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Memorial Day Peace Vigil, May 27 at Jones Beach

Annual Air Show Protest
at Jones Beach
Saturday, May 27, 2017

Pax Christi will be there on Saturday for our ANNUAL PEACE VIGIL to mourn all those lost in war and to renew our efforts to prevent future wars.

We will gather at 8 a.m. in Parking Field 4 and walk at 8:30 to the Needle for prayer and remembrance and then walk along the boardwalk.
$10 Parking Fee. More information below.

Visit  us on Facebook: Pax Christi Long Island. Email catholicpeaceli@gmail.com
Memorial Day is supposed to be about remembering those who have died in previous wars. It should not be an occasion for recruiting young men and women to fight in future wars, or in the two existing, never-ending conflicts that have killed so many Americans: Afghanistan and Iraq. But that’s what happens at Jones Beach every Memorial Day weekend, at an air show, sponsored by Bethpage Federal Credit Union. Among the huge crowds flocking to the beach for this event are military recruiters, hoping that the gee-whiz military atmospherics surrounding the show will encourage young people to sign on the dotted line and enter the military. That runs starkly counter to the whole purpose of Memorial Day.

This year, the air show takes place on Saturday, May 27, and Sunday, May 28. Pax Christi will be there on Saturday for our annual peace vigil.

Here’s what the May 27th schedule looks like:

8:30 AM: Gathering at the plaza in front of the needle.
10:00 AM: Prayer, followed by a procession along the boardwalk, with hand-held displays of photographs of deceased Long Island service members. During the procession, we’ll hand out flyers that raise awareness about the meaning of Memorial Day.
12:00 PM: Dispersal

MEDEA BENJAMIN to Speak on LI, March 28

MEDEA BENJAMIN WILL SPEAK ON LONG ISLAND

at Hofstra University, Axinn Library at 12:45-2:10 p.m. and

at Unitarian Universalist Congregation at 7:30 p.m. See details below.

Hofstra’s Departments of Economics, History and Sociology

in cooperation with The Center for Civic Engagement, Long Island Teachers for Human Rights and the The Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives Present:

International Scene Lecture Series Spring 2017

Tuesday, March 28 12:45-2:10 pm

Citizens’ Responses to President Trump’s Policies

With MEDEA BENJAMIN, Writer, Activist, Co-Founder, Code Pink

Cultural Center Theatre,  Axinn Library, Hofstra University

Co sponsored by Hofstra’s Institute of Peace Studies, Peace Fellows Program and PeaceActionMatters@Hofstra club. Series Co-Directors:  Dr. Carolyn Eisenberg,    Department of History, Dr. Linda Longmire, Global Studies,Prof. Martin Melkonian, Department of Economics. For info: (516)463-5595

Also in the evening at 7:30, Medea Benjamin will speak

At Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock,

48 Shelter Rock Road, Manhasset
MEDEA BENJAMIN will speak at 7:30 p.m.

STAND UP IN THE FACE OF INJUSTICE:

Response and What’s to Be Done When Our Democracy is Threatened
Sponsored by The Shelter Rock Forum, Social Justice Committee of UUCSR and LI Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives. For info: 516-627-6560

Margaret Melkonian, Executive Director

Andrea Libresco, Board President

Natasha Rappazzo, Peace Program Coordinator 2017

Emilie Beck, PeaceActionMatters@Hofstra Coordinator

L.I. Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives
P.O. Box 301, Garden City NY 11530

516-741-4360
longislandpeace@gmail.com

www.longislandpeace.org

http://www.facebook.com/LIAllianceforPeacefulAlternatives
Over 30 Years of Peacemaking on Long Island,  1985-2016

 

William Perry Makes Case for Nuclear Abolition

Former Secretary of Defense William Perry Makes Case for Abolition

The Next President Can Negotiate a Nuclear Ban Treaty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 24, 2016

Contact: Margaret Melkonian, LI Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives, 516-741-4360, longislandpeace@gmail.com

IMG_2316Long Island, NYOn Monday, October 24, 2016, William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997, will speak at All Souls Unitarian Church, 1157 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY.   Doors will open at 6:30PM.

In his book My Journey at the Nuclear Brink, William Perry describes his lifelong passion to prevent nuclear war, including his experience as Secretary of Defense from 1994 to 1997. With George Shultz, Sam Nunn, and Henry Kissinger, he was co-author of a series of influential op-eds in the Wall Street Journal on the need to move toward a world free of nuclear weapons.

Perry believes that the dangers posed by nuclear arms are now greater than ever, and that action is urgently needed to reduce those dangers, and that nuclear weapons should be abolished as soon as possible. 

“It is more than dismaying that the presidential candidates have failed to address national security issues and the existential threat of nuclear weapons” says Margaret Melkonian, Director of the LI Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives. “Scant mention was made during the debates about questions of first use or who could be trusted with ordering a nuclear strike (alarming that this is even considered an option)” says Melkonian.

 

“The American people need to hold the next Administration to account and to challenge the next President to shift nuclear policy to no first use, to reject spending billions on nuclear modernization and to initiate multilateral negotiations for a treaty to eliminate nuclear weapons. Perry has been making this case and our next President, NY Senators and LI representatives should listen.”

Sponsored by: Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, All Souls Nuclear Disarmament Task Force, Peace Action of New York State.

Endorsed by: Global Security Institute; NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace and Security; Brooklyn For Peace; Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives; United Religions Initiative, Coalition for Peace Action.

The event is free and open to the public. To RSVP, please send an email to rsvpperry@gmail.com.

For more information: John Burroughs, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, johnburroughs@lcnp.org, 212-818-1857,

PEACE ZONE RALLY AT HOFSTRA , Sept.26

PEACE ZONE RALLY, HOFSTRA DEBATE 2016, SEPTEMBER 26

Margaret Melkonian, LI Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives

CREATING A PEACE ZONE IN OUR COMMUNITIES AND IN OUR WORLD

Peace begins with 3 words

STOP THE KILLING

 

STOP THE KILLING

END THE WARS IN SYRIA, AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ, YEMEN

 

STOP THE KILLING says President Carter in a NYT op-ed

People are dying. Children are dying.

 

Peace begins with 3 words

STOP THE KILLING

STOP THE BOMBING IN SYRIA

Almost 500,000 people  have been killed in Syria; 10 million people have been displaced from their homes says Robert Koehler on commondreams

STOP THE BOMBING

Peace begins with 3 words

STOP THE KILLING

In Charlotte, in Tulsa, in Baltimore, in Oregon

Peace begins with 3 words

STOP THE KILLING

STOP WEAPONS SALES

 

STOP THE KILLING

SUPPORT AN ARMS EMBARGO IN THE MIDDLE EAST

During the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King Jr. told us that

the bombs falling on Hanoi and on Vietnamese villages

were also falling on our cities and towns here at home.

Today the $ spent on weapons and bombs means lives are lost.

STOP THE KILLING

CUT MILITARY SPENDING

 

PEACE BEGINS WITH 3 WORDS

STOP THE KILLING

 

WORK TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

WORK TO BUILD BRIDGES NOT WALLS

WORK TO END WAR

WORK TO END MILITARISM, RACISM AND POVERTY

WORK FOR PEACE

WE ARE HERE TODAY IN THIS PEACE ZONE

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER

 

WE ARE HERE TO ASK THE CANDIDATES

ACROSS THE TURNPIKE IN THE WAR ZONE

HOW THEY WILL END WAR?

 

PEACE BEGINS WITH 3 WORDS

STOP THE KILLING

END WAR.

 img_2577-1                                   Andrea Libresco&Margaret Melkonian, LI Alliance

 

DEBATE 2016 AT Hofstra, Sept. 26

Monday, September 26 – Gather on Hempstead Turnpike at 4p.m.

CREATING A PEACE ZONE:BRINGING COMMUNITY VOICES TO THE 2016 DEBATE and COMMUNITY DEBATE WATCH at HOFSTRA

  SEPTEMBER 26, 2016

 

CREATING A PEACE ZONE. Gather at 4 p.m. along  Hempstead Tpke. to create a peace zone and walk along at 4:30 to Monroe hall, California  for a peace zone rally with student faculty and community speakers.

4:45-5:45 PEACE ZONE RALLY outside Monroe Hall with student, faculty and community speakers

6:00- 7:30  Panel “Si Se Puede” to “Build the Wall” The Importance of the Latino Vote in 2016. In this Debate 2016 panel, journalists, academics, and community activists explore the range of issues affecting the diverse Latino community and how the two major parties are addressing (or not) their concerns. Moderated by Dr. Mario Murillo. Monroe Lecture Center Fortunoff Theater.

8:00-8:50 – BRINGING  STUDENT & COMMUNITY VOICES TO THE 2016 DEBATE : Pre-Debate Panel: Kate Alexander, PeaceAction NYS; Emilie Beck, PeaceActionMatters@Hofstra; Frederick K. Brewington, civil rights attorney; Hofstra student Bernard Coles IV; and Paul Gibson, Uniondale Community Land Trust and GUAAC. Moderator: Prof. Andrea Libresco. SPEAKOUT with  students and community on issues and questions we would like to see candidates address, Monroe Lecture Hall

9-10:30 COMMUNITY DEBATE WATCH, Monroe Lecture Hall

The Center for Civic Engagement, International Scene,Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Alternatives and PeaceActionMatters@Hofstra

For info: 516-741-4360 or 516-463-5595 – longislandpeace@gmail.com

Sept. 13 Panel on Islamophobia in the U.S. and its Role in this Election Cycle

IRRATIONAL FEARS- UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF ISLAMOPHOBIA ON AMERICAN MUSLIMS( 2nd draft) copy

Tuesday, September 13, 2:20-3:45 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Irrational Fears: Understanding the Impact of 
Islamophobia on American Muslims 
A panel of students and experts discuss Islamophobia in the U.S. and its role in this election cycle.
Moderated by Dr. Tomeka Robinson, Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Director of Forensics, Hofstra University.
Sponsored by the Center for Civic Engagement and the International Scene Lecture Series
Lowenfeld Conference and Exhibition Hall, Axinn Library
Admission Free. Open to Public