Tag Archives: Separation of church and state

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#LivetheWage … it’s a Challenge


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Join Leaders And Advocates Taking The #LiveTheWage Challenge And Live On A Minimum Wage Budget For A Week

July 24th marks 5 years since the last federal minimum wage increase and America can’t wait any longer.

While corporate profits and CEO salaries skyrocket, the minimum wage remains stuck at $7.25 an hour, well below the poverty line for a family of three. We need to raise the minimum wage so that workers have more money to support themselves and their families. More money for workers means more customers for businesses. More customers means more jobs and a stronger economy for everyone.

It’s time for action.

This July, join the national movement to raise the minimum wage by taking the Live the Wage Challenge.

The Live the Wage Challenge asks elected officials, community leaders, advocates and everyday citizens to walk in the shoes of a person who earns minimum wage by living on a minimum wage budget—$77—for one week. Your weekly budget of $77 represents the weekly wages of a full-time worker making the federal minimum wage, minus average taxes and average housing expenses. Your weekly budget includes all your meals, groceries, transportation, and recreational spending. (It does not include long-term and inflexible expenses like loan, car, mortgage, or rent payments, child care, health care, etc.)

Obviously, $77 is not a lot of money. The truth is that you may simply run out of money and go over budget. That’s OK: the Challenge is not easy, and it’s not supposed to be. Workers who make the minimum wage have little, if any, leeway in how they spend their money each month. The Challenge gives a glimpse into just how little the minimum wage provides. It is not enough to live on—much less enough to invest back into the community. Whatever happens — good or bad — by sharing our experiences you will help highlight the critical need to raise the federal minimum wage.

Visit Livethewage.com to learn more about the challenge and read the stories of minimum wage workers and the struggles they face. The Challenge starts on the anniversary and goes for one week: from Thursday, July 24th until Wednesday, July 30th. Invite your friends, your neighbors, your congregation, your co-workers to join. And if you take part, be sure to chronicle the whole experience on social media using the hashtag #LiveTheWage. The more participants share their experiences with others, the bigger the impact we’ll have on the national conversation around the minimum wage.

BOTTOM LINE: Take part in the Live the Wage challenge by walking in the shoes of a minimum wage worker and living on just $77 for a week. We can keep the momentum going to raise the minimum wage – and keep the pressure on legislators who are saying no.

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a message from Gov.Inslee … Washington is cutting carbon


WAseattleferriesdowntownbackground“This is not some distant problem of the future. This is a problem that is affecting Americans right now.”

These were the words of President Obama on Tuesday as his administration released the National Climate Assessment, a landmark report written by over 250 scientists and government officials that confirms something we’ve known for a while: Man-made climate change is real and is already altering our lives and our planet.

But this report doesn’t just warn us about the problems facing our planet in general — it specifically warns that Washington is now facing greater wildfire risks, a reduced water supply, and significant damage to our shellfish industry due to ocean acidification.

We’ve heard warnings like these for far too long, yet failed to act. But as I said on Tuesday, “This challenge is significant, but it is matched by tremendous opportunities.” That’s why, last week, I announced an executive order to limit carbon pollution and asked you to help stop climate change before it’s too late.

Thousands of Washingtonians have heeded the call and signed a petition, in just the last week, to declare that they support this executive order and demand bold action to address the climate crisis.

As our movement grows stronger, we know the opposition is watching. With the release of Tuesday’s report, there should be no doubt that now is the time to join us, and show them that we’re not backing down.

Click here to declare your support for real climate action in Washington — including a market-based program to limit carbon — by signing my petition now.

Very truly yours,

Jay Inslee

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Israel-Pal​estine: This is how it ends


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Dear friends,

As more innocent children are killed in a new round of violence in Israel-Palestine, it’s time to take definitive non-violent action to end this nightmare. Our governments and companies aid, trade and invest in the status quo. If we call on key businesses to stop financing those responsible,, we can help make the cost of conflict too high to bear — join the call:

SIGN THE PETITION

A new round of violence in Israel-Palestine has already killed over 180 people including 36 children. It’s not enough just to call for another ceasefire. We need to end this decades-long nightmare by taking definitive non-violent action.

Our governments have failed — while they have talked peace and passed UN resolutions, they and our companies have continued to aid, trade and invest in the violent status quo. The only way to stop this hellish cycle of Israel annexing Palestinian lands, daily collective punishment of innocent Palestinian families, Hamas firing rockets, and Israel bombing Gaza is to make the economic cost of this conflict too high to bear.

We know it works — when EU countries just advised their companies not to invest in the illegal Israeli settlements it caused an earthquake in the cabinet, and when citizens successfully persuaded a Dutch pension fund, PGGM, to withdraw, it caused a Foreign Ministry internal crisis.

This can save lives, not just now, but for years to come. History tells us that raising the financial cost of oppression can pave a path to peace. Click to call on key businesses to uphold the law and stop financing the violence — if we all take smart action now and turn up the heat, we can turn the calculation of the extremists and warmongers profiting from this misery upside down:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_this_is_how_it_ends_31/?biEWLbb&v=42506

In the last five weeks three Israeli teenagers were murdered in the West Bank, a Palestinian boy was burnt alive, an American kid was brutally beaten up by Israeli police, 200 Palestinian kids are behind bars, and now 36 Gazan kids have died in Israeli air strikes. This is not the “middle east conflict”, it’s becoming a war on children and innocents.And we are becoming numb to this global shame.

The media makes out like this is an intractable conflict between two equal warring parties, but it is not. Palestinian extremists’ senseless attacks on innocent civilians must be condemned and ended but the root of the conflict lies elsewhere — in the historic dispossession of the Palestinian people. Israel occupies, colonizes, raids, and controls the water, the trade, and the borders of a legally free and sovereign nation that has been recognised by the United Nations, and its military is one of the most powerful in the world. In Gaza, Israel has created the largest open-air prison in the world, and then blockaded it. Now as bombs fall, the families literally have no way to get out.

These are war crimes and we wouldn’t accept that anywhere else. Half a century ago Israel and its Arab neighbours went to war and Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Occupying territory after war happens all the time. But no military occupation should turn into a decades-long tyranny which only fuels and benefits extremists who use terror to target the innocent. And who suffers? The majority of loving families on both sides that just want freedom and peace.

Calling for companies to withdraw investments from Israel can seem to unfairly punish Israel’s people. But we know that the majority of Israelis want peace and security, just like their Palestinian neighbours. And yet their government pushes war and violence that big tech and weapons corporations profit from while everyday citizens on both sides suffer. Like extremists in Hamas, Israel’s government has its own extremists that will only be silenced by seeing the financial costs to their call for war.

British G4S provides extensive security equipment that runs the Israeli occupation. Huge European funds like the Netherlands’ ABP invest in Israeli banks that fund Israel’s colonisation of Palestine. France’s Veolia builds and runs transport for Israeli setters illegally living on Palestinian lands, sustaining a system of segregation. Massive banks like Barclays invest in suppliers of Israeli arms and other occupation businesses. And Caterpillar provides bulldozers that are used to demolish Palestinian homes and farms. If we can create the biggest global call ever to get these companies to pull out, we will show clearly the world will no longer be complicit in this bloodshed. The Palestinian people are calling on the world to support this path and progressive Israelis support it too. Let’s join them:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/gaza_this_is_how_it_ends_31/?biEWLbb&v=42506

Our community has worked to bring peace, hope, and change to some of the world’s toughest conflicts, and often that means taking difficult positions to address the root cause. For years our community has looked for a political solution to this nightmare, but with this new round of horror unfolding in Gaza, the time has come to turn to sanctions and disinvestment to finally help end the horror for Israelis and Palestinians.

With hope and determination,

Alice, Fadi, Ben, Laila, Anna, Jo, Nell and the entire Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION:

Israel-Gaza conflict: 80 per cent of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes are civilians, UN report says (The Independent)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-80-per-cent-of-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-strikes-are-civilians-un-report-says-9606397.html

These are the names of 21 children killed in Gaza (Washington Post)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/07/09/these-are-the-names-of-13-children-kill…

Palestinians: Most Gaza dead are children, women, elderly (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.604443

UN independent expert calls for boycott of businesses profiting from Israeli settlements (UN)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43376#.U7_ynqhMrRI

12 more EU countries warn against trade with Israeli settlements (Haaretz)
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.603030

Caught on Tape: US Teen Allegedly Beaten by Israeli Police (ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/caught-tape-us-teen-tariq-abu-khdeir-allegedly-24449873

Israelis, Palestinians Pro Peace Process, but Not Hopeful (Gallup)
http://www.gallup.com/poll/161456/israelis-palestinians-pro-peace-process-not-hopeful.aspx

Exposing the Israeli Occupation Industry
http://www.whoprofits.org/

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Who put these mysterious, giant arrows in the middle of the desert?


 

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Rookie?


 Washington State … Support Suzan DelBene
Great news! The Seattle Times weighed in with a big endorsement for the August 5 primary election:

“U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Medina, spent her first term in Congress operating at a level beyond her rookie status. She deserves re-election to continue her work on behalf of the 1st District.” – Seattle Times Editorial Board

I’m humbled by the endorsement, and so proud of the grassroots campaign that has made our success possible. Thanks to you and your continued support, we’ve been able to make progress in this deeply divided Congress.

This endorsement, and the momentum it gives, comes at a critically important time. Midnight tomorrow marks the final reporting deadline of this race before the primary. This race is the most competitive congressional contest in the state and out-of-state interests have already targeted me for defeat – a strong showing before the final deadline will send the message that we are in it to win.

Please chip in to our campaign right now, and let’s keep the momentum going! Every dollar makes a big difference.

Thank you,

Suzan