Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 1:21:50 PM Eastern Standard Time Page 1 of 6 Subject: News from League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Coun6es Michigan Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2015 at 5:45:50 PM Eastern Standard Time From: LWV of Berrien and Cass Coun6es Michigan (sent by LWV of Berrien and Cass Coun6es Michigan <[email protected]>) To: [email protected] League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties Newsletter March 2015 Dear Members and Friends: LWVBCC is back from its winter break and gearing up for spring and summer activities--starting with the March 11 Lunch with the League with speaker Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey. Some of our members were fortunate to escape part of the Michigan winter and they share their observations here. Mac and Joanne Sims visited Cuba and Susan and Geoff Gilbert tried to live like Parisians for a month. In This Issue Lunch with the League From the President April Book Group Selection Women's History Month LWVMI Convention A GMO Dilemma Observations on Cuba Thoughts on Paris May 5 Ballot Proposal Legislative Interviews Lunch with the League Wednesday, March 11 Our speaker at this noon lunch meeting will LWVBCC: Contact Us lwvbcc.org P.O. Box 161 Three Oaks MI 49128 LWVBCC Calendar March 11 (Wednesday) Noon Lunch with the League Coach's Bar & Grill in Stevensville March 17 (Tuesday) 4:30 pm LWVBCC Board Meeting Three Oaks Public Library April 13 (Monday)10:00 am. Book Group Meeting. April 21 (Tuesday) 5:00 pm LWVBCC Board Meeting. Bridgman Public Library April 29 (Wednesday) Noon Lunch with the League Coach's Bar & Grill in Stevensville May 15-17 LWVMI Convention in Kalamazoo. Consider being a LWVBCC delegate.
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Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at 1:21:50 PM Eastern Standard Time
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Subject: News from League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Coun6es MichiganDate: Tuesday, March 3, 2015 at 5:45:50 PM Eastern Standard TimeFrom: LWV of Berrien and Cass Coun6es Michigan (sent by LWV of Berrien and Cass Coun6es Michigan
<[email protected]>)To: [email protected]
League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties Newsletter
March 2015
Dear Members and Friends:LWVBCC is back from its winter break and gearing up for spring andsummer activities--starting with the March 11 Lunch with theLeague with speaker Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey.
Some of our members were fortunate to escape part of the Michiganwinter and they share their observations here. Mac and Joanne Simsvisited Cuba and Susan and Geoff Gilbert tried to live like Parisiansfor a month.
In This Issue
Lunch with the League
From the President
April Book Group Selection
Women's History Month
LWVMI Convention
A GMO Dilemma
Observations on Cuba
Thoughts on Paris
May 5 Ballot Proposal
Legislative Interviews
Lunch with the League Wednesday, March 11Our speaker at this noon lunch meeting will
LWVBCC: Contact Us
lwvbcc.org
P.O. Box 161Three Oaks MI 49128
LWVBCC Calendar
March 11 (Wednesday) NoonLunch with the League Coach's Bar & Grill inStevensville
March 17 (Tuesday) 4:30 pmLWVBCC Board Meeting Three Oaks Public Library
April 13 (Monday)10:00 am.Book Group Meeting.
April 21 (Tuesday) 5:00 pmLWVBCC Board Meeting.Bridgman Public Library
April 29 (Wednesday) NoonLunch with the LeagueCoach's Bar & Grill inStevensville
May 15-17 LWVMI Conventionin Kalamazoo. Consider beinga LWVBCC delegate.
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be Berrien County Sheriff L. Paul Bailey. Thetitle of his talk is "What is ALPAC? SheriffBailey Will Explain". Hint: it has to do withpolice/community relations. Sheriff Bailey has been a police officer inBerrien County for 33 years and was electedSheriff in 2001. He also attends Leaguemeetings and candidate forums frequently. Soyou may recognize him!
We will convene again at Coach's Bar & Grill, 2528 W. Glenlord inStevensville at noon. Coach's does a good job with the food service,but to speed it up a bit we are going to offer attendees a choice ofseveral of the most popular menu items rather than the entire largemenu. Reservations are not required, but Coach's and LWVBCCwould appreciate having an idea of how many are coming. Pleasecontact Donna Dutton if you plan to come or for more information.
From President Chris ZilkeThe League of Women Voters recentlycelebrated 95 years of advocating forthe rights of citizens in this country.There's much still to be done on theoriginal issues for which the Leaguewas founded --and more issues to dealwith every day, it seems. Also, this isWomen's History Month. I recommendthe article below on League founderCarrie Chapman Catt.
Poverty is at the forefront of our local League's concerns, and wecontinue to discuss and learn about the many issues and attitudesconcerning poverty. Several of your board attended a presentationby Bonnie Bazata, Director of the St. Joseph County Bridges Out ofPoverty organization in January and I attended a full-day workshopthis past week in South Bend. Plan to join us in our discussions andforthcoming presentations.
Inequality is also very much on my mind and I've read Robert Reich'sBeyond Outrage, Unstoppable by Ralph Nader and The GreatDivergence by Timothy Noah. Again, so much to lean and to DO!
Please plan to attend our board meetings, luncheons and otherLeague events and volunteer when you can. An exciting lineup ofevents is being planned and we need your active participation asmuch now as ever.
Congratulations and kudos to League member Enid Goldstein for herwork reopening the Benton Harbor High School Library. Enid is an"opinion maker" for the Herald Palladium and she wrote an article forlast week's paper on the terrific work she and other volunteers(many League members) do at the long-closed school library. Enid isan example of what one volunteer can DO.
Book Group Selection for April 13 MeetingThe Group has selected two books for
LWVBCCBoard of Directors
Chris Zilke PresidentJohn Ripley TreasurerPat Lauth SecretaryDonna Dutton MembershipMary Gignac Voter ServiceSusan Gilbert Commun.Jean Sharp EnvironmentJudy Scully Health & SSLiz Ennis EducationMelissa Clapper At LargeEarl Bickett Special Projects
Board Meeting/Minutes
Board Meetings are held onthe third Tuesday of mostmonths in either Three Oaksor Bridgman. Members areencouraged to attend.
Minutes are posted after theyare approved by the Board.
November 18, 2014October 21, 2014
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May 5 Ballot Proposal
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discussion at it's April 13 meeting, bothrelated to health.
Steven Brill America's Bitter Pill: Money,Politics, Backroom Deals, and the Fight toFix Our Broken Healthcare System 2015 Atul Gwande Being Mortal: Medicine andWhat Matters in the End. Selected one ofthe best books of 2014. Meeting location yet to be determined.Would anyone like to volunteer? We usuallyhave about 15 people. Contact Annette VanDusen if you would like to host.
March Is Women's History Month In February the League of Women Voterscelebrated its 95th birthday and March isWomen's History Month, so a profile ofLeague founder Carrie Chapman Cattseems appropriate. She was one of thebest known women in the U.S. and was onall the lists of most influential women. Carrie, like the League itself, was a littleahead of her time. Originally interested inbeing a doctor, she received a BA in general science in 1880 from now IowaState University. She was the only womanin her graduating class and started shaking
things up even then. She married a newspaper editor, Leo Chapman,in 1881, but he died in 1885 and she had to work to support herself,which she did as the first female news reporter in San Francisco. She remarried in 1890, to George Catt, a wealthy engineer, whoencouraged her political activities.
Catt began her career as a political activist at 27, when she joinedthe Iowa Woman Suffrage Association. In 1900 she succeededSusan B. Anthony as president of the National American WomanSuffrage Association and worked tirelessly for the vote for womenuntil and after the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Shehelped found the League of Women Voters as an organization toeducate the new voters and promote women's issues.
In her later years she advocated for working women and world peaceand supported the formation of the League of Nations and the UnitedNations. She organized the Protest Committee of Non-JewishWomen Against the Persecution of Jews in Germany and even wrotea letter of protest to Adolph Hitler. She died in 1947 at 88.
LWVMI Convention May 15-17The 2015 LWVMI Convention will be held inKalamazoo, an easy trip for those of us inBerrien and Cass Counties. LWVBCC isentitled to 6 official delegates, but membersmay also attend unofficially. You can alsoattend on Saturday, May 16 only at areduced rate ($50) and/or go to theSaturday night banquet for an additional$35. The banquet speaker is CarlaCampbell-Jackson of the Kalamazoo NAACP.
The May 5 Ballot Proposalis, on the simplest level, avote of the people ofMichigan to increase thesales tax rate from 6% to7% to make more moneyavailable for roads andbridges.
But it is really morecomplicated than that.LWVMI has prepared anexplanatory handout. Twowords were added to theproposal language at thelast minute and they arenot included in the text inthe handout. The finalversion of the handout willbe posted on ourlwvbcc.org website.
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Save the Date Lunch with theLeague April 29
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See the LWVMI website for moreinformation now and as details are added.
Our official delegate list is still being firmed up, so if you areinterested in being a member of the delegation contact Chris Zilke. Itis a wonderful learning and social experience and well worthattending. LWVBCC pays the registration fee for delegates, whichincludes most but not all meals, and delegates are responsible forthe hotel and transportation expenses (the latter minimal this year).
Join The League!To those of you who receive this newsletter but are not members--please consider joining. It's a great organization and it is veryadvantageous to join now. See the big white block at the bottom ofthe page.
A GMO Insect DilemmaThere are two very painful tropicaldiseases, chikungunya and dengue(aka bone-break fever) that arespreading into the tropical U.S. as theclimate warms up. There is no cure foreither. They are transmitted by thebiting female Aedes aegypti mosquito.These mosquitoes have become
resistant to 4 of the 6 kinds of insecticides sprayed regularly in KeyWest neighborhoods.
The Florida Keys Mosquito Control District is proposing to releasegenetically modified male mosquitoes in Key West that will mate withthe biting females, whose offspring will then die, eliminating thecarrier of the two diseases. The British company that has developedthese GMO mosquitoes says they have been successful in test areasin the Cayman Islands and Brazil.
Residents of Key West and the FDA are not all convinced. On the onehand there is the regular spraying of insecticides and the increasingpossibility of horrible disease and on the other the prospect ofreleasing essentially a new bug into the environment. The companysays only males will be released but they cannot guarantee a fewfemales won't be as well. Hence the dilemma.
Read a Washington Post article on the subject.
Observations on Cuba by Mac SimsOur small group flew from Miami toHavana on January 17, 2015, exactlyone month after President Obamaannounced to the Cuban people thedecision to restore full diplomaticrelations. Our tour, titled CubanCultural Traditions, required monthsof advanced bureaucracy to gainpermission to visit under the rubric
of "promoting people-to-people contact".
We stayed at a top notch hotel. There were at least three other UStour groups there, and two days later four US Senators including
Another lunch at Coach's inStevensville with speakerDr. Lowell Hamel MD onkeeping up with changes inhealth care.
Legislative Interviews
Consider participating inthis project!
Every other year LWVMIasks local Leagues tointerview their statelegislators to learn howthey feel on issuesimportant to the League.Specific questions areprovided by LWVMI. Theresponses to thesequestions are off the recordto encourage an openexchange.
Usually three membersinterview each legislator,ideally with a veteran teamleader, a new member andsomeone in between. Thelegislature goes on a two-week spring break startingMarch 30, so that is anideal time to schedulethese interviews.
We have four statelegislators: Senator JohnProos and RepresentativesAl Pscholka (Dist. 79),Dave Pagel (Dist. 78) andAaron Miller (District 59).
Contact Chris Zilke if youare interested.
New MembershipRosters
If you are a Leaguemember you should haverecently received anupdated membershiproster in the U.S. mail. Ifyou do not receive onecontact John Ripley. Butdo check your mail first!
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Debbie Stabenow (Michigan) and Dick Durban (Illinois)arrived at the hotel, attracting a swarm of media attention. We had adaily lecture in the hotel and traveled out in a comfortable bus(bought from China) to destinations where we could explore andlearn. Havana appeared to be a very safe city. Now a caveat: Remember the parable of the blind Hindus and theelephant? Well, the part of the Cuban elephant we touched was nearthe top of the food chain: tourism and artists....
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
Thoughts on Paris by Susan Gilbert Contrary to popular belief, the French arereally nice people. There are some, mostlythose who deal with tourists a lot, who aremaybe less so. They insist that etiquette befollowed, which means before you say youwant to buy tickets, you better say "Bonjour,Monsieur." Not such a bad idea. The French do not accommodate the elderlyor disabled except in new buildings or a fewplaces like the Louvre. If you can't climb lotsof stairs and walk long distances, forget it. They also do not go out of their way to make
life easier for tourists-and remember they have a lot of them. Most ofwhat you want/need to know is in French. Sometimes they don't tellyou at all, as in warning you to keep your ticket until the very end ofyour Metro trip because you may be stopped and asked to produce itor be fined 50 Euros. Like the rest of the developed world and in spite of highunemployment, France is replacing people with machines....
READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE
Visit the LWVBCC Facebook Page. Be sure to like us!
Save the Date May 28 Program on
Lake Michigan
A panel of three speakerswill address "Saving LakeMichigan". This will be alunch meeting at Fernwoodand open to the public.
Detroit/Windsor Bridge Update
It appears there will be anew bridge built betweenDetroit and Windsor, inspite of the best efforts ofMatty Maroun, owner of the85-year old AmbassadorBridge, to thwart the plan.Read the article by PhilPower in the BridgeMagazine.
The entire project will befinanced or guaranteed bythe Canadian government.Seems to be somewhatsimilar to the KeystonePipeline situation exceptour legislators have notsupported the bridge--orGovernor Snyder, who sawfrom the beginning thiswas a great deal forMichigan.
The League: A Valuable Resource in Our Communities
Helping to Make Democracy Work
Interested in joining the League? Go to our website orcontact our Membership Chair Donna Dutton
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contact our Membership Chair Donna Dutton
Our extended membership benefit is available to new members who join this time of year. Depending on
when you join, you get a longer year for the 12-monthprice.
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League of Women Voters of Berrien and Cass Counties Michigan | P.O. Box 161 | Three Oaks | MI | 49128
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