Friends of Friendship Park press conference in San Diego July 8

What: release of open letter to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano

When: Wednesday, July 8, 10 a.m.

Where: U.S. District Court, 940 Front Street, San Diego, CA

Who: Friends of Friendship Park; www.friendshippark.org

Contacts: John Fanestil (619-823-6223; john@ foundation4change.org); Jill Holslin (619-804-8030; jholslin01@gmail.com); Rosemary Johnston (619-384-6852; rjohnston@interfaithshelter.org); Enrique Morones (619-977-9467; enriquemorones@cox.net); Pedro Rios (619-370-5908; prios@afsc.org); Dan Watman (619-954-9710; dan.watman@ gmail.com)

California State Attorney General Edmund G. Brown, Jr., together with local, state and federal elected officials, has joined some 70 community-based organizations and over 130 community leaders in a joint letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, calling for the restoration of routine public access to Friendship Park, the historic location overlooking the Pacific Ocean where for generations people have gathered with friends and family at the U.S.-Mexico border fence.

Elected leaders signing on to the joint letter include Lt. Governor John Garamendi, Members of Congress Susan Davis and Bob Filner, State Senators Denise Ducheny and Christine Kehoe, State Assemblymembers Mary Salas and Lori Saldaña, and San Diego City Councilmembers Marti Emerald, Donna Frye, Todd Gloria, Ben Hueso and Tony Young.

The text of the joint letter will be released at a press conference on Wednesday, July 8 at 10 a.m. in front of the U.S. District Court, 940 Front Street, San Diego, CA 92101.

Speakers will include Kevin Keenan, Executive Director of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties; Rudy Murillo, past Acting Director of the San Diego Immigration and Naturalization Service; Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee; and Daniel Watman of the community-based organization Border Encuentro. Mr. Watman faces Federal trespassing charges in the U.S. District Court at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, after standing in front of a bull dozer and temporarily stopping the construction of the new wall that currently restricts all access to the U.S. side of Friendship Park.

The text of the letter will also be posted at 12 noon on Wednesday to the Friends of Friendship Park website: www.friendshippark.org.

Civic leaders endorsing the letter include former Ambassador to Mexico Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. Congresswoman Lynn Schenk, and former State Senators Lucy Killea and Steve Peace. Also endorsing are Irwin Jacobs, Murray Galinson, Deborah Szekely, Christine Forrester, Marcy Krinsk and dozens more.

Wayne Cornelius (Distinguished Professor of Political Science Emeritus, UC San Diego), David Shirk (Director of the Trans-Border Institute, University of San Diego) and Richard Griswold del Castillo (Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, San Diego State University) are just a few of the over 30 educators who signed the letter.

Religious leaders supporting the letter come from almost every tradition and include Bishop Mary Ann Swenson of the United Methodist Church, Rev. Dr. Arvid Straube of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego, Dr. Jamie Gates, Director of the Center for Justice and Reconciliation at Point Loma Nazarene University and Rev. Ann Seisen Saunders of National City’s Sweetwater Zen Center.

San Diego’s legal community is represented on the letter by Administrative Law Judge Deborah Smaller, California Western Law Professor William J. Aceves, and Eric Alan Isaacson of Coughlin Stoia Gellar Rudman & Robbins LLP, among many others.

Dozens of San Diego-based organizations are signatories to the letter, including human rights organizations like the National Lawyers Guild and the San Diego Human Relations Commission, religious organizations like Office for Social Ministry, Diocese of San Diego, and environmental organizations like the Environmental Health Coalition and WiLDCOAST.

Dozens more organizations from beyond San Diego have adopted the cause of Friendship Park. Just a few of these to endorse the letter are: Border Ambassadors (Del Rio, TX), Frontera de Cristo (Douglas, AZ/Agua Prieta, Sonora), Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights (San Francisco, CA), Justice and Witness Ministries, United Church of Christ (Washington, DC), Mexican Community Center of New York, CECOMEX (New York, NY), Sojourners (Washington, DC) and Western Lands Project (Seattle, WA).

“The entire border should not be reduced to a ‘no-man’s land,” said John Fanestil, Executive Director of the San Diego-based Foundation for Change and a leader in the Friends of Friendship Park coalition. “Friendship Park reminds us all that a brighter future lies ahead for the borderlands and border people.”

“We are encouraged by recent overtures from [“Border Czar”] Alan Bersin and [San Diego Border Patrol Chief] Mike Fisher,” said Enrique Morones, President of Border Angels and another leader in the Friends of Friendship Park coalition. “We are confident the Park will re-open soon.”

Friends of Friendship Park – www.friendshippark.org

April 15 Friends of Friendship Park Vigil at Chula Vista Border Patrol Headquarters

What: Silent vigil in front of Border Patrol headquarters, protesting the destruction of Friendship Park and the exclusion of community voices from the decision-making process which has led to the elimination of public access to the park.

When: Wednesday, April 15, 12:00 p.m.

Where: Border Patrol Headquarters: 2411 Boswell Rd, Chula Vista, CA 91914.

Who: Friends of Friendship Park is a coalition of community organizations including (partial list): American Friends Service Committee - San Diego, Border Ambassadors (Del Rio, TX), Border Angels, Border Meetup Group, CASA (Coalition of Amigos in Solidarity and Action), Center for Justice and Reconciliation, PLNU, Center for Social Advocacy, Environmental Health Coalition, Foundation for Change, Los Caminos del Rio, MACC (Mexican American Catholic College), Mid-City Community Advocacy Network, Network of Spiritual Progressives, San Diego, Pax Christi Brownsville, Peace Resource Center of San Diego, Plan of Action in a Changing Era, Rio Grande International Study Center (Laredo, TX), San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice, San Diego Coastkeeper, Save Our Heritage Organization (SOHO), Sí Se Puede Immigrants’ Rights Organization, Sierra Club, San Diego Chapter, St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, Surfrider Foundation, San Diego chapter, The Employee Rights Center in San Diego,Wildcoast – Costasalvaje.

Contacts: John Fanestil / john@foundation4change.org / 619-823-6223

Enrique Morones / enriquemorones@cox.net / (619) 977-9467

Why: This week President Obama will sit down to visit with President Felipe Calderon in Mexico. At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security is shutting down Friendship Park, where people from San Diego and Tijuana have visited with friends for generations.

In solidarity with those being denied access to this historic venue, and in protest of DHS decision-making, which has excluded all community voices, Friends of Friendship Park invite you to join a Silent Vigil on the day before the presidential meeting.

FRIENDSHIP IS NOT JUST FOR PRESIDENTS!

SAVE FRIENDSHIP PARK!

Communion through the Border Wall at San Diego's Friendship Park March 1

The Friends of Friendship Park coalition will return to the park this Sunday afternoon and once again seek to celebrate communion with friends in Tijuana.

We will meet at 2:30 p.m. at the entrance to Border Field State Park. Take Hwy 5 South, exit Dairy Mart Road, turn right and follow the winding road west to the park entrance. Wear boots for hiking and bring documents verifying residence in the United States. I hope you can join us.

Thank you all for your nonviolent response to the extreme conditions of our event last Saturday, February 21. To read an account of my experience last Saturday, see this blog post at Sojourners on-line.

There are several things you can do to support the effort, even if you are unable to participate on Sunday:

1) You can send a letter on-line to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano – be sure to mention “Friendship Park” when you personalize your letter.

2) You can donate now to support the costs of our events at the Park – be sure to indicate “Friendship Park” in the “dedication” line.

Adelante.

John Fanestil

www.foundation4change.org

Celebrate Communion through the Border Wall at Friendship Park in San Diego Every Sunday

Ever since I became a fan of Friendship Park, I’d heard stories about its official dedication as a California State Park in August, 1971, at which then-First Lady Pat Nixon presided. Some stories had her asking that the fence be cut so she could greet the Mexican children on the other side; others had her speaking openly about her wishes that someday there would be no fence at all.I’ve refrained from spreading this story too widely, because I didn’t have good corroboration of it … until now. Visit the link below to read the remarkable story and SEE PHOTOS OF PATRICIA NIXON REACHING THROUGH WHAT WAS THEN A SIMPLE, BARBED-WIRE FENCE.

I never thought I’d say it, but I find myself following in Pat Nixon’s footsteps. I’m not planning on cutting the fence, mind you, but at 3 p.m. this Sunday – and at 3 p.m. on every Sunday until further notice – I plan to serve communion through the fence to anyone who wants to receive it. You are always welcome to join me. Just remember to bring papers documenting your citizenship or residency.

Here’s the link to the Pat Nixon story: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=555f6a6f5b0c8684b9e0451c9d85f5b1.

Directions:
Starting in San Diego, CA
From I-5 Exit West on Dairy Mart Road
Dairy Mart Road turns into Monument Road
Follow Monument Road to Park Entrance.
Valid U.S. identification may be required.Expired car registration may be subject to fine.

John Fanestil
Executive DirectorFoundation for Change
http://www.foundation4change.org/
(619) 692-0527

To watch Steev Hise’s ten-minute video about communion at Friendship Park, visit: http://vimeo.com/2933608

To join the new “Friends of Friendship Park” cause on facebook, visit: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/180793?m=5793aba1&recruiter_id=13148591.

March Against the Border Wall in San Diego December 7

MARCH OF SILENCE

December 7th, 2008

12 noon

Starts at: Hollister St. & Tocayo Ave.

San Diego, CA 9215

Organized by the Raza Rights Coalition

With a cacophony of sounds heavy machinery opens way for the installation of the wall of death in the last corner of the open wound, the US-Mexico border. A place where ancestral lands meet the Pacific Ocean, a place where families come together, couples come to celebrate their love, regardless of the walls, regardless of disruptive destruction going on around them.

Using the dictatorial powers given to them, the Department of Homeland Security has chosen to disregard any civil rights, and has chosen to ignore the law. This has created a constitutional limbo at the border, where the government has imposed itself and destruction takes place.

Long has been the martyrdom of this border, there have been many deaths, and multiple abuses committed against our communities. We have carried with this tremendous burden always, from here, from this forgotten corner of the earth, we have held high the principles of dignity, justice, and liberty These concepts have come under attack by the laws that those in power have imposed, but that we have revindicated, and continue to struggle to defend them to make them a reality.

Friendship Park, a spectator in the horrifying reality of the border, where sea and wall meet, continues to be the place where for decades has been a meeting place for our people, to laugh, to sing, to meditate, to cry, to celebrate, to listen, to love, to play, and to believe that another world is possible. The government seeks to destroy this.

The Raza Rights Coalition, today makes the call to our people, to students, to the youth, to the intellectuals, to artitsts, to those who fight for environmental rights, to the working class, to religious people, to all those of us who live on this border, to all those who continue believing in that other world, to unite forces, to fight, to march with us to save Friendship Park and way NO! To the wall of death.

This time we will march in silence, so that our silence breaks the discord of the destruction of this place by the government, that imposes multi-million dollar walls, walls of death in our community. For those from above that impose, remember that the power of silence is not where its headed, but where its coming from. Our silence works to open the lines of communication, so that never a day goes again where someone dares say that the horror that is this border is justified, that it is a necessary evil, and that it is for our security.

No one can give us a voice, a stranger's voice does not belong in our throats. We are not those without a voice, we are those who have fought so our people do not have to live in shame, we are those who will place ears on those who have refused to listen to us, and our silence will me much louder than the horrifying one coming from the mechanized wall of death.

Let us struggle now, for change belongs to all of us, we are the change. Let us struggle now because this wall will come rumbling down.

CELEBRATE WORLD COMMUNION THROUGH THE U.S.-MEXICO BORDER FENCE

Sunday, October 5, 2:30 p.m., Friendship Park.

Experience the true meaning of World Communion Sunday as we break bread together and share the cup through the border fence. See Friendship Park, the historic meeting place slated for elimination by border fence construction. Meditation for peace begins at 2:30, followed by 3 p.m. interfaith communion with U.S. and Mexican clergy. Directions: from I-5, exit West on Dairy Mart Road. Dairy Mart turns into Monument Road, which leads to Border Field State Park ($5 per vehicle on entrance). Valid U.S. identification required.

“COMUNIÓN ECUMÉNICA” EN LA LÍNEA INTERNACIONAL. Domingo, 5 de octubre, 2:30 PM, Playas de Tijuana, Parque de la Amistad.
El gobierno estadounidense planea eliminar el pasaje público al lado norte del famoso Parque de la Amistad. Por esta razón, nos vamos a reunir en la línea internacional el día 5 de octubre, lo cual se celebra como “Domingo de Comunión Mundial.” Nos reuniremos en silencio a las 2:30 PM, y a las 3 PM se dará una comunión ecuménica. Por medio de este acto sencillo y humilde ofreceremos un testimonio poderoso e impactante. ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

Auxiliado por/Sponsored by: American Friends Service Committee; Border Angels/Angeles de la Frontera; Border Meet Up Group; Center for Justice & Reconciliation, PLNU; Foundation for Change; St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral; Sí Se Puede Immigrant Rights Organization; Sweetwater Zen Center.

¡Todos y todas son bienvenidos!

Info:

John Fanestil
Executive Director
Foundation for Change
www.foundation4change.org
(619) 692-0527

Communion served through the border fence Sundays at Friendship Park

Ever since I became a fan of Friendship Park, I’d heard stories about its official dedication as a California State Park in August, 1971, at which then-First Lady Pat Nixon presided. Some stories had her asking that the fence be cut so she could greet the Mexican children on the other side; others had her speaking openly about her wishes that someday there would be no fence at all.

I’ve refrained from spreading this story too widely, because I didn’t have good corroboration of it … until now. Visit the link below to read the remarkable story and SEE PHOTOS OF PATRICIA NIXON REACHING THROUGH WHAT WAS THEN A SIMPLE, BARBED-WIRE FENCE.

I never thought I’d say it, but I find myself following in Pat Nixon’s footsteps. I’m not planning on cutting the fence, mind you, but at 3 p.m. this Sunday – and at 3 p.m. on every Sunday until further notice – I plan to serve communion through the fence to anyone who wants to receive it. You are always welcome to join me. Just remember to bring $5 for vehicle admission to the park and papers documenting your citizenship or residency.

Here’s the link to the Pat Nixon story: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=555f6a6f5b0c8684b9e0451c9d85f5b1.

DirectionsFrom I-5 Exit West on Dairy Mart Road /Dairy Mart Road turns into Monument Road /
Follow Monument Road to Park Entrance /
Follow road inside park to Friendship Plaza, overlooking the beach
IMPORTANTAdmission to park is $5 per vehicle.Valid U.S. identification may be required.Expired car registration may be subject to fine.

John Fanestil
Executive Director
Foundation for Change
www.foundation4change.org
(619) 692-0527

Save San Diego's Friendship Park from the Border Wall

Friends and allies of the No Border Wall Coalition are sponsoring the following event:

You are invited to an Ecumenical Gathering to
Save Friendship Park
Sunday, August 3, 2 p.m.

The Department of Homeland Security plans to erect a triple fence across Friendship Park, where the international boundary meets the Pacific Ocean. Friends and families from San Diego and Tijuana have gathered for generations at this historic meeting place.Construction inside the Park begins the first week in August.

To express our opposition to the proposed construction, and to lament the ongoing militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, we will gather at Friendship Park on Sunday, August 3 at 2 p.m. Religious attire and symbols are encouraged.All faith traditions are welcome at this ecumenical gathering. All will be invited to share in friendship, prayer and communion.

Religious leaders please RSVP to:Rosemary Johnston, rjohnston@interfait hshelter. org, 619-384-6852