Today: Racial Justice; Comm Celebration for Lives Lost; Mon: Kathy re Ymen
716-332-3904 716-931-3520 7/29/18
Dear Friends,
Here comes another busy week with lots of opportunities to work for justice and peace.
Please join us today at the Racial Justice Taskforce meeting 1-2:30pm, again at the WNYPC, 1272 Delaware Ave (entrance & pkg round back of bldg).
Also today, is Stop The Violence Coalition Memorial Celebration of Lives Lost to Homicide, Noon- 7pm. Please join us at MLK Park, Best & Fillmore Aves, for the 8th Annual of this event, free for all the community, family, and friends. Food and prizes, fun and laughter. Unification is the only way we can stop gun violence. Many thanks to and for Nona Holman, main organizer. (Donations welcome to help cover expenses).
And of course on Monday, Kathy Kelly, Co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, renown peace activist and Nobel Prize Nominee, will speak at Focusing on Yemen, July 30, 7pm at Burning Books, part of the Infringement Festival. Kathy gives both peoples stories as well as the facts, figures, and policy framework for a deeper understanding and commitment to action!
Many thanks to those who came out to #FocusOnYemen yesterday, and directly afterwards, to rally for justice in Iraq, followed by Women In Black’s regular nonviolence vigil. To continue working to stop our government’s militarism, violence, and war crimes, please join us Weds, Aug 1 at 5:30-7:30pm at the Niagara Porter Library to start a roundtable for increased collaboration on same.
Please note too that we are having the first of a regular weekly Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror – Thursday(s) at 5-6pm in front of ICE at Delaware & Chippewa Sts. Please bring signs.
Also Wednesday, at 6-7:30, there’ll also be a meeting of the Poor People’s Campaign –WNY, at 1199 SEIU Bldg, This critically important effort will #UnitetheStruggles and pursue #PowertothePolls for #PowertothePeople!!
Go to wnypeace.org to see our calendar for more details and events! as
well as the rest of this post on the home page.
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/.
#UniteTheStruggles #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver #LoveisLoveBUF
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
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EVENT LISTINGS
Racial Justice Taskforce Meeting
July 29 @ 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; attending Community Police District meetings (5 districts, monthly); petition to name new police headquarters for Officer Edward Obertean (killed working to stop the KKK almost 100 years ago!); our Better Policing Campaign; and ___ your suggestion here ____.
Stop The Violence Coalition Memorial Celebration of Lives Lost to Homicide
July 29 @ 12:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Please join us at MLK Park, Best & Fillmore Aves, for the 8th Annual of this event, free for all the community, family, and friends. Food and prizes, fun and laughter. Unification is the only way we can stop gun violence. Many thanks to and for Nona Holman, main organizer. (Donations welcome to help cover
Focusing on Yemen – with Kathy Kelly
July 30 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Infringement Festival. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St, Buffalo. Not a moment to waste to learn more and do more to stop the terrible humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Hearing Kathy Kelly on this outrageous situation, with her wealth of knowledge and experience on war and occupation, will inspire and inform
Roundtable for Immigrant-Refugee-Foreign Policy Justice
August 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
At Niagara Porter Public Library (at corner of Niagara Porter Sts). Come out to build on our current collaborations to unify and connect over our community needs, general and specific, on Immigrant, Refugee, and/or Foreign Policy justice issues. Organized by Iraqi American Society and the WNY Peace Center. All are welcome!!
Poor People’s Campaign Planning Meeting
August 1 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
At 1199SEIU, 2421 Main St #100, Buffalo, NY 14214. Join in on deciding what the next steps will be in our local branch of this National Campaign for Moral Revival. The Truth Commission; the report on same; the 40 Days of Action; and the Celebration For Change have been a wonderful start to this massive
Traditional Teachings of the Good Mind
August 1 @ 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm
A cultural competency training hosted by the “All Our Relations” Project. At NACS’ Niagara Falls office, 1522 Main St Niagara Falls NY 14305. Presented by Michael N. Martin (Onondaga, Beaver Clan) Executive Director, Native American Community Services. Free training session (repeat of July 11 session), but please pre-register: please contact Pete Hill, “All Our Relations” P_hillsy@yahoo.com.
Vigil for Victims of ICE Terror
August 2 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Join the WNY Peace Center in a vigil outside the ICE building on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa. Bring your signs and spirit of Solidarity. We will not stay silent! #EndICETerror #FamiliesBelongTogether #AbolishICE
Indigenous Peoples Day
August 9 @ 2:00 pm – 8:30 pm
At Buffalo History Museum. With special speakers, music, interfaith lantern ceremony and more, all working for a nuclear-free future.
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TASKFORCES
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EDUCATION & HUMAN RIGHTS TASKFORCE
CAMP PEACEPRINTS 2018, “The Language of Peace”
Many thanks to participants, volunteers, and supporters of 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, had its best year yet, providing exposure to a diverse community while introducing and exploring communication, social justice issues, peaceful conflict resolution; also with swimming (4x), great field trips (2x), and learning signing. Special thanks to St. Mary’s School for the Deaf.
Indigenous Peoples Day
August 9 @ 2:00 pm – 8:30 pm
At Buffalo History Museum. With special speakers, music, interfaith lantern ceremony and more, all working for a nuclear-free future.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
No Nuclear Waste over the Peace Bridge
July 27 @ 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.
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Note: Save the Date – Sept 8 for a big Climate Justice Event!!
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Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/
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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
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IMMIGRANT & REFUGEE JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Roundtable for Immigrant-Refugee-Foreign Policy Justice
August 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
At Niagara Porter Public Library (at corner of Niagara Porter Sts). Come out to build on our current collaborations to unify and connect over our community needs, general and specific, on Immigrant, Refugee, and/or Foreign Policy justice issues. Organized by Iraqi American Society and the WNY Peace Center. All are welcome!!
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
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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.
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LATIN AMERICAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE (LASC)
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
| 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 |
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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
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PRISONER’S RIGHTS TASKFORCE
Prisoners Are People Too Monthly Meeting; July 30 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm. At the Rafi Greene CAO Masten Resource Center, 1423 Fillmore Avenue @ Glenwood. Several local lawmakers will answer questions and dispel rumors about the voting process and the impact of your vote: Retired County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, County Legislator April Baskin, and City Councilmember Ulysess Wingo. PRP2 assistant, Danielle Johnson, will also speak briefly on her trip to Cuba.
Wednesdays 4-5pm 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
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RACIAL JUSTICE TASKFORCE
Racial Justice Taskforce Meeting
July 29 @ 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; attending Community Police District meetings (5 districts, monthly); petition to name new police headquarters for Officer Edward Obertean (killed working to stop the KKK almost 100 years ago!); our Better Policing Campaign; and ___ your suggestion here ____.
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
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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.
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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.
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RESIST MILITARISM! TASKFORCE
Focus on Yemen – with Kathy Kelly
July 30 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Infringement Festival. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St, Buffalo. Not a moment to waste to learn more and do more to stop the terrible humanitarian disaster in Yemen. Hearing Kathy Kelly on this outrageous situation, with her wealth of knowledge and experience on war and occupation, will inspire and inform
Roundtable for Immigrant-Refugee-Foreign Policy Justice
August 1 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
At Niagara Porter Public Library (at corner of Niagara Porter Sts). Come out to build on our current collaborations to unify and connect over our community needs, general and specific, on Immigrant, Refugee, and/or Foreign Policy justice issues. Organized by Iraqi American Society and the WNY Peace Center. All are welcome!!
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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.
If you’d prefer to send an email to your senators, you can do so here.
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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.
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REGULARLY SCHEDULED EVENTS in the One Movement, One Struggle
Riverside-Salem UCC/DC Sunday. No program on July 29- all encouraged to go to Paddles Up Festival at Beaver Island State Park.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu or http://tunein.com/radio/WBNY-913-s27549/. Hosts Jim Anderson and Vicki Ross with guest Kathy Kelly and more. Also call-ins including ____ your name here____.
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 4-5:30pm* protest/vigils at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). All are welcome. Please bring signs. *new extended endtime 5:30pm.
Interfaith Peace Network
Next meeting 9:15am, Thurs, Aug 2, at NRC, 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. Sign welcome and also usually available.
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 😉 Special gathering starting at 11am to honor and celebrate Iris Alexander.
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More listings on website (wnypeace.org) and in previous email posts.
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Many thanks, peace, solidarity, and yes – Love. We shall overcome!!