Category: PACG Events - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

7th Annual PACG Picnic and Pie Auction

8/11/2019

7th Annual PACG Picnic & Pie Auction
Sunday, September 15th at 12:00 pm

Register here

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Longview Park
18th Avenue & 17th Street, Rock Island, IL. (map)

PACG Board

Please join us again this year for great food catered by Fresh Deli, music, raffles, our famous pie auction - and an opportunity to chat and have fun with other progressive minded people!

It would help us plan for food if you pre-register at the link above (preferred) or call the PACG number on the flyer and tell Julie you are coming to the picnic and the number of people you are bringing. You can then pay at the door (although this option leads to longer lines) or mail a check to PACG, Suite 3D 1212 W. 3rd St., Davenport, IA 52802.

Tickets are $10 each or $25 for families. Kids under 10 are free. And there's playground equipment right there, so bring the kids and grandkids! We look forward to seeing you on September 15th!

Ann McCluskey

Caryn Unsicker

Save the Date - 7th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction

6/24/2019

SAVE THE DATE:
7th Annual Picnic and Pie Auction
Sunday, September 15th Noon to 3pm

Longview Park 18th Ave. & 17th St., Rock Island, IL (map)

More details will be provided in the coming weeks.

Lights For Liberty Planning Meeting and Protest Save the Date

6/22/2019

Lights For Liberty Planning Meeting - Wednesday, June 26th at 1:00 pm and
Save the Date for the Protest Friday, July 12th

Planning Meeting Wednesday, June 26th at 1:00 pm at
Chancery of the Diocese of Davenport
780 W Central Park AV, Davenport, IA 52802 (map)
Civil Rights Forum and One Human Family QCA

Dear Friends of One Human Family QCA,

As you are probably aware, President Trump has announced that there will be a massive round-up of 2,000 immigrants next week. We are hearing terrible reports of the already existing horrendous, sub-human conditions in the immigrant detention centers; centers which are already brutally overcrowded and under-served.

A national organization called “Lights for Liberty” is calling for communities around the country to join them in holding an event called: “Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps”. The event will take place on Friday, July 12. To find out more about the organization and their plans for this national vigil you can go to their website - https://www.lightsforliberty.org/

The ONE HUMAN FAMILY QCA IMMIGRATION TASK FORCE is taking the leadership in organizing a local vigil to be in cooperation and coordination with the national one. They will be holding a planning meeting for our local vigil on WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26 at 1:00 pm at the Diocese of Davenport, 780 W. Central Park Ave., Davenport 52804. They are asking that everyone who would be willing to share in planning this significant event join them for this meeting! If you are interested in participating in the planning but cannot attend this time around, let me know and I will make sure that you are placed on the Planning Committee’s email distribution list. If you cannot join us in the planning but would like to attend the vigil, let me know and I will make sure that you are kept up to date with the details.

What is happening in these detention camps is a stain on the soul of the United States of America! We cannot stand by silently and permit it to continue. In the words of the philosopher Edmund Burke, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” We must never forget that today’s current events are tomorrow’s history. When the history of these days are written, what will it have to say about the roles each of up played in creating that history.

Shalom / Salaam / Paz / Pax / Peace,

Rabbi Henry Jay Karp

Volunteer for QC Unity Pride Celebrations

6/3/2019

QC Unity Pride
Saturday, June 22nd at 11:00 am
and Friday, June 28th to Sunday, June 30th

Civil Rights Forum

We Need Volunteers Now!
March with us in the parade wearing PACG t-shirts to show our support! We also need help staffing display tables the weekend of June 28th!

Saturday, June 22nd, the parade starts at E 2nd and Warren St in Davenport (map) and crosses the Centennial Bridge to 3rd AV in Rock Island, IL (map).

The Pride Fest Celebration is a street festival beginning Friday, June 28th (map).

PACG is a Proud sponsor of QC Unity Pride 2019. Join us to march in the Pride Parade Saturday, June 22nd at 11am. Meet at Mary's on Second (map) at 10:30 am to get a t-shirt. The parade starts at E. 2nd St. Davenport then proceeds across the Centennial Bridge and ends at 3rd AV Rock Island.

Pride Fest is the following weekend, Friday, June 28th from 4pm - midnight and Saturday 12pm -midnight. PACG will have a booth there. If you are interested in volunteering at our booth contact Amber Bordolo.

For more information, check this Pride Fest link.

QC Unity Pride week of events are as follows:
June 22 - Unity Pride Parade
June 22 - Parade After-Party
June 23 - Dinner Cruise (Tickets available now!)
June 24 - Stonewall Movie
June 25 - Family Skate Day
June 26 - Pink Squirrel Pub Crawl (Davenport)
June 27 - Pink Squirrel Pub Crawl (Rock Island)
June 28 - Quad Cities Festivals Pageant Queen and King
June 28/29 - QC Pridefest

Information about additional events is on the QCUnity Pride website: qcunitypride.org.

June Book Club Meeting

5/20/2019

June PACG Book Club Saturday, June 1st at 10:30 am

Davenport Main Public Library, 321 N Main St, Davenport, IA (map)

The PACG Book Club continues to read books on racial justice this month:
Dear Martin by Nic Stone.

From Goodreads: "Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut." This book is highly recommended by one of our book club members.

Contact Alta Price with questions or to learn more.

Earth Day 2019 Was a Success!

5/2/2019

2019 Earth Day Celebration - After Action Report

St. Ambrose University Rogalski Center and Freight House Farmers Market

The PACG Environmental Forum began the 2019 Earth Day celebration by screening the National Geographic film Paris to Pittsburgh on April 17th from 5 pm. to 7 p.m. at Rogalski Center, St. Ambrose University. This event was held jointly with the SAU Green Life Environmental Club. A panel discussion on Climate Change and actions needed to address this urgent issue followed the film. Approximately 120 students and members of the general public filled one of the Rogalski ballrooms, it was standing room only for the late comers.

The second Earth Day celebration was held on Saturday, April 20th, from 9 am to 1 pm at the Freight House in Davenport. The Environmental Forum teamed up with the Freight House Farmers Market and Living Lands & Water to host this event. Twenty speakers gave 10 minute “mini-TED” talks on various environmental topics. There were over twenty display and activity tables hosted by environmental organizations, a museum, and vendors. Many learned how to repurpose a T-shirt into a tote bag and Farmers Market kicked off their 2019 Bag Reduction Program.

There was live music, children’s activities, door prizes, and networking everywhere during the event. The river and weather cooperated - about 2,000 visitors enjoyed a beautiful sunny morning along the riverfront and learned about the urgency of protecting the environment. Visit our FB page for more pictures of the event.

Planning for the 2020 Earth Day events has already started. 2020 will mark the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day! If you have any suggestions, please contact the Environmental Forum and/or join us at one of our meetings on the first Monday of each month.

Susan Leuthauser

Candidate Questions - Civil Rights

4/22/2019

Candidate Questions - Civil Rights

Immigration/Refugee Policy

Let’s get organized before the next presidential candidates come to town! It’s hard to know what questions to ask, but here is a list that Quad Cities Interfaith created. If you have additional questions you think should be asked, please contact our Office Manager, Amber Bordolo and we will add to this list.

If you attend a candidate’s event, print off this list (see the download link below) and have it handy in case you get a chance to ask a question. Listen carefully to the answers on the topics below. Take notes if you can, and report back to us in the Blog Comments below. We want to know what you hear and think!

These are also good questions that should be addressed to your State legislatures when they hold legislative sessions or campaign for re-election.

1. As President, will you work to re-unite families separated at the border and change this policy so that future children and families are not separated while their legal status is in limbo?

2. What is your position on the Central American migrant caravan asylum-seekers at the border?

3. As President, will you work to ensure that tear gas is not employed against any persons at the border, like that which took place in November of this last year?

4. In Iowa, legislators have passed a state bill to prohibit local municipalities from establishing local sanctuary laws. Are you willing to speak out against these efforts at outlawing city and county rights to establish local sanctuary status?

5. We are against ICE workplace and community raids that unnecessarily terrorize, and often separate, families. A prominent example took place in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa in the past year. What is your stance on the role of ICE in our local communities?

6. We are against laws that put undue burdens on local police forces to do the work of area ICE agents. We don’t think these measures make our communities more safe; in fact, they make people less likely to report crime for fear of retaliation or deportation. What is your stance on the role of local police in matters pertaining to immigration enforcement?

7. Do you support driver’s licenses for immigrants and other local efforts such as Community ID programs?

8. Do you support efforts toward providing a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants in the United States?

9. There has been a call to overhaul our immigration policies. What provisions do you think should be a part of revising and changing our nation’s immigration laws?

10. As President, will you take leadership in permanently eliminating “The Muslim ban?” Will you support policies that increase the numbers of refugees the U.S. accepts?

11. What role do you think the U.S. has in accepting refugees from countries where we currently or have previously actively supported or engaged in military conflict in those countries?

12. Given that the policies and actions of our government have helped to create the conditions which people in the Migrant Caravan are fleeing, what are our responsibilities to these asylum seekers? How should they be treated at the border?

13. We stand strongly against the profit incentive behind incarceration of immigrants and citizens promoted by the prison industrial complex. Will you reject campaign contributions from banks and corporations that have a profit incentive in the building of private prisons and immigrant detention centers?

Mass Incarceration and Restorative Justice

1. Our groups in the Quad Cities are dealing with racial disparities in rates of out-of-school suspensions. As President, what will you do to address these and other racial inequities in our nation’s public school systems?

2. There our racial inequities across the board in our public schools here locally, and throughout the nation. What will you do to close the opportunity and achievement gap in public education between low-income and students of color, relative to their more affluent white peers?

3. What is your take on the recent bi-partisan criminal justice changes at the federal level? What do you think is the next step towards improving our current criminal justice system?

4. As president, what will you do to provide opportunities for criminal ex-offender re-entry programs and to create employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons to reduce recidivism?

5. Do you support “banning the box” policies that require ex-offenders to disclose their felony history in job applications?

6. The U.S. remains the most over-incarcerated nation on the planet. What steps will you take as President to decrease the numbers and reduce racial disparities in populations of offenders behind bars?

7. We stand strongly against the profit incentive behind incarceration of immigrants and citizens promoted by the prison industrial complex. Will you reject campaign contributions from banks and corporations that have a profit incentive in the building of private prisons and immigrant detention centers?

questions_for_candidates_-_civil_rights.docx
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Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

4/22/2019

Candidate Questions - Health Care Reform

Let’s get organized before the next presidential candidates come to town! It’s hard to know what questions to ask, but here is a list that we have created. If you have additional questions you think should be asked, please contact our Office Manager, Amber Bordolo and we will add to this list.

If you attend a candidate’s event, print off this list (see the download link below) and have it handy in case you have an opportunity to ask questions. Listen carefully to the answers on the topics below. Take notes if you can, and report back to us in the Blog Comments below.

These are also good questions that should be addressed to your State legislatures when they hold legislative sessions or campaign for re-election.

1. How will you protect the progress made thanks to the Affordable Care Act? (more people insured, children insured on parent’s programs until age 26, protection for pre-existing conditions, etc)

2. The Medicare program is vital to the health of millions of people. Will you protect Medicare for cuts planned by some members of Congress?

3. There are efforts underway to cut Medicaid funding and turn it into individual state grants. How will you fight to keep Medicaid strong and protect it from future cuts?

4. If you favor health care expansion, could you describe your vision? What would be the key points? (Single payer? Incremental stages of expansion?)

5. How will you provide healthcare to low-income people in states that did not expand Medicaid?

6. How will you push pharmaceutical companies to reduce Hight prescription drug prices?

a. Do you support letting Medicare negotiate with prescription drug companies? If so, why?

b. Would you support a bill to allow lower priced generic drugs to access the market more quickly?

c. What efforts will you take to require drug companies to explain large price increases?

d. Would you require drug companies to give a two-month notice when they plan to significantly increase prices?

e. Should Americans be allowed to buy lower priced drugs from other countries or should the U.S. government regulate drug prices?

questions_for_candidates_-_health_care_reform.docx
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Candidate Questions - Environmental Issues

4/22/2019

Candidate Questions - Environmental Issues

Let’s get organized before the next presidential candidates come to town! It’s hard to know what questions to ask, but here is a list that we have created. If you have additional questions you think should be asked, please contact our Office Manager, Amber Bordolo and we will add to this list.

If you attend a candidate’s event, print off this list (see the download link below) and have it handy in case you have an opportunity to ask questions. Listen carefully to the answers on the topics below. Take notes if you can, and report back to us in the Blog Comments below.

These are also good questions that should be addressed to your State legislatures when they hold legislative sessions or campaign for re-election.

1. Will you support the only current proposal that addresses the climate crisis, the Green New Deal?

2. Are you aware that the EPA had the lowest number of environmental fines in 2018 in decades? What will you do about the EPA’s substandard implementation of their own regulations?

3. Do you support protecting National Parks from drilling and exploration/extractive industries?

4. What is your plan to address this administration’s rollbacks on environmental protections on clean air and water, pollution and the use of clean energy?

5. What is your plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing our use of renewable energy?

6. What is your position on our country’s commitment to the Paris Climate Accord, and would you continue our planned withdrawal from that commitment?

7. Currently, corporate interests are prioritized over public health risks. What specifically will you do to change that?

8. What is your plan to invest in renewable energy and what is your timeline for doing so?

9. Are you in favor of carbon and other user taxes to address business’s negative environmental impacts?

10. Are you in favor of enforcing stricter federal regulations on companies who are out of compliance with environmental (EPA) regulations, regardless of their containment area?

11. Would you extend the current rebates on solar which are set to gradually fade starting in 2020?

Our Environmental Forum suggests the following questions for our Illinois and Iowa State legislators:

1. What are your specific plans to reduce our state’s carbon footprint, and what are your target dates and measurement tools?

2. Would you support implementing the current laws and standards of the EPA for each industry/company operating in the State?

3. Is there a state target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and, if so, what are the timelines?

4. Currently, corporate interests are prioritized over public health risks. What specifically will you do to change that?

5. What is your plan to invest in renewable energy, and what is your timeline?

6. Are you in favor of carbon and other user taxes to address business’s negative environmental impacts?

7. Are you in favor of enforcing stricter federal regulations for companies who are out of compliance with environmental (EPA) regulations, regardless of their containment area?

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Celebrate Earth Day in Davenport

4/15/2019

Earth Day Celebration - Saturday, April 20th at 9:00 am

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

Environmental Forum

Join us in celebrating Earth Day on Saturday, April 20th from 9-1. There will be mini TED talks throughout the day, live music, 20 demonstration tables, and a full activity tent for kids with reptiles from Nahant Marsh and birds from the raptor center. And there will be door prizes! Food will be available at the adjacent restaurants. The interior portions of the Farmer's Market are up and running. The flood has not defeated us, but it does remind us that Climate Change is real.

Lori McCollum