This morning I read two blog posts by a Tucson blogger, a member of the BlogHer Network, and a survivor of recent shootings. Suzi Hileman, who writes The Burrow under the blogonym, Ashleigh Burroughs, is a new heroine of mine. She writes about walking through the vigil garden at UMC on Sunday evening with her husband, and by law enforcement. The garden was created for her and for the 19 others that were hurt or killed on January 8th. She writes with a grace and strength that I can only describe as exceptional.
The first post of hers I read was written on Sunday. It was moving. The second was written on Monday and it is inspirational. It is as powerful of a piece of writing as I have read. That she is able to write just over a week after being shot multiple times by a madman is beyond amazing.
Many folks, myself included, allow the bumps in life to disturb them more than is necessary. Our absolutely wimpy nature is made clear when we compare ourselves to this woman. First she has written consistently for two years and built up a following and received recognition for the quality of her blog in that time. That is an achievement. Now as a survivor of a shooting that was an attempt at a political assassination, as the woman who was holding hands with little girl, Christine Green, as she was murdered by the madman, as the wife of a man who spoke eloquently and rationally about a vile act of a disturbed mind, she speaks calmly and with a clarity of a person who is either being guided by the divine if that exists, or who somehow has a gift to be able to see hopeful, blossoming patterns of what might be and guide us to them through this maze of absurdity that is now.
In the midst of all this, there is also the fact that her personal life now connects to her writing life. They were separate. I put the two together when I was looking at a list of survivors and victims and saw no Ashleigh there. Then I realized the wounds described by Ashleigh's daughter on the blog were the wounds described by the media as those of Suzi Hileman. On top of everything else inflicted upon her and stolen from her, her anonymity was gone, she had been outed. Fate saw fit to have the real woman behind the great blog emerge. We cannot know why. I hope she continues to blog, but it is not something that would be fair to ask of her. If she continues to blog, it will be a gift.
There are such treasures of people all around us. People with gifts. Angels Unaware so to speak. I am adding Suzi to my list of comforts: places, thoughts, friends, readings, songs and poetry to which I can go, think, talk, read, listen when I need to find peace within myself. Genuine voice. Voice that takes me to a place in which I can find comfort. Real voices that know oh so much more than they ever wished to know. Voice from which I can learn.
I also feel tremendous sadness for Suzi. As a person who has come to a point in life where she can give and speak from a point of wisdom, she is not to be envied. Wisdom gathers knowledge into us through sadness, trauma, and loss. Wisdom is the balance that comes with perspective showing beginnings and endings, full circles, and fearful beauty of birth and death. Wisdom is nothing I would wish on anyone. For those who have reached its sun and shadows I am most grateful when they share bits of what they have come to know, but it is nothing for which I could ever ask. It is too personal. It is a gift.
Thank you Suzi.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
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.
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.
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
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.
Saturday, January 08, 2011
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.
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.
Gabby Giffords Shot in Tucson
Gabby Giffords is my Congresswoman. I have disagreed with her on many issues, but I voted for her multiple times. I've been in her office in D.C. and spoken to her At public meetings with her. I have begged her to take the radical right threats in our district seriously. She is a moderate. I believe in the U.S. and know that Gabby does/did too.
If this is not a wake up call for all of the USA, I don't know what is. The atmosphere in Tucson has been becoming more and more hate filled in how "liberals" are treated. Police in Tucson have refused to come to requests for help from anti-war protesters when they were being attacked by "counter-protesters."
Gabby's opponent in the Nov '10 race called for violence. This is an open and concealed carry state. We in AZ have been taken over by right wing extremists. We have asked for help. We have been ignored. This is a proving ground for extremist right wing policies and practices, it has been ever since Goldwater. Will someone please open a Federal investigation about the infiltration of AZ legal and political structure by right wing terrorists? Please, do it for Gabby.
Grijalva's office has been attacked previously. Both Raul and Gabby have had real and severe assault threats.
My money is on the gunman being one of Jesse Kelly's supporters.
Pray for Gabby, hold her in the light, envelope her in love!
If this is not a wake up call for all of the USA, I don't know what is. The atmosphere in Tucson has been becoming more and more hate filled in how "liberals" are treated. Police in Tucson have refused to come to requests for help from anti-war protesters when they were being attacked by "counter-protesters."
Gabby's opponent in the Nov '10 race called for violence. This is an open and concealed carry state. We in AZ have been taken over by right wing extremists. We have asked for help. We have been ignored. This is a proving ground for extremist right wing policies and practices, it has been ever since Goldwater. Will someone please open a Federal investigation about the infiltration of AZ legal and political structure by right wing terrorists? Please, do it for Gabby.
Grijalva's office has been attacked previously. Both Raul and Gabby have had real and severe assault threats.
My money is on the gunman being one of Jesse Kelly's supporters.
Pray for Gabby, hold her in the light, envelope her in love!
Monday, November 08, 2010
Perfect leaflet to accompany Bush "Memoir"
You may download a four to a page version of this info for leafleting at:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/60378484/Soldier-deaths-in-Iraq
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/60378484/Soldier-deaths-in-Iraq
The Soldiers Represented
by these numbers were Ordered
to their Deaths in Iraq by G. W. Bush
Friday, October 22, 2010
Raul Grijalva's Courage
I wish Raul Grijalva was my Representative in the House. If I live a few feet in another direction he would be. He is a courageous advocate for the people of Southern Arizona. The most recent attack on his office came yesterday in the form of a white powder containing, swastika-covered envelope. This is what you have to live with if you are a progressive in Arizona. The Tea Party has been here for decades in the form of an uneducated, bible (in various absolute word of God varieties) thumping state legislature. The violence advocated by Tea Party talking heads encourages radical fringe terrorist groups to act. Thank heavens the FBI has gotten involved. Local law enforcement has issues.
I've reported on how law abiding protesters are ordered onto private property (recruiting offices) by police and then cited for trespassing and how this clearly shows some sort of collusion between cops and military; how cops here show up at your door and terrify your children with threats about arresting their parents (for political protest.) The connections between some of the police and the militia / freepers / tea party wack jobs seems pretty evident when during lawful calls for assistance are not responded to when American flag waving, military uniform wearing "counter" protesters assault, threaten and attempt to intimidate recruitment center protesters with swarming, shoving and verbal intimidation on the main drag here in Tucson. Death threats against peace groups and threats against businesses that have peace groups meeting in them are a matter of public record. There is a right wing terrorist faction here in southern Arizona that needs to be shut down. I hope the FBI does their job. Nazis and skin heads that attended the Kelly / Giffords debate in support of Jesse Kelly might be a place for them to start.
I've reported on how law abiding protesters are ordered onto private property (recruiting offices) by police and then cited for trespassing and how this clearly shows some sort of collusion between cops and military; how cops here show up at your door and terrify your children with threats about arresting their parents (for political protest.) The connections between some of the police and the militia / freepers / tea party wack jobs seems pretty evident when during lawful calls for assistance are not responded to when American flag waving, military uniform wearing "counter" protesters assault, threaten and attempt to intimidate recruitment center protesters with swarming, shoving and verbal intimidation on the main drag here in Tucson. Death threats against peace groups and threats against businesses that have peace groups meeting in them are a matter of public record. There is a right wing terrorist faction here in southern Arizona that needs to be shut down. I hope the FBI does their job. Nazis and skin heads that attended the Kelly / Giffords debate in support of Jesse Kelly might be a place for them to start.
Friday, October 15, 2010
The True Enemy of the Little Gal and True Small Locally-based Business
If you don't know who the Koch Brothers are, that is understandable. Most folks don't even know who lives next door to them these days, let alone who is financing the nationally coordinated assault on their local political candidates who truly just want to support their communities through public service. Basically the Koch Brothers dreamed up the Tea Party and funded it to feed the frustrations and misinformation of regular Jane and Joe Six-packs so they would buy into voting against their own interests in this and the next elections.
Unfortunately they learned from the likes of the left leaning folks who protested at the 2004 Presidential debates like me, PDA folks, some youthful rabble rouser artist types and CODEPINK. We had a cardboard cake puppet (let them eat cake) and chanted outside a hotel where McCain and Napolitano were meeting up, "We're Joe Six Pack and we've come to take our country back. This is the same message the Tea Partiers think they came up with, but the difference is their grassroots aka astroturf movement is being funded by The Koch Brothers of Koch Industries.
You need to know who the Koch brothers are. They are eating cake and taunting us. We do not want blood n the streets or a revolution. And that is what happened in France after the aristocrats pushed the little guy over the line.
At least I sure don't want to see civil war in our country and that is what is going to happen if we let the Koch brothers continue to manipulate, with the help of their brother in kind Rupert Murdoch, manipulate the media and the political system. When the little guy finally figures out what Big Business (remember that term?) and Big Media has done to them there will be rioting in the streets. When the streets explode for whatever reason, religious intolerance and racial hatred will come out in force too. We don't take to the streets as quickly as say our European brothers and sisters, but when we do - it is real serious, real fast. We can't blame ourselves for this -- we work more hours than any other group of people in the Developed World and just don't have time to research behind the news. Most of Koch Industries is involved in non-consumer level production and manufacturing: petroleum and chemical industries, and the paper and cattle industries.
But we women are smarter than that. We have to take both long and short term views simultaneously or we would have died out as a species millennia ago. We can send signals and we can subvert the dominant paradigm so to speak as we and our collective feminine actions are THE dominant paradigm, no matter what.
First step... boycott Georgia Pacific, the main consumer brand of the Koch Brothers.
Georgia-Pacific’s familiar consumer brands in North America include
Quilted Northern®,
Angel Soft®,
Brawny®,
Sparkle® ,
Soft 'n Gentle®,
Mardi Gras®,
Vanity Fair®,
and the Dixie® brand of tabletop products.
The company’s leading European brands include
Lotus®,
Colhogar®,
Delica®,
Tenderly®
and the Demak'Up® brand of facial cleansing products.
Koch Industries also manufacture LYCRA® fiber and COOLMAX® fabric.
Consumer brands include STAINMASTER ®carpet, ANTRON® carpet fiber, CORDURA® fabric, and COMFOREL® fiberfill.
Don't buy this crap!
Don't eat beef. Or only buy local organic beef so you know you aren't buying from Matador. "The Matador Cattle Company is one of the ten largest cow/calf operations in the U.S." and yep it is Koch-owned.
The second thing I would do is to ask Managers anywhere and everywhere that you come across showing Fox News in a public area to please turn it to a station that doesn't support hate speech and incite violence You can see that advertisers have left Glenn beck for the most part but Fox still has major advertisers. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Fox News (aka News Corpse and Faux News) is another story. Basically foreign nationals used to be banned, before the 1980s, from owning controlling interests of our print and broadcast media. Rupert Murdoch got kicked out of Australian media for being too conservative and trying to subvert their media. So we change the laws to allow him to own our media and now a Saudi Arabian princes is the second largest shareholder.
This has to stop. Women have to take back the remote and boycott the Koch Bros.--for starters.
Friday, October 08, 2010
We Can't Afford to Send Fiscally Irresponsible People to the Nation's Capitol
Is it just my imagination or are a rather large number of House races around the country being run by Republicans who spout about the deficit (which they never say was created by the Bush War machine, which it was) yet have proven to be outrageously financially irresponsible, or possibly downright criminal, in their personal lives?
First case in point - Christine O'Donnell. She is a professional candidate, accused of misappropriation, and she apparently lies about her educational background. She is neither responsible nor trustworthy. Even The Moderate Voice details all her "baggage."
More typical is a Republican rich guy trying to say he lost a couple hundred thousand bucks when he actually made 13+ million. The Dayton Daily News reports "Renacci, of Wadsworth, has made his success as a businessman and proponent of fiscal discipline a linchpin of his campaign" The problem: "Republican Jim Renacci and his wife, Tina, filed adjusted gross income in 2000 of negative $247,000 but a state audit calculated the sum at $13.7 million, according to an Associated Press review of public documents."
And New Hampshire's Republican Frank Guinta failed to disclose a bank account, and where the money in that account came from, that he is using as a slush fund. The Concord Monitor reports that "The New Hampshire Democratic Party filed formal complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the clerk of the U.S. House about Guinta amending his financial disclosure form in July to include a Bank of America account worth between $250,001 and $500,000."
And closer to our own homes and hearts here in Arizona, according to the NY Times: "In Arizona, Representative Harry E. Mitchell accused his opponent David Schweikert of being “a predatory real estate speculator who snatched up nearly 300 foreclosed homes, been cited for neglect and evicted a homeowner on the verge of saving his house, just to make a buck.”
Then there is Arkansas' First District GOP Congressional candidate Rick Crawford's stonewalling about his bankruptcy.
And of course there is also moral irresponsibility -- perhaps a topic for another entry -- but for now, here is one example:
Massachusetts Republican candidate Rick Perry faces re-examination of strip searches of underage girls by officers in his command.
First case in point - Christine O'Donnell. She is a professional candidate, accused of misappropriation, and she apparently lies about her educational background. She is neither responsible nor trustworthy. Even The Moderate Voice details all her "baggage."
More typical is a Republican rich guy trying to say he lost a couple hundred thousand bucks when he actually made 13+ million. The Dayton Daily News reports "Renacci, of Wadsworth, has made his success as a businessman and proponent of fiscal discipline a linchpin of his campaign" The problem: "Republican Jim Renacci and his wife, Tina, filed adjusted gross income in 2000 of negative $247,000 but a state audit calculated the sum at $13.7 million, according to an Associated Press review of public documents."
And New Hampshire's Republican Frank Guinta failed to disclose a bank account, and where the money in that account came from, that he is using as a slush fund. The Concord Monitor reports that "The New Hampshire Democratic Party filed formal complaints with the Federal Election Commission and the clerk of the U.S. House about Guinta amending his financial disclosure form in July to include a Bank of America account worth between $250,001 and $500,000."
And closer to our own homes and hearts here in Arizona, according to the NY Times: "In Arizona, Representative Harry E. Mitchell accused his opponent David Schweikert of being “a predatory real estate speculator who snatched up nearly 300 foreclosed homes, been cited for neglect and evicted a homeowner on the verge of saving his house, just to make a buck.”
Then there is Arkansas' First District GOP Congressional candidate Rick Crawford's stonewalling about his bankruptcy.
And of course there is also moral irresponsibility -- perhaps a topic for another entry -- but for now, here is one example:
Massachusetts Republican candidate Rick Perry faces re-examination of strip searches of underage girls by officers in his command.
Wednesday, October 06, 2010
Brief update
Day 2 and 3 report is coming soon.
For now:
10.2.10
Saturday Day: Umbrellas at the Archives.
March and Rally was amazing! All these groups working together!
Saturday Night: Then Alice Walker reading and Furious Dance at Bus Boys and Poets -- Yowza.
10.3.10
Sunday Morning: BOW$$H training.
Sunday Afternoon: Umbrella Action (choreographed) at Eastern Market
For now:
10.2.10
Saturday Day: Umbrellas at the Archives.
March and Rally was amazing! All these groups working together!
Saturday Night: Then Alice Walker reading and Furious Dance at Bus Boys and Poets -- Yowza.
10.3.10
Sunday Morning: BOW$$H training.
Sunday Afternoon: Umbrella Action (choreographed) at Eastern Market
Friday, October 01, 2010
Day 1 of Being a CODEPINKer at One Nation Working Together
October 1 Logistics
12:30 - 3 a.m.
Worked on orienting myself, getting internet installed and working, figuring out my schedules and getting my materials together for the next few days. Finally crashed around 3 a.m. I'm still very much on west coast time.
Mundane details, but good to know information (especially for women activists of a certain age:
9 a.m. - 2 p.m.Woke up later than I should have -- 6 a.m. AZ time. 9 a.m. here. Very glad I gave myself a day to orient and do a bit of lobbying. I transcribed the letter to my Representative and Senators onto my computer -- wrote it by hand on the plane here. Loaded it onto a flash drive and printed it at the business center in my hotel. Grabbed a good breakfast. Got a metro/city map. Figured out the locations for shuttlebetween hotel to metro. Got a metro card. By the time I emerged from the metro at Capital SW stop I was sweating like mad. We south-westerners forget how much we sweat in the heat because it evaporates instantaneously. Here when I encounter the humidity that is always present in Washington, D.C. my body tries to cool itself, sweats, it doesn't evaporate as it usually does when I'm in Tucson and thus my body thinks it isn't cooling off, so it bumps up the process and cranks out even more sweat. I look like hell and I don't stay sweet smelling very long in this condition either.
I'm glad I've had a day to adjust to everything.
As I said above, I have letters for all the Rep/Senator types from my part of AZ. I did manage to deliver my letter to Representative Giffords today around 3. I wasn't impressed with her staff.
Boy Staffer mumbles some sort of a greeting.
Me: Hi. I've come to drop off a letter.
Boy Staffer: Good.
That was it. I gave it to him. No "Oh, where are you from?" or "Why are you here?" or "Welcome to D.C. " Nada. Zilch. Pretty good mirroring of the way Gabby treats her constituents by her staff.
I know D.C. is old hat to them, but here I am, a constituent who has come across the country to support working together for progressive reasons, and takes the time to write and drop off a letter, and I'm pretty much ignored. I was hot & tired and on my way out I told the guy what I thought about how I was treated and even though I vote for Gabby only as the lesser of two evils, I do not feel she represents any of my interests, hears what I tell her in letters, petitions, and the like, nor cares. Giffords is basically a pro-choice Republican from what I can tell.
Then I went to a room in the Capitol Visitor's Center to a room Rep. Raul Grijalva had reserved for use by the PDA. On Sunday I will go into detail on what John Conyers said when he spoke to maybe 50 or so people from the PDA and associated groups.
Will also report on the great dinner and orientation session I attended at the CODEPINK Convergence Center this evening.
But for now I have to sleep, and tomorrow I'm on the ground all day and at Poets and Busboys in the evening. I will be posting images here, on Flickr, and on Facebook and Twitter until I can write up things later this weekend.
BRING OUR WAR $$$ HOME!!!
12:30 - 3 a.m.
Worked on orienting myself, getting internet installed and working, figuring out my schedules and getting my materials together for the next few days. Finally crashed around 3 a.m. I'm still very much on west coast time.
Mundane details, but good to know information (especially for women activists of a certain age:
9 a.m. - 2 p.m.Woke up later than I should have -- 6 a.m. AZ time. 9 a.m. here. Very glad I gave myself a day to orient and do a bit of lobbying. I transcribed the letter to my Representative and Senators onto my computer -- wrote it by hand on the plane here. Loaded it onto a flash drive and printed it at the business center in my hotel. Grabbed a good breakfast. Got a metro/city map. Figured out the locations for shuttlebetween hotel to metro. Got a metro card. By the time I emerged from the metro at Capital SW stop I was sweating like mad. We south-westerners forget how much we sweat in the heat because it evaporates instantaneously. Here when I encounter the humidity that is always present in Washington, D.C. my body tries to cool itself, sweats, it doesn't evaporate as it usually does when I'm in Tucson and thus my body thinks it isn't cooling off, so it bumps up the process and cranks out even more sweat. I look like hell and I don't stay sweet smelling very long in this condition either.
I'm glad I've had a day to adjust to everything.
As I said above, I have letters for all the Rep/Senator types from my part of AZ. I did manage to deliver my letter to Representative Giffords today around 3. I wasn't impressed with her staff.
Boy Staffer mumbles some sort of a greeting.
Me: Hi. I've come to drop off a letter.
Boy Staffer: Good.
That was it. I gave it to him. No "Oh, where are you from?" or "Why are you here?" or "Welcome to D.C. " Nada. Zilch. Pretty good mirroring of the way Gabby treats her constituents by her staff.
I know D.C. is old hat to them, but here I am, a constituent who has come across the country to support working together for progressive reasons, and takes the time to write and drop off a letter, and I'm pretty much ignored. I was hot & tired and on my way out I told the guy what I thought about how I was treated and even though I vote for Gabby only as the lesser of two evils, I do not feel she represents any of my interests, hears what I tell her in letters, petitions, and the like, nor cares. Giffords is basically a pro-choice Republican from what I can tell.
Then I went to a room in the Capitol Visitor's Center to a room Rep. Raul Grijalva had reserved for use by the PDA. On Sunday I will go into detail on what John Conyers said when he spoke to maybe 50 or so people from the PDA and associated groups.
Will also report on the great dinner and orientation session I attended at the CODEPINK Convergence Center this evening.
But for now I have to sleep, and tomorrow I'm on the ground all day and at Poets and Busboys in the evening. I will be posting images here, on Flickr, and on Facebook and Twitter until I can write up things later this weekend.
BRING OUR WAR $$$ HOME!!!
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Gonna March, Gonna Dance!
The think I like about women's activism is that it is like a bouncy session on a trampoline. I visualize it as women standing on a web or net that overlays a map of the country or globe. As a woman here or there becomes less active and sinks to a less active level, other raise up, and some are just bouncing like mad up to sky in near manic activity.
Women's networks are amazing!
I'm going back to D.C. for a few days, the first time in almost three years, to catch up with all things PINK at the national level and to represent my family and friends in the OneNation March in D.C. on October 2nd.
We all do what we can, and I have to tell the current admin that we are demanding the change for which we voted and worked. Drones are criminal. War is not the answer to anything. Education and jobs and taking care of people are what we need -- NOT corporate and mega-wealthy tax breaks and propping up the military industrial complex. Jobs from war funding are tainted jobs.
In a way it is sort of sad as I will be missing a great Pink & Green event here in Tucson, more on that later, but I will be reporting back often from D.C. with tweets, posts, pics and more.
I will also be dancing the night away at Poets & Busboys with Alice Walker and CODEPINK supporters.
I'm staying in a hotel and if there are any snorers who don't mind bunking in a double with another snorer (major!) then contact me about rooming. I get dibs on soaking my feet after a day of marching and dancing though!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Recap by David Swanson of August 29 D.C. Iraq War Teach-In @ Busboy's & Poets
Peace Movement Pushes for End to War on Iraq
By David Swanson
As news stories are leading those still aware of the war on Iraq to believe it's over, it was encouraging to see Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, D.C., packed Sunday evening for a four-hour forum on actions needed to actually end that war, make reparations, and deter future wars of aggression. The event was advertised with the following description:
"Is the U.S. military really leaving Iraq or just rebranding? What is the toll of seven years of occupation on Iraqis, U.S. soldiers and our economies? What is the status of Iraqi refugees around the world? Is it still possible to hold accountable those who dragged us into the war or committed crimes such as torture? What role did Congress and the media play in facilitating the invasion/occupation? We'll also look at the role of the peace movement -- its strengths and weaknesses -- and draw key lessons to make our work for peace, including in Afghanistan, more effective."
Serving as moderators for the event were Andy Shallal, an Iraqi artist and the owner of Busboys and Poets, and Felicia Eaves, a peace activist. The event began with playwright and performer Kymone Tecumseh Freeman reading from "Letters from Iraq," which set the tone for the event with the view of the crime scene from one of its participants, a U.S. soldier.
The first of two panels included:
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Raed Jarrar, Peace Action
Manal Omar, author
Gene Bruskin, US Labor Against the War
This first panel focused on the perspective of Iraqis and the state of the disaster in Iraq. Bennis gave her usual excellent overview. I say usual because of course we've been holding these events for a decade now, but Bennis provided new reason for energetic engagement by describing plans for a major march on Washington on October 2nd that will bring the peace movement together with those focused on jobs and economic justice, something that's been badly needed since before the current wars began, as the funding of global militarism has been hollowing our country out from the inside. See: http://www.onenationforpeace.org
Raed Jarrar rebutted the idea that Iraqis are in any way grateful for what the United States has done to their country. Iraqis, he said, see this invasion as the 21st foreign invasion of their country and as evil as any of the other 20. As all the panel's speakers made clear, Iraq is now in worse shape than in 2003. There's no safety, no electricity, no water, and millions of Iraqis are unwelcome in the nations they've fled to but unable to return home. The Iraq of the 1980s with its advances in education and women's rights is long gone. Manal Omar described grandmothers with college education and foreign travel whose granddaughters are illiterate and have never been far from their homes. Gene Bruskin described the heroic efforts of Iraqi workers to organize, claim their rights, and block the privatization of resources -- the efforts to privatize being a key reason why Iraqis still lack electricity. Jarrar stressed that Iraqis want a fully sovereign national government to provide their nation's services. They want electricity, but do not want it in the way the government overseen by the United States wants to provide it.
Jarrar was very hopeful about the new Iraqi Parliament, expecting strong resistance to the occupation, but he also argued that there are no grounds to complain that the occupation isn't ending now, that it is supposed to end by December 31, 2011. Jarrar seemed fully confident that, in some sense, the occupation would end by that date, although leaving behind a major presence in the form of the world's largest embassy, additional consulates, and soldiers and mercenaries whose presence would be justified as guarding those locations. However, Bennis pointed out that Congress played no role in the creation of the unconstitutional treaty through which Bush and Maliki set the deadline for complete withdrawal, giving reason to question our ability to properly enforce compliance with it, assuming -- as I do -- that such enforcement will in fact be needed.
Congresswoman Donna Edwards spoke next. She raised a fear I share that between now and the end of next year President Obama will attempt to put in place a new treaty to extend the occupation. She also spoke of the upcoming elections. I wish she'd advocated electing congress members who would defund the wars, or even Democratic congress members who would defund the wars. Instead she advocated electing Democrats because a Democratic majority would make all the difference. My concern is that we have had that majority in the House for the past five years. We have 115 congress members who will oppose war funding, 103 of them Democrats. We need to build those numbers, I think, more than any others. And we need to establish our ability to follow through on commitments to unelect those who vote for the war funding.
Head-Roc, a hip-hop artist, performed next, his subject matter dealing with the attacks on public school funding, affordable housing, and child care in Washington, D.C., and the rest of this country -- the areas defunded by the funding of wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the rest of the corporate agenda driving our government.
The second and last panel included:
Josh Stieber, Iraq Veterans Against the War
David Swanson, author
Bill Fletcher, labor leader, scholar
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK and Global Exchange
Stieber discussed, from the point of view of a soldier who believed the war lies and came to reject them, the incoherence of the bundle of excuses for this war that we've all been offered. On the one hand this is a war to kill evil Muslims. On the other hand it's a war to spread human rights. We help people out by bombing them, something Stieber said many U.S. soldiers end up joking about, most of them quickly losing any belief in the morality of their cause.
I argued for voting out of office those who fund the wars, and for holding the war makers criminally and constitutionally responsible, including through launching an effort to impeach Jay Bybee and open up a congressional review of war lies and the crime of aggression.
Bill Fletcher picked up where Head-Roc had left off, arguing for the need to make peace not just a preference people have when a pollster asks them, but something that resonates with them as central to the betterment of their daily lives. He pointed to the Chicano Moratorium exactly 40 years earlier as a movement to learn from.
Medea Benjamin inspired, as always, with tales of recent activism by CODE PINK to oppose the war funding, to build alliances, and to hold accountable war criminals including Karl Rove and Erik Prince. And she pushed for participation on a massive scale in the march on October 2nd:
http://www.onenationforpeace.org
Sunday's event, which benefitted from lots of questions and participation from everyone in the room, was sponsored by the wonderful organizations CODEPINK, Peace Action, Institute for Policy Studies, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Global Exchange, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), U.S. Labor Against the War, ANSWER, World Can't Wait, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War is a Crime, Rivera Project, and the Washington Peace Center.
By David Swanson
As news stories are leading those still aware of the war on Iraq to believe it's over, it was encouraging to see Busboys and Poets restaurant in Washington, D.C., packed Sunday evening for a four-hour forum on actions needed to actually end that war, make reparations, and deter future wars of aggression. The event was advertised with the following description:
"Is the U.S. military really leaving Iraq or just rebranding? What is the toll of seven years of occupation on Iraqis, U.S. soldiers and our economies? What is the status of Iraqi refugees around the world? Is it still possible to hold accountable those who dragged us into the war or committed crimes such as torture? What role did Congress and the media play in facilitating the invasion/occupation? We'll also look at the role of the peace movement -- its strengths and weaknesses -- and draw key lessons to make our work for peace, including in Afghanistan, more effective."
Serving as moderators for the event were Andy Shallal, an Iraqi artist and the owner of Busboys and Poets, and Felicia Eaves, a peace activist. The event began with playwright and performer Kymone Tecumseh Freeman reading from "Letters from Iraq," which set the tone for the event with the view of the crime scene from one of its participants, a U.S. soldier.
The first of two panels included:
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies
Raed Jarrar, Peace Action
Manal Omar, author
Gene Bruskin, US Labor Against the War
This first panel focused on the perspective of Iraqis and the state of the disaster in Iraq. Bennis gave her usual excellent overview. I say usual because of course we've been holding these events for a decade now, but Bennis provided new reason for energetic engagement by describing plans for a major march on Washington on October 2nd that will bring the peace movement together with those focused on jobs and economic justice, something that's been badly needed since before the current wars began, as the funding of global militarism has been hollowing our country out from the inside. See: http://www.onenationforpeace.org
Raed Jarrar rebutted the idea that Iraqis are in any way grateful for what the United States has done to their country. Iraqis, he said, see this invasion as the 21st foreign invasion of their country and as evil as any of the other 20. As all the panel's speakers made clear, Iraq is now in worse shape than in 2003. There's no safety, no electricity, no water, and millions of Iraqis are unwelcome in the nations they've fled to but unable to return home. The Iraq of the 1980s with its advances in education and women's rights is long gone. Manal Omar described grandmothers with college education and foreign travel whose granddaughters are illiterate and have never been far from their homes. Gene Bruskin described the heroic efforts of Iraqi workers to organize, claim their rights, and block the privatization of resources -- the efforts to privatize being a key reason why Iraqis still lack electricity. Jarrar stressed that Iraqis want a fully sovereign national government to provide their nation's services. They want electricity, but do not want it in the way the government overseen by the United States wants to provide it.
Jarrar was very hopeful about the new Iraqi Parliament, expecting strong resistance to the occupation, but he also argued that there are no grounds to complain that the occupation isn't ending now, that it is supposed to end by December 31, 2011. Jarrar seemed fully confident that, in some sense, the occupation would end by that date, although leaving behind a major presence in the form of the world's largest embassy, additional consulates, and soldiers and mercenaries whose presence would be justified as guarding those locations. However, Bennis pointed out that Congress played no role in the creation of the unconstitutional treaty through which Bush and Maliki set the deadline for complete withdrawal, giving reason to question our ability to properly enforce compliance with it, assuming -- as I do -- that such enforcement will in fact be needed.
Congresswoman Donna Edwards spoke next. She raised a fear I share that between now and the end of next year President Obama will attempt to put in place a new treaty to extend the occupation. She also spoke of the upcoming elections. I wish she'd advocated electing congress members who would defund the wars, or even Democratic congress members who would defund the wars. Instead she advocated electing Democrats because a Democratic majority would make all the difference. My concern is that we have had that majority in the House for the past five years. We have 115 congress members who will oppose war funding, 103 of them Democrats. We need to build those numbers, I think, more than any others. And we need to establish our ability to follow through on commitments to unelect those who vote for the war funding.
Head-Roc, a hip-hop artist, performed next, his subject matter dealing with the attacks on public school funding, affordable housing, and child care in Washington, D.C., and the rest of this country -- the areas defunded by the funding of wars, tax cuts for the wealthy, and the rest of the corporate agenda driving our government.
The second and last panel included:
Josh Stieber, Iraq Veterans Against the War
David Swanson, author
Bill Fletcher, labor leader, scholar
Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK and Global Exchange
Stieber discussed, from the point of view of a soldier who believed the war lies and came to reject them, the incoherence of the bundle of excuses for this war that we've all been offered. On the one hand this is a war to kill evil Muslims. On the other hand it's a war to spread human rights. We help people out by bombing them, something Stieber said many U.S. soldiers end up joking about, most of them quickly losing any belief in the morality of their cause.
I argued for voting out of office those who fund the wars, and for holding the war makers criminally and constitutionally responsible, including through launching an effort to impeach Jay Bybee and open up a congressional review of war lies and the crime of aggression.
Bill Fletcher picked up where Head-Roc had left off, arguing for the need to make peace not just a preference people have when a pollster asks them, but something that resonates with them as central to the betterment of their daily lives. He pointed to the Chicano Moratorium exactly 40 years earlier as a movement to learn from.
Medea Benjamin inspired, as always, with tales of recent activism by CODE PINK to oppose the war funding, to build alliances, and to hold accountable war criminals including Karl Rove and Erik Prince. And she pushed for participation on a massive scale in the march on October 2nd:
http://www.onenationforpeace.org
Sunday's event, which benefitted from lots of questions and participation from everyone in the room, was sponsored by the wonderful organizations CODEPINK, Peace Action, Institute for Policy Studies, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Global Exchange, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA), U.S. Labor Against the War, ANSWER, World Can't Wait, Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War is a Crime, Rivera Project, and the Washington Peace Center.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
One Nation Working Together - call to ACTION
One Nation Working Together For Jobs, Justice and Education for All
Who We Are
We are One Nation, born from many, determined to build a more united America – with jobs, justice and education for all. We are young people, frustrated that society seems willing to spend more locking up our bodies than educating our minds, yet still we find ways to succeed and shine. We are students and newly-returned veterans – persevering in the face of mounting debt – determined not to be the first generation to end up worse off than our parents. We are baby boomers and seniors – who saw hope killed in 1968 and will not let the dream of a united America be taken from us again. We are conservatives and moderates, progressives and liberals, non-believers and people of deep faith, united by escalating assaults on our reason, our environment, and our rights. We are workers of every age, faith, race, sex, nationality, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and ability – who have suffered discrimination but never stopped loving our neighbors, or our nation. We are American Indians and Alaska Natives – citizens of Native nations – who maintain our cultures, protect our sovereignty, and strength America’s economy. We are the new immigrants, raising our children in the torchlight of the Statue of Liberty, while confronting the shadows that are bigotry and mass deportations. We are the native born. We inherited the divided legacies of settlers and American Indians, black slaves and white and Asian indentured servants. And yet, in this moment of shared suffering, we rejoice in newfound friendships and new alliances. We are people who got thrown out – thrown out of our jobs, schools, houses, farms and small businesses – while Wall Street’s wrongdoers got bailed out. We are families who pray every day – for peace and prosperity; for deliverance from foreclosures; for good jobs to come back to urban and rural America. We are unemployed workers – forced to watch hopes for bold action dashed – because some Senators threaten filibusters, and other would-be champions fold in fear. And yet, we are the majority – fueled by hope, not hate. We have the pride, power and determination to keep ourselves – and our country – moving up and out of the valley greed created. And most importantly – from ensuring women are treated fairly at work, to expanding health care coverage for millions– we have been victorious whenever we worked together. We have proven the only thing we need to succeed is each other. And so, on 10-2-10, we come back together – to march.
Why We March
We march for a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. We march for jobs, justice, and education. We march for an economy that works for all. We march for a nation in which each person who wants to work can find a job that pays enough to support a family. We march to create a million new jobs right away, because the national values that got us out of the Great Depression will get us out of the Great Recession. We march to build a world-class public education system, from pre-school to community college and beyond – because our nation must start unleashing the greatness of every child today. We march to end racial profiling and re-segregation– from Arizona to Atlanta. We march to defend the Voting Rights Act and the 14th Amendment. We march to advance human rights, civil rights, equal protection, and dignity for all. We march to fix the broken immigration system – because no child should live in fear that her parents will be deported. We march to ensure every worker has a voice at work. We march for green jobs and safe workplaces, so no worker will have to choose between her livelihood and her life. We march for a clean environment, so no child is ever forced to decide between drinking the water or breathing the air and staying healthy. We march to move our nation beyond this moment when a handful of Senators can block urgently needed progress – skewing our national budget towards tax cuts for the wealthy, unjustified military spending and prisons.We march for peace abroad and job creation at home. We march for energy independence, public safety, and public transportation because the nation we want to build most is our own. And on 11-2-10, we will march again – into the voting booths. We will bring our families, our friends, and our neighbors. And once the ballots are counted, we will keep organizing, we will hold our leaders accountable, and we will keep making our dream real. This movement will grow. It will put America back to work, pull America back together, and keep us moving ever forward. Join us. We are One Nation Working Together: For Jobs, For Justice, For Education, For All.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Monday, August 09, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
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:
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.
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:
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.
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