The Peace and Non-Violence group focuses on local and national peace efforts. Heide Parreno (orostar@aol.com) and Marilyn Wienk (marirose@frontiernet.net) co-chair this committee. Please contact either of them for information about our activities and how you can be involved.
We have been educating and advocating with elected officials about how military expenditures adversely impact local human needs programs. Every minute, the United States Government spends $1.2 million on the military. A total of 57% of the current federal budget goes for war with 43% going for everything else. You can receive a foldout prepared by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) that shows the breakdown of the federal budget by emailing a request with your mailing address to Marilyn Wienk.
During the fall of 2012, a group of TIAR Board members researched our nation’s deployment of lethal drones abroad and their increasing use for surveillance at home. They reported their findings at the October 2012 Board Meeting and were encouraged to continue their research. In March 2013, they shared an update revealing even more information about civilian casualties caused by drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Board voted to join several other Rochester peace and justice groups in co-sponsoring the weekend of April 26-28 for workshops about drones in Syracuse and demonstrations at the nearby Hancock Air Base from which drones for targeted killings are controlled. You can receive an electronic copy of the October 2012 report and annotated lists of sources by requesting these from Marilyn. To be put on TIAR’s e-mail list to be notified of activities dealing with peace and non-violence issues, send an e-mail request to njaschik@rochester.rr.com.
August, 2013