Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful to all my AMAZING friends and family. I love you all so much. You make me who I am and who I want to be. I am grateful for all the challenges we have been through. You remind me that there is light at the end of the tunnel...to keep hanging on...keep fighting strong, fierce, without hesitation, but with confidence and true spirit. Your words and embraces empower my soul and heart...filling me with so much energy. Even when we are apart or in disagreement or in different points in our lives, I know we are there for each other. I hope you know that you are in my thoughts always...when the rain is pouring, I remember how much you love water and how beautiful you look with your hair wet; when the sun is shining, I remember your smile and the warmth it brings; when our song is playing, I laugh at our many adventures and embarrassing moments! If you are reading this, I hope you feel loved, honored and respected. I wish you all the best in the world...all the peace and all the joy. I have learned what love is from your actions and kindness. Thank you for giving me your honesty and for keeping it real! I love you brother and mama, see you soon.

San Jose = largest U.S. city to ban plastic bags

By a vote of 9-1, the San Jose City Council approved an ordinance to ban single-use plastic and paper carry-out bags from the City’s retail establishments starting January 1, 2011. The first city in Santa Clara County to pass a ban was Palo Alto. With this recent vote, San Jose became the largest city in the nation to ditch the bag.

The truth about plastic: Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags each year, 3.8 million in the Bay Area. The average use time for the bags - made using about 12 million barrels of oil each year in the United States - is about 12 minutes. Worldwide, an estimated 4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year. Tied end to end, the bags could circle the Earth 63 times.
It costs more to recycle a plastic bag than to produce a new one. A growing trend is to ship them to countries such as India and China, where they are cheaply incinerated under more lax environmental laws. In an EPA ranking of chemicals that generate the most hazardous waste, five of the top six were commonly used by the plastics industry.

In California, less than 3% of plastic bags are recycled. Most plastic bags end up in landfills or our local water ways and coastline. At a 2008 clean up, Santa Clara Valley Water District and the City of San Jose found 54,000 pounds of litter in Los Alamitos Creek and 5,000 pounds in Palo Alto’s San Francisquito Creek. Coyote creek, which runs through parts of unincorporated Santa Clara County as well as Morgan Hill, San Jose and Milpitas before emptying into San Francisco Bay, is among the Top 10 "Bay Trash Hot Spots" of 2009 named in the study by Save The Bay. About 1,100 plastic bags were fished out of the creek in one day, during last year’s clean-up.

Why paper is not the better choice: Due to logging and pulp production, paper bags take more than four times as much energy and generate 70 percent more air and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.

What you can do: Invest in reusable bags, each of which has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. Keep reusable bags in the trunk of your car, backpack, or by the door (compact sizes are even available for your keychain or purse).

October is...

Domestic Violence Awareness Month
If possible, volunteer with a local domestic violence shelter. Distribute domestic violence materials in your community. Start a clothing drive for business clothing to donate to a local shelter.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Send a mammogram reminder to yourself, your mom, sister, friend, co-worker, aunty, neice, grandma and all the women in your life! Click here to make a free donation.

(Save) Energy Awareness Month

10 – Anniversary of California Woman Suffrage, 1911
Celebrate by registering voters in your community. You can get voter registration forms from your local league of women voters or any political party office.

11 - Coming Out Day
Celebrate pride. Be an Ally. Support Marriage Equality.

13 - Indigenous Peoples' Day
Reclaim Columbus Day...

18 - Love Your Body Day

Women and girls spend billions of dollars every year on cosmetics, fashion, magazines and diet aids. These industries can't use negative images to sell their products without our assistance. Together, we can fight back.

46 million

That's the number of Americans currently without health insurance.

Did you know that some insurance companies actually consider domestic violence a "pre-existing condition"? That is, women whose boyfriends or husbands have beaten them could actually be denied coverage for that reason.¹

In fact, one survey found that 8 of the 16 largest insurers in the country have used domestic violence as a factor in denying coverage.²

It's sickening. And it's just one more reason we need a public health insurance option—a health care plan that won't put profits before basic human decency.

My top 5 Reasons for Health Insurance Reform Now:

1. Coverage Denied to Millions: A recent national survey estimated that 12.6 million non-elderly adults – 36 percent of those who tried to purchase health insurance directly from an insurance company in the individual insurance market – were in fact discriminated against because of a pre-existing condition in the previous three years or dropped from coverage when they became seriously ill.
2. Less Care for More Costs: With each passing year, Americans are paying more for health care coverage. Employer-sponsored health insurance premiums have nearly doubled since 2000, a rate three times faster than wages. In 2008, the average premium for a family plan purchased through an employer was $12,680, nearly the annual earnings of a full-time minimum wage job.
3. Hard Times in the Heartland: Throughout rural America, there are nearly 50 million people who face challenges in accessing health care. The past several decades have consistently shown higher rates of poverty, mortality, uninsurance, and limited access to a primary health care provider in rural areas.
4. Small Businesses Struggle to Provide Health Coverage: Nearly one-third of the uninsured – 13 million people – are employees of firms with less than 100 workers. From 2000 to 2007, the percentage of small businesses offering coverage dropped from 68% to 59%, while large firms held stable at 99%. About a third of such workers in firms with fewer than 50 employees obtain insurance through a spouse.
5. Diminishing Access to Care: From 2000 to 2007, the proportion of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-based health insurance fell from 66% to 61%. An estimated 87 million people - one in every three Americans under the age of 65 - were uninsured at some point in 2007 and 2008. More than 80% of the uninsured are in working families.
   

My favorite health care quote:

"Health care reform is a vitally important issue, too important to be derailed by myths and misinformation. From false accusations that the reform bill will "mandate abortion" to the bizarre claim that the administration wants to create "death panels," opponents of reform keep inventing new lies to try to stop the bill. We can't let propaganda keep affordable health care out of the reach of millions." - Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood

Jobs needed now, families can't wait

With unemployment on the rise, why is Congress STILL stalling on President Obama's clean energy jobs plan, which would create more than 1.7 million jobs?

Clean energy sources like wind and solar power create 2-3 times more jobs than old, dirty sources of energy like coal. That's why it makes so much economic sense to switch to clean energy. With so many still hurting, Congress needs to act now and pass President Obama's clean energy jobs plan.

Add your name to the petition. your individual comment

Healh Care Reform - Let's all speak up and share our stories!

Chevron Offers Bribe to Court

The legal battle between indigenous communities in Ecuador and oil giant Chevron is a fight sixteen years in the making. This unprecedented lawsuit holds Chevron accountable for the clean-up of the damages it has done to the once pristine Amazonian rainforest and the people who call it home.

With all the evidence pointing to Chevron's guilt, a judgment of potentially $27 billion was expected to be handed down against the company as early as next month in Ecuador.

Chevron - one of the wealthiest corporations in world history - has already said that it will refuse to pay, requiring U.S. courts to enforce any potential fine. Chevron's legal strategy before a U.S. court would almost certainly be centered on convincing the court that the company did not receive a fair trial in Ecuador; thus, Chevron has a strong incentive to build a case now against the Ecuadorian court.

This "evidence" magically emerged last week when the oil giant took dirty measures to avoid cleaning up its mess. Chevron appears to have resorted to its own Nixon-style sting operation in an attempt to delay and corrupt trial proceedings by releasing grainy online videos trying to implicate the judge presiding over the trial in a $3 billion bribery scheme.

This "bribery plot" is just the latest in a string of underhanded - and potentially illegal - attempts by Chevron to derail the case and distract from the fact of Chevron's obvious guilt. The timing is also suspicious given this week's release of the groundbreaking and critically-acclaimed documentary film about the case, CRUDE: the real price of oil.

Click here to TAKE ACTION

Favorite Quotes

"Be who you say you are.. and say what you feel .. because those that matter, don't mind ... and those that mind, don't matter!" (?)

"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." (Maggie Kuhn)

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” (Howard Thurman)

“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.” (Marian Wright Edelmen)

"In doing something, do it with love or never to it at all." (Ghandi)