"Torture Professor" John Yoo in San Mateo

Join World Can't Wait to protest torture and demand that the war criminals of the Bush-Cheney Torture Team be brought to justice! Join us with signs, orange jumpsuits, and our voices as Rotary Club lunch guests, golfers, and others arrive for John Yoo's lecture.

NOTE from the Rotary Club: "The event is not open to the public, except for those who are guests of Rotary members. For more information, go to: http://www.sanmateorotary.com"

John Yoo may be seen in many places these days, promoting his new book and being met with protest everywhere: New York last month, Chicago tomorrow, Los Angeles last week, the Bay Area whenever Yoo appears publicly.

One place Yoo is NOT being seen this semester is at UC Berkeley Law, where the administration is hoping to avoid political protest against a war criminal teaching law, by hiding his classes. As UC public relations and administration voices keep repeating: "only students who have paid to take his class" are allowed to know where it is.

Think about this contradiction: SECRET classes to fend off exposure and protest - while at the very same time, Yoo as POLITICAL CELEBRITY, shamelessly defending torture on national TV (the Daily Show, Tavis Smiley, CNN . . .) and speaking publicly, in person, to willing audiences (peppered with protests, yet still willing!) several times a week all over the country?

Is the message coming across clearly? That people should just accept that torture is part of the new norms they must live under? In the words of the president, "looking forward, not backward" and allowing the crimes against humanity which we so hated under Bush to become permanent?

If you don't accept this message, then you need to speak out, now! If you can join protest demonstrations like this Thursday's, you are welcome and your presence is needed. And you can do more. Write letters to the editor. Wear the orange ribbon and talk to everyone who asks, about the Torture State and why it's wrong. Show a film, pass out World Can't Wait literature, talk about it on Facebook. Get the debate over torture kicked open at your school, in your community, through your congregation.

Don't let torture be defended (AND extended, as Obama is now doing) while you stand by and watch in silence. Join us. And send your thoughts to World Can't Wait about how to make this fight stronger, broader, and more effective - we will write back to everyone.