Peacemakers,

Several updates as well as petitions regarding Citizens United:

1. The WNY Peace Center Coordinating Board of Directors will meet at 7 PM
at the Network of Religious Communities, 1272 Delaware Ave Buffalo NY.
Note the change in time: 7 PM....Pizza, soda and tea will be available.

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2. WNY Drilling Defense's Hydrofracking Day of Action in Albany, Monday,
January 23.

Good news. Rita Yelda reports the bus from Buffalo is full...and she is now
organizing car pool. If interested, please email her at: ryelda@gmail.com

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3. And this from a friend of the Peace Center:

No, no...cannot rest on Wednesday!!!! We need a HUGE showing for the
January 25 Buffalo Board of Education meeting at 5:30, 8th floor, City
Hall.

This follows four hearings scheduled to get community input re: Buffalo's
excessive use of out-of-school suspensions for non-violent but disruptive
behaviors such as wandering the halls: 19 months(!!) after the shooting
death of Jawaan Daniels while he was waiting for a bus after such a
suspension, Bd of Ed finally got around to hearings.

We had a good turnout at hearings with much testimony as to the horrible
effects of such policies, applied much more often at schools with many
African American and Hispanic students. On January 25 we'll hear back the
Board  of Education response to the hearings on this issue. Please be
there!

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4. Citizens United less-than-Supreme Court decision is now 2 years
old...please sign some petition about this vital topic ... somewhere...
but watch out. There are a number of petitions online and Comparative
Petitionology is a necessary science, particularly on this issue.

I became curious because Senators Schumer (NY) and Bernie Sanders(VT) both
have online petitions regarding Citizens United...why would a senator
largely supported by retirees and a senator largely supported by banking
interests agree on limiting the horrific effects of the Citizens United
decision? The answer: they don't, and that's clear by comparing their
petitions:

Senator Chuck Schumer, Dick Durban(ILL) and Jeff Merkley(OR) combined
their thoughts and came up with the following statement for their
petition:

“I support the constitutional amendment to give Congress and states the
authority to limit corporate and special interest money in our elections.”

You can read Senator Schumer's petition  at: http://tinyurl.com/cn95t99

Now compare Schumer's petition with Senator Sanders' petition:

a) Corporations are not persons with constitutional rights equal to real
people.
b) Corporations are subject to regulation by the people.
c) Corporations may not make campaign contributions or any election
expenditures.
d) Congress and states have the power to regulate campaign finances.

Senator Sander's petition: http://tinyurl.com/78uk7eq

And the 3rd petition comes from MoveToAmend.org:

"We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme
Court's ruling in Citizens United, and move to amend our Constitution to
firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not
corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights. "

MoveToAmend's petition: http://tinyurl.com/8abmzla

It's clear that Senator Schumer et al do not want to limit Citizens United
in any way because, as they well know, Congress and the States already
have the authority to limit special interest money directed at
campaigns...if they only used that authority to do so.

MoveToAmend's and Senator Sanders' petitions are very close to each other,
but you may want to compare them for yourself and decide.

Why hasn't Senator Schumer simply supported either Senator Sanders'
petition or MoveToAmend's petitions...instead of creating his own?

Which petition would you sign?

Peace,

Charley