716-332-3904 12/11/19 wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
We had a great victory when the Erie Co Legislature did not give Sheriff Howard a full-time SWAT team but rather provided funds for more addictions counseling at the Erie Co Holding Center! Many thanks to the Legislature, our allies at SURJ, and all who’ve worked on these associated issues.
Please join us for a special vigil outside the Holding Center this coming Weds, 12/18, when Voice Buffalo and SURJ will come out and join us for a Radical Love Holiday Candle vigil at the usual 4-5:30 time frame in front of the Holding Center, remembering the many lives lost there, the shared suffering, and the determination to change all that! Again, please do call Gov Cuomo (518-474-8390) and urge him to recall Sheriff Howard for his terrible performance of his duties.
Also please note that at 5pm on the eve of whatever day the Impeachment Vote will occur, we’ll gather with friends and allies at Bidwell & Elmwood to stand up for the rule of law! Please dress warmly, join us, and remember that our love, courage, and persistent determination will keep us warm! And we shall prevail! Signs welcome.
Here are a couple more things for your consideration:
– The Women’s March WNY is being planned for Sunday, January 19, as part of a Weekend of Action (with Women’s March DC and the Celebration of Rev Dr Martin Luther King weekend). Women community members and leaders are invited to come out to a planning meeting tomorrow Thursday, 12/12, 6pm at the WNYPC/NRC Bldg. (Snack-sharing welcome too!);
– Riverside Salem is holding Christmas in the Woods with Nan Hoffman and Friends, for a sing-along, pot-luck, and general holiday gathering on Sunday at 4-7pm, 3449 West River Road, Grand Island;
– We’ll celebrate and learn too at the LASC Party at El Buen Amigo, 114 Elmwood (btween North & Allen Sts), 7-9pm – another potluck with updates from Mexico by Tom Potts. All are welcome!
– Rally to Demand that Cuomo signs the SWEAT Bill to protect workers from wage theft by their employers will be held on Tues, 12/17, 12-1:30pm at Lafayette Sq, Buffalo;
– The “To Suspend or Not to Suspend” event organized by the WNYPC Education & Human Rights Taskforce with CAO will be held at Northland Workforce Training Center, Tues, 12/17 at 5:30-7:30pm.
716-332-3904 12/2/19 wnypeace.org
Dear Friends,
Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday! Please support the Western New York Peace
Center – any day, and especially this Giving Tuesday – to help enable us
to do even more organizing, collaborating, and energizing as we #Unite in
#OneLove. Support our youth PeaceJams, marches, rallies, vigils, lobbying
efforts, and campaigns.
Please remember to support our Friends of Democracy Now! in Buffalo
campaign. Democracy Now! gives vital news, and we need donations to help
keep it on WBNY. Please contribute via the 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! in Buffalo
(or in a note in the online submission).
Of course, your donations – for Democracy Now! or for the WNYPC itself –
are fully tax-deductible.
Just fyi, if you haven’t already seen it, the WNY Peace Center was
appointed one of the 3 community groups to nominate a representative to
the new Corrections Advisory Board. Congrats to Heron Simmonds, our
representative to the Board; to April Baskin, Co Leg Chair who led the
initiative; and to the legislators who voted it in. Please also call your
County Legislator (see wnypeace.org/getInvolved/govtContacts) and urge
them not to approve an increase in funding for the Sheriff’s Department.
They have not yet used their funds for decent medical and mental health
care. You can also use what SURJ organized at the bottom of this email.
Many thanks to SURJ and all!
Please make a special point of going Weds, 12/4, to No More Deaths and
Maltreatment, Erie County Holding Center Vigil, 4-5:30pm, Delaware btwn
Church & Eagle. We are hoping to make our point even “pointy-er” re the
lethal mismanagement by the Sheriff’s Department. Also please do call Gov
Cuomo (518-474-8390) and urge him to recall Sheriff Howard for his
terrible performance of his duties.
This week also sees:
– Tuesday, 12/3, Former Death Row Inmate and Exonoree Anthony Ray Hinton,
7pm (doors open 6:30pm), Montante Center.
– Thurs, 12/5, Environmental Justice Taskforce Mtg, 6-7:30pm, At Isaías
González-Soto Branch Library (formerly Niagara Branch), 280 Porter Ave,
Buffalo NY.
Read below (especially regularly scheduled events) and/or on our website
at wnypeace.org for more info.
We are excited to have a new WNY Peace Center – Buff State Chapter
brewing! Welcome, student organizer Toby Brisson, and many thanks, faculty
advisor Prof. Mike Niman, author and commentator extraordinaire!
If you haven’t already, please sign the WNY Youth Climate Council’s
petition to Buffalo Common Council to declare a Climate Emergency! Please
Sign Now
(if link doesn’t come through, you can go to our website wnypeace.org,
select Get Involved; and it’ll be immediately under Current Campaigns!)
As always, more below, and lots more at wnypeace.org, and on our facebook
page, twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (wnypeace)!
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and yes Love.
#Unite! #OneLove
————————————-
Events this week:
“Surviving Criminal Justice in America,” – Anthony Ray Hinton
December 3 @ 7:00 pm
At the Montante Center at Canisius College. Death Row Survivor and NYTimes
Best-Selling Author, Anthony Ray Hinton speaks. Doors open at 6:30pm.
Signed copies of Anthony Ray Hinton’s book The Sun Does Shine: How I Found
Life, Freedom, and Justice will be available for sale. Free and open to
the public • Parking available in the Science Hall Parking Ramp For more
information, call the Office of College Communications at 716-888-2790.
Environmental Justice Taskforce Mtg
December 5 @ 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
At Isaías González-Soto Branch Library (formerly Niagara Branch), 280
Porter Ave, Buffalo NY *Hazardous Materials Transportation and Citizen
Science: Shipping by Rail; by Michael Ziolkowski. Associate Professor
of International Business, Brockport State University of New
York.Formerly, Michael worked in Logistics for Ingram Micro, Inc; and
*Overview of Our Four 24-hour-long Trainspotting Efforts in 2019, by
Charley Bowman, Chair, Environmental Justice Taskforce of the WNY Peace
Center.
Saturday Academies at Lafayette Community School
December 7 and 14 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Free activities for the whole community! Join the WNY Peace Center for a
Peace Jam (from 10am). Includes free breakfast and lunch.
Celebrate fair trade & justice with LASC at El Buen Amigo
December 16 @ 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
CELEBRATING FAIR TRADE & WORKING FOR JUSTICE WITH SOLIDARITY NEWS FROM
ACROSS ALL BORDERS 7-9 pm Monday, December 16 El Buen Amigo, 114 Elmwood
Ave. Music and Refreshments welcome El Buen Amigo (the Good Friend) opened
on Elmwood in 1989 as part of the Latin American Cultural Association.
They deal directly with crafts people, cooperatives and small family
businesses, and returns profits to the artists and their communities.
Everyone welcome to our party. With reports on Chiapas and political
developments in Mexico from Tom Potts and Bill Jungels, and other
solidarity news.
www.elbuenamigo.org WNY Peace Center: www.wnypeace.org
& its taskforce, the Latin American Solidarity Committee: www.lascwny.org
Resist Militarism! Taskforce Mtg
December 18 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
At Isaías González-Soto Branch Library (formerly Niagara Branch), 280
Porter Ave, Buffalo NY. Discuss, among other things, a possible spring
action at the NF Air Force base in response to the “Warheads on foreheads”
article in the Buffalo News this fall (focus on making action plans more
concrete).
***********
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. On 12/9, special Human Rights program
with Andrea O’Suillibain, Director, Partnership for the Public Good, to
celebrate 12/10 UN Human Rights Day.
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 – NO MORE Deaths! Vigil/protest Wednesdays
4-5:30pm at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). Another
Death! 4 in 2 ½ months! The Sheriff’s Administration is a Public Health
Emergency!! All are welcome. Please bring signs.
Resist Militarism! Taskforce – Regular monthly planning meeting third Weds
of the month, Nov 20; 5-6:30pm. at Isaías González-Soto Branch (formerly
Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201.
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.
End ICE Terror – Thursdays, 5-6pm, vigil in front of the 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!
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.
Of note: Little Africa Culture Club, 356 S. Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY.
African Drumming Sundays, 12-2pm.
We shall overcome #Unitethestruggles #Loveislove #PowerWITH-NOTPowerOver
***********
From SURJ, a WNYPC ally:
