Wednesday, November 12, 2008
CALIFORNIA BANS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Ask the Experts
Voters in Arizona, California and Florida approved a ban on same-sex marriage by amending their state constitutions during the election Nov. 4. The amendments define marriage as between one man and one woman.
The closest voter race among the three state legislations was California’s Proposition 8. Of the many opposing Prop 8 were Apple, the California Democratic Party, Google, Pacific Gas & Electric and Steven Spielberg.
Proponents of Proposition 8 spent more than $35 million to campaign for the measure. The largest source of support came from members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who donated about half of all that was raised, according to MormonsFor8.com.
Three lawsuits asking the state Supreme Court to overturn the proposition were filed after Election Day and mass protests occurred during the weekend in cities across the state.
President-elect Barack Obama said civil unions “would not be a lesser thing than marriage” on the Logo channel during the primary elections.
Obama has also expressed opposition to federal and state constitutional amendments defining marriage.
“Enshrining a definition of marriage into the constitution can allow states to roll back the civil rights and benefits that are provided in domestic partnerships and civil unions,” an Obama spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle in July.
The Daily Orange: What is the difference between a civil union and a marriage?
Dill: In every case where (states)pass civil unions, the laws that define rights under the word “marriage” are still not applicable to those same-sex unions; things like insurance benefits, adoptions and custody, social security and healthcare.
With same-sex marriage laws interpreted differently from state to state, is there a possibility of federal intervention?
Cavanagh: I certainly think it might end up in Supreme Court if California citizens feel that the law was illegitimately formed to deny them their rights as citizens. If the legality of recent civil unions are struck down, the legal battles that may rise up will be carefully scrutinized. (The LGBT community) may very well find a different attitude in federal legislation behind them with the constituency in the White House, Senate and Congress.
How far do you think state legislations can define marriage as between a man and a woman?
Pooler: I think we are in a transition period. It’s very complicated
and something that takes thinking about. Marriage and its religious rooting are related to western religion and how we have always thought. In the traditional religious union of marriage, procreation occurs between a man and a woman, and the man has always been seen as the dominant partner there. Even now with women’s liberation movement, there is still discrimination among women in society.
What influence does this have on other states like New York?
Dill: Gov. Paterson has already announced that New York will honor marriages from other states. In New York, liberties like second parent adoption are still possible, though it is expensive and complicated.
Meet the Experts:
Kim Dill
Director of Sage Upstate New
York LGBT Adult resource Center
Ronald Cavanagh
Associate Professor of Religion
in the College of arts and Sciences
William Pooler
Associate Professor of Sociology at the Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Public affairs
[article at media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper522/documents/e7wot816.pdf]
Monday, October 27, 2008
City meeting encourages student role in local issues
More than 1,000 people gathered Sunday afternoon at a public action meeting for the Syracuse community. Twenty were Syracuse University students.
The meeting was a part of the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) faith and public action campaign. The coalition reviewed community issues that its taskforces had been working on, such as criminal justice system improvement and health care for uninsured children. But the SU students attended in an effort to increase their understanding of the surrounding communities.
Students from the Multicultural Empowerment Network, National Association of Black Journalists and the Multiracial Experience attended the meeting at the Most Holy Rosary in downtown Syracuse.
Paul Buckley, associate director of SU's Office of Multicultural Affairs, said because students live in Syracuse for the majority of the year, "it's necessary (for them) to understand the issues of the community and see how the community can empower itself."
Buckley, who began the Minority Empowerment Network a year ago, said he hopes the organization's young men will be engaged in actual service in their communities.
"Our mission as men is to get involved on and off campus and take that closer step toward the community," said Odean Dyer, junior civil engineering major.
ACTS consists of 24 congregations of different faiths. Members of groups like the Islamic Society of Central New York, Congregation Beth Sholom-Chevra Shas and University Methodist Church participated in discussions of community issues.
Candidates for the 25th U.S. Congressional seat, SU graduate and County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Superintendent Dan Lowengard were also present.
Though some students said they expected more interaction at the meeting, Cedric Bolton, coordinator of student engagement at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said the meeting challenged the community to pursue issues like child health care.
Bolton said students should get involved with the community, but there has to be communication between community leaders and students, rather than communication between students and faculty.
"I think it was good, but I wish there were more opportunities to discuss the taskforces in detail and possibly bring up new or existing issues that also need support," said Jessica Johnson, a senior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Kevin Dyer, a junior in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Multicultural Empowerment Network, said he thought the meeting was a good opportunity to network outside of SU. There are issues like the Get Out the Vote campaign that students can participate in, he said.
Julio Urrotia Jr., recent SU graduate and ACTS organizer, said he reached out to multiple student organizations, though only a few attended.
SU is a large part of the community and its economic development, even if some students may not care, Johnson said.
"It's like the elephant in the room," she said. "SU is a hard part of this community to ignore."
Related Stories:
[article at: www.dailyorange.com/news/2008/10/27/News/City-Meeting.Encourages. Student.Role.In.Local.Issues-3507538.shtml - 78k]
[Courtesy of Syracuse.com]
rangrand@syr.edu
The meeting was a part of the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse (ACTS) faith and public action campaign. The coalition reviewed community issues that its taskforces had been working on, such as criminal justice system improvement and health care for uninsured children. But the SU students attended in an effort to increase their understanding of the surrounding communities.
Students from the Multicultural Empowerment Network, National Association of Black Journalists and the Multiracial Experience attended the meeting at the Most Holy Rosary in downtown Syracuse.
"I wasn't sure what to expect, but I do believe in participating in government, and I believe that grassroots and community efforts are good ways to do it," said Sofia Pablo-Hoshino, president of the Multiracial Experience.
Paul Buckley, associate director of SU's Office of Multicultural Affairs, said because students live in Syracuse for the majority of the year, "it's necessary (for them) to understand the issues of the community and see how the community can empower itself."
Buckley, who began the Minority Empowerment Network a year ago, said he hopes the organization's young men will be engaged in actual service in their communities.
"Our mission as men is to get involved on and off campus and take that closer step toward the community," said Odean Dyer, junior civil engineering major.
ACTS consists of 24 congregations of different faiths. Members of groups like the Islamic Society of Central New York, Congregation Beth Sholom-Chevra Shas and University Methodist Church participated in discussions of community issues.
Candidates for the 25th U.S. Congressional seat, SU graduate and County Executive Joanie Mahoney and Superintendent Dan Lowengard were also present.
Though some students said they expected more interaction at the meeting, Cedric Bolton, coordinator of student engagement at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, said the meeting challenged the community to pursue issues like child health care.
Bolton said students should get involved with the community, but there has to be communication between community leaders and students, rather than communication between students and faculty.
"I think it was good, but I wish there were more opportunities to discuss the taskforces in detail and possibly bring up new or existing issues that also need support," said Jessica Johnson, a senior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and president of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Kevin Dyer, a junior in the L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science and a member of the Multicultural Empowerment Network, said he thought the meeting was a good opportunity to network outside of SU. There are issues like the Get Out the Vote campaign that students can participate in, he said.
Julio Urrotia Jr., recent SU graduate and ACTS organizer, said he reached out to multiple student organizations, though only a few attended.
SU is a large part of the community and its economic development, even if some students may not care, Johnson said.
"It's like the elephant in the room," she said. "SU is a hard part of this community to ignore."
Related Stories:
| African American Students at SU Get Out the Vote on the South Side |
[Courtesy of Syracuse.com]
rangrand@syr.edu
Friday, October 24, 2008
Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse to Gather
The Islamic Society of Central New York, Living Water Church of God in Christ and University United Methodist Church have a common interest on Oct 26; they will meet with public officials and candidates for office to discuss improvement initiatives within their communities.
“The goal of this meeting is to pull the public and politicians together,” Pastor Nebraski Carter of Living Water Church said.
The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse will host this public meeting on Oct.26 at Most Holy Rosary, 100 Roberts Ave. Elected officials and candidates for the 25th congressional district are invited to assemble with ACTS’ 24 member organizations.
The Syracuse based coalition, ACTS, is an interfaith multi-racial alliance of communities which works to address political and social concerns of underrepresented communities. Oct. 26, ACTS hopes to draw at least 1,250 people to the meeting, Julio Urrotia Jr., an organizer said.
“We encompass a larger group this year,” Urrotia Jr. said. “We want a larger crowd because we want our candidates and officials to take notice.”
Nov. 18, ACTS assembled over 800 individuals at their first public interest meeting at Bethany Baptist Church.
“This meeting is to also discuss follow-up on what we’ve accomplished since our first public meeting a year ago,” Wayne Wright, an organizer from Living Water Church said.
Prior to the Nov. 18, 2007 meeting, ACTS met with member Service Employees International Union 1199 and member congregations to elect the dominating concerns of the public. This meeting yielded structuring four taskforces that would meet throughout the year with public officials and address necessary improvements.
“The people chose what issues were important to them. They listened to all the arguments and voted on what they felt needed to be addressed,” Andres Kwon, lead organizer said.
The task forces presented council-persons and politicians with proposals within the areas of: Economic Development & Jobs, Youth, Justice, and Health Care.
In attendance at the previous meeting were: County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Common Council President Bea Gonzalez, Rep. Kathleen Rapp-R and Rep. Jim Walsh-R.
Officials were asked if they would support programs to help the communities improve. Democratic Councilors-at-Large Bill Ryan and Van Robinson and state assembly members Joan Christensen-D and Al Stirpe-D were also present to hear of concerns by members in the community.
“The community is building the power to impact decisions that affect the entire everyone,” Rev. Kevin Agee, current president of ACTS said. “We’re asking officials to hold their accountability for the people they’ve been elected to serve.”
Officials like, County Executive Mahoney, were asked to assist the coalition in implanting community focused programs during last year’s public meeting and like the issue of providing proper identification for formerly incarcerated persons.
“You’ve got to be able to identify yourself,” Rev. Agee said. The ID’s provided to former inmates are not sufficient to obtain a driver’s license, a residence or file for employment he said.
“It’s not just about hearing them say they would support it,” Urrotia Jr. said. The alliance will also share the progress task forces have made since the previous year.
Organizers, task force leaders and congregation liaisons have met the Common Council, school superintendant and Mayor Driscoll aside supporting organizations to advocate and discuss programs.
The Jobs and Economic Development taskforce met with Mayor Driscoll Aug.4 to discuss a Community Benefits Agreement amidst the city’s school renovation project. The contract is intended for developers to agree to shape the renovation development to provide specified benefits to Syracuse residents.
ACTS Healthcare taskforce has also made the lack of enrollment in State Child Health Plus a premier issue. The organization cites that there are over 7,500 children in Syracuse without healthcare.
“This committee has developed specific recommendations and is requesting help from the Governor’s office in reducing obstacles for families enrolling in public health insurance,” cites a letter sent to Gov. Paterson requesting enrollment in Child Health Plus be simplified and publicized more.
Formerly a sister organization to ACTS, Moving in Congregations, Acting in Hope (M.I.C.A.H) has obtained the support of Sen. James Seward, R-Cortland in eliminating administrative barriers for State Child Health Plus paperwork. ACTS Healthcare taskforce seeks the same, also requesting that facilitated enrollers be able to use information from previous HEAP applications and establishing a fund for a localized media campaign.
“The bureaucratic enrollment paperwork for NY Child Health Plus challenges those of us with multiple graduate degrees,” Dr. Janet Hansen of M.I.C.A.H testified during a New York Department of Health hearing at Onondaga Community College. In Cortland, there were over 1,000 children without health insurance and parents didn’t always know how to sign up she said.
“We don’t want people to wait until these things happen to them before they care,” Wright said. “Someone close to us shouldn’t get hurt before we care about pushing tighter gun control laws. That’s like saying it should take someone to lose their job to be concerned about the economy.”
“We want people and other organizations to see what we are about,” Julio Urrotia Jr. said.
Urrotia, since June, has registered new citizens, canvassed 13,000 voters and has received 3585 pledges from individuals promising to come out and vote. New voters will see Democratic candidate Dan Maffei, Republican Dale Sweetland and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins at the Oct.26 meeting nine days before the polls open for the 25th congressional, local and national elections.
The upcoming elections are important to the various minority communities within Syracuse. In regards to his own church, Pastor Carter of Living Water Church says “If we are voted down then it’s because we aren’t showing up.”
[article appears at http://www.cnylink.com/cnynews/view_news.php?news_id=1224875702]
Related Links:
http://www.wtvh.com/news/local/33338719.html
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1221728209199010.xml&coll=1
“The goal of this meeting is to pull the public and politicians together,” Pastor Nebraski Carter of Living Water Church said.
The Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse will host this public meeting on Oct.26 at Most Holy Rosary, 100 Roberts Ave. Elected officials and candidates for the 25th congressional district are invited to assemble with ACTS’ 24 member organizations.
The Syracuse based coalition, ACTS, is an interfaith multi-racial alliance of communities which works to address political and social concerns of underrepresented communities. Oct. 26, ACTS hopes to draw at least 1,250 people to the meeting, Julio Urrotia Jr., an organizer said.
“We encompass a larger group this year,” Urrotia Jr. said. “We want a larger crowd because we want our candidates and officials to take notice.”
Nov. 18, ACTS assembled over 800 individuals at their first public interest meeting at Bethany Baptist Church.
“This meeting is to also discuss follow-up on what we’ve accomplished since our first public meeting a year ago,” Wayne Wright, an organizer from Living Water Church said.
Prior to the Nov. 18, 2007 meeting, ACTS met with member Service Employees International Union 1199 and member congregations to elect the dominating concerns of the public. This meeting yielded structuring four taskforces that would meet throughout the year with public officials and address necessary improvements.
“The people chose what issues were important to them. They listened to all the arguments and voted on what they felt needed to be addressed,” Andres Kwon, lead organizer said.
The task forces presented council-persons and politicians with proposals within the areas of: Economic Development & Jobs, Youth, Justice, and Health Care.
In attendance at the previous meeting were: County Executive Joanie Mahoney, Common Council President Bea Gonzalez, Rep. Kathleen Rapp-R and Rep. Jim Walsh-R.
Officials were asked if they would support programs to help the communities improve. Democratic Councilors-at-Large Bill Ryan and Van Robinson and state assembly members Joan Christensen-D and Al Stirpe-D were also present to hear of concerns by members in the community.
“The community is building the power to impact decisions that affect the entire everyone,” Rev. Kevin Agee, current president of ACTS said. “We’re asking officials to hold their accountability for the people they’ve been elected to serve.”
Officials like, County Executive Mahoney, were asked to assist the coalition in implanting community focused programs during last year’s public meeting and like the issue of providing proper identification for formerly incarcerated persons.
“You’ve got to be able to identify yourself,” Rev. Agee said. The ID’s provided to former inmates are not sufficient to obtain a driver’s license, a residence or file for employment he said.
“It’s not just about hearing them say they would support it,” Urrotia Jr. said. The alliance will also share the progress task forces have made since the previous year.
Organizers, task force leaders and congregation liaisons have met the Common Council, school superintendant and Mayor Driscoll aside supporting organizations to advocate and discuss programs.
The Jobs and Economic Development taskforce met with Mayor Driscoll Aug.4 to discuss a Community Benefits Agreement amidst the city’s school renovation project. The contract is intended for developers to agree to shape the renovation development to provide specified benefits to Syracuse residents.
ACTS Healthcare taskforce has also made the lack of enrollment in State Child Health Plus a premier issue. The organization cites that there are over 7,500 children in Syracuse without healthcare.
“This committee has developed specific recommendations and is requesting help from the Governor’s office in reducing obstacles for families enrolling in public health insurance,” cites a letter sent to Gov. Paterson requesting enrollment in Child Health Plus be simplified and publicized more.
Formerly a sister organization to ACTS, Moving in Congregations, Acting in Hope (M.I.C.A.H) has obtained the support of Sen. James Seward, R-Cortland in eliminating administrative barriers for State Child Health Plus paperwork. ACTS Healthcare taskforce seeks the same, also requesting that facilitated enrollers be able to use information from previous HEAP applications and establishing a fund for a localized media campaign.
“The bureaucratic enrollment paperwork for NY Child Health Plus challenges those of us with multiple graduate degrees,” Dr. Janet Hansen of M.I.C.A.H testified during a New York Department of Health hearing at Onondaga Community College. In Cortland, there were over 1,000 children without health insurance and parents didn’t always know how to sign up she said.
“We don’t want people to wait until these things happen to them before they care,” Wright said. “Someone close to us shouldn’t get hurt before we care about pushing tighter gun control laws. That’s like saying it should take someone to lose their job to be concerned about the economy.”
“We want people and other organizations to see what we are about,” Julio Urrotia Jr. said.
Urrotia, since June, has registered new citizens, canvassed 13,000 voters and has received 3585 pledges from individuals promising to come out and vote. New voters will see Democratic candidate Dan Maffei, Republican Dale Sweetland and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins at the Oct.26 meeting nine days before the polls open for the 25th congressional, local and national elections.
The upcoming elections are important to the various minority communities within Syracuse. In regards to his own church, Pastor Carter of Living Water Church says “If we are voted down then it’s because we aren’t showing up.”
[article appears at http://www.cnylink.com/cnynews/view_news.php?news_id=1224875702]
Related Links:
http://www.wtvh.com/news/local/33338719.html
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf?/base/news-15/1221728209199010.xml&coll=1
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Senior Citizens Make Four-legged Friends
| |
| Published Tue, Jul. 29, 2008 |
| Carol Bertelli has been a volunteer at Sunshine Friends Inc. for three years. She brings her poodle/West Highland terrier mix, Mack, to Bernadine Apartments, a retirement community on Syracuse’s Southside, once a month. Founded in 1998, Sunshine Friends Inc. is a volunteer organization that provides “pet therapy” services in Syracuse and Central New York. Volunteers bring their dogs and cats to hospitals, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, group homes, and children’s organizations. The residents of these facilities interact with trained animals that are affectionate, calm, and soothing. The residents of Bernadine apartments gather in the noisy activity room to chat with the volunteers and pet the dogs. “It means a lot to the older people,” said Linda Czarny, a Sunshine Friends volunteer who also visits Bernadine Apartments with her dog, Callie. “They’ve had so many things taken away from them. When they get to see a friendly dog and pet them, it puts a smile to their face.” Howard Jenkins, the administrator of Bernadine Apartments, believes that the program is beneficial to the residents. “I think it’s wonderful,” he said. “Bringing the dogs in, the residents love it. It lights up their faces when they see them.” |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
