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
WAWA Blog February 15, 2008:A Bishop andGuss on Gaza. Phil, thee and me on the USS LIBERTY USS Liberty Gets Its Own Weekly Radio Program on the Republic Broadcasting Network February 14, 2008
For 40 years and counting, the brave survivors (and their families) of the USS Liberty have tried telling the world what happened to them on June 8th, 1967 when the state of Israel attacked the United States ship for over an hour with as many as 1,000 rockets, tens of thousands of armor-piercing rounds and 5 torpedoes. For the most part, the American press has yawned and decided to cover the latest Hollywood scandal or some other nonsense that has absolutely no bearing on the more important issues facing the American people.
Now, a new development has taken place where the survivors of the Liberty will not be forced to beg a criminally-incompetent American media to tell their story. Beginning Saturday, February 23rd, the USS Liberty survivors will have their own live radio program appearing on the Republic Broadcasting Network found at http://www.republicbroadcasting.org.
The live, two-hour call-in program will appear every Saturday from 10 am to 12 pm CST and will be hosted by Phil Tourney, survivor of the Liberty and 3-time president of the Liberty Veteran’s Association and Mark Glenn, contributing editor for American Free Press newspaper. The weekly program, in addition to discussing the event taking place 40 years ago, will also be an in-depth analysis of current political events that have as their origin the fact that a United States ship was attacked in an act of premeditated war and was not rectified. Appearances by many of the other survivors of the Liberty will also be a regular theme, talking about what they went through that day and what has happened to them personally since that time.
Persons wishing to listen to the program live can do so by going to http://www.republicbroadcasting.org and clicking on the ‘Listen Live’ option. For those not able to hear the program in real-time, it will be archived for later listening.
Phil has put out a request to all concerned citizens to write Congressmen Ike Skelton Via <> demanding Congress SUPPORT THE TROOPS with TRUTH and allow all survivors who want to speak on the record about that day in infamy when the Johnson Administration called back the Navy's resuce fleets and the mainstream media went missing in action.
MY EMAIL of Feb. 15, 2008:
Dear Congressmen Ike Skelton and Eric,
On October 13, 2007, I met my first USS LIBERTY survivor who spoke to a crowd of patriotic, concerned American citizens. When Phil Tourney boldly stated, "It was God that kept us afloat," I knew I had to do something.
So far, I have interviewed 9 of the LIBERTY survivors and the more I learn, the angrier I get that my government told truth tellers to SHUT UP, threatened them with court martial "and worse" if they ever spoke about that day in infamy when the Johnson Administration was willing to sacrifice our troops and the media went missing in action.
I am writing you to encourage you to lead the way to honoring the dead and the traumatized survivors and their families with an open thorough investigation which allows all the survivors who want to speak on the Congressional Record the opportunity to report history as an eye witness.
Thank you for your consideration and action,
Eileen Fleming,
Reporter and Editor WAWA http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Actors Change. Drama Continues: Bishop Riah calls for action in Gaza
With the gap in the Gaza-Eyptian border having been closed, Professor Norman Finkelstein has called on ordinary Gazans to take up their picks and shovels and tear down the border between Gaza and Israel - an action that he says would be entirely justifiable, as it would uphold the ruling of the International Court of Justice that declared the wall illegal. Meanwhile Bishop Riah continues to call on the International community to intervene and stop the suffering.
The one and a half million people of Gaza continue to be strangled being caught in a situation that requires wisdom rather than might; that requires moral courage rather than the power of the gun.
How long will our noble family of our global village, including major players in the Middle East situation, continue to stand afar and watch? Must those children of Gaza continue to feel the hunger in their empty bellies, the cold and darkness of their black nights, while we continue to enjoy the fruits of the earth and the warmth of our home? Must the words of Jesus Christ become true of us when he said "They have eyes but do not see, and have ears but do not hear?" Need a whole community go through the valley of death until the people of the world wake up to the rights of Gazans, for life with dignity, and for freedom in their homeland? Turning a blind eye to their human rights will not make us more worthy of our humanity, indeed our own rights, not to say the divinity that is in each and everyone of us.
The situation in Gaza has moved from being difficult to being tragic; and from being tragic to becoming catastrophic!!! It Is Time For Action. It is time for people of good faith to stand up together for what is right, not simply who is right. The daily needs of the people of Gaza must be guaranteed.
The root cause of all this pain, this living death, and all the insecurity for both sides caught in the conflict in the Land we call Holy is the ongoing, illegal Israeli Occupation of 1967. For this situation of pain to cease the occupation must cease. For peace, healing and reconciliation to prevail, the occupation should become part of yesterday. For this beautiful dream to come true the authorities of the world need walk the walk rather than continue to Talk the talk.
May God Have Mercy
Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal Bishop Riah recently retired as the Episcopal Bishop of Jerusalem but is still actively campaigning for justice and peace In an email to Guss in Gaza I asked him what the word on the street was about the two suicide/homicide bombers who blew up six miles from the Dimona WMD Plant.
Where they Fatah from Gaza as originally reported or Hamas from Hebron as later spun?
hi eileen
it is very nice taliking to you again...and about the news you asking, it does not matter for who is in charge but, some of the people are happy of revenging, others are afraid of the seige ,the situation is critical, car petrol is still less,and fuel electricity is reduced, not more than 12 hours a day.
try to open this web , it speaks about the seige in detail and has some videos http://www.irpal.ps
MORE with Guss:
WAWA Blog February 5, 2008: This American Girl spoke with Gus in Gaza on Super Bowl Sunday:
"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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