A Visit from Hell
It's clear to me that our great nation has received a visit from hell, and the response, whatever it is, will likely be supported as no other response since Franklin Roosevelt's after Pearl Harbor.
As a partisan of nonviolence for 40 years, it's a difficult moment for me.
And I fully realize that what I propose will have very little impact in the big scheme of things.
But it seems to me that it should be possible to ban all verbal support, training, printed support, governmental support, monetary support, and private support of any kind for any aspect of Suicide Bombing & Suicidal Killing of any kind.
The United States should take fierce steps to end all training, planning, and support of any kind in any nation for Suicide Bombing and Suicide Killing.
You can search the annals of ancient warfare– and you will not find any such tactic. It's a modern tactic, this Suicidal Killing, and has only come forward against the background of the techniques of the modern religious cult, and against the background of the development of brainwashing and robotic behavior first perfected by the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. There are a number of books on it. I would recommend John Marks' The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate." If they are using some of these modern techniques to train Suicide Killers, then they can train killers belonging to other racial and ethnic groups.
We are facing one of the greatest evils of the age, and it's time for a democracy that's greater than ancient Athens, and wiser, and more free, to put an end to the training, support and advocacy of Suicide Attacks, whatever it takes.

A Letter from Reverend Finley Schaef
and Nancy Schaef for A Department of Peace
–proposed letter from our churches & synagogues:
Dear Senators Charles Schumer & Hillary Clinton:
A major step toward bringing true peace to the world will be the creation of a United States Department of Peace, headed by a cabinet-level department secretary. HR 2459, now introduced in the House, deserves the enthusiastic support of every American and every elected official. The proposed Department of Peace would focus on nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, ways to prevent violence, and promotion of justice and democratic principles to expand human rights. A Peace Academy, similar to the five military service academies, would be created, its graduates being dispatched to troubled areas around the globe to promote nonviolent dispute resolution. Our church/synagogue urges you, Senators Clinton & Schumer, to call immediately for passage of a Senate version of HR 2459 and the establishment of the Department of Peace.

The Prime Commandment
You can find it in Exodus XX, 13. Thou Shalt Not Murder.

The Highway Garage
As I pointed out in my remarks at a recent public meeting on the proposed Highway Garage and Salt Shed, it's possible, given the peculiar politics of this election season (a popular Supervisor being endorsed by both Democrats and Republicans) that the Town could actually see itself free to build it.
The working conditions at the current highway garage are unsanitary, unseemly, unhealthy and unAmerican. No worker should have to endure this, especially in a liberal and even progressive town.
Salt hurts our trees. Look at all the beautiful but dieing sugar maples, ashes and oaks along the salty roads. Salt also harms humans. It helps raise blood pressure, and it impacts water supplies.
It also rusts out our automobiles.
With a salt barn, the Town will be able to reduce the amount of salt tossed down on roads.
It's time for Woodstockers to rise above NIMBY and find a solution to this problem right away.

September 29 Demonstrations in DC
Will Go On As Scheduled
Statement on Terrorism From the Mid-Hudson National People's Campaign: A couple of people in the Mid-Hudson region have asked whether the Beat Back the Bush Attack demonstration in Washington Saturday, Sept. 29, may be canceled due to today's terrible news. The D.C. event will go on as scheduled, and buses will leave from Kingston and New Paltz the early morning of the 29th.
Today's terror attacks have shaken all of us and we mourn the dead and feel for the injured and the survivors. At the same time we have to make sure not to allow national emotions to galvanize into anti-Arab or anti-Islamic attitudes. Likewise, we must struggle against any moves by the U.S. government to use these events as a pretext for further eroding our democratic freedoms in the name of protecting the nation against terrorism, or for launching foreign military or subversive adventures.
Naturally, we must sharply repudiate ALL terror attacks against innocent civilians--whether they take the form of small-group terrorism, such as this morning's dreadful events at the World Trade Center (which will only strengthen the hand of domestic reaction), or state terrorism, such as the 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia's civilian population and civil infrastructure.


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