Join Dominican Sisters of Peace as we strive to bring PEACE and justice to our world in this post-truth era. Each week, our Justice Promoter will share important information (including action alerts, prayer opportunities and much more) that will help you to spread peace in your own local community and our world at large.
Click here for the Spring 2017 United Nations Newsletter from the Dominican Leadership Conference NGO.
From Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns: Click here to urge President Trump to stay in the Paris Climate Agreement.
From Catholics Confront Global Poverty: Remind the President and Congress to protect poverty-focused foreign aid.
Pace e Bene is hosting a conference – Blessed are the Peacemakers: A Conference and Training on Nonviolence. Click here for more details about the conference held in Huntington, Indiana from July 28-July 29.
Members of Congress have introduced a bipartisan bill named for American abolitionist Frederick Douglass that would seek to curb human trafficking. To read more, click here.
Action Alert from Network: Americans overwhelmingly agree that Congress must act to stop prescription drug corporations from gouging consumers with high prices on the medicines they need to lead healthy and productive lives. Click here to urge your Members of Congress to support the “Improving Access to Affordable Prescription Drugs Act.”
From Catholic Climate Covenant: A decision on whether the United States will remain in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change will happen any day. You have the chance to ensure we do. Please take a moment to send this letter to President Trump, your US Representative, and your US Senators.
From Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good: Women are 51% of the United States population. Yet there are 14 men and zero women on the working group that is drafting the Senate bill on health care. We demand equal representation for this bill. Women represent more than half the population of the U.S. and deserve to be represented in the working group writing the health care legislation. Will call your Senators today at (202) 224-3121 and demand that the Senate working group on health care add six women and remove seven men so there is equal representation?
From Catholic Nonviolence Initiative:
Three dates in the month of May have been chosen in the United States to ask Catholics to share their hope for greater teaching and commitment to active nonviolence with their bishop and invite him to affirm active nonviolence as the nucleus of the Christian revolution. During the month of May, write your bishop, using the sample letter provided (click here). Share with him, as your Shepherd in the Lord, your call for a greater commitment to active nonviolence. Individual hard copy letters mailed directly to the bishop are more powerful than form letters, emails, or one letter signed by many. For more information, click here.
From Win Without War:
With an unpredictable administration, corporations amassing ever more power, and authoritarianism around the world on the rise, now more than ever, we need internet freedom. A free internet is not only the cornerstone of a free and open society, it is also an essential tool in how our movement makes our voices heard. We simply cannot fight militarism and work for peace without a free internet, and that’s why we need your help. Net neutrality is the cornerstone of the idea of the internet: that all web traffic is treated and delivered equally. As it stands now, all internet sites are delivered with equal speed when you type their name into the address bar or click on a link. Everyone is equal. The FCC will vote on a disastrous plan to gut net neutrality protections and allow Internet Service Providers to block content, control the pathways to information, and create pay-to-play schemes. Click here to sign this petition and tell the FCC that you want net neutrality protected.
Good news for our Earth! In a surprising victory for former President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy, the Senate voted last week not to consider repealing a climate change regulation on the release of methane from oil and gas wells on public land. Read more here.
Oppose discrimination and violence against all. Each year on May 17th, organizations around the world mark the International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Click here for more information from New Ways Ministry.
If you haven’t read the Final Statement from the Salamanca Congress that was held in the Fall of 2016, you can read the Statement here. This Statement will help guide a collaborative Dominican effort to work on peace and justice issues.
Executive compensation. Incentive plans. Increasing numbers of common stock. Accelerated vesting of equity awards. Vote tabulation. These are corporate phrases that I rarely paid attention to before. Understanding that I felt a call to justice work, I had no need to surround myself with corporate verbiage and technical terms that I assumed would never affect me. Yet my role as Justice Promoter has quickly transformed me into a pseudo-corporate detective as I work with our proxies and our socially responsible investments.
Signing petitions, writing letters, calling legislators, and walking in marches are all ways to support just causes and make our collective voice heard. Yet we know there is beauty in diversity, and we can find multiple, effective ways to bring about change. One of those ways is through shareholder action.
As much as I wish we could easily change the system by changing hearts, telling stories, and forming relationships (and that is often an effective avenue to change!), I also realize that money talks, especially in the corporate boardroom. As shareholders, we have the ability to advocate for issues that are important to us and hold corporations accountable. We can ensure they know they have a responsibility to take care of their employees, to take care of the Earth, and to take care of all those they serve.
Investors have advocated for policy changes that have proved very effective over the long-term (although they are often slow victories to win, as is most systemic change work). Shareholder advocacy has been very effective in getting businesses to adopt sustainability standards and greenhouse gas emission limits, committing to sustainable sourcing, adopting human rights policies, and addressing supply chain risks. We now find ourselves at a critical time to protect the victories we’ve achieved through shareholder advocacy and ensure shareholders have a voice that will continue to be heard. Currently, before the House Financial Services Committee, there is a bill called the Financial CHOICE Act. Part of the legislation would curb the ability of small investors to bring issues to a shareholder vote during annual meetings. As shareholders, we have a moral responsibility to stand up for those without a voice at the table. Please click to review a letter about the Financial Choice Act and actions you can take today.
From the Coalition on Human Needs: Click here to sign a petition calling for a moral budget for all people.