A dozen FCCPR members rallied at the Greenfield Post Office Saturday, August 29.  This banner said it all!         

Greenfield Recorder, July 23, 2020.   My Turn

By E. Martin Schotz, MD

The current pandemic and the looming threat of climate chaos have heightened people’s awareness that humans as a species are vulnerable and that international cooperation is absolutely necessary in addressing these problems. When we combine this with the massive demonstrations against racism, one has a sense that major social changes may be possible. But another related threat often goes ignored and unmentioned — the threat of war.

For decades the government of the United States has pursued so-called “national security” with astronomical expenditures on weapons of war, at the top of which is our vast arsenal of “nuclear weapons.” I put “nuclear weapons” in quotations because these are not weapons in any real sense. Rather “nuclear weapons” are instruments of mass murder and genocide.

This August we commemorate the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, attacks that intentionally killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians immediately and in the radioactive aftermath. We, the people of the United States, have never honestly faced these racist crimes against humanity. Instead we have continued on a path of destruction, spending trillions of dollars on wars and weapons, when we need to be devoting ourselves to international cooperation for the health and welfare of all people and all of nature.

President Eisenhower in his farewell address warned us, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.” (Jan 17, 1961). And even more relevant were Eisenhower’s words on April 16, 1953. “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

It was little more than 10 years later, on June 10, 1963, that President Kennedy delivered a critically important speech about peace at American University in Washington, D.C. President Kennedy’s speech came after his harrowing experience in the “Cuban Missile Crisis” when the world narrowly escaped catastrophic destruction. The president was able to find a way out of the crisis, because he had AP previously developed a private correspondence with Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev. Based on that correspondence they were able to understand each other and find common ground.

President Kennedy opened his discussion with the following words: “I have … chosen this time and this place to discuss a topic on which ignorance too often abounds and the truth is too rarely perceived – yet it is the most important topic on earth: world peace.

“What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life worth living, the kind that enables … nations to grow and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not mere peace in our time but peace for all time.”

In his speech President Kennedy tried to articulate for the American people the principles that are necessary for a different kind of world order and provided a rough road map of how to get there. At this moment, it is essential to go back to President Kennedy’s speech. I urge everyone who is reading this article to go to the text of that speech, read it, listen carefully to it, and ponder its message.

Click here for JFK’s speech.

The vision articulated in this speech by President Kennedy is critical for the survival of humankind today. Peace will only be possible, if enough of us take some small measure of responsibility for it. Once you have listened to the speech and read it, you can print it out, and share it with family, friends, neighbors and co- workers. Then you and they can join in seeking to make real President Kennedy’s vision.

E. Martin Schotz, MD, is a retired physician living in Cummington and a member of the Peace Task Force of Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution. He can be reached at eli.schotz@gmail.com.

To sign up for this event click here.

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution joins the chorus of millions of individuals and groups in the U.S. and around the world who have spoken out against the institutional racism that, for more than 400 years has continued to claim the lives and livelihoods of people of color. We encourage all of our members and the public at large to challenge racism in whatever forms it manifests itself. White privilege is a subtle and not-so-subtle way of dividing people who are all struggling against the degradation foisted on us by the capitalist system that places profit for a few above the needs of the many. None of us will be able to live our lives fully until all are able to do so. 

Specifically, we support the efforts of Black Lives Matter and Defund413 in their demands to:

• • End the resource officer in the public schools. This position tends to criminalize difficult behavior of children rather than looking to the underlying problems and solving them. Statistics have demonstrated that children of color are more likely to be singled out for discipline by the resource officer. We support the use of these funds to increase counseling and support services for students in our schools.

• • End the use of money bail within our court system. The cash bail system penalizes low income people, who are disproportionately people of color, by preventing them from returning home while awaiting adjudication of the legal issues at hand. This is not only a difficulty for the arrested individual, but also the individual’s family as this causes the loss of employment and greater financial insecurity. And it reverberates through the entire community. People of means, even modest means, have the ability to continue employment while awaiting trial. This system criminalizes poverty and should be eliminated.

• • Reallocate funds from the police to mental health first responders, peer supports, substance abuse services, domestic and intimate partner violence advocacy and support. The police are presently expected to respond to situations for which they are not well trained. A task force should be developed to re-imagine the work of the police and direct funds to services that more appropriately deal with the issues at hand. When that plan has been devised, funds should then be reallocated to social service organizations or to the hiring of additional appropriately trained staff to deal with the social and human service issues that are often today part of the police portfolio.

• • Create a police review board with power. Install an independent citizens complaint review board that will have authority to review all complaints including the use of force and will determine disciplinary actions for offending officers. The review board would be composed of people with direct experience of police brutality or misconduct along with others concerned about equitable enforcement of the law. The board would approve de-escalation, racial justice, restraint and other training in an ongoing manner. 

We look forward to working with Black Lives Matter, Racial Justice for Franklin County–Solidarity and Action, Racial Justice Rising and other organizations in creating a more equitable and just society.

On Tuesday, June 16 FCCPR members and friends massed at a number of post offices around the County to show our concern about the future of the U.S.P.S., one of the oldest institutions in the country. A push toward privatization, which would almost certainly result in closures of rural post offices (not enough profit there!), is being resisted nationwide.

FCCPR is distributing ‘Save the Post Office’ stickers that you can put on your mail. To request some, use this link.

Stand up for the post office by standing with us at your local post office on June 16 at noon.

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) is joining a national movement to save the US Postal Service.

Why is this rally necessary?  

The US Postal Service says it will run out of money by the end of the summer if it does not get support from Congress, and the president threatens to veto any bill that contains money for the post office.  Why would the president not want to support the most popular agency in the government, an agency that employs more than six hundred thousand people and that facilitates more than one trillion dollars of business each year?

There are two main reasons for the president wanting to shut down the post office.

1. The president and many of his supporters in Congress want to replace it with a private, for-profit entity owned by corporations that would profit from our mail service. This would mean that postal rates would increase because corporations would take profits from the business.  Mail service would get worse especially in locations where there is not a great deal of mail activity (small towns like the hill towns in our area, resulting in less service to them).  There would no longer be any public oversight into the postal service since it would now be a private business.

2. Second, with public post offices shut down, the push to have vote-by-mail this coming election season would be in doubt, and this is crucial.  Trump has suggested that if voter turnout is large, then he and other Republicans will lose their elections. Making it difficult or impossible for people to vote during this pandemic will help their chances in November. If the post office is shut down, people will have to decide whether to risk illness or death in order to vote, or whether they will just stay home, and the more who stay home, the better for Trump.

Why is the post office in financial trouble?

First, Congress passed a law in 2006 that required the post office to put aside billions of dollars to fund retirement benefits for the next seventy-five years, a burden that no other agency or program carries. There is no reason for this except politics; the Republicans wanted to drive the post office out of business and hoped this financial pressure would help make that happen. 

The second reason is the impact of Covid 19; the postal services are carrying less mail so making less money, like lots of businesses during this crisis. 

Why does this matter?  

• The postal service exists to serve the public.  It uses no tax dollars and does not make a profit.  The money it raises through stamps and other fees goes into paying for itself and is the cheapest option for sending letters and packages around the country and the world since they are not taking profits.
• It is vital to rural areas that do not have reliable (or any) broadband such as many of the towns in Western Massachusetts.  It helps people in those towns to stay connected.
• It provides small business owners with an essential connection to clients, vendors, and potential customers
• It provides 630,000 government jobs—80 percent of them good-paying career positions.
• It is the largest employer of African Americans in the country.  37% of its employees are African American, and 37% are women.
• It distributes census forms, online purchases, letters, parcels, books, magazines, stimulus checks, and medical supplies.
• It is a place that serves the entire community, providing universal service to all
• It will enable all voters to vote by mail in upcoming elections so that they don’t have to risk being exposed to the Covid 19 virus in order to take part in our democracy
• It has in the past served as a place to do banking, providing a non-profit alternative to payday loan type businesses that charge large interest rates, and it could serve that function again.

We need a public post office, with expanded services, that serves us, not a particular politician, party, or profit-seeking corporation. 

Stand up for the post office by standing with us at your local post office on June 16 at noon.

FCCPR is also offering “save the post office” stickers to place on mail: contact info@fccpr.us if you want them.

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution P.O. Box 216 Greenfield Ma. 01302

FCCPR.US

In case you were unable to join us for Part 1 of our Zoom-based General Assembly, you can use the links below to see/hear/read what you missed:

Screen Share with Speaker View (video)

Audio Only

Chat Transcript

And to register for our General Assembly, Part 2, which will be this coming Thursday evening, May 21, at 7:00 PM, please use this link.

Our FCCPR General Assembly which was originally scheduled for May 3rd at the Grange Hall is being rescheduled. It will be an on-line meeting. We will let you know very soon when it will be.

Last night about 15 people converged on Zoom to discuss the current state of affairs. We talked about a variety of issues including food shortages, rent strikes, Medicare for All, the importance of letters to the editor and using social media more effectively.   In case you missed it and are interested in the discussion, you can watch the recording.

We will continue this discussion at our next General Assembly, which will be scheduled in the near future. Watch for an announcement in our next newsletter.