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Editor: 

The Green Party of Alameda County urges everyone to join a nationwide  

Day of Solidarity in support of the Pacifica news program “Democracy Now!” 

Nationwide protests today will include a gathering at 8:30 a.m. in front of KPFA Radio (94.1 FM), 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Participants who have cellular phones are asked to bring them for calling Pacifica board members. 

“Democracy Now!” hosted by award-winning investigative journalist Amy Goodman, is a beacon of light in an otherwise dreary wasteland of radio news coverage. The program, Pacifica's only nationwide production besides the milquetoast daily headlines show, covers the progressive issues other media ignore or skim over.  

Environmentalists, justice activists, advocates of women's right and civil rights, disarmament advocates, the Green Party, and organized labor all owe much of their success to the ground-breaking coverage provided by “Democracy Now!” 

After “Democracy Now!” staff members were threatened with bodily harm and even assaulted by other staff members at New York's WBAI Radio, the program moved to a safer production studio outside the beleaguered Pacifica radio station. Incredibly, while taking no action against those who made the threats and have hurled racist invective against the program on the air, Pacifica management suspended the entire “Democracy Now!” crew without pay and has refused to carry the program on its network. Only KPFA among the five Pacifica-owned stations is carrying the program now; the others are airing reruns. 

We also encourage everyone write letters to the Pacifica governing board defending “Democracy Now!” This irreplaceable treasure must be preserved. An easy way to do this is to visit www.progressiveportal.org. 

Leslie Bonnet, Dana Engen, John Selawsky, B Soffer 

Green Party of Alameda County Council