Progressive Candidates on October Agenda

The next South of Boston DFA meeting will be on October 5th at 7 PM at Borders Books and Music in Braintree.

Candidates is the topic. Who are they? What can we offer them? What should we ask of them?

Some candidates, we'll be discussing are:

Jass Stewart - Candidate for Mayor of Brockton
Jass was selected in a Sept. 20th primary to be one of the two candidates to appear on the November 8th ballot in Brockton's mayoral race. Since November 8th is also my birthday, I would urge all those who were thinking of buying me an expensive gift to donate that money to Jass' campaign (<: Needless to say, Jass will need all the resources he can muster, financial and otherwise, to be victorious in November. Go to www.JassStewart.com or call 508-345-5518 to sign on or contribute.

Phil Dunkelbarger - Candidate for District 9 Congressional Seat
Phil is taking on Stephen Lynch in 2006. Since he will have to win the Democratic Primary next September, it is not too early to start working on this battle - and it will be a battle. We've all talked about Lynch's betrayals, now let's do something about them. Phil has some great, progressive and pro-working people ideas on his (coming soon to an Internet near you) brand new website which I will link to as soon as he sends me the domain name. He will be in France on business on the 5th, but promises to email me before the meeting. www.dunkelbargerdemocrat.org

Deval Patrick - Candidate for Governor
Deval has been working hard to meet every Democrat in Massachusetts who wants to be met. He recently won the straw poll held at the Coop 8 Trivia Night in Weymoth by a landslide. According to media reports, it's money that he needs right now. Reilly is sitting on a mega-war chest and Deval is starting to dip into his own money to set up a new headquarters and hire staff. Fundraising, anyone? Go to www.devalpatrick.com or call 617-210-7998

Liars To Be Next Book Club Focus

Al Franken's bestseller Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is the October selection for the Reading Progressively Book Club. The club has been meeting on the third Wednesday of the month at the Barnes and Noble Book Store in Hingham (Exit 15 - So. Weymouth, Hingham) since last spring. This month's meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 19th at 7 PM. If you are fed up with the likes of O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh and Coulter and the electronic/print media that support them, please come and tell us what you really think.

Leave My Child Alone!!!

Nancy Landgren of Duxbury, mother and peace activist, spoke at the last South of Boston DFA meeting. Access to student information by the military is required by the "Leave No Child Behind" Act. In order to be removed from recruiters' lists, a student (or his or her parents) must write a letter requesting same. Nancy was instrumental in getting the Duxbury High School administration to include"opt out" materials in the back-to-school packet handed out to students in September. She has listed several websites that provided the information and resources she used:

American Friends' Service Committee
www.afsc.org/youthmil



Leave My Child Alone
www.leavemychildalone.org

San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice
Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities
(This site has Spanish opt out letters)
www.sdcpj.org

Opting out (getting taken off the military recruiters' lists) can be done on an individual as well as a system-wide basis. Any student or parent can use materials from the above websites to opt out of the lists. This is more than a peace issue. It is a privacy issue.

September DFA Meeting

The next DFA meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 7th at 7 PM in the coffeeshop at Borders Books and Music in Braintree (near the Hilltop Steakhouse). The main topic will be military recruitment in high schools. Nancy Landgren from Duxbury will be there to tell us how she convinced the Duxbury school administration to include "opt out" letters in the back to school packet at Duxbury High School whereby students or their parents can write to the superintendent and another list and remove their or their child's name from the list given to military recruiters. DFA has sent a DVD featuring Cindy Sheehan, other parents and recruits and a former military recruiter to show at the meeting.

Other agenda items are DFA Link and candidate endorsement. If you have issues you would like to discuss at the meeting, please describe them under comments. Please register for South of Boston at the DFA Link in order to receive agenda before meeting. www.dfalink.com/southofboston

Hope to see you there.