
News & Events
From the Executive Director

We received the following email last week from the family of an RFC beneficiary:
“Emma [pseudonym] received a grant this cycle [for summer camp] and while I plan to get around to a formal thank you note I wanted to drop you a message while the thought was in my mind.
Yesterday I asked Emma how she was doing with her worries (worries are the legacy of the FBI raids last [fall]). She said, ‘My worries are fine, camp … makes me forget all about them. Thank you, for helping Emma leave her worries behind for awhile.”
I received the following comment to a blog I posted two weeks ago:
“As a long time supporter of the RFC and an admirer of you personally, I am writing to ask you to publicly come out in opposition to the horrific situation in occupied Palestine. I suspect you understand the situation there well, bet you follow it and in your heart understand the nature of settler colonialist Israel and it's apartheid and ethnic cleansing practices.
Independence Day is behind us, but I’m still thinking about patriotism. Perhaps given the circumstances of my life that’s hardly surprising. In this country we expend plenty of energy debating what constitutes patriotism, but precious little time discussing its efficacy.
Last week I joined the Advisory Board of the Bradley Manning Support Network. I sought them out not only because it is a honor to join a Board that includes Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, as well as Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame, and filmmaker Michael Moore, among others, but also because I believe it is imperative for as many people as possible to raise their voices in support of Manning.
We began planning for the RFC’s 20th anniversary over two years ago. We’d produced several large-scale dramatic readings interspersed with music to mark prior milestones such as the 40th and 50th anniversary of my parents’ execution or the RFC’s 10th anniversary, but this time we wanted to do something different. Rather than one big event on or near the anniversary date (September 4th, 2010), we decided to hold 20 events, in 20 cities, over 20 months (our 20/20/20 program).