All Categories - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

PACG welcomes new Board members! - A Message from the President

2/4/2023

Welcome to our new Board of Directors members!

A Message from the President

PACG is excited to announce that we have two new members on our Board of Directors! Please welcome Sharita Lacy and Laronda Bennett! Both women can be contacted from the About section of our website here.

Sharita Lacy

Sharita has worked for the Davenport school system as an Attendance Secretary for three years, and she loves her job! She enjoys her interactions with students as well as the staff. She calls herself an onsite mentor for students. The devoted mother of three children is also busy with their school and other activities. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Sharita grew up watching her mother, Glenda Guster, work in the community for the common good. She is looking forward to working with PACG members.

Laronda Bennett

Laronda Bennett is from Kansas City, Missouri and moved to Rock Island in 2017. She joined Tabernacle Baptist Church, where she met her husband, Greg.

Laronda works for Churches United of the Quad City Area in Bettendorf. As the Administrative Assistant, her role in the office is to support the Executive and Associate Director with the daily operation of the office. That could be from answering phones and writing and distributing emails. The job can be rewarding and challenging! She helps everyone who contacts the office for assistance with, food, rent, utilities, and shelter.

The achievement for which Laronda is most proud is deciding to go to school later in life to get her Associate Degree in Logistics Management.

She loves to sew and make cards, finding both very relaxing.

3 things to know about Black History Month - No Hate In Our States

2/3/2023

It's Black History Month. Here are 3 things to know about the annual celebration

NPR's Black History Month 2023

1. It was Negro History Week before it was Black History Month.
2. There's a new theme every year. The theme this year is "Black Resistance."
3. Recent controversies over how race is taught echo a time when Black history is often ignored.

From NPR: February marks Black History Month, a tradition that got its start in the Jim Crow era and was officially recognized in 1976 as part of the nation's bicentennial celebrations. It aims to honor the contributions that African Americans have made and to recognize their sacrifices.

Here are three things to know about Black History Month:

It was Negro History Week before it was Black History Month
In 1926, Carter G. Woodson, the scholar often referred to as the "father of Black history," established Negro History Week to focus attention on Black contributions to civilization. According to the NAACP, Woodson — at the time only the second Black American after W.E.B. Du Bois to earn a doctorate from Harvard University — "fervently believed that Black people should be proud of their heritage and [that] all Americans should understand the largely overlooked achievements of Black Americans."

Woodson, the son of former enslaved people, famously said: "If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated."

Woodson chose a week in February because of Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday was Feb. 12, and Frederick Douglass, who was born enslaved and did not know his actual birth date, but chose to celebrate it on Feb. 14.

"Those two people were central to helping to afford Black people the experience of freedom that they have now," says W. Marvin Dulaney, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), which Woodson founded in 1915 and today is the official promoter of Black History Month.

In the decades after the Civil War and through the racial violence that erupted across the country in the years following World War I, there was a concerted effort to repress the teaching of Black history.
"In the South, they tried to suppress Black history or African American history in the public schools," Dulaney says, "particularly about things like Reconstruction and slavery, literally distorting the curriculum."

At the university level, Black studies programs were almost nonexistent, he says. "California was the first state to actually mandate Black history in 1951 for the public schools."

Largely as a result of the civil rights and Black consciousness movements of the 1960s, "you saw an uptick in Black history courses," says LaGarrett King, an associate professor of social studies education at the University at Buffalo.

Read the rest of the article here.

PACG Webmaster

" The Ground Between Us" screening - What You Can Do Now

2/3/2023

The Ground Between Us screening
Sunday, February 12th at 2:00 pm

Olin Center Auditorium
Augustana College
820 38th Street
Rock Island, IL (map)

QC Environmental Film Series
River Action/Singh Foundation

Hosted by the Augustana College Student Sierra Club

Since 2017, public lands throughout America have faced unprecedented threats. Bears Ears National Monument was shrunk by 85 percent, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was opened to oil exploration, and the Elliott State Forest in Oregon was nearly privatized. Throughout this, Americans from both sides of the political spectrum have stood up and made their voices heard in support of protecting these areas. The Ground Between Us presents these public lands debates alongside the day-to-day realities of three families who hold vastly different connections and perspectives on public lands.

Reflection speaker is Dr. Matt Fockler, Bureau of Land Management Socioeconomic Specialist for Nevada, Utah and Idaho.

Purchase tickets at this link.

Lori McCollum

Review the Covid 19 toolkit - What You Can Do Now

1/31/2023

Covid 19 toolkit

Health Care Reform Forum

You can learn a lot about Covid on this informational link provided by the U.S. government.

Scroll through some tips below before clicking on the link: https://www.covid.gov

Put in your county to find out if the Covid levels are low, medium, or high. (As of Jan 23rd, Scott Co, IA and Rock Island Co, IL were low.) Low, medium and high Covid ratings are based on hospitalizations, cases, and patients in hospital beds. If your county is in the medium range, the local health system is starting to feel the strain.

They post a “Covid-19 Toolkit” with links to resources to keep yourself and others safe:
1. find masks
2. vaccines or boosters
3. test-to-treat locations
4. order free tests from the federal government.

There are two phone numbers listed if you need to speak to someone about your status. Watch for an informational link on “Long Covid,” the long terms effects some people can experience after having the Covid virus.

Don’t stop scrolling; at the bottom you will find more resources:
1. Symptoms and care for the immunocompromised
2. Travel
3. At-home testing
4. Air ventilation
5. Long COVID Study

Frank Samuelson

February 2023 Green Drinks - Insects in Art

1/31/2023

February Green Drinks - Insects in Art during an Age of Environmental Turmoil
Tuesday, February 7th at 5:00 pm

El Patron Mexican Restaurant
1806, 2nd Avenue
Rock Island, IL (map)

Environmental Forum

Scientists have been sharing data for over 50 years, warning of the negative impact humans are having on the biodiversity and the climate of our plane. But there has not been an adequate response to mitigate the damage being caused by human activity. As a result of this environmental destruction, there are recent reports of large-scale insect declines.

Dr. Tierney Brosius from Augustana College will discuss what the scientific community knows about insect declines, her research connected with insect conservation, and how scientists and artists are starting to find opportunities for collaboration to find new ways to communicate about the declining state of the environment.

To make sure that we have enough space for our meeting, we like to give El Patron a head count prior to the meeting.

Please R.S.V.P. at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoduGpqTIsH9fD6ssFCjEteY09ZHZ41w6m

Susan Leuthauser

Immigration paperwork takes too long! - No Hate In Our States

1/21/2023

USCIS taking longer than ever to review applications

Boundless Immigration

Boundless, an immigration law firm based in Seattle, Washington, offers an interesting email called bit by Boundless. Sign up for the newsletter here. The article below is from January 13, 2023:

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is taking longer to review applications than ever before.

According to recent government data, 82% of forms now take longer for USCIS adjudicators to review. These longer review times are significantly contributing to USCIS’ massive application backlog — the forms that now take longer to review account for 86% of the current backlog.

One explanation for slower review times is that USCIS forms have significantly increased in length over time. More than 90% of forms have grown in length since their introduction, with page totals jumping from fewer than 200 pages in 2003 to more than 700 pages in 2023.

USCIS’ recent efforts to digitize the immigration process and encourage more online form filings are also counterintuitively making the application review process slower. For many adjudicators who are trained to review lengthy paper forms, it can be cumbersome to review those same forms and supporting documents digitally.

The consequences of USCIS’ review time inefficiencies are staggering. Estimates show that it will take nearly 10 million man-hours to work through the existing visa backlog — 3.3. million more hours than if adjudicators were reviewing at their previous speeds.

Read the entire newsletter here.

PACG Webmaster

"A Brief But Spectacular Take" on immigration podcast - No Hate In Our States

1/14/2023

A Brief But Spectacular Take on embracing immigration podcast

Online

Civil Rights Forum

From PBS Newshour: Devashish Basnet is a Rhodes Scholar studying refugee and migration patterns. A refugee himself, he left Nepal as a child when his family sought asylum in the United States. Basnet shares his Brief But Spectacular take on embracing immigration. Listen to this well-spoken expert here.

PACG Webmaster

Encourage business to eliminate single-use bags - What You Can Do Now

1/12/2023

Walmart eliminating single-use bags in some states (but not others)

Environmental Forum

Continue to (respectfully) pressure your legislators and local stores to go plastic-free. It's working!

From CNN: Walmart will eliminate single-use paper and plastic carryout bags at the register from stores in New York, Connecticut and Colorado this month.

The company previously stopped giving out single-use plastic bags in New York and Connecticut and in some areas in Colorado. Walmart offers reusable shopping bags starting at 74 cents for customers without their own bags.

Walmart is trying to get ahead of legislation in some states that are cracking down on plastics. Many customers are also demanding change, and Walmart has outlined corporate environmental goals to achieve zero waste in its US operations by 2025...

...Plastic bags entered supermarkets and retail chains during the 1970s and 1980s. Before then, customers used paper bags to bring groceries and other merchandise back home from stores. Retailers switched to plastic bags because they were cheaper...

...The US plastic industry’s impact on climate change is on track to exceed that of coal-fired power in this country by 2030, the organization projects.

Read the complete article here.

Susan Leuthauser

Listen to the "Ultra" podcast - No Hate In Our States

1/6/2023

Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra podcast

Charles Lindbergh addresses the America First Committee in October, 1941

Civil Rights Forum

From the Ultra podcast website: Sitting members of Congress aiding and abetting a plot to overthrow the government. Insurrectionists criminally charged with plotting to end American democracy for good. Justice Department prosecutors under crushing political pressure. Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra is the all-but-forgotten true story of good, old-fashioned American extremism getting supercharged by proximity to power. When extremist elected officials get caught plotting against America with the violent ultra right, this is the story of the lengths they will go to… to cover their tracks.

Ultra is a wild and jaw-dropping look at a crazy part of US history that I bet you have never heard of. The 8-part podcast is as engaging as it is relevant. In addition to the verbal history, their website shares extra bonuses and documents like the image above. It's available where you get your podcasts or online here.

We must learn from the past to correct the injustices of today.

PACG Webmaster

Free Covid tests available again - What You Can Do Now

1/6/2023

Free Covid tests available again

Health Care Reform Forum

The Biden administration has decided to once again offer free Covid tests for households. From CNBC: The relaunch of the free at-home test program is part of the Biden administration’s preparedness plan for Covid this winter. Covid infections are increasing again as hospital emergency departments are already battling a surge of patients sick with the flu and respiratory syncytial virus.

There is a limit of one order per household, which includes a total of four tests. Check this webpage for a link to participate in this offer.

Frank Samuelson