Bisphenol_A. Just how harmful is it to humans, especially infants and toddlers. Scientists, mothers and even small business people gave testimony at a public hearing held at the Civic Center in Augusta on September 6th to a joint committee comprised of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the Maine Board of Environmental Protection. The board members heard from those who were in favor of expanding an existing law protecting infants to also include toddlers and from opponents.

In this edition, I review several past programs about Pax Christi Maine's speakers at retreats and assemblies in Winslow and Orland, Maine. Also, I will show footage shot last spring at the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in Washington D.C. The purpose is to familiarize the audience with the common goals of both organizations. This coming October 13th, an independent journalist and co-founder of a Catholic Worker House in Worcester, Mass. will speak about reverence for life that is so...

On August 17th at the 11th Annual Burdock Festival in Starks, Maine, David Homa explained that permaculture is much more than a way to plant crops. Of course, since the health of our soil is critical to our long term survival, he gave folks a broad overview of the twelve design principles of permaculture and how to build up a sustainable soil bed in layers.

On June 16th, over a hundred people gathered at Pierce Park in Bangor to listen to a variety of social workers, people of faith, government officials and poor people themselves. This event was sponsored by a dozen social activist groups across the state and hosted by the Eastern Maine Peace and Justice Center. In front a statue dedicated to workers in 1925 (our State used to honor workers as heroes) you will hear seldom mentioned facts about the war on the poor and just who gets hurt. If you...

In part two of GAIA 101, Alder Stone describes how climate change will occur VERY rapidly. His explanation of Systems Science in part one will make it very clear how this will all happen. We do not have as much time as we think. We have but a short time to think about how we will cope with extreme climate change. One thing is certain, we have nowhere near the technology to get us out of this mess. The only solution will be our own adaptability. Alder Stone has received degrees in many...

Many have seen or heard of Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth. Five years ago that film shocked people into believing that our planet was on a course of destructive warming, IF WE DIDN'T CHANGE OUR FOSSIL FUEL BURNING WAYS. In this program, you are going to hear from a PhD who's studied many science disciplines and put them together. He will tell us of a new science called Systems Sciences that views the earth as a living entity, not a blob of unrelated rocks, air, water, plants and animals...

From March 23 to 26, over 750 people of faith from over 40 different religions and faith organizations gathered at the Double Tree Crystal City Hotel in the Washington DC area to lobby our Federal Government to create a fair and just budget. Keynote Speaker, Representative Emmanuel Cleaver of Kansas City, Missouri called it a moral document.

On March 20, Bring Our War Dollars Home, Code Pink, Occupy Maine and others gathered at the Hall of Flags in Augusta to rally support for a budget that doesn't hurt the poor and the working class. Morgana Warner-Evans sang a couple songs she had written. Governor LePage actually stood and listened. He didn't seem to like some of the lyrics about him. Speakers, including Waterville's Mayor, Karen Heck, had some good suggestions on how to balance the budget. Many interesting ideas were put...

On May 1st, Pax Christi Maine held their Annual Assembly at the H.O.M.E. Center in Orland Maine. Bill Slavic of Pax Christi gave out this year's Oscar Romero Award posthumously to Jim Harney through his partner, Nancy Minot. H.O.M.E. founder, Sister Lucy Poulin and others from the 40 year old center talk about how HOME evolved from Homemakers Organized for More Employment to a homeless shelter and underground railroad for poor immigrants. Sister Lucy, a former Carmelite nun, is living proof...

On March 8th at Mount Ararat High School, students read a play written by two Mt. Ararat Seniors, Hilary and Morgana Warner-Evans. The main story-line is that the mill manager asked a young, privileged girl to work with the French-Canadian girls to spy on them about an impending strike and report to him. The girl, Mary Cunningham, agrees at first but soon has a change of heart. The Warner-Evans twins researched this true event really well and wrote a revealing play about the early labor...

On May 15th, representatives of the Maine Indian Tribes met with journalists and educators to discuss the use of Indian names and logos as mascots for Maine Schools. Some say that using Indians as mascots is respectful. Most indigenous people say it belittles them. A little history on the words commonly used to depict Indians would tend to agree with them. In the final analysis, it's their culture and they should have the last word on whether or not such usage is offensive. Those Indians in...

On May 24th I approached the Madison Selectmen to draft a letter to Mike Michaud telling him, 'No more supplement funding for the Wars'. The Seletmen felt that it was beyond their scope to do so and that it ought to be up the the voters. I asked that it be put on the Town Warrant for the next Town Meeting (June).

A law (LD 1095) is currently in front of Maine's Criminal Justice Committee that would allow building a private prison in Maine AND allow Maine inmates to be shipped to any private prison in the US. If we think private prison will save tax dollars, just remember, private prisons are already heavily subsidized with your tax dollars.

April 14th, the Amnesty International group from the Watershed School of Rockland, Maine presented a program about censorship. Local authors and others read excerpts from many writers and poets from around the world.

Jim Merkel, author of the book 'Radical Simplicity' was the keynote speaker at the 17th annual H.O.P.E. Festival at the University of Maine, Orono on April 30th. Jim spoke with authority about how the military-industrial complex is destroying the sustainability of our Earth.

henna Bellows, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Maine tells us how the media repeats lies told by politicians and special interest groups. Often, those same people fail to tell the whole truth. This leaves us all in a position where we do not know how to vote in an intelligent manner. She offers specific cases. After Shenna speaks, Jay Davis of the Maine Center for Public Reporting explains how untrue facts get delivered to the people.

The December 14th rally at the Hall of Flags attracted hundreds of people concerned about Governor LePages threatened cuts to Maine Care. Speakers talked both about the bad economics of such cuts and the even worse morality. Labor, veterans, medical people, clergy, students, educators, elderly and dozens of other diverse corners of humanity attended. After that, you will hear from Jerry Provencher of the Occupy Brunswick movement as Bruce Gagnon, host of 'This Issue', another cable access...

In the last two issues of Maine Social Justice we learned from Alder Stone about Systems Sciences and how those systems would bring about abrupt climate change. After that change, the world will be a very different place than what we know today. Alder suggested that we develop our own adaptability. He left it up to us as to how we would achieve that. In this issue, Jonn Carroll, professor of Environmental Conservation at the University of New Hampshire will inform us about restoring a local...

Part 3 of a series about Grassroots Media presented at Unity College on September 10. Three people from Worcester, Massachusetts told folks how they put together and promoted a cable access TV show called 'Esperanza y Su Exito', which in english, means 'Hope and Your Success'.

This is part 2 of the series on the Maine Grassroots Media Conference held on September 10th at Unity College, Maine. In this segment we wll hear from Matt Murphy, Program Manager of WERU FM - Radio 89.9 and Ned Lightner, Program Manager of Belfast Access Television. They will talk about and answer questions about how the internet has affected Community Radio and Local Access Television. The audience not only had good questions but they presented some imaginative solutions, as well. All agree....

Indigenous People's Day was celebrated at the University of Maine in Augusta while the main stream media focused on Columbus Day. any serious student of history will tell you that Columbus and the entire European cartel were extremely cruel to the indigenous people of this continent. The biggest lie of all was that the Europeans 'discovered' what was to become the American Continent. In truth, this land was discovered thousands of years before by Native Americans.

This will be the first of a possible series of five shows created from 'The First Maine Grassrooots Media Conference' held at Unity College on September 10. I wanted to show details of some of the presenters. Their presentations give both everyday people and also those already in the grassroots media business, such as ourselves, very good information on how to start and develop local grassrooots news agencies and vehicles.

In March of 2010, the Maine State Standing Committee on Health and Human Services narrowly killed a bill (LD 1706) The Children's Wireless Protection Act. If enacted, the bill would have required all cell phones sold in Maine to carry a warning that cell phones might cause brain tumors.

On August 27, at what used to be the Brunswick Naval Air Station, the taxpayers of Maine picked up the tab for 48,000 gallons of jet fuel and other expenses so that the Navy could show off their F-18 fighters through their dare devil team called the 'Blue Angels'.