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

After Action Report - PPE Donation by Health Care Reform Forum

4/2/2020

Lending a Hand - After Action Report

Davenport Salvation Army

Health Care Reform

Some of you will remember that way back before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the PACG Health Care Reform Forum had a project to collect hand prints from individuals in our community as part of our advocacy for national health care legislation. Participants used latex gloves to protect their hands from the paint that was used. When the ACA was passed, the project was discontinued, but we still had many gloves.

This week, as the call went out in our community for personal protective equipment (PPE)—including latex gloves—the Forum was able to donate our surplus of gloves for the use of firefighters and EMTs (for whom protection, but not sterility, is critical). And just how many gloves did we provide? Between 5000 and 6000! It felt good to help our community, even in this small way. Truly, this is the core mission of Progressive ACTION for the COMMON Good.

Coronavirus Update - from Dr. Alta Price, MD

3/23/2020

Coronavirus Update – as of March 23, 2020

At this point we are still fortunate in the Quad Cities that we have only minimal community transmission of COVID-19. However, this pandemic is not to be taken lightly. There are obviously more cases in the community that have not yet been diagnosed. Our elderly members and those with chronic health conditions need to be especially careful - and everyone else needs to help protect those individuals.

The best advice is to follow the guidance of our local and state health departments: Scott County Health Department, Rock Island County Health Department, Iowa Department of Public Health, and Illinois Department of Public Health.

For a community with minimal or moderate spread, the CDC recommends that all events of 10 or more people should be cancelled or held virtually until April 1st. Of course, those with higher risk of serious COVID-19 illness should avoid any gatherings at all.

Large PACG events have been postponed or cancelled. Our regular meetings and other small gatherings will be held online using Zoom. PACG has purchased sufficient Zoom licenses for our leaders to schedule meetings. Our Office Manager, Julie Ross, can set up Zoom meetings on behalf of other members or affiliates. Contact her via pacgoffice@gmail.com, her cell (563-508-2209) or the PACG Office (563-676-7580).

People can join a Zoom meeting using a phone, tablet or computer. This service is free to the meeting participants. Zoom is a user-friendly tool and we are in the process of training our activists in its use (please be patient as we make this transition). We believe online meetings will enable us to keep up our good work through this difficult time. Just as important, for those who must self-quarantine, it will keep them connected with their fellow activists. And even after the pandemic restrictions end, we believe this will be a useful tool for holding at least some meetings in the future (think snow storms and other inclement weather).

We will use our website and calendar to give you Zoom links for meetings and online events.

Contact Alta Price, MD with questions or concerns.

Attend City Council Meeting in Support of Earth Month Proclamation

3/11/2020

Earth Day Proclamation - East Moline -
Monday, March 16th at 6:30 pm

East Moline City Hall
915 16th Avenue E Moline, IL (map)

Environmental Forum

In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day this April, the Environmental Forum has asked the mayors of local cities to pass a proclamation declaring April, 2020 as Earth Month. You may read the letter to these mayors along with our suggested proclamation on our Earth Month Proclamation Blog post.

Most of the mayors have responded to our request, and the proclamation will be proposed at their city council meetings. The first meetings we are aware of are East Moline and Davenport.

We would like to have PACG members from each city attend these city council meetings to voice support for our proclamation and all sustainability efforts in their city. Please contact Shirley, Susan, PJ or Lori if you are willing to come to your city hall in support of this issue. We will keep you informed about upcoming dates as they are scheduled.

The East Moline city council meeting is at 915 16th Avenue, 2nd Floor, East Moline at 6:30 pm.

Davenport's city council meeting to pass the proclamation is tentatively scheduled for April 8th. The more people who attend, the more council members will recognize how important environmental issues are to their citizens.

If you are able to attend or have specific questions, please contact the people below by your location.

East Moline and Silvis residents - contact Lori McCollum.

Bettendorf and Moline residents - contact Susan Leuthauser.

Rock Island residents - contact Shirley Johnson.

Davenport residents - contact PJ Slobojan.

What You Can Do Now - Support Earth Month Proclamation at Your City Council Meeting

3/11/2020

Attend Your City Council Meeting to Voice Support for the Earth Month Proclamation - What You Can Do Now

Environmental Forum

The Environmental Forum has requested that local municipalities consider declaring April as Earth Month in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.

The following cities are having Earth Month Proclamations issued at their city council meetings. All PACG members are welcome at each event, and we especially hope that everyone attends their own city's council meeting to voice their support for these proclamations and for continued year-round efforts to protect the environment.

3/16 East Moline: 6:30 pm at 915 16th Avenue, 2nd floor, East Moline, IL (map)
3/17 Bettendorf: 7:00 pm at 1609 State St. Bettendorf, IA (map)
3/23 Rock Island: 6:45 pm at 1528 3rd Ave, 3rd floor, Rock Island, IL (map)
4/08 Davenport: 5:30 pm at 226 W. 4th Street Davenport, IA (map)

We would like to have PACG members from each city attend these city council meetings to voice support for our proclamation and all sustainability efforts in their city. Please contact Shirley, Susan, PJ or Lori if you are willing to come to your city hall in support of this issue.

We will keep you informed about upcoming dates as they are scheduled.

If you are able to attend or have specific questions, please contact the people below by your location.

East Moline and Silvis residents - contact Lori McCollum.

Bettendorf and Moline residents - contact Susan Leuthauser.

Rock Island residents - contact Shirley Johnson.

Davenport residents - contact PJ Slobojan.

What You Can Do Now - Keep Up-to-Date With Our Earth Month Calendar

3/10/2020

Keep Up-to-Date on April Earth Week Activities in Our Area

Environmental Forum

PACG is partnering with many organizations in the Quad Cities Area to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, which was originally established as April 22, 1970. Various groups are offering a wide variety of ways to honor our connection to the principles of having clean waterways, protecting species, moving toward a commitment of clean transportation and rethinking urban land use.

Our PACG website will maintain a current calendar list of everything we know about that relates to Earth Week. You can view the PACG calendar here. We are proud that our website, calendar and Facebook pages are ways for our community to know what's happening. And, although we don't usually post Community Events on our PACG calendar, we are going to for the month of April so that people in the Quad Cities can readily find the events celebrating the day, week and month devoted to taking care of the Earth.

Contact Lori McCollum with questions or comments.

Earth Month Proclamation - Environmental Forum

3/8/2020

Proclamation to Establish the Month of April as Earth Month
in the Quad Cities

Environmental Forum

Because this April marks the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, the Environmental Forum has written to the mayors in the Quad Cities Area, requesting that they declare the month of April Earth Month. The letter to these mayors reads as follows:

This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day, which was first celebrated on April 22, 1970. The original goal was to inspire an appreciation of our nation’s natural resources through conservation and protection. The Environmental Forum of Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) is encouraging Quad City Area communities to make official Earth Day Proclamations in recognition of a commitment to environmental stewardship. We have attached a draft proclamation for your city council’s consideration and use.

Quad City Earth Month activities can be found at the Quad City Earth Coalition web-link: https://www.qcearth.org/earthweek2020.

The draft proclamation that PACG would like each city council to consider is:

Earth Day Proclamation 2020

WHEREAS, Earth Day was first celebrated on April 22, 1970, with the goal of inspiring an appreciation of our nation’s natural resources through conservation and protection; and

WHEREAS, the celebration of this day marks an annual review of and commitment to the principles of that first Earth Day; and

WHEREAS, Earth Day marks a renewed commitment to environmental stewardship and to the implementation of sustainability efforts; and

WHEREAS, the global community now faces extraordinary challenges, such as environmental degradation, global health issues, climate change, food and water shortages; and

WHEREAS, a green economy can be achieved on the individual level through education, public policy, and consumer activism campaigns; and

WHEREAS, it is understood that the citizens of the global community must step forward and take action to create positive environmental change to combat the aforementioned global challenges; and

WHEREAS, the City of Davenport celebrates Earth Day by extending it to the month of April in recognition of the commitment to environmental stewardship; and,

WHEREAS, the City of Davenport residents are encouraged to implement practices designed to preserve and protect our environment and shape the future of our environmental security.

THEREFORE, I, (name), Mayor of (city), do hereby proclaim the month of April 2020 as Earth Month.

We hope that the mayors take this proclamation to their next city council meeting for discussion and input from the community. We ask that residents attend these meetings to strongly voice their support for their city adapting some form of this proclamation to proclaim April as Earth Month in the Quad Cities. We will post information in the Weekly Email Update as meetings are made known to us. Thanks for your continued support.

Lori McCollum
Susan Leuthauser
Shirley Jackson

After Action Report - Civil Rights Forum Met with Bobby Schilling

2/1/2020

After Action Report - Crisis at the Border
Visit with Bobby Schilling
Monday, January 27th at 5 pm

The PACG Civil Rights Forum organized a visit with Bobby Schilling, who is running in the Republican primary for the Congressional seat of retiring Congressman, Dave Loebsack. Immigration activists from the many organizations in the Quad Cities working on immigration issues met with Mr. Schilling to deliver our message, beginning with: "Children do not belong in detention." At the PACG Blog you can read our complete "ask" and some proposed legislation.

We are trying to set up a similar meeting with Republican candidate, Mariannette Miller-Meeks. We will also visit with other candidates or elected officials in both Iowa and Illinois. Contact Alta if you want to participate.

Alta Price

Paris to Pittsburgh Movie at Augusta - After Action Report

1/22/2020

Paris to Pittsburgh - After Action Report

Augustana College

Environmental Forum

We worked with the Augustana Climate Change Task Force and Iowa Interfaith Power and Light to host a screening of Paris to Pittsburgh on Wednesday evening, January 15th. It was followed by a panel presentation by Ray Wolf, Eric Sorensen, and Bobby Wengronowitz. We also provided a voter registration table, thanks to Alice Traylor. Anyone wishing to screen this film can do so by contacting Lori McCollum at lori_mccollum@sbcglobal.net.

Lori McCollum

After Action Report - Caucus Training

1/22/2020

Caucus Training - After Action Report

Davenport Public Library
Eastern Avenue Branch

Civil Rights Forum

On January 15th, we had a full house at our final nonppartisan caucus training at Davenport Public Library, Eastern Avenue Branch. We are honored to have co-sponsored this training with the AAUW (American Association of University Women), QCAIR (Quad City Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees), and the Alliance for Retired Americans.

We mock-caucused both the Republican and Democrat formats, using fruit (oranges, apples, blueberries, tomatoes) as our candidates.

Iowans: the caucus will be held Monday, Feb. 3 at 7 pm. Doors open at 6:30 pm and you must be in line no later than 7 pm. Contact your local party to find your caucus location.

Democrat Caucus locations
Republican Caucus locations

Check out our photos from the training!

Julie Ross

Changing Systems, Changing Ourselves Webinar - Civil Rights Forum

1/15/2020

Changing Systems, Changing Ourselves Webinar - Update
Tuesday, January 28th at 7:00 pm

At home or at
the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities
3704 Eastern Av, Davenport (map)

Civil Rights Forum

The PACG Civil Rights Forum invites you to sign up for a five-session monthly online series on immigration and race sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Church World Service, Freedom for Immigrants, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and the Unitarian Universalist Association. The sessions are the fourth Tuesday of the month, usually from 7 - 8:30 pm central time.

Although you can sign up as an individual, there will be a group showing at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Quad Cities in the Board room to facilitate discussion after the webinars.

The January 28th session explores "anti-racist practice, to reflect on how to show up consciously to work alongside those most impacted by injustice, with caucus groups for people of color and white people."

For more information and to register, sign up at the American Friends Service Committee website.

Alta Price
PACG Civil Rights Forum Co-Facilitator