Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

Things are moving very quickly with the planning for the visit of George W. Bush to Salt Lake City on Monday, August 22nd. He will be here to speak at the VFW conference that day.

This event has already attracted national media attention and it is expected to be a total media day. Salt Lake will be on the map, most likely, in the mainstream media.

Last night an amazing collection of people from diverse political backgrounds gathered together on a tiny room (in the office of an organization dedicated to breaking the nuclear chain, particularly within the realm of indigenous people and their land). This group of about 20 people, in two hours, devised a well-planned program to voice the message of ending the unjust war.

True Majority is in town and attended the meeting as well. It was very beneficial to have their representative there to give us tips on what would draw the best media attention and how to convey our message in the most effective way.

The group decided on this message:

End the Unjust Iraq War
Why are our sons and daughters dying and killing?

The group decided to have a somber and unifying message with speakers and entertainment. (Updates on names of speakers and entertainers will be published over the weekend).

Gold Star Moms are flying in on Sunday and will speak at our program on Monday. Local members from Veterans for Peace and from Utah Military Families Speak Out will be speaking.

Participating organizations planning the program are:
People for Peace and Justice of Utah
Green Party of Utah
Salt Lake CodePink Women for Peace
Utah Veterans for Peace
Utah Military Families Speak Out
Shundahai Network
Utah IWW
M19 Mobilization Committee
Rowland Hall School Student Socialists
Utah Progressive Democrats
Stonewall Democrats
Davis Democrats
True Majority

The group will continue organzing through Monday morning, with media meetings scheduled for Thursday, flyering scheduled for all weekend, and sign making, puppet making, and networking continuing on Sunday.

—————————————–
END THE UNJUST WAR!
Monday, August 22nd, 11:30am, Pioneer Park

During his visit to Salt Lake City,let George Bush know that we want answers to the questions: “Why are our sons and daughteres dying and killing in Iraq?” and “Why is this a just war?”
Join people from Utah and mothers from all over the country whose sons have been killed in Iraq to ask Mr. Bush these questions and demand answers!

Download fliers at:

Green Party of Utah

There is a lot of activity surrounding Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey.

Here in Salt Lake tonight, Wednesday, August 17, there will be a vigil called “I stand for Cindy Sheehan” on Main Street at the Gallivan Center, 200 South Main Street, at 5:30 PM.

Good news: A military veteran has offered his private property to house Camp Casey, bringing it closer to the Bush ranch.

There are lots of websites and blogs popping up reporting on Camp Casey. Here are a few:

Meet With Cindy – What you can do to help; also contains links to blogs and other informational sites
Camp Casey Photos
One Green, One Voice – Florida Green reports on Sheehan activities
Ken Sain – offers articles on Cindy Sheehan and updates from Greens who are at Camp Casey
One Mother’s Stand – Truthout Article
Michael Moore Blog

Our sons made the ultimate sacrifice and we want answers. All we’re asking is that President Bush sacrifice an hour out of his five-week vacation to talk to us, before the next mother loses her son in Iraq.
– Cindy Sheehan, August 12, 2005

We purchased our gasoline at CITGO stations whereever possible in our travels this summer. An article on VHeadline came out today on CITGO’s profits. Here is an excerpt:

VHeadline.com oil industry commentarist Oliver Campbell writes: CITGO has continued to make excellent profits and in the first semester 2005 produced a net income of $326 millions compared with $226 millions in 2004. The following figures (in millions of US dollars) show how CITGO’S income and costs have varied between 2005 and 2004.

(A chart is inserted in the online article with figures)

Both sales and the cost of oil purchases in 2005 reflect the increase in oil prices as the year has progressed. CITGO produces no crude oil itself and so must purchase it from PDVSA and third parties. These upstream suppliers extract most of the profit and CITGO is left to make a modest profit by refining and selling products in the USA market.

Read the rest of the article at:
CITGO’S first semester results are excellent

Mike Feinstein of California has compiled a website that lists current Greens in office:
Green Party members holding elected office in the United States
As of August, 2005 there are at least 224 Greens in 27 states and the District of Columbia who hold elected office.

On July 9th I helped bring the 16th Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba Frienshipment to Salt Lake. We held an outreach event that filled the room we used. An article that I had posted in the Utah Indymedia site is included below, with photos.

When the Caravan reached the US border on Thursday, July 21, US Homeland Security and Department of Commerce agents detained the caravan and confiscated some of the donated aid. The busses and the remaining aid got through in the early hours of the next day. A small contingent of caravanistas and Pastors for Peace board members, led by Rev. Lucius Walker, remained behind in McAllen to organize an international campaign to recover the confiscated aid and to secure its passage to Cuba. This effort is still ongoing and help is needed to recover the aid.

You can read more about the situation and how you can help at the Pastors for Peace website

There has also been a recent development in the “Cuban Five” case – see my entry below this one.

The caravanistas conducted a press conference at 7pm, followed by a film and presentation inside the shop “Free Speech Zone”, a local activist retail shop in Sugarhouse.

One of the the themes of the bus murals is “Free the Five”, referring to the five Cuban American political prisoners imprisoned by the U.S. government for their activism in attempting to prevent terrorist attacks on Cuba.

The Caravan has been delivering humanitarian aid the Cuban Citizens for 16 years, a direct defiance of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, which has been in effect since 1959. This year over a ton of aid will be collected from 130 U.S. citiies.

The Caravanistas will take the supplies to Cuba, which was ravaged by Hurricane Dennis just days ago. For years, the Pastors for Peace organization has openly defied the law, saying it’s outdated.

Catherine Murray: “We believe that it is illegal and immoral, and we are going in open defiance of that. We’ll cross the border on the 21st of July and go to Cuba with this aid in our arms.”

“By the end of the route we will have collected 200-tons of aid to take to Cuba. This is very important and obviously very needed,” according to Murray.

Channel 5 appeared and did a nice piece’on its 10:00 news on Saturday night.

People for Peace and Justice of Utah organized this event. for the 2nd consecutive year. Representatives from PPJ would like this to become an annual event, growing it to the point where activists from Salt Lake accompany the caravan to the Mexican border and beyond to Cuba to deliver the aid.

I learned yesterday that by a unanimous vote, the judges of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned Tuesday the verdict handed down on “the Cuban Five” by a Miami court in June 2001, and also ruled that a new trial should take place, as requested by the defense, in a city other than Miami.

“After a trial legal analysts considered was a frame-up, the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, René González, and Fernando González, detained in 1998 on several spying charges, were sentenced by Judge Lenard to harsh jail terms, including double life in prison for one of the defendants.

Actually, they just were gathering information on anti-Cuban terrorist plots in Miami in an effort to thwart violent actions that would also affect US citizens.

Hernández, Labañino and Guerrero received life sentences from Lenard, who added a second life imprisonment for Hernández. René González was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Fernando González to 19 years behind bars.”

You can read the rest of the story at:Oread Daily.

Yesterday I was contacted by my friend Jenni
to be interviewed tonight for a program that will air in several months on our local community radio station, called “Freestyle Radio”. I will be speaking to the military recruiting clause in the No Child Left Behind Act, what it entails, what rights parents and students have and what they can do to opt out. I understand I will also be asked my feelings about possible conscription and the effects that would have on my family (my two sons are 21 and 18 and my daughter is 15).

As a Green and a person who subscribes to non-violence principles, I do not see the military as a viable option for young people. I am happy that more and more people, especially parents, are standing up to recruiters and saying “no” (apparently recruiters have stepped up their efforts to target parents in getting young people recruited). There are schools in Seattle, I have read, whose parents stand at the door and tell recruiters that they are not welcomed. As a public school educator, I see no reason to have a military recruiting clause in an education act supposedly designed to raise standards and improve the learning of children in our public schools.

I used to work in a school that aired the program “Channel One”, a commercial t.v. program owned by the pepsi-cola company. It is filled with commercials and schools who purchase the daily program have their tv sets programmed to turn on automatically in the classrooms (I would take a yardstick and turn it off. No one every found out, even though the kids wondered why I did that – I told them we could use more class time). The school I teach in now fortunately does not subscribe to that program. I understand that the ads lately have been military ads.

Our military is not in the business of defending the citizens. It is in the business of defending corporate interests and will go to any lengths to recruit young people to be part of the complex that is in that business. Should there ever be a draft I am hopeful that people all over will engage in civil disobedience and refuse to serve. The corporations do not serve the people and the people should not serve them.

I am also happy that Greens all over the country are standing up to the military recruiting programs. One Florida Green, Echo Steiner has been very active in this regard (read her blog!).

I will post here when the program will be aired – I think folks all over will be able to hear it via the internet on the radio’s website (KRCL, Salt Lake City Utah – http://www.krcl.org)

I have posted updated garden photos – quite a change in three weeks!

Check it out at:

Tom and Dee’s Excellent Garden Adventures.