WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
February 7, 2009:In yesterday's email, Vanunu sent the links to the day of his release from 18 years in a windowless tomb sized cell, April 21, 2004 and delivered the following statement:
Read more... At 7:12am on November 16th, 2008, just a few days after the establishment of the Face
Book effort: The Times They Are
a'Changin'- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now! [1]
I wrote:
The Times Will Change When
The Media is a Sanctuary for Dissent
"The media should be a sanctuary for dissent. It is our job to go to where
the silence is."-Amy Goodman
Amy's 2004 interview with Vanunu was major testimony against him in the historic
Freedom of Speech Trial which began January 2006 in Jerusalem.
I had lunch with Amy in April 2007 and filled her in all about it.
I
told her I have been streaming 2005, 2006 and now 2008 video of Vanunu.
I
feel responsible to follow through until Vanunu is free and I thought that she
would too.
I asked Amy Goodman to do a follow up with Vanunu, as I was sure if she did; Israel would wake up and realize
how insane they are to tell anyone who they can and cannot talk with.
Amy didn't bother to make that phone call until Vanunu's 6 month sentence came
down July [2007].
On
November 20, 2008, Vanunu joined and thanked
the Face Book group, The Times They Are a'Changin'- FREE Vanunu Mordechai! Now!
However,
that information was deleted at the moment Vanunu deleted his Face Book Account
on February 4, 2008, the day after our final
Face Book chat.
On 13 January 2009, I wrote:
Regarding the First Annual Global V Day, April 21, 2009, proposed by an Italy
based global group "The Times They Are a'Changin'- FREE Vanunu Mordechai!
Now! Vanunu wrote:
"I want to thank you for the group Free
Vanunu Now. But I don't want any international day. My target is to remind Israel to let me go free now. I
am alive here, waiting to be free, only Dead Saints have special day. NO NEED
NOW FOR SPECIAL DAY, ONLY FREEDOM NOW. Thank you. vmjc" [2]
On February 3, 2008 I had a Face Book chat
with Vanunu, just hours before he deleted his Face Book account:
9:18amVanunu
I do not want anything done on my name any more, by any one,
9:20amEileen
So you are saying no letters to government?
9:21amVanunu
any one can write do what they want but, not involving me,
9:23amEileen
OK good......[do I understand that] letters are OK-but we are to leave you
alone -we are not to talk to you until you are free- BUT UNTIL THEN we are to
DISSEMINATE what you have already said-AND as I wrote a lot of it down they can
get it at VANUNU ARCHIVES WAWA: http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=660&Itemid=175
9:25amVanunu
ok. Again, write as you want just don't wait for my answer.
9:25amEileen
THANK YOU and HOPE very soon you are very FREE and i know you will be!
9:27amVanunu
Yes. All the best, bye.
The
day before that chat, Vanunu and I also happened to be on Face Book at the same
time.
I
did not save that conversation, but Vanunu wrote that he didn't need a group
and neither did I.
For
the previous week, I had expressed my frustration to Vanunu regarding all the
'roadblocks' I have been up against in the pursuit of disseminating the
information he had already provided the world in our many interviews since we
first crossed paths in June 2005.
The
hours I had spent listening to Vanunu during my first of six trips to Israel
and occupied Palestine inspired me to do something more when I returned home, beyond
telling my friends and family and writing letters to my government and local
media about all that I had learned.
Vanunu's
example of listening and following his conscience [I call it my heart] and
standing up to Big Brother with THE TRUTH, enabled me to finally live my dream
of being a reporter in the mode of Dorothy Day, a Christian Anarchist who
agitated church, state and media in the 20th century, by giving
voice to the voiceless-the poor and oppressed.
Three
weeks upon my return to the USA, I went global, by
establishing WeAreWideAwake/WAWA, on July 22,
2005.
WAWA
is my Public Service to America as a civilian journalist
who has journeyed six times into Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA
is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole truth.
We who are Wide Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now"
[Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of
the crucial issues of our day: the state of our Union and in protection of
democracy, what life is like under military occupation in Palestine, the
Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land, and spirituality-from a Theologically
Liberated Christian Anarchist POV.
WAWA is also a Palestinian slang word for a boo-boo; a hurt.
WAWA is also where I spill much cyber ink in the telling of the story of the
soul of an American Irish dissident and Christian Anarchist of The Beatitudes.
Every
time I go to occupied Palestine, I always return home
heart broken over what I witnessed, heard, felt in my gut and I am driven to
express it in words on the Internet.
I am generally frustrated and do get angry, with a particular people-'my own' so
to say-because we both claim to be Christian in the USA.
Since my first trip to the other side of The Apartheid Wall, I knew I was
responsible and culpable in the abomination and denial of human rights to the indigenous
people of the Holy
Land.
The truth when known requires responsibility and silence is complicity.
The
so called holy land is in pieces: Bantustans.
We Americans in particular are culpable in the misery of multitudes via our
$7-10 million USA tax dollars A DAY that go
to support and enable atrocities such as the War on Gaza.
And as hopeless as it all looks-I have radical and audacious HOPE that we truly
do have "it in our power to begin the world again"-Tom Paine
My hope lies in the World Wide Web and all the Hearts of Handala [Arabic for HOPE]
I have crossed paths with in cyber space; people dedicated to doing all in
their power to bring in the change we all want to see; justice which requires
equal human rights for all.
All
that is really needed to bring about change is hope, love, common sense and
action to change what is, to what should be.
"Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense" [on Feb.
14, 1776]
in America, I saw the exceeding
probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by
a revolution in the system of religion... The world is my country, all mankind
are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."-Tom Paine
During
the first 5 years of Vanunu's solitary confinement he read the New Testament
aloud to The Camera [and Shabbat] that documented his every move in the
windowless tomb sized cell that he indwelled for 18 years of confinement.
Vanunu told me in
June 2005:
"I really had no clue what I was doing by getting baptized a Christian; I
just felt like I had to do it. It was my way to become a new being. It wasn't
until after my trial that I started to read the New Testament. While I was in
prison, I would read aloud for a half hour, twice a day. I would read the
entire New Testament and begin it again when I finished the Book of Revelation.
I did this for myself, as well as for my captors--not so much the prison
guards, but the ones who watched me on camera twenty-four hours a day. Once I
covered up the camera that spied on me and was punished with one month in
solitary, without any books or radio; no contact with anyone anywhere was
allowed. It was just them, the Shen Beet, you know, like the FBI and the
Mossad, like your CIA— they were watching me.
"They tortured me by keeping a light on in my cell constantly for two
years. They told me it was because they were afraid I would commit suicide, and
the oppressive camera was for my safety. They recruited the guards and other
prisoners to irritate me. They would deprive me of sleep by making loud noises
near my cell all night long.
"I chose to read them 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8, instead:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not
proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, and it
keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with THE
TRUTH! It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, and always
perseveres. Love never fails.
"For the first five years, twice a day I would loudly pray by reading
Bible verses. I would also read the Anglican service from the Book of Common
Prayer. I did it twice a day, everyday, for five years. I began to see I had
become like a machine. I knew if I continued I would lose my mind. So after
that, I only prayed in silence. Although I knew I was driving them nuts with my
loud praying, it was driving me nuts."
Vanunu
is definitely not nuts.
He
is stubbornly solitary and has no faith in campaigns or groups.
After
nearly 5 years of open air imprisonment, heremains a Christian captive in Jerusalem, who is also grateful for
any writings and actions done on his behalf.
And
so, on February 5, 2009, I established:
NOT a GROUP! And Only for SUPPORTERS of Vanunu [3]
Join if you wish,
But only if you commit
To DOING SOMETHING
As a person of Conscience
In Support of FREEDOM of SPEECH and MOVEMENT
LIBERATION for ALL People
Upholding the UN UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS:
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
-Article 19.
Article 13:
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the
borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to
return to his country.
Please and Thanks for doing something as simple as sending a letter in pursuit
of FREEDOM for Vanunu and persist until Gaza-Palestine are ONE and FREE too.
Please email/FAX/snail mail President Obama and your political reps a
cut/past/edit of the following.
Dear President Obama,
The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights is binding on "all countries
of the world". The statehood of Israel was contingent upon upholding it.
EQUAL human rights are declared as UNDERSTOOD at the outset of the document as
"inalienable" and therefore can not be denied by any government.
As a person of conscience, I am asking you to do all in your power to help
Mordechai Vanunu receive in actuality the inalienable right to leave the state
of Israel:
"Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to
return to his country."-Article 13:2
As a person of conscience, I am asking you to lead Israel to be merciful and just towards Vanunu and
encourage them to drop the 3 month jail sentence against him for speaking to
foreigners in 2004; who happened to be media.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right
includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of
frontiers." -Article 19.
As a person of conscience, I am asking you to do all in your power to help
Mordechai Vanunu receive his inalienable human rights.
As a person of conscience, I am also asking you to be a true friend to Israel.
"Always be ready to speak your mind and a base man will avoid you.
Opposition is True Friendship."-William Blake, "Marriage of Heaven
and Hell" 1796
As a person of hope, I look forward with gratitude that you as a person of
conscience will do something.
"HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The
second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
Most Sincerely,
Eileen Fleming, Founder WAWA: http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American
'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with
Vanunu"
CONTACT President Obama:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
"If you have an
important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever.Use a pile driver.Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it
again.Then hit it a third time - a tremendous
whack...And never, never, never, never, never, never ever, never give up."
Calvin Coolidge comprehended:
"Nothing in the world can take the place of
persistence. Talent will not. ... Genius will not. ... Education will not.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."
Once upon a time, there was an old widow, who lived
in a certain town with a judge who cared nothing about justice, people or God.
But an old widowed crone kept coming to him with her plea, "Grant me
justice against my adversary."
The judge ignored her until she became such a PIA
[pain in the ass] he finally muttered to himself, "Even though I don't
fear God or care a hoot about this old crone, she has become such a PIA, I will
give into her, just to get her to leave me alone!" [Paraphrased from a
story Jesus told in Luke 18 1-5]
If Israel had been merciful in April 2004 and allowed Vanunu
to leave the state, I never would have crossed paths with him and chances are,
that by now Vanunu would have faded into a footnote into history, instead of
keep making it.
The fifth year of restrictions that have denied
Vanunu the RIGHT to leave Israel, the RIGHT to speak to human people who are other
than Israeli, expire April 21, 2009.
The Supreme Court can save Israel's face by finally delivering JUSTICE:
Issue Vanunu a one way out Passport and que sera
sera; what will be will be.
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
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