01/15/12 WORLDWIDE CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR UNITY
This will be held at Vance Monument at 7 PM. Please bring your own light. On his birthday and in the spirit of Dr. King's vision for racial and economic equality, peace, and non-violence, we are holding candlelight vigils to unite our world in a global movement for systemic change. Wherever we may be, whether in our homes, in city squares, online, Occupies, or at work, we lift a beautiful message high above the political dialogue. We light the dream of a more equitable world in our hearts. We can overcome! More information at http://j15global.com/
01/16/12 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR PEACE WALK AND RALLY
This starts at 11 AM with a singing and speeches event and a short rally for the MLK Peace Walk that starts at Noon. The location is St. James Church.
01/16/12 FILM NIGHT AT KENILWORTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Join us Monday, January 16 in the Fellowship Hall for our Second Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration. There will be a community potluck from 5:30-6:30 pm and then a screening of the documentary Freedom Riders. The event will be hosted by Marvin Chambers, a Kenilworth resident and civil rights activist. This will be a special evening of education and reflection. www.kenilworthpresbyterianchurch.org
01/17/12 OCCUPY THE US CONGRESS DAY
01/17/12 PANEL DISCUSSION ON SNCC AT UNCA
Time is 12:20 PM and the location is Highsmith University Union, Room 224. Isaac Coleman and Carol Rogoff, members of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, will discuss their roles in this key civil rights organization on this panel discussion
01/17/12 DOCUMENTARY ON LIBERIA AT UNCA
Time is 8 PM. The documentary film “Iron Women of Liberia,” will be shown at Highsmith University Union, Room 143. In January 2006, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf was inaugurated president, immediately earning a place in history as the first woman ever elected president of an African nation. Since her victory, President Johnson-Sirleaf has appointed women to key positions throughout the government. This diverse group, along with other women across the country, has adopted their popular president’s nickname: They are the “Iron Ladies of Liberia.” The film follows the president and the extraordinary women surrounding her as they develop and implement policies to rebuild their ravaged country and prevent a descent back into civil war.
01/19/12 PUBLIC MEETING ON LICENSING A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN SC
Car pools now being formed to attend and speak at Public Meeting that will focus on the licensing of two new units at a new site near Gaffney, SC on the Broad River. This would be 60 miles from Asheville. We are too concerned about the health of our community to allow this. Contact Laura Sorensen at 545-4443 or Lsredoak@gmail.com for more info. This meeting will be held at Restoration Church International, 1905 North Limestone St., Gaffney, SC. Time is 7 PM.
01/19/12 MOVE TO AMEND RESOLUTION MEETING
Please be reminded that our next meeting is to take place at 6:30 PM on Jan. 19 in classroom #4 which is on the basement level of Asheville's Unitarian Universalist Church, northwest corner on Charlotte St. and Edwin Place. Parking is available on the north side of the building. The easiest way to enter is through the recessed door at the lower level on the northwest corner of the building & that will be unlocked. We will consider progress re proposed AVL City Council resolution. Please incorporate Hal Hogstrom's accurate correction of the resolution to be more correctly worded: "Therefore be it resolved that the City Council of Asheville, NC, on behalf of the citizens of our municipality, calls on our elected representatives in the United States Congress to "initiate the process to amend the Constitution", rather than "enact an amendment to the Constitution", as the former would offer a constitutionally valid course of action.
01/19/12 FILM SCREENING AT UNCA
Time is 12:30 PM and the location is Highsmith University Union, Room 143. The film “Whatever it Takes,” will be shown. This film chronicles the struggles and triumphs of this innovative public high school. While the learning environment is a safe haven compared to many of the students’ former schools, principal Tom’s ideals run up against reality midway through the school year. More than half of his students are failing, detention hall is overflowing, and gang members start recruiting at the school. Even some teachers harbor doubts, exhausted from 16-hour workdays and disillusioned with Tom’s inconsistent discipline policy. Whatever it Takes is a deeply emotional story of dedicated teachers and cutting-edge ideas, united in their vision to restore hope to a community.
01/19/12 DISCUSSION ON RACISM AT UNCA IN OBSERVANCE OF MLK WEEK
Time is 7 PM and location is Lipinsky Auditorium. Change starts with people, relationships and courage. Join our campus community and become empowered as damali ayo—activist, speaker and artist—uses her humorous stories and award-winning art to provide practical tools for building better communities. Her creative, pragmatic and satirical approach makes hard conversations about racial justice more accessible. Audience members will receive a copy of damali’s “I Can Fix Racism” guide following her talk. Free and open to the public. Contact Tracie Pouliot at 828/251-6991.
01/20/12 WNC PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The next WNC PSR monthly meeting will be at the home of Steve and Beth Gilman. Brown Bag lunch at noon with meeting from 12:30 to 2 PM. Directions to the Gilman's home: Take Highway 70 – Tunnel Road east from downtown Asheville. (From Interstate 240 going east, take Exit 7 and turn left at end of ramp.) Go several miles past the VA Hospital on left. Just before Blue Ridge Parkway overpass, turn right at stoplight onto Pleasant Ridge Road. Take 2nd right turn onto Wagon Road. Then turn left onto Birchwood to #18 on left. Physicians, health personnel and, yes, everyone; all are welcomed at the monthly meetings! Please go to www.wncpsr.org for more information, which includes how to get there and other details.
01/20/12 OCCUPY FEDERAL COURTHOUSES
A local “Move to Amend” group is considering an action on this date at the Federal Courthouse at 100 Otis Street in Asheville. Time TBD. Also, the local Occupy Asheville group is planning on occupying the Federal Courthouse in Asheville all day. Here is their statement: This is a national event to draw attention to the US Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in favor of Citizen’s United. The Wikipedia page is here. Justice John Paul Stevens, in a dissenting opinion, wrote: “At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.” If you’re against corporate money controlling our elections, please help occupy our Federal Courthouse!
01/20/12 – 01/21/12 “Come Together and Create,”
This is two-day showcase and celebration of local performing artists at Carol Belk Theatre on the UNC Asheville campus. To learn more contact Lise Kloeppel at 251-6940 or lkloeppel@unca.edu. Performances include:
6:30 p.m. Jan. 20: UNCA Percussion Ensemble, La’Ney West African Dance Ensemble, DeWayne Barton aka BLove, Jonathan Santos and Greg Lynch aka Alpha Lee. Free.
8 p.m. Jan. 20: An original play, “I Hope You Dance,” presented by the Urban Arts Institute. Free.
6:30 p.m. Jan. 21: “Asheville’s Sunday Best,” gospel singing competition to benefit A Bridge to Independence, a nonprofit dedicating to helping homeless youth. $6 in advance at Venus Beauty Salon, 891D Patton Ave., Asheville, or $8 at the door.
01/22/12 BENEFIT FOR A-HOPE
Benefit dance at the Gray Eagle in Asheville. Time is 5:30 to 9 PM, and this is to benefit Homeward Bound’s A-Hope Day Center. Cost is $10. The music will be by Vollie, Kari, and the Western Wildcats. Homeward Bound is working to end the cycle of homelessness in our community.
01/23/12 BUILDING BRIDGES
“Going Beyond Racism through Understanding and Respect” This Building Bridges session will last for nine consecutive Mondays, from 1/23/12 to 3/19/12. It will be held at 121 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, which is the new MAHEC campus. Time is 7 to 9 PM. Register at www.buildingbridges-asheville.org or call 828-777-4585.
More information: Envision by 2020 an Asheville where race is just a part of our "flava" and not the means by which we allocate goods, services and access; where concepts like educational disparities and structural racism in health care delivery are a distant memory to our community. Envision a Western North Carolina where employment opportunities are plentiful to anyone who is skilled or qualified for a position. Envision a community burgeoning with commissions and councils, entities and enterprises, collectives and corporations joining to collaboratively help with unlearning racism, yet creating awareness of unearned privilege...thereby cultivating harmony among all of our neighbors. We, at Building Bridges, believe that it is not only possible, but likely that we will restore and reconcile the family, community and global society with dialogue, awareness, justice-making action and mutual accountability.
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ACTIONS AND READINGS
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Save Asheville’s water
Attached website has information on local issue with Asheville Water. Activist Barry Summers spoke about this recently. He asked that I share this link to his website. Thanks. Clare
Save Asheville's Water (www.ashevillewater.blogspot.com).
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From the listserve for Veterans for Peace, Chapter 099:
See http://warcrimestimes.org/ for an article on Martin Luther King that I wrote two years ago and just re-posted (it's accompanied by a Laura Sorensen photo of one of Ole's peace symbols on a well-placed pole). The message is still relevant as are MLK's words from 1967. What's changed is that folks have finally become fed up with the inequality and are taking the initiative that he called for, and are beginning to come together in solidarity. - Kim Carlyle
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A NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANT 60 MILES FROM ASHEVILLE? ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF CORPORATE GREED OVER PUBLIC NEED!
A new nuclear power plant is proposed near Gaffney, SC just 60 miles from Asheville. Below are instructions on how to make a public comment on this proposed nuclear plant (to be called the William States Lee Nuclear Plant or Lee Nuclear Plant) and talking points that you can use. The deadline for written comments is March 6. 2012. Always reference document by putting this in the subject line of email or at the top of a written letter: “76 FR 79228, December 21, 2011”
You can email your comment to: LEE.COLAEIS@NRC.GOV
You can mail your comment to:
Chief, Rulemaking and Directives Branch
Office of Administration
Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555-0001
TALKING POINTS CONCERNING THE PROPOSED LEE NUCLEAR PLANT
1) Nuclear Power Is Dangerous: Radiation exposure damages reproductive cells, immune system—causes genetic mutations and cancer, spontaneous abortion, mental retardation, spina bifida, heart disease, leukemia and more. (National Academy of Sciences, World Health Organization). The truth is we are all are at risk. According to the National Academy of Science, there is no safe level of radiation. You cannot taste it, smell it or see it. Health effects can show up 10-30 years later. The NRC chief reported to Sen. Barbara Boxer in a recent report that 26 million potassium iodide tablets have been distributed to States. US population is 310.5 million. The so called 10 mile and 50 mile risk area around nuclear plants doesn’t hold true to the people and children of Belarus, victims of 1986 Chernobyl fallout who are still suffering debilitating diseases as a result of contamination from 124 miles away. In Japan, Fukushima has sent fallout to Tokyo and Asheville is 3 times closer to Gaffney’s proposed nuclear site. The NRC quotes the research done from the Chernobyl accident where thyroid cancer in children who ate radioactive food supplies OUTSIDE the safety zones was reported. There is also Chernobyl Heart, a genetic disorder in which children in Ukraine are born with holes in their hearts. Is nuclear worth this kind of risk and human suffering?
2) Broad River: Lee Nuclear Plant would use 47 million gallons of water per day with 75% loss through evaporation. Two large cooling lakes, (one is a 3 day back-up) would steam and cool 2 reactors that produce as much heat as 1200 atomic bombs. Even the NRC calls the Broad River “small” and climate changes suggest possible droughts. Shut down could happen due to lack of water for cooling; a very dangerous occurrence. It currently supports a hydropower station, the huge Cliffside coal plant only 16 miles upriver and Summer nuclear plant (1 reactor, 2 more proposed) downstream near Columbia, SC. After use, water is returned to the river as “thermal pollution” (warm water) which stresses fish, other animals living in the area and negatively impacts the surrounding environment. The SC Dept of Natural Resources lists the Carolina Fantail Darter fish that lives in the Broad River as “critically imperiled” in South Carolina & warns of “high conservation priority”.
3) Money Problems: Price tag for the 2 nuclear reactors has grown from $11 to $14 billion. Duke Power wants customers, 70% in NC and 30% in SC, to pay pre-construction costs through rate hikes in addition to taxpayers shouldering the entire financial risk through Federal Loan Guarantees. Another Bail-Out in the making! Wall Street won’t invest because as the Congressional Budget Office says, default rate on loans for new reactors “very high well above 50%”. Duke and Progress said their proposed merger was the only way to build more nuclear but the Fed. Govt. has refused the request twice in opposition to such a large monopoly. The estimated start-up date is from 2018 to 2020.
4) Uranium Mining: Uranium fuel is not a renewable or clean source of energy. Miners have been diagnosed with lung diseases, cancer. Uranium mining releases radon from the ground into the atmosphere. Mines and mining waste can release radionuclide, including radon and other pollutants to streams, springs, and other bodies of water.
5) Nuclear Waste: Storing radioactive waste on-site has contaminated ground water at many reactor sites. After more than 40 years of commercial radioactive waste generation, there is no long term location to keep it safe and contrary to many claims, no way to “recycle” it. Out of 104 US reactor sites, 100 have contaminated soil leading to contaminated ground water. Why will Lee be different? Nuclear waste remains radioactive for millions of years. This is critical to safety planning. There is Currently 145 million tons of waste at 77 US sites.
6) AP1000 Westinghouse Reactor: Rep Ed Markey’s statement: “Instead of doing all they should to protect nuclear reactors against seismically-induced ground acceleration, these Commissioners (NRC) voted to approve the acceleration of reactor construction. They have fast-tracked construction of a reactor whose shield building could ‘shatter like a glass cup’ if impacted by an earthquake or other natural or man-made impact”. This is a new design, that has never been built, that is proposed for 14 new reactors in the Southeast.
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