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Monday, March 7, 2011

WHERE ARE THE CHRISTIAN ACTIONS OF REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANS?

A moral compass and Christianity need to go hand in hand. So many politicians say that they are Christian. If they don't tell "me", I wouldn't have any idea. Actions say it all.

Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans' Immoral Budget

The Republican budget would:

1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.

2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.

3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers--which will deprive more than three million low-income people of health care over the next few months.

4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.

5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.

6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.

7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.

8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would "send shockwaves" through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, and cause job losses.

9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women's health care.

10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.

Sources:

1. "GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says," The Washington Post, February 28, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022802634.html

2. "GOP budget would cut funding for public broadcasting," The Washington Independent, February 14, 2011
http://washingtonindependent.com/105534/gop-budget-would-cut-funding-for-public-broadcasting

3. "NACHC Statement in Response to the Budget from the House Appropriations Committee," National Association of Community Health Centers website, accessed March 4, 2011
http://www.nachc.org/pressrelease-detail.cfm?PressReleaseID=644

4."Bye Bye, Big Bird. Hello, E. Coli.," The New Republic, February 12, 2011
http://www.tnr.com/blog/83387/house-republican-spending-cuts-pell-education-usda-pbs

House Republican Spending Cuts Target Programs For Children And Pregnant Women
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/09/gop-war-on-babies/

5. "Obama and the GOP's Spending Cuts: Where's the Outrage?" Mother Jones, February 18, 2011
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/obama-spending-cuts-gop

6. Ibid.

7. "Deficit Reduction on the Backs of the Most Vulnerable," Center for American Progress, March 2011
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/03/pdf/hit_budget_cuts.pdf (PDF)

8. "The GOP Budget and Cancer--Why New Research Is at Risk," Politics Daily, February 27, 2011
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/27/the-gop-budget-and-cancer-why-new-research-is-at-risk/

"Republican Budget Cuts at Heart of Medical Research: Albert Hunt," Bloomberg, February 20, 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-20/republican-science-cuts-imperil-u-s-prominence-commentary-by-albert-hunt.html

"Durbin: Cuts to NIH put research jobs at risk," Business Week, February 28, 2011
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LLSCB00.htm

9. "GOP Spending Plan: X-ing Out Title X Family Planning Funds," Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206105

10. "House GOP Spending Cuts Would Prevent 10,000 Low-Income Veterans From Receiving Housing Assistance," Think Progress, March 1, 2011
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/01/homeless-vets-gop/

From Sound the alarm

This week, Congress could cut a deal on the budget. And if Republicans get their way, billions will be cut from vital programs that millions of Americans count on—while tax cuts for the richest are protected.

But most people don't have any idea what's at stake—and how devastating these cuts would be to their communities—even though the cuts could take effect within weeks. So we're launching an emergency campaign to spread the word. Republicans want to gut programs with enormous public support, and hope no one notices. So it's up to all of us to spark a public outcry before it's too late.

The devastating impact these cuts will have on our country—and on your community—is unprecedented. Check out the list below. If we can get it out to a million people, we can start to sound the alarm and stop the GOP. Click here to post on Facebook and Twitter, or simply forward this email.

Thanks for all you do.

Click to share this on Facebook Tweet it - Twitter, and email a copy to your friends

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Sunday, December 23, 2007

JUST GET INSPIRED AND ACT ON YOUR INSPIRATION

MAGIC IS A MATTER OF PERCEPTION

What I started out to do was post George_Frideric_Handel's Messiah's
All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray. All I found was this. And then I found this by a poster in the Philippines, which is a tribute to Sam.

In high school, my choir director selected He Was Despised for me to sing. I'm not sure why. The Messiah to me is best when the whole chorus is singing. And listening to it doesn't hold a candle to actually being in that chorus and singing. But here is a glorious trumpet solo and Teddy Tahu Rhodes singing The Trumpet Shall Sound.

And then . . .
.....................................................

.....................................................
Silent Night on guitar
.....................................................

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Silent Night sung by St. Thomas Boys Choir of Germany

The people of Darfur are in my heart today.

GENOCIDE STOPS WITH US
AND IF OUR LEADERS WON'T LEAD ON THIS ISSUE
WE MUST LEAD THEM.

You can give a tax deductible donation of $30 and provide a way for the women and girls not to have to go after firewood to cook with where the systematic rapes take place as a tool of the governmentally-supported genocide: Solar Cooker Project
$30 Solar Cooker Donation Provides:

2 Solar Cookers per family
2 Pots
2 Pot Holders
Year supply of plastic bags
Skills Training for refugee women and girls
» Learn more about the Solar Cooker Project

Call President Bush's Comment Phone Line 202-456-1111
or
Call 1-800-GENOCIDE
Enter your zip code. Choose to be connected to President Bush. You will receive talking points on SADA (Sudan Accountabiltiy and Divestment Act) before you are connected.
Visit www.1800genocide.com after your call to tell how it went.

genocide intervention
save darfur
darfur genocide
amnesty

Make it a holy night
do something
and then have a Merry Christmas

Thank you.

Believe

DEDICATED TO MY SISTER,
IMMACULEE, IN RWANDA

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Friday, December 21, 2007

THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT, OLYMPIC DREAMS AND DARFUR

It isn't that I want to lay guilt at anyone's heart who already desires to help end the genocide on the Darfuri people of Sudan. I just want us "Not to Forget". It is so easy to forget because our news media has chosen to NOT REPORT THE DARFUR CRISIS. You can however still catch the well-done HBO documentary film, Sand and Sorrow, as it is repeatedly aired.

It is Christmas and I know that Darfuri people don't celebrate Christmas because they are
Muslims, however according to the website of Ontario Consultants of Religious Tolerance, there are 2,039 million Christians in the world. I was raised Christian. A fundamentalist, born-again, Bible-knowledgeable Christian from Indiana where my heritage points strongly to the Mennonites. Indiana has strong regions of Mennonites and the not-too-far-different Amish. Anyone, Christian or not, who has a moral code with humanity at its core, would ~ in my way of thinking ~ include genocide as one of those things that we must make a stand against. And I don't mean in the way that President Bush has taken a stand ~ merely rhetorically. I mean in actually forming a strategy to bring humanity to where the inhumane behaviors of genocide are getting nothing more than a statement against it every several months by the Christian, President George W Bush. A strategy to bring genocide to an end. You can't say you are a Christian and then act immorally and amorally as Bush has done for the last 5 years regarding the people of Darfur ~ and have credibility. Here is a man in a position to actually
do something. And he has done nothing.

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............................................................
Still, Still, Still

Christians all over the world celebrate Christmas, either on December 25 or January 6. And it seems so right to me to think about Darfur and the five year genocide, that is going on there, while we have knowledge of it ~ while we celebrate the joy of the birth of "our" Saviour. If "our" Saviour didn't come to free us from our ignorance and cold-hearted indifference, then it seems to me like a wasted trip to this mortal life if only for our isolated, individual souls. And that is, if you didn't know the teachings of the baby Jesus when he starting imparting his parables and demonstrating his Christian behavior while he walked on this Earth. Because if you have knowledge of those things, you know what we are to be doing for our brothers and sisters of Darfur, who are in such dire need.

I don't concern myself by describing myself as a Christian or by religion, but how I live my life. It is simple for me. What I make of those who say they are Christians and don't act in ways that I could tell, is this ~ if I don't see your life bearing any resemblance to your words, then truth is missing. There is a song
"They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love" that says it all in the title.

As I get hungry and think of the cookies and milk that are mine by simply walking to get them or if I am tired, I know I have the comforts of a bathroom and a cozy bedroom to feel at home in ~ I almost always think how it is for the hungry and homeless living in the cold because a man named Omar al-Bashir wants power over the Darfuri people.

Yes, it is Christmas in my life and even though Christmas is not a religious day for the Darfuri children and adults ~ they are not out of sight, out of my mind.
I carry their hearts in my heart. As we all could if we chose to. And I do more than give it lip service, I work toward endin
g the genocide. We need our elected politicians to get the fortitude, the political will and moral imperative to use their power to bring the spirit of Christmas ~ Peace on Earth ~ in the way of strategies to end this man-made disaster named genocide.

The Power of The Dream
China will open the world's Olympics, August 8, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. with the theme, "One World, One Dream" and yet China supplies the weapons for the Darfur genocide and provides money for the genocide's military equipment and funding. And Russia sells the antonov planes to bomb the Darfuri people in conjunction with the government-backed janjaweed soldiers. China is also funding the new residence of Sudanese architect of the genocide, President Omar al-Bashir.
Eric Reeves has written an article Partners in Genocide: A Comprehensive Guide to China's Role in Darfur. Also, Mia Farrow, writes of Darfur and her trips there. She also writes of the fact that the 2008 Olympics will be Genocide Olympics ~ just as the Olympics in Berlin, Germany were dubbed, that took place while the holocaust was going on. I am a great believer in "We the People" and our importance of forming the world we live in, the world we want to live in, the world we want to shape for our children' and grand children's future.
GENOCIDE STOPS WITH US
AND IF OUR LEADERS WON'T LEAD ON THIS ISSUE

WE MUST LEAD THEM.

You can give a tax deductible donation of $30 and provide a way for the women and girls not to have to go after firewood to cook with where the systematic rapes take place as a tool of the governmentally-supported genocide: Solar Cooker Project

$30 SOLAR COOKER Donation Provides:

  • 2 Solar Cookers per family
  • 2 Pots
  • 2 Pot Holders
  • Year supply of plastic bags
  • Skills Training for refugee women and girls
» Learn more about the Solar Cooker Project

Call President Bush's Comment Phone Line 202-456-1111
or

Call 1-800-GENOCIDE

Enter your zip code.
Choose to be connected to President Bush. You will receive talking points on SADA (Sudan Accountabiltiy and Divestment Act) before you are connected.
Visit www.1800genocide.com after your call to tell how it went.


genocide intervention

save darfur

darfur genocide
amnesty

Make It A Holy Night
do something
and then have a Merry Christmas

Thank you.

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