Stop selling Blue Bunny? * Saturday Night Music * Shopping with a social conscience * BILL'S COFFEESHOP NEWSLETTER * Vol. 12 * July 30, 2011
SHOULD WE STOP SELLING
Monday, Aug. 1
7 pm: Chris Bell, singer/songwriter. He's the singer/songwriter who plays the cello like a guitar.
Wednesday, Aug. 3
6 pm Readers and Writers Group. 7 pm Open Mic (Spoken Word).
Thursday, Aug. 4
6 pm Art & Music Night. 7 pm. Open Mic (Singer/Songwriter)
Saturday, Aug. 6
4:30 pm. Irish Sessions.
Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is a project of the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. It has been a part of campus life in Iowa City for more than 35 years. Located in North Hall, the coffeeshop is open weekdays from 8:30 am during the summer. For more information, check the Friends of Bill's Coffeeshop page on Facebook. You can call the coffeeshop at (319) 335-1281. Donations to support the work of the coffeeshop may be sent to: Bill's Coffeeshop Fund, University of Iowa Foundation, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244. Contributions are tax deductible.
Uptown Bill's is the crosstown cousin of Wild Bill's. Now in its 10th year, it includes a bookstore, performance venue and other businesses in addition to a coffeeshop. Located at 730 S. Dubuque, Uptown Bill's is open Monday through Saturday from 7 am. For more information, check the Uptown Bill's website or Facebook page. You can call Uptown Bill's at (319) 339-0401. Donations to support the work of Uptown Bill's may be sent to: Extend the Dream Foundation, Uptown Bill's, 730 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Contributions are tax deductible.
BLUE BUNNY ICE CREAM?
Maybe Uptown Bill's should top serving Blue Bunny Ice Cream. That would be a big change for the coffee house, which has featured Blue Bunny since its opening 10 years ago.
We're considering this move in light of the news that Blue Bunny executives have contributed more than $400,000 in recent years to the political campaigns of Robert Vander Plaats. They have also made additional contributions to Family Leader, a political action committee controlled by Vander Plaats. (For details, see this story in the Sioux City Journal: http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/blogs/politically_speaking/article_be02ab94-d496-58e3-84b3-98b7c1bd7b7d.html.)
Robert Vander Plaats and his Family Leader organization have been spreading messages of intolerance all over the state and beyond. One recent example is the "marriage vow," which presidential candidates are being asked to sign. The Des Moines Register, called this "a troubling case of bias." (See the Register editorial here: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011107140316.) One section of this document even says that African-American children had better lives under slavery.
This is but one example of the messages being circulated by Vander Plaats. There are many, many more which seem to us in great conflict with the Iowa ideals of tolerance and justice. So we are wondering if we should be buying ice cream from people who support such messages through their political contributions.
Blue Bunny maintains that the Vander Plaats are personal contributions, not corporate ones. (See this message on the company's website: http://www.bluebunny.com/About/Messages/Statement.aspx.)
But in our view the personal is political. Business executives make choices in supporting candidates and issues not only for personal reasons, but also for corporate reasons.
So we see the contributions by Blue Bonny executives as representing not only their personal interests, but also the corporate interests of Blue Bunny. And that's what leads us to be thinking about dropping Blue Bunny ice cream.
But we'd like to have a conversation with you, our friends, before we do anything. What do you think? What would you do? And if we drop Blue Bunny, what ice cream should we buy instead.
If you'd like to talk about this, join us this Saturday, July 30 at 2 pm. First we'll listen to Fran Hawthorne talk about her book on shopping and parenting with a social conscience (see below). Then let's talk about Blue Bunny.
SATURDAY BOOK TALK ON ETHICAL
PARENTING, SHOPPING, INVESTING
Fair trade? Organic? Paper or plastic? Cloth diapers or not? Fran Hawthorne explores these questions and many more in her new book "The Overloaded Liberal: Shopping, investing, parenting and other dilemmas in an age of political activism." Published by Beacon Press, the book is a practical guide to ethics for everyday life. Hawthorne gathered information for her book in dozens of interviews with experts and with ordinary consumers.
Hawthorne will be in Iowa City this coming weekend (July 30 and 31) to talk about her book. She will be at Uptown Bill's Coffee House, 730 S. Dubuque St., on Saturday, July 30. A book talk and reception are planned at 2 pm.
She will also speak at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 S. Gilbert St., on Sunday, July 31 at the 10 am service.
An award-winning author of four books, and a veteran writer and editor for newspapers, magazines, and websites, Fran Hawthorne has spent her career exploring the intersection between business and social policy.
Back in 1985 she dug into the ways Wall Street buys business with campaign contributions, and she was one of the first to debunk the myth that socially responsible investing means lower profits. She has investigated diet drug fads, anti-aging "wonder" drugs, and the collapse of the American pension system.
Her books include: Inside the FDA: The Business and Politics Behind the Drugs We Take and the Food We Eat (John Wiley & Sons, 2005), Pension Dumping(Bloomberg Press, 2008), and The Overloaded Liberal: Shopping, Investing, Parenting, and Other Daily Dilemmas in an Age of Political Activism(Beacon Press, 2010).
After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of California at Berkeley, Hawthorne worked at Fortune, BusinessWeek, and the Record of Bergen County, N.J. She now writes regularly for The New York Times, Newsday, The Scientist, NY Journal of Books, and many other publications.
***You can find an excerpt from Fran Hawthorne's book here:
***You can find an excerpt from an interview with Fran Hawthorne here:
***Fran Hawthorne's blog is here:
ANOTHER PACKED WEEK
AT THE COFFEE HOUSE
Music, conversations, and two nights of readings take place at Uptown Bill's this week.
Saturday, July 30
2 pm: Meet the author: Fran Hawthorne, author of "The Overloaded Liberal."
7 pm. Saturday Night Music: Sara Pray and Thomas Kivi. Two terrific singer/songwriters. We've been playing their CDs all week in the coffeehouse.
2 pm: Meet the author: Fran Hawthorne, author of "The Overloaded Liberal."
7 pm. Saturday Night Music: Sara Pray and Thomas Kivi. Two terrific singer/songwriters. We've been playing their CDs all week in the coffeehouse.
Monday, Aug. 1
7 pm: Chris Bell, singer/songwriter. He's the singer/songwriter who plays the cello like a guitar.
Tuesday, Aug. 2
6:30 pm. Mary Lucille Hays, author of the Midwestern newspaper column Birdland, will read from her work.
To Gilsenan, director of Uptown Bill's will also read selections from his 30 years of newspaper columns.
Wednesday, Aug. 3
6 pm Readers and Writers Group. 7 pm Open Mic (Spoken Word).
Thursday, Aug. 4
6 pm Art & Music Night. 7 pm. Open Mic (Singer/Songwriter)
Saturday, Aug. 6
4:30 pm. Irish Sessions.
CIRCLE LABOR DAY
ON THE CALENDAR
Uptown Bill's hosts the annual Ralston Creek Fair and Flea Market on Monday, Sept. 5. This event is so big that we'll take over the parking lot across the street to make room for antique dealers and other vendors. Plus, it's the 10th anniversary of Uptown Bill's. It will be a great day with lots of live music and other activities. Hope to see you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter is a virtual extension of Wild Bill's Coffeeshop and Uptown Bill's Coffee House. Published since 2000, the Newsletter is written by Tom Gilsenan, a former manager of Wild Bill's and now director of Uptown Bill's. You can write to him at tomgilsenan@gmail.com
ON THE CALENDAR
Uptown Bill's hosts the annual Ralston Creek Fair and Flea Market on Monday, Sept. 5. This event is so big that we'll take over the parking lot across the street to make room for antique dealers and other vendors. Plus, it's the 10th anniversary of Uptown Bill's. It will be a great day with lots of live music and other activities. Hope to see you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bill's Coffeeshop Newsletter is a virtual extension of Wild Bill's Coffeeshop and Uptown Bill's Coffee House. Published since 2000, the Newsletter is written by Tom Gilsenan, a former manager of Wild Bill's and now director of Uptown Bill's. You can write to him at tomgilsenan@gmail.com
Wild Bill's Coffeeshop is a project of the School of Social Work at the University of Iowa. It has been a part of campus life in Iowa City for more than 35 years. Located in North Hall, the coffeeshop is open weekdays from 8:30 am during the summer. For more information, check the Friends of Bill's Coffeeshop page on Facebook. You can call the coffeeshop at (319) 335-1281. Donations to support the work of the coffeeshop may be sent to: Bill's Coffeeshop Fund, University of Iowa Foundation, P.O. Box 4550, Iowa City, IA 52244. Contributions are tax deductible.
Uptown Bill's is the crosstown cousin of Wild Bill's. Now in its 10th year, it includes a bookstore, performance venue and other businesses in addition to a coffeeshop. Located at 730 S. Dubuque, Uptown Bill's is open Monday through Saturday from 7 am. For more information, check the Uptown Bill's website or Facebook page. You can call Uptown Bill's at (319) 339-0401. Donations to support the work of Uptown Bill's may be sent to: Extend the Dream Foundation, Uptown Bill's, 730 S. Dubuque St., Iowa City, IA 52240. Contributions are tax deductible.
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In the spirit of Bill Sackter, Uptown Bill's strives to nurture and encourage a gathering place where people of all abilities are welcome. Find us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Watch us on You Tube: www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLEE41220297F8D82C
Visit our web page: www.uptownbills.org
posted by Tom Gilsenan @ 8:28 PM
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