Pubdate: Sat, 25 Jan 2003
Source: Valdosta Daily Times (GA)
Section: LivingTHElife, page 10A
Copyright: 2003 Valdosta Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.sgaonline.com/communities/valdosta.html
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1156

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH HOSTS OPPONENT OF THE "WAR ON DRUGS"

VALDOSTA - Unitarian Universalist Church, 1951 E. Park Ave., hosts a 
speaker, 1 p.m. Sunday, on the church's drug policy.

Last June the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, 
held in Quebec City, Canada, adopted a statement of conscience supporting 
drug-policy reform and alternatives to "The War on Drugs," according to the 
church. In recognition of this assembly's efforts, the local Unitarian 
congregation hosts Nora Callahan, national speaker with Journey for 
Justice. Callahan advocates change in current drug policy This weekend, she 
will give a presentation and offer discussion on alternatives.

Callahan, the co-founder/executive director of The November Coalition, is 
journeying throughout the Southeast. "Her mission is to educate/activate 
the friends and loved ones of the nation's 450,000 drug prisoners to press 
for change in current anti-drug policy," according to the church. "In 1997, 
Nora co-founded TNC with her brother, who had been sentenced to 27.5 years 
in federal prison for cocaine conspiracy. TNC began as a small group of 
citizens whose lives have been gravely affected by the nation's anti-drug 
policy. TNC has grown to a nationwide network of many thousands, including 
ordinary citizens alarmed at the uselessness and societal damage caused by 
drug laws."

In 2001 Callahan married Chuck Armsbury, who detoured into revolutionary 
activism in the 1960s and ended up in federal prison. He is the editor of 
TNC's quarterly, The Razor Wire. The couple left Eastern Washington State 
on January 8 to drive southeast in their motorhome for a five-month 5,000 
"Southern Journey" which is allowing them to visit a variety of forums, 
conferences, etc.

At the TNC website, she describes how she became involved: "My brother, 
Gary Callahan, had been imprisoned for about seven years when he asked me 
to organize prisoners with their loved ones to oppose the drug war. That 
was 1997, and by that time I had learned that a five-year prison sentence 
was considered crushing in any other country, and that our nation was just 
about to take title of 'World's Leading Jailer.' "My brother had 22 such 
crushing years left to serve. If you are the loved one of a prisoner, you 
know firsthand this agony, the feelings of helplessness, confusion and shame."
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