Golden Rule Peace Boat Sails into North Coast Harbor!
The 39-foot sailboat Golden Rule is sailing into Cleveland to alert us to the need to eliminate nuclear weapons and prevent nuclear war. The historic vessel, restored by Veterans For Peace, will anchor at North Coast Harbor August 5th to 8th, on the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. A welcome event at noon on Saturday will be followed by a commemoration of the Hiroshima bombing at 7 PM Sunday, both at Voinovich Bicentennial Park, adjacent to the marina. Cleveland Peace Action is honored to be the Golden Rule’s local host.
In 1958 four Quaker peace activists sailed the Golden Rule from Los Angeles toward the Marshall Islands in an attempt to halt U.S. nuclear weapons testing. The U.S. Coast Guard seized the boat in Honolulu and threw the crew in jail. The international outcry that followed built support for the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty that was signed in August 1963 by President John F. Kennedy and the leaders of the UK and the USSR.
We are sailing for a nuclear-free world and a peaceful, sustainable future,” says Helen Jaccard, Golden Rule Project Manager. “The billions of dollars that are being wasted on nuclear weapons and war could be used to address poverty, the pandemic, and climate change, while providing quality education and healthcare for all.”
The Golden Rule is currently on a mission to sail throughout the United States with her message of peace, disarmament and sustainability. For more information, see www.vfpgoldenrule.org or call 206-992-6364.
Would you like an educational presentation at your church / club / school? Would you or your organization like to co-sponsor the Golden Rule’s visit? Would you like to sail or a tour of the Golden Rule? Contact: [email protected] or 440-703-0215.
Annual Membership Meeting 2023
Ending the Ukraine War: Can There Be Solidarity Within the Peace Movement?
MISSED IT? Now showing on YouTube
Recorded Wednesday, April 26th, 2023
A conversation with CPA Board Members Terry Lodge and Mark Weber, and the audience. Moderator: Francis Chiappa
Terry Lodge is a longtime environmental and civil rights lawyer in Toledo, Ohio who co-founded the Northwest Ohio Peace Coalition in Toledo a few days after September 11, 2001. He and NWOPC have actively opposed every U.S. war and proxy war involvement since.
Mark Weber is the outgoing president of Cleveland Peace Action. He is a retired librarian and has done human rights work in Colombia and Palestine.
For results of annual election of board members and officers for Cleveland Peace Action and Cleveland Peace Action Education Fund, see below
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Lou tests right to free speech in Chagrin Falls, and prevails
CHAGRIN FALLS, Sunday, May 28th–Such DRAMA!! Jeepers! This was the 15th straight year of taking part in the Blossom Time Parade on the eve of Memorial Day, wearing my embarrassingly tight U.S. Army dress uniform and carrying my peace flag on a pole. To say that the event was an “adventure” would be a pretty big understatement. All went well for the first few minutes after unfurling my peace flag near East Washington Street, walking in front of a converted RV used by Homeless Hookup CLE, a non-profit that provides various services and goods for troubled veterans. Driving the RV was Dean, once a homeless veteran himself. I had walked in front of his vehicle at last year’s Blossom Time Parade. Today’s parade had a decidedly different narrative. As I stepped onto East Washington Street from the Chagrin Falls High School driveway, the staging area for parade vehicles, things went south pretty quickly. All of a sudden, a young parade official stepped in front of me and with his arms stretched straight out from his sides, blocked me, telling me to step out of the parade. I refused his command, noting I was within my First Amendment right of “freedom of speech” which was my “permit” to walk in the parade. I added there is precedent as I had walked in the parade for several years without incident. When he persisted in telling me to step to the side of the road, my half-Irish blood began to boil and I bluntly told him, “That’s not gonna happen!! Leave me alone!!” An exasperated woman behind me, witnessing the confrontation and greatly offended by the brutish, thuggish behavior of the parade official, shouted at him. “You can’t touch him!!” So he backed away from me slightly and said he was holding up the parade. I told the offensive official to go find a policeman so we can discuss my First Amendment right of freedom of speech. He quickly walked away. I never saw him again–and Chagrin Falls police along the parade route were respectful, with one thanking me for my service. BUT, my “excellent adventure” was not quite finished.
Read MoreEnd Sanctions on Syria
Economic and political sanctions have become a primary post-Cold-War tool to achieve US foreign policy objectives. When the costs of sanctions outweigh the benefits, it is time to reconsider that sanctions regime. When the cost is oppressing millions of people, the sanctions must be lifted. The US sanctions on Syria since 2011 have contributed to the suffering of millions of people due to 12 years of war and a recent earthquake. Even before the 2023 earthquake, 15.3 million people — more than half the population — required humanitarian assistance and protection support.
Sanctions are causing the Syrian people to go without essentials such as food, energy, and medicine. The Syrian currency has collapsed, and people are going hungry. Cleveland Peace Action calls on the Biden Administration and Congress to lift the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (Caesar) Sanctions. Allow the Syrian people to rebuild and hundreds of thousands of refugees to return to their homes. Let them depart for the distressed refugee camps in neighboring nations.
The aim of sanctions is to punish other governments or world leaders for their behavior or policies that conflict with US policy or international law. Institution of sanctions is usually rationalized as defense of human rights or to stop proliferation of weapons or drugs, or violence against another group or nation. Sanctions are a way of avoiding a direct military confrontation. Federal law allows US presidents to implement sanctions without the authority of Congress.
Sanctions on authoritarian regimes have slim chances of success. Additionally, as the U.S. pushes nations out of its economic sphere, China is happy to oblige them. Bashar Assad is hardly affected by these sanctions, and it may even give him support politically – Syria surviving despite outside aggression. US sanctions are becoming sanctions against its own policy goals. We call on the Biden Administration to lift the sanctions on Syria.
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