[CCPJ Update] Febraury 6, 2012 Edition

[CCPJ News]

[image: CCPJ]*Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice [image: CCPJ]*



...a simple truth that *“since wars begin in the minds of humans, it is in
the minds of humans that the defense of peace must be constructed…”*


WE are turning our community conversation toward peace and away from the
enmity and violence that dominate our lives. In these times of continuing
wars and public discord, envisioning peace seems like an impossible task.
But it is precisely in such times that the need for peace and non-violence
is greatest.

 *Will you join us?*

 *For a World of Justice and Peace for All.*

Volunteers NEEDED to join us and participate in events!!!

Volunteer needed to help out with website maintenance. Please contact us at
our website for more information.

Please contact us via email to let us know of your availability and
interest in CCPJ. Drop us a line at
http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org/contact or just show up at our monthly
meetings!

Our thanks also go out to those who donated funds. We appreciate all
donations tremendously. Without your support our activities would be
limited. Thanks to all who donated.



*WEEKLY WITNESS FOR PEACE*



Join Us for weekly Thursday demonstrations from 4:30 to 5:30 pm. Come join
us at the corner of McIntire, Main and Water Streets, in front of the
Federal Building.  Drop-ins welcome! If we quit making war, we could stop
spending $800 billion every year for the military budget and fix our
deficits fast. Wouldn’t that be better than throwing our seniors under the
bus?!!

*Charter for Compassion*

The Charter of Compassion is a cooperative effort to restore not only
compassionate thinking but, more importantly, compassionate action to the
center of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is the principled
determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the
heart of all religious and ethical systems. One of the most urgent tasks of
our generation is to build a global community where men and women of all
races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace. In our globalized
world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule has become an
urgent necessity.



Watch the Video at Charter for Compassion<http://charterforcompassion.org/site/>
.



*LOCAL AND STATE EVENTS*

*Living Wage at UVA Rally *

Time: This Wednesday, *February 8,* 2012 at Noon

Location: In front of Madison Hall

This Wednesday, Stand up and be counted with activists and professors at
Madison Hall. Faculty members will be submitting a signed petition to
President Sullivan for a Living Wage at UVA. Please attend and let your
voices be heard!

*KEEP THE BAN ON URANIUM MINING!!*

Ten months ago we launched the Keep the Ban coalition with a concerned
group of citizens, 1,000 signatures, 20 groups and one big goal: Keep the
Ban on uranium mining in Virginia. And while the industry spent millions in
lobbyists and trips this year, we were busy organizing and growing.


[image: Citizens Lobby in Richmond]

On Jan 23rd, 200+ Citizens
Came to Richmond to
Keep the Ban* Permanent*
<http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=SEHReHHGr5ekLSeXjR7TLp8YdQxyCzZa>

Today, *more than 10,000 citizens have joined* our campaign by speaking to
their friends, family and legislators about the major public health and
environmental risks uranium mining poses to Virginia; and, over *100
localities and organizations* have voiced support for keeping the ban.

Thanks to you and your hard work, the uranium industry did not have the
votes in the General Assembly to introduce a bill to lift the ban. On
January 19th, Gov. McDonnell was forced to concede that a report from
the National
Academy of Sciences identified “important questions related to the health
and safety of workers, the public, and the environment.” *As a result, the
ban will stay in place for 2012. *

At the same time, however, Gov. McDonnell directed Virginia’s health,
mining and environmental agencies to draft “conceptual regulations” for the
General Assembly to consider in 2013. Governor McDonnell’s directive to
create a draft statute and regulations, behind closed doors, is the first
step toward lifting the ban.

The uranium industry has yet to show the citizens of Virginia that uranium
mining can be done safely, and our legislators have not answered the
fundamental public policy question: does Virginia want to take on the
long-term economic and public health burden of mining uranium and storing
millions of tons of toxic waste in our state?

*Before we create regulations, we need to answer the question: Is it worth
the risk to mine uranium in Virginia?
*

Call Governor McDonnell today. Tell him to Keep the Ban on uranium mining
permanent! (804) 786-2211.

The fight to keep the ban on uranium mining in Virginia is far from over. *Over
the next few months The National Academy of Science is planning a series of
presentations on their report "Uranium Mining in Virginia"* the first
presentation is on Feb. 7 in Danville. We encourage you to attend.

Here are the details:

*National Academy of Science "Uranium Mining in Virginia"
Tuesday, Feb. 7th at 6:30 p.m.
*
Institute Conference Center
150 Slayton Ave., Danville, Va.
(Near intersection of Route 29 and Route 58)

We look forward to working with you to keep the ban on uranium mining
permanent. Stay engaged at
www.KeepTheBan.org<http://statevoices.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=62GKqHFkiaWkLSeXjR7TLp8YdQxyCzZa>
.

PS Please help us spread the word by forwarding this email.


*Saturday, February 18th:  AT from Dripping Rock to Humpback Mountain*

Time:  10:00 at Dripping Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Afton and
Reeds Gap
This will be an approximately six mile hike with an elevation gain of about
six hundred feet. We should have good views of the Wintergreen ski slopes
and the Rockfish and Shenandoah valleys. Good boots are essential and a
stick helpful if there is any ice, as the trail is rocky in places.  We
have the option of adding two miles total to include Humpback Rocks in our
itinerary.

Meet at 10:00 at Dripping Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Afton and
Reeds Gap.  The parking area is on the right headed north and about 5 miles
north of Reeds Gap. It would be best to approach the hike from Reeds Gap,
since if the parkway is closed because of ice or snow, we will park at
Reeds Gap and plan a back-up hike based on trail conditions.

Bring water, lunch, and clothing for winter conditions with wind exposure.
If the weather is questionable that day, call Janet (434 263-6199) that
morning for a recorded message.



*Saturday, March 24th:  Howardsville Turnpike*

Time:  9:30 at Rockfish River Elementary School on Chapel Hollow Road just
off Route 151 in Nelson County

Join us for a six-mile hike and a smattering of local history on the old
Howardsville Turnpike.  The turnpike was built to carry goods from the
Shenandoah Valley to Howardsville for river transport on to Richmond.  It
was completed at about the same time as the Crozet railroad tunnel and was
thus obsolete before it ever really opened. There are wonderful rock walls
along the turnpike route.  The climb on this hike is gentle - think horses
pulling or walking in front of loaded wagons.

Meet at 9:30 at Rockfish River Elementary School on Chapel Hollow Road just
off Route 151 in Nelson County.  Chapel Hollow Road is about two miles
north of the intersection of Routes 6 and 151.  We will carpool from there
to the trail head, where parking is limited.

Bring water, lunch and clothing for the weather.  If the weather is
marginal that morning, call Janet (434 263-6199) for a recorded message.
Left-over snow piles may cause the hike to be canceled because parking will
be impossible.



*KEEP FIGHTING THE ROUTE 29 BYPASS! *
Charlottesville 29 *Bypass*: A Road to Ruin.


Please sign this
petition<http://www.southernenvironment.org/cases/charlottesville_bypass>to
voice your opposition to building the 29 bypass and your support for
local and state leaders to move forward with funding real solutions. And
then forward this link to your friends and neighbors.

The proposed bypass of U.S. 29 in Albemarle County is a colossal waste of
money, will not solve traffic problems for local drivers or
through-drivers, poses a serious health threat to our citizens, and will
forever mar our community. The bypass was a bad idea more than a decade
ago, when our local leaders voted against it and turned to pursuing real
solutions to traffic on U.S. 29. Despite the recent political rush to
revive it, the bypass is an even worse idea today. The 29 bypass is a bad
deal--but it's not a done deal!  Go to Stop the Bypass for more information
and to sign the
petition<http://www.southernenvironment.org/cases/charlottesville_bypass>today!



For the last decade, the Charlottesville-Albemarle community has worked
hard to advance smarter, long-term solutions to the traffic on Route 29. A
number of major studies have shown that the best solutions focus on
addressing the sources of congestion rather than building an ineffective
bypass around it. The two most important ways to alleviate traffic on Route
29 are:
Build overpasses at the busiest intersections along Route 29 to eliminate
long traffic lights and backups; and
Complete a series of parallel roads along the corridor, including the
Hillsdale Drive Extension and Berkmar Drive Extended, to get much of the
local traffic off of 29.

In addition, we support better development practices on the Route 29
corridor that move away from big-box stores and toward pedestrian-friendly,
mixed-use developments that require less driving. Reliable and attractive
transit options will also help curb the number of cars on Rt. 29.
Please listen to NPR's article on VDOT's emails and efforts to mislead the
Public. Click this
link.<http://www.wvtf.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=768:emails-on-vdots-29-bypass&catid=48:wvtf-news&Itemid=119>


*Don't Roll Back Cuts to Defense Spending!!*

Just about the only good thing to come out of last year's debt ceiling
debacle was that the law Congress passed to raise the debt ceiling has the
potential to reduce defense spending by $492 billion over the next ten
years.

It would normally be a very heavy lift to get Congress to pass any kind of
reductions to defense spending. But the legislation that raised the debt
ceiling was designed in the case of a deadlock on the Super Committee to
mandate across-the-board cuts starting in 2013, including cuts to defense,
that would be unattractive to both Democrats and Republicans alike.

The Super Committee did deadlock. And now that they are faced with the
prospect of mandatory reductions in defense spending, we can count on
members in both chambers of Congress and in both parties to try to shield
the American war machine from any sort of funding reductions.

It's undeniable that we have a grotesquely bloated military budget. Even
with the reductions, the United States will be on track to spend more on
defense than the next ten countries combined.

Yet Republican Rep. Buck McKeon has just introduced a bill that will
substitute a reduction of the federal government workforce by 10% in place
of the first year of mandatory cuts. And this will likely be the first of
many attempts to change the law to shield military spending.

Republicans and some Democrats are now saying that the sky will fall if we
do not exempt the Department of Defense from mandatory spending cuts — even
as they insist that our deficit is such a problem that we must make brutal
cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

In the midst of an economic crisis like the one we're in, fixating on
reducing the national deficit is deeply counter-productive. In the short
term, it would be better for the government to spend money to help grow the
economy than cut programs to reduce government outlays.

*But if here's one thing we can cut in our federal budget, it's defense!*

Yet in a demonstration of massively misplaced priorities, we're being told
that on one hand we can't afford necessary programs for the poor, the
disabled, the sick and seniors, but on the other hand we must continually
spend more and more money on defense.

It's got to stop. Please contact Senators Webb and Warner, and Congressman
Robert Hurt to express your opposition!!



*Training for Transition*



“Training for Transition” workshop description:  As we face challenges of
peak oil, climate change, and economic crisis, the Transition Movement is a
positive approach that focuses on local solutions for building community
resilience. “Training for Transition” is a two-day workshop designed to
introduce the thinking and tools behind the most vital social experiment of
our time. Participants will explore issues of peak oil, climate change, and
economic crisis; assess the challenges these issues pose for the
Charlottesville/Albemarle community; and develop skills for organizing both
neighbors and local government towards a more creative, locally-rooted, and
resilient future.

Dates:  Fri. 2/10, 7-9pm (free public talk);

at. 2/11, 9am-6pm; and
Sun. 2/12, 9am-5pm
Location:  City Space (downtown mall), 100 5th St NE, Charlottesville, VA
22902
Facilitators:  certified Transition trainers Fred Brown & Tina Clark

Registration:  Registration based on a sliding scale. Additional
scholarships available. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.
For more information and to register, visit
transitionus.org/event/training-transition-charlottesville-va

Click here to watch an excellent video from a recent training in
Minneapolis (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Uld9-LYRgqY).  All
are welcome.  Please spread the word!



*UNION ORGANIZERS WANTED*

 - Become a Union Organizer!-



 *Changing Our World Begins at Work*!!



Virginia Openings Available



The AFL-CIO Organizing Institute (OI) is a paid job training and placement
program for people who want to fight for the rights of workers, immigrants,
women &people of color. Graduates of our training program are placed in
full time jobs as union organizers. The program has a 98% placement rate.



The OI is currently assisting our affiliate unions in hiring in Virginia.
You must have a driver’s license, be willing to travel and relocate in the
future.



Please send cover letter & resume to OIapps at aflcio.org. In your cover
letter please answer the following questions:



Why do you want to become a union organizer?

What has your role been in social justice or community work?

Women, people of color & bilingual speakers encouraged to apply. For more
information go to www.organize.aflcio.org.



*CCPJ Mailing Address:*



The Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice

P.O. Box2012

Charlottesville,VA 22902

Email: ccpjnews at gmail.com



*CCPJ Board members*



William Anderson wha at virginia.edu

Kirk Bowers engineer1950 at comcast.net

Brandon Collins brandoncollins at comcast.net

Tony Russell taorivertony at gmail.com

Virginia Rovynyak, Treasurer vgr4e at virginia.edu

******************************************************************

 This E-mail comes from the Charlottesville Center for Peace and Justice
(CCPJ) at http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org

CCPJ's work depends on your participation and on your funding. Please
contribute what you can here: http://charlottesvillepeace.org/donate

To submit Peace and Justice related events to the CCPJ website: Please use
the 'Submit Your Event for Listing' form at
http://www.charlottesvillepeace.org (Events submitted to the website will
be considered for inclusion in this weekly email newsletter.)

To unsubscribe from this email update list, please send a blank email to:

ccpj-unsubscribe at lists.mayfirst.orgfrom the address you wish to remove.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.mayfirst.org/pipermail/ccpj/attachments/20120206/5a189a05/attachment-0001.htm>