Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Friday, November 15, 2013

Why are people surprised Obamacare isn't providing them with health care?

Obamacare was never intended to provide people with health care.

I have read the more than 2,000 pages of the "Affordable Care Act." Anyone who has taken the time to read and understand what the "Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is knows that the intent of the Act is to bolster the profits of the health insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the hospitals and nursing homes while enabling doctors to get richer quicker.

And single-payer universal health care has had its day, too; the American people want no part of Obamacare or single-payer.

The American people want the real McCoy--- a National Public Health Care System.

If all options are explained to people and they have a chance to consider all options, most people will choose a socialized National Public Health Care System every time which would be run just like public education.

In fact, it is cheaper to provide people free primary health care through neighborhood and community health care centers than what public education costs.

And the real kicker is that we could create a national public health care system for far less than these dirty wars are costing us while getting 12 million to 15 million new jobs, which would go a long way towards putting America back to work.

Scarp Obamacare and bring forward a National Public Health Care system--- publicly financed, publicly administered and publicly delivered just like public education.

The Indian Health Service is socialized health care--- and it works great when properly funded.

The VA is a socialized health care service--- and, it, too, works great when properly funded--- although it would work a lot better and be far less expensive if these wars were brought to an end.

Obamacare should become known to everyone as the "Health Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry Bailout and Profit Maximization Act of 2010." Like the insurance companies--- Obamacare needs to go.

We need a new working class based progressive people's party to replace all these members of Congress; then we will get the kind of health care much of the world already enjoys.

Racism raises its ugly head in Little Falls, Minnesota and the Democratic Governor with his super-majority does nothing.

Whenever tough economic times arise, the employers instigate racist campaigns of hate to divide the people. It was such a campaign of hate orchestrated by the Republicans, and egged on by the Democrats, that defeated the socialist Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party Governor, Elmer Benson.

According to these bigots--- who had as their spokesman, the racist, anti-Semitic and fascist-minded  Harold Stassen--- Benson's "crimes" were that he placed Jews in high government positions, insisted that Native Americans have equal access to New Deal programs and projects and he worked with socialists and Communists.

Like today, the Democrats---through their silence--- encouraged this campaign of hate spewed by the Republicans.

Why didn't Governor Mark Dayton step in and order the Minnesota Department of Human Rights and the Public Safety Commissioner to step in and put a stop to this hate-mongering in the Little Falls Public Schools? The Superintendent and all members of the school board should be arrested for enabling this spreading and spewing of hate.




How can equality ever be achieved when the population is being pumped up with hate? These people then go out and vote for a bunch of bigots for public office who will tolerate this hate and the hate grows from hate speech to racist violence.

One can't help but wonder why the Governor's top legal assistant, Micah Hines, did not advise Governor Mark Dayton to step in and take action against this use of public schools to spread hate?

How can we expect racist hate to be eliminated through education when our public schools are providing a platform and forum for this racism to be espoused?

We can only wonder what children attending the public schools in Little Falls must be learning? The Minnesota Department of Human Rights should be working with teachers and administrators to make sure the children attending Little Falls Public Schools are receiving lessons teaching them about the consequences of racist hate. 

Governor Dayton should be the featured speaker at this event...

From: Larry Fisk <fisksen@brainerd.net>; 
To: <brainerdpeace@lists.riseup.net>; 
Subject: [brainerdpeace] Please Attend LF Tolerance Event 12/4 
Sent: Thu, Nov 14, 2013 11:48:20 PM 

A few months ago an Islamaphobic speaker overflowed the Little Falls High School auditorium speading her message of fear and intolerance. Unfortunatlely this Tea Party Patriot sponsored speaker, Brigitte Gabriel, found a receptive audience among Central Minnesotans. In recent years Muslims, and even people who fit some Americans' stereotypes of Muslims or Arabs, have experienced violence and discrimination. This fear has also been used to promote the wars we in BACP have opposed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the use of U.S.drone terror warfare throughout the Middle East.
 
Gabriel spoke in another Minnesota community and since her appearance two other Islamophobes have spoken in Minnesota, one in Chisholm and one for three consecutive nights in Bagley.
 
Please join in attending this important event of tolerance and community dialogue to help us show that not all Minnesotans buy into the fear and prejudice that are used to divide and manipulate us:
 
"A Community Discussion on Tolerance and the Fear of Islam.”

 Wednesday, December 4, 6-8 p.m.
St. Francis Hall, St. Francis Convent, 116 8th Avenue SE, Little Falls, MN
Speakers :

* Father Virgil Petermeier, St. Cloud Muslim-Christian Dialogue
* Saly Abd Alla, CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director
* Jaylani Hussein, CAIR-MN Outreach & Advocacy Director
* Ian Norwood, Little Falls High School Student
* Moderated by Jeff Odendahl, St. Francis Convent 


Event sponsors:
Little Falls Partners for Peace, Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace, Building Blocks of Islam, and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN).

CONTACT: CAIR-MN Civil Rights Attorney Ellen Longfellow, 612-327-6700, E-Mail: elongfellow@cair.com


Press release:

CAIR-MN and Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace to Cosponsor 'Tolerance and the Fear of Islam' Interfaith Dialogue in Little Falls
Event prompted by appearance of anti-Muslim hate group leader earlier this year

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 11/12/13) – On Wednesday, December 4, interfaith leaders and community members will gather in Little Falls, Minn., for a community dialogue on “Tolerance and the Fear of Islam.” Event sponsors include: Little Falls Partners for Peace, Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace, Building Blocks of Islam, and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN).

WHEN: Wednesday, December 4, 6-8 p.m.
WHERE: St. Francis Hall, St. Francis Convent, 116 8th Avenue SE, Little Falls, MN 56345
CONTACT: CAIR-MN Civil Rights Attorney Ellen Longfellow, 612-327-6700, E-Mail: elongfellow@cair.com

“Many individuals in the community have never met a Muslim in person and that allows fear to grow,” said CAIR-MN Civil Rights Attorney Ellen Longfellow. “This event seeks to promote a positive discussion around tolerance, respect and community. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best- ‘We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.’”

Speakers include:

* Saly Abd Alla, CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director
* Jaylani Hussein CAIR-MN Outreach & Advocacy Director
* Ian Norwood Little Falls High School Student
* Father Virgil Petermeier, St. Cloud Muslim-Christian Dialogue
* Moderated by Jeff Odendahl, St. Francis Convent

The event was organized after community leaders and activists considered the negative impact a speech by an anti-Muslim speaker had in the community earlier this year. On July 29, 2013, the Central Minnesota Tea Party featured anti-Muslim speaker Brigitte Gabriel from the hate group ACT! For America in Little Falls.

Gabriel claims an American Muslim "cannot be a loyal citizen" and that Islam is the "real enemy." She once told the Australian Jewish News: "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim." She also claimed that "Islamo-fascism is a politically-correct word. . .it's the vehicle for Islam. . .Islam is the problem."

The New York Times stated: “[Gabriel] presents a portrait of Islam so thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable to those who study or practice the religion.”

SEE: CAIR Islamophobia Backgrounder: ACT! for America and 'Brigitte Gabriel'
https://cair.com/islamophobia/islamophobe-profiles/14-islamophobia/11824-cair-islamophobia-backgrounder-act-for-america-and-brigitte-gabriel.html
The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

- END –

CONTACT: CAIR-MN Civil Rights Attorney Ellen Longfellow, 612-327-6700, E-Mail: elongfellow@cair.com; CAIR-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya, 612-327-6700, E-Mail: lsaroya@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com
 
 
 
Leaflet:

on Tolerance and the Fear of Islam
Wednesday December 4, 2013 6PM – 8PM
St. Francis Hall
St. Francis Convent
Father Virgil Petermeier, osc St. Cloud Muslim/Christian Dialogue
Saly Abd Alla CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director
Jaylani Hussein CAIR-MN Outreach & Advocacy Director
Ian Norwood Li!le Falls High School Student
moderated by Jeff Odendahl Franciscan Center
116 8th Avenue SE
Li#le Falls, MN 56345
A COMMUNITY DISCUSSION
WHEN:
WHERE:
SPEAKERS:
Li#le Falls Partners for Peace
Building Blocks of Islam
Brainerd Area Coalition for Peace
Council on American-Islamic Relations, Minnesota
SPONSORS:
Cost of A#endance: FREE
Coffee & Cookies provided