Four years after Congress passed and President Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act, Mayor Bob Coble and four other members of the Columbia City Council, Tameika Isaac Devine, E.W. Cromartie II, Sam Davis, and Anne M. Sinclair, will sign a statement to defend the Bill of Rights in the City of Columbia.

Come be part this important and historic statement for all of our rights at City Hall at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 26, 2005. 

The counter-recruiting committee has developed a great idea to promote peace in area high schools, but it needs everyone's help.

The Plan: Offer scholarships to as many school districts as possible, as an inducement to creativity and as a reward to some deserving students' college accounts. To win the scholarship, each student would submit a peace campaign plan to the committee. It could be a rally, an ad campaign, a student-run TV or radio production, or any combination of the above. The plan that gets the most students involved in each school district wins!

The Need: Monetary donations. A $250 donation has already been secured. Needless to say, with rising college tuition, fees, and supplies, $250 won't go far. Let's expand the scholarship to as many districts as possible.

The Goal: To get peace campaigns started in each area high school, we need to raise at least $5,000.

Tom Turnipseed

''We're never going to back down, we're never going to give in, we'll never accept anything less than total victory,'' was President Bush’s message to U.S. troops in Iraq from the White House in a video conference produced this week for the media. ... If he wants the real opinions of the troops,...he needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

SOA Gate at Vigil

On November 18-20, 2005 thousands will gather at Fort Benning, Georgia -- one of the largest military bases in the world and home of the notorious School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) -- to confront injustice, to speak out for truth and to change oppressive US foreign policy.

Our own Sara Williams has organized a bus of 15 people to make the arduous trip from Minnesota.

Call or write to put yourself on the list to make the trip to Fort Benning. The mobilization will happen Nov. 18 through 20.

Call 803-446-2772 or 803-238-1418, go to the Ride Board in the forum, or send an e-mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Help Spread the Word. Download Flyer, print it out, and post it.