[pjw] REPORT BACK: Iraq, Iran& a Dumpster- Friday rally #48 under stay-at-home orders

[Peace and Justice Works]

Hi
As the meeting is starting, I'm realizing that I said four people _died_ 
of COVID in Oregon despite being vaccinated, they were only _diagnosed. 
Sorry for the error!!!
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/02/12/oregon-covid-19-vaccine-breakthrough-infections/

dan h.

On Sat, 20 Feb 2021, Peace and Justice Works wrote:

> PJW supporters
>
> Sorry for the second bulk email today, as I said my intention was to send the 
> meeting reminder a few days ago.
>
> Last night at the Friday Rally for Peace and Justice there were four of us at 
> the SW corner of Yamhill and Broadway, masked up and distanced, and three of 
> us went on the march. I didn't have to use my home-made wheel chock to stop 
> the wagon of peace from rolling, I just rolled it up into a pile of snow that 
> was still present on the corner.
>
> We got a number of supportive honks but no memorable comments from 
> pedestrians.
>
> We didn't cover a whole broad range of news but these seem pretty important 
> anyway.
>
> --As the US has drawn down its forces in Iraq to 2500, NATO announced it 
> would up its presence from 500 troops to 4000:
>
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/nato-to-expand-mission-in-iraq-by-3-500-troops/ar-BB1dOgbl
>
> --This was in response to a rocket attack which killed a civilian contractor 
> and injured a US service member, leading President Biden to consider 
> retaliatory military action:
>
> https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/16/irbil-iraq-attack-biden-administration-will-not-rule-out-response.html
>
> I noted that if there were foreign troops stationed in the US, we would not 
> tolerate that country taking military action within our borders if someone 
> attacked them.
>
> I also took the opportunity to announce our special Friday Rally coming up on 
> March 19 focusing on the 18 years the US has been in Iraq, as well as the 
> 10th anniversary of the US war on Libya.
>
> http://pjw.info/iraq18yl.html
>
> --Biden made his first speech to an international audience.
>
> ---On the bright side, he announced the US' return to the Paris climate 
> accords. According to this article, we were only out for 107 days:
>
> https://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-america/were-back-biden-announces-us-return-to-climate-deal-40111965.html
>
> ---However, his announcement about rejoining the Iran "nuclear deal" was 
> tempered with the idea of "negotiations," rather than acknowledging the US 
> signed a deal and they should return to it.
>
> https://www.npr.org/2021/02/19/969196055/biden-takes-his-americas-back-message-to-the-world-in-munich-speech
>
> In local military-like news, I noted that the Portland Police are once again 
> rebranding their Gang Enforcement Team, which became and then was dissolved 
> as the Gun Violence Reduction Team. The new unit claims they learned their 
> lesson and won't racially profile Black Portlanders like their predecessors, 
> whose stops disproportionately affected African Americans, with 50% or more 
> of stops in a city that is 6% Black.
>
> https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2021/02/19/31807110/portland-police-unveil-new-gun-violence-prevention-team
>
> Along the route, where we usually talk about Israel/Palestine, I relayed the 
> information that Israel was in fact giving COVID vaccinations to Palestinians 
> from occupied East Jerusalem-- but only if they have work permits to do labor 
> in Israel proper.
>
> https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-medics-vaccinate-some-palestinians-with-permits-to-work-in-israel/
>
> For the "money for human needs, not war" segment of the march, I talked about 
> the overlap of police excess and capitalism's cruelty, reflected by the 
> incident here at a Fred Meyer store where they called Portland Police on 
> people trying to get food from a dumpster to feed folks in need. The food was 
> perishable and was thrown out due to the power outage. ELEVEN officers showed 
> up to protect the dumpster, laying bare the Bureau's claims that they are too 
> short-staffed to do things like solve murders. The police says they only 
> showed up because the store said their employees felt threatened. The store 
> said they were just trying to keep people from getting sick on the "expired" 
> food.
>
> https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2021/02/portland-police-guard-dumpster-face-off-with-residents-trying-to-get-discarded-food-from-fred-meyer.html
>
> The Ann Huntwork Peace Memorial Sign went out very early on the east side of 
> Pioneer Place Mall and wouldn't reboot, so I left it off until we got back to 
> the Square.
>
> As always it'd be great to see more people down at the rally. It's not 100% 
> clear whether vaccinations will make it easier for people to go out in public 
> places, especially since at least 4 people in Oregon who were vaccinated have 
> died of COVID... That said, if you feel comfortable masking up and joining us 
> you're always welcome.
>
> Thanks
> dan handelman
> peace and justice works iraq affinity group
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