Democracy Blast

Ending Hunger in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Here’s how a city of 2.5 million people in central Brazil--Belo Horizonte, the nation’s 4th largest--is making food for all its citizens a reality:

 ~ Small farmers were given choice locations to sell fresh food directly to consumers, cutting out middlemen who’d hoisted the prices; 

~ Small markets, also strategically located, are required to sell certain healthy items at a set price of about two-thirds of the market price, while everything else can be sold at the market price;

~ Using the city-owned spaces also obligates the sellers to take truckloads of produce into poor neighborhoods in need of fresh produce;

~ “People’s cafeterias” offer heaping plates of hot food for about $1.10; everyone from any socio-economic class is welcome. The cafeterias serve 12,000 or more people each day.

 

The cost of these efforts? Around $10 million annually, which is less than 2 percent of the city budget. It translates into about a penny a day per resident. 

Perhaps the most important thing we’ve learned from Belo Horizonte? Real, true progress can be made in the fight against hunger.

See a 12-minute video about the program here. And learn how the program has grown here.

 

To discuss these efforts, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

  

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

At last! Something Democrats & Republicans agree on!

Just when you might have thought it impossible, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents have found something they can agree on: overturning the Citizens United ruling.

Thirteen states have called for a constitutional amendment in response to the 2010 Supreme Court decision that equated campaign money with free speech--allowing corporations, unions, and billionaires with deep pockets to anonymously out-advertise their political opponents. It turns out that no political party likes money to decide elections.

A constitutional amendment is difficult to achieve, but this grassroots effort has already galvanized voters--and their representatives--in West Virginia, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Vermont, New Mexico, Hawaii and most recently, Maine. 

If you’d like to see your state jump onto this bandwagon, consider signing one of the petitions offered by Move to Amend, Daily Kos, Democracy is For People, or perhaps one by your state’s representatives.

 

To discuss overturning Citizens United, click on the “Comment” link beow or visit us on Facebook.

 

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

How you feeling?

May is Mental Health month, and a 3-minute online test can help determine how you’re doing, and whether you might want to share that information with your doctor.  

The online screening is designed to note mood and anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, bipolar disorder or depression.  

After choosing multiple choice answers on a 27-question list, participants will receive a mental health “number” and an explanation of its meaning.  

The free, private, 3-minute test is offered by Mental Health America, an advocacy group. Why not take a few minutes and check out your number?

 

To discuss the online test or Mental Health month,click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.  

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

Start Something that Matters

“How would you use $50,000 to create positive, global impact?” That’s the provocative question posed by website GOOD and founder of TOMS shoes, Blake Mycoskie.

In their “Start Something That Matters” challenge, they’re offering financial support to help “launch an idea with the power to change the world for good.” 

Submissions are open from April 22 to May 17, noon Pacific Time. A panel of judges will choose finalists, which will then appear on the website for community voting. Judges will determine the final winner. “The chosen idea will be selected based on its potential for driving positive impact, its ability to be realized, and its viability for ongoing success to fuel positive change.”

Don’t have a great idea, but interested in watching--or voting on--the possibilities? Public voting will open on May 29 (noon Pacific Time) and close on June 12 (noon Pacific Time) at startsomethingthatmatters.maker.good.is/. And if you DO have a great idea, this is also the link to follow to learn more.

 

To discuss starting something, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

It’s not what you know...

...it’s who you know. Or at least that’s what pollsters at You.Gov have been taking a look at. Traditional polls ask people their opinions on various matters important to society, but they rarely ask the participants if they or someone they know has personal experience with, for example, immigration, committed gay relationship, gun ownership, lack of health care, military service in Iraq or Afghanistan.  

You.Gov asked these questions, and has complied the results by gender, age, and political affiliation. Some of their “key findings” 

Illegal Immigration:

• More than one in four Americans (29%) knew someone who was an illegal immigrant
• Young adults are more likely to know an illegal immigrant than senior citizens
• Democrats and Republicans were equally likely to say they knew one 

Iraq and Afghanistan:

• 42% of Americans know somone or served themself in Afghanistan and 48% know someone or served themself in Iraq, 
• 13% Americans know someone who died in Iraq or Afghanistan 

Gay Marriage:

• A majority of Americans (56%) know someone who is in a committed gay relationship
• This extends across nearly all demographic groups and political affiliations 

You.Gov is looking into how who we know might affect our opinions. Check out the results of their poll here.

 

To discuss this topic, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

 If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

What should we do now?

As our nation reels from yet another tragedy, sometimes the best response is to do something. Consider the following options in response to the bombing in Boston:

Volunteer at a food pantry or soup kitchen: www.foodpantries.org lists sites by state; Meals on Wheels might also need a hand: www.mowaa.org. 

The Red Cross often needs blood donors: www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation. 

Arbor Day Now at arbordaynow.volunteermatch.org might have a place for you to help plant trees. 

If none of those ideas sound quite right, check out VolunteerMatch at www.volunteermatch.org, where you can enter your city and receive a list of possibilities.

 

To discuss this topic, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

Equal Pay Day: April 9, 2013

You’ve probably heard that women earn 77 cents for each dollar earned by men, but Equal Pay Day suggests another way to look at that statistic. Each year the National Committee on Pay Equity estimates how many extra days the average women works to catch up in salary with the average man: this year, women would’ve worked until Tuesday, April 9 to catch up with a man’s 2012 wages.

Levo League, an organization created by and for Generation Y women, seeks to remedy this by offering advice, mentorship, and career opportunities. They’ve launched an “Ask 4 More” campaign to coach women in how to negotiate a raise.  

Not getting what you deserve? Take a tip from Gen Y and ask 4 more.

 

To discuss Equal Pay Day, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

  

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

 

Now? Now!

The State Department is accepting public comments on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline, which would move oil from the tar sands of Canada down into refineries in the Gulf.

Maybe you’ve heard that this form of oil extraction causes 17% more greenhouse gas emissions than do conventional methods.

Maybe you’ve seen video of the recent oil spill in a neighborhood in Arkansas.

 Maybe you’re ready to say something to our government about the proposed pipeline--if so, 350.org has made it easy for you to do so. Just visit their  A Million Comments for a pipeline straight to the State Department. 

 

To discuss Keystone XZ Pipeline, click on the “Comment” link below, or visit us on Facebook.

 

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

Gun personalization

by esc.ape(d)

Yes, “gun personalization”--it’s not just for James Bond anymore. Or at least, it doesn’t have to be.

Here’s the idea: guns could be made in such a way that they “recognize” their owner (or more than one owner), and refuse to fire if picked up by anyone else--say a child or a thief or an unstable relative. There are various ways technology can meet this challenge, such as by using radio frequencies or sensors in the grip that require the owner’s unique touch. 

The greater challenge might be the political will required to demand such an innovation. But next month, Congressman John Tierney intends to introduce a House bill requiring that all guns include personalization technology within two years.  

What do you think? Could it happen?

 

To discuss gun personalization, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

 

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.

Better or Worse?

The question is: will the following information make you feel better or worse? Ten years ago this week, America was posed to launch a war on Iraq--and a group of people who had worked in the CIA and other intelligence agencies grew increasingly concerned that the President was being given misleading information.  

On March 18, 2003, the organization Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity send a memorandum to George W. Bush, with the forthright subject line “Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth: A Problem.” Their message? “We cannot escape the conclusion that you have been badly misinformed.” 

The memo recalls the history of the war in Vietnam, then states, “...the Vietnam War was the most serious US foreign policy blunder in modern times — until now.” 

The “forgery” in the subject title refers to the bogus information that Saddam Hussein sought uranium for bomb enrichment--a correspondence fakery that had already been discredited. The memo warned that deliberately downplaying the inaccuracy “inflicts serious damage on US credibility abroad—the more so, as it appears neither you nor your advisers and political supporters are in hot pursuit of those responsible.”

The memo continues in surprisingly straightforward and plain language: “As you know better than anyone, a year and a half after 9/11 the still traumatized US public remains much more inclined toward unquestioning trust in the presidency.”

Its conclusion: “We suggest strongly that you order the Intelligence Community to undertake, on an expedited basis, a Special National Intelligence Estimate on North Korea, and that you defer any military action against Iraq until you have had a chance to give appropriate weight to the implications of the challenge the US might face on the Korean peninsula.” 

Perhaps, on this decade anniversary of our invasion in Iraq, you might be heartened by the knowledge that clear voices within the Intelligence community spoke against it. 

On the other hand, having witnessed the results of this policy for the past ten years ... it might just make you feel worse.

 

To discuss this topic, click on the “Comment” link below or visit us on Facebook.

If you'd like to receive the weekly “Democracy Blast” via email, click here.