All Categories - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

13th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction - After Action Report

7/9/2025

13rh Annual Picnic and Pie Auction After Action Report

PACG Board of Directors

Sixty-six of the eighty registered people braved the heat to attend our 13th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction on Sunday, June 29th in Davenport. Big Thanks to Glenda Guster, who headed up our picnic committee this year, and to committee members Allison, David, Ann, Alta and Caryn for all their hard work.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food, which was catered by the Mantra restaurant in Davenport, along with a nice breeze which added to our collective comfort. Chris Dunn played his great music again this year. Thank you so much, Chris!

Once again, the pie auction was a great success thanks to professional auctioneer, Jen Broders, and her husband and PACG Board Member, Ed Broders, who registered and numbered all the pies and passed out auction numbers to bidders, among other things. We owe them many thanks.

Most of all, we thank everyone who was able to attend this year, as well as those who registered but couldn't make it, for your continued support of PACG over the years. One of the most enjoyable things about our annual picnic/pie auction and other events is that old friends and new get to sit down and visit with other progressive minded folks and share their stories and concerns in a friendly, relaxed environment. That said, we hope to see you at our 20th Anniversary Thank You Gala on October 19th at the Rock Island Holiday Inn. (Don't we go back a ways?) Save the date!

Caryn Unsicker (she,her)

PACG History - Some of our past Issue Forums

7/6/2025

PACG History - Did you know we had these forums?

20th Anniversary Party Committee

One of the reasons that PACG has been so successful for so long is that we established Issue Forums. Here's what our website says about this concept: As progressives, we all care about many different issues. Those who feel more strongly about a given issue can join others to work specifically on that issue as a core member of an Issue Forum.

Over the years, we have had many different Issue Forums. Here's a list of some of them, going back to 2008. We have information about a few of these listed on our website (links in blue):

Drug Policy Forum (Drug Policy Reform Forum) was established in 2018.

Corporate Reform Forum - December, 2012 - teaching activists to lobby in opposition to Citizens United. Caroline Vernon

The following are from our PACG newsletter from 2012:

PACG Community Garden Plots

Community Networking Night

Corporate Reform Forum

Economic Justice

Environmental / Sustainability Energy Forum

Local Foods Initiative

Media Reform Forum

Peace and Justice Forum

Social Justice Movie Night

Social Security Forum

Women's Issues Forum

Peace Forum - July, 2008 organizing meeting. Cath Bolkham

Go Plastic Free in July - What You Can Do Now

7/2/2025

Be part of the solution - Plastic Free July

Environmental Forum

Plastic Free Foundation

Join the Plastic Free July Movement. Be part of the solution to beat plastic pollution. Here are some tips and ideas to reduce plastic waste. Take a look at this link to learn what you can do!

Susan Leuthauser (she/her)

City Proclamations in support of Immigrant and Refugee - After Action Report

6/27/2025

Immigrant and Refugee Proclamation - After Action Report

Civil Rights Forum

The Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities had two more successes! Both the cities of Bettendorf, Iowa and Silvis, Illinois graciously supported our Pro-Immigrant and Refugee proclamation!

Allison Ambrose

July 2025 Green Drinks-RI WER Tour PACG Events

6/27/2025

July Green Drinks - Tour Rock Island's West End Revitalization
Thursday, July 10th at 5:00 pm

Martin Luther King Center parking lot
630 9th Street
Rock Island IL (map)Environmental Forum

The Rock Island West End Revitalization (WER) initiative has made significant strides to grow this historical neighborhood. Improvements made to Rauch Family Park and Franklin Field made these sites more user friendly to the community. Avery Pearl, WER Coordinator will lead us on a tour of these areas.

The tour will begin from the Martin Luther King Center Parking Lot. We will be driving to some of the sites. Bring a friend.

Susan Leuthauser (she/her)

Tennessee book bans - No Hate in Our States

6/17/2025

Hundreds of books purged from Tennessee school libraries

No Hate in Our States

PEN America

A mind-boggling list of hundreds of books purged from some Tennessee school libraries includes works by Magic Tree House author Mary Pope Osborne, children’s poet Shel Silverstein, and Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist Bill Watterson. Banned titles include American classics like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Among the most disturbing bans are books focused on the Holocaust, including Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic memoir Maus, The Hidden Children of the Holocaust by Ester Kustanowitz, which tells the stories of teens who hid from the Nazis, and Secret Holocaust Diaries: Nonna Bannister, which details the experiences of a Russian girl from a wealthy family who survived the German labor camps and lived out her life in Tennessee. The book explores how she “learned the value of human life and the importance of forgiveness,” but students there can no longer share in her lessons.

About PEN America: PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Follow them here on Instagram and sign up for their bi-weekly newsletter here.

Anything for the Cause-After Action Report

6/10/2025

Anything for the Cause - After Action Report

Multi-Generational Community Building Speaker Series

Over 75 people attended our first Multi-Generational Community Building Speakers series, Anything for the Cause. We were honored to bring MacArthur “Mac” Cotton and Dr. Frank Smith, Jr as our guest speakers at the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island, Illinois. Both of our speakers were involved during their college days with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). They worked as civil rights activists during the 1960’s to get black people in the South registered to vote, which at the time was dangerous. Mr. Cotton continues to focus on educational equity and getting people out to vote. He is the author of the book Mississippi Black Cotton about his time and struggles in the Civil Rights movement.

After relocating to Washington, D.C. Dr. Smith served four terms on the D.C. City Council. Dr. Smith is the founding director of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum. He continues to be involved in his community to get out the vote.

The next project for the Multi-Generational Community Building group will be to raise money to send four youths from Thurgood Marshall school to Washington D.C. to the grand opening of the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum as Dr. Smith’s special guests. We are working with both Dr. Smith and Mr. Cotton to get a speaker for next year.

A nice dinner was served after the program. Thank you again PACG for your support!

Glenda Guster

Medicaid cuts to gender-affirming care-No Hate in Our States

6/10/2025

Proposed Medicaid cuts to gender-affirming care

Gender Equity Forum

The Big Bucks for Billionaires Bill (aka the One Big Beautiful Bill) makes drastic cuts to Medicaid. A late night amendment before the bill passed the House also bans gender-affirming care for anyone on Medicaid or in the Affordable Care Marketplace. This affects an estimated 185,000 trans people on Medicaid.

The Gender Equity Forum joins the Healthcare Reform Forum in opposition to these Medicaid cuts. Read more about the specific cuts to gender-affirming care in this article from them.

Alta Price (she/her)

The Bathroom that Ends the World-No Hate in Our States

6/10/2025

The Bathroom That Ends the World

Rev. Sean substack.com/@civicgrace

How a Single Gender-Neutral Bathroom Revealed the Gentleness Hidden Behind All Their Fear
Our new church building has a gender-neutral washroom, and before we opened the doors, we held our breath. Would people accept it? Would they understand?

In many ways, this single room represents everything certain politicians claim to fear most: gender boundaries dissolving, children exposed to "confusion," traditional values under siege. Here, in one modest space with sinks and stalls, we've apparently built the apocalypse they've been warning about—a place where the rigid categories that once seemed natural and eternal simply... don't matter.

And you know what? They're right to be afraid. Not because our bathroom poses any actual danger, but because it reveals how unnecessary their fortress walls really are.

Read the rest of this article on Substack.

Kat Fitzgerald (she/her)

No Kings rally confusion-A Message from the Board

6/10/2025

No Kings rally confusion

Although PACG is not sponsoring a No Kings Rally, many of our members and readers may be interested in attending one. The official Quad Cities Indivisible group (IndivisibleQC) is sponsoring the rally at Schwiebert Park in Rock Island at 1 pm (information below). On the Indivisible.org website, the other No Kings Rally in Davenport covers the icon for the Illinois one. You need to zoom in to see both.

The IndivisibleQC group planned their rally for 1 pm because they are also marching in the QC Unity Parade sponsored by QC Pride. The QC Unity Parade starts in Davenport at 11 am and ends near Schwiebert Park in Illinois in time for the No Kings Rally. If you want to add a 2.5 mile walk to your day, join the parade!

Alta Price (she/her)