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Dear Progressives,
Today is Tuesday, July 27th. It's my brother's 37th birthday (hollah!), plus it's 83 days until early voting starts and 98 days until election day. I'll keep it simple: start reading up on the issues and candidates, donate your time or money now to candidates you really like, check out your local League of Women Voters website in early October to get a great non-partisan voting guide, and VOTE, BABY, VOTE!
(It's my birthday on Election Day this year. Save the card, and enfranchise yourself by participating in the process. It'll be the gift I most appreciate other than my bride-to-be dropping into my life.)
 You are voting for your state and local officials who will oversee a good chunk of the complete redistricting of Texas. Remember the census this summer? That data is turned into the federal government soon and will be shared with our state by March 2011 to inform our redistricting state and local process. Much of the rest will be done by city-level officials, and many of them are up for election in May 2011 as the Texas Legislature wraps up it's slicing and dicing of our Texas neighborhoods for its purposes. Get in the game and help decide who makes the decisions for the next decade.
An interesting link: www.redistrictingthenation.com
Be Well and Be Progressive,
Progressive Center Events:
The Lazarus Effect - free screening and discussion
Thursday, July 29th, doors open at 6:30pm - film starts at 7:00pm
"Witness what 40 cents a day can do." 
The Lazarus Effect is a 30-minute, inspiring new documentary created by (RED) and HBO and directed by Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze. In this film, they show that AIDS is a preventable and treatable disease. Two lifesaving pills costing around 40 cents a day can help bring someone with HIV/AIDS back to life in as few as 40 days even when that person is close to death's door.
In cooperation with the local ONE.org chapter, we will be screening the film and discussing what we do in the USA to help, and what we don't do to help but should. Come to watch, to talk, and to learn more about what locals are doing to aid ONE.org's mission to support humanitarian programs around the world. We will brainstorm and plan for upcoming activities as well as the in-district congressional meetings for the August recess.
As a special addition to the event, C.U.R.E. will be displaying some of the panels from the Names Project
AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Click here to watch a film preview of The Lazarus Effect.
Please RSVP by clicking here.
Green Team Grad Afterparty
Friday, August 6th, 8:30pm to 1:00am
$5 per person entry fee, $2-$5 parking.
Join local teens and their families for an afterparty for this year's graduates of the ExxonMobil Green Team program. ExxonMobil Green Team is an eight-week summer youth initiative, administered by the Volunteer Center of North Texas, that provides paid internships and a study program for high school students. During the program, students attend classes at Southern Methodist University related to environmental issues and professional and academic development. Students also participate in weekly environmentally-focused field trips and sessions centered on leadership, social responsibility, diversity and teamwork. Additionally, students develop and implement an environmentally-focused service project as a group.
Free food and non-alcoholic beverages, plus a dj
For more info on the ExxonMobil Green Team program, click here.
Friends of Progressive Center Events:
Steering Toward Cleaner Air
Thursday, July 29th, 10:00am
Local officials convene North Texas Clean Air Steering Committee for
first time in four years. For the first time since October 2006, a local group of DFW leaders will come together to talk about what needs to be done to get safe and legal air in DFW. Downwinders at Risk, the Sierra Club, and the Environmental Defense Fund all are assigned seats as representatives of the environmental community, along with County Judges, area mayors and councilmembers, and DFW business leaders.
Because DFW must design and build two clean air plans in the next three years, it's important to let your local officials know you're watching them and expect them to represent your views. Come to the July 29th meeting if you can. It's the local beginning of "The Big Push" toward safe and legal air.
For more info, click here.
(North Central Texas Council of Governments HQ, 616 Six Flags Rd, Arlington)
National EPA Hearing - Arlington
Monday, August 2nd, starting at Noon
Industrial air pollution released from the oil and gas industry in North Texas and elsewhere is a Downwinders at Risk issue. Routine toxic air pollution from oil and gas activity involves many of the same chemicals emitted from the Midlothian cement kilns. Smog-forming pollution caused by oil and gas drilling is rolling back air quality progress in North Texas. 90% or better controls are already available and being used. Sound familiar? We need to show our public support for tougher federally-mandated, uniform, strict, emission standards. EPA is holding a hearing here because of the concentration of industry impact from the Barnett Shale.
To sign-up to speak, please e-mail Mr. Nick Parsons at parsons.nick@epa.gov AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!
For more info, click here.
Public testimony from 12pm to 4pm and 6pm to 10pm.
(Arlington City Hall, 101 W. Abram, Arlington)
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Other Progressive Events in the Area:
Texas Film Incentive Forum
Wednesday, July 28th, 7:00pm
In a move to inform constituents about efforts to stimulate economic development, create new jobs, and increase revenues for support businesses in the North Texas region and the state, through expansion of the film, television, video and digital interactive industries, State Rep. Carol Kent will host the Texas Film Incentive Forum. Industry leaders also will address how House Bill 873, which Rep. Kent championed and co-authored, is contributing to increased production activities throughout the region by providing incentives to the industry.
Guest speakers include Mitch Engle, series producer and Joe Dishner, unit production manager of Fox's The Good Guys; Janis Burkland, director of the Dallas Film Commission; Bob Hudgins, director of the Texas Film Commission; and Don Stokes, president of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance. Also scheduled as a guest speaker is Kevin Dartt, general counsel for Austin-based Troublemaker Studios. Troublemaker was co-founded by University of Texas at Austin alumni and acclaimed film director, screenwriter and producer, Robert Rodriguez.
(Richland College - Sabine Hall SH117,12800 Abrams Rd, Dallas)
Bringing the Trinity to Life
July 23rd - 30th
Featured are the winning photographs from the first Trinity River Photo Contest. The City saw the contest as an opportunity to make a difference in a number of ways: to encourage people to get outdoors and experience the amazing natural resources we have in Dallas, to provide a fun and action oriented project for school age children during the summer months; to showcase the Trinity River Corridor Project; and to photographically document the vast area this project encompasses because changes are underway.
(Janette Kennedy Gallery, South Side on Lamar, 1409 S Lamar St, Dallas)
MoveOn.org - "Fight Washington Corruption"
Now until July 31st
Last week, MoveOn.org launched the Other 98% campaign by announcing the "Fight Washington Corruption" pledge-a blueprint for a better democracy written with the help of MoveOn members across the country. It calls on Congress to:
* Overturn Citizens United to remove unlimited corporate money from politics.
* Pass the Fair Elections Now Act to publicly finance elections.
* Enact a Lobbyist Reform Act to reduce the influence of corporate lobbyists.
At the end of this month, MoveOn members will be taking this request to Representative Pete Sessions. We'll ask him to go on the record by choosing between standing with big corporations or standing with us.
We've set a goal of having 1,000 of Rep. Sessions's constituents endorse the pledge. We need another 739. Can you sign the "Fight Washington Corruption" pledge and then pass this on to other people in your area? Click here to share.
1st Tuesday Film Festival presents "The Corporation"
Tuesday, August 3rd, 7:00pm
Winner of 25 international awards including 10 Audience Choice awards.  Footage from pop culture, advertising, TV news, and corporate propaganda illuminates the corporation's grip on our lives. Taking its legal status as a "person" to its logical conclusion, the film puts the corporation on the psychiatrist's couch to ask, "What kind of person is it?" Provoking, witty, sweepingly informative, The Corporation features 40 interviews with corporate insiders and critics - including Milton Friedman, Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, and Michael Moore - plus true confessions, case studies and strategies for change.
The 1st Tuesday Film Festival is hosted by the Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff an co-sponsored by the Dallas Peace Center. It is free and open to the public, but donations are gratefully accepted to defray costs.
(Unitarian Universalist Church of Oak Cliff, 3839 Kiest Blvd, Dallas)
Dallas Peace Center - Summer Lecture - Jim Hightower
Thursday, August 19th, starting at 6:00pm
Join your neighbors for an entertaining and insightful night. Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks. Author of Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish can Go with the Flow.
Reception at 6:00pm - Program at 7:00pm
Click here to purchase tickets!
(Irving Arts Center,3333 N.MacArthur Blvd, Irving)
Trees in Dallas to Get More 'Huggers' 
Classes begin August 21st, but registration starts now!
Residents interested in helping grow a greener Dallas are invited to join the City's Citizen Forester Program. Deadline to register is July 31, with classes beginning Aug. 21. Registration fee: $75.00
To register, email citizenforester@tx.rr.com , or call 214-670-1509.
Participants will learn how to care for and preserve the City's trees and urban forests and make Dallas a more livable city through tree education, planting and preservation. The program also provides information about tree identification, planting and pruning skills, and basic tree skills to protect trees in their own neighborhoods. Topics include how a tree grows; "Right Tree, Right Place"; tree insects & diseases; how to visually assess a tree; and proper planting and pruning techniques.
"The Citizen Forester program encourages people to become more responsible in caring for our natural resources," said City Forester Karen Woodard. "'Citizen Foresters become advocates who lead by example when it comes to caring for and beautifying Dallas."
The Citizen Forester program is supported by the City of Dallas Park and Recreation Department, the City's Urban Forest Advisory Committee, and the Trinity Blacklands Urban Forestry Council.
Registration
fee: $75.00. Click here to download the flyer.
To register, email citizenforester@tx.rr.com , or call 214-670-1509.
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For more progressive-oriented events and news, try a free subscription to the North Texas Progressive weekly email at www.northtexasprogressive.org |
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Directions and Contact Information
Our address is:
South Side on Lamar, 1409 S. Lamar Street, Suite 1021, Dallas, TX, 75215
South Side on Lamar is on South Lamar Street between Belleview Street and Arnold Street. Enter South Side from Belleview Street. The Progressive Center is located on the ground floor "Artists' Quarter" next door to the Janette Kennedy Gallery.
Click here for a Google Map
Free parking for event guests is available in the restaurant parking lot on the northeast corner of Belleview and Lamar. Paid parking is available in the lot behind Bill's Records and Poor David's Pub.
We encourage you to carpool or ride DART Rail to the event: either the Red or Blue line to the Cedars Station, which is just down the street from South Side on Lamar.
ADA assistance is available for Progressive Center events by contacting us. We will make any arrangements needed.
For this or any other questions or comments call us at 214.485.2720 or write to us at frontdesk@progressivecenteroftexas.org
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Contributions or gifts to The Progressive Center of Texas are not tax deductible. |
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