Not One Death More. ALATKT. No.425.

Join over 200 vigils in memory of 3000 killed. Sign up to attend or start a vigil at NOT ONE DEATH MORE sponsored by the AFSC.

The American Friends Service Committee is joining with local peace and justice groups worldwide to commemorate the lives lost in Iraq on the occasion of the 3,000th U.S. military fatality in Iraq. On the day after the 3,000th death is announced, we will hold local events in communities worldwide, mourning all the lives lost in this war and calling for U.S. troops to come home.

We have designed this online event system to help you find and list events near you. For local organizers, we offer web tools to invite your neighbors and build an opt-in mailing list for your grassroots efforts. For those looking to join a nearby event, this web site offers you a private and secure way to find and register to attend an event.

We encourage you to post peace and justice events on this system, as long as they do not advocate violence or endorse a particular electoral candidate. AFSC is non-partisan and committed to nonviolence, and these events should have a similar character.

AFSC is suggesting that vigils and other events to start between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the day after the 3,000th death is announced. If your community picks a different date/time, we’re flexible to your needs. Please see our ideas and resources page for event ideas, or come up with something creative in your hometown.

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About AFSC's Call for "Not One More Death, Not One More Dollar"

The Iraq War has already committed us to aiding a generation of veterans and their families and to rebuilding Iraq.

We need to meet these just obligations and stop the funding for further destruction so that our resources can be used to strengthen our communities and help those in need.

The American Friends Service Committee believes that there is no military solution to the Iraq war. Continued fighting and occupation promises only further deaths and injuries, more widows and orphans, more separated families.

The U.S. is spending over $8 billion a month to fight this war—over $350 billion total to date. The devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the hard truths it brought home about who does and doesn’t have access to the American Dream tells us all how desperately these resources are needed in other areas.

The U.S. Constitution gives the Congress financial oversight. The time has come for our elected representatives to listen to the country’s pro-peace majority and end funding for this war.

Working solutions for Iraq will be political solutions. Diplomacy and dialogue in close cooperation with the Iraqi government and broad sectors of Iraqi society are the way forward to peace and to rebuilding the U.S.’s strained relationship with the international community.

Working together, we will end this war.

2007 Earned Income Tax Credit Kit Available Now! ALATKT. No. 424.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals.

The Center conducts research and analysis to inform public debates over proposed budget and tax policies and to help ensure that the needs of low-income families and individuals are considered in these debates. We also develop policy options to alleviate poverty, particularly among working families.

The 2007 Earned Income Credit and Child Tax Credit Outreach Kit is available now.

In addition to Spanish and English there are translations of the EIC and Child Tax Credit flyer into 19 addtional languages -- for the languages most requested: Arabic, Amharic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Chinese, Farsi, French, Haitian‑Creole, Hmong, Italian, Korean, Laotian, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Somali, Tagalog, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

In 2007 Speaker Pelosi will support The Fair Minimum Wage Act that will increase the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, providing an additional $4,370 a year to 7.5 million workers across the country.

Agenda for Shared Prosperity. ALATKT. No. 423.

AGENDA FOR SHARED PROSPERITY

For six months, the Economic Policy Institute and a group of 50 economists and policy experts have joined together to develop a comprehensive, achievable, and workable economic plan that will reduce economic insecurity and provide broadly shared prosperity.

The Agenda for Shared Prosperity will address the growing gap between America's promise and its problems. The United States is rich in resources, with an energetic and entrepreneurial population, a $13 trillion economy, the world's most advanced technologies, and a democratic system that is an inspiration for the world. But for most of the past quarter century, failed economic policies have left the nation with stagnant living standards for the overwhelming majority, increased inequality that is polarizing our society and distorting our democracy, and for most families a growing insecurity fueled by concerns over health care, prospects for retirement, and access to college.

Responding to this crisis, the Agenda for Shared Prosperity is based on a simple idea: the success or failure of our economy is measured not by the value of the stock market or the size the gross domestic product, but rather by the extent to which the living standards of the vast majority of Americans are rising. We will propose and promote ideas that are honest enough to gain public credibility, inspiring enough to give hope, and ambitious enough to match the scale of our problems.

The kickoff event will occur on January 11. Senator James Webb will be the keynote speaker; Jacob Hacker (Yale University) will present a health care proposal to provide affordable and universal coverage; and Jeff Faux (EPI distinguished fellow) will present a policy agenda to shape globalization so that it benefits working people here and abroad. Video, audio, and other information will be available at www.SharedProsperity.org when it launches in January.

Literate Lives: A Human Right. ALATKT No. 422

“Literacy is not an end in itself. It is a fundamental human right.” (UNESCO, 1975). It is linked to other fundamental rights—rights that are universal, indivisible, interconnected and interdependent.
Becoming literate involves much more than language use and singular routes to language acquisition. It calls literate beings to recognize socio-political contexts of teaching and learning, image multiple possibilities for literate activity, and act as agents of change. As educators we have the responsibility to make visible the complexities of becoming literate in the new millennium. This year’s National Council of Teachers of English summer institute will focus on literacy as a human right.

[Thanks, TK].

Homeless & Hungry 2006-ALATKT- No. 421

A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 421.

More Americans went homeless and hungry in 2006 than the year before and children made up almost a quarter of those in emergency shelters, according to the U.S. Conference of Mayors - Sodexho, Inc. Hunger and Homelessness Survey.

"The face of hunger and homelessness right now ... is young children, young families," said the conference's president, Douglas Palmer, the mayor of Trenton, New Jersey.

The survey of 23 cities found civic and government groups received, on average, 7 percent more requests for food aid in 2006 than in 2005, following a 12 percent jump in 2005.

Requests for shelter rose by an average of 9 percent in 2006, with requests from families with children rising by 5 percent. More than half the cities said family members often had to split up to stay in different shelters.

As the numbers who could not buy their own food grew, more than half the cities, including Los Angeles and Boston, said groups spread resources farther by giving less food to individuals or cutting the number of times people could receive help. The group estimated 23 percent of requests for emergency food assistance simply went unmet.

Franklin Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, Iowa, who worked on the study, said he was troubled that more than a third of the adults asking for food aid were employed.

Full Report in pdf

Unconstitutional Use of Taxpayer Money for Religious Indoctrination. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 420.

In "Religion for a Captive Audience, Paid For by Taxes" DIANA B. HENRIQUES and ANDREW LEHREN
[NYT December 10, 2006] outline the take over of many prison services by faith-based organizations and summarize current legal status of challenges to taxpayer-financed evangelism.

Library service does not need to be part of the theocratic take-over.

In their important new book,Library Services to the Incarcerated Applying the Public Library Model in Correctional Facility Libraries, Sheila Clark and Erica MacCreaigh present a pragmatic and clear public library oiutreach model for working with people in prisons and jails.

Human Rights Bloggers. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table. No. 419.

Providing human rights professionals with easy access to the best online resources

Human Rights Day, 2006. ALATKT- 418.

Human Rights Day, 2006. A Librarian at the Kitchen Table- 418.
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Denounce Torture Initiative
Amnesty International USA

Amnesty International writes:
We recognize a significant day for human rights next week. December 10 marks the date the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was unanimously adopted by the United Nations in 1948.

This year, we are trying to do something we have never done before -- mobilize half a million people to take action. Our goal is to gather 500,000 signatures on the “America I Believe In” pledge by June 2007. This will send a clear message to our elected officials that the America we believe in leads the world on human rights.

The White House and Congress must hear from grassroots activists in great numbers that we refuse to tolerate our nation’s effort to undermine our vision of human rights. Help us create the political change we wish to see.

Gathering pledge signatures is just one of three ways you can get involved this December 10. We have designed three levels of engagement. Each level has actions, activity ideas and useful fact sheets to help you promote International Human Rights Day. However you decide to participate, make sure to sign up to stay connected.

Thanks so much for all your help on this issue.

Sincerely,

Suha Dabbousseh
Coordinator, Denounce Torture Initiative
Amnesty International USA