AMERICAN FRIENDS SERVICE COMMITTEE announces...

We've received this announcement from our Quaker friends at AFSC. They need volunteers to help set up their new exhibit on October 16-19 in several public spaces in New York City. If you can't help them on those days, we hope you will be able to go and see the exhibit. We are also hoping to bring the exhibit out to the North Fork later this year.

Please contact Iris Bieri directly at 212.598.0958.
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Dear Friends,

We about to launch a very exciting new exhibit and will need your help to make it happen. This will be the first time to display the Economic Cost of War exhibit in the New York metropolitan area. This is what the exhibit is about:

One day of the war in Iraq costs $720 million. How would you spend it?
The Iraq war has certainly been costly in terms of lives lost, with thousands of U.S. military personnel dead, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed. Also, the economic costs are far greater than most people imagine, with more than $1 trillion tax dollars spent in the first four years of the war.

One trillion dollars equals $720 million spent each day, or $500,000 per minute. The taxpayer money spent on the war is displacing millions of Iraqis and destroying their hospitals and schools instead of supporting health care, education and housing for people in our own communities. The American Friends Service Committee is launching a national project to highlight the economic cost of the war and demand that Congress shift war funding to support human needs here and real solutions in Iraq.

We plan to display this exhibit on October 16th and 18th in Union Square, 17th in Washington Square Park, and 19th in Columbus Circle. This will only be possible if there are volunteers to hand out materials, collect signatures for petitions, and talk to passersby. Please respond to this email with the date, location and time you are willing to volunteer.

We appreciate your dedication and support. Please help us make this happen.

All the best,

Iris Bieri

15 Rutherford Place
New York, NY 10003
212.598.0958

UPCOMING EVENTS

1. Our next film in the NFPOC film series will be WALL (Mur), written and directed by Simone Bitton.

Please join us on Saturday, October 20 at 7 pm at the Presbyterian Church in Cutchogue.

This documentary, in French, English, Arabic and Hebrew, tells the story of the wall being built by Israel as part of the separation barrier between Israel and Palestine. For more information,
http://www.wallthemovie.com/

2. We are also in the planning stages of a major event in partnership with Reverend Coverdale of the Riverhead Baptist Church that will span several days around Veterans Day, November 11. Although the details are not yet confirmed, the event is planned to include a display of all the panels that comprise the Honor the Fallen memorial in addition to films, music and an essay contest. Our objective is to bring together young people and their families from all the towns, hamlets and villages of the East End to talk and think about the consequences of war.

3. One of our board members is in discussion with a college in North Carolina about bringing the entire Honor the Fallen Memorial to their campus in January, '08. More as this develops.

Footnote
We urge those of you who missed our screening last Saturday of The Short Life of Jose Antonio Gutierrez, to try and find another opportunity to see it not least for the devastating causal connection it makes between poverty, foreign policy and war. For more information, http://www.theshortlife-film.com/en/

SONGS OF WAR AND PEACE--photos

The concert was wonderful. If you missed it, here are some photographs to give you a feel for the way it was--the church, the audience and, above all, the spirited, talented performers.

NFPOC wants to thank Phillip Price and Peter Cameron for their enthusiasm, hard work and the generosity of their support to North Fork People of Conscience.

Here they were on the day:

Here is what greeted you as you came to the concert:











Here are some views of the appreciative audience:






And here are the performers.
We hope they know how much we enjoyed their music and how uplifting it was for us all.
















And, as always and again, our very special thanks to the indefatigable Conscience Films team of Abe Krikorian who took all the photographs you see here and to his partner, Gene Taylor, who filmed the entire event.