Category Archives: Events

From violence to healing: Journey of Hope events planned statewide

From Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty:

The Journey of Hope Tour is Coming!

This week NADP has been hard at work with our partners to coordinate a series of events that we are very excited about: The Nebraska of Journey of Hope Speaking Tour. An amazing group of speakers who have been immediately affected by the death penalty will travel all throughout the state to share their stories of moving from violence to healing. Their experiences illustrate the critical need to keep the death penalty out of Nebraska permanently. We hope to see you at an event near you!

Check the schedule for an event near you this July.

Attend the Green Party’s Presidential Nominating Convention in Houston

From Jill2016.com:

Jill Stein supporters from around the country will be in Houston August 4-7 for the Green Party’s Presidential Nominating Convention — and you’re invited!

This may just be the most exciting national Green Party meeting ever, with Jill Stein climbing in the polls and record numbers of Americans demanding a better choice than what the establishment parties are offering. If you want to get involved in the surging national movement for an America that works for all of us, Houston is the place to be!

One of the highlights of the convention will be the Party for the Revolution on Saturday, August 6, where Jill will kick off the final phase of her game-changing presidential campaign. There will be great music, inspiring speeches, and a chance to get to know Jill’s Vice-Presidential running mate.

Before that, starting on Thursday, August 4, the Green Party will host workshops and presentations on all aspects of the exploding movement for independent progressive politics.

Staff from the Stein campaign will be on hand to lead a number of workshops on the techniques and strategies that are being used in 2016 to fight for people, planet and peace over profit. There will also be a set of hands-on workshops on Sunday morning to help you plug in to the action and take the revolution back to your home state. Don’t miss what’s sure to be an unforgettable and historic gathering of revolutionaries in the fight for a better future.

It’s in our hands!

Read more about the agenda in Houston and register to attend.

Nebraska Green Party State Convention: June 26 in Lincoln

The Nebraska Green Party will hold its 2016 State Convention on June 26 in Lincoln. Members will gather at The Meeting Place, 1239 South 14th Street. The meeting begins at 1 p.m.

Members will select the party’s choice for the U.S. presidential election and select delegates to represent Nebraska at the Green Party National Convention, held this year in Houston, August 4-7.

Read more about the two recognized candidates seeking the Green Party nomination, William Kreml and Jill Stein.

Read more about the National Convention.

 

 

Death penalty incompatible with faith, humanity

From the Lincoln Journal Star:

The death penalty has survived not in spite of Christians, but because of them, according to Shane Claiborne, social activist, author and pioneer in the New Monasticism Movement.

For a long time, Claiborne believed that scripture supported the death penalty: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth… But his gut told him something else. He believed it was not as simple as good versus evil, right versus wrong and life versus death.

“I went back to study Scripture, and I saw how complex it is,” Claiborne said during a recent visit from Philadelphia to Lincoln and Omaha, as part of Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Retain a Just Nebraska — both efforts to retain a state law abolishing the death penalty.

More than 200 people attended Claiborne’s June 7 presentations, which coincided with the release of his newest book, Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us. The book examines the death penalty from all angles: religious, moral, just and practical. Many Nebraska stories are included in the 300-page book.

Claiborne’s appearance was the first in a series of guests invited to Nebraska over the coming months to help convince voters to uphold LB268 which calls for abolishing capital punishment in the state, said Dan Parsons, spokesman for Retain a Just Nebraska.

Read the full story from the Lincoln Journal Star.

Retain a Just Nebraska has two upcoming open-house events for faith leaders to discuss the death penalty:

  • In Lincoln June 14 from 6 to 8 p.m.: FUSE Co-Working Space, 151 N. Eighth St. (fifth floor).
  • In Omaha June 16 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Retain a Just Nebraska headquarters, 440 Regency Parkway Suite 234.

Learn more at Retain a Just Nebraska and Nebraskans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.

Celebrate with Marylyn in Omaha and support Retain a Just Nebraska

Join us for a Fundraising Birthday Party & Discussion With Marylyn Felion!

Marylyn is a board member of Nebraskans for an Alternative to the Death Penalty and and active volunteer for Retain a Just Nebraska. She accompanied the last person executed in Nebraska and has been a long-time activist for death penalty abolition. Today, she is working tirelessly to Retain LB 268.

To celebrate her birthday, we’re inviting you to attend her fundraising birthday party and give a gift to Retain a Just Nebraska in her honor. Your gift will help the effort to Retain LB 268 and keep Nebraska death penalty free!

Her no-host birthday celebration is open to the public and will be held at Mama’s Pizza in Omaha, 715 N. Saddle Creek Road, on Wednesday, June 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. We hope to see you there!

RSVP to the Facebook event.

Action Alert: Climate rally at Berkshire meeting April 30 in Omaha

From BOLD Nebraska:

Join former NASA climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, Nebraska Peace Foundation, and Bold Nebraska on Saturday, April 30th outside the Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Meeting in Omaha to deliver our petition and urge shareholders attending the meeting to VOTE YES on the Climate Resolution. Introduced by Nebraska Peace Foundation, which owns a voting share in the company, the shareholder resolution asks the company to do a climate risk assessment.

The rally will be Saturday, April 30,  from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the CenturyLink Center, 455 N 10th St, Omaha.

Warren Buffett has urged shareholders to vote against the resolution. In his letter to shareholders, Buffett writes that he understands that climate change keeps people up at night, and he thinks people in low lying areas should move.

Said Buffett: “Call this Noah’s Law: If an ark may be essential for survival, begin building it today, no matter how cloudless the skies appear.”

Buffett sees climate change causing disasters, but he doesn’t see any risk of his insurance companies experiencing “significant losses” from them yet.

It’s time for Warren Buffett to build a #ClimateArk — starting with the climate risk assessment for his companies outlined in the shareholder resolution proposed by Nebraska Peace Foundation.

Read more from BOLD Nebraska and RSVP for the rally.

People’s Film Festival Upcoming Shows

As always, the People’s Film Festival is held at First Unitarian Church, 31st and Harney streets, Omaha, at 7 p.m. Note that the schedule has changed from Tuesdays to Mondays.

1913: Seeds of Conflict (Thursday 3/24): 1913 examines a critical yet overlooked moment of transformation in Palestine, long before the Balfour Declaration and British Mandate period usually considered the matchstick for today’s ongoing struggles. It was a time when identities were fluid and few Arabs or Jews living there could imagine the conflict that would engulf their region for the next century.

Feeding Frenzy: The Food Industry, Marketing & the Creation of a Health Crisis (Monday 4/4): Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the U.S. have more than doubled for children and tripled for adolescents — and a startling 70% of adults are now obese or overweight. The result has been a widening epidemic of obesity-related health problems, including coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, and Type 2 diabetes. While discussions about this spiraling health crisis have tended to focus on the need for more exercise and individual responsibility, Feeding Frenzy trains its focus squarely on the responsibility of the processed food industry and the outmoded government policies it benefits from. It lays bare how taxpayer subsidies designed to feed hungry Americans during the Great Depression have enabled the food industry to flood the market with a rising tide of cheap, addictive, high-calorie food products, and offers an engrossing look at the tactics of the multibillion-dollar marketing machine charged with making sure that every one of those surplus calories is consumed. Features industry analysts, health experts, and advertising scholars, including Marion Nestle, Kelly Brownell, Sut Jhally, Brian Wansink, and Michele Simon.

Call of Life (Monday 4/18): Call of Life is the first feature-length documentary to fully investigate the growing threat posed by the rapid and massive loss of biodiversity on the planet. Featuring leading scientists, social scientists, environmentalists and others, the film explores the scope, the causes, and the predicted global impact of a mass extinction occurring on a scale not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If current trends continue, scientists warn that half or more of all plant and animal species on Earth will become extinct within the next few decades. Entirely caused by human activities, this contemporary mass extinction is disrupting and destroying the complex, interconnected biological systems that support life on earth. Through interviews with eminent biologists and ecologists, the film examines the primary drivers of species loss: habitat destruction, global warming, pollution, and invasive species, all compounded by the expanding human population and our consumption patterns.

GMO-OMG (Monday 5/2): This provocative documentary follows one father’s search for answers to the question “What are we feeding our families?” and examines the risks of consuming genetically modified foods, or GMOs. Features Jeremy Seifert.

People’s Film Festival March 15 in Omaha

The next People’s Film Festival showing is next Tuesday, March 15 , at 7 p.m. at First Unitarian Church, 3114 Harney Street, Omaha. The film is “Pay 2 Play,” which documents filmmaker John Ennis’ quest to find a way out of the system where politicians reward their donors with ever larger sums from the public treasury. The topic could not be more timely!

Watch 2:15-minute trailer.

Seeking Peace and Justice in Palestine and Israel, Feb. 28 in Omaha

From Nebraskans for Peace:

Learn about peace work in Israel and Palestine and what you can do to help. Rabbi Joseph Berman and Bshara Nassar, a Christian from Palestine, will discuss the work they have been doing for peace and justice in the Holy Land.

  • WHO: Rabbi Joseph Berman and Bshara Nassar
  • WHEN: Sunday, February 28, 2016 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
  • WHERE: Urban Abbey, 1026 Jackson St., Omaha

This event is organized through the Holy Land Task Force, Peace with Justice Ministries and the Mercy & Justice Team of the Great Plains Conference of The United Methodist Church, in collaboration with the Palestinian Rights Task Force of Nebraskans for Peace.

Two upcoming events with Open Harvest Co-op Grocery in Lincoln

KZUM Donation Day

  • Wednesday, January 27, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
  • At Open Harvest Co-op Grocery, 1618 South Street, Lincoln.

Did you know KZUM started in Open Harvest’s basement many years ago? On Wednesday, January 27th, we are sending some noise their way by organizing our first ever KZUM Donation Day. It’s really simple: at the end of the day, 5% of the store’s net sales will be donated directly to KZUM. You don’t have to do anything, except stop by Open Harvest and pick up the food that you love. Come shop with us on this special day, and support two long-standing community organizations at the same time. It’s a win-win. Please help spread the word.

Seed Swap

  • Saturday, January 30, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
  • At 2 Pillars Church, 1430 South Street, Lincoln.

The Open Harvest Co-op Grocery and Community Crops Annual Seed Swap falls on National Seed Swap Day, January 30th. We will be hosting a space for the Lincoln gardening community to bring their seeds saved from last year and swap them. This is a great opportunity to see what everyone has been growing and maybe branch out and try planting something new. Hope to see you there!

Read more at www.openharvest.coop/events/