I've been meeting lots of people who are working on this civil rights effort. They need all the help they can get. Please consider getting in touch to offer support and attending this event, or the one near you:

SUNDAY, JUNE 27 -- RICHMOND 11 AM - 2 PM

Near the one year anniversary of the landmark Lawrence v. Texas decision finding Virginia's "Crimes Against Nature" law unconstitutional, Marcus Miller and Jay Squires will be hosting this special brunch to celebrate our community's victories at Richmond's Barcode at 6 E. Grace St.

Featuring Congressman Bobby Scott

Seating is limited, for more information contact info (at) equalityvirginia.org or call 804-643-4816.

In recent years the Richond Police Department has been gaining a reputation for acting out of procedural guidelines, endangering people's lives and in some instances brutalizing and murdering the citizens of our city. This past Saturday night there were two instances where the line was crossed and police mayhem ensued. A black motorist was fatally shot and killed in the city's east end and a youth party in downtown was shut down with pepper spray, cops manhandling party goers and provoking a near riot. Read these three acounts to get an overview of what transpired here in Richmond on Saturday night. Richmond Indymedia staff writers Jen Lawhorne and Greg Wells report on the cop riot and RTD columnist, Mark Holmberg examines both the shooting in the east end and the cop riot. We also have several of Greg's interviews combined into one huge "special report" audio file -- 13.7 MB mp3 file (1/2 hour).

After visiting Iraq for three weeks in April and May, Catholic Worker Brian Buckley returned home with the message from one Virginian soldier, “Help us.�?

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson will be in Richmond on Tuesday, May 25th, speaking at 7pm at the VCU Pace Center, 700 W. Franklin Ave.

The Presidents have returned to speak about the problems they see taking place in the two Virginia National Forests named after them. Traveling with the Founding Fathers is a 6.5 Ft. diameter Douglas Fir stump - nicknamed DOUG - from an ancient 420 year old tree recently logged from a western National Forest.

“A Place Where People Can Connect And Get Started With Things: Fulton Hill’s Neighborhood Resource Center�?

During the winter of 2000, Richmond’s Fulton Hill community saw the end of a community institution: the neighborhood post office. A post office you say, a community institution? Greater Fulton, a community ripped apart by wholesale housing demolitions in the 70’s, drugs and gangs in the 80’s and 90’s and troubling levels of unemployment and crime in the past ten years isn’t a neighborhood that lies down idly and waits for outsiders to come to its aid. They get organized, stay vigilant and get things done. Fearing the post office would become “a boarded up source of blight,�? Fulton Hill community activist Mary Lou Decossaux rallied the community with a grand vision for rejuvenating the building at 1519 Williamsburg Road near the intersection with Darbytown Road.

Decossaux, a fourteen-year resident of Fulton Hill, has long been involved politically throughout the city. For years her time was divided between her work as the head of Community Organizing efforts at the William Byrd Community House in Oregon Hill, being a coordinator for the Living Wage Coalition in the city and her ongoing work in Fulton Hill. These days, she’s resigned her post at William Byrd and is focusing all of her time and energy on the aforementioned post office as the Executive Director of the organization now in the building, known as the Neighborhood Resource Center (NRC). Plans for the center are extensive and ambitious. Some programs are already running in the building, which is still under renovation and more programs are on the way as soon as walls are erected and supplies are moved in.

A tri-fold sheet that details the mission, steps and programs of the NRC highlights the wide reaching area of coverage that will be offered at the center and at which point they will be implemented. As of today GED classes are being offered on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. As work progresses, libraries for adults and children will be added. Computer education will be offered for everything from job training and literacy to music and arts. Under the community organizing umbrella will be space for groups to meet, fundraising assistance, and youth and adult community organizing training. By next year work will begin on a fully functioning, health conscious café to be located in the building.

The Board of Directors of the NRC is diverse in age, ethnicity, experience and even residency. Of the seven board members there are three African-Americans, four Caucasians, six women, one man and two non-Fulton residents. Member Rose Pollard was involved with the Black Panther Party in her younger days. Of the seven board members, fifty-seven year-old Joyce Monroe, owner of Joyce’s Beauty Lounge, a block east of the NRC, and a resident of Henrico County may be the biggest community pillar of the group. “I feel like in order to try and help people you gotta take over.�? Monroe has done that since day one. In the planning stages of the NRC’s evolution she offered up her shop as the organization’s meeting locale and a place to host fundraisers. Now that the space is shaping up, Monroe, President of the Board, says she’ll “Do whatever she can to help out.�? Often times when you hear talk like that amongst neighborhood organizers it is hollow rhetoric that holds little weight. Not with Monroe and the others at the NRC. They mean it. It’s their philosophy and what makes them unique and able to accomplish so much, with so little.

The University of Richmond student president of that campus's Hillel, Jilian Redford, has been ousted for criticizing Israel.

In an open letter to Hillel protesting this action, Robert Blecher of the Department of History at U of R, explains the events and issues at hand. Below you'll find an excerpt outlining the basic course of events.

"The facts are the case are as follows: In February 2004, after having received unsolicited emails from the Israeli Embassy for months, she asked the embassy to remove her from its mailing list. In her message, she wrote that the solution to Israel's problems lay in reconciliation with the Palestinians, not with the "radical Zionist propaganda" that the embassy had been sending her.

"Within 24 hours, she was summoned to meet with her supervisors at the JCC. They told her that the embassy was calling for her dismissal and demanded that she apologize for her 'unprofessional [behavior] that demonstrated a total disrespect.' Ms. Redford refused.

"Her supervisors also charged her with failing to provide 'balanced' programming on Israel, on the grounds that she had vetoed a speaker they had recommended. Ms. Redford defended her action by explaining that the would-be speaker had told her that Palestinians, unlike Jews, were born with the innate capacity to kill innocent people. Ms. Redford later elaborated: 'Racist statements are contrary to Jewish values and beliefs and have no place in a university setting. There is a clear line between 'a different political view' and outright racism, bigotry, promotion of violence, and hatred.'

"Following the meeting, Hillel officials told Ms. Redford that her 'statements [were] not in keeping with the mission and goals of Hillel' and asked her to resign. Ms. Redford once again refused, asserting that her actions were consistent with Hillel's mission statement on Israel. Hillel then dismissed her for her refusal to apologize and her 'inappropriate [and] inexcusable' accusation of racism."

This letter was posted as a comment to the original post, which contains quotes and links to other stories. Please read the full thread to get the local story.

Norfolk, Virginia’s Second Annual Mother's Day for Peace and Social Justice Rally will be held in Lafayette Park on Saturday May 8th between 2 and 4 p.m.. Lafayette Park is located at 3500 Granby Street beside the Virginia Zoo. (Coming from Richmond, take I-62 to the Granby Street exit. Better yet, do a map it!)

This festive event will have a number of speakers, live entertainment, children’s activities and food. The public is invited to attend. The focus will be on honoring motherhood by promoting peace, racial justice, and economic justice. Following the rally, there will be a march at 4:00 to Memorial Park which will include music, street theater, posters, and puppets. Mothers Day for Peace and Justice is organized by the Norfolk Peace Coaliton. For information call Christine Hoppe at 757) 628-8279 or e-mail cthoppe10 (at) yahoo.com.

Workers from the Mary Washington College Living Wage Campaign have been threatened with dismissal and further penalites upon mention of the campaign at MWC graduation.

SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES, A Traveling Installation by Christopher Humes and Noah Scalin; Opens May 7th 2004, with reception from 7-10pm at Upcast Gallery, 321 Brook Road, between Broad and Marshall off Adams. Free & open to the public.

Starting May 7th 2004, a display of guns, crafted from earth and plant seeds native to the region, will travel the city of Richmond for nine months. The number of guns on display will correlate with the number of gun-murder victims in the city of Richmond this year and as that number continues to rise, the exhibition will expand accordingly.

Proceeds from the sales of the individual pieces will be donated to local organizations working on non-violence projects in the community, including Drums No Guns, Richmond Peace Education Center and Citizens Against Crime. In addition to the art, information on the issue of gun violence in Richmond will be made available at the opening. One of the many objectives of the ongoing exhibit is to promote discussions to create solutions for an increasingly violent world.

Visit www.plantthepiece.org for future exhibition locations, inspirations, ways to support Swords Into Plowshares, and more.

Ready your ears, guard your hearts, and prepare your minds, Richmond -- LadyFest RVA is fast approaching. A weekend of rollicking bands and rocking workshops awaits you in downtown Richmond this Friday through Sunday, April 30 – May 2.

Richmond’s been buzzing about LadyFest for months now, thanks to the phenomenal work of the festival’s female organizers. Richmond Indymedia caught up with two the group’s main volunteers, Sara Klemm and Nina Marino, to get the full scoop on LadyFest, start to finish. Listen up to the interview here for their great insights on everything from the difficulties girls face when it comes to picking up a guitar, to what working with an all-women group has been like. Read the full article for the weekend’s schedule of performances and workshops.

You heard it. It was real, one of the finer moments of herstory. A million people filled the streets of Washington, D.C. Sunday during the March for Women’s Lives.

(Najaf, Iraq) As numerous people from nonprofit organizations working in Iraq evacuated the country during the past week, an independent emergency delegation of U.S. civilians was preparing to enter the conflict-torn nation, traveling to the tense stand-off around Najaf, where the U.S. military recently deployed almost 3,000 troops for a looming assault to crush Shiite rebels there.

Brian Buckley of the Little Flower Catholic Worker community in Louisa, Virginia, is part of the Najaf Emergency Peace Team, "Peace Between Peoples". The team is a handful of determined volunteers from several well-established peace/global justice/human rights and religious organizationsm, and has now arrived in the area, to place themselves "nonviolently, symbolically and physically" between the U.S. armed forces amassed nearby and the civilian population of the ancient holy city - in the way of any American military assault.

** Regular updates from Brian sent via email are being posted as comments to this feature. **