(ref: Overcoming Myths About Older Workers Flash Cards at http://www.AgelessInAmerica.com )

1. MYTH: Older workers are too expensive.
   FACT… In the time-based 20th century, the longer people worked, the more they earned. In the market-driven 21st century, private and public sector businesses have to become efficient low cost providers. People and organizations need to compete in this center and both must break the link between pay and seniority.
2. MYTH: Older workers can’t learn as well as younger workers.
   FACT… The fastest growing group of Internet users is over age 50. According to a recent Harvard University study, the ability to use an accumulated body of knowledge keeps rising throughout the lifetimes of healthy people. It is true that the most effective ways to learn may be different for older workers than others. Experiential learning has proven to be of greatest value with this group.
3. MYTH: Older workers aren’t as productive as younger workers.
   FACT… “Productivity” is a character trait – not a generational trait. Business Week, in researching the aging workforce, states that people can be old, smart and productive assuming they maintain their health and stay abreast of standard technology. Researchers confirm that far from wearing people down, work can actually inspire people to be productive and fit.
4. MYTH: Customers don’t respond well to older sales and service workers.
   FACT… After realizing that half of their customers were over 50, Borders decided that the best way to increase its market share was to stress personal service and to hire employees who could relate better to its customer base. There was an added bonus! Turns out that turnover among their workers over 50 is 10 times less than for those under 30. Reduced turnover costs and consistent service staff naturally led to increased profits. Here’s another plus. Extensive research indicates that verbal communication, a critical customer service skill, actually increases with age.
5. MYTH: Older workers will NOT be able to find healthcare coverage anywhere but in traditional, full-time jobs.
   FACT… OUCH. This myth is far too close to the truth for many. However, once you meet their requirements, temporary staffing firms offer health care benefit participation at greatly reduced rates over the cost of insurance you can buy on your own. Temping is a growing source of opportunity for people seeking regular, long-term employment. It is a door that is open when all other doors of opportunity seem closed.
6. MYTH: Older workers aren’t as creative or as innovative as younger workers.
   FACT… Harvard University, Babson College and other institutions have conducted research on the link between innovation and age. Each study supports the statement that age-diversified work groups enhance innovation. Rich, accumulated knowledge, such as that supplied by experience, is integral to the creative process. Stories of individuals whose creativity has sustained them throughout their lifetimes are legendary. Look a few up and you will soon see that creativity is about the person not the demographic.
7. MYTH: Older women have less financial need to work than men.
   FACT… Women earn less, save less, invest less and live longer than men. Over 60% of adults living in extreme poverty are women. Over 18 million children live in single-parent homes, the majority of which are headed by women. Women earn (Bureau of Labor Statistics average) 82% of of what men earn. Other research claims that women earn about 69 cents for every dollar earned by men. In part-time and temporary positions, reports indicate that older women earn 55 cents for every dollar that men earn. There is simply not enough money earned, saved or invested to take women through their longer lifetimes.
8. MYTH: Older workers can only do what they have always done.
   FACT… The National Study of the Changing Workforce found that workers 50 or older are much more likely than younger cohorts to run a small business. One result of similar studies: the largest and most successful group of new entrepreneurs are over age 50! Free agency (working for yourself) is growing at a fast clip especially for the professional workforce. Temp agencies are among the fastest growing U.S. employers of older workers. “Giving back” through volunteerism is the domain of the older worker. Many embrace new causes much as they did in the Camelot years.
9. MYTH: Once people reach age 65, they really are too old to work!
   FACT… In the United States, 23.2% of people between the ages of 65 and 74 were in the labor force (either working or looking for work) in 2006, according to data by the U.S. Census Bureau. The number is up from 19.6% in 2000. Recent studies of women from age 60 to 90 found that an equal number of women are working, in some capacity, as are retired. Some need the income and others feel that work gives their lives purpose. The lesson? Chronological age is neither the determinant of ability nor the arbitrator of talent for men or women.
10. MYTH: “We plan to work long beyond what was thought of as traditional retirement age.” – 8 out of 10 Boomers surveyed by AARP
    FACT… What the statement should read is: “8 out of 10 Boomers HOPE to continue to work longer.” In terms of sheer numbers, only a handful of people have plans that are specific, time-framed and actionable. The rate of workplace change is accelerating. New technologies are racing in and eliminating jobs that once needed masses of people to perform them, and the global workforce is grabbing careers out from under thousands of others. While all of this is happening, new opportunities are being created. New career options and new technologies are dramatically and drastically changing realities for the better — for those who plan and take action.

(ref: UNICEF, http://www.unicef.org/crc/)

"Wishes come true" - a card handmade in Rwanda

NOTE: October 24th is United Nations Day

The United Nations  Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the first legally binding international instrument to incorporate the full range of human rights — civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. On November 20th, 1989, world leaders decided that children needed a special convention just for them because people under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not.

The leaders also wanted to make sure that the world recognized that children have human rights too. All UN members except the United States and Somalia have ratified CRC. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (California) is urging United States ratification.

1. Children have the right to live. Governments should ensure that children survive and develop healthily.
2. All children have the right to a legally registered name, officially recognized by the government. Children have the right to a nationality (to belong to a country). Children also have the right to know and, as far as possible, to be cared for by their parents.
3. Children have the right to an identity – an official record of who they are. Governments should respect children’s right to a name, a nationality and family ties.
4. Children have the right to live with their parent(s), unless it is bad for them. Children whose parents do not live together have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child.
5. Families whose members live in different countries should be allowed to move between those countries so that parents and children can stay in contact, or get back together as a family.
6. Governments should take steps to stop children being taken out of their own country illegally. This article is particularly concerned with parental abductions. The Convention’s Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography has a provision that concerns abduction for financial gain.
7. When adults are making decisions that affect children, children have the right to say what they think should happen and have their opinions taken into account.
8. Children have the right to get and share information, as long as the information is not damaging to them or others. In exercising the right to freedom of expression, children have the responsibility to also respect the rights, freedoms and reputations of others. The freedom of expression includes the right to share information in any way they choose, including by talking, drawing or writing.
9. Children have the right to think and believe what they want and to practice their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. Parents should help guide their children in these matters. The Convention respects the rights and duties of parents in providing religious and moral guidance to their children. Religious groups around the world have expressed support for the Convention, which indicates that it in no way prevents parents from bringing their children up within a religious tradition. At the same time, the Convention recognizes that as children mature and are able to form their own views, some may question certain religious practices or cultural traditions. The Convention supports children’s right to examine their beliefs, but it also states that their right to express their beliefs implies respect for the rights and freedoms of others.
10. Children have the right to meet together and to join groups and organizations, as long as it does not stop other people from enjoying their rights. In exercising their rights, children have the responsibility to respect the rights, freedoms and reputations of others.
11. Children have a right to privacy. The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their good name, their families and their homes.
12. Children have the right to get information that is important to their health and well-being. Governments should encourage mass media – radio, television, newspapers and Internet content sources – to provide information that children can understand and to not promote materials that could harm children. Mass media should particularly be encouraged to supply information in languages that minority and indigenous children can understand. Children should also have access to children’s books.
13. Both parents share responsibility for bringing up their children, and should always consider what is best for each child. Governments must respect the responsibility of parents for providing appropriate guidance to their children – the Convention does not take responsibility for children away from their parents and give more authority to governments. It places a responsibility on governments to provide support services to parents, especially if both parents work outside the home.
14. Children have the right to be protected from being hurt and mistreated, physically or mentally. Governments should ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents, or anyone else who looks after them. In terms of discipline, the Convention does not specify what forms of punishment parents should use. However any form of discipline involving violence is unacceptable. There are ways to discipline children that are effective in helping children learn about family and social expectations for their behavior– ones that are non-violent, are appropriate to the child’s level of development and take the best interests of the child into consideration. In most countries, laws already define what sorts of punishments are considered excessive or abusive. It is up to each government to review these laws in light of the Convention.
15. Children who cannot be looked after by their own family have a right to special care and must be looked after properly, by people who respect their ethnic group, religion, culture and language.
16. Children have the right to care and protection if they are adopted or in foster care. The first concern must be what is best for them. The same rules should apply whether they are adopted in the country where they were born, or if they are taken to live in another country.
17. Children have the right to special protection and help if they are refugees (if they have been forced to leave their home and live in another country), as well as all the rights in this Convention.
18. Children who have any kind of disability have the right to special care and support, as well as all the rights in the Convention, so that they can live full and independent lives.
19. Children have the right to good quality health care – the best health care possible – to safe drinking water, nutritious food, a clean and safe environment, and information to help them stay healthy. Rich countries should help poorer countries achieve this.
20. Children who are looked after by their local authorities, rather than their parents, have the right to have these living arrangements looked at regularly to see if they are the most appropriate. Their care and treatment should always be based on “the best interests of the child”.
21. Children – either through their guardians or directly – have the right to help from the government if they are poor or in need.
22. Children have the right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs. Governments should help families and guardians who cannot afford to provide this, particularly with regard to food, clothing and housing.
23. All children have the right to a primary education, which should be free. Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this right. Discipline in schools should respect children’s dignity. For children to benefit from education, schools must be run in an orderly way – without the use of violence. Any form of school discipline should take into account the child’s human dignity. Therefore, governments must ensure that school administrators review their discipline policies and eliminate any discipline practices involving physical or mental violence, abuse or neglect. The Convention places a high value on education. Young people should be encouraged to reach the highest level of education of which they are capable.
24. Children’s education should develop each child’s personality, talents and abilities to the fullest. It should encourage children to respect others, human rights and their own and other cultures. It should also help them learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people. Children have a particular responsibility to respect the rights their parents, and education should aim to develop respect for the values and culture of their parents. The Convention does not address such issues as school uniforms, dress codes, the singing of the national anthem or prayer in schools. It is up to governments and school officials in each country to determine whether, in the context of their society and existing laws, such matters infringe upon other rights protected by the Convention.
25. Minority or indigenous children have the right to learn about and practice their own culture, language and religion. The right to practice one’s own culture, language and religion applies to everyone; the Convention here highlights this right in instances where the practices are not shared by the majority of people in the country.
26. Children have the right to relax and play, and to join in a wide range of cultural, artistic and other recreational activities.
27. The government should protect children from work that is dangerous or might harm their health or their education. While the Convention protects children from harmful and exploitative work, there is nothing in it that prohibits parents from expecting their children to help out at home in ways that are safe and appropriate to their age. If children help out in a family farm or business, the tasks they do be safe and suited to their level of development and comply with national lab our laws. Children’s work should not jeopardize any of their other rights, including the right to education, or the right to relaxation and play.
28. Governments should use all means possible to protect children from the use of harmful drugs and from being used in the drug trade.
29. Governments should protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse. This provision in the Convention is augmented by the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
30. The government should take all measures possible to make sure that children are not abducted, sold or trafficked. This provision in the Convention is augmented by the Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
31. Children should be protected from any activity that takes advantage of them or could harm their welfare and development.
32. No one is allowed to punish children in a cruel or harmful way. Children who break the law should not be treated cruelly. They should not be put in prison with adults, should be able to keep in contact with their families, and should not be sentenced to death or life imprisonment without possibility of release.
33. Governments must do everything they can to protect and care for children affected by war. Children under 15 should not be forced or recruited to take part in a war or join the armed forces. The Convention’s Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict further develops this right, raising the age for direct participation in armed conflict to 18 and establishing a ban on compulsory recruitment for children under 18.
34. Children who have been neglected, abused or exploited should receive special help to physically and psychologically recover and reintegrate into society. Particular attention should be paid to restoring the health, self-respect and dignity of the child.
35. Children who are accused of breaking the law have the right to legal help and fair treatment in a justice system that respects their rights. Governments are required to set a minimum age below which children cannot be held criminally responsible and to provide minimum guarantees for the fairness and quick resolution of judicial or alternative proceedings.
36. If the laws of a country provide better protection of children’s rights than the articles in this Convention, those laws should apply.
37. Governments should make the Convention known to adults and children. Adults should help children learn about their rights, too.

In addition, there are two optional protocols that are part of this convention. To help stem the growing abuse and exploitation of children worldwide, the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 adopted two Optional Protocols to the Convention to increase the protection of children from involvement in armed conflicts and from sexual exploitation.

The Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict establishes 18 as the minimum age for compulsory recruitment and requires States to do everything they can to prevent individuals under the age of 18 from taking a direct part in hostilities.

The Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography draws special attention to the criminalization of these serious violations of children’s rights and emphasizes the importance of fostering increased public awareness and international cooperation in efforts to combat them.

(ref: Grassroots and Nonprofit Leadership by Berit Lakey, George Lakey, Rod Napier, Janice Robinson)

Bill Moyer, a United States social change activist, developed a strategic model for waging successful nonviolent social movements in the late 1970s. This model is called the Movement Action Plan (MAP). Here is a summary of this model as described by George Lakey, the founder and retired executive director of Training for Change.

Stage One: Business as Usual
In this stage, relatively few people care about the issue. Small groups are formed to support each other. The objective is to get people to start thinking about the issue and start spreading the word. Small action projects may be taken on in this stage.

Stage Two: Failure of Established Channels
The general public is unaware of the injustice and largely uninterested in learning about the issue. The public is thinking (or hoping) that established structures are taking care of the problem. “Surely the government is watching out for the safety of our ground water.” “Surely, corporations know which chemicals are safe and unsafe and are already ensuring that workers and the public are not being exposed to the unsafe ones.” In this stage, small groups research the issue and the victims of the injustice. They may sue government agencies or corporations and will usually lose. Nevertheless, these actions are a necessary exercise in building public awareness.  Stage Two polls will show 15% to 20% of public opinion leaning towards the change.

Stage Three: Ripening Conditions/Education and Organizing
People who were not listening (and did not want to listen) in earlier stages are becoming interested. The pace is picking up. New groups are sprouting up to work on the issue largely through providing education. Groups will send speakers out to talk about the issue, organize marches, and hold house meetings and news conferences. Polls are showing 20% to 30% support.

Stage Four: Takeoff
This stage is initiated by a trigger event or a dramatic happening that puts a spotlight on the problem, sparking wide public attention and concern. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. focused on Birmingham, Alabama, in a direct action campaign that filled the jails and highlighted the evils of segregation.  Gandhi used boycotts and personal hunger strikes to focus attention on injustices and discrimination against Indians. Cleve Jones used the AIDS quilt to focus attention on people needlessly dying of AIDS for lack of concern and research into treatment options. Part of the success of this stage depends on relating the demands of the movement to widely held values (like freedom, fairness, and democracy)

Stage Five: Perception of Failure
The adage: “Two steps forward, one step back” applies to this stage. Numbers are down in the demonstrations, media is paying less attention, and policy changes have not yet been won. Those opposing the movement will declare “The movement has failed!”  To recapture the excitement, subgroups may even embark on “Rambo-style” actions of anger and violence. The media focuses on splits and dissent within the movement and will focus particularly on factions of the movement and those activities of subgroups which the public will find particularly offensive. It is the very success and excitement of Stage Four that feeds disillusionment  in Stage Five. Fortunately, a great many activists do not become discouraged or at least accept this stage as part of the process. Creating strategic, achievable, and measurable objectives for the movement is important at this stage.

Stage Six: Winning over the majority
Crisis-based protest is transformed into a long-term struggle with the powerholders. The goal is to win majority opinion and many new groups are formed particularly among a broader public not previously involved. In this stage, 60% to 75% of the public agrees on the need for change and the issue is showing up in electoral campaigns and candidate platforms. Self-interested powerholders will try to discredit and disrupt the movement,  and will insist that there is no positive alternative, promote bogus reforms, and create crisis events designed to scare the public. The powerholders become more split at this stage. The movement needs to beware of: national organizations and staff dominating the movement and reducing grassroots energy; reformers over-compromising on policy changes; delivering the movement into the hands of politicians; a belief that the movement has failed just because it has not yet succeeded.

Stage Seven: Achieving Alternatives
The goal of this stage is to recognize a movement’s success, empower activists and their organizations to act effectively, and to achieve objectives and demands within a new model or way of thinking about the issue. A successful social movement can gain objectives that, although grudgingly yielded by the powerholders, introduce a new and better way of operating and being that benefits all. Each movement needs to develop an endgame which makes sense in terms of its own goals and situation.

Stage Eight: Consolidation and Moving On
Movement leaders need to protect and extend the successes achieved. The successful movement becomes a midwife to other social movements. Not only can the movement celebrate the specific changes it gained but also celebrate the ripple effect it has on other aspects of society and future movements.

A Force More Powerful (also available from Reach and Teach) is a great video game that teaches non-violent organizing principals in a fun and challenging way.

Also check out 10 Elements of an Ideal Organizer (according to Saul Alinsky).

(ref: Forbes 400, forbes.com. GDP data from indexmundi.com based on 2008 CIA Factbook)

In 2009, the net worth of the top 20 wealthiest fell by 13.8% and there are 3 newcomers to the top 20 group (indicated by an asterisk*). The total worth of the 400 wealthiest in the United States fell by $300 billion to $1.27 trillion. Numbers in [brackets] are countries with the closest approximate GDP.

1. William Gates III ($50.0 bil, 53yo, Medina, WA – Microsoft) [Cuba]
2. Warren Buffett ($40.0 bil, 79yo, Omaha, NE – Berkshire Hathaway) [Lebanon, Latvia]
3. Lawrence Ellison ($27.0 bil, 65yo, Redwood City, CA – Oracle) [Paraguay]
4. Christy Walton & family ($21.5 bil, 54yo, Jackson, WY – Wal-Mart inheritance) [Trinidad]
5. Jim Walton ($19.6 bil, 61yo, Bentonville, AR – Wal-Mart) [Georgia]
6. Alice Walton ($19.3 bil, 60 Fort Worth, TX – Wal-Mart) [Georgia]
7. S Robson Walton ($19 bil, 65yo, Bentonville, AR – Wal-Mart) [Dem. Rep. Congo]
8. Michael Bloomberg ($17.5 bil, 67yo, New York, NY – Bloomberg) [Mozambique]
9. Charles Koch ($16.0 bil, 73yo, Wichita, KS – manufacturing, energy) [Chad]
10. David Koch ($16.0 bil, 69yo, New York, NY – manufacturing, energy) [Chad]
11. Sergey Brin ($15.3 bil, 36yo Palo Alto, CA – Google) [Haiti]
12. Larry Page ($15.3 bil, 36yo San Francisco, CA – Google) [Haiti]
13. Michael Dell ($14.5 bil, 44yo, Austin, TX – Dell) [Mauritius]
14. Steven Ballmer ($13.3 bil, 53yo, Seattle, WA – Microsoft) [Jamaica]
15. George Soros ($13.0 bil, 79yo, Westchester, IL – hedge funds)* [Jamaica]
16. Donald Bren ($12.0 bil, 77yo, Newport Beach, CA – real estate) [Benin]
17. Paul Allen ($11.5 bil, 56yo, Seattle, WA – Microsoft, investments) [Iceland, Tajikistan]
18. Abigail Johnson ($11.5 bil, 47yo, Boston, MA – Fidelity) [Iceland, Tajikistan]
19. Forest Edward Mars ($11.0 bil, 78yo, McLean, IL – candy, pet food)* [Iceland, Tajikistan]
20. Jacqueline Mars ($11.0 bil, 70yo, Bedminster, NJ – candy, pet food)* [Iceland, Tajikistan]

Net worth of the 20 wealthiest Americans for 2009: $374.3 billion [Belgium]. Net worth of the 400 wealthiest Americans for 2009: $1.27 trillion [the GDP of Canada or the combined total GDP of Chile, Ghana, Egypt, Saudi Arabia] or 9% of the $14.15 trillion GDP of the United States.

Check out Teaching Economics as if People Mattered – Born on Third Base for an interesting lesson plan about wealth and the Forbes 400.

Here’s a link to the 2008 list of the 20 Richest People in the US.

(ref: After Gandhi: One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance, Anne Sibley O’Brien and Perry Edmond O’Brien)

Mohandas Gandhi’s birthday is October 2nd. In honor of him, the United Nations in 2007 adopted this day to be International Day of Nonviolence. Here are some quotes from leaders in nonviolent resistance that inspire me.

1. Nonviolence is an intensely active force when properly understood and used. – Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
2. If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children. – Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
3. The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions. – Thich Nhat Hanh (1926- )
4. If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone, will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. – Thich Nhat Hanh (1926- )
5. I had no idea that history was being made. I was just tired of giving in. – Rosa Parks (1913-2005)
6. As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from being free, there is work to be done. – Rosa Parks (1913-2005)
7. To make peace with an enemy one must work with that enemy and that enemy becomes one’s partner. – Nelson Mandela (1918- )
8. We fought injustice wherever we found it, no matter how large, or how small, and we fought injustice to preserve our own humanity. – Nelson Mandela (1918- )
9. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
10. Today we struggle for the soul of our country. – Charles Perkins (1936-2000)
11. If we’re full of hatred, we can’t really do our work. Hatred saps all that strength and energy we need to plan. – Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
12. I have nothing to lose by standing up and following my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years. – Muhammad Ali (1942- )
13. Our common humanity is more important than all the things that divide us. – Mairead Corrigan (1944- )
14. Nonviolence is the weapon of the strong. – Betty Williams (1943- )
15. You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right. – Aung San Suu Kyi (1945- )
16. I believe history teaches us a categorical lesson: that once a people are determined to become free, then nothing in the world can stop them reaching their goal. – Bishop Desmond Tutu (1931- )
17. We must not only speak about forgiveness and reconciliation – we must act on these principles. – Bishop Desmond Tutu (1931- )
18. I really do inhabit a system in which words are capable of shaking the entire structure of government, where words can prove mightier than ten military divisions. – Vaclav Havel (1936- )
19. We are called to assist the earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own – indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty, and wonder. – Wangari Maathai (1940- )
20. We are constantly being astonished these days at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence. – Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

Keep the dialog about nonviolent resistance going! Please contribute your own favorite quote in your comments.

(ref: Great Figures in History: Gandhi – a full-color manga graphic novel from Y.kids)

	1869 October 2 – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar in West Bengal, India
	1891 June – After attending Inner Temple Law School in the United Kingdom, Gandhi passes the bar exam and becomes a lawyer. Unknown to him at the time, his mother has passed away while he is at school.
	1893 – Gandhi is thrown off of a train in South Africa for refusing to move from his First Class seat to Third Class (even though he held a valid First Class ticket). Such discrimination against Indians was common practice and this personal experience gives Gandhi resolve to fight racial discrimination.

	1894 – Gandhi founds the Natal Indian Congress to oppose a bill denying Indians the right to vote in South Africa. Although the bill passes, Gandhi successfully focuses a broad range of public attention on injustices against Indians even as far away as India and the UK.
	1897 January – Landing in Durban Harbor, South Africa, Gandhi is beaten up by a mob of white settlers. His life is saved when the wife of the Durban Police Chief stands between Gandhi and his attackers. Because of media attention to the event, the colonial government is forced to arrest members of the mob but Gandhi refuses to press charges. Gandhi gains increased public admiration and support. His attackers offer a public apology.
	1906 – The South African colonial government enacts the “Asian Population Registration Act” where all residents of Asian countries, including India, had to register their name, age, address, job, and other personal information and carry a card with their finger prints. Gandhi develops his principals of non-violent protest “satyagraha” (devotion to the truth or “soul force”).
	1908 August – Gandhi and 2,000 fellow Indians in Johannesburg burn their registration cards in protest. Even as Gandhi and other leaders are repeatedly arrested over 6 years of protest, non-violent rallies continue to grow in size.
	1914 – The Asian Population Registration Act is abolished.
	1919 – The British Government passes the Rowlatt Act which gives authority and power to arrest people and keep them in prisons without any trial if they are suspected with the charge of terrorism. The Indian National Congress starts the Hartal Movement where thousands of Indians stop working and stop selling and buying British goods in protest. Unfortunately, violent riots also occur. At Amritsar, 379 Indians are killed and 1,000 are seriously injured.
	1920 – Gandhi gets people to more intently boycott British products and encourages people to start making their own clothes rather than buying British clothing.
	1930 – The British retaliate by passing the Salt Act which makes it illegal for Indians to make their own salt, punishable by at least three years in jail. On March 12th, Gandhi (now 61 years old) travels 320 km (200 miles) on foot for 24 days to Dandi to make his own salt. Others follow. Gandhi is again imprisoned.
	1942 – Gandhi launches the Quit India campaign declaring India’s independence from British rule. Gandhi is imprisoned.
	1943 – The 73 year old Gandhi starts a hunger strike that lasts for 21 days.
	1944 – Fearful that Gandhi would die in prison due to failing health and become a martyr, he and other leaders are released.
	1946 March – India becomes an independent nation.
	1947 – Tensions between Hindu and Muslim factions resurface and escalate into violence. India is divided into Pakistan and India. The lasting effects of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 still affects the geopolitics of this region.
	1948 January 12 – Attempting to promote peace and asking that homes be restored to Muslims, payment to Pakistan be made (per an agreement made before the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947), and fighting cease, Gandhi (now 77 years old) starts another fast. Five days into the fast, India makes payment to Pakistan and Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community leaders agree to renounce violence and call for peace.
	1948 January 30 – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is killed by a member of a Hindu organization angered by Gandhi’s peacemaking efforts. Gandhi was shot on his way to evening prayers. His memory and teachings live  on in the non-violent peace movements of today.

Also check out 9 Promises Made by Everyone Who Marched with Gandhi in 1921
and 20 Quotes from the Nonviolent Resistance Front.

(ref: US Geological Survey usgs.gov)

Here are some comparative photos from the US Geological Survey showing evidence of climate change on glaciers in Alaska. Most startling are the photos of Bear Glacier showing the change over just a 5 year period from 2002 to 2007.  You can view the USGS report at http://www.usgs.gov/global_change/glaciers

1. Muir Inlet, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska (1941 – 2004)

Photo: William O. Field

Photo: Bruce F. Molnia

2. Plateau Glacier, Wachusett Inlet, Saint Elias Mountains, Alaska (1961 – 2003)

Photo: M.T. Millet

Photo: R.D. Karpilo

3. Northwestern Glacier, Harris Bay, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kenai Mountains, Alaska (mid 1920s to 1940s – 2005)

Photo: USGS Photo Library

Photo: Bruce F. Molnia

4. Pedersen Glacier, Kenai Mountains, Aialik Bay, Alaska (mid 1920s to 1940s – 2005)
(misspelled caption on the 2nd photo is part of the USGS photo)

Photo: uncredited postcard

Photo: Bruce F. Molnia

5. Bear Glacier (aerial view), Kenai Mountains, Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska (2002 – 2007)

Photo: Bruce F. Molnia

Photo: Bruce F. Molnia

How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate (available from Reach and Teach) shows the science behind the headlines – evidence from flowers, butterflies, birds, frogs, trees, glaciers and much more, gathered by scientists from all over the world, sometimes with assistance from young “citizen-scientists.” And here is what young people, and their families and teachers, can do to learn about climate change and take action. Climate change is a critical and timely topic of deep concern, here told in an age-appropriate manner, with clarity and hope.

The International Day of Peace is on September 21st of each year and calls for a full day of peace and ceasefire throughout the world.

On September 21st, 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon rang the Peace Bell at United Nations Headquarters in New York calling for a 24-hour cessation of hostilities, and for a minute of silence to be observed around the world. The Peace Bell is cast from coins donated by children on all continents, and considered a symbol of global solidarity. It was given as a gift by Japan, and is referred to as a reminder of the human cost of war. The inscription on its side reads: “Long live absolute world peace.” [ref: wikipedia] The first Peace Day was celebrated in 1982.

Here are some ideas of things you can personally (or as a small group) do on Peace Day.

1. Observe a minute of silence at Noon wherever you are.
2. Hold a peace vigil and light a candle with some friends or neighbors.
3. Imagine something you could do to help make for a more peaceful world… and then do it.
4. Learn or retell the story of Sadako Sasaki and her One Thousand Paper Cranes and fold a paper crane in her memory.
5. Read about the UN Millennium Development Goals.
6. Send a donation to an organization that you think is helping in some way to achieve one of the UN Millennium Development Goals.
7. Construct a Peace Pole. A Peace Pole is a monument that displays the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth,” usually in a different language on each side.
8. Find and share a version of the “Golden Rule“ in a faith tradition other than your own
9. Learn about Sister Josetta Walsh and her “World Peace Village“.
10. Spend some time browsing the web to see what other people around the world are doing to work for peace.
11. Learn or retell the origin of the peace flag.
12. Learn to say and write the word for “peace” in another language.
13. Play a video game (like “A Force More Powerful“) and develop your skills in effective and active non-violence.
14. Read about the Global Marshall Plan.
15. Find and put up a poster that helps you imagine a community and world at peace.
16. Find and play a cooperative game with a few friends at peacegames.org
17. Find and play a game at trainingforchange.org.
18. Since this day is also a “day of ceasefire”, try making peace with someone you have a conflict with.
19. Go to internationaldayofpeace.org to find an event happening in your area on Peace Day.
20. Add your own ideas by commenting on this list.

Have you ordered your 2010 Peace Calendars yet? (click)

Also please check out 18 Milestone Events in the Life of Mohandas Gandhi and 20 Quotes from the Nonresistance Front

(ref: CIA World Factbook, Reuters, World Bank, Wikipedia)

This is a list of the top 75 countries for highest life expectancy in the world. Those countries offering some form of universal healthcare are noted with an asterisk (*) and the country name is in bold. Healthcare per capita (person) costs are in US Dollars.

Information sources:

[1] CIA World Factbook
http://tinyurl.com/healthcia

[2] Reuters and World Bank
http://tinyurl.com/reutershc / http://tinyurl.com/hnpworldbank

[3] Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care

Also check out…
24 Significant Medical Achievements and Their Country of Origin

(ref: wikipedia.org, about.com, various other sources)

Much debate occurs today about whether a country’s chosen health system impedes or encourages discovery and invention in the medical field. The fact is… innovation occurs wherever fertile and creative minds are trying to address real human need. Here is a list of a few significant discoveries/inventions:

1. Adrenaline (epinephrine): Isolated and used to treat asthma by Jokichi Takamine (Japan)
2. Artificial heart: Paul Winchell (USA) holds the original patent for an implantable artificial heart. Oddly enough, he was also an accomplished ventriloquist who was the voice of Tigger in Disney’s Winnie the Pooh
3. Aspirin: Felix Hoffmann (Germany) – he also synthesized heroin
4. Cardiac pacemaker: John Hopps (Canada)
5. CAT scan: Godfrey Hounsfield (UK), Alban Cormac (USA, born in South Africa)
6. Clinical trials: Austin Bradford Hill (UK)
7. Contact lenses: Leonardo Da Vinci (Italy)
8. Electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) – Justin Ho (UK)
9. Fetal monitor: K. Hammacher (Germany), Hewlett-Packard Co (USA, Germany)
10. Heart lung machine: John Heysham Gibbon (USA)
11. Heart transplant: Christiaan Barnard (South Africa) successfully transplanted the first human heart from one person to another
12. Hepatitis B vaccine: Baruch Blumberg, Irving Millman (USA)
13. HIV: Luc Montagnier (France) is credited for discovering HIV as the cause for AIDS
14. Insulin: Isolated by Frederick Banting, Charles Best, J.J.R. Macleod, James Collip (Canada). They also pioneered the process for using insulin to treat diabetes
15. Medical ultrasound: Karl Theodore Dussik (Austria), Ian Donald (Scotland)
16. Pasteurization: Developed by Louis Pasteur (France) as a method to kill germs. Pasteur also developed the germ theory of infection
17. Penicillin: Alexander Fleming (Scotland)
18. Polio vaccine: Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin (USA)
19. Smallpox vaccine: Although Edward Jenner (UK) is credited with developing the vaccine, his work was based on an existing innoculation technique brought back from Turkey by Lady Mary Montague. It was Jenner, however, that invented the term “vaccination”
20. Structure of DNA: Rosalind Franklin (UK), Francis Crick (UK), James Watson (USA)
21. Surgery: Abu Al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Andalusia) is considered the father of modern surgery
22. Tuberculosis vaccine: Albert Calmette, Charles Guerin (France)
23. Viagra: Ian Osterloh (UK) – OK, not that significant, but interesting
24. Xray: Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen (Germany)

Also check out…
75 Countries and Life Expectancy for Living There

(ref: Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)

The GLAAD Network Responsibility Index evaluates the quantity and quality of images of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people on television. Based on GLAAD’s 2009 report, below is a list of cable and network broadcast stations sorted according to the percentage of programming hours showing LGBT people and themes in a positive light.

(ref: http://www.ada.gov/pubs/ada.htm)

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 [ADA] was enacted on July 26th, 1990 to provide “a clear and comprehensive national mandate for the elimination of discrimination” and a “clear, strong, consistent, enforceable standards addressing discrimination”. This law was amended through the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, which became effective on January 1, 2009. What follows are 8 reasons why the ADA exists, 6 objectives put forth by this act, and 5 facts about why it was amended in 2008.

8 Congressional findings about persons with disabilities…

1. Physical or mental disabilities in no way diminish a person’s right to fully participate in all aspects of society, yet many people with physical or mental disabilities have been precluded from doing so because of discrimination; others who have a record of a disability or are regarded as having a disability also have been subjected to discrimination; [Ed: This is new wording added to ADA in 2008]
2. Historically, society has tended to isolate and segregate individuals with disabilities, and, despite some improvements, such forms of discrimination against individuals with disabilities continue to be a serious and pervasive social problem;
3. Discrimination against individuals with disabilities persists in such critical areas as employment, housing, public accommodations, education, transportation, communication, recreation, institutionalization, health services, voting, and access to public services;
4. Unlike individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, religion, or age, individuals who have experienced discrimination on the basis of disability have often had no legal recourse to redress such discrimination;
5. Individuals with disabilities continually encounter various forms of discrimination, including outright intentional exclusion, the discriminatory effects of architectural, transportation, and communication barriers, overprotective rules and policies, failure to make modifications to existing facilities and practices, exclusionary qualification standards and criteria, segregation, and relegation to lesser services, programs, activities, benefits, jobs, or other opportunities;
6. Census data, national polls, and other studies have documented that people with disabilities, as a group, occupy an inferior status in our society, and are severely disadvantaged socially, vocationally, economically, and educationally;
7. The Nation’s proper goals regarding individuals with disabilities are to assure equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency for such individuals; and
8. The continuing existence of unfair and unnecessary discrimination and prejudice denies people with disabilities the opportunity to compete on an equal basis and to pursue those opportunities for which our free society is justifiably famous, and costs the United States billions of dollars in unnecessary expenses resulting from dependency and nonproductivity.

6 Objectives set forth by the ADA…

1. Establishes requirements for businesses of all sizes.
2. Requires any business serving the public to modify policies and practices that discriminate against people with disabilities.
3. Requires compliance with accessible design standards when constructing or altering facilities.
4. Requires removal of barriers in facilities when readily achievable.
5. Requires providing auxiliary aids and services when needed to ensure effective communication with people who have hearing, vision, or speech impairments.
6. Requires that all businesses, even those that do not serve the public, must comply with accessible design standards when constructing or altering facilities.

5 facts about why the ADA was amended in 2008…

1. In 2008, amendments to the ADA were passed as a way to clarify the original intent of the ADA and reject the reasoning of the Supreme Court in two major cases which had subsequently greatly narrowed its protection: Sutton v. United Air Lines, Inc. (1999) and Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams (2002).
2. In Sutton v. United Airlines, two myopic sisters who were otherwise qualified to be airline pilots were rejected because of a rule that required commercial pilots to have good vision without the aid of corrective lenses. The sisters petitioned a claim of discrimination under the ADA. The Supreme Court sided with United Airlines. This decision in part was based on myopia (near-sightedness) not being explicitly identified as a disability protected under the ADA. In particular, a person with myopia did not experience substantial limits in performing major life activities and so did not have a disability as defined by the ADA.
3. In Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. v. Williams, an employee disabled from job-related carpal tunnel syndrome claimed that Toyota was unwilling to provide reasonable accomodation as required under the ADA. The Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision, siding with Toyota, and claimed that the fact she could still do household chores, brush her teeth, and bathe, suggested that she did not suffer “substantial limits” in performing “major life activities”.
4. The definition of “major life activities” as amended in 2008 now reads, “For purposes of paragraph (1), major life activities include, but are not limited to, caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, seeing, hearing, eating, sleeping, walking, standing, lifting, bending, speaking, breathing, learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working.”
5. A definition of “impairment” was added in 2008 to restore the protection of the ADA with respect to job discrimination and currently reads: “An individual meets the requirement of “being regarded as having such an impairment” if the individual establishes that he or she has been subjected to an action prohibited under this chapter because of an actual or perceived physical or mental impairment whether or not the impairment limits or is perceived to limit a major life activity.”

(ref: P is for Pakistan, by Shazia Razzak and Prodeepta Das)

Pakistan is a country that was born in 1947. Jasmine is its national flower, Islamabad is the capital city, and there are many bustling towns and quiet villages as well as beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, and deserts. Here are 26 things you may not already know about Pakistan.

1. A is for Asslam-U-Alaikum (“Peace be unto you”) which is how people in Pakistan say "Hello".
2. B is for Badshai Mosque where people come to pray and admire its beauty.
3. C is for Charpaye, a traditional village bed with a wooden or metal frame woven with colorful yarns.
4. D is for Dhobi ghat, an open-air laundry near the river bank where dhobis – washermen and women – bring the town’s dirty clothes to wash and spread out to dry.
5. E is for Eid (pronounced: eed), two of the year’s most important Islamic celebrations. Eid-Ul-Fitre marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting, and Eid-Ul-Addha is celebrated after Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca.
6. F is for the wonderful Fruits grown throughout Pakistan including mangoes, bananas, watermelons, winter oranges, dates, and guavas.
7. G is for Garh, the family home.
8. H is for Hijaab, meaning to dress modestly. Most Muslim women wear a head scarf to cover their hair, ears, and throat. Others cover their entire body except their eyes.
9. I is for Indus, a large river flowing from the North to South of Pakistan. Some of the earliest cities grew up along its banks 4000 years ago. Because dams have been built to provide electricity, the river has become very dry.
10. J is for Jasmine, the national flower of Pakistan.
11. K is for Kulfi – a special ice-cream that is creamier than ordinary ice-cream.
12. L is for Laddu – sweet balls made from chickpea flour and sugar. They are often given as presents on happy occasions.
13. M is for Mothi – sequins and beads used to embroider scarves.
14. N is for Nihari, a spicy meat curry eaten with Naan (bread).
15. O is for Ointment bought from the herbalist. Herbalists are often more popular than doctors.
16. P is for Pakistan. Pakistan is a country that was born in 1947. Its people speak many languages including English, Punjabi, Pushto, and Sinhi, but Urdu is the official language. Islamabad is the capital city, and there are many bustling towns and quiet villages as well as beautiful mountains, lakes, rivers, and deserts.
17. Q is for Qawali, songs of Islam sung by singers often accompanied by a tambourine, a harmonium (reed organ), and a tabla (a small drum).
18. R is for Rickshaw, a taxi that has been converted from a three-wheeled motorbike.
19. S is for Shalwar-Kameez, a three-piece dress suit worn by women made up of a long blouse, trousers, and a scarf or shawl.
20. T is for Truck, brightly decorated and painted with colorful paintings and lively poems.
21. U is for Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. It is written right to left.
22. V is for Volleyball, which is a very popular sport in Pakistan.
23. W is for Water buffaloes. Nearly 5% of the world’s milk comes from them.
24. X is for the eXciting [ok, we cheated a bit] kite festival of Basant which marks the coming of spring.
25. Y is for Yaar, the Urdu word for friends.
26. Z is for Zeewar, the word for jewelry which people like to show off at weddings and parties.

P Is for Pakistan, available from Reach and Teach, teaches the ABCs of Pakistan with beautiful and engaging photography featuring this country’s many wonders.

Also read, 6 Versions of the “Golden Rule” In Different Faith Traditions

(ref: Greenpeace Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide, greenpeace.org)

Recycled tissue products help protect ancient forests, clean water, and wildlife habitat and it’s easier on the Earth to make tissues from paper instead of trees.

Greenpeace created a product guide ranking various tissue products based on three criteria:

1. 100% recycled content
2. At least 50% post-consumer recycled content
3. Bleached without toxic chlorine compounds

Green Forest, 365, Earth Friendly, April Soft, Atlantic, Cascades, Natural Value, Seventh Generation, Fiesta/Fiesta Green, Trader Joe’s, Marcal Small Steps, and CVS Earth Essentials are companies producing at least one product meeting these three criteria. Here’s the breakdown of these companies by product category.

TOILET PAPER

1. Green Forest
2. 365
3. April Soft
4. Earth Friendly
5. Fiesta and Fiesta Green
6. Natural Value
7. Seventh Generation
8. Trader Joe’s

PAPER TOWELS

1. Green Forest
2. 365
3. Earth Friendly
4. Natural Value
5. Seventh Generation
6. Trader Joe’s
7. Marcal Small Steps
8. CVS Earth Essentials

PAPER NAPKINS

1. 365
2. Atlantic
3. Cascades
4. CVS Earth Essentials
5. Green Forest
6. Marcal Small Steps
7. Natural Value
8. Seventh Generation

FACIAL TISSUES

1. Green Forest
2. 365
3. Natural Value
4. Seventh Generation

Founded in 1971, Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose environmental problems and to promote solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

Check out the book Low Carbon Diet: A 30 day program to lose 5000 pounds available at Reach and Teach.

(ref: Teaching With A Cultural Eye Program, BayCES.org)

Most educators have heard the term “cultural competence” – but have never received adequate preparation to appropriately respond to the challenges of a diverse classroom. How do teacher and administrator’s own cultural identities influence their interactions with students, parents, and colleagues? Here are some success factors proposed by Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES)

1. Knows students well: academically, socially, emotionally
2. Builds relationships with students as people
3. Involved in the cultivation of the relationship beyond the classroom
4. Demonstrates a visible connectedness with each student
5. Immersed into the students’ culture
6. Provides a supportive classroom structure for academic, social, and emotional success
7. Welcomes students into the classroom as a place that is theirs and not just the teacher’s (making it visible in how the classroom is set up)
8. Provides necessary routines that help students become learners and feel safe in the classroom
9. Emotes a "we’re all in this together" affect
10. Encourages a community of learners who are responsible for each other inside and outside the classroom
11. Promotes psychological safety in the classroom
12. Promotes the intellectual leadership of students who are educationally, economically, socially, politically, and culturally disenfranchised
13. Apprentices students into a learning community
14. Has high academic standards and expectations for each student / all students
15. Exudes publicly, positively, enthusiastically belief that each student can achieve those standards
16. Knows very well and loves the subject matter, and conveys that to students (is not cynical about area of content knowledge or enthusiasm about it)
17. Legitimates students’ real life experiences by building those experiences into the curriculum
18. Makes every effort to welcome and celebrate their culture (urban youth culture, African American culture, Latino culture, etc.) as an integral part of the learning environment and process
19. Helps them to code switch, know why, and also values their home culture and language
20. Provides scaffolding into cognitive skills to think deeply about content
21. Differentiates teaching and learning by learning readiness, interests, and learning styles (including culturally sensitive adaptations)
22. Sees teaching as an art and themselves as artists
23. Helps students make connections between their community, national, and global identities
24. Views knowledge (hence curriculum) critically; develops students’ "habits of mind" to enable them to take a critical stance on their learning
25. Helps students develop skills to participate fully in the construction of knowledge
26. Helps students develop what Ladson-Billings calls their "socio-political awareness"
27. Treats students as competent and developing
28. Understands own race and its consequences (personally, historically, systemically)
29. Is calm and non-reactive, but firm, fair, consistent
30. Understands cultural behavior patterns (as a result, does not send more African American boys out for discipline)
31. Does not ‘dis’ students in front of their peers
32. Is not (if White) paralyzed by racial guilt or liberal paternalism
33. Is (if a person of color) aware of the possibility of internalized racism and resulting low expectations or over-protectiveness of students of color
34. Is their own selves with students, honest and human
35. Has high self-esteem and a high regard for others
36. Observes other culturally competent teachers interacting with and teaching students
37. Participates in an equity centered professional learning community so as to be committed to ongoing growth and development in these areas

Bay Area Coalition for Equitable Schools (BayCES) based in Oakland, CA is working to dramatically improve educational experiences, outcomes, and life options for students and families who have been historically underserved by their schools and districts. Reach and Teach and Design Action are proud to have been involved in creating their organization’s website.

Please check out “My People Are… Youth Pride in Mixed Heritage” an iPride film promoting positive racial & ethnic identity in ALL children and highlighting the multiracial experience.

(ref: Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader, pg. 73)

Desperate times can call for desperate measures and our need to find new ways to meet the demands of our insatiable energy appetite has resulted in some unusual (to say the least) ideas.

1. Tornadoes — Canadian engineer Louis Micahaud has patented a "vortex engine". The plan (on paper anyway) involves creating essentially a controlled tornado 650 ft in diameter and between 1 to 12 miles high. It could power up to 200,000 homes.
2. Beer — Since 2005, California brewer Sierra Nevada has been powering its brewery on a mixture of natural gas and methane (which is a by-product from the water-treatment process that the brewery uses).
3. Miniature nuclear power generators — Hyperion Power Generation markets a nuclear reactor about the size of a hot tub. Designed to be buried underground, Hyperion claims that it can fuel 20,000 homes for up to a decade.
4. Lasers — To get around the problem of solar cells not being very useful when the sun isn’t available (e.g. at night), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Osaka University are planning to build solar collectors 22,000 miles above the Earth and use lasers to beam the energy back to surface stations. The hope is to deploy these by 2030.
5. Trees — In 2006, MIT scientists discovered that there’s a slight pH imbalance between a tree and its surrounding soil which can cause a small amount of electricity to be generated. A company called Voltree is planning to use this as a potential energy source.
6. Japanese commuters — In 2008, the East Japan Railway Corporation tested a power-generating floor at the ticket gates in Tokyo train stations. Basically, the floor contains discs made of piezoelectric material that converts vibrations into electricity. Apparently, through the millions of people who walk through the station each day, enough energy is generated to power the computer displays and ticket machines at the stations.

Learn lots of other stuff you didn’t even realize you needed to know in Uncle John’s Certified Organic Bathroom Reader.

(ref: Green America’s RealGreen Newsletter, Spring 2009 www.coopamerica.org)

"A lot of people get sticker shock when they look at the price of a new hybrid… the added expense won’t pay itself back very quickly on fuel savings alone… But this quick analysis misses a number of hybrids’ other economic benefits." — Bryan Palmintier, "Rethinking the Cost of Hybrid Cars", blog post.

1. Federal Incentives – New hybrids may entitle their owners to federal tax credits ranging from $250 to $3,400. Check out www.irs.gov for more info.
   
2. State and City Incentives and Perks — Some states offer incentives for hybrid drivers, including tax credits and ability to drive solo in "HOV" (high-occupancy vehicle ‘diamond’) highway lanes and even free or discounted parking privileges.
   
3. Employer Incentives and Perks – A growing number of employers are encouraging their workers to commute in hybrid vehicles… [offering up to] $5,000 for purchasing or leasing a hybrid. See www.hybridcenter.org for a list of companies offering incentives.
   
4. Loan Discounts – Many banks, especially credit unions, offer preferential loan rates for hybrid cars.
   
5. Insurance Discounts – Farmers, Geico, and Travelers are among insurance companies offering discounted insurance rate to hybrid drivers in some states.
   
6. Repair Costs and Brakes — Technology that a hybrid uses to recoup energy during braking can actually result in that hybrid car’s brake pads lasting three times longer than a conventional car.
   
7. Resale Value — Hybrid car owners have been delighted to find that their cars have held their value better than non-hybrid versions of the same model. In California, only a limited number of "Clean Air HOV" stickers were made available. Those are transferable when the car is sold adding to the car’s resale value.
   
8. Gas Savings — Even if gas prices have dropped temporarily, they will be going up again as we continue to reach the limits of our world’s oil supply.
   
9. Benefits Beyond Money – Don’t you feel better driving a more fuel efficient car for those times you need to drive a car? (Along with other things you are hopefully doing to lower your carbon footprint on the planet)
   

Become a member of Green America and learn ways to live healthier, save more, invest wisely, and make a difference. Reach and Teach is proud to be a Green America certified green business.

(ref: Pete Seeger Appreciation Page, How can I keep from singing by Sarah Van Gelder in Yes! Magazine, and other various sources)

1. Seeger went to Harvard but left after two years just before final exams in 1938. He made his way to New York, where he eventually landed a job with the Archives of American Folk Music.
    
2. On dropping out of the communist movement: “I was never enthusiastic about being somebody who was supposed to be silent about being a member of something.”
    
3. In 1955 before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Seeger used the First Amendment rather than the Fifth as his reason for refusing to discuss his politics and associations. “Using the Fifth Amendment,” Seeger explained, “is in effect saying, ‘you have no right to ask me this question’; but using the First Amendment means, ‘you have no right to ask any American such questions.’
    
4. Libby Frank, in 1952 insisted on singing “my brothers and my sisters” instead of “all of my brothers” in the Seeger/Lee song “If I had a hammer”. Lee resisted the change at first. “It doesn’t ripple off the tongue as well. How about ‘all of my siblings’?” Lee later acquiesced. (ref: www.mysongbook.de)
    
5. Pete’s famous banjo reads: “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.” (ref: Yes! Magazine)
    
6. Testimony to his strong faith in his country’s ultimate and necessary commitment to freedom of expression, Seeger wrote the words to “Bring them Home” which includes the line “…one of the great things about America is that we can speak our minds…” during a time he was being regularly blacklisted and his words and songs were heavily censored.
    
7. Seeger popularized “We shall overcome” when he published his version of the gospel song in People’s Songs in 1947. It later became one of the most memorable anthems of the civil rights movement in the 60’s being sung at rallies, vigils, and protests.
    
8. On traveling with Woodie Guthrie, “He taught me how to hitchhike and how to ride freight trains. You don’t get on a freight when it’s in the station—the railroad bulls will kick you off. You go about 100 yards or maybe 200 yards outside to where the train is just picking up speed and you can trot alongside it. You throw your banjo in an empty car, and then you throw yourself in. And you then might go 200 or 300 miles before you stop.”
    
9. “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy”, an allegorical anti-war song written in 1967 during the war in Vietnam was published by Columbia records but deemed too controversial and never sent to retail stores. It was The Smothers Brothers that made it possible for the world to know about the song when they invited Pete Seeger to be a guest on their television show. The song was edited out before air time by TV executives but The Smothers Brothers got the last word when they went to the press saying, “CBS censors our best jokes, they censored Seeger’s best song. It ain’t fair.” (ref: www.peteseeger.net)
    
10. In October, 1994, President Clinton awarded Seeger the National Medal of the Arts praising him as “an inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them.”
     
11. A Pete Seeger quote, “Learning how to do something in your hometown is the most important thing. … If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things.”
     
12. Pete Seeger’s birthday is May 3rd. He turns 90 in 2009.
     

Read At 89 Pete Seeger’s Still A Rebel! at Reach and Teach.

(ref: How We Know What We Know About Our Changing Climate by Lynn Cherry and Gary Braasch)

One of the particularly exciting ways in which we are able to understand the very real effects of climate change on the Earth is through collaborative research involving students of all ages around the world collecting, sharing, and analyzing data alongside scientists. The Internet is making it possible as never before for these citizen scientists to share observations taken in their own backyard with thousands of others doing the same measurements in different global locations. Here are just a few ongoing projects that you can easily get to and even join on the Web.

1. Thousand Eyes Project – From 1900 to 1923, Dr. Alexander MacKay set up a program in Nova Scotia for students and teachers to observe and record certain natural history events such as plants flowering, birds returning from wintering grounds, frogs peeping, and weather events over time. This data has now been placed on the Internet and the project continues today.
2. Bird Sleuth – Students in 4th through 8th grade can engage in scientific study and real data collection through the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s exciting citizen science projects. Data observed and collected is sent directly to research scientists at Cornell.
3. Project Budburst – Changes in when flowers bloom gives clues about our changing climate. Project BudBurst engages thousands of people across the United States in making careful observations of first leafing, first flower, and first fruit ripening of a diversity of trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses in their local area.
4. Journey North – Migration patterns of monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, whales, and other creatures are collected and tracked from citizen scientists across North America.
5. Frogwatch USA and Frogwatch Canada – Around 1,400 volunteers monitor nearly 2,000 sites observing over 79 species of frogs and toads.
6. Bonanza Creek Schoolyard Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) – A project in Fairbanks, Alaska where students extract tree cores and examine the tree rings to see how boreal forests are responding to climate change.
7. Student Partners Project – Unites students, teachers, and scientists in creating opportunities to experience the life of a polar scientist while doing real research.

(ref: Freedom Song by Mary Turck, woodyguthrie.org, wikipedia)

1. In 1940, Woody Guthrie wrote This Land is Your Land because he was tired of the radio overplaying Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America” which he thought was unrealistic and complacent. [wikipedia]
    
2. The tune for the song was taken from a gospel hymn “When the world’s on fire” recorded by the Carter Family in 1930.
    
3. A verse that is normally left out when performed…
   Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
   A sign was painted said: Private Property
   But on the back side it didn’t say nothing
   That side was made for you and me.
    
4. Another verse that is normally not sung…
   One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
   By the Relief Office I saw my people
   As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering
   If this land was made for you and me?
    
5. Various artists who have performed the song include: Bob Dylan, The Kingston Trio, the Limeliters, Pete Seeger, Peter Paul and Mary, and Bruce Springsteen
    
6. The song was most recently sung by Bruce Springsteen and Pete Seeger (with the usually omitted verses intact) during President Obama’s Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial
    
7. The soundtrack to the movie Hard travelin’ includes an original recording of Woody Guthrie singing the song with his son Arlo Guthrie digitally mixed in to sing the omitted verses as taught to him by his father.
    
8. Guthrie’s original “copyright” on his song reads:
   This song is Copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright #154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin’ it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do.
    
9. Woody Guthrie was born on July 14, 1912, in Okemah, Oklahoma. Guthrie was disabled by and died of Huntington’s disease which ended his life in 1967.
    
10. A Woody Guthrie quote [woodyguthrie.org],
    “A folk song is what’s wrong and how to fix it or it could be
    who’s hungry and where their mouth is or
    who’s out of work and where the job is or
    who’s broke and where the money is or
    who’s carrying a gun and where the peace is.”
     

ref: Complete Guide to Service Learning by Cathryn Berger Kaye, chapter 3

In the Complete Guide to Service Learning, the author recommends creating a Service Learning Bookshelf with books and stories that can teach and motivate young people to read and become inspired to action. Books can lead students to consider many questions:

1. What do I have in common with these characters?
   
2. How are the characters’ actions changing how the characters think about themselves?
   
3. What actions are making a difference in the lives of others?
   
4. Are any of the problems or conflicts in the story occurring in my life or the lives of people I know or see?
   
5. What questions do I have after reading this book?
   
6. What can we do to address problems in our community that are similar to the ones described in the book?

These questions can deepen a reader’s relationship with the text as well as to stimulate the reader’s thinking and concern for community needs and issues. Included in your bookshelf might be nonfiction, picture book, and fiction titles that:

• describe the service experiences of others
• introduce important social themes
• tell stories from history
• increase student interest in reading
• promote critical thinking and discussion
• prepare students to interact with diverse populations
• enhance the experiences students have in the community
• inspire students to serve

Learn more proven and practical ways to engage students in civic responsibility, learning, and social action in The Complete Guide to Service Learning by Cathryn Berger Kaye. You’ll find some wonderful ideas and a great reading list of books.

Learn more about Service Learning at reachandteach.com

(ref: How to Prepare Your Nonprofit for an Economic Recession by Richard Male, Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training)

Here are 10 tips from Grassrootsfundraising.org – a really good resource for socially conscious nonprofit organizations looking for ideas and advice for raising more money (and who isn’t these days?)

1. Make it personal and stay in touch with your donors. Call them by
   phone to thank and update them, invite them to tour your building, or have breakfast briefings a few times during the next six months.
    
2. Don’t rely as much on direct mail either for acquiring new donors or for getting relatively new donors to renew their support. Studies show that direct mail donations have been flat or decreasing.
    
3. Expect foundation funding to decrease as foundations’ investment portfolios take a hit. Foundations will be tending to focus more on their existing grantees rather than on new organizations.
    
4. Stay in touch with all your donors more regularly. Create a monthly e-newsletter for all of your donors, friends, and stakeholders that will keep them in touch with what is happening in your organization. Collect as many e-mail addresses as you can.
    
5. Redefine your major donors downward so you have a larger base of “high touch donors.” If you define your major donors now as those who give $500 or more, try to lower the threshold amount to $250 so you will have a larger pool of donors.
    
6. Focus more on a “few major donors” and increase the personal time you spend with them. They may be your lifesavers during tougher economic times.
    
7. Rely less on corporate philanthropy and more on corporate sponsorship and marketing dollars. Corporate philanthropy (small even in good times) will probably decrease. What is likely to increase is sponsorship and underwriting dollars for special events.
    
8. Increase your fundraising capabilities. Invest time and money in your database, attending a workshop or training session. Increase your development staff. Realize your costs may increase a bit during these times.
    
9. Increase opportunities for your donor prospects and your donors to become involved. Donors are looking for increased involvement and less checkbook philanthropy. Look for ways they can be active in volunteering.
    
10. Develop contingency plans that answer all of the “what if” questions in terms of reduced revenue. Can you use volunteers where staff were functioning in good times? Are there opportunities for board members to play more technical roles?
     

Richard Male is a national and international consultant and trainer with nonprofit organizations in the field of capacity building and coaching. Visit him at http://www.richardmale.com

(ref: Green Jobs Guidebook, www.edf.org/cagreenjobs)

Here’s a partial list of jobs that can help save our planet while providing opportunities for career growth even in a struggling economy.

1. Solar Lab Technician — Performs a variety of tests on solar devices, examines test samples and reads blueprints, diagrams, instruments and operational instructions. Salary: $19-$25/hr. Minimum education: Associate’s degree in a related field.
2. Solar Energy Engineer — Perform site-specific engineering analysis and evaluation of energy efficiency utilizing building simulation software. Salary: $75K – $80K. Minimum education: Bachelor’s Electrical Engineering.
3. Wind Turbine Sheet Metal Worker — Perform all operations necessary to make, install, and repair a wide variety of sheet-metal products related to wind turbine production. Salary: $14-$22/hr. Minimum education: Apprenticeship or Trade School.
4. Wind Turbine Mechanical Engineer — Responsible for design, development, testing of all aspects of mechanical components, equipment, and machinery. Salary: $90K+. Minimum education: Bachelor’s Mechanical Engineering.
5. Biologist – Marine/Fisheries — Plan and conduct evaluations of factors affecting California’s fish populations and provide oversight of fisheries monitoring programs. Salary: $25-$32/hr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Biology
6. Environmental Health and Safety Lead — Ensure compliance of plant operations with federal and state requirements relating to air emissions, solid waste, hazardous waste, waste water treatment, and chemical management. Salary: $81K-$96K/yr. Minimum education: Master’s or equivalent in Environmental Science, Environmental Management, Environmental Engineering, Chemistry or Biology.
7. Soil Conservation Technician — Provides technical assistance to land users in planning and applying soil and water conservation practices. Salary: $16-$24/hr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in a related field.
8. Forestry Conservation Worker — Perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect forest, forested areas, and woodlands, and build erosion and water control structures and leaching for forest soil. Salary: $15-$22/hr. Minimum education: HS or GED.
9. Forestry Restoration Planner — Collaborate with field and biology staff to oversee the implementation of restoration projects and to develop new projects. Salary: $73K-$84K/yr. Minimum education: Master’s in Ecology, Biology, Environmental Science or other related areas.
10. Energy Conservation Representative — Inspects homes of utility customers to identify conditions that cause energy waste and suggests actions. Salary: $20-$32/hr. Minimum education: HS or GED.
11. Energy Efficiency Finance Manager — Project-manages energy efficiency projects and policies and conducts relevant market analysis and research. Salary: $90K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in accounting, finance, business administration.
12. Civil Engineer — Deals with overall design, construction, and maintenance of green buildings. Salary: $73K-$84K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering.
13. Commercial Green Building and Retrofit Architect — Participate in all phases of design for commercial and educational buildings. Salary: $90K-$107K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Architecture.
14. Commercial Energy Field Auditor — Conducts energy audits in commercial businesses and identify areas of improvement. Salary: $12-$14/hr. Minimum education: Associate’s degree in Building Materials, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, Energy Management.
15. Train System Operator — Work as a train conductor or train system engineer. Salary: $20-$24/hr. Minimum education: HS diploma or GED.
16. Climatologist — Conducts climate change research and data analysis. Salary: $65K-$85K. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in scientific or engineering discipline.
17. Environmental Scientist — Conducts research to identify and abate/eliminate sources of pollutants that affect people, wildlife, and their environments. Salary: $65K-$85K. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in scientific or engineering disciplines.
18. Recycling Center Operator — Performs daily operations at a Recycling Center, including materials processing and customer service. Salary: $11-$18/hr. Minimum education: none.
19. Environmental Technician — Develops methods and devices used in the prevention, control and correction of environmental hazards. Salary: $40K-$53K/yr. Minimum education: Associate’s degree in Engineering.
20. Geothermal Operations Engineer — Collect and process information on geothermal field and plant performance and diagnose problems with geothermal wells. Salary: $70K-$80K/yr. Minimum education: Bachelor’s in Engineering.

Also try checking out 35 Colleges with a Strong Concern for Social Justice and Service-Learning.

(ref: Gross National Happiness (GNH) — A New Economic Metric, By Med Yones International Institute of Management)

In 1972, Bhutan’s King Jigme Wangchuck coined the term Gross National Happiness (GNH) to emphasize the holistic values of economic development policies.

“Happiness is very serious business,” Bhutan Prime Minister Jigme Thinley told the San Francisco Chronicle, 12/4/2008. “The dogma of limitless productivity and growth in a finite world is unsustainable and unfair for future generations.”

The International Institute of Management has proposed these seven measures for quantifying happiness as a socioeconomic development metric.

1. Economic Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of economic metrics such as consumer debt, average income to consumer price index ratio and income distribution

2. Environmental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of environmental metrics such as pollution, noise and traffic.

3. Physical Wellness: Indicated via statistical measurement of physical health metrics such as severe illnesses, being overweight, etc.

4. Mental Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of mental health metrics such as usage of antidepressants and rise or decline of psychotherapy patients.

5. Workplace Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of labor metrics such as jobless claims, job change, workplace complaints and lawsuits.

6. Social Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of social metrics such as discrimination, safety ,divorce rates, complaints of domestic conflicts and family lawsuits, public lawsuits, crime rates.

7. Political Wellness: Indicated via direct survey and statistical measurement of political metrics such as the quality of local democracy, individual freedom, and foreign conflicts.

The above 7 metrics were incorporated into the first Global GNH Survey.

Check out Teachingeconomics.org – Signs of the Economic Times for a good lesson plan and animated Flash presentation that contrasts GNP and GDP with other alternative economic measures of human progress.

(ref: How to Build Global Community poster)

1. Think of no one as “them”
2. Don’t confuse your comfort with your safety
3. Talk to strangers
4. Imagine other cultures through their art, poetry, and novels
5. Listen to music you don’t understand – Dance to it!
6. Act locally
7. Notice the workings of power and privilege in your culture
8. Question consumption
9. Know how your lettuce and coffee are grown: wake up and smell the exploitation
10. Look for fair trade and union labels
11. Help build economies from the bottom up
12. Acquire few needs
13. Learn a second (or third) language
14. Visit people, places, and cultures — not tourist attractions
15. Learn people’s history
16. Re-define progress
17. Know physical and political geography
18. Play games from other cultures
19. Watch films with subtitles
20. Know your heritage
21. Honor everyone’s holidays
22. Look at the moon and imagine someone else, somewhere else, looking at it too
23. Read the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights
24. Understand the global economy in terms of people, land, and water
25. Know where your bank banks
26. Never believe you have a right to anyone else’s resources
27. Refuse to wear corporate logos: defy corporate domination
28. Question military/corporate connections
29. Don’t confuse money with wealth, or time with money
30. Have a pen/email pal
31. Honor indigenous cultures
32. Judge governance by how well it meets all people’s needs
33. Be skeptical about what you read
34. Eat adventurously — Enjoy vegetables, beans, and grains in your diet
35. Choose curiosity over certainty
36. Know where your water comes from and where your wastes go
37. Pledge allegiance to the earth: question nationalism
38. Think South, Central, and North — there are many Americans
39. Assume that many others share your dream
40. Know that no one is silent though many are not heard – WORK TO CHANGE THIS!

You can get a poster with this list of How to Build Global Community at Reach and Teach.

Also check out the Take One World poster.

(ref: United Nations website (un.org), We Are All Born Free – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures)

Click to view images from "We Are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures". Book sales benefit Amnesty International

From the very beginning, human rights has been a major concern of the United Nations. On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories. United Nations Day is celebrated on October 24th and commemorates the founding of this organization in 1945.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

---

Reach and Teach – The Peace and Social Justice Learning Company offers a beautifully illustrated children’s book We Are All Born Free – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures. Proceeds from book sales are donated to Amnesty International.

Also check out…
37 Rights in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

(ref: The Virtuous Consumer by Leslie Garrett)

1. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle – Reduce the number of things you purchase, and reduce the eco-footprint of whatever you do purchase by ensuring that it’s the most planet-friendly option you can afford.
2. Create a Community That Feeds Your Soul – You are doing this when you live, work, and shop to support those around you. (Ex: Avoid a long-distance commute by telecommuting; purchase from local businesses; get involved in local politics; plant a tree)
3. Use Manpower (or Womanpower) – Get around by cycling, walking, inline skating, or taking public transportation when possible.
4. Purchase Green Power – A call to your utility company can ensure that the equivalent energy required for your home comes from renewable sources.
5. Don’t Sweat the Really Small Stuff – Choose those things/ideas that work for you and your family. Guilt sucks.
6. Consider the Life Cycle of Any Product – Before making a purchase, consider asking yourself…
   What materials went into making the product? How was this product manufactured? How was it transported? How long will the product be used? How will it be disposed of?
7. Be Generous – Give what you can, whether it’s your time, your stuff, and/or your money.
8. Be Kind – To yourself, to that person in front of you in the supermarket’s express line with 23 items, to the person halfway around the world (or next door) who looks different from you but who also loves his family, his country, his life…
9. Be Informed – Keep up to date as best you can. Inform yourself about issues that matter to you.
10. Awaken Your Inner Activist – You care deeply for the future of this planet (which is probably why you are still reading this list). That makes you a political force. Every dollar we spend is a political act.

(ref: A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn, about.com, wikipedia.org)

1. The Native Americans who greeted Christopher Columbus when he first came ashore were the Arawaks of the Bahama Islands. These Arawaks were actually one of a number of peoples that speak a related group of Arawakan languages. Columbus described them as a peaceful people. Their primary industry was agriculture.
2. A “hammock” (hamaca) is an Arawak invention.
3. Arawaks constructed canoes by lighting small fires along the middle of a long log and scooping out the ashes.
4. In 1495, failing to find gold after repeated expeditions, Columbus rounded up 1500 Arawaks as slaves, placed them in pens, and sent 500 of them back to Spain as samples. Two hundred of the five hundred died enroute.
5. Approximate Arawak population over time… 1495: 250,000; 1497: 125,000; 1515: 50,000; 1550: 500; 1650: none
6. In the summer of 1990, Native Americans met in Quito, Ecuador to form and mobilize a response to the upcoming quincentennial celebration of Columbus Day (1492 – 1992). The following year, they declared October 12, 1992 to be International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People.
7. The National Council of Churches called on Christians to refrain from celebrating the Columbus quincentennial, saying, “What represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation and genocide for others.”
8. On October 12, 1992, in one of many quincentennial protests, the Lincoln Center in New York City held a performance of Leonard Lehrman’s New World: An Opera About What Columbus Did to the Indians.
9. Columbus Day was first celebrated in 1792. But the day is also recognized by Italian-Americans as a day that celebrates their heritage and accomplishments. It was first celebrated as such in 1866.
10. In South Dakota, October 12th is offically named Native American Day. In Hawaii, it is called Discoverer’s Day. (source: wikipedia.org).
11. Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) first took shape as a holiday during World War I but was more firmly established in Latin American countries in the 1920s. Although the phrase “the race” can often imply racist connotations today and “la raza” is sometimes misinterpreted in this way in ignorance, la raza is more properly and accurately defined as an “extended community bound by cultural ties”.
12. Today on October 12, Hispanic heritage and accomplishment is celebrated as Día de la Raza in Mexico, Central America, South America (except Brazil), and in various communities in the United States (source: About.com)

(Ref: Unfortunately, History Has Set The Record A Little Too Straight poster – October 11th, 2008 is National Coming Out Day)

1. James Baldwin – writer (1924-1987)
2. Willa Cather – writer (1873-1947)
3. Errol Flynn – actor (1909-1959)
4. Michelangelo – artist (1475-1564)
5. Edna St. Vincent Millay – poet/playwright (1892-1950)
6. Cole Porter – composer (1891-1964)
7. Eleanor Roosevelt – social activist (1884-1962)
8. Bessie Smith – singer (1894-1937)
9. Walt Whitman – poet (1819-1892)
10. Virginia Woolf – writer (1882-1941)

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.“
– Eleanor Roosevelt, This Is My Story, 1937

[ref: soulforce.org]

This is the pledge to nonviolence signed by marchers with Mahatma Gandhi in 1921. Gandhi’s birthday is October 2nd.

1. A civil resister will harbor no anger.
2. A civil resister will suffer the anger of the opponent.
3. In so doing, a civil resister will put up with assaults from the opponent, never retaliate; but he will not submit, out of fear of punishment, to any order given in anger.
4. A civil resister will voluntarily submit to the arrest and he will not resist the attachment or removal of his own property.
5. If a civil resister has any property in his possession as a trustee, he will refuse to surrender it, even though in defending it he might lose his life. He will never retaliate.
6. Non-retaliation excludes swearing and cursing.
7. A civil resister will never insult his opponent, nor take part in the newly coined cries contrary to the spirit of nonviolence.
8. A civil resister will not salute the Union Jack, nor will he insult it or its officials, English or Indian.
9. If any one insults an official or commits an assault upon him, a civil resister will protect such official or officials from the insult or assault at the risk of his own life.

This is the pledge to nonviolence taken by marchers with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963

1. Meditate daily on the life and teachings of Jesus.
2. Remember that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation – not victory.
3. Walk and talk in the manner of love; for God is love.
4. Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men and women might be free.
5. Sacrifice personal wishes that all might be free.
6. Observe with friend & foes the ordinary rules of courtesy.
7. Perform regular service for others and for the world.
8. Refrain from violence of fist, tongue, and heart.
9. Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health.
10. Follow the directions of the Movement leaders and of the captains on demonstrations.

Check out the recently published book “After Gandhi – One Hundred Years of Nonviolent Resistance“.

Soulforce is an organization that works for freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance. Soulforce takes its name from the English translation of the Sanskrit word Satyagraha, the philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Gandhi.