Money Changers' Journal (original) (raw)
We would like @ least 100 copies of this letter sent to the sen. specter and santorum's energy aids that the Center for Creative Cooperation met with in DC on Wednesday, 8 June 2005. ( (letter = under this lj cut)Collapse )
Present at the meeting were 5 representatives (including myself) from a newly formed NEPA "activist umbrella" called The Center for Creative Cooperation, which is a center for activists groups who support sane energy policies, environmentalism and general social justice issues to coalesce and support one another. The Center fully advocates the autonomy of each group, but is in place to help garner support and numbers for grass roots organizations.
The first section of the letter highlights some of what they SAID to us during out 90 minute conversation/debate. The second section is what WE support (as the Center for Creative Cooperation). Between all of us and our groups, these aides, Mr. Dower and Mr. Beynon, need to receive at least 100 hundred of these emailed letters this weekend, since the energy bill hits the Senate floor Monday.
We fully understand that these letters may not change the course of energy bill history. HOWEVER
1. These letters will put these guys on notice that we weren't kidding when we said that we represented a "strong coalition of concerned citizen groups," I wasn't making it up - they need to know we have some numbers here.
2. They understand that for every letter they get, there are 10 more people in our groups who support what the letter says.
Please, spread the word to groups/people who you think may be interested........we would like @ least 100 letters/emails to be sent to these guys by monday.
If they only get a few, our impact int he future will be considerably less--if they get more than a few, we will matter more. GRASS ROOTS WORKS ON NUMBERS - So let's show them we have numbers!!!
All you have to do with the letter is:
paste the following two emails into the address line:
Matthew_Beynon@santorum.senate.gov Thomas_Dower@specter.senate.gov
if you know friends or other PA groups who would be interested in voicing similar (or the same) concerns, please forward this email to them, and have them send this message (or something similar...) to the email addresses listed above.
then, please sign your name (and address if you're from PA) under the "sincerely".
One more thing, i have recently started a (potentially... still have to file the paper work) non-profit group called S.A.F.E.R. (Student Action for Environmental Responsibilty). The only requirement to support this group is to be a student or a supporter of students/student action, so if you are interested in this (and you do not have to be a PA resident to "join") please let me know via a comment and if you are interested and choose to send a letter to san/spects reps please include something like:
Amie Monte
Member of S.A.F.E.R. (Student Action for Environmental Responsibilty)
after the closing "sincerely" of the letter.
thanks! if anyone has any ?'s about the meeting/lobbying for a sane energy policy lemme know:)
peace!
one more time: ( the letter we would like forwardedCollapse )
and please comment if you are forwarding the message because we would like to keep track of how many emails are being sent to the senators. thanks!!!
(cross-posted)
Any thoughts on the current or emerging healthcare system in the United States? Any comments or opinions on what's wrong with it?
Don't be afraid, tell me what you really think. Be blunt. What do you like / disklike about it? Can you afford it? Any uninsured people on here?
Hello,
I joined because the userinfo for this community described questions I ask myself a lot.
My particular situation is one of not being able to work for 'the man' or anyone, really, which puts me in the position of having little economic power and therefore limited choice.
So my particular struggle is about effecting change and creating power where it is lacking.
Feel free to browse my journal.
Hello-
I just started a new community, 
aboutmyjob, where I invite all of you to post your thoughts about your current or past jobs. I'm hoping my community will help young people to answer that very difficult question "What do I want to be?".
Please check out the description via the link above. If you want to post, there's no need to join the community, you can do so right away.
Thanks in advance for sharing, and helping.
Hello, all. I found this community when I followed the link within my own interests, "owning my own business." I'm currently a student at Full Sail, in Orlando, FL, majoring in digital media. I'd like to start my own business upon my graduation next spring, and I joined this community hoping to find information from others who are experienced in this. I desire to have my own business because so many times, in past workplaces, I have gotten frustrated and thought, "Agh, if you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself." So I am! Can't wait to get to know others in this community.
| Poster: |  callandor |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2003-03-24 15:55 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
In view of the war I thought this article was particularly relevant. We are spending nearly 450 Billion dollars on defense and 100 Billion dollars on the war but 500 million would save 38 million starving people. I think our priorities are a little off. Anyone agree?
Mass starvation in Africa looms, but political will can stop it, Security Council told
James T. Morris
3 December – Some 38 million Africans are at risk from an unprecedented hunger crisis on the continent, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, stressing that adequate political will and resources can stem the tide of famine.
"Mass starvation in Africa is not inevitable," James Morris, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said in an open briefing to the Council. But in order to make progress, he cautioned, "difficult political choices will have to be made, both by African States and by traditional donor countries." In the short term, an infusion of funds is urgently needed, while long-term goals must include greater investment in agriculture and changes in international trade regimes.
Mr. Morris described the upsurge in recent years of food emergencies, saying his agency has gone from largely sponsoring food-for-work and other development projects to being "the UN equivalent of an ambulance service for the starving." Nearly 80 per cent of WFP's work is now devoted to emergency response.
Examining the causes for this "explosion in food emergencies," Mr. Morris cited collapsing economic systems, political and ethnic violence, AIDS and weather conditions. All of these factors are combining to exacerbate Africa's critical situation, while WFP has received pledges of only 56 per cent of the $511 million needed to help meet the continent's needs.
Looking to the broader picture, the WFP chief urged major changes, including a shift from reliance on the United States for food aid. "Last year, the US provided 62 per cent of all food aid worldwide," he said. "This is simply not sustainable."
He added that the recent controversy over genetically modified (GM) food in southern Africa demonstrated the dangers of relying too heavily on a single donor. "Requirements by some of the southern African that GM maize from the US be milled have created a logistical nightmare and we have been left scrambling, trying to raise more cash contributions from other donors while confronting the complexities of milling the maize to ensure there is no break in the food pipeline."
At the same time, Mr. Morris urged the creation of a new global trade environment, stressing that developing countries "simply cannot compete with developed country subsidies that now amount to $1 billion a day and allow food to flow into poorer countries, making investments in agriculture unprofitable."
"People are hungry because their governments have made the wrong political decisions," he said. "In the end, hunger is a political creation and we must use political means to end it."
Just saying hello, am new and looking forward to getting to know some of ya:) Feel free to add me to your friends list if you so choose. Be warned I post alot at times:)
In case you have not heard, Staples recently signed an agreement with environmental groups. Staples has promised to achieve an average of 30% postconsumer recycled content across all of its paper products. It also will phase out purchases of paper products from endangered forests, and will create an environmental affairs division and report annually on its progress. This will significantly help endangered forests in the southern U.S.
I am reading this in a local progressive newspaper of mine, so I don't have an internet link, but you can probably find it somewhere. Office Max, Office Depot, and Corporate Express have not followed Staples's example as of yet.
SUPPORT DON'T CONTRIBUTE
BUY NOTHING DAY 2002
IT'S YOUR WORLD SAVE IT OR TRASH IT... YOU CHOOSE!
(picture curtsy of www.adbusters.com)
FOR MORE INFO ON THIS AND OTHER ISSUES... GO TO WWW.ADBUSTERS.COM OR WWW.BUYNOTHINGCHRISTMAS.COM
so here's a link to some information about the free trade area of the americas (FTAA). http://www.stopftaa.org/info/ there's a lot of information, so if one source seems too skewed you can just hop on over to another one. i figure i can only handle one major issue at a time. and this seems like a big deal so i think for at least the next month i will bring this up in conversations with people and write letters to my representatives and put up some signs on my car. as far as i can tell, there's just no reason for this to exist right now. that's what i'm going to do. what are your plans?
| Poster: | mery_bast |
|---|---|
| Date: | 2002-06-29 16:37 |
| Subject: | |
| Security: | Public |
"A considerable part of our ability, energy, time, and material resources is being spent today on inducing us to find the money for buying material goods that we should never have dreamed of wanting had we been left to ourselves." --Arnold Toynbee
Found this and thought of us all...
Does anyone have any comments/suggestions on how you reduce mindless spending in your life?
greenriver had this to say recently,
"We should measure ourselves and the depth of our lives not by what we consume and not by our purchased experiences but by the things we did that we created/conjured up ourselves.
Smash your television, hide your car keys"
Most of you probably already check out the community, adbusting, but in case you don't or missed this post, check out this discussion on the ethics of buying Gap clothes at thrift stores.
Thanks to epi_lj for the alternet article about wal-mart. What struck me most in the article was that the workers that make toys are paid 13 cents an hour. I found this article in the Washington Times yesterday. And then I looked up more information about the National Labor Committee for Human Rights and got lots more information on NLCNET.ORG, their homepage. The latter site has a nice flyer that I printed out and put out for my parental co-workers to see. For y'all that aren't into perusing links...more than half of the toys sold by Mattel, Hasbro, Toys R Us and Wal-Mart are made in China by people who endure horrible working conditions.
I don't know who this will be news to, but pixiepuff provided the link and I thought that it be good to pass it on. Even I was surprised at some of the facts contained therein.
how do you put bread on the table? what are the pros and cons of the way you make your living? if you work for a company, how do you think its practices affect the world? if you are unemployed, how do you think that affects things?
I am very interested to read any of your reactions to these questions. please post them as journal entries so that they will be easier to read.
I've become interested in buying products domestically where possible. This is not so that I can keep the money here (which would be Canada, for me), but more because I know that certain standards apply to labour in North America, so there is less worry that products are being made in hyper-exploitive sweatshops. In any case, I recently bought a pair of New Balance shoes, and I contacted New Balance in the process to inquire about their domestic and foreign manufacturing. I thought I'd pass on their reply.
( New Balance Domestic and Foreign Manufacturing ListCollapse )
cruising around I found this on LJ about Nestle and the problems they have caused in marketing their infant formula. check it out.
As I was popping frozen carob chips into my mouth on Saturday night, the thought passed through my mind that not only is carob a wee bit better than chocolate nutritionally, but it also is better because those that harvest it are not forced into slave labor...but then I realized that I really have no idea about that part...I looked around on the internet, but couldn't find very much information about the production of carob. It is mostly grown in the Mediterranean and has lots of different uses. I buy nSpired Natural Foods Sunspire carob chips - but they don't have a web address, so I'll have to (gasp!) call them to research where they get their carob from. Click here to learn about the bad juju in the chocolate industry.