Vigils calling for end to Iraq war begin
Cincinnati Enquirer

"Hundreds of candlelight vigils calling for an end to the war in Iraq lit up the night Wednesday, part of a national effort spurred by one mother's anti-war demonstration near President Bush's ranch. The vigils were urged by Cindy Sheehan, who has become the icon of the anti-war movement since she started a protest Aug. 6 in memory of her son Casey, who died in Iraq last year." (08/17/05)

http://tinyurl.com/7fffm

-----
No-fly zones for military recruiters
Christian Science Monitor

"There's one piece of paper that's getting more attention this year as parents sift through back-to-school packets: The opt-out form -- a way to keep family contact information off the list that public schools must make available to military recruiters. A wide variety of activists -- including teens, parents, teachers, lawyers, and clergy -- have been mobilizing this summer to draw a clearer line in the sand against the military's access to students." (08/18/05)


http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0818/p11s01-lifp.html

-----

To pledge or not to pledge
Christian Science Monitor
by Robert J. Spitzer

"This spring, our eighth-grader came home from school with two startling announcements: She and a friend had abstained from the Pledge of Allegiance; and the two faced disciplinary action if they refused to stand or leave the room during this morning ritual. The ensuing minidrama has played out in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of schools nationwide. 'Students today are still punished for refusing to participate' in the pledge, notes David Hudson, a lawyer at the First Amendment Center. Seven states still have unconstitutional laws on the books requiring students to participate in Pledge of Allegiance exercises. As the school year begins, it's time for a lesson on the disparity between law and practice." (08/18/05)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0818/p09s02-coop.html
-----

Cindy Sheehan and the shame of inaction
LewRockwell.Com
by Thomas Luongo

"After years of my talking about making the world a better place, Cindy Sheehan is actually doing it, in the process making all of us connected with the Libertarian Party, and many others in 'the movement,' look like the navel-gazing blow-hards we are constantly accused of being. Personally, my taste for any kind of political activism has been soured by personal events of the past few months, to the point of neglecting the only positive thing I was doing to affect the kind of change I wished to see. Too painful, I rationalized. Too much work, too little return, I whined. My wrists hurt from all the typing. Whatever the excuse was it seemed like a good idea at the time .... sorta." (08/18/05)

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig6/luongo3.html
-----

Radio Free America
The American Prospect
by Alyson Zureick

"It's an unusually hot August afternoon in small-town Florence, Massachusetts, and a ragtag group has gathered under a tent behind the Florence Community Center. They're participants in the 10th annual Grassroots Radio Conference, and they've come from all over the country to build a new low-power community radio station for the area. People wander in and out of the tent as the afternoon plenary session opens, but then a man approaches the microphone, and suddenly everyone is paying attention. He isn't exactly an imposing figure ... but as he begins to speak, he's greeted by thunderous applause. 'He's like a rock star around here,' one conference participant said to me earlier in the day, pointing the man out in a crowd at lunchtime. Indeed, for those in community radio, 'rock star' is a bit of an understatement for Romeo Ramirez and his organization, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers." (08/17/05)

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10144

-----