Today, the Great Law; Tomorrow & Cont. for a Culture of Peace
716-332-3904 7/23/19 wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow, please join Camp Peaceprints for our Families Belong Together Rally, July 24 @ 10:30 am – 10:45 am, in Niagara Square. Children will be making their own signs in camp – and you can bring your own, too. Or just join us for the children’s experiencing activism first-hand! #FamiliesBelongTogether #UniteTheStruggles
Also tomorrow St. Joseph University Parish, 3269 Main St, (Wednesday, July 24 at 7pm) is also gathering to support refugees: holding an Interfaith Service to shine a light on the inhumane treatment of migrants, refugee, and asylum seekers. People of all faiths are invited to join together to educate, pray, and act. We refuse to be silent any longer.
Continue to support the Move the Nuclear Weapons Money campaign. It is a global campaign which highlights actions that individuals and organizations can take to cut nuclear weapons budgets, end investments (by their city, university, religious institution, bank, pension fund or government) in nuclear weapons, and shift these budgets and investments to peace and sustainability. To endorse the campaign, please send your supporting quote plus a photo of
yourself to Move the Nuclear Weapons Money <info@nuclearweaponsmoney.org?subject=Endorsing%20quote%20for%20Move%20the%20Nuclear%20Weapons%20Money%20campaign>*. We will turn your quote into a meme for social media use.
Join us July 29th at 7 pm for a night of poetry on peace, war, and justice with Speaking Verse to Power at Burning Books. Poets will read on peace, war, and justice at this event, organized by the WNY Peace Center and Veterans for Peace #128, as part of the Infringement Festival.
On July 30th at 5:30 pm with will be a Buffalo Police Advisory Board public meeting at the Frank E. Merriweather Jr Library. Come out to voice your thoughts and concerns about policing, meet with police leadership, and help develop solutions.
Continue your support of the petition to cosponsor S.1039, the Prevention of Unconstitutional War with Iran Act of 2019. The bill prohibits the U.S. from expending funds for war with Iran without express approval from Congress, as required by Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. War or military action against Iran would result in the killings of large numbers of civilians, include a high financial bearing and subject the United States to international condemnation. A war with Iran would be devastating. This is not a conflict we can afford to begin. Sign the petition here: https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/letters/sign-and-send-a-petition-cosponsor-the-prevention-of-unconstitutional-war-with-iran-act-of-2019-s1039?detail=emailaction&link_id=0&can_id=b680b13b07403c67bb89e5c4e2420e97&source=email-sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-us-senators-dont-fund-trumps-war-with-iran&email_referrer=email_579032&email_subject=sign-and-send-a-petition-to-your-us-senators-dont-fund-trumps-war-with-iran
Also join us for A Taste of Cuba Summer BBQ on August 18th at 1:30 pm, at the Fort Erie NPC Pavilion. Enjoy a family social afternoon of Cuban music, dancing, and solidarity. There will be live music and door prizes! Bring a lawn chair! Joining us will be special guests Josefina Vidal, who is Cuba’s ambassador, as well as the Consul General Tania Lopez Larroque and their team.
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
Events this week:
Adult Volunteers Welcome at Camp Peaceprints
MF July 15 @ 10:00 am – July 26 @ 3:00 pm
CAMP PEACEPRINTS is a summer camp designed to introduce youth to social justice, while providing them with peaceful conflict resolution skills and exposure to a broader community. It is a two-week long alternative education program for participants ages 8 – 13, with older youth serving as Youth Assistants, running Monday through Friday, 10am – 3pm. CAMP IS FULL – but adult and older teen youth assistants are welcome, especially to help transport children to swimming 12:30-2:30, Tues & Fri. Please call 716-931-3520.
Camp Peaceprints Rally – #FamiliesBelongTogether #UniteTheStruggles
July 24 @ 10:30 am – 10:45 am
Niagara Square
Join Camp Peaceprints in Niagara Square for a rally to support immigrants and refugees, as well as to point out how all of our issues – and solutions – are connected. Signs are encouraged!
Come, sing movement songs!
July 25 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Thursday, July 25, 2019 at 6 PM – 7:30 PM at Raqs Solidarity – A Community Space 322 Amherst Street, Buffalo, New York 14207 https://www.facebook.com/raqs322/ Join us singing movement songs with the Poor People’s Campaign, the Civil Rights Movement, the Disability Rights Movement, the Union Movement, and the Women’s’ Rights Union along with others.
Speaking Verse to Power: Poems on Peace, War, & Justice
July 29 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Poets will read on peace, war, and justice at this event, organized by the WNY Peace Center and Veterans for Peace #128, as part of the Infringement Festival. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut St.
Buffalo Police Advisory Bd Public Mtg
July 30 @ 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
At the Frank E. Merriweather Jr Library, 1324 Jefferson Ave, Buffalo, NY 14208 (Jefferson @East Utica). Come out to voice your thoughts and concerns about policing, meet with police leadership, and help develop solutions.
A Taste of Cuba Summer BBQ
August 18 @ 1:30 pm – 5:00 pm
Fort Erie NPC Pavilion
Enjoy a family social afternoon of Cuban music, dancing and solidarity. Bring a lawn chair!
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
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More listings on calendar and in previous email posts.
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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.
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Below are
– more event listings (see also calendar & facebook page);
– Taskforce items and campaigns; and
– regularly scheduled events – all in that order.
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COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
* ECONOMIC JUSTICE
The WNY PPC meets 2nd Mondays, 6pm at Raqs Solidarity, 322 Amherst St., Buffalo, NY.
Upcoming Events:
Visit us on facebook to stay up to date on events. https://www.facebook.com/wnypoorpeoplescmpgn
Please continue to support the Poor People’s Campaign. The Poor People’s Campaign confronts the four evils of poverty, racism, militarism, and ecological devastation, as well as the distorted moral narrative of this country. 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.
Other Economic Justice information: Community members are looking for your support for the Securing Wages Earned Against Theft (SWEAT) bill– A486/S2844! The ask: to call legislators to say you support the SWEAT bill, bill number A486/S2844.Right now, when workers win wage theft cases in court, it is legal for employers to hide their assets so that the workers can’t collect. For example, check out this front-page article about a worker who is owed over $300k but can’t collect a dime. The SWEAT bill would allow workers to freeze their bosses’ assets at the start of a wage theft case, so that if they win in court, they can collect the money they are owed. Visit sweatnys.org for more information.
* 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.
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Action Alert re Stone Dam Road Pipeline: go to wnypeace.org/environmental-justice/
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The CCPA was passed!
– 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
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The GreenLight NY program was passed!
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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
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
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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!
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
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. Please bring signs.
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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.
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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! Meetings are 3rd Wednesdays of the month, 5-6:30pm at Niagara Porter Library (at the corner of Niagara & Porter Sts);
(Future dates unless otherwise stated: 7/17, 8/21, 9/18, 10/16, 11/20, 12/18.)
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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
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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 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
– 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.
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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. All are welcome.
Talking Peace with the WNY Peace Center Radio Show on 91.3FM, WBNY. Mondays, 1-4pm. Call-in show! Go to wbny.buffalostate.edu.
Buffalo Nekanesakt. Indigenous support group/allies. Tuesdays, 6:30-8pm. At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Ave. All are welcome!! Today, our reading group for the Great Law of Peace starts.
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 Niagara Porter Library, 5-6:30pm. Will include update re Speaking Verse to Power (Infringement Festival event July 29, 7-9pm at Burning Books), and more.
Interfaith Peace Network, August 8 (ltd summer sched), 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
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: West African Drumming Sundays, 12-2pm, Little Africa Culture Club, 356 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
#Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
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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 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.
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Si, se puede! We shall overcome. #UnitetheStruggles
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.