Mn-prog-events Mailing List: Progressive Calendar 06.12.12 /2

[David Shove (shove001]

*P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    06.12.12*

1. Kathy Kelly        6.12 7pm
2. UHCAN             6.12 7pm
3. Palestine           6.12 7pm NorthfieldMN

4. Kolstad/health    6.13 6:30pm
5. Reading jam       6.13 7pm

6. WashCo Greens  6.14 5pm
7. Broderick/reading 6.14 7pm

8. Lakoff/Wehling - The Wisconsin blues

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From: WAMM
Kathy Kelly 6.12 7pm

Afghanistan: The Cost of Perpetual WarTuesday, June 12, 7:00
p.m.St<http://p.m.st/>.
Joan of Arc Church, 4537 3rd Avenue South, Minneapolis.

Kathy Kelly, coordinator of Community for Creative Non-Violence, a Chicago
based peace organization, will speak on the U.S. war in Afghanistan during
a public forum set for Tuesday, July 12. The event will start at 7:00 pm at
St. Joan of Arc Church, 4537 3rd Ave. South in Minneapolis.

Kelly who has traveled to Afghanistan six times since May of 2010, most
recently in the winter and spring of 2012.  In her latest visits, she lived
with members of the Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers in Kabul, learning from
them about the impacts of the war. In her June 12 talk, she will describe
life in Afghanistan today, the growing peace movement in Afghanistan and
the U.S. attempts to enter into a Strategic Partnership Agreement with the
current Afghan government, which would keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan
until 2024.  Kelly has received many awards over the past several years for
her work against sanctions, war and occupation, and on three separate
occasions, has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

The June 12 forum is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by
the Twin Cities Peace Campaign and Women Against Military Madness, and
co-sponsored by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition, the Anti-War
Committee and Veterans for Peace.   For more information call 612
522-1861or 612
827-5364.


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From: Joel Albers
UHCAN  6.12 7pm

UHCAN-MN's next mtg, to discuss Co-op Care progress and next steps, will be
tuesday June 12, 7PM, at Joel's home for a backyard BBQ potluck/social.

So pls bring food (like salads, sides, stuff for grill) or drink to share
and i will have the grill, tables, chairs, utensils etc. After 9 yrs of mtg
at Walker Church we can no longer meet there given the fire of the beloved
Church. So we need to also find a new mtg place.
Address: 3500 35th Ave S.Mpls, MN 55406

The meeting will focus onCo-op Care, our proposed cooperative health
insurance pool we are working on, a program of UHCAN-MN. Many UHCN-MN
members have helped work on this. So all UHCAN-MN folks as well as the
Co-op Care board, development team, fundraisers, and consultants are
invited to attend. Also, feel free to attend especially if are interested
in becoming a member/enroll of Co-op Care.  it seems very important at this
time that we have a social event so that the many people who have worked
hard on it can connect,meet each other and team-build. We also need more
folks for our board of directors who work in and play a key role in co-ops,
non-profits, arts, farms, physician and more.


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From: CMEP
Palestine 6.12 7pm NorthfieldMN

  Holy Land Film Festival, sponsored by Northfielders for Justice in
Palestine/Israel, 3 June Tuesdays at 7pm, Bethel Lutheran, 1050 Cedar Av.,
Northfield. Free and open to public. More info: Bill McGrath at 507-645-7660.
The films:
• Tuesday, June 12: “Occupation 101,” thought-provoking, powerful
documentary on current and historical root causes of Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.


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Sue Horns Kolstad 2sorns [at] gmail.com
Kolstad/health 6.13 6.30pm

Papa John Kolstad . June 13 a fundraiser for Jim Carlson running for MN
Senate and a strong supporter of Universal Health Care. The event will be
Wednesday, June 13 at 6:30 PM at 1255 Wilderness Run Road, Eagan, MN For
information: 651-330-3940. John performs 7:30 to 8:00


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From: Kimberley Nightengale
Reading jam 6.13 7pm

The Saint Paul Almanac is pleased to announce the eighth in its 2011–2012
season of acclaimed Lowertown Reading Jams, which celebrate the rich
literary history of Minnesota’s capital city.

The "Learning Life's Lessons" Lowertown Reading Jam will be presented on
Wednesday, June 13th 2012 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Black Dog Coffee and
Wine Bar, 308 Prince Street in Saint Paul. This presentation of the popular
and eclectic series, curated by David Vu, features performances by Olivia
Baker, Dua Saleh, Laurine Chang, Rebecca Song, Tsimnuj Hawj, Kurt Blomberg
and Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria. RSVP on Facebook


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Bob Schmitz allibobi [at] comcast.net
WashCo Greens 6.14 5pm

Your are invited to join us at the Gasthaus on 6/14 at 5pm.  We will be
discussing plans for growing the Green Party in Washington Co and updating
ourselves on state and national developments in the Green Party.   Please
join us.  The Gasthuaus is located north of hgwy 36 on Lofton.  Just after
crossing the railroad tracks, go to the west a short distance.

RSVP:  allibobi [at] comcast.net or call 612 245 3357


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From: RB
Broderick/reading 6.14 7pm

Thursday, June 14, 7 p.m. publication reading for poets Rich Broderick and
Maryann Corbett at ArtStart, 1459 St. Clair Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105.
651-698-2787

Rich Broderick is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Minnesota
State Arts Board Fellowship and a Minnesota Book Award. He is the author of
two books of poetry, "Rain Dance" and "Woman Lake,"  and one of short
fiction, and two books of non-fiction. He is the founder of Minnesota Poets
Against the War, a charter member of the Twin Cities Media Alliance who
helped launch the Twin Cities Daily Planet (www.tcdailyplanet), and a
former Green Party candidate for the St. Paul School Board. "Rain Dance"
was written, in part, as a response to the U.S. assault on Iraq in 2003 and
examines in poetic form the unacknowledged causes of war, ideological
extremism, and cultural alienation and despair.

"Perhaps you like tender poems about the beauty of the spring woods, or the
warmth of parental love? In that case, you won’t be interested in [this
book]. But if you want poems that offer a cutting-edge critique of American
culture, then Rain Dance, by Richard Broderick...[is] for you." Judy
Barisonzi, Verse Wisconsin Online.

"These poems deserve the highest praise, for their beauty, their honesty,
and especially for their clarity and accessibility. "Woman Lake"...is a
gift to all of us." Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate of the United States.

Maryann Corbett is the author of Breath Control, published by David Robert
Books, and Credo for the Checkout Line in Winter, forthcoming in 2013 from
Able Muse Press, as well as the chapbooks Dissonance and Gardening in a
Time of War. She has been a winner of the Willis Barnstone Translation
Prize and a finalist for the Morton Marr prize, the Best of the Net
anthology, and the Able Muse Book Prize. Her poems, essays, and
translations appear in many journals in print and online and in the
anthologies Hot Sonnets, The Able Muse Anthology, and the forthcoming Imago
Dei: Poems from Christianity and Literature. She lives in St. Paul and
works for the Minnesota Legislature.


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The Wisconsin Blues
By George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling,
Common Dreams
12 June 12

The Wisconsin recall vote should be put in a larger context. What happened
in Wisconsin started well before Scott Walker became governor and will
continue as long as progressives let it continue. The general issues
transcend unions, teachers, pensions, deficits, and even wealthy
conservatives and Citizens United.

Where progressives argued policy - the right to collective bargaining and
the importance of public education - conservatives argued morality from
their perspective, and many working people who shared their moral views
voted with them and against their own interests. Why? Because morality is
central to identity, and hence trumps policy.

Progressive morality fits a nurturant family: parents are equal, the values
are empathy, responsibility for oneself and others, and cooperation. That
is taught to children. Parents protect and empower their children, and
listen to them. Authority comes through an ethic of excellence and living
by what you say, rather than by enforcing rules.

Correspondingly in politics, democracy begins with citizens caring about
one another and acting responsibly both for oneself and others. The
mechanism by which this is achieved is The Public, through which the
government provides resources that make private life and private enterprise
possible: roads, bridges and sewers, public education, a justice system,
clean water and air, pure food, systems for information, energy and
transportation, and protection both for and from the corporate world. No
one makes it on his or her own. Private life and private enterprise are not
possible without The Public. Freedom does not exist without The Public.

Conservative morality fits the family of the strict father, who is the
ultimate authority, defines right and wrong, and rules through punishment.
Self-discipline to follow rules and avoid punishment makes one moral, which
makes it a matter of individual responsibility alone. You are responsible
for yourself and not anyone else, and no one else is responsible for you.

In conservative politics, democracy is seen as providing the maximal
liberty to seek one’s self-interest without being responsible for the
interests of others. The best people are those who are disciplined enough
to be successful. Lack of success implies lack of discipline and character,
which means you deserve your poverty. From this perspective, The Public is
immoral, taking away incentives for greater discipline and personal
success, and even standing in the way of maximizing private success. The
truth that The Private depends upon The Public is hidden from this
perspective. The Public is to be minimized or eliminated. To conservatives,
it’s a moral issue.

These conservative ideas at the moral level have been pushed since Ronald
Reagan via an extensive communication system of think tanks, framing
specialists, training institutes, booking agencies and media, funded by
wealthy conservatives. Wealthy progressives have not funded progressive
communication in the same way to bring progressive moral values into
everyday public discourse. The result is that conservatives have managed to
get their moral frames to dominate public discourse on virtually every
issue.

In Wisconsin, much if not most progressive messaging fed conservative
morality centered around individual, not social, responsibility. Unions
were presented as serving self-interest - the self-interests of working
people. Pensions were not presented as delayed earnings for work already
done, but as “benefits” given for free as a result of union bargaining
power. “Bargaining” means trying to get the best deal for your own
self-interest. “Collective” denies individual responsibility. The right
wing use of “union thugs” suggests gangs and the underworld - an immoral
use of force. Strikes, to conservatives, are a form of blackmail.
Strikebreaking, like the strict father’s requirement to punish rebellious
children, is seen as a moral necessity. The successful corporate managers,
being successful, are seen as moral. And since many working men have a
strict father morality both at home an in their working life, they can be
led to support conservative moral positions, even against their own
financial interests.

What about K-12 teachers? They are mostly women, and nurturers. They
accepted delayed earnings as pensions, taking less pay as salary - provided
their positions were secure, that is, they had tenure. In both their
nurturance and their centrality to The Public, they constitute a threat to
the dominance of conservative morality. Conservatives don't want nurturers
teaching their children to be loyal to the “nanny state.”

The truth that The Public is necessary for the Private was not repeated
over and over, but it needed to be at the center of the Wisconsin debate.
Unions needed to be seen as serving The Public, because they promote better
wages, working conditions, and pensions generally, not just for their
members. The central role of teachers as working hard to maintain The
Public, and hence The Private, also needed to be at the center of the
debate. These can only be possible if the general basis of the need for The
Public is focused on every day.

Scott Walker was just carrying out general conservative moral policies,
taking the next step along a well-worn path.

What progressives need to do is clear. To people who have mixed values -
partly progressive, partly conservative - talk progressive values in
progressive language, thus strengthening progressive moral views in their
brains. Never move to the right thinking you’ll get more cooperation that
way.

Start telling deep truths out loud all day every day: Democracy is about
citizens caring about each other. The Public is necessary for The Private.
Pensions are delayed earnings for work already done; eliminating them is
theft. Unions protect workers from corporate exploitation - low salaries,
no job security, managerial threats, and inhumane working conditions.
Public schools are essential to opportunity, and not just financially: they
provide the opportunity to make the most of students’ skills and interests.
They are also essential to democracy, since democracy requires an educated
citizenry at large, as well as trained professionals in every community.
Without education of the public, there can be no freedom.

At issue is the future of progressive morality, democracy, freedom, and
every aspect of the Public - and hence the viability of private life and
private enterprise in America on a mass scale. The conservative goal is to
impose rule by conservative morality on the entire country, and beyond.
Eliminating unions and public education are just steps along the way. Only
progressive moral force can stop them.

The Little Blue Book [new book by Lakoff - ed] is a guide to how to express
your moral views and how to reveal hidden truths that undermine
conservative claims. And it explains why this has to be done constantly,
not just during election campaigns. It is the cumulative effect that
matters, as conservatives well know.


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          Shove  Trove