A Human Face - Environmental Justice
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/within-mainstream-environmentalist-groups-diversity-is-lacking/2013/03/24/c42664dc-9235-11e2-9cfd-36d6c9b5d7ad_story_2.html
Climate activists have to get outside Washington, build organizational networks across the country, stretching “far beyond friendly congressional offices, comfy board rooms, and posh retreats,” said a report by Harvard professor of government and sociology Theda Skocpol.
Phaedra Ellis, chief executive of Green for All, a San Francisco-based multicultural environment group, wondered whether the funders of mainstream groups are driving the divide.
“We’re applying for this grant, and they say don’t put in there the part about people of color and low-income. And we said, if you don’t want this in the proposal, we’re not a group you want to deal with.”
Tom Goldtooth, executive director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, based in Minnesota, said they need “to put a human face on the issue.”
Goldtooth said his network works with groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, attempting to stop the Keystone oil pipeline from extending across native lands from Canada to Texas. But big groups generally approach them only when they need something.
They “will not step up to fully support native rights,” Goldtooth said. “They’re allies of ours . . . [but]it’s not just asking us for help when they need it.”
Climate Controversy 2013 by AuthorHouseBooks
Climate Controversy 2013 - Is there any common ground?
Book Title: Climate Controversy 2013
Co-Author Reviewer: Pamela S. Ellis, Ph.D.
Despite the name of the book, the climate science facts presented are indisputable. Common ground among those in education curriculum debates, composed of various socio-political networks, must be found very soon, or the profound environmental climate changes shown in Climate Controversy 2013 will continue unabated. All of humanity must be welcomed to the climate science knowledge table to ensure a mutual sustainable future. This book beautifully demonstrates that each person situated in any group can make an environmental contribution to our quality of life and Earth's survival. The cardinal question only remains...will we?
More on the controversy:
http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2013/03/06/1
Purchase and/or review the book here:
http://www.fourseasonsbooks.com/book/9781481718219
www.amazon.com/gp/product/1481718215/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_title
www.scribd.com/doc/129901540/Climate-Controversy-2013
Climate Controversy 2013 curriculum use meets Common Core Standards in that it requires an interdisciplinary approach to student learning of English/language arts and science as well as communication skills. A donation towards the environmental conservation efforts of the Natural Resources Defense Council benefits from all book purchases.
Climate Controversy 2013 by AuthorHouseBooks
Condolences are not enough. Demand a plan to end gun violence.
The clear answer is a failure of national, state, and local government and civic leadership that provides for public safety and a humanities-based education. I agree with the plan articulated by Anita Schumacher, "By coming together and lifting our voices, we can help prevent this from ever happening again." Join with many around the country today for a candlelight vigil and "make this a national moment of mourning, reflection, and resolve to act."
http://front.moveon.org/enough-join-a-vigil-on-saturday-to-call-for-commonsensegunsafety/
Not Even Close: A Landslide Victory for Obama over Romney Internationally
Obama Vastly Preferred Over Romney Internationally, BBC Poll Says
by Meenal Vamburkarhttp://www.mediaite.com/online/obama-vastly-preferred-over-romney-internationally-bbc-poll-says/
A new BBC poll showed that, in terms of overseas approval, President Barack Obama is the decided favorite. Of the 21,797 people surveyed in 21 countries, most prefer Obama over his challenger Mitt Romney.France was the most pro-Obama country, with 72 percent of its respondents favoring the president — followed by Australia. Pakistan was the only country whose respondents as a whole said they prefer Romney. The country with the highest support for Romney was Kenya (just under 20 percent), followed by Poland.
A look at the countries, ranked by support for Romney:
…and ranked by support for Obama:
__________________________________
Rigged to Rise: How Romney's Crony Capitalism Corrupted Free Markets Without Creating Jobs
Mitt Romney: The Great Deformer
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/14/david-stockman-mitt-romney-and-the-bain-drain.html
Mitt Romney claims that his essential qualification to be president is grounded in his 15 years as head of Bain Capital, from 1984 through early 1999. According to the campaign’s narrative, it was then that he became immersed in the toils of business enterprise, learning along the way the true secrets of how to grow the economy and create jobs. The fact that Bain’s returns reputedly averaged more than 50 percent annually during this period is purportedly proof of the case-real-world validation that Romney not only was a striking business success but also has been uniquely trained and seasoned for the task of restarting the nation’s sputtering engines of capitalism.
Except Mitt Romney was not a businessman; he was a master financial speculator who bought, sold, flipped, and stripped businesses. He did not build enterprises the old-fashioned way-out of inspiration, perspiration, and a long slog in the free market fostering a new product, service, or process of production. Instead, he spent his 15 years raising debt in prodigious amounts on Wall Street so that Bain could purchase the pots and pans and castoffs of corporate America, leverage them to the hilt, gussy them up as reborn “roll-ups,” and then deliver them back to Wall Street for resale-the faster the better.
That is the modus operandi of the leveraged-buyout business...in an honest free-market economy, there wouldn’t be much scope for it because it creates little of economic value. But we have a rigged system-a regime of crony capitalism-where the tax code heavily favors debt and purposefully enables rampant speculation by propping up the price of financial assets and battering down the cost of leveraged finance.
So the vast outpouring of LBOs in recent decades has been the consequence of bad policy, not the product of capitalist enterprise. I know this from 17 years of experience doing leveraged buyouts at one of the pioneering private-equity houses, Blackstone, and then my own firm. I know the pitfalls of private equity. The whole business was about maximizing debt, extracting cash, cutting head counts, skimping on capital spending, outsourcing production, and dressing up the deal for the earliest, highest-profit exit possible. Occasionally, we did invest in genuine growth companies, but without cheap debt and deep tax subsidies, most deals would not make economic sense.
‘The Great Deformation: How Crony Capitalism Corrupts Free Markets and Democracy’ by David A. Stockman. 400 pp. PublicAffairs. $29.99.
In truth, LBOs are capitalism’s...vulture investors who feed on failing businesses...they have now become monsters of the financial midway that strip-mine cash from healthy businesses and recycle it mostly to the top 1 percent.
This article was sent by Byron A. Ellis, PhD, Executive Director of Jethroproject.com
Send your favorite article of the week with commentary to info@harambeeconference.com . We want to know your thoughts on topics of importance to you, community, nation, and beyond. The reason why we want this...because, we know you really care... Your articles and commentaries are reviewed for likely publication on our blog, and sent out to our email listserv...
Pamela Ellis, PhD
Good Government Cares for Those at the Bottom "First."
Saturday, October 13, 2012 - Article of the Week:
Loyalty's for Chumps on the Street: Bankers' Man in 2008, Obama's been Dumped by the Money Men
The choice is so clear... Actually, it is the tale of two countries. Wall Street always knew that Obama was trying to pull the wool over their eyes, and surreptitiously wanted to change the "preferences for some" equation. Romney is "genuinely" the man willing to take gullible "victims" "to the bank."
Everyone should vote their version of American values. Wall Street's Deception, i.e. for the Uber Rich, or with worthy contributors to candidates "Education, Microsoft, Google, and trade unions." Vote Early!!! What mistakes Obama has made pales in comparison to a ruling hierarchy of 120,000 families... We know that "over 90 percent of the nation's financial assets -- including stocks and pension-fund holdings -- are owned by the richest 10 percent of Americans. The top 1 percent owns 38 percent...The 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million Americans put together." (Reich, 2012). Good government cares for those at the bottom "first."
Send your favorite article of the week with commentary to info@harambeeconference.com
Pamela Ellis, PhD
President/CEO
Harambee Conference, LLC.www.harambeeconference.com
Labor Day 2012 and the Romney/Ryan Agenda
Don't be lulled into a false sense of security with the Romney/Ryan Agenda. Don't settle for the lowest class of existence where the owners of business have the "only" voice that matters, rather than workers with legitimate rights of dignity, "quality of life" wages, and working conditions. Vote Democratic, your "way of life" depends on it...
"On behalf of everyone at the AFL-CIO, and the millions of workers we’re proud to represent: thanks for the work you do. It means the world to us. I bet you can think of plenty of workers in your life who deserve thanks—the teachers who inspire your children, the firefighters who keep us safe, the nurses who heal our wounds, or the electricians who keep the lights on. It might be workers you sometimes forget about—the waitresses who served your dinner, the accountants who worried about your taxes so you didn’t have to or the mail carriers who got your package there in time for your mom’s birthday. We want everyone to know their work matters. Say thanks to the workers in your life today."
http://go.aflcio.org/thankyou
In Solidarity,
Elizabeth Shuler
Secretary-Treasurer, AFL-CIO
The Hierarchy
Who among us wants to be great in the year 2012?
(Matthew 20:26-28)
…but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Are you a servant leader by divine spiritual calling, or by choice? Who would choose to become a slave, and a servant to all? Aren’t the words servant and leader oxymoronic in today’s age? In our institutions, leaders are served by servants and employees, not the other way around.
Large income and wealth inequities assure that this system remains in place to benefit a few at the expense of so many disenfranchised and marginalized social groups. Which one of us in the year 2012 consciously choose to be a slave or servant to people in need? It is so…the conscientious people, the exalted people, not by their choice, but by deference, or God’s design?
The man who insisted just yesterday that I go first in line was “one of these.” He would not hear my objections. He simply said, “I am old school.” I said to him, “No one is more important than anyone else.” He replied, “What you are doing is more important than what I am doing.” How did he know that? We were strangers to one another. He really didn’t…unless in the Spirit…he was informed, or was he possibly suffering from low self-esteem?
I was catapulted to the front when I personally would have chosen some “middle of the road” invisible location…again. Very often, people are merely going where other people want them to go, or is it where God, or where they themselves want…to go?
Should I, or should you, make a scene in that, or similar situations? If you are a servant leader, it may not be by choice. Maybe you were divinely chosen for “your place”…for such a time as this…(Esther 4:14).
Your reply comments, positive and/or negative, are very much appreciated…
Journey of Advent 2011 - Lectio Divina
It’s all Gift…
The idea of “first” is paramount in our understanding of life on planet earth. So during this Christmas season, take time to reflect on your “first” experiences.
I
take note of who sends me my “first” Christmas card. It is the same person each year. I, also, take note of who sends me the “most
holy” Christmas card. This
acknowledgement always goes to my “Loving Sisters of Baltimore Carmelite
Convent”. I think they must spend the
whole year in preparation of finding the right illustrator and meditation with
prayer for this blessed season. My years
of weekly study with them, in the past, continues to be rewarded.
My first Christmas present received during the Advent Season 2011 was a divine inspiration of how God has gifted me in my personal life. By extension, God gifts all of us, but so many are unaware of what or how spiritual and material gifts are manifested. The sad fact of the matter is that the notion of divine love as a fulfillment is so removed from many over the holidays. You don’t necessarily have to be duped into a belief of nihilism.
The people who I know who profess a personal relationship and earthly life with the Divine Christ subsist on daily scriptural readings and meditations. In a process of personal spiritual formation and the lectio divina, many consider the highest order of prayer.
Reference: http://www.crossroad.to/glossary/religious.htm
Lectio Divina:
"Lectio Divina", a Latin term, means 'divine reading' and
describes a way of reading the Scriptures whereby we gradually let go of our
own agenda and open ourselves to what God wants to say to us…
1. "Lectio (reading) where we read the Word of
God, slowly and reflectively so that it sinks into us. Any passage of Scripture can be
used....
2. "Meditatio (reflection) where we think about the
text we have chosen and ruminate upon it so that we take from it what God wants
to give us.
3. "Oratio (response) where we leave our thinking
aside and simply let our hearts speak to God. This response is inspired by our
reflection on the Word of God.
4. "Contemplatio (rest) where we let go not only of our own ideas, plans and meditations but also of our holy words and thoughts. We simply rest in the Word of God. We listen at the deepest level of our being to God who speaks within us with a still small voice. As we listen, we are gradually transformed from within."
This process of divine communion was thought to have been aptly described first by Origen Adamantius, born in Alexandria, Egypt in 185 A.D. The focus of this type of prayer is simply to know more deeply the incarnate Christ birthed within the soul of the believer.
Oh yes…material gifts, how could they possibly compare to divine riches?
Thank you to all those who think we need something anyway... Sometimes, we actually do...
There are so many sources of daily scriptures and meditations that I have been led to over the years. In the computer age, I have mine e-boxed from presentation ministries. I deconstruct those readings, and supplement with other readings as led by the Holy Spirit. My girls enjoy the responsorial songs found in the few minutes of devotion that we share in the morning...
Share your spiritual experience on the meaning of the Journey of Advent 2011, and the subsequent implications for the New Year 2012 with those of us who need to hear..the Divine words within you…
Speak to those with an ear to hear...
Be courageous, rise up, lectio divina, and prophesy…
School Discipline Disparity is Documented
Take a careful look at a national and local article below with several important links featured within them also:At the very least, I want to know that adequate school policy is in place, and that school authorities require planned discussions at each local school regarding student discipline policies, followed by careful documentation and analysis of what teachers and students seem to have most difficulty with class and behavior management.Upon a completion of an assessment, plans for improvement must be documented. Teachers and students must be held accountable. If teachers are having difficulty with class management, their skill level will be in need of improvement, and "in service" professional development coaching warranted. If students are "acting out" in class, counseling and, if absolutely necessary, "in school" suspension is preferable to long term "out of school" suspension.
This article was sent by Ebonique Ellis, International Education Director of BooksMotivate.org
Send your favorite article of the week with commentary to info@harambeeconference.com . We want to know your thoughts on topics of importance to you, community, nation, and beyond. The reason why we want this...because, we know you really care...
Your articles and commentaries are reviewed for likely publication on our blog, and sent out to our email listserv...
Pamela Ellis, PhD
President/CEO
Harambee Conference, LLC.www.harambeeconference.com