OMNI Blog

Botanical Garden of the Ozarks Earth Day Festival

 in Earth Day

We celebrate Earth Day each year with a family-friendly festival, complete with interactive activities, crafts, games, and live music. Guests are invited to celebrate our common home, the earth, and to commit to protecting and preserving it! Join us in our mission to enhance education and environmental awareness by celebrating Earth, our common home, and committing to its protection and preservation at our annual Earth Day Festival on Sunday, April 21, from 3 to 6 pm.  Tickets here.

2nd NWA Labor Spring Tackles Inequality, Outsourcing, Marginalization

 in Labor

The program is free, and the public is welcome. The 2024 NWA Teach-In will highlight the ways that labor unions and collective action can lessen the most pressing problems facing working people in the Ozarks and across the nation: low wages and the persistence of poverty, especially among children; economic inequality; privatization and outsourcing; and the growing marginalization of working people in public life. Topics on the schedule include “Labor Struggles throughout the Nation,” “Fighting for Arkansas Workers” and “Worker Rights at the University of Arkansas.” Speakers include: “The goal is to bring together working people who want to make […]

Housing crisis declares a victory in Fayetteville. What’s next?

 in housing

City Council Voted “Yes” Tuesday April 2 Thank you Omni folks for your support! Wed, Apr 3 2024 at 8:55 AM Next steps: Help Mayor Jordan form a STRONG Task Force to to the job. There are specific groups the city is seeking task force members from: government agencies, nonprofit agencies, renters groups, developers, landlords and community members. Do you fit into any of those categories? If you’re in one of those groups and you’d like to serve on the Housing Task Force and help this town fix its housing problem, then please go to this link to fill out […]

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #173, APRIL 17, 2024

 in WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS

Compiled by Dick Bennett.  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/04/omni-war-watch-wednesdays-173-april-17.html PEACEMAKINGUnited Nations and Better World CampaignCasa Cry, Catholic Worker Newsletter UNITED NATIONS Exciting news! Each year, the Better World Campaign.org publishes a comprehensive guide highlighting America’s crucial role on the global stage through its engagement with the United Nations. This guide equips supporters, policymakers, and inquiring minds with insights to understand the value of U.S. involvement in the UN. It spotlights the value of UN funds and programs in advancing U.S. interests, explains constructive engagement on UN reforms, advocates for full U.S. engagement with key UN bodies, and more. Briefing Book [I checked out BWC, […]

EQUITABLE TAXES ANTHOLOGY #1 April 15, 2024

 in Current Events

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/04/omni-equitable-taxes-anthology-1.html Move to Amend  4-15-24         We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.       – Leona Helmsley, billionaire real estate tax dodger Source: Ralph Nader images Happy Tax Day! Only kidding. The very rich and corporations try harder and are more effective in general in avoiding paying taxes than the rest of us. Here are a few numbers reflecting current tax priorities, legislative responses to promote tax fairness and economic and political equality, and how we, “the little people,” can become more active in promoting […]

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #174, APRIL 15, 2024

 in Climate Memo Mondays

Compiled by Dick Bennett.  https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/04/omni-climate-memo-mondays-174-april-15.html Colin Beavan.  No Impact Man.  2009.Nick Dearden.  Climate-Wrecking Energy Charter Treaty.For The Nation magazine’s climate coverage, see The Nation.com/climate-update-signup. Dick’s Review of Colin Beavan.  No Impact Man.  2009.     I’m still unpacking boxes of books and found and reread a unique and inspiring recounting of one person’s attempt with wife and daughter during one year in NYC to do no harm to the environment and climate: no trash, no carbon dioxide emissions, no toxins!  That’s remarkable enough for recommending the book to you:  No Impact Man by Colin Beavan.  But two inseparable aspects of the book […]

OMNI WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS, #172, APRIL 10, 2024

 in WAR WATCH WEDNESDAYS

Compiled by Dick Bennett   https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/04/omni-war-watch-wednesdays-172-april-10.html Joel Kovel.  Red Hunting in the Promised Land. TOM ENGELHARDT.   “A Slow-Motion World War III?” (Sovietphobia.)  Joel Kovel.  Red Hunting in the Promised Land. In the wake of the Cold War, an eminent social critic examines the roots of America’s anticommunist frenzy.   IWW.“The most original and revealing study of the fear-and-loathing obsession–anticommunism–that has driven [America] loony for most of this century. Every aspect of our lives, public and private, has been debased by this plague. Kovel’s book, in brilliantly showing cause, may offer some sort of cure as we approach a new and hopefully sane […]

OMNI CLIMATE MEMO MONDAYS, #173, APRIL 8, 2024

 in Climate Memo Mondays

Compiled by Dick Bennett.   https://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2024/04/omni-climate-memo-mondays-173-april-8.html Borenstein and The New Republic:  HeatPeter Uetz.  Overpopulation SETH BOREN­STEIN.  “Greenhouse gases shot up in ’23.”  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Apr 07, 2024).  Go to:  Greenhouse gases shot up in ’23.      The New Republic.    A weekly reckoning with our overheating planet. Scientists have previously speculated that melting ice sheets dumping vast quantities of freshwater into the ocean could change the currents of the Atlantic Ocean. The new modeling suggested, though, that complete collapse of the Atlantic Ocean’s current system is no longer “theoretical” and could occur much faster and more completely than anticipated. Europe would abruptly get much colder, seasons […]