Health care and employee free choice to be discussed at 1 p.m. meeting at the new Working for Change office

Today - Saturday July 25 - is a chance to really get to know your neighbors. There's an 'educational canvass' of neighborhoods in Fayetteville, to talk to folks about health care and the Employee Free Choice Act. 1:00 pm at the new Working for Change office, training and food provided.

If you feel uncertain about these complicated topics, you're not alone. This is a chance to become more of an 'expert' while you have your own questions answered. Then help your city by sharing what you learn. It's such a win-win.

If you have questions call Alex Edelman at 310.569.0177.

Working For Change is at 66 W. Sunbridge. Directions: Take Sunbridge Road to the office complex just north of Sunbridge. 65 abd 69 Sunbridge are on the south side. The Washington Regional Business Clinics Office has a good sign on the north side of the road. 66 W. Sunbridge is straight back from the Clinic office at the rear of the office complex. Last week the office was marked “Chiropractor” but Employee Free Choice signs are there too. They’ll be updating it soon.

Gladys Tiffany
www.omnicenter.org
Omni Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com

A faithful response to global warming

RE: National Council of Churches Renewable Energy Meeting - A Faithful Response to Global Warming‏
From: Gladys tiffany (gladystiffany@yahoo.com)
Sent: Thu 7/23/09 10:40 AM
To: Aubrey Shepherd (aubreyshepherd@hotmail.com)
It's at St. Thomas Episcopal in Springdale beginning at 2:00. Here's the agenda:



A Faithful Response to Global Warming:
A National Energy Policy Based upon the Values of Justice and Sustainability




St. Thomas Episcopal Church
Springdale, AR
Thursday, July 23, 2009
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

AGENDA

2:00 pm to 2:10 pm - Welcome - Ellen McNulty

2:10 pm to 2:45 pm - Defining the Problem – Robert McAfee, Repower Arkansas

2:45 pm to 3:05 pm – Energy Efficiency Legislation – Eddy Moore, Arkansas Aububon

3:05 pm to 3:25 pm - Developing A Community Wind Farm– Nathan Wilson and Benton Anderson, Winds of Change

3:25 pm to 3:30 pm - Break

3:30 pm to 3:55 pm - St. Thomas Wind Turbines – Stephan Pollard, Arkansas Alternative Energy Commissioner and Trem Well Energy LLC

3:55 pm to 4:10 pm - U of A Applied Sustainability Center – Michele Halsell

4:10 pm to 4:25 pm - Interfaith Power and Light: Starting a State Affiliate Chapter, Scharmel Roussel, Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church

4:25 pm to 4:40 pm- A Theological Response to Sustainable Energy – Rev. Pamela Morgan

4:40 pm to 5:00 pm - Wrap Up Session
Taking Action – Ellen McNulty and Linda Sherman
Closing Prayer – Reverend Pamela Morgan

Sponsors:
National Council of Churches,
St. Thomas Episcopal Church,
Repower Arkansas
Arkansas Climate Campaign Coalition



Gladys Tiffany
www.omnicenter.org
Omni Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com

Peace is breaking out worldwide, come to the Deep End to watch a film tonight

Tonight - playing at the Peace Leadership Forum
6:00 pm, Deep End United Campus Ministries
902 W. Maple (corner of Maple and Storer)
Popcorn with toppings you bring. Saturday night at the movies

Soldiers of Peace: The Good News Peace Is Breaking Out!
A piece from www.soldiersofpeacemovie.com This is a powerful film which is touring film festivals around the world and picking up awards along the way. The film is narrated by Micahel Douglas. Allow yourself to get excited about PEACE and come to see this award winning inspiring film!!! Being shown tonight at the OMNI Center on Storer tonight. Bring your favorite popcorn topping. OMNI will supply the popcorn and drinks.

Welcome to the new new world order...

We are bombarded with images of war. On the TV news, in our newspapers. The pictures pile up, and with them some solid assumptions. We assume that war is human nature. That there's an epidemic of war and it's only getting worse. That it's too profitable for some businesses to be stopped. And too effective for some governments to give up. That war will be with us forever.

None of these things is true.
The world is changing.
We are changing.

The astonishing and astonishingly little-known fact is that the number of wars across the world is in fact dropping. Dramatically. We are actually in the grip of an outbreak of peace.

Away from the cameras, ordinary people everywhere are taking amazing steps to force peace out of trouble and violence. Even business - long assumed to be the dark driving force behind war - has worked out that there's more money to be made in peace. The enterprises that profiteer from war are in the minority, and they're shrinking.

And if those positive forces aren't enough, there's one very big reason already compelling us to evolve beyond our ancient human impulse to war: the planet. The challenges of global warming confront humankind with an absolute crossroads in our development as a species. The problems are by their nature, global - they cannot be solved by individual countries. And their solutions necessarily demand co-operation at a level we have yet to experience in human history. War cannot solve these problems. It can only make them insoluble. The only way to survive is to evolve, and become peaceful.

Susie Hoeller shares information during OMNI immigration forum

Please click on images to Enlarge views of some of the people at the OMNI forum on immigration at Nightbird Books. In the top photo, Susie Hoeller, author of IMPASSE: Border Walls or Welcome the Stranger (2008) and presenter on immigration, smiles for the camera.

Jeff and Linda Seidensticker pause for the camera in the second photo.

Nan Marie Lawler and Richard C. Covey stop outside the Nightbird bookstore to talk about the presentation on new book on immigration in the third photo.

OMNI Center's Peace & Justice Immigrants Forum is at 6 p.m. today at Night Bird Books on Dickson Street

7-17-09
OMNI Friends
Ms. Hoeller is a local expert on immigration who combines both knowledge of the law and compassion for the vulnerable in our society. Her new book sets forth a coherent, comprehensive approach. Bring your questions and comments. Her talk begins at six, with plenty of time for you. Come early and stay afterward for refreshments and getting acquainted with others who care. Dick

Sponsored by OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology
Contact Gladys Tiffany, 973-9049, c 283-6361

IMMIGRANTS FORUM
FRIDAY, JULY 17, 2009 IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES FORUM
6p.m. NIGHTBIRD BOOKS, Dickson St., Fayetteville
Speaker: Susie Hoeller, author of IMPASSE: Border Walls or Welcome the Stranger (2008)
Coordinator: Dick Bennett, 442-4600
Moderator: Carl Barnwell
Greeter: Jeff Seidensticker
Refreshments: Frank Head
Photos: Aubrey Shepherd
Video: Jonathan Gibbs
Flyer and Poster: Chris Delacruz
Distribution of Flyer and Poster: Dick
TOPICS
(1) The current status of the Obama Administration Immigration Enforcement Policy and immigration reform bills in Congress.
(2) The thesis of Impasse, that immigration reform has to be “holistic” and include labor law reforms to protect American workers and immigrants from unscrupulous employers who keep lowering wages and working conditions across the board.
(3) The lack of justice and often inhumane treatment that has been applied to immigrants who have been rounded up in 287g programs, mass raids on factories and meat processing plants, and the plight of detained immigrant children in US jails and detention facilities. The Obama Administration is changing these conditions, but much still needs to be done.
(4) How citizens who are concerned about immigration reform can influence the upcoming debate in Congress.
Biography: Susie Hoeller is an international business attorney who represents immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees on a pro bono basis (www.hoellerlaw.org). She is President of the American Center for International Policy Studies (www.amcips.org). In 2007, Hoeller authored Recall, Food and Toy Safety: An American Crisis. In 2009 she authored The Ethical Food Manifesto. She lives in Bentonville.
Commentary
Have you heard about this? Comprehensive immigration reform has a real chance of passing this year. A coalition of over 300 organizations, including the major labor unions, have teamed up to put pressure on Congress to (finally) fix the immigration system this year:
http://www.ReformImmigrationFORAmerica.org
President Obama pledged to pass comprehensive immigration reform during his campaign (http://www.barackobama.com/issues/immigration/ ), so with this broad, national effort, there's a real chance of it actually getting passed in 2009.
That said, the anti-immigration troops are *very* loud and organized. President Obama and Congress need to know that when the time comes to stand up for immigration reform, the supporters of reform are going to be loud and organized and help pass immigration reform for America.
Go to the website. I hope you'll consider signing on, too.
Thanks. Susie Hoeller
P.S. Here's some more background on the issue: American-born workers suffer if there is a vast pool of undocumented workers who are easily exploited by employers who seek unfair advantage. All of us are stronger if all of us have rights. Untargeted raids in workplaces and neighborhoods and rogue enforcement agents at all levels are terrorizing immigrant workers and dividing families without making us any safer and without fixing the real problems with our immigration system. Our out-of-date laws force many American families to remain separated for years – and in some cases, decades – because of backlogs and barriers to family unification in our immigration system. Finally, our outdated laws are practically unenforceable, driving too much immigration into the black market and not enough immigration through legal and orderly channels for immigrants who want to work in this country. The result is hundreds of thousands of immigrants being detained each year, hundreds of thousands deported, people forced to take life-threatening risks because they cannot enter legally, people dying in the desert, and people dying in detention due to awful conditions and official neglect. We can and must do better. Susie Hoeller
Books and Articles: (see Hoeller’s excellent biblio., the books and films I list supplement her references)
USA
--Hoeller, Suzie. IMPASSE: Border Walls or Welcome the Stranger (2008) is a book for all who wish to repair our broken immigration system. Unlike many others writing on immigration issues, the author rejects the extremist and divisive rhetoric which has helped to sustain the policy impasse in Congress
Dunn, Timothy. The Militarization of the U.S.-Mexico Border, 1978-1992: Low-Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home. CMAS Books, U Texas, 1996.
---Omer, Peter, ed. Underground America : Narratives of Undocummented Lives. McSweeney, 2008. Rev. FFW (8-7-08). 24 stories (out of 60 interviewed) of economic and political refugees who risked much to make it to the Land of the Free.--Schrag, Peter. “Blowback at the Border: How Our Obsession with Drug Prohibition and Unregulated Guns Gave Us Mexican Drug Wars.” The Nation (May 4, 2009).
WORLD
--Bacon, David. Illegal People: How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants. Beacon, 2008. Documents how undocumented workers have become the world’s most exploited workforce. “Illegals” of all nationalities are central in the global struggle for economic justice.
FILMS
Made in L.A. creates a climate of empathy and understanding around immigration reform and helps lay the foundation for change. www.MadeInLA.com/MayDay!
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu

Kucinich says clean energy sets targets that are too weak

Kucinich Says Climate Bill Might Make Things Worse

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20090627_kucinich_says_climate_bill_might_make_things_worse/

Posted on Jun 27, 2009

Statement From Rep. Dennis Kucinich:

“I oppose H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. The reason is simple. It won’t address the problem. In fact, it might make the problem worse.

“It sets targets that are too weak, especially in the short term, and sets about meeting those targets through Enron-style accounting methods. It gives new life to one of the primary sources of the problem that should be on its way out– coal – by giving it record subsidies. And it is rounded out with massive corporate giveaways at taxpayer expense. There is $60 billion for a single technology which may or may not work, but which enables coal power plants to keep warming the planet at least another 20 years.

“Worse, the bill locks us into a framework that will fail. Science tells us that immediately is not soon enough to begin repairing the planet. Waiting another decade or more will virtually guarantee catastrophic levels of warming. But the bill does not require any greenhouse gas reductions beyond current levels until 2030.

“Today’s bill is a fragile compromise, which leads some to claim that we cannot do better. I respectfully submit that not only can we do better; we have no choice but to do better. Indeed, if we pass a bill that only creates the illusion of addressing the problem, we walk away with only an illusion. The price for that illusion is the opportunity to take substantive action.

“There are several aspects of the bill that are problematic.

1. Overall targets are too weak. The bill is predicated on a target atmospheric concentration of 450 parts per million, a target that is arguably justified in the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but which is already out of date. Recent science suggests 350 parts per million is necessary to help us avoid the worst effects of global warming.

2. The offsets undercut the emission reductions. Offsets allow polluters to keep polluting; they are rife with fraudulent claims of emissions reduction; they create environmental, social, and economic unintended adverse consequences; and they codify and endorse the idea that polluters do not have to make sacrifices to solve the problem.

3. It kicks the can down the road. By requiring the bulk of the emissions to be carried out in the long term and requiring few reductions in the short term, we are not only failing to take the action when it is needed to address rapid global warming, but we are assuming the long term targets will remain intact.

4. EPA’s authority to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the short- to medium-term is rescinded. It is our best defense against a new generation of coal power plants. There is no room for coal as a major energy source in a future with a stable climate.

5. Nuclear power is given a lifeline instead of phasing it out. Nuclear power is far more expensive, has major safety issues including a near release in my own home state in 2002, and there is still no resolution to the waste problem. A recent study by Dr. Mark Cooper showed that it would cost $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion more over the life of 100 new nuclear reactors than to generate the same amount of electricity from energy efficiency and renewables.

6. Dirty Coal is given a lifeline instead of phasing it out. Coal-based energy destroys entire mountains, kills and injures workers at higher rates than most other occupations, decimates ecologically sensitive wetlands and streams, creates ponds of ash that are so toxic the Department of Homeland Security will not disclose their locations for fear of their potential to become a terrorist weapon, and fouls the air and water with sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, particulates, mercury, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and thousands of other toxic compounds that cause asthma, birth defects, learning disabilities, and pulmonary and cardiac problems for starters. In contrast, several times more jobs are yielded by renewable energy investments than comparable coal investments.

7. The $60 billion allocated for Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is triple the amount of money for basic research and development in the bill. We should be pressuring China, India and Russia to slow and stop their power plants now instead of enabling their perpetuation. We cannot create that pressure while spending unprecedented amounts on a single technology that may or may not work. If it does not work on the necessary scale, we have then spent 10-20 years emitting more CO2, which we cannot afford to do. In addition, those who will profit from the technology will not be viable or able to stem any leaks from CCS facilities that may occur 50, 100, or 1000 years from now.

8. Carbon markets can and will be manipulated using the same Wall Street sleights of hand that brought us the financial crisis.

9. It is regressive. Free allocations doled out with the intent of blunting the effects on those of modest means will pale in comparison to the allocations that go to polluters and special interests. The financial benefits of offsets and unlimited banking also tend to accrue to large corporations. And of course, the trillion dollar carbon derivatives market will help Wall Street investors. Much of the benefits designed to assist consumers are passed through coal companies and other large corporations, on whom we will rely to pass on the savings.

10. The Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) is not an improvement. The 15% RES standard would be achieved even if we failed to act.

11. Dirty energy options qualify as “renewable”: The bill allows polluting industries to qualify as “renewable energy.” Trash incinerators not only emit greenhouse gases, but also emit highly toxic substances. These plants disproportionately expose communities of color and low-income to the toxics. Biomass burners that allow the use of trees as a fuel source are also defined as “renewable.” Under the bill, neither source of greenhouse gas emissions is counted as contributing to global warming.

12. It undermines our bargaining position in international negotiations in Copenhagen and beyond. As the biggest per capita polluter, we have a responsibility to take action that is disproportionately stronger than the actions of other countries. It is, in fact, the best way to preserve credibility in the international context.

13. International assistance is much less than demanded by developing countries. Given the level of climate change that is already in the pipeline, we are going to need to devote major resources toward adaptation. Developing countries will need it the most, which is why they are calling for much more resources for adaptation and technology transfer than is allocated in this bill. This will also undercut our position in Copenhagen.

“I offered eight amendments and cosponsored two more that collectively would have turned the bill into an acceptable starting point. All amendments were not allowed to be offered to the full House. Three amendments endeavored to minimize the damage that will be done by offsets, a method of achieving greenhouse gas reductions that has already racked up a history of failure to reduce emissions – increasing emissions in some cases – while displacing people in developing countries who rely on the land for their well being.

“Three other amendments would have made the federal government a force for change by requiring all federal energy to eventually come from renewable resources, by requiring the federal government to transition to electric and plug-in hybrid cars, and by requiring the installation of solar panels on government rooftops and parking lots. These provisions would accelerate the transition to a green economy.

“Another amendment would have moved up the year by which reductions of greenhouse gas emissions were required from 2030 to 2025. It would have encouraged the efficient use of allowances and would have reduced opportunities for speculation by reducing the emission value of an allowance by a third each year.

“The last amendment would have removed trash incineration from the definition of renewable energy. Trash incineration is one of the primary sources of environmental injustice in the country. It a primary source of compounds in the air known to cause cancer, asthma, and other chronic diseases. These facilities are disproportionately sited in communities of color and communities of low income. Furthermore, incinerators emit more carbon dioxide per unit of electricity produced than coal-fired power plants.

“Passing a weak bill today gives us weak environmental policy tomorrow,” said Kucinich.




--
Dick Bennett
jbennet@uark.edu

Blanche Lincoln speaks about health-care pool to cover all

Peace Heroes Banquet on Saturday night

Sorry folks. Kaye points out that I need to include the dates for the banquet.

Arkansas Peace & Justice Heroes Awards Banquet
Saturday, July 11, 5:30 pm
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
224 W. East St., Fayetteville
(near corner of Dickson and College)


Gladys Tiffany
www.omnicenter.org
Omni Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology
Fayetteville, Arkansas USA
479-973-9049 -- gladystiffany@yahoo.com