Peace activist and great dissenter Dave Dellinger died on May 25, 2004 in Montpelier, Vermont. Dellinger is perhaps best known as one of the “Chicago Seven” (originally eight, until they bound and gagged Bobby Seal).

Dellinger described himself as a “moral dissenter” and rejected his affluent background leaving Yale during the Great Depression to live among the poor and homeless. He later revealed in his autobiography, From Yale to Jail (Pantheon Press, 1993) that he wanted to follow the path of Francis of Assisi. On that less-trod path in our culturally Christian society, Dellinger found himself living among the poor in Newark, New Jersey; he spent World War II in Lewisburg maximum-security penitentiary as a pacifist war objector; and he was beaten and bloodied throughout the civil rights and peace movements.

Vigilante enforcers of the so- called “culture war” will be targeting the city of Columbus this summer. Operation Save America, the organization that once called itself Operation Rescue and was infamous for its actions targeting abortion clinics, has named Columbus as the target of its week-long national event beginning July 17.

Led by Flip Benham, his loosely-organized band of a few hundred Christian activists from all over the country, who ultimately believe that their version of “God’s law” trumps over 200 years of American secular legal tradition, brought its yearly national event to Dayton seven years ago. Teaming up with local anti-abortion activists there, they attempted to disrupt operations at three women’s clinics there and in Cincinnati, resulting in four arrests, the ire of residents living in nearby neighborhoods, and ultimately, a stalemated Federal civil case against the organizers. They also held a theatrical performance in the middle of downtown Dayton that they called a “memorial service” for what they alleged were fetal remains.

According to Israeli sources (Arutz news), Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that the Israeli court's decision to ask for rerouting segments of the wall near Jerusalem "strengthens Israel's position ahead of the expected verdict by the International Court of Justice in The Hague which will be announcing its verdict regarding Israel's right to construct the fence. " When taken with the attempts at distraction by talk of future withdrawal from Gaza and combined with the court's earlier ruling that Israel has a right to confiscate Palestinian lands and create hardships for them as long as Israeli military commanders indicate it is related to security, this statement from Sharon uggests that Israel will proceed with its apartheid wall since it now has the stamp of approval from both George Bush, John Kerry, and congress. This monstrous project to impoverish and isolate the Palestinians in several Ghettos is a war crime and a crime against humanity. All people of conscience must protest and raise their voice. Pericles (430 B.C.) observed that "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you. " Indeed

AUSTIN, Texas -- Happy birthday, America! Ye Olde Fourth of July rolls around again and finds the Great Nation in, frankly, a somewhat pissy mood. Lots of blame game, name-slinging and general unpleasantness. But there's always an upside. The vice president reports that if you go ahead and let fly with the f-word, it makes you feel better. Anything to get that fun Dick Cheney back to his usual sunny self, I always say.

        True, we seem to have had more halcyon national natal days, but if we ignore I--q for the day, we should be able to celebrate our national heritage without punching each other in the eye.