Justice Class 9 | Monday/Tuesday, September 12 & 13, 2016
- What? Guest from National Equal Justice Association (NEJA)
- Why? To learn about local non-profits working on behalf of justice issues.
DUE TODAY
- Watch PART II EDPuzzle on Byron's article, "Ten Building Blocks of Catholic Social Teaching". Part II has four questions. Give enough time to watch it while you read the article Respond carefully to all questions. See HAIKU for full assignment.
- Espacio: Living life from the inside-out.
- Welcome: Gail Williamson & Tom Blanks from NEJA
- Mr. O'Connor will take notes of the discussion and post them to this blog.
- 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- Non Profit Facts for NJEA
- What distinguished NEJA from other Non-Profits?
- Founder Barabara
- Our first place was on Long Island
- 99%
- Migrant Farm Workers. Seasonal Workers like restaurant
- Supported work on government rent.
- A class action law suit on behalf other farm workers
- Rent was raised twice as much in one summer.
- $1.3 million won for migrant farm works. The most they have won ever in CA
- We support Medical workers and lawyers who give free or pro-bono legal work to those who cannot afford it.
- We support communities fighting to find a better life.
- We are into training people have to fish from the slogan: "You can give a hungry person a fish and she'll be fed for the day but you can teach him how to fish and he will be fed always".
- We are all volunteers and take in charity money.
- The Prison System
- 99% of people in prison are poor, often illiterate, and cannot afford bail.
- WHY? The US has the largest prison system than any other
- 2.4 million people are in prison now and another 2.7 million are in the prison system
- 1979 Percy Amendment
- increased the number or people in prison for the purpose of cheap labor.
- EddiePower, GAP, Victoria Secret, and all major corporations have factories in prison grounds.
- Their wage is fare lower than the federal minimum wage.
- This is very much like "outsourcing" (Thank you, Ed Emery) where corporations shop the world for cheap labor.
- What about our economy today? Are we better of than 2008 "crash"?
- Ed Emery: Our economy has recovered and new industry has occurred. There is more awareness of outsourcing.
- What happens when your average work doesn't have enough money to buy what they make?
- No economy can thrive if the workforces cannot participate in the exchange of goods and services. They are priced out.
- So when jobs are moved into prison grounds, you take them away from others and in particular trade unions. So, our economy for the average worker is falling.
- What about CA's Three Strikes Your Out that became a federal law.
- It was applied to felonies and if you have three of them you automatically get sentenced to 25 years to life.
- Then they passed Proposition 21 - CA Law passed in 2001.
- An anti-gang law. If you are arrested for a felony... Say if you are hanging out and you are all wearying the same color hat. A police officer and arrest you for "suspected gang activity".
- So 14-18 years old to arrested and tried as adults and go to prison and if it is their third strike, they are automatically sent to prison for 25 years to life.
- Make the connection to factories in prison and our sentencing laws.
- Maybe prisoners shouldn't be paid at all! Some argue this but...
- Let's just look at the justice of the situation first, which is inherently unjust given the laws stacked against those who are poor, uneducated, and a minority.
- What are the solutions?
- The Government's war on drugs ...?
- Immigration Detention Centers...?
- Handout For Class
- Effort to educate to the 2030 Goals...
- All nations agreed to it...
- Fracking... Ed Emery offers an explanation. Thank you, Ed!
- The problem is that it process contaminates
- 2005 Energy Law passed by G.W. Bush that allowed for fracking - the horizontal and vertical drilling. Halliburton was the company that benefited from this.
- All companies who frack are exempted for all seven major environmental laws of the 1970's.
- So water is getting contaminated with chemicals that kill plant life and sicken people.
- Methane is very dangerous when released as in fracking.
- The major methane leak in CA - Aliso Canyon
- This Changes Everything - Book by Naomi Klein. We have to do something to effect change and it has to start with each person acting responsibly.
- Schools are organizing things to make change. Divest in companies that rely on fossil fuels.
- This may sound very negative and hopeless but it's not.
- People can make change if they choose to. And people and some corporations do this all the time. Check out the link for six different surveys on corporate environmental responsibility.
NOTES FOR PERIOD C
- Introduction
- 501(c)3: Non-Profit agencies began in 1981
- Founded by a minister and wife involved in social justice movements.
- Volunteering for any non-profit is important and not all people associated with a non-profit are volunteers. They are paid and some salaries are high like the director of the America Red Cross.
- NEJA are all volunteers and runs on donations.
- Focus is Justice
- NEJA takes a broad view of justice
- Farmworker focus and how poorly treated and paid they are even today.
- It's not about charity but justice
- "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; show him how to catch fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."
- This famous quote captures the issue of justice.
- Prison and Labor Issue
- The US prisons have more people than any other country.
- 2.4 million people in prison in the US | LINK
- The Percy Amendment 1979
- Open the way for factories to use prison workers for labor. Why?
- No one is against prisoners working but
- Free labor, not health care (Gov't does that), not travel costs, etc.
- This is a "pot of gold" for corporations/capital.
- The prison system with factories is a 40 billion dollar industry
- Maquiladoras at a Glance [Check out the link...alarming!]
- This is another issue related to labor and corporate maneuvers to lower the cost of wages.
- Three Strikes your Out Law in CA has significantly increased the prison population when first enacted in 1994 and then revised in 2012.
- 34 prisons have been built in CA in the past 30 year; while only 1 university has ben built.
- California’s expenditures on its correctional system and its public education systems have followed different trajectories over the last few decades. In 1970, corrections received just 3.7 percent of the state's general fund revenue, while UC and the California State University systems together received nearly 14 percent. Today, corrections accounts for almost 9 percent of California general funds, while UC and the California State University system receive 5.2 percent. LINK
NOTES FOR PERIOD D: TUESDAY 9/13/16
- Regular introduction material as with previous periods
- Percy Amendment of1979...
- Students look up the amendment on computer
- Before this law, prisoners made stuff for the state you were incarcerated. The labor could NOT cross state lines. Work was a good thing for the State.
- This law allowed prison made goods crossing state lines.
- This paved the way for more laws to feed the prison system and the 2.4 million people in prison now. We have over 7 million people falling under the Department of Corrections.
- Why was this law passed anyway?
- Corporations get cheap labor and other benefits. What might they be?
- See Maquiladoras above!
- Since 2008, our economic recession, to today where we are in a jobless recovery.
- So if the jobs are going out of the country or into prisons, where are the jobs for regular people?
- CA Proposition 21 [Ask Fr. Greg Boyle about this when he visits us in March!]
- You can be charged as an adult. Youth couldn't even vote on this law b/c they were under 18 years of age.
- Anti-gang law that didn't stop Gang activity. It just put more young people in prison at the age of 14.
- Looking Up Related Information by Students . . .
- Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) [Tatham, Hackel, Au-Yeung, Molina]
- What about it?
- WACKENHUT Security. [Achilles, Darna, Jack, Jaden]
- What about it?
- G4S is a private security firm. [Patrick, Robert, GC, Leon, Chris]
- They are based right here in San Francisco down on Brannon Street. In the US, they work with DHS, Border protection, Securities Customs and they move detainees around in the prison system.
- UNICOR [Sean, Nicolas, Ryan, Alex]
- What about it?
- Khan introduces himself as a USF student and addresses the UN Development Goals and why he is part of NEJA.
- Tom follows
REMINDER: DUE NEXT CLASS
- QUIZ on Byron Reading
- IN-CLASS PROJECT: There are two options below. Choose ONE of them. Your final work will be posted to this blog. Title your post: Period [?]: [Last Name].
- OPTION 1: Prophet Principle, CST, and E. Warren
- NYT & Warren Article
- Take the prophetic principle as given by H. Smith in his reading and apply it to the Warren article.
- In your application show how CST via the W. Byron article supports Warren's views.
- Use direct quotes from ALL sources to support what you write.
- You may add relevant art work, photos, video etc. to your post to make it more interesting.
- Create a works cited entry for the Warren Article in NoodleTools. This is a newspaper article on the web.
- Post your work to this Justice Blog titling it as given above.
- OPTION 2: OT Prophets, Bible, E. Warren Graphic
- OT Foundations of Prophetic Justice (Worksheet)
- From the worksheet, look at Numbers 4 & 5
- Choose ONE topic to explore under ONE of the numbers.
- Look up the biblical passages associated with the topic.
- Create a post on the Blog that summarizes what the biblical passages say about the concept.
- Use ONE very good direct quote from the passage that supports your summary
- Add a relevant picture/image/video that connects your summary to the Warren article. Explain the connection.
_____________________________________________________________
UPCOMING ASSIGNMENT:- None for next class.
____________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment