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PACG Book Club for April 2021

2/28/2021

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PACG Book Club for April 2021 - Caste  by Isabel Wilkerson

Our April 2021 book will be Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. We will meet via Zoom on Monday, April 19th at 5:30 pm.

Here is a description of the book from Goodreads:


"The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.

“As we go about our daily lives, caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater, flashlight cast down in the aisles, guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not.”

In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.

Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity."

This book fits in well with our theme of racial justice. Contact me by clicking on my name for a Zoom link to the April PACG Book Club meeting.

Alta Price
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No Hate In Our States - 1619 Project

2/25/2021

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

2/23/2021

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

2/23/2021

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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
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March Green Drinks - the Birds & Bees Urban Farm

2/23/2021

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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
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No Hate In Our States - 28 Days of Black History

2/16/2021

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

2/16/2021

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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
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What You Can Do Now - Enrollment in the ACA Opened

2/16/2021

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New Opportunity For ACA Health Insurance! Update

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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 August 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
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No Hate In Our States - "Witness History" Podcast

2/9/2021

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

2/6/2021

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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
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Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG)

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