Welcome to the Peace Task Force!

An outreach group under All Souls

    The Unitarian Church of All Souls • 1157 Lexington Avenue • New York, NY 10021                                                                                                   email: peacetaskforcenyc@yahoo.com

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Adeeb Fadil and Yehuda Erlichman in Dialogue


Below you will find links to the latest letter from the Chair and current articles.

To read older articles that have been archived, please visit the Archives section of our site.

To submit an article, story or essay via email, please click here.

 















Tools For Building Local Peace

Talk by Richard Ford, March 22, 2009

Review by Phoebe Hoss

On Sunday, March 22, a member of our congregation, Richard Ford, gave a truly inspiring talk on his many years of work helping the impoverished villages of developing countries resolve conflict and become productive. Professor Ford, now a research professor at Clark University, has worked in about twenty-five African countries and eight nations in Asia and Eastern Europe. His talk was sponsored by the Peace and Justice Task Force, the UU-United Nations Office Group, and Green Souls.

To read the article, click here.

Change The World Before The Other Guys Do

Talk by Bruce Knotts, March 8, 2009

Review by Phoebe Hoss

Peggy Montgomery opened by reminding us that this was International Women’s Day, which was established in 1909 in the United States and is now an official holiday in fifteen countries. She noted that the Charter of the United Nations in 1945 constituted the first international recognition of the equality of women and men. Now in 2009, the Secretary General of the U.N. is determined to raise public awareness of violence against women and girls–the least punished crime in the world. Peggy was followed by Marilyn Mehr, current board president of UU-UNO, who introduced Bruce Knotts. This event was co-sponsored by All Souls UU-UNO and the Peace and Justice Task Force.

To read the article, click here.

Iran (Is Not the Problem) - Film

February 8, 2009

Review by Phoebe Hoss

On Sunday, February 8, at 1:00, the Peace Task Force presented the documentary film entitled Iran (Is Not the Problem). This film was made by Aaron Newman of the San Francisco Bay Area and featured local activists from a variety of peace organizations: Majid Baradar, Sahar Driver (the narrator), Larry Everest, David Glick, Robert Gould, Jim Haber, Antonia Juhasz, Shahab Layeghi, Mitchel Plotnick, and Michael Veiluva.

The film’s aim was to refute the misinformation that our government disseminates, and that is not carefully examined and criticized by the mainstream media.  As the journalist I. F. Stone said once, “Governments lie”; ours is no exception. The film focuses on the U.S. government’s lies in connection with Iran – a nation with whom at the time the film was made the Bush Administration seemed bent on fomenting war, as it had with Iraq.

To read the article, click here.

THE GAZA WAR CRIME
A Talk by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti

February 12, 2009

Review by Phoebe Hoss

It was a privilege, on the afternoon of February 12, to hear a talk by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti. This distinguished Palestinian was speaking at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs under the auspices of the Arab Student Association. In 2005, Dr. Barghouti was a candidate for president of the Palestinian National Authority and finished second to Mahmoud Abbas, the current president. He was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in January 2006 and served as minister of information in the short-lived Palestinian Unity government of 2007. 

Neither a moderate nor an extremist, Dr. Barghouti is firmly committed to a nonviolent agenda. In his opening remarks, he recalled the Columbia professor and literary critic Edward Said, who was an ardent Palestinian, and wished to speak in his spirit. As head of the Palestinian Medical Relief Committees, Dr. Barghouti recently visited Gaza and was deeply shocked, he told us, by the extreme devastation that Israel’s massive air strikes–between December 27, 2008, and January 8, 2009–had caused both to the people and to the property of Gaza.

To read the article, click here.

Therapeutic Healing Of Vets With PTSD

November 9, 2008

Review by Phoebe Hoss

On November 9, 2008, at 1:00 p.m., the Peace and Justice Task Force presented a moving program on a revolutionary therapeutic approach to the post-traumatic stress disorder that is afflicting all too many veterans of the Iraq war. This approach to PTSD, called EMDR – for Eye Movement, Desensitization, and Reprocessing – was developed in 1989 by Dr. Francine Shapiro, who is now a senior research fellow at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California. 

To read the article, click here.

U.S.-Sponsored Torture, Prisoners’ Rights, And Survivor Care (Panel Discussion)

October 15, 2008

Review by Phoebe Hoss

On Wednesday evening, October 15, 2008, the Peace and Justice Task Force and the Adult Education Committee co-sponsored a panel on the expansion, since the 2001 World Trade Center attack, of executive power to exercise torture and deny certain prisoners rights long established under international law. Two of the panelists were physicians who had appeared at an earlier event this fall: Dr. Stephen Xenaxis, a psychiatrist and retired brigadier-general in the U. S. Army; and Dr. Allen Keller, associate professor of medicine and director of the Torture Survivors Program at Bellevue/NYU. The other panelists were lawyers: Jonathan Hayfetz, J.D., of New York University’s Brennan Center for Social Justice; and Gita Gutierrez, J.D., of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

To read the article, click here.

Peace and Justice Task Force Teach-in on Torture

September 14, 2008

Review by Phoebe Hoss

This teach-in on torture was presented by the Peace Task Force of All Souls and conducted by Susan Cushman and Linda Rousseau of PTF, Mark Hallinan, S.J., of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, and Dr. Allen Keller, director of the Bellevue/NYU Torture Survivors Program. At the start of the program, a packet on torture was given out to all the audience members, and Susan Cushman opened by explaining it and noting that All Souls is one of over 200 religious organizations across the nation involved in the campaign against torture. We are involved in this effort to restore our country’s moral voice in accordance with the sixth Unitarian-Universalist principle: the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

To read the article, click here.

The Cost Of Counterterrorism

Talk by Laura K. Donohue

Sunday, September 7, at 1:00 p.m.

Review by Phoebe Hoss

We all know that shortly after the horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the Bush administration met the crisis by getting Congress to swiftly pass the Patriot Act. Few of us, however, have any real idea of the provisions in that act or of other executive measures taken in the fall of 2001. Nor are most of us aware of how these measures have not only seriously eroded our civil liberties but also “radically” increased executive power in respect to the other two branches of our government.    

To read the article, click here.

Weapons Or Windmills?

A Coming Together to Convert the Permanent War Economy

Tuesday, August 5th at 6:30 p.m.

All Souls Church – Reidy Friendship Hall

On this 63rd Anniversary of the United States' bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to destroy millions of lives with no end in sight.  Our leaders provide limitless funds for the "war on terror," while budgets for education, health care, housing and social services are mercilessly slashed.  What can we possibly do?
 
Mary Beth Sullivan, Outreach Coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, speaks about this critical issue where she proposes that we convert our permanent war economy into one that promotes peace and sustainability.  
We invite you to a presentation by this knowledgeable former social worker who speaks passionately and practically about the need for anti-war, labor, social justice, religious, environmental and community groups to come together to challenge the militarism so ingrained in our society. 

Free event – donations appreciated.
 Doors open at 6:30 for light refreshments, program begins at 7:00.
 
Co-sponsors include: Peace Action New York State, CODEPINK Women for  Peace / NYC, Campaign for Peace and Democracy, the Ethical Humanist Society, the Peace and  Justice Task Force of All Souls Church, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, and the Raging Grannies.


Ted Glick: The Clean Energy Revolution

All Souls Church Reidy Friendship Hall 
Tuesday, March 4  7:00 p.m.

Ted Glick, who has been a progressive social activist since the late 1960s, became a climate activist in the summer of 2003 after the extreme heat wave in Western Europe aroused him to the ongoing danger of such extreme climate events (droughts, monsoons, etc.) to the earth and our way of life. He is a co-founder of the Climate Crisis Coalition and a coordinator for the U.S. Climate Emergency Council; his twice-monthly column, "Future Hope" is available at: http://www.ippn.org. His talk was sponsored by the All Souls Peace Task Force, and he was introduced by Lawrene Groobart.

To read the article, click here.

Monthly Film Series Event:  "God Grew Tired of Us" (2007)

Sunday, February 24, 1:00 p.m.

Review by Phoebe Hoss

The documentary God Grew Tired of Us was presented by the All Souls Peace Task Force. This film, made by Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker and narrated by Nicole Kidman, won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. It recounts the moving story of three of the Lost Boys of Sudan who came to the United States, and is based on the book of that name written by one of the Lost Boys, John Bul Dau, with Michael S. Sweeney.

To read the article, click here.

The Human Face of Iran

January 27, 2008
Review by Phoebe Hoss

At 1:00 p.m., in Reidy Friendship Hall, the Peace Task Force hosted a slide show in continuation of the effort to enhance our understanding of Iran and its culture.  This event was presented by Ann and Ahmad Shirazi, who had appeared two weeks before in connection with the film Children of Heaven, and Ellie Ommani.  Mr. Shirazi is a film editor who grew up in Iran.  He came to the United States in the early 1960s and is the only one of his family of 150 to 200 members to come here.  Ann Shirazi has worked as a social worker and is now a full-time peace activist.  Ms Ommani and her husband, Ardeshir, who was unable to attend, are both retired school teachers and founded the American-Iranian Friendship Committee, whose mission is to promote "trust, mutual understanding, and peace between Americans, on one hand, and Iranians living in Iran and abroad, on the other."

To read the article, click here.



Human Trafficing Talk by Beatrice Fernando

November 11, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

Human trafficking is the crime of coercing people, via physical force or false promises of jobs or marriage, to work as slaves – either at labor or for sexual purposes – within a country or across international borders. Today human trafficking enslaves some 27 million people around the world; moreover, by depriving them of their human rights, it may subject them to rape, injury, even death.

To read the article, click here.


Ann Wright Talks About Her Forthcoming Book

"Dissent: Voices of Conscience"

October 23, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

"Peace cannot be made through occupation." This is the forthright statement Ann Wright reported making recently to Ryan Crocker, our present ambassador to Iraq.

Ms Wright -- a distinguished career diplomat and retired colonel in the U.S. army --  resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, in protest over the Bush administration's policies at home and abroad. Her second appearance at All Souls on the evening of October 23 was sponsored by our Peace Task Force, Resistance Cinema, and Action of Justice of Community Church of New York.

To read the article, click here.


The Oaxaca Political Crisis And The Roots Of Migration

October 16, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

On Tuesday, October 16, 2007, in All Souls Reidy Hall, Miguel Ángel Vásquez de la Rosa spoke on how NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, has further impoverished the people of Mexico and, thereby, increased migration to the United States.  This program was sponsored by the Peace Task Force and Witness for Peace.  Mr. Vásquez de la Rosa is one of the founders of EDUCA (from the Spanish initials for Services for an Alternative Education), a nongovernmental organization that advocates for indigenous peoples in the state of Oaxaca, helping small farmers and women to have fair elections and cope with the judicial system.  He was introduced by Ben Beachy, regional organizer for the mid-Atlantic region of Educa, which was sponsoring Mr. Vásquez de la Rosa's tour.

To read the article, click here.


Fair Trade And The Film "Black Gold"

September 30, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

Fair trade is a movement that seeks to diminish the vast disparity between the huge profits that multinational corporations make from certain common products, on which we all depend in our daily lives, and the meager – often not enough to live on – income the actual producers of those products receive for their labor. This issue was dramatized in respect to coffee by the film Black Gold, which was shown at All Souls Church on Sunday, September 30, 2007, at 1:00 p.m. The film was introduced by Scott Codey from the New York Fair Trade Organization.

To read the article, click here.


The Threat of Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space

Bruce Gagnon at All Souls

August 5, 2007
Review by Phoebe Hoss

On August 5, 2007, at 1:00 p.m., Bruce Gagnon spoke at All Souls about "The Threat of Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space." Mr. Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space and author of Come Together Right Now: Organizing Stories from a Fading Empire. In 2003, he was appointed by Dr. Helen Caldicott as a senior fellow of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute, where he also serves on the advisory board. This event – held in remembrance of the August 6, 1945, bombing of Hiroshima, the world's first nuclear attack – was sponsored by All Souls Adult Education, the Peace Task Force, and the Nuclear Disarmament Task Force. 

To read the article, click here.