Arise for Social Justice

Biomass Building Permit Revoked!!!!

2012-01-25T22:24:00.000-05:00

BIOMASS PERMIT REVOKED!!!

Biomass Building Permit revoked!! Details to follow!

Three Strikes legislation wrong direction for MA-- take action now!

2012-01-22T10:21:00.000-05:00

From the ACLU:

A lot is on the line and we need your help. Massachusetts lawmakers are under intense pressure to pass a "3 strikes and you're out" proposal that would make our already harsh sentencing laws even more punitive.

In November, each branch of the state legislature hurriedly passed legislation that would, among other provisions, expand "mandatory maximum" sentences for people with certain criminal histories who are convicted of new crimes.

That's right--mandatory maximum sentences.

Please ask four key legislative leaders to reconsider these overly harsh sentencing proposals.

Unless we take bold and steady steps, "3 strikes" would tie judges' hands and require them to impose the maximum possible sentence on any defendant with past felony convictions charged as a "habitual" offender--such as stealing something with a value over a $250 threshold.

It should never even be a possibility that a judge could be forced to lock somebody up for years for an offense like stealing an iPod or an expensive pair of shoes. On top of that, the law would push back any chance of parole, and in many cases strip it away entirely. That's not only wrong, but with a price tag of nearly $50,000 a year to taxpayers, we can't afford it.

Please tell Massachusetts lawmakers that mandatory maximum sentences are the wrong way to go.

Thank you,
The ACLU of Massachusetts Legislative Team

P.S. To learn more about this dangerous legislation, visit our website.

Women (who we love) arrested at Vermont Yankee while mourning cancer deaths

2012-01-21T21:38:00.000-05:00

Nancy First, Ellen Graves, Frances Crowe and Hattie Nestel await booking in the Vernon, Vermont police station.

The day after our intrepid warriors were arrested, a federal jusge ruled against the state of Vermont an in favor of Entergy, allowing the plant to stay open-- possibly as long as the twenty year extension granted to it by the Nuclear regulatory Commission. Vermont is the only state which has given itself the power to approve or disapprove the plant's permit extensions. The reasons are ironic. Read more here.

Article and photo by Marcia Gagliardi. As they participated in a walking meditation in the Entergy Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant driveway to mourn cancer deaths caused by radioactive emissions, fourteen women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group were arrested Wednesday by Vernon police and Vermont state police when they refused to move.

All were transported to and booked at the Vernon police station where Chief Mary-Beth Hebert coordinated collection of data for later charges. At the power plant, Chief Hebert told the women they would be charged with unlawful trespass, but no citations were issued during the bookings and no arraignment dates were provided.

Hattie Nestel, the first to be booked, said the arresting officer handed her a citation for unlawful trespass with a February 14 arraignment date. However, after conferring with another Vernon police staffer, the officer asked Nestel to give back the citation. “He told me the state’s attorney had called and instructed Vernon police not to issue court dates, and citations would be mailed to us,” Nestel said. None of the women received written citations nor arraignment dates during the booking.

The arrest marked the fourteenth time since 2005 that women of the group have acted either at the nuclear power plant or Entergy headquarters in Brattleboro to shut down Vermont Yankee.

During Wednesday’s silent procession at Vermont Yankee before the arrests, the women participated in a walking meditation while remembering friends, family, and all who have died from or suffer from cancer caused by radioactive emissions. The participants wore black clothing and donned white death masks during the procession.

Mindful of possible slippery conditions from recent cold weather and icing, the women took particular care to guide the steps of their friends Nelia Sargent, who is legally blind and Frances Crowe, who recently experienced a fall down stairs. Temperatures hovered in the teens during the procession.

Participants included, from Vermont, Julia Bonafine, 43, of Shrewsbury and Nina Swaim, 73, of Sharon; from New Hampshire, Sargent, 56; from Massachusetts, Ellen Graves, 71, of West Springfield; Anneke Corbett, 69, of Florence; Cate Woolner, 61, of Northfield; Sandra Boston, 71, of Greenfield; Betsy Corner, 64, of Colrain; Paki Wieland, 68, Crowe, 92, Susan Lantz, 71, and Nancy First, 82, all of Northampton; Marcia Gagliardi, 64, and Nestel, 72, of Athol.

Supporters for the action were, from Massachusetts, Mary-Ann Palmieri of New Salem and Ellen Kaufmann of Greenfield.

The women issued a statement after the action:

“No corporation has the right to poison our air, water, environment, and the future of humanity. We come to Vermont Yankee today representing the harbingers of death that emanates from this reactor.

“We cry for the suffering and poisoning of the aquatic life in our Connecticut River and for all life that surrounds it and is polluted by it.

“We cry for our children, their children, and those many generations that will have to suffer from the poisons that are emitted from Vermont Yankee and the other 103 commercial reactors in the U.S.We call on the state to act responsibly and join us in shutting down Vermont Yankee NOW!

“We call on all persons who do not want to see their air, water, environment, and life killed by this nuclear reactor to join us in shutting it down by such citizens’ non-violent actions now.

“Don't wait-tomorrow may be too late!”

What shall I do with this child?

2012-01-17T17:42:00.001-05:00

If I don't just sit down and write this, without worrying about telling the tale in the right order, or remembering all the other things I was supposed to write about, etc., it won't get written, so here goes:

On Friday, a young, 20 year old woman calls us from the Liberty St. welfare office-- she is three months pregnant and homeless and welfare won't help her-- can we? She's sitting there with two suitcases and no bus money, so Ruben drives down, picks her up and brings her back to the office.

The story comes out: welfare won't help her because she was in a family shelter in September and left, and welfare (actually, the Dept. of Housing and Community Development) has a rule: no help available within one year of leaving shelter.

"Why did you leave?" I ask.

"Because when I went to the shelter, I was in the process of arranging temporary custody for my three year old son, and it happened faster than I thought, so once I didn't have him with me anymore, I wasn't eligible for shelter, and I had to leave."

Seems like Friday is always the day we have situations like this-- agency folks already looking toward the weekend-- a three day weekend, in this case-- and not reachable by phone-- not that a situation like hers is going to get resolved in a single working day anyway: the wheels of bureaucracy move very slowly. We make a lot of phone calls, nothing pays off; I'm getting ready to prepare her physically and psychologically for a night in the women's shelter at Worthington St. when Pat Murray from Nehemiah House calls me back-- they'll take her for the weekend. But while I'm talking to Pat, she calls her sister's boyfriend, who offered to pay for her to stay in a motel for a week, long enough, she hoped, for us to find her some real help.

I triy to talk her into staying at Nehemiah House, and using her week in a motel after that, but she's tired (and so am I) and just wants to be somewhere where she doesn't have to deal with any more strangers. So we wait for the money to be wired, and then I drive her to this fleabag motel. (And when I get home, a woman has responded to my Facebook post with an offer! Thank you!)

While all this is being negotiated, I get to hear a little more of her story.

"Where is your son now?" I ask.

"One of my foster moms took him for me."

"Did you grow up in foster care?"

"Since I was seven."

"Do you have any family in the area? Your mom?" (Because you'd be surprised how many kids who grow up in foster care wind up back with their birth parents.)

"No, my mom died when I was seven."

"That's terrible. What did she die of?"

"Kidney failure. She'd been in and out of jail, and she wasn't getting good care, and when she finally got out, and got on dialysis, she was pretty far gone-- she actually died pretty soon after."

"Any other family?"

"Just a sister-- but she's living with somebody else, and I can't go there."

"Let me ask you a question that's going to sound pretty rude-- have you considered an abortion?"

"I thought about it," she says, "but now I'm three and a half months along, and it's too late."

"Not really," I say, my voice trailing off.

"It just doesn't seem right, the baby's developing and everything."

I have yet to meet a girl who grew up in foster care (although I'm sure there are some) who will even consider an abortion when she gets pregnant. Those girls know abandonment only too well, and having an abortion feels like self-murder. I let it go, and drop her at the motel.

Tuesday morning, 10:30, and she calls me.

"I have to be out of here in half an hour, and I have no bus money."

"So the week turned out just to be a weekend?"

"Yeah."

Ruben goes and picks her up, and it's back to the office, more phone calls, you name it, we try it. While we're making these calls, I hear her on the other line, arguing with someone.

"But I don't want to have an abortion.....Hey, that's not fair to say, it's not just as easy to have an abortion as it is to-- what did you call it?-- open my legs and get pregnant....No, he's 18 years old and doesn't even have a job....Can't I just come there for a while?"

Overhearing her gives me an idea, and this antiquated phrase comes into my mind...a Home for Unwed Mothers! I try to reach Brightside, but get an answering machine.

"Ellen, what's that Catholic organization that used to have those billboards that say, "Pregnant? Worried? You are not alone!'"

"Birthright," she says. So I google Birthright and find a place in Worcester called the Visitation House, and while my young friend is still on the phone, I call them and explain the situation.

"She's homeless and some people are pressuring her to have an abortion, and she doesn't want one."

The woman on intake takes me very seriously, gets my number, the girl's number, and promises to try to have an answer tonight-- and if not tonight, tomorrow. Meanwhile, it'll have to be Worthington St. Shelter for the night. (I have two homeless people staying with me right now, and not even enough blankets left to make up a bedroll.)

As I'm driving her to Worthington St., I ask her who was talking to her about having an abortion.

"My godmother," she says. "She's in North Carolina, and I was asking her if I could stay with her, but she says not unless I have an abortion. But I'm telling her, Who knows what my life will be like in six or seven months? I could have an apartment, a job.....and she says, Well, what about the son you already have? And I say, It's not like I just gave him up easily, I stuck it out for three years, and I do want to get him back....I did it for him.

"besides," she says, "it's kinda her fault I'm in this situation. She's my godmother and she promised my mother she'd take care of me, but she beat me all the time, and DSS took me away from her."

There's really not much more to say for tonight. I bring her to Worthington St., and I can tell she's scared, but I'll see her again tomorrow.

So my mind is swimming with all the points of intervention that could have made a difference in her life, even though we have to deal with the one intervention that may be within our power-- finding her a safe place to be. Birth control....a mother who wasn't an addict...treatment for her mother instead of prison...a better foster care system...a change in DHCD rules...parenting classes...group homes.....Money!

I think of myself, pregnant and nineteen, so sure I could pull it off, so unaware of all the trauma that lay ahead for me and my daughter....If you believe in prayer, and you have any to spare, please say them for my friend.

Double Your Money?

2012-01-17T13:08:00.000-05:00

ATTENTION!!! ATTENTION!!! ATTENTION!!!!

We have a tremendous opportunity for you to help Arise!

Someone once said that the best way to double your money is to fold it half! All joking aside, a Google search for Double your Money brings up over 370,000,000 results! Many of these links are for scams promising double returns if you just send them your money. In reality, it seems like everyone is looking for a way to make their money go twice as far. Buy one, get one free sales have exploded around the country – couponing has become an obsession!

Here are Arise, we have an opportunity to double our money in a meaningful way. Recently, a local foundation has issued us a challenge grant. If we raise $1000 between now and April 1^st, the foundation will match It with a donation of $1000 of their own! This is a sure way to double your money and have twice the impact in our community!

Have you been interested in donating to Arise, but doubted that your single donation would make much of a difference? Donating to help with this challenge is a simple and great way to partner with us to double the impact of your donation!

I want to thank the donors who have already given! We already have $100 towards the goal of $1000. Will you join us and them in meeting this challenge?

Donate now via our blog’s Donate button (Just to the right of this post J) Or mail us your donation today @ 467 State Street, P.O.Box 5423, Springfield, MA 01101. Simple put “Challenge” in the memo line J

Join us on twitter :-)

2012-01-10T11:54:00.000-05:00

Are you a social media connected person? Have a blog, a twitter, a facebook and maybe even an old Tumblr or myspace laying around? Come join Arise on Twitter!!!
https://twitter.com/#!/AriseSocialJust

We're also on Facebook as both a group and an organization - join us to find out all the latest information and keep up to date on all the latest happenings here at Arise!

If you are interested in having your work published on the blog? Join us for our Members Speak feature :-) Member's Speak is a monthly column where we post what you have to say!

25 Years and Counting :-)

2012-01-02T15:06:00.000-05:00

25 years ago it was 1987. Reagan was president, Governor Dukakis and John Kerry were Gov and Lt. Gov , Richard Neal was Major of Springfield, Unemployment was at 3.5%, and the Monarch Life Insurance Company was beginning to build Monarch Place, the new 400ft skyscraper. Despite these statistics, cracks were beginning to appear in this façade of prosperity. Springfield’s crime rate was increasing and its white population was fleeing to the suburbs. Over 400,000 Massachusetts citizens received some form of welfare aid. A family of three, who received maximum welfare benefits, was expected to make ends meet with just $549 a month, just over half of what they needed to actually survive; Over 1000 families were homeless each month. The wealth gap was growing and those in poverty were beginning to grow restless.

It was into this environment, just two year earlier, that four women on welfare met around a kitchen table do see what they could about the injustices they experienced in the welfare system. As they began to build political power, helping with the Up and Out of Poverty Campaign, other members of the community began to join these women. As the Arise Community grew, the organization grew with it. In 1987, Arise applied for and received non-profit status and rented our first office in Springfield. Even though the founders eventually did find low wage work, they found themselves dealing with the same prejudices and oppression they faced as mothers on welfare.

Although Springfield and Arise have gone through many changes, their fundamental traits have not changed. Although Springfield is a slightly more diverse city with many cultural and ethnic traditions, big business and wealth still try to dominate. Minorities and the under privileged are still marginalized, ignored, and oppressed. After 25 years, Arise is still dedicated to fighting for the voiceless, helping people find their voice and working for city and culture wide change. Today, our issues have expanded to include issues that affect not only low-income people but all people. Our member driven committees cover racism, economic justice, justice for criminals, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, environmental justice, and anti-war/pro-peace actions. We have seen amazing progress on many fronts, but there is still much to be done.

Over the coming year, in addition to our regular efforts, Arise will be hosting a series of special events, blog posts, open mic nights, film nights, and other great events to celebrate the last 25 years and look forward to the next 25 years. You’ll hear from founding members, older members and some current members. It will all culminate this October with our 25^th Anniversary Gala!

We will be posting details both here, on Facebook and on Twitter, so please stay tuned and plan to join us in both celebration and in rededication to meaningful and lasting change!

Indefinite Detention

2012-01-01T06:40:00.000-05:00

This bloody, bloody war

2011-12-09T22:16:00.000-05:00

We're on a countdown to the end of the Iraq war, but almost no one seems to notice.

Nine years of war: what has it cost us? What have we gained?

In lives: As of today, 4801 coalition forces have been killed, 4483 of them U.S. military members. Official estimates say 32,200 have been injured, but some estimates put that number closer to 100,000. Many of those injuries are brain injuries and amputations that will affect those injured for the rest of their lives.

On the Iraqi side, more than 100,000 civilian deaths have been documented, but Just Foreign Policy, Lancet and other place the number at more than a million. The number of injured is undocumented.

In money: The official tally stands at $800 billion-- that's $3000 a second—for the duration of the war. These are direct costs, however, and don't include the cost of replacing equipment, vehicles and weapons, and the cost of providing health care and other benefits for veterans. That could push the cost to about $4 trillion.

I won't put all the blame for the recession on the war, but, in these times, can you imagine the number of jobs that could have been created with that money?

What have we gained? Only the most cynical would say that the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein justifies what we have lost. A few might claim that Iraq paved the way for the Arab Spring, but I'd be more inclined to say that the people would have overthrown Hussein themselves by now.

Can anyone think of even one other benefit from this bloody, bloody war?

Anti-war activists called this war before it happened. We saw the handwriting on the wall on 9/11, we tried to stop it and when we couldn't, we tried to bring it to an early end, and we couldn't do that, either. the last few years the energy of the anti-war movement has been sapped by a misguided faith in Barack Obama. Maybe we're just tired. Or maybe we're coming to believe that everything must change before there can be no more wars.

For more than nine years, Arise has vigiled every Monday at noon in front of the Federal Building in Springfield. We've had a half dozen major demonstrations there, joined by anti-war activists from around the Valley. On snowy or rainy days, maybe the numbers get as low as four, but usually there's a dozen or more people. We'll mark the end of this war in some way before the end of the year. But we will continue to vigil.

There's still Afghanistan.

Five years in prison for being gay

2011-12-08T12:43:00.000-05:00

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

From Change.org: In November, two gay men in Cameroon were sentenced to five years in prison simply for being gay, the harshest penalty allowed under Cameroonian law. During the trial, according to the AFP, the judge issued some particularly homophobic comments, leading one lawyer to call the trial “a bad ruling,” and leading Amnesty International to label these men as “prisoners of conscience.”
The sentence comes on the heels of increased homophobia in Cameroon, and debates over legislation that would further criminalize homosexuality in the country. Human rights attorney Alice Nkom told AllOut.org that “Violence against gay people in Cameroon has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels: the situation is quickly becoming a crisis. The president of Cameroon can put a stop to this, and if he feels enough pressure he will do so.”
Help send a message to Cameroon that the world is watching, and won’t stand silent while people are sentenced to jail solely because of their sexual orientation. Demand the release of these gay men from prison.

Shout Out for Out Now, Arise and NOL from prison!

2011-12-07T13:01:00.000-05:00

Holly got the following letter at home.....these expressions of appreciation are what makes it all worthwhile.

Holly,

I’d like to begin this letter by introducing myself to you. I’m 36 years old, Caucasian, male and I was born and raised in between Springfield and W. Springfield and Chicopee. Having an alcohol issue since the age of 13 has led me to a life of being in jails and institutions. I’m not a stalker or a rapist or anything crazy like that. I drink too much and hit people. I’ve never been arrested sober in my life. I’ve just remained angry at the judicial system because instead of getting me help they’ve just locked me up over and over. But I got them this time cuz I’ve helped myself. It’s simple, just don’t drink. I’m a father to a 13 year old boy who has been battling cancer since 3. He’s doing great right now. His mother and I were together for 15 years, decided to get married, after 5 months of marriage we divorced and have decided to go our separate ways. I apologize if I’m giving too much info I just want you to know I’m a normal person…

So I was reading the republican and came across your name and info for getting arrested at the protests. Shame on you (smiley face), just kidding. I’ve been in prison for 4 ½ years (I see parole in February) and I think it’s a shame what is happening with the people in our country. People are homeless and starving but the government would rather spend money rebuilding foreign countries. Excuse me if I’m totally off track but I have elder parents who have worked their entire lives, they’ve retired now but still have to work part time just to make ends meet. Recently my father has fallen ill and he’s unable to work. The bills are piling up and his insurance doesn’t cover all his medications and they cannot get assistance anywhere.

All this brings me to the purpose for this letter. I admire you and envy you for putting yourself out there to make a stand for yourself and those who are unable to make a stand for themselves. Being in prison is somewhat similar because if we do not stand up for our rights we’d be abused mentally and physically on a daily basis. And it’s good people like you who are standing up for my parents right now due to my absence. And for that I thank you. Honestly, I’d like to see this country protest the way some of these other countries do, minus the violence and death. Though my family isn’t being kicked out of their home my heart goes out to all of those who are going through this struggle.

So I hope my point has been made. My appreciation for what you’ve done, your sacrifice. Though I do not know you I will keep you in my prayers. If your legal issues become problematic please contact me. Over the years I’ve learned a bit about the law.

Your friend.

Kids get poisoned by lead-- but funding gets cut

2011-12-05T18:52:00.001-05:00

Nearly half the housing in Massachusetts is likely to have lead paint. New studies have shown that lead poisoning damages children at much smaller amounts than previously documented.

But the federal government is about to eliminate the remaining funding for lead poisoning prevention, and Massachusetts is very unlikely to be able to make up the difference. Read more at Boston Globe.

Last year Massachusetts had thirteen employees working in lead-poisoning prevention programs. This year, we have three. What will next year bring?

What can you do as the parent of a child who may be at risk? If you're renting, ask the potential landlord if the apartment has a lead certificate. And ask your pediatrician to test your child, and test regularly. Looks like we're on our own for the indefinite future.

Rally for clean air tomorrow!

2011-12-02T18:09:00.001-05:00

Local Residents Rally to Ask Governor Patrick to Stand Up For Strong Clean Air Protections

Biomass is not a clean energy solution for air quality issues in Massachusetts

Springfield – On Saturday, December 3rd, the Sierra Club Beyond Coal campaign will be hosting a Clean Air Rally in front of Gov. Patrick’s offices in Springfield. Several dozen public health professionals and local activists will be calling on the Governor and the Department of Environmental Protection to protect our health and our air by retiring aging coal plants and looking at alternatives to dirty biomass incinerators in Central and Western Massachusetts. The activists will display 1,000 petitions calling on the governor for stronger pollution safeguards and announcing our 80 business coalition partners. In addition to listed speakers, local residents will be delivering testimonials, all speaking as to why we need to move beyond coal in the Pioneer Valley and how we can do it.

We haven't forgotten about war

2011-12-02T05:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was quite giddy about this news of the Merkley amendment passing the Senate on a voice vote. The very day before the Senate -- to their great discredit -- had added dangerous new powers to the Military in the ever-escalating war on terrorism.

Where did my giddiness come from? I have found these last couple of days to be very upsetting ones in terms of U.S. war policy. Monday morning began with our local paper's front page announcement of a local National Guard contingent of engineers being sent off to Afghanistan for the next year. Their assignment? To clear roads of explosive devices. Will they come back to us? Will their bodies and their minds be whole?

Adding to my upset was knowing that every day the U.S. Senate was on the verge of passing on an obscene War Budget of nearly $ 700,000,000,000 for just one fiscal year. All dedicated to Killing -- or the Threat of killing -- to keep our top-dog position throughout the planet.

Then came the whopper. Embedded in the War Budget was a more frightening commitment to an already out-of-control escalated Anti-Terrorism policy (and what is that stipulation doing in a $$$ appropriation bill anyhow? Is there no Rules Committee in the Senate?) But it came to the floor and passed with 61 votes! The U.S. Senate moved a little closer to facism where THE U.S. MILITARY can summarily pick up a suspected terrorist & be her/his police, prosecutor, judge, and jury, putting a person away secretly and pretty much forever. The MILITARY in charge in this country. How is this different from the situation in Egypt? -- is the question I've been flinging about all week.
A lot of us were despondent.
So when I looked at the computer after dinner and saw that the Merkley Amendment had passed by a voice vote, I was astonished and delighted.
By the time I went to bed still trying to process all this, I was left with two explanations. The Senate needs a cover-up, a sop to what they will be about today (thursday) when the entire $ 600+ Blllion comes up for a vote. We citizens may well see them do what they've done before -- admonish the Pentagon and the President about the Wars one day, and then turn around the next day and vote all the money requested to execute the same wars.
I was still restless before I fell asleep. Where was this next thought coming from? Is it possible to look deeper, back into the younger days of some of these hapless Senators? Did they once glimpse what world peace, what the public good, etc. could look like? Was there an element of altruism in the voice vote yesterday afternoon?
These men and women, these Senators, so caught up in corruption on a scale never before possible in a governing body in all of history, may occasionally have a moment of collective recognition about the loss of youthful idealism. I suppose I'm thinking of the confused senior senator from my state, John Kerry, whom I often give up on, while still having a need to explain his thought processes to myself.
Is there a way to appeal to the traces of altruism in some of these Senators, instead of just denouncing them ? Still retaining the piercing insight we in the anti-war movement bring to the scene, I was wondering if I could add just a pinch of forgiveness for the human frailty of people with too much power which derives from too much money from too many unbearably ugly corporate connections in our society and the lies necessary to cover them.
What will happen today? Same old same old, most likely. How do we influence that? Drawing on the new energy of the Occupy movement and on our own inner resources and on the community we create as a movement, we can infuse our own overstressed bodies and brains and the organizations we work within to figure it out together and keep on struggling and doing what we do.
-- Sally Weiss, PDA End War and Occupations

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee - Walela

2011-11-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

Images twenty-one and a hundred and twenty-one years old....and still familiar.

Transgender Equal Rights bill signed today!

2011-11-23T18:08:00.001-05:00

Governor Deval Patrick Expected to Sign Transgender Equal Rights Bill Today, Public Signing To Be Held in Near Future

Today, Governor Deval Patrick is expected to sign the Transgender Equal Rights Bill privately, as he has just a 10-day window in which to sign bills into law. The bill was passed by the legislature last week. A public signing ceremony will be scheduled for a future date. The law will take effect on July 1, 2012.

“Governor Patrick has been a vocal supporter of the Transgender Equal Rights Bill since the bill was first filed in 2007” said Gunner Scott, executive director of the Mass. Transgender Political Coalition. “We applaud the Governor because he has been a staunch advocate in recognizing the transgender community and leader in getting this bill passed.”

Gov. Patrick was a vocal proponent of the Transgender Equal Rights Bill, advocating, he has submitted written testimony in support of the bill at all three public hearings. Last February, he signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in state employment, which reaches 43,500 executive branch employees and 13,500 state contractors.

In 2008, Gov. Patrick appointed the first transgender person, Diego Sanchez, to a Democratic National Committee standing committee. Diego Sanchez is a former co-chair of MTPC and has since gone on to work as the first out transgender legislative staffer for Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

MTPC thanks the members of the Transgender Equal Rights Coalition for all of their efforts in passing “An Act Relative to Transgender Equal Rights.” Some of the 104 members of the coalition include MassEquality, MassNOW; ACLU of Massachusetts; Jane Doe, Inc., The Massachusetts Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence; National Association of Social Workers, MA; Mass AFL-CIO; Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders; Mass Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus; Jobs with Justice; the Interfaith Coalition for Transgender Equality; and Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.

The House voted 95-58, and the House vote tally is here: http://aclum.org/sites/all/files/legislative/2011/trans/mass_trans_house_vote.pdf. The Senate passed the bill on a voice vote (see MTPC Senate co-sponsor list).

MTPC encourages all community members to thank the Representatives and Senators that voted for the bill and most especially, the lead sponsors, Representative Carl Sciortino & Byron Rushing, and Senators Ben Downing, and Sonia Chang-Diaz; the legislature's leadership House Speaker Robert Deleo and Senate President Therese Murray; and especially, Governor Deval Patrick.

MTPC will alert community members to the date and location of the public signing ceremony so community members may attend and MTPC plans to hold an additional community event on or about the same day to share in this historic moment.

Today's march: young people fight foreclosure

2011-11-22T01:05:00.000-05:00

Much more to say about today's Springfield No One Leaves and Bank Tenant Association's march against the banks, but this video by Kelly Creedon taken at the morning rally tells us why we fight and why, with youth like these, we can have hope.

March on Wall St. Banks omorrow! Right here in Springfield!

2011-11-20T20:40:00.000-05:00

From the Springfield No One Leaves Coalition:

REGIONAL MARCH & RALLY IN SPRINGFIELD ON MONDAY!

MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2011 @ 11AM – MARCH ON WALL STREET BANKS

GATHER AT CENTRAL & MORRIS STS. IN DOWNTOWN SPRINGFIELD

(BEHIND THE DUNKIN DONUTS ON MAIN STREET - MAP HERE)

We’re gearing up for the biggest action yet here in Springfield. Along with our brothers and sisters in 9 different cities throughout New England join us to march on the Wall St. Banks in downtown Springfield! Folks have committed to turning out from all over the region – from hartford to providence, and Boston to the Berkshires! We can’t sit on the side while banks continue to destroy our communities — its time to STAND UP & FIGHT BACK!

This action will culminate in a non-violent peaceful act of civil disobedience in downtown Springfield – please respect the guidelines of Springfield No One Leaves & the Regional Bank Tenant Alliance.

ORGANIZATIONS: PLEASE BRING DRUMS, BANNERS & OF COURSE BULL HORNS!

11 AM - Gather & Training for March Peace Keepers (if your interested in volunteering, please e-mail us)

11:30 AM - Rally in front of foreclosed & vacant homes w/ Bank Tenant Speakers, Springfield Youth and more!

12:00 PM - THE MARCH WILL LAUNCH DOWN MAIN STREET!

If you are interested in setting up for the march or being a peacekeeper for the march, please arrive by 10:30 AM

Tea Party, Scott Lively picket Arise while Occupy Springfield pickets them right back!

2011-11-18T22:20:00.001-05:00

Today the Stop the Hate and Homophobia Coalition, along with Occupy Springfield, spoke out against homophobia in Springfield with a march up State St., a stop outside Commerce High School for a "people's mic," and a demonstration outside Scott Lively's Holy Ground Coffee House, only a few doors down from Arise. . But before our folks got up to Lively's, I looked out the storefront window to see three or four Tea Party members picketing in front, carrying American flags and holding signs that said "Trust Jesus" and "Arise Lies!"

Tea party members have shown up at every Occupy Springfield event but I wonder if today they found themselves with strange bedfellows. Are Tea Party members homophobes? I wouldn't have automatically thought so...

Lively's group was handing out flyers to passerbys with big red letters at the top and bottom saying, "Arise Lies" and "Tell Arise to Apologize!" I won't type the whole thing, but a few lines should give you the feel and I'll add a few comments (and the bizarre punctuation, which I will replicate, is theirs, not mine):

Arise for Social Justice is a Marxist Front Group that Hates Biblical Truth and Persecutes Bible-Believing Christians. (I wonder if the Christians in Arise feel persecuted?)

Like the Communists of Soviet Russia, and their Fellow Traveler Saul Alinsky, Arise uses Lies and Deceptive Propaganda to Destroy Their Enemies. (Wow! Didn't know we had that much power! Usually we just go for the systemic change approach.)

Arise has Promised to Drive Pastor Scott Lively Out of Springfield because he Holds to Biblical Truth About Homosexuality. (Completely wrong on this one. Just like the radioactive material in a decommissioned nuclear power plant, we would much prefer for Lively to remain in our community where we can keep an eye on him.)

Arise LIED to Portray Pastor Lively as a Heartless Monster and put his personal Safety At Risk.

So let me stop right here on this line because while today's event had its humorous moments, homophobia is deadly serious. Lively's safety at risk? The hate crime statistics for 2010 were released just three days ago, and according to the figures, " roughly 1.5% of all hate crimes in the United States in 2010 were against Christians while 19% were against gays. That means that lesbians, gays, and bisexuals were more than twelve times likely to be the victim of a hate crime than a Christian." LezGet Real. And of that 1.5% of hate crimes committed against Christians, how many were perpetrated by gays?

Homophobia's effects don't stop with hate crimes, of course. Nearly 400,000 gay and transgendered youth in this country are homeless. Gay youth attempt suicide three times more often than straight youth. Joblessness is higher. Discrimination is still a daily experience. Just whose personal safety is at risk?

But OK. Today wasn't about being a victim. Today was about facing down hate and homophobia and taking back our power. We WILL not live in fear, we will not fail to confront hate.

Springfield's own Joe Olivero took this great video that says it all.

Don't let the 1% pollute our air in Springfield!

2011-11-18T07:49:00.000-05:00

"Artist's rendering" which fails to show nearby houses

Please forward this to your friends and coworkers!

Springfield residents should contact their city councilors to support these resolutions and contact Governor Patrick to urge him to uphold state law.

Springfield, MA - November 17, 2011 - Members of Stop Toxic Incineration in Springfield (STIS), a volunteer group opposed to the building of the Palmer Renewable Energy (“PRE”) biomass incinerator, are outraged at the issuance of the building permit by Springfield Building Commissioner Desilets that would allow construction to begin on the incinerator. According to Lee Ann Warner, STIS spokesperson, "This permit flies in the face of the Springfield City Council's 10-2 revocation vote of PRE's special permit. It sets a very dangerous precedent for Springfield to allow utility-scale incinerator development within the city limits without any special permitting. This effectively eliminates the public’s voice in decisions that affect our health."

Patrick Markey, concerned Springfield citizen and attorney, states, "The city’s issuance of a building permit for the PRE incinerator is contrary to the requirements of the City’s zoning rules. The facility lacks a necessary special permit."

Sue Reid, Director of Conservation Law Foundation – Massachusetts, added "The issuance of a building permit to PRE is directly at odds with the City Council’s revocation of PRE’s Special Permit. In addition, PRE’s rush to secure an unlawful building permit is baffling: state law prohibits PRE from beginning any construction because it does not have a final air permit.”

On Monday, November 21, at 6:30 pm in City Hall, the Springfield City Council will meet and vote on two resolutions concerning the PRE biomass incinerator. Michaelann Bewsee notes, "The first resolution would reaffirm City Council’s finding that the PRE Biomass plant is an incinerator that requires a special permit on land zoned Industrial A. The second resolution calls on the state to enforce its rule of no construction of a polluting facility prior to issuance of a final, non-appealable state air permit. The people of Springfield spoke loudly and clearly that they do not want – and should not have to tolerate – any more pollution in our already overburdened city. We commend the city councilors for acting on behalf of the people and support them in passing these resolutions."

Thank you from the volunteers at STIS, www.springfieldincinerator.info.

Veteran's Perks for Veteran's Day

2011-11-07T12:02:00.005-05:00

Photo from http://tearsofawarrior.com

No matter how you feel about the war, the government or military service in general we all know that the men and women who have served and are serving this country do/did so at risk of their lives and deserve so much more than they ever get.
This list of V's. Day meals and discounts comes from a friend. Nia:wen GhostDancer.

2011 Veteran’s Day Free Meals and Discounts

Two notes before jumping in:

Proof of Military Service. First, most companies require some form of military ID – including a U.S. Uniform Services ID Card (active/reserve/retired), Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES), Photograph in uniform, be wearing uniform (if your service permits), Veterans Organization Card (e.g., American Legion and VFW), DD214, discharge paperwork, or other form of identification. Other restaurants and companies may only require a photo of you in uniform, or go by the honor system.

Participation. Second, always call ahead to verify locations, times, and participation. Many of the listed companies are franchises and may have different policies. We will do our best to keep this page updated as we find new info.

2011 Free Veterans Day Meals

Applebee’s – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11: Last year, Applebee’s served 1,024,000 million free meals to military veterans and active service members. Applebee’s is again offering a free meal to military veterans and active-duty service members on Veteran’s Day, Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. There will be 7 entrées to choose from. Military ID or proof of service required. Find locations at http://applebees.com/.

Chili’s – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11. Chili’s is offering all military veterans past and present their choice of one of 6 meals. This offer is available during business hours on November 11, 2011 at participating Chili’s in the U.S. only. Dine-in from limited menu only; beverages and gratuity not included. Veterans and active duty military simply show proof of military service. Visit their website to find locations.

Golden Corral – Free meal, Monday Nov. 14: The 10th annual Golden Corral Military Appreciation dinner will be held on Monday, November 14, 2011 from 5 pm to 9 pm in all Golden Corral Restaurants nationwide. The free “thank you” dinner is available to any person who has ever served in the United States Military. If you are a veteran, retired, currently serving, in the National Guard or Reserves, you are invited to participate in Golden Corral’s Military Appreciation Monday dinner. For more information visit http://www.goldencorral.com/military/.

Special thanks to Golden Corral: To date, Golden Corral restaurants have provided over 2.5 million free meals and contributed over $4.3 million to the Disabled American Veterans organization.

Hooters – Free Meal, Friday, Nov. 11. Hooter’s is serving up a free meal to military veterans all day on Veterans Day. Offer good for all veterans and active duty military personnel. Choose one of the new specialty items on the Hooter’s menu. Offer valid at participating Hooters only; open to all active duty and military veterans with valid military ID or proof of military service. Drink purchase required. For more information, visit, www.HootersVeteransDay.com.

Krispy Kreme – Free doughnut. Available only at participating Krispy Kreme stores. Offer available to all active-duty, retirees & veterans on Friday November 11th. Be sure to call ahead to verify your local Krispy Kreme is participating.

McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants – free lunch or dinner, Sunday Nov 13, 2011: McCormick & Schmick’s is celebrating their 13th annual Veteran’s Appreciation Event on Sunday, November 13th. Veterans will be able to choose a complimentary lunch or dinner entrée. Veterans must provide proof of military service. Be sure to contact your local McCormick & Schmick’s as this is valid at participating restaurants only. Also, Space is limited and reservations are highly recommended. For more information visit: M&S Veterans Appreciation Event.

Outback Steakhouse – A week of Free Bloomin’ Onions and Cokes Monday Nov. 7 – Friday Nov. 11. Outback Steakhouse is honoring America’s military veterans by offering active duty military and veterans a free Bloomin’ Onion and a Coca-Cola product during the week leading up to Veteran’s Day. This offer is available to Military Personnel who have one of the following forms of identifications: U.S Uniform Services Identification Card, U.S Uniform Services Retired Identification Card, Current Leave and Earnings Statement (LES), DD form 214 Veterans Organization Card (i.e., American Legion and VFW), Photograph in Uniform, Wearing Uniform. For more information, visit,http://outback.com/companyinfo/veteransday.aspx.

The Outback understands commitment. For the past two years, The Outback, with the help of their patrons, has donated $2 Million to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization providing everyday and emergency support for active troops, wounded warriors and their families.

Subway – Free Six Inch Sub. Select Subway locations offer a FREE six inch sub to military veterans on Veteran’s Day. However, Subway restaurants are franchises, so this offer may not be available everywhere. Please call ahead.

Texas Roadhouse – free meal, Friday, Nov. 11. Offer varies by location; our local Texas Roadhouse is offering a free meal from opening until 4pm. Other locations may vary in offer, hours, or availability. Call ahead to your local restaurant for more information.

T.G.I. Friday’s – Buy one get one free Nov 11-14. At participating locations for anyone with an old or current military ID. November 11-14.

Uno Chicago Grill, Friday, Nov. 11. Uno’s is offering a free entree or individual pizza with a purchase of an entree or pizza of equal or greater value. Offer good for all military for veterans and active duty military. ID or proof of service required: Show up in uniform (if your service permits), provide military ID, show a picture of yourself in uniform, or have other ID showing proof of service. More info here.

Home Depot and Lowes Coupon Updates

Update: Home Depot and Lowes 10% Military Discount Available Everyday.

Home Depot: The Home Depot(R) is offering all active duty personnel, reservists, retired military, veterans and their families a 10 percent discount off their purchases in honor of Veteran’s Day. The offer is valid on purchases of up to $2,000 for a maximum of $200 and is available at The Home Depot stores, The Home Depot Design Center locations, Yardbirds and EXPO Design Center(R) locations. The 10% discount is available everyday for active duty and retirees, but not all veterans. Home Depot makes this offer available to all veterans on most military holidays. You can also find Home Depot discounts online.

Lowes: Lowe’s Companies, Inc. will offer all active, reserve, honorably discharged, retired military personnel and their immediate family members a 10 percent discount on in-store U.S. purchases made during the Veterans Day holiday. The discount is available Nov. 7 – Nov. 11. The discount is available on in-stock and special order purchases up to $5,000. To qualify, individuals must present a valid military ID or other proof of service. Excluded from the discount are sales via Lowes.com, previous sales, and purchases of services or gift cards. Like Home Depot, Lowes offers this discount daily to active duty military members, but not to veterans. However, they extend the offer to military veterans on military holidays. You can also find exclusive discounts at Lowe’s.com.

Free Park Admissions for Veterans Day

Here's to the Heroes

Anheuser-Busch Parks. Anheuser-Busch Parks offers Active Duty Service Members free admission for them and up to 3 dependents to any of their parks once a year. Throughout 2011, members of the military and as many as three direct dependents may enter SeaWorld, Busch Gardens or Sesame Place parks with a single-day complimentary admission. The Here’s to the Heroes program is only available to ANY active duty, activated or drilling reservist, or National Guardsman. Eligible parks include: Adventure Island, Busch Gardens (Tampa Bay or Williamsburg), SeaWorld (Orlando, San Diego, or San Antonio), Sesame Place, and Water Country USA. Not valid at Discovery Cove and Aquatica. Christmas Town at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va. is not included as part of this program. For more information and to register, visit: Free admission summary, and ticket application.

Colonial Williamsburg Free Admission. Colonial Williamsburg offers free weekend-long admission tickets to active-duty military, reservists, retirees, veterans, and their immediate dependents from Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 13th. The complimentary ticket includes admission to Colonial Williamsburg exhibition sites, art museums, and most daytime programs, as well as free parking and use of the shuttle bus system. Tickets are only available at on-site ticket sales locations. Tickets are also available to families of deployed service members. Tickets available on the following dates: Nov. 11-13.

Historic Jamestowne – Free Admission. The National Park Service commemorates Veterans Day with Fee Free days at Historic Jamestowne November 11-13. Free admission for everyone. See events calendar.

Knotts Berry Farm Military Tribute Days – Free Admission. Knott’s Berry Farm has an annual Military Tribute event in which they offer military members past and present by offering free park admission. This year the Military Tribute Days run from November 1 – 24 November (Thanksgiving Day). Veterans or current serving military personnel plus one guest get in FREE with proper ID presented at Knott’s turnstile (DD214, Veterans Administration Hospital ID or Active Military Service ID). Purchase up to six additional tickets for just $17 each.

More info.

Fee Free Day at National Parks. To honor America’s service men and women, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced that areas managed by the National Park Service would not charge entrance fees for Veteran’s Day weekend – November 11-13, 2011. Over 100 national Parks will be participating in this event.

San Jacinto Monument and Museum (La Porte, TX). November 7-13: Free admission to the theatre, Observation Floor, and (on November 12-13) the special exhibit to all veterans and their families.

More info.

Bed and Breakfast for Vets:

In the third year of the program, B&Bs for Vets has organized over 485 (and counting) participating Bed and Breakfasts and Inns across the US and Canada which will be offering veterans a free night’s stay on November 10th, the night before Veterans Day. This offer is available to both active duty military members and veterans with ID, but space is limited. Each Inn and B&B has at least one room available for this promotion and reservations must be made directly through the participating Inns and B&Bs. For more information visit B&Bs for Vets.

Free Hugo® Canes for Veterans:

Sam’s Club® locations nationwide will distribute 36,000 Hugo® canes free of charge on November 9th, 10th, 11th, 2011 to U.S. military veterans in need of mobility assistance. Limited quantities available, while supplies last. Sam’s Club® Membership is not required, but proof of military service may be required. For more information, visit HugoSalutes.com.

Other Veteran’s Day Discounts:

Here are some additional Veteran’s Day Discounts. In all cases, be sure to provide proper ID or proof of service. In addition, some of these stores are franchises, so verify participation before assuming the discount is in place.

Free Car wash. Thousands of car washes around the country are offering vets a free car wash on Veterans Day. Find a list at Grace for Veterans, which helped veterans receive 101,537 FREE Washes on Veterans Day in 2010.

Amazon.com – Discount “Veterans Day Honor” MP3 album download. This downloadable album includes 12 songs as performed by the military bands and ensembles of the U.S. Armed Forces. Visit Amazon on Veteran’s Day to download the album.

Netflix – One Month Free Trial.

Sport Clips – FREE haircut to active-duty military & veterans. Offer only available at select locations. Please call to verify local participation.

Tim Hortons – all US locations are offering a free donut to all veterans (check out the Star Spangled donut!).

$100 for opening new Chase Freedom VISA.

Jos. A. Bank Veteran’s Day coupons:

All Executive suits $177, 2nd $57 – Lowest prices this year for suits! You save $866 when you buy 2!

All Traveler and Signature Suits $377, 2nd $97

All Joseph & Signature Gold Suits $577, 2nd $197

ALL SPORTCOATS, BLAZERS AND DRESS PANTS 50% OFF

JOS A BANK VETERANS DAY SALE ORDERS $175+ SHIP FREE Valid: NOVEMBER 11, 2010.

Valid: November 11, 2010

Regional Veteran’s Day Discounts:

There have been multiple request to include local and regional Veteran’s Day discounts. We are happy to include these in our list. Please use our Contact Page to send us the information. Please be sure to include a link to the website so we can verify it and share it with our readers. If a website is not available, then please use the company e-mail address so we can verify the offer.

America’s Incredible Pizza Company (St. Louis and St. Peters, MO). Free meal Nov. 11th. Call ahead to verify hours and locations.

Aquarium of the Pacific (Long Beach, CA). Free admission for veterans, military personnel, police officers, and firefighters who show valid service ID on November 11, 2011. More info.

Brevard Zoo (Melbourne, FL), Nov. 11-13. Free Admission to military veterans with proof of service. More info.

Des Moines Botanical Center. Free admission November 11, 2011 for Veterans and their families. More info.

San Antonio Symphony and the United States Air Force Band of the West. Free Veterans Day Concert November 13, 2011. More info.

2010 Veterans Day Deals:

The following is a sampling of some deals from last year. We are working to confirm any discounts or freebies for 2011. At this time please use the following entries only as reference until current deals can be confirmed.

Abuelo’s Mexican Food. Offers vary by location. Be sure to verify in advance.

Barmuda (Iowa) – free meal. Barmuda is offering a free meal to all active duty members and veterans in all restaurants. More information.

Big Lots – 10% off your entire purchase with valid military ID. more info.

Boston’s Gourmet Pizza (Denver area) – Free individual pizza. All military veterans and active duty military personnel can enjoy an FREE individual one topping pizza this Veteran’s Day 5-7 PM! There are two Boston’s Gourmet Pizza & Sports Bar locations in the Denver area. The Highlands Ranch location is just off of C-470 and Broadway, at 53 W. Centennial Blvd. The newly re-opened Parker location is just off of C-470 and Parker Road at 19340 E Cottonwood Dr.

Cabela’s. Cabela’s is giving their standard employee discount to all US military veterans, active duty military, Guard/Reserves, law enforcement, fire and EMS personnel on Nov. 11-12. Discount varies from 5% to 50%, depending on the item. (I received this information from an active duty military member who forwarded an e-mail that was distributed base wide, however, I have not been able to confirm this; please contact Cabela’s before assuming this offer is in place).

Dollar General. 10% discount on entire purchase on Veteran’s Day. Offer good for all active-duty military, retirees, veterans, Guard/Reserve, & immediate family members. The coupon can be found in the store circular, or by asking an employee. More info.

Meineke in (Salem, MA). Free Oil Change – Friday Nov 11. U.S. Military Veterans and active duty personnel will receive a Free Oil Change that includes standard oil and filter and a complete courtesy check at one of the two participating locations: 462 Highland Avenue, Salem, Massachusetts (978) 741-0335 ; 4 11 Broad Street – Route 1A, Lynn, Massachusetts (781) 592-0001 .

Sears 10% discount Thursday and Friday, Nov. 11-12. Sears is offering a “Salute to Local Heroes” discount to all military, veterans, police, firefighters, teachers, and hospital staff. Offer is good for 10% of regular, sale, and clearance prices. See this store flyer for more information.

Sleep Number Stores. Free travel pillow to all active duty military & retirees now through Nov. 14. Find your “sleep number” setting, and get a free pillow – easy!

Gail E. Cheatham
Kickapoo Tribe in KS
2314 SW Burnett Rd
Topeka, KS 66614-1204

Don't forget: CD training this Monday

2011-11-03T22:04:00.001-04:00

Hello good people of the Valley,

I hope this email finds you all safe and warm. This has certainly been a trying week and I know that some of you may not be out of the woods just yet. Please do not hesitate to call on your comrades if you are in need of a hot shower, a warm meal, or a heated place to sleep! I hope I do not speak alone when I say that the outpouring of generosity from friends and family over the last several days has been a beautiful reminder that we are all in this together.

Despite the fact that this is a difficult time for many of us, we are moving forward with the Civil Disobedience Clinic that has been planned for November 7th at 6:30 pm at the Western Mass Jobs with Justice office at 640 Page Boulevard in Springfield. The clinic is designed to give demonstrators a general overview of what civil disobedience is, what the legal and practical consequences of engaging in civil disobedience are, and what demonstrators' rights are if they are arrested. Attorneys Jeff Feuer and Lee Goldstein of the NLG Massachusetts Chapter's Mass Defense Committee will be conducting the clinic. For more information on the amazing work these guys do, please check out their website at http://www.goldsteinandfeuer.com/. They have been fighting for people's rights in Boston for over 30 years and have generously offered to come to Springfield to share their expertise and knowledge with our chapter, as well as the community activist groups we work with.

The clinic is free and open to all who are interested in attending, including community activists, students, professors, attorneys, and legal workers. We are especially encouraging local NLG attorneys and attorney friends of the Guild to attend the clinic, as it will be considered an official training for those who are willing to help the WNE Chapter conduct Civil Disobedience Clinics in the future. As the only Guild presence in Western Mass, WNE Chapter student members are doing our best to provide Occupiers and other local community activists with the legal support they need to carry their movement forward, but as law students, there is only so much we can do. We are relying on long-time Guild attorneys and supporters to rise up to this momentous occasion in history to help us, the next generation of progressive lawyers, as we strive to meet the legal needs of our local activist community at this time.

If you plan to attend the clinic, please RSVP to wne.nlg@gmail.com. You may also contact us at that email with questions about the Civil Disobedience Clinic or to let us know that you are interested in becoming more involved.

I hope to see many new and familiar faces in attendance!

In solidarity, Lauren Marcous,Student Representative,National Lawyers Guild, Western New England University Chapter

Graphic from Deviant Art

ITS ABOUT TO GO DOWN IN SPRINGFIELD: 3 WEEKS, 3 ACTIONS ON THE WALL ST. BANKS!

2011-11-02T14:21:00.000-04:00

In October over 200 people gathered in Springfield to make clear that our city will not be controlled by corporations and corporate greed. We demanded that Springfield be for the people and by the people!

Back in September, over 55 of us traveled to join 3000 people for a massive march on the Bank of America headquarters in Boston, where 24 foreclosure fighters sat-in at the BOA offices--including many people fighting foreclosure against Bank of America.

The anti-foreclosure and eviction movement continues to grow as existing bank tenant organizing is being fueled by the occupy movement and vice-versa.

NOW THE FIGHT IS ABOUT TO COME FRONT AND CENTER TO SPRINGFIELD, MASS!

ITS ABOUT TO GO DOWN IN SPRINGFIELD!

3 WEEKS, 3 ACTIONS -- each one escalating the pressure on Bank of America & the Wall Street Banks!

Foreclosure Auction Protest w/ Sister Sellou Diaite

Wednesday November 9th @ 8:30 AM

73 Middle Street, Springfield, MA

Sellou qualifies for a modification from Bank of America, but due to a divorce has been unable to finalize the modification. BOA said they would wait until after the divorce was over since Sellou has income to afford the house at the current market value. The divorce hearing is in december, but Bank of America is going through with the foreclosure anyway. To make things worse, Sellou is back home in Senegal visiting family -- when she asked Bank of America to postpone the auction until she got back on November 18th, they said NO! We will be there in force to support Sellou and make it clear to anyone who is looking to buy that we will block any attempt to evict Sellou & her family! DON'T BUY TO EVICT!

UNVEILING OF THE "Should YOU be Paying for BOA's Mess?" Photo Exhibit

Thursday November 17th @ 12 PM

Downtown Branch of Bank of America, Springfield, Mass

Join us as we unveil a powerful new photo exhibit showing the destruction left in the wake of vacant foreclosed homes owned by Bank of America in front of the downtown branch of Bank of America. BOA is bankrolling a potential lawsuit against the city of Springfield's landmark anti-foreclosure legislation even though it was unanimously approved and supported! We will not let Bank of America off the hook for the destruction they are causing, we will not let tax payers pick up Bank of America's bill again!

(A SNEAK PEAK OF THE EXHIBIT WILL BE UP SOON AT:www.springfieldnooneleaves.org)

MARCH & RALLY ON WALL ST. BANKS

Monday November 21st @ 11 AM

Gather at the corner of Central & Morris Streets. in the South End

(Behind the Dunkin Donuts on Central & Main St)

(FLYER ATTACHED)

THIS IS THE BIG ONE! Join hundreds of residents fighting back against banks who are foreclosing and evicting our families for the biggest action yet against the banks! Throughout November Bank Tenant groups are organizing protests, direct actions and re-occupations of bank owned homes to keep up the pressure. This month of action will culminate as residents from all 8 cities in New England Bank Tenant Groups are coming together for a major action against Bank of America & the Wall Street banks.

The action will end with a dramatic civil disobedience action -- if you are interested in getting involved please e-mail: nooneleavesspringfield@gmail.com

DOWNLOAD FLYERS & LOOK OUT FOR PRESS RELEASES @ www.springfieldnooneleaves.org

A Spanish version of the flyer will be out shortly as well!

--
Springfield No One Leaves/Nadie Se Mude Campaign

www.springfieldnooneleaves.org

nooneleavessspringfield@gmail.com

413-342-1804

Getting Ready: Civil Disobedience Training Nov. 7

2011-10-26T12:21:00.000-04:00

For all interested: as our people's movement is growing, we will be offering an upcoming CD Training (see email below) in Springfield on Monday November 7th at 6:30pm. The place is still being worked on. Let me know if you are interested so we can get a sense of the numbers. These trainings are good for all of us to go through, no matter our ability to risk arrest.

Also, from Lara:

This Saturday, Oct. 29 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Steve Thornton will conduct a training in nonviolent CD in Hartford at the King-Davis Labor Center (or at Turning Point Park… I’m trying to find out which). We’ll make it back with plenty of time to spare for the Springfield General Assembly from 5-6pm. Please send me a message (at larasb@hotmail.com) or call me at 413-218-4496 if you’d like to carpool with me and Joe to the training. Steve has a long history in labor and other social justice organizing, and I was proud to get arrested with him as part of the “Park Place 21” for striking workers last year. Participating in Saturday’s training doesn’t commit you to doing CD with them. Local activists are also discussing incorporating CD in upcoming actions. The more of us who are trained and ready, the better. Occupy Hartford is asking training participants to register at occupyhartfordct.com. i just did!

And, finally - REMINDER: we will be gathering for the 3rd time in the (un)Occupy Springfield Movement. We are building momentum. Please come join us this Saturday, October 29th, a day of national action - in Springfield's Court Square (intersection of Court St. and Main St) from 12noon - 6pm, with a General Assembly from 5-6pm. We are doing outreach to the homeless community and inviting folks to join us. Bring food if you can as we will be meeting through supper at the shelters and people need to eat!

For peace and justice,

Holly Richardson

Hello all,

This is Catherine Ady-Bell, I've been organizing the legal observers for Occupy Springfield actions. I had the chance to speak with a few of you about the National Lawyers Guild's plan to host a Civil Disobedience training in the area. I now have some details of the event and I would love it if you could circulate this info to the broader Occupy Springfield movement and any other groups/individuals who might find it of use.

The training will be on Monday November 7th at 6:30 pm at a Springfield location TBD. As soon as I know the location I will get in touch again but I hope having the date known will make it possible to spread the word asap.

Sol,

Catherine

Photo from A.F. Litt's photostream at Flickr.

Homeless: Throw Them Out With the Trash

2011-10-24T22:32:00.000-04:00

We don't usually post entire articles on our blog, but the following article is so important, I wanted the whole thing. So many people are homeless in Springfield, or about to be homeless, and, as Ehrenreich sums up, 70% of us are headed toward homelessness if our revolution does not succeed.

Throw Them Out With the Trash
Why Homelessness Is Becoming an Occupy Wall Street Issue
By Barbara Ehrenreich
As anyone knows who has ever had to set up a military encampment or build a village from the ground up, occupations pose staggering logistical problems. Large numbers of people must be fed and kept reasonably warm and dry. Trash has to be removed; medical care and rudimentary security provided -- to which ends a dozen or more committees may toil night and day. But for the individual occupier, one problem often overshadows everything else, including job loss, the destruction of the middle class, and the reign of the 1%. And that is the single question: Where am I going to pee?
Some of the Occupy Wall Street encampments now spreading across the U.S. have access to Port-o-Potties (Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.) or, better yet, restrooms with sinks and running water (Fort Wayne, Indiana). Others require their residents to forage on their own. At Zuccotti Park, just blocks from Wall Street, this means long waits for the restroom at a nearby Burger King or somewhat shorter ones at a Starbucks a block away. At McPherson Square in D.C., a twenty-something occupier showed me the pizza parlor where she can cop a pee during the hours it’s open, as well as the alley where she crouches late at night. Anyone with restroom-related issues -- arising from age, pregnancy, prostate problems, or irritable bowel syndrome -- should prepare to join the revolution in diapers.

Of course, political protesters do not face the challenges of urban camping alone. Homeless people confront the same issues every day: how to scrape together meals, keep warm at night by covering themselves with cardboard or tarp, and relieve themselves without committing a crime. Public restrooms are sparse in American cities -- "as if the need to go to the bathroom does not exist," travel expert Arthur Frommer once observed. And yet to yield to bladder pressure is to risk arrest. A report entitled “Criminalizing Crisis,” to be released later this month by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, recounts the following story from Wenatchee, Washington:

"Toward the end of 2010, a family of two parents and three children that had been experiencing homelessness for a year and a half applied for a 2-bedroom apartment. The day before a scheduled meeting with the apartment manager during the final stages of acquiring the lease, the father of the family was arrested for public urination. The arrest occurred at an hour when no public restrooms were available for use. Due to the arrest, the father was unable to make the appointment with the apartment manager and the property was rented out to another person. As of March 2011, the family was still homeless and searching for housing."
What the Occupy Wall Streeters are beginning to discover, and homeless people have known all along, is that most ordinary, biologically necessary activities are illegal when performed in American streets -- not just peeing, but sitting, lying down, and sleeping. While the laws vary from city to city, one of the harshest is in Sarasota, Florida, which passed an ordinance in 2005 that makes it illegal to “engage in digging or earth-breaking activities” -- that is, to build a latrine -- cook, make a fire, or be asleep and “when awakened state that he or she has no other place to live.”
It is illegal, in other words, to be homeless or live outdoors for any other reason. It should be noted, though, that there are no laws requiring cities to provide food, shelter, or restrooms for their indigent citizens.
The current prohibition on homelessness began to take shape in the 1980s, along with the ferocious growth of the financial industry (Wall Street and all its tributaries throughout the nation). That was also the era in which we stopped being a nation that manufactured much beyond weightless, invisible “financial products,” leaving the old industrial working class to carve out a livelihood at places like Wal-Mart.
As it turned out, the captains of the new “casino economy” -- the stock brokers and investment bankers -- were highly sensitive, one might say finicky, individuals, easily offended by having to step over the homeless in the streets or bypass them in commuter train stations. In an economy where a centimillionaire could turn into a billionaire overnight, the poor and unwashed were a major buzzkill. Starting with Mayor Rudy Giuliani in New York, city after city passed “broken windows” or “quality of life” ordinances making it dangerous for the homeless to loiter or, in some cases, even look “indigent,” in public spaces.
No one has yet tallied all the suffering occasioned by this crackdown -- the deaths from cold and exposure -- but “Criminalizing Crisis” offers this story about a homeless pregnant woman in Columbia, South Carolina:

"During daytime hours, when she could not be inside of a shelter, she attempted to spend time in a museum and was told to leave. She then attempted to sit on a bench outside the museum and was again told to relocate. In several other instances, still during her pregnancy, the woman was told that she could not sit in a local park during the day because she would be ‘squatting.’ In early 2011, about six months into her pregnancy, the homeless woman began to feel unwell, went to a hospital, and delivered a stillborn child."
Well before Tahrir Square was a twinkle in anyone’s eye, and even before the recent recession, homeless Americans had begun to act in their own defense, creating organized encampments, usually tent cities, in vacant lots or wooded areas. These communities often feature various elementary forms of self-governance: food from local charities has to be distributed, latrines dug, rules -- such as no drugs, weapons, or violence -- enforced. With all due credit to the Egyptian democracy movement, the Spanish indignados, and rebels all over the world, tent cities are the domestic progenitors of the American occupation movement.
There is nothing “political” about these settlements of the homeless -- no signs denouncing greed or visits from leftwing luminaries -- but they have been treated with far less official forbearance than the occupation encampments of the “American autumn.” LA’s Skid Row endures constant police harassment, for example, but when it rained, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had ponchos distributed to nearby Occupy LA.
All over the country, in the last few years, police have moved in on the tent cities of the homeless, one by one, from Seattle to Wooster, Sacramento to Providence, in raids that often leave the former occupants without even their minimal possessions. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, last summer, a charity outreach worker explained the forcible dispersion of a local tent city by saying, “The city will not tolerate a tent city. That’s been made very clear to us. The camps have to be out of sight.”
What occupiers from all walks of life are discovering, at least every time they contemplate taking a leak, is that to be homeless in America is to live like a fugitive. The destitute are our own native-born “illegals,” facing prohibitions on the most basic activities of survival. They are not supposed to soil public space with their urine, their feces, or their exhausted bodies. Nor are they supposed to spoil the landscape with their unusual wardrobe choices or body odors. They are, in fact, supposed to die, and preferably to do so without leaving a corpse for the dwindling public sector to transport, process, and burn.
But the occupiers are not from all walks of life, just from those walks that slope downwards -- from debt, joblessness, and foreclosure -- leading eventually to pauperism and the streets. Some of the present occupiers were homeless to start with, attracted to the occupation encampments by the prospect of free food and at least temporary shelter from police harassment. Many others are drawn from the borderline-homeless “nouveau poor,” and normally encamp on friends’ couches or parents’ folding beds.
In Portland, Austin, and Philadelphia, the Occupy Wall Street movement is taking up the cause of the homeless as its own, which of course it is. Homelessness is not a side issue unconnected to plutocracy and greed. It’s where we’re all eventually headed -- the 99%, or at least the 70%, of us, every debt-loaded college grad, out-of-work school teacher, and impoverished senior -- unless this revolution succeeds.
Barbara Ehrenreich, TomDispatch regular, is the author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (now in a 10th anniversary edition with a new afterword).