NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Click here to DONATE to support the website Common Dreams! Here is a sampling of the type of news you can find there. It has been a main source of information for me since ever since. Here is a sample of the news you can find there from just the past week.  ************* Published on Saturday, December 26, 2015 by Common Dreams 'Whatever It Takes': Okinawa Sues Tokyo in Effort to Block US Base Prefecture's governor vows to take anything necessary to block construction of American military camp by Nadia Prupis, staff writer   Okinawa officials on Friday filed a lawsuit against the central Japanese government in a new bid to block the slated construction of a U.S. military base in the prefecture's Henoko region. "We will do whatever it takes to stop the new Henoko base," Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga said during a press conference Friday. "Okinawa's argument is legitimate, and I believe that it will be cer

Because of Tinian's role in the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, you will always find it mentioned in intriguing ways. Tinian is invoked in peace studies and anti-nuclear activist rhetoric in the same way Guam is mentioned in military strategic analysis and history. Both are empty sites from which violence is projected and structures of power are maintained.  Rarely however do either of these sites achieve their own purpose in these mentions, instead they just serve to enhance the potency of other places and other projects. This is one of the reasons I wrote my dissertation, to try to give some shape and form to this dynamic, through which you can mention places like Guam and Tinian a million times, but never say anything about them. Below is a quote from the late Father Zabelka, a chaplain in the US Air Force and blessed both the pilots and the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I came across this quote from him in Howard Zinn's book

Published on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 by Common Dreams Remembering Hiroshima at Los Alamos, New Mexico by Rev. John Dear   In 1981, while traveling in Europe, some friends and I visited Dachau, the Nazi concentration camp outside of Munich. Most of it was razed to the ground, but the original fences and barbed wire remained, along with a few buildings. That was enough to send chills down the spine. It was too much for me to take in. It’s still too much for me to take in. Upon leaving, I noticed the beautiful suburban neighborhood surrounding Dachau. The houses, green trees, streets, shrubs, shops—it could have been any suburb in the U.S.—and it was right next to the Nazi concentration camp. I was shocked and asked the officials, “Was Dachau like this 35 years ago? Were these homes here?” Yes, they answered. They smelled the smoke--and went on with their lives. The normality of evil! The suburba

Here is a quote from former Okinawa Governor Masahide Ota. --> If men such as this, who have this type of vision can be elected for office anywhere, then it means there is hope for mankind. His vision of peace is both realistic and ideal. The way that he acknowledges that taking the route of peace may mean less money for Okinawa, but that the life you would lead would be worth the tradeoff is inspiring. He is not someone who dreams of peace to dream because they are dissatisfied with the world around them. He dreams of peace in order to change his society and change the world around him. What can Okinawa be proud of? If Okinawa can boast of one thing to other prefectures it is our strong desire for peace. In Okinawa there is a saying that we have passed down for generations: You can sleep well if you are hurt by others, but if you hurt someone you cannot sleep. When you have military bases on your land, even if you yourself are not harmed, US soldiers go to other coun

Published on Sunday, December 9, 2012 by Common Dreams   There’s No Country That Would Tolerate Missiles by Johnny Barber   ( Photo: Johnny Barber) Walid al Nassasra and two of his daughters stand staring into the pit where his brothers sheet-metal roofed, cinder-block home stood until it was hit in a pin-point strike with a precision guided bomb from an F-16 fighter jet (provided by the United States) on 19 Nov 2012 at 10 pm as the family slept. If not for the clothes and bedding strewn about, it would be difficult to tell that a home once stood here. His brother Taqwfiq, like Walid, is a farmer. Their family has been farming in the Rafah area for 35 years. They are poor people, scratching out a living on a small plot of land. As we sat and talked with Walid, Israeli F-16's roared across the sky. His brother as well as a 12 year old nephew remains hospitalized, the nephew is in the ICU with skull and hip fractures. His sister-in-law is bli

Published on Sunday, October 16, 2011 by YES! Magazine 10 Ways to Support the Occupy Movement There are many things you can do to be part of this growing movement—and only some of them involve sleeping outside. by Sarah van Gelder The #OccupyWallStreet movement continues to spread with more than 1,500 sites. More and more people are speaking up for a society that works for the 99 percent, not just the 1 percent. Here are 10 recommendations from the YES! Magazine staff for ways to build the power and momentum of this movement. Only two of them involve sleeping outside: 1. Show up at the occupied space near you. Use this link to find the Facebook page of an occupation near you. If you can, bring a tent or tarp and sleeping bag, and stay. Or just come for a few hours. Talk to people, participate in a General Assembly, hold a sign, help serve food. Learn about the new world being created in the occupied spaces. 2. Start your own occupation. Use this Meetup site. Or

Anatomy of a Victory: Occupy Wall Street Wins a Big One Saturday 15 October 2011 by: J.A. Myerson, Truthout | News Analysis  Mayor Bloomberg’s Wednesday night visit to Liberty Plaza Park, during which he delivered news ( on behalf of his girlfriend’s corporation ) that the park would be cleaned Friday morning, made me very nervous. I found myself with a lay-over in Charlotte early Thursday morning and took the opportunity to pen a quick blog post to express my concerns. Boarding my next flight, I tweeted the following : “Okay, internets. About to take off for Seatac. No one do or say anything interesting for several hours, yes? Yes.” The internets declined. Over the next 20-or-so hours, there precipitated one of the most impressive single days of organizing I can recall or even imagine, and by 6 AM the next day, when the cleaning was set to begin, the Wall Street occupiers and our allies around the world had won. It’s worth looking into what made that happen, if for n