February 14
1817
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist leader, born into slavery.
1883
New Jersey becomes the first state to legalize unions.
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This week’s Carnival of the Green is being hosted by Groovy Green.
The host cleverly and uniquely describes the topics of the week in rhyme, which makes for interesting reading!
Topics this week include:
My job as a school teacher will prevent me from participating in this, but I hope many others will be able to. It sounds like fun and for a great cause!
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Hi fellow Green Bloggers,
Shea Gunther, the Eco-Entrepreneur and blogger behind sheagunther.
I wanted to let you know about the upcoming Green Blogathon and to encourage you to participate. I’ll be hosting it along with Jeff over at Sustainablog.
I’m gathering green bloggers together to blog for 12, 18, or 24 hours straight coming up on Friday, February 24th. Bloggers commit to making two posts an hour and to raising money for a non-profit of their
choice on a per-post pledge basis from their readers/friends/family.
You can find more details and signup for the blogathon here
Let me know if you have any questions. Even if you can’t join us, I hope you’ll consider posting about it, the more readers who see it the more money we have a chance of raising.
Cheers!
Shea
PS- I’ll be raising money to preserve rain forest through the Nature
Conservancy.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged blogging, carnival of the green, environment, fair trade, green blogs
The Green Party of Utah has completed its ballot access petition drive.
The final batch of petitions has been submitted to the Elections Office. The GPUT has submitted well over the required 2,000 signatures and is awaiting final confirmation by the State of Utah Director of Elections on confirmation of certification of the completed petition drive.
I’ll be posting an update on this once that confirmation is received and what this will mean for Utah voters.
Three proposals were adopted last night by the National Committee of the Green Party of the United States:
Hosting of the 2006 Annual National Meeting
Through ranked preference voting, delegates voted to have this year’s annual National Committee Meeting in Tuscon, Arizona from July 27-30.
GPUS National Committee Approval of Forum Managers
Three Discussion List Forum Managers and one alternate were voted in by a simple majority of votes:
51 “yes”; 27 “no”; 5 “abstain”.
(I am one of the three newly elected Forum Managers.)
Endorsement of Letter from Coal River Mountain Watch
In the spirit of the Key Value of Ecological Wisdom and in light of the recent tragedy at the Sago mines in West Virginia, the NC voted unanimously to the signing of the “Coal’s Dirty Secret” letter, drafted by Coal River Mountain Watch. The letter opposes the use of the misleading term “clean coal” by mine owners.
(Readers can sign on to the letter here.)
Last week I wrote here about my disabled friend getting hit by a car in a pedestrian crosswalk, ironically on the same day the Utah House voted down a measure that would have made it law for cars to stop (currently they only have to yield) for pedestrians.
I wrote a letter to the editor that was published in today’s Deseret News:
Put people ahead of vehicles
It was ironic to hear of the Utah House vote against implementing extra safeguards at pedestrian crosswalks for the disabled. The reason given was “traffic would be tied up.” The same day as the vote, my disabled friend was hit by a car that failed to yield for her as she approached the middle of such a crosswalk with an orange flag. Two other cars had stopped. The car that hit her did not even slow down. As a result, my friend now has two broken legs, a totaled wheelchair and weeks of recuperating from surgery.
Put people ahead of automobiles. I urge our lawmakers to reconsider this bill.
Deanna Taylor
West Jordan
Articles in published in today’s Utah newspapers about the Yesterday’s Utah Legislature news:
Salt Lake Tribune
Legislature 2006: Today’s agenda
Big push remains midway on Hill: Utah Legislature: Tax, budget issues are pending
Utah’s homeland money under ax–Bush plan: The president wants to cut $2 million from the state’s security funds
Deseret News
Legislative tally
Nuclear power is safe and clean – opinion
Utahns want more for education – opinion
House to clear logjam
Stadium at heart of hotel-tax battle
February 13
1689
The English Parliament enacted into law a Bill of Rights.
1960
France became the world’s fourth nuclear power, conducting its first nuclear test at Reganne, in what was then French Algeria, in the Sahara Desert. It was detonated from a 330-foot tower and had a yield of 60-70 kilotons.
Today we took our first strenuous hike of the year, up Mt. Olympus, east of the Salt Lake Valley. It was great to get out and take a vigorous uphill climb.
Just when you think you have heard it all……
Published on Friday, January 27, 2006 by the Progressive
Teacher Awaits Day in Court
by Matthew Rothschild
Deb Mayer was a teacher of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders at Clear Creek Elementary School in Bloomington, Indiana, during the 2002-2003 school year. On January 10, 2003, she was leading a class discussion on an issue of “Time for Kids”—Time magazine’s school-age version, which the class usually discussed on Fridays and which is part of Clear Creek’s approved curriculum.
There were several articles in the magazine that discussed topics relating to the imminent war againstIraq, and one that mentioned a peace march.
According to Mayer, a student asked her if she would ever participate in such a march.
And Mayer said, “When I drive past the courthouse square and the demonstrators are picketing, I honk my horn for peace because their signs say, ‘Honk for peace.’ ” She added that she thought “it was
important for people to seek out peaceful solutions to problems before going to war and that we train kids to be mediators on the playground so that they can seek out peaceful solutions to their own problems.”
Mayer claims in a pending federal lawsuit that the school chilled her First Amendment rights because of this one conversation in class, which she says took all of about five minutes, and that the school district refused to renew her contract because of it. (The quotes above are taken from court documents.)
I spoke with Mayer on January 24—more than three years after this incident took place.
“It didn’t dawn on me that people would object to me saying peace was an option to war,” she says. “I didn’t even think it was controversial.”But it sure turned out to be.
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Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 