This year there will be a Free Concord litter pickup on 4/20, meeting at 2pm in front of the state house. Bags and gloves will be provided. For the celebrations after the litter pickup, you may want to bring chalk, musical instruments, signs, or anything else that you think would contribute to the peaceful atmosphere. Facebook event page:
http://www.facebook.com/events/422994687727789/
From FreeConcord.org:
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are apparently now operating under a policy of not disclosing information about those that they arrest. Making their arrests and ultimate deportations essentially disappearances, ICE operations have progressively degraded the civil rights of those deemed to be undocumented immigrants. When even the nativist NH newspaper, the Union Leader, criticizes the practices of the federal paramilitary organization, it is worth taking notice.
An unsigned editorial published today wanted to clarify that it was not advocating for the rights of those arrested to not be disappeared. In obedient praise of federal immigration policy, the newspaper so subjectively reported, “We are all for getting illegal bad guys off the street.” Language focused against a targeted demographic couldn’t get more presumptuously loaded than “illegal bad guy”. But while the UL is happy to report the word of the federal government that the immigrants arrested were all dangerous criminals, they will not idly accept news of NH arrests without the most basic unit of information attached: the name of the arrested party. (more…)
From the NH State House in Concord. April 6, 2012.
From freeconcord.org:
The issue of censorship has recently been raised in the Concord Monitor, in pieces by Felice Belman which appeared last week as well as today. In a March 27 article, the editor discussed how some individuals who had been quoted from stories in the past wished to conceal themselves from a search query, as they no longer wished to be associated with their statements. While addressing their concerns, the matter is concluded flatly that, “The Monitor isn’t in the business of rewriting history. Our online news archives are an important historical resource, for the public and for the newsroom staff.”
In a story published today titled The Letter You Won’t Read, we learn about a retracted letter to the editor. The letter included a name in the attached contact information, but was signed as anonymous. With the Monitor having a policy against publishing unsigned articles (except when someone is able to sign their article as ‘Monitor Staff’), they contacted the author, informing her that they would be willing the publish the article with an authentic name attached. On those conditions, she withdrew the letter. (more…)
A soldier accused of having gone on an unauthorized killing spree in an Afghan village was identified by the military yesterday. On the night of March 12, 2012, it is alleged that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales sneaked out of Camp Belambay in the Kandahar province and gunned down 16 civilians in their homes, nine of whom were children. The 38 year old soldier was on his fourth tour since enlisting after 9/11/2001, and is noted to have suffered at least two injuries on duty. One of the injuries resulted in a concussion, though no brain damage was detected after a military health screening. He was identified after being flown to the United States to await trial in the Fort Leavenworth detention center.
The Army had an article posted on their site which had quoted Bales after a January 2007 battle in Iraq. The detached description of combat feels as though it could have been penned by Matthew Modine’s character Private Joker from Full Metal Jacket. The article, dated February 9, 2009, vanished from servers at army.mil days ago. A cached copy provided an archived version of the story, which thanks to the power of the internet did not disappear. One of the more circulated quotes from Bales in the article is the following, “I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm’s way like that.”
In the interest of combating censorship, below is the full text of the Don Kramer’s original article, since removed from the army’s public information site. (more…)
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