Blog Archives - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Happy Holidays! - A Message from the Board

12/21/2022

Happy Holidays (and no PAU next week)!

Board of Directors

As 2022 draws to a close, we want to wish our community happy holidays, in what ever way you celebrate. Thank you for everything that you do to help support our progressive mission.

Due to the holiday, there will be no Progressive Action Update (PAU) until Tuesday, January 3rd.
Glenda Guster

Support Scott County Community ID - What You Can Do Now

12/20/2022

Scott County Community ID moves forward!

Quad Cities Interfaith, PACG Civil Rights Forum and other organizations

PACG's Civil Rights Forum is proud to support the work of Quad Cities Interfaith on the issue of community IDs for the county. Please read their letter below. And, if you have not already signed their petition, please do so here. This is an important program.

Allison Ambrose

Dear Ally,

Scott County officials agree to move forward with the Scott County Community ID! After meeting with Supervisor Ken Beck, County Administrator Mahesh Sharma, and Assistant County Administrator Mary Thee, they have agreed to move forward with the Scott County Community ID. This is a huge step forward for the Scott County Community ID and our organizing!

So what's next? County officials committed to having the necessary conversations with the County Attorney and the rest of the County Supervisors as Scott County Supervisors will have to officially vote to pass the Scott County Community ID. This means we still need to make sure incoming elected officials say YES when it comes time to vote.

So we are not done yet! We need to continue our efforts now more than ever to see this critical program through and to make sure it is best designed for the people who need it the most.

We continue to work with directly impacted people and our community partners to make sure we have a say in the creation of this program from start to finish. We will meet again with Scott County to solidify details and to make sure the voices of the directly impacted are at the table.

We still need YOU to take action with us. Sign and share our letter of support below, which has 27 institutional supporters!

Quad Cities Interfaith
Diocese of Davenport
St. Anthony Catholic Church
St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church
Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities First Baptist Church
Edwards United Church of Christ
Transitions Mental Health Services
Abarrotes Carrillo
Quad Cities Sanctuary Coalition
Humility Homes and Services
The Center
Safer Foundation
QCAIR
One Human Family
QC Pride, Inc.
Davenport Public Library
NAACP Davenport
OneEighty
Progressive Action for the Common Good
Dress for Success
Lift Women Foundation
Greater Quad Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce LULAC 5285 Moline, IL
Green State Credit Union
Ascentra Credit Union
Davenport Civil Rights Commission

Let's spread the word that Scott County is moving forward with the Scott County Community ID and win together!

Sign on: Pass A Scott County Community ID Now!

In Solidarity,
Quad Cities Interfaith

2023 QC Environmental Film Series - Of Interest to Our Forums

12/11/2022

QC Environmental Film Series
Sundays, January 22nd through March 5th at 1:00 pm

Various Locations

River Action/Singh Foundation

This year the annual QC Environmental Film Series begins on January 22nd and ends on March 5th. Presentations always begin at 2:00 pm. Each Sunday the films will be shown at different locations.

The films were selected this year by a set of youth judges, with hopes of building interest and activism in younger environmentalists. You can buy tickets for individual films for $5 each, or for the entire series of six films for $20. Or, if you want to have even more fun and connection to these activities, you could part of the Film Crew and help sponsor the event and get a season film pass for $50!

For more information visit: http://www.riveraction.org/filmseries

Download a flyer here: http://www.riveraction.org/sites/default/files/2023_filmseries.pdf

Lori McCollum

Holiday Party 2022 - After Action Report

12/11/2022

2022 PACG Holiday Party - After Action Report

Holiday Party Committee

Over 85 people sat down to a wonderful dinner catered by Maria Lopez of Tamales for Hope on Saturday, December 3rd at the Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) Holiday Party at The German American Heritage Center in downtown Davenport. We were delighted to hold this annual event for the first time in two years. And more than 40 guests committed to our initiative to get involved with PACG in 2023!

The PACG Holiday Party is also the platform to announce The Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice annual grant award. The Dick Fallow Endowment was established in 2013 to carry on the life work of the former PACG member, activist and union member. local activist and union member. Each year, the endowment issues grants to organizations that fulfill his mission by working in the areas of labor/economic justice, environment/sustainability and/or democracy/human rights.

This year, the $2,500 grant was awarded to the team from Cafe on Vine to support their work in the QC Community. Waunita Sullivan, Executive Director of Cafe on Vine, accepted the award. Cafe on Vine is operated by an independent Board of Directors with members from across the Quad City area and receives daily support and help from volunteers from throughout the community. Cafe on Vine will use this endowment to continue to provide free, nutritious meals to the needy of the community 365 days each year. They serve two meals per day, Monday through Friday (breakfast and lunch), a luncheon service on Saturdays, and an evening meal on Sundays. It is the only meal site in the Quad Cities to do so.

Forum leaders also spoke about each of our current 4 forums: Civil Rights, Environmental, Gender Equity, and Health Care Reform and their community organizing work and accomplishments during the past year.

The PACG Holiday Committee thanks you for coming and for celebrating another busy year:
Allison Ambrose, Alta Price, Ann McCluskey, Caryn Unsicker, Ed Broders, Glenda Guster, Susan Leuthauser, and Maggie Davis.

If you have not done so already please sign up here for the PACG Progressive Action Update, our weekly email, to keep on top of our activities for 2023.

Happy Holidays and thank you all for fighting for social justice throughout our community.

PACG Book Club for January 2023 - The Girl in the Photograph

12/10/2022

PACG Book Club - The Girl in the Photograph
by Byron L Dorgan
Monday, January 16th at 4:30 pm (via Zoom)

For January and February we will be back to Zoom. March may be in-person, depending upon the weather.

We are reading a non-fiction book about Native American issues in January, followed by a novel by a Native American author about a teenager growing up on a reservation in Washington State who decides to attend the local "white" high school.

The January book is The Girl in the Photograph by Senator Byron Dorgan. A description from Goodreads follows:

On a winter morning in 1990, U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan of North Dakota picked up the Bismarck Tribune. On the front page, a small Native American girl gazed into the distance, shedding a tear. The headline: Foster home children beaten--and nobody's helping.

Dorgan, who had been working with American Indian tribes to secure resources, was upset. He flew to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation to meet with five-year-old Tamara who had suffered a horrible beating at a foster home. He visited with Tamara and her grandfather and they became friends. Then Tamara disappeared. And he would search for her for decades until they finally found each other again.

This book is her story, from childhood to the present, but it's also the story of a people and a nation. More than one in three American Indian/Alaskan Native children live in poverty. AI/AN children are disproportionately in foster care and awaiting adoption. Suicide among AI/AN youth ages 15 to 24 is 2.5 times the national rate. How has America allowed this to happen?

As distressing a situation as it is, this is also a story of hope and resilience. Dorgan, who founded the Center for Native American Youth (CNAY) at the Aspen Institute, has worked tirelessly to bring Native youth voices to the forefront of policy discussions, engage Native youth in leadership and advocacy, and secure and share resources for Native youth. You will fall in love with this heartbreaking story, but end the book knowing what can be done and what you can do.

Alta Price (click on my name for the Zoom link)

PACG Book Club for February 2023 - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

12/10/2022

PACG Book Club - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Monday, February 20th at 4:30 pm (via Zoom)

Our February book will be The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. I found this novel to be quick to read, entertaining and thought-provoking. It is a nice companion to January's book, The Girl in the Photograph, a non-fiction book about challenges facing children and youth on reservations.

A description of the book from Goodreads follows:

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

Alta Price (click on my name for the Zoom link)

Interfaith panel discussion - No Hate In Our States

12/9/2022

Interfaith panel discussion to dispel misconceptions and find common ground
Monday, December 12th from 6:00 to 7:30 pm

Davenport Public Library
505 7th ST
Davenport, IA (map)

Civil Rights Forum and others

Allison Ambrose

Take action for Community ID - What You Can Do Now

12/6/2022

Scott County Community ID for ALL
Take action before our Wednesday, December 14th meeting!

Quad Cities Interfaith

Dear Ally,

After months of powerful organizing, QCI leaders, Scott County Community ID coalition members, directly impacted community members, faith leaders, and people who want to truly make Scott County an inclusive and welcoming place have won a meeting with Scott County Supervisor Chair Ken Beck and Scott County Administrator Mahesh Sharma on December 14th to talk about how the Scott County Community ID can be administered!

But some County elected officials want this program to only be available to certain groups of people. We know that for a Community ID program to be successful, it has to be available to ALL residents of Scott County. After all, this is a COMMUNITY ID.

We are very close to winning a Scott County Community ID, but we need YOU to help push this to the finish line.

Will you take action today and contact Scott County Supervisor Chair Ken Beck and Scott County Administrator Mahesh Sharma and tell them that we need a Scott County Community ID for ALL residents of Scott County?

Take Action Today!

We would like you to do two things:

1. Write an email to the Scott County Board of Supervisors, and
2. Sign our petition below (if you haven't already done so).

Email to Scott County Board of Supervisors
Address your email to Board of Supervisors Chair, Ken Beck, and to the Scott County Administrator, Mahesh Sharma.

We have made the writing process easy. Just copy and paste the message below into the email and change the parts in CAPITAL letters to your information and name.

To: ken.beck@scottcountyiowa.gov
To: admin@scottcountyiowa.gov

Subject: Community ID for All!

Message: My name is (YOUR NAME) and I live at (YOUR ADDRESS). I am a (AFFILIATION: a constituent/a member of Quad Cities Interfaith etc).

I am writing to you today to express my support for a Scott County Community ID for ALL residents of Scott County. We want Scott County to be welcoming everyday, and a Scott County Community ID would benefit everyone and make our community truly welcoming. It should be available for all Scott County residents, as we want our community inclusive for EVERYONE!

Once again, I am asking you, as your constituent, to support a Scott County Community ID for ALL residents of Scott County.

Sincerely,
(YOUR NAME)

Sign Our Petition

Between physical and virtual signatures, we have 25 institutional and over 230 individual signatures. Sign on to take us to 300!

Sign on: Pass A Scott County Community ID Now!

Thank you for your support of this important project.

In Solidarity,
Quad Cities Interfaith

"Elite Capture" of Identity Politics - No Hate In Our States

12/6/2022

Confronting the “Elite Capture” of Identity Politics in Our Movement Spaces

Truthout

The Truthout mission statement includes: Truthout is a nonprofit news organization dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues. Kelly Hayes is the host of the Truthout podcast, Movement Memos, which she describes as: a Truthout podcast about solidarity, organizing and the work of making change.

From the podcast website:

"We have to be politically serious about how much agreement and how much alignment we’re going to require in a world of a resurging far-right fascist movement across the globe,” says philosopher and author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Táíwò and host Kelly Hayes discuss the lessons of Táíwò’s book, Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else).

Find a complete transcript and listen to the podcast here:
https://truthout.org/audio/confronting-the-elite-capture-of-identity-politics-in-our-movement-spaces/

Dee VanThournout