Health Care Reform Town Hall
Please RSVP; there are 300 seats available
RSVP: http://unitedvirginia.ning.com/events/health-care-reform-town-hall

AGENDA

Movie: PBS Documentary "Sick Around the World"

WELCOME

INTRODUCTIONS and MODERATOR: Andrea Miller

PANELISTS:

* Dr. William Ferguson Reid
* Dr. Lerla Joseph
* Dr. Margaret Flowers
* Ms. Brandyn Keating
* Mr. Charles Robideau

Public questions and comments
If you will be unable to attend but have a health care reform question, please address your question to richmondhealthcare4all@gmail.com

SPEAKERS

Protesters to Demand Release of Torture Photos & Prosecution of War Crimes of Bush Administration, March to Site of General Petraeus Award

EVENT: Protest demonstration/Photo opportunity

WHEN: Thursday, May 28, 2009 - National Day of Resistance to U.S. Torture

WHERE: Part 1: Grand Central Station, 5:00 pm

Part 2: March to Union League Club, 6:00 pm

Part 3: Union League Club, 38 E. 37th Street, NYC

THE STATUS OF THE PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT:

A DIALOGUE WITH 6 ARTISTS AND ACTIVISTS

Share an evening with 6 artists (singers and cultural activists) who recently were arrested on Capitol Hill for peacefully raising the issue of Puerto Rico’s colonial status before Congress. They also forwarded a letter to President Obama (below). They will provide an update on the issue, including cultural performances.

For more information, contact Manuel Rivera, Esq. or Ann Wilcox (DC chapter, National Lawyers Guild.)

LETTER TO PRES. OBAMA:

WE THE PUERTO RICAN PEOPLE

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Mr. Barack H. Obama
President
United States of America
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Honorable President Obama:

Panel Discussion: Liberian Activists Speak Out!

For over 80 years, the Bridgestone Firestone Tire Company has owned the world's largest rubber plantation in Liberia. Child labor, widespread abuse of worker's rights and environmental destruction have characterized the plantation for generations. But workers and communities affected by Firestone's abuses are fighting back. Come hear the leaders of the union representing Firestone workers in Liberia and one of Liberia's leading environmental justice lawyers discuss their fight for economic and environmental rights - and find out how you can support their struggle!

Featured speakers:

• Mr. Austin S. Natee, president of the Firestone Agricultural Workers Union of Liberia (FAWUL), the union representing workers on the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia.
  

Join us in Philly on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009. Activists from around the east coast are converging on the “Army Experience Center” (AEC), a 14,000 square foot atrocity built by the Department of Defense at a cost to taxpayers of $12 million.

The AEC gives kids as young as 13 a chance to play extremely violent video games, as well as sit inside real Apache helicopters, tanks & humvees mounted with M-16 assault rifles. The youth are enticed to jump on board and kill the “hadjis”. Right next door is the largest indoor skateboarding park which attracts local youth. Kids can be seen going from having fun skateboarding to playing bloody “war games” sanctioned by the US Army.

Stand up for Peace in the Middle East and Against the Pro-War Policies of AIPAC!

On May 3-5, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will hold its annual convention in Washington DC to rally its supporters to
push the U.S. government to support the Israeli government without conditions. AIPAC is advocating an aggressive approach to Iran;
supporting Israel's continuing to siege on Gaza and its refusal to cooperate with a UN investigation into violations of international law;
and backing the Israeli government’s refusal to engage in substantive peace negotiations with the elected Palestinian leaders.

Santa Monica: Healthcare NOT Warfare Forum

Single-payer healthcare advocates are planning actions across the country. Join Progressive Democrats of America and

Tim Carpenter,

Norman Solomon,

Mimi Kennedy,

& Tom Hayden . . .

. . . for a riveting discussion on single-payer healthcare and the Afghanistan war.

Hope to see you there!

Healthcare NOT Warfare

Progressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and justice. Our goal in 2009: Work with and increase the progressive majority in Congress as we build on our 2008 electoral successes. PDA's advisory board includes seven members of Congress and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Medea Benjamin, Thom Hartmann, Jim Hightower, and Rev. Lennox Yearwood.

Agenda for a New Economy Video and Discussion - Mon Apr 13, 7:30 pm

David Korten discusses how pouring money back into the "phantom wealth" of Wall Street will not heal all our economic woes. The "new economy" he envisions is locally based, community oriented, and devoted to a better life for all - not simply increasing the profits of the rich. It is a compelling agenda for our time, as we question how we should change the direction of our country.

After the video we'll focus on our varied and personal responses as progressives and ethical persons living in the midst of changes which are affecting many of us directly and certainly our world society as a whole.

Korten's two prior books are considered classics for sustainable economics: "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community" published in 2006 and "When Corporations Rule the World" in 2001.

The Problem of Punishment: Race, Inequality, and Justice. Keynote speaker: Angela Davis

The Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia will present a symposium, The Problem of Punishment: Race, Inequality, and Justice, on Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17.

Due largely to several important policy changes connected to the “War on Crime” and the “War on Drugs,” the prison population has climbed steeply since the 1970s, an escalation resulting in the following developments:

The State of the Justice System

• The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration and death row inmates, holding 25% of the world’s prison population but only 5% of the world’s people.
  

Some of us are out on the bricks these days passing around our resumes and trying to find honest technical work. Who contacts us nine out of ten times?

If you guessed, "war profiteers" you would be right. I've gotten ten emails today from companies crowing over the big technical job fair in Baltimore on April 16.

http://securityclearanceexpo.com

"Technical Job Fair" sounds great until you realize that you can't even get on the premises without a security clearance.

Join us April 16, Noon-2 PM in the Baltimore BWI to protest this disgraceful event, and help hold this banner "War Profiteers Disgrace America".

See The Banner