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Friday, November 11, 2011   Good afternoon, Happy Veterans Day. To those brave women who have worn the uniform, and to all of the many military families out there – thank you for your service and your sacrifice. We wanted to let you know ASAP about a great piece that just went live, authored by Senior Advisor to President Obama and Chair of the Council on Women & Girls, Valerie Jarrett, and featured on the Huffington Post. We've reprinted the full piece below. And finally, in case you missed it, please be sure to check out the video of the President’s remarks at the National Women’s Law Center earlier this week. Women's Issues Are America's Issues By Valerie Jarrett, Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls On Wednesday evening, President Obama addressed a dinner hosted by the National Women's Law Center, and delivered a powerful speech on the importance of continuing the fight for equality for women and girls. The dinner honored women Freedom Riders, who put their own lives in jeopardy in order to fight for the end of segregation in the South. It was an honor to spend an evening with these courageous women, and it was a moment when our nation's past and present were truly woven together. One Freedom Rider whispered to the President Obama that on the day he was born, August 4th, 1961, she was in jail in Mississippi. The Freedom Riders' stories should remind us all that change is hard. Very hard. It takes time. But with conviction, determination, and sacrifice, change is always possible. And when it comes to securing equal rights and opportunities for America's women and girls, our country has made great progress in just a few short years. Change is the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the very first bill President Obama signed into law, which strengthens a woman's right to equal pay. Change is health care reform that makes it illegal to deny coverage for women with pre-existing conditions such as breast cancer or being a victim of domestic violence, and requires insurance companies to cover preventive care, including mammograms and contraception. Change is investing in STEM education for girls, so that America's women can be equally represented in the next generation of scientists, researchers, and engineers. Change is nominating two women to the Supreme Court, so that for the first time in American history, three of the nine justices are women. Change is creating the White House Council on Women and Girls, which focuses every federal department and agency on working together to improve the lives of women and girls, recognizing that the issues that primarily affect women are not just women's issues. When a woman is paid equally for equal work, her family is better off, her community is healthier, and our economy grows. When women succeed, America succeeds. I could not be prouder to work on behalf of a leader who truly understands the importance of these issues. President Obama has worked tirelessly to make sure that women and girls live in a country where, as he put it, "there is no limit on how big they can dream or how high they can reach." Yet, President Obama recognizes that we still have a long way to go. Women continue to trail men in science and math, subjects that will be absolutely critical for the jobs of the future. Women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn. And like every group of Americans, women have been hit hard by the economic crisis, and the recession that followed. As President Obama pointed out, there are those in Congress who don't seem to understand the urgency of these challenges. Republicans in the Senate have blocked the American Jobs Act, which would cut taxes for nearly 80 million women. They voted down a measure that would have put hundreds of thousands teachers - about three-quarters of whom are women - back in front of the classroom, where they could help prepare our kids for the future. The President will continue to urge Congress to put politics aside, and do the right thing for American families. And if Congress refuses to act, he will continue to take steps to improve the economy without them. Because if we harness the potential of every American, there is no question that we will out-compete the rest of the world for the jobs and industries of the future. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago, when the winners of the Google Science Fair were announced. Over 10,000 young people submitted projects, from 90 different countries. In many ways, this competition was a metaphor for the global competition that will define the 21st century. Citizens and countries will compete for the jobs and industries of the future, and as they do, STEM skills will be absolutely critical. So President Obama was thrilled when he heard that this year's winners were three teenage girls from America. After the announcement, President Obama invited all three girls to the White House, so he could personally congratulate them on their achievement. I had the chance to meet these young women, and they were extraordinary. Not only were they very smart, they were full of passion and enthusiasm about learning so that they could contribute to society. As President Obama said on Wednesday, they demonstrate that America is still "a place where ideas are born, where dreams can grow, and where a student in a classroom or a passenger on a bus or a legal secretary in an office can stand up and decide to change the world." Continuing our journey toward a more perfect union won't be easy. It never is. But as women throughout our country fight for change -- for equal rights and equal opportunity -- the White House will be a partner in their work. Get Updates If you received this email from a friend or colleague and aren’t already receiving our email updates, sign up for our newsletter using this form. We would like to send you updates and engage with you in other ways. Please fill out this contact form in you are interested. Stay Connected   Facebook Twitter YouTube Flickr iTunes   This email was sent to sasdebosque@yahoo.com Manage Subscriptions for sasdebosque@yahoo.com Sign Up for Updates from the White House Unsubscribe sasdebosque@yahoo.com | Privacy Policy Please do not reply to this email. Contact the White House The White House • 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW • Washington, DC 20500 • 202-456-1111

(6) The MAYOR calls the...

Please Read the following Letter.  It tells me we are missing a great opportunity and I find it, frankly, honest and touching.  See my comments after the letter.  


AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF OAKLAND FROM THE OAKLAND POLICE OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION

1 November 2011 – Oakland, Ca.

We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours.

As your police officers, we are confused.

On Tuesday, October 25th, we were ordered by Mayor Quan to clear out the encampments at Frank Ogawa Plaza and to keep protesters out of the Plaza. We performed the job that the Mayor’s Administration asked us to do, being fully aware that past protests in Oakland have resulted in rioting, violence and destruction of property.

Then, on Wednesday, October 26th, the Mayor allowed protesters back in – to camp out at the very place they were evacuated from the day before.

To add to the confusion, the Administration issued a memo on Friday, October 28th to all City workers in support of the “Stop Work” strike scheduled for Wednesday, giving all employees, except for police officers, permission to take the day off.

That’s hundreds of City workers encouraged to take off work to participate in the protest against “the establishment.” But aren’t the Mayor and her Administration part of the establishment they are paying City employees to protest? Is it the City’s intention to have City employees on both sides of a skirmish line?

It is all very confusing to us.

Meanwhile, a message has been sent to all police officers: Everyone, including those who have the day off, must show up for work on Wednesday. This is also being paid for by Oakland taxpayers. Last week’s events alone cost Oakland taxpayers over $1 million.

The Mayor and her Administration are beefing up police presence for Wednesday’s work strike they are encouraging and even “staffing,” spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars for additional police presence – at a time when the Mayor is also asking Oakland residents to vote on an $80 parcel tax to bail out the City’s failing finances.

All of these mixed messages are confusing.

We love Oakland and just want to do our jobs to protect Oakland residents. We respectfully ask the citizens of Oakland to join us in demanding that our City officials, including Mayor Quan, make sound decisions and take responsibility for these decisions. Oakland is struggling – we need real leaders NOW who will step up and lead – not send mixed messages. Thank you for listening.

Sherry's comments: 

I would say that Occupiers in Oakland might consider STOPPING THE VIOLENCE, STOPPING THE FIRES, STOPPING VANDALISM, and other threatening behavior. That All Occupiers should keep in mind that Police and Firefighters should have our full support and cooperation, as they are part of the 99%. Police in several cities have been confused about the agenda of the Occupiers, combined with confusion of orders coming from above. Occupiers should support, reassure, affirm, and educate........... Sherry 

History Repeats Itself,.......Again

Check out our comments on The Ray Medeiros Show

http://raymedeirosshow.blogspot.com/2011/10/occupy-wall-street-is-not-new-history.html#comment-form
The sold-out, power-entitled, GOP, caught in a squeeze between the Tea Party and reality, has dusted off the old "How to deal with Commies and Pinkos", handbook in order to deal with today's challenges, which they are not equipped for. These exist because are that their lies and greediness have taken our country to its knees. Dishonest rhetoric and "values" campaigns will not work today as it has in the past, and they have been caught with their pants down, in bed with huge corporations. Every time the Grand Old Party want to change the subject, it finds itself facing the Tea Party, the new "street gang" in the House. Tea Party on one side and Truth on the other....what a sqweeze, GOP.

October 26, 2011 5:27 PM

Commitment to a better Future

http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/?rc=rtd_home

A very simple illustration of sustainable living from MoveOn.Org.

http://front.moveon.org/the-secret-to-creating-jobs-that-wall-street-doesnt-want-you-to-know/#

Coffee Party Position Paper: Reforming a System That is Broken | Coffee Party

We have not joined the Coffee Party yet because, although we have been following them from the beginning we are a little reticent until we could be sure who was behind them and what their agenda would eventually be.  The more we follow, the more we like.  Still considering.....



Coffee Party Position Paper: Reforming a System That is Broken | Coffee Party

Sherry, (in company of other Green Country Catholic Workers), Occupy Tulsa, Oct. 15, 2011

-

Persecution

A Critical Review of The Persecution Has Begun

by Russell Shaw

(The following is my rant posted on Facebook in response to an re-posted article.

I have cut and pasted it to this page.)

Conjuring up the "possibility"of possible politics that could possibly cause us to be persecuted; bringing up the specter of the anti-clerical years with our most saintly priests and nuns before firing squads; but with the 2012 elections illuminating our pathway...is just more propaganda. The same propaganda that the "Christian" Right has forever used when their policies have failed and they can't present a good candidate or platform.

The Holy Father was correct in that Secularism has caused a lukewarm church to languish in certain parts of the world. We must pay heed to his message....by rededicating our hearts to Jesus, buy repenting of complacency, and by performing the evangelism and works we are called to and equipped for. This type of article is, with all respect to our beloved Bishop, manipulative. We can't keep confusing "other political parties" as the enemy of the body of Christ......that in itself is secularism.

Our enemy is not made of flesh and blood but of the principalities and powers of spiritual darkness. Regardless of our political affiliations, anyone watching the Republican debates would have to agree that Obama is no scarier than some of these guys. When Obama was elected there was a run on ammo because he was going to take away our second amendment rights. In our neighborhood it was rationed to two boxes per purchase. Hysteria....caused by folks with an agenda.....but propagandists know that if they throw out words that any good Christian would react to, like abortion for example, a whole lot of people will not inform themselves on the issues but will vote based upon fear. And they will repeat the propaganda as if it were the truth.

I can guarantee that the Christians in the USA will never be forced to perform abortions, officiate at gay marriages if they don't want to, nor suffer any type of persecution for long. We're a feisty bunch; no political party will take us on for long. We should be praying about changing the hearts of those who would even consider such moves. And we should pray for those who are really being persecuted in Egypt and Iraq. We should take heed to the strong words of our Lord, in Matthew 25:31-.

The Persecution Has Begun

Shaw, Russell. Catholic Lane Weblog:Oct 20, 2011

http://catholiclane.com/the-persecution-has-begun/

Content and Photos From the Catholic Worker News TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2011

' “The thing about Occupy Wall Street that

bothers me most is that it didn’t start within

the Church.” said Karen Spears Zacharias,

an Alabama writer whose work is heavily

influenced by the Catholic Worker Movement

and Dorothy Day'. .....The Catholic Worker

News, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2011

Catholic Workers and the #Occupy Movement

Dan Berrigan watches the Golden Calf of Wall Street hoisted through the street in an

#Occupy Wall Street march.

Catholic Workers from throughout the U.S. are participants in the #Occupy movements that are now dotting the nation in about 1500 places. From Gainsville to Worcester, wherever there is an #Occupation, there is likely a Catholic Worker there too. Communities involved so far include: Champaign-Urbana, Amos House, Nashville, Tennessee, Hartford, Duluth, Tacoma, four houses in Oklahoma City and several communities in Iowa.

Catholic Worker involvement ranges from helping supply food, showers, marches, protests, and engaging in non-violent resistance.

Bill "Bix" Bichsel, left, at Occupy Tacoma.

“The thing about Occupy Wall Street that bothers me most is that it didn’t start within the Church.” said Karen Spears Zacharias, an Alabama writer whose work is heavily influenced by the Catholic Worker Movement and Dorothy Day. “The poverty of the Great Depression compelled Dorothy Day to act upon her faith. Fighting against the unequal distribution of wealth is not a new idea. Day wrote extensively about it in the newspaper she edited,The Catholic Worker.”

Paki Wieland and Mona Shaw (co-editor of Catholic Worker Journal)

in Freedom Plaza, one of two occupations in Washington, DC.

Four CW houses are in involved in Occupy OKC (Oklahoma City)

Occupy Worcester

Thought for the Day

We are the 99%. That makes us powerful. So often the majority is ruled by a greedy minority, simply because we don't know how many of us there are. (Slaves in the Southern States and women of all colors who have not had the vote or been owners of property), for example. Social networking technology has made it easy to understand that we have the power to affect our democracy to the the betterment of the common good. With knowledge, comes responsibility.

Occupy Tulsa 10/15/11

It's been a long time since I took to the streets in protest. The previous first, last, and in between times, were against the war in Vietnam. I have protested many more events since then, but I'm not brave enough to lead a one-woman parade against the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the global war against women and children, and the insidious war against the working class that has finally driven us out of our homes. Lately, even more than war, I despise complacence.

For years we have passively accepted our the lack of job security, access to health care, and mental health care, in Oklahoma. Teachers have taught in nightmare conditions, as long as they have jobs. They pay too much for insurance and their salaries aren't enough to support a family. In fact, with the exception of a few, very wealthy people in certain sectors, most Oklahomans don't make enough income to support a family. Enough!

No more "been down so long it looks like up to me". Occupy Tulsa on October 15th was the signal that in North Eastern Oklahoma, while we are not reactionary, we are resolute.

It was a good day. I'm not good at estimating head counts, but there was a respectable showing at the start and it appears we picked up quite a few along the walk. Add to the marchers, the solidarity of folks honking as they drove by.

The solidarity was strong, which was interesting, considering the diversity. Every shade of the rainbow, every age, from toddlers to elderly in wheelchairs, marched. The themes were simple, solid, and heart felt. Everyone present was fed up with the financial industry , who took the money, our money, gave themselves millions of dollars in bonuses, and laid off workers, foreclosed with no mercy, refused loans to small businesses, and got richer, while we got poorer.

Poor people live in poor states. So many of our young men and women have gone to war, over and over, to wars that don't even make since to our national security, nor to any other countries'. But we can't give them jobs when they return, can't pay them wages to rebuild our crumbling infrastructures....well, this has all been said. And on Saturday, October 15th, we said it together.

Perhaps the hope will spread here, as it has around the world. I am an American, a Patriot; fourth generation Oklahoma. My hope and prayer is that more of us will make the decision that it is time for peaceful insistence:

• that our tax money is spent to our benefit
• that wealthy corporations pay their share of the taxes
• that Oklahomans have the right to work and be payed a decent wage ,
• have good retirement options
• have good health care. that we have access to good, quality education and vocational training
• that we have a right to live in peace, with the rest of the world, with each other, and with the Earth.

Occupy Tulsa Second General Assembly 10/08 Part 1

Ephesians 2:9.10

By Grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not because of works, lest any man boast. For we are his workmanship,........created in Christ Jesus for good works, that God prepared in advance, that we should live (walk) in them.

Christ Has No Body

Christ has no body but yours,

No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

-- St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

This appears to have been a very good meeting.

Check out this video from Occupy Tulsa General Assembly

Click Here: I especially like the words of Roberto Mendoza who stated the necessity of actively recruiting from diverse groups. He defines the need for racial, social, and economic representation in the occupation, as all are included in the 99%. (I would add religious diversity to the list.)

(Thanks to PatDollard.com)

David and I have prayed for several years for the right time answer the call and be a voice for Catholic Workers in North East Oklahoma. We feel the time is now.


This October, 2011, has seen a spontaneous mobilization of millions of workers and students reacting to the violence and greed dominating our planet. We feel strongly that the intentions of Catholic Workers should be a presence everywhere.


I will post a biography later on, but presently, we feel the need to join our voices with the others all over the world who follow in the traditions of Dorothy Day, Peter Maurin, and the Book of Acts.