Town Hall Meeting - Updated Announcement

Sacramento Area Town Hall Meeting--No More Wars at Home and Abroad!

Upset over the election? What now?

As human needs continues to be neglected and the Bush administration continues us on a path of: war, loss of civil liberties, and deteriorating communities, Sacramento area residents and progressives will meet to discuss and plan actions as a Sacramento
Progressive Community.

WHAT: Sacramento Area Town Hall Meeting and Food Drive

Program:
1)Discussion breakout session
2)Speakers (Anti-war, Labor, Civil Rights, and Community Issues)
3)Action organizing

WHEN: Sunday, December 12

5:30pm-Sign-in and socialize
6pm--Program starts



WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento
2425 Sierra Blvd.
2425 Sierra Blvd
(Between Howe and Fulton, near Fair Oaks Blvd

WHY: to communicate our ideas, share them with like minded people, and begin to build a better Sacramento Area progressive community. This will be a place where individuals and organized groups can begin to plan coordinated actions, events, and campaigns with like minded members of our community. We will also hear from speakers, reflecting on the outcome of the election and where to go from here.

BRING: your ideas, an open mind, your passion, and a sense of action!

FOOD DRIVE: donate food and supplies to Sacramento Food Not Bombs, a local group that feeds hungry people in Sacramento. ***SEE BELOW***

No matter who you voted for, no matter what issues you feel are most important, no matter which community you come from, it is clear, we need to work together, to listen and learn from one another. Now is the time that progressives come together to better understand each other’s struggles, to really connect our struggles. This Town Hall will be driven by everyone's participation, respect and listening are paramount.

This is not an end; it is a beginning!

For more information contact:

Chuck: 916-391-6274 or

Nik: njanos [at] sbcglobal.net

Organized by: Working Group Against the War Agenda



FOOD NOT BOMBS wish list:

Any vegan food items (perishable or non-perishable) [vegan includes all items which do not contain animal products including meat, meat broth, dairy, egg or cheese]

soy sauce
sugar
Any spices, especially: chili powder, garlic powder &
onion powder.
vinegar
vegetable oil
dishwashing liquid
laundry detergent
liquid hand soap
paper towels
juice or drink mixes
tea
soy milk
1 gallon ziplock bags
30 gallon trash bags
15 gallon trash bags
sponges
metal pot scrubbers
aluminum foil
bungee cords
paper cups
paper plates
napkins
hard plastic plates
hard plastic cups


x - close Recent Stories By Dorothy Korber







Capital is stage for meeting of activist alliance



By Dorothy Korber -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Monday, November 29, 2004
Get weekday updates of Sacramento Bee headlines and breaking news. Sign up here.
With the presidential election over and the war in Iraq raging on, a new alliance of Greens, left-leaning Democrats, pacifists and community activists is coalescing in Sacramento.

Defining themselves as political progressives, they will gather next month for a town hall meeting at the Unitarian Universalist Society to brainstorm and decide what to do next.

Topics on the agenda, in addition to the election and the war, include nationalized health care, affordable housing and election reform.

"We're hoping to build a community among progressives and activists in the Sacramento area - to help people find each other," said Peggy Lewis, a Green Party leader who is coordinating the town hall. "When I first moved to Sacramento in 1972, it was a smaller town and easier to know each other. We want to recapture that feeling of an activist community."

The re-election of President Bush was the catalyst for the meeting, according to Maggie Coulter of Sacramento Yolo Peace Action, the area's largest anti-war group.

"We've got a huge job to do here," Coulter said. "The country's been on the war path for a long time, making war against people around the world. But it's not just the war in Iraq. It's health issues, economic issues and social justice - all things that we think the election will have a negative impact on. We're trying to reach out to the whole community."

The town hall - called No More Wars at Home or Abroad - will be from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Unitarian facility at 2425 Sierra Blvd.

The meeting will feature speakers on peace activism, civil rights and community action. But most of the evening will be spent in small groups, organized first by geographical areas and later by subjects.

The idea is to get people working together to devise plans they can carry out, said Chuck O'Neil, another organizer of the town hall.

"We want it to be very open," O'Neil said. "Rather than us directing them, we hope their interests will come to the fore. People were pretty bummed out after the election. The theme of this town hall is, 'OK, we don't like how it turned out. Now what do we do?' "

One goal for the evening is to create a Web site with a comprehensive calendar of community events. Another is to compile a progressive database to link people to each other.

There might be strange political bedfellows among people of such passion and strong opinions, acknowledged Lewis, the Green Party leader.

"Obviously, there are political differences among the groups," she said. "But like-minded folks need to come together. We need to park some of our differences and work on the bigger picture. Working together strengthens everybody."


Town hall meeting
A coalition of local political, peace and social justice groups will meet from 5:30 to 9 p.m. Dec. 12 at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento, 2425 Sierra Blvd. For more information, call Chuck O'Neil at (916) 391-6274.



About the writer:

* The Bee's Dorothy Korber can be reached at (916) 321-1061 or dkorber [at] sacbee.com.