Progressive Calendar 02.07.12 /2 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001umn.edu) | |
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2012 14:08:49 -0800 (PST) |
*P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 02.07.12 * 1. GLBT homes 2.07 6pm 2. KFAI direction 2.07 7pm 3. Money 2.07/08 7pm 4. UHCAN 2.07 7pm 5. Caucus Green Party 2.07 7pm 6. Robert Reich - The downward mobility of the American middle class, and why Mitt Romney doesn’t know 7. ed - What's in a name? (haiku) --------1 of 7-------- GLBT homes 2.07 6pm Interested in sharing your resources and helping sustain your community? One of the ways that the Twin Cities' community is addressing homelessness experienced by GLBT young people is through the GLBT Host Home Program of Avenues for Homeless Youth, which offers a transformative and community-based approach to providing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth with safe homes. As volunteers of the program, adults open their homes and their hearts to young people who need and are looking for a healthy and nurturing connection. If you are interested in hearing more about this community building program, please come to one of the following informational meetings: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 6-8pm OR Thursday, February 9, 2012, 6-8pm @ Midtown YWCA 2121 East Lake Street Minneapolis, MN 55407 www.ywca-minneapolis.org Come learn about the history of the GLBT Host Home Program and about the application and screening process for potential volunteers. You will also have an opportunity to hear from hosts who shared their homes with youth. Questions? Call Raquel (Rocki) at Avenues for Homeless Youth: 612-522-1690, ext. 110or email at rocki [at] avenuesforyouth.org. And if you haven't already, please 'like' our GLBT Host Home Program Facebook page! --------2 of 7-------- From: lydiahowell [at] comcast.net KFAI direction 2.07 7pm People who are concerned about direction of KFAI Community Radio, attneding a once0-a-month Program Committee or Board meeting to express your concerns is one way to have an impact. Details below. KFAI, Fresh Air Radio is located at1808 Riverside Avenue, on the West Bank (3rd floor of MAPP'S COFFEE & TEA bldg) Mpls., MN 55454. Bus lines 2,7, 22, 16. Lydia Howell, host "Catalyst:politics& culture" Thur.9 am From: "Janis Lane-Ewart" <janislaneewart [at] kfai.org> Subject: [Kfai-forum] Program Committee Meeting Tuesday Feb. 7th The monthly meeting of the KFAI Program Committee is scheduled for next Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., in Studio 5 at KFAI. Everyone is welcome and the agenda will be as follows: Introductions/Ice Breaker Program Committee Orientation Review of Jan. 4, 2012 committee minutes Election of Committee Co-Chair KFAI Programmer Handbook Revision Updates on Black History Month & IWD celebrations Update on Program Director Hiring Process Feedback from program abstracts reviewed last month Monitoring of Programmer's Playlists --------3 of 7-------- From:Richard Kotlarz richkotlarz [at] gmail.com Money 2.07/08 7pm Week #3 Sessions: Tues, 2/7/12, Open Workshop - Money, Society and the Spirit Suggested theme – Open Wed, 2/8/12, Course Offering - Deconstructing & Renewing the Economic Order This week’s subject(s) – The process by which a “Dollar” is born, and its ramifications for our economic practice, language and culture. Location: Macalester College (Old Main, Rm 009), 1600 Grand Avenue, St Paul, MNTime: 7 to 9 pm Facilitators: Richard Kotlarz: richkotlarz [at] gmail.com, 218-828-1366 Richard is a seeker after the truth about money and the economic life, who has engaged in literally thousands of discussions on money-related topics with people from all walks of life, across the U.S., and in Canada and Europe. Steven Gorg: steve [at] stevegorg.com, 651-334-7624 Steven is a professional environmental engineer who has come to see that becoming truly conscious about Money is the portal through which a meaningful and effective ecological and social transformation can be achieved. Richard and Steven have discovered that, concerning money, there is a story to be told and a vision to behold of which We the People are getting hardly even an inkling through conventional media, academic orthodoxy, or popular culture. Offered under auspices of Experimental Community Education of the Twin Cities (EXCOTC) Quote of the Week: “Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. "Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." Robert F. Kennedy General Information • What is the real story behind all the bad economic news? • Why are we not richer by our burgeoning tangible wealth, instead of poorer by a snowballing financial “debt”? • How could it be that an innocent child born in the U.S. today is already, according to the “experts,” a quarter-million dollars in “debt”? When did newborn babies borrow this money? How are they supposed to “repay” it? Is their future mortgaged before it starts? Has “original debt” replaced “original sin”? • If every dollar in circulation is “borrowed” into existence through “loans” from private banks, where does the money to pay the “interest” come from? • After a century of explosive growth in real economic activity, why have we not grown out of our “debt”? Is there a perverse logic built into the system that is causing us to grow into it our “debt”? • Why in the last century have family farmers been forced off the land by financial foreclosure, or threat of foreclosure, until now those living on the farm comprise less that two-percent of the population? • What is this “debt” burden doing in real terms to our civilization, our earth, ourselves? What is “debt” anyway? What is its effect on the psyche of generations growing up in saturation of its financial demands, ecological devastation and social disintegration? • If I am well-educated, working hard and “playing by the rules” in the “richest country on earth,” why can I not pay my bills and/or why am I perpetually in debt? • Has fear of financial destitution replaced fear of dying as the most dreaded eventuality in people’s lives? • Is there hope? These and many other monetary riddles haunt our post-modern world. Indeed, they are increasingly experienced as threatening the viability of our personal lives, the existence of civilization, and even the continuation of life on earth itself. Can we get a perspective on this? Can we turn a corner? Is there a vision on the other side? These questions and more will be explored in two separate series of two-hour evening sessions that will meet every week on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Tuesday Open Workshop: Money, Society and the Spirit This is conceived of as a discussion that will introduce the attendee to the way money originates and how, generally, the financial order, political life and civilized culture arises from that process. From there we will explore money and economy along whatever avenues of inquiry are of interest to those attending. All are welcome, whether having attended a previous session or not. The tenor of Tuesday’s conversation session will be informal. It will start at 7 pm (promptness is helpful), and end at 9 pm, or however long people want to stay and talk. Wednesday Course Offering: Deconstructing & Renewing the Economic Order For those interested in a more structured, rigorous and substantive learning experience, each Wednesday evening there will be a class that will offer specific content much in the manner of a college course, but without right answers, grades or accreditation. Nevertheless, there will be an emphasis on intellectual rigor and conversational discipline. In particular each attendee will be asked to set aside his or her previously acquired “financial sophistication,” and be ready to approach the subject with a clean slate. Holding forth on one’s opinions, ideologies or expertise about the financial order and will be strongly discouraged. This will be a serious exploration of “Money,” a topic that has so far bedeviled human experience, along new paths of inquiry. The first hour will be devoted to a lecture-presentation, and the second opened up to discussion based on what had been presented. Each class will have an announced topic or theme, and, as required, hand out material. The tenor of the Wednesday’s class session will more formal, and the importance of starting promptly (7 pm), and ending on time (9 pm), is emphasized. Regular attendance is strongly recommended, and any content missed can be covered in one-on-one or small-group discussions with the facilitators outside the class session. Those who wish to join in after the class sessions have started are welcome, but are encouraged to meet with a facilitator outside of class in preparation. We will be embarked upon a serious course of study, analysis and exploration, and it is crucial that a rigor of thought and discipline of discourse be observed. The rewards, we believe will be great. The Tuesday and Wednesday sessions are separate offerings, and it is not necessary to attend both, but they are designed to compliments each other, and attending both could create a more comprehensive experience. The facilitators are available outside of scheduled sessions for special consultation. Both classes are free, but there are costs, so donations will be gratefully accepted. We ask that those who attend and find the benefits of the sessions to be real seriously consider the gesture of making an offering at whatever level seems good. At the root of our work is a pay-it-forward spirit, and the ideal that we all benefit if we look to the needs of others, as we would appreciate others considering ours. Economically speaking, that is how we become visible to each other in an actual way that reaches beyond the merely theoretical or rhetorical. Monies or other resources received will be used with an eye toward ensuring that the unfolding public conversation and consciousness about “money” will continue. Experience suggests that we will have a wonderfully fruitful time. Dates & Times (Sessions held every Tuesday/Wednesday, from January 24/25 through May 22/23, 2012): All sessions will convene from 7 to 9 pm: UHCAN 2.07 7pm Money, Society & the Spirit Deconstructing & Renewing the Economic Order January 24, 31 January 25 February 7, 14, 21, 28 February 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 March 6, 13, 20, 27 March 7, 14, 21, 28 April 3, 10, 17, 24 April 4, 11, 18, 25 May 1, 8, 15, 22 May 2, 9, 16, 23 --------4 of 8-------- >From :Joel Albers Next UHCAN-MN mtg, Tues Feb 7, 7:00pm, Walker Church, Mpls, 55406 (3104 16th ave S,1 block from Lake Str. and Bloomington Ave, basement Gallery). Agenda: 1. Update on Co-op Care: A Prairie Health Companion.We are in the exciting process of creating Co-op Care (member-owned, operated, democratically controlled, single-payer principles). This will be a way for people to divest from major insurance companies by building on the base of co-ops, non-profits and the arts that MN leads the nation in. If you are interested in helping or supporting this effort, pls attend.Open to the public. We seeking more qualified people to be on our Board of directors, esp if you are a physician, have a particular skill to contribute, and if you think you may actually become a member of Co-op Care. B of D job description and responsibilities is listed below. 2. Reportback Occupy Lake MNTKA, further actions to plan ?:Check out coverage in the Feb issue of Southside Pride. Hot coffee, tea, and snacks provided. Hope to see you there. This meeting is definately for current Co-op Care Board members too. Proposed Board of Directors: Position Title: Member, Doard of Directors Purpose: To provide organizational leadership, direction, and oversight and maximize Coop Care’s ability to achieve its mission. Activities: Board Directors are responsible for the following: 1. Long-range planning The Board formulates and evaluates long-range planning and proactively establishes organizational vision, direction and program.2. Ensuring fiscal accountability The Board approves and closely monitors the organization’s expenses and income. The board works to ensure that all the organization’s resources, including the time of volunteers abd staff and money, are used wisely. 3. Setting. Reviewing and evaluating organizational policy The Board ensures that Coop Care’s policies and procedures are in keeping with its mission, vision, and values. 4. Ensuring organizational continuity The Board is responsible for the recruitment, development, retention and continuity of effective and ethical leadership within the Board to insure robust and stable operations. 5. Staff relations The board hires and evaluates the performance of the General Manager. The Board is the final arbiter of internal staff grievances. 6. Fundraising The Board is responsible for the continued funding and financial health of the organization. Members of the Board serve as ambassadors to the community. Each Board member has two fundraising responsibilities: giving and raising money. Qualifications to be a Board Member: [ Needs to be developed] Individual Board Member Responsibilities: o Attend all Board meetings and functions, such as special events. o Be informed about the organization’s mission, services, policies, and programs. o Review agenda and supporting materials prior to board meetings. o Serve on committees or task forces and offer to take on special assignments. o Be accountable for activities that you have said you would do. o Inform others about the organization. o Suggest possible nominees to the board who can make significant contributions to the work of the board and the organization. o Keep up-to-date on developments that might impact Coop Care’s work. o Follow conflict of interest and confidentiality policies. o Assist the board in carrying out its fiduciary responsibilities, such as reviewing the organization’s annual financial statements. Time Commitment: The Coop Care Board of Directors meets monthly on the second Tuesday of each month from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. A Board term is 2 years with option to renew, based on membership voting. As the Coop Care Board is a working board, membership requires a commitment of approximately 8 to 10 hours a month. --------5 of 7-------- >From Holle Brian Caucus Green Party 2.07 7pm Caucus with the Green Party on February 7 The Green Party of Minnesota will be holding caucuses statewide to consider GP presidential candidates (see www.gp.org/candidates/index.php) and resolutions. All Green Party members and supporters are encouraged to attend! If you feel passionately that our democracy has been broken by corporate campaign spending -- that energy independence can be achieved through conservation and renewable technologies -- and that we will only achieve true prosperity when all Minnesotans have access to quality education, jobs, housing, transportation and health care -- then the Green Party needs you! Be a part of the party of good ideas and let your voice be heard. Green Party caucus locations are listed on the GP website at http://www.mngreens.org/news/01302012-735pm/caucus-green-party-february-7-locations . Or you can use visit the Secretary of State's website http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ to find a GP caucus near you. -- Here is the final list of GP caucus locations. Many thanks to Seth and Becki and the caucus committee for organizing this statewide effort, and to all the people who have volunteered to convene caucuses in their communities. Now everybody get out and participate on Tuesday night! Green Party caucus locations Vermilion Community College 1900 East Camp St., Classroom Building Ely 55731 Jeff Jakubic, convener SD5A, 6A East High School 301 North 40th Ave. E., 1060 Health Duluth 55804 C.J. Schweigert, convener SD7, 6B Chaska Middle School 140 Engler Blvd. Chaska 55318 Jaime Kaiser, convener SD34 Eastview Elementary 18060 Ipava Ave. Lakeville 55044 Alex Fane, convener SD34, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40A, 57 Northfield Public Library 210 Washington Street 6-8 p.m., Meeting Room Northfield 55057 John Stoke, convener SD25B, 26B St. Cloud State University Atwood Memorial Center 720 4th Ave. S., Oak Room St. Cloud 56301 Garner Moffat, convener SD14, 15 Lincoln Community Center 110 Fulton Street Room 204 Mankato 56001 Tom Marks, convener SD21B, 23, 24, 25A, 26A Red Wing High School 2451 Eagle Ridge Drive L100 Red Wing 55066 Hank Brummer, convener SD28 Mayo High School Auditorium 1420 11th Ave SE Rochester 55904 Becki Smith, convener SD29 Edina Community Center 5701 Normandale Rd Room 350 Edina 55424 David VanDongen, convener SD41 Plymouth City Hall 3400 Plymouth Blvd Medicine Lake Room Plymouth 55447 David Strand, convener SD43 Brookdale Public Library 6125 Shingle Creek Pkwy Study Room 1 Brooklyn Center 55430 Allan Hancock, convener SD46 Champlin Public Library, 6:30-8:00 12154 Ensign Ave N Champlin Meeting Room Champlin 55316 Will Chapoton, convener SD47 St. Paul Central High School 275 Lexington Pkwy. N. Room #1202 St. Paul 55102 Roger Meyer, convener CD4 Edison High School 700 22nd Ave. NE Minneapoli 55418 Small Gym Megan Kuhl-Stennes & Tori Johnston, conveners SD50, 51, 54, 58, 59 Washburn High School 201 West 49th Street Minneapolis 55419 Media Center Holle Brian & Sue Leskela, conveners SD60, 62, 63 Wilder Building 3345 Chicago Ave. Minneapolis 55407 Farheen Hakeem, convener SD61 Rockford Road Library 6401 42nd Ave. N. Crystal 55427 Rockford Road Conference Room Laura Libby & Stacy Arland, conveners SD44, 45 Lake Elmo Elementary School 11030 Stillwater Blvd N Lake Elmo 55042 Bob Schmitz, convener SD56 Glencoe-Silver Lake High School 1825 16th St E, Room 300 Glencoe 55336 Jared Schwab, convener SD18A Brainerd Public Library 416 S. 5th Street large meeting room Brainerd Marcia Thurmer, convener SD12 Bemidji Public Library 509 America Ave NW Bemidji 56601 Aaron Tank, convener SD4 Cambridge Isanti High School 430 NW 8th Ave, Room 119 (Lounge) Cambridge 55008 Leroy Schaffer, convener SD17A --- Holle Brian Minneapolis, MN 612-822-6593 holleb [at] aol.com --------6 of 7-------- The Downward Mobility of the American Middle Class, and Why Mitt Romney Doesn’t Know by Robert Reich Published on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 by Robert Reich January’s increase in hiring is good news, but it masks a bigger and more disturbing story – the continuing downward mobility of the American middle class. Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower-wage sectors of the economy – hospital orderlies and nursing aides, secretaries and temporary workers, retail and restaurant. Meanwhile, millions of Americans remain working only because they’ve agreed to cuts in wages and benefits. Others are settling for jobs that pay less than the jobs they’ve lost. Entry-level manufacturing jobs are paying half what entry-level manufacturing jobs paid six years ago. Other people are falling out of the middle class because they’ve lost their jobs, and many have also lost their homes. Almost one in three families with a mortgage is now underwater, holding their breath against imminent foreclosure. The percent of Americans in poverty is its highest in two decades, and more of us are impoverished than at any time in the last fifty years. A recent analysis of federal data by the New York Times showed the number of children receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million in the last school year, up from 18 million in 2006-2007. Nearly a dozen states experienced increases of 25 percent or more. Under federal rules, children from famlies with incomes up to 130 percent of the poverty line, $29,055 for a family of four, are eligible. Experts say the bad economy is the main factor driving the increase. According to an analysis of census data by the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, 37 percent of young families with children were in poverty in 2010. It’s likely that rate has worsened. Mitt Romney says he’s not concerned about the very poor because they have safety nets to protect them. He says he’s concerned about the middle class. Romney doesn’t seem to realize how much of the middle class is becoming poor. But Romney doesn’t like safety nets to begin with. He’s been accusing President Obama of inviting a culture of dependency. “Over the past three years Barack Obama has been replacing our merit-based society with an entitlement society,” he says over and over, arguing that our economic problems stem from a sharp rise in dependency. Get rid of these benefits and people will work harder. He and other Republicans point to government data showing that direct payments to individuals have shot up by almost $600 billion since 2009, a 32 percent increase. And 49 percent of Americans now live in homes where at least one person is collecting a federal benefit such as food stamps or unemployment insurance, up from 44 percent in 2008. But Romney and other Republicans have cause and effect backwards. The reason for the rise in benefits is Americans got clobbered in 2008 and many are still sinking. They and their families need whatever help they can get. The real scandal, as I’ve said before, is America’s safety nets are too small and shot through with holes. Only 40 percent of the unemployed qualify for unemployment benefits, for example, because they weren’t working full time or long enough on a single job before they were let go. The unemployment system doesn’t recognize how many Americans work part time on several jobs, and move from job to job. And even those who are lucky enough to be collecting employment benefits are about to lose them. A record and growing percent of the unemployed have been jobless for six months or more, and Republicans in Congress are unwilling to extend their benefits. Romney’s budget proposals would shred safety nets even more. According to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, his plan would throw 10 million low-income people off the benefit rolls for food stamps or cut benefits by thousands of dollars a year, or some combination. “These cuts would primarily affect very low-income families with children, seniors and people with disabilities,” the Center concludes. At the same time, Romney’s tax plan would boost the incomes of America’s most wealthy citizens, who are already taking home an almost unprecedented share of that nation’s total income. Romney wants to permanently extend George W. Bush’s tax cuts, reduce corporate income tax rates, and eliminate the estate tax. These tax cuts would increase the incomes of people earning more than a million dollars a year by an average of $295,874 annually, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. By reducing government revenues, Romney’s tax cuts would squeeze programs for the poor even further. Extending the Bush tax cuts will add $1.2 trillion to the nation’s budget deficit in just two years. That’s the same as the amount that’s supposed to be saved by automatic spending cuts scheduled to start next year – which, by the way, will hit the poor especially hard. Oh, I almost forgot. Romney and other Republicans also want to repeal of Obama’s health care law, thereby leaving 30 million Americans without health insurance. The downward mobility of America’s middle class is the big news, but the GOP apparently hasn’t heard about it. Maybe it’s too hard to hear about from that far away – and Mitt Romney is certainly far away. His unearned income last year was more than $20 million. That’s about as much as the combined earnings of a thousand American families at or just above the poverty line. © 2012 Robert Reich Robert Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written twelve books, including The Work of Nations, Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. His "Marketplace" commentaries can be found on publicradio.com and iTunes. --------7 of 7-------- What's in a name? Their real names were: Bemitto Mussolini and Adolph Mittler. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shove Clove
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