Category: A Message From The Board - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Save the Date - "I Am the Future" at the Figge January 11, 2024

11/25/2023

Save the Date - I Am the Future at the Figge
Thursday, January 11th from 5:00 to 8:00 pm

Figge Art Museum
225 W 2nd ST
Davenport, IA (map)

A Message from the Board

Save the date for our next showing of I Am the Future at the Figge Art Museum in Davenport. We will have a social hour with light hors d’oeuvres and an open bar from 5:00 to 6:00. The showing of our film will be followed by a Legacy Panel discussion featuring MacArthur Cotton and other civil rights activists, including those in our video. More details will follow.

We also need volunteers to help with this event.

Glenda Guster

A tribute to Cath Bolkcom

11/21/2023

A tribute to PACG co-founder Cath Bolkcom

A Message from the Board

by Alison McGaughey

In my latest column, read about a woman whose grassroots work had a hand in helping a certain former Illinois senator make his way to the White House.

And if you’re on the right side of the book banning debate, I promise her story will downright give you the goosebumps.

If you already know Cath Bolkcom, I hope this interview and OFFICIAL QUAD CITIZEN QUIZ will teach you something new. As she bids farewell to the QC, (trading the Quads for the Twins, if you will), I hope you enjoy learning about Cath's life and appreciating all she has contributed to the QC. Read the article here.

PACG's Holiday Party - PACG Event

11/9/2023

Register for PACG's Annual Holiday Party
Saturday, December 2nd from 5:30 to 8:00 pm

A Message from the Board

Join us at the German American Heritage Center for a meal and help us celebrate another year of PACG's activism!

We will present the annual Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice award to a worthy, local recipient.

The main course will be catered, with vegan and gluten-free options. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share.

We also ask that you bring your own dishware, silverware and reusable napkin, if possible. This follows our PACG environmental principle of sustainability.

Although this event is free, we need you to register. Talk to your friends, register them and bring them along!

Optional Holiday Gift: This year we are supporting Quad Cities Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees (QCAIR). Please bring a wrapped toy for a child 6 months to 12 years of age. Securely label your gift with the age (and gender, if appropriate) of the child.

If you’re one of our many new members this year, come find out how much fun we progressives have during the holiday season!

There is extra parking available in the lot just east of the museum, where the YMCA used to be.

Please register here.

PACG Webmaster

PACG Holiday Party - Save the Date!

11/8/2023

PACG’s Holiday Party - Save the Date
Saturday, December 2nd at 5:30 pm

A Message from the Board

We will have a lot more details in next week’s Progressive Action Update. For now, just mark your calendars. We hope to see you there!

Announcing our new email address! A Message from the Board

10/22/2023

PACG’s new (easier) email address!

A Message from the Board

In 2005 when PACG was founded, there were few groups working on progressive issues in the Quad Cities, so it was important that our email address reflected our work. But all these years later it is time to simplify things for our members and community.

With that in mind, we have established a new Gmail address that is similar to our website’s. If you can remember PACGQC you can easily email us or check our online presence. And rest assured, if you use our old email address we will still get your message.

We are excited that we can continue to make things easier for all of us!

Glenda Guster

“I Am the Future” showing at the Putnam on October 22nd at 2:00 pm - PACG Event

10/10/2023

I Am the Future showing at the Putnam
Sunday, October 22nd at 2:00 pm

Putnam Museum and Science Center
1717 W 12th ST
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Board

We will be showing our I Am the Future video as we continue to educate the community about the importance of being activists for civil rights. There will be activities for people of all ages and information tables from various local civil rights organizations. Our focus for this free event is on the family, especially children. Please come join us for this afternoon of fun! If you have questions please contact us at qcprogressiveaction@gmail.com.

Wishing Grant Tietjen well! - A Message from the President

7/16/2023

Goodbye and Thank You! to Grant Tietjen

A Message from the President

PACG Board member, Grant Tietjen, has been in the Davenport area for ten years. He relocated to Iowa from Lincoln, NE to take a faculty position at St. Ambrose University (SAU) as an Associate Professor of Criminology in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice. For the past year at SAU, he was also the Assistant Program Director for the Masters of Science in Criminal Justice program. In 2017 Grant became involved with the Juvenile Justice Coalition of the Quad Cities, a group that PACG's Civil Rights Forum has supported for a number of years. This group has worked to promote sensible programs and ethical policies to protect our youth from unnecessary incarceration and undue harsh treatment.

In 2018 Grant was elected to the PACG Board of Directors, where he has served faithfully as an active member.

Grant will be moving to Tacoma, Washington where he has taken a tenured faculty position as Associate Professor of Criminology at the School of Social Work and Criminal Justice at the University of Washington - Tacoma. The position starts this fall. We will miss you, Grant, but we are so happy for you. Congratulations!

Glenda Guster

Save the Date - the 11th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction

7/11/2023

Save the Date - 11th Annual PACG Picnic and Pie Auction!
Sunday, September 17th from noon to 3:00 pm

Middle Park's Lagoon Shelter
On Parkway Dr (off 18th ST)
Bettendorf, IA 52722

PACG Board

We have started making plans for one of our most popular events of the year - our Annual Picnic and Pie Auction! Save Sunday, September 17th from noon to 3:00 pm for this gathering. In addition, we need volunteers to help with all of the preparation involved. Working on the Picnic Committee is a great way to get more involved with PACG and to make new friends. Please contact our Office Manager, Maggie Davis. We hope to see you there.

PACG Webmaster

Pride calendar on the PACG Calendar - A Message from the Board

5/19/2023

New Pride sub-calendar on the PACG Calendar

A Message from the Board

At our most recent Board meeting we discussed that there are numerous Pride events and activities offered in June in the QCA by many different organizations. Last week's Progressive Action Update (PAU) announced our cosponsorship of the NOH8 Campaign photo shoot, as well as some No Hate In Our States suggestions about Free Films at the Figge for Pride.

As we cull through all of the events to share with you, we decided that it made sense to add a sub calendar to our main PACG Calendar that you can find on our website here.

Events that are Community Pride events have QCP (Quad City Pride) in front of their calendar event title. This should not be confused with one of the sponsors of Pride events, QC Pride. The notation is just a way for our readers to quickly see a Pride offering in our area.

Alta Price, Co-Facilitator
Gender Equity Forum

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 contact@greatplainsaction.org

*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