Photo of poster by Isi Trapper.
UPDATED 4/1/17
General Meeting - the First Wednesday of each month at 6:30 at the First Congregational Church, 30 Main St., Binghamton.
Coordinating Committee meeting (open) Second Wednesday of each month at 6:00 at Citizen Action.
Committee Meetings – each committee meets right after the general meeting on the first Wednesday of each month plus at other times (see end of list for details).
Actions and Events and Trainings
Saturday April 1 – 9:45 at Citizen Action "Don't Be Fooled" Door-to-Door Canvassing Kickoff event –Training will begin at 10:00, canvassing at 11:00 AND free BBQ at 1pm. For information call Mary Clark, 607-727-8110.
Monday April 3 - 9-11 am at Southern Tier Independence Center, 135 E. Frederick St., Binghamton. Program Title: "Including Students in Their Own IEP (Individualized Education Plan)" Panel Discussion with Q&A. For information contact Margaret Goodfellow mgoodfel@binghamton.edu 607-655-1929
https://www.nyspecialedtaskforce.org/southern-tier-task-force.html (to register)
Tuesday, April 4 – Albany - Health Care is a Right Lobby Day and Rally. In support of the NY Health Act (single payer). Van will leave at 7:30 from Citizen Action and return early evening. For information contact info@nyhcampaign.org To sign up for transportation call Mary Clark at 607-723-0110. (it is not too late to sign up just call Mary)
Wednesday, April 5 – 6:30 – 7:30 – Resistance Movement General Meeting – concerned about what is happening in Washington - updates on issues and planning future actions. First Congregational Church, 30 Main St., Binghamton. Committees meet right after at 7:30 –Communications/Social Media/Bling, Data, Education, Events and Rallies, Outreach. For information call Mary Clark at 607-723-0110.
Friday, April 7 – 11:30 – 12:30 – Phoenix Awards committee meeting at Citizen Action. For information call Amy Fleming at 609-306-0341
Saturday, April 8 - 10:30-2:00 - Let’s Talk: Civil Communications Workshop at the Binghamton University's Downtown Center. Lunch will be provided. (Suggested donation $10). For information call Sophia Givre at 607-621-7516.
Wednesday, April 12 – 6:00-8:00 – Resistance Movement Coordinating committee meeting at Citizen Action. For information call Mary Clark at 607-723-0110.
Saturday, April 15 – Noon – at Broome County Court House Tax Day Action, Rally and Speakers – Don’t give more tax breaks to the Rich and the Corporations and tell Donald to “Show Your Taxes.” For information call Scott Hoyt -607-644-6636.
Saturday, April 22 11:00-4:00 – Sci-Cli Festival – at Confluence Park in Binghamton. A sister event to the March for Science in Washington. Join us in solidarity and celebration of Science. For information call Scott Hoyt -607-644-6636.
Saturday, April 22 – looking into possible bus trip to Washington for the March for Science. For information call Scott Hoyt -607-644-6636.
Saturday, April 29 – bus trip to Washington for People’s Climate March sponsored by Sierra Club. www.eventbrite.com For information contact Wes Ernsberger wesernsberger@gmail.com
Saturday, May 6 – Civic Action Bootcamp: The Environment. Details to come. For information call Alice Caroompas - 607-343-5637.
The second meeting of Binghamton's Indivisible chapter drew 60-70 people. One of 7000 chapters of Indivisible, founded by former Congressional staffers who have charted a political change strategy, the group focuses on opposing the Trump agenda and retrogressive policies at the national, state and local levels. In Binghamton Tim Mollen moderates the group with many others who take on various responsibilities and organizing tasks such website and social media development, in person meetings, phone calling legislators, writing letters, editorials, etc., and generally holding elected officials accountable. The group is paying particular attention to REp. Claudia Tenney who supports most of the Trump agenda. The group has agitated for a town hall meeting without results so far.
Indivisible Binghamton is organized online with a closed Facebook group; interested people may apply for inclusion and get on the mailing list. They take as their blueprint the Indivisble Guide, accessible here. The founders of the movement took as their inspiration the success of the Tea Party in winning elections and opposing Obama's agenda. The strategies are the same; the policies and vision of America are completely different. It is a grassroots movement targeting elected representatives with contacts and creating a public presence. The movement is credited with rallying support for immigrants and against the travel ban, and most recently the vote on the Affordable Care repeal, which divided Republicans.
Indivisible Binghamton meets monthly and is promoting a TAX Day rally April 15th at the Broome Co Courthouse.
If you go to meetings with NY State Senator Fred Akshar you will be able to answer a short questionnaire. If you don't go to those meetings, you won't. But now you can answer the same questions and affect this sampling bias.
Here are the questions: 1. Do you support a NYS constitutional amendment to codify abortion rights?
2.Should health insurance companies be required by law to cover birth control and morning after pills?
3. Do you support continuing the Regional Economic Development Council Competition and Awards Process?
4.What's the one issue you'd like me to work on in Albany?
You can answer by emailing Fred akshar@nysenate.gov or via his website: https://www.nysenate.gov/senators/fred-akshar/contact
And by the way, Fred, the morning after pill (now more appropriately known as emergency contraception) IS BIRTH CONTROL. If you need a tutorial here is a fun tutorial from the Lady Parts Justice League: http://ladypartsjusticeleague.com/just-a-pill/
The biggest lie : we elected Christians.
"When i was hungry, you canceled my food stamps
When i was thirsty, you diverted lead & coal into my water
When i was sick, you tripled my insurance rates
When i was naked, you raped me & blamed me because i was naked.
When i was in prison, you enslaved me to corporations
When i was a stranger with brown skin you deported me
From the lonely you took away social programs
From the elderly, you took away meals & medicine
From the workers, you took away legal protections
From the young, you took away school funding
From the victims, you took away shelter
Instead of diversity, you encourage intolerance
Instead of caring, you encourage isolation
Instead of equity, you encourage military excess
When the 1% has ground us into the dust, taken all of our money, and let us die for lack of insurance - who will they feed upon?
anonymous
Catching the Sun: On Campus and Beyond
NYSERDA and Green Jobs are raising awareness of energy efficiency grants of up to $4000 and $8000 for 2-4 family homes. For more information attend the following session or call 723-0110 oe email bpacalis@ppefny.org.
WEDNESDAY MARCH 29, 7-9PM, LH 014., the Sun will be rising on Binghamton University.
There will be a brief forum on the future of solar energy on Binghamton University Campus, and the role and future of solar energy across the country. The panel will be hosted by Councilman Conrad Taylor, along with members of IDEAS club and Southern Tier Solar Works.
Promptly after the discussion, we will be showing the documentary 'Catching the Sun'. The film follows an unemployed American worker, a Tea Party activist, and a Chinese solar entrepreneur as they race to lead the clean energy future of the United States.
7:00-7:30pm - Discussion on BU Solar
7:30-8:45pm - Movie Showing
8:45-9:00pm - Brief Discussion
UPDATE: Binghamton City Council unanimously passed the "Welcoming Resolution" after 200 people attended the Council Meeting the week before. Councilman Conrad Taylor had introduced a “Welcoming Cities” Resolution to Binghamton's City Council and a huge crowd (The Press estimated 100) came out to support the resolution. It is a statement of welcome and support for the immigrants and refugees who live in our community. People were urged by Citizens Action and other groups to contact their council members and the Mayor. Mary Kaminsky introduced a similar resolution to the County Legislature.
Taylor was accused of "grandstanding" by other Council members and several members said that the resolution needed revising. The resolution was tabled to work on the wording that Council member Dani Cronce (D) and others objected to. Only one person spoke out against the resolution. City Council met Feb. 21 and approved the resolution.
Video at Pressconnects.com
The Texas Man Who Fought the Klan
by Patricia Bernstein
Ten Dollars to Hate tells the story of the massive Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s—by far the most “successful” incarnation since its inception in the ashes of the Civil War—and the first prosecutor in the nation to successfully convict and jail Klan members. Dan Moody, a twenty-nine-year-old Texas district attorney, demonstrated that Klansmen could be punished for taking the law into their own hands—in this case, for the vicious flogging of a young World War I veteran.
The 1920s Klan numbered in the millions and infiltrated politics and law enforcement across the United States, not just in the Deep South. Several states elected Klan-sponsored governors and US senators. Klansmen engaged in extreme violence against whites as well as blacks, promoted outrageous bigotry against various ethnic groups, and boycotted non-Klan businesses.
A few courageous public officials tried to make Klansmen pay for their crimes, notably after Klan assaults in California and Texas and two torture-murders in Louisiana. All failed until September 1923 when Dan Moody convicted and won significant prison time for five Klansmen in a tense courtroom in Georgetown, Texas. Moody became a national sensation overnight and went on to become the youngest governor of Texas at the age of 33.
The Georgetown cases were the beginning of the end for this iteration of the Klan. Two years later, the head of the Klan in Indiana was convicted of murdering a young woman. Membership dwindled almost as quickly as it had grown, but the Klan’s poisonous influence lingered through the decades that followed. Ten Dollars to Hate explores this pivotal—and brutal—chapter in the history of America.PATRICIA BERNSTEIN is the author of The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP and the president of Bernstein and Associates, a public relations firm in Houston. She has published articles in Texas Monthly, Smithsonian, and Cosmopolitan.
What Readers Are Saying:
"This book is an important examination of a dark episode in American history. It tells the story of how select individuals had the courage to stand up and oppose popular extremism from a diminutive mother home alone with her children to a brave lawyer, who used the legal system against those acting outside the law. It reminds all of us to stand up for our convictions." — Fred Zeidman, chairman emeritus of the board of the US Holocaust Museum
“The Second Ku Klux Klan needed stopping, and the brave, successful prosecution by Dan Moody was flawless. The heart-stopping narrative by Patricia Bernstein is a winner.”—Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center
“A chilling story of how the KKK was on the march across the US and how Dan Moody, a Texas district attorney, fought the Klan, the most violent political organization in our history, brought them to justice, and broke their stranglehold on Texas’ power structure. Patricia Bernstein’s dramatic book presents Dan Moody, Texas’ youngest governor, as a textbook study in political courage, demonstrating how eternal vigilance is still our safeguard against today’s threats from neo-Nazi and other 'white supremacy’ movements!”— Mark White, former governor of Texas
“Patricia Bernstein’s account of the Klan of a hundred years ago is a clarion call for vigilance today against all forms of bigotry that victimize those who are not considered 100% American because of their race, nationality, language, or religion. The book deserves a large readership, especially for those who are unfamiliar with the history of the Klan and their pernicious bigotry. It is also a valuable source for the many who have forgotten the disastrous influence of the Klan on American society and the fear and brutality it caused its many victims.”— Joseph A. Fiorenza, Archbishop Emeritus of Galveston-Houston.
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