Hey Radical Progressive Groups in AZ, Read This!

I'm was twittering away earlier today with Dana hoping to arrange a social drink together the next time I'm in her part of NYC and she then forwarded this to me via Facebook, so I'm taking the liberty of posting it here as an informational node to which you can direct your compadres for info without having to sift through any FB game postings or other equally annoying blather that you might find on my home page.  

   

This is a potential funding opportunity for the likes of truly progressive, border and peace groups in AZ and there aren't that many sources out there other than individual benefactors.  I know that over the years when I was organizing CODEPINK Tucson I probably personally spent around $10,000  bucks on travel, housing, event prep, printing and fabric that my family could have used for very non-frivolous items, so I know how much this could mean to a local group, and the individuals who are sacrificing some degree of their own "best interest" to keep a true grassroots group going.  Pass this on a.s.a.p. to the folks in the groups you know who can officially respond with a Letter of Inquiry by September 1st.  Let's infuse some funding into the sensibly radical progressive groups of Arizona, especially Southern or Baja Arizona!  

 

Who knows, I might just try out for some funds for a group I happen to know of!  

Dana, by the way is one of the young women I met and first worked with way back in 2004 when she was just a baby activist.  I'm so proud of her! 

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I know you know social justice orgs that need money... 

by Dana Balicki on Sunday, August 21, 2011 at 12:36pm

Hi friends!
I'm doing some work with the folks over at Funding Exchange (www.fex.org) and their grant cycle is starting soon--I thought with all the amazing work you do in the world you'd know some groups that would want this info.

Their 2 current grant programs are:
Social Justice Collaboration Grants: Supporting cross-issue and cross-geography coalitions that create more impact than any one organization can do on its own.
and
Bold Frontiers Grants: Expanding our reach into areas that have neither a local FEX-affiliated fund nor a strong progressive movement. We are particularly interested in hearing from organizations from Arizona, Texas, Ohio, south Florida and New Jersey.
 
Here are a few of their questions to help folks determine whether or not they are applicable...does this sound like any groups you know?

Building Community Power: Is your group led by and/or accountable to the people who are most directly affected by issues of social, racial, economic and environmental justice?

Getting at the Root of the problem: Does your organization identify and address the root causes of your social, racial, economic, or environmental justice issues? Yes or No

Changing the System: Does your organization mobilize your community to work together to change the political, social and economic policies, systems and institutions that perpetuate injustice?

Lack Mainstream Support: Does your organization have a hard time accessing mainstream funders because you are too radical, cutting edge or controversial?

So if you know groups like this, please share the link below with them. Letters of Inquiry are due by 11:59 pm (Eastern Standard) on Saturday, Sept. 1, 2011. They don't fund projects by individuals (sorry artist friends with amazing projects!) 

http://fex.org/grantmaking/letter-of-inquiry

Help spread the word! Thank you for all you do!
xoxo
Dana

---------- 
I've sent an inquiry about the problematic date,  as Sept. 1 is not a Saturday.  Will post correction here as soon as I receive the correct info.  

So go ahead.  Forward this link, right now, to at least 3 people linked with progressive Tucson and or Southern AZ  groups you know of who could really soar with just a little bit of funding! 

Blogging About The City I Love: Happy Birthday Tucson!

Click to get info and grab badge.

I am celebrating my town's birthday along with thousands of other people in Tucson, Arizona.   It is a month long birthday party.  The cyber party starts today and runs through the end of the month.


Tucson, Arizona has been my home for the past 22 years.  My paternal grandfather was an Arizona snowbird way back in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He continued this practice of making his summer home in Mentone, Indiana and his winter home in Casa Grande, Arizona from then through shortly before his death as an octogenarian in the early-mid 1970s.   I grew up in the middle of No-wheres-ville, Indiana on a small farm smack dab in the middle of "rented" out farm land that had no farm familes one them and thus no neighbor kids with whom to play.  I was saved from an early death by boredom by reading and re-reading the copies of Arizona Highways (and National Geographic) for which a subscription was always sent by Grandpa as a Christmas Gift.  I learned to love the magnificent and mind-boggling variation of people and places that was Arizona.  By the time I was a teenager, I knew as much about Arizona as I did about the state in which I actually lived.

In spite of my appreciation of Arizona's beauty and diversity, I never thought much about moving to Arizona, or even visiting it until I was well into adulthood.  My big trip as a young adult was a graduation gift to myself, a trip to Spain for a month during the summer after I graduated from college. But when my father passed away in 1986 I thought I should encourage my mother to accept her new life and status by traveling with her on Amtrak from Chicago to Los Angeles to visit her brother who lived in north of L.A.  We stopped for a few days in Arizona, getting off in Flagstaff along the way, to visit my father's youngest sister who lived in near Prescott.  I loved the scenery, and felt very comfortable visiting places I felt like I already knew, but I still didn't think about living in Arizona.

Then an old friend who had just returned to the U.S. after a stint as a post-doc in Zurich, Switzerland, got a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson and invited me out for a visit.  That was 23 years ago, and, as they say, "the rest is history." I fell in love both in and with the place.  It is magical.  Really.  People have been using the Tucson Basin for a home at least part of the year for over 10,000 years.  Permanent human settlements in the Old Pueblo go back at least 4,000 years.

My husband and I married in the open air in Lemmon Meadow on Mount Lemmon in the Santa Catalina Mountain Range. Pink Flamingo lawn ornaments marked the trail through the forest to the wedding site.  That day in June when it was 84 degrees F. where we were hitched at nine thousand and something feet in altitude, it was 117 degrees F down the mountain that day in the Tucson basin, that checks in at a mere 2300 ft. above sea level.

I have had a child here.  I was stung by a scorpion when I was 4 months pregnant.  I went on a gruesome Vindetta against any and all black widows with large shoe (for smashing), broom (for knocking down spiders out of webs) and a flashlight (for spotting the poisonous arachnids under the eaves without causing them to scurry away) every night after we move into the first only home we've owned here in the Old Pueblo until every last one of them was dead.

I was a Girl Scout leader and a Sunday School Teacher here.  I headed a section that worked to protect and secure and to allow access to the treasures of antiquity in the Arizona State Museum for several years in the mid-1990s. The future of Tucson is amazing.

I helped my neighbor, my daughter's surrogate grandmother, who passed away in 2009 at the age of 105, get groceries and run errands after could no longer walk to the nearby stores as she had done every week since that day in 1928 when her husband carried her, his bride, accross the threshold to the home he had built for her and in which they both lived out the remainder of their days.  I loved her, her stories and language out of another era.  She talked about how handsome her husband was and how "frisky" they made each other feel.  Her ancestors are honored in statuary in downtown Tucson.  Her husbands family owned part of Sabino Canyon.  Her family history became my native Tucsonan child's stories of her town. She and my mother who loved to visit us and Tucson became good friends.

There were rough times, sure.  Pubic education which my husband and I both fiercely support was not an easy path to walk with our daughter who attended a "rough" middle school.  My votes have been manipulated in voter fraud if you believe the very solid case that a friend exposed after he found discarded election paperwork outside a precinct almost 10 years ago.  I became very politically aware and active here.  I became even more progressive than I was when I was young because Tucson is such a wonderful and enlightened Mecca in the vast and barren conservative landscape that covers so much of this state.

After January 8th of this year when my huband walked into my study, in shock with tears in his eyes, and said "Gabby has been shot," well my heart ached and I knew I had to do something.   I knew so many of the people who were shot that day; and thankfully and still say, in the present tense, that I continue to know most of them. My husband, a friend and I walked the few blocks to the hospital Gabby is my Congressperson in the House of Representatives.  I've presented petitions in her office in Tucson and in D.C., many times.  We don't often agree, but dammit she is my duly elected representative.  Gabe had just begun working with my husband on bringing more green chemical companies to Tucson before he was killed.  I worked with Jim who was in campus fire safety at the time when I was at the Arizona State Museum.  Ron is a very good friend of a very good friend and we spent time together up in Oak Creek and Sedona at the Verde Valley Music Festival that was annually put on by Jackson Browne in the 1990s.  And then there is Suzi.  I figured out that Suzi was Ashleigh even before it was announced on BlogHer.com.  I am a darn good internet sleuth.  I began reading her before she was able to post again.  I commented.  I felt her desire and determination to do something for our community.  She already had.  It was up to her readers to do something;  her hands were more than full with healing body, mind, and soul. We wanted the same thing she did, to show that people can come together and good can come out of even the most horrific events.  This is doubly true for charmed places like Tucson that capture people's hearts forever even when other spendors in the state only captured their attention for a few days at most during a visit.  Tucson is special.

I decided to repurpose my Casita Gaia blog as a community-centered blog, website and company focused on the amazing and wonderful progressive (in so many ways) town I have called home longer than I've called any other place home in my life.  I went to the BlogHer|bet Conference to find out how to do this. I'm still working on the big plan for it, but I have the blog started and am carefully designing the website so as to fit my down the road plan for things to come on the site.  One of these things is for Casita Gaia to host a cyber-neighborhood event for Tucson's Birthday.  I hosted a virtual world event for it a couple years ago, but could not sustain it. But a cyber-neighborhood gathering, just like all the other neighborhood gatherings that take place at scores of spots all over Tucson during the month of August, a written celebration,  a blogging celebration, a celebration of all that is the gentle and enlightened communtiy, the biggest small town in America, well, that was something I could host and do to give back to the community to encourage the civility and friendly relationships that are Tucson.

So I am hosting a blog carnival from today through the end of August and I hope you can come enjoy the celebration on other's blogs and share a story on your blog about Tucson, why you love Tucson, why you think it is a nifty place, or why you want to visit if you have not made it here as yet.
I am getting to know Suzi/Ashleigh in real life now and was so delighted when she agreed to participate in what I have come to call the Birthday Blog-o-rama. In fact her post yesterday is the first post I've linked to on the Casita Gaia site. This past month was to have been spent doing promo for this event, as well as attending BlogHer '11, according to the original plan, but, mid-July my son-in-law was terribly injured in a boating accident and ended up deciding that he had no choice but to have the totally non-functional foot amputated; my husband decided to take a sabbatical;  my 21 year old daughter dumped her 100 lb. puppy off for us to puppy sit- for a month.  Life happens.  So I have extended the original date to 11 days of cyber celebration starting now!  Please join us. 

Once you grab your blog bling badge, like the badge near the top of this post, and post a piece of your own, be sure to let me know, so I can link to it from Casita Gaia, and so I can bundle all the links for the official Tucson Birthday site. The detailed "how-to" info is all in the post on my site.
We are a small group so far, but we are growing larger and this will be a piece of cake, literally and virtually, next year when we do it again, and the year after that when we do it again....

As Emily Latella Would Have Said, "What's all the fuss about this Gerry Manders, and what does the Beaver have to do with Politics, anyway?"

Sometimes I think I should have named this blog Peace Bitch.   I do a lot of bitchin'.  I try not to whine or moan, but I do bitch.


Today I spent some time thinking about migraines, sexual harassment in the House of Representatives, business cards, and hair color, and cats.  The last three items are not appropriate for this blog so I will cover them elsewhere.   Like I think I expounded upon a few days ago, women are multi-taskers by nature.  I cannot stick to one thing all day.  If we had more women in the House and Senate there would be no stalemate about remedying the intentional default that will send us and a whole lotta other folks around the world into a global depression.  We would have to have some variation in our subject.  We just aren't inclined to work all day and come home and fondle the remote control all evening. We need more stimulation than that.  Yet another reason to support increasing the number of women in elected office.

Migraines probably have very little to do with whether one Rep. can do her job or not.  Her dedication to many beliefs and practices far outweigh her loyalty to and sworn duty to upholding the Constitution of the United States. That is the crux of the problem with her - not unresolved personal issues and conflicts that are stressing her out to the point of her body wanting to make her head explode.  (Aside:  as a woman and a migraine sufferer for 15 years of my life I can say these things.)

But... speaking of elected office,

Carolyn (a friend) posted a link to this on Facebook:

Andrei Cherny: "Arizonans, whatever your party I hope you'll contact Gov. Brewer at http://azgovernor.gov/contact.​asp and the Independent Redistricting Commission at www.azredistricting.org and say the partisan interference with and intimidation of these citizen volunteers needs to stop. "

I think this may be one of the single most important efforts being made in Arizona today!  We have no chance of ever having a normal state if the grossly skewed partisan manipulations of citizen representation are not removed from infrastructure.  We cannot let this effort be nuked! 

Bitching About "Right to Work" Abuse and the Erosion of Human Rights

I am trying to be more positive.  I'm failing.


I was fired without warning in early December by a small, woman-owned business at which I'd worked for 2 and a half years.  I filed for unemployment and was denied because the business owner said I had willfully acted in a way harmful to the business.  I appealed that finding and spent way too much time during December and January thinking about the upcoming hearing.  I won.  But I truly liked working where I did, liked the people I worked with, and learned a great deal from the boss about running a small business.  I thought she has also learned a great deal from me about computers, graphics, security, and social networking.  I was paid close minimum wage for front desk work as she called it, though I did computer, website, and marketing work for her.   She used another person who was also worked front desk as a bookkeeper and payroll clerk.  Welcome to a Right to Work State.  Low wages.  No worker rights.  It is amazing I won my case at all in this state.  It was obvious to the judge that the owner was just trying to keep her unemployment rates low and that she put the words on the form that would deny me benefits as I looked for another job even though they were not true.

Bosses in Right to Work States come to expect employees to be subservient.  At least that is my experience.  People run their businesses on part time labor avoiding benefits.  Employees who expect to be treated with respect as equals are weeded out early on.  I hope the people of Wisconsin preserve the rights of workers in that state, through recall elections,  and all across the nation where there are still pockets of union labor.  Because I wanted to write, and build my own brand, I have worked at part-time jobs in gyms, antique stores, and small local service businesses over the last several years.   Business owners and managers have insulted me when talking to my husband,  have reprimanded me because I apparently did not jump high enough when asked,  and had my character questioned in legal documents by a boss trying to insure that her unemployment insurance payments stayed at the lowest possible by never having anyone collect unemployment insurance. 

Not so long ago. 

I'm so sickened by the abuse of employees that small employers get away with in "right to work" states, and the complete disregard of ethics and law by large corporations.  I left a professional position because of a sexually inappropriate statement that was supposed to be a condolence made by a new boss when my brother passed away.   It involved things the boss wanted to do with a woman from a certain ethnic group before he died.  It takes so much time energy and money to fight difficult to document infringement on worker rights in states where an employer can fire you for any reason at any time. In those instances your only recourse in a "right to work" state is to leave the job.   I'm not certain into what area of erosion of individual human rights I should put my energy.  There are so many in this culture of abuse.    


I have been a peace activist for years and I watched the Bush admin dismantle citizen rights: this year I'm watching the Koch brothers assault the principles of collective action.  And I am buoyed up by the Arab world standing up to monarchy and dictators, only to learn a female journalist was sexually assaulted after Mubarak stepped down and a right wing nut job woman radio host in this country says she should have known better than to be there.  Pence, a congressman from Indiana where I lived for 30 years led an assault on women' control over their own bodies.  Children are being gunned down in my city. 


It is very difficult to be positive with the erosion of basic human rights on so many fronts.  

Wordless Wednesday

Image of the Monument Fire from Morgue File, a free image site.  You can find free, legal to use, images about timely topics, if you are willing to do the search.  Check out Morgue File.

Right Winger Arizonans Going Down!

Happy Saturday!

Not much time to write today.  But boy oh boy am I ever happy! 

Russell Pearce recall has been successful!  Now we will have to see if he will step aside or run in the recall election. It is going to be hard for him to get money for his campaign committee as the Arizona Solicitor General, David Cole, has notified Pearce that recall committees cannot accept corporate or union contributions.  Woot!  And the times... they are a changin'.

The third wonderful strike against Arizona reactionary right stupidity was meted out when

Maricopa County, in a settlement reached  Thursday, has to fork over $200,000.00 buckeroos to "Julian and Julio Mora, the father and son zip-tied and held for three hours during a 2009 MCSO raid of the Phoenix landscaping firm Handyman Maintenance Inc., where the elder Mora worked.  Joe's boys-in-beige were after illegal immigrants that day, but Julian Mora is a legal permanent resident. His son Julio is an American citizen." according to Stephen Lemons blog, Feathered Bastard, in the Phoenix New Times.  

Wonder what Stephanie Miller, in her Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour, will do with all this juicy info tonight at Centennial Hall on the University of Arizona Campus.  I will let you know. 

Flores Family Murders, The January Murders, The Extreme Right, and How They Relate

Christina Taylor Green

While I am glad that justice seems to be the result of the all the trials of all those charged and now found guilty of the murder of Raul "Junior" Flores and his little 9 year old daughter, Brisenia Flores, in May of 2009, I'm still tremendously saddened by the deaths and the overall situation in Arizona that led to the deaths of two little girls in Arizona.   One little girl died in May of 2009 in a vile multiple murder and another died in January of 2009 when a mentally ill man committed mass murder and attempted murder in his attempt to assassinate Representative Gabrielle Giffords. 


The article in today's Tucson paper, Arivaca man convicted in two slayings: Gaxiola behind home invasion, '09 murder of father, daughter, provides a good overview of the basics of the horrific multiple murders and attempted murder.  I am not sure that people who have not lived near the U.S. - Mexico border can really appreciate the convoluted, bizarre, and totally senseless "issues" that combine to create  life and death realities every day in the county in which I have lived for 22 years.  

I cannot but help draw comparisons between the battle that is being waged on the America people today largely by the Republican Conservative Corporatist consortium and the ideological battle that took place before WWII.  The isolationist political demands of the conservatives, except for support of Israel, while calling for ever lessening restrictions on mega-corporations and that are  global multi-national entities disguised as American Companies that enjoy constitutional person-hood status smacks of the nearly successful Republican call for America to support the spread of Fascism and Nazism by major "respected" Americans such as Prescott Bush, Charles Lindburgh, and Henry Ford.

If you will review your history you will find that the repeal of the Neutrality Act that allowed the U.S. to support the Allies was passed bit by bit, slowly, slowly, slowly over several years, and even when our ships were sunk there was still a significant call for isolationism (see the Senate Vote on Neutrality Act article on this page) that would allow persons such as Prescott Bush to continue trading with Germany, an enemy that was attacking our properties.) The divisions in our government today hearken back to the divisions then, the massive nature of wars that are raging, and the depressed economic climate all chill me to the bone due to the similarity with which the Right (Reich?) is parroting the mass marketing of Fascism, isolation, and hatred of "the other" to the American public that was done in the 20s, 30s, and very early 40s by good ol' boy Republicans. 

I'm digressing majorly here, but I'm so angry I just I cannot concentrate.

Two murders of little children in Pima County involve to varying degrees, to the best of my knowledge both do not each directly involve all of other the following issues, but the drug war, immigration, education, and mental health all factor into the murders.

I'm so heart sick right now with wondering how many other little children are being harmed at this moment due to hate and fear that feed:

•  immigration and border issues, how many little children are having their lives exposed to the danger and destabilization of living in a drug corridor that would be far less dangerous if marijuana was rescheduled away from Schedule I, or prohibition was lifted, 
• economic consideration such as if work was available above minimum wage (if you are lucky) in so-called Right to Work States such as Arizona, 
• erosion of social and medical rights such as if mental health services being unavailable at no or low cost to all those that needed it, 
• and increasing ignorance that would diminish if education was funded, valued, and encouraged rather than being undermined by corporations that don't support education through taxes in the areas where they employ parents as well as by the fundamentalist right that hopes to eradicate public schools.  

Now before anyone gets his or her panties or briefs in a knot my last point about the eradication of public schools is based upon this quote: "One day, I hope in the next ten years, I trust that we will have more Christian day schools than there are public schools. I hope I will live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools.The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!" and is from
America Can Be Saved!  1979.  Murfreesboro, Tennessee: Sword of the Lord Publishers. Pages: 52-53).

Oh, and he sentencing for the murders has not yet been decided.  That is all I can say so far about Albert Robert Gaxiola who has been found guilty of two murders and one attempted murder,  who was related to the mother who was shot, who recruited Forde her Nazi comrade.  The whole thing is so disgusting, senseless, and evil that I probably won't write much more about it here or on BlogHer.com where in my occasional postings I have tried to increase awareness about what goes on in Tucson when it comes to the right wing and violence in our wonderful Old Pueblo.

Getting a Take on Arizona Progressives

No the title isn't oxymoronic.  Arizona Progressives are real and easily found.  Um, the co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus is from Arizona in case you haven't noticed; and the Baja Arizona secessionist movement is real.

I recently reconnected with Lefty Blogs and am amazed at the linkage and coverage it gives me of Arizona from a perspective you will find NO WHERE ELSE.  If you want to find out what is happening in Arizona, period, you need to use this feed.


As an Arizonan I am so tired of having the same one or two derogatory and grossly inaccurate major media stories be all I hear about what is going on in my state.  I honestly do not have time to search all the blog feeds for real Arizona news when our wacko legislature and leaders get us into the news so often.


Use Lefty Blogs to peruse the hot local issues. You can always get to it from the link in the right (sorry) column. You will have to ignore a couple of posters who from my estimation seem to be on the bash Arizona bandwagon, a perspective that anyone who loves Arizona should not have, but I will let you make your own determination on that front.

Check it out.  If you want to know what the rest of Arizona (thinks beyond the Arpaio, Brewer, Pearce psychobabble) this feed is essential.


I'm stepping off the soapbox now. 

Two Down and One (Child Murderer) Trial to Go

I am a bit of a cynic when it comes to Arizona justice or any justice in any state that prides itself on stupidity, but living in such states seems to be my lot in life.  Indiana and Arizona have both had more than is any one state's right to stupid judicial actions.  Indiana rounded off pi in in a House Committee, but fortunately did not allow it to become law.  Both states kill people for killing people though they both are "Christian" run states that I'm sure subscribe to the Ten Commandments including the one that goes, "Thou shall not kill." 

I grew up in Indiana and remember getting in my first politically charged "discussion" on a school bus in November 1964 the morning after Johnson won the election over Goldwater.  I had to be all of 7 years old, but I remember it clearly.   The oldest sister, who had to be all of 9 or 10 years old,  of a family on my bus route looked as though a family member had died when I brought up the election.  I later came to understand that the parents in the family were ultra conservative and attended The Church of the Nazarene in the town that was the county seat just south of the township grade school we attended. 


I was never a 9 year old in Arizona. I've only lived here for a few decades.  I am however the mother of a native Arizonan, and she was a nine year old here, once upon a time.  I was a Girl Scout Leader to a group of 9 year old girls.  I was a Sunday School Teacher to a class with 9 year old girls in it. 

The faces of these girls I have known and in several cases come to love are the ones who flash before me when I also pull up the class photo mental image of Brisenia Flores.  I still cry every time I think of her asking Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush, and Albert Robert Gaxiola why they shot her parents and of her then begging for her own life.  Things like this are not supposed to happen to 9 year old girls.  Tucson knows all too well that 9 year-olds can die from the heinous actions of deranged people.  But the facts of this case push even this understanding beyond what a saddened Tucson can believe.  This falls into the same league as sexual predators who torture and kill children.   This falls into the category of pure evil. 


How could we as a community have allowed such vile predators to reside in and do such harm to our community?  I will never understand this.  I know people were talking about connections between Minutemen militias and the extremely violent right wing rhetoric that routinely, at least weekly from my understanding, came to our streets in the last 10 years.  Recruiters were connected to drug traffickers.  Police refused to come to respond to calls for assistance when there were assaults at demonstrations.  Individuals burned flags and tried to bait surrounding crowds into violence.  The weaving of fringe groups into the daily life of our community must have numbed our outrage when groups of people from outside of our community descended upon our area to create a police state mentality in our backyards.  Why did and do we tolerate people who have no business here who supposedly guard a border from people who are for the most part guilty only of not looking like them. 

Could we have done more?  Of course we could have.  The portent of violence was there.  Suspected serial killers and mentally unstable individuals were allowed to play soldier with real guns where I live and where so many of the nine year old girls I have loved, lived. 


This isn't right.


I'm not sure that killing individuals who are disturbed enough to carry out such atrocities is any better than what the accused and convicted did.  But I am in the minority, supposedly,  just as I was when I expressed concern years ago about the influx of militia types into our county.  So two of the three people on trial for the murders of Bresenia Flores and her young papa, Raul Flores, have been convicted of murder and sentenced to die by lethal injection.  One trial remains. 


Killing these people will not ease my conscience of the persistent doubt that perhaps there was more that we could have done, that I should have tried to do more to wake people up to what was and is happening at the edges of our community.  The deaths from our ignorance seem destined to climb and include Shawna Forde, Jason Eugene Bush and probably Albert Robert Gaxiola, also accused in the murders, who goes on trial June 1st.  

I'm sure I will write more then.  

Shawna Forde Found Guilty of the Murders of Brisenia Flores and Her Father

I don't like to use the names of crazies who commit murder, but in this case I am choosing to use the name of one of three  people charged with with a nine year old girl in southern Arizona.  The little girl, Brisenia, was nine when Shawna Forde masterminded the home invasion robberies of drop or stash houses near the Mexico - U.S. border south of Tucson, in Pima County, in 2009 in order to finance border militia operations.  The problem is that Brisenia's home wasn't a drop or stash house according to the evidence and the invasion turned into a double homicide.

The first of three trials for her and her father's murders ended just after noon today, February 14,2011.  Shawna Forde has been found guilty of first degree murder of both 9-year old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul.  Arizona does have the death penalty.  Sentencing of Ms. Forde will take place separately.

Two more trials of men accused in the murders have yet to take place.

Brisenia's mother identified Ms. Forde as one of the three people who broke into her house and killed her family in 2009.  There were also recordings of Forde's phone conversations and one of the father's rings was in her possession after the murders.  Apparently these things were enough for the predominantly female jury to find Forde guilty for planning and ordering the murders even though she did not fire the weapons.

The Minutemen, a border militia group, has splintered since Forde helped found the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps.  Forde, has been called unstable by this group, and she later founded another group , the Minutemen American Defense, of which one of the others charged in the slayings is National Operations Coordinator as well as being associated with Aryan Nation.   The Minutemen Project disavows affiliation with Ms. Forde.

The border militia groups deny being vigilante but at least some of the members of some of the groups  show the disregard of law as well as disregard of the rights of certain ethnic groups.  These actions of disrespect that are central to border vigilantism. 

Murder of 9 Year Old Arizona Girl Goes to Trial

While there is much debate about using the names of crazies who commit mass murder, in this case I am choosing not to use the names of three people associated with the border militia movement who stand accused of killing a nine year old girl in Southern Arizona.  The little girl who was gunned down was named  Brisenia Flores.   Brisenia Flores!  Brisenia Flores!!   Brisenia Flores!!!

Not the name you were expecting?  


I am aghast that Brisenia's name isn't on the tongue of every mother in this country.  A child, a little girl filled with promise, hope, and potential was gunned down in her home along with her father in a home invasion in Arivaca, AZ in 2009.  Her mother is alive only because she played dead after being shot, called 911, and shot one of the intruders after they returned.

The trial in her murder has started and we hear (as in national talking head coverage) nothing of it?  Why?  The violent nature of life on the border may or may not have had anything to do with the now infamous January 8th attempted political assassination of Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, 6 of whom died. People want to believe that.  But this trial certainly portrays a violent and obviously mentally deranged group of individuals who are very much part of life in Pima County, Arizona.

Do we hear nothing because there is no debate possible about motive?  Is the obvious motive one that no one in the U.S. media wants to look at?   Is it because a white woman appears to be behind the murders?  Is it because the little girl and her daddy who were brutally executed in their home had darker skin than the people who murdered them? 

The least coarse and provocative account of the shooting and arrests I can find to inform you, accurately, about the whole gruesome occurrence is from February 4 on All Things Considered by NPR. 

The trial is in recess until mid-week and is still in the jury selection and instruction phase of the trial process.  Arizona Daily Star reported on January 25th about the opening arguments.  The Daily Star reported on January 17th about the intricacies of the case and likely arguments to be used by both sides.   

Trying to be Positive in Tucson

I'm serious about trying to be positive and build upon rather than to tear down.   I'm taking tiny steps toward this end.  Blogger and Tucson Massacre survivor yesterday called on all of us to something:

The history is defined a little awkwardly right now, and I'm not sure any of us has it in the place we need it to be.  But I have you here in The Burrow to help me think it through, and I have all of Tucson rooting for something good to come out of this horror.  I'm going to do my part.  And I wonder, as did Mr. Obama last night, what you as citizens and parents are willing to do.

If you don't mind, why not take a few minutes and give it some thought.  Feel free to let me know in the comments if you want to make a public commitment to something.  I know that it helps me to stay focused if I say it aloud.

America is not going to get better unless we are all in it together again.  Our President is asking us to join hands and take part.  I'm throwing in my two cents, too........ let's do something..... Christina will never be able to fulfill her incredible potential..... it's on us now to do it for her.

I am blogging here again and will continue to do so.  Is that something?  It is a start. And trying to stay as positive as possible is something.  At least it will be for me when I look at topics such as those I wanted to be today's topic: Arizona as an example of what is to come if the slow, occasionally punctuated, evolution of social policy of the United States follows Arizona's example.   The most conservative political factions in the country seem to be doing this.

Shining the light of day into, the dark shadowy areas of how the non-wealthy are treated in Arizona which is a proving ground for uber States Rights funded by out of state and corporate sources will be focused on over the next few months.  I will try to keep my barbed wit within tasteful limits in memory of  little Christina murdered by a madman who has become symbol of a call for civility, but remaining civil will be difficult because of little 9 year old Brisenia Flores who, though she begged for her life, was slaughtered in her home by Arizona border militia, and all those poor Arizona children who will be denied either transplants or basic health care due to Brewer's death panels.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Calls on Legislature to Do The Lord's Work

This is getting ridiculous.  You can read it for yourself, here, but basically Governor Jan Brewer seemed to step over some political/religioius boundaries when in today's replacement statement for the State of the State address she said, "With our faith and our courage tightly in place, we will step forward from this Chamber, dedicated to the Lord's work -- continuing our service to the public."

Arizona is run by right wing corporate money and has over-representation in its legislature by Christian and Mormon fundamentalists, most of us know that, but essentially charging the legislature to leave the legislative chambers and go out and do the work of a feudal concept of a male diety is way, way over the top. 

Being over the top is nothing new to Brewer.  She and her ilk seem to want to rule and not govern.  I don't want any elected official to do the Lord's work,  I want them to do what they were elected to do, the people's work.  I can ignore references to God by officials now and then, but this purely Christian religious charge to the legislature is offensive to me and probably is to others who think that the welfare of citizens beingplaced in the hands of people who believe in a feudal framing of the concept of a deity to be quite frightening. 

Polarization and Hate Speech from Elected Officials, Talking Heads, and Each and Every Citizen Impacts Each and Every One of Us

I write this for myself as much as for my friends who are readers and wondering what my take as a Tucsonan is on the horrors of yesterday.

My heart aches.  My eyes tear up on and off throughout the day.  Could I have done more to decrease the culture of hate and violence that has torn our nation apart and killed members of my community? I have to say that, "Yes, I could have done more."

No, no one killed was a personal friend of mine, but being an occasional participant in local political gatherings, being one of Gabby's District 8 constituents, and being an activist with a peace group who has made many trips to D.C. to participate in peace messaging to House and Senate members and office staff, I had met and interacted with several of the injured and killed.

After I returned from Indiana in 2007,  where I cared for my mother during the last months of her 92 year long life, I greatly decreased the frequency of my activist activities, that had began in 2003 and continued through early 2007, for several reasons.

1)  I was tired, exhausted.
2)  I had to find a job to pay off the significant debt I incurred caring for my mother because there is no good end of life health care in the U.S.
3) The escalation of violence in Tucson against peace activists by "counter demonstrators" continued during my absence and also during that time the Tucson Police Dept had stopped responding to requests for help from peace demonstrators outside weekly protests in front of a recruiting center when assaults by "counter demonstrators" occurred.  These "counter demonstrators dressed in military uniformed and had personally threatened me previously.  I was somewhat relieved when I found out I had to work on the morning when this vigil is held and this shames me.
4) I set off on a path to increase my inner peace and personal health.
5) I decided to focus on national level actions that spoke to me.
6) I selfishly felt the likelihood of personal injury to myself was much greater in Arizona than personal injury in the U.S. Capitol activism.

Had I been more vocal, and more articulate,  about the growing undercurrent in the atmosphere of hate and violence here in Tucson, that IS a real and palpable presence by the way, could I have nudged a thing or occurrence here or there that might have somehow changed something?   I absolutely believe that it is no accident that this horrible attempted assassination, and the related murders and shootings, which so many on the left were afraid would happen, happened in Tucson.  Many people in Tucson and across the country had voiced concern about  just such a thing happening after images and speech suggesting violence became routine parts of political campaigns.  Many feel that this horror happened here in the rabidly out of control Fundamentalist Mormon & Christian and Republican controlled state of Arizona because the atmosphere here helped a very disturbed young man feel it was acceptable to attempt to assassinate a Congresswoman.

No, I don't feel personally responsible for any one thing, but I do feel there is some possibility that I could have done something more to help change the atmosphere; I know we all, each and every one of us, have impact on others far beyond what we will ever know.  My favorite movie is It's a Wonderful Life, not only because I'm a sap, but because this story so beautifully shows the inadvertent and indirect, but significant, impact we not only have on those we love or interact with on a daily basis, but on those whose lives only tangentially brush our lives.

I am upset that health care in Arizona has devolved to such a degree that individuals who are known to be potentially violent and dangerous are not getting needed mental health care and are able to buy weaponry and carry out murders and assassination attempts.

I am grateful that the anti-education machine in the AZ government has been unable to completely strip the University of Arizona and the University Medical Center of funding for the only Trauma Center in Southern Arizona.  Without this, many more people, including Gabby would have probably died.

I am sickened that guns can be carried and concealed practically anywhere in the State of Arizona.  I can't imagine what the upcoming redistricting in Arizona will do to the remaining and already irrationally fragmented political districts.  The ability of liberal areas to have any meaningful self-governance have been politically silenced in the state as is evidenced by Tucson and other liberal Arizona enclaves division in egregious gerrymandering that will probably only get worse this year.

I am quite upset by statements made by various elected officials in Arizona who have called for "moving on"  from this tragedy within hours of the shooting, by Senator Kyl's statement that condemns Sheriff Dupnik rather than a statement decrying the violence.  This reversion to political speak within hours of a mass murder in their jurisdictions unfortunately illustrates the disconnect these officials have from the real world.  These leaders should apologize, at the very least, for such callous behavior when a city, state, and indeed, a nation are in mourning.  I am upset that Boehner has chosen to focus on protecting House Members and their staff when half the dead were simple innocent constituent civilians--we don't just need to increase security.  We need to increase civility.

Jesse Kelly's ad on the Pima County Republican website in early June 2010

I unfortunately continue to be outraged by folks on the political right who say the left wanted this to happen for some perverse reason.  By we progressives saying we were afraid something like this would happen when gunsights or target icons were placed over congressional districts in campaign materials and websites, or when Gabby's opponent had an automatic weapon shooting fest to remove Gabby from office does not mean that we wanted it to happen.  As I think you can see by this ad image, the implications of this vitriolic language was over the top and could have even unconsciously influenced the gunman.

The best thing the political right and or left can do right now is to apologize for anything they may have said or done,  or that was said or done on their behalf, that in any way helped to create an atmosphere that allowed or incited this mass shooting and murder to happen.

We all have to tone it down.  But to deny responsibility is childish.  We all create our world.  We must all take responsibility for it.  The people who were killed or injured were human, no more, no less.

Arizona Shooting in Tucson Calls for Much Explanation & Investigation

The atmosphere here in Tucson is tense and emotions are running very high due the shooting of 18 people, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords this morning outside of a grocery.   

I've gotten calls from friends wanting to make sure I wasn't at the grocery store gathering where the shooting happened.  I wasn't.  I could have been.  My husband could have been.  He has spoken to Gabby outside Safeway Grocery stores before.   Gabby has petted our mastiff and asked if he was a blue dog Democrat.  My husband said, "Yes, he is a blue dog, but I am a yellow dog."

A person who grew up next door to Jared Laughner told my daughter that Jared was relatively normal until High School when he reportedly suffered emotional problems and was rumored to have tried to harm himself more than once. 

The shooter was disturbed, no doubt about it, but whether he was politically motivated or not, the zeitgeist that allowed this to happen was partially created and constantly churned by Right Wing Hate Speech including Sarah Palin and Jesse Kelly.

Read about Jesse Kelly's target practice aimed at Giffords here. 
Read about Sarah Palin's targeted list including Giffords here.
Read about previous problems Giffords has had with violent hate speech and actions here.

The powers that be here in Arizona have some explaining to do.   Gun laws here allowed this slaughter of innocents to happen.  Law enforcement's comfortable numbness to the wackos here who in many cases are their buddies helped this to happen.  The unconscionable statements by the Govenor of Arizona and other Republican elected officials from Arizona today to "move on" from this event show the disconnect from reality that the right-wingers in this state have  developed over the last few decades and last few years in particular.  The shooting was this morning.  The terribly disturbed partisanship and sense of right and wrong in this state is well evidenced by these statements.  Move on?  MOVE ON?  How about investigate?  How about mourn?  How about draw together to learn and grow from a horrific event.   But move on?  How callous.  This is the type of depersonalization or devaluation of those who disagree with you that must end. 



 

Behaviors Are Illegal, NOT People!

Fercryingoutloud folks,  please, please, please stop using the word illegal to describe people.  People engage in illegal activities.   Behaviors are what  are declared legal or illegal, not individual people.  What a person does can be ruled to be illegal.   But to characterize a person in his or her entirety as "illegal" is not only demeaning and disrespectful to all humanity; it shows an inability to speak coherently.   A person is never declared illegal.  One's personhood is not illegal.  A person cannot be banned from the human species because he or she doesn't pass some sort of personhood test.


People may be working without the proper paperwork but they are not illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, and so on.


Maybe this distinction will be lost upon most Arizonans, we do have the worst educational system in the country.    Maybe only the second worst.   In any case, I wish we would stop thinking we have to be 48th in everything we do just because we were the 48th State. 

I love Arizona, but...

 I love Arizona, but we are in the throes of violent oppression.   My CODEPINK friends - who engaged in actions all over the U.S. and in war torn countries couldn't believe the overt and thuggish collusion between recruiters and police here.   Basically they couldn't believe what routinely takes place here in Arizona, and in Tucson, a supposed liberal enclave in the Wild West.  

But this isn't the old west.   This is the new Germany.   Goldwater, McCain, Brewer....  

Clarence Manion was the conductor behind the orchestration of the slow, methodical "conservative movement"  that began in the 50s and which we have seen coming to the forefront of the Republican Party in the last decade. The Manion Forum was the weekly sermon that fed the faithful for over two decades.  Manion encouraged Goldwater to write The Conscience of a Conservative.  Manion and Goldwater would both be horrified at the religious zealotry and the appeal to ignorance that has swept through the Republican Party in the last few years.  

Arizona is an example of what happens to a state when States Rights and Corporate Greed meets the Mafia.  You may think I'm joking, using hyperbole, but I'm not.   I've touched on this trend a few times in past entries here, but I think lots of readers thought I was a bit of a conspiracy theorist.  I'm not.  I'm a well trained researcher and a well trained observer of human behavior.   I understand how systems work.  We must all take one step to the left and shift our gaze to the dawn.   With those simple changes, will will shift society's  trajectory, that is the best hope we have for altering the fascistic trends and neutering the thugs and bullies who are donning brown shirts for their leaders, the "conservative" trend setters. 

Arizona is a testing ground for Right Wing tactics.   Gerrymandering has given us districts that consolidate Phoenix voting power and divide and weaken Tucson's vote.  Voter fraud, particularly under Jan Brewer ( was everywhere in Arizona:

• Sproul
• Voter Suppression
• Election Fraud
• Judge rules against following the Law

The examples could go on for pages.    What I'm saying here is that under the banner of States Rights Arizona has allowed itself to be taken over by a small group of thugs.  Federal Laws are disdained and ignored; ;criminality has come to characterize elections.  Selective law enforcement and abuse of power are routine and exemplified by Joe Arpaio. 

The powers that be are dismantling what little is left of the education system in Arizona. In passing conversation in the last week with a reliable source passed on a quote from a current ABOR (Arizona Board of Regents) member, "What do we need all these educated people for?" 

You should also remember that Las Vegas was planned here in Tucson by the Chicago Mafia at the old El Conquistador Hotel -- not so very far from where DeConcini offices are located, you remember him, don't you... one of the Keating 5 kerfuffle, along with John McCain that had something to do with Lincoln Savings and Loan, bribes, federal investigations and near seizures, bribes and campaign contributions.  (Cindy McCain was a Keating business partner.)

Basically there is a ruling elite made up of Ranchers, Land Developers, and a few powerful corporations that want Arizona to become a feudal state where the serfs are kept in their place and hereditary rule by the wealthy reigns.     

It is about time some Federal investigations take place at the heart of our state's corrupt political and governmental system.  States Rights be damned, in a country where people have to move all over the place for employment, education and careers, we need a strong federal government to protect us from yehoos and carpet-baggers.  

Oh, one more thing... be careful in Arizona when you speak out about any of this;  have your papers in order and wear a Kevlar vest.  Oh, and don't mention MLK Day and Super Bowl XXVII either.... or you might be deported.

Huge Turnout at Phoenix Healthcare Rally Outside Obama's VFW Address

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As I posted earlier in the day, I was at the demonstration outside the VFW gathering where Obama spoke today. I was also near these kooks who were carrying weapons. A few pieces of information that I haven't seen mentioned in the media reports although the Maddow video above does briefly show the donkey hanging in effigy.

The people carrying the guns were parading their weaponry through the "other" side crowds. The intention of the police and permitters and such were clearly focused on keeping the opposing factions apart on opposite sides of the street. What I've not seen mentioned is how the person carrying the lynched stuffed animal had hateful notes pinned to the stuffed toy, marched directly into the opposing demonstrators and attempted to instigate confrontation and conflict and were quickly (within 5 minutes) joined by the guys with assault weapons. There were very clear provocateurs who were there at the rally to stir up trouble. I should also mention that the guns that were holstered on legs were within a foot or so of small children, in strollers next to their slightly older toddler siblings who were within grab range of the and at the very same level as the weapons.

Talking to people who are active in progressive politics and demonstrations in the Phoenix area I heard from a couple different individuals that these guys often show up, attempt to intimidate and are close supporters of Joe Arpaio. This association between extremely conservative police factions, the self proclaimed minute men and "freepers" in the Phoenix to U.S. Mexican border area is an area of great concern to me. I wrote about it 3 years ago when I was threatened by a "counter" demonstrator outside a military recruitment office -- this man told me that I was a traitor and would have been hanged to death in other times. The the threat and attempted intimidation was clear... not all of these times were necessarily in the past.

A brave soul has been valiantly continuing to stand, often alone, in an anti-recruitment protest at least that occurs at least one a week for years, before and after, the incidents I witnessed 3 years ago. This woman protester (in her late 70s) has been harassed and threatened by an individual from Tucson gun toting, Freeper thugs who "counter protest" at the recruitment center and had to go back to court a second time, from what I understand ( I need to interview her and others who attended the court hearing to cover this significant story that has had absolutely zero attention from "journalists" in the Tucson area) to keep this thuggish person and his threats and legal harassment away from her. It has taken years to even get the courts to acknowledge that there is targeted personal harassment and intimidation of regular citizens - little old ladies in fact - by thugs within the vigilante border guard/Joe Arpaio's posse/cocaine trafficking military recruiters/"Freeper" network. There is systematic assault and intimidation of the exercise of free speech by progressives in the central and southern Arizona region.

The police in Phoenix seemed far more neutral than the police in Tucson have seemed from my experience. I've been called on to private property by Tucson cops who then proceeded to cite me for trespassing. I've had police show up at my home's door and have them inform my terrified daughter they could arrest me any time they chose. Military - police - vigilante - wacko connections should be investigated.

There are radical right groups in AZ who are dangerous. Assault weapons and provocateurs are a dangerous combination. Perhaps you remember Timothy McVey and his Kingman connections?


I think this is enough for now.

RNC protest - it's a wrap.

There is so much that didn't make it in to the corporate media -- I don't know where to begin. So I will start with CODEPINK. It is interesting to note that the dark blond woman who had the banner ripped out of her hands is a constituent of John McCain who knows he has done nothing for the people of Arizona although he has helped corporate Arizona -- and with the trickle down effect has p---ed all over the people of Arizona.




The night before Medea and Jodie engaged in a free speech act at Palin's speech.


Here you can see real journalistic news coverage of the act of free speech:

A very Republican friend of mine summarized his reaction to the free speech engaged in by Liz and Nancy last night during the McCain speech after I distributed a URL to AP coverage of my pink sisters that lands at a video of the event near the spot on the page where the speech act is accessible under the heading "Protest...." I find it interesting that I couldn't link directly to the proper video. Oh well.

"I KNEW it. You CodePinksters are a resourceful, albeit deeply irritating (but that is the point, after all, isn't it?) lot!

Though I disagree with your group's policy prescriptions, I am glad to see someone was able to penetrate the unconstitutional barriers to free speech both parties erected on the pretext of security concerns. I only wonder why Code Pink did not crash the love fest at Mile High Stadium, also, or did they but went unheard in such a massive, outdoor venue?"

You can see that Pinksters interupt Obama too in the video immediately above.

CODEPINK actions at the RNC on Flickr.

I believe the Make Out Not War action best captured the spirit of CODEPINK - presenting the other side of the coin per the war in and occupation of Iraq in a non-violent jester inspired manner that can even make people laugh until they stop and think deeply about the action -- then tears are likely.

Things were not quite as peachy for journalists engaging in what is supposed to be doubly protected reporting through free speech acts instances of free speech acts. Amy Goodman was arrested when asking to speak to a police officer in charge so as to find out where the cops in Darth Vader suits had taken two of her producers they had arrested. I recommend watching the entire program to get a feel for the abuse of power that went on throughout the entire RNC. Amy Goodman got the most attention of the group but several other journalists were detained, arrested, and charged with very serious misdemeanors or felonies.

If you don't have time to watch the entire video -- go to the end so you can see a reporter summarize another event where the police were way out of line to begin with... but then exaccerbated the situation by rounding up the journalists too.

This doesn't even begin to cover the huge number of other outrageous acts instigated by the police. Here are links to just a few.

Pepper spray directed directly and purposesively into the eyes of a photojournalist.

From the blogosphere, Pam's House Blend covers the situation well.

Here's the photo of police abuse of a protester that got the photographer arrested. This could have broken the protester's neck or crushed his throat.

More than 50,000 have already signed on to a petition delivered today to St. Paul City Hall to have charges against journalists dropped.

Photography is not a crime discussion on flickr is worth checking out. So is this about photographer's rights.

And then there are the hundreds of arrests that even CNN finds used questionable tactics as well as pre-emptive search and seizures.

And then there was the arrest of a photographer last week at the DNC who took a pic of a democratic honcho and some big donors who was arrested -- that must have been a warm up.

Wake Up America. John McCain is Senator from a Pit of Corruption.

This is the first of many posts that will be made over the next couple of months that highlight John McCain and what his interests and protection of interests vital to his family's continuing wealth have done to Arizona. This article by Halbfinger in yesterday's New York Times offers tantalizing details that require further investigation about financial holdings and interests of the McCain family. Family is an interesting term to use here, as it also has a more foreboding connotation illustrated to me by a friend of mine who was told by his Chicago-based "labor relations" father-in-law ---whose son has a beer distributorship in Northern Indiana--- "Ya don't juss marry da girl, ya marry da Family." McCain's children and wife, THE McCAIN FAMILY either run and/or hold significant shares in the massive Cindy Hensley McCain owned beer distributorship in Arizona.

I live in Arizona. October 2nd I will be into my third decade lived in Arizona under the regal rule of the very small number of families that control almost every aspect "plantation Arizona." My life has been impacted by the lack of concern these families, such as the McCain family, have for the people of the state. John McCain has never lived in this state, he has flown over the lives of the little people in strata above the everyday lives his entire time he has been associated with the richest women the state. He was arm candy for little Cindy Lou.

• ranks second highest nationally in franchise jobs
• 50th in education
• in top three in foreclosure rates
  
• Above average drug use, among the top in violent teen death, near the top in teen pregnancy, and citizens living below poverty rate usually comes in around 20 %
  
• highest national crime rates

But Arizona ranks low in taxes on beer. Close to 20% lower than the national average on alcohol taxes. Hmmmmm. What people are side-stepping is what the beer distributorship, the Keating Five, and Marley connections imply. Organized crime. Perhaps mobster perhaps not.... organized crime comes in all sorts of white collars in Arizona.

Wake up America! You don't want anything to do with any successful politician from this corrupt state.