Announcements

Photo is of All Soul's Episcopal Peace Fellowship vigil on Sunday evenings. June 2008

Hike this Sunday!

Mountain Area Interfaith Forum is a group of representatives from various faith communities that meet to encourage getting to know those of other faiths, interfaith dialog and interfaith action on common interests.

They are presenting: HOLY HIKES!

An inaugural interfaith excursion, Reconnecting with each other and the environment. They will hike Ivestor Gap to the entrance of the Shining Rock Wilderness Area. Hike will be of moderate difficulty (due mostly to altitude). They will have a short ceremony, will enjoy the day and each other’s company, and return edified. They will be back in the parking lot by 6 PM, so people can get home before dark.

Date: June 22, 2008 at 3 PM

Place: FR 816 Parking Area at the Black Balsam parking area.

What to Bring: Hiking Shoes, simple snack, water, long sleeve/pant options

DIRECTIONS: From Asheville, take the Blue Ridge Parkway South past Mount Pisgah, US Hwy. 276, and Graveyard Fields. Just past milepost 420, look for the road to Black Balsam (FR 816) on the right. The (semi) paved road travels about 0.8 miles to the first parking area where the

Art Loeb and Mountains to Sea trails cross. This is the easiest route to the top of Black Balsam itself. The road travels down another 1/4 mile to the Black Balsam Parking Area, where there are pit toilets, informational signs, and several trailheads.

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Petition From ACLU on Telecom Immunity: A sham spying “compromise” similar to the one we warned you about last week could be rammed through both the Senate and House this week. It’s moving that fast.

Will you write today and let your elected officials know Americans want them to stand up for our privacy?

In a proposal that makes a mockery of the rule of law, telecom companies that broke the law by supplying mountains of personal information to the government without a warrant will be let off the hook. Here’s what Senators Feingold and Dodd had to say about Senator Bond’s proposal, which is very similar to what we expect in the coming days: … under the Bond proposal, the result of the FISA Court’s evaluation would be predetermined... the FISA court would be required to grant immunity.

Tell your members of Congress to reject a sham immunity "compromise."

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Petition from OxFam:

Oxfam has been invited to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. The meeting will take place on Wednesday, just before the world's eight richest countries meet at the annual G8 Summit, where Japan will be in a key position to push the issue of climate change. We want to bring with us a global petition of hundreds of thousands of names to show him the world cares about fighting climate change. We urgently need your help!

Sign our petition telling the prime minister that strong leadership is needed by heads of state at this year's meeting.

We don't usually ask you to contact government officials outside of the US. But the prime minister is the host of this year's meeting, so he's in a key position to push the issue of climate change. Our meeting is in just two days, so we need you to act immediately! Climate change is already having devastating effects on poor people in developing countries. The world's richest countries, which use most of our natural resources, need to help poor communities deal with their changing climates.

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Invitation from Code Pink: This summer we at CODEPINK would like to invite you to join us in DC for a week (Sunday-Saturday) of high-imact actions to help end the US occupation of Iraq and prevent a war on Iran! Pick a week during July and come stay at our Pink House on Capitol Hill, located only blocks from Congressional offices and a short distance from Smithsonian museums, the Washington Monument, and the Mall ~ all absolutely gorgeous this time of year! Many of our "Pink House" alumni say they cannot wait to come back where they feel so welcomed to our pink "oasis", often described as uplifting, eye-opening, empowering and unforgettable.

Apply to join us this summer here.

In choosing to spend a week or two of your summer with us at the Pink House, we will mentor you and joyfully hold your hand as you learn new skills needed to creatively pressure Congress into bringing our troops home and ending the violence inflicted daily on our brothers and sisters in Iraq.

Fun skill-building includes:
Activist Art (How to "PINK" it up with song, dance, & visual art)
Reaching the Media Training (creative messaging, letters to the editor, press releases, flyers, getting your points across, etc.)
Be the Media (using your camera, you tubing & Flickr websites)
Leadership skills (planning an action, meeting facilitation, and more)
Community living (cooking, being part of a team, creating events to build local community connections)

[Note from Susan: I spent a week with them in the summer of 2007 and it was a lot of fun. I would be interested in going back sometime this fall, but will only go if I have others in the car with me!]

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June is Torture Awareness Month

From the local Religious Society of Friends:

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) believes there is “that of God in every person.” This divine light, a universal principle of goodness and love, exists in all people, regardless of religion or geography.

Torture – in wars, in prisons, and in homes – diminishes this divine light in the victim and the perpetrator, and those who have knowledge of it. In situations where torture is used, one individual has power and the other is powerless. The misuse of this power against a defenseless person to cause pain, humiliation, fear and suffering is the ultimate denial of our common humanity, degrading and dehumanizing both the tortured and the torturer.

We Quakers of the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association join with our fellow citizens who are taking action to bring the practice of torture to an end. Our condemnation of torture is not based on any political opinion or on the laws or treaties of any nations, but on the Golden Rule, the standard for moral behavior established by religious and secular communities across history and around the world.