David Moulton, a volunteer at Duluth's Loaves & Fishes Community, is
going to Cuba this summer as part of a nonviolent challenge to the US
embargo. He'll join dozens of volunteers with the NY-based Pastors for
Peace as they travel across North America, collecting needed supplies
for the Cuban people and then - in open defiance of US law -
delivering the aid directly to an NGO in Havana.

This will be the 19th such effort by Pastors for Peace
(www.ifconews.com), whose past stand-offs with the Treasury Department
over school buses and wheelchairs bound for Cuba have focused
international attention on the cruelty and absurdity of US policy.

Not everyone can commit a month to a project like this, or risk fines
and jail. But we're sure that most folks in the Northland agree that
the embargo has got to go. Here are a few ways you can help make this
a community effort:

1. Join us for a send-off party for David and other Pastors for Peace
volunteers:
Tuesday, June 17
6:30pm social/program
* Enjoy refreshments, meet the caravanistas, and hear from folks from
our area who have spent time in Cuba *
8pm hip hop for Cuba concert
* featuring Crew Jones. $3-10 suggested donation (all proceeds benefit
Pastors for Peace) *
Lafayette Community Center on Park Point (3206 Minnesota Ave)

2. Donate an unopened, unexpired bottle of multivitamins for seniors
(like Centrum). Vitamins and pharmaceuticals are in especially short
supply under the embargo. We want to send David with a boxful of
vitamins for Cuban elders as a special gift from the Northland. Drop
off either at the send-off or at Loaves & Fishes (1614 Jefferson
Street, Duluth) before June 17.

3. Sign on to the call (below) to lift the embargo. This will be sent
to MN and WI Senators and the White House when David reaches Havana.
Sign it in person at the send-off or let me know by email if you'd
like us to add your name.

Thanks!
Joel Kilgour
for the Cuba Solidarity Committee
Jay Newcomb, Adam Ritscher, Kathy Anderson, Donna Howard and David Moulton

June 17th, 2008
Duluth, Minnesota

It's time to be a better neighbor

For nearly 50 years our government has waged an economic war against
one of our nearest neighbors. Democrats and Republicans alike have
justified a strict trade embargo against Cuba and a ban on travel to
the island by US residents as tools for promoting democracy. Yet the
effects of this policy of isolation are anything but democratic: US
citizens are denied freedom to travel; Cubans are punished with
shortages of food, medicine and other necessities; cultural,
educational and scientific exchange is thwarted; and families
separated by only 90 miles of water are torn apart by unreasonable
restrictions on travel and communication.

Our people have much to share with one another. Open borders and the
free exchange of ideas advance democracy; Cold War-era posturing
obstructs it. Therefore, we call on our elected leaders to take
immediate steps to lift the embargo and travel ban and to normalize
diplomatic relations with Havana .

Further, we stand behind the volunteers of IFCO/Pastors for Peace as
they confront the cruelty of current US policy with unlicensed
cultural exchanges and humanitarian aid shipments to the island. Their
efforts to build bridges of understanding and to bring an end to
decades of hostilities are a model of neighborly behavior that
Washington would do well to follow.