PPC: Alb (Mon 6/18); DC (FriPM/Sat); Juneteenth; #FreeNY !!

Written by Victoria Ross on June 13, 2018. Posted in Recent Activities, Talking Peace News

716-332-3904; 716-931-3520 6/12/18

Dear Friends,

Coming up on Week 6 of the 40 Days of Action kicking-off the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, there’s a lot going on! Last week some 31 people were arrested at an exclusive club where legislators are wined and dined. We need to change our system to serve the people, all the people, not just those bringing bags of money. Please join us:

– Mon, June 18, A New Unsettling Force: Confronting the Distorted Moral Narrative. Contact Vicki, 716-931-3520; victoryross9@gmail.com to carpool from Buffalo to Albany this week.
– Sat, June 23 – Bus trip to DC (yes DC – not Albany! ;-), Register today to ensure you save your seat on the bus! Sign up at https://goo.gl/n6jyUh and also please register at https://www.actionnetwork.org/events/new-york-delegation-poor-peoples-campaign-global-day-of-solidarity-and-mass-rally-in-dc

A watch party for those who don’t get a seat on the bus – or can’t go is TBA next week when the bus is filled!

Many thanks to those who joined us today at a Planning Meeting for the next Poor People’s Campaign Event: Celebration for Change! It will help us continue to #UnitetheStruggles. Watch for details soon.

Don’t forget the Radical King Reading Group tomorrow, Weds, 6/13, 6-8pm at the WNYPC/NRC Building, 1272 Delaware Ave (entrance & pkg round back behind building).

Also come on out to Juneteenth at MLK Park this weekend! The Parade starts at Genesee & Moselle at 11am on Saturday. Hope you’ve been enjoying the Sankofa Days leading up to it. The weekend will be a time to remember! The WNY Peace Center will also be tabling – come out and see us, and revel in the arts, culture, food, music, and many beautiful items for sale (clothes, jewelry, musical instruments, carvings, more).

A partial victory: the NYS Assembly passed the vitally important HALT Act (Humane Alternatives to Long-Term Solitary Confinement; crucial to stop torture in this state, and relieve the people of color and young people disproportionately affected by barbaric solitary confinement). Please call your state senator and urge them to support S-4784A.Parker.

57th District
Catharine Young (R) 716-372-4901
59th District
Patrick M. Gallivan (R) Elma 716-656-8544
60th District
Chris Jacobs (R) Buffalo 716-854-8705
61st District
Michael H. Ranzenhofer (R) Williamsville (716) 631-8695
62nd District
Robert Ort (R) Lockport 716-434-0680
63rd District
Timothy M. Kennedy (D) Buffalo NY 826-2683

There will also be a JUNETEENTH STATEWIDE PROTEST TO #FREEnewyork. Join us at Lafayette Square at 5:30 PM. On June 19th, at jails and courthouses across the state, we will lift up the voices of directly impacted people and call out urgent injustice: Mass pretrial incarceration. Guilty until proven innocent. A price on our freedom. With Juneteenth actions in Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, NYC, the Hudson Valley, and Long Island, we will shift the landscape in New York State and win real change. The time is now. With the power of collective voice, we will:
Demand accountability from Governor Cuomo and NYS’s elected leaders. Demand emancipation from a racist and discriminatory pretrial system. Demand complete overhaul of bail, discovery and speedy trial laws.

Lastly, come on out to help us prepare for Voices from Yemen as part of the Infringement Festival. Yemen is having a humanitarian tragedy and collapse with a blockade and bombing, all courtesy of war crimes by the Saudi regime with US aiding and abetting. Let’s get this story out there! The Resist Militarism! Taskforce and Veterans For Peace #128 will meet at the Niagara Porter Library at 5:30-7pm on Weds, June 20. See you there as well!

#UnitetheStruggles

Many Thanks, Peace, Solidarity, and yes Love.

See our calendar for more details! as well as the rest of this post (click below).

#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

——————————————————-

EVENT LISTINGS

The Radical King Book Club Meeting

June 13 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Place: WNYPC/NRC Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave (Entrance & Pkg round back of bldg). Stacey Smith, UBSSW advanced student, WNYPC Intern, will lead the discussion. Join The Radical King Book Club Meeting to discuss the book The Radical King by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Author), Cornel West (Editor)

JUNE 13-15, 2018 ROSE BENTE LEE OSTAPENKO CENTER FOR RACE, EQUALITY, AND MISSION and co-sponsor NASW New York State Chapter present UNIVERSITY, COMMUNITY, AND GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS CONFERENCE

“Reconciliation and System Changes” Niagara University You can view the Schedule of Events and Register at https://www.niagara.edu/niagara-university-partnerships-for-race-and-equality/ Keynote Speaker “Reconciliation and System Changes” David Anderson Hooker, PhD, JD,

Juneteenth

June 16 & 17 @ 11:00 am – 7:30 pm

MLK Park (Fillmore by North Parade, one block north of Best). Come find us tabling near the Arts & Cultural Stage – it’s always a great time!! Free and open to all – all are welcome. The 43rd Juneteenth parade will be held on June 16 @ 11:00am. The parade will begin at Genesee Street

Poor People’s Campaign – Carpool to Albany

June 18 @ 4:30 am – 10:00 pm

Join in the Poor People’s Campaign, week 6: A New and Unsettling Force: Confronting the Distorted Moral Narrative. Contact Vicki, 716-931-3520; victoryross9@gmail.com to carpool from Buffalo to Albany this week. Times are approximate. Thousands of people in 36 state capitals and Washington D.C. take to the streets, rallying for an #endto4evils (systemic racism, poverty, the War Economy, and ecological devastation ~= the nation’s distorted morality), with some people engaging in civil disobedience/civil resistance, all as part of 40 Days of Action kicking off the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival.

Film: Reinventing Power (re future of energy)

June 18 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Reinventing Power, an inspiring film about the future of energy Schenck Hall Auditorium, Daemen College (4380 Main St, Buffalo, NY 14226) Sierra Club Niagara Kickoff Event for “Clean Energy For All” nationwide campaign.

JUNETEENTH STATEWIDE PROTEST TO #FREEnewyork

June 19 @ 5:30 pm – 6:30 pm

Join us at Lafayette Square at 5:30 PM. On June 19th, at jails and courthouses across the state, we will lift up the voices of directly impacted people and call out urgent injustice: Mass pretrial incarceration. Guilty until proven innocent. A price on our freedom.

Resist Militarism! Taskforce & Veterans for Peace Joint Mtg

June 20 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Join us for planning our Infringement Festival entry re Voices from Yemen; Armistice Day celebration; Fly Kites Not Drones; and much more! At Niagara Porter Public Library.

Poor People’s Campaign – DC Rally

June 23 @ 12:00 am – 11:30 pm

Culminating the 40 Days of Action (which was the kick-off to an ongoing campaign). Bus to DC and back from National rally with movement leaders. Register today to ensure you save your seat on the bus! Sign up at https://goo.gl/n6jyUh and also please register at https://www.actionnetwork.org/events/new-york-delegation-poor-peoples-campaign-global-day-of-solidarity-and-mass-rally-in-dc

World Refugee Day (9th Annual)

June 23 @ 8:00 am – 8:00 pm

LaSalle Park, Buffalo, NY 14202. World Refugee Day is a global initiative by the United Nations, annually celebrated on June 20th honoring the courage, resilience and strength of over 50 million refugees and displaced persons who have been forced to flee their homes due to fear of persecution or to escape disasters.

Racial Justice Taskforce Mtg

June 24 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

Please join us at the WNY Peace Center (NRC Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave; entrance & pkg round back of bldg) to work on: racism and harassment in Kenmore Public Schools/township(?); getting coverage of the Community Police District meetings (5 districts, monthly); petition to name new police headquarters for Officer Edward Obertean (killed working to stop

Dare to Dream, on scholarships to medical school in Havana

June 24 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Building Bridges, Tearing Down Walls: this summer’s Pastors for Peace Friendshipment to Cuba coming through Buffalo! With a documentary telling the story of the largest medical school in the world, the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, Cuba. Additional Info: “Dare to Dream” is a 30 minute movie that tells the story of the largest medical school in the world, the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, Cuba through the eyes of US students who received full scholarships from the Cuban government with the commitment to practice medicine in under-serve communities.

Event Sponsored by WNY Peace Center http://wnypeace.org/ and its taskforce, the Latin American Solidarity Committee www.lascwny.org/ Suggested free will donation.

_____________________

TASKFORCES

EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS TASKFORCE

CAMP PEACEPRINTS 2018, “The Language of Peace”

M-F July 16 – July 27 @ 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Announcing the eleventh annual Camp Peaceprints, brought to you by the Interfaith Peace Network, the SSJ Sister Karen Klimczak Center for Nonviolence, and the WNY Peace Center. The Camp, for youth ages 8 to 13, provides exposure to a diverse community while introducing and exploring communication, social justice issues, peaceful conflict resolution – and did we say swimming (4x), field trips (2x), and learning signing? At St. Mary’s School for the Deaf, 2253 Main St.

We learn how to listen, express ourselves, cooperate, deal with feelings, and problem-solve; as well as exploring and hopefully being inspired toward Nonviolence. Students from St. Mary’s School for the Deaf will join us in camp activities and teach us American Sign Language, sharing their universal language of peace with the entire Camp Peaceprints community. We’ll have wonderful guest presenters – activists and artists from the Buffalo area. We’ll also play games, have recreation (yes swimming!), do art projects and go on field trips.

Registration is $125 per week (discount $240 for the two-week period), with sliding scale and scholarships available. For registration forms and further info, please go to sisterkarencenter.org or click here–> CPP18+Registration+and+Consent (3).

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE

Film: Reinventing Power (re future of energy)

June 18 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge

June 15 @ 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.

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

World Refugee Day (9th Annual)

June 23 @ 8:00 am – 8:00 pm

Calls are still needed to your NYS Assembly Members to ask them to support NYS ASSEMBLY Bill #4050. IF SEAN RYAN IS YOUR ASSEMBLYPERSON, PLEASE CALL HIM! 716-885-9630! ALSO CO CLERK MICKEY KEARNS (716) 858-8785.

The GreenLight NY program restores access to drivers’ licenses to all community members, to avoid abusive immigration enforcement. For more info, please come out to above mentioned event, 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)

Dare to Dream, on scholarships to medical school in Havana

June 24 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Event Sponsored by WNY Peace Center http://wnypeace.org/ and its taskforce, the Latin American Solidarity Committee www.lascwny.org/ Suggested free will donation.

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

___
As you know, people desperately need our help because of the continuing devastation caused by “natural” disasters (read fossil-fuel-burning-generated Climate Catastrophe) as well as other factors. 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

*
PRISONER’S RIGHTS TASKFORCE

Chuck Culhane is resuming 4-5pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church) on Wednesdays. All are welcome. Please bring signs.

Please join us in promoting the H.A.L.T. Solitary Confinement campaign. Please call your State Senators and ask them to cosponsor and vote for the bills S. 4784. (You can also thank the representatives who passed it in the Assembly!)
Other Ways you can help:

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

The Radical King Book Club Meeting

June 13 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

Place: WNYPC/NRC Bldg, 1272 Delaware Ave (Entrance & Pkg round back of bldg). Stacey Smith, UBSSW advanced student, WNYPC Intern, will lead the discussion. Join The Radical King Book Club Meeting to discuss the book The Radical King by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Author), Cornel West (Editor)

Racial Justice Taskforce Mtg

June 24 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

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

Resist Militarism! Taskforce & Veterans for Peace Joint Mtg

June 20 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm

Join us for planning our Infringement Festival entry re Voices from Yemen; Armistice Day celebration; Fly Kites Not Drones; and much more! At Niagara Porter Public Library.

___

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.

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!

Please let us know if you’d like to be involved with our Infringement Festival activities which will be focused on Yemen. We’d love to have your help. Please call Russell Brown 716-570-5200 or email Marie Schuster mariemschuster@gmail.com.

********

REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle

Riverside-Salem UCC/DC Sunday. Progressive program followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island. 6/17: Death over Dinner.

Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-3pm. Heron Simmonds hosting, with Live Broadcasting of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, from Vicki Ross. 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!!

Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce. Wednesdays 4-5pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.

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. NO MTG on 7/15.

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 😉

***********
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!!