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Transportation funding is in crisis. The national Transportation Bill expires on September 30th, 2009. Because of the economy, local and state sources for transportation funding are drying up as well. Congress is gearing up to take a fresh look at transit. This time around, let’s make sure the bill has enough funding to build the mass transportation system we need for equitable, accessible, and sustainable transportation solutions. Join us in Urging Congress to pass a Surface Transportation Authorization Act (STAA) with more money for public transit, more accountability and more jobs for those who need them.

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DO YOU HAVE A VISION OF WHAT PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION SHOULD BE?

ARE YOU A METRO RIDER?

VOICE-Buffalo has been asked to participate in a major
Transit Service Restructuring & Fare Study.

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Tom Lynn
The Rev. Dennis Jacobsen laughs as he tries to connect to President Barack Obama’s health care reform webcast Wednesday at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church.

By Annysa Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Posted: Aug. 19, 2009

For the clergy and lay leaders gathered at a Milwaukee church on Wednesday, health care reform isn’t just a political issue, but a question of faith.

“For me, it’s grounded ….. in the healing narratives of Jesus,” said the Rev. Dennis Jacobsen, pastor at Incarnation Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, where many of his parishioners lack insurance and access to adequate health care.

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KHNL Hawaii, posted on website

Hawaii weighs in on president’s healthcare reform plan
Posted: Aug 20, 2009 1:22 AM CDT Updated: Aug 20, 2009 1:51 AM CDT

Rev. Bob Nakata
By Leland Kim

HONOLULU (KHNL)  -   National healthcare reform has become a lightning rod of controversy.    Pres. Barack Obama is looking to overhaul the health insurance system, and provide coverage for every single American.  It’s a monumental task and he has many supporters, but some say it’s the wrong way to fix this problem.

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The campaign for comprehensive immigration reform has been slowed down with the Health Care debate but we’re still moving forward:  the delay gives us more time to educate, organize, and mobilize.  A new, comprehensive packet of resources on immigration reform can be found at  www.ReformImmigrationFORAmerica.org.

And don’t forget to sign the petition while you are at the website!

President Obama and Secretary Napolitano President Obama have once more reaffirmed his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform, pledging that “we can get this done.” The President and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Napolitano met with immigrant advocates, faith leaders, labor, business, and law enforcement officials to listen to concerns and discuss the next steps forward.  Both the President and Secretary Napolitano acknowledged the importance of immigration to our country as well as the need to create a sustainable legal immigration system for the 21st century.

The latest word is that Senator Schumer will have proposed legislation drafted this fall.  It is expected that, unlike in the health care debate, the discussion and debate will take place in congressional committees.  Hopefully there will be a vote in March.  We can imagine what the public conversation over immigration reform will be like as we witness that of the health care reform!  So let’s continue our education, organizing, mobilizing and prayer!

To sign up for Immigration Policy Updates and Action Alerts from the National Immigration Forum and/or their Daily News Clips, highlighting the top immigration stories of the day, go to:  http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5681/signUp.jsp?key=575

Sister Barbara Pfarr, SSND
Director, Civil Rights of Immigrants Initiative
WISDOM
bpfarr_wisdom@sbcglobal.net

East Metro Assembly, St. Paul Area; Great River Interfaith Partnership (GRIP) Assembly, St. Cloud Area; West Metro Assembly, Minneapolis Area

St. Paul, MN – More than 400 citizens from across Minnesota gathered Monday night at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church to send a message back to Washington with their members of congress.

“We need a public transit system that helps people get to where jobs actually are,” said East Side St. Paul Resident Junail Anderson. “I just want to work and ensure a better life for my children.”

In attendance to hear the moving testimony of concerned Minnesotans were Congressman Keith Ellison, and staff from the offices of Congressman Oberstar, Senator Klobuchar, Congressman Eric Paulsen, and Senator Al Franken.

“This is about providing equal access to jobs through efficient funding of public transit,” said Lisa Aaman, lead organizer with host organization ISAIAH.  “When we the people make a public investment in our transit system, we must make sure that the system is working for all residents – not just a few.”

Also released at the meeting were findings from a new report by ISAIAH, PolicyLink, and Organizing Apprenticeship Program that revealed:

• Gross underrepresentation of minorities and women in 2900 jobs created by newly funded transit programs.
• Not nearly enough dollars have been allocated for new public transit systems
• Lack of transparent reporting by MNDOT on the goals of achieving minority, and disadvantaged business participation.

This grassroots rally was one of many cosponsored by Transportation Equity Network (TEN) that are scheduled to take place across the country over the next month.  “The goal of these rallies is to ensure that there is equality in the transportation reauthorization bill,” said TEN Executive Director Laura Barrett.

Additional rallies are scheduled for Los Angeles, CA (9/23); and St Louis, MO (10/10).

MORE² (Metro Organization for Racial & Economic Equity), Kansas City Metro

MORE²’s public meeting (August 27) on transportation began and ended with a piper piping,  and everything that happened in between was something for the 325 in attendance to toot a horn about.

Working to improve transportation within the metropolitan Kansas City area was called a “sacred conversation,” by Rev. Michael Brooks.   Public transit was described as a “sacred space” and a “place to come together as a community” by Rev. Bobby Love.

Interspersed throughout the meeting were people telling  “truth spoken in the form of stories,” as Cynthia Jarrold put it.  These stories, told by the people who lived them, were the faces and the real life situations of  the transportation issue.

There was Deb, who is disabled and needs to be near a bus stop.  She pointed out the discrimination in job ads that require applicants to have “dependable forms of transportation.”   Employers, however, often do not seem to think public transportation fills that requirement.

Bill is a house cleaner whose car is out of commission.  He now uses a bike and the bus and has had to cut back on his workload.

Barbara is blind and now has to pay $17 each way to get to her job because of transportation cuts in bus service.

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-MO) spoke to the group about Kansas City’s new Green Impact Zone http://www.house.gov/cleaver/Cleaver Green/greenzone.html, a product of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and an unprecedented coalition of stakeholders, including local government, community agencies, neighborhood organizations, universities, private utility interests and small contractors.  This Green Impact Zone has been referred to as a Poster Child on steroids for the stimulus package.   Included in the Green Zone is a new nine-mile long bus rapid transit (BRT) line on Troost Avenue, which will provide better public transportation in the city’s densest corridor.

Representatives from Sen. Kip Bond’s (R-MO) and Rep. Dennis Moore’s (R-KS) offices made commitments in behalf of Bond and Moore to meet with MORE² representatives regarding the reauthorization of the transportation bill that is about to expire.

Jarrold ended the meeting by calling these efforts to improve transportation “worshipful work” and urging our public officials to “respond with integrity.”

By Jerry Kellman
Director of Organizing, Gamaliel Metro Chicago

I’ll begin by sharing some of President Barack Obama’s inner struggles during the time he was organizing and how his training as an organizer helped him with these struggles.

When I met Barack Obama for the first time at a coffee shop in New York City in 1985, most of the issues that he would have to grapple with in political life, and the gifts that he would draw on to overcome them were already present.  Barack was African American on the outside.   But on the inside, he was a citizen of the world.  He was struggling to figure out how to respond to the varied misconceptions that people had of him. People judged him by his skin color.  Some liked it, some did not. People judged him by his pattern of speech and the prestige of his education. Some liked it and some did not.  Being judged by whom people think you are, rather than who you know yourself to be is difficult for anyone, but it was particularly difficult for a young man who wanted to make a difference in the world.

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Wednesday, August 19th, 5PM EDT the faith community sponsored a national call in and audio webcast on health care reform featuring participants from across the country and special guest President Barack Obama.
40 Minutes for Health Reform was sponsored by

National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
Progressive National Baptist Convention
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society
The Episcopal Church
Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference
Jewish Council for Public Affairs
Gamaliel Foundation
Faithful Reform in Health Care
Unitarian Universalist Association
African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME)
The New Evangelicals
National Council of Churches in Christ
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
United Church of Christ
The Latino Leadership Circle
Christian Community Development Association
Islamic Society of North America
Washington Office of Women’s Divisions General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church
Jewish Women International
Islamic Medical Association of North America
Presbyterian Church (USA), Washington Office
Disciples Center for Public Witness
Disciples Justice Action Network
Catholics United; Faith in Public Life
Faithful America; PICO National Network
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
Sojourners

Cosponsors of the faith community’s national call to action for health insurance reform are: religious denominations or faith-based organizations that work on a wide range of public policy issues, rather than primarily in any one issue area, and support health insurance reform, or faith-based organizations that focus solely on health care reform.