Please submit copy to PAR’s e-mail address: parnewhaven@hotmail.com. If you do not have e-mail, call Paula at (203) 562-2798 to find out how to submit your article. Next Planning Meeting date is Tuesday Feb. 2, at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome…call (203) 562-2798 for location. To subscribe: Send $13 for 10 issues, make check payable to PAR, P.O. Box 995, New Haven, CT 06504.
Archive for January, 2010
By Stanley Heller, Middle East Crisis Committee
On Dec. 27, a number of peace groups held a meeting in Hartford’s Charter Oak Community Center and a brief protest march in solidarity with the Gaza Freedom March. Unfortunately, the Egyptian dictatorship, trying its best to brown-nose with Obama and Netanyahu, stopped the Gaza Freedom march and at the same time harassed and stole from another humanitarian project, George Galloway’s truck convoy Viva Palestina. The Egyptian dictator, Mubarak, is also planting a high tech steel wall between Rafah, Egypt and Rafah on the Gaza Strip to try to stop the Survival Tunnels.
Banned from leaving Cairo, the Gaza Freedom March brought Gaza to Egypt, holding demonstrations in front of government buildings and foreign embassies. The standoff received major coverage all over the world (but not in the U.S.) and even in Egypt itself.
By Joelle Fishman, CT People’s World
Dr. Gerald Horne will be the featured speaker at the 36th annual African American History Month Celebration at the New Haven Peoples Center, 37 Howe St., New Haven, on Sunday, Feb. 28 at 4 p.m.
“Working Together for Justice” is the theme of the event sponsored by the People’s World in Connecticut. The program will include recognition of the New Haven Firebirds for their ongoing leadership to uphold affirmative action and achieve equal rights.
Dr. Horne is author of more than two dozen books including “Reversing Discrimination – the Case for Affirmative Action.” He is a member of the faculty at Houston University where he holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies. He is a life-long civil rights activist, and a contributing editor to Political Affairs on-line magazine.
Also on the program will be presentation of prizes for the High School Arts and Writing Competition. The competition is dedicated to the memory of Dalzenia Henry and Virginia Henry who devoted their lives to the well being of New Haven’s children. Entries must be received no later than Feb. 12, 2010. For details, call (203) 624-8664.
A light supper buffet will be served following the program. Contribute $5 or what you can afford.
Dr. Horne will also speak in Hartford on Saturday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. at La Paloma Sabamera, 405 Capitol Ave., Hartford.
By Maria Tupper, New Haven Bioregional Group
Below is the mission statement of a group that developed out of the Food Open Space that Transition Greater New Haven and the New Haven Bioregional Group held at Common Ground High School last November. The group has met several times and has come up with a mission statement.
Whereas the Transition Movement embodies a hopeful, empowering and proactive vision of local sustainability and resilience in the face of peak oil (the end of cheap energy), climate change and economic meltdown, and
Whereas creating resilient local food systems is a core component of the Transition Movement,
The mission of the Food Action Group will be:
By Earth Charter Community of the Lower Valley
Join James Howard Kunstler at a lively event on Saturday, March 6, from 4-8 p.m. at the Gelston House at 8 Main St. in East Haddam. Mr. Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency – Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the 21st Century, will discuss the expected global oil, environmental and other crises, and challenge us to confront and solve them.
The Long Emergency tells us what to expect after we pass the tipping point of global peak oil production and the end of the honeymoon of affordable energy, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. The book asks the important question: “What will happen when our current plagues of global warming, epidemic disease, and overpopulation collide to exacerbate the end of the oil age?”
Fight the Hike Update
Jan 30
By Paula Panzarella, Fight the Hike
On Jan. 9, Fight the Hike members handed out 500 leaflets door-to-door in Sen. John Fonfara’s district about the need for electricity legislation in the 2010 legislative session. Last year, Sen. Fonfara blocked the energy bills from being reviewed by the Senate, after the representatives in the House passed the bills by a large majority.
Fight the Hike will again leaflet in Hartford on Saturday, Jan. 30. We will leave New Haven at 11 a.m., and be back by 3 p.m. If you wish to join us and carpool, please call (203) 562-2798 for more information.
In February and March we will leaflet in the districts of Sen. Don Williams, Senate president pro tempore, and Sen. Martin Looney, Senate majority leader.
The residents and businesses of CT are still paying the highest electrical rates in the continental US, and the legislature owes it to CT residents and businesses to undo the damage of electricity deregulation.
The next meeting of Fight the Hike will be Thursday,
Feb. 18, 6 p.m., at New Haven City Hall, 165 Church St., 2nd floor. For more information, call (203) 562-2798 or
e-mail paulapanzarella@yahoo.com.
from the CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty newsletter
Do you want to make your voice heard? Do you enjoy writing? If so, you would be a great addition to the CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty’s Writers’ Bureau. This committee has the responsibility of writing letters to the editor and op-ed pieces. Committee members are asked once or twice a month to write a small piece for a newspaper when issues related to the death penalty make the news.
This committee plays a vital role in communicating to the public the grim realities of capital punishment and advancing discussion of the subject in the state. Those interested in joining the Writers’ Bureau should contact Robert Nave at robertnave@cnadp.org.
Join Us in West Hartford – The CNADP holds regional monthly meetings in West Hartford, on the second Tuesday of each month. Meetings start at 7 p.m. at the West Hartford Universalist Church, 433 Fern St.
To contact the CT Network to Abolish the Death Penalty: CNADP, 56 Arbor St., Suite 213, Hartford, CT 06106,
(860) 231-1489 or http://www.cnadp.org
Event: ‘The Impact of the Illegal Wars on New Haven and YOU’ on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 6 p.m.
Jan 30
By Alfred L. Marder, City of New Haven Peace Commission
The City of New Haven Peace Commission will hold its Annual Public Hearing on “The Impact of the Illegal Wars on New Haven and YOU” on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 6 p.m. at the Aldermanic Chambers, City Hall, 165 Church St., New Haven. Christopher Hillman, Director of Research of the nationally known National Priorities Project, will present expert testimony.
The City of New Haven recently announced a $13.5 million budget short fall after retirements, layoffs, reduced services, closed senior centers and a host of other cost-cutting measures. The State of Connecticut also continues to slash needed social services and postpones much needed projects, as tax revenues continue to decline and the gap between income and budget outlays spreads.
Over a week after the massive earthquake struck Haiti, the need for life-saving medical services remains overwhelming. Casualty estimates have risen. The death toll may be as high as 200,000 and the number of injured and homeless is in the millions.
MADRE is continuing our emergency efforts to get medicines and medical supplies to Haiti through the Dominican Republic. A shipment of supplies arrived Wednesday, Jan. 20, and more supplies are expected in the coming days. Right now, the biggest concern is for replenishing stocks of antibiotics in order to fight off infection.
Operating Rooms Up and Running
Our partners on the ground are working day and night to meet the desperate need for medical treatment. They have set up field hospitals both inside and outside of Port-au-Prince and are performing surgeries to treat widespread bone injuries and infections. MADRE is working in support of Zanmi Lasante, a Haitian healthcare organization founded by Partners in Health.
At the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, there are now 12 functioning operating rooms, with surgeries being performed day and night in each. Outside of the city, in the Central Plateau and Artibonite regions, there are eight more operating rooms for the busloads of people fleeing the city each day.
Though the 6.1 aftershock quake that struck Haiti yesterday morning caused the evacuation of the general hospital in Port-au-Prince, no structural damage resulted, and the hospital was able to quickly restore order and continue operations.
