Merrimack Valley People for Peace Serving the communities of the Merrimack Valley

  Letters to the Editor: and a speech

COMING EVENTS
   Weekly Vigils
   Recent Events
     30 Year History

NEWS/INFORMATION
Links to Resources
Radio

ACTION
Contact Government
Submit News or Events
Register to vote
Defend the Environment

ABOUT MVPP
Contact MVPP
Join/Renew!
Why we still vigil
Letters to Editors
Officers
Newsletter (in pdf)



HOME

 

 

    Letters our members have written to newspapers are the individuals'   
    observations, and not reviewed by MVPP. We print them here (the papers
    sometimes don't print them), to reflect our members' diverse opinions.

______________

MVPP sent to US Representatives, Senators, and President Biden. Published in the Lawrence Eagle Tribune. April 7, 2023.

In Tennessee we have again been reminded of the dangers of fire arms. We need to regulate them better.


Guns are more powerful than they were 232 years ago when the Second Amendment was passed. They are also easier to obtain now, thanks t the internet and 3D printing. Legislators have been bogged down arguing about specifics.


In 1791, when most Americans lived in rural areas guns were needed for hunting and protection from dangerous animals. Law enforcement was geographically too far away to be called on, so weapons were also used against other people (including native Americans whose land they were stealing rapidly). City people don't need guns for hunting or protection from animals. Guns were dangerous to people, so many cities regulated them. (Guns were manufactured in cities.) Rural and urban areas often oppose each other, but look at specific differences.

The National Rifle Association was organized in 1871, to train people to use guns safely, and it supported regulation. In the 1970s, new leadership working with politicians used the Second Amendment to divide urban and rural voters. They campaigned against gun regulation. Arguments on both sides of the regulation question grew increasingly extreme, and regulation fluctuated.

Merrimack Valley People for Peace focuses on preventing the violence of war and inside our country. It is past time to reduce the tensions around gun regulation. We regulate other dangerous technologies such as automobiles and fuels, why not weapons? Second Amendment arguments are not settled. Citizens can be better protected from government by protecting voting than by allowing people to use weapons.

We urge you to continue to support such legislation as …
2022 the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act
gun violence Reduction Resources Act of 2023

______________

By Dee Halzack, presented to the Lowell City Council 1/12/21 (days after the invasion of the Capitol Building in DC)

My statement [read aloud ] to Lowell City Council tonight in support of a motion
Reaffirming a Belief in Democracy and Condemning The President’s Words And Actions To Undermine A Legitimate Election By The People, Which Served To Encourage And Incite The Violent Attack On The United States Capitol.
[ Motion 11.5. C. Nuon/C. Drinkwater/C. Chau] ]

My name is Dee Halzack. I live at [ ] in Lowell and have been a Lowell resident and voter for almost 25 years.

I am here tonight to speak in support of Motion 11.5. I thank Councilors Nuon, Drinkwater, and Chau for bringing this motion.

I chose to speak because some may wonder why this motion is important and what Lowell could possibly have to do with what went on in Washington last week.

As elected officials of our city, the safety and security of all Lowellians is your responsibility. At any given time, a portion of every population includes people who suffer from PTSD, because of military or police or other first responder service, political turmoil in other countries, or simply traumatic events in their lives. Lowell is no exception to that rule. We count among our residents many who fled political instability, seeking this country as a refuge because of our reputation for political stability and strong support for democracy. And yet they've seen elected officials from other areas actively participating in the events of last week. We (yes, I'm one of those affected by PTSD) can be triggered by such violent events. I still struggle to sleep.

After other major national traumas, public officials have spoken to comfort and motivate their communities. It will do your shaken constituents good to hear their elected officials speak out on behalf of democracy and, indeed, normalcy, in at least our corner of the world.

Thank you for considering this motion.

. . .

The motion passed! Dee posted it on facebook the next day.

______________

Awaken to the threat of nuclear war

Letter to the Editor, Lawrence Eagle Tribune August 9, 2019

In a press release on August 1st, David Wright Co-Director of the Union of Concerned Scientists Global Security Program made the statement: “Some 74 years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan, the risk of nuclear war is higher today than many people realize - and it is increasing.”

Many people might say that it is Climate Change that is the major threat to the world when actually the environment and nuclear war are connected. A nuclear war would end the world. Scientists predict nuclear winter would develop, spreading soot in the stratosphere, blocking the sun ending the growth of food.

One person came to understand many years ago how he contributed to those atomic bombings. He was on Tinian Island when the pilots, crews and their planes, the Enola Gay and Bock’sCar arrived.

The late Fr. George Zabelka was a Catholic Chaplin. He blessed the crews who dropped those bombs. He spent the rest of his life atoning for what he had done. There is a British documentary on YouTube about his life: The Reluctant Prophet.

I find it hard to maintain an awareness of a nuclear war threat. Daily life interferes. I understand why some people don’t really want to know. But we must try to awaken others and ourselves. We must realize that we can no longer go to war for war is obsolete.

Jane Cadarette
North Andover

______________

Court sides with corporations over workers

Letter to the Editor, Lawrence Eagle Tribune May 25 2018

The Supreme Court has done it again. They have granted more power to corporations and taken rights away from workers.

In this case, they ruled 5 to 4 that employers may enforce binding arbitration clauses in the agreements that employees must sign as a condition of employment. These prohibit workers from banding together to bring class action lawsuits when the company cheats or otherwise abuses them.

It should be noted that this constitutes coercion since the employee must either accept this restriction or not get the job, but this matters not to the conservative justices. This follows on the heels of a similar 2011 ruling that allows companies to make customers sign such agreements (usually buried deep in the fine print of the contracts that nobody reads) as a condition of using their products.

Since the arbitrators are selected and paid by the company — not the aggrieved worker or consumer — they almost always rule in the company's favor.

This constitutes yet another major shift in the balance of power in favor of corporations, which has been the habit of the court for the past 140 years. Since this ruling is based on statute (the 1925 National Arbitration Act and 1935 National Labor Relations Act) Congress could fix this. But, since the Republican Party is owned by giant corporations, it is unlikely to happen. It could also be fixed by state governments, but Republican-controlled states are unlikely to do so either.

It should be noted that President Trump’s Justice Department sided with the corporations in this case. It's past time for Trump voters to wake up and realize that their president is shafting them big time while he advances the interests of the rich and powerful.

Michael Bleiweiss
Methuen

______________

Dear Representative Mira and Senator Tarr:

After the hearing that took place July 18, 2017 in the Gardner Auditorium regarding the proposed legislation that would penalize supporters of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS), I was convinced more than ever that this is the wrong way to go and should not be supported by the state. I mention two reasons out of many: (1) the bill would prevent Massachusetts from contracting with people or entities that supported a boycott of Israel in the past, (2) the bill is unconstitutional by interfering with the First Amendment right to boycott.

BDS is about Israel’s denial of human rights for the Palestinians, people who have been denied access to their land, whose homes and olive groves have been demolished, who have been humiliated by a wall that makes it impossible for them to travel freely, who have been deprived from frequent power outages and lack of water. Apartheid, sanctioned by Israel, is what the Palestinians who live in the West Bank and in Gaza face every day.

Israel should acknowledge its use of apartheid; doing so, and helping the Palestinians live better lives would improve its relations with the world, erasing the stigma it now bears. The people of Israel, who themselves have suffered countless human rights abuses throughout history, deserve a better world opinion.

Barbara J Haack, West Newbury

______________

Armistice Day 2016, Faneuil Hall, Boston

The depressing Trump election forced me to think about how it happened that so many people would vote against their best interests of peace, justice and equality for all. Instead, they embraced destructive fantasy shaped by the American Empire and maintained by endless war.

Empires and war, benefit the greedy, their political allies and the commercial media. Empires need support of their home population- the factory workers, the coal miners, plumbers, carpenters, the slaughter house workers. They are told they are special, part of an exceptional country that has a divine mission or manifest destiny to rule or at least exert a controlling influence over the world and its resources. This makes society think it OK for them to endure brutal back and spirit breaking work and this ethos encourages many of them to join professions of force - the agents of empires - the military. I was one of those agents in Vietnam.

Key to this process of spreading hyper nationalism is to present the "other" as a lesser human. This normalizes violence and war, through encouraging misogyny, and racism, homophobia, islamophobia, antisemitism, and, of course, the exploitation of the weak by the powerful, especially the poor and powerless, like our undocumented farm workers who feed us.

On this Armistice Day 2016, I want to acknowledge the discouraging political realities of today but also want to encourage us to transform these negatives into positive energy so we can push for change and not succumb to paralyzing anger.

Part of this transformation, according to a Tibetan Buddhist monk from the URI Center for Non-violence and Peace Studies where I volunteer, is compassion. That's the mantra for his public meditation sessions and that mantra is needed right now.

Let's have compassionate dialogue with our pro war politicians and civic leaders because we know they are missing a key element of quality human experience, their greed has replaced the life affirming qualities of empathy and compassion they were born with.

Let's have compassionate dialogue with the misguided voters who elected you know who. They are both oppressed by an ever diminishing standard of living yet complicit in keeping those in power who take away their sense of worth - and they are told to blame their misery on the less fortunate, the less powerful.

And finally, let's look in the mirror and be compassionate towards ourselves. Understand our past bad choices, recognize and understand and try to remedy our complicity with an oppressive system and work together on this Armistice Day to change this world into a peaceful, just, sustainable and compassionate planet.
Thank you.
Tom Conroy, Vietnam Veteran
Member, Veterans for Peace

______________

Standing Rock Question

To The Lawrence Eagle Tribune November 1, 2016

Why has no one mentioned the background of the Dakota pipeline news?

The following excerpt presents the Native American Perspective found on the website Truthout.org.

"So when you talk about Standing Rock, please begin by acknowledging that this pipeline was redirected from an area where it was most likely to impact the residents of Bismarck, North Dakota. When Bismarck's population -- which is over 90 percent white -- objected to the risks the pipeline posed to their drinking water, their concerns were accommodated, and the pipeline route was shifted into treaty lands. Please inform people of these facts, and remind them that our people are still struggling to survive the violence of colonization on many fronts. People should not simply engage with stories related to our struggles when they see a concrete connection to their own issues -- or a jumping off point to discuss their own issues. Our friends, a! llies and accomplices should be fighting alongside us because they value our humanity and right to live, in addition to whatever else they believe in."

Why is there no news that the Bismarck, North Dakota population managed to have it’s water protected but not the Native Americans?
Was it racism, money or pull that gave them the advantage?

Jane Cadarette

______________

Go to the NRC hearing

To the Newburyport Daily News June 19, 2016

As a citizen long concerned about the public health and safety hazards posed by the Seabrook nuclear power plant, I was appalled that the Daily News chose to publish an opinion piece written by a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC, that promotes nuclear power while ignoring the hazards.

Next Tuesday the NRC will hold a public meeting in Hampton, NH when concerned citizens will be allowed to ask questions and raise concerns about the risks posed by the degradation of the concrete in the building containing the Seabrook nuclear reactor. The condition, known as ASR, is a plague of growing cracks that cannot be remedied. The NRC has already acknowledged that this concrete degradation is progressing at a rate faster than expected so that there is now "macro-cracking and building deformation."

As a former state representative for Amesbury, Newburyport and Salisbury, who fought to try protect the health and safety of people in the area and as someone with children and grand children living close to Seabrook, I am pleased that Rep. James Kelcourse and Senator Kathleen Ives O'Conner have called for the immediate shut down of the nuke.

For the sake of our children, I hope many concerned citizens will attend this important meeting with the NCR at the Best Western Inn 815 Lafayette Rd. Hampton, NH next Tuesday June 21st at 6:30 p.m.

Barbara Haack

______________

Pipeline questions remain Unanswered

Lawrence Eagle Tribune, February 23, 2015

Pipeline promoters played rough (Grayed areas were not printed in Eagle Tribune, but were in the Andover Townsman)
Thank you to Paul Tennant of the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune for reporting on the pipeline open house in the February 18. 2015 article titled: Residents demand more details on pipeline/ Police remove two women from meeting. Kinder Morgan, the company that wants to build a gas pipeline through Dracut, with a major spur going through Andover, had an informational open house to promote it. Your paper showed that it was not that open, mentioning that two people said they were told to leave by Andover Police Officers.

Kinder Morgan people recognized Hattie Nestel and Marcia Gagliardi as having been effective opponents when the pipeline was going through their neighborhood, around Athol Massachusetts. The way this corporation meant to deal with opposition here was to use the local police to keep the two out of the building.

I have heard of injunctions and restraining orders to keep people out, but these were not used here. Only corporate power was used. They did not go before a judge ahead of time. This is in character with the vast expense of bringing many employees to present glossy displays that promote the pipeline. It is in character with the expensive advertisements on many media. Somehow it reminds me of another controversy, the Citizens United ruling that gives corporation's money freedom of speech. In this case, money gives a corporation freedom to suppress speech. It does not surprise me, but it scares me. Are they hiding the truth or taking advantage of us? We must be wary of corporate power. Our numbers can resist.

And isn't it a strange coincidence that our electric bills are doubling (mine tripled) at the same time the pipeline wants to go through? The line going through Andover is supposed to help generate electricity. I wonder if state regulators are being bought? Kinder Morgan says we will get cheaper gas if we build another pipeline. Wouldn't it be cheaper to improve existing pipelines?

I have other concerns, some already expressed by others. Do we actually need all the gas these lines would deliver? According to one of the handouts at an AVIS meeting in Andover, the pipeline is six times bigger than would serve New England's average needs for 2029. Kinder Morgan appears to be overbuilding the pipeline to provide transportation capacity for gas to be exported overseas, where prices are much higher than in this country. Also, why should we pipe "fracked" gas? Fracking is a polluter and adds to global warming. Solar panel roofs over our vast parking lots may meet our existing energy needs.

Your front page article showed that many local politicians and advocacy groups are already raising questions and opposition. I hope they question why police were used.

Brian Quirk, Lawrence, MA

______________

Survival

September 14, 2014, blog by Winslow Meyers (friend of Jane Cadarette)

The way the United States has chosen to approach the chaos of the Middle East has far more frightening implications than we think, especially in terms of the world our children will inherit. If we are honest about how our adversaries perceive us, we will have to admit that there is a grand cycle of violence and insult operating, in which we ourselves are implicated up to our necks.

If we are to have any chance of breaking this potentially endless cycle (our military bases in Saudi Arabia leading to 9-11; 9-11 leading to the second Gulf War, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib; the second Gulf War helping to create ISIS; ISIS beheading our journalists; President Obama suckered into reluctant bellicosity etc. etc. etc), we have to start by admitting our own role in it—something extremely difficult for our culture, and therefore almost impossible for our political leaders.

Righteous wrath and the urge for revenge are terrible foundations for creative policy-making. They lead almost inevitably to doing stupid stuff. 50 years beyond the Cuban Missile Crisis and 70 years into the nuclear age, the time for stupidity in international strategy is over. It is not merely possible, it is just about inevitable that the cycle of violence between the West and the Middle East will eventually go nuclear if we keep on as we are. Building these weapons is now an open secret.

If we want our children to survive, the foundation for smart, realistic international relations in the nuclear world becomes the polar opposite of military force: the emphasis must shift to encouraging the positive, the relational, the building of trust and friendship, mutual compassion, understanding, and aid. Erik Erikson put it this way back in 1964, in an essay called “The Golden Rule in the Light of New Insight”:

“Nations today are by definition units of different stages of political, technological and economic transformation . . . insofar as a nation thinks of itself as a collective individual, then, it may well learn to visualize its task as that of maintaining mutuality in international relations. For the only alternative to armed competition seems to be the effort to activate in the historical partner what will strengthen him in his historical development even as it strengthen the actor in his own development—toward a common future identity.”

This constitutes Erikson’s savvy modern restatement of the Golden Rule, a formulation that occurs, with some variation, in all the major religions, including Islam, where it goes: “No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what he desires for himself.”

Erikson’s theme was the active, creative potential of mutuality—between spouses, parents and children, doctors and patients, teachers and pupils, even between nations. Mutuality, Erikson asserted, is a relationship in which partners depend upon each other for the enhancement of their respective strengths. The curiosity of a student elicits from the teacher the skills for transmitting the excitement of learning in a way that benefits both teacher and student.

There is an urgent need to figure out how to apply this thinking to breaking the great cycle, to making it the foundation of foreign policy—not merely as “soft power,” which is simply the flexibility we think is open to us when we possess an overwhelming excess of hard power, which we do. We possess sufficient hard power to destroy the world many times over. What is required for our survival is to use our immense resources to make things better where we can, giving extremists infinitely less reason to attack. Our bombs only create more fanatics bent upon crucifixion and beheading—an old, old story. Only we can create a new story, and if we do, the world will respond gratefully.

Today, the Golden Rule has been perverted into the Iron Rule of vengefulness: if you do harm unto me, I will do yet more harm to you. A wise teacher who lived 2000-odd years before nukes understood that those who live by the sword will perish by it. We hear this when our Vice-President, a good man, asserts that we will follow terrorists right to the gates of hell. If we do that, we can be sure that the gates will open wide enough to swallow us right along with the extremists.

Link to pdf copy of letter sent by Norh Shore Coalition for Peace to Sen. Elizabeth Warren re. her statements about funding Israeli defense. Sept. 11, 2014.

______________


Look at what US has done around world

Newburyport Daily News August 5, 2014

To the editor:

Is bloodshed so lucrative that perpetual wars of aggression are the norm for the United States? One must look beyond the gross hypocrisy and endless lies perpetrated by those in power and their echo chambers in the press in order to see the truth of what this country has done and is doing around the world.

In the last 60 years of overt and covert aggression, the United States has killed millions of innocent people, maimed and made desolate millions more, destroyed cultures and life-serving networks. Small and militarily weak countries in Southeast Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa have been targeted to serve the “interests” of the mega-rich.

Currently. the U.S. and Israel are embroiled in atrocities against the Palestinian people that should plunge anyone who looks at this conflict into a sea of shame and horror. Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people have been brutal and relentless since Palestine was first invaded. This is an ongoing massacre of an entire people, carried out daily. Israel could not carry on this behavior without the backing of the United States. Both nations are equally culpable.

I don’t know what the final outcome of this megalomania will bring, nor do I understand the motivations that produce such horrors on earth that we seem forever unable to overcome. The desperate efforts at defense by besieged peoples cannot be blamed for the dire consequences everyone suffers.

D. Philip, Newburyport

______________

Don't just pray for peace; go make a difference

The Eagle-Tribune, June 10, 2014 Jane Cadarette (Column)

If you are a person who prays, I’ll bet you pray for peace. People of all faiths have been praying for peace for centuries, and yet there is no peace. What’s missing that keeps the prayers for peace from being answered?

I think I found what’s missing.

It’s a word from the fourth century A.D. that St. John Chrysostom actually gave away for nothing. Maybe those who heard him took it to heart for a while but they must not have acted on it or passed it on. Maybe he should have charged for it so people would know how valuable it was.

I won’t keep you waiting any longer. Are you ready? St. John’s word is … Sincerity.

Common, ordinary sincerity. Not a word to be added to one’s prayers, but a wholehearted, personal commitment backing them up.

According to St. John, “the test of the sincerity of our prayer is the willingness to labor on its behalf.”

Does St. John mean our prayers for peace are empty if we’re not working for peace? I think so.

When we pray for peace what do we expect God to do? It would be wonderful if peace was suddenly achieved everywhere in the world by divine intervention.

God doesn’t have any hands but our hands, or any voice but our voice. There is also the expression attributed to many - “No one can do everything but everyone can do something”.

Where to begin or continue? With ourselves. Here’s an exercise that environmental activist Joanna Rogers Macy recommends:

If you were fearless and in possession of all your powers, what would you do to heal the world?

What knowledge and skills do you have?

What do you need to learn?

What obstacles will you put in your way?

What can you do in the next 24 hours to achieve your goal?

At a recent, day-long conference entitled “Building a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence,” the guest speaker was John Dear, a Catholic priest, noted peace activist and staff member of Pace e Bene, an organization that began “Campaign Nonviolence” that is growing rapidly. Father Dear is traveling the country promoting “Campaign Nonviolence” and his new book: “The Nonviolent Life.”

He, his book and the campaign speak of “the three dimensions of nonviolence — practicing nonviolence toward ourselves; practicing nonviolence toward all others, all creatures and creation; and practicing active nonviolence by joining the global grassroots movement of nonviolence.” Father Dear’s book elaborates on these dimensions and will be helpful no matter where one is on the journey to a nonviolent life.

Additional help can be found at the websites of The Center for Christian Nonviolence, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Pax Christi, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, Agape Community and Pace e Bene.

To lift your spirit and inspire you, listen to a wonderful song, “Go Make a Difference,” sung by Steve Angrisano on Youtube. The lyrics are Christian, but the chorus is religiously neutral: “Go make a difference. We can make a difference. Go make a difference in the world.”

Jane Cadarette of North Andover is a member of Pax Christi and The Merrimack Valley People for Peace.

____________________________________________________________________

Older letters can be found in newsletters. Letters about the Israel/Palestine wall.

___________________________________________________

Merrimack Valley People for Peace meets monthly, on the fourth Tuesday,
at 7:30 pm,
at North Parish Church, North Andover.
(NOT DECEMBER)

Contact Merrimack Valley People for Peace       (978) 685-1389
            P.O. Box 573
            North Andover, MA 01845

Send material to post on the website to brian@quirk.ws