Monday, October 25, 2010

The Next Hot Topic is FOOD!

Ater a busy election season, LWVDDH will move on to emphasize our hottest topics. November is all about FOOD! As usual, we study up on the facts and talk it over first. So will you join us for movie night on Thursday, Nov 18th?

We'll begin with light refreshments at 6:30 and an introduction to our topic. Then we'll watch Food, Inc. (Find out more at http://www.foodincmovie.com/) From 8:30 to 9 we will review the highlights and our priorities. Be a part of our grassroots group and you'll be reminded that doing something important can also be lots of fun.

Our office is located at 120 Military at Cherry Hill, inside Christ Episcopal Church. They generously make room for us to host public events. We'll be on the 2nd floor waiting for you!

Then on Wednesday, Dec 1st some of us will go to Sustainable Food Potluck, sponsored by Cool Cities Dearborn and Sierra Club. This will be at UM Dearborn from 6pm to 8pm.

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Thursday Nov 18th 6:30-9pm Food Inc Movie Night, LWVDDH office at 120 Military

Wednesday Dec 1st 6 - 8pm Sustainable Food Potluck, UM Dearborn off of Hubbard Dr

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Voter Guides for Nov 2

Because our cities are divided into different districts, you may not know who you are to choose from. For example, Dearborn Hts voters might be confused about their state rep district, is it #16 or 17?

Go here to see your exact ballot listing - www.publius.org – and enter your name and city.

Dearborn voters addendum - check your ballot and district in case you are in this district rather than the 15th Congressional District:

Candidates for the Congressional 14th District Representative
Don Ukrainec - Republican
John Conyers Jr. - Democratic
Marc J. Sosnowski - U.S. Taxpayers
Richard J. Secula - Libertarian


Non-partisan candidate Q&A for your community and all proposals are included in the LWVDDH publications below:

Dearborn voters click here:

Dearborn Heights voters click here:

For Congressional and statewide offices (Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, University leadership and judicial positions). Because of the number of congressional districts, this is a 2 part document.
Pages 1-16 (Governor, SOS, AG to District 1- 9)

Pages 17-32 (District 10-15, State Board, University and Judicial offices)

Although some are discouraged, some are frustrated, and many are apathetic, being able to vote is a hard-won and highly important citizenship right and duty. Voting Day is November 2 for all those able to get to the polls on that day. Until then, go to the City Clerk's office anytime to vote absentee ballot.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

H2O taste test at the 10/10 climate change event

Many joined us at UM Dearborn Sunday afternoon for our sustainability walk and work party. Sierra Club, Dearborn Cool Cities, Student Environment Association (SEA) of UM -D and Fordson High School Environmental Club held the event at the Environmental Interpretive Center. Most of the sunny afternoon was spent walking through the wooded area, painting pumpkins, and eating donuts with a cup of refreshing apple cider. LWVDDH had an information table with a petition and a water taste test. We had LWVMI Voter Guides, Who's Who 2010 and other resources available.

Several participants signed our petition that will be sent to local and state elected officials asking them to take action on curbing climate change with local action and effective policy. We shared a few ideas about simple
actions for sustainability, such as reduce the amount of time we let our cars idle, and to reduce the amount of plastic and energy wasted because of bottled water. 50 million barrels of crude oil are used to make the plastic
bottles and ship them around the nation, while tons and tons of plastic bottles end up in landfills, greenways and waterways. What a waste!

Because of the emphasis on bottled water, we sponsored a blind taste test for bottled vs tap water. Bottled water taste and quality depends on the brand and source, but for our test we used Ice Mountain Spring Water. The large gallon containers were $1.19 each. We also brought glass bottles of Dearborn tap water, which costs $0.0016 per gallon. We refilled and poured the samples from matching glass jars to disguise its source. Tasters drank from unmarked small paper cups, chose descriptive words for each sample - clean, metallic, tasteless etc, and told us their preference of the 2 samples. Though a handful of tasters had no preference, there was almost an even split between tap and bottled.

For those who preferred the bottled water over tap water, a better choice than wasteful, costly plastic water bottles is to simply put a filter on their tap. 25% of bottled water also comes from a municipal tap anyway!
The best suggestion for portable water is a stainless steel bottle rather than plastic because the less plastic we use, the better. Not only that, but plastic containers can leach chemicals into the water - never a good thing. We kept our sample tap water in glass for this event to avoid that plastic taste that is sometimes detected in bottled water.

After we started taking our table down, we attempted to form an evergreen tree shape for an aerial photo. Many participants had left by that time, but we managed with those who were still lingering. When the photos are
published online, we'll post a link.

This was not a one-time feel-good event for us, nor for the other participants. We'll keep the momentum going at the UM Dearborn Sustainability Festival and Roundtable III in a couple of weeks, Oct 18th -23rd. Jenni Dunn will be speaking at this event to encourage informed and active citizenry with a briefing on local government, advocacy on issues and making an impact for good in our community. Connections made at this and future events will strengthen our small voices and make a big difference!


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Dearborn Voters! 15th District State Rep and Ballot Proposals Video

The City of Dearborn hosted the candidates forum on Sept 29th which included a round of questions for 3 candidates vying for the Michigan House of Representatives, 15th District.  George Darany, Suzanne Sareini and Daryl Smith answered several questions.  We also heard from LWVDDH President Mary Bugeia about the 2 state-wide ballot proposals and a brief statement from a candidate for Wayne County Executive.
 
 
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