Monthly Archives: April 2020

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Audubon day … April 26


Birds of America
April 26 is
Audubon daymockingbird

by Slayer

John James Audubon (1785-1851) was America’s foremost ornithological illustrator. After studying drawing in Paris under the French painter Jacques Louis David, Audubon struggled for many years to make a living from his art, shuttling back and forth between Europe and the United States and supplementing his income by giving drawing lessons, turning out portraits, playing the flute or violin at local dances, and at one time running a general store.

In 1820 he began a flatboat excursion down the Mississippi River to seek out new varieties of birds to paint. Eventually he had enough bird portraits to publish in book form. Birds of America, produced with the help of engraver Robert Havell, Jr., contains 435 hand-colored plates and was published in “elephant folio” format to accommodate the life-sized portrayals of birds on which Audubon insisted.

After his death in 1851, Audubon’s wife Lucy returned to teaching to support herself. One of her students, George Bird Grinnell, became the editor of Forest and Stream magazine and in 1886 organized the Audubon Society for the study and protection of birds. Today there are many branches of this organization, known as the National Audubon Society, and it remains dedicated to the conservation of wildlife and natural resources. Its members honor Audubon on his birthday, April 26. In some states, Audubon Day and Arbor Day are celebrated together by planting trees in bird sanctuaries.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/audubon-day#ixzz1t9SHCcAV

~ In the Library

In the Library … Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science, by Dick Teresi


Boldly challenging conventional wisdom, acclaimed science writer and Omni magazine cofounder Dick Teresitraces the origins of contemporary science back to their ancient roots in an eye-opening account and landmark work.This innovative history proves once and for all that the roots of modern science were established centuries, and in some instances millennia, before the births of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. In this enlightening, entertaining, and important book, Teresi describes many discoveries from all over the non-Western world — Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India, China, Africa, Arab nations, the Americas, and the Pacific islands— that equaled and often surpassed Greek and European learning in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology.The first extensive and authoritative multicultural history of science written for a popular audience, Lost Discoveries fills a critical void in our scientific, cultural, and intellectual history and is destined to become a classic in its field.
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tell Congress: Protect Black Businesses during the COVID-19 Outbreak!


Call on Congress to protect Black-owned businesses. We need a REAL paycheck guarantee today!

Black businesses and their employees are being locked out of the federal coronavirus relief fund. Congress’ current small business relief program assumes that all business owners have equal access to credit and to banking services. But we know that has never been the case. From redlining to the refusal to provide loans, Black people in this country have historically been locked out of entrepreneurship, with devastating consequences for our communities.

Today, Black-owned firms with paid employees generate over $103 billion annually. The largest share of that revenue comes from Black-owned businesses in the health care and social services sector. By providing a paycheck guarantee to businesses directly, Congress has the chance to invest in essential industries, to prevent countless layoffs, to preserve our communities’ access to healthcare, and to ensure that the places that have served our communities for years are able to survive this crisis.

Join us in calling on Congress to cut out the middleman and provide a direct paycheck guarantee to small businesses today!

It is not a coincidence that the median wealth of white families is roughly 10 times the median wealth of Black families. Generational inequalities in healthcare, housing, and employment mean that Black people are more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other demographic in the U.S. Unless Congress provides direct relief to small business owners, our communities will continue to disproportionately share the burden of this crisis. Black entrepreneurs deserve the same kind of access to coronavirus relief packages that will keep other businesses in this nation afloat during this crisis and beyond. It’s time for a direct paycheck guarantee for small businesses from Congress now.

When you protect Black business, you protect Black workers. Join us in demanding a direct Paycheck Guarantee from Congress now!

These are our demands:

  • Funding for small business grants, not loans, that will allow for Black-owned businesses to retain and rehire their workforce and reopen after the health crisis. This includes funds for direct payroll support, as well as covering all costs to maintain the business. Making sure that businesses, especially Black owned businesses, can maintain payroll through direct transfers rather than loans will ensure these businesses can survive the crisis, get money into the hands of people more quickly, and relieve the strain on a patchwork of state unemployment systems.
  • Mandate a full, public accounting by race, gender and geography of where stimulus money has gone particularly have Black-owned businesses received federal support.
  • Create targeted support funds for Black businesses. Any additional funding for small business support should include a substantial dedicated fund for supporting minority-owned businesses.
Here is the Petition:

To Representatives,

In the best of times, Black people have had to overcome this country’s persistent underinvestment in Black business. According to a 2016 study by the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy, only 1% of Black-owned businesses received a bank loan in their first year of operation, compared to 7% of white businesses. And twice the number of white business owners use a credit card during their first year of operation at 30%, as do Black business owners at 15%.

Today, Black-owned firms with paid employees generate over $103 billion annually. The largest share of that revenue comes from Black-owned businesses in the health care and social services sector. By providing a paycheck guarantee to businesses directly, you have the opportunity to invest in essential industries, to prevent countless layoffs, to preserve Black communities’ access to healthcare, and to ensure that the places that have served Black communities for years are able to survive this crisis.

Generational inequalities in healthcare, housing, and employment mean that Black people are more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other demographic in the U.S. Unless Congress provides direct relief to small business owners, Black communities will continue to disproportionately share the burden of this crisis. We asking that you implement a direct paycheck guarantee for small businesses.

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