Hi Everyone,
We are excited about our morning workshops on Single Payer Health Care, Close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, Seven Jewish Children and a workshop on St. Francis. In the afternoon session we will have our first Community Speak Out! Please read on!
Workshops - Saturday, August 15th, 2009 Morning Session 10:30 - 11:30 AM
Single Payer Health Care
By Bev Alves and Rebecca Elgie
Location - Pavilion
Single payer health care will provide health care to everyone living in the United States. Some of its key features are Universal, Comprehensive Coverage, no out-of-pocket payments and free Choice of Providers. It would be publicly financed, but services privately delivered. It would eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars of waste, annually, from our present system. No American would need to be forced into bankruptcy because of medical debt. Single Payer Health Care is needed to begin reversing the shameful health care, the injustice, inequality and avoidable suffering that goes on every day. Single payer health care will also contain staggering health care costs, a byproduct of corporate duplication and greed. Many call the struggle for single payer health care, the modern civil rights movement of the 21st Century. This workshop will explan single payer healthcare and provide an update of the grassroots movement to win single payer reform.
Bev Alves is a retired special ed teacher. For most of her teaching career Bev worked in a rural school district in upstate NY. Before this she taught in inner city Newark, N.J. She also worked as a medical and psychiatric social worker in a major hospital in Newark and was an anti-poverty worker before becoming a teacher. She is on the Steering Committees of both Single Payer New York, and the national coalition Leadership Conference for Guaranteed Healthcare.
Rebecca Elgie is a retired teacher. She is currently co-chair of Single Payer New York, and is also on the National Board of Directors of Healthcare-Now! Bernie Fetterly founded a Tompkins County Healthcare Taskforce and has worked on health care reform for 30 years. Rebecca and Bernie have worked across the state to build a network and organize groups to educate the public and work for candidates who support single payer plans and to work with municipal governments to pass resolutions in support of Single Payer legislation.
Seven Jewish Children
By Maureen Aumand and Susan Fantl Spivack
Location - Museum
Obviously, the Obama administration is aware that until there is a genuine attempt to build peaceful coexistence between Israel and Palestine, there will never be peace on a larger scale in the Middle East. Some marked changes in our rhetoric towards Israel make this understanding clear. At the same time, it is unclear how willing to go beyond rhetoric this administration is. It has yet to insist on the implementation of the real changes which justice and true commitment to lasting peace demand.
Award winning British playwright Carol Churchill took her anguish in the face of this past year’s horrific attack on Gaza and from it crafted a very brief play which attempts to fan the winds of real change by offering a searing - some say inflammatory - dramatic human explication. Her play goes beyond the political rhetoric and lays bare the fear filled, pain addled psychic energy which enables the oppressed to become the oppressor, the victim to become the victimizer, a Gaza invasion to be conceived, executed and justified. This participatory workshop will consist of a “staged” reading of Churchill’s ten minute play, Seven Jewish Children, and a facilitated discussion of its implications.
This workshop is being organized by Maureen Aumand whose day job is as Education Director for Capital Repertory Theatre. Conference attendees who would like to form part of this workshop’s “reader’s theater” are encouraged to call Maureen as soon as possible at 518-869-6674.
Writer and storyteller Susan Fantl Spivack has taught creative writing to children and adults since 1976 and told traditional and contemporary tales, to audiences of all ages, including oral histories from the Holocaust, World War II, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the US Civil Rights Movement, and the Vietnam War. She presents the Green Circle Program, teaching awareness and appreciation of differences to primary grade children, and is a member of Peacemakers of Schoharie County.
"Pax eT Bonum: St. Francis of Assisi
The Path toward Peace and All Good?"
By Walt Chura
Location: Upstairs Chapel
An exploration of the transformation of Francis Bernadone from a 13th century rich party animal and eager soldier boy into a man dedicated to peace in all its aspects and the transformation of the social order by personal witness. We'll examine the women in his life, the communities he gathered and the vision he challenges us to recapture.
Walt Chura, s.f.o. is a member of the Secular Franciscan Order (aka 3rd Order of St. Francis), founder of Simple Gifts Inc. " the Book End of the Albany Catholic Worker," and coordinator of the Thomas Merton Society of the Capital Region. He has taught in the Peace Studies Program at Siena College and in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the College of St. Rose.
Close the School of the Americas/WHINSEC By Linda LeTendre, Wendy Dwyer and John Amidon
Location Dinning Hall
The School of the Americas/WHINSEC has a long and infamous history of murder, torture, rape, drug running and the subversion of democracy. The recent Hounduran coup led by Romeo Vasquez, an SOA graduate has plunged Honduras into lockdown and chaos. Long time area activists, Wendy Dwyer, Linda LeTendre and John Amidon will conduct a hands on workshop where participants will be encouragned to write and call in suport of H.R. 2567: The Latin American Military Training Review Act which will help to close the SOA/WHINSEC. Lety's make this the year we close the SOA!
For more information about the SOA/WHINSEC please go to www.soaw.org and be sure to watch the video , No Running Water - Close the SOA/WHINSEC on youtube.
Linda LeTendre is a "Quatholic" (Quaker/Catholic) who for the last six years has been active in witnessing for peace and justice, receiving the "Sacrament of the Handcuffs" eight times. She was one of the 35 people who stood trial in May of 2008 for the Supreme Court action calling for an end to torture and the closure of Guantanamo. (She successfully completed her probation for that conviction this past June.) She is a mostly retired social worker (specializing in working with people with developmental disabilities) who is now trying her hand at slate carving and hopes to be carving grave stones very soon. She is also helping to organize the "Peace-ing It Together" peace fair to be held this September 20th from noon to 4 PM on Circular Street in Saratoga Springs.
Afternoon Session 1:30 - 2:30 PM
Community Speak Out
We have wanted to do a Community Speak Out for a number of years and have decided this is the year. There are so many issues and concerns deeply held by our community which are very important and heart felt yet may not be talked about because of time limitations. Life is always a trade off. If we are doing one thing we are not doing another. In any case the first 25 individuals to sign up on the day of the conference will be given 2 minutes to speak on the issue of their concern. So if you would like 2 minutes to address your issue, this is an opportunity for you! And believe me, a lot can be said in 2 minutes when time is taken for preparation. So come prepared and be a voice in our first Community Speak Out!