Category: Freedom of Assembly and Petition

March for Our Lives, Washington, DC – Never Again!

Love > NRA

By GREG OLMSTED – On March 24, 2018, hundreds of thousands of students across the country demonstrated to demand stricter gun laws. The rally in DC was organized by students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and funded by Oprah Winfred, Amal and George Clooney, Kate and Steven Spielberg, and others. I recorded Cameron Kasky’s speech at the beginning of the rally. Kasky is a student (a junior when the shooting occurred) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and co-founder of Never Again MSD. Listen to Kasky’s speech and view some of the posters.

Women’s March DC – Normalize Empathy

By GREG OLMSTED – On January 21, 2017, the Women’s March on DC and around the world was an outpouring of energy and democracy.  The march was a rebuke to Donald Trump the day after he became President.  The Women’s March is one of the biggest political protests in US history.    The march was much larger than President Trump’s Inaguration – by hundreds of thousands.  Leading figures of women’s rights movement attending included Gloria Steinem, Cecile Richards and many others.  Visit the Women’s March homepage for a complete list of more than two dozen presenters.

Watch Michael Moore’s speech on his Facebook Page or the CBS video here.  He said to call your representatives at 202 – 225-3121 each day.  Public outcry stopped Congress from shutting down the Office of Government and Congressional Ethics.  Speak out against Donald Trump and take a more active role in local and national politics.

The Women’s March is just a beginning.   Join groups.  Join Planned Parenthood.  Increase your donations to Planned Parenthood and environmental organizations.

A switch — Americans accept climate change

By GREG OLMSTED

“Please give us something optimistic to take away, here,” Seth Borenstein, the moderator asked his panel. “Something a little … less pessimistic than we have been hearing.” Berrien Moore, the Director of the National Weather Center replied, “There are tipping points politically. And I point only to the Tobacco case. For how many years were we told, ‘Oh no, there is no health risk.’ And then finally the body politic said, ‘That is just idiotic. Clearly there is a health risk.’ And it switched.”

Well, the switch has occurred among Americans, including the majority of Republicans, too. Survey results by the University of Texas show that three quarters (75%) of Americans accept the science of climate change. Similarly, the National Surveys on Energy and Environment results show that seventy percent of Americans believe in climate change.

But what of the body politic? When will the body politic switch, too?

____________

Seth Borenstein and Berrien Moore, question and answer, recorded at the Opening Plenary, Climate Change and Extreme Weather: Planning for an Uncertain Future, October 9, 2015, Society of Environmental Journalists 25th Annual Conference, Norman, Oklahoma, by Greg Olmsted. From left to right: Kathleen Tierney (Director, Natural Hazards Center and Professor, Department of Sociology and the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder), Berrien Moore (Director, National Weather Center; Dean, College of Atmospheric & Geographic Sciences; Chesapeake Energy Corporation Chair in Climate Studies; and Vice President, Weather & Climate Programs, University of Oklahoma), Seth Borenstein (Science Writer, The Associated Press; moderator), Kathryn Sullivan (NOAA Administrator and Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), Jonathan Overpeck (Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Professor, Regents’ Professor of Geosciences and Atmospheric Sciences, and Co-Director, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona).