Madison residents: We need YOU to contact your city alder and ask them to endorse the City of Madison Back from the Brink Resolution! Feb. '23 Action Alert sent to WNPJ by Physicians for Social Responsibility - PSR www.psr-wisconsin.org/ info@psrwisconsin.org More information and to take action > https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55b8f343e4b01341cb1a19e6/t/63d9c138033b26295a52781a/1675215162566/Bftb+Action+Alert+One+Pager+Handout_FINAL.pdf #StopNuclearWar #BackFromTheBrink

Join us in a growing national and international effort to oppose the F-35 fighter jet program! People from coast to coast in the US and in countries including Canada, Germany, and Australia are coming together in a major effort to GROUND THE F-35. Locally we are organizing with a number of organizations and working up to a series of activities and action at the end of March. STAY TUNED. We have a crucial opportunity to push back NOW · The DoD is delaying production, potentially for another year, pending a crash investigation and problems creating a testing simulator. · President Biden will be releasing his military budget proposal in the coming months. We want him to exclude the F-35. What you can do right now: · SIGN THE LETTER to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin A little more from CODEPINK: A couple of weeks ago F-35 fighter jet production was halted pending an investigation into a crash where the pilot was ejected from the aircraft. Now the Dept. of Defense is delaying full-rate production, potentially for another YEAR. This is a win for the people and the planet and bad news for the war profiteers at Lockheed Martin. Basically the DoD is delaying production of the F-35 (again) because Lockheed Martin designed a plane so convoluted that they can't even finish building the testing simulator yet. More problems with the F-35 gives us a crucial opportunity. In the coming months Biden will release his military budget proposal and we want him to exclude the F-35 from his FY2024 plans. The F-35 is a microcosm of the war machine. It's harmful, expensive, bad for the environment, and only benefits a small group of executives at the company that makes them: Lockheed Martin. Oh, and the politicians Lockheed donates to! From your friends in Madison at Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin: Vicki, Brad, Tom, Jane, Lance and so many others www.safeskiescleanwaterwi.org

The Golden Rule, a storied sailboat that helped bring about an end to atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, will stop in Milwaukee Sept. 1-4 as part of a 15-month, 11,000-mile voyage to inform and educate the public about the dangers of nuclear weapons proliferation. A number of public events will be held, and speakers/crew members will be available for presentations at schools, churches or other venues. during the four-day visit. VFP Chapter 102 is working with project coordinator Helen Jaccard to plan the schedule and recruit sponsors. The boat began its trip on the Great Loop route in September on the Mississippi River in Minnesota and is circling the south and east coasts before reaching the Great Lakes this summer. It will make more than 100 stops. In 1958 a crew of Quakers sailed the Golden Rule from Hawaii towards the Marshall Islands, intending to protest and interfere with atmospheric nuclear weapons tests, although that voyage was halted by the government and the crew arrested. As a result of the mission and others it inspired, and public outcry about the radiation blowing around the world, President Kennedy signed the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963. The Golden Rule action inspired many peace makers and peace ships that followed, including Greenpeace. Golden Rule was rescued from a watery grave in 2010 and restored to her former beauty by Veterans For Peace and others who support her new mission: to promote a nuclear free future, to educate about the dangers of radiation to humanity and the environment, and to support peaceful alternatives to war. The Golden Rule Project supports the climate justice movement and conversion from fossil fuels and nuclear power to renewable energy. Its goal is a nuclear-free world. SPONSOR THE VISIT Our organizational sponsors benefit greatly from collaboration with the VFP Golden Rule Project. We can offer, depending on mutual interest and benefit, some or all of these options: • A speaker from your organization is invited to speak at Golden Rule press conferences and educational events that you sponsor and will be invited to participate in interviews with the press. • Your organization is featured on our press releases, flyers, Facebook page, web site and PowerPoint presentations as an event sponsor. • Literature about your organization and issues will be distributed at events as a way to give the public a way to take action and be engaged. • Contact information of attendees from events that you sponsor will be shared with your organization, and attendees will be encouraged to contact you. What the VFP Golden Rule Project would like from our sponsors: • Help us raise funds for the Golden Rule voyage – our goal is to raise $2000 during our Milwaukee stop. The money doesn’t all have to come directly from your organization and we can help with fundraising. Some of the funds will be donated at the events themselves by attendees. But we would appreciate a donation from your organization of any amount. • Promote the Golden Rule, events and the voyage to your members through your newsletters, social media, web site and email notifications. • Assist in media outreach for the events and the voyage. Please consider this offer and contact us regarding your organization’s interest in sponsorship. SPONSORS SO FAR: Milwaukee Veterans For Peace Chapter 102, Peace Action Wisconsin, Physicians For Social Responsibility Wisconsin, Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice, Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations With Cuba, United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom-Milwaukee,Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee GET INVOLVED! JOIN US! Plan now to join us and participate in the visit. Help us plan. Do you have ideas for events or venues? Are you connected to schools, churches, or organizations that would like a presentation -- or a boat ride? Can you volunteer to help with events? Interested in helping as a crew member? There are lots of ways to be a part of this exciting visit. Just email us at vfpchapter102@gmail.com and we will be in touch. This is an early notice, but seven months will fly by, so think about getting involved now. Thanks. Donate to the Golden Rule project More information: Bill Christofferson, Milwaukee Veterans For Peace Chapter 102 Vfpchapter102@gmail.com, 414-486-9651 Helen Jaccard, Veterans For Peace Golden Rule Project Manager, (206) 992-6364 VFP Golden Rule Project, P. O. Box 87, Samoa, CA 95564 web: www.vfpgoldenruleproject.org email: vfpgoldenruleproject@gmail.com Phone: 415-794-5235

This amazing course from World BEYOND War is being offered a second time, later in the year, after the first one filled up fast and a lot of people requested a spot. Reserve your spot or one as a gift now. When: This course will meet for 1.5 hours weekly for 6-weeks on Tuesdays from July 11 to August 15, 2023. The start time for the first week's session in various time zones is as follows: July 11, 2023, at 1 pm Honolulu, 4 pm Los Angeles, 5 pm Mexico City, 7 pm New York, midnight London, and July 12, 2023, at 7 am Beijing, 8 am Tokyo, 9 am Sydney, 11 am Auckland. Where: Zoom (details to be shared upon registration) What: Online peace writing course with Author/Activist Rivera Sun. Limited to 40 participants. The pen is mightier than the sword … or the bullet, tank, or bomb. This course is about how the power of the pen can be lifted to promote peace. While war and violence are normalized in books, movies, news, and other aspects of our culture, peace and nonviolent alternatives are often overlooked or under-represented. Despite the evidence and options, most of our neighbors and fellow citizens have no idea that peace is possible. In this 6-week course with award-winning author Rivera Sun, you will explore how to write about peace. We’ll look at how the written word can portray solutions like unarmed peacekeeping, violence de-escalation, peace teams, civil resistance, and peacebuilding. We’ll dig into examples of how writers from Tolstoy to Thoreau to today have spoken out against war. From anti-war classics like Catch-22 to sci-fi peace literature like the Binti Trilogy to Rivera Sun’s award-winning Ari Ara Series, we’ll look at how weaving peace into story can capture cultural imagination. We’ll work on best practices for writing about peace and antiwar themes in op-eds and editorials, articles and blogs, and even social posts. We’ll also get creative, exploring story and poetry, looking at novels and fictional portrayals of peace. This course is for everyone, whether you think of yourself as a “writer” or not. If you love fiction, join us. If you gravitate toward journalism, join us. If you’re not sure, join us. We will have a lot of fun in this welcoming, encouraging, and empowering online community. You will learn: How to write about peace and anti-war themes for various publications How to address/debunk misperceptions around peace How to capture readers’ attention and convey a powerful message Creative ways to portray peace in nonfiction and fiction The art of the op-ed, blog post, and article The science of creative writing featuring alternatives to war Participants should have a working computer with a microphone and camera. Each week, participants will be given a reading assignment and an optional writing assignment to complete. About the Instructor: Rivera Sun is a change-maker, a cultural creative, a protest novelist, and an advocate for nonviolence and social justice. She is the author of The Dandelion Insurrection, The Way Between and other novels. She is the editor of Nonviolence News. Her study guide to making change with nonviolent action is used by activist groups across the country. Her essays and writings are syndicated by Peace Voice, and have appeared in journals nationwide. Rivera Sun attended the James Lawson Institute in 2014 and facilitates workshops in strategy for nonviolent change across the country and internationally. Between 2012-2017, she co-hosted nationally two syndicated radio programs on civil resistance strategies and campaigns. Rivera was the social media director and programs coordinator for Campaign Nonviolence. In all of her work, she connects the dots between the issues, shares solutionary ideas, and inspires people to step up to the challenge of being a part of the story of change in our times. She is a member of World BEYOND War’s Advisory Board. REGISTER HERE. WNPJ member group is Madison World BEYOND War warabolition@gmail.com

Ready for a deep dive into immigration and workers rights in our state? Listen to WDRT 91.9 fm Driftless Community Radio's show "Conversations" this Thursday morning. WNPJ Board member Dena Eakles welcomes the Founder and Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera, Christine Neumann-Ortiz and UW - Madison Professor Armando Ibarra to discuss their work here in Wisconsin. Not to be missed; lots of great information and lots of opportunities to get involved. Open those compassionate hearts and let's get busy with initiatives like "licenses for all". Making life a bit better for all of us. After it airs, you can also listen to the show in the archives or as a podcast at https://www.wdrt.org https://www.facebook.com/dena.eakles

This past week, nine Palestinians were murdered in the West Bank city of Jenin by Israeli forces. I went to one of WNPJ’s member groups, Madison–Rafah Sister City Project’s website to learn more about the massacre in Jenin and the current plight of the Palestinian People. From a Massacre Took Place in Jenin: “2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in nearly 20 years and more deaths than since the United Nations began recording fatalities in 2005. The new, far-right Israeli government and its forces remain adamant about continuing, if not increasing their brutality. We're only 26 days into 2023, and Israel has already killed 30 Palestinians, including five children—setting a pace to double the murder of Palestinians in 2022.” The Madison-Rafah Sister City Project is a wonderful website, full of good endeavors like creating housing, playgrounds, providing fresh food and clean water as well as hosting educational events and providing well-written articles on BDS and more. How to Help will bring you additional information and offer ways for you to be involved. ​ I have deep appreciation for the efforts of our member groups that keep us informed and inspired. May Peace Prevail. Submitted by Dena Eakles, WNPJ Board Member

Wisconsin has continued to reject $1.6 billion additional funds from the federal government to expand Medicaid. We are one of eleven states rejecting Medicaid expansion and hindering low-income people’s access to better health care. In addition, we are facing an exacerbated health care crisis as the federal public health emergency (PHE) is phased out this year. Hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites could lose Medicaid coverage. Let us move forward together covering as many people in our state with the best access to healthcare possible and not allowing anyone to be removed from Medicaid. Please sign this petition from WNPJ member, Wisconsin Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival To: Wisconsin's Joint Finance Committee We call on the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee to: * Accept federal funds to expand Medicaid as 39 other states have done. * Fully fund access to healthcare to ensure that no person in Wisconsin is removed from Medicaid. * Recognize that Healthcare is a Human Right. ​ photo:Creative Commons Attribute 2.0

This Martin Luther King Day, we must continue a campaign for social, political and economic rights, not simply to commemorate a man. This nation needs a different kind of Martin Luther King Day. More than a day, we are and have been, building a moral fusion movement. We need a movement led by poor and low-wage workers pushing for a Third Reconstruction and declaring that we don’t want some of our justice, we want all of our justice. Fifty years after Dr. King and other leaders like Caesar Chavez, Hank Adams, Bertha Burres, Myles Horton, welfare rights moms, the Jewish federation and others called for a Poor People’s Campaign, poor and marginalized people across America have united not to commemorate their vision, but to consecrate a new movement that has the ability to transform the heart and soul of this nation, and the moral structures of society. The legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, Rev. Douglass Kirkpatrick, Jimmy Collier, Betty Mae Fikes, Mary Wright Edelman – who brought the idea of forming a Poor People’s Campaign along with The National Welfare Rights Organization – and countless unnamed leaders from the ranks of the poor is, us. We carry on their legacy by building this national campaign organized around the needs and demands of the 140 million poor and low-wealth people in this nation. With over 35 state coordinating committees across the country, we are declaring we won’t be silent anymore! This moral fusion movement is on the move! This weekend, state campaigns from coast to coast are taking action and shaking the very chains of the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, militarism, poverty, ecological devastation, and the false moral narrative of religious nationalism. The actions below serve as just a few examples of our work. It is important to reiterate this because we have built, and will continue, to build a movement, not just a moment. On January 16th, the California Poor People’s Campaign is hosting readings of our Third Reconstruction Agenda as part of the launch of their new Third Reconstruction Agenda campaign: Close the Wealth Gap, CA! They started this initiative last month to celebrate the success of the GOTV efforts across the state and outlined their plans for 2023. The Maine Poor People’s Campaign held a watch party of “Moral Policy Is Good Economics” featuring our Policy Director, Shailly Gupta Barnes. Earlier this week, the Maryland Poor People’s Campaign and other social change partners gathered in Annapolis for the opening of the 2023 Maryland General Assembly and handed out fact sheets with our 2023 legislative priorities. Yesterday, the Massachusetts Poor People’s Campaign gathered at The Cathedral Church of St Paul, Boston prior to the unveiling of The Embrace Sculpture to discuss the work and legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King and the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. The Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign continues to sound the alarm on the decades of neglect by crying out for clean water and the right to keep it public. These are just a few examples from our statewide coordinating committees. This weekend, the New York Poor People’s Campaign will be hosting three hybrid mass meetings to lift up a new ground-breaking State of the State Report (available in both English and Spanish) which documents the prevalence of poverty and mass inequality in the state. Did you know that more than half of all children in NY State are poor or low income and that homelessness in New York City is reaching the highest levels since the Great Depression? Last month the Rhode Island Poor People’s Campaign brought the lack of housing back to their State House, pointing out the "short term nature" of their Governor’s "response" to an exploding epidemic of homelessness. Indeed from Appalachia to Alabama, the Carolinas to California, the Borderlands to the Bronx, from the hood to the holler, people are uniting under the banner, “We Won’t Be Silent Anymore!!” Last June, we held a historic, generationally transformative gathering of poor and low-wealth people at The Mass Poor People’s and Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly and Moral March on Washington and to the Polls which brought over 100,000 people to DC. In addition those in the streets, digital organizers with the PPC:NCMR have tracked several million people who watched on social media. Justice is coming. Last November, our nationwide Get Out The Vote Mobilization reached over 5.1 million poor and low-wealth voters in 15 priority states, representing 1 out of every 50 eligible voters. We more than doubled our reach from the last election! We are Waking The Sleeping Giant. Justice is coming. This June, we will hold our Poor People’s Moral Action Congress. We will hold major actions in state capitols across the country. We will continue to mobilize, organize, register, and educate. We won’t be silent or unseen anymore. Forward together, not one step back! info@poorpeoplescampaign.org The Rev Dr William J. Barber, II. President of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Director of The Kairos Center for Religions Rights and Social Justice and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. Learn more about the WNPJ member group, the WI Poor People's Campaign here: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/committee/wisconsin/ www.facebook.com/wisconsinppc wisconsin@poorpeoplescampaign.org

Dr. Martin Luther King knew that Beloved Community was essential for change. The Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice allows us to create and maintain that Community. Need inspiration? Take a stroll through our Facebook page to see postings of the 73 member organizations that are the Network. Need connection? Read what thoughtful and kind activists are doing throughout this state, much of it in real time and often available via zoom or live broadcasting. From environmental issues to ending the nightmare of prisons and war you can find people and organizations doing compelling work. Need information? The treasuries of researched materials from PFAS to clean energy, nuke watch to labor reform and so much more are readily available. Need to take action? Every organization could use some help. Find the one that calls to you and offer your skills. www.wnpj.org As we celebrate Dr. King’s life, we can pay homage for more than one day. We can shake off the lethargy of hopelessness and get busy answering his call: “Life's most persistent and urgent question is,'What are you doing for others?" Perhaps the best we can do is invite people in and widen the circle of Peace. Spotlight from WNPJ Board member, Dena Eakles

Some Wisconsin legislators are trying to rush through a change to our state’s constitution. AJR107 is a proposed amendment that passed the legislature with very little discussion last year. The Republicans are working to push it through quickly again in 2023 so that it can be on the ballot in April. (A constitutional amendment needs to pass in two different legislatures, then win a majority of votes in a statewide election.) On January 10, both the State Senate and State Assembly held the one and only hearing they will have on the bill. The hearing was attended by dozens of people, from many sectors. Almost everyone who testified spoke of why the amendment should NOT be passed. Still, the majority party in the legislature seems determined to push it through. AJR107 would change the constitution around matters of pre-trial bail. Essentially, it would encourage judges to set higher bail amounts, especially for people with previous convictions (no matter how long ago those were). It would almost certainly result in even greater racial and economic disparities among incarcerated people than we have now. Cash bail is not a fair or effective way to decide who stays in jail and who gets to go home as they await trial. People should be detained if a judge determines that they are a serious threat to other people and/or if they are a flight risk (that is, that they are likely to run away before facing trial). If they do not pose a flight risk or a danger, they should not be held. “Innocent until proven guilty” should not only apply to people with money, or to people who have never been convicted of a previous crime. Wisconsin needs to reform its pre-trial bail system. But, AJR107 is the wrong way to do it. In Solidarity, David Liners Executive Director, WISDOM Action Network info@email.actionnetwork.org

Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice is embarking on a new project of intentional interfaith conversations as a follow-up to our successful Sacred Site Visits program. The goals are to deepen the conversation and learning about different faith traditions, build new and deepen existing relationships, and focus more on how individuals experience and live out their faiths, rather than hearing from clergy or 'experts'. We are starting with two events as a pilot. We hope it will grow into an ongoing series of events of intentional interfaith conversations, lay-led, on a variety of topics. Each event will feature a panel of 3 or 4 people speaking to a given topic, with a moderator or facilitator. Panelists will all be lay people, speaking from their own faith tradition and understanding, but not speaking for their faith tradition. After the presentations, we will break into small groups to give people a chance to share their thoughts and reactions to what they heard. Then we will come back together for report-outs from the small groups. Please put on your calendar March 9 and May 18, 2023, from 7:00 to 8:30pm. The topic for both events will be "How do our traditions teach us to construct our sense of moral responsibility?" If you are interested in being a panelist for either of these dates, please email Rabbi Bonnie Margulis at wifaithvoices4justice@gmail.com. No experience or expertise necessary, just a willingness to share your own beliefs and understandings from the perspective of your faith tradition. Stay tuned for details and a link to RSVP.

Nukewatch’s John LaForge will be entering a German prison on January 10 to serve 50 days for his part in actions aimed at removing US nukes from Germany. Dozens of activists that have been involved in the campaign have endured jail time. Click here for the audio recording of the zoom call - to hear from John LaForge, Susan Crane, Gerd Büntzly, and others. Nukewatch Talks - an Exclusive- John’s Jail Send-Off Zoom Meeting Thursday, January 5, 2023 - Audio recording: https://youtu.be/jcQDrwwD3R0 If you'd like to send mail to John from Jan 10th through mid-February, here's his address: John LaForge JVA Billwerder Prison Dweerlandweg 100 22113 Hamburg Germany ***************** nukewatchinfo.org www.facebook.com/Nukewatch nukewatch1@lakeland.ws ​ Contact: Kelly Lundeen, John LaForge 715-472-4185 740 "A" Round Lake Rd, Luck, WI 54853 Nukewatch has been working for a nuclear-free future since 1979. Nukewatch brings critical attention to the locations, movements, dangers, and the politics of nuclear weapons and radioactive wastes. They work to raise awareness and take nonviolent action to address the nuclear dangers that threaten current and future generations.