A Project of YAOTL

Acknowledging a Special Staff member February 18, 2010

by Breli

When you call LVEJO the friendly welcoming voice that answers the phone will most likely be Oscar, he is a warm hearted person that brings LVEJO joy. Oscar is 74 years old and originally from Texas. He has lived in the Little Village community since1963. Although Oscar likes his Latino community, he dislikes that there are too many gang bangers and gang violence.

At age 19 he was drafted and sent to Korea, “I got lucky, the Korean War was over”, he says. Since then, most of his past jobs were as a structural draftsman. He was also part of Senior CAPS (Chicago’s Alternative Policing Strategy), which is a partnership between the Chicago Police Department and community residents to help reduce crime and provide the needs to seniors living in the community.

Oscar has worked at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization for approximately two years. He lives just two blocks away from the office, “It’s easier when you don’t have to drive in the snow, for me it’s just a walking distance to get to work”, says Oscar. He works four hours every day from 9 am. to 1 pm. answering the office phones. He says, “The experience has been great, I have learned a lot, like how to use the computer, copy machine, fax machine, that’s basically what the job is about, to learn how to operate the basics so I can find a job after this”. What he likes about working with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization is that people are very nice and friendly. “I appreciate having this job”, says Oscar. We are grateful for having him as a member of our staff.

YAOTL Valentine’s Day Party! February 4, 2010

YAOTL ( Young Activists Organizing As Today’s Leaders Presents

Valentine’s Day party

Friday Feb. 12th 3610 W. 26th St.

6 Pm. – 9 Pm.

Featuring

- Open Mic ( Hip Hop, Poetry, Drama)

-Curie Breaker Crew Battle

- DJ Ang ( House, Dance)

$10 suggested donation

NO GANGS… NO VIOLENCE…

The Next Step

The Next Step – COP 16 Mexico

By Breli

What will the outcome of this conference be?

Since the Copenhagen Accord is non-binding and has left numerous concepts to be agreed upon it has brought deliberation about COP 16, which the President of Mexico has announced will be hosted in Cancun from November 29 to December 10, 2010. This Conference will not only serve as an opportunity for government representatives to negotiate on how to reduce green house gas emissions but also a chance for all the people that will be taking part in this action to share their stories, opinions, thoughts, hopes and ideas to make our world an environmentally healthy place for everyone.

Our hope right now is to reach an agreement at this conference as a follow up to the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012. We might have a possibility for an establishment of a binding post-Kyoto international climate agreement in 2010 if climate legislation that offers essential emission cuts and international financial commitments is passed by the U.S. Senate before November 2010.

The conference is open to everyone and there is expected to be up to 20,000 participants. We hope for a good outcome at this conference, let’s make it happen.

The State of the Union address 2010 Commentary

It was only a few days ago, January 27th, that President Barack Obama delivered “The State of the Union Address”. And of course, this had both its pros and cons. First of, President Obama covered a variety of topics during his address; from topics such as the recession, going “green”, and equal pay. The following quote is what I thought was one of the biggest “cons” in Obama’s address: “But to create more of these clean energy jobs, we need more production, more, efficiency, more incentives. And that means building a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in this country. It means making tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. It means continued investment in advanced bio-fuels and clean coal technologies. And yes, it means passing a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make clean energy the profitable kind of energy in America.” Clean coal, and nuclear power is certainly not eco-friendly, energy efficient, nor clean at all from my perspective. It just does not exist. It’s like trying to cleanse a puddle of mud with “Windex” and stating that it’s clean enough. On the contrary, one of the things I fully agreed on was “equal pay”. I am really glad president Obama mentioned this. Women make only about 75cents for every $1 men make. As you can see, there is a major gap between the two quantities. Equal pay would play a very important role in society. It is prejudice for women to get paid less than men. Lets hope this change is made. During The State of The Union, Obama managed to obtain the audiences’ laughter with what he said: “And if there’s one thing that has unified Democrats and Republicans, and everybody in between, it’s that we all hated the bank bailout. I hated it — I hated it. You hated it. It was about as popular as a root canal.” If you missed out on Obama’s State of the Union Address, you can access his speech at the web address at the bottom of this page. Let us know what YOU thought about The State of the Union by sending us an email at elcilantro@lvejo.org http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/us/politics/28obama.text.html?pagewanted=1&sq=the%20state%20of%20the%20union%20address&st=cse&scp=1

By: an anonymous writer(: