The Arlington New York State exhibit
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — May 29, 2010. On Saturday, May 29th, Staten Island was home to two exhibits memorializing both soldiers and civlians lost to the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a borough where the Memorial Day weekend typically means cookouts and parades, for the past couple of years at Midland Beach it has come to mean so much more. On this weekend, a stretch of sand bordered by a boardwalk and a fishing pier was converted into the sea of crosses, crescents, Stars of David and other religious symbols of faith known as Arlington New York State (ANYS). The ANYS exhibit is a memorial to US military personnel from New York state killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The yearly beach event it is usually done in conjunction with the American Friends Service Committee’s “Eyes Wide Open” display, which is a collection of military boots and civilian shoes tagged with the name of victims.

Religious symbols represent grave markers of military personnel
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

This year, the two displays were joined by the Iraq Memorial to Life – an exhibit in remembrance of the 1.4 million Iraqi civilians killed since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. The Iraq Memorial consists of thousands of name placards. Some depict Iraqi names. Others are marked simply as “Unknown” – symbolic of the difficulty of documenting the names of deceased civilians during wartime. Austere yet powerful in presentation, it is a poignant reminder of the tragic cost of war on innocent civilian populations.

Remembering the Unknown Civilians
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

As this Memorial Day unfolded, some visitors walked through the exhibits, reading the names and reflecting on the dead. Some lingered on the boardwalk, asking questions of organizers and sharing their thoughts. Others sat quietly and witnessed the exhibits for hours, as if in stunned disbelief. Shaking his head, one such visitor was overhead saying, “I’ll never understand it. What a shame.”

Speakers at the midday press conference included Douglas Mackey from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, City Council member Debi Rose, Salam Talib, an Iraqi journalist and computer engineer who lost his brother in the invasion, Pat Berg from Peace Action Staten Island, local Muslim community organizer Hesham El-Meligy, Elaine Brower from Military Families Speak Out – NYC and MDS Staten Island, activist and Vietnam veteran Bill Johnson, and members of Veterans for Peace. Mackey spoke of the importance of the two exhibits and mission statement of the Iraq Memorial; “because no idea, ideal, or philosophy is superior to a single human life”. Several touched on the need to do all we can to see to it that “we don’t have to do this again next year”.

As Hesham El-Meligy said in his speech; “These soldiers did not want to go to war; they wanted to go to college. They did not want to invade other countries; they wanted to defend their country. These civilians did not want to die in war; they wanted to go to work. They did not want to be bombed; they wanted to feed their families. If these soldiers could speak, they would ask, why? Why did you send us to harm’s way over lies? Why did you make us leave our loved ones to go and kill other’s loved ones?”

A true coalition effort, this years beach exhibition was sponsored by Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS), Military Families Speak Out – NYC, Fellowship of Reconciliation – USA, Peace Action of Staten Island, Veterans for Peace and the American Friends Service Committee.

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(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

NEW YORK — On Sunday, May 30, Veterans for Peace (Chapter 034) and Friends and Family of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade held their traditional Memorial Day observance along the water at Battery Park in NYC. Their purpose was to remember ALL people who have been killed in our many wars as well as the contributions and the many sacrifices so many have made. Bill Gilson spoke first and said, “Let us pledge to study war no more” at a time when the “peace movement is awash in a sea of self doubt.” He spoke of Mattie Matson, 93 years old, the last surviving member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the NY area, and of Moe Fishman, an internationalist, a humanitarian, and Bill’s “teacher and friend.” All said “Presente.”

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Merle Ratner told those gathered about the struggles of people, both here and in Vietnam, living with the affects of Agent Orange, and those lost because of the chemical. She said that they and their families should have received some compensation from the government and from Dow, Monsanto, and Union Carbide.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Person after person then spoke of the people they lost in war – some dying years later from health challenges the war left them with. One person read the names of all New Yorkers who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another offered a tribute to the peacemakers. He said that as he looked around he saw “the usual suspects” – those willing to devote themselves to peace and justice. “We can’t afford to be discouraged or to let go. The job is too important, today’s children are too important. Our grandkids are too important. Some of us love our country enough to criticize it. Our cause is just.” Pat, a member of the Granny Peace Brigade, held up the pages of the NY Times that showed over 1,000 photographs of the US soldiers killed in Afghanistan. She pointed out that these were our youth, “part of our future, that is dying everyday for an unjust cause.” A young man walked over, took a flower, threw it into the water, and said, this is for my brother who died in Iraq last week. Then he walked away quickly. The final speaker urged everyone to enjoy this day and think about those who can’t. Not only because they are dead or wounded but because “they are poor and oppressed by a corrupt and evil society.”

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Taps was played very mournfully and everyone slowly walked over to the World War II monument and laid a wreath at the statue of the vicious, aggressive looking eagle in the midst of the giant tablets listing the war dead.

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(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

NEW YORK — On May 29, a hot Saturday afternoon, 200 people, part of the Coalition for a New Village Hospital, gathered outside the now closed St. Vincent’s Hospital in Greenwich Village to demand that a new hospital be opened on the site. The coalition is made up of Westside residents, health care professionals, and community activists. The rally followed a meeting held by Sen. Tom Duane on May 21 that included local elected officials and a panel of “experts” who left the community little hope.

Yetta Kurland, community activist, was the first to address the crowd standing on 7th Avenue and 12th Street. She said, “We cannot let the conversation change from how do we get a hospital to whether or not we need one.” There are reports of overcrowding in the emergency rooms of hospitals on the Eastside. If an outside hospital won’t take over then the community can form a board and hire the staff to run a hospital. There are currently 1.3 million residents of the lower Westside, plus the workers and tourists that come into the area daily, who have no hospital.

Miguel Acevedo, the next speaker, asked, if they have money for a 2nd Avenue subway, why is there no money for a hospital? There has been an additional load of 30% in the emergency rooms at the Eastside hospitals like Bellevue, NYU, and Beth Israel. Downtown Beekman is also very overcrowded. Because there were no preparations for the closing since it was so rushed, former patients do not have access to their health records.

The following speaker was an emergency medical technician, a transgender man, who was treated at St. Vincent’s for many years. Recently they treated his cancer and he is now cancer-free. He said that having to get across town at 14th Street will cost many their lives. He carried with him a photo of a beautiful woman and a small box. The photo was of his wife and the box held her remains. He said she died of a stroke after being turned away from an uptown hospital because she was a lesbian and on Medicaid.

Former St. Vincent’s nurse, Eileen Dunn, said that the lower Westside must have a hospital. St. Vincent’s took care of everyone. What if there was another 9/11? Where would the injured go? She urged those assembled not to vote for anyone who would not demand a hospital for the area.

Dr. David Kauffman said that St. Vincent’s had been mismanaged and that should be investigated. With 1.3 million residents in the area there was not one hospital bed available to them. Bloomberg’s silence has been deafening. St. Vincent’s has been there for 160 years. Mt. Sinai was very interested in taking over, it was a done deal, but after speaking to the Health Commissioner they pulled out. The doctors would return to St. Vincent’s “in a heartbeat.” He also learned that the waits in Eastside emergency rooms has become unbelievably long.

Another community organizer spoke saying that the area has just been zoned for residential housing and the community must demand that it be rezoned as a hospital site again.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

A representative from a Hudson Guild senior organization who came with a group of seniors said that one of their group needed an ambulance during the past week and had to wait over 30 minutes for it to reach her. She passionately added, “We will not die because we don’t have a hospital!” We need a hospital and we need it now.

Many speakers made the point that an urgent care unit will not serve the needs of the community because it will not be able to offer level 1 trauma care, an emergency room, or related intensive care, and the hospital beds needed. St. Vincent’s already offers an infrastructure worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And, because it is in bankruptcy, it’s past debts will be discharged making it possible to buy the property at a greatly reduced price.

The last speaker was Randy Credico who is challenging Charles Schumer in the next senatorial election. He said that if the government has money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, if they have money for the racist war on drugs, if they have money for arresting minority youth on the streets for doing nothing illegal, then they should have money for a hospital. Wall Street is not too big to fail but St. Vincent’s is.

After the speeches everyone held hands and circled as much of the hospital as they could while chanting, “What do we want? A hospital. When do we want it? Now.”

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(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

NEW YORK — On May 28, the Friday evening before the long Memorial Day weekend, during the time most people are filling their gas tanks on their way out of the city, a group of 200-300 people surrounded the large BP gas station on the corner of Houston and Lafayette in lower Manhattan. The event was organized by several groups including CodePink NYC to protest the BP oil disaster, the biggest in US history.

A man on the street corner was waving a red flag and shouting, “BP is what capitalism is about.” Many gathered there were wearing costumes, especially mermaid costumes, while others carried bottles of either polluted gulf water (the bottles were labeled) or a black oily substance. The gave out leaflets that said 60,000 barrels of oil a day was spilling into the gulf, an oiled seabird that has been cleaned only survives 6 days after release, in 2009 BP was the #1 distributor of oil to the US military (per Newsweek), BP was fined only $50 million after an oil refinery explosion in 2005 that left 15 dead, the projected cost of the clean-up is $33 million for each day the oil spill continues, and the largest amount that BP will have to pay in fines under current legislation is a total of $75 million.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

The protestors said:

“Today we are bringing our outrage to BP’s doorstep, denouncing this criminal company that ignored crucial safety issues, cut corners, and spent millions lobbying Congress to fight regulations. BP has a sordid history of recklessly pursuing enormous profits at the expense of worker’s lives and the environment, and it’s got to stop.
We want our government to stop protecting BP and instead protect the fishermen, the coastal residents and the wildlife. We want legislation like the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act which would have spiked the maximum liability for oil companies from a pitiful $75 million to $10 billion – making sure that BP paid for this man-made catastrophe to pass!”

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

The protest shut down the station. Police put metal barriers around it so that no cars were able to enter during the two hours that the protestors were there.

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(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

NEW YORK — On May 25 CodePink-NYC and Adalah-NY staged another raucous demonstration in front of two stores in the Ricky’s chain – one on 3rd Avenue and one on East 14th Street in Manhattan. Ricky’s continues to carry the Ahava line of creams and lotions that is manufactured in an occupied West Bank colony using stolen Palestinian mineral resources taken from the area near the Dead Sea. The packaging is dishonestly labeled “Made in Israel.”

About 30 people, some dressed in robes, towels, and shower caps stood outside the store for an hour chanting,

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

They sang a song written for the boycott by a very talented member of the group and handed out over 600 leaflets explaining the reasons for the boycott. A reporter from Russia Today interviewed Nancy Krikorian from CodePink while a cameraman made a video recording of the event.

The reaction of the East Village residents passing by was excellent. The were smiles, thumbs-up, and thank yous. One man raised his fist into the air and chanted, “From Iraq to Palestine, Occupation is a crime” as he walked by. There were no screamers, no spitters, no dirty looks.

When the group moved on to the 2nd store they walked along crowded 14th St. and through Union Sq. which was packed because of the hour and the beautiful weather. As they handed out leaflets they sang,

The international boycott will continue to grow. When someone purchases an Ahava product they are buying stolen merchandise. EuroPalestine is bringing a suit against Sephora in France for carrying Ahava products and negotiations continue with stores carrying the brand in the U.S. Justice will prevail.

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