par-newhaven.org

Progressive Action Roundtable: A forum for progressive groups in the Greater New Haven Area where actions and ideas may be publicized so that others are aware of peace, health, justice, energy, environmental and other issues for the common good.

Archive for December, 2009

Dr. King’s Legacy Of Environmental & Social Justice 2010

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Events, Human Rights | No Comments

By Josue Irizarry, Events Coordinator, Yale Peabody Museum

The Yale Peabody Museum will open its doors for a free, two-day festival in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his efforts to ensure environmental and social justice among all people. The Yale Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Ave., will host the 14th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Legacy of Environmental and Social Justice on Sunday, Jan. 17, noon to 4:30 p.m., and Monday, Jan. 18, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m..

In his tireless efforts to work toward equality for and harmony between all, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. strove to raise awareness about public health concerns and urban environmental issues that disproportionately affect minority and low-income communities. We refer to this as environmental justice. In recognition of the progress that has been achieved in these areas and with optimism for the future, we will celebrate with two days of music, dance, children’s storytelling, teen diversity workshops, a community open mic and our annual poetry slams.

On Sunday, Jan. 17, from 12:15 to 5:00 p.m., the teens in the Peabody’s EVOLUTIONS After School Program will be hosting “I Am Who I Am” Teen Diversity Workshops. Intended to engage ALL interested teens, these interactive workshops, dynamic presentations, and music and dance performances will focus on issues of diversity and inclusion toward developing a local community of teen leaders.  All activities will run from 1:00 to 5 p.m.  Come be a part of something great!

An important component of this event is our Community Open Mic and Poetry Slam, on Monday, Jan. 18, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Community Open Mic is an exciting aspect of our festival that gives people a unique opportunity to honor the spoken word legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by sharing original poetry and rap or speaking about issues of environmental and social justice our society faces today. The Poetry Slam includes well-known poets from around the United States.

Every poet who registers for the Community Open Mic by Jan. 9 will have at least three minutes at the mic to speak his or her truth, will receive an MLK Day T-shirt, and will be entered into a drawing for a one-year Yale Peabody Museum membership. Space is limited! To register, contact peabody.events@yale.edu.

For more information on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. festival visit www.peabody.yale.edu/events/mlkday.html.

‘Working Together For Justice’ Competition

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Events, Human Rights | No Comments

By Joelle Fishman, People’s Weekly World

“Working Together for Justice” is the theme of this year’s high school African American History Month arts and writing competition sponsored by the People’s World in memory of Dalzenia and Virginia Henry.

Competition guidelines say, “Think about an injustice or inequality that you see in your community. What people and resources do you have around you that can help to address the problem?  How can your talents facilitate teamwork to overcome the injustice?”

Entries of artwork, poetry, essay or song must be received at 37 Howe Street no later than Feb. 12, 2010.  The requirement for artwork is paper size not larger than 12″ x 18″ and for essay, poem or song not longer than two pages.  All entries must include name, address, phone number, e-mail, age and school.

A 20-minute group exercise is available upon request.  It introduces the competition’s theme through the powerful historical example of Ida B. Wells, and can be used in the classroom, after-school programs or by community organizations.  Two Yale Ph.D. candidates in African American History prepared the exercise.

Cash prizes and gifts will be awarded on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 4 p.m. at the 35th annual African American History Month Celebration held at the Peoples Center and sponsored by the People’s World.

Guest speaker will be Dr. Gerald Horne, professor at the University of Houston and author of two dozen books.  He holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies.  His research has addressed issues of racism in a variety of relations involving labor, politics, civil rights, international relations and war.

For information call: 203-624-8664.

The Audacity Of Hope?

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Peace | No Comments

By Joan Cavanagh, CT Peace Coalition/New Haven

After all the U.S. wars that members of the Connecticut Peace Coalition/New Haven have protested, perhaps we’ve heard every throwaway line ever coined by passersby who objected to our message. But the cry of the young African American man who, on a recent Sunday, drove by our vigil and shouted, “You all should have done this when Bush was in office!” was different.

He obviously isn’t a frequent traveler through New Haven, or he would have known that we’ve been at that particular location every Sunday since the Clinton administration. Did he think that we were picking on the nation’s first African American President, who had merely inherited his predecessors’ policies?

The man didn’t stop to talk. We could have then perhaps had a conversation, beginning with the fact that the President doesn’t make U.S. foreign policy. He (thus far) merely puts the particular face on it that is needed by the war-makers and war profiteers at a given point and for a given war.

President Obama’s decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan is no surprise. As a candidate, he said that was what he would do. Many seasoned activists held a tiny flicker of hope that he was just saying it to be elected and would display the stunning moral courage to refuse to do it when the time came. The disappointment that followed—for us—was as small as the hope had been.

But what of the young people, African American and of all ethnicities—born or raised in the Bush era— who believed wholeheartedly in this candidate, who took from him a sincere message of hope against all-pervasive violence and dreamed that he would act on the ideals he articulated?

Instead of a Quixotic attempt to end the long entrenched current wars, what these young folks got was Obama’s appalling Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, in which they were told, among other things, that war would never be eradicated in their lifetimes.  The defeatism and the cynicism of such a statement from an articulate leader, the nation’s first African American President, are not lost on these young people, who live with the audacity—and scarcity—of hope.

Please join our ongoing vigil for peace and justice at Broadway, Park and Elm Streets, in New Haven, 12-1 p.m., every Sunday. We need you! More importantly, so do they.

March On Washington Against The War, March 20, 2010

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Peace | No Comments

By Deb Malatesta, CT ANSWER Coalition

At a time of deep economic crisis, with tens of millions out of work and losing their homes, the cost of the wars and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq is already running at over $225 billion per year or $1.2 billion every two days. Escalating the war will escalate that cost.

On Saturday, March 20, 2010, tens of thousands will march in Washington, D.C., with coinciding mass actions in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The momentum for the March 20 National March on Washington is growing. The demonstration is expected to draw tens of thousands of people to Washington, D.C. to demand “U.S. Out of Afghanistan and Iraq Now!”

March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched against Iraq. The demonstration will demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq. Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.

ANSWER CT, Connecticut Students Against the War, CTUP and other Connecticut groups are organizing buses from Hartford, New Haven, UConn and other locations.  ANSWER CT will begin regular meetings to mobilize for the demonstration starting in January, 2010.  Meetings will be held January 13, 27th and every Wednesday in February and March leading up to the 20th at the United Church on the Green Parish House at 323 Temple St. Meetings will also be held monthly in New London.  For information on getting bus tickets, attending meetings, volunteering or to endorse the March 20th demonstration contact: 203 606-0319, ct@answer.org or visit the ANSWERCOALITION website.

The ANSWER Coalition, in partnership with scores of organizations and echoing the sentiment of millions of people who want the wars to end, will be in the streets today, tomorrow and in the months to come. That is now clearly the only prescription to end the violence and occupation of the American Empire.

Coalition For The People (CFP) Report

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Healthcare, Transportation | No Comments

By Mary Johnson

For yet another year, the health care industry (insurance and pharmaceutical companies and HMOs) has succeeded in keeping any mention of single payer health care off the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The same will happen in the U.S. Senate unless U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont introduces his single payer bill. (Despite his promises to do the same in the House, U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York failed to act.)

The House bill passed on Nov. 7, 2009, and whatever passes in the Senate will amount to a huge gift to the industry. Even the “public option” was privatized. The only non-profit part of the House bill is the inclusion of more people in the Medicaid program.

CFP is happy to note that the New Haven Area has a larger than average group of people who understand and support single payer. This year many advocates contacted their three members of Congress to demand the enactment of single payer bills. A good many of those made frequent contacts knowing it will take sustained and growing effort to achieve what we need and want.

Most advocates know that there are more than 3,000 health care industry registered lobbyists on Capitol Hill. The industry is paying even more for those highly deceptive television ads that have been bombarding us all this year. Like other corporations, those in the health care industry have, once again, demonstrated their power in the hall of Congress. For the most part, members of Congress listened to their pocketbooks rather than to single payer advocates.

But this year also saw a change that forced the corporations to work harder – the number of single payer advocates has grown and will continue to grow as long as we continue our efforts. “If the people lead, the leaders will follow” can become a reality. It may also help to remember the words of Justice Louis Brandeis: “The most important office of government is CITIZEN.” Health care is a right, not a privilege.

CT Transit’s safety record is another Coalition for People concern. On Nov. 17, 2009, one of our members was struck by a CT Transit bus at the intersection of College Street and Frontage Road. Thankfully, she survived. A couple of months later, a CT Transit bus killed a Yale researcher at the same location. CT Transit has been silent about these events and consequences. If you would like to help investigate or want more information, please call 203-387-7858.

The Coalition for People wishes you and all of your family and friends happy holidays and a just and peaceful 2010.

Fight The Hike Update

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Energy | No Comments

By Paula Panzarella

Connecticut still has the highest electrical rates in the continental US, and our legislature can, and must, undo the damage caused by de-regulation of the electric industry.  We will again try to get various energy bills passed in the coming legislative session.

Sen. Fonfara of the energy and technology committee prevented our bills from being discussed in the Senate.  We will be leafleting his district (Hartford) on Saturday, Jan. 9.  His constituents need to know that he is responsible for blocking resolutions which would have lowered electricity rates,  improved transparency and accountability, bolstered the electricity supply and promoted renewable energy throughout the state.

Sen. Don Williams, Senate president pro tempore, and Sen. Martin Looney, Senate majority leader, both could have urged Sen. Fonfara to allow the bills to be debated on the Senate floor.  Fight the Hike will shortly contact Sen. Williams and Looney as well.

If you would like to join Fight the Hike members in our Jan. 9 leafletting in Hartford, call 203-562-2798, or e-mail paulapanzarella@yahoo.com.

Our next meeting is Thursday, January 21, 6 p.m. at New Haven City Hall, 2nd floor, 165 Church Street.

Economic Discrimination: Why Citizens Television Is Not On At&T U-Verse

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in General | No Comments

By Joseph L. Schofield, Executive Director, CTV

Residents of New Haven, Hamden and West Haven can receive Citizens Television (CTV) on Comcast channels 26, 27 and 96.  Subscribers to AT&T cannot receive CTV at all, even though they pay the same monthly community access fee as Comcast subscribers do. Why is that?

The CTV board of directors has persistently voted not to go onto the AT&T U-Verse system for a number of reasons, among which is economic discrimination. AT&T was granted special status by the CT state legislature in 2006 to offer competition to established cable providers in the state (Comcast, Charter, etc.) as a means of driving prices down. But unlike the cable providers, who have to offer their services to any resident in the provider’s service area, AT&T was allowed to cherrypick the neighborhoods they would serve – meaning they could serve only those areas that were most profitable to them. And so, while every resident in the New Haven service area can get Comcast, considerably fewer can get AT&T.

Why would a resident choose AT&T over Comcast? One reason: if the cost is cheaper. So residents who can get both Comcast and AT&T have an economic choice that their neighbors maybe several blocks away do not have. It is outright economic discrimination.

But there are other issues. AT&T would hide CTV on a channel with literally all of the other public access stations in the state. Residents would have to search for us. And when found, we would take longer to appear on your screen. And that appearance would not be a regular full television picture, but the inferior image you would get in Windows Media Player on your computer. More discrimination. CTV would not be treated as a real television station, but as a second-rate entity.

Help us out. Call your state Reps and Senators and tell them to roll back the legislation that lets AT&T economically discriminate against all of us and makes public access inferior to commercial television. For more information, visit www.citizenstv.org.

Recent Cases Highlight Need For Death Penalty Repeal

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Death Penalty | No Comments

By Ben Jones, CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty

Recently, there has been both good news and bad news from the Supreme Court. To start with the good news, the Court threw out a death sentence for George Porter, a Korean War veteran who received two purple hearts. The justices unanimously agreed that Mr. Porter received poor and inadequate representation at trial. And for good reason: his attorneys failed to mention as mitigating factors his military service or the possibility of suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

So the Court stopped that execution. But it allowed the execution of Bobby Wayne Woods to continue. Mr. Woods never won a Purple Heart, but he was severely mentally impaired. Having scored below a 70 on an IQ test, Mr. Woods would qualify as mentally retarded in the eyes of many experts.

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled in Atkins v. Virginia that executing the mentally retarded violated the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. But despite this ruling, arbitrary factors still play a large role in determining who is executed and who avoids it, as the case of Mr. Woods demonstrates. Courts in Texas saw no problem in ruling that someone with IQ scores below 70 is fit to be executed. In California, on the other hand, courts stopped the execution of a death row inmate with an IQ score of 84.

These cases are simply the latest example of our government’s inability to fix the death penalty. It remains arbitrary and biased, as it has been throughout its history. Instead of waiting and hoping for government officials to act, it is clearer than ever that a grassroots movement is needed to make repeal of the death penalty a reality.

Toward this goal, the CNADP currently is stepping up its outreach efforts to different faith and civic groups – especially the Jewish community, Catholic Church, Episcopal Church, Lutheran Church United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, and the League of Women voters. If you are involved in any of these groups and would like to work with us to help end Connecticut’s death penalty, please contact me at ben.jones@cnadp.org or 860-231-1489.

Bruce Gagnon: Dangers of Space Wars

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Peace | No Comments

By James van Pelt, Promoting Enduring Peace

The militarizing of space was the focus of Bruce Gagnon’s keynote address at the annual meeting of Promoting Enduring Peace Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009, at the New Haven Friends Meeting House in New Haven.  Gagnon is a founder and the current coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space (GN), which on five continents has promoted the peaceful use of space and resisted extending the theater of war into space.  Gagnon has been working on space issues for the past 25 years and helped found the GN in 1992. According to GN’s website (space4peace.org), “The arms race is moving into space. The U.S. Space Command, headquartered in Colorado Springs, CO, has publicly stated that it intends ‘to control space in order to protect U.S. interests.’” U.S. policy now holds that whichever nation controls space will be able to project force “in space, from space, and into space.”

Following the keynote presentation and a refreshment break, PEP program plans for 2010 were outlined and then the annual business of PEP was transacted. Elected to the board of directors were Fran & Kate Frazier, Paul Hodel, Jeffry Larson, Al Marder, Bruce Martin, and James van Pelt. The Fraziers, daughters of PEP’s longest-serving executive director, Howard Frazier, share a seat on the board. One seat was left vacant to be filled by a constituent representative such as an environmental activist or a student.

Since its founding by Yale Divinity School professors in 1952, PEP has presented significant conferences related to world peace, distributed over 10 million free peace education articles, conducted citizen diplomacy around the world, and honored peace heroes via the Gandhi Peace Award. PEP’s unique approach springs from the realization that world peace, social justice, and environmental harmony are interdependent and inseparable.  For more information: visit www.pepeace.org, or e-mail info@pepeace.org, or call 203-624-0122.

Food & Faith Conference: The Power Of Local Food Production & Distribution

Dec 29

Posted by Progressive Action Roundtable in Events | 1 Comment

by Andrea Cohen Kiener, Interreligious Eco-Justice Network

Join allies of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network and Hartford Seminary for this first regional gathering to explore the power of Food and Faith, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010 (snow date: Thursday, Jan. 28), 4-8 p.m. The conference, at the Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman St., will include presentations, panel discussion, and table conversations.

In this conference, we will begin to explore with other people of faith what it might mean to reclaim the benefits of smaller scale and local food production and distribution.  We will learn with pioneers of this work who are
reclaiming farming and gardening for religious education, better food, stronger local economies and for social justice.

Panelists: Melina Rudman talking about Community Gardening Models–Melina is a spiritual director, leadership coach, and long-time gardener; Monique Bosch on Community Supported Agriculture– Monique is founder and member of Westport Green Village Initiative and the Environmental Action group at the UU Church of Westport; Janet Heller and Ellen Castaldini on Educating for Sustainability–Janet is a member of the UU Society: East in Manchester and of Northeast Organic Farming Association’s CT Chapter, and Ellen Castaldini is a CT Master Wildlife Conservationist and a volunteer with the CT Audubon Society Center in Glastonbury;  Susan Pronovost on Food Systems for Job Training and Social Justice–Susan is founder and Executive Director of Brass City Harvest, Inc., a non- profit agricultural and human services organization in Waterbury.

For further information, please contact Andrea Cohen Kiener, executive director of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network, at 860-231-8554 or andrea@irejn.org.

Cost (includes a delicious vegetarian meal): $20 per person; $10 for student/senior/economic need; $40 for Seed Starters to support future garden.

FOOD & FAITH CONFERENCE: THE POWER OF LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION.

A commenter said: Register online by clicking here: http://www.hartsem.edu/events/2010_Food_and_Faith.html