Walpole Peace Group Talks: "Fixing Our Broken Democracy" on Wednesday, February 22 at Walpole Library - "Climate Change" on March 8

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group is sponsoring two timely talks at the Walpole Public Library on important issues:

“Fixing Our Broken Democracy”- February 22, 2017 at 7:00 PM at the Walpole Public Library: A slide show chronicling  the ordinary citizen’s loss of political power, will be presented by Sharon resident Paul Lauenstein. The talk shows how corporations and wealthy citizens have thwarted the democratic process, and how “We, the People” can regain our rightful control of our government. 

“Climate Change Study Finds N.E. May Face Rapid Warming” – March 8, 2017 at 7:30 PM at the Walpole Public Library:  Professor  Ambarish Karmalkar will talk about the conclusions of a recent study by the Northeast Climate Science Center that New England is likely to experience significantly greater warming compared to the global average warming as well as warming in the lower 48 states. 

See below for more details on these talks. 

Fixing Our Broken Democracy

A slide show chronicling  the ordinary citizen’s loss of political power, will be presented by Sharon resident Paul Lauenstein in the Walpole Public Library’s Community Room on Wednesday evening, February 22, at  7:00 p.m. Sponsored by Walpole Peace and Justice Group, this talk shows how corporations and wealthy citizens have thwarted the democratic process, and how “We, the People” can regain our rightful control of our government.

  

In his immortal Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln wished that, "this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” However, according to a 2014 study by political scientists from Princeton and Northwestern, we now live in an oligarchy controlled by corporations and billionaires. A series of Supreme Court decisions culminating in Citizens United v. FEC (2010) have opened the floodgates to money in politics, allowing an economic elite to pressure our politicians to serve their interests rather than those of the general public. How can "We the People" assert our constitutional sovereignty over powerful special interests, and live up to Lincoln’s vision of government that serves all the people?

Paul Lauenstein is a retired business owner from Sharon who volunteers for We the People Massachusetts overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision with a constitutional amendment affirming that artificial entities are not people and money is not speech.

Climate Change Study Finds N.E. May Face Rapid Warming

On Wednesday, March 8,  at 7:30 PM in the Walpole Public Library’s Community Room, UMass Professor Ambarish Karmalkar will talk about the conclusions of a recent study by the Northeast Climate Science Center that New England is likely to experience significantly greater warming compared to the global average warming as well as warming in the lower 48 states. As the lead author of the study, Ambarish will speak about the science behind climate change and the methodology used to predict its impact at a regional level. Understanding the projected climatic changes specific to the northeast US holds great importance for our regional planners.

Ambarish is a research fellow at the Northeast Climate Science Center (NE CSC) and the Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Department of Geosciences, UMass Amherst, and the lead author of the study on the regional  consequences of global warming in the United States. At the NE CSC, he is working on understanding observed and projected climatic changes in the northeastern US relevant to hydrological and ecological impacts. The main focus of his work is communication of information on climate change and associated uncertainties for impacts assessment.

The Walpole Public Library is at 143 School Street, Walpole. The talk is sponsored by the Walpole Peace and Justice Group.