Peacemaking: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

message to international penal aboliitionists re Unmanned: America's Drone Wars

From: Pepinsky, Harold E.

Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:50 PM
To: Pat Magill; Lorraine Runga; Liz Remersvall; Paul Bailey; Maxine Boag; Tony Taylor
Cc: Louise Ludlow; Phyl and Rob Wilkins; Jackie Katounas; Jesma Magill; Russell Fairbrother; 'Idis Dunn'; Alan Burke; Helen Nesbit; Janice@primus.com.au
Subject: RE: Please watch Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, for free!

As I watched the father and children forthrightly tell what happened this morning at democracynow.org, as they had to 5 members of Congress at the Capitol yesterday, I felt that they were my neighbors, and (rare for me), I even teared up at the fear in which the young girl describes living, of terror from the sky. In allowing myself these feelings, I recognize just how deep the barriers we have raised even to knowing our literal neighbors' and co-workers' lives, numbed ourselves to the necessity of prevailing through punishment that we in the US so succumb to. I am reminded that my mother would tell me when I returned from law school that she would like awake nights haunted by lives being taken in our national name in Vietnam. And as I have numbed myself to processing what I hear from survivors of ritual abuse, I am thankful that I can let myself face the victims of US national security, and trust that my fellow US residents will be able to survive watching with their defenses intact against accepting being haunted into paralysis as my mom was. As we in my country come to recognize just how murderous our national history has been from Anglo-American conquest, perhaps we will find other ways to invest in securing rather than fighting lives. love and peace--hal

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, skype name halpep, "Peacemaking" at pepinsky.blogspot.com
519 Evergreen Circle, Worthington, OH 43085-3667, 1-614-885-6341

Please note: My mind isn't big enough to handle social networking. I do not respond to requests to befriend on Facebook or to become Linked In. That leaves me free to take time to respond to email on this one account, and to answer home phone calls, which I very much enjoy receiving. Thanks for your understanding. love and peace--hal

From: Pat Magill [p.magill@slingshot.co.nz]
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2013 3:30 PM
To: Lorraine Runga; Liz Remersvall; Paul Bailey; Maxine Boag; Tony Taylor
Cc: Louise Ludlow; Phyl and Rob Wilkins; Jackie Katounas; Jesma Magill; Russell Fairbrother; 'Idis Dunn'; Alan Burke; Helen Nesbit; Janice@primus.com.au
Subject: FW: Please watch Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, for free!

Thank you Hal, ”sad stuff”

Pat Magill JP- Napier Community Mentor

Phone +64 6 835 9872 Mobile +64 27 749 0061

Mural displayed at the stairway of Napier and Family Courts

Early intervention is preventing incarceration

"In January 1986 Napier was designated by the Hon. Anne Hercus, Minister of Police and Social Welfare, for the study and implementation of positive alternatives to violence"

From: Pepinsky, Harold E. [mailto:pepinsky@indiana.edu]
Sent: Friday, 1 November 2013 7:30 a.m.
To: Justin Piche; Coyle, Michael; JOAN RUZSA; Aruna Boodram; dohearn@binghamton.edu; kehinde422@yahoo.com; lbenmosh@uic.edu; Mecke.Nagel@cortland.edu; vhanna@umassd.edu; Robert Gaucher; info@hulsmanfoundation.org; brett@justiceaction.org.au; wchamblet@yahoo.com; catherineali6@gmail.com; frankdunbaugh@verizon.net; p.magill@slingshot.co.nz; hutchie365no@yahoo.com; agozino@vt.edu; Vicki Chartrand; e-meiners@neiu.edu; panagiota.c@videotron.ca; jsudbury@mills.edu; r_reece74@hotmail.com; Dee LeComte; dis.studies@gmail.com; giselledias37@gmail.com; rachel@criticalresistance.org; dylan.rodriguez@ucr.edu; Isaac@criticalresistance.org; Judah.Schept@eku.edu; kwalby@uvic.ca; mike.larsen@kwantlen.ca; brichie@uic.edu; nocellat@yahoo.com; caefs@web.ca; epic@riseup.net; vino.shanmuga@gmail.com; info@prisonjustice.ca; queertrans.prisonersolidarity@gmail.com; tdafnos@yorku.ca; naacj@naacj.org; eyestir@gmail.com; tina.lorizzo@gmail.com; vusikweyama@yahoo.com; MMunn@okanagan.bc.ca; scboyd@uvic.ca; letters.for.the.inside@gmail.com; lisfina@hotmail.com; mr_hernandez@hotmail.com; Erica Meiners; smileylizard@hotmail.com; feminista_k@hotmail.com; strausska@gmail.com; jessica.denyer@gmail.com; nagelsen@gmail.com; craig2016@bigpond.com; eugenedey@hotmail.com; erwilliams3@gmail.com; tristan.klein@gmail.com; michael.loadenthal@gmail.com; drewfriedfertig@gmail.com; info@prisonercorrespondenceproject.com; platek@warman.com.pl; Phil Scraton; Bree.Carlton; rascal.charli@gmail.com; Gabrielle Pedicelli; charandevsingh@hotmail.com; huckelbury@gmail.com; claire delisle; Joshua M Price; Alexis Shotwell; Life After Life Project Coordinator; Akki Mackay; compalena@hotmail.com; Kim Pate; nasrin.himada@gmail.com; yasmeenpeer@gmail.com; Alex; deb@sistersinside.com.au; emmakruss@gmail.com; soleil; Aric; robertson.reuben@gmail.com; Tatiana Rother; Sarah North; Andrea Hughes; Neal Shannacappo; Candice Pilgrim; Sophie Lamarche; maeve_mcmahon@carleton.ca
Cc: Sarah Fiander
Subject: Please watch Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, for free!

Please pass along the chance to view Unmanned: America's Drone Wars for free. Also, today's October 31 broadcast at democracynow.org spend the whole hour presenting the film, and has live interviews of the director and of a Pakistani father and two children, whose (grand)mother was killed by a drone strike, and who are featured in the film.
We talked about surveillance and profiling. This documentary shows the outcome of the most sophisticated military surveillance to use programs--profiles--of who are offenders: massive murder of innocents, and the toll it takes on drone pilots. This reign of US terror has been going on for years. It is especially important for us in the US to see what others see done to them in our name. love and peace--hal

From: Robert Greenwald [info@bravenew01.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 30, 2013 7:30 AM
To: Pepinsky, Harold E.
Subject: YOUR LINK to watch Unmanned: Americas Drone Wars is ready!

Today is the day! My latest documentary Unmanned: America's Drone Wars is now available and here is your link to stream the film for free.

When I traveled to Pakistan last year, I was so moved by the people I met and the devastating loss they suffered from drone strikes, that I felt obligated to share their stories and ignite discussion about this atrocity. I cannot express how thrilled I am that you are joining the fight by watching this investigative film and spreading the word on this crucial issue.

Who else do you think needs to see this film? Can we count on you to ask them to sign up to watch this important film? Together, we can educate and engage enough people and work to change the U.S. drone policy.

Thank you again,

Robert Greenwald & The War Costs Team

Brave New Foundation · 10510 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232, United States
This email was sent to pepinsky@indiana.edu. To stop receiving emails, click here.
You can also keep up with Robert Greenwald on Twitter or Facebook.
For donation questions, please contact donations@bravenewfoundation.org.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Spectacular! Watch results of profiling using advanced military surveillance for free

Check October 31 at democracynow.org: the entire program is on this documentary, beginning with producer/director Robert Greenwald, ending with a Pakistani father and children whose (grand)mother was blown apart by a drone strike, featured in the film.

It features drone warrior Brandon Bryant, against on-scene reports from survivors and footage of children killed. As the High Court in Islamabad has ruled, this is the war crime of serial murders. It includes response to that for which President Obama has assumed personal responsibility. Robert Greenwald has done a spectacular job of reporting. Watch it for free, as I have just done. You simply log in with a name and email address, receive a request for email confirmation, accept, and receive your own login prompt. Pass it on--love and peace--hal

From: Robert Greenwald [info@bravenew01.org]
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 7:22 PM
To: Pepinsky, Harold E.
Subject: Be Among the First to See Our New Documentary on Drones for FREE!

On October 24 2012, a drone strike hit, killing Rafiq ur Rehman's 67-year-old mother and injuring his two children. Today, he and his family made history by courageously sharing their heartbreaking story with members of Congress and the American Public.

Unmanned: America's Drone Wars, the eighth full-length feature documentary from Brave New Foundation, investigates the impact of U.S. drone strikes at home and abroad. I interviewed Rafiq ur Rehman and his remarkable family, capturing the gravity of their loss and providing a window into their lives. Through more than 70 separate interviews, including a former American drone operator, other Pakistani families mourning the loss of loved ones and investigative journalists, this important film decries the ineffectiveness of drone strikes and highlights the unthinkable tragedy that ensues.

The film will be available, October 30th! Sign up TODAY for a link to stream the film for free. Who else do you think needs to see this film? Can we count on you to ask them to sign up to watch this important film? With your help, we can educate and engage enough people and work to change the U.S. drone policy.

Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,
Robert Greenwald & The War Costs Team

Depression

DEPRESSION

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, “peacemaking” at pepinsky.blogspot.com

October 30, 2013

A friend of mine in prison has recently apologized for a recurring episode of depression. This story is for you, dear friend.

It was a warm, sunny day in late summer 1995. I was sitting on a rock looking across the fjord toward Oslo. Jill, Katy and I were returning for a stay with Birgit Brock-Utne and Gunnar Garbo. As I sat I thought of a story I had read in an East Asian literature class, where a sage told a prince that the prince was like any one of the colony of ants marching before them. I felt so insignificant. I felt so guilty for claiming the salary and benefits that my birth in white male privilege had given me. I could neither claim credit for any of my supposed accomplishments, nor do anything of significance to the well-being of humanity in my lifetime.

At the time, I was singing in nursing homes, where I met great grandmothers who seemed largely abandoned, as though Mable’s time singing with me singing with them was the single light of their days. It came to me that the most precious commodity to a sense of social security is to feel honestly valued by so much as another soul (human or superhuman) for what one truly believes and feels. In day-to-day terms, that means knowing one has made a significant difference for the better in at least one other being’s life.

As I write today, thanks to loving relations like yours and mine, and to the miracle of coming home, my soul is full with reassurances. I have reached a state of relaxation and appreciation of living and learning I had thought unimaginable.

Here’s the thing: The world hasn’t changed. As I got to telling my students, I believe that would-be peacemakers like me know violence to be far wider and deeper than those who practice punishment allow themselves to imagine, let alone hear.

Bottom line: My friend, you keep enriching my life, and that’s as good as it gets. Love you, hal

Friday, October 25, 2013

Drone Warrior

DRONE SOLDIER

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, pepinsky.blogspot.com

October 25, 2013

Retired Air Force drone pilot Brandon Bryant was today’s guest for most of the hour on democracynow.org. I have long been curious about the minds and feelings of US drone warriors. I have supposed that they had grown up adept at video games. I could not have asked for a better guide to life as a drone warrior than Brandon Bryant. Like so many strong, reflective, non-defensive extreme trauma survivors who have graced college classes of mine, Brandon’s is the honest, open voice I seek most to hear. Not about drone warriors, but by a drone warrior.

When asked, he straightforwardly describes watching a probably innocent man bleed out through the stump of a leg after his first kill. He believes he was doing what “the American people” wanted him to do. He admits to being haunted “spiritually and mentally” by the thought that he violated the US Constitution; he volunteers that he claims no Nuremburg defense. He volunteers that his openness about his experience have made him an outcast among his peers. He acknowledges that there are some pretty scary guys. He passionately defends the vast majority of his peers for taking their power seriously and personally. He thinks the public should know how honorable his peers are as a group, and of the toll that the job takes. He is plain-spoken and concise. He left Democracy Now! to testify before the UN body inquiring into drone strikes. He is one helluva witness.

Please watch the episode online at your leisure, democracynow.org. love and peace, hal

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

when the crime rate drops

ASSAULTS IN OHIO PRISONS ARE DOWN SUBSTANTIALLY THIS YEAR

Hal Pepinsky, pepinsky@indiana.edu, “peacemaking” at pepinsky.blogspot.com

October 23, 2013

That was a featured story throughout the day from the statehouse news bureau of the local NPR station. Midday, NPR’s “On Point” had featured a report on a private for-profit Ohio youth detention center. Prisoners there had long since learned how to slip locks on each other’s doors with their id. Rapes and beatings were routine.

I think here’s what’s going on: As the report on life inside the private detention center points out, their records are not subject to public inspection. That includes employee records.

The state has in all probability guaranteed that the beds be full. Since Philip Zimbardo’s famously failed student role play by dividing (and videotaping) students into guards and prisoners, it has become common sense that absolutely private power of guards over prisoners breeds corruption. And that unless it is called off, it gets bigger.

The last thing a private government contractor wants to do is to embarrass those in government who helped them get their contract. You bury problems if you can.

As a result, violence is probably really out of control among prisoners and those whose livelihoods depend on keeping them in the present and increasingly privatized prisons for young and old. This has nothing to do with the inherent violence of prisoners sent there. On the contrary, it is prisoners less likely to make trouble, as much cream as negotiable, the private owner negotiates, most efficiently of all for those locally classified for “medium security.” It is privatization of the cells and cell blocks that unleashes fear, corruption, and brutality. It is privatization.

I keep repeating that reported drops in crime, like those in New York City, are political artifacts, not literal truths. I keep hoping that among my fellow criminologists and the news media, we will stop assuming that life has gotten better when the crime rate drops. Love and peace--hal

Peacemaking