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Our Mission |
WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
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The Walls of Berlin and Bil'in |
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Garth Hewitt: From the Broken Heart Of Gaza |
FACTS ABOUT THE WALL from friends in Bethlehem
Read the truth about the Wall and what is happening today in the Holy City of Bethlehem. |
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Eileen Fleming's Biography
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"We're on a mission from God." The Blues Brothers "Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796 "My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon "If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
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"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead |
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
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DO SOMETHING! |
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
DO SOMETHING! Click Here |
Declaration of Independence |
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence |
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Home
Bethlehem mayor pleads for financial aid |
By David Gram, Associated Press Writer | October 18, 2005 MONTPELIER, Vt. --The mayor of Bethlehem, West Bank, said Tuesday his city is in such financial straits that it couldn't make its payroll last month, and is getting "zero" help from Christian churches that regard the city as Jesus Christ's birthplace. Victor Batarseh came to Vermont's capital with a delegation that included Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle for the opening of an exhibit of Palestinian art. Burlington, 40 miles northwest of Montpelier, is a sister city of both Bethlehem and Arad, Israel.
Batarseh said Bethlehem's economy is in tatters, with the tourism that had been its lifeblood reduced to virtually nothing due to the violence in the West Bank in recent years. Visitors have increased slightly in the last two months, he said, but were still at just 5 percent of historic levels. "We need peace," said the Roman Catholic mayor of the majority Muslim city. "We need peace between the two peoples, and the only way we can get peace is if the occupation is ended," he added, referring to Israel's presence in the West Bank. David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said later that Israel had withdrawn from the Gaza Strip last month, a move he described as a large and difficult concession. He said it was up to the Palestinians to take the next step by disarming militant groups operating in their midst. "Now the eyes of the world are on the Palestinian leadership to see if they can take steps necessary to bring about law and order in the Gaza Strip. Right now that's not happening," Siegel said. The violence flared anew on Sunday when Palestinians in a speeding car opened fire on a crowded bus stop, killing three Israelis and wounding four others. A second shooting minutes later seriously injured an Israeli. Israel reacted by clamping new travel restrictions on Palestinians, including closing off the cities of Hebron and Bethlehem. Batarseh said his city has been caught the middle. There are so few jobs for people that the city has been forced to forgive unpaid taxes. The mayor added that it gets very little aid from the Palestinian Authority. Despite talk of new U.S. aid for the West Bank and Gaza, Batarseh said he had been told that his city would get none of it, because five of the City Council's members are with the militant group Hamas. The mayor said he hoped Americans would pressure Congress and the White House to free up some aid for Bethlehem. He said the Hamas members on the City Council are not involved in the strife with Israel, instead focusing their energies on running Bethlehem's municipal government. He said the city wasn't getting any help from the world's Christian churches, despite its historic importance to those faiths. "That's what we hear," the mayor said with exasperation. "We hear about Christians, Christians, Christians helping Bethlehem being a Christian city, but we are getting nothing out of it. Nothing. Zero." He said he had pled his city's case in a meeting with Pope Benedict XIV Sept. 7, but so far no help had come from the Vatican. Batarseh said Christians have been emigrating from the city of 30,000 on the outskirts of Jerusalem, which is now 65 percent Muslim. Most of those who have left have done so to get away from the violence or because of Bethlehem's poor economy. He added that leaving is made easier for the city's Christians because most have relatives in other countries. Despite the trend, the Roman Catholic mayor vowed that the Christian presence in his city would continue. A majority-Muslim city has a Roman Catholic mayor because its charter, recently renewed by a decree from Palestinian leader Mahood Abbas, calls for eight of 15 city councilors to be Christians. "Bethlehem is the city where Jesus Christ was born," Batarseh said. "It is the city of the Nativity. It is the creator of Christianity. And we want to keep the city having this character. It's a special character." |
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Visitors since 07.22.05 |
Visitors: 27844265
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"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas |
Order My Books |
"Memoirs of a Nice Irish-AmericanGirl's Life inOccupied Territory" AND "Keep Hope Alive" To order either book click here. |
UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
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The Paradoxical Commandments by Dr. Kent M. Keith People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. © 1968, 2001 Kent M. Keith " In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
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“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946 |
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright |
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK |
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Establishment of Israel |
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
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posted 3/25/2009 |
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