“A Sea Change”: Film Shows What CO2 Is Doing to the Oceans (tags)
Barbara Ettinger’s film “A Sea Change,” shown at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in San Diego August 5, shows the other side of the climate change issue: what all that carbon dioxide is doing to the oceans, which absorb much of it after fossil-fuel burning and other human activities release it into the atmosphere. It turns into carbonic acid, which alters the pH of the sea and threatens plankton, coral and other small marine life crucially important to the life cycles of fish and marine mammals. “Imagine a world without fish,” says the publicity material for the film, which was followed at this screening by a discussion with two graduate students from Scripps Institute of Oceanography who expressed their frustration at the political opposition to taking climate change seriously.
“Innocents Abroad” Trek from San Diego to Gaza (tags)
When Larry Hampshire, Faith Attaguile and Hany El-Saldany signed on with an international convoy bringing supplies and vehicles to the people of the occupied Palestinian province of Gaza, they had so little insight into what they were getting into that they called their program “Innocents Abroad” when they reported on their experience to the Peace and Democracy Action Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in Hillcrest May 6. They faced opposition mostly from the government of Egypt — including a police riot, the confiscation of their passports and the arrest of seven members — but they also had strong support from the people in the countries they went through, especially in the Middle East (Turkey, Syria, Jordan). Their presentation sparked a wide-ranging discussion about the prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian peace and whether the so-called “two-state solution” (a separate Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza next to Israel) is still practical or desirable.
“Rethink Afghanistan” Screens in San Diego (tags)
The Peace and Democracy Action Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in Hillcrest recently screened Robert Greenwald’s hard-hitting 2009 documentary “Rethink Afghanistan,” which meticulously lists all the reasons given for the U.S.’s continuing and escalating military involvement in Afghanistan — from the alleged need to deny al-Qaeda “sanctuary” in the country to the supposed “liberation” of Afghan women — and demolishes them all. The March 18 screening was followed by a talk-back session with three members of the San Diego chapter of Veterans for Peace, who talked about their own experiences in Korea and Viet Nam and the similarities between how those wars were justified and sold to the American people and the current campaign to legitimize our Afghan campaign.
Dahr Jamail Celebrates U.S. Military’s “Will to Resist” in Iraq, Afghanistan (tags)
Dahr Jamail, the independent journalist who broke the monopoly on Iraq war coverage by “embedded reporters” and reported honestly on the war for his own blog, has tackled a subject equally taboo in the corporate media: the growing number of U.S. servicemembers who are resisting the wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. The resistance takes many forms, from so-called “search and avoid” missions in the war zones to absences without leave (AWOL), conscientious objector filings and outright refusals to obey orders to deploy. While the movement hasn't reached the heights it did during the Viet Nam war — mainly because there isn't as large a mass civilian anti-war movement as there was then — it's significant for the courage and heroism of the resisters and as an index of the toll two long, grueling wars have taken on the U.S. military.
Health Advocate McGuire Speaks Out for Single-Payer (tags)
Andrew McGuire, who's been active in grass-roots health campaigns for over 35 years, came to San Diego May 7 to speak at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church as part of his campaign to get a single-payer health care system enacted and operating in California. McGuire was eloquent about the "immoral, demeaning and lethal" health care system the U.S. has now, and the political pressures making reform impossible at the federal level,but even some progressives in his audience were concerned about details in the plan he was promoting.
It’s More than Nuclear Issues, Native Americans Tell Activists (tags)
The event at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in San Diego August 29 was billed as a program about Native American activists fighting against nuclear testing and waste disposal in Nevada, but it turned out to be considerably broader than that. Speakers Ian Zabarte, secretary of state of the Shoshone nation, and professor Steven T. Newcomb gave their audience a history lesson about the U.S. government's cavalier attitude towards its treaties with Indian nations and the Christian-supremacist ideology that underlies it.
San Diego, June 10th - Jeremy Scahill speaks on Blackwater (tags)
Scahill will have a new presentation on Blackwater with a critique of the U.S. media, saying that the role of Blackwater as an unaccountable combat force not only abroad but in the U.S. as well is just one of many stories that aren’t being covered properly in the mainstream press.
"Shrimper" Environmental Activist Speaks in San Diego (tags)
diane Wilson, who went from being a painfully shy Texas shrimp fisher to a nationally known environmental activist, presented her story in San Diego at a meeting sponsored by the Peace and Democracy Action Group of the First Unitarian-Universalist Church. Her inspiring story is also available in her book, "An Unreasonable Woman."