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ISSUES & FORUMS
Get Involved!
Peace Vigil::
"No More Troops to IRAQ"
Thursday, 4:30-5:30 pm, Corporate Row Drive, Davenport
(in front of Texas Roadhouse, across from Borders Books)
This event is outside. We will be standing peacefully with signs on the south-east corner. Please bring signs and candles in a clear plastic cup... extra signs and candles will be avaliable. Please bring your family and join in solidarity with those whose family members are serving in the war in Iraq. We will line the street with candle lights and join the nation in saying "No More Troops to Iraq!" and "Bring Our Troops Home" We want to keep the message unified and simple so if you make your own sign, please reflect one or both of these two messages.
Peace, Caroline
PACG Actions:
We have waited too long... Peace Talks Now! Bring our troops home safely and soon! Please Sign the People's Petition for an Iraq Peace Process, today!
Please take a moment to sign the "Apollo Challenge" to build a national citizens' movement for clean, homegrown energy and good jobs. Join us in this call for energy independence!
America's oil addiction hurts our security, our economy and our environment. Our troops are bogged down in two ugly wars in the Middle East, in part, to keep the oil flowing. Working families are having a tougher time making ends meet because of $3 gasoline. And as the world's biggest consumers of oil, we contribute the most to the global warming that threatens the future we'll leave our children.
Meeting these challenges is not only possible, but it can also create exciting new opportunities for our country. With a national Apollo Program to invest in clean, homegrown fuels, renewable power, and efficiency, we can slash oil imports by 50 percent and create up to 3 million good jobs. Brazil managed to replace enough oil with homegrown ethanol that it has virtually stopped importing oil. If Brazil can do it, America can too.
Let's help us build a grassroots citizens' movement to challenge our nation's leaders to end our oil addiction. I urge you to sign the "Apollo Challenge" now and join us in making this 4th of July season one of hope and "independence."
Feingold Blasts Bush in U of I Speech
On Friday, April 28th, Senator Russ Feingold visited the University of Iowa and spoke about President Bush's warrantless wiretapping...you can watch his speech here, it's great! :)
JOIN THE RESISTANCE!
It is expected that we are going to see close to $4.00 a gallon by next summer and it possibly higher! Want gasoline prices to come down? We need to take some intelligent, united action. Phillip Hollsworth offered this good idea:
For the rest of this year, DON'T purchase ANY gasoline from the two biggest companies (which now are one), EXXON and MOBIL. If they are not selling any gas, they will be inclined to reduce their prices. If they reduce their prices, the other companies will have to follow suit. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of Exxon and Mobil gas buyers. It's really simple to do!
If each of us sends an e-mail out to ten more people within one day of receipt, 300 MILLION people could conceivably be contacted within the next 8 days!!! Acting together we can make a difference. If this makes sense to you, please pass this message on. I suggest that we not buy from EXXON/MOBIL UNTIL THEY LOWER THEIR PRICES TO THE $1.30 RANGE AND KEEP THEM DOWN. Stay away from Shell if you can... remember what they did to Ken Sarawiwo. USE CITGO whenever possible - Venezuelan Oil. You can make a difference!
QCTimes Photo Misrepresents Peace Vigil!...
An issue was identified in the coverage of the Peace Vigil Events -- the article, published on March 19 in the Times, well represented the peace and prayerfulness that marked the events. The photo printed by the Times did not -- the reporter took hundreds of photos and then printed the one that least represented the events of the day - the moment when one young man crossed the street to confront the handful of people on the other side who were there to "support the troops"--though, of course, we all support the troops.
The QC Times printed an editorial, again with the unfortunate picture that did not represent the events of the day. You can go to the Times to answer their question: How do you show your support of the troops -- the gist of the editorial is that you must not support the war to support the troops. They are encouraging letters or posts to the website in response to this question -- IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE WEIGH IN!
Times Blog...
Sign the petition! Over 2,000 soldiers have died in Iraq in addition to tens of thousands of civilian casualties. It is obvious that the time for patience has ended - we need an exit strategy now! We cannot wait for our government to plan for peace, and so we must make our government pay attention. Tell Congress - it is time to end the war. Click Here, Now!
As unthinkable as it may seem, conservatives are revving up and generating calls to Congress demanding Medicaid cuts. Yes, you heard me right: They're calling for Medicaid cuts - even now, as Congress begins work on a relief bill that includes new money for Medicaid to cover those displaced by Hurricane Katrina! For more info, go to http://www.familiesusa.org/.
CUTTING MEDICAID IS THE WRONG THING TO DO: Instead of cuts, we need MORE money for Medicaid, so survivors of Hurricane Katrina can get the health care they urgently need. Instead of cuts, we need MORE money for Medicaid so states can avoid some of the draconian cuts they have been considering. And, since we don't know yet just how much damage Katrina has done to the nation's economy, we need to make sure Medicaid is in a position to help if unemployment starts going up again.
WE NEED YOUR HELP: Members of Congress are already getting calls from conservatives urging them to go ahead with budget reconciliation and Medicaid cuts -- whether they pass a Katrina relief package or not! That's why we're asking you to call your Senators and your Representative today.
Urge them to:
(1) SUPPORT the Hurricane Katrina disaster package that covers survivors with Medicaid, and
(2) OPPOSE any cuts in Medicaid and permanently delay budget reconciliation.
Call Congress Toll-Free: 1-800-828-0498
This number goes to the Capitol Switchboard. Just ask to be connected to your Senator's or Representative's office. Please call today! Thanks for your help!
Local Alerts for QC response to Hurricane Devastation
Coordinated efforts are taking place to locally assist Hurricane Victims through United Way of the QCA. Housing groups such as John Lewis Community Services and others will be providing housing and services to refugees as they come north in the coming weeks. It will take a huge local efforts to provide emotional, social and economic support for these devastated victims of the hurricanes.
Please find ways to help with these local groups as well as the broader needs in Louisiana, Mississippi and Teaxas. More specific information will be forthcoming as how to assist.
FROM ROGER BUTTS, PACG LEADER AND UNITARIAN MINISTER
Dear friends,
I wanted to share this Reuters article with you (printed below) that describes how faith groups may be reimbursed for their work in the Gulf Coast.
I find this very troubling and bothersome for the following reason. A story is circulating about a Unitarian Universalist chaplain that volunteered in New Orleans shortly after Katrina. He noticed a woman crying, sobbing. He approached her and asked her if she would like to talk. She said yes. He listened to her tell a story about her experience that day. She said a faith organization had served her breakfast and prayed over it. But they didn't stop there. They went on to tell those residents that God was punishing New Orleans and its residents for their sins by sending a hurricane. (This is a message that I heard recently at the NAACP banquet, with lots of amens). She had been spending the morning recounting every sin and trying to figure out what she had done to cause such an event.
This kind of religious abuse is now going to be subsidized by our taxpayers, at the federal level. This article describes the plan for reimbursing these faith groups. My guess is that a large majority of faith groups were inclusive, affirming and respectful. But this group (and unknown numbers of others) abused this woman and the residents by describing a vengeful God who causes hurricanes to punish individual sins.
I urge you to write your member of Congress and Senators (MY LEGISLATOR) and implore them to do what they can to stop the administration from eroding the wall that separates church from state. This would be the first such reimbursement of this kind. It is a recipe for disaster.
Here is the article.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse churches and other religious organizations that have provided shelter, food and supplies to the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.
The payments with taxpayer money would mark the first time that the government has made such payments to faith-based groups at a time following natural disasters, the newspaper reported, citing FEMA officials.
FEMA is a division within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
According to the article, religious groups that operated emergency shelters, food distribution centers or medical facilities at the request of state and local governments in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be eligible.
Rita, with winds of 120 miles per hour, struck the Gulf Coast over the weekend. Katrina came ashore in Louisiana on August 29, killed more than 1,000 people and caused as much as an estimated $200 billion in economic losses.
Reimbursements would cover a "wide range of costs," FEMA spokesman Eugene Kinerney was quoted as saying.
Kinerney said they would include "labor costs incurred in excess of normal operations, rent for the facility and delivery of essential needs like food and water," the report said.
The policy was outlined in a September 9 internal memorandum, titled "Eligible Costs for Emergency Sheltering Declarations."
Under the policy, religious groups, like secular nonprofit groups, will be required to document their costs and file for reimbursement from state and local emergency management agencies, which in turn will seek funds from FEMA, the report said.
The report cited a FEMA official in Louisiana as saying it is too early to know how many groups will seek reimbursement under the new program.
TAKE ACTION - Call the WHITE HOUSE
Now, more than ever, our voices must be heard. Call the White House to demand immediate and effective relief efforts in New Orleans, along the Gulf coast and wherever the refugees are being taken. The White House phone number is 202-456-1111.
From our own Karl Rhomberg, who has relatives in the New orleans area:
My brother Marty was born in New Orleans. My mother was born and raised there, and family members, grand parents, aunts and uncles, lived there and are buried in Metairie Cemetery, famous for it's above ground mausoleums. My parents met and married each other in New Orleans. We have cousins and neices and nephews, and family friends living in the area just south of Lake Ponchartrain, in Kenner, in Covington, in The City on Roman Avenue near Charity Hospital, and east along the once beautiful Gulf coast in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. We have not been able to contact them through phone or eMail, and although I am pretty sure they evacuated, I 'm also pretty sure they have lost everything. Everything.
I am tearful and numb with watching the news feeds, and can only imagine what it would be like to wake up some morning to the news that the entire north side of Chicago, Madison to Touhy, and the lakefront to O'Hare, was under water. No electricity, no phones, and no transportation in or out, and temperatures of 90° to 100°. One hospital in the whole area is barely able to function for now. Food and clean water is running out, and there are still tens of thousands of people living in the streets, waiting for help that never seems to arrive.
There also seems to be no one in charge. What makes the matter even worse, is that most of the more affluent, better educated, healthier and younger people are no longer in the area, surrendering the city to the poor, sick, elderly, uneducated, and now, armed and dangerous. Local police officers are turning in their badges and quitting their jobs because they too have personally lost everything and now don't see any reason to put their own lives at risk. Local authorities are short of manpower, and the federal officials just haven't been paying attention. Yesterday, the mayor sent a desperate plea for help to Washington for any help. That was three days after the hurricane hit.
The World Trade Center was a huge catastrophe, but it seemed to only bring out the good in people. The disaster was in a single defined place, people could roll up their sleeves, and set about the task of dealing with the problem, and then go home to their families and sleep. It was an inspiration to the nation.
This is worse. It is Biblical in scale. The disaster is everywhere. It is completely horizontal. All houses and business are destroyed, or contaminated, in almost every neighborhood. The economy has been devastated. Many are not insured, but even if you have insurance, there is no one to call, there are not enough contractors to help you try to rebuild. Pray that a week from now we are not hearing of the first reports of Cholera.
Listed below are just a few organizations that are helping. They are going to need a lot of money, so if you can contribute anything, I'm sure it would be much appreciated.
American Red Cross: 800/435-7669
America's Second Harvest: 800/344-8070
Anonymous contributions (via iTunes and you wont get more solicitations from any other organizations.)
Salvation Army: 800/725-2769
And make contribution through either of these special hurricane relief funds or any other of your choice: AFL-CIO, NAACP
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As progressives, we value and promote peace, racial, social and economic justice, civil rights, diversity, civil liberties, human rights, a preserved environment, and a reinvigorated democracy.We seek to empower people to take action for positive change and we advocate for fundamental change when necessary.
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