We haven't been busy around here...

And I do apologize. We've been busy working on a political campaign and working in retail during the holidays. Both of which can be very draining! But just wanted to drop in and say our plans for this year are as follows. Instead of the small house party to house party method we used in our first year. We will be building around two major events. One around July or so... where we will do a fund raiser for Care which is a global anti-poverty group, and some kind of public forum after the November election. We haven't quite filled in the vision on that one. I'm thinking of some kind of forum where we bring in a few experts, Representatives from political parties, and time for questions from citizens to talk about many of the issues such as health care, education, local infrastructure.

If you are interested in helping with either one please get in touch with me at 404 791 6652 or email at Jim.Nichols@gmail.com.

We are looking to maybe have one or two house parties but our emphasis is going to be on planning these two major events. If people volunteer to hold house parties we will help with possible theme's, contacts, and other support behind the scenes support.

Amnesty International's National White House Call-in Days Oct. 24-27th

3rd District Common Agenda is helping organize a local effort to get people in our community to participate in Amnesty Internationals National White House Call-in Day. The goal is to put Darfur on the President's agenda. Tell your friends and family throughout the country about the call-in effort . If you plan on participating in the call in, please email us at ga3rdcommonagenda@gmail.com so that we can keep count of participants. Or if you would like more info on the crisis get in touch. Also check out Amnesty International USA's webpage on the ongoing genocide in Darfur. As well as the Save Darfur coalitions website.


Call the White House - Insist on Adequate Funding for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Aid in Darfur Region

Killings, torture and rape of hundreds of thousands of civilians, and the destruction of hundreds of villages have continued in Darfur, Sudan since 2003. Four years later Darfur remains one of the world’s worst human rights and humanitarian catastrophes, though recently progress toward a resolution to the conflict has been made.

Why phone calls to the White House? The U.S. government is a leading member state in the United Nations Security Council, which authorized the peacekeeping force for Darfur. We want to ensure that President Bush lives up to his promises to get UN peacekeepers into Darfur by early 2008, to provide critical funding for peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, and to protect conflict-affected civilians
throughout the Darfur region. Thanks to significant pressure from concerned citizens, the U.S.government has taken some important steps on Darfur – now we need to ensure the U.S. government takes important action to facilitate the speedy arrival of the peacekeeping force.


Call the White House at 1-202-456-1111 on October 24-26.

Suggested talking points:

• I am calling to express my deep concern for civilians severely affected by the Darfur conflict,
including displaced persons and conflict-affected civilians in nearby Chad and Central African
Republic.

• In addition to close to 250,000 Darfuri refugees, hundreds of thousands of Chadian civilians and
refugees from CAR have been displaced into Chad as a result of the Darfur conflict.

• The U.S. government has played a significant role in UNSC Resolution 1769 (authorizing UNAMID, the peacekeeping force for Darfur) and related initiatives to bring peace to the people of Darfur. The U.S. government must now provide funding to UNAMID and the multidimensional force in Chad and CAR (MINURCAT). And it must provide additional funding to critical humanitarian operations
in these areas.