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

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

Paris to Pittsburgh Film on Climate Change

4/15/2019

Paris to Pittsburgh Film - Wednesday, April 17th at 7:00 pm

Rogalski Center
St. Ambrose University
W High ST, Davenport, IA
(the parking lot is at Lombard ST and Ripley ST) (map)

Environmental Forum

Join us in viewing Paris to Pittsburgh, a free screening of the film produced by Bloomberg Philanthropies and RadicalMedia in 2018. We are co-sponsoring this event with the Green Life Environmental Club of St. Ambrose University to kick off the Earth Day weekend. There will be a panel presentation after the screening to discuss climate change and ways you can personally address this issue.

UPDATE - Race: Are We So Different Tour and Discussion

4/8/2019

Sign up for the “Race: Are We So Different?” Tour and Discussion - Update

Tuesday, April 23rd at 4:00 pm (full)
Monday, May 13th at 4:00 pm (new)

Putnam Museum
1717 W 12th St, Davenport, IA (map)

Civil Rights Forum

The Civil Rights Forum is arranging two tours followed by a guided discussion of Race: Are We So Different? at the Putnam Museum. Only 15 people can attend each discussion, and you MUST register to attend. Our April 23rd tour is full.

To register for the May 13th event, click here.

Attendees must pay their own admission to the Putnam, but PACG will pay the fee for the guided discussion.

Alta Price

Volunteers for Earth Day at Davenport Farmer's Market

4/8/2019

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

Freight House Farmers Market
421 W River Dr. Davenport, IA (map)
Environmental Forum

Your Environmental Forum is asking for all hands on deck to help with the Earth Day event. We need volunteers!

Early set up - need people to be there by 7:30 or 8:00 am
Check-in table
Demonstrators Coordinator - arrive at 8:30 am
Activity Tent - Two shifts 9-11, 11-1 (need several volunteers for this)
Working the PACG table - need 2 people per shift 9-11, 11-1
Social Media Station - need 4 volunteers for 1 hour shifts.
Break down - 1:00 pm need at least 4 people

Contact Amber Bordolo or Lori McCollum.