McHenry County Blog

Pat Gaughan, Faculty Advisor for SPAN, the Student Peace Action Network at McHenry County College sends the following press release and poster about Monday’s 7 PM showing of the film “The People Speak”:

Click to enlarge.

“Enclosed is a flyer for the upcoming showing of the film,

“The People Speak”

on Monday November 15th at 7 p.m. in the conference center to be followed by a discussion.

“The film, based on books by Howard Zinn gives a first hand account of American History using dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans.

“‘The People Speak’ presents those who spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history.

“This event is sponsored by SPAN, the Student Peace Action Network, is free and open to the public.

“We invite you to attend and to encourage others to attend as well!”

MCC Political Science and History Instructor Todd Culp takes center stage to discuse his book, "Friends Whose Names I'll Never Know."

Political Science and History Instructor Todd Culp spoke to about 75 people last night at McHenry County College on his new book, “Friends Whose Names I’ll Never Know.”

A press release about the event follows:

STUDENT PEACE GROUP HOSTS MCC
INSTRUCTOR’S BOOK DISCUSSION

[October 20, 2010 Crystal Lake, IL] Approximately 75 people, including a large student presence, gathered in the McHenry County College Conference Center Wednesday night.

The cover of "Friends Whole Names I'll Never Know."

The student organized event featured MCC instructor Todd Culp in a presentation entitled “Friends Whose Names I’ll Never Know.”

The talk focused on Culp’s personal stories about Middle East peacemakers from his recently published book by the same name.

Culp opened the night with a short story from his book in which a student asked him why he only visits the “ugly” places.

His response resonated throughout the night.

Culp has been traveling to the Middle East, specifically Gaza and the West Bank, for the last 17 years.

Culp started his work in the Middle East interviewing the combatants and studying terrorism.

The reason for his frequent trips to Gaza and the West Bank are attributed to the great beauty he witnessed in the acts of courage and selflessness within the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.

He found in these human acts of kindness a greater majesty than in the scenic beauty of a mountain.

The audience sat in rapt silence as they listened to his many stories of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists.

Culp spoke of weekly nonviolent protests where Israelis, Palestinians, and internationals lock arms and sing songs of solidarity which never make the US news.

These happen every Friday night but what is reported in the US press are suicide bombers, although there has been no suicide bombings in the last two years.

Personal photographs were shown of these demonstrations including soldiers firing tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds of unarmed civilians. One photo in particular showed a water cannon died blue which would stain the skin making it easy to find the protesters later.

Enthusiastic history and international relations students asked questions long after the program was scheduled to end ranging in topic from the chance of a two state solution to Culp’s feelings on human nature.

To request Todd Culp as a speaker for your organization or classroom or for more information about MCC’s history department programs, contact Todd Culp at (815) 479-7724 or email him at tculp@mchenry.edu.

Wednesdays night event was sponsored by the MCC Student Peace Action Network. SPAN’s mission is to “promote peace on a local and national level through education and action.”

Monday, November 15th SPAN will show the film “The People Speak” at 7:00 pm in the Conference Center. For more information about this event and others contact SPAN at mccspan@gmail.com.

For information, contact Talia Koronkiewicz, McHenry County College, Coordinator of Student Life

And, you can find them here.

There are all sorts of questions, but the home ownership section caught my attention:

• Is U.S. policy too focused on increasing the rate of home ownership?
• Should the unlimited tax deduction for home mortgage interest be capped?
• At what level?
• What would you do with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Manzullo wrote a long answer, but this is what popped out:

“Home ownership is a worthy goal because then more people have a stake in their local community. The problem is that if individuals put no down payment and are subject to interest-only loans during the first several years, this type of home ownership is almost no better than renting. These individuals have no “skin in the game” and it provides a huge incentive to walk away from mortgage obligations if the going gets tough.

“That is why I have voted for provisions to increase the minimum down payment requirement to 5 percent and prohibit closing costs from being financed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

“If Habitat for Humanity makes low-income persons put some stake into the homes they build, the same principle should hold true for those seeking a FHA-backed mortgage.”

Vince Gaddis

The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network continues to bring provocative programs to Crystal Lake.

The next one will be bout privatized prisons, to be held on March 4th.

I wonder if the local version of this phenomenon will be discussed.

What’s that?

The Sheriff’s Department’s making money by housing illegal immigrants on the top floor of the county jail.

The press release is below:

MCC’S STUDENT PEACE GROUP TO HOST EVENT

ON PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

[Feb. 23, 2010.Crystal Lake, IL]  The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) will host an informational seminar featuring Dr. Vincent Gaddis on March 4th, 2010 at 7:00pm in the College’s Conference Center.  The event is titled

“The United States: Leading Jailer of the World.”

According to Human Rights Watch, the United States incarcerates more people than any country in the world, including the far more populous nation of China.  In 2008, the American penal system held more than 2.3 million adults, China was second with 1.5 million and Russia a distant third.

The United States leads not only by the sheer number of inmates but in the rate at which it incarcerates its citizenry, outpacing nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia.  In Germany, 93 people are in prison for every 100,000 adults and children whereas in the United States, the rate is eight times higher or 750 per 100,000.

As incredible as it sounds, 1 in 100 adults are now locked up in America and for Hispanic and black men, imprisonment is far more prevalent.  Dr. Gaddis will analyze the structural flaws within our system that lead to these astounding statistics.

Imprisonment has become the answer to many of the social problems rooted in poverty.

The practice of locking up the poor from racially marginalized communities has become big business.

What once was considered government work has increasingly been turned over to private contractors, creating a monstrous “prison industrial complex” whose profit depends on people to punish.

Dr Gaddis calls for a revolution – “a revolution in values.”  He persuasively argues that what we need is not new prisons, but a powerful movement for social transformation in health care, housing, education, drug programs, jobs, and education.

The event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. SPAN is made up of students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education. The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition. The event is free and open to the public.

The college is located at 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.  For more information, contact the MCC Student Activities Office at (815) 455-8772.

After bringing in NIU Law Professor to Talk about a Book of Gitmo prisoner poetry, the McHenry County College Student Peace Group’s next speakers are from Ohio.

They are Art and Peggy Gish,  peace activists and organic farmers.

Mrs. Gish was a kidnapped in Iraq in 2007 as she was a “peace activist and witness.”

Mr. Gish is described as having gotten “in the way of Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinian civilians,” the press release, seen below.

They have both written books.

MCC’S STUDENT PEACE GROUP PLANS CHRISTIAN PEACEMAKING EVENT

Art and Peggy Kish

The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) will host an informational seminar featuring Organic farmers Art and Peggy Gish who work as human rights activists for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT), an international organization “committed to reducing violence by getting in the way.”

They have been getting in the way of injustice and violence from Hebron to Baghdad. Peggy was in Iraq as peace advocate and witness before, during and following the 2003 U.S. invasion.

Art Kish standing in front Israeli tank.

In 2007 she was kidnapped but released after only 2 days because she showed her captors a photo of her husband Art standing in front of an Israeli tank which had been smashing the central market in Hebron.

Art Gish has been part of CPT in Hebron since 1995, getting in the way of Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinian civilians.

He led a two day training course in nonviolence attended by Rachel Cory.

Art is the author of several books, including

“Hebron Journal: Stories of Nonviolent Peacemaking.”

Peggy is the author of

“IRAQ, A Journey of Hope and Peace,” a moving story of the horrors of war yet never dimming her vision of peace.

The event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. SPAN is made up of students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education.

The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition. The event is free and open to the public.

The college is located at 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.  For more information, contact the MCC Student Activities Office at (815) 455-8772.

Cassidy Tire had this sign up the week that Sgt. Jason McLeod was honored in Crystal Lake.

Donations to the widow and her children may still be made by calling Marie Davis at 815-477-5050.

The McHenry County College Student Peace Group, or course, had no way of knowing its timing would be bad.

They canceled NIU Professor Marc Falkoff’s talk about his book

“Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak”

Now its on for the Thursday after next Tuesday’s election.

The group’s press release follows:

MCC’S STUDENT PEACE GROUP RESCHEDULES EVENT FEATURING GITMO LAWYER ON FEB. 4th

[Jan. 26, 2010.Crystal Lake, IL] The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) has rescheduled a controversial event focusing on a book of poetry by Guantanamo Bay detainees. for Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the college’s conference center.

The keynote speaker, Marc Falkoff, a Northern Illinois University criminal law professor who represented 16 detainees, plans to speak about a book that he edited titled “Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak.”  The moderator will be Todd Culp, Ph.D., political science instructor at MCC.

Falkoff initially was scheduled to speak at the college in December, but the event was canceled because of security concerns. SPAN had planned the December speaking engagement well in advance, but publicity about the event stirred up controversy as it coincided with funeral visitation for Sgt. Jason A. McLeod, a 22-year-old from Crystal Lake who died in a mortar attack in Afghanistan.

Northern Illinois University criminal law Professor Marc Falkoff

He will discuss the torture the prisoners suffered, the false information elicited, the disarray of evidentiary files, and the telling resignations of  key military prosecutors.  According to Dr. Falkoff, a very real problem exists,

“politics rather than principle reigns at Guantánamo.  As concerned American citizens, we can learn what action we can take to demand accountability and redress of grievances.”

Following the program, he will be available to sign books.

The event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. SPAN is made up of students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education. The event is co-sponsored by Pax Christi and the McHenry County Peace Coalition. The event is free and open to the public.

The college is located at 8900 U.S. Hwy. 14, Crystal Lake.  For more information, contact the MCC Student Activities Office at (815) 455-8772.

= = = = =
Here’s background from NIU on the professor:

Background: Falkoff comes to NIU after three years as an attorney with Covington & Burling in New York. The firm, which is considered the top pro bono law firm in the nation, once named Falkoff the Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year during his time there. He earned his juris doctorate from Columbia and also holds a Ph.D. in literature from Brandeis. While this is his first full-time faculty appointment, he taught for several years as an adjunct member of the faculty at the Brooklyn Law School. He is currently working on behalf of 17 Yemeni men who are being held without charges by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay.

Why NIU? “NIU has a very high commitment to public interest law, and that is extremely important to me.”

Goals: “I want to give my students a solid grounding in legal theory, but also instill in them an appreciation for the amount of social good they can do in the world as a lawyer. Personally, I want to not only do excellent scholarly work, but also maintain my real-world focus. It is very important for me to do both, and that is actually something that is encouraged here.”

The following has been received from the McHenry County College Peace Group:

MCC STUDENT PEACE GROUP PANEL DISCUSSION TO FEATURE IRAQ WAR VETERANS, BOOTS EXHIBIT

The McHenry County College Student Peace Action Network (SPAN) will observe the 6th anniversary of the Iraq War will feature

“The Personal Cost of War, Viewpoints from Former Soldiers,”

a panel discussion at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 10 in the college’s conference center.

The event will feature a panel of U.S. veterans who served in the “war on terror” who will share their personal stories of occupation and military service.

They will discuss what they saw and what they were asked to do.

These “winter soldiers” are not anti-military.

Their goal is to shed light on routine abuses rooted in military policy in an attempt to improve it. Having been there, they believe it is their patriotic duty to inform the people of what is really happening on the ground.

The student peace group will also exhibit “Eyes Wide Open,” The American Friends Service Committee’s highly acclaimed combat boot display on March 10 and 11 in the Commons Area.

This event is part of SPAN’s Current American Issues Information Seminar Series. The panel discussion is sponsored by The Chicago Iraq Veterans Against the War, the McHenry County Peace Coalition, and the Student Peace Action Network.

According to Molly McQueen, the Student Peace Action Network includes students promoting peace nationally and locally through action and education.

“Out stand on the subject is that the troops in Iraq should be brought home rather than sent into Afghanistan. We encourage the community to get involved,”

she said.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Student Life Office at (815) 455-8772.