Holiday Blessings; Stand wMueller; #WePersistBUF – Women’s Sol March – more
Dear Friends! 716-332-3904; 716-931-3520 12/21/17
All the holidays (Hanukkah; Christmas; Kwanza; New Years, +) serve to remind us of what’s truly important – People and the Planet, the Spirit(s) and the Principles. May we find more strength and courage in the new year, more compassion and commitment, so that together, we can unite and Justice and Peace prevail…. Si, se puede! …. with Truth and Love.
Worried people have speculated that it’d be just like he-who-shall-not-be-named to fire Mueller on Friday to get a little attention on it as possible. So **IF** – and only if – that happens, Buffalo Stands with Mueller (including Move-On, Sister District, StandUpWNY, the WNY Peace Center, and more) will gather at Noon to 1pm, Sat 12/23, at Lafayette Presbyterian Church, for a short march. To receive event updates, and for related events (call tonight; sign-making tomorrow), RSVP at https://www.trumpisnotabovethelaw.org/event/mueller-firing-rapid-response/18063/signup/?akid=&zip=&source=
Heads up: Buffalo’s Still Resisting Weekend; #wepersistBUF!! on Jan 20&21. Save the dates, especially, Sun, 1/21:
– Women’s Solidarity March. Staring at Buffalo City Hall Steps 2:30pm; stops tbd to 4pm;
– Elsa Rassbach, internationally well-known author and speaker, will be speaking 7pm at WNYPC/NRC, 1272 Delaware Ave. Elsa Rassbach is a US citizen, filmmaker and journalist; and heads the “GIs & US Bases” working group in DFG-VK (the German affiliate of War Resisters International, WRI). She is active in Code Pink, No to NATO, and the anti-drone campaign in Germany.
More to follow!
Another Victory: Chuck Culhane (WNYPC Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce Chair), Nan Haynes, Karima Amin, and Rev. Eugene Pierce were granted standing in the Court with regard to events transpiring at the Erie County Holding Center. To be continued….
We are also looking forward to working hard with Partnership for the Public Good, Open Buffalo, partners and allies on Community Policing, Enhanced Training, Fix-It tickets, Law-Enforcement-Alternatives-to-Detention, stopping arrests or hassling over small quantities of marijuana, Bail Reform, and more in the New Year. We shall overcome!!
Please join us tonight, too, at
– on the Global Day of Listening call today at 11pm (yes!). Go to globaldaysoflistening.com;
Below is
– the invite (yes again) to the Golden Jubilee Fund campaign;
– event listings;
– more campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order. And be sure to go to our calendar on this website for more event listings – there’s plenty more and additions are frequent! …..
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love. #loveisloveBUF <3
————————-
From our Board: An invitation to contribute to the Golden Jubilee Fund for Western New York Peace Center!
For 50 years the WNY Peace Center has worked for comprehensive justice, respect for all, and an end to war and violence, at home and abroad.
For the Golden Jubilee Anniversary this year, a generous donor has committed to match any donation of $100 or more, made during the months of November and December (up to a total of $5,000).
If you want to contribute to this Peace Center Golden Jubilee Fund,
please make a tax-deductable donation:
-by check, made out to WNY Peace Center, sent to
WNY Peace Center, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209
with memo: for Jubilee fund
-by the Donate button on the upper right at
http://wnypeace.org/
(paypal or debit or credit card)
with note: for Jubilee fund
Sincerely,
Rev. John R. Long and Dr. Mary A. Bisson (Peace Center Board Members)
The Western New York Peace Center was founded in 1967 by Buffalonians responding to the call by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr to end the Vietnam War as part of the social justice and racial justice movements.
The Peace Center continues in action: resisting militarism and war around the world, fighting unsustainable environmental policies, promoting economic and racial and prisoner justice, protecting immigrants and refugees, teaching peaceful conflict resolution, and working in solidarity with Latin America.
——————————————————-
*
EVENT LISTINGS
*
Global Days of Listening Call; December 21 @ 11:00 pm – December 22 @ 2:00 am. V. Ross and Dior Lindsey, both of the WNYPC, will join the call. Streaming on-line with Afghan Peace Volunteers (creators and facilitators of Street Kids School, the Duvet Project, the Blue Scarf movement, and more!!) as well as Pace e Bene’s Ken Butigan. Topic: Alternative Education techniques and strategies. globaldaysoflistening.com
Save The Dates:
– Jan 17 – “Farmworkers Fair Labor Human Rights” hearing in Albany. See under LASC below.
Buffalo’s Still Resisting Weekend; #wepersistBUF!! Jan 20&21.
– Sat, Jan 20 – Women In Black Noon-1pm Bidwell & Elmwood
– Sun, 1/21Women’s Solidarity March. Staring at Buffalo City Hall Steps 2:30pm; stops tbd to 4pm;
– Sun, 1/21; Elsa Rassbach, internationally well-known author and speaker, 7pm at WNYPC/NRC, 1272 Delaware Ave.
For more events on the WNYPC calendar go to wnypeace.org!!
*
CAMPAIGNS
*
ECONOMIC JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Please call our state senators and ask them to support The New York Health Act, the bill to guarantee health care to all New Yorkers, passed the NY State Assembly for the third consecutive year in 2017. Call now to help #PassNYHealth in the State Senate. Contact info is on our website
wnypeace.org/governmental-contact-info/). Learn more nyhcampaign.org
*
EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS TASKFORCE PEACEJAM will be starting up again, at Lafayette HS Community School onSaturdays in January! Stay tuned!
*
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/
*
GENDER JUSTICE TASKFORCE
If you believe that discrimination against all women should be eliminated please support enacting the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in the city of Buffalo. Follow this link for more information: https://cities4cedaw-buffalo.org/ and contact your district’s councilperson to urge them to support this ordinance too.
Darius G. Pridgen- Ellicott District- 716-851-4980
Christopher P. Scanlon- South District- 716-851-5169
David A. Rivera- Niagara District- 716-851-5125
Joel P. Feroleto- Delaware District- 716-851-5155
Richard A. Fontana- Lovejoy District- 716-851- 5151
David A. Franczyk- Fillmore District- 716-851-4138
Joseph Golombek, Jr.- North District- 716-851-5116
Ulysees O. Wingo, Sr.- Masten District- 716-851-5145
Rasheed Wyatt- University District- 716-851-5165
*
IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Tell Sen. Schumer to Defend Dreamers!
A number of senators, including Sen. Gillibrand, have committed to voting against any spending bill on 12/22 if a clean DREAM Act isn’t part of it. Sen. Schumer has yet to make this commitment. If Democrats don’t make a stand this week, they’ll lose this leverage and essentially turn their backs on the 122 Dreamers that lose DACA protection every day. Please call, email, fax and/or stop by Sen. Schumer’s Buffalo office to demand he vote against any spending bill that doesn’t incorporate a clean Dream Act.
Phone: 716-846-4111
Email: https://www.schumer.senate.gov/contact/email-chuck
Fax: 716-846-4113
Office: 130 South Elmwood Ave, #660, Buffalo, NY 14202
Please call your NYS Assembly Members and ask them to support NYS ASSEMBLY Bill #4050. The GreenLight NY program restores access to drivers’ licenses to all community members, to avoid abusive immigration enforcement. For more info, please see Dec 11 online presentation mentioned above or go to
https://www.facebook.com/GreenLightNY/; Green Light Petition
Vive la Casa, shelter for people awaiting documents and/or sanctuary, still desperately needs personal hygiene products and of course, CASH.
jrchc.org/vive
(Checks to Jericho Road/VIVE) 50 Wyoming St., Buffalo, NY 14211, 892-4354.
*
LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE (LASC)
West Cosgrove (Western New York Coordinator of Rural and Migrant Ministries of New York State) requests concerned WNY citizens attend “Farmworkers Fair Labor Human Rights” hearing in Albany January 17th 10AM at the Legislative Office Bldg, Albany State Capital. RMM is planning on renting a bus that day to provide round trip transportation to Albany. The hearing will emphasize the ethical treatment of NY farmworkers as well as presentations and testimonies from farmworkers and other human rights observers. These observers are S. Waterston (actor, “Law and Order”) and T. Gerety ( former director of Brennan Center for Justice).
If you are unable to attend we urge you to contact your state Senator on January 17. It is crucial that we contact Senators Ortt and Jacobs as they have both consistently voted against farmworker rights issues.Those interest in attending the rally please contact Wayne Alt. 716-430-9955 or wayne269alt@gmail.com by January 6.
Witness For Peace has sent out travel opportunities to Latin American Countries. The Latin American Solidarity Committee will support interested people financially if they are interested in going.
The following countries are ones that delegations will be going to between January and June. Colombia, Cuba, Honduras and Mexico.
FURTHER INFORMATION GO TO:www.witnessforpeace.org or elise@witnessforpeace.org or 202-547-6112
Never again another Acteal!
Over 6,000 indigenous people in highland Chiapas, Mexico have been driven from their homes by paramilitaries. Many are living without shelter on the mountainsides. The displacement is the result of a-45 year old territorial dispute generated by government land reapportioning that has boiled over into a major conflict, with paramiltaries driving people from their homes. Some of these paramilitaries are the same ones who committed the massacre in Acteal, Chenalhó in 1997.
Padre Marcelo, an indigenous priest, who has been to visit the displaced people is quoted in the attached article from La Jornada:
When I saw the children sleeping under the trees, with nothing to eat, sick many of them, I did not believe it. I never thought I was going to see so much suffering again, so much illness.
Urgent Need for Food, Medicine
Cáritas, a charity in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas is accepting donations for food, medicine. Donations can be made through through paypal on the Weaving For Justice website: www.weaving-for-justice.org Weaving for Justice will accept donations through the end of the year after which the money will be transferred to Cáritas. You may also donate by check made out to“Sophia’s Circle” (a 501c3 organization, of which Weaving for Justice is the main project) and mailed to arrive before December 31st to:
– Sophia’s Circle
– 1825 Myrtle Ave.
– Las Cruces, NM 88001
Call for a Lasting Resolution to the Issue
Please write to Mexican federal and Chiapas state authorities demanding that they take immediate action to resolve the crisis. Demands should include: 1) urgent action to ensure the lives and safety of persons in Chalchihuitán and Chenalhó; 2) apply United Nations’ guidelines regarding protection of internally displaced persons: 3) investigate the murder which set off the violence and bring those responsible to justice; and 4) guarantee free passage and social peace in the two communities.
Address your letters to:
– Lic. Miguel Ángel Osori Chong
Secretario de Gobernación
secretario@segob.gob.mx
– Manuel Velasco Coello
Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Chiapas
separticular@chiapas.gob.mx
| Stand with Sen. Sanders: Rebuild Puerto Rico The situation is still dire in Puerto Rico. Please go to the link below to see what you can do to Stand with Puerto Rico (and Sen Sanders). |
| https://act.credoaction.com/sign/sanders_puerto_rico?t=8&akid=26241%2E8770573%2Evra5l7 |
Info on other drives is also above
As you know, people desperately need our help because of the devastation caused by “natural” disasters (read fossil-fuel-burning-generated Climate Catastrophe). You can contribute as follows:
Puerto Rico—Go to hispanicheritagewny.org for a full report on ways to help.
We also recommend: Paypal address: cdpecpr@gmail.com
The address above is for the Mutual Aid Community Soup Kitchens run by
Giovanni Roberto, friend of MaryAnne Grady Flores (UpstateDroneAction.org and Puerto Rico activist), feeding up to 1,000 meals a day in Cayay.
They have other community sites in other towns like Guaynabo and Caguas.
The Mariafund.org is another fund governed by many grassroots community groups.
Cuba———Alliance for Global Justice/Irma Relief, 418 W. 145th St.. New York, NY 10031(for tax deductible)
(Not tax deductible, IFCO/Irma Relief (same address) Phone: 212-926-5757
And Chiapas is in danger of more quakes. You can donate, via Paypal, a Los Topos: donativos@brigada-rescate-topos.org
http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2014/09/140926_mexico_topos_terremoto_hr
Please give generously – the situations continue to be terrible for many!!
From Our Friend the renown film-maker Bill Jungels:
Forgive me in advance. I’ve never done an email like this before and probably never will again.
If you would like to make some kind of Holiday offering that really might make a difference to poor Maya campesinos in Chiapas I recommend these people in need who live very close to my friends in Chenalhó, Chiapas.
A humanitarian crisis occurred when paramilitaries from Chenalhó killed a person from the next door township of Chalchihuitan over old land disputes between the two townships. Paramilitaries then closed the roads while 5000 people fled their homes in fear of another massacre of the innocent like the one that occurred in Acteal Chenalhó at about this time of year in 1997. Some of the paramilitaries are said to be the same who took part in that massacre. People are out in the mountains and unprotected in the cold winter nights and without food. At least nine have died. Caritas, a trusted organization in San Cristobal, is coordinating donations and aid. Our friend Christine Eber has set up a way to donate through weaving-for-justice.org This is an organization whose normal work is organizing volunteers to sell the weavings of women from Chiapas here in the US and return all of the proceeds to them. All donations will be sent by her through Western Union to Caritas. The Caritas web site bank transfer information does not function from the US and so we have had to resort to Western Union, which charges only $7 for a transfer.
Our organization, Latin America Solidarity Committee of the WNY Peace Center www.lascwny.org has already sent donations to Caritas, but now an easier way to contribute on line through Weaving for Justice exists. I can vouch for the integrity of all involved.
This article in the National Catholic reporter gives a brief overview of the situation.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/enough-deaths-mexican-clergy-reiterate-chiapas-crisis
Father Marcelo who is quoted in the article is a fearless, incorruptible Tsotsil Maya priest who has visited those hiding in the mountains multiple times. He appears in my recent documentary Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror. mayafaces.com
If you would like to help, go to weaving-for-justice.org
Thanks,
bill
*
RACIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
THE CARIOL HORNE WHISTLEBLOWER FUND
The Western New York Peace Center has created a fund for the purpose of supporting police officers who face reprisals from their department from choosing to strictly uphold their oath to protect and serve the community. gofundme.com/cariol-horne-whistleblower-fund. The Peace Center has named this fund after Cariol Horne who saved the life of a citizen, but was fired just prior to earning her 20-year pension. Our goal is to encourage good police officers in following their moral conscience if and when it conflicts with the infamous blue wall of silence ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall_of_silence).
*
RESIST MILITARISM! TASKFORCE
Nuclear annihilation ‘one tantrum away’, Nobel peace prize winner warns Australian-founded International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons urges support for UN treaty banning them:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/11/nuclear-annihilation-one-tantrum-away-nobel-peace-prize-winner-warns
Conference on U.S. Foreign Military Bases, Jan 12 – 14, University of Baltimore
Click Here to Register
Click Here to Endorse
Click Here to an Place Ad
Click Here for Schedule and Speakers
Please call your Senators and Congresspersons to urge them to vote in favor and cosponsor if possible Senator Markey’s Bill # 200 and House Bill, Rep Lieu # 669, to Restrict First Strike with Nuclear Weapons.
And lastly, please sign on to Credo Action’s Stop Police Militarization petition here.
+
********
REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle
Riverside-Salem UCC/DC Sunday. No service this Sunday 12/24: Happy Christmas Eve! Followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-3pm. Jim Anderson & Vicki Ross co-hosting. Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/. Not taping on Christmas Day! Merry Christmas!
Buffalo Supports Standing Rock Water Protectors/Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 CT Ave. All are welcome!!
Interfaith Peace Network
1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, breakfast pot-luck 8-9:30am, NRC, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 (entrance and parking round back).
Environmental Justice Taskforce
Protest the Shipments of VERY Dangerous Radioactive Liquid from Canada.
Fridays 2-3pm, Front Park, Buffalo. Email Charley Bowman renewableenergy@wnypeace.org with your phone number for him to call and let you know whether (weather 😉 the vigil will take place that particular Friday. Or just show up and bring your own sign if you’re not sure others will be there!!
Fridays – 1st and 3rd of the month; 6pm: Stop The Violence Coalition,
United Way Building, Delaware and Summer Sts.
Saturdays, Noon-1pm: Women In Black. Nonviolence vigil, Bidwell and Elmwood.
***********
More listings on website (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts.
To subscribe, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org with “subscribe” in subject line.
To unsubscribe, please reply with “unsubscribe” in subject line.
(Sorry for occasional delays!)
Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.
Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love. We shall overcome!!