Tag Archives: United States

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Digging into our Roots!

09/10/2013 Nativegrl77

NMAAHC -- National Museum of African American History and Culture

africa diaspora title bannerFINAL-01.jpg

Searching for Your Roots

This event is full. However, please join us via webcast at nmaahc.si.edu/Events/SearchingforYourRoots.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. Photo by Jeffrey Dunn

Thursday, September 12, 2013 7:30 PM to 9:00 PM

We share a basic drive to discover our own personal stories that explain who we are — and where we come from. In the 2012 PBS series, Finding Your Roots, Henry Louis Gates Jr. explored “the DNA of American culture.” Gates enlisted his own corps of discovery — leading genealogists, geneticists, and ancestry genetic testing companies — to uncover the ancestry of celebrities in each episode. This very team has been busy tracing the genetic histories of tonight’s guests, the Smithsonian’s own Lonnie Bunch, director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and Washington Week’s Gwen Ifill. Gates will reveal their ancestral backgrounds, discovered through historical records and genomic data, live on stage. Ifill and Bunch will explore the results and comment on what they’ve learned.

Lonnie Bunch

Gwen Ifill

After the ancestral reveal, the program continues with a discussion on the promise and limitations of genomic research and ancestral inference genetic testing. Panelists include:

Aravinda Chakravarti, professor, McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins University;

Charmaine Royal, faculty, Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy, and associate research professor, Department of African and African American Studies, Duke University;

Joanna Mountain, senior director of research, 23andMe.

The panel moderator is Vence Bonham, associate investigator, National Human Genome Research Institute. A question-and-answer session with the audience follows.

Gates is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University, and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research.
For more information, email NMAAHCPROGRAMS@si.edu.

Presented in partnership with the National Museum of African American History and Culture, National Museum of Natural History, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Fed up with Cargill, taking our demands to its customers

09/10/2013 Nativegrl77

Rainforest Action Network

It has begun!

I’m here in Minnesota today to kick off The Power Is In Your Palm Tour, a traveling roadshow that will visit a dozen of the Snack Food 20—companies using conflict palm oil in their popular snack food products—at their US headquarters. I’ll be working with the dedicated activists on the Palm Oil Action Team to deliver our demands to each of these companies: Take conflict palm oil tied to rainforest destruction, orangutan extinction, and human rights violations out of your snack foods!

Fittingly, we started the tour at the world headquarters of Cargill, the #1 importer of conflict palm oil into the US. We just hand-delivered over 100,000 petitions calling on Cargill to commit to transparency and safeguards that will eliminate the conflict palm oil that is driving orangutans to the brink of extinction from its global supply chain.

Cargill petition delivery

After years of making similar demands, though, we’re tired of waiting. Cargill has had its chance to do the right thing. After today, we’re taking our demands directly to Cargill’s customers—many of whom are amongst the Snack Food 20.
The Power Is In Your Palm Tour will travel across the US to deliver the message far and wide that you and me can change how these companies do business. When we take action, the Snack Food 20 will have to remove conflict palm oil from their products. And to do that, the Snack Food 20 will have to tell Cargill that it’s time to remove conflict palm oil from its supply chain.
Here’s how you can help:
1. Sign up for the Palm Oil Action Team—you’ll get all the latest calls to action and will make a huge contribution to The Power Is In Your Palm Tour. Together, we’ll pressure the Snack Food 20 to change their ways.
2. Chip in $5 to keep the tour rolling! We can’t do any of this without your support. Just $5 will go a long way.
It’s so important that you get involved now because we have truly reached The Last Stand of the Orangutan. Best estimates place the population of orangutans in the wilds of Sumatra and Borneo at just 60,600. We really have no time to waste in convincing the Snack Food 20 and Cargill to make sure the products they sell aren’t destroying precious habitat for these great red apes.
Thanks for all you do! And stay tuned, because the next event of The Power Is In Your Palm Tour is going down this Thursday, and we’ll finally be naming the Snack Food 20 and publicly calling on them to clean up their act. You’ll have a big role to play in making that call as loud and clear as possible!

		For the great red ape,
		Jess Serrante National Agribusiness Organizer Twitter: @Jess_Serrante

~ my 2cents ...

the Middle East

09/09/2013 Nativegrl77

The World is watching…

The marches the violence against the Protesters and those called Rebels fighting back … people seem to have had enough of dictatorship

My question is … will those deeply invested in or associated with Syria and the Middle East in general step up and renounce the use of Chemical Weapons lest we call them WMD as well as the National Norm enacted approximately 100 yrs ago.

Remember … there is always strength in numbers

people dying for wanting to be heard, for wanting to be participants in their own futures is not new … mothers with children, older men and women and college students are coming out in droves to let the current dictators know it’s time for a change though the chance of death and or certain injuries are at risk

We see a country in possible transition, definitely a movement against dictatorship in all its forms and bad actors allowing elections though the votes of millions seem to have gone uncounted. The demand to be heard is great but to get the change they need and want means the fear of challenging the authority a huge financial risk … and the possibility of death.

The supreme leader tried to cut off all connections to the outside world, stated the US meddled in the process to divert responsibility and is willing to use extreme force — the Militia should rise up against this kind of behavior… don’t they want personal freedom too … a change from the old ways to a more positive way of life … human rights, a chance for a better economy and a chance to be heard, to participant in the process of life ….

They have a dictator/supreme ruler making threats and a militia shooting/ killing their own for non-violent protest … it is shameful

The journey toward freedom is sometimes paved with danger

Pray for all those involved and hope Americans are safe

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Meet Portland’s new District Director

09/09/2013 Nativegrl77

Direct from the Director

Camron Doss District Director Portland District Office

Hi Oregon and SW Washington Newsletter Subscribers –

I wanted to briefly introduce myself to you and share how excited I am to be joining the Portland District Office and taking on the role of Director.

Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of working with numerous small businesses and I’ve seen first hand how the federal government can help them grow and succeed through contracting and procurement. I got started with the federal government about 15 years ago. My first job was with the U.S. National Park Service as a Park Ranger Interpreter and an On-Campus Recruiter. After that I headed to the General Services Administration where I worked as a Real Property Management Intern, Contracting Officer, Asset Manager, Supervisory Property Manager and most recently, I was the Director of the Southern Service Center for the GSA Northwest/Artic Region.

Small businesses drive our economy here in the Portland District and across the country – and that’s one of the reasons I am so excited about my new position with the SBA. I truly believe in our mission – we are here to help small businesses start, grow and succeed.

Whether you have an idea, need a business plan or are looking to expand your current business – our office and the network of resource partners have programs and tools to assist you.

I look forward to seeing you in the community and at upcoming events and trainings.

– Camron Doss