Sat: MARCH FOR OUR LIVES to stop gun violence, from 1pm Niagara Sq

Written by Victoria Ross on March 21, 2018. Posted in Uncategorized

Dear Friends! 716-332-3904; 716-931-3520 3/20/18

Put this Saturday’s MARCH FOR OUR LIVES in your calendar – please join us (including MANY YOUTH, host Mayor Brown, co-organizer NYers Agains Gun Violence; and 37 cosponsors) to stop gun violence and create a culture of peace. We’ll be starting at 1pm with an Indigenous Gnonyoh, then music from the Dooleys; rally at 1:30pm, with a (less than one mile) march, and more rallying.

Our many speakers will be brief and high impact, with – again- HALF OF THEM YOUTH!!, leading the way! Please commit to going and spread the word Facebook event page or the page on our website. The National Day of Action includes the March in DC to with our 2-3 buses going from Buffalo, one fully funded by Mayor Brown. #NeverAgain

You can still get seats on the bus to DC (http://rallybus.net/mfol- buffalo-2), and/or you can always come see the student-filled filled buses off! That’s Friday night 11:30 – 11:59PM, UB South Park & Ride, 3471 Main St, Buffalo 14214. facebook event page

The rest of the week is exciting and important too:

– today, Tues, 6pm, press conference on West Valley Nuclear Cleanup; at Erie County Community College, 121 Ellicott St, Buffalo, NY 14203, followed by public testimony at Scoping Session re same (last Scoping Session 3/21 at Cattaraugus Council Chambers, 12837 Route 438, Irving, NY 14081; you can also submit written testimony at https://www.addup.org/campaigns;

Also today: please call Sen Schumer (716) 846-4111; and/or 202-224-3121 and urge him to vote yes on the War Powers Resolution, to end U.S. military involvement in the war on Yemen (sponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee). You could also thank Sen Gillibrand (716-854-9725 or 202-224-3121) and thank her for her support. If you’d prefer to send an email to your senators, you can do so here.

Tomorrow, March 21, celebrate Now Ruz, Persian New Year and the biggest holiday of the year in Afghanistan, in Solidarity with Our Journey To Smile and Afghan Peace Volunteers, with:
– Global Day of Listening from 7:30-10:45am, with the Afghan Peace Volunteers – streaming online at link;
– Fly Kites Not Drones; meet at Niagara Porter Public Library at 4pm; walk over to LaSalle Park to fly kites from 4:30 (til ~6pm. Bundle up!! It will be cold and breezy!). Cosponsors Veterans For Peace #128; Lafayette HS. Kites will be available for flying, or bring your own!

On Friday, March 23, our Women’s Ways ~ Peace Ways continues:
-With Betty Jean Grant, We Are Women Warriors; Patricia Elliot-Patton, WNYPC Education & Human Rights Taskforce; and Andrea O’Suilleabhain, Ass’t Dir, Partnership for the Public Good. Noon hour at the Central Public Library, Ring of Knowledge.

Again, please go to our website wnypeace.org and facebook page for more info on events, and campaigns, many new ones cropping up all the time! (Keep checking 😉 We’re all in this together and We shall overcome – Together!/Harambe!!

#unitethestruggles

Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, Justice, and yes Love.

#PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver

Remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCAST MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/.

Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.
And be sure to go to wnypeace.org/calendar for more event listings – there’s plenty more and additions are frequent! …..

No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting. #UnitetheStruggles !
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love. #loveisloveBUF <3

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EVENT LISTINGS

Please also celebrate Women’s Ways ~ Peace Ways with us in so many ways all month long!

Transit Valley Chris Collins Dinner Protest

March 22 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

Dinner runs 5:30-7:30. Please come to stand for the principle of representative democracy, and remind featured guest speaker Cong. Chris Collins (and cohorts) that constituents should be heard and not have to pay for his attention. Transit Valley Country Club, 8920 Transit Rd, E Amherst, NY 14051.

Fri, March 23: Women’s Ways ~ Peace Ways continues:
-With Betty Jean Grant, We Are Women Warriors; Patricia Elliot-Patton, WNYPC Education & Human Rights Taskforce; and Andrea O’Suilleabhain, Ass’t Dir, Partnership for the Public Good. Noon hour at the Central Public Library, Ring of Knowledge.

No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge

March 23 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Join us every Friday from 2 PM to 3 PM at the corner of Busti Ave and Vermont St. in Buffalo NY. Vigil against the shipment of high level LIQUID radioactive spent fuel from Chalk River Ontario to Aiken South Carolina. If any of it spills out, it will be next to impossible to clean

March For Our Lives – WNY

March 24 @ 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm Solidarity Rally here in WNY

Join us in taking a stand against gun violence in our schools and communities. #NeverAgain should our children have to be afraid to go to school because our politicians are too busy filling their pockets with NRA contributions to do the right thing to keep people safe. Rally and circular March (est > 1mile). Organized by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, and the WNY Peace Center, with stellar co-sponsors!

March 23/4 trip to DC:
We are so grateful to Mayor Brown for sponsoring this bus, organized by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, Stop the Violence Coalition, Western New York Peace Center and WRITE TO RESIST. To register and for further details, go to http://rallybus.net/mfol- buffalo-2
Come our for the send-off, 11:30-11:59, UB South Park&Ride, 3471 Main St, Buffalo 14214. facebook event page

The Blackness Project

March 24 @ 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm

Please join the Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo for the screening and discussion of the film: The Blackness Project (written and directed by award winning filmmaker Korey Green) Saturday, March 24th from 5pm to 7pm at The Unitarian Universalist Church of Buffalo 695 Elmwood Ave

Racial Justice Taskforce Meeting

March 25 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Join us at WNYPC/NRC Building for planning and organizing, including coverage of regular Police District Community Meetings, and pursuing the Better Policing Campaign, and #FreeNY.

March LASC coffeehouse: Protecting Immigrants in Unstable Times!

March 26 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Local Groups: their stories and how they help (at Canisius Col Science Bldg, Main & Jefferson, in the lounge). Reports from several local activist groups, including St. Joe’s University Immigration Committee, Justice for Migrant Families, and the WNYPC Immigrant & Refugee Justice Taskforce on their efforts to protect immigrants and refugees

TASKFORCE ITEMS AND CAMPAIGNS

ECONOMIC JUSTICE TASKFORCE

Please call our state senators to 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

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EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS TASKFORCE

PEACEJAM has started at Lafayette HS Community School Saturdays 10:30-11:30am. Come for Inspiration, Education, and Action. Come on Sat, March 24 for Buff State Kinesthetic Learning students doing a special exercise with the teens and community. All are welcome.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE

West Valley Nuclear Waste Cleanup opportunities to testify, March 19, 20, and 21. West Valley Scoping Meeting March 20 @ 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm West Valley Scoping meetings for the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement SEIS Final Decisions on Disposition of Nuclear Waste at West Valley Nuclear Waste Site “Scoping” is done to get public input on what the whole Environmental Impact Statement should cover and include. Scoping determines the outline for what will be covered See more on calendar.

No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge

March 23 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/

GENDER JUSTICE TASKFORCE

Happy Women’s Month – March!! See our Women’s Ways ~ Peace Ways events Noon on March 16 and 23, Buffalo & Erie Co Central Public Library.

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
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IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE JUSTICE TASKFORCE

March LASC coffeehouse: Protecting Immigrants!

March 26 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Reports from several local activist groups, including St. Joe’s University Immigration Committee, and Justice for Migrant Families, on their efforts to protect immigrants and refugees in a time of changing and unstable policy. Free and open to the public.
Call our senators and us reps to support the Dreamers. DACA may be eliminated if we do not succeed in getting Congress to act. Please call 202-224-3121.

Calls are still needed to your NYS Assembly Members to 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)

March LASC coffeehouse: Protecting Immigrants!

March 26 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

CONGRATULATIONS TO BILL JUNGELS and CHRISTINE EBER!!!
The Las Cruces International Film Festival bestowed its “Best FeatureDocumentary” award on Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror, a feature length documentary directed by Bill Jungels, Co-Produced by Bill Jungels and Christine Eber and shot in Chiapas, Mexico. The documentary looks at how young Mayas are preserving or recovering their Maya identity and resisting the global forces that threaten this identity. Just as preserving native seed stocks helps us all survive in a world of vulnerable monocultures, the preservation and adaptation of traditional human cultures offers us all models that may help us survive as a species. The documentarypremiered in September of 2017 at Hallwalls.

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

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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:

Mutual Aid Community Soup Kitchens Paypal address: cdpecpr@gmail.com run by Giovanni Roberto, friend of MaryAnne Grady Flores (UpstateDroneAction.org and Puerto Rico activist].

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 Please give generously – the situations continue to be terrible for many!!

Chenalhó, Chiapas—Humanitarian crisis
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

If you would like to help, go to weaving-for-justice.org

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PRISONER’S RIGHTS TASKFORCE

Join us in promoting the H.A.L.T. Solitary Confinement campaign. Please call your State Senators and Congresspersons and ask them to cosponsor and vote for the bills A. 3080 / S. 4784.
Ways you can help:
RSVP for the upcoming Advocacy Day, March 13, to demand passage of the HALT Solitary Confinement Act: https://goo.gl/z22oVf

Sign the petition to support the HALT Solitary Confinement Act: https://goo.gl/HLwqbK

Encourage your organization to endorse the HALT Solitary Confinement Act: https://goo.gl/forms/FM2F6DZAcPZp1co32

RACIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE

Racial Justice Taskforce Meeting: Sunday, March 25 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Join us at WNYPC/NRC Building for planning and organizing, including coverage of regular Police District Community Meetings, and pursuing the Better Policing Campaign, and #FreeNY.

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

Join the #BuffaloLLEP movement. It’s easy.

Join the hundreds of Buffalonians who make up the #BuffaloLLEP movement, asking Mayor Byron Brown to make low-level marijuana arrests Buffalo’s lowest level enforcement priority (LLEP).
People across the U.S. recognize what a destructive failure the 40-year “war on drugs” has been. In Buffalo, the news hasn’t sunken in yet, though, as those living in communities of color & low-income areas are still disproportionately targeted by law enforcement for marijuana arrests. Join the #BuffaloLLEP movement to stop these unfair & harmful enforcement tactics!
Learn more.

Each Police District has a Chief and Community Police Meeting. We encourage people to go to them and communicate freely on issues of concern. See wnypeace.org calendar for listings.

RESIST MILITARISM! TASKFORCE

March 21, celebrate Now Ruz, Persian New Year and the biggest holiday of the year in Afghanistan, in Solidarity with Our Journey To Smile and Afghan Peace Volunteers, with:
– Global Day of Listening from 7:30-10:45am, with the Afghan Peace Volunteers – streaming online at link;
– Fly Kites Not Drones; meet at Niagara Porter Public Library at 4pm; walk over to LaSalle Park to fly kites from 4:30 (til ~6pm. Bundle up!! It will be cold and breezy!). Cosponsors Veterans For Peace #128; Lafayette HS. Kites will be available for flying, or bring your own!

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.

As early as today, the U.S. Senate is scheduled to vote about whether or not to end U.S. military involvement in the war on Yemen. Can you take 5 minutes to call your senators now and urge them to vote yes on the War Powers Resolution, sponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders and Mike Lee?

Here’s how it works:

-Dial 1-833-786-7927

-When prompted, enter your zipcode

-You will be connected to the office of your U.S. Senator

-Tell the staffer who picks up: “As a constituent, I urge my senator to support the Sanders-Lee Resolution (S.J.Res. 54) to end U.S. military involvement in the unconstitutional war on Yemen.”

-Press * on your phone to be connected to the office of your second U.S. Senator and -repeat your support for the resolution

If you’d prefer to send an email to your senators, you can do so here.

Our tax dollars are funding massive civilian casualties and the world’s largest humanitarian crisis in Yemen. The U.S. military is providing midair refueling to warplanes, sharing intelligence for targeting assistance, and selling U.S. bombs to the aggressors. U.S.-supported airstrikes target schools, hospitals, and water and sanitation infrastructure. As a result, millions of Yemeni people are on the brink of starvation and are facing the fastest-growing cholera crisis ever documented.

Every day that the war on Yemen continues, America is complicit in aiding war crimes. Call your U.S. Senators today at 1-833-786-7927 and urge them to stop fueling war on Yemen!

Thank you for taking action,

Greta Zarro
Organizing Director
World Beyond War

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REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle

Riverside-Salem UCC/DC Sunday. Followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Special opportunity to hear Brian Castner, author Disappointment River: Finding and Losing the NW Passage. March 11. 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. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/.

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
1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of the month, breakfast pot-luck **9:30-11am**, 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. Signs also available. (and you don’t need to be a woman or dress in black 😉

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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, write to weeklynews@wnypeace.org 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!!