Thanks Everyone,
It was a fun evening and the surprise award to myself truly was a surprise and very much appreciated. The feed back we have received has been very positive also and we are delighted everyone had a good time.
Paz, John
The Tom Paine Winter Soldier Peace and Justice Awards Dinner will be held on Thursday, October 25, 2012 at the Polish Community Center, 225 Washington Ave. Ext., Albany, NY 12205. 5:45 PM Cash Bar - Dinner 7 PM
This year's honorees are Pat Beetle, Elaine Klein and Paul Rehm. Congratulations to all and thank you for your excellent work for peace and justice! Complete information inside.
Save that date and please plan on coming!
Please sign up early by contacting Dan Wilcox. Advance reservation are required. Reservations are $37.50 per person. Contact Dan at: 518-482-0262 or dwlcx@earthlink.net Please make your check out to Veterans For Peace (on the memo line please write Awards Dinner) and mail to: Dan Wilcox, 280 S. Main Ave., Albany, NY 12208
About Our Honorees
Patricia Beetle (Pat) lives in Castleton, NY. She has two grown children and one grandchild. She is a Quaker.
Pat has been working for peace in one form or other since the Vietnam War – standing in front of the Capitol in vigil every week and now again since 9/11/2001. She has worked with the American Friends Service Committee, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Alternatives to Violence Project and locally with Upper Hudson Peace Action, Capital Area Council of Churches, Interfaith Alliance, Women Against War, Mediation Matters, Albany Friends meeting and Friends for Racial Justice among others.
Pat believes there are many kinds of peace making and types of peacemakers. We need them all.
On the other hand right now she believes we need to be out in the streets demanding “ No More War –Bring our soldiers, our jobs and our money for people’s need home NOW!”
Elaine Klein is coordinator for Schenectady Neighbors for Peace, is on the Steering Committee for Upper Hudson Peace Action, and is the Secretary for Peace Action New York State. She is also active in J St. Albany Capital District. She has a Master’s in Teaching from Union College has taught as an adjunct writing and literature instructor for Empire State College’s Center for Distance Learning for many years. In past years, she was active with Literacy Volunteers and the League of Women Voters. She treasures her family and friends, loves nature, and believes a more peaceful world is possible.
Paul Rehm Born and raised in a conservative, Republican family, Paul’s value system underwent major changes during an intensive week of philosophical exploration, dialogue and reflection in Colorado under the guidance of Bob LeFevre, back in the ‘60s. That valuing of each individual’s right to live was the foundation from which his peace and justice activism grew through short stints in Bulgaria and Poland working with Volunteers for Peace. Daniel Berrigan and Kathy Kelly (with whose group he travelled to Iraq) fanned the flickering flame into a fire nurtured by friends in the Atlantic Life Community and since supported by friends in the capital district peace and justice community.
Thanks to Dan, Kathy and so many others, Paul has been blessed to demonstrate, vigil, march, witness and speak out against war, torture and atomic weapons and in support of peace with justice here in America as well as in Iraq, Germany, England, Scotland and Palestine/Israel...where he has served as a Reservist with Christian Peacemaker Teams during five of the past six years. Paul and his wife, Katja, are active members of Middle East Crisis Response in Woodstock, the Palestinian Rights Committee in Albany, the Atlantic Life Community, the steering committee of Upper Hudson Peace Action and Albany Friends Meeting.
An aspiring Christian (thanks to Peter DeMott for that manner of describing oneself), Paul is the father of three and lives with his gardening spouse, co-conspirator and supporter, Katja, in the Greenville/South Westerlo area. It’s his hope that peace and justice activists working with young people will counter the culture of violence so deeply rooted in America and turn this into a country where every life is valued regardless of religious belief, skin color, language, or citizenship.