International Day of Solidarity for Palestinian Prisoners

This Sunday April 17th, the weather is going to be spring-like here in the Hudson Valley - a sunny day with temperatures in the 70's! April 17th - a perfect day. No clouds in the sky. But this beautiful day holds a darkness that needs to be acknowledged. April 17th marks the International Day of Solidarity for Palestinian Prisoners. Over 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in Israeli jails; more than 600 in administrative detention without charge, without trial. Palestinian prisoners face military courts that convict over 99 percent of those who appear before them. Over 400 Palestinian children as young as 12 years old are unjustifiably detained. Torture is common. The Palestinian prisoners' movement calls on organizations and people of conscience around the world to express solidarity with and call for freedom for Palestinian prisoners and their families who have been subjected to military rule - with no regard for their humanity - throughout their lives. Let us stand in silent vigil on this day, Sunday April 17th. 12 noon. Woodstock Village Green.

Jane Toby

Let's stick it to them and vote for Bernie.

The national media crowned Hillary the winning candidate for president early on, but did include how disenchanted our citizenry is with Congress, the President, and politics in general. A 2015 poll at Harvard revealed an astonishing 75% of students distrust the federal government, 86% distrust Wall Street, and 88% distrust the media. 

Hillary, of course, is is funded by the very establishment that has created so much pain: the multinational corporations, the weapons makers, Wall Street, and the Israel Lobby. Maybe the only benefit we as citizens get this election is that nobody even believes she will change our country's direction. Obama, the film-flam candidate, destroyed "bait and switch" for at least a generation of voters. Good Democrats will trudge to the polls with their heads down this time, knowing it will only be more of the same.

Millions of Americans understand that the two party, corporate funded political system has only offered false hopes in the past, and that change won't come unless we demand more. Hillary is a war hawk, eager to involve the US in any number of foreign conflicts. Her support of neoliberal "free trade," Wall Street deregulation, and Big Oil is exactly how we have gotten to where we are today, facing endless wars and disastrous climate change. Like Occupy, Bernie inspires us with the possibility of rising up and creating a real democracy. The billionaires are furious and the establishment press is horrified. Let's stick it to them and vote for Bernie.

Fred Nagel

Memoriam put in the Poughkeepsie Journal