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Second Annual 9/11 Unity Walk to Take Place on September 10th in Washington, DC
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From Shaan Rizvi:
Military raids. Suicide bombings. Targeted Assassinations. At a time when we should be moving towards greater tolerance and understanding of others, our television screens are becoming increasingly colored with images of violence, bloodshed, and warfare from all corners of the globe. Too often it seems that religious and political dogmas allow us to forget our common humanity. Hence, it is our burden in America to lead the charge for compassion and understanding, with the hope that one day people from all parts of the world will learn to recognize the inherent value of human life and appreciate the beauty in the diversity of mankind.
At the 3PM on September 10th, representatives from nearly 200 different religious and civic organizations in Washington DC will come together to walk for peace, unity, and understanding. The second annual 9/11 Unity Walk will be a commemoration of the events of September 11th, as well as recognition that five years after the tragedy, we need to bond with our brothers and sisters of different faith communities so as to transcend our mutual hostilities and prejudices.
This year's walk is set to begin at the Gandhi Memorial and will continue to the National Hebrew Congregation. The entire walk will symbolically take place on Embassy Row and will include prayers, speeches, musical concerts, and refreshments along the way. Some of the noted personalities expected to attend include Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Rabbi Lustig of the National Hebrew Congregation, Sister Sledge, Kanye West, and rock star Salman Ahmad of the Pakistani group Junoon.
The Unity Walk is still seeking to form partnerships with various organizations. If you would like for your organization to take part in what will surely be a historic event, please visit our website at www.911unitywalk.org. Also, if you are in the DC area and are interested in volunteering for us on the day of the walk, please send an e-mail to shaan@911unitywalk.org.
June 29, 2006 | Permalink
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Buffett gives over $30 billion to Gates Foundation and global health
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From Mike Batell:
“Billionaire investor Warren Buffet is donating a total of $37 billion – most of his personal fortune – to a foundation started by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and to several family foundations, making it the largest-ever charitable gift in the United States" (Reuters).
We should all be inspired by this extraordinary act of compassion and generosity. Buffett, the world’s second wealthiest person, is establishing a legacy that other Fortune 500 CEOs can aspire to follow. “The impact of Warren’s generosity will not be fully understood for decades”, say Bill and Melinda Gates. Rest assured that impact will include millions of lives saved in the next several years alone. The immunization program the Gates Foundation finances has already saved the lives of an estimated 1.7 million children. Buffett’s added contributions will allow the Foundation to nearly double its impact. Years from now, when it has become clear that additional millions of lives will have been saved because of Buffett’s gift, his decision may very well go down as the greatest single act of mercy in history.
Gates and Buffett understand the contradictions inherent in a world where seven million are millionaires while thousands die every day of diseases that cost just a few dollars to prevent or treat. A bed net to protect a child from malaria costs just $5, and yet we allowed 3,000 kids to die of malaria yesterday. To provide a drug that prevents mother-to-child transmission of HIV costs just $4, and yet we allowed 1,400 babies to be born with HIV yesterday. A full package of vaccines to inoculate one boy or girl against the major childhood killers costs just $30, and yet we allowed 4,000 kids to die yesterday of these diseases.
It is clear that Gates and Buffett feel a strong sense of compassion for these children and their parents. But more importantly, they have taken that critical spent beyond mere compassion and into action. Rather than standing idly back as “innocent bystanders” while millions die unnecessarily, Gates and Buffett have determined that they are going to do something about it.
Large-scale corporate mergers are fairly common in today’s business world. But the scale of this philanthropic merger between the world’s two wealthiest individuals is without precedent. This story clamors for others to join Gates and Buffett in this historic partnership to rid the world of age-old childhood diseases. Fortune 500 executives: will you rise to the challenge? President Bush and our elected representatives in Congress: will you rise to the challenge? Fellow citizens: will you rise to the challenge?
As Gates once wrote: "It is up to us to decide how we want our generation to be remembered. For the internet? Or the war on terror? Or for finally deciding that where a child happens to live will no longer determine whether that child gets to go on living.”
That is what history demands of us. This is about who we are and what reasons we have to get out of bed every morning. Please take a few minutes to join Gates and Buffett today.
Learn more about the Gates Foundation.
Contribute to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria .
Raise your voice for global health and join the ONE Campaign.
June 26, 2006 | Permalink
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Students and the Clean Energy Revolution
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A dispatch from Erin McNamara, an AID student leader at SUNY Binhampton:
“We didn’t just land on the moon in …, we set a goal to do it within 9 years, and we did it in eight. It may have cost millions, but we did it. It may not have been popular at the time, but we did it” and the same goes for combating global warming, said Mr. Charles Rosenthberger of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment. And he’s right; global warming is not going to stop itself.
On June 17, students from across the country as well as some local New Haven residents spent their Saturday afternoon learning from expert panelists and hosting small group discussions of their own to figure out what they can do to help stop global warming. The conference was held by a New Haven based nonprofit organization called Americans for Informed Democracy (AID). AID is a nonpartisan organization that aims to increase education and awareness on pressing global issues. “Oil dependence and Climate Change” is one of their focus issues for this summer and upcoming fall.
The consensus of Saturday’s expert panel on clean energy and oil dependence was that action needs to be taken at a grass roots level and then work its way up to the top. Each panelist discussed what they are working on at the local community and state level. For instance, Bob Wall, New England Regional Director of “Smart Power” said that Connecticut is the second state to pass a strategy for clean energy. The impetus for this movement began four years ago when concerned citizens and policy makers met to discuss the impacts of urban living on the environment and on public health. They discovered that New Haven was one of the worst areas to live in the country in terms of environmental cleanliness, and because of this, asthma rates were increasing and so was the amount of mercury in acid rain, which can have harmful affects on women and can cause developmental issues in children. So, the group set a target of increasing clean energy use in CT to 20% by 2010 to help combat these health and environmental problems. Other Connecticut campaigns include the “Cool It Competition” for local middle and high school students to monitor the amount of green house gases they produce in a year, and to come up with a solution to reduce their emissions.
The panel also discussed the negative effects of US oil dependence. Professor Bradford Gentry of the Yale School of Forestry said that the US imports over 60% of its oil, half of which comes from unstable countries. The top three sources of US oil are Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. In essence, because of US oil dependence, we are at the mercy of these countries, which we all can observe first hand with gas prices over $3/ gallon. However, there is a lot that can be done to combat this oil dependence. If the US were to invest in clean energy solutions such as windpower, solar energy, and bio-ethanol we would be helping the environment and breaking free of our dependence of these unstable countries. Professor Gentry noted that “there is no silver bullet solution to these problems at any one level- local, national or global”, but rather a solution in hard work, time and commitment by community members and policy makers at every level.
Individuals can start the energy revolution in their own homes by turning off the lights when leaving the room, walking or biking instead of driving, and of course, recycling. Individuals can also use their purchasing power to increase clean energy by choosing eco-friendly cars (such as hybrids), buying recycled products and shopping at stores and buying brands that are committed to green energy. Lastly, citizens can use their political power to help reach the 20% by 2010 goal in Connecticut by voting, writing letters and opinion pieces, and calling to tell their representatives that clean energy is something that they support. Oil is no longer the way to go- it increases our dependence on other countries; it is becoming more and more expensive for the average consumer; and it is causing global warming levels to rise higher than they’ve ever been before in the history of the world. This is not a world that we want to leave for our children and grandchildren, especially when we know there is a better solution!
For more information on how you can get involved in the clean energy revolution, you can go to www.AIDemocracy.org or call (203) 773-1202.
June 21, 2006 | Permalink
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