PIIN is on the move!
Congratulations to the nearly 100 PIIN leaders and partners who went to Harrisburg May 22nd to encourage Gov. Corbett to solve the state transportation funding crisis and restore the proposed funding cuts to public education! It was a powerful action that was covered by the Post Gazette, WPXI !Channel 11) TV News, and WTAE (Channel 2) TV News.
We started our time in Harrisburg with a powerful press conference in the capitol rotunda and were joined by Rep. Dan Frankel and Rep. Matt Smith. Imam Abdusemih of the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh opened us with prayer, Carol Ballance of UUCNH and the PIIN Transit Task Force chair moderated, Rozalia Jordan of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church and Cassi Shaffer of First Unitarian Church & Yinzercation spoke about why public education is so important to them, and their children and grandchildren’s future, Kelly Smith and Amachar Awruk, a transit dependent Sudanese immigrant, gave personal testimonies about how important public transportation is in their ability to live and function in society, Rev. Ken Love tied the issues together with the economy and state budget and made our demand of Gov. Corbett to shift his priorities from corporate interests to the interests of the ordinary folks in our communities, and Rev. Paul Lubold of St. Paul Lutheran Church closed us in prayer.
We then marched to Gov. Corbett’s office and hand delivered more than 1500 postcards signed by you and others in the region imploring the governor to prevent the 35% cuts in service to the Port Authority in September by solving the state transportation funding crisis by supporting the funding recommendations of his own Transportation Funding Advisory Commission (TFAC).
We delivered another message to him as well: Restore the $500 million in proposed cuts in the state budget that would prevent the need for unnecessary and devastating cuts to public education, adequately fund public education, and prevent any further cuts to public education in the future!
We did all of this while singing “Stayed on Freedom” (replaced with ‘transit’ & ‘education’). The atmosphere was alive with energy, possibility, and the sense that we doing our part to have an impact!
Our next stop was to the office of Rep. Mike Turzai of the North Hills to send a strong message to him to focus on the common good and not on the good of corporate interests. Then, we ended our day by having teams of 5-6 leaders visit nearly 20 legislators with the messages outlined above.
It was an exciting, powerful and productive day. But we know our work isn’t finished yet!
If you were inspired by our trip and want to get involved with either the Transit Task Force or Education Task Force or support our work with a financial donation, please contact the PIIN office at 412-621-9230 or reply directly to this email.
Peace and Blessings,
PIIN
Want to do something right now?
- Tell Gov. Corbett to stop standing in our way; fund public transportation! Call him at 717-787-2500between 8:30am and 4:30pm and demand that he implement the TFAC recommendations!
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