Community Conversation Monday, April 15: Peace and Conflict in the Middle East

by Millie Grenough, New Haven Peace Commission

The world we live in is constantly changing. The opportunity to express our opinions and hear each other with safety and respect in these challenging times is a cherished freedom. Join us for Community Conversation: What Does the Current Situation in Israel/Palestine Tell Us about Peace & Conflict? We can also discuss how we really want our taxes used! Invite family members, neighbors, and colleagues. We look forward to lively conversation.

If you are new to the Conversation, we extend a warm welcome to you. We invite people of various ages, diverse spiritual and ethnic groups to participate actively and speak from their hearts. To respect the privacy of individuals, we are again not inviting press: no photos/no quotes. If you have participated in a previous Community Conversation, come again! In response to previous participants who expressed a strong desire for more, we are scheduling this fourth conversation. We extend a special invitation to the youth of New Haven. Free and open to the public – registration not needed. Hosted by: City of New Haven Peace Commission, Greater New Haven Peace Council, & Ice the Beef.

Monday, April 15, 6-7:30 p.m., Mitchell Library,
37 Harrison Street, New Haven

Contact: Millie Grenough, member of New Haven Peace Commission, Coordinator of Community Conversations events: millie@milliegrenough.com; 203-623-7855. More info: www.Facebook.com/PeaceCommission; www.bit.ly/nhvpeace4.

Actions Throughout CT Call for Ceasefire in Gaza

by Jewish Voice for Peace New Haven

In the past months there have been rallies and demonstrations in many Connecticut towns and cities calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and other demands such as access to humanitarian aid for Palestinians, an end to the occupation, a free Palestine, and no military aid to Israel.

The New Haven Board of Alders has scheduled a hearing for public testimony on the ceasefire resolution. The hearing is set for Wednesday, May 1, at 6 p.m. on Zoom. Sign up TODAY if you want to speak, by emailing: publictestimony@newhavenct.gov. You do not need to submit your testimony at this time. Just write, “My name is ___ and I would like to sign up to testify in support of the ceasefire resolution.”

If you are a New Haven resident, please include that in your email as well. The sooner you sign up, the more likely it is that you’ll have an opportunity to speak.

Many thanks from JVP New Haven!

24th SCSU Women’s & Gender Studies Conference April 19

On April 19th and 20th the Dept. of Women’s & Gender Studies (WGS) at Southern CT State University (SCSU) is holding its signature conference on campus. The theme is “Continuities, Ruptures, Resurgences: Still in Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens,” inspired by Alice Walker’s womanist essays, which continue to be a vision for those of us engaged in the feminist and social justice struggles. The 2024 WGS Conference at Southern offers a critical space and place for a two-day inquiry across differences and communities into the intersections of gender, race, communities, and institutions. Since 1991, the feminist collective at SCSU has been hosting conferences that reach across communities and bring together activists, academics, artists, and feminist practitioners from diverse backgrounds for a two-day conference at SCSU, 501 Crescent St., New Haven.

Please visit the WGS website for more information and contact info: https://www.southernct.edu/academics/womens-gender-studies; 203-392-6133; wgs@southernct.edu.

Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride April 27

by Chris Schweitzer, New Haven Climate Movement

Saturday, April 27, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., East Rock Park. Orange and Cold Spring Streets. Rain or shine. Join for a beautiful spring ride or walk!

Rock to Rock is in its 16th year, and on Saturday, April 27, over 800 riders and hikers will head out from East Rock Park on various riding and hiking adventures to support over 20 local nonprofit environmental projects. All Rock to Rock activities will help people explore local natural beauty, build community, have fun, and support environmental/climate projects.

Rock to Rock Earth Day Ride is the area’s largest Earth Day event, supporting over 20 local environmental projects.

Participants are invited to do Rock to Rock in small groups at staggered starts. In 2024 you can ride a new 5-mile Family Ride, a 12-, 20-, 40- or 60-mile ride in a loop starting and ending in East Rock Park. For our youngest riders, we’ll have our Bike Rodeo and a 1-mile loop around the park. You also are welcome to hike around the base of East Rock. Common Ground is offering a West Rock hike as well. There will also be a Green Fair from 11–2 p.m. with food trucks, organization tables, and live music. Check out our website for all the details at www.rocktorock.org.

Participants will raise over $200,000 this year for local environmental projects. All of the participating organizations are continuing to step up to face the slower-moving climate emergency that’s still in the background and to work in a hundred different ways to make our community greener, healthier, more welcoming, and more connected.

Visit rocktorock.org to see the listing of our partner organizations, to register to ride and for the day’s schedule.

Rain Barrels Support A Clean Environment

by Frank Panzarella, NH Bioregional Group

Much of city land is covered with asphalt, concrete, and buildings. Rain water from these surfaces can carry oil, chemicals, and a variety of trash that can create serious pollution problems and sewer overflows, especially with heavy rains.

New Haven and other cities have introduced bioswales, rain gardens, and permeable surfaces to help reduce these issues and to separate storm water from sewers. Rain barrels are another part of this effort that can save money and tap water for homeowners, keep more rain water out of sewers, and provide gardens and flowers with water during dry periods.

In the last several years the Rain Barrel Project, together with the NH Bioregional Group in cooperation with the GNH Water Pollution Control Authority, has provided free rain barrels, training, and kits in the GNH area to gardeners and homeowners. In 2021 this project received an Environmental Stewardship award from the GNHWPCA. We hope to continue the project this spring and are applying for a grant to help cover the costs of barrels and kits. If you are interested in obtaining a rain barrel for this spring season, send an email to frankpanzarella@hotmail.com. Also look for our table at Earth Day in Hamden and North Haven. As soon as we are able to get a new batch of barrels and kits, we will schedule a training and giveaway day.

Yale Apologizes for Ties to Slavery in New Report, Pledges List of Actions

Benjamin Hernandez, Yale Daily News, Feb. 19, 2024

University President Peter Salovey and Joshua Bekenstein ’80, senior trustee of the Yale Corporation, [have] issued a formal apology and a set of actions in response to Yale’s ties to slavery.

The announcement came alongside the release of a book titled Yale and Slavery: A History, which is the culmination of the findings made by the Yale and Slavery Working Group. …The book was released in its entirety online:

https://yaleandslavery.yale.edu/sites/default/files/2024-02/

Yale and Slavery A History Feb2024 David Blight with the Yale and Slavery Research Project.pdf.

In their announcement, Salovey and Bekenstein not only framed the project as a recognition of the University’s role in and association with the institution of slavery, but it also formally apologized for the ways that Yale’s leaders participated in slavery, adding that the findings from the group have “propelled” the University toward actions to address the continued effects of enslavement today. …

A new app will offer self-guided tours with 19 points of interest to help visitors explore the University’s ties to slavery. [You can download the app here: yaleandslavery.yale.edu/special-topic-tour-history-slavery.]…

(Read the full article here: https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2024/02/19/yale-releases-history-on-ties-to-slavery-apologizes-and-pledges-list-of-actions/

Please Help PAMAS Create a Documentary Film

Joan Cavanagh, member, Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PMAS)

Public discussion about the realities of Medical Assisted Suicide (MAS) is critical. The practice is increasingly becoming normalized as a “health care” option and already inadequate safeguards and restrictions in existing laws are eroding.

Progressives Against Medical Assisted Suicide (PAMAS) is fundraising to create a documentary examining this issue in a critical light. We hope our film will add another dimension to a conversation that has thus far been dominated by the religious right (which opposes MAS for its own reasons, which we do not share) and by liberal supporters who discount the disability and social justice arguments against it.

The documentary will be produced by Emmy award-winning filmmaker Karyl Evans, based in North Haven. 100% of all money raised will cover the filmmaker, crew, and associated expenses. Research, writing, organizing, and review will be done by volunteer (unpaid) PAMAS members.

“Better off dead” is the lens through which those of us who are old, disabled, and/or seriously ill are viewed, including by many medical professionals. Combine that prejudice with the for-profit medical system and its corrosive “you don’t want to be a burden” message and you have a lethal mix. Medical Assisted Suicide only opens another avenue for impossible-to-document coercion, neglect, and abuse,
both institutional and personal.

The organizations lobbying most avidly to pass MAS legislation are also hard at work to reduce the limited restrictions and safeguards in the laws that have already been enacted in 11 jurisdictions in the United States: ending state residency requirements; reducing or eliminating waiting periods;
broadening the kinds of medical providers who can prescribe the lethal drugs; and expanding the categories of patients (including those with dementia) who can qualify. Thus, even former supporters have begun to rethink the passage of such laws.

Please consider helping PAMAS present another side to this discussion. Make your check out to Center for Disability Rights.

IMPORTANT: Write “NDY/PAMAS” in the check memo line.

Mail checks to PAMAS, care of Joan Cavanagh
34 Walnut St., Floor 1
New Haven CT 06511

Donations are tax-deductible.

For more information, contact joan.cavanagh@gmail.com. Our website is pamasprogressives.org.

Zoners OK Rosette Mini-Shelters

by Nora Grace-Flood, NH Independent, March 13, 2024

(Read the full article here: www.newhavenindependent.org/article/unhoused_get_relief_from_zoning)

Six backyard emergency shelters built without city approval won zoning relief. …The Rosette Village Collective, a crew of individuals experiencing homelessness and the volunteers helping to house them, made their case during the latest online meeting of the Board of Zoning Appeals to legitimize
the six one-room shelters erected last fall … at 203 Rosette St., which first opened up to individuals in need of a place to pitch their tents after the city bulldozed a homeless encampment on Ella Grasso Boulevard last spring and left unhoused individuals unable or uninterested in finding regulated shelter spaces without a place to go. …

While Amistad House is working to pass state legislation that would create zoning pathways for emergency housing, they are, in the meantime, asking to live as an exception to stringent building code rules to let ten otherwise unhoused New Haveners remain in their so-called “tiny homes.” In order to do that, Amistad House requested retroactive zoning relief from the board. …

The application was approved with four conditions: First, only two individuals can reside in each structure at any time. Second, any potential resident is expected to be a direct family member of the first. In addition, no more than the six structures currently on site are allowed to serve as residences. All shelter occupants must maintain access to shared facilities inside Amistad House, including the first floor bathroom and kitchen. And lastly, an easement must be in place for structures that extend beyond the property lines of Rosette Street if Amistad House is sold down the line. …

The application was approved following extensive support from Hill community leaders, next-door neighbors of Amistad House, and testimony from those living in the shelters themselves. …

While the situation might be understood as neighbors doing a favor for Amistad House and those living behind it, those living in the Hill who spoke Tuesday pressed the reality that Amistad is doing a favor for the neighborhood at large. Teachers Union President and Hill resident Leslie Blatteau agreed: “They’re doing the work that community needs to do. They are showing us how it’s done.” …

Mark Colville, co-owner of Amistad House alongside his wife, Luz Catarineau, said: “I would ask the zoning committee to step aside and let this thing go. You need do nothing else but leave it in our hands.”

CT Green Energy News

March 15, 2024

News and events for advocates of clean energy, energy efficiency and climate action at the state and local levels, focusing on Connecticut. Brought to you by People’s Action for Clean Energy (PACE), www.pacecleanergy.org

CT Mirror: Debate over Electric Vehicles in CT “Republicans and Democrats staged a dress rehearsal
Wed. for debates expected on the state House floor next month and in campaigns this fall over how aggressively CT should push zero-emission vehicles to mitigate air pollution and climate change. The venue was a public hearing on House Bill 5485, which would create a 40-member Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Coordinating Council to assess the readiness of the auto market, electric grid and charging infrastructure for a shift to electric vehicles, while not mandating any targets or deadlines.
The Republican minority leaders, Rep. Candelora of North Branford and Sen. Harding of Brookfield opposed the bill in live testimony before the Transportation Committee as a step towards something the measure does not authorize — an eventual ban on gas-powered vehicles.”

Frontier Group: In Praise of Rooftop Solar “Because solar power and other forms of renewable energy supply electricity at near-zero marginal cost, they tend to reduce wholesale electricity prices for consumers. A 2020 study by Synapse Energy Economics estimated that distributed (behind-the-meter) solar reduced wholesale electricity costs by $1.1 billion between 2014 and 2019. Adding in the public health benefits of reduced power plant emissions and the reduced need for electricity generating capacity, they estimated that behind-the-meter solar delivered benefits ranging from 20.5 to 37 cents per kilowatt-hour In New England. That savings figure – which rivals retail electricity prices in the region – is an understatement, since it does not include savings from avoided investments in transmission and distribution infratructure, to which Synapse did not assign a dollar value.

Edie Fishman, July 22, 1921 – Feb. 21, 2024

As we go to press, the PAR Planning Committee has learned that Edie Fishman, lifelong activist and fighter for social justice, has died at the age of 102. Even in her last week, Edie was sharp-witted and knew all the words to union songs, which she sang each evening with her daughter Joelle. Our condolences to Joelle and all who knew and loved Edie. Our April newsletter will have more about this amazing, dedicated and compassionate woman.

Edyth Bartman Fishman was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the daughter of immigrants from Odessa in Czarist Russia. Growing up in the years of the Great Depression shaped her worldview. Thousands were hungry and without work. While in high school both parents fell ill but had no health care. Edie and her sister Lillian took turns going to high school every other day so they could care for their parents.

At age 14 Edie attended a large May Day rally of thousands for workers’ rights outside Philadelphia City Hall organized by the Communist Party. Police on horses used billy clubs to attack the peaceful protest. Edie was enraged and decided that she must be part of this movement. She joined the Young Communist League, and later the Communist Party where she became a leader and remained active throughout her life. ​“I love the struggle,” she said.

Edie was involved in countless struggles for workers’ rights and economic and racial equality and peace. She marched to Washington DC for Social Security and Unemployment Compensation with her schoolmates. She participated in defying the sheriffs and putting furniture back into the homes of evicted families. …

Edie’s lifelong commitment and contribution to equality, peace and social justice will be celebrated in Wooster Square Park on Sunday, July 21, the day before her 103rd birthday.

Contributions in tribute to Edie Fishman can be made to the New Haven Peoples Center or to the People’s World at 37 Howe Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511.

Read more of the Indy obit here.

CT Environmental Rights Amendment Featured at Climate March in Hartford Feb. 2

by Kimberly Stoner, Director of Advocacy, CT NOFA

On Friday, Feb. 2, about 200 people from over 20 organizations marched in Hartford to demand immediate action on climate change by the state legislature, the Lamont administration, and utility and insurance companies in the state. The theme of the march was “Keep CT’s Climate Promise.”

There’s a lot to do. In the Global Warming Solutions Act, Connecticut promised by 2050 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below levels in 2001. We would have to make some dramatic reductions in the next 26 years to meet that goal — and given the rate of climate change, that goal may not be enough. Indeed, one of the demands of the march was to set a more difficult target of reaching net zero greenhouse gases by 2050.

Kimberly Stoner photo

The CT Environmental Rights Amendment was one of the key demands. This amendment to the state constitution would include a safe and stable climate among the human rights of the people of Connecticut, along with clean and healthy air, water, soil, ecosystems, and environment, and would safeguard those rights for present and future generations. Right now, we are calling on the co-chairs of a key committee of the state legislature to bring this amendment forward in the coming legislative session. You can sign a petition at https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/we-want-our-right-to-a-healthy-environment-in-the-ct-constitution.

A great opportunity is coming up to learn more about the CT Environmental Rights Amendment, and to hear about how similar provisions in state constitutions in other states have asserted the human right to a livable environment! Maya van Rossum, the national leader of the movement to put environmental rights into state constitutions, will be the keynote speaker at the winter conference of CT NOFA coming up in March.

There was a broad range of other demands to the CT General Assembly in addition to the CT Environmental Rights Amendment:

  • Setting a target of net zero greenhouse gases by 2050, along with subtargets for electricity generation, transportation, and other uses,
  • Increasing funding for energy efficiency,
  • Rapidly increasing solar energy, battery storage, and clean heat through heat pumps, and
  • Rapidly reducing greenhouse gases from transportation by adopting advanced standards for clean cars and trucks.

When we arrived at the Capitol, state legislators, including State Rep. Joe Gresko from Stratford, co-chair of the Environment Committee, pledged to include many of these demands in a bill they are developing, to be numbered House Bill 5004. It has not yet been introduced, but when it is, all of our organizations will be watching closely to see if the state legislators are ready to meet the urgency of the moment.

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