KC AFSC Peace and Justice Alert – February 27 2014 Educate Yourself
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
KC AFSC Peace and Justice Alert – February 27 2014 Educate Yourself. Share your knowledge. Take Action! For information about the American Friends Service Committee, contact us at 816931-5256 or [email protected] Donate Now Click this link above to make a donation to support the work of the Kansas City Program of American Friends Service Committee --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The likelihood that your acts of resistance cannot stop the injustice does not exempt you from acting in what you sincerely and reflectively hold to be the best interests of your community.” ~Susan Sontag Send this link to others so they can subscribe to this weekly Peace & Justice E- newsletter. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoken word training session with KC Academy and GreenWorks --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Peacemakers, We had a great spoken word session with GreenWorks youth this week and are continuing to schedule sessions with school and youth groups. We are looking forward to the March 22 workshop and the spoken word performance that will follow. We listened to a community leader this week from the Samuel Rogers Health Center. She shared with us their experience caring for the poorest of the poor and the recognition that provision of health care and work to promote healthy behaviors is not enough. Health researchers believe that genes, biology, and health behaviors together account for about 25% of population health; medical care accounts for about 20%; and social determinants of health-things like: early childhood development; How much education a person obtains; employment; food security; access to health services; housing status; income; and discrimination and social support. Each listening session is fascinating building and reinforcing the case that we need to invest in people and our community. We can use your help to participate in listening sessions, suggest leaders we should speak with and help plan forums, media and lobby visits and campaigns and other actions. Contact us to volunteer to help with listening sessions, we’ll provide a little training and partner you with an experienced listener. And join us at our next Move the Money Campaign Meeting, to be scheduled. See below for these activities, other calendar events, and articles, alerts and more. Thanks for all of your work for our community. Sincerely, Ira Harritt KC Program Coordinator American Friends Service Committee 816 931-5256, [email protected] Check out these events below: February 28, Friday, 7:00- 9:00pm, The Interrupters Film Screening of acclaimed documentary on Chicago’s Cure Violence Program At Linwood YMCA, 3800 E. Linwood Blvd., KCMO Hosted by Aim4Peace March 3, 5:30pm, Move the Money / Listening Project Planning Meeting, at AFSC office, 4405 Gillham Rd., KCMO March 4,Tuesday, 6:30PM, Speaker on Death Penalty: Billy Moore, March 9, 2:00-4:00pm, PeaceWorksKC Annual Meeting March 22, 9:30am – 5:00pm, If I Could Change The World Spoken Word Workshop for High School-aged youth. At AFSC office, 4405 Gillham Rd., KCMO April 2, 7:00pm and April 3, 6:000pm, The NonViolent Life Book Tour, Pace e Bene’s John Dear, tells us we can be at peace with ourselves and create peace in our world, beginning in KC. Both nights are held at Community Christian Church, 4601 Main, KCMO. April 5, Saturday, 4:00 to 6:00pm, Kickoff Spoken Word Performance: If I Could Change the World Spoken Word Project at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Ave, KCMO. Articles and Alerts Low Wage Workers are Paving the Way to Democracy The Mayor Who Brought an Economic Democracy Vision to Mississippi by John Nichols National Endowment for Democracy: A Tool of US Empire in Venezuela by Kim Scipes America vs. the World by Margaret Kimberley See full alert for complete calendar of events Upcoming Peace and Justice Activities Click on link or scroll down for more information about the peace and justice activity February 28, Friday, 7:00- 9:00pm, The Interrupters Film Screening of this critically acclaimed documentary on Chicago’s Cure Violence Program as they take on the inner-city with their approach to violence prevention and conflict resolution. Event will include a community discussion on violence prevention in KC Urban Core. At Linwood YMCA, 3800 E. Linwood Blvd., KCMO Hosted by Aim4Peace March 3, 5:30pm, Move the Money / Listening Project Planning Meeting. Help plan and implement a listening project on the impact of budget cutting on our community and raising up budget priorities that invest in people and our community. At AFSC office, 4405 Gillham Rd., KCMO March 4,Tuesday, 6:30PM, Speaker on Death Penalty: Billy Moore, who spent time on death row in Georgia, and whose sentence was commuted to life after the victim's family members advocated for him not to be executed. at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 4501 Walnut, KCMO. March 9, 2:00-4:00pm, PeaceWorksKC Annual Meeting. Hear about the ongoing work of this active peace organization and the Peace Award recipients. Simpson House, 4509 Walnut, KCMO April 2, 7:00pm and April 3, 6:000pm, The NonViolent Life Book Tour, Pace e Bene’s John Dear, tells us we can be at peace with ourselves and create peace in our world, beginning in KC. He talks & signs/sells his book 4/2 at 7 pm and then, on 4/3 at 6 pm, folks wanting to take a step for peace and understanding will gather for food, table talk, a panel, & plans for community-building. Both nights are held at Community Christian Church, 4601 Main, KCMO. April 5, Saturday, 4:00 to 6:00pm, Kickoff Spoken Word Performance: If I Could Change the World Spoken Word Project at The Writers Place, 3607 Pennsylvania Ave, KCMO. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EVERY Tuesday, JOIN THIS Peace Demonstration between 5PM - 6 PM in the median strip on the south corner of the intersection at 63rd & Ward Parkway, Kansas City, Mo. For more information email '63rd Street Patriots' at [email protected] Weekly Wednesday, Noon, Jericho Walk for Immigrant Rights gather outside KansasCity Immigration Court, 2345 Grand Blvd., KCMO Info at http://www.ijamkc.org/ Every Sundays, 3:00pm, Weekly Letters to Prisoners Kansas City, Every Sunday from 3pm until we're tired (we promise to stay at least until 4pm)! Informal gathering to write letters to prisoners... Writing assistance, supplies and stamps provided. We can provide you with a pen pal, you can write one-time notes of solidarity, letters to complain to prison officials are always appreciated, or write to people you already know. Pancho's Mexican Food, 3540 Main St., fKCMO. Organized by Greater Kansas City IWW General Defense Committee Local 15 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- News and Alerts --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on Monday, February 24, 2014 by GRITtv Low Wage Workers are Paving the Way to Democracy Bill de Blasio campaigned on ushering in a new era in New York City and actively pursued low-wage voters. Now that he is Mayor, what can the people who elected him do to influence what happens next? It is a question grassroots groups grapple with around the country. On GRITtv this week, Ana María Archila shares a few ideas. Archila was a founder of one of the most effective community groups in New York; now she's heading up a regional initiative that seeks to build popular democracy, not only at the ballot box, but in between elections. Video> http://www.commondreams.org/video/2014/02/24 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Published on Wednesday, February 26, 2014 by The Nation The Mayor Who Brought an Economic Democracy Vision to Mississippi by John Nichols Chokwe Lumumba maintained a civil rights commitment that was rooted in the moment when his mother showed her eight-year-old son the Jet magazine photograph of a beaten Emmett Till in his open casket. The commitment was nurtured on the streets of Detroit, where Lumumba and his mother collected money to support the Southern Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the civil rights struggles of the early 1960s. Half a century later, he would be the transformational mayor of a major southern city, Jackson, Mississippi. But just as his tenure was taking shape, Lumumba died unexpectedly Tuesday at age 66. The mayor's death ended an epic journey that challenged conventions, upset the status quo and proved the potential of electoral politics to initiate radical change -- even in a conservative southern state. As a young man, inspired by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr’s struggle to address "infectious discrimination, racism and apartheid," and shocked into a deeper activism by King’s assassination, Lumumba changed his name from Edwin Taliaferro—taking his new first name from an African tribe that had resisted slavery and his new last name from the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba. Chokwe Lumumba became a human rights lawyer “defending political prisoners people who are being