Tulsa Peace Fellowship

There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Ben Franklin

press release from TPF re: Occupy Tulsa

MEDIA ADVISORY

from THE TULSA PEACE FELLOWSHIP, a registered non-profit organization

Anti-war movement in Eastern Oklahoma encourages Occupy Tulsa's Nonviolent Protest

CONTACT: Tulsa Peace Fellowship's Steering Cttee, tel. 918 398-6506, email: tpf.918@gmail.com

Nov 11th, 2011 (Veteran's Day / Armistice Day)

 

The Tulsa Peace Fellowship wishes to express its encouragement of the Occupy Tulsa movement, on the strengths of 1) the non-violent tenor of the occupation, 2) the group's commitment to civil disobedience to express its grievances, and 3) the group's consensus-driven decision-making process, in general assemblies. TPF desires to commend the organizers and the participants of Occupy Tulsa for the sit-down strike in which 10 people were arrested, at 1:45 a.m., Nov 2nd 2011, in which protest no violence from the demonstrators was offered, even when they were pepper-sprayed by the Tulsa police, even at point blank range. Other members of Occupy Tulsa arrested on subsequent nights for their civil disobedience similarly deserve praise. The right of the citizenry to assemble peaceably is protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Although not involved in any of the arrests in Tulsa (33 arrests in total, at last count), individual TPF members have been attending OccupyTulsa marches and its general assemblies. Any peace activist in Eastern Oklahoma is actively encouraged to consider joining or supporting Occupy Together.

OccupyTulsa has a list on their website of supplies that are needed. Or you can keep track of their daily needs on facebook. In an effort to help publicize the OccupyTulsa efforts, and the unfortunate police brutality employed on that first night of arrests, some videolinks and photos are cross-posted on the TPF website.

 

Through the astonishing power of creative non-violence, the Occupy Together movement nationwide has the magic and moxie to defeat the failing forces of corporate greed. Given that war profiteers in the U.S. and so called “defense” contractors make up the richest 0.01% of this country, the greed of war-making contractors is particularly worthy of being singled out. Yes, the richest one-hundreth of one percent. Military spending has doubled over the last decade in this country. With more tax dollars going to the U.S. military and greedy arms dealers, job creation and other community needs are increasingly underfunded in this country. Some 58% of discretionary spending by the U.S. federal government is now spent on military adventurism in foreign lands, rather than dedicated to “social uplift” programs at home, which MLK himself said should be a priority over U.S. militarism.

 

At the Tulsa Peace Fellowship, we are heartened by the Occupy Together movement’s potential to bring change through nonviolent actions. TPF is reminded of the efforts made in 2007 by the "Tulsa Ten" who also were arrested for their civil disobedience, on the occasion of a protest in response to a visit to Tulsa by an accused war criminal. It is the hope of the TPF Steering Committee that the Occupy Tulsa movement will support TPF in its efforts to highlight the egregious waste of money involved in the current overseas military campaigns being undertaken by the Obama administration. As the left-right movement for peace in Eastern Oklahoma, TPF has diagnosed the greed of war profiteers, who are benefiting from others' misery, as one of the reasons for the ongoing and apparently endless U.S. military occupations abroad. Both U.S. military/veterans suffering in war zones and civilians in foreign countries are being unjustly killed, maimed or displaced by profit-taking corporations here in the U.S.

 

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