A TOE in the Door - Now SHOW UP

http://www.toes-usa.org/brunswick2004.html

An interesting link with (at last) some alternatives to the corporate crime in office:
Excerpt (past conference - sampling of topics, questions)






TOES Brunswick '04 Program
AbstractsJune 8-10, 2004
Coastal Georgia Community College3700 Altama Ave.Brunswick, GA 31520-3644






http://www.cgcc.edu/

The 2004 TOES conference will be held upstairs in the multi-purpose room at the Coastal Georgia Community College Gymnasium. Several classrooms will be available for breakout session, press interviews, etc. The Fair World Fair will take place in tents which will be set up on the athletic field.

TUESDAY, JUNE 8, 2004UNACCEPTABLE COSTS OF GLOBALIZATION AND EMPIRE
If "globalization is inevitable," why does it require military might, including a "war against terrorism" and increasing corporate power and government interventions to effect this transition?

Has the current impetus to global empire undermined international law and human rights? Has the logic of redemptive violence (the gods favor those who conquer) become a self-fulfilling prophesy that creates more violence? Is the logic of empire in conflict with all spiritual traditions and human rights standards?

The G8, and the American Congress, should create investigative commissions into the atrocities of the 'war on terrorism' and start down a new path toward an inclusive and democratically open approach to world peacekeeping.

9:00 - 10 am, June 8, 2004 Welcoming Ceremony

- Susan Hunt -- Welcome- Pastor Zack Lyde - Invocation, recognition of local organizers- Trent Schroyer - Introduction of Walter Wink

10 - 11:00 am, June 8, 2004 (PLENARY ADDRESS)"GLOBALIZATION AND EMPIRE: WE HAVE MET THE EVIL EMPIRE AND IT IS US" Walter Wink

"We will test the value of a theological perspective simple enough for most people to utilize to understand and engage the Powers That Be. Quite simply, the Powers are good, the Powers are fallen, the Powers can be transformed. This framework makes possible a critique of domination that can be applied to the confluence of 'globalization from above' and American imperialism. Like two converging glaciers slowly mingling with each other, these massive forces have created the greatest concentration of economic and political power the world has ever known. Can it be humanized?"

Walter Wink is Professor of Biblical Interpretation, Auburn Theological Seminary in New York City. Previously, he was a parish minister and taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. In 1989-1990 he was a Peace Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. The author of many books, including the award winning Engaging the Powers and The Human Being: Jesus and the Enigma of the Son of the Man, Walter and his wife June Keener Wink have led peace workshops all over the United States and Canada, as well as in New Zealand, South Africa, Chile, South Korea, East and West Germany, England, Scotland and Ireland.

11 - 12 noon, June 8, 2004 UNACCEPTABLE COSTS OF GLOBALIZATION AND EMPIRE Facilitator: Trent Schroyer

Ward Morehouse, Co-Founder, Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy (POCLAD), President of the Council on International and Public Affairs (CIPA), and Former Chair of TOES/USA. "Unacceptable Costs of Globalization and Empire"
The current impetus to global empire has undermined international law and human rights. The logic of redemptive violence is a self-fulfilling prophesy and is in conflict with all spiritual traditions and human rights standards.We call on the G8 and the American Congress to create investigative commissions into the atrocities of the 'war on terrorism' and a new path to an inclusive and democratically open approach to world peacekeeping.

- Jason Mark, Communications Director and Ford Campaigner, Global Exchange. "Oil Addiction and Empire"

- Maureen A. Kane, "All 168 Countries Need a Voice"Raw materials are mined in Africa. South America is a source of oil, food stuffs and timber. Both oil and labor come from the Middle East. Manufacturing takes place in Central America. The new countries in the former USSR are a source of both raw materials and labor. In China, work is done by children. All these countries deserve a voice. And respect (re = again, respect = look at these people openly). They also deserve to share in decision-making, to be a part of the economic community, and to share profits with their people, including their women and children. They deserve medical care, education, shelter, food, and above all, respect.

12 noon - 1:15 pm - LUNCH
12 noon, Tuesday, June 8, 2004 JUBILEE USA PRESS CONFERENCE
The press conference will feature religious leaders speaking from their faith traditions about prophetic call for debt cancellation for impoverished nations. Speakers will also address current conditions in Africa, and the need for debt cancellation in light of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Jubilee USA Network will also unveil a photo display at the event containing hundreds of photos of people of faith and conscience from across the United States, Europe, and elsewhere with messages to the G-8 leaders.- Marie Clarke, National Coordinator, Jubilee USA Network- Adam Taylor, Associate Minister, Shiloh Baptist Church; Board member, Jubilee USA, Washington, DC- Barbara Kalima, Director, AFRODAD, Zimbabwe- Rev. Tim McDonald, Concerned Black Clergy, Atlanta, Ga. (invited)- Rev. Fred D. Taylor, Coordinator of Direct Action for the National office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (invited)- Pastor Zack Lyde, Brunswick, Ga. (invited)

1:15 - 2:45 pm, June 8, 2004 "NONVIOLENCE FOR THE VIOLENT " (WORKSHOP)Facilitator: Walter Wink

This is a workshop for those of us who would like to become nonviolent in both our personal and social lives, but who doubt our ability to achieve it. Jesus, Gandhi, and King show us how to engage in nonviolent struggle without becoming violent ourselves; how to overcome domination without becoming dominators; and how to become spiritual activists without being turned into the very thing we hate.
Bringing democracy to the world:

First they threaten with "shock and awe" (that is NOT terror eh?), then they bomb the shit out of a country with no airforce where half the population are children.

Can someone tell me WHY they are torturing anyhow. They stood down for 9/11, and escorted 300 Saudis from the country. Why are they torturing Iraqis - for defending their own damn country?


War criminals unprosecuted, unchecked, and particularly unbalanced.

Bringing corporate global domination to the people, by the few who think they should RULE us.

Make no mistake about it (as mr. bush is so fond of saying)
the axis of evil is in the mirror mr. bush, and the TOE in the door is about to become a foot, quickly followed by a live body with a summons.

Most of us do not want your vision of a warped, corrupt, corporate jesus, we prefer the good samaritan, the Prince of Peace, who fed the poor, spoke of love and encouraged us to see the God in each of us.

Jesus said, "My ways are not of this world"

Boy he wasn't kidding.

Now let's roll and go kick some corporate butt. How DARE these cretins of commerce think they can RULE us. How DARE they.