Atenta Invitación
vAPPOroaxaca,

Estamos invitando a todos los que de alguna manera han venido siguiendo y apoyando, las actividades de nuestra Coalición vAPPOroaxaca, para que nos acompañen en la Conferencia de Prensa, para darles a Conocer el Informe Económico de la actividad del 2 de Marzo 2007.
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Love, Life, Sex Center Promotes Fulfillment
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger's Newsmagazine,

Sexologists Nick Karras and Sayaka Adachi recently opened the Love, Life, Sex Center in Hillcrest. In this interview, they discuss the impediments that stand in the way of people having the happy, fulfilling sex lives they deserve, including anti-sex religious teachings and other sources of fear.
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Chalmers Johnson/Imperialism vs. Democracy
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Retired UCSD professor Chalmers Johnson spoke at the First Unitarian-Universalist Church in Hillcrest March 23 and gave an overall summary of his most recent book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic." Johnson argues that America's continuing status as an imperialist power and in particular its military adventurism and maintenance of a network of at least 737 military bases around the world is incompatible with any commitment to democracy. Either America will remain a republic or remain an empire; it cannot do both, Johnson says.
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Queer Democrats Endorse Universal Health Care
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

The predominantly Queer San Diego Democratic Club unanimously endorsed a single-payer health-care system for California at its March 22 meeting. The proposal is called "California OneCare" and is being carried in the state legislature by openly Lesbian State Senator Sheila Kuehl, who steered a similar health bill through the legislature last year. It was killed by the veto of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The club members debated how to overcome the predictable multi-million dollar campaign health insurance companies, which would be eliminated by the proposal, will fight against it and also the racist fear-mongering more moderate health plans have already evoked from Right-wing propagandists denouncing that "illegal aliens" would be covered.
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Locals Visit Cucapá Community
sdimc volunteer,

Since approximately 9000 years ago the Cucapá have lived in the land adjacent to the Rio Colorado, dedicated fundamentally to fishing. Eighteen years ago the Mexican federal government began passing laws that made it nearly impossible for the indigenous Cucapá to live in these lands. The rivers near the Cucapá are drying out because of the dams that have been built on the US side of the Colorado River. Therefore, the current fishing grounds have become a last resort for their survival. In addition, in these waters, fishing of any type of marine species has been prohibited. With the implementation of this decree, the life of the Cucapá has been gravely affected; putting at risk the existence of the Cucapá as indigenous people in Baja California.*

*previously posted for full press release CLICK HERE

a san diego indymedia volunteer got an opportunity to interview Fernanda Rios (collective zapatista, california coalition against poverty) and Andrea Donez (collective zapatista) who have contributed time to organize support for the Cucapá camp and who recently traveled to the Cucapá community

Q: How did you hear about the Cucapá situation?

F.R.: Sup came to the border and told us we should be supporting the indigenous communities nearby.

A.D.: After the commission visited the Cucapá, Delegate Zero said, “We have decided to send an urgent message to the Mexicans and Chicanos north of the Rio Grande to come here in order to maximize the number of people here, create a safe space, and protect the Cucapá and Kiliwa community during the fishing season.”

Cucapá Benefit Show Sat March 31 7PM A+E/North Park | Donations for Cucapá Camp - Dropoff at Chican@ Perk | Cucapá Camp Video
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freEtech a(n) (un)Conference Sun March 25
san diego indymedia volunteer and borderlands hacklabber,

U-P-D-A-T-E Photos and Report from freEtech by djlotu5! -- We had many fruitful discussions about inclusion and exclusion in technology along lines of race, class, color, gender and sexual preference. We also had great skillshares including an Intro to Linux and a Linux installfest, Using drupal for community organizing and independent media and hacktivism... CLICK HERE to READ MORE
Report from freEtech by Jake/Lying Media Bastards ...FreEtech 2007 was small, but very friendly, fluid, educational, hands-on, and thought-provoking. We had members of RadioActive, Borderlands Hacklab, San Diego Indymedia, Activist San Diego, Free Radio San Diego, the City Heights Free Skool, Bay Area Hackbloc, Indybay, vAPPOr Oaxaca, and probably some other groups I wasn’t aware of, with maybe a dozen people driving down from SF to join us. Fun to be surrounded with fellow geeky, sarcastic anarchists... CLICK HERE to READ MORE

It's Geek Week in San Diego!

This week, the publishing giant O'Reilly will be holding its emerging technologies conference, Etech, in San Diego. This Sunday, borderLands hackLab and the City Heights Free Skool will be holding their answer to Etech, freEtech, which will feature free computer classes and skillshares in an environment of rich cultural exchange, community and passion.

Speakers at Etech will include Eric Freeman, VP of tech at Disney Online and Marc Hedlund, Chief Product Organizer at a personal finance startup.
Speakers at freEtech will include community organizers don kilo, djlotu5, and you.
Etech's presentations will include Coder to Co-Founder: Entrepeneuring for Geeks and Extreme Productivity in the Enterprise.
freEtech's presentations will include Hacking Neocolonialism and Creating Community and Independent Media with Drupal.
Etech's corporate sponsors include Microsoft Virtual Earth and Adobe.
freEtech has no corporate sponsors.
Etech costs $1500.
freEtech is FREE.

freEtech
Sunday March 25 10AM-4PM
City Heights Free Skool
4246 Wightman St
On the corner of Van Dyke and Wightman

freEtech Wiki/More Info | freEtech flyer: Espanol, English | barcamp in Los Angeles
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Cultivating Food Justice Dolores Huerta Video - Part 4/4
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Dolores Huerta was the keynote speaker at the Cultivating Food Justice Conference held at San Diego City College 3 March, 2007. Video - Part 4/4: 11 min 47 sec; 14.8 mbytes.
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Cultivating Food Justice Dolores Huerta Video - Part 3/4
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Dolores Huerta was the keynote speaker at the Cultivating Food Justice Conference held at San Diego City College 3 March, 2007. Video - Part 3/4: 15 min 20 sec; 19.2 mbytes.
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Cultivating Food Justice Dolores Huerta Video - Part 2/4
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Dolores Huerta was the keynote speaker at the Cultivating Food Justice Conference held at San Diego City College 3 March, 2007. Video - Part 2/4: 12 min 32 sec; 15.7 mbytes.
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Cultivating Food Justice Dolores Huerta Video - Part 1/4
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Dolores Huerta was the keynote speaker at the Cultivating Food Justice Conference held at San Diego City College 3 March, 2007. Video - Part 1/4: 15 min 15 sec; 18.2 mbytes.
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Reclaim the Streets
allybee,

On April 13th, no great battle was won or lost. No dynasties fell and no kings collapsed. Friday, April 13th, is what many would call a “random day”. But there is no random when everyday there is a reason to celebrate. Should we have to be angry about something to take the streets? Do we need to honor someone? Glorify another war? Or can we take the streets purely for the sake of dancing?
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Reclaim the Streets!
allybee,

RECLAIM THE STREETS – SAN DIEGO
Friday April 13th 2007 -7pm
Meet at 4th and broadway downtown
Music and festivities bring costumes,
Instruments, and creativity!

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Michael Parenti Speaks on "Culture Struggle"
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

From Mark Conlan: Michael Parenti, Berkeley-based Leftist author and professor, gave several talks on a recent tour of San Diego, inclding one at the Malcolm X Library March 7 on "The Culture Struggle." Parenti analyzed the connection between culture and class in Marxist terms, saying that culture is the way an owning class trains the working class to have the values that will make working people content with their lives and disinclined to challenge the existing ownership and control of the means of production. In his speech, and his similarly titled book, he also scorned "cultural relativism" — saying the idea that people brought up in one culture can't judge those from another has been used to defend social evils like slavery and rape — and also talked about capitalism has increasingly turned culture into a commodity.

From white m@le fed up with White Males: What a surprise to see a white male criticizing the experiences of people of color, women, and queer folk. and also surprise, he's a marxist! congratulations sir, you and your irrelevant ideology are part of the same culture that aims to perpetuate the oppression of people of color, women, and queer folk. of course the experiences of black women (for example) are subordinate to your epistemological claims! because you follow a long tradition of western enlightenment thinking that has hegemonically controlled the discourses of truth for hundreds of years!...

From shine: i am a queer female, and i was not offended by parentis words at all. i don't think he was "critisizing" our experiences as you say. in fact i think they are largely right-on. though i do find a unique solidarity amongst other queers or other womyn (and could understand why blacks would find a unique solidarity with each other or diabled folks would) i ultimately think parenti is right that our focus should be on the ruling class and should be on the ways in which we are all subservients and need to take back power... the fact that marx and parenti were both white males doesn't make their words untrue...

More from white m@le fed up with White Males: ...the idea that all hierarchy can be reduced to simple class functionalism is absurd. which is essentially the problem with marxism as a whole and the focus for the majority of criticism of the ideology by people who are actually interested in eradicating hierarchy. sure, we can all fall into step behind this notion that class is the only thing that matters, but will that topple patriarchy (the mujeres libres ran into this same problem in the spanish civil war)? racism? homophobia? are we really expected to believe that these are only tools utilized by the bourgeoisie to oppress the workers and not completely enculturated patterns of behavior representing hundreds of years of life under oppressive governmental and economic systems?...

From anarchomarxist: ...The slippery slope of identity here reduces to either the individual's own oppression being different from any others' resulting in the assertion of the individual as the main agent of history (the re-assertion of liberalism) or the next step in the critique which is the deconstruction of the individual as anon [white m@le fed up with White Males] suggests. The former brings with it all the problems of liberalism from the enlightenment that Hegel, Marx and many Anarchist theorists sought to problematize, critique and move to something more liberatory (theoretically only in the case of Hegel) that would not only better explain phenomena but lead to a sustaining practice. And the later results in a never ending negation of all postulates that seek to get agency off the ground (the postmodern predicament). Anon [white m@le fed up with White Males] suggests the later is how we should view individuals but fails to acknowledge the theory and practice problems that comport to this mode of discourse...

--Read More of the article and comments--
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Cultivating Food Justice Community Forum Video Part Two
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Part two of video excerpts from the Community Forum/Fishbowl Discussion at Cultivating Food Justice, a conference held in San Diego on 3 March, 2007 at San Diego City College. 11 min 29 sec 14.5mbytes
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Cultivating Food Justice Community Forum Video Part One
san diego indymedia volunteer,

Part one of video excerpts from the Community Forum/Fishbowl Discussion at Cultivating Food Justice, a conference held in San Diego on 3 March, 2007 at San Diego City College. 14 min 7 sec 18mbytes
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Justicia Para Noé Rojas!!
s t a r r ,

On February 10, 2007 young Noé Rojas was gunned down by San Diego Police Officers Louis Galante and Jack Pearson, after they stopped him for allegedly running a stop sign.

50 activists led by the Brown Berets marched from Emerald Hills Park to the site of the shooting to demand JUSTICE for Noé Rojas!!!

According to eye-witnesses, they shot him down with his hands in the air and then claimed he had a gun which they say now was actually plastic. Two family members in the car at the time said there was no such gun. If one turned up, then AS USUAL, the police planted it.

We demand that officers Galante and Pearson be fully investigated and tried for murder.

We demand that SDPD and SD County Sherrifs quit waging war on Mexican and Mexican-American youth in San Diego County! --Read More--

Related: Justice for Jake | SDPD's Phillip Bozarth Kills 5th San Diegan | CopWatch Conference on Police Brutality | October 22 CopWatch Protest Highlights Police Abuse
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Big Brother Is Reading Your E-Mail
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

For almost a year it's been known that, in addition to tapping billions of phone calls made in the U.S., the federal government's so-called "Terrorist Surveillance Program" has also been eavesdropping on people's e-mails. If you use AT&T as your Internet service provider, or if your e-mails ever go through AT&T's network (which is just about everybody in San Diego and southern California), the government has a copy. You shouldn't be so naive as to expect your Internet communications to be private, not when we're ruled by a government that hates the very concept of privacy as much as the Bush administration does. Instead, if you wouldn't shout it out on a street corner for everyone to hear, don't write it in an e-mail or post it on line.
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Chris: Sex, Submission and Spirituality
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

An interview with Chris (who asked that his last name not be used), a self-proclaimed "slut bottom" who discusses his lifelong love of being anally penetrated, the difficulty he had in overcoming his own homophobia and acknowledging his sexual interest in men as well as women, and his conception of sex as psychological and even spiritual exploration.
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Ex-Minister Director at Foundation for Change
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

John Fanestil, the new executive director at the San Diego Foundation for Change, discusses (in a longer version of his interview in the March 2007 Zenger's Newsmagazine) his 15 years as a Methodist minister, his view of the struggle between progressive and Right-wing Christianity, his interest in issues concerning the border and the nuts-and-bolts of running a nonprofit foundation that funds progressive causes in a city known for its conservatism.
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Sonia Nazario Brings Enrique's Journey to Lif
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Los Angeles Times reporter Sonia Nazario spoke at the San Diego Public Library February 12 to promote her book "Enrique's Journey," about a 17-year-old Honduran boy who successfully journeyed from his native country through Mexico to reach his mother, who had left him behind on her own journey to the U.S. 12 years earlier. Sonia later duplicated Enrique's dangerous journey through Mexico by stowing away on the tops of freight trains, and her book puts a human face on the controversial issue of undocumented immigratio. At the same time, she questions the conventional wisdom on both sides of the immigration debate and says the only long-term solution is to improve the economies and job opportunities in Central American countries so their citizens won't want to immigrate.
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CHiDO Bike Collective: DIY Bike Shop Opening
CHiDO Bikes,

CHiDO Bike Collective (City Heights Derailing Oppression)

DIY Community Bike Shop. A couple of radical and dedicated women invite you to help this project off the ground!

CHiDO Bikes is a volunteer run, cooperative learning space and a do-it-yourself bike repair shop. The cooperative provides skill-shares, workshops and mechanical assistance for our bike riding community to support the accessibility of bikes for everyone and bike safety. The shop has tools and parts for repairing, maintaining and building bikes. We emphasize creating a space that supports the empowerment and self-sufficiency of women and transgender people within San Diego’s male dominated, bike culture.

First Open Meeting: Fri March 2 4-6PM 4246 Wightman

Related: Nutterbuckets
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Free Speech Art--Museum of the Living Artist
Michael Klam,

Poetry & Art Series: UCSD professor/poet Eileen Myles at Museum of the Living Artist quarterly event with a screening of SDSU professor Mark Freeman’s most recent documentary, "Poetry Live(s)."
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San Diego Indymedia Website Redesign Meeting Notes
san diego indymedia volunteer,

On thursday, february 15, san diego indymedia held its first open meeting to plan and work on redesigning the sdimc website using drupal. The discussions covered:

----What is Drupal?
Drupal is an open source content management system...
----Framework for how we are going to redesign the website
nonhierarchical, skill share oriented, emphasize keeping everyone involved over making it happen fast or in the optimal manner....
----What will the website look like/what do we want?
We spent a lot of time talking about what we want the front page of the website to look like, including looking at some indymedia websites that are using drupal (urbana-champaign, quebec, melbourne, columbus, tasmania, malta, belgium, climate, york). Here are some of the things that popped out of our stream of consciousness discussion (please comment below or come to a meeting!). -website too dark...
----List of initial tasks
-post notes from meeting (ok, well, ummm)...
----Meeting evaluation
Noted that it would be useful to take into account that people have different preferred modes for learning... --Read More of the Meeting Notes--

NEXT MEETING:
Thursday, March 1 8PM
The Other Side Cafe
4096 30th Street North Park

Links: San Diego Indymedia in Transition | Drupal | Drupal on wikipedia | PHP on wikipedia | mysql on wikipedia | postgresql on wikipedia
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Medical marijuana patient needs defense
Nathaniel Archer,

My name is Nathaniel D. Archer, and I reside in San Francisco, Ca. I am registered with the State of California as a Medical Cannabis patient. I recently had all of my equipment and garden confiscated by the County of San Diego and was charged with cultivation. I was incarcerated despite the fact that I have documentation to support my patient status.

I have a court appointed Attorney, who has an agenda similar to that of the County of San Diego; to put myself and other advocates of Medicinal Cannabis behind bars, solely because of their denial of the existence of Medical Cannabis...

Related: DEA Raids SD Medical Marijuana Dispensaries | DA Dumanis Lies About Law | The Love and Death of a San Diego Activist | Medical Cannabis Advocates Decry Increase in State's MMJ Patient Cards
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Worshiping Mother Earth - Druid Group in SD
Jillbe Badb,

The mission of the Infinite Deities Proto-Grove is to invoke a web of knowledge, mythos and experience that provides a framework for reconnecting with the Earth Mother, and re-gathering her progeny through this tribal collective consecrated to responsible nature conservation and progressive cognizance within the evolving tradition of Reformed Druidism.
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San Diego Indymedia in Transition
four san diego indymedia volunteers,

Los voluntarios del Centro de Medios Independientes de San Diego están dando inicio a un proyecto de un año para remodelar el portal de Indymedia San Diego y promover nuestros vínculos con grupos activistas y comunitarios cuyas voces no se escuchan lo suficiente en la región fronteriza Tijuana-San Diego.
Volunteers with the San Diego Independent Media Center have embarked on a year long effort to revamp the SDIMC website and our relationship to activist groups and underrepresented communities in the San Diego/Tijuana border region

Tentativamente nuestras prioridades iniciales incluyen:
--La Actualización del Portal de SDIMC para darle un mejor servicio a nuestros participantes y lectores, al permitir que un mayor número de voluntarios tenga acceso a su mantenimiento técnico.
--Mejorar el Acceso al portal para quienes tienen poco o ningún acceso al Internet, generando versiones impresas y en audio, y facilitando contribuciones de audio y por escrito.
--Dirigirnos hacia un Portal Bilingüe promoviendo un gran número de contribuciones en español y dando asistencia e incentivos para que nuestros lectores y voluntarios bilingües participen haciendo traducciones.
--Establecer Mejores Enlaces con Grupos Activistas y Comunitarios para que todos los eventos significativos que ocurren en nuestra región y que afectan a nuestros lectores se anuncien y reciban cobertura y reportajes.
Our tentative initial priorities include:
--Upgrading the SDIMC Website so that it better serves our contributors and readers and so its technical maintenance is accessible to a broader range of volunteers.
--Improving Accessibility to reading and contributing to the website for those who might have episodic or no internet access, by generating print and audio versions of the website, and by facilitating audio and written submissions.
--Moving Towards a Bilingual Website by providing assistance to and incentives for our bilingual readers/volunteers to help with translations, and by encouraging a broader range of spanish language submissions.
--Establishing Better Connections with Activist and Community Groups so that all significant events in the region affecting our readers are announced/reported on.

Para que esto suceda, necesitamos que nos digas qué te parece lo más relevante y cómo ponerlo en práctica. Invitamos tus comentarios y sugerencias aquí al final de este artículo, o escribiéndonos a imc-sd ARROBA lists PUNTO indymedia PUNTO org, o con tu asistencia a los foros que tendremos durante el año.
To make this happen, we need your input on what to do and how to do it, as well as your help with carrying it out. We welcome your comments and suggestions, as comments to this article, as e-mails to us at imc-sd AT lists d0T indymedia d0T org, or as participation in media forums to be conducted later in the year.

El primer paso será re-diseñar el portal, un proceso que deseamos sea lo más accesible posible a personas con una amplia diversidad intereses y aptitudes técnicas. Te invitamos a nuestra primera reunión de planificación este jueves:
15 de febrero a las 6:30 pm en
The Other Side Café Calle 30 # 4096 en el área de North Park en San Diego
The first step will involve redesign of the SDIMC website, a process that we plan to make as open as possible to people with a broad range of interests and technical skills. Join us at the first planning meeting:
Thursday, February 15, 6:30PM
The Other Side Cafe, 4096 30th in North Park

El nuevo portal incluirá más opciones para multi-medios, un calendario integrado de eventos y anuncios, asimismo como blogs para contribuyentes frecuentes.
The new website eventually will include more multimedia options, an embedded event calendar/event announcements and blogs for all frequent contributors.

Se le invita a quienes asistirán a la reunión a repasar estos artículos previamente: / Participants are invited to check out the following articles prior to the meeting:
drupal website | drupal handbooks | drupal for indymedia: 1, 2 | algunos IMCs que usan drupal: / some IMCs using drupal: urbana-champaign, quebec, melbourne, columbus, tasmania, malta, belgium, climate, york.
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Will Blackwater USA Invade Cleveland Forest?
Duncan McFetridge,

Save Our Forests and Ranchlands is challenging the plans of Blackwater USA to establish a mercenary training camp in the Cleveland National Forest. If Blackwater and county officials get their way they will put a military style training facility in the southern portion of the forest.
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Humanist Leader Speaks in San Diego
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

American Humanist Association president Mel Lipman spoke in San Diego February 11 and discussed the growing threat to freedom of thought and conscience in the U.S. posed by radical Christian activists. He said the only way humanists, atheists and freethinkers can combat the threat of the radical religious Right is to come out of the closet and be open about their views, and present humanism in a positive way as the embrace of life in the here and now instead of waiting for some spiritual salvation after death.
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Annie Leibovitz Exhibit visits San Diego
Mandy Oglesby,

A humble review of Annie Leibovitz' "A Photographers Life 1990-2005", an exhibit now visiting the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. (Leibovitz quotes borrowed from an interview with the New York Times)
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“Bring Their Buddies Home” Events 2/19
Mark Gabrish Conlan/Zenger’s Newsmagazine,

Anti-war activist and former Congressional candidate Jeeni Criscenzo has called for "Bring Their Buddies Home" events all over the country on Presidents' Day, February 19. The events are silent vigils — Criscenzo calls them "works of art" — that highlight the human cost of the war by showcasing the death toll. For more information, visit her Web site at www.bringtheirbuddieshome.com
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