THE MOMENTS WE’VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR … (extended Program Ad deadline) WNY Peace Center’s 51st Annual Dinner and the MIDTERM ELECTIONS!!

716-332-3904      11/5/18

Friends,

This week promises two very important dates: Tomorrow – the MIDTERM ELECTIONS, and Friday – after much anticipation – WNY PEACE CENTER’S 51st ANNUAL DINNER!!

Tomorrow is the midterm elections, and we all know how important EACH VOTE is. Please make a plan for what time you will vote, what values and vision you’re looking for on the ballot, who represents those values and will manifest that vision, and thus, WHO AND WHAT YOU WILL BE VOTING FOR. Any questions, call the Erie County Board of Elections 716-858-8891 or visit them online at elections.erie.gov. Also, there is plenty of information online about the candidates and what they represent. Choose a reliable or reputable website and check these people out.

FRIDAY IS OUR 51st ANNUAL DINNER!! WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!

The deadline for Program Advertisements has been extended to TOMORROW AT NOON. Please send in your ad request and pay online by that time. 

The deadline for purchasing dinner tickets is fast-approaching!! If you’re planning on attending our 51st Annual Dinner (and we really hope you are), which promises to be amazing, we must receive your reservation and payments no later than 4:00PM on Wednesday, November 7! 

We will be honoring our beloved community member Betty Jean Grant with the Lifetime Achievement Award. We invite all to celebrate her service to the Western New York community.

We hope that all who desire to attend will purchase your tickets soon. Our Annual Dinner tickets begin at $30. Those who wish to attend the keynote speaker and award ceremony only can purchase tickets at the door, or even beforehand, starting at $20, for entry to the event at 7pm.

Buy your tickets today. 🙂 wnypeace.org, 716-332-3904, annualdinnerorders@wnypeace.org, or send registration form and payment to WNY Peace Center, 1272 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14209. Registration forms can be found online, and can also be mailed or faxed upon request. Contact us for more information.

The 51st Annual Dinner will take place on Friday, November 9 at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, 153 Franklin St., Buffalo, NY 14202. The doors open at 5pm with a social hour, vendors, raffles and auctions. The dinner and program will begin at 6pm. 

Kathy Kelly will speak on Uniting Our Struggles and Ending Our Wars, and is a highly regarded peace activist and author. We are so excited to have her with us this year!!

In addition to single tickets, there are also options of purchasing a dinner table, program book advertisement and/or vending/organization table. We are also accepting donations for basket raffles, silent auction items and ticket sponsorships. For more information, visit wnypeace.org, call us at 716-332-3904, or email us at annualdinnerorders@wnypeace.org. We hope you will get involved with our Annual Dinner! Connect with us!

COME CELEBRATE 51 YEARS OF PEACE THROUGH JUSTICE WITH US!!! Buy your tickets today. 

#UniteTheStruggles #ActivistAndCommunitySelfCare #Celebrate!! #PeaceThroughJustice #KathyKelly #WNYPeaceCenterAnnualDinner

EVENT LISTINGS

Election Day – Get Out and VOTE!

November 6 @ 6:00 am – 9:00 pm

Midterm elections. Please exercise your power and VOTE. Call or visit the website of the Erie County Board of Elections with any questions or concerns. 716-858-8891 or https://www.elections.erie.gov. You can find your polling place, see who’s on the ballot, get absentee ballot information and more. Polls open 6am-9pm. 

Free Home Energy Workshop to Explore Solar and Energy Efficiency Programs

November 8 @ 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) is inviting homeowners to a free “Home Energy Action Workshop” on Thursday, Nov. 8, 2018 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Depew. 

WNY PEACE CENTER’S 51st ANNUAL DINNER!!!

November 9 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, 153 Franklin St., Buffalo, NY 14202. Celebrate 51 years of Peace through Justice at our Annual Dinner! 

We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver

The time is now, and we are the people we’ve been waiting for.

See more at wnypeace.org – either our calendar for more details and events, or the rest of the weekly update post!

And 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.

No hate, no fear as we are #StillResisting.  Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.

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COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

* ECONOMIC JUSTICE 

Please continue to support the Poor People’s Campaign. Current focus: Voter Registration and empowerment. Stay tuned for information on future events and ways to get involved. Also, visit and join the Poor People’s Campaign online: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org and on facebook (locally, statewide and nationally): Poor People’s Campaign WNY, NYS Poor People’s Campaign, Poor People’s Campaign.

* EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS

* ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge

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

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

Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror

Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE

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

On the fourth Monday of each month during the school year, the Latin American Solidarity Committee and WNY Peace Center host a Peace Coffeehouse: hear first-hand accounts of peace actions locally and away,  and connect with the community and with activists.

Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE

Venezuela Sanctions Petition

After the attempted assassination of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, your help is requested. Please sign the petition to end US and Canadian sanctions:https://afgj.salsalabs.org/campaigntoendusandcanadasanctionsagainstvenezuela/index.html. The civilians and general populations are the ones to pay for this kind of foreign policy. The US government needs to stop penalizing the common people and destabilizing other countries. Please sign and share. Many thanks to Shontae Cannon-Buckley for her work on this issue!

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

Wednesdays 4-5:30pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). 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

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.

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, and/or call your District and ask when & where the next Chief and Community Police Meeting will be held.

* RESIST MILITARISM!

Know about the King’s Bay Plowshares? 7 courageous and compassionate Catholic Workers who went to largest submarine base in the world Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in St. Mary’s, Georgia on April 4th, 2018.  They went to make real the prophet Isaiah’s command to “beat swords into plowshares”. Read their story at https://www.kingsbayplowshares7.org/  .

Donate, help us organize on their behalf, and agitate and pray for their acquittal. They face very serious charges of up to a decade of prison time, just for reminding our government of the illegal and foolhardy nature of our nuclear weaponry.

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.
– Support House Resolution 922 to define presidential wars not declared by Congress as impeachable offenses. These wars include wars of co-belligerency such as the US role in the atrocities in Yemen.

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

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!

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REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle

Riverside-Salem UCC/DC – Progressive program followed by potluck. Sundays, 4-7pm. Environmental Cottage, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island. Session on Bob Dylan.

Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu orhttp://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 9:15am at 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 -entrance and parking round back.)

Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror –
Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE

Environmental Justice Taskforce –
Vigil to Protest the Shipments of VERY Dangerous Radioactive Liquid from Canada coming over the Peace Bridge. Fridays 2-3pm, Front Park at Vermont & Busti, Buffalo. Signs welcome and also usually available.

Stop The Violence Coalition – 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month; 6pm, United Way Building, Delaware and Summer Sts.

Women In Black – Nonviolence vigil, Bidwell and Elmwood. Saturdays, Noon-1pm. 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.

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(Sorry for occasional delays!)

Please submit possible listings for consideration to weeklynews@wnypeace.org.

Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love. We shall overcome!!