*** PRESS RELEASE ***
*** Northwest Greens ***

June 28, 2006

For more information please contact Chris Robinson
at (215)-843-4256 or nwgreens@yahoo.com.

Successful Father's Day peace event

-- by Chris Robinson.

Seventeen demonstrators enjoyed a sunny Father's Day afternoon, June 18, near the home of Senator Arlen Specter in East Falls. The activists were calling for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq and wanted our senator to author a bill similar to H.B. 4232, which will end Pentagon funding in Iraq except money needed for an orderly withdrawal.

Lawrence H. Geller, a writer and actor who belongs to Veterans for Peace, said, Specter "has been totally unresponsive to office visits -- refusing to meet with the anti-war movement and seemingly embarrassed to hold a town meeting. It's one thing to complain about this war. It's another to put our bodies on the vigil line near [Specter's] house -- inconvenient or not -- once a month, and let it be known to one and all alike how we feel. I can do no less."

"Senator Specter has been a key advocate for wars of aggression," said John Byrne, a member of the Libertarian Party. "That is why I am here today. The invasions [of Afghanistan and Iraq] were conceived in secrecy, born with deceit, and nourished in delusions. The monsters left loose have produced much death and destruction in the Middle East. Deficits, debt and high oil prices have been their calling card here at home. It is time to lay the beasts to rest."

Kate Robinson, a member of Northwest Greens who lives in East Falls, said, "I decided to spend this Father's Day protesting with my father and my [one year old] daughter because there are too many soldiers unable to spend the day with their families. It is time for Bush and his administration (Republicans and Democrats!) to bring the troops home. Stop cutting social services funding, Social Security, and resources for the people! It's time Specter listened."

The following groups have endorsed the monthly peace events near Specter's home: Brandywine Peace Community, Bucks for Progress, Chester County Peace Movement, Communist Party of Eastern PA and DE, Green Party of Montgomery County, Green Party of Philadelphia, Military Families Speak Out, Northwest Greens, Northwest Peace and Justice Movement, Northwest Peace Coalition, Peace Action of Delaware Valley, Philadelphia Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Philadelphia Regional Anti-War Network (PRAWN), Philadelphia War Resisters League, Saint Vincent's Peace and Justice Ministry, Suburban Philadelphia Greens, Turn Around America, VietNam Vets against the War, and Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, Philadelphia Branch.

On the 61st anniversary of the Age of Nuclear Warfare, there will be a Trinity Peace Event from 2:00 until 4:00 pm on Sunday, July 16, near Senator Specter's home, on Schoolhouse Lane (between Henry Avenue and Gypsy Lane) in East Falls. The U.S. Manhattan Project detonated the world's first nuclear warhead on July 16, 1945, at the Trinity test site in New Mexico. For more information, please call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.