Speak Out Against Drones!

 

Speak Out Against Weaponized Drones at Hancock Drone Base

 

Beginning 1 p.m. Sunday, October 5, 2014, Upstate Drone Action and the Syracuse Peace Council will do all-of-us-involved street theatre outside the main gate of the Hancock Reaper drone base on East Molloy Road two miles east of Mattydale near Syracuse, NY. All are welcome.

Hancock is the home of the 174th Attack Wing of the NYS National Guard. The Attack Wing remotely controls weaponized Reaper drone robots, killing and terrorizing people in Afghanistan and probably elsewhere.

The event,  part of the world-wide Global Action Day Against the Use of Drones for Surveillance & Killing, is in solidarity with comparable events during this Keep Space for Peace Week in Asia, Europe and throughout the U.S.
 
Among our speakers will Mark Colville, of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, CT, recently found guilty in the De Witt Town Court on five counts for participating in a nonviolent attempt to deliver a “Peoples’ Order of Protection” to the Hancock chain of command. According to Mark, “That Peoples’ OOP, on behalf of the children of Afghanistan, is a response to the dozens of OOPs imposed on Upstate Drone Action members for exercising at Hancock our First Amendment right of petitioning our government for a redress of grievances. Those OOPs  are Hancock’s heavy-handed device for squashing dissent.”

The Syracuse Peace Council, founded 1936,  is this nation’s oldest independent local grassroots peace and justice organization. Upstate Drone Action, founded 2010, seeks to educate the public, the media and base personnel about the ongoing  Reaper drone war crimes originating at Hancock Air Base.

Resisting Drone Warfare - Rev. Gary Doupe Interviews Jack Gilroy

Interview: Hillcrest, NY, September 27, 2014
Sentencing Statement: Endwell, NY, September 30, 2014
Additional Video: Rally to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, Syracuse, NY, April 28, 2013

Update, October 1, 2014: Jack Gilroy was sentenced to 3 years probation, with the first 90 days to be spent in Onondaga County Jail, in addition to over $1200 in fines and surcharges in connection with his conviction on charges of trespass and obstructing governmental administration.

Press Release, September 30, 2014:

Jack Gilroy, 79, Broome County Peace Action Board member and longtime activist who has Honorable Discharges from both the US Navy and US Army will be sentenced by Judge Robert Jokl on Wednesday, October 1st at 4:30 PM at the DeWitt Court House, 5400 Butternut Drive, East Syracuse, NY 13057-8509.

Gilroy was convicted of trespass and obstructing government administration for his participation in a solemn funeral procession and die-in at Hancock Killer Drone base where missiles and bombs are fired via satellite just sixty miles away from Broome County. The maximum penalty is one year and 15 days in Jamesville Penitentiary.

Gandhian waves of nonviolent resisters to drone warfare by the 174th Attack Wing of the Hancock Air Force National Guard have been ongoing for the past five years. Gilroy's trial was based on his participation in an April 28th 2013 solemn funeral procession and die-in to illustrate the death and destruction of innocent people by drone missiles and bombs fired out of Hancock Air Force Base. Hancock is one of many drone bases around the United States doing assassinations of Muslim suspects in foreign nations.

Gilroy had an opportunity to plead guilty without penalty but noted that “the guilty are not those who carry the message to stop the killing.” He and others who have been arrested at the gates of the 174th Attack Wing all have taken oaths of non-violence. Gilroy and many others believe the United States extrajudicial killing of suspects is not only immoral and illegal but has become the premier recruiting tool for terrorists.


Websites and Books Recommended by Jack Gilroy:

Killer Drone Resources

Living Under Drones
Upstate Drone Action
Know Drones
No Drones Network
Veterans For Peace

Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Pax Christi USA

Drone Wars UK

Code Pink

Let's Try Democracy

Teach Peace Now

Pace e Bene

Friends of Franz Jagerstatter

Center for Christian Nonviolence

 

Four selected books for students and adults:

1) A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

2) Compassion…Henri J.M. Nouwen

3) Strength Through Peace…Colman McCarthy

4) War is a Lie…..David Swanson

 

This video is underwritten by:

Broome County Peace Action

Broome County Veterans For Peace

People's Climate March and Mobilisation

 

400,000 people!

Howie Hawkins for NY Governor - Press Conference

Hawkins for Governor

Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for Governor, discusses the primary election and its impact on the campaign as well as the upcoming march for climate change in New York City, the status of gubernatorial debates, fracking, and other issues of concern to NY residents.

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Are you a registered Green who votes Democratic? If so, like many other Greens you probably do so because you see the Democratic candidate as the "lesser of two evils," and a vote for the Green candidate as a wasted vote.

Let's now take a view from the other end of the looking glass, so to speak, with the goal of understanding the mindset of The Powers That Be in the Democratic Party.

They know that you, an otherwise conscious and informed person, will continue to vote for the Democratic candidates no matter what, simply because they are not "the greater evil," the big bad Republican candidates. Thus do you surrender any and all political leverage you might otherwise have had. From their perspective, they OWN you. They don't have to respond to your concerns; they don't have to keep their promises; they can walk all over you and come election day you will still cast your vote for the Democratic candidates. This leaves them the option of moving ever further to the right in hopes of chipping away at the Republican Party's base. It also leaves them free to do the bidding of their masters...the corporations...who are their masters only because you have abdicated that role. If you look back over the last few decades you can clearly see this happening.

Your vote can be effective only if it contains an implicit threat that you might withhold it. Voluntarily surrendering that threat amounts to political suicide. In other words, your sordid little lesser of two evils game has shifted the political center of gravity to the extreme right, boxed you into a corner, and effectively disenfranchised you. Your vote counts for nothing, and is a mockery of your core values. Some political strategy...The only thing it's good for is a round of hearty laughs at cocktail parties in the Hamptons.

It's time to wake up and take back the reins of political power. Stop being the butt of jokes. Stop being a chump. Stop voting for evil, even a so-called lesser evil. Vote your conscience, vote your soul, get mad, and get even. BE the powers that be.

Methane Baseline Testing

Download the Town of Delaware Methane Baseline Report as a PDF

Results of Town of Delaware Methane Testing to be Announced

August 10, 2014 Press Release: Test first of its kind in New York State
 

NARROWSBURG, NY — Damascus Citizens for Sustainability (DCS) will hold a public meeting at which the results of its baseline methane testing in the Town of Delaware, Sullivan County, NY, will be reported and reviewed, on Sunday, August 24 from 12 noon until 2 p.m. at the Delaware Youth Center on Creamery Road in Callicoon, NY.

Invite your local town or other officials to the event using our handy letter which includes email contacts for many local policy-makers.

The study was performed by Gas Safety, Inc., an industry leader in methane and gas leak detection; and Bryce R. Payne Jr., PhD, a researcher at Wilkes University. Ambient methane levels on all public roads throughout the Town of Delaware were measured, and translated into an easy-to-read map with graph lines showing areas of greater or lesser natural methane concentrations.

The study provides a basis for comparison should natural gas drilling or the building of natural gas infrastructure such as pipelines take place in the town in the future. Called “insurance policies” by some media, such studies enhance landowner and community safety by providing a sound basis for determining when and if increases in methane levels and related drilling-related emissions are occurring, as well as providing the basis for property owners to protect themselves, via data admissible in court, against any adverse impacts from the effects of gas extraction activities, and obtain redress if appropriate.

The meeting will be led by expert Robert Ackley, president of Gas Safety. The findings for the Town of  Delaware will be presented and interpreted, and compared with locations in which natural gas drilling has actually taken place. Printed copies of the map and report will be available for those interested.

The event is free, but DCS is accepting donations to go toward additional baseline work.

For more information visit www.damascuscitizens.org.

Two Papers Co-Authored by Bob Ackley:

Washington DC Gas Leak Study

Boston Gas Leak Study

This video is underwritten by Damascus Citizens for Sustainability.

Keywords: Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling