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All members and friends are invited to the AAUW Kingston branch meeting and luncheon at noon on
Saturday, June 13
Best Western Plus
Hotel and Conference Center
503 Washington Avenue, Kingston |
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Our speaker will be
Matt Edge, lawyer-activist of The Occupy Democracy Project on Matt will bring us up-to-date on what is happening in the fight for public funding of political campaigns in New York State. With money’s great influence in NY politics, I’m sure you will not want to miss this opportunity to learn first-hand about the campaign-funding bill currently before our legislators and what we, as AAUWers and New Yorkers, can do to help pass it. Basically, the bill provides public financing for candidates who can show strong pre-campaign public support for their candidacies. In some ways it is similar to the Clean Money Clean Elections resolution that is part of the AAUW-NYS Public Policy Program. Public funding of campaigns has strong opposition from legislators who must rely on private money to fund their campaigns. But, as many of them have confessed, they would gladly give up dialing for dollars if they had enough public dollars to run strong competitive campaigns. As for We the People, if this bill passes, we would come first, not rich corporate/private contributors. In other words, our schools, roads, healthcare, and environment would no longer get short shrift. And we could once again call New York a democracy. With passage of this bill, the money that now goes down the drain in corporate welfare could be used to reduce our taxes while improving our and our children’s lives.
The money against passing this bill is extremely potent. But money is only as potent as We the People permit it to be.
Unfortunately, most of our major media are corporate owned, so most people don’t even know the bill exists.
The only way this bill can pass is with very strong grass roots support that overcomes big corporate campaign bucks. So I urge you to please come to learn more about it, tell others about it, and learn what you can do to help pass it to take back our government and our democracy.
To help finance this fight for democracy, Matt has started an organic-coffee business. He sells it at a number of local stores and other areas around the state and will be glad to sell it to those who attend this event. I have had it, and it is truly delicious. – Irene Miller Entree choices: – Flounder with Crabmeat Stuffing – Pasta with Veggies, Olive Oil, Garlic – Chicken Francaise with: Wild Rice, Brown Rice, String Bean Medley, Tossed Salad and dressings, rolls and butter, Dessert, Coffee, tea, brewed decaf, soda Reservations are required by Wed., 6/10 to Irene Miller (518-678-3516, imiller65@hvc.rr.com). Cost: $25 payable at the door, tax and tip included. |
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