We Have a Lot to Talk About
Our friend and Charter for Compassion partner, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid from Sound Vision and Justice for All has provided us with a message below. Please join him and others on a call regarding Flint, Michigan and join us for the Charter’s Interfaith World Harmony Week conference calls, February 1-5. The information for the calls is below.
Guest Message
Dear Friends,
Flint is facing a disaster, except that it has not been declared a Disaster Zone by President Obama, which can allow FEMA to handle the disaster beyond three months. The current designation, Emergency, allows only for a little 5 million dollars. Water bottles cannot resolve the problem. Flint needs new water pipes. The arsenic chemical and lead have destroyed the water pipes. Just imagine, what the destroyed metal is doing to human body. Unfortunately, for more than a year, Flint people have been forced to drink this poison.
We have been in touch with the Flint community. They need a national push for three things:
- Disaster Zone Declaration: President Obama to designate Flint to be a disaster zone
- Water Pipes change: Governor Snyder to declare that he will use state’s $500 million surplus to change the water pipes in Flint. This is the only solution to the water disaster
- Water tankers in each block of Flint and replenish them through FEMA until water pipes are replaced
This issue has been going on for a year and Flint people are fearful that it will not disappear soon if it is left like this with half measures. They cannot sell their houses to move out since no one is buying houses in Flint, specially those with lead pipes. To address this crisis, there will be a conference call THIS Thursday (Jan. 28th) at 3 PM EST. Please sign in here to join the call. You will be provided a conference call number.
Please don’t consider this to be an issue which concerns Flint only. This is just one of the symptoms of what is happening to poor people in the U.S.. whose income is going down while services are disappearing.
Peace,
Rev. Chloe Breyer, Interfaith Center of New York; Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, Charter of Compassion; Karenna Gore, Center for Earth Ethics; Dr. Larry Greenfield, Parliament of Religions; Jonathan Jackson, Operation Push; Joe Lombardo, UNAC; Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, Sound Vision & Justice For All, Prof. Rami Nashashibi, IMAN and Rabbi Brant Rosen, Tzedek Chicago & American Friends Service Committee
Charter for Compassion International Presents a Special Series of Calls for Interfaith World Harmony Week
Please join the Charter for a special weeklong series of presentations during World Interfaith Harmony Week, inspired with the work of Muslim-Christian dialog. We are exploring the need for developing compassion to understand and benefit from a world that is marked by diversity and pluralism—in life forms, in cultural patterns, in faith pathways, in physical characteristics like skin color and body shapes. Register for each individual call. Learn more about the background for the calls. Join in on the World Interfaith Harmony Week Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest.
Monday, Feb 1, 7 am PT; Karin Miller. Karin founded Our New Evolution (ONE) to connect and empower people and projects that are aligned with Global Values—the heart of Karin’s new book, Global Values: A New Paradigm for a New World. Read the introduction to Karen's book. Register.
Tuesday, Feb 2, 9 am PT; The Three Interfaith Amigos: Imam Jamal Rahman, Rev. Don Mackenzie and Rabbi Ted Falcon. The Interfaith Amigos started working together after 9/11. Since then, they have brought their unique blend of spiritual wisdom and humor to audiences in the US, Canada, Israel-Palestine and Japan. Their first book, Getting to the Heart of Interfaith (Skylight Paths, 2009), brought the Interfaith Amigos international attention with coverage from the New York Times, CBS News, the BBC and various NPR programs. Register.
Wednesday, Feb 3, 9 am PT; A Call to Action: Marie Roker-Jones, Louisa Hext, Aleasa Word. Marie Roker-Jones and Louisa Hext are cofounders of #CompassionConvos: a compassion movement challenging our own bias. It's a call to action bringing people together to create individual and systemic change. Roker-Jones is also the founder of Raising Great Men, an effort to raise boys to be men of character. Hext is the North American representative of The Forgiveness Project and Aleasa Word is an internationally certified professional life coach, editor at the Good Men Project, small business consultant and author specializing in helping people develop the second chapter of their lives professionally and personally. Register.
Thursday, Feb 4, 9 am PT; Conversation with John Esposito. John Esposito is American professor of International Affairs and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Esposito is Founding Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service.Previously, he was Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies, College of the Holy Cross. He is the author of over 45 books. Esposito's interviews and articles with newspapers, magazines, and the media in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Guardian, The Times of London, CNN, ABC Nightline, CBS, NBC, and the BBC. John is a major contributor to the Charter's Islamophobia Guide Book. Register.
Friday, Feb 5, 7 am PT; Desperate Times Call for Compassionate Action. Join Reham Hamoui and others who are working with refugees arriving in Europe and America. Rehab is Syrian-born American currently residing in Seattle, WA. She has worked on humanitarian issues for 5 years in several capacities including the coordination of medical missions, political advocacy, and community outreach. She is now the Director of Communications for Salaam Cultural Museum, a NGO focused on providing humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees within the MENA region and Greece. Register.
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We believe a compassionate world is a peaceful world. We believe a compassionate world is possible when every man, woman and child treats others as they would wish to be treated - with dignity, equity and respect. We believe all human beings are born with the capacity for compassion, and it must be cultivated for human beings to survive and thrive. Thank you for considering this request. Donate here.
