Greetings-
It’s been a busy month for both President Obama and Green Valley/Sahuarita Change is Happening! We are very much a “work in progress”, so be patient, but what follows is a brief summary of news, updates, summaries of our working groups, and details of upcoming meetings. We welcome questions and feedback- feel free to contact any of the folks listed below with your ideas or concerns.
» CHANGE IS HAPPENING! NEXT MONTHLY MEETING- SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH, 1-3 PM, LARGE MEETING ROOM, GREEN VALLEY LIBRARY.
· Please join us as we continue to define our activities and purpose, brainstorm new ideas, and hear detailed reports from the working groups. This is YOUR organization, so please join us as we search for meaningful ways to effect progressive change in our community. See you all there!
» A request from Organizing for America- I received this in my email from Mitch Stewart of O for A, and want to pass it along to all of you: President Obama launched the most ambitious effort to stimulate the economy in our nation's history when he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on Tuesday. Your representatives need to hear from you when they vote for the change you mandated in November. Doing what's right can be thankless when the culture of Washington tries to make political games out of the issues that matter to everyday Americans. You're part of a powerful grassroots movement that can change that dynamic. According to our records, you live in Arizona's 8th district. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords's vote was crucial to passing the bill and creating and saving jobs in Arizona. Can you pick up the phone right now to thank Rep. Giffords? Rep. Gabrielle Giffords 202-225-2542 Report your call. Here are some suggested talking points for your call: - I'm calling to thank [Congress member's name] for supporting the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. - I'll be watching closely online and in the news how taxpayers' money is spent in the implementation of this Act. - I encourage [Congress member's name] to continue working with President Obama to lift America out of this economic crisis.
After your call, please record your feedback here: http://my.barackobama.com/stimulusthanks
» The Writer’s Group will meet Saturday, March 7 from 1-3 pm in the small meeting room at the Green Valley Library. All are welcome; please contact Mary Lou James with any questions at marylou_lay@cox.net.
A report from the February 7th meeting, submitted by Mary Lou James:
· Kathy Killeen met with us and reported on the larger group, Change is Happening. There are several smaller study groups: Healthcare, Economy, Community Services, (new group) Afghanistan and Writer's Group. We decided to keep that name until we found a better one. We hope to have liaisons to each group.
· We adopted a statement of purpose: "To encourage expression of views on current issues affecting our community, state, and nation”.
· A representative of each study group will meet with the new G.V. News Editor. Some suggestions for the newspaper: better columnists, David Brooks for Bill O'Reilly and Chuck Norris, more and shorter letters to the editor, (the Az. Star limits their letters to 150 words), also better use of the space on that page. Any other suggestions for improvement? The newspaper will write an article about Change is Happening soon.
· Congratulations to Jim Pierce and Dick Robertson for their excellent articles appearing today in G.V. News. Jim has agreed to be Vice Chair and is starting by setting up a Writer's Notebook in which to keep our published letters/articles.
· Sixteen people have shown interest in our group. We have had eight at each of our two meetings, so far. I hope more of you can attend, but come when you can and keep on writing. Bring your letters to our next meeting on Saturday, March 7th. Discussing the letters prior to publishing is helpful. By getting the group's input, this can lead to a lively discussion, which informs us all.
» The Service Working Group will meet on Saturday, March 7 from 3-5 p.m. in the small meeting room at the Green Valley Library. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the results of the survey sent out in the last Blast related to your current volunteer involvement and your interest in and ideas about service projects with CIH!. Everyone is welcome to attend--and if you haven't yet responded to our short questionnaire, please do so now:
A. Do you volunteer now? If yes,
1. Number of hours you volunteer each month.
2. Organization you volunteer with/through—or indicate if on your own.
3. Briefly explain what you do as a volunteer.
B. Are you interested in attending our Community Service Working Group meetings and/or volunteering for Change is Happening?
Responses to the survey or any questions should be sent to Peggy Pierce at voteaction2@cox.net.
» The Economy Working Group will meet on Tuesday, March 3rd at 1 pm in the small meeting room of the Green Valley Library. All are welcome to attend; for more information please contact Rick Ernst at rickernst1@cox.net or 648.2120.
A Report from the February 3rd Meeting, submitted by Rick Ernst:
· On Feb 3, 2009 nineteen people from the Green Valley area met to talk about the economy. The focus of the meeting was on the banking system and TARP.
· We generally agreed the banking system has ceased to function properly. We started out by discussing the causes of Wall Street’s meltdown. Basically there are two problems - a lack of regulation and lack of supervision.
· In the past 10 years banks, insurance and investment banks all wanted to get into each other’s business since all involve money. Each of these three is a very distinct business. At a commercial bank there are credit risks. At an insurance company there are casualty, fire and life risks. And at an investment bank there is underwriting risks, as well as trading risks. All of these risks are unique.
· The government, through the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission and Comptroller of the Currency has been slow to supervise these monstrous banks. This has led to supervisory problems. Banks have been allowed to keep risks like options, derivatives, swaps etc off their books. Sandy Reed, a retired banker lead this part of the meeting so each of us could better understand what has happened to the banking system.
· Rick described how a bank works and how it makes money. He also describes how leverage can help the profitability of the bank when loans are paid and how that profitability can vanish when loans are not paid. We concluded that the federal government must better regulate these huge banks. And regulate the CDO market so there is more transparency. If the SEC was doing its job Bernard Madoff could not have stolen billions in investments.
· Richard Robertson urged us to read Sections 109 and 110 of the TARP bill which is a “firewall” which will help the millions of homeowners who owe more on their home than it is now worth. This firewall is a chance to arbitrate an adjustment to prevent more foreclosures. Mr. Robertson has written letters to eight newspapers in Arizona, Nevada, California and Florida. He has also written to Arizona governor and Gabrielle Giffords, our representative in Congress.
· We also discussed a Time magazine article, “Why Your Bank is Broke.” We were all stunned to learn that among the eight of the largest financial firms in the U.S., on average, if just 3.4% of their loans go unpaid, their shareholders will be wiped out. Bank leverage is way too high and way too risky.
» The Afghanistan Working Group is meeting Thursday, February 26th at 12 pm in the small meeting room of the Green Valley Library. Anyone interested in discussing the United States’ role in the Afghanistan conflict is welcome to attend. For more information, please email Georgia Hotton at georgia5_2002@hotmail.com or 625.3221.
A brief report from their previous meetings, submitted by Betty Johnson:
· About 8 people expressed interest at the CIH meeting- 5 of us met last week and from materials one of them has been gathering about oil politics in Central Asia we read a bit more on the complexity of oil and a pipeline through Afghan. We talked about some of those issues and of how each of us was interested in ending our military role in Afghanistan. We also decided to write letters to the editor focusing on our feelings about the U.S. role there and to bring the letters to our upcoming meetings.
» Our “Change is Happening” Blog needs some visitors! http://changeishappeninggv.blogspot.com/ I would truly appreciate some feedback on this method of communication for the group…either register and post a comment or email me with your thoughts- thanks, Kathy.
The "Change is Happening!" Steering Committee,
Diane Meyer (dmeyermcs@aol.com), Betty Johnson (bbjnh@cox.net) ,Kathy Killeen (thekilleens@gmail.com), Peggy Pierce (voteaction2@cox.net),
As always, please let us know if you no longer wish to be on our mailing list by sending an email to thekilleens@gmail.com.
