Tag Archives: human needs

Here we go again: raising taxes on food

We  have long written here on the issue of taxes on food by the legislature to fund other areas.

This year is no exception to the head rearing of this ugly issue.

Bill Tibbitts of Crossroads Urban Center, an organization advocating for the rights of the poor, says:

Utah Representative Mike "Nuclear" Noel is proposing to double the sales tax on food to fund a cut to property taxes– which will disproportionately benefit large businesses– like one of the nuclear power plants Noel wants to bring to Utah.

Read Nuclear Noel’s bill here:
http://le.utah.gov/~2011/bills/hbillint/hb0072.htm

Nuclear Noel is also a proud supporter of bringing nuclear power plants to Utah:
http://www.mikenoel.com/blog_display.cfm?bid=4DE42D1C-1143-15D5-EB7FF606E942D5A4

Utah is among the few states that charge people to eat.  The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that in 2009:

  • Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia exempt most food purchased for consumption at home from the state sales tax. South Carolina is the state that most recently eliminated its sales tax on food (effective November 1, 2007).
  • Seven states tax groceries at lower rates than other goods; they are Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
  • Five states — Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and South Dakota— tax groceries fully but offer credits or rebates offsetting some of the taxes paid on food by some portions of the population. These credits or rebates usually are set at a flat amount per family member. The amounts and eligibility rules vary, but may be too narrow and/or insufficient to give eligible households full relief from sales taxes paid on food purchases.
  • Two states continue to apply their sales tax fully to food purchased for home consumption without providing any offsetting relief for low- and moderate-income families. They are Alabama and Mississippi.

The bottom line is that no one should have to pay extra for what is necessary for survival.  Eating is one of those necessities.  The food tax should be taken away entirely.

(Cross-posted to Utah Legislature Watch)

Bea Gaddy and My Wish

Bea Gaddy doesn’t have anything to do directly with our Community Coat Exchange. Bea Gaddy has everything to do with inspiring me to serve our community.

As a younger woman growing up in Frederick County, Maryland – about 50 miles west of Baltimore, I would watch with intrigue each Thanksgiving as the local news would air the piece about the huge Thanksgiving Feast organized by this amazing woman – Bea Gaddy. ( I have linked to her story and other sites below.)

Each year I would continue to be inspired by the stories published about Bea Gaddy and her efforts. I would think to myself “I want to be like her when I grow up.”

Several years ago I learned about a community event in Rhode Island held every year the day after Thanksgiving – the Buy Nothing Day Coat Exchange (click on the “Sister Events” tab above). Inspired by it, I organized Utah’s Annual Community Coat Exhange held each year the same day, the day after Thanksgiving. Each year of its existence I see that our Utah event is growing by leaps and bounds. It is amazing to me the outpouring of support by people from all over for this effort.

And now the Coat Exchange this year has gone coast to coast – with events in Kentucky and Oregon, in addition to the Rhode Island and Utah events.

As I have been reflecting on this event, I have come to realize, on a small scale and relevant to my world, that my wish has come true, thanks to everyone in my life who has influenced me – my amazing and wonderful husband, my parents, my grandmother, my siblings, my children, my wonderful friends, and others in the world who have inspired and influenced me….

I have grown up to be like Bea Gaddy.

My desire now is to continue to grow and serve our community in ways that all people will benefit from educational efforts such as the Community Coat Exchange.

Bea Gaddy Places:

Bea Gaddy Bio

Bea Gaddy Family Support Center

Bea Gaddy Women and Children’s Shelter

Health care reform roundtable didn’t include Single Payer Health Care

Kevin Zeese, an attorney from Maryland, not only spoke out for single payer health care reform yesterday, but was arrested for doing so.

Zeese was among the 8 doctors and attorneys arrested at yesterday’s Senate Finance Committee “roundtable” on Healthcare Reform in the U.S. Zeese has written an article about the event at OpEd News.

According to Zeese, constituents of members of the committee had been voicing their desire (via email, telephone) to have single payer healthcare on the table at this meeting. The answer? A resounding “NO”. It will not be on the table.

Zeese is Executive Director of the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics (www.FreshAirCleanPolitics.net) whose projects include Voters for Peace (www.VotersForPeace.US., True Vote (www.TrueVote.US and http://www.TrueVoteMD.org) and Climate Security (www.GlobalClimateSecurity.org). He is also president of Common Sense for Drug Policy (www.csdp.org).

Press release with additional links to video:
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“Happy” New Year?

(I have been out of town for the past 2 weeks, so posting has been non-existent.)

I am having difficulty wishing people a “happy” new year with everything that is going in in our world: A failing economy resulting in job losses, a housing market crash, budget shortfalls; A broken health care system that continues to prevent families from receiving adequate health care; War-ridden countries and recent escalation of conflict in Gaza; the continuation of planetary destruction with not only the effects of war, but also the sale of land for oil drilling, lack of adequate regulation for pollution generating machinery and equipment and practices, lack of appropriate measures to address global warming, the demise of local businesses due to increasing invasion of large corporate giants, to name a few.

There is so much negative occurring at this time that it is difficult to focus on the positive. Nonetheless, I have generated this list of positive things in my life:

I am thankful that I have a job with health benefits.
I am thankful that I have the skill and knowledge to be able to grow my own food and be self sustaining.
I am thankful that I have resources to help my children and grandchildren right now in the current economic crisis.
I am thankful that I can gain and share knowledge about world events and actually have the ability to do something about some things to effect change.
I am thankful that I am able to provide an education for a little girl in Ethiopia, my small postivie contribution to one life which otherwise is affected by negative circumstances.
I am thankful for my husband who is a constant daily source of friendship and inspiration in my life.
I am thankful for my family and friends here in Utah and across the country.

My hopes for the new year?

That I am able to maintain my health and attitude to continue to work on peace, justice and sustainability issues in my community and beyond.
That at least one person I know who isn’t as convinced that big change needs to occur to improve our world will come to the realization that some of the things I mention here do need to be addressed and so they make changes towards that end for themselves and in their community.
That the new administration begins to make moves in the direction towards a more peace and just society and world without war.
That family and friends I know who are without jobs and health care will find improvements in those areas in their lives.

So “happy” new year with these things in mind. Peace on earth. Good will toward all life on our planet.

Shoes for Bush action

It warms my heart when people take an event in the news and turn it into action:

www.shoebush.org
JOIN US IN WASHINGTON,DC
January,19th
SHOES FOR BUSH action "For the widows, the orphans, and those killed in Iraq."

send me your old shoes to take to DC. ALL SHOES DONATED to the needy in the DC/Baltimore area and distributed by the DC Greens

  On January 20th,tens of thousands of people will be gathering to celebrate the Inaugural of President Barrack Obama.It will be a historical marker  and a joyous and celebratory occasion. However, the promise of change, does not mean that we can shut the door, on the past eight horrific years of the Bush administration and wipe clean the images of  shear terror, torture and suffering on the faces innocent Iraqis who have faced death and total destruction of their country. Also, it will not be easy for our own families, like Melida and Carlos Arredondo who have lost their child to an unjust and immoral war. Americans of conscience are grieving for our children and  for those in Iraq. To watch president Bush leave office, unaccountable is like rubbing salt into a wound.

On Monday, January 19th at 11:00 people will be converging at a permitted site near the White House for what may be a cathartic action of hurling a shoe at an image of President Bush. In the spirit of Mutadhar Al-Zaidi and in solidarity with the people of Iraq, we invite you to join us.

If you are will be in town for the Inaugural, bring an extra pair of shoes with you! If you cannot be there with us you can send us your shoes and we will take them to DC in a U-Haul. No Bomb-sniffing dogs at our post office! Unfortunately if you send shoes to the White House they are taken to a remote location and the gesture will be for not.

 We are designating a page  on this web site to post the names of people who are collecting shoes in your area. These people will deliver  the shoes to collection points where those who will be traveling  to DC, by car, will pick bring them up.

Please consider writing notes and putting them in your shoes. We will read them at the  SHOES FOR BUSH event where documentary film maker Scott Hamann will be recording this historic mass action. Artists are invited to be creative if they choose to create a work of art work with their shoes.

ALL SHOES WILL BE DONATED TO THE NEEDY IN THE WASHINGTON/BALTIMORE AREA. A few will be saved for posterity and perhaps we should donate those to the Bush Library.

My appreciation goes out David Swanson for his literary contribution and support as well as to Andrew Lehman, Marcia Bernstein and Dana Simpson for their contribution of web site creation, The Washington Peace Center, the DC Statehood Green Party and my activist friends and organizations in DC who are supporting this mass action.

Jamilla El-Shafei
organizer@shoebush.org

You can help Food Not Bombs feed the survivors of Gustav

You can help Food Not Bombs feed the survivors of Gustav

Updated: Monday September 1, 2007

PLEASE HELP! As day breaks this momentous Labor Day, Hurricane Gustav threatens people across the Gulf, and is on track to slam Cajun Country and the Houma Nation west of New Orleans, one of the most culturally diverse places in the continent – where levees are largely nonexistent.

Food Not Bombs is planning to provide meals again for survivors. Please organize with your local Food Not Bombs group or your other local organizations. Help us collect food and supplies to help this year’s survivors. The U.S. Government and the American Red Cross were not able to deliver food to the survivors of Katrina, so Food Not Bombs set up kitchens in over 20 cities. Volunteers organized America’s largest food relief effort.

We will be providing help for the survivors of Hurricane Gustav just as we helped after Katrina. The American Red Cross, state emergency agencies, and FEMA asked everyone to call our toll free number for food relief. This is an emergency! When the storm passes through the gulf we will provide hot meals on a daily basis. We need volunteers, tools and food to help the people displaced by Hurricane Gustav. We need people to help us repair homes and cook meals for people surviving the hurricane. We also have a meeting place in New Orleans: the Common Grounds 9th Ward Center off the Claiborne Ave exit on I-10 at the corner of N. Claiborne and Pauline in the 9th Ward.

Read more at www.plenty.org

Travel along with Free Speech TV as they cover our grassroots effort

The American Red Cross will be sending Gustav survivors to Food Not Bombs. After Katrina we had many calls from people who tell us that the Red Cross gave them our toll free number. We have been able to help most of the people directed our way. You can help Food Not Bombs support the Hurricane Gustav survivors by making a donation.


Food Not Bombs groups all across the southern United States are feeding families displaced by Gustav. Help us get food and supplies past FEMA. We need clothes, cooking equipment, food, cooks and money to provide for thousands of hungry homeless people. We have no overhead, rent or salaries so every donation goes directly to helping people. Many affected by Hurricane Gustav are familiar with Food Not Bombs because we have been sharing free food in communities through the area for many years. Because we are independent we can take food and supplies to areas where no other agency can reach.

This disaster may last another year or more so we intend to continue setting up Food Not Bombs field kitchens throughout the region. Food Not Bombs is encouraging the refugees to participate in cooking, serving and collecting the food. Their participation may be one of the most therapeutic things we can provide. Tens of thousands of survivors were kicked out of their motel rooms. We believe that many of these people will be living outside homeless. Even if you can’t go to the disaster area we need lots of help in your community. The number of people we need to feed is growing all across America as people leave Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama looking for work and housing. We are sharing food every day in your community and all around the Gulf. Please call to see how you can help.

There are some things you can do that can help us respond effectively to this disaster.

    1. Organize a meeting this week – calling, emailing and posting flyers about the need for people to help and the day, time and location of the meeting.

    2. At the meeting organize groups to call for food donations, another group to call for propane stoves, tanks of gas, tables and cooking equipment. Ask another group to get more volunteers.

    3. Choose a time date and location of where your vehicles will gather to take the trip to the disaster area.

    4. Collect 25 and 50 pound bags of rice, beans, 25 and 50-pound bags of rice, beans, black-eyed peas, lentils and any other large amounts of dry goods, pasta or non perishable food. We can also use propane stoves, kitchen equipment, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and other personal items.

    5. Stay in touch by emailing menu@foodnotbombs.net or calling 1-800-884-1136.

                             Volunteer to feed the hungry and help the survivors of Hurricane
               Gustav by contacting your local Food Not Bombs group or emailing us at:
                                                 
 menu@foodnotbombs.net

Protesting The Bejing Olympics

Back in April I was a featured speaker at a rally to protest human rights abuses by the Chinese Government, especially highlighting the Bejing Olympics this year as a year to address those violations and abuses.

As the Olympics in Bejing Opens this weekend, there are protests around the world taking place:

Dissident decries attendance at Games
Hours after returning from a foiled attempt to visit his home country on the eve of the Olympics, Chinese dissident Yang Jianli railed against world leaders participating in the event, particularly President Bush.
“Imagine the situation: The heads of democracies swarmed to Beijing to participate in opening ceremonies which took place under martial law,” said Yang, a Harvard scholar and Brookline resident, pointing to the military presence and the crackdown on critics that preceded the event. “Millions of Chinese troops and police are deployed in Beijing and everybody is suspect now. . . . Beijing has become a forbidden city itself.”
Yang never made it to Beijing. He never even made it out of Hong Kong Airport. Yang, who was released last year after five years in a Chinese prison, was sent home via Japan, where he had been traveling.

Anti-China protests worldwide as Olympics begin

Worldwide protests coincide with opening ceremony: Hundreds of Tibetan activists detained in Nepal

Olympic protests held around the world: Demonstrations take place in cities including London, Hong Kong, Delhi and Kathmandu as opening ceremony begins

Thousands take part in global day of protest as Beijing Games open: Toronto demonstrators demand ‘Free Tibet’; hundreds arrested as exiles rally in Nepal

Protesters try to turn spotlight from Games to human rights

Small pro-Tibet protest pulled off in Tiananmen

More articles

What war dollars could buy

More on health insurance

I feel compelled to post a second piece on health care in this country, based on the comment to my post below on insurance.  An anonymous poster posted this comment:

Unfortunately many employees and employers wrongly accuse the insurance companies of being the bad guys here. The reason that the insurance companies are asking for this information now is because of the politcal mess and laws that state and federal lawmakers have imposed on the insurance companies. In order for the insurance carrier to properly rate a group financially they must look at the information for ALL ELIGBLE employees. An elible employee is any employee who meets the employers requirements irregardless of if they have coverage elsewhere. Under continuity of coverage laws if someone waives their right to coverage under their employers group plan because they have coverage under their spouses plan they still have the right to join their employers group insurance plan if their spouse loses coverage, therefore the carrier has to rate for potential risk. Many people are wrongly accusing the insurance carriers of responsiblity for this and they need to look at the laws that were passed that prompted this.

I replied that yes, I do feel it is the system that needs to be changed.  I am not blaming the workers with the insurance companies, however there is something wrong with this picture.  Insurance companies, as this anonymous poster points out, have to abide by regulations.  Who makes those regulations?  Our representatives.  Who are our representatives?  For the most part, rich white guys that own large corporations such as insurance companies.

Now hear this:

All private insurance companies need to be phased out.  We need to STOP lining the pockets of rich corporations at the expense of human needs.

We need single payer, non-profit health coverage.  EVERYONE has the right to EQUAL health services.  Health care is a RIGHT, *not* a PRIVELEGE. 

HEALTH CARE FOR ALL!!!

Retailers in U.S. – Food Rationing?

It’s kind of creepy to see that retailers have the power to ration food….

http://www2.nysun.com/article/74994
Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World
By JOSH GERSTEIN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
April 21, 2008

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – Many parts of America, long considered the
breadbasket of the world, are now confronting a once unthinkable
phenomenon: food rationing. Major retailers in New York, in areas of New
England, and on the West Coast are limiting purchases of flour, rice, and
cooking oil as demand outstrips supply. There are also anecdotal reports
that some consumers are hoarding grain stocks.

At a Costco Warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday, shoppers grew
frustrated and occasionally uttered expletives as they searched in vain
for the large sacks of rice they usually buy.

“Where’s the rice?” an engineer from Palo Alto, Calif., Yajun Liu, said.
“You should be able to buy something like rice. This is ridiculous.”

The bustling store in the heart of Silicon Valley usually sells four or
five varieties of rice to a clientele largely of Asian immigrants, but
only about half a pallet of Indian-grown Basmati rice was left in stock. A
20-pound bag was selling for $15.99.

“You can’t eat this every day. It’s too heavy,” a health care executive
from Palo Alto, Sharad Patel, grumbled as his son loaded two sacks of the
Basmati into a shopping cart. “We only need one bag but I’m getting two in
case a neighbor or a friend needs it,” the elder man said.
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