News Releases
News from the Lane Community College Peace Center
May 12, 2008
Bobbie Wrenn Banks, founder of Pathways to Peace & former National President of WAND - Women's Action for New Directions, to speak at Lane Community College on May 15, 2008
Eugene - The Lane Peace Center & WAND are proud to co-sponsor Bobbie Wrenn Banks to speak on "Our Nation's Checkbook: Who We Are and What We Care About. How does the national checkbook affect Eugene citizens?" Banks will speak at the Lane Community College Main Campus on May 15, 2008 from 1:00-2:20 PM in Building 17, room 309.
This presentation examines U.S. federal budget priorities for Fiscal Year 2008 in the belief that the federal budget is a moral document, revealing national values and calling citizens to be informed and to act.
Banks focuses on the $502 billion Pentagon budget, seeking to understand why the Pentagon consumes well over a billion dollars per day and what this means for our own lives. Weapons and war claim hundreds of billions of tax dollars -- while millions of Americans lack health insurance, bridges are collapsing, education in America is in crisis, and our national debt exceeds $9 trillion.
Women's Action for New Directions (WAND) is reaching out across the country with a "Great American Pie Campaign" to raise awareness of our nation's priorities. Federal budget priorities favor militarism and war. Change will come when women, educated and empowered, take action. WAND's Campaign Platform asserts five specific goals: (1) Spend smart defense dollars; (2) Build a nuclear weapons-free world; (3) Make way for women at the table; (4) Invest in people; and (5) Rein in the debt.
Bobbie Wrenn Banks came to WAND in 1984 when she heard Dr. Helen Caldicott, WAND's founder, speak at Emory University. Moved by Caldicott's speech, she helped establish the Atlanta WAND chapter and served as National WAND President from 1992 until 1994. She became WAND National Field Director in the fall of 1996 and spent the next decade leading WAND's growth nationwide. In 2006, Bobbie Wrenn founded Pathways To Peace, Inc., a consulting firm that offers support to individuals and organizations working for peace, nuclear disarmament and the empowerment of women. In this campaign year, she is traveling around the country as part of WAND's "Great American Pie Campaign" to raise awareness of our nation's checkbook (our money, our priorities) as a vital lens through which to assess candidates and engage elected officials.
Complete information for the event is available at: http://2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/peacecenter
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Media contact: Stan Taylor, Lane Peace Center, 463-5820
