[mpen-dayton4] FW: "The Confederate flag in every form must come down" & "Stand with Pope Francis" & "Signature needed: Shame on these 28 Democrats who sold America out to corporations" and more
FYI. Best, Munsup
P.S. "He who dares not offend cannot be honest" - Thomas Paine
P.P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' on the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons.
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· FW: Jim Lucas' response to World Refugee Day
· FW: Employment Opportunity in the Greater Dayton Area
· FW: The Confederate flag in every form must come down
· FW: Veterans for Peace opposes racial violence at home and abroad
· FW: "Please send a card to Charleston today" & "Remove the Confederate Flag From All Government Places
· FW: Supporter Update: Just so you know where they stand...
· FW: "SPLC on the Emmanuel AME church tragedy" & "The SPLC's latest coverage about the tragedy in Charleston"
· FW: Signature needed: Shame on these 28 Democrats who sold America out to corporations
· FW: PETITION: The Senate Democrats must stop Fast Track for TPP
· FW: Stand with Pope Francis
· FW: Pope's Poem on the Environment
· FW: Santorum and Bush attack Pope Francis
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From: James Lucas
Subject: A response to World Refugee Day
Regarding World Refugee Day, we need to keep in mind that the US is perhaps number 1 in the world or at least near the top among nations that cause refugees, as evidenced by Iraq where millions of people became refugees, fleeing mainly to Syria as the result of our policy of genocidal imperialism against that nation. Of course, in recent years, many Syrians have become refugees as a result of American efforts that continue to this day to overthrow their government. Also, the US will have the dubious distinction of being a major cause of more refugees in that part of the world as it continues to be preeminent there because it covets oil and wants to make all governments able to exploit their people for economic gain of a few and the U.S. Finally, the Israeli government, supported by the U.S., caused the expulsion of the Palestinians from that nation, who thus became refugees.
From: Cheryl Scroggins
Subject: Employment Opportunity
NOW HIRING:
· RN'S
· STNA'S/CNA'S
· HOME HEALTH AIDES
COVERAGE AREA:
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Shelley McFarland; 937-694-3064; Horizon Home HealthCare, LLC---Recruiter, www.hhhcohio.com
From: Southern Poverty Law Center | FIGHTING HATE // TEACHING TOLERANCE // SEEKING JUSTICE
Subject: The Confederate flag in every form must come down
Take. It. Down.
Please read SPLC President Richard Cohen's commentary in Time calling for taking down the Confederate flag at every public institution where it remains, starting with the South Carolina State House.
From: James Lucas
Subject: Veterans for Peace opposes racial violence at home and abroad
Veterans For Peace Stands with the People of Charleston
We Will Resist Racist Violence at Home and Abroad
Veterans For Peace is appalled by the racist killing of nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. We extend our deepest sympathies to their families, to the members of the AME Church, and to the community of Charleston. We understand that this ugly, terrorist act is causing people deep pain throughout the United States and around the world. We wish to stand in solidarity with the African-American community in the coming days and months, while addressing the root causes of this horrible hate crime.
It is no accident that this racist, terrorist action took place in a historic Black church founded by former slaves in a state that still flies the Confederate flag at the statehouse. This reverence by leaders in the highest levels of South Carolina government for a time now gone when the Confederate flag flew proudly over a nation of slave states, is a clear invitation for some to dream of returning to the days of official segregation. The shooter was one of those people — a young white man who proudly sported flags of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). His intention, according to his friends, was to restart the Civil War and to return to white rule in the U.S.
Racism and War Are Two of the Triple Evils
There is a connection between increasing racist violence in the United States and the massive indiscriminate killing of hundreds of thousands of people in other lands. Growing racism against black, brown and Muslim people in the United States is a reflection of the racism that justifies killing non-white people abroad. The U.S. military deliberately uses racism to motivate young men and women to kill.
President Obama says that the problem is that we need gun control in the United States. He says no other developed country faces an epidemic of mass murders. But calls for gun control only serve to distract from the root causes for the June 17th tragedy; racism/hate and the belief that violence is a just means to address conflict. Obama himself pulls the trigger on a daily basis, with drone strikes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, strikes that have killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians.
As U.S. military veterans, we understand that we will not be able to end war and militarism unless we confront racist violence here at home. Racism and war are two of the triple evils Dr. King called on all of us to confront to work for peace and justice. All three; racism, war and poverty must be defeated if we are to achieve a nonviolent world based on peace, understanding and equality for all.
From: Ahmad, Khurshid
Subject: "Please send a card to Charleston today" & "Remove the Confederate Flag From All Government Places"
Last night, a man shot and killed nine people in one of our country's most historic African American churches in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.
They were gunned down while attending a prayer meeting.
Our hearts are broken, and our prayers are with the entire community -- but for the friends and family of those killed in this horrific tragedy, nothing will ever be the same again.
I just signed a card to the community affected by this tragedy to let them know our thoughts are with them.
Please consider sending one, too: http://every.tw/1TxOQyk
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Subject: Remove the Confederate Flag From All Government Places
Symbols of hate have no place in our government.
The Confederate flag is not a symbol of southern pride but rather a symbol of rebellion and racism. On the heels of the brutal killing of nine Black people in a South Carolina church by a racist terrorist, it's time to put that symbol of rebellion and racism behind us and move toward healing and a better United States of America!
That's why I signed a petition to The South Carolina State House, The South Carolina State Senate, and Governor Nikki Haley, which says:
"Symbols of hate and division have no place in our government. It's time to stand up for what's right and take down the Confederate Flag!"
Will you sign this petition? Click here:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/remove-the-confederate-3?source=s.em.mt&r_by=5460331
From: Michael Keegan
Subject: Supporter Update: Just so you know where they stand...
As you know, America was struck by tragedy this week when a hateful act of terrorism claimed the lives of nine African American churchgoers in South Carolina, one of them a member of our own People For family, Reverend Clementa Pinckney.
The mass murder at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston is the latest in a long string of racist violence targeting black churches in this country, and not the first time for this particular church. One of the church's founders was Denmark Vesey, an abolitionist who was hung, with 34 others, for his part in leading a slave rebellion in 1822. During his trial, the church was burned, and not long after that, in 1834, all black churches were outlawed in South Carolina.
A horrific event like this -- an attack on our people, our values, and our very way of life -- should bring us together in mourning. And it should force us, as a country, to confront the uncomfortable truths about our history and our culture that erupt, too often, in devastating violence.
But no. We can't have that full discussion. Because the powerful interests -- and the political leaders beholden to them -- that benefit from the status quo and from Americans being divided won't let us.
What do I mean by that? Let's have a look at the responses to this tragedy from the Republican candidates for president and other leading right-wing figures, which range from willfully ignorant to astonishingly delusional to crassly dishonest.
- When asked if the shooting in Charleston was racially motivated, Jeb Bush said, "I don't know."
- Lindsey Graham joined the right-wing media trend of trying to take the focus off race and advance the myth that this was really a hate crime against religious Christians, saying the shooter may have been "looking for Christians to kill."
- Rick Perry called the shooting an "accident," that was possibly caused by the over-prescription of medication and that is being exploited by President Obama to try to "take the guns out of the hands of everyone in this country."
- Mike Huckabee joined a chorus of many on the Right in saying the shooting could have been prevented if only the church members were armed.
- The American Family Association's Sandy Rios said that President Obama "enjoys" such incidents because it will give him another chance to "remove guns from the hands of the American people."
- Right-wing talk show host Alex Jones linked the shooting to a socialist race war plot.
- Far-right radio host Jesse Lee Peterson said simultaneously that the shooting was intended to start race war but that racism is not an issue in America today, and said that identifying racism is the real threat because white people are being made to feel guilty and fearful about being called racist, which will lead to built-up anger boiling over into more violent race-based attacks like the one in South Carolina.
Sadly, as our close tracking at PFAW's Right Wing Watch shows, this list goes on and is still growing…
Of course, when Dylann Roof, the white 21-year-old gunman, reportedly said, "You rape our women and you're taking over our country... and you have to go," he was not addressing his audience as "Christians."
Interestingly, the Right's denialism was on full display with another -- happier -- news story this week: the Pope's call for action on climate change. Suddenly, the same politicians -- even the Catholic ones -- who have been in thrall to conservative religious leaders for their entire careers are declaring how eager they are to pay no attention to the Pope on matters of various "political" and "economic" issues. Apparently, the only "moral" issues on which politicians should listen to religious leaders have to do with restrictions on women's choices and condemning LGBT people.
I know this update is a little different from my usual messages about PFAW's work on our many campaigns. But this week was a little different. And I felt this unfortunate trend needed to be addressed.
However, I can assure you that we're fighting every day against the extremism, bigotry, dehumanizing stereotyping, and demagoguery that provide fertile ground for tragedies like the one in South Carolina.
From: Richard Cohen; President, Southern Poverty Law Center, FIGHTING HATE // TEACHING TOLERANCE // SEEKING JUSTICE
Subject: SPLC on the Emmanuel AME church tragedy & The SPLC's latest coverage about the tragedy in Charleston
A white man who admires apartheid walks into a black church and kills nine people. According to an eyewitness, he says that he has "to do it" because black people "rape our women" and are "taking over our country."
It's an obvious hate crime by someone who feels threatened by our country's changing demographics and the increasing prominence of African Americans in public life.
Since 2000, we've seen an increase in the number of hate groups in our country — groups that vilify others on the basis of characteristics such as race or ethnicity.
Though the numbers have gone down somewhat in the last two years, they are still at historically high levels. The increase has been driven by a backlash to the country's increasing racial diversity, an increase symbolized, for many, by the presence of an African American in the White House.
Since 9/11, our country has been fixated on the threat of jihadi terrorism. But the horrific tragedy at the Emmanuel AME reminds us that the threat of homegrown domestic terrorism is very real.
Our hearts go out to the victims and their families. Black churches, including those in South Carolina, have been the targets of hate crimes throughout our country's history. We know that they will remain resolute and their faith unshaken in the face of this tragedy.
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Subject: The SPLC's latest coverage about the tragedy in Charleston
The SPLC has been closely covering the Charleston shooting and offering expert analysis to the media. Here's the latest:
Keep checking our site and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.
From: Chris Bowers, Daily Kos
Subject: Signature needed: Shame on these 28 Democrats who sold America out to corporations
The U.S. House just "fast-tracked" a corporate trade deal—because 28 Democrats voted with the Republican leadership. Sign the petition denouncing them.
The TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) is a secret corporate trade deal that will ship jobs overseas, erode wages at home, gut environmental protections & endanger basic regulations.
But when the House voted on giving the President (and his successor) for the next six years "fast track" approval to ram through these trade agreements, 28 Democrats voted "yes."
They even voted "yes" a second time—after mitigating measures to help displaced workers were removed from the legislation. They even voted "yes," despite overwhelming opposition from labor, environmental, consumer and other groups part of the Democratic coalition.
We expect Republicans to throw workers and the environment under a bus, but not Democrats we fought for and elected. Sign the petition denouncing these Democrats.
Note: The 28 House Democrats who voted "yes" were Terri Sewell (AL-07), Ami Bera (CA-07), Jim Costa (CA-16), Sam Farr (CA-20), Scott Peters (CA-52), Susan Davis (CA-53), Jared Polis (CO-02), Jim Himes (CT-04), Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL-23), Mike Quigley (IL-05), John Delaney (MD-06), Brad Ashford (NE-02), Kathleen Rice (NY-04), Gregory Meeks (NY-05), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Kurt Schrader (OR-05), Jim Cooper (TN-05), Ruben Hinojosa (TX-15), Beto O'Rourke (TX-16), Henry Cuellar (TX-28), Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30), Don Beyer (VA-08), Gerry Connolly (VA-11), Suzan DelBene (WA-02), Rick Larsen (WA-02), Derek Kilmer (WA-06) and Ron Kind (WI-03).
From: Murshed Zaheed; Deputy Political Director, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: PETITION: The Senate Democrats must stop Fast Track for TPP
Tell Senate Democrats: Stand strong, stop Fast Track for TPP
Petition to Senate Democrats:
"The White House and Republican allies are using procedural gimmicks to try and jam through 'Fast Track trade authority' for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The Senate Democrats must stand strong against this corporate power grab and vote against Fast Track for job-killing, secret trade agreements such as the TPP."
Add your name:
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Supporters of dangerous, job-killing trade treaties have regrouped after failing to pass a trade package last week. They've changed up their tactics and just passed a so called "clean" version of Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the House of Representatives.
Now they are desperately trying to jam this bill through the Senate, where there could be votes as early as next week.
If the Senate Democrats stand strong, and block fresh attempts by Senator Mitch McConnell to railroad through this "clean" version of Fast Track, we can once again stop the TPP. But, we need your help to pressure the Senate Democrats to step up in this fight now.
Tell Senate Democrats: Stop Fast Track for the TPP. Click here to sign the petition.
Our campaign to stop Fast Track is being watched around the world. Just days ago the Associated Press reported that Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb told local media that "TPP nations could be just one week's negotiation away from completing the agreement, but if fast track isn't resolved in the next two or three weeks, 'I think we've got a real problem with the future of the TPP.'"1
The failure of the White House and the Republican leadership in Congress to jam Fast Track through Congress so far shows that the hundreds of thousands of CREDO members who spoke out against job-killing trade deals are making a big difference despite an all-out effort by Wall Street lobbyists, and the Chamber of Commerce.
But, we cannot let up now because President Obama and his allies from the Republican leadership and corporate lobbyists have not given up. They are scrambling, and using gimmicky legislative procedure in a last ditch attempt to save this titanic corporate power grab.
If we stop Fast Track this week, we will stop the TPP.
Tell Senate Democrats: Stop Fast Track for the TPP. Click here to sign the petition.
It's the job of Congress to fully vet trade deals and ensure they work for everyone, not just giant corporations. And it would be a deeply irresponsible abdication of responsibility for Congress to pass Fast Track when we know the TPP is coming down the pike, especially when we know the consequences of the TPP could be disastrous.
That is why the overwhelming majority of House Democrats voted against the package of bills that would have advanced Fast Track Authority for the TPP. And dozens of House Republicans voted against Fast Track because it takes power away from Congress and gives it to President Obama.
You have proven that even in an era where big money rules our political process, your voice still can make a difference. Click below to sign our petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/sign/senate_stop_tpp/?t=7&akid=14743.1004336.pZPIss
Add your name:
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1. Matthew Pennington, "Analysis: Trade bill poses toughest test to credibility of Obama's Asia policy," AP, June 18, 2015
From: Rev. Sally Bingham; President & Founder, Interfaith Power & Light
Subject: Stand with Pope Francis
Today's the day we've all been waiting for! Pope Francis has released an encyclical on ecology – reminding us that all are called to act now to protect the climate and our neighbors around the world.
The first chapter of the 184-page document is entitled, 'Pollution and Climate Change' and states that the climate crisis "represents one of the principle challenges facing humanity in our day." In stark terms, he warns that fossil fuel use is causing "unprecedented destruction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for all of us."
Sadly, those who don't want to hear this message, such as climate change deniers and certain politicians, are already criticizing the pope and asking him to stick to "theology and morality." In fact, that's exactly what he's doing in making the moral case for climate action.
Won't you join us now and stand with Pope Francis and let him know America's faith community is on his side.
We've never seen this kind of leadership from the most high profile religious leader in the world, and it's an opportunity to mobilize more people of faith into action to address climate change.
Although previous popes including Benedict and John Paul addressed environmental concerns, this is the first time the Vatican has elevated protection of the environment as a justice issue. With the U.N. climate talks this December in Paris, it could not have come at a better time.
As Pope Francis says, "The climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all." Won't you join us and tell your friends about this historic and hopeful moment, when all are called to respond to global warming. Let's all stand with Pope Francis.
From: albert baca
Subject: Fw: Pope's Poem on the Environment
I've held off on the encyclical that Papa Francesco is going to lay on the world this Thursday, despite the leaks this week from various Vatican moles and trolls. But it seems this draft concludes with a poem that's worth sharing.
https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/610543466930552833
From: Michael Sherrard, Faithful America
Subject: Santorum and Bush attack Pope Francis
When the spiritual leader of 1.2 billion Christians says that we have a moral obligation to save the planet from the climate crisis, it's time to act.
Unfortunately, some right-wing Christians are already trying to undermine the pope. Even Catholic politicians like Rick Santorum and Jeb Bush are saying that Francis should "leave science to the scientists" and "I don't get my economic policy from my pope."
Especially here in the United States, where most Catholic bishops still have their heads buried in the sand, we need to show just how many Christians are inspired by Pope Francis and ready to take action.
Add your name: Pope Francis speaks for me. It's time to save God's creation.
P.S. Today our hearts are breaking over the brutal act of terrorism against Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Please join us in praying for the victims, for their families, and for an end to racist violence.
For more information:
"Jeb Bush joins Republican backlash against pope on climate change," The Guardian, June 17, 2015
"'Francis Bishops' Question U.S. Church's Priorities, But Is This Real Change?" New Ways Ministry, June 14, 2015
End of MPEN e-Newsletter
posted by lucas at 8:37 PM
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