Green Hall of Fame

Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission and Green Cities Coalition launched a new "Green Hall of Fame" in honor of the UN's World Environment Day June 5. PPJPC Executive Director Steve Saint shared MC honors with Clear Channel's Chris Brooks, in an event at the Cornerstone Arts Center at Colorado College. The three initial recipients (below) were local businessman and former City Council member Richard Skorman; Mark Joyous, founder of Global View Foundation/Earthseeds; and local open-space advocate Annie Oatman-Gardner the still from the top video is Chris Brooks, not Skorman, whose wife accepted for him).







After a cocktail hour sponsored by Bristol Brewing and Whole Foods, the awards were preceded by speeches from James "Jay" Amato of UN Association, who talked about the U.S.'s less than admirable role with Kyoto and other treaties; Carrie McCausland, the City of Colorado Springs' Sustainability Coordinator, who listed new efforts the city is making even in a recessionary year; Manitou Springs Mayor Eric Drummond (below), who talked about the many reasons why the small town west of Colorado Springs is re-defining sustainable city and walkable community; Larry Patterson, utilities director in the City of Fountain, discussing how Fountain is ratcheting up recyclables; and County Commissioner Dennis Hisey, reminding people of the important hazardous waste recycling facility east of town.

When you're in a heavily-military town like Colorado Springs, there's bound to be continuing controversy. Patterson made sure to mention how Fort Carson's 5th Brigade and Pinon Canyon expansions, currently on hold, would help the region, despite their very non-sustainable nature; and Hisey talked about how different assumptions have to drive military and industrial needs. But all in all, it was an auspicious inuagural event for Green Hall of Fame.

Iraq Year Six: 'Occupation is a Crime'

We held an Iraq invasion commemoration on Saturday at noon at Colorado College. Excerpts from speeches by Bill Durland and Bill Sulzman are in the video above, as are songs from Mary Sprunger-Froese playing with Buck Buchanan, and from Heidi Cooper.



In Part 2 above, you can hear speeches by me, Grace Yenne, and Genie Durland.



In the final segment above, Tom Kerwin reads a Martin Luther King quote, Ed Billings gets people ready to march, and folks march and chant from CC to Acacia Park.

Vulgar and Over-Caffeinated

I had 20 minutes of excerpts from Col. Ann Wright's Jan. 24 speech to the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, but the Flip Video erased itself when a button stuck. That sucks. I'll just have to tell you that Wright related a story of being tossed out and permanently barred from the Washington Press Club on Jan. 23, when Rep. Mitch McConnell denounced her organization, Code Pink, as "vulgar and over-caffeinated."

Wright is hardly vulgar. She is an Army warrant officer and former State Department diplomat who has served everywhere from Micronesia to Mongolia, including stints heading up the diplomatic side of the invasion of Grenada. She was in charge of reopening the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan in 2001, but resigned from the State Department 18 months later over the invasion of Iraq.

Wright urged the audience to pay close attention to "embedded" military recruitment that uses school appearances and arcade games to get high-schoolers to practice for standoff warfare jobs, such as piloting UAV drones. She talked about the courage of working for peace organizations in cities dominated by the military. And she expressed concern about Obama being able to handle the Pakistan-Afghanistan quagmire without getting more civilians killed in the process. Wright said she was willing to give the Karzai plan for involving some Taliban elements in government a chance, but added that the Afghanistan-Taliban-Pakistan-ISI mess may be permanently intractable.

Wish you could have seen the humorous excerpts from her funny speeches, but you'll just have to go and see her for yourself!

Elizabeth Fineron, Presente! (RIP)

Elizabeth Fineron was a long-time fixture of the Colorado Springs activist scene, working on issues of housing, economics, and peace. She got a good deal of publicity when she was hurt by cops in the 2007 St. Patrick's Day arrests.

Elizabeth had been fighting many health problems for years, capped off by a botched carotid artery surgery. On April 23, only three days after coming home from an extended hospital visit, she died. The Colorado Springs Gazette, which had gotten into many disagreements with her regarding her opinion on police behavior to the peace community, wrote a surprisingly nice article about her.

Sister Barbara Says Goodbye

Close to 100 people came to John Bourbonais' house Oct. 1 to say goodbye to Sister Barbara Huber, who is heading to El Paso for health reasons. (That's John B. introducing Barbara for a "this is your life" presentation.) Barbara has been a staple in the Colorado Springs peace community since the 1970s, and I've worked with her on all kinds of campaigns since 1990. She's been instrumental in Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, Active for Justice, and Pax Christi. Others hope to carry on important projects she initiated, like the Aug. 6 Sisters Witness Against War, but no one will ever be able to take her place.