Category: take action

politics, social justice and ways you can make a difference in the world around you.

End Genocide in Darfur

From Sojourners:

The inspiration for this subject line didn’t come from Pollyanna. It came from the late Senator Paul Simon. After reflecting on the genocide in Rwanda, he said: “If every member of the House and Senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then I think the response would have been different.”

That’s a powerful statement. It means that we had the power to stop the genocide in Rwanda, but that too many of us chose not to act. It also means that we have the power now to stop the genocide in Darfur if we do choose to act.

Sojourners is teaming up with our good friends at the Save Darfur Coalition and nearly 100 organizations to gather 1 million signatures on postcards. These postcards and their messages will be sent to President Bush, urging him to take action. After you’re done signing, you will have the opportunity to spread the word to your friends. Gathering 1 million signatures is as simple as you passing the alert to 10 people, who each send to 10 people, and so on.

Since the beginning of the conflict in Darfur, an estimated 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million people have been displaced. The world has watched silently. Paul Rusesabagina, whose life and experience with the 1994 genocide in Rwanda was portrayed in the movie Hotel Rwanda, put it this way: “A detachment of well-equipped peacekeepers, made up of less than one-twentieth of the American troops now stationed in Iraq, could have easily stopped the killings without risk” (emphasis added).

In short, we are asking President Bush to give real meaning to the words, “Never Again.”

In addition to joining the Million Voices for Darfur campaign, we invite you to come to Washington, D.C., for a rally on April 30 to demand that we use our resources to end the genocide in Darfur. In addition to the rally, the Save Darfur Coalition is sponsoring lobby days on April 28 and May 1, so we encourage you to come early or stay late!

Thank you for using your voice. We believe that with God’s grace working in and through us, we can end this genocide.

Peace,
The Sojourners Organizing Team
Adam, Matt, Christa, and Nadia

Fuel from the farm

From today’s WDL

By JONATHAN BLUNDELL Daily Light staff writer
Tuesday, April 4, 2006 11:55 AM CDT

CARL’S CORNER, Texas — At a small truck stop just south of the Ellis County line, music legend Willie Nelson and friends, including Academy Award winner Morgan Freeman, are hoping to change the world, one community at a time.
Carl’s Corner has become a landmark to motorists along Interstate 35 over the years and now Nelson hopes it will become a model for the country’s use of alternative fuels.
Nelson introduced his plans at a press conference and ground breaking Saturday afternoon.
“We’re kicking things off in Texas from here,” Hill County native Nelson said. “I came from around here and I think what we’re doing will be a light at the end of the tunnel for farmers everywhere.”
That light at the end of the tunnel Nelson is hoping for is biodiesel, the process of turning feedstock oil and used cooking oil into working fuel for diesel engines.
The Carl’s Corner truckstop has already begun selling BioWillie fuel to truckers and other interested motorists, but with a partnership between Nelson and Pacific Biodiesel Inc., a new refinery plant will be built on two acres behind the landmark destination, that has a capacity to refine 8,000 gallons of fuel a day, or two million gallons a year.
“The idea is for a community-based facility,” Nelson said. “This is important because we’re starting wars over oil. This will help truckers and small time farmers that we’ve neglected for too long.”
As a part of the partnership, Elgin Cotton Woolmill in Hill County will provide processed cotton seed oil, grow by local farmers, on local farms.
The oil will then be processed into diesel fuel at the refinery.
During off-season months, when cotton is not being grown, the refinery plant will utilize recycled cooking oil for the fuel.
The biodiesel fuel can be used in most late model diesel engines with no changes or modifications to the engine. Older engines may need to change out rubber hosing before using the fuel.
“This all started as a dream 10 years ago in Hawaii,” Pacific BioDiesel president Bob King said. “On Maui we were looking at how to get rid of used cooking oil. On an island that can become a big problem. We found a solution in biodiesel.”
King and his wife Kelly formed Pacific BioDiesel and built their first two plants in Maui. Soon they were asked to build a plant in Japan and have now built plants in Oregon, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
“After we ran into Nelson, things really started happening,” King said. “The dream is getting bigger now and we see this as community-based biodiesel production. We make our fuel from the crops grown in the community and refine it in the community and we sell it in the community. That leads to lots of great things such as jobs in the community. And we also isolate variables in the fuel process. It’s real sustainable.”
King said that after 10 years of use he and his company are very comfortable using the fuel.
“Nelson brought us to Texas,” King said. “And now we’re going to use cotton seed oil or used cooking oil to produce two million gallons of fuel for this community. Every community will experiment with what works best in their community. Cotton can’t be grown in all areas, but the local farmers know what grows best and they can rotate their crops to reduce the need for pesticides.”
The plant will be designed for multi-feedstock, so other feed crops can be grown and used as well. The process takes about five days, from the time the feedstock enters the refinery, till the time the biodiesel fuel is ready.
“This is a unique process,” King said. “The local farmer is growing the fuel and once it’s done in the refinery we have ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) spec. biodiesel.”
If construction goes as planned, the refinery plant is scheduled to open July 4.
“We’re counting on local farmers to grow the fuel and for local restaurants to ‘supersize’ their fries for recycling their cooking oil,” King said. “And July 4 will be our independence day.”
Brian Lindgren with Elgin Cotton Woolmill said the plant would be a big boost to the local farmer.
“We’ve been in this business for 100 years,” Lindgren said. “We buy cotton seeds from the local farmer to turn into cotton seed oil. And any market we can find for cotton seed oil helps all our farmers.”
Carl Cornelius with Carl’s Corner Truck Stop said initially the idea of biodiesel was scary.
“Nelson called me up and said he wanted to put biodiesel in here,” Cornelius said. “That was kinda scary. But we’ve heard nothing but good comments from all the truckers who use BioWillie. Some say it increases their mileage by a couple miles more per gallon. That can add up to one-fifth better mileage and it’s one-fifth less pollution. Some guys are coming in here saying how great it is with tears in their eyes.”
Another advantage of biodiesel is less wear and tear on the engine because of the high lubrication aspects of the fuel.
The fuel also has a very high flash-point, 300 degrees, so it can be shipped and stored without hazardous material warnings.
Mike Nasi with the Biodiesel Coalition of Texas said biodiesel is a part of the future for Texas.
“We represent a family of the biodiesel industry,” Nasi said. “We have to work with the state legislature, Washington and others on biodiesel. There are lots of areas that need to be cleaned up and biodiesel is part of the solution. Think about using biodiesel in the military or on marine crafts. This is a biodegradable fuel for the open waters and seas. It benefits our national security and reduces our dependence on foreign oil. The industry in Texas is doing very positive things.”
For Nelson, it was his wife who brought him into the biodiesel industry.
“I got into biodiesel accidentally from my wife, Annie,” Nelson said. “Three years ago she wanted to buy a Volkswagen Jetta that runs on biodiesel. The car ran good and clean. So I decided to buy a Mercedes. We took it over and filled it with this ‘vegetable oil.’ We heard later that the Mercedes people almost fainted, but the car still runs wonderfully.”
Nelson said with his personal interest in biodiesel and his work with Farm Aid, he put “two and two together.”
“This will help our farmers get out of the hole they’ve been in,” Nelson said. “Our country’s agriculture has been on the bottom rung of the ladder for some time. We’ve lost over eight million farmers over the last 20 to 30 years and this is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
Nelson said farmers can now produce their own fuel, on their own property, with the community refineries or smaller farm-based refineries.
In Japan, Pacific Biodiesel was contracted to build a refinery plant for a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise. The plant processes used cooking oil from 60 restaurants and produces enough biodiesel to completely power one KFC restaurant, as well as numerous cars and trucks.
“Biodiesel and ethanol are the future,” Nelson said. “All these things combined will help us reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The president said recently that Americans are addicted to oil. I’ve been addicted to a lot of things, but I didn’t know I was addicted to oil. Now I’m going to get off of it as soon as possible.”
Nelson said he’s also used biodiesel on his tour buses whenever possible.
“We’re running biodiesel 100 percent of the time, whenever we can find it,” Nelson said. “It’s still hard to find it in some areas, but we hope to change that.”
Nelson also hinted that Carl’s Corner would offer E-85 in the future as well. E-85 is an alternative fuel for gasoline-powered vehicles, based on a mixture of gasoline and ethanol.
Currently only 1 percent of American cars run on diesel fuel.
“I’m concerned about the future of America,” Nelson said. “We need to start growing our own fuel and quit being dependent upon foreign oil. It’s going to be a great help financially to the farmers. There’s a much greater bottom line on fuel than there is on food.”
Actor Morgan Freeman was also on hand to share his support for the project.
“Nelson and I met years ago doing a movie in Hawaii,” Freeman said. “And now we find ourselves interested in this same problem. We’re killing ourselves with our use of energy and this is one of the healing agents. I see a great future for biodiesel around the world.”
As a principal partner in the project, Nelson said he was very invested in the refinery plant.
“We’ve invested quite a bit of time and money into this project,” Nelson said. “I thought I had discovered something unusual when I first found out about biodiesel, but it turns out we’re still 10 years behind most other countries of the world. I got involved through Farm Aid and I’m working to get others involved as well. Knowledge is power. We have to increase the supply side, because there is a definite demand side. Fuel prices will continue to increase, but this fuel source should remain constant.”
“If each community can have their own plant, we don’t have to worry about other areas or countries causing our fuel prices to increase,” Nelson’s wife Annie said. “There are no variables to be determined by other countries.”
Nelson and Freeman followed their announcement Saturday with a tour of a similar facility in Durant, Okla., on Sunday.
There are nearly 50 biodiesel refinery plants across the country at this time.

BioDiesel



Willie Nelson was back home today in Carl’s Corner (south of Ellis County and just north of Hillsboro) to promote a new bio diesel refinery plant to be built on site of Carl’s Corner’s truck stop.
Morgan Freeman showed up to show his support as well.
The refinery will take cotton seed oil, grown and processed in Hill County and transform it into bio diesel fuel. When cotton is out of season, the refinery will use used cooking oil to produce the fuel. Willie and Pacific Bio Diesel expect the plant to produce 2 million gallons of fuel a year.
Texas produces around one billion gallons of traditional oil a year.

Students protest

Students from Irving, Dallas, Plano and Mesquite ISD protested at City Hall for a 2nd day today.

The students were protesting new measures discussed by the House to make helping illegal immigrants a crime.

Many Hispanic leaders are asking the students to remain in school now, after two days of walk-outs and protest on Saturdays and Sundays.

After thousands of North Texas students left classes for a second day in response to proposed legislation that would make it a felony to enter the country illegally or to help illegal immigrants, community leaders issued a plea Tuesday afternoon for the students to take more “constructive” action.
In a quickly-arranged news conference in City Hall’s Flag Room, the leaders talked about the need for students to end the walkouts, and gave several students the opportunity to speak about their feelings.
“The walkouts have been very effective, but it’s time for everyone to go back to school and start writing letters and making phone calls to your senator or congressman,” said Domingo Garcia, a Dallas lawyer and current National Civil Rights Chairman for LULAC.
Garcia said a civil rights march will be held in Dallas on April 9, and encouraged students and others who felt strongly about the issue to plan on taking part in that event rather than missing additional classes.

I wonder how much of the protest was heard about in Washington. And sadly I wonder if it has made any difference.

An interesting sidebar: KTVT had video of several students saying they were organized by using Myspace.com. Makes you realize how powerful a tool it can be if used properly. Several thousand students organized the rally on Dallas City Hall with Myspace. It’s a powerful tool for sure.