Open Forum GA
Spencer Plaza
2012-05-12
Mtg start 14:05
Bernie August has announced his running for US Congress.
Last Thursday Rodney Square outreach action, general conversations asking people what grievances they have, what they think is unjust. They see the bus issue, it looks like they are trying to run homeless and bus riders out of Rodney Square. Surrounded by banks, duPont Hotel, it’s blatant and disgusting. In the paper today it’s reported that the move of the bus hub has been postponed.
They do plan to take the buses off of Rodney Square this Monday!
It’s a different plan, the landscaping project will take the buses off the square and they won’t come back. Moved up the schedule to avoid protest. We need to set up a protest right in front of the law offices to tell people that they are the ones responsible for pushing people off the square.
The new plan involves the buses being moved to King St. This will be even worse for elderly and disabled and also less safe. This will also force people to buy cars, which is anti-Green. The buses must be made user-friendly.
Rodney Square has always been a hub, bus or trolley. This is a perfect example of the widening gap between extreme rich and poor and the elimination of the middle class.
Is there a way to leverage people from the ADRC, organizations that help the elderly or disabled. Make a video showing how difficult it’ll be using the buses in the new location. Present this to advocacy groups, churches, to recruit help.
Pushing the move up a month is to prevent any organized protest. The flyers announcing this change came out on Friday.
A video to show how hard it is to get to the banks! Like the parking videos that went around last year, they were very effective in mobilizing change about the ticketing abuses.
Jack Grimes was interviewed about it for the News Journal. The article today just mentioned that the DART plan was moved back, not about the change Monday.
DART has said they’re not going to move forward with the move, and that the renovation is a smoke screen. It’s important to document what is going on (with a video) so that when the change isn’t reversed they can be called on it and moke noise then. We should come up with a plan of how we’ll do this. Start documenting Monday.
Video at 6 bus stops recording the chaos the change will cause.
We could picket showing what the consequences will be. Leverage it.
We don’t need to spread out too far, there’ll be plenty of chaos in a 2 block area.
I didn’t like going to Rodney Square?
The planned change spreads out the stops very far.
I feel safer taking the bus at Rodney Square because there are so many people there.
If we reach out to the business owners who will lose business because of the change and get their support.
Why can’t the bus schedules be made to connect up? Rodney Square is the only central location, and they won’t invest in a purpose-built bus hub.
Monday I’m going to stand in front of a bus.
Wilmington city council meeting is this Thursday, arrive at 5:45 to sign up for public comment section.
I met with Earth Day person, the 20th, draft bill to make Delaware the first state that goes plastic-bagless. This can be presented to city council also on Thursday. Plastic bags are deadly to land and aquatic animals.
Sometimes plastic bag can become a symbol. Educating ourselves about how much we spend on war to get the oil to make the plastic bags, it’s a system. We can educate the group, and I have seen it used as a powerful symbol. I believe it’s a symbol of very huge problem, of our wasteful society and our need to attain a sustainable society.
This gives us more to stand up for, we are for zero-waste living. But this would destroy jobs. But it’s toxic, it’s killing us.
This can be turned into a proposal, or an independent action.
We can create a meet-up, flash action for Monday.
I’ve been doing more investigation into SuperPACs, over a million PACs. Tens of millions of dollars in undisclosed funds.
Biden’s MERS case is coming up in CHancery court– we should be on top of that.
Tomorrow’s race is at the Riverfront, starting at 7 am, so we’ll be there with signs cheering them on. I’ll be on Rodney Square on Monday.
We could also attend the Delaware Heals meetings. Delaware is being penalized by the federal government for not complying with health improvement problems. At this unadvertised Delaware Heals meeting, they gave statistics on all kinds of rates, we were never higher than 32 in any health issue. Delaware is the place to die! And affordable health care was never brought up until I brought it up at the end. There’s a video. No one else had the guts to say that. Why are these closed meetings? When will we talk about healthiness and not just “insurance.” We could so address the disparity issues to find an avenue. deheal.org, very cute, expensive PR stunt that doesn’t give you what I heard in the meeting. How can we get our voice heard in those closed-door meetings? Try to get in there. There are so many lies around water issues.
“I am going to learn to live a zero-waste lifestyle,” all the corporations shake.
“Is my life promoting war?” Moving out of the city, into the suburbs does not solve our health issues. The built environment and transportation systems are the 2 biggest producers of toxins. “We’ve got to get public citizens to volunteer to solve all these problems” because our government can’t do it, they’re trying to empower the grass roots because they can solve the problems. There is $60 billion of waste in the medicare system and we’re trying to get volunteers to fix the problems of the planet, it’s terrifying.
I’m learning how to live a zero-waste lifestyle, how is the government empowering me to live a cleaner, healthier lifestyle? Learn to live above the insanity by going underground, I have less fear because I have nothing else that can be taken from me. Reduce fear, focus on simplifying your life, keep finding common ground.
Spin out of the game they’re playing, as the mystics say.
Are the 99% going to be empowered to live with more integrity, to live a healthy lifestyle. Is it a backdoor genocide to disempower people so they can never get healthy, live sustainability. Autogenocide to eliminate the poor, a deliberate attempt. We’re just collateral damage like the native Americans were. It’s a global process.
I would love to see some street theater, it’s a powerful tool. Who are the people lying to us, filling us with ego trips and how we portray that in short theater. In South Africa they got very good at it, beautiful theater of justice.
Have the corporatocracy’s children ask them, the CEOs, to be accountable.
I had 20 kids out here asking me so many questions they were so worried about what will happen to them.
Workshop we’re designing for traumatic stress reduction. When children learn the truth they are traumatized. So do you protect them by not telling them the truth? Hand-in-hand with telling them the truth provide stress reduction, ways to handle the truth. We are turning together toward a zero-waste lifestyle, gives us hope, positive change. Empower them to make new choices.
Beau Biden has PTSD, when he came home he was hospitalized for heart problems. Can he be reached?
Meeting adjourned: 1335 hr
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