UPDATE AFTER THE MEGA-TRAGEDY...We will get voices of reason input to you asap.  Please call or e-mail Kairos/USA for this urgent information.  We've been too busy with phone calls and e-mails to truly update this website.  We need to reassure ourselves that (even though the media doesn't include much of it) comments for peace as the only solution are out there.  Early Wednesday morning, I sent the following letter to many of you:

"Among the strategies and anaylsis going on to figure out how to deal with yesterday's horrific tragedy, we must ask ourselves...what have we done, and what are we doing, that they hate us so much.  The two symbols targeted should be a clue.  This is a time for calm, historical, thoughtful, prayerful reflection.  Let us look for advice to the prophets of peace.  Certainly the last century has taught us that violence is not the answer."   Joan Elbert

Very many messages for peace are coming across the e-mail.  I hope to get these on this website asap.  In the meantime, if you read this and want me to send these messages to you via e-mail, snail-mail, whatever, call or contact our office anyway.  JRE

Leonard Peltier Actions after Clinton's denial of clemency:  February 6, marked 25 years of imprisonment for Leonard Peltier. Still outraged over Clinton's denial of clemency, Peltier advocates around the world are meeting to plan new strategies to free him.  More than a reasonable doubt has been cast on his guilt, and yet, a quarter century later, he languishes behind bars.  Peltier and supports plan to launch a major campaign calling for the declassification of the 6000 documents pertaining to the Peltier case still being withheld by the FBI.  Supports believe these documents contain evidence that will further expose misconduct in gaining his conviction.  12,000 FBI documents were released in the early '80's pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.  Among them was a ballistic test reflecting Peltier's innocence and prompting the Eighth Circuit to conclude:  "There is the possibility that the jury would have acquitted Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him..."
 
Those calling for Peltier's release include Amnesty International, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the National Congress of American Indians, Coretta Scott King, several members of Congress, Kairos/USA, and the Kennedy Memorial Center of Human Rights.

Write letters-to-the-editor, alert the press of this further action, and write letters of encouragement to Mr. Peltier, #89637-132, PO Box 1000, Leavenworth, KS 66048.

For additional information contact the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, PO Box 583, Lawrence, KS 66044, (785) 842-5774    www.freepeltier.org

Write Judge William H. Yohn, Jr. c/o Leonard Weinglass, Esq, 6 W. 20th St. #10A, New York, NY 10011, urging him to hold an evidentiary hearing in reviewing the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal is one of over 3,500 on death row.  In a statement by religious leaders calling for a new trial, they say "We have chosen him in demand for justice because his uniquely inspiring voice and insistent call for justice on behalf of the poor, the imprisoned, the marginalized, carries special authority.  While in prison, Mr. Adu-Jamal has written Live from Death Row and Death Blossoms.  For more info contact Rev. Mike Yasutake, Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience, (847) 328-1543, or e-mail Yasutake@interaccess.com

The American Friends Service Committee has opened an El Salvador Earthquake Relief Fund.  Send checks marked "El Salvador Earthquake Relief & Reconstruction," to AFSC/Development, 1501 Cherry St. Philadelphia PA 19102.

Boycott Pictsweet products, and urge The Kroger Company and Fred Meyers supermarkets not to carry their products until the company agrees to negotiate a union contract with their employees.  For more info contact:  United Farm Workers, 
www.unitedfarmworkers.com

Prison Writings by Joe Hill

If the workers take a notion, they can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean,
They can tie with mighty chains;
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill,
Fleets and armies of the nation
Will at their command stand still."

A national/international network of groups and individuals, active on issues of anti-racism
economic justice and self-determination, while engaged in a process of theological/political reflection.