Whatcom Peace & Justice Center in Bellingham, Washington
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • Blog
    • Press
    • Video
    • Archive of Newsletters
    • Financials
  • What we do
    • Learn with us
      • Timeline
      • Alternatives to Violence Workshop
    • Alternatives to Military Service
      • College opportunities
      • Opt-out of military recruitment
    • Whatcom Civil Rights Project
    • Resources for Community Use
    • Library
  • Get involved
    • Volunteer
  • 2022 International Day of Peace
    • Sponsor International Day of Peace
    • Peacemaker Awards
      • Nomination Forms
  • Donate
    • Become a monthly donor
    • Wish List
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • Blog
    • Press
    • Video
    • Archive of Newsletters
    • Financials
  • What we do
    • Learn with us
      • Timeline
      • Alternatives to Violence Workshop
    • Alternatives to Military Service
      • College opportunities
      • Opt-out of military recruitment
    • Whatcom Civil Rights Project
    • Resources for Community Use
    • Library
  • Get involved
    • Volunteer
  • 2022 International Day of Peace
    • Sponsor International Day of Peace
    • Peacemaker Awards
      • Nomination Forms
  • Donate
    • Become a monthly donor
    • Wish List
Search

Longest-running peace vigil in the United States turns 50 this month

12/22/2016

 
Bellingham – Whatcom Peace Vigil started in December, 1966 and won Peace Builder Award this year

For fifty years, the Bellingham - Whatcom Peace Vigil has held a space for peace on the corners of Magnolia and Cornwall in front of the old Federal Building in downtown Bellingham. It started in December 1966 when local peace activist Colleen Dickinson and two Quakers, Rosemary and Howard Harris, stood in silent opposition to the Vietnam War. The first vigil took place in front of the city's Christmas tree; then it moved to its current location where the originators and their children vowed to witness for peace every Friday until the war ended.

Today, fifty years later, the intersection is lively with several dozen regular vigilers who stand for peace, nonviolence, and social justice every Friday afternoon from 4:00 - 5:00pm rain, snow, or shine. Vigilers are individuals, members of local faith communities or organizations such as Veterans for Peace, the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, and Occupy Bellingham. Most carry hand-made banners and signs with messages about peace and justice. “You might consider us part of the alternative media,’” says 92-year old Dotty Dale, currently the vigil’s oldest participant. The youngest current vigiler is eight years old and even dogs on leash are frequent attendees, showing by their presence that they’re not war mongrels.

Participation has waxed and waned over the decades but there has never been a break to speak of in the weekly peace vigil. On occasion it draws huge crowds that overflow to all four corners of the intersection and down the block, such as following the recent presidential election, or during the lead up to the Iraq war in the early 2000’s. Pro-war demonstrators showed up as well during that time, including a caravan of 220 semi- trucks from Whatcom County that blew their horns and exhaust at the peace vigilers. Now, it it common that people in passing cars respond to the “Honk for Peace” sign, give a thumbs up, or call out “Thank you!” to show their support for peacemakers.

The Bellingham — Whatcom Peace Vigil was a recipient of this year’s community “Peace Builder” Award from the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center.

While no one is in charge of the Bellingham-Whatcom Peace Vigil, Vietnam Vet Kerry Johnson brings the signs, the colorful flags made by local artist Harold Niven, and the large portable scaffolding that displays the vigil’s large banner as well as Earth flags and an information board. Often the local “Food not Bombs” group offers a free vegetarian meal to folks passing by while the vigil is underway. It makes for a colorful and positive “happening” for peace and social justice every Friday afternoon in downtown Bellingham. All people of peace are welcome to join us on democracy corner, especially during the vigil's special 50th anniversary year.

For more information, contact Jamie K. Donaldson at ojosverdes999@gmail.com 
Picture

Whiteness workshop: Getting ready for holiday discussions

12/16/2016

 
From Tina McKim

​White folks, let’s talk about whiteness and white supremacy.* Let’s talk about how it shapes our lives and the lives of people of color every day. Let’s talk about whiteness in Bellingham, in our homes, in our communities, in our nation.


Let’s talk about how to speak up for racial justice loudly in white spaces. And let’s learn how to be better listeners when people of color (POC) are speaking and leading.

Let’s take responsibility to dismantle white supremacy in our white communities, while centering people of color and supporting POC-led movements.

This workshop will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 21, 7-8:30 p.m., at the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center (1220 Bay Street).


We plan to host regular meetings for white folks to work together to educate ourselves about whiteness, white supremacy, and the work we need to do to dismantle systems of oppression and race privilege. These meetings are a response to calls from people of color for white people to take on the work of educating ourselves and each other – and to stop relying solely on their emotional and intellectual labor to teach us.

For some people, meeting in the final weeks of December will be challenging, so we’re holding a more informal space to reflect on our challenges and opportunities for disrupting white supremacy in our daily lives. Specifically, we’ll practice addressing white supremacy when talking with our white family and friends as we prepare for the holidays and the New Year.

In the upcoming months, we will be planning events to work together to build everyday practices toward:
  • Questioning and disrupting the workings of whiteness
  • Breaking white silence
  • Centering the voices and efforts of people of color
  • Creating systems of accountability and responsibility
  • Building a local network of informed white people who are committed to racial justice

*White supremacy is a complex system of oppression that has been supported by processes of colonialism, antiblackness, and xenophobia. Our meetings aim to open our awareness to how these processes play out locally, so that we can better understand our responsibilities to work toward racial justice here in relation to broader, nationwide struggles. This workshop is not a place to debate existence of white supremacy and systemic racism. 

Act up, Bellingham: 5 actions for Dec. 11-18

12/12/2016

 
Picture
1) Pressure Obama to shut down the US’s Muslim registry
Did you know there is already a registry to profile Muslim immigrants? In 2002, the Bush administration launched a program that required men from 25 countries to register when they entered the U.S. and then check in regularly with immigration officials.

Officially, this program did not target Muslims, but in practice it did -- 24 of the 25 targeted countries were majority Muslim. The program profiled Muslims, subjected them to detention and deportation, and damaged their communities. Obama took all 25 countries off the list in 2011, but he has not yet shut it down altogether.

Sign the petition here: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/Obama_NSEERS?sp_ref=252848761.4.177315.f.562330.3&referring_akid=.6531817.yL213s

2) Read up on white saviorism and humanitarianism

Saturday was International Day of Human Rights. Our speaker in Bellingham, Raed Jarrar, cautioned cautioned that people who come together to defend human rights should be wary of a humanitarian tendency that seeks to rescue oppressed people. His talk went into how the U.S. narrative about armed intervention in the Middle East inaccurately portrays Western countries as liberators, when in reality the U.S. is arming and training militias while U.S. companies reap profits.

The discussion that followed also brought up white saviorism, which inspired these recommended reading/watching for this week:

  • Video explaining what “white savior” means: http://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/white-savior-problem
  • Article by novelist Teju Cole: http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrial-complex/254843

3) Daily No DAPL solidarity picketing
There is a call from the Sacred Stone camp to take bold action in your communities to force investors to divest from the Dakota Access Pipeline project. In Bellingham, come join the No DAPL Solidarity Picketing any day this week, from 12-2 p.m., at Railroad and Holly.

4) Fight for environmental racial justice
Flint, Michigan still doesn’t have clean drinking water. Come out to Bellingham Black Lives Matter’s meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 13, for a discussion of environmental justice issues including Standing Rock, Flint, and more. Be sure to read the event invite before attending: https://www.facebook.com/events/1248749958480683

5) Eat tamales
Yes you can: https://www.facebook.com/events/1281833615171966

Take action in Bellingham, Dec. 5-11

12/5/2016

 
Picture
It looks as though the Dakota Access Pipeline will not be built this year, not under the Missouri River through Standing Rock Sioux treaty land. This is good news, and it came just as thousands of U.S. military veterans (including two from Veterans for Peace Chapter 111) assembled at Standing Rock to back up water protectors. This was a moment when no one could deny the strength of the growing resistance. We must continue to build that resistance; we must continue to move money out of the banks invested in buildling the pipeline, until they move their money out of the project. Michael Vendiola (Swinomish Indian Tribal Community) of Bellingham NoDAPL Coalition spoke on Democracy Now this morning about this work.

Carbon colonialism, environmental racism, treaty violations, the military-industrial complex
-- underlying struggles at Standing Rock -- continue, including here in Whatcom County and in communities across the continent.

How will we keep building resistance? Many groups are organizing. Below are invitations from grassroots groups in Bellingham to respectfully join their work -- to learn and take action.

Communities of color paying the price with their land and water
Black Lives Matter Bellingham will focus on environmental justice at this month’s meeting, 6:30-9:30 p.m., on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at First Congregational Church. When we talk about protecting water, we are also talking about Flint, Michigan, which still doesn’t have clean drinking water. And every community where pipelines run and break -- usually in communities of color. Meeting details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1248749958480683

This Thursday at 6:30 p.m., speak at the county Planning Commission’s public hearing, where they are considering policies that discourage coal and crude oil exports. If you can come, wear red, and show up at 5:30 to sign up for a speaking slot. If you can’t come, email pds_planning_commission@whatcomcounty.us and let them know you support the amendments proposed by Councilmember Carl Weimer for Cherry Point. Details:
https://www.facebook.com/events/632205360295801


Lax Kw'alaams peoples in British Columbia are resisting a liquified natural gas facility on their traditional territory. Local college students are holding an educational fundraising dinner from 6-9 p.m. this Thursday, Dec. 8 at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship. Details:
https://www.facebook.com/events/392097804512203/ At 9 p.m., they will screen “A Last Stand for Lelu.”


Detention and deportation

Immigrant detention is the most profitable form of incarceration in the U.S. -- and even though the U.S. Department of Justice decided earlier this year to shut down its contracts with private prisons, Homeland Security (the agency that oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or “ICE”) has made no such decision. ICE continues to rely on for-profit prison companies to operate immigration detention centers across the country. The closest one to Bellingham is the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. Conditions are notoriously unsafe in these for-profit prisons. Bellingham police sent a Latino teenager to the Tacoma facility for deportation proceedings just last year, after a traffic stop (his legal team is now suing the city).

Bellingham City Council meets 7 p.m
., Monday, Dec. 5 at City Hall. Until the city passes binding legislation that stating otherwise,
we can’t trust that undocumented students and workers will be safe from ICE on local campuses or at their homes. We can’t trust that the county jail won’t be used to hold immigrants or to ensure private companies are meeting shareholders’ expectations for profits. 

Please go on the record in support of the WWU Blue Group’s efforts to make Bellingham a Sanctuary City and WWU a sanctuary campus. To reach City Council,
you can speak during public comment at Monday night’s meeting, or write a letter voicing your concern. To reach WWU, you can sign the Blue Group’s petition.


[Here’s a primer on mass incarceration in the U.S.: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2016.html]

Legal basis for European colonization
From 6-9 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, learn about the Doctrine of Discovery from Jewell James, of the House of Tears carvers, Lummi Nation. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1356656777692296

Resisting fascism

The Racial Justice Coalition holds monthly public meetings where people can connect with each other and work on local racial justice issues -- such as food justice, affordable housing, ending racial profiling, education about white supremacy, and more. This month’s meeting, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, RJC will have a big group discussion on our reality post-election and organizing locally to resist fascism. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/725533854260445

Human Rights Day: Islamophobia
International Human Rights Day is Saturday, Dec. 10. From 3-6 p.m., join Bellingham’s gathering to hear from Raed Jarrar, an expert on U.S. engagement in the Middle East. Learn about the impacts of the U.S.’s disproportionate spending on militarization on foreign communities, and how Islamophobia in the U.S. plays into war profiteers’ efforts to send our tax dollars into their pockets. This is also a chance to take part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights campaign. Details: https://www.facebook.com/events/713158895502864

Jobs with Justice 

Jobs with Justice meets Tuesday, Dec. 6, at 6 p.m. at 1700 N. State Street (Union Center). The agenda includes an update on the Albertson’s campaign to address the ongoing food desert situation in the wake of Albertson’s closing this past spring.

    Contributors

    We invite the WPJC community to contribute fact-checked submissions on local, national and global current events.  Linking to original sources and articles is required.   Submissions may be sent to office@whatcompjc.org for review. 

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Aramak
    Bellingham
    City Council
    Domestic Spying
    Law Enforcement
    Prison-industrial Complex
    Prison Labor
    Student Organizing
    Sustainable Food
    Whatcom County

    Archives

    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    June 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    RSS Feed

The Whatcom Peace & Justice Center calls on our government and society to disavow policies of violence and seek a culture of peace.
  • Home
  • Who we are
    • Blog
    • Press
    • Video
    • Archive of Newsletters
    • Financials
  • What we do
    • Learn with us
      • Timeline
      • Alternatives to Violence Workshop
    • Alternatives to Military Service
      • College opportunities
      • Opt-out of military recruitment
    • Whatcom Civil Rights Project
    • Resources for Community Use
    • Library
  • Get involved
    • Volunteer
  • 2022 International Day of Peace
    • Sponsor International Day of Peace
    • Peacemaker Awards
      • Nomination Forms
  • Donate
    • Become a monthly donor
    • Wish List