DemocracySpace.org

Friday digest-open thread 5/2/08

Have you registered yet for "Making Every Voice Matter," Everyday Democracy's National Meeting, set for June 12-14 in Denver? There are only 10 days left to get the early-bird rate, good through May 12. (Until then, individual registration is $200; afterward, it's $230.) Team, youth, and single-day discounts are available. Registration includes meals, workshops, and a fabulous Friday-night Civic Fair. Click here to get much more information, and here to check out the preliminary conference program. We hope to see you in Denver!

Last Friday, three New York City police officers were acquitted of all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, an unarmed man who was killed in November 2006 in an incident in which the police fired 50 bullets. As seen on our website, New York Faith & Justice - a diverse group of churches, faith organizations, and individuals dedicated to addressing poverty-related injustice - called this week for NYPD  Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to endorse the Conversations for Change project and mount a city-wide truth commission on police-related violence. The Conversations for Change aim to bring together citizens and police officers, using discussion guides developed by Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center). Pilot circles have taken place, and the project will culminate in a five-week community-wide series of up to 50 small group conversations between police and members of their communities this fall. Click here to learn more about New York Faith & Justice and here to see Everyday Democracy's tools for forging better police-community relations.

Our friends at Movement Vision Lab have gotten into the podcasting game, with portable interviews of leaders like Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union, Gabe Gonzalez from the Center for Community Change, Burt Lauderdale of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and Emira Palacios of Sunflower Community Action in Kansas. You can access individual interviews or - better yet - subscribe to the podcasts via the link to iTunes from this page.

This week marked the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush's declaration that major combat operations had ended in Iraq, and yet the war continues with no end in sight. As seen on the NCDD website, an organization called Vets4Vets is offering free weekend workshops all over the country where returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have a chance to share their stories and set up peer groups for continued support and conversation. More than 500 Iraq-Afghanistan veterans have taken part in 22 weekend workshops over the past two years, and local groups are meeting in eight cities across the U.S. with more forming every month. For more info, check out Vets4Vets' website.

What have you been working on this week? What's ahead? Share your comments below.

Making headway on health care

The economy is on everyone's minds these days. The faltering housing market has the spotlight, but the soaring cost of health care is another burden that American families and small businesses can barely shoulder. Members of the Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church on Bainbridge Island (near Seattle) met earlier this month to launch a round of study circles on “The Moral Imperative of Health Care."

Organizer Barbara Clarke, who formerly worked in managed care, told the Bainbridge Island Review that the debate has started moving beyond whether health care is a right or a privilege. “When you see that women with breast cancer and no insurance have a 40 percent less chance of surviving, that’s moral," she said. "When you see a mother who can’t take her children to the doctor, that’s moral.”

Meanwhile, syndicated columnist David Sirota writes about how the state legislatures in Washington and Wisconsin are considering legislation to extend health care to every citizen in those states. "The plan is simple," he says. "Employers and employees pay a modest payroll tax in exchange for full medical benefits, with no premiums. Patients never lose coverage and pick the doctors they prefer. And for the spendthrifts, here's the best part: According to an analysis of the Wisconsin proposal by the nonpartisan Lewin Group, the plan would save middle-class families an annual average of $750 on their existing health care bills. In all, the state would save almost $14 billion over the next decade." Read the whole column here.

Putting the public in public health

As noted on our website, the International Association for Public Participation has given one of its 2007 Core Values Awards to The Keystone Center, the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Organizations (ASTHO) for their efforts to put the public into public health.

The organizations were honored for the Public Engagement Project on Community Control Measures Against Pandemic Influenza, a series of meetings held last fall and winter in four locations nationwide. At the meetings, local residents were asked to offer input into how to prepare for pandemic flu, deter the spread of influenza, and keep communities safer during an influenza outbreak. The Study Circles Resource Center - soon to be renamed Everyday Democracy - helped design and organize an earlier public engagement project on pandemic flu with the award-wining partners. Read more here, and see all the 2007 award winners here.

In other public-health news, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Association of County and City Health Officials, and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials are holding a public web dialogue today through Thursday on vaccine prioritization guidelines. You must be registered by 2 p.m. Eastern today to take part, but anyone can observe. Click here for more info.

Finally, World AIDS Day was this past Saturday. Click here to access a transcript and audio of the 2007 World AIDS Day webcast as posted by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Friday digest-open thread 10/12/07

The future of the "SCHIP" children's health insurance program has been a major news item this week. Although the bill passed with strong bipartisan support, President George W. Bush vetoed it. Proponents are now working to get more support for the legislation before an override vote that's scheduled for next Thursday. Health and Human Services Sec. Mike Leavitt has urged a compromise on the measure, but Families USA estimates that the current reauthorization legislation would cover only about half of the nearly 10 million children in America. HHS has used citizen engagement as a way to address pandemic flu. Perhaps the federal government could again look to the public for help finding creative ways to cover more of those children, as well as the estimated 47 million total people without health insurance in the United States.

Mychal Bell of the Jena Six is back in jail today after a judge revoked his probation and sentenced him Thursday on charges that predated the beating of a white classmate. The Rev. Al Sharpton told The Washington Post that the 18-month sentence "was a cruel and unusual punishment and is a revenge by this judge for the Jena Six movement," while organizers of Toward a More Perfect Union in Palm Beach, Florida, wrote in a recent letter to the editor that teen study circles in Jena and elsewhere could help remedy the root problems that led to the Jena Six saga.

Lee Derby, a principal in the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools and a participant in that district's robust study circles program, has been honored with an award that recognizes "an exceptional ability to encourage academic excellence, positive human relations and strong community outreach." Meanwhile, today is the registration deadline for a round of education study circles set to start soon in Lowell, Indiana.

Yesterday was the annual National Coming Out Day. The current issue of Minnesota's Lavender magazine features the life-affirming stories of five people who have chosen to live openly as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered people. One of them, Rodney Weck, recalls, "My family has been such a huge support…they have reiterated that their biggest concern was my happiness. I think back to how scared I was to tell them and how I had all of the fears of rejection or abandonment, and realized that none of them came even close to coming true.”

Thanks to Study Circles Resource Center administrative assistant Myriah Pahl for passing along several of today's items. Do you have a tip for the weekly digest? Send it to jfanselow at studycircles dot org, or just post it in the comments below. This is your space; we appreciate links to whatever you are reading and thinking about or working on.