Center
News
Annual Fundraising Drive
In a few weeks you will receive our annual request for a donation in the form of a membership to the Neahtawanta Center. We only ask once a year, and hope that you will be able to continue your support of our work. We don't take a salary and all contributions are used for office expenses, printing, publishing, and publicity for events.Media Project <www.nrec.org/media>
We have had some success with the over-all concept of the project, an ongoing news program on public access TV. We have had one live TV news show in May about events in the week leading up to Earth Day. We also created several other videos that can be viewed from the Center's web site. One video was about a demonstration protesting the military jets used in an airshow during the cherry festival. The other video was about the Hiroshima Candlefloat on the Boardman River, held Monday, August 6, in downtown Traverse City.The project needs more work and energy as we rethink how to get this project moving forward. As it was leading up to, and during, the Gulf War, the peace and nonviolence voices are not fairly represented on the corporate-controlled media in the aftermath of the 9.11 terrorist attacks. Please contact us if you want to help with thsi project.
Bioneers -- Visionary and Practical Solutions for Restoring the Earth <www.bioneers.org>
This year's Bioneers is the 12th conference. I attended last year's Bioneers and was impressed by its positive nature and refreshing ideas. The organizers encouraged attendees to create bioneers-type events in their own communities. I conveyed that thought back to the Neahtawanta Center and we decided to work towards creating such an event in our area. To that end, Sally, David Haenke and I are attending this year's Bioneeers Conference. On David's annual summer visit I recruited him to work on creating a mini-Bioneeers Conference in our region.We have learned that there may be funding for organizations to sponsor mini-Bioneers events in their own communities at the same time as the Bioneers Conference is happening in San Rafael next year. The conference is held the 3rd weekend in October each year. We understand that the Bioneers organizers are working on creating satellite transmissions of the Plenary events at the California Bioneers conference to be used by the mini-Bioneers conferences sponsored in other areas via satellite downlinks. These regional Bioneers conferences would use the satellite transmissions as an organizing event and then create regionally based activities at their mini-bioneers conferences.
Our thoughts at this point are to create a local organizing committee and hold an organizing retreat in June of 2002, to plan for the October 2002 mini-bioneers conference somewhere in NW Michigan. David suggested that we organize it with a bioregional theme and will help with that process. There will be more to report as things evolve.
Guerrilla Action Group (GAG)
GAG met every other week all summer. To take advantage of the beautiful summer nights, the group met down by the Boardman River behind the old library.Now that fall has arrived, we are back to meeting at the church on 5th and Oak, the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, at 6:00 PM, beginning with a potluck. Anyone who is interested in issues relating to peace, the environment, globalization and sustainability are welcome. If you aren't interested in getting up in front of a group and doing skits, there are lots of other ways you can help. Our conversations are interesting, informing, and often hilarious. Humor helps.
Die In
The activist community had a busy summer in Traverse City. A Die-In, organized by GAG (Guerrilla Action Group), was carried out at the National Cherry Festival to protest the Air Force air show. Six volunteers "died", complete with fake blood to indicate the real purpose of the planes flying overhead. Others passed out information and held up signs saying, "Victim of War". The local police tried to kick the protesters off the public land, but were unsuccessful. Most festival goers chose to put on blinders and pretend to ignore the die-in, but consciousness was raised.A video clip of the "Die In" can be downloaded from the Center's web site. www.nrec.org/diein/die_in.html
Hand-outs given to people at the "Die In" protest:1) At a time when we are all concerned about the rising tide of violence in our society, in our schools, places of worship and other public spaces, it is just plain wrong to use weapons of mass destruction for family entertainment. It is important to address violence at the family and community level. It is just as important that we not glorify violence at the national level
These airplanes are designed to kill and destroy, not to entertain. We must address violence at all levels and stop this hypocrisy.
This DIE-IN is a symbolic protrayal of the reality of these weapons. It is a message designed to show people what these weapons really do. We hope it is offensive to those who see it becasue the glorification of war is far more offensive.
2) These Airplanes Kill Children and Other Living Things
Annual Hiroshima Candlefloat
The annual Hiroshima Candlefloat, sponsored by the Neahtawanta Center, was held once again this summer. This year we were blessed to have our dear friend, Victor McManemy, with us to sing, "I Come and Stand at Every Door", a poignant song about a victim of the atomic bomb. As many of you know, Victor was injured in a serious accident late last November, and we are so happy that he has made a remarkable recovery. We shared thoughts of peace in a circle and joined together in song. As the light faded, and the river turned black, the candles floated slowly along, and participants shared a silent prayer for peace.An audio of Victor singing can be downloaded from our web site. www.nrec.org/candlefloat.html