[CCPJ Update] October 30 Edition

[CCPJ News]

*Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice*

 ...a simple truth that “*since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in
the minds of men that the defense of peace must be constructed…”*

WE are turning our community conversation toward peace and away from the
enmity and violence that dominate our lives. In these times of continuing
wars and public discord, envisioning peace seems like an impossible task.
But it is precisely in such times that the need for peace and non-violence
is greatest.

Email: ccpjnews at gmail.com

Mailing Address:
The Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice
P.O. Box 2012
Charlottesville, VA 22902

*CCPJ Board members
*
William Anderson  wha at virginia.edu
Kirk Bowers engineer1950 at comcast.net
Brandon Collins  brandoncollins at comcast.net
Tony Russell  taorivertony at gmail.com
Virginia Rovynyak, Treasurer vgr4e at virginia.edu


*Announcements:
*
*WEEKLY THURSDAY DEMONSTRATIONS
*
Join Us for weekly Thursday demonstrations from to 5-6 pm. Come join us at
the corner of McIntire, Main and Water Streets, in front of the Federal
Building.  Drop-ins welcome! If we quit making war, we could stop spending
$800 billion every year for the military budget and fix our deficits fast.
Wouldn’t that be better than throwing our seniors under the bus?!!

*RIDE SHARING FOR OCCUPY DC DEMONSTRATIONS*

If you are going to DC this weekend or in the near future, and have room
for others in your car or van, please let us know by sending an email to
one of our Board members above, or by contacting us via our website.

*Charter of Compassion
*
The Charter of Compassion is a cooperative effort to restore not only
compassionate thinking but, more importantly, compassionate action to the
center of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is the principled
determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the
heart of all religious and ethical systems. One of the most urgent tasks of
our generation is to build a global community where men and women of all
races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace. In our globalized
world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule has become an
urgent necessity.

Watch the Video on the Charter for Compassion at
http://charterforcompassion.org/site/ .

*CCPJ Events
*
*CCPJ November Meeting:
*
*Time*: November 6, 2011 at 4:30 pm

*Location*: Quaker Meeting House
               1104 Forest Street
               Charlottesville, VA

Agenda items for discussion this month-

No War Toys Christmas campaign.
Karen Armstrong's "12 Steps to a Compassionate Life."
Cheney visit to Cville
Occupy Movement and CCPJ's role, and
Further review of World Peace and MIC 50 events

And anything you want to add! All are welcome. We have no requirements for
membership. We ask for a willingness to participate and Volunteer in our
programs supporting Peace and Justice.

*PLANNING AND GOALS ANNUAL MEETING
*
*Time*: November 12, 2011
*From:* 1:00 PM TO 4:00 PM

Location: Quaker Meeting House
               1104 Forest Street
               Charlottesville, VA

Agenda items include setting goals, initiating events for the coming year
and organizing fundraising efforts. This is a special yearly meeting to
plan and set goals for the coming year. All are welcome to attend and bring
your ideas for events and goals to this meeting.

Volunteers NEEDED to join us and participate in events. Please contact us
via email to let us know of your availability and interest in CCPJ. Drop us
a line at http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org/contact or just show up at
our monthly meetings!

*Volunteer needed to help out with website maintenance*. Please contact us
at our website for more information.

*LOCAL AND STATE EVENTS*
*Witness to Innocence: The Wrongfully Convicted on Death Row *
**
*Death Row Exoneree speaking in Charlottesville - Nov. 2nd
*
*Time*:* *Wednesday November 2, 2011, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
*Place*: University of Virginia, Minor Hall -Room 125
291 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA

Speaker event featuring:

Steve Northup
Executive Director, Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty

Matthew Engle,
Law Professor, University of Virginia; Legal Director, Innocence Project

and *special guest
*
Nate Fields,
Member, Witness to Innocence

Wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to die, Mr. Fields spent
20 years in prison (including 11 years on death row) before being freed.

Free admission. Light refreshments will be provided.

The following day, Thursday, *November 3rd* is the first day of the Virginia
Film Festival<http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=n5bgmkmZZ%2BlKdtCPncZWZD3%2FIysc0H84>.
The first screening of the festival is the Short Documentary Program and
will include the film, *"Jerry"*, about Jerry Givens, who executed 62
people for the VA Department of Corrections. Jerry is now on VADP's Board
of Directors and is vehemently oppossed to the death penalty. The film will
be one of several short documtentaries begining at 3 p.m. at the Regal 3 on
the Downtown Mall.

*UVA Beyond Coal Campaign*

Please join the University of Virginia’s Beyond Coal Campaign on *Wednesday
Nov. 2nd at 6:30 pm*
for an information session in Random Row Books, located at 315 West Main
Street.

The info session will be about the campaign at the University and our
goals for retiring the coal plant that we have.

This will be a great chance for students and community members to
meet each other and share ideas about a brighter future for
Charlottesville.

A question-and-answer session and the opportunity to endorse the
campaign will follow the information session.

Please RSVP to Rebecca Dudley at: rad3qj at virginia.edu.

*KEEP ALBEMARLE AND CHARLOTTESVILLE SUSTAINABLE!
SIGN THE PETITION!
*
Sustainability is under attack as a concept in local government
planning. You can learn details at:
http://www.asapnow.org/news-current-articles.php

*Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population (ASAP)* has a campaign
underway to maintain sustainability as key planning concept for the
Albemarle-
Charlottesville community.

Please, support this campaign by signing ASAP's web petition at:
http://keepcvillesustainable.org/

*Make History on November 6*
* *
We're about to ask you to do something extraordinary. Something world
changing. Something righteous. Something to use up those frequent-flier
miles.

On November 6, meet us in Washington, D.C., to join hands in a ring around
the White House<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=9Yi8c-73hKjdajamrUBt9g>.
Together, thousands of us will send President Obama a message he might
overlook on his Blackberry: We want clean energy. Tar sands oil is not in
our national interest. And the Keystone XL pipeline must *never* get a
presidential permit.

The closer you look at the Keystone XL boondoggle and its wealthy corporate
backers, the worse the whole thing smells.

Seriously, it's now or never: Either we stop this pipeline and the
environmental catastrophes that come with it, or we live with the
consequences. Don't miss your chance to make history. Come help us stop the
Keystone XL <http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=b9g4mM7R96hpLci9OLiFYQ>(and
bring a sweater -- D.C. can be nippy in November).

*Local contact*: Call 978-7360 or email *Sallie  *at <
wildwindsk at earthlink.net> for car pooling or rides next Sunday, November 6,
2011 to DC.

*A Call to Action
*
October 2011 is the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan and the
beginning of the 2012 federal austerity budget. It is time to light the
spark that sets off a true democratic, nonviolent transition to a world in
which people are freed to create just and sustainable solutions.

We call on people of conscience and courage – all who seek peace, economic
justice, human rights and a healthy environment – to join together in
Washington, D.C. in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and
the Midwest awakening.

Ten years ago, the longest war in U.S. history began. That's ten years of
missiles and bombs, ten years of kicking in doors and disappearing people,
ten years of fighting and funding the Taliban, ten years of developing
hatred of the United States, ten years of demolishing Afghanistan's natural
environment, and ten years of profiteering to the tune of hundreds of
millions of dollars a day.

And there’s no end in sight.

In Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., thousands of us have begun an
occupation planned months ago and energized in recent weeks by our brothers
and sisters at OccupyWallStreet. We're bringing the occupation to the
government that Wall Street corrupts -- to the government that launches war
without end. Corporate exploitation abroad depends on the threat of war.
War funding depends on the defunding of human needs.
We aim to shift our public priorities. These are our goals:

*• Tax the rich and corporations
• End the wars, bring the troops home, cut military spending
• Protect the social safety net, strengthen Social Security and institute
enhanced Medicare for All
• End corporate welfare for oil companies and other big business interests
• Transition to a clean energy economy, reverse environmental degradation
• Protect worker rights including collective bargaining, create jobs and
raise wages
• Get money out of politics
*
Forty-seven years ago, Mario Savio, an activist student at Berkeley, said,
"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes
you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively
take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the
wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it
stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people
who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from
working at all."

Those words have an even greater urgency today. We face ongoing wars and
massive socio-economic and environmental destruction perpetrated by a
corporate empire which is oppressing, occupying and exploiting the world.
We are on a fast track to making the planet unlivable while the middle
class and poor people of our country are undergoing the most wrenching and
profound economic crisis in 80 years.

This is a clarion call for all who are deeply concerned with injustice,
militarism and environmental destruction to join in ending concentrated
corporate power and taking direct control of a real participatory
democracy. We will encourage a culture of resistance — using music, art,
theater and direct nonviolent action — to take control of our country and
our lives. It is about courageously resisting and stopping the corporate
state from destroying not only our inherent rights and freedoms, but also
our children’s chance to live, breathe clean air, drink pure water, grow
edible natural food and live in peace.

As Mother Jones said, "Someday the workers will take possession of your
city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of
profit!"

If you share this agenda, as most of the U.S. public does, join us:
OccupyDC<http://occupywashingtondc.org>


Whether you can join us or not, sign this statement of solidarity that I
will read to the people occupying our nation's capital night and day. Watch
the video at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=SR7lk2xcH-I


*Wild Virginia Hikes*

*Time: *Sunday November 6, 2011
*Place: *Little Devil's Stairs - Shenandoah National Park
In celebration of the weekend after Halloween, we will climb Little
Devil's Staircase and then return to our cars via the Piney Branch Trail
for a 7.8 mile loop. We will be able to visit an interesting old family
cemetery that offers a poignant reminder of the people who lived in the
area before it became a national park.

The climb up Little Devil's Stairs is steep and in a few spots might
require some scrambling, making this a difficult hike. Be sure to wear
supportive hiking shoes with good traction. As always, bring plenty of
water, lunch and snacks.

Please contact Bette Dzamba (bd4q at virginia.edu) or (434) 295-5186 to
sign up for the hike and for more information on carpooling, directions
to the trail head, starting time, and more details about the route.

*NOVEMBER 8 - GET OUT AND VOTE!!*

*NOVEMBER 16, 2011 AT 11:00 AM*

*Dick Cheney in Cville: The Big Dick Is Coming
*
On November 16th at 11 a.m. the Miller Center will be hosting a former
United States VP and professed war criminal.
http://millercenter.org/public/forum/detail/5962

Planning is underway for a public demonstration to signal our opposition to
Mr. Cheney. *Stay tuned for further details.*

*UNION EMPLOYMENT
*
 *- Become a Union Organizer!-
*
Virginia Openings Available

The AFL-CIO Organizing Institute (OI) is a paid job training and placement
program for people who want to fight for the rights of workers, immigrants,
women & people of color.  Graduates of our training program are placed in
full time jobs as union organizers.  The program has a 98% placement rate.

The OI is currently assisting our affiliate unions in hiring in Virginia.
You must
have a driver’s license, be willing to travel and relocate in the future.

Please send cover letter & resume to OIapps at aflcio.org.

In your cover letter please answer the following questions:

Why do you want to become a union organizer?

What has your role been in social justice or community work?

Women, people of color & bilingual speakers encouraged to apply.

For more information go to www.organize.aflcio.org.

Changing Our World Begins at Work!!


********************************************************************************************************************
This E-mail comes from the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice
(CCPJ)
http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org
CCPJ's work depends on your participation and on your funding.
Please contribute what you can here: http://charlottesvillepeace.org/donate
To submit Peace and Justice related events to the CCPJ website: Please use
the 'Submit Your Event for Listing' form at
http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org (Events submitted to the website will
be considered for inclusion in this weekly email newsletter.)
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