ECHC Vigil Tomorrow. & Get Nov 8 Dinner Tickets Now!
716-332-3904
10/15/19
wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
Once again, it’s all hands on deck to vigil and protest at the Erie County Holding Center (ECHC) on Wednesday
at 4-6pm (in front of the ECHC, on Delaware between Church & Eagle). There
was yet another death at the ECHC – 4 under the Sheriff’s watch in 4 months.
Outrageous and heartbreaking. Please bring signs – and determination for real
change to systemic violence and abysmal neglect!
Also, our 52nd Annual Dinner is only three (yes! 3)
weeks away! Please get your tickets (easy to order on the website
– including 3 menu options). Medea
Benjamin of CodePink will be energizing as always on the topic: No Green New
Deal Without Peace; Growing Our Peace Through Justice Economy. We are also
looking forward to hearing WNY Resistance Revival Chorus sing and get the
Alt-imate Activist Award; and to giving Valentino Dixon the Emerging Leaders
Award! As most of you know, Valentino was just released when exonerated after
27 years of outrageous, unjust incarceration. Dinner tickets are available on
our website!
So it’s also all hands on deck to support your WNY Peace Center. We do need the
funds to continue organizing and offering vital services to the community. Please
donate items for the basket raffle and silent auction! Or put an ad or message
in the dinner program book. Please contact us at info@wnypeace.org, and/or call the office
716-332-3904.
Please join our Friends of Democracy
Now! campaign. To keep it on WBNY, we must raise funds. Please contribute to WNYPC – online or with a check sent (and made
out) to WNY Peace Center, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo, NY 14209, and write in
the memo line: Friends of Democracy Now! (or in a note with the online
submission). Truth-telling is needed, and Democracy Now! is the one to do it!
And of course, tune in to DEMOCRACY NOW!
BROADCAST Live MONDAY-FRIDAY, 8AM-9AM (LIVE) ON WBNY 91.3FM. or streaming live
at wbny.buffalostate.edu.
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:
No
More Deaths! – Vigil at Erie Co Holding Center
Weds, Oct 16 @ 4:00 pm – 6 pm
Yet ANOTHER DEATH – 4 in 4 months! Sheriff Howard is (yet
another) elected official who needs to be impeached. Please join with the WNYPC’s Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce at this
regular Wednesday vigil at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware &
Church). Come
ahead – All are welcome. Grieving families will be joining us, and people with
related lived experience are more than welcome! Please, too, bring signs.
Cosponsored by Voice Buffalo, Brothers Doing Better, Prisoners Are People Too, Buffalo
AntiRacism Coalition (BARC), and more.
POSTPONED: Resist Militarism Taskforce Mtg
Originally schedule for October 16; now tba.
At Isaías González-Soto Branch
(formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201. Regular
monthly planning meeting (third Weds of the month). Working to end the
militarism at home and abroad. Re Iraqis, Kurds, Yemeni, more …. ground the
drones, end the wars. #Unite
WNYPC Annual Dinner Committee Mtg
Thurs, October 17 @ 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
At WNYPC, 1272 Delaware Ave, Buffalo
(entrance & pkg round back of building). Come out and help us plan and
publicize our 52nd Annual Dinner, with Medea Benjamin, CodePink, keynoting, and
awards to WNY Resistance Revival Chorus and Valentino Dixon. Items for silent
auction and basket raffle are also welcome!
‘More than a Word’: Film Screening & Discussion
October 17 @ 6:30 pm
At Burning
Books 420 Connecticut St, Buffalo. Film Screening of ‘More than a Word’ – a
film about Native American-based mascots, especially the Washington R_dskins,
and their impact on real-life attitudes, issues, and policies. “More Than a
Word” offers an inside look at these contentious issues through the campaign
and legal cases against the Washington R*skins, and traces how
racist terminology became embraced and beloved by sports teams and fans.
Facilitated by Pete Hill, All Our Relations Program Director at NACS.
Immediately following the screening discussion surrounding possible rally at
upcoming bills game versus the Washington team November 3rd.
Kings Bay Plowshares Trial (Brunswick, GA)
October 21 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
The trial for these wonderful and courageous,
loving activists, our friends Carmen Trotta, Clare Grady, Liz McAlister, Mark
Coville, Martha Henessey, Patrick O’Neil, and Steve Kelly will be in Brunswick,
GA, where they are each facing up to 25 years for their vital witness to
publicize the nuclear timebomb, threat, and usurping of resources. All are
welcome to come and support them during their trial. It will begin with jury
selection at 9 a.m. on Monday October 21 at the federal court house downtown.
For more info on their action, etc. just click here.
Great White Hoax: Screening & Discussion
October 24 @ 7:00 pm
At
Buffalo State, in Upton Hall 230 – Free Admission. The film is on Donald Trump
and the politics of race and class in America; featuring Tim Wise; called
“Timely and necessary” by Van Jones. The screening will be followed by a
discussion moderated by Professor Dorothea Braemer featuring Professor Mike
Niman and Community Activist and former Canisius College Professor Heron
Simmonds. Sponsored by Buffalo State’s Communications Dept; and its
Office of Equity and Campus Diversity, SURJ, and the WNY Peace Center.
Peace Coffeehouse: The Journey of Puerto Rico, a colony of the USA
October 28 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
At Canisius College – Science Hall
(convenient parking on Main near Delavan). Speaker Alberto O. Cappas (Poet,
Writer, Publisher, and Community Activist; Co-publisher of the Buffalo
Latino Village) on colonialism, Puerto Rico and the current political climate.
Sponsored by PeaceAction-Canisius, and www.lascwny.org/ and WNY Peace Center
http://wnypeace.org/ Free and open to the public.
52nd Annual Dinner with Medea Benjamin
November 8 @ 5:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Join us to celebrate our 52nd Annual Dinner,
with special guest, Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Medea Benjamin, the co-founder
of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights
group Global Exchange. She has been an advocate for social justice for more
than 40 years!
The event, Nov 8, 5-9pm
at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center, is not to be missed. Not only is
Medea and her perspective vital for people and the planet (more on Medea
directly below), but we will also be giving out two very important awards:
— The WNY Resistance Revival Chorus, a wonderfully committed &
progressively-minded women’s chorus, will be getting the Alt-imate
Activist Award (named for WNY Peace Center lifelong stalwart member, organizer,
and activist, Wayne Alt);
— Valentino Dixon will receive the
the Emerging Leaders Award! As most of you know, Valentino was just released
when exonerated after 27 years of outrageous, unjust incarceration.
http://wnypeace.org/wp/52nd-annual-dinner-with-madea-benjamin/
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.
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 4-6pm protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). Another Death! 4 in 4 months! The Sheriff’s Administration is a Public Health Emergency!! All are welcome. Please bring signs.
Resist Militarism! Taskforce – Postponed: regular monthly planning meeting third Weds of the month, now date tba. 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)
Riverside Salem Environmental Cottage & UCC/DC – Various progressive spiritual
activist and naturalist programs, Sundays, 4-6pm followed by a pot-luck. 3449
West River Road, Grand Island, NY 14072. This
week, film on racial issues.
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.
***********
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 Poor
People’s Campaign meets 2nd Mondays, 6pm at Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St.,
Buffalo, NY.
The UAW strike at General Motors is entering its third week, and workers on the
line need our support. After abruptly canceling workers’ health coverage when
the strike began, GM was pressured into reinstating it. Now we need to keep the
pressure on GM to reach a fair contract. GM pays its CEO Mary Barra $22 million
a year – 240 times their average worker –
and the company brought in $35 billion in North America in the last 3 years. It
can afford to meet workers’ demands for better pay and benefits and to keep
plants open.
Show your support at any of these Western New York picket locations:
Tonawanda Engine New York
2995 River Rd
Buffalo, NY 14207
Lockport Components
200 Upper Mountain Rd
Lockport, NY 14094
* 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.
______________
Two courageous activists were arrested for their work to prevent the
outrageously destructive DAPL pipeline. Check it out Here:
https://theintercept.com/2019/10/04/dakota-access-pipeline-sabotage/
______________
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! Please send your comments about it to the EPA BEFORE
SeeNorthern Access Pipeline Information for more
info.
*GENDER JUSTICE
(WNYPC)
Gender Justice Taskforce Mtg
October 28 @ 6:30 pm – 7:45 pm
At the Merriweather Library, 1324 Jefferson (at E Utica), Buffalo. Come out to discuss the Women’s March, intersectionality, and much more. All are welcome!
* 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
Peace
Coffeehouse: The Journey of Puerto Rico, a colony of the USA
October 28 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Speaker Alberto O. Cappas (Poet, Writer,
Publisher, and Community Activist. Co-publisher of the Buffalo Latino
Village) on colonialism, Puerto Rico and the current political climate. 7pm-9pm
Oct. 28, at Canisius College – Science Hall convenient parking on Main near
Delavan sponsored by Peace Action-Canisius, and www.lascwny.org/ and WNY Peace
Center http://wnypeace.org/ Free and open to the public
__________
Latin American Solidarity Committee website: http://www.lascwny.org/ Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/LASC-wny/143873822377380/
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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—
If you would like to provide much-needed help, go to weaving-for-justice.org
* PRISONERS’
RIGHTS
VIGIL Wednesdays 4-6pm – Too Many Deaths! Too much brutality! Weekly
protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All
are welcome. Malpractice and maltreatment under the current administration. Deaths
at Erie Co Holding Center now at least 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! Joint Meetings with Veterans For Peace #128, are 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 5-6:30pm. OCTOBER MTG POSTPONED, date and time tbd. 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-tbd, 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.
Their trial in Georgia will start on October 21 – all are welcome! Check out
the above websites for more info.
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.