I will be SO Glad to slip back into Doll World for a while! But for now I have two infected ears from the mold and pollen all of the rain has set loose. I had only been Off antibiotics a couple or maybe 3 weeks after the dog bite, now I'm using antibiotic ear drops and pills. It's been a frustrating Winter, ever since I fell last Dec. But besides being grumpy I am fine and will go work in the garden, in the mask which makes me feel like an alien, when I finish this. The speeding part of my decongestant has kicked in and I need to deal with the garden before the sleepy part hits.
Then maybe I will make time to catch up on Doll Colletor blogs!
But first, some good political news, and a couple of things which personally annoy me.
There are many more petitions available at SumOfUs.org, (my personal favorite) Change.org, and Walk Free, an organization working to end human slavery and ""forced work" around the world.
I'm not posting any more of them for now.
Thanks for sticking with me for SO Much Non-Doll stuff!
Setting Priorities.
My first priority has to be the survival of Earth. We will all be Dead if Earth or crucial parts of Earth die. I don't sign petitions which say "stop global waming now" without offering some alternatives. I Do sign petitions which offer Specific solutions to specific problems, such as pulling neonicotonoid pesticides off of the shelves of Lowes and Home Depot, because it is killing bees. People who live in cities have said they only associate bees with stings and don't see what the big deal is over bees.
As a gardener who shares food with others I will never forget the part of Barbara Kingsolver's book, "The Poisonwood Bible" where a missionary from Georgia planted American crops in Congo. The insects there didn't like our food and refused to carry pollen from one plant to another. So the garden plants got taller and taller, long and leggy, but produced NO Food. If our pollinating species die there will be famine, That's what the big deal is. We will know hunger in a way most people in the US. Haven't before. In the cities it Won't be pretty. This particular pesticide may also be killing birds and small water creatures that fish eat. No food for fish, no fish, it's that simple.
Hand pollination cannot be done on a scale large enough to feed everyone. It is extremely time consuming and labor intensive, in the hot sun. Wind pollination will help some, but nothing is as effective as helpful insects and some bats.
Next I care about human rights. The adulteration of human foods without warning people, forcing people to work in slavery and death traps, human trafficking,sexual assault, corporations abusing individuals, these are All human rights issues. GMO crops are both a danger to the environment, as they cross pollinate with non-genetically modified food crops, and a potential threat to human health. They may also threaten human rights, as the particular pesticides and herbicides, (weed killers) used to keep them alive can make farm workers sick and kill off beneficial insects and plants.
If some arctic species die, Native peoples will be forced to rely on processed foods which contribute to diabetes, which has a myriad of health complications. On some reservations diabetes among adults effects sixty percent of the population.
These are my basic priorities because they cover everything. Discrimination is a human rights issue, so is healthcare, etc.
Wow, what a spring!
Together, we've been challenging retailers that are blocking an agreement that would
end garment industry death traps in Bangladesh, fighting to stop the unprecedented
death of bees worldwide, making sure the world knows what a tar sands spill really
looks like, and so much more.
With so much going on, we thought we'd pause our campaigning for just a moment to
share a bunch of cool things we did together this Spring
. Scroll down to read more.
Thanks for being part of the Sum Of Us,
-- Kaytee Riek, Campaign Manager
P.S. You asked to be able to share these updates on Facebook, and good news -- now
you can!
Click here to tell your friends about the awesome things we're doing together.
Campaign updates
HUGE PROGRESS!
Apparel brands are signing the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh
NYT photo of Gap protest
Background:
In the wake of the November's terrible Tazreen factory fire that killed 112 workers
making clothes for Walmart and other brands, we called on major apparel companies
to join the independently-monitored Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh
to ensure that their clothes weren't being made under deadly conditions. The horrific
Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 workers in April, only
underscored the urgency of meaningful reform in the Bangladeshi garment industry.
Partners:
International Labor Rights Forum, United Food and Commercial Workers - Canada, United
Students Against Sweatshops, Workers' Rights Consortium, Corporate Action Network,
CREDO, Clean Clothes Campaign, Making Change at Walmart, Avaaz, and more
What we want:
We wanted brands to sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh to
prevent tragedies like this from happening again.
Current status: We've made huge progress!
Thousands of us donated to bring Bangladeshi labor leader Kalpona Akter and Tazreen
factory fire survivor Sumi Abedin to the U.S.
to challenge executives at Walmart, Gap and other companies. While they were here,
the Rana Plaza building collapsed and Kalpona was able to talk to reporters right
away and make sure they told the story about who was ultimately responsible for the
tragedy: the brands that turned a blind eye to known safety issues in their factories.
So many of us were moved by the building collapse that
we collectively chipped in enough money to give $35,000 -- nearly double our goal
-- to two courageous groups
organizing in the Bangladeshi garment industry, the Bangladesh Center for Worker
Solidarity and the National Federation of Garment Workers. Meanwhile, under pressure
from consumers and workers around the globe,
more than 40 major companies -- including Joe Fresh, which our Canadian members targeted
specifically -- have signed the agreement. But Gap and Walmart are still holding
out
, and we won't stop until they sign the legally-binding agreement to protect their
workers from death traps.
Read More:
Shareable Facebook graphic
|
Drop off a letter at your local Gap
|
Original petition to Walmart
|
Petition to Joe Fresh
Press coverage:
NPR
|
KNWA Northwest Arkansas
|
Photo in the New York Times
MAKING WAVES!
Exxon: Release information on the massive tar sands oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas.
Ads in DC metro
Background:
ExxonMobil spilled 100,000 barrels of toxic tar sands crude in the Arkansas town
of Mayflower. It pressured the U.S. government to issue a no-fly zone over the spill
site to keep cameras away from the spill, and threatened reporters with arrest so
the public wouldn't know the effects of the spill. This spill happened at the same
time as the U.S. State Department was considering whether to approve or reject the
proposed massive Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline.
Partners:
Environmental Action, Oil Change International, and Tar Sands Blockade
What we want:
We were simultaneously demanding Exxon release all the information on the spill,
and calling for U.S. State Department officials to reject the tar sands pipeline.
Current status:
Over 86,000 of us signed the original petition to Exxon. We linked up with Tar Sands
Blockade, whose brave members snuck into areas closed off by Exxon, to leak out photos
of the tragic spill. Over 1,000 members of the Sum of Us donated to
blanket the DC Metro station that State Department employees use with images from
the spill
, so that every day, on the way to and from work, they'd see the reality of what
a tar sands spill really looks like.
Read More:
The original petition
|
Our ads!
|
Shareable Facebook graphic
|
Petition to the White House to reject KXL
Press Coverage:
Huffington Post
|
Arkansas Times
WE WON! H&M: Get slavery out of your supply chain
Background:
Cotton in Uzbekistan
Slavery is alive and well in the modern world. Every year, millions of men, women,
and children in Uzbekistan are forced to work in the state-run cotton industry. These
crimes are only possible because a multinational conglomerate called Daewoo International
operates cotton processing plants in Uzbekistan and deals in slave-grown cotton.
H&M was complicit in this tragedy, since it continued to buy cotton from Daewoo which
profits off Uzbeki cotton.
Partners:
International Labor Rights Forum, Anti-Slavery International, WalkFree
What we want:
We called on H&M to cut ties with Daewoo to help ensure that no corporation profits
from slavery.
Current status:
We won! After 70,000 members of the Sum of Us signed our petition to H&M, the apparel
giant agreed to stop buying from Daewoo and to reach down into its supply chain and
ensure that none of its suppliers do business with Daewoo either. We're helping set
a new standard for ethical behavior in the garment industry, and we'll be calling
on other companies to cut ties with Daewoo soon.
Read More:
Original petition
|
H&M's announcement
GRABBING HEADLINES! FDA: Don't redefine milk
(US only)
Background:
Cows at the FDA
The dairy lobby is pushing to change the legal definition of "milk" to allow the
addition of aspartame and other artificial sweeteners, without special designation
on the front of the packaging.
What we want:
We are pushing the FDA to deny their petition, and keep milk, milk.
Current status:
Before we picked up this campaign, it was relegated to small websites -- very few
people knew what was going on. Now,
dozens of media outlets have covered the story, and the dairy lobby is on the defensive
. Thanks to your donations, we were able to fund
radio and bus ads that got the attention of dozens of press outlets
. And this past Tuesday, we delivered our own petition with 117,000 signatures to
the FDA. We brought Sum of Us staff (and a puppy!) dressed as cows to the FDA headquarters
to
hand out chocolate milk to FDA employees arriving at work, and offer them aspartame
with their milk
. Unsurprisingly, no one took us up on the offer of aspartame. At the moment, the
FDA has not decided whether to take up the dairy lobby's petition and propose a redefinition
of milk.
Read More:
Original petition
|
Photos of the petition delivery (with cows!)
|
Photos of our bus ads
Press Coverage:
International Business Times
|
NPR
|
Philadelphia Inquirer
|
The Hill
|
Huffington Post
Daily Mail: Sack Richard Littlejohn for his hateful column
Background:
Daily Mail delivery
Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn used English schoolteacher Lucy Meadows'
private decision to transition from male to female as a basis for a disgusting hit
piece in which he called on her to resign. The media circus over Lucy's transition
caused her to withdraw from her job, and she committed suicide a few months later.
What we want:
We petitioned the Daily Mail to make a formal apology, and to sack Richard Littlejohn.
Current status:
The outcry was immediate, and immense. We had an massive response from our UK membership,
and over 200,000 people from around the world signed our petition calling for the
Daily Mail to sack Littlejohn. Hundreds of members of the Sum of Us helped fund bicycle
ads circling the Daily Mail headquarters, and people handing out flyers at the nearest
Tube stop, calling for Littlejohn's ouster. The Daily Mail took Littlejohn's column
offline, but has yet to otherwise respond. We will continue to monitor the Mail,
and look for opportunities to apply pressure in the future to stop the paper's horrible
campaigns against ordinary citizens.
Read More:
Original petition
|
Photos from petition delivery
|
Photos of bike ads and people flyering Daily Mail employees
Press Coverage:
Pink News
|
So So Gay
BIG STEP FORWARD!
Bain Capital: Let Guitar Center workers have their union
(US only)
Guitar Center Workers
Background
: After Bain Capital took over the company, workers at the iconic music store Guitar
Center saw their wages slashed and their benefits gutted. Workers fought back internally
for better working conditions, and launched an organizing drive to have their union
recognized. Bain responded with a propaganda campaign to stop its employees from
organizing
Partner: The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union
What we wanted:
We were demanding that Bain stop its union busting and recognize Guitar Center employees'
union.
What happened:
On Friday, workers voted to approve the union by a two-to-one margin. We hear that
having more than 50,000 people show their support gave the workers a major boost
of confidence in the final stretch of the campaign. Now as contract negotiations
begin, Bain knows that consumers are on the workers' side.
Read more:
Original petition
Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty: Keep your hands off our CBC
(Canada only)
Background:
CBC
If Prime Minister Harper gets his way, the government will have more control over
the CBC than its ever had in the CBC’s 80-year history. The Harper government snuck
sweeping changes to the CBC deep into the last section of the budget -- on page 109
-- granting it disturbing powers to directly control and interfere with our national
broadcaster.
Partners:
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting and Leadnow.ca
What we want:
We called for the Conservative government and the Canadian Finance Minister to take
out the provision in the latest budget bill.
Current status:
Friends of Canadian Broadcasting delivered 113,000 petition signatures collected
by Friends, Leadnow.ca and the Sum of Us to NDP leader Thomas Mulcair and Liberal
leader Justin Trudeau. Our supporters chipped in to fund radio ads that aired in
the riding of the Finance Minister, showing him (and his constituents) that we don't
want government to control the CBC.
Read More:
Original petition
|
Shareable Facebook graphic
Press Coverage:
Huffington Post Op-Ed
|
Hill Times
Coke: Don't crush the world's best recycling system
Background:
Coke sticker
Coke was suing an Australian state government to prevent one of the world's most
effective recycling programs, a container deposit scheme, from going into effect.
This is part of a long history of Coke fighting to oppose effective recycling programs
worldwide.
Partners:
The Boomerang Alliance and Greenpeace Australia
What we wanted:
We wanted Coca Cola to drop its lawsuit against the Northern Territory Government
in Australia. We also wanted Coca Cola to abolish its global policy of opposing container
deposit recycling programs.
Current status:
Over 114,000 of us signed a petition to Coke to drop its opposition globally. Sadly,
Coke won its lawsuit and the Northern Territories government is not allowed to implement
the container deposit recycling program as planned. The environment ministers of
each state and territory in Australia will soon decide whether or not to introduce
a national program instead. If they do, Coke and other beverage companies will be
required to participate.
Read More:
Original petition
Press coverage:
Recycling Today
|
Environmental Leader
|
Earth Techling
SUCCESS! ConocoPhillips: Stop drilling in the arctic
Background:
ConocoPhillips polar bear victory
ConocoPhillips planned to stick with its reckless plans to drill in the Arctic,
in spite of the fact that many of its rivals -- most notably Shell -- had put a halt
to Arctic drilling.
What we want:
We demanded that ConocoPhillips drop plans to drill in the Arctic.
Current status:
ConocoPhillips announced it will stop drilling in the Arctic!
Read More:
Original petition
|
Shareable Facebook graphic
Press Coverage:
USA Today
Bayer: Stop killing the bees
Background:
Sick bee
Bayer, the global chemical company, is manufacturing a chemical called neonicotinoids
that new evidence shows is killing off bees. The global die-off of bees represents
an enormous danger to the planet. 30% of our crops -- and 90% of wild plants -- rely
on bees to thrive. Without bees, our entire global food supply is in serious trouble.
What we want:
We want Bayer to withdraw its neonicotinoid pesticides from the market, as they pose
a grave threat to bee populations worldwide.
Current status:
Since our petition in January, further reports have emerged implicating neonicotinoids
in bee deaths, bird deaths, and mass die-offs of dragonflies and other beneficial
insects. In response, the EU has adopted a landmark ruling, banning neonicotinoids
for two years in order to assess their impact. We have taken our fight to retailers
in the United States, Canada, and Australia, asking them to pull the bee-poisoning
neonicotinoids from their shelves.
Read More:
Petition to Bayer
|
Petition to Home Depot and Lowe's (North America)
|
Petition to Bunnings Warehouse (Australia)
Press Coverage:
UK Independent
Onwards!
As you can tell, we’ve been busy! But we wouldn’t have it any other way. We are excited
to build a movement together, and we’re honored that you’re a part of it. We want
to keep up our momentum and make sure that corporations are taking our voices into
consideration. As we are still a tiny organization, we make sure that your donation
does the most it can to help better our world.
Please consider becoming a donor in order to help our movement grow!
We depend on members like you to keep us going. Any donation that you can make not
only improves our ability to campaign for corporate accountability, but also energizes
us, knowing that you are invested in what the Sum Of Us can do. Thank you so much
for being one of us.
donate
Thanks for reading, and for continuing to support our growing movement for corporate
accountability.
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.
You can follow us on
Twitter and like us on Facebook,
Change.org
— There's a new petition taking off on Change.org, and we think you might be interested
in signing it:
Prada: Drop your lawsuit against former-employee Rina Bovrisse
By Ayako B.
Sign Ayako's Petition
Rina Bovrisse, a former employee at Prada in Japan, was shocked when her boss told
her to fire scores of coworkers because they were
“old, fat, ugly, disgusting or did not have the Prada look.”
When Rina spoke out, she was fired.
Now, Prada is suing HER for $780,000 for allegedly damaging the Prada brand even
though they don’t deny their discrimination.
Prada Japan hired Rina, a Japanese national, in April 2009 as Senior Retail Operations
Manager and tasked her with overseeing 500 Prada employees. She moved to Japan with
her two year old son, excited about the opportunity ahead.
Almost immediately, Rina began observing evidence of discrimination in Prada’s HR
department. She recalls the company’s CEO ordering the demotion and transfer of fifteen
female employees (many of them long-serving, top saleswomen) because they were “old,
fat, ugly, disgusting or did not have the Prada look.”
When she spoke out against this injustice, Rina was criticized for her own appearance,
offered a demotion to an entry-level sales staff position, and then urged to resign.
In 2010, Rina and two of her Prada colleagues decided to take a stand. They filed
a lawsuit against the luxury fashion label, arguing that Prada’s appearance-based
discrimination and harassment violated Japanese law.
But in 2012, the judge ruled that Prada’s demonstrated discrimination was acceptable
for a luxury fashion label and that a well-compensated female employee should be
able to withstand a certain level of harassment.
Now, Prada is taking the outrageous step of countersuing the single mother to the
tune of $780,000 for speaking out about the company’s discrimination.
It's bad enough Prada is discriminating this way, but to SUE a woman who fought
back? That’s unacceptable and Prada must drop the suit.
As a woman and a mother in Japan, I have experienced gender discrimination in employment
too. It’s a huge problem in my country where none of the top companies are led by
women. Rina has become the symbol of this injustice in Japan and if we let a major
company like Prada bully her, other women will be afraid to stand up against discrimination
too.
Join me in standing for gender equality by calling on Prada to stop bullying Rina
and to drop its suit against her.
Sign Ayako's Petition
Start a petition on Change.org.
Ayako, who created this petition, is not affiliated with Change.org. Change.org did
not create and is not responsible for the petition content.
Mailing address: Change.org · 216 W 104th St., #130, New York, NY 10025 USA
Teresa,
Thank you for sending in a comment to the SEC for corporate accountability. Please
spread the word to friends and family so that we can get the maximum number of voices
into this campaign.
Can you share this petition on Facebook or forward the email below to your friends?
Click to share on Facebook
Thank you,
Claiborne and the rest of us at SumOfUs
****************************
Friends,
We have the best shot we've ever had to undo the damage of Citizen's United.
How do we know? Because
ALEC, the Chamber of Commerce, and major oil companies are freaking out
and issuing wild, apocalyptic predictions to try and stop us.
But this isn't in the hands of the Congressmen big business has in its pocket; it's
in the hands of the brand new Securities & Exchange Commission Chairman, Mary Jo
White.
With one simple rule change -- backed by legal scholars, 80 members of Congress,
and 500,000 Americans and counting -- she can require corporations to disclose their
political spending.
The SEC is evaluating the rule right now
, and momentum is on our side.
But the major power brokers are starting to catch on, and lash out. If we pile on
with tens of thousands of extra comments, we can keep the energy on our side, and
show Mary Jo White that Americans want disclosure of corporate political spending
.
Please join me in sending a comment to the SEC telling it to force corporations to
report political spending.
http://action.sumofus.org/a/money-in-politics/4/2/?sub=taf
Thank you
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations
accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.
You can follow us on
Twitter
, and like us on
Facebook
Change.org
My son Cameron committed suicide after suffering a traumatic brain injury while serving in the Air Force. Now Key Bank is demanding that I pay for his student loans. Please sign my petition asking for the loan to be forgiven.
Sign My Petition
Sometimes I imagine that my son Cameron is still overseas serving in the Air Force
-- and then Key Bank sends a bill demanding that I pay for his student loans, and
reminds me that my son is dead.
Cameron committed suicide after suffering from a traumatic brain injury that left
him depressed and eventually led to a psychotic episode.
It's been a year since Cameron killed himself, and Key Bank still won't leave my
family alone.
I'm doing my best to grieve and to help his siblings cope with the loss of their
brother -- but the bank has relentlessly harassed my family since the day Cameron
died.
Key Bank forgives student loans on a "case-by-case" basis, but I think all student
loans should be forgiven when a student dies.
I started a petition on Change.org asking Key Bank to forgive student loan debt for Cameron and other students who have passed away so that their families can grieve.
Click here to sign my petition now.
Cameron was my first child, and I was so proud of his ambition and accomplishments.
After college he enlisted in the Air Force and became a cryptologist, studying how
to break codes. Then, after serving for six years in the Middle East, Texas, and
Japan, Cameron was in an accident and suffered from brain damage. When he came home,
Cameron was depressed, had hallucinations, and eventually killed himself.
Cameron made payments on his loans while he was alive, but now that he's gone the
bank is demanding payment from me -- and with Cameron's brother and sister to care
for, I just don't have the money to pay off his loans and suffer the painful reminders
of the loss of my son.
All of Cameron's other debts were wiped away after his death, including his federal
student loans. But Key Bank doesn't follow the same repayment rules as the government
and continues to demand payment on his student loans.
Key Bank already folded to public pressure once in response to a Change.org petition,
forgiving the loans of another student who died and agreeing to review loan forgiveness
on a case-by-case basis.
That's why I know that if enough people sign my petition, Key Bank will consider
changing their policy and forgiving all loans when a student has died.
Click here to sign my petition and urge Key Bank to forgive Cameron's student loan and change their policy to wipe out the debt of other students who have died.
Thank you so much for your help,
Kim Akers
Sign My Petition.
Start a petition on Change.org.
Mailing Address: Change.org - 216 W 104th St., #130 - New York, NY 10025. USA
Tell your lawmakers: Abortion is a personal decision, and it needs to stay that way.
View Mobile Version
View Mobile Version
You know who's pretty good at making my own personal health decisions? I am.
But recently, some radical abortion opponents have decided that they want to spend
a little too much quality time deciding what I can do with my reproductive body parts.
You've seen what's been going on in the states--lawmakers are passing restriction
after restriction on abortion, and it's getting out of control. Do you know what
the worst part is?
Abortion opponents are passing laws that are purposely in violation of
Roe v. Wade
in the hope that the Supreme Court will reconsider its 40-year-old decision -- and
ban abortion completely.
Tell your lawmakers: Abortion is a personal decision, and it needs to stay that way.
After 40 years, you would think abortion opponents would have realized that women
want this decision to stay personal. In fact, 70% of Americans say that they support
Roe and want to keep abortion safe and legal.
If we've learned one thing over the past few years, it's that this vocal minority
of opponents doesn't really care about what women want.
In the first three months of 2013 alone, state lawmakers have proposed 326 restrictions
on abortion--some of which are unconstitutional.
Take action now: Tell your legislators to keep your personal health decisions out of the statehouse.
It's time for us to stand up to these opponents and make our voices heard, before
it's too late. It's time to show them that when it comes to outlawing abortion, we
won't be silent.
Thanks for making it personal,
Thao Nguyen
Campaign Director
This Is Personal2 National Women's Law Center
11 Dupont Circle NW, #800
Washington, DC 20036
