We have made it through our first full week of “social”/physical distancing. We hope you are all getting through this challenging and uncertain time as well as can be. At the end of this email you will find a list of resources, from health tips to unemployment to how to help vulnerable populations. There is a long road ahead, but the social distance doesn’t mean an end to social justice work and collective action. You are needed now more than ever.
In answer to the question many of you may have had regarding our weekly vigils, three of four – Environmental Justice at the Peace Bridge; Prisoners’ Rights at the Erie County Holding Center; Women in Black at Elmwood & Bidwell – are each currently on autopilot. This means that they have been shifted to be individual activities; so if you join and others are participating, please keep enough distance between you so that it’s clear you are not part of a group. And remember to bring your signs! The Immigrant & Refugee Justice vigil at Delaware North (home of the ICE Buffalo field office) is on hiatus due to the public health emergency. We will continue to share information in our IRJ taskforce FB Group on how to stay involved digitally.
Moreover, Crisis~=Opportunity! Please check out Naomi Klein and Joseph Stieglitz on Democracy Now!’s 3/19/20 edition. You may also be interested in celebrating Now Ruz, Afghanistan’s New Year’s and its biggest holiday of the year, if you’re up at 12:30am this Sunday morning, with the Afghan Peace Volunteers. Their extended war-zone experience can help guide us now! See livestream link and more info below.
We also offer you more information on continued activism that you can get involved with from the comfort and safety of your homes. This should include reminding those friends and family members who are unplugged about the upcoming Census, which can be completed by mail, phone, and online. STAY COUNTED – AND SPREAD THE WORD!
the secret to effective nonviolent resistance.
Please see much more below, including great online events this week, and more at wnypeace.org, on our Facebook page, Twitter (@wnypeace), and Instagram (@wnypeace)!
Peace, thanks, solidarity and yes – love.
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3
Here’s a summary (with more details on various items directly below):
Beinginformed, getting involved, and taking action on issues that affect Buffalo Niagara by making your voice heard to government and media. https://ppgbuffalo.org/action/overview/
Peace and Diplomacy Lobbying – demanding peace, diplomacy, and sane domestic and foreign policies from your Senators and/or House Representatives. https://www.panys.org/current-actions/
#DemandJustice #HousingJustice – holding District Attorneys across New York accountable to ending mass incarceration, plus fighting against tenant abuse, homelessness, environmental violence, and racist housing policies. https://citizenactionny.org/
Let My People Go – supporting the campaign to free our immigrant and refugee neighbors from detention facilities during the current public health crisis. https://nyimmigrantfreedom.org/let-my-people-go/
Completing Census 2020 – The results of the 2020 Census will help determine how hundreds of blllions of dollars in federal funding flow into communities every year for the next decade That funding shapes many different aspects of every community, no matter the size, no matter the location. https://2020census.gov/en.html
Resources at Peace Action New York State (PANYS) that includes current legislation and co-sponsors, scheduled lobbying meetings, Town Halls in New York state – and most importantly – lobby packets and one-pagers that you can take to your Senators or House Representative. The only way to influence our Elected Representatives is to get their attention – through calls, letters, in-district meetings, and public events. Not sure who your Representatives are? Go to whoismyrepresentative.com to find out. Current issues include: Iran, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, Venezuela, Yemen, and Opposing Israel Anti-Boycott Act
#DemandJustice and #HousingJustice
Together with Citizen Action! New York, you can help in building two movements:
to hold District Attorneys across New York State accountable to end mass incarceration! Learn how to take action to ensure our District Attorneys full implement the new pretrial laws that were passed in 2019 to keep thousands of legally innocent New Yorkers out of jail while they await trial. Tell state legislators that you support the new pretrial laws that will keep thousands of legally innocent people out of jail, and to implement them without any changes.
fighting the NYS real estate industry which prioritizes profits over the safety and security of the 50% of our residents who are renters. Half the state’s tenants are unable to afford their rent, and over 90,000 people are in homeless situations on any given day. Support the campaign against tenant abuse, homelessness, environmental violence, and racist housing policies.
Keeping our balance, each of us …. Hoping you’re deep slow breathing, and not worrying too much, while taking needed precautions. Prayerfulness, keeping the Good Mind, maintaining our perspective (the big picture) while balancing it with the small (doing what we need to do and the wisdom to know what that is ? and yes making sure to have joy, beauty, and mindful care and compassion every day and every way we can. #OneLove
We’re in a strange place right now, as a whole. So we put this out to report on what we do know (e.g., all SUNY/CUNY schools – and many others, like Canisius and Daemen – going to online classes). We have suspended our own office hours until further notice. Many events are being postponed (Work2Win) or cancelled (World Conference 2020 in NYC before the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review). Some are not cancelled but are planning to move online (Women’s Issues & Solutions) or aren’t being promoted (67 Uprising). Check ours and other’s websites (we’ll keep you posted as well as we can, without too many emails!)
Do remember to keep washing your hands (see John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on Coronavirus), keeping your personal space ample – and boy, will we miss hugging!! And remember,
We have nothing to fear but fear itself (Franklin D Roosevelt), and what must be done can be done (Elinor Roosevelt). 😉
On that note, be sure to see “Defending Your Life” with Meryl Streep and Albert Brooks. It’s very much fun and on topic.
So with that in mind, we’ll give us all a little time to catch our breath while keeping solidarity and love in the Spirit, and plenty of space and care with the body.
More to follow… We’ll just keep taking it as it come, Together/Harambe!! Si, se puede/yes, we can …!
Peace, Thanks, Solidarity, and of course Love!
#CourageousCompassion
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
#Unite! #OneLove
Fair Fines & Fees; Harriet Tubman Parade & Cultural Programme
716-332-3904 2/14/2020
Dear Friends,
There are several events and opportunities for activism we’d like to highlight for you this week. First and foremost, the Fair Fines and Fees Coalition (FFFC) is collecting signatures for their current petition. Buffalo residents are welcome to sign this petition which aims to eliminate the thirteen new fines and fees that were passed by the city in 2018. It is wrong to fund the city’s budget on the backs of those who are too poor to pay! Why are we criminalizing poverty?? See our current campaigns page for more information. The link to the petition is below:
Next Saturday (3/7) a Harriet Tubman Parade and Cultural Programme is being held from 12-4pm. It will include a parade (which starts at Utica & Main), and a presentation at the Merriweather Library on Jefferson Ave from 2-4pm, with refreshments served. This free event will protest racism and poverty; and celebrate the life and legacy of Harriet Tubman. Don’t miss it!
Many thanks to any and all of you who’ve re-upped – or become – a member of the WNY Peace Center. Be on the lookout for our annual membership campaign, which includes information to renew your membership and highlighted events!
For regularly scheduled events, this week is our Environmental Justice Taskforce meeting! As usual it will be held on Thursday (3/ 5) at the Isaías González-Soto Branch (formerly Niagara Branch) Library. We’d love to see you there! Also from Charley Bowman, Taskforce Chair, Some good news….
Gov. Cuomo announced a speed up in the now 10-year+ long process of siting large clean energy projects in NY State. More details will be released soon, but all indications are this is a hugely good thing…perhaps the best news since he banned fracking in Dec. 2014.
This legislation just received a bill number: Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth & Community Benefit Act S.7508-A/A.9508-A. Stay tuned…
…and by the way, Gov. Cuomo now proposes a bill to make the ban on hydrofracking permanent.
Please see much more below, including great events this week, regularly scheduled events & vigils, and 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:
Rally: Gov. Cuomo – Resign Now
March 2 @ 12pm-1:30pm
On January 1st Cuomo sided against the workers of NY state by vetoing the SWEAT Bill. The SWEAT bill would have prevented employers who were accused of wage theft from hiding the money they owe their workers. Two out of three workers in Buffalo are victims of wage theft- Governor Cuomo stands between you and the money that was stolen from you by your employer. Join us during International Women’s Week to demand Cuomo’s resignation, and that SWEAT be immediately enacted to give us the protections we need!
Talking Peace w WNYPC, WBNY 91.3FM
March 2 @ 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Call-in radio show with Vicki Ross hosting. Also streaming on-line at wbny.buffalostate.edu. Special show “in the Intersection.” With guests Betty Jean Grant and Jalonda Hill.
Nekanehsakt
March 3 @ 6:30-8pm
At Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Avenue, Buffalo 14213. Indigenous support group/allies (including Indigenous Women’s Initiatives, WNYPC). Every 1st & 3rd Tuesdays. Come help plan support for Indigenous rights, people, and the planet.
ECHC Vigil: NO MORE Deaths!
March 4 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
At the Erie Co Holding Center, Delaware between Church & Eagle Sts, Buffalo. Prisoners’ Rights Taskforce Vigil/protest Wednesdays 4-5:30pm at the Erie County Holding Center (Delaware & Church). The ECHC has significantly higher deaths than similar facilities. The Sheriff’s Dept has misreported, and been determined to have committed homicide by medical neglect per the DOJ! The Sheriff’s Administration is a Public Health Emergency!! All are welcome.
**Please bring signs. **
Also please call Gov Cuomo at (518) 474-8390 to urge him to remove Sheriff Howard as he clearly is not up to the job.
Environmental Taskforce Meeting
March 5 @ 6-7:30pm
At Isaías González-Soto Branch (formerly Niagara Branch) Library, 280 Porter Ave, Buffalo 14201. Regular monthly meeting. Come learn, help plan and organize to move ourselves on to Renewable energy and off fossil fuels. Charley Bowman will summarize what NY State has to do to achieve the energy goals codified in the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. Spoiler Alert: methane-based electrical energy generation will take a big hit as we make buildings more efficient, cars electric, and electricity generation clean.
Also,
It’s Time to call the Governor: Declare a Climate Emergency!
“Governor Cuomo, please declare a climate emergency for the state of New York
which means an immediate ban on all new fossil fuel infrastructure.
I’m calling from zip code xxxxx.”
Phone: 518-474-8390,
press 1 when the recording begins.
March 6 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Environmental Justice Taskforce Vigil to Protest the Shipments of VERY Dangerous Radioactive Liquid from Canada coming over the Peace Bridge. Every Friday 2-3pm, Front Park at Vermont & Busti, Buffalo. Signs welcome and also usually available.
