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."