Update from June 14, 2007

Dear Friends,

My entrée into political work began in earnest in the mid-1980s over concern about the threat of nuclear war.  To me at that time, the possibility of nuclear war presented the most serious challenge facing humanity.  I cut my teeth as an organizer coordinating the Iowa stretch of the Great Peace March, a 3,000 mile trek of 600-plus people marching from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. 

Today, while nuclear weapons still pose a grave danger to both regional and global security, I believe the most serious threat facing human and other life on Earth is global warming.

The scientific community has reached virtual consensus on the reality of global warming and on humanity’s role in causing it.  Scientists also tell us that, with immediate and significant action, we can avert some of the worst probable consequences of climate change. Yet Congress and the President drag their feet, even as over 500 U.S. cities have signed the Mayors’ Climate Protection Agreement.

As often happens, the impetus for change is at the local level.  One exciting initiative is the “March to Re-Energize Iowa,” a student-led walk from Ames to Des Moines on August 2 – 5, culminating in a 3:00 p.m. rally at Nollen Plaza.  It’s organized by the Sierra Club’s “Sierra Student Coalition,” and there’s a similar march the same week in New Hampshire.  One young person joining the Iowa march is Holly Jones from Mt. Pleasant, who studies history and environmental policy at Drake University. 

“Our goal is to build a clean energy economy for real solutions to global warming,” says Holly.  “We call upon our leaders to take bold, comprehensive and immediate action. We want to highlight the need to reduce global warming pollution by 2% a year starting now, achieving 80% reductions by 2050 and simultaneously creating millions of new, clean-energy jobs for American workers.”

Organizers want to make this event one of the largest-ever actions in the Midwest on global warming.  Given their single-minded focus and determination, they might pull it off.  Lynn Heuss and I plan to represent An Independence Movement for Iowa on the March, and organizers hope many others will walk for all or part of one or more days. 

To sign-up to march or volunteer, contact Janie Hauser at Janie.Hauser@ssc.org.  You can also do an internet search for “Sierra Student Coalition” to learn more about the umbrella group coordinating this effort.

Oh, and two small corrections on the release of our new website last week:  (1) Because several of you called our attention to the funny stuff where various types of punctuation should be, Lynn has that problem fixed; and (2) You can use either “.com” or “.org” to access our website.  Thanks!

Ed Fallon

SOME UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Friday, June 15, 7:00 p.m. (and all day Saturday)

Energy Futures Conference

Iowa State Historical Building

Contact Lorna with Mayor Cownie’s office at (515) 283-4167.

Saturday, June 16, all day long

Juneteenth Celebration

Annual commemoration of the end of slavery

Davis Park and King School in Des Moines

Contact Gary Lawson at (515) 707-4768 or visit www.iowajuneteenth.org.

Saturday, June 30, 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.

100^th birthday of historic Fire House #4

(currently the venue for many progressive community events)

1041 8^th Street, Des Moines

Open to the first 250 people who RSVP

Contact Chet Guinn at clguinn@mchsi.com, (515) 282-8054 or 556-8054.

ONGOING

Iowa Resource for International Service (IRIS)

Host families needed for students from predominantly Muslim countries in Africa

Contact Bob Anderson at (515) 292-7103 and visit http://iris-center.org.