SPEAK OUT FOR A JUST AND HUMANE U.S. BUDGET
How does the federal budget affect Michigan? How can people in Michigan speak up about shifting federal spending from the Pentagon to jobs, human needs, and diplomacy?
Saturday March 5, 2011, from 10am to 3pm
Central United Methodist Church
215 N. Capitol Ave. in Lansing. At the corner of Capitol and Ottawa.
Speakers include:
- Lynn Jondahl, Michigan League for Human Services
- Bob Sheehan, Clinton-Eaton-Ingham Community Mental Health
- Ruth Flower, Friends Committee on National Legislation
- Jo Comerford, National Priorities Project
We will videotape your messages to send to our congresspersons
To register, e-mail names to MichiganForum@yahoo.com
Event is free. Lunch will be provided.
Sponsors include: Shalom Center for Justice & Peace, Michigan League for Human Services, National Priorities Project, WAND - Women’s Action for New Directions, Edgewood United Church of Christ Justice & Peace Task Force, Red Cedar Friends Meeting, Call to Action of Michigan, MSU Students for Peace & Justice, Peace Education Center of Greater Lansing, Keep Making Peace, Greater Lansing Network Against War & Injustice, Michigan PeaceWorks, Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice, Michigan Peace Action, 4th Ward Progressives, 11th Hour for Peace, Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network, Michigan Peace Team, Intercultural Communications, Pax Christi Michigan, MSU Peace & Justice Studies, UP North Ministries, MSU Peace & Justice Studies, Straits Area Concerned Citizens for Peace & Justice, Lansing Latino Health Alliance, Unitarian Universalist Church of Greater Lansing Social Action Committee, Detroit Friends Meeting, Teamsters Union, First Congregational United Church of Christ, Grand Ledge, and others.
Find the Michigan Forum on Jobs and Human Needs on Facebook.
Event will be live-streamed at Lansing Online News.
FCNL has been working diligently to get Senator Stabenow to join with her colleagues on the Senate Budget Committee to hold hearings on the Pentagon budget (the last audit of that budget around 2002 found a trillion dollars unaccounted for. The Pentagon has failed to meet the legally required audits for years.) It would seem a no brainer to at least hold hearings! Unfortunately, Senator Stabenow isn't interested in attending our forum, but we are going to bring publicity to the issue and hold her (and others) accountable.
Ruth Flower, a senior lobbyist at FCNL will speak to the inequity of the Pentagon spending vs. human needs spending, Jo Comerford from the National Priorities Project will provide information on how the flow of money to the military saps Michigan, and we have speakers and panels from Michigan human service agencies and government to speak about their pressing needs.
Our event will be live-streamed, and we will have video-tapers to tape our personal comments to send to Senator Stabenow on how the economy is affecting us or the communities we work with.
We'd love to have Friends from Grand Rapids attend and give witness to their concerns. And if any of you would be able to stay over until Sunday, we'd find homes for you to stay in and attend our brand new Quaker meetinghouse on Sunday.
Either email me back or email the address on the flyer (MichiganForum@yahoo.com) to let us know if you are coming, if you know in advance. Margaret Nielsen, (another Quaker) is the one who will get the emailed registrations. Bring hand-outs for our information tables if you have networking info to pass along.
Thanks,
Becky Payne, rapayne7@comcast.net
