Genesee Valley Citizens for Peace

PO Box 363

Geneseo NY 14454

“Human Race Not Arms Race”

June 22, 2003

Dear GVCP Member:

NEXT GVCP VIGIL, LUNCH, AND MEETING: SATURDAY, JULY 26^th.

10:30 AM VIGIL in Honeoye, Richmond Memorial Park, Route 20A.  [Not Honeoye Falls!]

11:45 AM LUNCH at Ken Jobes’ Honeoye Pub, 125 East Lake Rd, Honeoye.  (About 3/4 mile south of Route 20A.)  Ken is a great supporter of the vigil, and he’s lost customers because of his pro-peace stand.  We’ll show our support by bringing as many GVCP people as possible to the Honeoye Pub on July 26^th.

1:00 PM GVCP MEETING 8179 Turkey Hollow Rd., Honeoye.  [Not Honeoye Falls!]  [To get to Turkey Hollow Road travel on 20A east through the village of Honeoye.  About 2 miles east of the village, at the top of the hill, just past Edgewood Rd., turn right (south) onto Bear Wood Rd. (dirt road).  Travel about 100 yards, turn left on Turkey Hollow Rd.  Follow Turkey Hollow to the very end (about 0.1 miles).  Last house is 8179.  Rural (remote) setting!]

[Vigil sponsored by Concerned Citizens for Peace.  Contact person: Judi Salsburg 585- 229-4963 <jsalsburg@monroecc.edu>]

SAVE THE DATE: SATURDAY, JULY 12^th, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM. GVCP will have a table at the GENESEO SIDEWALK SALE!  (In front of law office, 131 Main St, Geneseo.)  For several years, GVCP participated in the Geneseo Sidewalk Sale.  For reasons long forgotten, we gave this up, but we’ll return to it in 2003.  Our main “sale item” will be Hank Stone’s famous bumper stickers.  These are usually distributed free.  However, this year we’ll charge 50Ë.  (We decided on this token charge because people often grab free material at sidewalk sales without looking at what they’re taking.  We want them to want their bumper sticker.)  We’ll also have literature from GVCP, as well as from the Committee to Free Lori Berenson, and other groups with which we work in solidarity.  Please write to or call Hank Stone and volunteer to work at the table for one or two hours.  (585) 624-3673 <hstone@rochester.rr.com>  (We’ll always have two people at the table.)

Peace Actions Continue: Peace Vigils in the chapel at St. Michael’s church, 23 Main Street, Geneseo, continue.  Wednesdays, from 12:15 PM to 7:00 PM.  All welcome!

URGE CONGRESS TO HOLD OPEN HEARINGS ON IRAQ: On June 17^th, the House International Relations Committee voted on H Res 260.  This resolution would require the President to provide Congress with classified intelligence materials on Iraq's “weapons of mass destruction.”  The resolution was introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) and included 40 other cosponsors.  Although all members of the committee say they agree on the need for a review of intelligence, the committee's final vote fell along party lines, and the resolution was voted down 23 to 15.  Rep. Kucinich’s office is already drafting a new resolution of inquiry that he will be introducing soon.  Many members of Congress are calling for a full, open review of the intelligence on which the Administration based its argument for military invasion of Iraq.  However, these same politicians did not cosponsor H Res 260.  (The only Upstate NY Representative to cosponsor H Res 260 was Rep. Maurice Hinchey from the Saratoga area.) 

Write a letter to the editor of your newspaper calling for an independent and open investigation into pre-war intelligence about Iraq's “weapons of mass destruction.”  Congress should hold open hearings immediately, and should move now to appoint an independent commission to investigate and publicly report on exactly what intelligence was available, and how it was used to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.  Write to your Representative [US House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515] and ask him/her to sponsor or cosponsor legislation that will accomplish these important goals.

July 4^th in Philadelphia George W. Bush has been invited to the opening of the National Constitution Center.  We need to be there to say No to U.S. Wars at Home and Abroad; No to Colonialism and Empire; No to Racism; No to the USA Patriot Act.  We demand an end to the occupation of Iraq.  We call for Funding for Social Programs, not the Pentagon's War Machine.  For more information call Arnie Matlin, 585-768-6277.

Peace,