Impruve's Sharebook 

February 1, 2012

 
Breaking News:  On Sat. March 17, 2012, Dr. Frank Yurasek, L.Ac, NMD, former M.D. and president of the Oriental Medicine Society who runs a pain clinic at Stroger (County) Hospital on Thursdays, director of the Acupuncture Clinic at National College in Lombard, is a key speaker. 

Dr. Yurasek will kick off his new program:  “Making Your Own Medicine.”

Dr. Yurasek is the teacher and promoter of One Village healing centers 100-hour training program for healers, doctors, nurses, midwives, and women and children in remote locations without doctors or spiritual practitioners,  and community members who want to learn acutherapy and work as acutherapists in barefoot medicine to provide affordable healthcare.

Chatto Wright (pictured), esthetician and award-winning hair designer who owns a salon on the Gold Coat and presents free seminars at The Little Black Pearl, another key speaker, will demonstrate her Chatto organic skincare and haircare products.

Chatto will show you how to prevent or reverse balding, razor bumps, acne, eczema, and psoriasis; and have naturally moisturized and beautiful hair no matter what type, if chemically treated, locs, braids, straight, curly, damaged, dry, no matter your culture or race.

Dr. Maisha Hamilton, former longtime forensic psychologist, will show you how to de-stress using foods, spirituality and relaxation.

Hatice Yavuz, P.T., detox consultant  and nutrition coach,  will demonstrate how to detox and use ionized alkaline water and raw organic food to create pH balance  in the body.  She will distribute samples, too. 

Dr. Ayo Maat, nutrition educator, green researcher, disability advocate and small business consultant, will demonstrate how raw and green living are natural and not at all hard to achieve evn for persons who are disabled.

Pierre Clark, founder of  Chicago Digital Access Alliance (CDAA), will talk about a Google project and introduce you to his partner in the Google Project for nonprofits in Chicago--green blogging professor--Sy Bounds.  Learn what Google is doing in Chicago with HandsOn Net Chicago and CDAA in the Fighting Poverty with Technology  project. www.digitalexcellence.net

All 6 speakers will have PowerPoint presentations to give March 17, but Maat, pH for Balance, and Chatto will also have tables Sun. Feb. 26 12-4 pm at the Black Family Reunion, program for Afrikan Heritage Month at Loyola Park 1230 W. Greenleaf Chicago 60626 --off of  Sheridan Rd (7040 North) and the lakefront. 

RAW (Raising Awareness Worldwide)  a raw organic food vendor in the Chicago French Market 131 N. Clinton Chicago IL, co-owned by Carol Jones and Poly Gaza, will provide raw food samples from the recipes of Carol Jones to all who donate at least $10 to BNICEH (ticket to be issued to donors of $10-20 or more), and RAW will supply free ionized alkaline water to diners who purchase meals or products from them.  

 If you have never been to the Market, take a tour.  There is one hour free parking for all who spend $20 or more.  But you can also take the Metra train, bus, or paratransit (for certified riders).  Paratransit riders may want to use the address of Metra Ogilvie Station on the other side of the building at 118 N. Canal to be on the right side of the street for the vehicle to let down the ramp. The building stretches from Randolph south to Washington --the entrance is wheelchair-accessible.

Some of you will be curious who the beautiful person is in the photo.  That is Chatto.  Come and see her Sat. March 17 11am - 3 pm at 131 N. Clinton Chicago.  

Table massage available on March 17 by advance appointment. Call us. Otherwise, there will be chair massages only.  By Massage Systems Inc. owned by Peter Preston.  Massage Systems travels where you are--home,  business, community event,  etc.

More on Chatto-visit her at www.chatto.com and on YouTube.   
Visit Dr. Yurasek at his website www.acwerks.com and see his videos on YouTube and in the archives at  www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com

Request the Green 'Fun" Raiser flyer (send your email) and Green blog for more information.

Your donations and payment for massages by Peter Preston of Massage Systems Inc. and his massage therapists, and purchase of products from pH for Balance benefit BNICEH and fund trip to Washington DC for IMPRUVE to attend the National Paratransit People's Movement Assembly (NPPMA) Memorial Rally May 14-19, 2012.  BNICEH is also sharing costs of Women’s Conference:  Create Your Own Success to be presented in May with IBEJI Resource Center. Looking for sponsors, product samples, vendors, and new northside site (to replace Loyola University site at Simpson Center).  Sponsor donations will cover scholarships for 100-150 women and pregnant teens, and women in shelters to attend.

See you soon. Stay green.  Be kinder to persons who are disabled (PWD’s), and women and girls  who are in temporary situations of poverty or distress, or as my friend Javier Robles says, “this-abled”.  Patronize BNICEH, RAW, Wright Learning Institute, the other Market vendors, women of integrity in business, and sign up later for classes, future massages with Peter Preston,  and consultations at the speakers'  locations or your office or home.  Ase (ah-shay)! 

Order to chaos. Love and Peace, Maat.

Pass the word.

Many ways to reach Maat: through the ethers, email, blogs, newsgroups. Visit my table Feb. 26 at Loyola Park—buy my handcrafted jewelry, a mask, poetry or artwork.  It’s green.  

greenthinktank@comcast.net  (for green business-related messages only) bniceh@yahoo.com

www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com www.bniceh.blogspot.com
www.maatproducts.blogspot.com

http://greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com/

WE WILL NOT BE SILENT. STOP TRANSIT EUGENICS. Organize One Region At a Time. Call for Transit Summit by IMPRUVE. Midwest Call to Action for Paratransit Riders, Disability Activists, ADAPT, Human Rights Activists, Transit Advocates, and Civil Rights Activists-- Restore Affordable Fares, Institute Equitable Paratransit Fare, Let the People Have Control. Green Ownership. Green Paratransit. DON'T VOTE THEM BACK IN IF THEY WON'T HELP PARATRANSIT and the General Disability Community!! Write to DOJ to demand that FTA enforce ADA and Transit Fare Equity, and Meet with Paratransit Riders. Write to FTA on Behalf of Illinois and Detroit Partransit Riders Now. Write later on behalf of all other States having Problems. Visit us at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/IMPRUVE and www.greenthinktankfordisabilitycommunity.blogspot.com. Sign our Declaration of Transit Freedom and Justice. Get signatures for us--at least 10,000 more needed. Downalod from IMPRUVE Yahoo Group. Write personal letters (no form letters) to Obama administrator to stop Transit Eugenics, Oppression of Paratransit Riders, Tyranniy by Carriers Calling Police on Paratransit Riders Who Do Not Want to Be Stranded and Lack of ADA Accommodations in Zone 3 in IL, Stranding of Riders in Detroit, Inflexibility, your federal legislators, sttae and federal legislators responsible for transportaton and tell them to stop neglecting the people who ride paratransit and the riders and drivers who want to own or control their own green paratransit!! Make calls, do fundraising, do clerical or advocacy work, develop training for planning local rallies and organized March on Washington D.C. Can't volunteer--then donate. Call 773-416-7366. Come back to help. We did great workshops and organizing in Detroit at the U.S. Social Forum. Now it is time to act nationally. We heard from Chicago, Detroit, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Hartford, New Orleans, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor. How about yiure city or state--refer paratrbist riedsr to us at impruve2@yahoo.com. Tell them to subscribe to the newsgroup at impruve-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Thanks. HELP IS ON THE WAY.

BE THERE AND TELL OTHERS TO COME TO TESTIFY. Chicago City Council Transportation Committee holds public hearing at 121 N. LaSalle Room 201A Chicago IL 60602. Arrive at 9 am to sign up if you plan to testify at 9:30 am. Prepare to stay until noon. Alderman Emma Mitts is sponsoring a resolution on behlf of paratranist riders to protect them from unaffordable higher fares--higher than fixed route public transit.

Let's get politicians out who won't help paratransit riders and support those who will. Time to sign petition and circulate Declaration for Transit Freedom and Justice before general election.

IL, NW IN, Milwaukee WI, New York  especially have severe legal and human rights issues in transportation for persons who are disabled. Where are the DOJ, Congress, and top civil rights and human rights law firms?

Go to Care2 petititonsite to sign. Please give comments even if only a few words, because all signatures without comments count altogether as if only one petition signature, even if you have hundreds of thousands of petition signatures!!!

Note: other human rights petition on paratransit was canceled with only 32 signatures. Please sign this one. Make your voice and advocacy count.

www.thepetitionsite.com/1/restore-affordable-paratransit-fare

http://www.impruve.blogspot.com/

Sign, then share and promote with others.

Help IMPRUVE (Independent Movement of Paratransit Riders for unity, Vehicles, Equality), Everybody Counts, Concerned Citizens for Paratransit, Bus Riders Union,  and Suburban Access Squad whenever they mobilize in their cities, communities, states on transportation, whether together or separately. 

Email us for a copy of the paratransit riders theme song (for all states, all nations):  The Paratransit is My Transit sung to the tune of This Land is My Land.

impruve2@yahoo.com

Visit http://www.greenparatransit.blogspot.com/

Bring Green Paratransit and the Soular Car  to your city, your  state

1Sky Chicago Rally on Federal energy bill, Climate control and 5 Million Green Jobs on Federal Plaza Mon. Aug. 31 noon-1:30 p.m. Everyone invited, all ages. Nonpartisan Event.

Get on Board! Help us send our Senators on a train back to DC to pass strong climate legislation. Distribute widely.

Speakers confirmed: Alderman Joe Moore, 49th Ward Green Corps; William "Dock" Walls III, gubernatorial candidate, CEO, Committee For A Better Chicago; Howard Learner, CEO, Environmental Law and Policy Center; Veronica Kyle, Faith In Place,Illinois Interfaith Power and Light; Jim Slama, Family Farmed, former publisher of Conscious Choice Magazine; Dr. George Nassos, I.I.T. Stuart School of Business Center for Sustainable Enterprises, president Footprint Zero LLC; James Thindwa, Sustainable Chicago 2016

Performers: Confirmed: Recording artist Cornelius Clark, pastor Streator Community Church; Invited: Nora Dunn, Spheres of Influence, former Saturday Night Live performer.

Sponsors,Supporters: Environment Illinois, Streator Community Church; WOL Brink Architects; Sierra Club, SDS Inc Copying and Imaging, Footprint Zero LLC, Illinois PIRG, 49th Ward Green Corps, Stay Environmentally Focusd, Union of Concerned Scientists, Spheres of Influence Salon on Climate Change, Walls for Gov, Digital Developmnet Corp & Oversight Committee, Inc., Congressman Danny Davis "Green Jobs" Training Program, Green Think Tank for the Disability Community, BNICEH "be nicer" (Black Network In Children's Emotional Health), Natural Resources Defense Council, Chicago Jobs Council, Heritage House LLC/Community Male Empowerment Project (green builder)

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NE Illinois ADA paratransit riders are waging the biggest battle of their life since the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed through the efforts of groups such as ADAPT.

IMPRUVE Parataransit Minuteman Campaign is on alert to inform paratransit riders of their legal rights and the upcoming class action certification to be filed by new lead attorney from Consumer Advocacy Center who will work with four of the original Plaintiffs in the case and the 3 lawyers who took the case in 2008.  Together the 4 attorneys will now represent the class of 31,000-plus Chicago ADA paratransit riders.

The principal complaints of paratransit riders center around  an inefficient zone , lack of accommodations, capacity constraints caused by crappy service, unusable vehicles, unusable times, trip turndowns and unusually long wait times and travel times that create crappy service. Plaintiffs expect others, including suburban Pace ADA riders to file individual complaints for the horrific service they have received.

Abuses reported by paratransit riders have largely gone unnoticed despite filing of complaints from 2007-2008 with the Federal Transit Administration and U.S. Department of Justice.

With Michael Winter departed from FTA Office of Civil Rights, there is not much hope that FTA will get involved without court intervention.

The big question is will the FTA under Obama administration support IMPRUVE and others who plan to pursue public ownership of the paratransit and a green paratransit vanpool.

Visit for more insight and to leave comments:

Sign petition for human-rights-for-paratransit-riders
Green Paratransit Think Tank
IMPRUVE Newsgroup

Given that paratransit service has been oppressive, too costly to riders, and allowed to operate outside of accessibility and disability laws, and transit equity policy,  IMPRUVE wants the public to answer this poll. 

IMPRUVE is working with Dr. Ayo Maat, founder,  to staff the Green Think Tank for the Disability Community, which includes the Green Paratransit Think Tank with paratrnsit riedrs, persons who are disbeld, non-disbeld persons who are committed to working on disability isues, tarbnsit providers, engineers, inventors, losgistics experts, research analysts, developmnet consutants, vehicle manufacturers, manufacturers of solar or hybrid electric motors and vehicles.

www.home.comcast.net/~ayomaat

Do you have any clue as to why paratransit riders are oppressed and the state and the federal government allow Pace paratransit to charge people who have the least disposable income $150 for a monthly pass in Illinois, two fares to ride from city to suburbs and vice versa whereas those who ride fixed route to those destinations only pay one fare each way?

Riders are being penalized for being disabled, unable to ride fixed route,  and low wealth.

It's wrong and we need your help to stop it.

Riders who are disabled in NE IL are suing the paratransit system that oppresses them. The riders are mainly low wealth: 71% live at, near, or below poverty; 58% are seniors; 86% do not own vehciles.

They are dependent on public transit, especially paratransit as most cannot ride fixed route buses and trains.

People who are disabled are not a one size, one vehicle fits all population. People who use manual whelchairs that cannot transfer to a vehicle seat, power wheelchair users, and some ambulatory people cannot ride in cars.

You may  donate to the cause IMPRUVE Paratransit Minuteman Campaign through our fiscal agent Prevention Force Family Center  at Facebook Causes.   Goal is to raise $1000 by March 18, 2009. 

https://www.causes.com/fb/donations/new?cause_id=205058&fundraiser_id=43357124&m=38d81d22

IMPRUVE needs help to spread the word. We need minutemen to ride with us and for us in our human and civil rights cause.   We need class action lawyers to help with our litigation, as well as  law students and paralegals.  

We are fighting the oppression of Pace paratransit system.

IMPRUVE was founded in Feb. 2000 under sposorship of BNICEH. Fiscal agent:  Prevention Force Family Center. The IMPRUVE Paratransit Minuteman campaign was set up in 2008 to fight against disproportionate representation and disparate treatment of paratransit riders based on race, geographic location or low income. NE Illinois paratransit riders stand on the U.S. Constitution, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, Section 504 of the Rehab Act, Illinois Human Rights Act, Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA) and Chicago Human Rights ordinance.  Paratransit riders across the country are banding together to additionally stand on the Declaration of Transit Freedom and Justice.

Visit www.home.comcast.net/~ayomaat See files at this site for a copy of the Declaration.

Next Green Paratransit Think Tank teleconference calls are Monday Feb. 16 10-11:15 am and Tues Feb. 17 3-4 pm  712-432-6131 PIN 100453#  If you miss, you can listen to recording if one was made. Call for replay information after the conference call at 773-416-7366 Meetings to be announced monthly.  All times are central time.

Founded under the umbrella of BNICEH (be nicer), we are an organization for all paratransit riders regardless of race, age, location. We take pride in the work of those who went before us. People like Justin Dart, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Phyllis Doering blazed the trails in transit or disability rights. 

www.groups.yahoo.com/group/IMPRUVE

Subscribe at impruve-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

www.groups.yahoo.com/group/bnicehvideonews  Subscribe at:  bniceh-subscribe@yahoogroups.com