Resist Militarism!; Youth Climate Strike/#Unite/Int’l Peace Fri 2-5

Written by Victoria Ross on . Posted in Talking Peace News

716-332-3904      9/18/19                  wnypeace.org

Dear Friends,

Get ready for the Week for the Future – and especially Friday’s rally! With our youth and young adults – and older adults – stepping into high gear, please pace yourself while helping to spread the word.

Today, please join us for Resist Militarism! Taskforce meeting at Isaías González-Soto Branch  (formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201;  5-6:30pm. We desperately need to stop the militarism at home and abroad that makes us more unsafe and unwell (the US military is the world’s #1 polluter).


Tomorrow – Thursday, Sept 19 – we hope you can:
– support wind energy either by coming out to the Erie County Legislature on at 1-2:30pm; and/or to call your county legislator (either today or tomorrow) to urge him or her to support Wind Energy and oppose the anti-wind resolution. More info below.
– come out to a rally 4-6pm at 65 Court St. for Gov Cuomo to sign the Wage Theft Bill that he’s holding up, which stops employers from hiding assets from employees. You can also call his office

We very much hope you’ll join us this Friday for the Youth Climate Strike/#Unite/Int’l Day of Peace, 2-5pm at Niagara Square. We remind you that the rally will support the youth and climate emergency action, #unite us, and inspire us! Enjoy and collaborate with the eloquent (and brief) speakers, and the super music with PeaceJam, Roc Da Mic, Tom Makar, and the Resistance Revival Chorus. (And again, Ismail Johnson, Presente!) And join in sharing snacks, too!

As you probably know, the Youth Climate Strike is called upon the verge of the UN Climate Change Summit. The US Military is the biggest polluter in the world. Anyone who goes to NYC for that should also know the US War Machine and Imperialism will be changed by many surrounding events. For more info, go to https://www.peoplesmobe.org/.  

Later Friday, you could:
– stay after the rally for a vigil for the victims of Hurricane Maria, organized by PUSH;
– go to Brothers Doing Better’s fun(d)raiser – yes this event open to all – at 6-10pm at Pilgrim St Luke’s, at Richmond & W Utica;
– attend the opening night of Ujima’s production of Pipeline, at the former school #77, about the school to prison pipeline (running thru Oct 13);
– go see the stunningly apt Subversive Theatre production of Catch-22, adapted for the stage by Joseph Heller himself. (WNYPC, as sponsor of the production, will be facilitating a brief discussion after the play on Saturday, Sept 21, and Friday, Sept 27 – come join us! Again, catch a showing any Thurs, Fri, and/or Sat from now till the end of the month, at 7:30pm 255 Great Arrow Avenue on the third floor.

At our 52nd Annual Dinner on Nov. 8, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink will keynote on  “Growing Our Peace Through Justice Economy)! See our website for more info.

Lastly, the WNY Peace Center is still accepting applications for the Assistant position. If you are interested, please see the posting at the end of this email.

Please go to our website (wnypeace.org) calendar for plenty more listings, campaigns in the website posts, and info on our facebook page.

Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.

#Unite!     #OneLove
————————————-

Events this week:

Resist Militarism! Taskforce

September 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

At Isaías González-Soto Branch  (formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201– regular monthly planning meeting third Weds of the month. We will be discussing actions for Armistice Day and developing our strategic plan as a Taskforce into the next year! Hope to see you there!

Support Wind Energy to Erie Co Leg

September 19 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

At Erie County Hall 92 Franklin Street 4th Floor Legislative chamber. Give Wind Energy a Chance! The Erie County Legislature is considering a hostile anti-wind resolution sponsored by Legislators Dixon and Mills and supported by Chris Collins to preemptively oppose wind development “along the shores of Lake Erie”.  Come testify, or if you can’t, please contact your county legislator to ask him/her to oppose the anti-wind energy resolution. If you don’t know  who that is from the map below, please call Mr. Meyers who chairs the Energy & Environment Committee, and/or Legislature Chair Ms. April Baskin.

Support the NYS SWEAT Bill – No Wage Theft!

September 19 @ 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm

At NYS Dept of Labor Bureau, 65 Court St, Buffalo. Please come out and/or call Gov Cuomo – 518-474-8390 – to get him to sign this bill!! >Wage theft is a huge issue for NYS workers: we lose $1 Billion > annually to wage theft– more than any other kind of theft combined

Catch-22
Thurs, Fri, Sat through Sat. Sept 28, 7:30pm
With brief post-performance discussions on Sat, 9/21, and Fri, 9/27.
At Subversive Theatre’s Manny Fried Playhouse, 255 Great Arrow Ave, Buffalo (3rd Floor). Don’t miss this superb play (created by original author Joseph Heller!) that provides compelling and alarming insights into today’s bizzaro political climate, where lies are “alternative facts” and climate change is a theory. Compelling and captivating, you won’t forget it! Great performances that will spur us on! Tickets are $30 general admission or $25 for students, seniors, and Subversive Theatre members. As always, admission for all Thursday shows is pay-what-you-can. Purchase tickets online at www.subversivetheatre.org or call 716-462-5549. Where else but at… SUBVERSIVE THEATRE: where DISSENT takes center stage!


Youth Climate Strike & Int’l Day of Peace

September 20 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

In Niagara Square. Buffalo Youth Climate Strike is hosting a rally with the WNY Peace Center and we would like you to be there! Bring friends and family, signs, and energy and let’s make our voices heard!  Agenda: Gathering 2-2:30pm Climate Strike 2:30-3:30pm #UniteTheStruggles/#UniteTheVisions – Interconnectedness 3:30-4:30pm Celebration of International Day of Peace 4:30-5pm Please go to https://actionnetwork.org/events/buffalo-youth-climate-strike-2?source=direct_link&
to register. There will be excellent musical jamming – bring your instrument if you play. Also, please bring signs – and friends! Spread the word, and see you there! Si, se puede! We shall overcome! Please go to our website listing for this event for a list of cosponsors (now including Indigenous Women’s Initiatives!) and the Week for the Future events!

[youth Peru]


Global Leadership Adventure talk

September 22 @ 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm

At Riverside-Salem, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island, NY 14072. Maddy Buisch will tell us about her experience with Global Leadership Adventure (GLA) this past summer. GLA is a company that creates programs for high schoolers to volunteer, travel and learn about other cultures. Her trip in Peru was called Foundations of Global Health

Press Conf: Support Outer Harbor Park!

September 23 @ 10:00 am – 10:30 pm

“Buffalo’s Outer Harbor: the Right Place for a World-Class Park.” Bell Slip (Fuhrmann Blvd, just past the first exit off Route 5 (heading west from Buffalo). Please come out to support the initiative. All are welcome.

LASC Peace Coffeehouse: Mayan Guatemala, past & present

September 23 @ 7:00 pm

At Canisius College Science Bldg Lounge, cnr Main @Jefferson. Speaker Marilyn Anderson, with an update on the complex picture of Guatemala today: past conflicts, refugees and mass migration, the environmental situation,and the changing role of Mayan peoples and their traditional belief system. With photographs and pictures form her many years of work there


REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Struggle, One Vision, One Love:

Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-3pm. Call-in show with Vicki Ross hosting. Also streaming on-line at wbny.buffalostate.edu. Guests this week include Eve Everette of the Anne Frank Project; and Marilyn Anderson, speaker at Mayan Guatemala

Buffalo Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. 1st & 3rd Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Ave. All are welcome!! Reading group for the Great Law of Peace meets on the last Tuesday of the month.

Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce – Wednesdays 4-5:30pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs.

Resist Militarism! Taskforce – regular monthly planning meeting third Weds of the month, at Isaías González-Soto Branch  (formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201;  5-6:30pm.

Interfaith Peace Network, 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, 9:15am at 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo NY 14209 entrance and parking round back.) Breakfast potluck, planning/publicizing, & discussion.

Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror – Thursdays, 5-6pm, ICE building on the corner of (@250) Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE #CLOSETHECAMPS #NeverAgainIsNow

Buffalo Youth Climate Strike – all are welcome 2-3pm at Niagara Square for a youth-led rally to stand up for People and the Planet, and radical change to mitigate and avert climate catastrophe. Bring signs! See you there! This week runs 2-5pm (see above!)

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)

Of note: Little Africa Culture Club, 356 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY. African Drumming Sundays, 12-2pm.

We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver

***********

More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.

To subscribe, go to http://wnypeace.org/wp/weekly-news-sign-up/ or 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.

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

And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.

______________

WNY Peace Center Assistant Job Description

The WNY Peace Center seeks a highly organized person who is passionate about peace and social justice issues to serve as an assistant working for our mission of  “Peace Through Justice at Home and Abroad.”

The WNY Peace Center is a non-profit, member driven organization founded in 1956. Our nine taskforces focus on particular issue areas and we stress the interconnectedness of our issues, Uniting in the Struggles and Movement-Building. We provide many opportunities to learn about, reflect, and act constructively to address issues of concern to our membership. As a force for progressive change, the WNY Peace Center serves as an incubator for new ideas and the promotion of activism.

The Assistant Position is for approximately 15 hours/week including nights and weekend flexibility for events at $15/hour.

Candidates should be detail-oriented, have great verbal and written communication skills, computer skills (QuickBooks knowledge is a plus), and a cooperative spirit. Experience in the non-profit sector and/or community organizing is preferred.

Candidates would be working closely with the Executive Director and Office Manager/Coordinator.

Expectations:

  • Working cooperatively and communicating with staff, board, taskforces, membership, allies and the general public;
  • Assist in media and publicity outreach, including press releases, media advisories and follow-up;
  • Assist in planning and promoting the WNY Peace Center’s Annual Dinner and other fundraising events throughout the year including membership appeals and grant writing;
  • Participate in designing, publicizing and implementing strategic campaigns;
  • Assist in planning, publicizing and executing meetings, speakers, fundraisers, rallies and other events;
  • Assist in outreach and work with other peace and justice organizations in WNY and nationally;
  • Assisting the Office Manager (answering phones; fielding requests; helping with mailings, office publications etc.)
  • Stay current on relevant legislation, grants, social issues and potential services;
  • Assisting in other ways as needed and feasible.


Please send your resume and a cover letter to victoryross9@gmail.com by Sept 13. Thanks!

***********

Below are

– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);

– Taskforce items and campaigns; and

– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.

_____________________

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

* ECONOMIC JUSTICE

The WNY PPC meets 2nd Mondays, 6pm at Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY.

Upcoming Events:

Come and Sing Movement Songs!

September 25 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

At Raqs Solidarity, A Community Space at 322 Amherst Street, Buffalo, New York 14207. Organized by the Poor People’s Campaign, a National Call for Moral Revival. The Poor People’s Campaign, the Civil Rights Movement, the Disability rights movement, the Union Movement, the Women’s Rights Movement and so many others… they all have songs

* EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS

New York State’s Dignity for All Students Act (aka DASA or The Dignity Act) seeks to provide the State’s public elementary and secondary school students with a safe and supportive environment free from discrimination, intimidation, taunting, harassment, and bullying on school property, a school bus and/or at a school function. More information at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/dignityact/

BOE Meetings

Board of Education meetings begin at 5:30 pm and are held in room 801 at City Hall, unless a venue change is previously announced. These sessions are open to the public. A schedule of upcoming board of education meetings can be found at https://www.buffaloschools.org/Page/85931.

More information on Buffalo Public Schools can be found at https://www.buffaloschools.org.

* 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.

Buffalo Youth Climate Strike
Youth Climate Strike/ #Unite/ Int’l Day of Peace

September 20 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

In Niagara Square. Buffalo Youth Climate Strike is hosting a rally with the WNY Peace Center and we would like you to be there! Bring friends and family, signs, and energy and let’s make our voices heard!  Also, enjoy great music, eloquent (& brief 😉 speakers, and light snacks. For more info, including all the Week for the Future events, please go to this Youth Climate Strike/ #Unite/ Int’l Day of Peace listing for September 20.

Support Wind Energy to Erie Co Leg

September 19 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm

At Erie County Hall 92 Franklin Street 4th Floor Legislative chamber. Give Wind Energy a Chance! The Erie County Legislature is considering a hostile anti-wind resolution sponsored by Legislators Dixon and Mills and supported by Chris Collins to preemptively oppose wind development “along the shores of Lake Erie”.  Come testify, or if you can’t, please contact your county legislator to ask him/her to oppose the anti-wind energy resolution. If you don’t know  who that is from the map below, please call Mr. Meyers who chairs the Energy & Environment Committee, and/or Legislature Chair Ms. April Baskin.

Buffalo Youth Climate Strike
Youth Climate Strike/ #Unite/ Int’l Day of Peace

September 20 @ 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm

In Niagara Square. Buffalo Youth Climate Strike is hosting a rally with the WNY Peace Center and we would like you to be there! Bring friends and family, signs, and energy and let’s make our voices heard!  Also, enjoy great music, eloquent (& brief 😉 speakers, and light snacks. For more info, including all the Week for the Future events, please go to this Youth Climate Strike/ #Unite/ Int’l Day of Peace listing for September 20.
Agenda: Gathering 2-2:30pm Climate Strike 2:30-3:30pm #UniteTheStruggles/#UniteTheVisions – Interconnectedness 3:30-4:30pm Celebration of International Day of Peace 4:30-5pm Please go to https://actionnetwork.org/events/buffalo-youth-climate-strike-2?source=direct_link&
to register. Also, please bring signs – and friends! Spread the word, and see you there! Si, se puede! We shall overcome!

Press Conf: Support Outer Harbor Park!

September 23 @ 10:00 am – 10:30 pm

“Buffalo’s Outer Harbor: the Right Place for a World-Class Park.” Bell Slip (Fuhrmann Blvd, just past the first exit off Route 5 (heading west from Buffalo). Please come out to support the initiative. All are welcome.

______________

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

_______________

– NAPL/Northern Access Pipeline (proposed to take fracked gas from PA through WNY) is looming again, as the fossil-fuel-profiteers never give up!! However, si, se puede! SeeNorthern Access Pipeline Information for more info.

* 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

________

__

Vive la Casa, shelter for people awaiting documents and/or sanctuary, still desperately needs personal hygiene products and of course, CASH. The recent large influx of refugees has put the facility under real stress. Please give generously.

jrchc.org/vive

(Checks to Jericho Road/VIVE) 50 Wyoming St., Buffalo, NY 14211, 892-4354.

* LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY

LASC Peace Coffeehouse: Mayan Guatemala, past & present

September 23 @ 7:00 pm

At Canisius College Science Bldg Lounge, cnr Main @Jefferson. Speaker Marilyn Anderson, with an update on the complex picture of Guatemala today: past conflicts, refugees and mass migration, the environmental situation,and the changing role of Mayan peoples and their traditional belief system. With photographs and pictures form her many years of work there.

Latin American Solidarity Committee website: http://www.lascwny.org/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LASC-wny/143873822377380/

_____________________

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

_________

Other Latin American Solidarity news:

Invest in the children of farmworkers! A donor has agreed to match gifts given through Rural and Migrant Ministry board members through the end of the year. Contact the Rural and Migrant Ministry for more details. www.ruralmigrantministry.org.

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!

– Cuba—IFCO/Irma Relief (same address) Phone: 212-926-5757. Please give generously – the situations continue to be terrible for many!!

-Chenalhó, Chiapas—Humanitarian crisis

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

* PRISONERS’ RIGHTS

Wednesdays 4-5:30pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Deaths at Erie Co Holding Center now at 26 over Sheriff Howard’s tenure – outrageous!! Please bring signs. Vigil with concerned citizens as well as family members of victims of the maltreatment perpetuated in this system.

___________

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

Monthly meetings announced on our website calendar. Stay tuned.

_____________

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.

We are glad that Mayor Brown has made marijuana arrests the lowest law enforcement priority, so people are no longer being arrested for small amounts of marijuana! Thank you, Mayor Brown!! This will go a long way to improving racial justice!

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!

Resist Militarism! Taskforce

September 18 @ 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm

At Isaías González-Soto Branch  (formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201– regular monthly planning meeting third Weds of the month. We will be discussing actions for Armistice Day and developing our strategic plan as a Taskforce into the next year! Hope to see you there!

 

Catch-22 (Subversive Theatre)

September 6-28, every Thurs, Fri, Sat @ 7:30 pm

w Brief Post-Performance Discussion Sat, 9/21, and Fri, 9/27


At Subversive’s home venue, the Manny Fried Playhouse at 255 Great Arrow Avenue on the third floor of North Buffalo’s historic Great Arrow Building. Subversive Theatre unapologetically presents CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller. We at the WNY Peace Center are proud both to sponsor this superb production; as well as to facilitate a brief post-performance discussion (on both Sat, 9/21, and Fri, 9/27) of the meaning and parallels of this compelling piece. The play is very clearly related to the bizarro world we’re experiencing more than ever, with climate change denial and other incredible circular reasoning, lying, and total manipulation. Come share your thoughts and feelings after watching this powerful production!

 A deadly serious comedy of explosive proportions, CATCH-22 is an anti-war, anti-authority, anti-stupidity masterpiece. This stage adaptation of Joseph Heller’s incendiary 1961 Novel was crafted by Heller himself back in 1971, but couldn’t be needed more in Trump’s America. With its bizarre blend of farce, wry jibes, and Keystone Cops silliness amidst a whirlwind of death, destruction, and betrayal, this smirkingly ironic World War II tale offers audiences a beautiful way to laugh and cry at the evils of our world all at once.

This rendition is sponsored by the Western New York Peace Center and is directed by Subversive Theatre’s Founder and Artistic Director Kurt Schneiderman*. Up and coming young star Connor Maxwell heads up the cast as the Kafka-esque anti-hero “Yossarian” opposite Jack Agugliaro* as “the Chaplain”, Jacob Chester Sauer* as “Major Major”, Lawrence Rowswell* as “Doc Daneeka”, John Kehoe as “Colonel Cathcart”, and Leon Copeland, Jr* as “Milo Minderbinder.” The ensemble also features J. Tim Raymond*, Mikyla Fisher, Shakora Purks, Jessie Miller, Bryan Figueroa*, Andrew Zuccari, Leonardo LiPomi, and Michael Mottern*.

CATCH-22 runs September 6th – 28th with performances Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30pm. Tickets are $30 general admission or $25 for students, seniors, and Subversive Theatre members. As always, admission for all Thursday shows is pay-what-you-can. Purchase tickets online at www.subversivetheatre.org or call 716-462-5549. Where else but at… SUBVERSIVE THEATRE: where DISSENT takes center stage!

Resist Militarism! Joint Meetings with Veterans For Peace #128, are 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 5-6:30pm at At Isaías González-Soto Branch Library (formerly Niagara Branch Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201).

(Future dates unless otherwise stated: 8/21, 9/18, 10/16, 11/20, 12/18.)

___________

Stand Up for Global Peace

The world is facing a 25-year peak in violent conflict. It is the main cause of human suffering today – trapping millions of civilians in conflict and uprooting 66 million people from their homes. According to the Institute for Economics and Peace, violence containment costs the world $14.3 trillion each year. There must be another way.

Over the past two years, a coalition of peacebuilding, humanitarian, and faith-based organizations have drafted a bill that would address the root causes of violence and fragility. The resulting legislation has been introduced in both the House and Senate as the Global Fragility Act (H.R. 1580/S.727). This bill would require the U.S. government – in collaboration with civil society – to develop a 10 year strategy to enhance stability and to reduce violence and fragility around the world.

We know that too much foreign assistance and Pentagon spending is spent on treating the symptoms of violence instead of its causes. By passing this law, the U.S. will be able to more effectively prevent violence around the world and reduce its enormous cost on families.

Today, hundreds of faith advocates will lift up the Global Fragility Act as part of their lobby day ask for the annual Ecumenical Advocacy Days. It is important for YOU to add your voice as well. Together, we CAN build a more Just and Peaceful World for All! Take action today to support the Global Fragility Act of 2019! https://p2a.co/Mc4rH0c

For more information: Global Fragility Act

____________

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 athttps://www.kingsbayplowshares7.org/. Also https://www.facebook.com/Kingsbayplowshares/.

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 our Senators and Congresspersons to urge them to make sure that the final version of the National Defense Authorization Act includes the amendments passed by the House to . . .

repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002.

prohibit military force in or against Iran.

support an end to the Korean War.

prohibit support to and participation in the war on Yemen.

prohibit the sale of air-to-ground munitions, used in the conflict in Yemen, to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

prohibit funds from the Special Defense Acquisition Fund to aid Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates if such assistance could be used to conduct or continue hostilities in Yemen.

prohibit funding the transfer of weapons to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates under the emergency authority of the Arms Export Control Act.

prohibit funding for missiles noncompliant with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

support extending the New START Treaty, and prohibit the use of funds to withdraw from New START.

require that the U.S. military provide Congress with the cost and the national security benefits of every foreign military base or foreign military operation.

require the EPA to designate all PFAS (chemicals with which military bases poison ground water) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act.

require the EPA to revise the list of toxic pollutants under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to include PFAS.

prohibit DoD funding to house any foreign nationals who are in the custody of and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

study potential cost savings with respect to the nuclear security enterprise and force structure.

study cost increases for the W80-4 nuclear warhead life extension program and prevent $185 million from being obligated or expended until the study is completed.

prohibit the use of funds for an exhibition or parade of military forces and hardware.

prohibit the use of funds from being obligated or expended at properties owned by the President or that bear his name.

amend the current statutory prohibition on members of Congress contracting with the federal government to include the President, Vice President, and any Cabinet member.

codify a Department of Defense policy to report to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System service members who are prohibited from purchasing firearms.

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

——————

#Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver

***********

More listings on calendar 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 delays!)

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

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

And remember to tune in: DEMOCRACY NOW! IS NOW BEING BROADCASTMONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. Hear it over the radio or streaming live at wbny.buffalostate.edu.

***********

Si, se puede! We shall overcome. #UnitetheStruggles

Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.