WHO: New York Megaphone is hosting a Zoom conference with prominent international activists
WHAT: CELEBRATE PEACE AND GANDHI’S BIRTHDAY!
WHERE: ZOOM MINI-CONFERENCE ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF NONVIOLENCE
https://www.newyorkmegaphone.com/oct-2-gandhi-nonviolence-day
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUud–hqjMrGdaYHesLM_akIzQrc1B5dhnE
WHEN: OCTOBER 2ND AT 4PM EST-9 PM EST
WHY: Hearing the call to peace and nonviolence as the universal hope of humanity, truth, and justice at the core of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Democratic Socialism, interfaith practices, and the heart of the Judeo/Christian tradition. The theme of the conference will revolve around the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, taking a step towards “Truth and Reconciliation” using interfaith awareness and politics beyond hate, racism, nationalism, and violence. An examination at the murder of Qassem Soleimani and the “Christian” justifications of Mike Pompeo. The schedule will run as follows:
4 PM: INTRODUCTIONS FROM SANDER HICKS
4:05 PM NADER TALEBZEDEH
4:30 PM MICHAEL RAPHAEL
5:00 PM: LAWRENCE WILKERSON
5:20 PM: LES JAMIESON
5:40 PM EDWARD DEJESUS
6:00 PM: FR. JOHN DEAR
6:30 PM REV. JUAN-CARLOS RUIZ
7:00 PM: KATHY KELLY
7:30 PM: BILL LEICT
8:00 PM: SANDER HICKS
8:30 PM: OPEN DISCUSSION AND NEXT STEPS
Sander Hicks, the organizer says, “We are celebrating the possibility of peace and nonviolence with Iranian, Israeli and American activists and leaders, in a five hour Zoom call, on Gandhi’s birthday. There is a need for justice regarding Trump’s killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. My latest article for the New York Megaphone reveals how “terrorist” Soleimani, who actually helped the USA fight terrorism twice. I expose the “Christianity of Brutality” and show how it has violated US laws against the use of political assassination. The next step would be to map out a path to a place where we can declare that war itself is simply out of date. How can we get to a place where we have outgrown it? The answer is to grow. We are close to being capable of global nonviolence. Gandhi said that the roots of nonviolence were already in the heart of all the world’s great religions. Our mission is to bring the world closer to peace, through cross cultural understanding, and to point out similarities between Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.”
More about SANDER HICKS
Sander Hicks is an award-winning social activist, author, jobs-creator, speaker and independent publisher. In his native New York City, he has worked on progressive Democratic campaigns including the victorious State Senator Julia Salazar, and Queens District Attorney Tiffany Caban. From 2017-2019, he was a progressive candidate for US Congress running as a truth and peace activist Democrat, in New York’s CD-12. He is a member of the 15th Street Monthly Meeting, Society of Friends, Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Zen Studies Society. In 2019, Hicks was elected to be a part of the delegation to the city-wide conference of the DSA. Hicks publishes the New York Megaphone newspaper,www.newyorkmegaphone.com and owns an email list of over 45,000. His business history includes founding the fair-trade union coffeehouse Vox Pop, and lefty indy book publisher Soft Skull Press. Hicks currently runs Zen Space Makers, Inc. a craft carpentry and construction business in Brooklyn, NY. His two books of nonfiction explore Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. nonviolence as an escape route out of the paranoia and inauthentic claims of the US War on Terror. He has spoken in Iran, Stanford Law School, and on several US speaking tours. He is a member of Zen Studies Society, 15th Street Monthly Meeting (Quakers), DSA, and was recently elected to the Democratic Party Kings County Committee.
@Sanderhicks
https://twitter.com/SanderHicks
More About the Speakers:
- COL. LAWRENCE WILKERSON
Lt. Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson (born June 15, 1945) is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. Since the end of his military career, Wilkerson has publicly criticized many aspects of the Iraq War, including his own preparation of Powell’s presentation to the UN, as well as other aspects of American policy in the Middle East. More Info: Wikipedia
KATHY KELLY
Kathy Kelly has traveled to war zones and lived alongside ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Bosnia and Nicaragua. She and her companions in Voices for Creative Nonviolence believe the U.S. should end all U.S. military and economic warfare and pay reparations for suffering already caused by U.S. wars. Since 2011, she has made over 30 visits to Afghanistan as a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers.She has served three federal prison sentences for nonviolent protests at U.S. military bases and, as a war tax refuser, she has refused payment of federal income tax since 1980.
From 1996 – 2003, Voices activists formed 70 delegations that openly defied economic sanctions by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq. Kelly traveled to Iraq 27 times, during that period. She and her companions lived in Baghdad throughout the 2003 “Shock and Awe” bombing.
- JOHN DEAR
Rev. John Dear is a long time peace activist, lecturer and teacher, and the author of 35 books including The Beatitudes of Peace, Walking the Way; Thomas Merton Peacemaker; Lazarus Come Forth!; Living Peace; The Nonviolent Life; Radical Prayers; and They Shall Inherit the Earth. He has been nominated many times for the Nobel Peace Prize, including by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He works with CampaignNonviolence.org and the Vatican Nonviolence Initiative and lives near Big Sur, Cal. www.johndear.org
REVEREND JUAN CARLOS RUIZ
Rev. Juan Carlos plunges deeply into the waters of God’s mystery as he translates the Gospel and its prophetic call to be a haven for the society that he seeks to serve. It is in the light of this call that Juan Carlos was chosen to be the sixth pastor at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Juan Carlos first came to the United States in the 1980s to reunite himself with his family and joined the river of undocumented people, a river that still flows today. He was subsequently ordained a Catholic Priest, and after a falling out with that institution, Juan Carlos crossed the bridge from New Jersey and joined the social and environmental justice movements in the city. After organizing on the streets and cleaning the Bronx River, he had the honor, in 2006, to begin organizing the second wave of sanctuary activism that came to be known as the New Sanctuary Movement. As a co-founder, Juan Carlos has participated in the Occupy movement and was instrumental in what is known as Occupy Sandy, a civil response to Superstorm Sandy. He also organized the space of St. Jacobi’s Lutheran Church in Sunset Park and integrated the resources of other churches to help those in need.
LES JAMIESON
Les Jamieson has been a student of the Urantia Book, a work of Christian mysticism, since 1973. This discovery led Les to work with interfaith organizations as a means to peace and reconciliation. The book helps teach receptivity to high-level spiritual guidance for the tumultuous times we are experiencing as a planet. The 9/11 attacks compelled Les to another form of spiritual work, striving for truth and accountability for an event that had a terrible impact on global war and peace issues. His greatest accomplishment as a peace and truth advocate was when he worked with victims’ family members, beginning in October 2014. Les spearheaded an effort to generate grassroots support for legislation to declassify 28 pages from the Congressional Joint Inquiry on 9/11. They eventually won passage of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), passed by US Congress in September of 2016, and then over-rode a Veto from President Obama. According to Wikipedia, “The practical effect of the legislation was to allow the continuation of a longstanding civil lawsuit brought by families of victims of the September 11 attacks against Saudi Arabia for its government’s alleged role in the attacks.”On Oct. 2, Les will be speaking on the topic of “Guidance from the Urantia Book on Universal Truth For These Times.”
BILL LEICHT
MLK, Jr. and MK Gandhi inspired young Bill, now a Quaker at Bulls Head/Oswego Meeting, which has recognized his work as “Quaker Ministry.” The President of Urban Visions, Inc, he researches and develops nonviolence. He works with street organizations (“gangs”), schools, nonviolence-based and other community organizations in the USA and abroad.
Bill and a group of aikidoists (1985-1990) adapted physical (somatic) nonviolence from martial arts to the verbal techniques of Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). AVP adopted and now replicates the resulting “Aiki-AVP” worldwide. Bill also co-founded “Peace Dojos, Intl.” (Aiki Extensions, Inc.) to integrate martial arts groups into the nonviolence movement. Lately he works with AVP-Palestine to introduce both Aiki-AVP and Peace Dojo methods to the nonviolence movement there. (During the current pandemic the work continues online.)
In 2004 he spent three weeks at India Peace Center (Naghpur, India), co-Facilitated an AVP Basic Workshop and visited Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram.
EDWARD DEJESUS
Edward DeJesus is the President of DeJesus Solutions. DeJesus and his team create policy and programmatic solutions to build future economic opportunities for the most marginalized youth and young adults. DeJesus is a W.K. Kellogg Foundation National Fellow and holds a M.S. in Management and Urban Policy Analysis from the New School for Social Research. He is the author of Making Connections Work and several other titles on youth success. His work has been featured on NPR and in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, and The Miami Herald.
NADER TALEBZADEH ORDUBADI
(Persian: نادر طالبزاده) (born December 28, 1953 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian researcher, film director, film producer, chairman of International New Horizon Conference and documentary filmmaker known for his TV series entitled The Messiah.
MICHAEL RAPHAEL
Michael Raphael is an Israel-based climate activist, who works with Extinction Rebellion. Michael has an experience of over 30 years in mediation, conflict management, training, international consulting and community peace building, working with multiple NGOs, the UNDP, OSCE and the
Council of Europe in multiple countries such as Israel, Palestine, Northern Ireland, former Yugoslavia and many more in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and the USA. Michael has worked with a variety of subjects such as natural and men caused disasters, human rights, human relations, racism and diversity. He contributed to those subjects and causes by developing and creating international campaigns, conducting conflict management programs, creating training curricula for post conflict countries and by initiating and producing international art and music events.