September 24, 2001

Dear All --
The past weeks since September 11th have taken a terrible toll on all of us. The horror and shock of the loss of so many innocents, mourning the dead, and the dread and revulsion so many of us feel at the grim gibberings of coming war across the Middle East and Central Asia, racial violence and loss of civil liberties at home ... the nightmare our country seems about to visit on the rest of the world, and on ourselves....

Pacifica was founded specifically for the purpose of speaking out against these things. Now, when we need Pacifica more than ever, it is almost completely shut down. The Washington beltway takeover that has been in the works for several years has succeeded in keeping Democracy Now! off Pacifica's airwaves, as well as keeping all the Pacifica stations except KPFA from doing much, if any, intelligent anti-war programming now in this hour of great need.

Many of us who have been in this fight for several years have long believed that the purpose of the Pacifica takeover was to stifle political dissent in this country. Pacifica was the only national broadcast medium for such voices and it had to be eliminated, if possible, by those whose job it is to manufacture consent in America. Our foes are formidible and have never been in it simply for the money or for corporate interests, in my view.

On September 19th, the day after the court permitted the Pacifica Board elections to go forward, five (5) new directors were illegally elected to the Pacifica Board -- Marion Barry, James Ferguson, Dick Gregory, George Barnstone & Krishna Roy -- bringing the number of directors to 16. It may be that one or two of them will actually take "our side" -- perhaps George Barnstone & Dick Gregory -- that remains to be seen. But the fact is that the controlling Washington DC cabal of political operatives and propagandists and their sycophants will continue to destroy what is left of Pacifica unless we prevail at trial in January and get them thrown off the Pacifica Board.

It is important for everyone to know that the judge did NOT rule last week that the election on the 19th was legal. He merely put it off for the trial judge to decide that. We will be amending our lawsuit to add the five new directors as defendants, and we will ask the trial judge to remove them along with all the other unlawfully elected Pacifica directors. Although it was very depressing to listen on the internet to the Pacifica board packing meeting last week -- nothing has changed essentially. The controlling board majority is still intent on silencing political dissent on Pacifica, and we still must defeat them in court -- and our legal case -- both the facts and the law -- is every bit as good as it ever was, if not better.

I continue to have great confidence that the trial judge will correctly apply the law in January and that he will remove all illegally seated directors from the Pacifica Foundation board of directors -- and that the Pacifica of the past half century will be restored with new vigor and purpose to meet the demands of the time to come. Many of you are going to peace rallies and demonstrations now. You can help us to save Pacifica -- as an essential communications medium needed NOW MORE THAN EVER for the peace movement -- by going to our web page at http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm and printing a "declaration" form for your local station, then make some copies on the back of your peace flyers and hand them out at rallies. Thanks.

Pacifica means Peace,

Carol Spooner
Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
(sponsoring the "listeners' lawsuit")
http://home.pon.net/wildrose/remove.htm

###

Important -- We can't do this without you! Contributions to our legal fund can be made payable to:

Committee to Remove the Pacifica Board
1136 Wild Rose Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95401.

To contribute on-line through Paypal go to http://www.paypal.com/. You will need to give them our email address: wildrose@pon.net

Your gift to the Committee is NOT tax deductible, but your support of the cause of free speech radio is invaluable. Question, details? Call or email Carol Spooner, (707) 526-2867, wildrose@pon.net Thank you!

Tax deductible gifts of $500 or more to support our legal action can be made payable to our fiscal sponsor:

Marin Health Fund/Public Media Initiative
P.O. Box 5402
Mill Valley, CA 94942.

You will receive tax deduction receipt from them. Also, the MHF/Public Media Initiative has a special account to receive gifts of stock in support of our lawsuit. For details contact Linda Remy at mhf1982@pon.net
www.marinhealthfund.org
Thank you!