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

Save Friendship Park from the Border Wall Feb. 21

Thursday, Feb. 19

6 p.m. Community Forum
Location: San Diego City College, A-103
Contact:Pedro Rios

We call for a halt to all construction on the U.S.-Mexico border, pending public review, and for a re-design of Friendship Park to ensure continuing public access.

Saturday, Feb. 21
Save Friendship Park

11 a.m. Gathering
at entrance to Border Field State Park (directions below)

11:30 Hike to Friendship Park

12:15 Program (contact)
Bi-National Choir

Bi-National Communion

Bi-National Garden

Carpooling encouraged. Documents may
be required.

DIRECTIONS: Take Hwy 5 South, exit Dairy Mart Road, turn right (West) and follow winding road to park entrance.

Stop the Wall Event in El Paso 21 Feb

• Meet at Sunland Park and Anapra
• Sunday February 21, 2009
• 12:00 – 2:00 PM

Two purposes:

One is to show solidarity with the Compañeras and Compañeros from San Diego's Friendship Park. Just like Rio Bosque was crudely appropriated by the DHS, San Diego's Friendship Park has been under attack by the construction of the Border Wall. The Friendship Park has been a historical site for gatherings among residents of both countries. Family and friends have used this "public" area to exchange kisses, tamales and news through small gaps in the tattered chain-link fence. Now the Border Patrol and the DHS will slice trough the park, limiting access. U.S Customs and Border Patrol have begun demolishing the Pak and intend to eliminate all public access.

The second purpose is to continue with the ¡YA BASTA! --- TOD@S CONTRA EL MURO campaign. The campaign is still focused to stop and bring down the wall. During the Peace and Unity Walk from Ft. Hancock to Sunland Park we committed to go back to the communities that received us and report back as to what has been done and listen to their proposals. The idea is to strengthen our border communities under a same cause.

This is what we propose to do:

• Meet at Sunland Park and Anapra
• Sunday February 21, 2009
• 12:00 – 2:00 PM

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.

Chertoff Retirement Parties in Brownsville, Texas and Tucson, Arizona January 10

FROM BROWNSVILLE TO TUCSON, BORDER COMMUNITIES CELEBRATE THE RETIREMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY MICHAEL CHERTOFF

BROWNSVILLE, TX — On January 10th communities along the Texas border will be throwing Retirement Parties to celebrate the end of Michael Chertoff’s tenure as Secretary of Homeland Security. During his illustrious career, Secretary Chertoff has driven a wall through the borderlands, condemned the property of hundreds of Texas landowners, waived the laws that protect us, imprisoned immigrant families, and set a new low in the response to Hurricane Katrina. Border residents will gather in Brownsville, where Chertoff’s concrete and steel legacy is being erected along the Rio Grande, to remember the man who has done so much to our communities.

“This is not a protest disguised as a party - this is a party. Chertoff has only been Secretary for three years but he has managed to do a tremendous amount of damage. Texas will be glad to see him gone, and it can’t come soon enough,” said Scott Nicol of the No Border Wall Coalition.

In Brownsville Chertoff’s Retirement Party will be held at Galeria 409 starting at 6pm, within spitting distance of the coming border wall. Chertoff’s retirement is like Christmas morning and the day after you get over the flu all wrapped up together. So the party will blend a corporate retirement party and Carnival. Poets and artists will contribute their thoughts on the man who has so profoundly impacted the border; Ensamble la Mision (and possibly other bands) will play; a retirement cake and piñata will bear his likeness; Chertoff’s Wheel of Fortune; a raffle; and still-President Bush may even stop by to give Chertie a send-off.

“We’re having a party for Michael, but he’s not invited,” said Bill Guerra Addington from No Wall – Big Bend.

Galeria 409 is located at 409 E. 13th Street in Brownsville, between Levee and Elizabeth, a block from the Gateway Bridge. Call gallery owner Mark Clark at (956) 455-3599, or Scott Nicol at (956) 532-5983, for information, or email No Border Wall at noborderwall@yahoo.com.

BREAKING NEWS!

TUCSON ARIZONA WILL CELEBRATE AS WELL!

Chertoff's long awaited departure will be celebrated in Tucson, Arizona, in a region that has suffered from more than its fair share of border wall. Raise a toast to the ex-Secretary, and rest assured that he will be watching on the virtual wall's spy cameras.

Celebrate the end of Chertoff's reign of ineptitude Tucson-style with a pinata, dart board, and cold beer at:

The Hut

305 N. 4th Ave.

Tucson, AZ

The El Paso Retirement Party has been postponed.

Check back later to for details on its rescheduling.

DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff's Retirement Party

During his illustrious career, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has driven a wall through the borderlands, thrown out the laws that protect us, imprisoned immigrant families, and set a new low in the response to Hurricane Katrina. Join us on January 10th as we celebrate his long-awaited exit!

Retirement Cake! Music! Games! Puppets! Raffle!

Galeria 409 is located at 409 E. 13th Street, between Levee and Elizabeth, a block from the Gateway Bridge and spitting distance from the coming border wall in Brownsville, Texas. Contact noborderwall@yahoo.com for more information.

Hosted by No Border Wall and Galeria 409

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.