Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice

September 21 is International Day of Peace.  The United Nations General Assembly established International Day for Peace in 1981 and designated it as a day for nonviolence and ceasefire in 2001. This is also the week in which the U.S. Congress is expected to act on the record-setting U.S. military budget submitted to Congress by the President and increased by $25 billion by the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.

In the tradition of seafaring civil demonstrations against injustice, CODEPINK is sponsoring a collective of sailors that have launched an exciting new venture: a US-Cuba Friendship Flotilla that will sail from southern Florida to Cuba in November 2021. We are looking for peace-loving, humanitarian people with boats, people interested in crewing on boats, and everyone willing to contribute time, funds, and/or resources to this inspiring initiative.

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced, for the first time EVER, it will set limits on levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) being discharged into our waters. While welcomed, it'll take years to implement and it will not go far enough. But, there is legislation to jump-start protection of our drinking water from PFAS, NOW. 

Did you hear that the House Armed Services Committee voted to increase Pentagon spending by $25 billion more than President Biden requested, which could bring total military spending to a whopping $778 billion in FY2022? 

That’s right. This is the same Pentagon budget that’s already bigger than the next 12 largest country’s military budgets combined.

Dear Madison Area Leaders for Peace and Justice. Please consider having your group, congregation, or organization endorse and promote this city-wide show of solidarity and celebration of resistance to the planned F-35 basing in Madison.If enough of us come together, we can still stop this very bad thing from happening to our beloved community.

On Sept. 9, 2021, Milwaukee County Board Supervisor Steve Shea introduced Resolution 21-826 calling for the Board to endorse the Back From the Brink “Call to Prevent Nuclear War”.

How do we achieve a more equitable energy economy? If you ask NAACP Field Organizer and MREA Vice President Denise Abdul-Rahman, she’ll kindly tell you we need a system that increases employment opportunities and decreases pollution externalities. She’ll say it starts with dialogue—with listening to communities in need and valuing community knowledge. And then she’ll ask you to re-imagine how a new, clean energy economy can work for all. Today, we’re challenging you to help create actions and outcomes around this dialogue.

Around the country, the forces of white supremacy and racism are confronting school boards, demanding they prevent teaching the true history of racism, slavery, sexism, and violence against marginalized communities that is part of the founding of our country.  As people of faith, we believe it is the responsibility of each person to do their part to address the systemic inequities and injustices in our society, and to create a world where every human being can live a life of dignity and respect.  

From Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice: As people of faith, we are all deeply distressed at the human cost of the 20-years long war in Afghanistan, and the devastating impact of the US withdrawal over the last few weeks.  Many of us are wondering how we can help the influx of Afghan refugees who have been brought to Wisconsin andmay be settling here.

There is still time to draw and submit your Community of Interest maps for fair electoral districts. We'll show you how to draw and submit your map(s) on the People's Maps Commission Portal.  Go now to https://youtu.be/tXCy4Iv2hEU .

Support WNPJ's work to continue making connections for a peaceful, just and sustainable world!

Make a special donation online now!

To learn more about ways to donate, see http://www.wnpj.org/Donate-Join

WNPJ is excited to be grounding the next chapter of our work in the Just Transition framework put forth by Climate Justice Alliance, a national network made up of locally, tribally, and regionally-based racial and economic justice organizations of Indigenous Peoples, Black, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander, and poor white communities. 

Just Transition is a vision-led, unifying and place-based set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. This means approaching production and consumption cycles holistically and waste-free. The transition itself must be just and equitable; redressing past harms and creating new relationships of power for the future through reparations. If the process of transition is not just, the outcome will never be. Just Transition describes both where we are going and how we get there.

Upcoming Event: The theme of WNPJ’s Fall Assembly will be the Just Transition! Tentatively planned for this November - stay tuned for the exact date! 

On September 22, 2021, Urban Triage will begin processing rental support applications submitted to Tenant Resource Center before their database shut down to transfer application information to our database. Our website, application form, call center, and online chat will be available to all residents outside the City of Madison as of October 1, 2021. Here's where you step in; we need your help. Your help is required to provide a quick turnaround time for applications.

Across the U.S., hundreds of communities and thousands of on-base personnel and service members have felt the adverse effects of toxic pollutants, including PFAS: Demilitarization of Military Flares are an Uncontrolled Source of PFAS.

You're sure to find WNPJ members you know at the Dane County 'Saturday on the Square' Farmer's Market.

Kathy Kelly writes: On the morning of September 11, 2001, I was among a small group of U.S. citizens who sat on milk crates or stood holding signs, across from the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Manhattan. We had been fasting from solid foods for a month, calling for an end to brutal economic warfare waged against Iraq through imposition of U.N. sanctions.

It’s not everyday you welcome those without a home driven from their beloved country for fear of life and liberty. It’s not everyday you’re reminded of the tenants of our country as proclaimed in Emma Lazarus’ poem “Give me your tired, your poor.”  I read of human beings escaping Afghanistan with little to no belongings. Families, occupations and dreams shattered. Many will reside at Fort McCoy. To date nearly nine thousand, mostly children, have arrived.

On Sept. 28, thousands of nonprofits around the country and hundreds of volunteers will join together on National Voter Registration Day with the goal of registering as many voters as possible.

Last March, Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin sued the National Guard Bureau and United States Air Force in the federal court of District of Columbia over the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Statement evaluating the impacts of deploying a F-35 fighter jet squadron to Truax Field in Madison.

Sign the new Petition to Stop the Basing of F-35s at Truax Air Base in Madison, Wisconsin

https://tinyurl.com/PetitionNoF35s

Signatures will be sent periodically to Senator Tammy Baldwin as we collect them. Please share widely!

*******************************************************************

The Interfaith Peace Working Group appreciates your participation in our Postcard Campaign of Resistance against the F-35s!

 The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has asked the U.S. Army at Badger Army Ammunition Plant to reinstate annual testing of certain monitoring wells at the northeastern edge of a groundwater contaminant plume in the Town of Merrimac.

We're pleased to share with you the Fall issue of the Interfaith Peace Working Group Newsletter! We believe you will find the articles informative and useful for discussion and study in your congregation/synagogue/mosque or other local faith community.