Category: Uncategorized

Legislative Actions Needed in Connecticut

by CT Sierra Club

In the remaining weeks of the 2017 Connecticut legislative session, two priority bills for the environment are winding through the legislature and need your advocacy:

Senate Bill (SB106): We need you to support amendments to SB 106 (1) to remove subsidies for nuclear and waste incineration because they are dangerous and dirty and (2) to increase the Renewable Portfolio Standard requiring use of wind and solar for electricity generation in the state because they lower wholesale energy costs and create jobs in Connecticut and New England. Our state RPS needs to call for far more renewable energy than it does currently.

Senate Joint Resolution (SJ39): Support the proposal to amend the state constitution to protect state lands. This will create a transparent review process for ensuring that a proposal to remove these lands from state ownership is in the public interest. The amendment will help Connecticut reach our goal of setting aside 21 percent of our land into protected open space. The amendment is expected to help restore public trust so individuals will be confident that bequeathing private land to the state is a good idea.

How can you help? Volunteer to help lobby these bills: participate in one or more Wednesday lobby days between now and June 7 at the state capitol in Hartford. Help pass these bills that we need to protect open space and to defend our land, air and climate.

For more information, contact Chapter Program Manager, John Calandrelli, [email protected] or (860) 236-4405.

Thank you from the CT Chapter Sierra Club Legislative Team!

Health Care Is a Right, Not a Privilege!

by Coalition For People

The Coalition for People is organizing for universal, comprehensive, single-payer health care. The following is from a flyer they created for this campaign.

Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

What Is Single Payer Healthcare?

The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee access to basic health care for residents. Countries that guarantee health care as a human right do so through a “single-payer” system, which replaces the thousands of for-profit health insurance companies with a public, universal plan.

Does that sound impossible to win in the United States? It already exists – for seniors! Medicare is a public, universal plan that provides basic health coverage to those age 65 and older. Medicare costs less than private health insurance, provides better financial security, and is preferred by patients.

Under the single-payer legislation in Congress (H.R. 676):

  • Everyone would receive comprehensive healthcare coverage under single-payer;
  • Care would be based on need, not on ability to pay;
  • Employers would no longer be responsible for health care costs and coverage decisions;
  • Single-payer would reduce costs by 24%, saving $829 billion in the first year by cutting administrative waste and allowing negotiation of prescription drugs;
  • Single-payer would create savings for 95% of the population. Only the top 5% might pay slightly more.

For more information, call Robin Latta (203) 481-0894.

Call your Legislators NOW! Single-payer NOW!

Fight for Single-Payer Healthcare! National Day of Action, Saturday, April 8

The Coalition for People is currently working on a flyer to be handed out in New Haven on April 8, the National Day of Action for Improved Medicare for All. We are organizing for single-payer healthcare and would like to work with individuals and groups that want to help bring a decent healthcare plan for ALL into being. Please e-mail [email protected] or call Robin at (203) 481-0894

[The following article was written by the Healthcare-Now! organization before last week’s vote. It’s a great victory that the GOP plan did not pass. Now we need to push all the harder for single-payer, real health care reform, without the entanglements and profit motives of the pharmaceutical and medical industries and health insurance companies controlling our healthcare. Please go to www.healthcare-now.org/ for more information.]

The Campaign for Guaranteed Healthcare is calling for a National Day of Action for Improved Medicare for All on Saturday, April 8th.

The Campaign is asking local activists and organizations to organize rallies or speak-outs at medical institutions, to draw attention to the local impacts that the GOP’s American Health Care Act will have, and to call for single-payer as the only moral and sustainable “replacement” plan.

April 8 will come at a crucial moment as it’s also the first day of a two-week “April recess” when Members of Congress return to their districts and will have to face constituents at town halls, on conference calls, office visits, etc. and should provide a great hook for the press.

An example of an action: here in Boston, a coalition of single-payer groups (Mass-Care, PNHP) and others are planning an event outside of a hospital that serves as a safety net institution in the state (treating a high percentage of Medicaid and uninsured patients). We’ll have both providers and patients speak out about the impact the AHCA would have at that hospital and others and talk about how single-payer would allow us to control costs while caring for all patients.

News from and about the PAR Planning Committee, and a Call for Volunteers

Wishing a wonderful 95th birthday to Mary Johnson! The Progressive Action Roundtable and our newsletter team are indebted to Mary for her leadership in PAR as well as in many other New Haven and state organizations.

Planning Committee members Ruth Friedland, Elizabeth Neuse and PAR webmaster Chris Zurcher are all doing much better and mending from their various illnesses/accident/hospital visits January and February.

The convergence of health issues on the Planning Committee gave us a head’s up that we need more people to use their computer skills, proofreading and grammar expertise and sense of graphic design to help produce this newsletter. Are you interested? Our meetings are at the beginning of the month, and they’re never longer than two hours. Please e-mail [email protected] if you’d like to become part of the PAR team!

Thank You to Donors for the “Theresa Tree and Plaque”

by Joan Cavanagh, a friend of Theresa Carr

PAR readers may remember in the December newsletter there was a request for contributions to raise the funds to plant a tree and erect a memorial plaque in Jocelyn Square Park for Theresa I. Carr. Many PAR readers knew Theresa, whose activism spanned several communities and countries. A self-identified “Marxist-Leninist Lesbian Feminist,” she gave her fierce intelligence to the interconnected struggles for peace and justice.

Thanks to the following PAR readers and other donors, we have raised the money to plant a tree and place a memorial plaque to Theresa at Jocelyn Square Park on May 23, 2017, her 63rd birthday.

  • Anonymous
  • Gerrie Casey
  • Jay and Mildred Doody
  • Mary Fischer
  • Mary Johnson
  • Midge Jolly
  • Cornelia Kinnauer
  • Susan Klein and Henry Lowendorf
  • Preston MacAndrews
  • Pat Mikos and Jae Patton
  • Paul Mishler
  • Steve Rowley

Thanks also to Paula Panzarella and the PAR Planning Committee for accepting the checks on behalf of this project, and for delivering the payment to the Parks Dept.

Following the tree planting, there will be a gathering of friends and neighbors in the park. All are welcome! Details of the event will be forthcoming in the April issue of PAR. With much gratitude, Joan Cavanagh.

Women Roar Back to Trump on J21 and Pledge Resistance

by LouAnn Villani and Stanley Heller

Millions of women in the US and worldwide filled the streets in major and small cities to rebuke President Donald J. Trump for his contempt for women and threats to women’s basic rights over their bodies. It wasn’t just DC and NYC and LA. Numbers in smaller areas were astounding. 10,000 marched in Montpelier, VT, 12,000 in Oklahoma City, and thousands gathered in Columbia, SC. Rallies were held worldwide on seven continents, including Antarctica.

We were in NYC to march with Jewish Voice for Peace (CT). The JVP banner said “Resistance is the New Normal.” That was one of the key words of the day. People were not making appeals to Trump. Instead, there was a lot of anger and derision, much of it personal and some of it very vulgar. References to women’s private parts were on many signs and some referred to alleged Trump activities in Moscow like the sign that said “Urine Trouble.” Other signs read “A Woman’s Place Is in the Resistance,” “I Fight Like a Girl,” “Hands Off Our Bodies” and “United States of Nasty Mujeres.” Of course we just saw the signs in our area, a very small part of the sea of femininity.

Signs and chants weren’t limited to strictly women’s issues. Many chants talked about refugees, Black Lives Matter, the climate and the need to protect Muslim women. JVP and the Palestinian support group Adalah-NY chanted about Palestine. You can see a two-minute video of the signs with audio of a women singing a song from Adalah-NY at TheStruggle.org in its video section.

The question is what comes next. Some want to channel this back into the same old politics. That would be a disaster. If the warnings about Trump’s “fascist” ideas are true we don’t know if there even will be fair elections in our future. We also don’t want this to be seen as people disgruntled because Hillary and the Democrats lost. Truth be told that was much of the story of the last 8 years. Obama was at war every day of his presidency. His support for the Saudi and Israeli war-fare was disgusting, but so many gave him a pass because he was supposedly a progressive or someone who would listen sympathetically. During Obama’s presidency, rallies were small and very rarely was he mocked personally.

We need to discuss the ways people can resist without the politicians. We also need to talk about a far different future. For all the talk about the Obama “recovery” the election showed there are a lot of people in this super-rich country hurting badly, grasping at racist and women-hating solutions to their problems. The numbers people should have looked at were not the opinion polls, but the numbers on opioids, the numbers working three jobs to stay above water, and the number of “food insecure” children. If we call to go back to the warfare-welfare state we lose. We need to struggle for something far better.

Public Talk by Paul R. Fleischman, M.D. – January 16, 3:30 p.m., Yale University

by Aruna Pawashe, event organizer

The Connecticut old student community is pleased to host a public talk by Dr. Paul R. Fleischman, M.D., entitled “Stepping Stones of Meditation: A Path Through a World of Uncertainty.” The talk will be on Monday, Jan. 16, at 3:30 p.m. (Martin Luther King Day). It is free and open to the public. The venue is Yale School of Medicine, Mary S. Harkness Auditorium, 333 Cedar St.

For more details and to register go to https://meditation-talk-yale.eventbrite.com.

Dr. Fleischman trained at Yale University, practiced psychiatry for over thirty years, and was appointed a teacher of Vipassana by S.N. Goenka. In the recent past he has lectured at numerous universities in the U.S. as well as in many countries around the world. In this year’s third annual lecture at Yale, he will discuss simple and practical methods to attain a good life. He is the author of Wonder: When and Why the World Appears Radiant and many other books. See http://www.pariyatti.org for a collection of his writings, many of which can be accessed for free.

The talk is co-sponsored by the Yale Chaplain’s Office, the Wellbeing Program at Yale, the South Asian Studies Council, the Hindu Students Council, the South Asian Graduate and Professional Association,the Yale Program for Medicine, Spirituality and Religion, and the New Haven Meditation Sangha.

In the event of cancellation due to inclement weather, the event will be held on Saturday, Jan. 21 at 4 p.m.
For more information, please contact Aruna Pawashe at (203) 824-8465.

1 … 10 11 12 13 14 … 16