Remembering Molly

1944 - 2007

"The United States of America is still run by its citizens.

The government works for us.

Rank imperialism and warmongering are not American traditions or values.

We do not need to dominate the world.

We want and need to work with other nations.

We want to find solutions other than killing people.

Not in our name, not with our money, not with our children's blood."

Words of hope from one hell of an American.

Join the Virtual March

Couldn't make it to DC last Saturday? As the fine folks over at MyDD say, "There is more than one way to march on Washington. MoveOn.org is sponsoring a virtual march on Washington on February 1st...This march will be made in the form of phone calls, emails and faxes, to send one million direct contacts to member of Congress to stop the escalation...everyone can take part in this march. If, for one day, no one in Congress received any other messages from constituents except a call to stop Bush's escalation in Iraq, we can be louder and clearer than any mass rally."

There is absolutely no reason not to call. Click the picture. Sign up. Make your voice heard.

Dear Congress,

Stop playing politics with working families. A two dollar raise might not mean anything to you, but since poor people spend every last penny of their paychecks on survival, that extra $16/day is a big deal. Don't believe me? I dare you to live on $206/week. For one week. Just one. And that's not a salary wage. So if you decide to call in sick, or late, or busy, or bored, you only get credit for the time that you're actually working. Which means that many of you are stuck with $123.60. Before deductions. Enjoy.

Guest Blogging Alert: On Symantics

I just had to swipe this off my honey's myspace page!

"What Webster says:

Insurgent: a person who rises in forcible opposition to authority.

Terrorist: a person who tries to frighten people or governments into doing what he/she wants by using or threatening violence.

Rebel: a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of his or her country.

All three look pretty similar, almost interchangeable. So why are the Iraqis who are "resisting" the American occupation of their country called insurgents or terrorists and not rebels? Has anybody heard anything about the Iraqi Rebellion?

Now let's go one step further:

Webster says:

Revolutionist: a radical supporter of political or social change.

Sounds like a dead-on description of an Islamic Terrorist/Insurgent, but why are they not referred to as Revolutionist? Why is this not the Iraqi Revolution?"

Urgent: Hugs Needed

My dear friend, Kara, author of the brilliant,

honest blog My Thinking Spot,

is going though a very difficult time right now.

Please, go over to her place immediately

and wish her, Will, and Bebe well.

Let's show her all the love and support

our electronic community can muster.

A Sunday Morning Cartoon

For your viewing pleasure:

(click on image to play)

Give Peace A Chance

DC is a long way from Palm Springs, California, but...

My NOW sisters,


The Stonewall Democrats,



and dozens


of our friends


and neighbors



came together today to send a message to Congress.


This is me.

UPDATE: My dear friend Dusty, from It's My Right to be Left of The Center,

made a wonderful video compilation of these and other photos from today's event.

See the video here, and then visit her site for more!

Pitiful coverage by my local newspaper here.

Scapegoats and Other Ramblings

According to Florida Republican John Mica, if TSA workers had the legal right to bargain collectively, our country would be at "increased risk" for another terrorist attack. But border control agents are protected by union contracts, you say? Yes, I know. I'm sure he's against that too. Giving workers a voice in such things as working conditions weakens our national security.

Jim DeMint, another Republican genius, argued against raising the federal minimum wage because, get this, the legislation would have no effect on eight states that have already given the working poor the raise they deserve. Not too surprising from the Senator from South Carolina, a state, by the way, with no minimum wage law and one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

This week's edition of my school newspaper had a pitiful article on the California Faculty Association's position in an ongoing labor dispute. The article cited "failed contract negotiations" as the reason that CSU faculty are considering a strike vote but did not mention any of the issues that have led to the state of impasse or other problems that are facing the University. The article did not mention that we are LOSING experienced, tenured faculty because of salary caps that stagnate compensation for our BEST educators. The article also forgot to mention that our professors are negotiating for smaller class sizes and an increase in tenure-track hiring, both of which translate into a BETTER education for students. It did not discuss the implications for students or the direct relationship between faculty working conditions and student learning conditions. However, in the "Campus News" section, 1/4 of the entire page was devoted to an article advertising student movie night. This month's feature? Hitched.

Oh, and also in California, the war on the poor marches forward.

Why am I Pro-Choice?

Because this is not a medical instrument.

A Common Struggle

In January and February 1920, Japanese and Filipino sugar plantation workers implemented a major strike on the island of Oahu. Approximately 8,000 workers, over three quarters of the labor force, walked off the job.

Sugar cane harvest has always been back-breaking work. Imported immigrant workers served in indentured servitude, planting, hoeing and carrying the cane during waking hours, without breaks and for inadequate wages. At that time, most workers lived on the plantations where they worked, which meant that their employers were also their landlords. "Living expenses" were siphoned off the top of earnings, and it was not uncommon for workers to be charged more for "room and board" than they were paid for their labor.

To control the workforce, "the Hawaiian Sugar Plantation Association adopted a "divide-and -rule" policy whereby workers of different ethnicity were pitted against each other for the purpose of keeping wages down. In cases of strikes, one ethnic group would be used as scab labor to break the strike of another ethnic group. Living arrangements, job assignments, and wages were also based on ethnicity. Caucasians were higher paid, considered skilled workers, and assigned supervisory positions. The lowest paid white worker was the plantation police who earned $140 a month. In contrast, the Japanese and the Filipinos were assigned the backbreaking work in the fields. They worked at least 10 hours a day, six days a week, 27 days a month for 90 cents a day or $20/month." (Source.)

Sugar cane production was not just segregated by race. "In 1910, one-third of all employed Japanese women worked in the sugar fields. Assignment to a "women's field gang" immediately upon arrival was typical. Women on the sugar plantations earned 50¢ for a 10-hour work day and were expected to work six days a week. A full month's pay of $13 was based on 26 days of work and equalled 66% of Japanese men's wages. Women typically weeded the fields, irrigated, stripped the cane of dry leaves or cut seed cane." (Source.) Women were also used as scabs during labor disputes.

But in 1920 something amazing happened.

Japanese and Filipino workers walked off the job together. Men and women. Young and old. Many having to use translators to communicate with one another.

They struck for the most amazing and wonderful things: equal wages, improved working conditions, and paid maternity leave. In 1920. The same year that women on the mainland were granted the constitutional right to vote.

1920.

This was happening on the island of Oahu, where workers did not have any protections afforded them by the US government, because Hawaii was still a territory.

The strike lasted for six months, with the workers winning most of their demands, including an end to the tiered-wage system.

I don't know about the rest of you, but it is very easy for me to become discouraged over the current conditions of our government. So. much. is. wrong.

However...

Hope.
Dies.
Last.

And for me, at least, I find tremendous strength in stories like this one. Stories in which people with everything to lose risked everything they had to demand change for themselves and their families. We who have never had to go to bed with empty stomachs, who live our wasteful lives in soundbites, have much to learn. There is a reason why labor history is not taught in schools anymore. It is because that history is replete with examples of situations in which packs of people came together to redress their grievances.

We have to find a way to remember where we've come from so that we can use what we already know about solidarity to take back our nation.

Blog For Choice

Since I was born in 1976, women have had the legal protection to make choices over their reproductive lives for my entire lifetime. This wasn't always the case.

Help celebrate the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by participating with me in Blogging For Choice on Monday, January 22. Click the link to sign up.

Thanks, Dave.

Thank You, Ralph Chaplin

When Lucy Parsons led a hunger march in Chicago in 1915, they needed an anthem.

Ralph Chaplin wrote this one:





When the union's inspiration through the workers' blood shall run,
There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun;
Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one,
But the union makes us strong.

CHORUS:

Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
Solidarity forever,
For the union makes us strong.
Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite,
Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might?
Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight?
For the union makes us strong.

It is we who plowed the praries; built the cities where they trade;
Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid;
Now we stand outcast and starving midst the wonders we have made;
But the union makes us strong.

All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone.
We have laid the wide foundations; built it skyward stone by stone.
It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own.
While the union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn,
But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel can turn.
We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn
That the union makes us strong.

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold,
Greater than the might of armies, magnified a thousand-fold.
We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old
For the union makes us strong.

His Royal Oppositness...

...what?

Oh, just click here.

Dr. King: On War

True then. True today.

Professor Zero has the transcript.

Artsy Fartsy Meme

I just finished up a powerpoint for a class presentation that's due on Tuesday, so I'm taking a break to respond to this tag by Quaker Dave.

Name a book that you want to share so much that you keep giving away copies:
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and The History of Colors/La Historia de los Colores by Subcomandante Marcos. The first is my standard graduation present. The second is my standard baby shower gift. Forget diaper pins and cute bibs. It's never too early to start learning about the EZLN.

Name a piece of music that changed the way you listen to music: Bread and Roses by Utah Phillips. I wasn't raised listening to protest music, but now I am an avid collector.

Name a film you can watch again and again without fatigue: I'm a graduate student! Who has time to watch movies?? When I can, these are good ones, in no particular order: Frida, A Christmas Story, If These Walls Could Talk, The Princess Bride.

Name a performer for whom you suspend all disbelief: Jim Croce.

Name a work of art you'd like to live with: I'm not picky. I'll take any of Diego Rivera's murals.

Name a work of fiction which has penetrated your real life: Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It was shortly after reading this book that I went to intern with PCUN, Oregon's farmworker union.

Name a punch line that always makes you laugh: "Let's go to the mattresses."

Okay...Kara, Fernando, Blue, and Dan...you're "it."

We Can Do It!

IF...letter-writing campaigns targeting Kohl's and Target have successfully stopped the sale of "drinking games," and Macy's pulled Sean Jean jackets that contained dog fur after public outcry, then SURELY we can act together to send a clear message to the world:

Feet To The Fire

I recently came across this free service and want to pass it along. It's sponsored by ACORN.

The site allows you to track your Senators' and Representative's votes by e-mail. All you have to do is sign up by entering your zip code and email address. Then, each week that Congress is in session, you'll get an email that contains:

• Key votes by your two Senators and U.S. Representative.
• Links to send e-mail to your members of Congress using pre-addressed forms.
• Upcoming votes for your review and a chance to offer e-mail input before they vote.

The last one is my favorite. Bu$hco isn't the only one that can stike preemptively.

Bad Taste In Your Mouth?

THANK GOD.

Hill. is. back.

There's a welcoming party over at her new place.

You're not too late to join in the fun.

From My Inbox

1/10/07

Dear Mr. President,

Thanks for your address to the nation. It's good to know you still want to talk to us after how we behaved in November.

Listen, can I be frank? Sending in 20,000 more troops just ain't gonna do the job. That will only bring the troop level back up to what it was last year. And we were losing the war last year! We've already had over a million troops serve some time in Iraq since 2003. Another few thousand is simply not enough to find those weapons of mass destruction! Er, I mean... bringing those responsible for 9/11 to justice! Um, scratch that. Try this -- BRING DEMOCRACY TO THE MIDDLE EAST! YES!!!

You've got to show some courage, dude! You've got to win this one! C'mon, you got Saddam! You hung 'im high! I loved watching the video of that -- just like the old wild west! The bad guy wore black! The hangmen were as crazy as the hangee! Lynch mobs rule!!!

Look, I have to admit I feel very sorry for the predicament you're in. As Ricky Bobby said, "If you're not first, you're last." And you being humiliated in front of the whole world does NONE of us Americans any good.

Sir, listen to me. You have to send in MILLIONS of troops to Iraq, not thousands! The only way to lick this thing now is to flood Iraq with millions of us! I know that you're out of combat-ready soldiers -- so you have to look elsewhere! The only way you are going to beat a nation of 27 million -- Iraq -- is to send in at least 28 million! Here's how it would work:

The first 27 million Americans go in and kill one Iraqi each. That will quickly take care of any insurgency. The other one million of us will stay and rebuild the country. Simple.

Now, I know you're saying, where will I find 28 million Americans to go to Iraq? Here are some suggestions:

1. More than 62,000,000 Americans voted for you in the last election (the one that took place a year and half into a war we already knew we were losing). I am confident that at least a third of them would want to put their body where there vote was and sign up to volunteer. I know many of these people and, while we may disagree politically, I know that they don't believe someone else should have to go and fight their fight for them -- while they hide here in America.

2. Start a "Kill an Iraqi" Meet-Up group in cities across the country. I know this idea is so early-21st century, but I once went to a Lou Dobbs Meet-Up and, I swear, some of the best ideas happen after the third mojito. I'm sure you'll get another five million or so enlistees from this effort.

3. Send over all members of the mainstream media. After all, they were your collaborators in bringing us this war -- and many of them are already trained from having been "embedded!" If that doesn't bring the total to 28 million, then draft all viewers of the FOX News channel.
Mr. Bush, do not give up! Now is not the time to pull your punch! Don't be a weenie by sending in a few over-tired troops. Get your people behind you and YOU lead them in like a true commander in chief! Leave no conservative behind! Full speed ahead!

We promise to write. Go get 'em W!

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

I haven't even heard the speech yet.

Read what Chuck says about it here.

What Are You Doing To End The War?

it will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need

and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber

From UnitedForPeace.org:

Please forward widely!

Nationwide Protests This Thursday

TIME FOR A SURGE OF OPPOSITION TO BUSH'S WAR ESCALATION

Hard to believe, but in a primetime televised speech on Wednesday evening, President Bush will announce his plans to send more troops into Iraq. We don't know for sure, but he could be planning to send at least 20,000 more troops, and the numbers could be even higher.

Whatever the numbers are, the Bush administration is once again moving in the wrong direction. In November the voters elected a new Congress with a clear mandate: End this war! The people of this country want the war to end and we do NOT want more troops sent to Iraq.
We need to act quickly and in large numbers to oppose this escalation.

United for Peace and Justice has joined an effort initiated by Win Without War and True Majority to encourage as many local actions in communities all around the country this Thursday, the day after Bush announces his plans. We need to be visible and vocal. Our message must be heard by the White House and by the Congress. NO more troops, end this war now!

Take a moment right now to find out what's already planned in your area. And if you don't see anything listed yet, then plan your own activity and be sure to list it. It's very easy to host something and a lot of the legwork has already been done, including compiling an event organizing kit with resources and tips for making your activity a success.

This wave of activity all around the nation on Thursday can be a critically important opportunity for helping to get the word out about the Jan. 27-29 mobilization in Washington, DC. Momentum is building for what promises to be a politically crucial demonstration. People from all around the nation will be gathering in Washington to send the strongest message possible: It is time to bring the troops home; it is time to end the war in Iraq!

There is still much work to do in these last few weeks. Most importantly, we need to make sure everyone knows this demonstration is taking place. Imagine how you'll feel in the days following the mobilization when people tell you they would have also been in Washington if only they had known about the mobilization! Let's now use every opportunity, every opening we have to spread the word.

At your SAY NO activities on Thursday, be sure to have leaflets about the January 27-29 mobilization.

In any press work you do on Thursday, be sure to mention that the march on Washington on January 27th is the next major action of the antiwar movement.

Organize a phone bank, a day of leafletting, call-ins to radio talk shows and anything else you can think of to get the word out.

It's also important that we organize as many people as possible to stay in Washington, DC, for the national Congressional Lobby Day on Monday, Jan., 29th. You can find out more about this timely effort and how you can get involved by clicking here.

Happy Activist Birthday

...to A. J. Muste (1885 - 1967).

A.J. Muste (pronounced MUS-tee) was one of the leading nonviolent social activists of his time. Starting as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, he became a socialist and labor union activist, and was one of the founders and the first director of Brookwood Labor College. In 1936, he recommitted himself to pacifism and focused his energy on war resistance, civil rights, civil liberties and disarmament. Over his life he worked with a wide array of organizations, including the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and War Resisters League, and served as editor of Liberation magazine. He continued his work for peace during the U.S. war in Vietnam; shortly before his death, he traveled to North Vietnam with a delegation of clergy and met with Communist leader Ho Chi Minh. A.J. Muste was widely respected and admired in the movement for social justice for his ability to relate to people of all ages and backgrounds, to listen to and reflect on all points of view, and to bridge distances among divergent political sectors. His life continues to be an inspiration to many. (Source).

For more information about A.J. Muste, see www.ajmuste.org/ajmbio.htm .

“There is no way to peace — peace is the way.”

Remembering Ramona

"The world has lost an exemplary woman. Mexico, has lost one of those fighters that it needs, and a piece of our heart has been ripped out."

Today marks the one year anniversary of the untimely death of Subcomandante Ramona, feminist, activist, sister, teacher, and fighter of the Zapatistas in southern Mexico. She died of a curable kidney condition while en route to a health clinic from an isolated mountain community. Her untimely departure from this world is mourned by me today. She died as a result of the circumstances that she spent her life fighting to change.

She was responsible for writing the Revolutionary Laws of Women and promoting the Indigenous Women’s Petition, which demanded that the needs of women be immediately addressed:

We the indigenous campesina women ask for the immediate solution to our urgent needs, which the government has never met:

1) Child-birth clinics with gynecologists so that campesina women can receive necessary medical attention.

2) Day-care centers must be built in the communities.

3) We ask the government to send enough food for the children in all the communities such as: milk, corn starch, rice, corn, soy, oil, beans, cheese, eggs, sugar, soup, oatmeal, etc.

4) Kitchens and dining halls, with all the necessary equipment, must be built for the children in the communities.

5) Corn mills and tortilla-makers must be placed in the communities according to the number of families in each area.

6) We should be given the materials necessary to raise chickens, rabbits, sheep, pigs, etc., including technical advice and veterinary services.

7) We ask for the ovens and materials necessary to build bakeries.

8) We want craft workshops to be built, including machinery and materials.

9) There must be a market where crafts can be sold at a fair price.

10) Schools must be built where women can receive technical training.

11) There must be preschools and day-care centers in the rural communities where the children can have fun and grow up strong, morally and physically.

12) As women we must have sufficient transportation to move from one place to another and to transport the products of the various projects we will have.

To learn more about Ramona, go here. You can read her obituary here.

Rest in Peace, hermana.

I'm Old.

The store doesn't open until 10am, but there we were, the little retail soldiers, all still half-asleep as, before sunrise, we rearranged every display in the place. This bimonthly ritual is also known as "floor set." The "visuals" are sent to each store from corporate headquarters and then, on the same day, the same event occurs in every store across America. The pictures of how the store is supposed to look are distributed to the workers and we are given exactly 3.75 hrs. to completely reconfigure every sellable item in tabletop, home furnishings, accessories, and bed and bath. This means taking all the dishes off the glass shelves, taking them to the stockroom, and replacing them with new dishes, etc.

If this sounds like a boring and tedious task, it is. At 6am, it is worse.

So, in order to add some energy to the atmosphere, the management staff puts on a mix disc. Always wanting to make the most of any bad situation, I sometimes sing along, especially if I know all the lyrics.

Today, as I was singing (and dancing) to the following song, a younger coworker of mine began complaining about the music selection. He wanted to know why there weren't any "popular" songs on the mix.

And then, there uttered from my lips, a phrase that makes me officially old. I said, "You mean you don't know this song?"




Are you old? When did you first realize it?

Why?

Because it's been too long: The federal minimum wage has now remained unchanged for almost 10 years, the longest stretch in its history. Since Congress last voted to increase the minimum wage, the cost of living has gone up by 25% and Congress has increased their annual salary by $31,600 dollars.

Because it's too low: A full-time minimum wage worker brings in just $10,712 a year, less than half of the poverty level for a family of four. The proposed increase to $7.25 an hour would help approximately 13 million low-income people, most of whom are women. The $4,400 annual raise is equal to about 15 months worth of groceries.

Because it doesn't cost jobs: Real world studies have consistently found that cities and states with higher minimum wages often retain or even increase job levels. And 86% of small business owners report raising the minimum wage would have no effect on them.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other corporate interests are mounting a vigorous lobbying effort to squash the minimum wage raise—despite the fact that the average CEO these groups represent earns more than 821 times the average minimum wage worker.

Have you signed the petition yet?

H/T MoveOn.org

Quote

Peace

also takes courage.

The Year In Review

I resolve...

...to fight for a federal minimum wage increase, not just by adding my electronic signature to well-written petitions, but by taking on the issue of wages and poverty in this blog.

Here's my head start, stolen from one of my favorite "readable" authors of economic policy.

Minimum Wage Breaks No-Raise Record

by Holly Sklar

Every year, PNC Wealth Management calculates the "Christmas Price Index" based on gifts in the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." PNC reports, "Maids-a-Milking, who are paid the minimum wage, were the only service providers not to see an increase this year."The Christmas Price Index rose from $13,344 in 1997 to $18,920 in 2006. The price of Six Geese-a-Laying increased from $150 to $300, for example. But the cost of Eight Maids-a-Milking remained $41.20 -- pegged to the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour since Sept. 1, 1997.On Dec. 2, we broke the record for the longest period without a raise since the minimum wage was established in 1938. The prior record of nine years and three months lasted from Jan. 1, 1981 until the minimum wage increase on Apr. 1, 1990.

Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of President Reagan's first Council of Economic Advisers, has acknowledged they wanted to eliminate the minimum wage. But as the Wall Street Journal reported, "Because that would have been such a 'painful political process,' Mr. Weidenbaum says that he and other officials were content to let inflation turn the minimum wage into 'an effective dead letter.'"

Today's minimum wage is less than the 1950 minimum of $6.28, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator. It takes nearly two workers to match the $9.28 buying power of one minimum wage worker in 1968.

A full-time worker at minimum wage makes just $10,712 a year -- less than $900 a month to cover housing, food, health care, transportation and other expenses. Today, family health coverage costs more than a minimum wage worker's entire annual income.

The minimum wage sets the wage floor. As the floor has sunk below poverty levels, millions of workers find themselves with paychecks above the minimum, but not above poverty wages.

The share of national income going to wages and salaries is at the lowest level since 1929 while the share going to after-tax corporate profits is at the highest. Since 1997, domestic corporate profits have risen 72 percent while the minimum wage has fallen 20 percent, adjusted for inflation.

Looking back to 1968, domestic corporate profits have climbed 214 percent while the minimum wage plummeted 44 percent.CEOs have enriched themselves and their families for generations to come while workers struggle to support themselves and their children. The highest paid CEO in 1968 made as much as 127 average workers and 239 minimum wage workers. The highest paid CEO in 2005 made as much as 7,443 average workers and 23,282 minimum wage workers.With the federal minimum wage mired in quicksand, a growing number of states have raised their minimums. At least 29 states and the District of Columbia will have minimum wages above $5.15 as of Jan. 1, 2007. Washington and Oregon have the highest state minimums -- $7.93 and $7.80 respectively after annual cost of living adjustments effective Jan. 1. States with minimum wages above $5.15 have had better employment trends than the other states."

Democrats promise to pass a minimum wage hike in the first 100 hours of the new Congress. The long-delayed Fair Minimum Wage Act would raise the minimum wage in three steps to $5.85, 60 days after enactment, $6.55 one year later in 2008, and $7.25 one year later in 2009.These are steps in the right direction for workers for whom every dollar counts in the struggle to make ends meet. But workers should not have to wait until 2009 for a $7.25 minimum wage that only partly restores buying power lost since 1968.

The Economic Policy Institute reports, "Most other developed countries either have implemented automatic increases based on rising prices or require regular meetings of boards authorized to increase the minimum wage" based on factors such as rising prices and economic growth.Ireland and England have minimum wages over $10, calculated in U.S. dollars. Both countries have strong economies with lower unemployment rates in recent years than the United States.Congress has had eight pay raises since 1997 and is scheduled for a $3,300 "cost of living adjustment," raising congressional pay on Jan. 1 to $168,500 -- not counting health coverage, pensions and other benefits.Congress should refuse pay increases until the minimum wage is raised enough to keep workers out of poverty instead of in poverty.

It's a Dog's Life

Lila

Sampson

Whoever is responsible for first having coined the phrase "working like a dog" clearly didn't have housemates like mine.

It's afternoon nap time for my two little darlings, while I've been called back into work. I may be physically present while suggesting coordinating lamp shade patterns with area rugs, but in my mind, I'll be doing this:

Demand An Ending To War Funding

From Voters For Peace:

In just one week, Congress begins the 2007 session with new leadership ready to take the reigns. The problem is, the new Congress doesn't look very different than the old Congress that we supposedly voted out of office. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is promoting a troop increase, Nancy Pelosi said that she won't defund the war, and now President Bush is asking for at least $127 billion more to waste on our failed venture in Iraq. Although voters expressed a clear mandate to end the war in Iraq, Democratic Congressional leaders are already on record promising to continue the violence in our name and with our tax dollars.

We think this is an unacceptable betrayal of American voters, so on January 4th, VotersForPeace is working with several peace organizations to remind the new Congress that we will no longer tolerate destroying lives and wasting money for war. We will congratulate them for their win and then demand that they defund Bush's war effort.

HERE'S HOW YOU CAN HELP:

In Washington, DC: If you are in the DC area, join us in delivering the message to Congress that we don't want to spend another penny for war.

Outside of the DC-metro area: Deliver this statement to your members of Congress at their district office. Fax, mail, or hand deliver the message, and then let us know that you've made your voice heard! If you're unable to hand deliver the message, email it to your member of Congress.

For your local paper: Send a letter to your local media outlet, echoing the sentiment that voters no longer support spending tax dollars for killing in Iraq. Let us know if your letter is published!

You will be joining tens of thousands of other peace voters in putting peace at the top of the agenda from Day One. If you can't join us on January 4th, there will be plenty of other opportunities as we continue to send our message to Congress throughout January.

Need more inspiration? Go read Blue's post. Not one more death. Not one more dollar.

Under Construction

Please be patient with me...
After nearly a month of double shifts in retail land,
I'm going to be cleaning up a little bit around here.
I need to get things all straightened out before
school begins in earnest again.
This means linking to all of my favorite sites and
figuring out how to add pictures to the sidebar.
(Does anyone know how? PLEASE let me know!)
Also, I want to create a button. Hill, can you help?
Is there a button creater site out there?

For now I'm off to sleep a little.
Who knew the holidays could be so exhausting?

Merry Christmas, Everyone

Let Peace Be Our Gift To Each Other.

Managment and Workers

"We have grown up with the belief that control, consistency, and predictability are essential. We have separated managing the work from doing the work. We have created a class system inside our institutions. There is a management calss and an employee or worker class. The management class enjoys privileges and preogatives and is taught management skills. The worker class has fewer privileges and prerogatives and is taught operational or basic skills. The fundamental beliefs we have about how to run organizations and organize work aren't working."

- Peter Block

I'm working two retail jobs over the break from school.

More to come on this social experiment into the depths of hell, where, apparently, they've been all out of "holiday spirit" for decades.

My Gift

A while back, I wrote about the importance of voluntary blood donation. While I am proud of that post, I feel so passionately about this issue that I've decided to highlight it again. When I think of all the things that I, individually and personally, can do to make a real difference in the world, blood donation tops my list. It really is a gift, my gift, to someone, somewhere, who needs me.

So, just how much blood is needed? According to the Red Cross, A LOT.

Coronary Artery Bypass? 1-5 units
Fractured Hip? Joint Replacement? 2-5 units
Cardiovascular Surgery? 2-25 units
Bleeding Ulcer? 3-30 units
Auto Accident? Gun Shot Wound? up to 50 units
Liver Transplant? up to 100 units
Sickle Cell/Aplastic Anemia? 4 units per month
Cancer? up to 8 units per month

This list goes on and on. And, as can be seen, chances are better than not that I will need my own transfusion sometime during my life.

I'm scheduled to give plasma again on Tuesday. I'm CMV-, which means that they can give my plasma to patients whose immune systems are severely compromised: infants, burn victims, people living with HIV/AIDS, etc. The local blood bank tells me that there is always a waiting list for my donations. Even before they've finished with the battery of tests to ensure that the donation is healthy, it has already been assigned to a recipient. With this donation, I will have given three gallons of blood to my local blood bank.

It is uncomfortable. It is inconvenient. It is usually always cold in those rooms. But it is worth it. You can do it too. Go here to get the facts. Then sign up. Trust me, this kind of giving is way better than the office "white elephant" holiday gift exchange.

Gone

Happy Birthday to My Favorite Buttcrack

I heard a rumor that it is Pam's birthday. Go on over and wish her all the best. Oh, and lest a new or unfamiliar reader think I'm mean, "buttcrack" is a familial term of endearment. We all use it.

Axis I - 297.1 Delusional Disorder

From the DSM-IV-TR -

Diagnostic criteria for Delusional Disorder:

A. Nonbizarre delusions of at least one month's duration.

B. Criterion A for Schizophrenia has never been met.

The definition of a delusion? "An erroneous belief that is held in the face of evidence to the contrary."

Evidence in support of Diagnosis -

Today, in honor of the 25th World AIDS Day, Bu$hCo announced that he believes the continued promotion of sexual abstinence to be the most effective method to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. In spite of these efforts, "rates of HIV infection continue to grow, with 4 million new cases worldwide every year," according to the World Health Organization.

Now, please read this post.

Update 12/02/06: Go. here. Because HIV/AIDS is about US.

Is Sexism Dead?

In my Human Behavior and Social Development course, this was the question that was posed to us today. Made me think of the Woman's Rights Manifesto, which has been my manifesto ever since I first read it:

Because woman's work is never done
and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious
and we're the first to get fired
and what we look like is more important than what we do
and if we get raped it's our fault
and if we get beaten we must have provoked it
and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches
and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos
and if we don't we're frigid
and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man
and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy
and if we expect childcare we're selfish
and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine"
and if we don't we're typical weak females
and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man
and if we don't we're unnatural
and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon
and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion
and...for lots and lots of other reasons
we are part of the women's liberation movement.

Why I'm Terrified of Becoming A Parent

(It's T minus 7 days now, folks.)

You Decide

Today, Sean Bell, was supposed to have been married. But instead, this happened. Notice the differences in the way the news organizations are reporting the story.

From the BBC: Police in New York City have killed a man on the morning of his wedding and wounded two others. The groom and two friends were leaving a strip club in Queens on Saturday morning after the groom's bachelor party when police opened fire on them.

From the NY Times: Hours before he was to be married, a man leaving his bachelor party at a strip club in Queens that was under police surveillance was shot and killed early yesterday in a hail of police bullets, witnesses and the police said. Two of his friends were wounded, one critically, they said.

Faux News leads with this: The incident began when a car full of three men rammed into an undercover officer as the group left a bachelor party at the Kalua Cabaret at roughly 4:14 a.m.

Isn't it nice the way they try to make it sound like the driver of the car was purposefully trying to run down a police officer? With that kind of malicious disregard for our precious law enforcement, those drunken thugs deserved what they got, right?

Now, there's an investigation into why in God's name the NYPD felt it necessary to fire more than fifty rounds into his car.

For now, we don't know all the facts. But here are some facts that are certain:

- An unarmed man is dead.

- There are two more orphaned children in New York City.

Not A Minute More

Violence against women persists in every country in the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality. Such violence is unacceptable, whether perpetrated by the State and its agents or by family members or strangers, in the public or private sphere, in peacetime or in times of conflict. ... [A]s long as violence against women continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development and peace. —In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women: Report of the Secretary-General, 2006

For the most part, the human cost of gender-based violence is invisible. Fear and shame continue to prevent many women from speaking out, and data collected are often insufficient and inconsistent. There has been significant progress in the last two decades, however, to bring the issue into the open and place it firmly on national and international policy agendas.
Women’s organizations have taken the lead in developing innovative efforts to tackle the issue, including providing services, drafting and lobbying for legislation, raising awareness through advocacy, education and training, and building national, regional and international end-violence networks.

Networks that have been created by women’s groups at national, regional and global levels are growing in strength and impact. These networks, such as the Pacific Regional Network against Violence against Women, the Women, Law and Development Network in Africa, the South Asian Forum against Human Trafficking, and numerous others have come to play a leading role in raising awareness and pursuing positive change in community attitudes and practices related to gender-based violence.

These networks have inspired a wide range of campaigns that have brought the issue front and centre. The 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence (25 November – 10 December) is an annual campaign that is symbolic of the global women’s movement and end-violence networks. Its starting day, 25 November, is observed each year to honour the Mirabal sisters, three political activists from the Dominican Republic who were assassinated on the same date in 1961. The end of the 16 Days is marked by 10 December, International Human Rights Day. Coordinated by the Centre for Women’s Global Leadership since 1991, the 16 Days of Activism involve hundreds of organizations around the world in activities ranging from media programmes to demonstrations, conferences, exhibitions and performances. In 1999, the UN joined the campaign by designating 25 November the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

More info here.

A Call For Inaction

All the cool kids are doing it.
Picture via Adbusters.

A Lie My Teacher Told Me:

Aahhh, isn't this perfect?

Look at how those nice English colonists are

taking good care of those hungry, heathen, brown people.

Kara has the real story over at her place.

Buy the book here.

Happy Thanksgiving to All

My partner and I spend part of every Thanksgiving and Christmas Day at "Martha's." Martha’s Village and Kitchen is truly a grassroots organization. In 1990, Gloria Gomez and Claudia Castorena, recognizing a need, started assembling cold sandwiches in a local church kitchen. After a few months, they began serving one hot meal a week. Donations and volunteers increased over the years, and by 1998, Martha’s was serving 350 hot meals, five days a week.

Today, Martha’s Village and Kitchen, located in Indio, California, is a comprehensive program for the hungry and homeless in the Coachella Valley. Located on 10 acres, it provides housing for 120 guests, including families with children and single women. As a tertiary prevention program, the Center offers educational programs, job training, children's programs and counseling, as well as assistance with job placement and permanent housing. An on-site medical clinic serves clients’ health care needs. Martha’s Village and Kitchen provides 250,000 meals annually to the poor of the Coachella Valley.

The Village is a non-profit service organization affiliated with Father Joe’s Villages whose mission statement reads: To serve our neighbors by responding to their needs with food, clothing, shelter, and an opportunity to become self sufficient by affirming their dignity with love, compassion, and respect.

Today we served over one thousand meals and packaged several hundred “to-go” plates. No one was turned away, and no one left hungry. A whole group of volunteers worked to assemble table decorations, because Martha’s Village practices the “bread and roses” philosophy, made famous at the Lawrence, Massachusetts, textile workers strike in 1912. The entire operation was very well organized, allowing volunteers to prepare the food, assemble the plates, and then serve those that came to eat after they were seated at the tables.

Today I was reminded that one (in this case two) person really can make a difference. Gloria and Claudia, Martha’s co-founders, still work at Martha’s Village and Kitchen, having watched their vision to feed the hungry grow into the comprehensive organization it is today. Both women were Thanksgiving Day volunteers. If these women can do this, what could I do?

I was also reminded that there is a great deal of compassion in this valley. At some points, there were more volunteers in Martha’s dining room than there were people needing meals. We fed more than one thousand individuals and families. I felt a powerful sense of collective agency as I worked in concert with an 81-year-old first-generation German immigrant, the owner of the local Italian eatery The Red Tomato, and a single Mexican mother and her two teenage sons.

Today, I learned many things from those I served: lessons not easily forgotten.

I learned to always be thankful for what you have and to do what you can for those who have less from the middle-aged woman who asked me if she could take a plate back to where they “stay” for the friend who can’t walk.

I learned that it is terribly impolite to start eating before the rest of the table has been served from a multi-generational family of six who all sat patiently, watching the steam swirl up from their plates, waiting until each one had a meal before anyone lifted a fork.

I learned to always be thankful from a group of single men, who all joined hands and bowed their heads in prayer before they ate.

I learned that sometimes pride can be a bigger motivator than hunger from the two women we served in the parking lot. They also taught me that community activism means filling a need, wherever the need is present, not simply waiting for those in need to come to you.

I learned that not all volunteer work is glorified, but that it is work that needs to be done just the same. My partner and I spent several hours wrapping plastic utensils in paper napkins so that they could be quickly distributed during public lunches.

So this is why I never cook a complete Thanksgiving Dinner. Because by the time we come home, all I want to do is rest, eat apple crisp, and contemplate the blessings I have in my life.

Why We Are Losing "The Battle For Hearts and Minds"

According to the UN, 1.1 billion people around the world lack access to safe drinking water.

Meanwhile, back in the land of plenty, hunger has been eliminated.

My Body. My Choice.

My Body. My Choice.

This Just In...

Americans' approval of Bush policy on war at a new low.

But Let's Stay The Course

Even Henry Kissinger says that victory in Iraq is "impossible," and "democracy" is "out of reach."

(Special thanks to Quasar9 for the heads up.)

Another Reason We're in Iraq

Belacqua Jones makes a terrific argument for Operation No Building Left Standing. After all, the more we destroy, the more we can subcontract to reconstruct.

Why I pay $3.79 for a Dozen Eggs

Because the $0.99/dozen are produced by hens who have to live like this:

I didn't grow up on a farm, but I lived on a small ranch in southern Mexico a few years back. I used to feed the dozen or so chickens twice a day, and since there were no traditional coops, I loved to search around the stables for the eggs. I found them in some of the most unusual places...the cow's empty water trough, inside an old tire, on a 25 kilo bag of corn meal.

I know that this battery cage method is cheaper than letting the hens actually stand up and stretch their wings every once and a while, but so are clothes produced by children in sweatshops, and I'm against that too.

Many countries have already banned the use of battery cages, and they are being phased out in the European Union, with a complete ban effective in 2012. In the US, we're not quite that far along, but the egg industry did recently agree to drop the "Animal Care Certified" label under threat of litigation.

Yup. Sounds about right.

(Picture from here.)

Demoglad

I have it. Do you?

It's Official...

...Being a full-time graduate student, with an internship, a part-time job, and a household to keep from crumbling down has finally tapped all of my reserves. I know this to be the case because my "Things to Blog About" list, which has never had more than a few items, is now over thirty subjects long, and I have missed my daily devotions: visits to all the blogs on my sidebar and several others that will added as soon as I can get some time to update my template.

My list includes:

- Thoughts and reflections on my recent GOTV activities
- A tribute to the Haymarket martyrs, condemned to death by hanging on November 11, 1887
- The anniversary of the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations which officially occurred TODAY (!) in 1938
- My feelings on voluntary blood donation
- An update on the situation on Oaxaca
- A loving (and now belated) birthday post for my partner
- The comedy and tragedy of driving a car with more than 190,000 miles on the odometer
- My cornbread-stuffed portobello cap recipe and why I haven't cooked a full Thanksgiving Dinner in the last five years
- The REAL Thanksgiving story
- and more

As Dan says, the light at the end of the tunnel isn't a train. Exactly three weeks from today, I will have turned in the projects and papers I have yet to start and taken all of my final exams. Around here, that's "T minus 21."

In the meantime, postings at this site will probably be light. Oh, and if your statcounter records any activity from an ISP address belonging to California State University, San Bernardino, well, that's probably me pretending to be taking notes on Micro Practice. I love you guys, and not even my devotion to my educational experience can keep me away.

My Yellow Ribbon

I've traveled through this country
And I'll tell you what I've seen
A million yellow ribbons
And I wonder what they mean
It's love and hope and sympathy
For those who've gone to fight
But still I know that none of them
Can make the killing right

When we see two children fighting
Don't we try to come between
Get 'em both to talk
Instead of acting rough and mean
We give 'em love and limits
Say now try to get along
Then we tell 'em it's alright to kill
To prove that killing's wrong

Sometimes your yellow ribbon
Tries to make me feel ashamed
Tells me I'm a traitor
That somehow it's me to blame
But I can't hide behind it
Just to prove that I belong
And I won't be an accomplice
To a thing I know is wrong

But I'd wear a yellow ribbon
For the peace that's in my heart
I'd wear it for the loved ones
That should never have to part
I'd wear it for the wasted lives
No matter friend or foe
And I'd wear it for the children
If they never had to go

Yes, I've seen your yellow ribbons
Hanging up all over town
But I don't think they'll ever buy
The peace we've never found
Oh, the guns will all be silent
And the battle flags all furled
When we tie a yellow ribbon
'Round the world

Yes, the guns will all be silent
And the battle flags all furled
When we tie a yellow ribbon
'Round the world

- Utah Phillips

Happy (observed) Veteran's Day...

...to all of America's service men and women, but especially to my baby brother and my soon-to-be sister-in-law, who have both seen the horrors of war.

Today, I am ashamed of my country when I read the headlines:

The numbers of homeless veterans are on the rise.

We are ignoring our veterans' mental health needs.

Veterans across America face stumbling blocks and delays as they seek to access their healthcare, disability, education and job training.

Wounded veterans face new fight to secure government benefits.

A while back, BeltwayBastard had a great post highlighting organizations that provide support to all our men and women in harms way. As he aptly argues, this isn't about politics.

In addition to those sources, if you'd like to do something tangible and important for wounded veterans who have returned from overseas requiring extensive care, get a long-distance phone card or two and mail them to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Ave. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20307-0003.

This will enable those under treatment to keep in touch regularly with their families around the country.

Additionally, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a group dedictated to educating the general public on issues facing our troops, has terrific action links.

On the field of battle, our troops pledge to "leave no one behind.'' The very least we can do is fulfill this vow on the home front -- to each and every one them. More here.

Please pray for peace.

In the Genes?

My very Republican father (with whom I get along very well, and for whom I have an incalculable amount of respect) sent me this link in the body of an email that said:

I know this isn't true. Dad

I wrote back:

Clearly it isn't. Daughter.

(Photo: MSNBC.com)

My Love Song To America

IMHO

(in my humble opinion)

I agree with Aristotle who said that we are political beings. There is a fundamental part of a person's humanity that emerges only to the extent that individuals participate in public life, exercise their sense of what is good and excellent, and institute these values into communities by the decisions and actions of every citizen. The Greeks were on to something when they suggested that politics was a role of "amateurs," ordinary citizens who engaged in deciding and acting precisely because it was part of their way of being rather than an endeavor left in the hands of a few, often wealthy, paid professionals. When we abdicate our politics, we surrender a birthright that calls forth the most necessary dimensions of our humanity - the right to decide what is importnat and the capacity to act on those decisions. This is perilous. To the extent that social policy becomes divorced from us, and politics becomes the purview of mass political processes in control of the influential, we are disallowed from making crucial choices that determine the shape of our social environment. (More here.)

Thus, to be fully human and for our democracy to survive, the populace can no longer afford to leave the machinery of politics to the wealthy, the professionals, the influential, or the government officials. This is why it is imperative that we exercise our right to vote.

But that is not enough.

Ernesto Cortes said, "focusing on the least important elements of political action - voting, elections and turnout - trivializes our citizens by disconnecting them from the real debate and power of public life. We fail to recognize that voter participation is the wrong measure of the health of our politics. Voter turnout was high in Pinocet's Chile nor was it ever a problem in totalitarian countries. Becoming mere voters rather than citizens renders people incompetent" because it renders people who have the capacity of thinking and acting into mere spectators. The pervasive disengagement of Americans in our political process is disheartening at best. We are proud of calling ourselves a government "of the people," but we are rarely, if ever, engaged as direct actors in our political processes.

We need to create a grassroots democracy engaged in community-centered policy analysis. This means that policy issues ought to be resolved by the people who are directly affected by social issues and concerns, not by professional analysts or huge issue-based think tanks. Who knows better what people need than the people themselves?

Some people may dismiss me as young, naive, or idealistic. That's just not the way the world works, some might say. All of these things may be true.

But unless we dream big, and I mean really big, we will never have a chance to find out what could be, and we won't make any gains toward what ought to be.

Tuesday is a step, but it's just one step, toward reclaiming our country.

$100/Breath

Here's what I've been doing instead of blogging.

Ad Wars

Go here.