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Wednesday: 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Thursday: 11:00 am - 7:00 pm
Friday: 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Email the Office
or phone 215-247-2561.

If you need to reach Desi
you can call or text her on her
cell at 267-595-3250 - 24/7.

Minister's Office Hours

Tuesday, Wednesday and
Thursday by Appointment

Email the Minister
or phone 806-786-9733.

Posted Friday, August 4 —

YES! The Newsletter is Continuing!

For nearly four years the Restoration Social Justice Newsletter was written, edited and published weekly by the amazing team of Maria McCabe and Desi L. Maria came to Restoration as a Student Intern and grew to be our Director of Community and Social justice Ministries, and then our half-time Minister. We celebrated her ordination in June of 2017! By the rules of the Association, she can’t continue to serve as our minister and we’ll miss her. She will be serving a lucky Maryland congregation as their full-time minister starting this fall. We’ll never forget her and are confident that she’ll continue to inspire and illuminate Unitarian Universalists far and wide! From her earliest days with us, Maria inspired us with her caring, intelligence and enthusiasm to look at reality and take up the call. She was our Wonder Woman, our La Borinquena!

It was Maria who began and kept regenerating energy for our Black Lives Matter vigils and quiet commemorative time. In a few weeks we’ll commemorate the fourth anniversary of these weekly gatherings, where we hold signs for rush hour traffic reading “Black Lives Matter,” “Honk for Justice,” “End White Supremacy” and other mottos, many of them created by the teenagers of our Administrative Assistant, Desi Lewis. Three of her bright youngsters will be going to college in the fall—two of them to Howard University! During Sandy’s working career she enjoyed years of experience as an editor, largely for technical, environmental and medical publications, but because of her age she hesitated to take on editorship of the Newsletter, even though she was grateful to be partnering with Desi L., who has all along been finalizing the newsletter for email distribution. Sandy and Desi are pretty excited about working with each other, since we share ideas for streamlining the news items and making other creative changes Maria never had any time to address—but Sandy’s eyesight, even with glasses, is no longer reliable and Desi has many other responsibilities she can’t dodge.

So Sandy asked around for another editor - partner to do the proofreading — and someone has accepted — a social justice activist who has great creative ideas, Fern C.! Starting in this issue we’re adding books you may like to read and a few out of the box ideas which we call “Cutting Edge” that could inspire us. Sandy will be the Newsletter Coordinator and your contact, and all of you who are reading this can send her (via email attachment) any social justice events and action issues you consider important. Make your subject line read “For the S.J. News”. Besides sending online articles and invitations, we need vital petitions, brief summaries and photos of meetings you’ve attended, results of grassroots actions—including new future actions decided at recent meetings. For events that are coming up, if there’s no official poster,we need a brief alert of the issue. Please furnish the name of the event, date, time, and the street address and/or location. Send in your own essays, too, on issues you consider vital (for publication) and suggestions of how to make our news more valuable to you—and of course, your own book reviews and any cutting cdge potentially useful ideas. Finally, Sandy sent a rough draft Newsletter to a few of Restoration’s activists, and we editors want to thank all who sent back comments for your positive and helpful responses!
— Sandy F., Desi L., Fern C. — co-editors, Restoration Social Justice and Community Ministries Newsletter


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NEWS AND ACTIVITIES

August 7 & 8 —

Tyree Carroll

We supported him in one of Restoration’s successful Justice Council participations. but HE ISN’T FREE YET!

From Philly@globalwomenstrike.net: Young Germantown resident Tyree Carroll was out bicycling with friends near twilight, over two years ago. He was almost home. The other youths raced away on their bikes but Mr. Carroll was badly beaten by over 20 police, who also ran over and wrecked his bicycle. He was charged with evading parole curfew for a minor offense and arrested. If you haven’t seen the original incident, click on this YouTube link, filmed on a cellphone by a neighbor from an upstairs window: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6tSlFf8Qs

Instead of submitting to a plea bargain he chose to sue for false arrest. With help from two attorneys, Global Women’s Strike and many concerned citizens including UUCR members, he has been fully exonerated of the charge, in a courtroom where the judge treated the police to a tongue-lashing.

While awaiting that trial he was arrested a second time. His lawyers are trying to show that the second arrest was nothing but retaliation. Word has come to us from Global Women’s Strike that the date for Tyree Carroll’s trial for his second arrest has been set for this month.

Supporters are needed!
He needs a big turnout!

WHERE: Criminal Justice Center, 1301 Filbert Street, Phila
For the floor and courtroom number, ask at the downstairs desk
or a supporter may be at the door to let arrivals known
DATE: August 7 & 8
TIME TBA: but usually 9:00 am

Tuesday, August 8 —

Next Power Action Team Meeting

We'd like to remind you that there is no POWER action team meeting UNTIL AUGUST. All strategy teams have extended meeting times in July to prepare their year-long strategy plan.

Our next scheduled action team meeting will be:
Tuesday, August 8
7:00-9:00 pm
at the POWER Office
1429 N. 11th St
Philadelphia PA 19119
Dinner will be available at 6:30 pm

Each team will have the opportunity to present their plans to the other four strategy teams for input. Dinner will be available at 6:30 pm.

Please note that free childcare offered by certified personnel is available upon request. If you are in need of childcare, please contact info@powerphiladelphia.org by Friday, August 4, with the names, ages, and number of children attending. We encourage you to mark this date in your calendar, more information will be shared in future e-mails.

To register that you'll attend, go to: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/2115/c/10442/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=95945

Through August 10 —

PIHN (Philadelphia Interfaith Homeless Network)

Provides shelter & food for the homeless and is in need of some dinners and grocery cards!

Below are the dates when PIHN’s clients are in need of dinners. Meals will be at one of the buildings owned by the Lutheran Theological Center, near PIHN. In addition to dinners, PIHN clients need Acme cards to buy some staple items for the first two weeks in August. Dates are August 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

For further info, and if you are interesting in helping out, please call Keyonne at 215-450-0171. Thank you.

Thursday, September 14 —

PennFuture Event

RSVP to the below invitation at:
https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=6mludemn4maah#6891586326

Serena Willams speaks out:

She Demands Equal Pay for Black Women

Guardian report on her article in Fortune

Serena Williams has issued a stirring call for black women to demand equal pay using a personal essay (http://fortune.com/2017/07/31/serena-williams-black-women-equal-pay/) to highlight the financial disparity they suffer. In the essay published by Fortune, Williams says that for every dollar earned by men in the United States, black women earn just 63 cents. The 23-times grand slam winner writes that black women have to work eight months longer to earn the same as their male counterparts do in one year, and that black women earn 17% less than their white female counterparts. She draws on her own experiences to highlight unfair treatment black women are subject to in the workplace. “I’ve been disrespected by my male colleagues and – in the most painful times – I’ve been the subject of racist remarks on and off the tennis court,” she wrote.

To continue, go to: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/aug/01/serena-williams-calls-for-equal-pay-for-black-women-inpassionate-personal-essay

See the inspiring Pictorial Display from the
June 21st School Funding Rally in Harrisburg!

Click here (https://www.flickr.com/photos/powerphiladelphia/sets/72157685271596146) to view photos of the Education Apartheid Day of Action.

On June 21, the State Capitol in Harrisburg thundered with the nearly 400 hundred faith-based leaders traveled to Harrisburg to give one very simple message: Education Apartheid Must End! We heard from parents, students, clergy, movement leaders, and political allies. We are powerful when we are united in common purpose and effort. Contact Senator John Eichelberger! Thank him, urge him to set the date for the hearing, and share with him why school funding justice matters to you.

Police Violence

Police Officers Overwhelmingly Agree that Bad Cops aren’t Held Accountable

There’s at least one belief officers and protesters have in common. Seventy-two percent of U.S. police officers do not believe that officers who consistently do a poor job are held accountable, according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted by the National Police Research Platform. Asked whether they agreed with the idea that officers who consistently do a poor job are held accountable, 47 percent of officers disagreed and 25 percent strongly disagreed. Barely onequarter of officers surveyed either agreed or strongly agreed that officers who do a poor job are held accountable (24 percent agreed, while just 3 percent strongly agreed)… Read the entire article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/police-internal-affairs_us_58740d94e4b099cdb0ff0d04

Donald Trump Endorses Police Brutality in Speech to Cops

“When you see …these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon, you just see them thrown in, rough, and I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice,’” Trump said….Trump also made the dubious claim that laws were “horrendously stacked” against police officers and said he wants to change those laws.

This is absolutely appalling!

Read the rest at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-police-brutality_us_597b840fe4b02a8434b6575a

From The Guardian

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Convicted of Contempt of Court

[Our newly elected President of the UUA, Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray, not mentioned in this article, was part of the dramatic opposition to Arpaio.]

From the article in The Guardian: Former sheriff Joe Arpaio was convicted of a criminal charge Monday for refusing to stop traffic patrols that targeted immigrants, marking a final rebuke for a politician who once drew strong popularity from such crackdowns but was ultimately booted from office by voters. Arpaio, who made defiance a hallmark of his 24-year tenure, was found guilty of misdemeanor contempt-of-court for ignoring the 2011 court order to stop the patrols…. To continue: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/31/joe-arpaio-convicted-contempt-immigration-patrols

My Daughter was Murdered in a Mass Shooting
Then I was Ordered to Pay Her Killer’s Gun Dealer!

From Mother Jones, by Sandy Phillips as told to Abigail Pesta

This mother’s story will bring tears to your eyes and should make us all angry.
The injustices are built into law!

It was five years ago that Jessi was killed. On that day, I entered an inescapable nightmare…. It’s the little things you miss the most. I’ll see a mother and daughter in a restaurant, or taking a trip together at the airport, and then it floods me. I miss Jessi’s sass, the flash in her eye…. I miss the way she laughed—she was not a giggler. She would throw her head back and a burst of pure joy would come out….

Lonnie and I knew we had to be there when the trial for Jessi’s killer began in Denver in spring 2015. We needed to face him. But you will not hear me say his name. When a mass shooting occurs, the news media go overboard devoting attention to the killer’s past, his family, his manifesto. It’s what the killer wants. And research has shown that it helps inspire the next killer to seek similar fame….

There was one experience that showed us, more than any other, how warped America’s relationship with gun violence is. It came when we decided to sue the dealer that armed our daughter’s killer. The gunman bought more than 4,000 rounds of ammunition before his shooting spree—no background check, no questions asked. But a judge dismissed our case. Gun dealers are shielded by the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a controversial law that protects them from liability when crimes are committed with their products. Worse, in accordance with the law, the judge ordered us to pay more than $200,000 in legal fees to the defendants. In part because of that ruling, Lonnie and I were forced this year to file for bankruptcy….

For more, go to: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/07/my-daughter-was-murdered-in-a-massshooting-then-i-was-ordered-to-pay-her-killers-gun-dealer/

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ACTION

Help Protect our Progress on Nutrition!

by Karen, from Moms Rising

Menu labeling gives parents the information they need to make choices for their kids and families. But now the FDA has proposed pushing back menu labeling another YEAR, until 2018. This will open them up to be weakened, and denies parents the information we need to make choices for our families.

Join us in telling the FDA to implement menu labeling now, not in 2018!

The FDA finalized menu labeling regulations last year. The regulations cover all restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets, movie theaters and similar establishments with over 20 locations, and require listing nutritional information including calories, fat, sugar and sodium. Really helpful, right? We're delivering signatures in Washington this week, along with some fun reminders about the importance of menu labeling for families. Make sure your voice is heard!

Please sign now at: https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AIlK2kIAFs3CWX0qvAKvgEXtbRE

Scrutinizing Americans Based on Their Religion!

by US Rep. Keith Ellison, Co-chair Democratic Progressive Caucus

Last week, the far-right Tea Party proposed blatantly unconstitutional legislation to order the military to conduct a “strategic assessment” of those who practice Islam. The amendment would have required the United States government to scrutinize Americans based on their religion and determine acceptable ways for them to practice their faith.

The amendment ultimately failed with a narrow 217-208 vote. It was outrageous it was even brought up for debate, and even more outrageous that 208 members of Congress supported it. This isn’t new. From Jim Crow to the Japanese-American internment, we have a welldocumented history of singling people out based on their race, religion, and nationality in this country.

In this social and political climate, now more than ever, we must hold the line when the fundamental American rights of our neighbors are being threatened.

If you agree, add your name to mine and demand that Congress never again take up the question of stripping our constitutionally guaranteed right to practice whichever religion we choose. https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AONK2kIAICVxWW5gGA19IB5vKvM

DEPORTED!

Original message from Juan Escalante, forwarded from NW Philly Immigration Group

Despite our best efforts and a groundswell of public support, Jesus Lara was deported back to Mexico…. Jesus came to this country in search of a better life nearly 20 years ago. When he came to the United States, Jesus didn't have all his paperwork in place, but he did everything he could to get right with the law. He insisted on paying his taxes, studying English, and supporting himself and his family because his dream was the American dream. like so many immigrants across the country, Jesus would have become a citizen at the first opportunity, but our current immigration system does not allow it.

Please call 202-282-8203 and once you are connected say: “Secretary John Kelly [now being moved to the White House as chief of staff] insisted that his deportation force is only targeting criminals, but the deportation of Jesus Lara proves this is a lie. Immigration officials must use common sense. Immigrants like Jesus Lara should not be deported.”

Let us know that you phoned by clicking on: http://act.americasvoice.org/page/s/tell-sec-kelly-people-like-jesus-should-not-be-deported

Sen. Bernie Sanders Asks for our Help in Creating the
Best Possible Single-Payer Health System

from Reader Supported News

“The battle that we are undertaking is enormous and unprecedented in the modern history of our country. Please send us your ideas as to how we can best go forward. Please give us your vision of what a humane and rational health care system looks like. Please share your experiences with the current system.

Please help us map out an effective political strategy.” Click on this link: https://go.berniesanders.com/page/s/mfa-your-thoughts?source=em170731-full

NEW NEWSLETTER for EMAIL, FACEBOOK & TWITTER FROM PENNFUTURE ARTICLES ON PENNSYLVANIA’S IMPERILED ENVIRONMENT

News of actions across the state and what’s going on in Harrisburg

In this first issue read about the BAD Harrisburg budget deal! It favors the natural gas interests.

To read the full article click on: https://www.pennfuture.org/News-PennFuture-Statement-Budget-Deal-Prioritizes-GasIndustry?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=a245fbd4-0536-451a-a452-aec31d668f9d

Plus 5 more topics vital to Pennsylvania’s environmental justice & health and notices of future meetings

Go to the website, sign up for Penn Future Citizen at https://pennfuture.org/newsletter-sign-upM and get involved!

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A New Feature: MORE IDEAS Part 1

Books worth Reading: A Bibliography for Social Justice Adherents

The reviews below were submitted by Fern & Sandy

Have YOU read a good book on a social justice theme recently? The book doesn’t need to be new, just available for purchase or in a local library.

Send Sandy, your book’s author or editor, title, publisher, date, plus other relevant info and a brief review. If it’s a library book, which library?

A Nation of Nations: A Great American Immigration Story
Tom Gjelten
405 pp. Simon & Schuster. (2015)M

Most foreigners who came to the United States before the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 were white and European. Immigration to the United States was transformed by that Act, which was less restrictive and strongly favored family reunification. Over the last 50 years the US has diversified, admitting people from South America, Asia and Africa. In “A Nation of Nations,” Tom Gjelten focuses on how this shift has affected one county, Fairfax in Virginia, which saw its foreign-born population grow sevenfold in the three decades following the passage of the act. Gjelten introduces a cast of characters, immigrants and locals, to demonstrate how they have forged a new reality and what has brought them together.

Strangers in our Midst: The Political Philosophy of Immigration
David Miller
218 pp. Harvard University Press. (2016)

David Miller, a political philosopher, tackles the question of immigration policies in developed countries—not what they are but what they might be, considering many needs. He argues that a state should have the right to govern its borders however it wishes, so long as the method is fair and transparent. Taking a viewpoint somewhat different from progressive opinion when it comes to inviting outsiders into a country’s borders-- except in cases when there is a moral responsibility to protect others’ human rights, such as those fleeing genocide--Miller argues that citizens should be allowed to mold their own vision for their country and protect it by admitting only those who may adhere to it.

From Dictatorship to Democracy (A Conceptual Framework for Liberation)
Gene Sharp
93 pp. Albert Einstein Institute (2010)

Gene Sharp’s small but potent pamphlet is now in its 4th U.S. edition and has been translated into more than 28 languages worldwide. It’s a manual of nonviolent strategic plans and techniques that have undermined and brought down dictatorships. Sharp’s writing is simple and straightforward. His topics deal with the differences between tyrannical and democratic political power, the weaknesses inherent in top-down tyranny, the temptations and dangers of engaging in peaceable negotiation with a slick dictator, or from allowing violent resistance to prevail—and workable methods of resistance which avoid both. There’s an 8-page outline of recommended tactics for harassing and interfering with a tyrannical hierarchy, and a good bibliography at the end. Highly recommended.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
541 pp. Vintage Books (2005-6)

This well-written ecological and social history should be read for its insights into Third World countries that once possessed their own civilized technologies, skills, artistic cultures, religious faiths and histories. (Mann’s conclusions pertain also to the pre-imperialist civilizations of African and Asian-Pacific lands.) The “1491” date reveals what can be known of the cultures involved up to the first contact following Columbus’s landfall in the Caribbean, in which a civilized people were driven to extinction. The author goes on to later centuries during which all the early Americans and their cultures became impoverished and marginalized. Destruction followed the clumsy imperialist European ventures and Mann shows us specific food cultivation techniques developed through thousands of years of agricultural experimentation to suit particular climates and biological needs, which have been replaced by alien technologies that have often ruined both culture and environment. SALON’s review sums up this book: “Monumental! Mann slips in so many fresh, new interpretations of American history that it all adds up to a deeply subversive book.”

The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century Politics with an 18th Century Brain
George Lakoff
292 pp. Viking (2008)

Lakoff has made his mark in three fields of endeavor: brain neurology and its direct effects on human psychology, linguistic metaphor and other emotional influences on our thoughts and decisions, and his own progressive political activism. He shows how these are interrelated via the workings of the brain understood by modern neurologists. His primary theme is that the emotional brain can overpower Enlightenment concepts of “self-interest” and “rationality” and submerge both, manipulating minds with psychological techniques. There are chapters explaining the tendency for this manipulation to diminish self-protection in favor of following a father figure, and replace democracy with plutocracy. Other chapters show ways to combat those dangers. It’s written in highly readable language, technical terms are explained, and helps activists understand their own errors and deep biases and accept the perils to democracy which Lakoff has stressed in this book and in others.

Please send (to Sandy) reviews on books you’ve admired! They don’t need to be new, but we need author, complete title & date.

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Chicagoans Say “Yes in My Backyard” to Affordable Housing

from Truthout
[This is a reminder of Mount Airy in the 60s &70s!

Can Philadelphia integrate more neighborhoods fairly instead of gentrifying and pricing residents out?]

…A small group of like-minded residents launched the Neighbors for Affordable Housing in Jefferson Park (or NAHJP) Facebook page in support of [a new integrated] development… Leah Levinger, director of the Chicago Housing Initiative, or CHI, a coalition of low-income housing activists, reached out soon after, and within just a month a new activist group was born. NAHJP’s primary goal has been to show Chicago’s City Council that the development’s opposition doesn’t represent a majority of the neighborhood.

They’ve done that by building membership through traditional canvassing and community outreach, and then bringing their steadily growing ranks to a series of zoning committee meetings to voice their support. Mitchell cites this as the single most important factor in convincing City Council to approve the development’s zoning. Read more: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41435-chicagoanssay-yes-in-my-backyard

Help Federal Reserve Officers become Diverse and Representative

A key way to resist Trump’s corporate agenda is to fill our top economic policymaking positions with people who will actually represent all of us and stand up to Wall Street. One of these positions at the Richmond [VA] Federal Reserve is vacant, and Trump has no control over who will fill the seat! Sign our petition to make sure the Federal Reserve appoints a new Richmond Fed president who understands the plight of working folks in today’s economy!

Read on, at https://mg.mail.yahoo.com/d/folders/1/messages/AIlL2kIAQP26WWOjOgVTSFIXiyU and sign the petition.

“Democracy Vouchers” Aim to Amplify Low-Income Voices
(Can Philadelphia Create Democracy Vouchers?)

by Josh Cohen, in Seattle, Friday in The Guardian of 7 July 2017

If money amplifies the voices of wealthy Americans in politics, Seattle is trying something that aims to give low-income and middle-class voters a signal boost. The city’s new “Democracy Voucher” program, the first of its kind in the US, provides every eligible Seattle resident with $100 in taxpayer-funded vouchers to donate to the candidates of their choice. The goal is to incentivize candidates to take heed of a broad range of residents – homeless people, minimum-wage workers, seniors on fixed incomes – as well as the big-dollar donors who often dictate the political conversation...

Bernie Sanders demonstrated that small donors can float a campaign, with 99% of his donations coming from individual donors, 59% of which were considered small donations. Last fall, South Dakota voters approved a program similar to Seattle’s, joining more than a dozen other states with some form of public financing, usually a matching fund for small campaign donations. Cities such as Portland, Oregon, and Berkeley, California, also followed the public-financing trend last year... Read on: https://www.theguardian.com/usnews/2017/jul/07/democracy-vouchers-seattle-politics-low-income-homeless

Would you like to get involved? Talk to any of us. If you are having any problems with this issue, please le us know. If you have reliable sources of information, email the URL or link to Sandy.
Thanks!

Staff and Liaisons

Sandy F. (Co-editor, Coordinator)
Desi L. (Co-editor)
Fern C. (Co-editor)
Fern C. (Black Lives Matter Vigil Contact)
Bruce P. (Justice Council Contact)

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