Mark your Calendar NOW for May 20 & 21!
Please make plans to attend our Annual Meeting this spring. More details to follow!
https://www.pennsylvaniaclimateconvergence.org/
PENNSYLVANIA CLIMATE CONVERGENCE June 11-13
During this June action, advocates, activists, and concerned residents will converge on Harrisburg to tell
our governor, lawmakers, and regulators that they are having the wrong conversation on climate and need to change their stance. Our government is keeping Pennsylvania from being part of the solution to our biggest crisis by denying climate change subsidizing fossil fuel production ignoring hazards to communities from fossil fuel production prioritizing jobs in a dying industry rather than training for a new generation of jobs in clean, renewable energy talking about cutting greenhouse gas emissions while ramping up fracked-gas extraction, production, and pipelines.
The right conversation is happening in the public square, in the streets. Join us there for three days of art, education, and action!
Saturday, June 11 – Festival of art, music, theatre, talks, tabling, and more!
Sunday, June 12 – Day of action starting with an interfaith service followed by a march and actions.
Monday, June 13 – Day of action at the Capitol.
Go to the site, sign the petition, learn the details, and plan to attend if you are interested and able.
PUBLIC ADVOCACY
A good way to participate in Advocacy for policies that support your values and will move us toward a
liveable future is to work with fellow UUs across PA with UUJusticePA and collaborating organizations.
A first and important step is to learn about the candidates you wish to represent you, VOTE, know
whoever is elected, and monitor their positions on important legislation! UUJustice PA Teams include Environmental Justice, Economic Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Gun Violence Prevention, Reproductive Justice, and Good Government. Check out the Web site at https://uujusticepa.org/ to learn what each team is doing, consider joining to support this work, and become an active participant in one (or more )of the Teams and share their work with our Congregation and our Postcarding Team. If you want to participate in UUJusticePA Postcarding and receive Action Alerts, contact Becky Studer, your current UUJusticePA Liaison, at 412-225-9946 or rkstuder@gmail.com to be added to our Advocacy Action list. She will provide the UUJusticePA postcards and add you to the email notice list. Once our Congregation is meeting in person, we can do some of our writing as a group after church, or you can join a monthly Zoom postcard writing meeting if you so desire. Otherwise, you can write (or Call, or Visit) on your own whenever it fits your schedule. To learn about specific legislation go to https://www.legis.state.pa.us/ , click on ‘legislation’, enter the Bill #, and search. This isn’t a must do, as most of our Action Alerts provide language to respond, but it never hurts to learn more and become better acquainted with the legislative process. To find your current Senator or Representative’s contact information, click on https://www.legis.state.pa.us/ and go to the ‘find my legislator’ on the left side of the page. You can find their home office address (should you want to visit them locally), their Harrisburg office address, and phone contact at both offices. Sites that are also useful for Climate Justice action include: –https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/, https://paipl.us/ and; UUJustice collaborates with all of these active groups. https://www.pennfuture.org/ are also useful sites that often offer communication with your legislators with a simple ‘click’. Check any or all of these to stay up to date with what is happening in Harrisburg.
Current Action Alerts: TELL YOUR PA REPRESENTATIVE to VOTE NO on HB 2169! House Bill 2169 is another attempt at legislating a school voucher system in Pennsylvania.
In short, the bill proposes to authorize nearly $170 million to be doled out to subsidize tuition and other
expenses for students attending private schools, institutions of higher education, and entities that are not
accountable to the public for their decisions or results.
There are no income guidelines to receive a voucher and little control over how the funds are used.
HB2169 would undermine Pennsylvania’s responsibility to ensure every student in every community has
equal access to public education. School districts in Pennsylvania are already underfunded and this
legislation requires that money for vouchers be deducted from a school district’s state subsidy, which is
something many school districts are not equipped to handle.
HOUSE BILL 2169 is a bad idea, bad policy, bad for public education. and bad for taxpayers.
Click here to send an email to your Representative. https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-
state-lawmakers-to-oppose-hb-2169-harrisburgs-latest-school-voucher-bill/?
Feel free to follow up with a phone call, a postcard, or a personal letter as well.