not given to military recruiters.  This request can be made by 
either the student or their parents.
 
     ncwpeace.org now has an Opt-Out form available for download at:
 
                http://ncwpeace.org/ResourceFiles/Opt-Out_Form.pdf
  
     The student or parent need only fill out the form and turn it in to the 
school to ensure that student information will be kept private.
 
     Please pass this information along to any student or parent who may be 
interested in this.