Mourning in America

Mourning in America
By Mike Rhodes

Peace Fresno sponsored a Presidents' Day Peace march today. Organizers called it "Mourning in America" and about 150 marchers went from the Tower Theatre (Olive and Wishon) to the new Federal Building in downtown Fresno. There was an extremely heavy police presence at the march, but there were no incidents.

In a Press Release sent before the march, Peace Fresno explained why they were holding the march:

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because of domestic spying, the limitation of habeas corpus, and the general curtailment of our civil liberties.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because large corporations have sent our jobs overseas and have led us into economic recession while our government's primary solution is to lower the taxes of the rich.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because our government has proposed a record budget while cutting the programs the people need.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because our presidential candidates continue to debate Health Insurance when the people need Health Care.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because, in a nation of immigrants, we have a broken immigration system.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because our government has lied to us and has used torture against those deemed but not proven to be enemies.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because our government continues an unjust and illegal occupation of Iraq, promising to be in Iraq for years to come and all the while threatening other nations.

-We are MOURNING IN AMERICA because that unjust war has killed nearly 4,000 American soldiers, additional privatized American soldiers and over 1,000,000 Iraqis including many women and children.

For more information about Peace Fresno, see: www.peacefresno.org