Blog Archives - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

May, 2023 Green Drinks - Lincoln Community Center Cleanup

4/30/2023

Cleanup Around The Lincoln Center - May Green Drinks
Tuesday, May 2nd at 5:00 pm

Cleanup:
The Lincoln Community Center - TMBC
318 E 7th ST
Davenport, IA (map)

Refreshments:
Armored Gardens
315 Pershing AV
Davenport, IA (map)

Environmental Forum

May Green Drinks will be a cleanup event in the neighborhood around the Lincoln Community Center in Davenport. Cleanup supplies will be provided. Wear comfortable shoes.

After an hour of work we will head to Armored Gardens (map above) to relax.

To be sure that we have enough supplies for our event, please RSVP at this link.

Everyday is Earth Day Fair - PACG Event

4/30/2023

Everyday is Earth Day Fair
Saturday, June 3rd from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm

Freight House Farmers Market
421 W River DR
Davenport, IA (map)

Environmental Forum

Join us to celebrate 2023 Earth Day. The flood has postponed our celebration to June 3rd. Visit our exhibitors at the Farmers Market and find out what they're doing to invest in our planet.

Susan Leuthauser

Kansas just redefined "sex" to erase trans people - No Hate In Our States

4/29/2023

Kansas Lawmakers Just Redefined "Sex” to Erase Transgender People

And Them

Them is the award-winning authority on what it means to be LGBTQ+ today — and tomorrow.

Here is an important article about what has been going on in the state of Kansas recently:

The state legislature overrode a governor’s veto to pass the extreme legislation.

Kansas Republicans forced through one of the nation’s most extreme — and incoherent — anti-transgender bills this week, prohibiting legal gender changes and requiring people to use public facilities that match their sex assigned at birth.

On Thursday, GOP lawmakers overrode Gov. Laura Kelly’s Monday veto of SB 180, which strictly defines “biological sex” as a male-female binary based on one’s capacity to “produce ova” or “fertilize” for purposes of reproduction. It also legally links terms like “mother,” “father,” “man,” and “woman” to biological sex.

The bill goes on to specify that “areas where biology, safety or privacy are implicated” — including public bathrooms, locker rooms, prisons, and abuse shelters — are necessarily sex-segregated spaces that do not constitute “unfair discrimination,” and must remain separated in the interest “of protecting the health, safety and privacy of individuals in such circumstances.”

Because the law mandates that a person’s legal gender must correspond to their assigned sex, SB 180 will also functionally bar any attempts to change one’s gender marker on legal documents, like driver’s licenses or other state-issued identification, effective July 1. But SB 180 does not provide any framework for enforcement of the law, nor does it outline what penalties a person would face for violating it.

Read the entire article here. And sign up for the Them newsletter here.

PACG Webmaster

"Abortion IS Healthcare - A Public Health Discussion" - Of Interest to Our Forum Members

4/29/2023

Abortion IS Healthcare - A Public Health Discussion
Thursday, May 11th at 6:30 pm

The Village Theatre
2113 E 11th ST
Davenport, IA (map)

Quad Science

Join us for a community-building event to hear from field experts who will provide evidence-based information about abortion and its role in healthcare. “Abortion is Healthcare: A Public Health Discussion,” will take place Thursday, May 11th at 6:30 p.m. at the Village Theatre in Davenport, IA.

This free event will feature a talk by Dr. Lena Hann, an associate professor of public health at Augustana College and abortion researcher. Following the talk, there will be a discussion and Q&A session with a panel of experts including Allie Wampler, a women's health nurse practitioner, abortion nurse, and sexual assault nurse examiner.

We, the organizers of the event, are local nursing students. We were inspired to put together this evening of speakers after representatives from a local crisis pregnancy center came to speak at our school. Their presentation included several points of misinformation about abortion. We wanted to take action to make evidence-based information on this topic available to members of the public, as well as to future members of the healthcare professions

Facebook event link: https://tinyurl.com/abortionishealthcareqc

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]

We appreciate your consideration and hope to see you on May 11th.

Lara Lee Paxton, M.P.H.

"Happiness in a Difficult World" symposium - Of Interest to Our Forum Members

4/29/2023

Happiness in a Difficult World symposium
Saturday, May 6th from 9:00 am to noon

Scott County Community College Urban Campus
101 W 3rd ST Davenport, IA (map)

One Human Family QCA

We will be exploring positive peaceful ways of addressing some of the most pressing social justice issues confronting our community today. We will have an excellent keynote speaker and stimulating breakout sessions. Registration is FREE and will be at the door. This will be our first symposium since before the COVID pandemic!

Rabi Henry Karp

Walk for River Rights - PACG Event

4/29/2023

Walk for River Rights
Saturday, May 13th at 11:30 am

Schwiebert Riverfront Park
101 17th ST
Rock Island, IL (map)

Great Plains Action Society and Cosponsored by PACG and others

PACG has agreed to cosponsor this event organized by Great Plains Action Society, the only active indigenous-led organization in Iowa. This walk across Centennial Bridge is in solidarity with BIPOC leaders who are working to reclaim Rights of Nature for the Mississippi River.

The event Facebook page link is here and repeated below in italics for those not on Facebook.

On Saturday, May 13th, the Walk for River Rights begins at Schwiebert Park (101 17th St, Rock Island, IL 61201) at 11:30AM and closes at 12:30PM at LeClaire Park (400 Beiderbecke Dr, Davenport, IA 52802).

Join leading BIPOC organizers who have converged in the Quad Cities to begin working towards reclaiming Rights of Nature for the Mississippi River. We will walk across the Centennial Bridge in solidarity as one River community advocating for the Rights of the Mississippi River, from the headwaters to the Gulf, and for the rights of all communities whose lives are supported by the waters. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend! A brief introduction and explanation of our convergence will begin at 11:30AM at Schwiebert Park.

The Walk for River Rights is part of The Mississippi River Summit (May 11th-14th, 2023, Quad Cities, IA-IL), a summit centering and advancing the leadership of 40 organizers of historically racially marginalized communities working to protect water, natural places, and sacred spaces. The goal is to build an Indigenous-led coalition from the Mississippi Headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually claim the rights of nature for the entire river system and develop an organized frontline group working to protect the Mississippi watershed and all living beings that rely on it as their home.
Organized by Great Plains Action Society. For questions [email protected]

*In case the water has not receded by the time of this event, we will adjust our route and end at the Figge plaza

Other sponsors include Sage Sisters of Solidarity, QC Native American Coalition, One Human Family, Nahant Marsh, Partners of Scott County Watersheds, Sierra Club Eagle VIew Group, and Young Lions Roar.

We have included a picture of the route map below. Please join us as we support this important work.

Glenda Guster

PACG Book Club - "The Round House" June, 2023

4/28/2023

PACG Book Club - The Round House by Louise Erdrich
Monday, June 19th at 5 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

Our next PACG Book Club discussion will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting at Edwards Congregational UCC. If you want to come in person, the address is above. If you want to join by Zoom, contact our Office Manager or me for the link. Also, since the church has after-school tutoring until 5 pm, we will be meeting at 5 pm instead of 4:30 pm.

The book is The Round House by Louise Erdrich. Here is a quote from Goodreads about the book:

"One of the most revered novelists of our time - a brilliant chronicler of Native-American life - Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever transforms his family.

Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece of literary fiction - at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture."

Alta Price

PACG Book Club - Evicted

4/27/2023

PACG Book Club - Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Monday, May 15th at 5 pm - hybrid meeting

Edwards Congregational UCC
3420 Jersey Ridge Rd
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Book Club

Our next PACG Book Club discussion will be a hybrid in-person and Zoom meeting at Edwards Congregational UCC. If you want to come in person, the address is above. If you want to join by Zoom, contact our Office Manager or me for the link. Also, since the church has after-school tutoring until 5 pm, we will be meeting at 5 pm instead of 4:30 pm.

The book is Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond. In 2017 the author received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction for this book. Here is an article with more information.

Here is an interesting video with the author testifying before Congress describing the eviction problem and some possible solutions.

To get a head start on our June book, it is The Round House by Louise Erdrich.

Alta Price

✋ Hands Off! Happy Hour? - PACG Meetings

4/16/2023

✋ Hands Off! Happy Hour🤚
Wednesday, May 3rd at 5:00 pm

Mary's on 2nd
832 W 2nd ST
Davenport, IA (map)

Gender Equity Forum

The Gender Equity forum invites you to attend our next Hands Off Happy Hour. We had a great time last month at Mary's. Feel free to bring snacks to share. Come chill out with like-minded folks.

Alta Price

Support PACG with Birdies for Charity 2023 - A Message from the Board

4/13/2023

Chip in to support PACG through Birdies for Charity!
through Friday, July 7th *

Chip in for PACG!

Chip in for a chance to win!

Once again, this year PACG is participating in the John Deere Birdies for Charity drive! The John Deere Classic runs from July 5th through 9th this year. Here is some information from the Birdies for Charity website about what this means for us:

When you chip in to help area charities, you could win! But your favorite charity will be the real winner. That’s because participating charities receive 100% of the donations pledged to them in this program, plus a bonus from the Birdies for Charity Bonus Fund which is a guaranteed 5% match.

John Deere Classic week is always exciting. Not just for the tournament, but also for what the tournament means for charities. Since 1971, the John Deere Classic has delivered over $159 million to regional charities, most of it through its innovative Birdies for Charity program. No other event on the PGA TOUR does it better -- and it's the generous and hardworking nature of this area that makes it happen!

Progressive Action Update readers, you can win a two-year lease on a new car by submitting your pledge donation form by June 16th!

And whatever you give to PACG through Birdies for Charity increases your donation by 5% through their generous matching offer.

Click this link or the button (above and below) to donate online to PACG! Our "Bird" is #2363
https://birdiesforcharity.com/donate?charity=2363

OR

Download your Birdies for Charity pledge form here. Fill it out (include PACG and Bird number 2363 at the top) and mail it to:

BIRDIES FOR CHARITY
15623 Coaltown Rd
East Moline, Illinois 61244

Make checks payable to Quad Cities Golf Classic Charitable Foundation.

* Important dates:
Friday, June 16th: Pledges and Guesses for the Grand Prize are due.
Friday, July 7th: Pledges and donations must be received.
July 5th through July 9th: John Deere Classic Tournament Week

Ann McCluskey
Treasurer, PACG

Chip in for PACG!