EQUINOX EARTH DAY:

Building an Economics and Culture of Peace

This program will present Earth Rights Economics as Georgist Economics. The original Earth Day was founded by John McConnell and proclaimed in several documents signed by many world leaders. Bell ringing ceremonies have been held at the United Nations at the exact moment of Equinox for the past 50 years. The program will educate and engage participants while deepening their understanding of earth rights principles and policies.

This is a free IN-PERSON event but pre-registration is required due to limited seating capacity. Please arrive promptly by start time and bring a brown-bagged lunch and a bell if you have one.

*THIS EVENT WILL ONLY BE IN PERSON. IT WILL NOT BE ONLINE.*

Morning Program

9:30 AM – Doors open; live music by Ean Valte

9:45 AM – Opening remarks by Dr. Ibrahima Drame, Director of Education, Henry George School of Social Science (HGSSS)

10:00 AM – The Original Earth Day (equinox) and the “Earth Rights” Economics of Peace of Earth Day Founder John McConnell

– Discussion by Mary Carlin, Earth Society Foundation

– Short video presentation by Ed Dodson, HGSSS educator

– Music interlude – “The Earth is Our Home, It’s Where We Live”

10:30 AM – Climate and the UN Sustainable Development Goals – Who controls? Who pays?

– Discussion followed by Q&A

Speakers: Environmental and earth rights economists Marty Rowland, HGSSS, and Polly Cleveland, Econamici

Moderator: Dr. Ibrahima Drame, HGSSS, Director of Education

11:15 AM – Predator and Prey – The New York City Housing Crisis

– Discussion on current and ongoing urgent struggles against evictions and for the basic right to shelter

Speakers: Cherokee Black, actress and Ed Lee, NYC housing and prisoner rights activist

Respondents share the earth rights perspective on housing and land rights, problems, and solutions

12:00 PM – Open Microphone focus on housing and earth rights

12:30 PM – Lunch break begins with music, singing and remarks by Rev. Yolanda Brown

Afternoon Program

1:30 PM – Yoga Equinox Earth Day Dance

– Contortionist act performed by Amazing Amy; accompaniment by Ean Valte, musician

1:45 PM – Earth Rights Democracy and the Economics of Peace

– Discussion of the “magical mystical” life journey of Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald from Afghanistan to Ireland

– Insights into the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

– Their “eureka” discovery of the political economics of Henry George

Speakers: Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, authors

– Discussion of the war in Ukraine with a particular focus on land and resource grabbing

Speaker: Mitchel Cohen, No Spray Coalition, coordinator

– Music interlude – Singalong with several musicians – Let It Be and We are the World

– Discussion of Human Rights, Earth Rights, Trauma and Love from the perspective of many indigenous people

Speaker: Dr. Quisia Gonzalez, United Nations NGO representative; International Union for Land Value Taxation, Executive Council member

– Reading of original poems and highlighting of selected writings of the Economics of Peace panelists

Speaker: Moderator Bruce de Torres, TrineDay Publishing, marketing director

3:00 PM – Music performance by Ean Valte

3:10 PM – Speaker from the Philippine Mission to the United Nations

3:30 PM – Where to from here?

– Discussion of possibilities for expanding the earth rights democracy movement

Speaker: Rick Ulfick, WE, the World, founder

3:45 PM – Open Microphone for remaining time

SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS

Cherokee Black, an actress, embodies the belief that conflicts generate drama while nurturing relationships forms the essence of acting. With a profound understanding of this principle, Cherokee’s journey has been a meticulous preparation, paving the path to their ultimate destiny – to write, act, produce, and direct. With a passion for storytelling and a dedication to their craft, Cherokee Black continues to pursue their artistic endeavors with unwavering determination and creativity.

https://www.facebook.com/cherokeeblackactress/

Rev. Yolanda Brown is an ordained Pastor, author, public speaker and prophetic voice of economic empowerment. She launched Imani’s Quest Ministries with the mission to revitalize and renew communities through self-sufficiency and sustainability. With a bachelor’s degree in economics from the State University of New York, Rev. Brown has parlayed her professional financial experiences into a mission to effect change to communities in Texas, Chicago, Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York. She advocates community transformation strategies that incorporate various components – from sports and recreation centers to affordable housing, small business and workforce development, financial literacy training and community banking.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/rev-yolanda-brown-964487a9

Mary Carlin is a Board Member of the Earth Society Foundation. She has worked for several high-end corporations and has served as a leader of the Earth Society Foundation (founded by John McConnell and Margaret Mead in 1976) for many decades. Mary has played a key role in organizing numerous Earth Day programs centered around ringing the Peace Bell at the United Nations at the exact moment of the Spring Equinox. She plays several string, flute and other instruments.

https://earthsocietyfoundation.org

Mary M. (Polly) Cleveland, Ph.D. is an economist focusing on wealth distribution and a long-time activist for social justice. Her blog, “Econamici,” also appears on the Dollars & Sense website. She serves on the Dollars & Sense board. From fall 2007 through fall 2016, she was Adjunct Professor of Environmental Economics at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), where she taught a course on “Poverty, Inequality and the Environment.” From 1969-1971, she worked for Ralph Nader investigating the power of large landholders in California. Through this she encountered the ideas of the great nineteenth-century American economist and reformer, Henry George. George attributed the persistence of poverty in the midst of economic growth to concentrated ownership of land and other natural resources. He advocated taxing the “rent” of land as a remedy. Her website includes her 2014 article on “Sustainability Squared” and the final draft of her 2020 AJES article on “Homelessness and Inequality.”

https://mcleveland.org/bio.html

Mitchel Cohen is the coordinator of the No Spray Coalition against pesticides. He’s authored such books as The Fight Against Monsanto’s Roundup: The Politics of Pesticides, What Is Direct Action?, An American in Revolutionary Nicaragua, and a series of widely distributed pamphlets under the aegis of “Zen-Marxism.” Mitchel was a co-founder of the Red Balloon Collective at SUNY Stony Brook in 1969 and of the Brooklyn Greens / Green Party 25 years later and also chaired WBAI Radio’s local board. His works (such as War Within the War: The Fight Over Land and Genetically Engineered Agriculture, The World’s Most Evil Company May Lose a Few Court Fights But Will Keep On Poisoning and Killing Millions of People with Its Carcinogenic Pesticide ‘Roundup‘, Environmentalists Owe an Enormous Debt to Julian Assange, and How Bush Sr. Sold the Gulf War) are frequently published in Counterpunch, and in Covert Action Magazine. For many decades he sold his poems on New York City’s subways and Brooklyn’s streets, now published as One-Eyed Cat Takes Flight, The Permanent Carnival, and The Rubber Stamp Man: Poems and Snippets.

Edward Dodson is an expert on Henry George and all things Georgism and received his economics degrees from Shippensburg University and Temple University. He held numerous management and analyst positions within the Housing & Community Development group at Fannie Mae, a public-private partnership which helps distribute home mortgage loans. Mr. Dodson also has extensive experience as a history lecturer at the Osher Life Long Learning Institute and the Learning is For Everyone program at Burlington County College. He is the author of a three-volume book series titled The Discovery of First Principles.

https://cooperative-individualism.org/

Ibrahima Drame, Ph.D., is Director of Education at the Henry George School of Social Science. Prior to this, he held several research positions at the University of Tsukuba, Japan. He has an advanced degree in law (DEAG) from the Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Économiques, Université Cheikh Anta Diop of Dakar (Sénégal), a master’s degree in International Environmental Law from the University of Tsukuba (Japan) and a PhD in International Political Economy from the University of Tsukuba, and a master’s degree in information science from Touro College, New York.

https://corafrika.org/en/profils/ibrahima-drame/

Dr. Quisia Gonzalez is a United Nations NGO representative and Executive Council member of the International Union for Land Value Taxation and trained as a medical doctor in Brazil. For several years she taught classes at the Henry George School of Social Science where she was also a board member of the School. She was also a board member for the Robert Schalkenbach Foundation. Quisia actively engages with her Honduran Garifuna people and other indigenous communities. She has a focus on holistic approaches to mental and physical health.

https://theiu.org

Elizabeth Gould and Paul Fitzgerald, a husband and wife team, began working together as journalists in 1981 when they acquired the first visas to enter Soviet-occupied Afghanistan for CBS News. They produced a PBS film (Afghanistan Between Three Worlds) and returned to Kabul for ABC Nightline. They published The Voice (2001). of Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story, (City Lights 2009), Crossing Zero The AfPak War at the Turning Point of American Empire, (City Lights 2011), The Valediction Three Nights of Desmond (TrineDay 2021) and The Valediction Resurrection (TrineDay 2022).

www.valediction.net

Amy Harlib (Amazing Amy) is an Eccentric Yoga Dance Entertainer who offers advanced yoga feats of flexibility despite injuries all over her body: torn rotator cuffs in both shoulders, a disintegrated spinal disc and 2 hip replacements! At 69, she presents special theme- and character-based acts that challenge ageism and gender role stereotypes and flexibly freestyles to any genre of music live or recorded. She is a testimony to the benefits of an organic vegetarian diet, daily exercise and a healthy lifestyle.

https://www.reverbnation.com/amazingamycontortionistuniqueyogadancer

Alanna Hartzok is an earth rights visionary and a recipient of the International Earth Day Award and the Radical Middle Book Award for her book The Earth Belongs to Everyone. A former Green Party and Democratic Party candidate for Congress, Alanna initiated and guided the successful passage of tax reform legislation in Pennsylvania. She is the Administrator for the International Union for Land Value Taxation (theIU), having a focus on land value tax policy implementation projects. She enjoys playing guitar, piano and Native flute.

https://theiu.org/books/ and https://alannahartzok.substack.com

Ed Lee, aka “djelf7”, is a generational war victim (Korea) and survivor of revolution. He is a NYC housing and prisoner rights activist extraordinaire, a documentary producer and artist who coordinates a diverse and growing national movement. In the environmental sector he has unique testimony from people on the ground who are being used in a war between millionaires on both sides. He has unique electoral solutions to regain control.

http://tinyurl.com/PublicHousingFight and http://tinyurl.com/CorruptionPublicHousing

Martin Rowland, Ph.D. is currently the task group leader for the American Society of Testing Materials where he is developing a standard of practices for infrastructure management as well as serving on the Sustainability Asset Management subcommittee of the ASTM. Marty is Special Editions Editor of the American Journal of Economics and Sociology and is on the board of the Henry George School of Social Science where he conducts classes and webinars. He taught at Pace and Tulane Universities and has been a NASA environmental engineer, hazardous waste landfill operator, PACE University professor and NYC Parks environmental engineer

https://www.hgsss.org

Bruce de Torres is TrineDay Publishing’s marketing director, host of World Stage with Bruce de Torres on TNT Radio and author of God, School, 9/11 and JFK: The Lies that are Killing Us and the Truth that Sets Us Free. As an actor he had lead roles in comedies, dramas, and musicals in NYC and nationwide. As an entrepreneur he hosted hundreds of business networking meetings as he developed his marketing, sales and public speaking skills.

brucedetorres.com

Rick Ulfik is Founder and Board Chair of We, The World, Founder and a Principal Organizer of the WE Campaign at WE.net, a global network of collaboration and action. He is Co-Creator and Principal Organizer of 11 Days of Global Unity – 11 Ways to Change The World, a platform for change agents worldwide to raise awareness and take action collectively. He co-produced the Visual Voices TV series that is featured on the Dish Network and available in 15 million homes. Rick is a Nonviolent Communication workshop facilitator and an accomplished composer and musician (keyboards) who has written, produced, arranged, conducted and performed music for ABC TV, NBC TV, CBS TV, the Olympics, radio, feature films, commercials, records, other media, and for major recording artists including Queen Latifah, Phoebe Snow, Carlos Santana, Bernadette Peters and Judy Collins.

https://we.net/founder/

Ean Valte is a talented bassist, songwriter, jazz player and a member of Carnegie Hall’s Future Music Project Ensemble. He is a graduate of The New School College of Jazz and Contemporary Music. Ean wrote “Sunshine” as a way to share his belief that a positive outlook can go a long way towards combating bigotry and hatred.

See this inspiring video and more of his music on YouTube.

SPEAKERS AND PERFORMERS

NYC Office

Visit Us