PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good - Blog

No Hate In Our States - 1619 Project

2/25/2021

Listen for Yourself - "1619 Project"
Online

You may remember several months ago, we shared a link to the New York Times Pulitzer Prize winning "1619 Project." You may also have heard of a bill recently introduced into the Iowa State Legislature (Rep. Skyler Wheeler, R, Orange County) to reduce funding for any school using the curriculum associated with "1619 Project."

It should also be stated that this project was created by Iowa native Nikole Hannah-Jones who won a Pulitzer Prize for her work.

Rep. Wheeler believes the "1619 Project" is designed to "tear down America."

Judge for yourself: https://www.nytimes.com/column/1619-project

Julie Ross

Letters to the Editor Re: Health Care - What You Can Do Now

2/23/2021

Letters to the Editors for Health Care
(and other issues affecting the common good)

Health Care Reform Forum

Health Care Reform Forum is working to keep affordable and accessible care in the forefront of legislators and the public. One of the most effective ways to do this is to write a letter to the editor.

To submit letters by email:

QCTimes and Bettendorf News: https://qctimes.com/forms/contact/letter_to_the_editor/

North Scott Press: https://www.northscottpress.com/forms/letters/

Dispatch/Argus: https://qconline.com/forms/contact/letter_to_the_editor/

Tips for Effective Letters to the Editor:

Keep it short (200 words or fewer).
Respond directly to something that's been published in the paper.
Include points about your personal experience.
You are most likely to get published in publications where you live.
If possible, mention the name of your specific legislator.

Themes specific to health care issues:

Everyone needs access to affordable prescriptions when they are sick.
President Biden and the new Congress must make lowering drug prices a top priority as part of their "building back better" efforts.
Without measures to make medicines more affordable, millions here and abroad won’t have access to affordable COVID vaccines and medicines.
To make prescriptions affordable, lawmakers must step in to end the drug corporations’ monopoly control to set prices high and charge us more.
Pandemic Treatment Access & Affordability Act (HR 597)
Lower Drug Costs Now Act (HR 3) - Passed House in November of 2019.

If you'd like more specific letter templates, contact office manager Julie Ross.

Contact Iowa State Legislators Regarding Progressive Values - What You Can Do Now

2/23/2021

Contact your Iowa State Legislators
Iowa State House

Voting Rights and Civil Rights

Legislation has been introduced in the Iowa Legislature that affects progressive values.

House File 590 impacts the ability of Iowans to vote:
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/publications/search/document?fq=id:1213531&q=HF+590

House File 222 proposes that information found in the “1619 Project” regarding the history of slavery in America be banished from public school's curriculum:
https://www.legis.iowa.gov/publications/search/document?fq=id:1210570&q=HF+222

Contact your Iowa State Legislators to express your views on both of these bills by visiting the links above. Legislators have indicated that contact by email is the most effective way to reach them.

Allison Ambrose

March Green Drinks - the Birds & Bees Urban Farm

2/23/2021

March Green Drinks via Zoom
Tuesday, March 2nd at 5:00 pm

Environmental Forum

Join us at our February Green Drinks. Kathy Byrnes from the Birds & Bees Urban Farm will talk about how to turn your yard into your dinner table. RSVP at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register

You will be sent a link to access the meeting.

Susan Leuthauser

No Hate In Our States - 28 Days of Black History

2/16/2021

28 Days of Black History
February 1st through 28th

28 Days of Black History

Each day in February, www.28daysofblackhistory.com highlights works (art, books, plays, songs, etc) that honor the triumphs, challenges and tribulations of the Black experience. This project was co-curated by Camille Bethune-Brown and Shanaé Burch and made financially possible by your contributions.

Each day includes a different selection, its historical context, and questions for individual reflection and group discussion.

Subscribe here: www.28daysofblackhistory.com

Follow the link below to see archives of each day’s highlight:

www.28daysofblackhistory.com/archive

Julie Ross

Of Interest to Our Community - Right-to-Work Laws Hurt Workers

2/16/2021

National Study Shows Right-to-Work Laws Hurt Workers

Indiana, Illinois, Iowa Foundation for Fair Contracting

In an eight-year period of national economic expansion that followed the Great Recession of 2008, the 27 U.S. states that had enacted so-called “right-to-work” laws saw slower economic growth, lower wages, higher consumer debt, worse health outcomes, and lower levels of civic participation than states that had not, according to a new study by the Illinois Economic Policy Institute (ILEPI) and the Project for Middle Class Renewal (PMCR) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

So-called “right-to-work” laws prohibit clauses in union contracts that require all workers covered by the contract to share in the costs of collective bargaining. By forcing more unions to provide services for free, “right-to-work” laws substantially reduce the resources these organizations have available to organize, negotiate, and advocate on behalf of working families.

“For years, anti-union zealots have presented so-called ‘right-to-work’ laws as a panacea to growing the economy,” said study co-author Frank Manzo IV. “Yet surveys of CEOs say ‘right-to-work’ has little effect on business relocation decisions, and the data shows that so-called ‘right-to-work’ states are performing substantially worse than their peers on wages, growth, poverty, and other core economic outcomes.”

See the report: https://illinoisepi.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/ilepi-pmcr-promoting-good-jobs-and-a-stronger-economy-final.pdf

Dylan Parker

What You Can Do Now - Enrollment in the ACA Opened

2/16/2021

New Opportunity For ACA Health Insurance!

The Biden Administration is offering a new enrollment opportunity for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (the ACA or Obamacare) from February 15th through May 15th.

An estimated 9 million Americans may be eligible for low- or no-cost insurance from the ACA. Log on to Healthcare.gov or call 1-800-318-2596 to explore your options.

If you have lost your health insurance during the pandemic, or for any other reason are uninsured, you may qualify for coverage. If you know someone who may be uninsured, encourage them to check out their options on the ACA.

Please help share this good news by reprinting the flier and posting it at your church, on community bulletin boards, or wherever it may be seen.

Thank you!

The PACG Health Care Reform Forum

Julie Ross

No Hate In Our States - "Witness History" Podcast

2/9/2021

**BBC's Witness History: Black History Podcast Series**

No Hate In Our States

Witness Black History Podcast

Listen to a series of brief and engaging interviews with people who were there at key moments in Black and civil rights history.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01h9dl0/episodes/downloads

Julie Ross

A Message from the President - Introducing "Of Interest to Our Community" WEU Section

2/6/2021

An Update to Our WEU - "Of Interest to Our Community"

A Message from the President

We consider our Weekly Email Update (WEU) to be an every-changing format for communicating to our membership. It grows and changes with our community needs, allowing us to continue to find new ways to share information.

Because members have recently shared things that did not have a home in the WEU we made a new one! We have added "Of Interest to Our Community" as an entry in our WEU Submission form under the question "What is the purpose of your submission?" This selection can be made when a submission is not a Community Event or Action Alert, but is stil important to our progressive issues.

In addition, if you make a submission to our WEU you will now receive an email confirming that we received your input.

Look for these changes!

Allison Ambrose

Of Interest to Our Community - Clean Energy Future

2/2/2021

Illinois Clean Energy Future

Prairie Rivers Network

365 Days and Counting: One year ago today (January 29, 2020), Illinois Governor Pritzker announced at his State of the State Address that he was committed to passing community-driven clean energy legislation that would create good jobs and protect our planet. Three hundred sixty-five days later, Governor Pritzker has yet to support the Clean Energy Jobs Act (CEJA) or propose any comprehensive climate legislation. Despite recent federal commitments for climate action, we know that state-led policies will be important in shaping federal action.

Prairie Rivers Network remains committed in 2021 to our partnership with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition to deliver just and equitable clean energy legislation in Illinois, and we'll need your support! Join this organization to learn more about actions you can take to help us fight for Illinois' clean energy future. Find out more here: www.info@prairierivers.org.

Lori McCollum