Wednesday, December 31, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!


This blog entry contains 3 things:


1. 5 things that have changed my (the Editor of this blog) life


2. 5 things I hope for and strive for in 2009


3. *An article* about Obama, economics and ethics.




Please submit something about what you hope for, dream for, strive for, and what 2008 meant for you!!!!



5 life changing things from 2008:

1. In March got in an accident and almost died. A car was driving the wrong way down the freeway and hit the car I was in almost head on. We hit another car as we spun around. I came out of the car with a bruise on my leg, some cuts on my hand, and very minor whiplash. Now, I feel like every single moment is precious, golden and beautiful.

2. I got a prestigious Fulbright award. I will be living in Brazil for a whole year working on a project I designed. The results will hopefully be outstanding.

3. The whole Presidential election. And the creation of this blog, Obama IS America!

4. I have discovered the significance of rights and Civil Rights, and find myself fighting for the protection of these rights every single day - living the fight, being affected by this whole disgusting Prop 8 mess, and being inspired by people around me (such as my ridiculously amazing and brilliant coworkers) working for the rights of everybody everyday.

5. Obama is going to become President. The world is turning. The tides are changing. The wind is blowing behind the sails of young empowered people. Even if Obama does not accomplish even a quarter of the things he rode his campaign on, his election has finally changed the face of this nation. I greatly look forward to my Future.


5 things I hope for and strive for in 2009:

1. To complain less. To learn how to breathe easier. To learn how to be more trusting.

2. To kick ass on my Fulbright. Help shift the tides a little more.

3. To get more people submitting ideas and thoughts on this blog.

4. To empower, empassion, and awaken many more people around me to the glory that is this world, this universe, this planet, all the creatures on it, and of course, human beings. What goes with this is:

To see people start caring more about other people and realizing that we are all human beings sharing this planet together, to see people realize more that this Planet is in SERIOUS peril, to see people realize that everything is connected and all the 'issues' and 'key words' are all related to each other, and of course, to see people actually go out and DO something about these issues to make the world a better place.

5. To see the leaders of this country and our economy functioning and managing things in a truly ethical way. (See article below)



Ellen Reiss: Getting beyond a culture of contempt

01:00 AM EST on Monday, December 29, 2008

ELLEN REISS

NEW YORK

THE ELECTION of Barack Obama is important not only because the American people have chosen a person of color to be our president. That fact, certainly, is a tremendous, historic victory for ethics. But the election is also an important ethical victory because the massive use of lies didn’t work. And the various scare words didn’t scare. And it’s important because of something to be seen in an American poem about another election.

Vachel Lindsay, in his poem "Bryan, Bryan, Bryan, Bryan," writes about the election of 1896, in which William Jennings Bryan ran against William McKinley. He describes the feeling millions of people had about Bryan, and very much young people. Bryan seemed to represent the rights of Americans who were not rich; he seemed to represent their hopes and an America that could belong to all the people, not just the moneyed.

That election was, of course, different from the current one; and besides, Bryan lost. But there is this likeness: the feeling that both Bryan and Obama stood for something kind, against, as Lindsay puts it, "the mean and the cold."

There are lines like these, about Bryan: "He brought in tides of wonder, of unprecedented splendor, / Wild roses from the plains, that made hearts tender." Lindsay describes the huge crowds at Bryan rallies, because people felt that this person stands for an America that is kinder, that is truer to herself. Lindsay writes of being at a Bryan rally at age 16, in Springfield, Ill.:

And Bryan took the platform.

And he was introduced.

And he lifted his hand

And cast a new spell.

Progressive silence fell

In Springfield, in Illinois, around the world.

A person can symbolize something to people that they don’t wholly understand and that he does not live up to. Had Bryan been elected, he might not have lived up to people’s hopes. Barack Obama was elected.

And it is necessary for America to see, and for him to see, what it would mean to meet America’s hopes, which are also desperate needs.

For our presiden! t-elect to be a good president, for him to succeed, he must want, passionately, to answer this question, articulated by Eli Siegel: What does a person deserve by being a person?" And he must make sure the economy of America is based on a true answer to that question.

In 1970 Mr. Siegel, founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism, began his series of Goodbye Profit System lectures. He explained that the world had reached the point when economics based on a selfish, ugly, unethical way of seeing one’s fellow humans no longer worked. While the profit system might drag on for quite a few years, and sometimes be given a flashy façade, it was a mortally ailing thing.

Week after week, using documents of the past and present -- of economics, history, literature and human feeling -- he explained why we had come to the time when "there will be no economic recovery in the world until economics itself -- the making of money, the having of jobs -- becomes ethical; is based on good will rather than on the ill will that has been predominant for centuries."

The profit motive -- the seeing of people in terms of "How much money can I get out of you? How cheaply can I employ you? How can I use you to feather my own nest?"-- was always ugly. It made for child labor; for miserable working conditions, with their ensuing occupational diseases and maimings; for poverty wages. But by 1970, the ill will of the profit motive was not only ugly: It was inefficient; it was less and less able to bring in the desired returns.

This year, we have some of the results of the effort to keep that mean way of using people going: We have an American financial collapse, millions of Americans unemployed, and many more about to be -- with all the terror and suffering that includes.

The incoming president, and Congress, and the American people need to see that tinkering around with an unethically based economy will not work.

We now have to have economics based, not on profit, but on ethics, justice and usefulness.

Let’s take the aut! omobile industry of America. As I comment on it, I’m not speaking in terms of particular legislative or executive decisions, but in terms of ethics. It is, as The Wall Street Journal reported (Nov. 8-9), in such a "deepening crisis" that "Washington may have to step in to finance a historic downsizing of the U.S. auto industry."

Letting this industry, which Mr. Obama called "the backbone of American manufacturing," die is unacceptable. But pouring vast quantities of taxpayer money into auto companies based on providing profit to stockholders, is now repugnant to the American people, and furthermore won’t work.

With competition from Japan, South Korea, Sweden, Germany and more, there is an expense that must be eliminated from this "backbone of American manufacturing" for it to succeed. That expense is profit for individuals who didn’t do the work. The U.S. auto industry cannot sustain itself and pay its workers’ benefits and pensions, while at the same time paying out those completely unnecessary extras --emoluments to non-working stockholders.

If the people of America are going to bail out auto companies, there is no reason why we ourselves, or the auto workers, cannot be the companies, own the companies. The people of America need autos. The people of America can produce autos. Autos simply can no longer be produced in America on the basis of private profit, with money from their sales going into the pockets of stockholders. Once they could -- when car manufacturing took place pretty much in the U.S. alone.

What this "backbone of American manufacturing" now needs to be based on is not the scare word used during the presidential campaign. What it needs to be based on is, as Mr. Siegel once put it, deep American decency.

The election of 2008 was a magnificent victory against racism. Yet as we know, racism still exists, in all its filth. The next president and the American people need to learn from Aesthetic Realism what racism comes from. And they need to see that profit economics arose from the very s! ame sour ce in the human self. Both racism and the profit motive come from contempt: "the lessening of what is different from oneself as a means of self-increase as one sees it," as Eli Siegel put it.

To illustrate this fact, I’m going to quote from a periodical of nearly 100 years ago, which Mr. Siegel used in several of his lectures.

In the Aug. 18, 1910 issue of the Independent magazine, there is an article by the important writer and sociologist W.E.B. Du Bois. He describes being looked down on, because he was black, by an impoverished little girl who was white:

. She was stealing a?.?"She was a poor little waif of six or seven years. . ride on an Eighth Avenue furniture van and spied me on a passing street car. She stuck out her tongue and jeered and made every contortion of countenance to show her personal disapproval of my kind and the superiority of hers.

"Poor little thralled thing! It was not enough that she should be prisoned by poverty and ignorance; this great nation must needs chain her with race prejudice."

Du Bois is eloquent and nobly sympathetic. But we need to learn the reason . with race prejudice" is?.?the little girl could welcome being "chain[ed] . that there is a desire in the self to be big by seeing someone else as less. And this ordinary yet foulest desire in the human self is the only reason a nation could feel it is somehow tolerable for some children to be born poor and others rich.

We have had a great, historic election. Now for America to fare well, justice to every man, woman, and child must be the very basis of our economy.

Ellen Reiss is class chairman of Aesthetic Realism.

And So We Begin to Rise.....



Dear all,

I (the Editor of this blog) will be posting a little less frequently over the next month or so, as some major deadlines are approaching me rapidly and I'm moving to Brazil at the end of February on a Fulbright Fellowship.

Please continue to send your words and thoughts, and please keep stopping by and checking out the blog and some of our previous posts. If you are a new visitor to this blog, WELCOME!!!

Also, Obama is going to officially be President SO FREAKING SOON!! YEAHHHHH!!!!!!

Aside from these comments, I have a few tidbits of information for you, and will be posting more soon hopefully, because the world turns so fast and there is always something filthy gorgeous to say. So here goes:


1. :

If you want to search for jobs opening up in government, *click here* or:
to connect to a book that lists all the jobs available to work in the Obama Administration. This is a government publication, released after every Presidential election.

If you see titles of jobs but you don't know what they're about, *click here* or:
to link to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which will explain to you what different jobs are about. If you scroll to the bottom of the main page, you can search for a job title by the letter of the alphabet. This handbooks is also a publication of the US government.

If you find a job that looks interesting to you and you want to apply for it, *click here* or:
to go to the Obama Transition Team's website where you can email them an application for a job that you are interested in.



2. :

Speaking of things filthy gorgeous, check out Ruben Ortiz's photography. You can get to some of his work by clicking *here*.

Also, check out his blog called 'For the Record', which you can access by clicking *here*

The photograph above and the photographs below were taken by him. ENJOY!!

One love...









BAD ASS!!!!!!!! Que no??

Saturday, December 20, 2008

For Those of You Who Think Racism is Dead - and a Reminder for Everyone Else





This blog post is for those of you who think that Racism is dead, and a reminder for everyone else that ugly histories are not long past us.  The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has tried to opt out of legislation that binds it to enforce desegregation in Texas public schools.  Shockingly, desegregation laws only started to be enforced in Texas around 1970 due to the case US v. Texas - the law that TEA is now trying to get overturned.  Texas desegregation laws started being enforced about 17 years after Brown vs. Board of Education made desegregation a federal mandate.  This means that the TEA put off federal law ordering all schools in the nation to desegregate for almost 20 years.  And now they want to opt out of desegregating Texan schools. 


Also, here is a thought for you: 

Black people in the United States have only truly been free in this country for about 46 years.  That means if you a Black American in your 20's, or 30's, your parents were probably born before the end of segregation, and your grandparents lived in the thick of it.  

Citizenship was not equal for all people until barely 46 years ago!!!  Based on something as arbitrary as skin color!!!  This is why it is so significant that Obama is the first President who was after the end of Jim Crow - it means that there has be a giant generational leap, where the younger generations voted for Obama and the growing populations of ethnic minorities voted for Obama, because they are ready for the end of repression.


Another thought for you:

Jim Crow laws did not just apply to Black people, they applied to ALL people of color.  The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the first time in American history when explicit equality for ALL people, regardless of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin was written into Law.  Please also remember that people who suffered under Jim Crow also included Latinos, Asian populations, and other non-White peoples and immigrant groups, etc.  If you couldn't pass for White-Anglo or you weren't White, you were considered not equal.


Final thought of the evening:

LGBTQQI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex) people are not included in the Civil Rights Act.  Therefore, while it could be interpreted in Court that Prop 8 is a violation of the CA State Constitution since it allows the state to single out one group of people to discriminate against based on a specific identity, Prop 8 technically does not violate federal law.  This is why protections for 'LGBTQII' people should be written into the Civil Rights Act and the American Constitution.


What do YOU think about these comments?

Please read the article below.


COURT REJECTS ATTEMPT BY TEXAS EDUCATION

 AGENCY TO ABANDON DESEGREGATION EFFORTS

 

AUSTIN, TX – Yesterday, the Honorable William Wayne Justice of the Eastern District of Texas ordered that the Texas Education Agency must continue to carry out its statewide desegregation obligations under the long-standing case US v. Texas.  The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the Multicultural Education, Training and Advocacy, Inc. (META), on behalf of LULAC and the GI Forum, urged this ruling, arguing that TEA’s latest motion seeking to be released from the desegregation case was unjustified.   

 

“TEA wanted a free pass from its obligation to prove to the Court that it has abided by the terms of the desegregation order and that the ill effects of discrimination have been eradicated root and branch,” stated MALDEF Staff Attorney David Hinojosa, “but the Court appropriately denied their request.”

 

“The statewide history of segregation in Texas is undeniable,” said Attorney Roger Rice with META.  “There are no shortcuts under the law to allow TEA to just walk away from that history without demonstrating that it has met its obligations.”  

 

This desegregation case dates back to 1970 when the United States filed suit against the State of Texas, the TEA, and a group of school districts for maintaining all-black and all-white segregated schools in Texas.  Following a trial later that year, the court found that the State had contributed to the continuation of racially segregated schools in Texas, seventeen years following the Brown v. Board decision.  Thereafter, the court issued a desegregation order which required TEA to monitor student transfers between districts statewide to ensure that desegregation was not impeded.  MALDEF intervened in 1973 on behalf of a class of Mexican American students and was later joined by META as co-counsel.   

 

In the court decision yesterday, TEA had asked to be released from all desegregation monitoring responsibility except for the nine former all-black school districts that were parties to the original suit.  The court denied TEA’s motion in part, stating that TEA must still monitor districts statewide unless the districts can prove that were not parties to the original lawsuit, they had ceased segregating students before 1970, and they have not re-segregated.

 

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Where is the People's Bailout?





The words below are a letter to the Obama Transition Team from Obama IS America! blogger, *Gardens For America*.

*CLICK HERE* to link to the Obama Transition Team website.

*CLICK HERE* to link to where you can send your thoughts, ideas, frustrations, suggestions, etc. to the Obama Team.






Dear Obama Transition Team,

 

America has seen a $2 trillion bailout package for irresponsible banks that lent themselves into bankruptcy. We hear talk of a $40 billion bailout for car companies that again failed to innovate and transition into the burgeoning clean energy car future. But where is the bail out for all the millions of small businesses, the millions of small non-profits, the millions of every day Americans who try so hard to make ends meet?

 

Money invested in banks is not even finding its way into the hands of the American public in the form of loans, or even in the form of refinanced homes. Either way, American's don't need more loans; our credit is bad as it is. We need help. We need a large influx of no strings attached funds to flow into our pockets - just as they have flowed into the hands of already extremely rich bankers.

 

Indeed the heart of the situation: the crisis in budgets of the average American, the crisis in employment has not been addressed. People continue to lose jobs, college graduates continue to have no job options, organizations continue to spiral deeper and deeper into debt, and critical services continue to be curtailed. This crisis does not arise from the falling of the banks. It arises from the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few rich individuals, and the inability of the rest of society to even access these funds.

 

I currently work at a non-profit urban forestry organization that plants trees in Oakland. Our focus is the revitalization of urban communities with minimal tree canopy cover by involving communities in reforesting their neighborhoods. We integrate our urban forestry program with top-notch research in the urban forestry field to further understand the benefits of trees in cities. Finally, we integrate youth from our community in this research process to expose them to the dynamic scientific process.

 

Over the past 3 years, our organization has operated under significant deficit, and currently is endanger of closing its doors. We would also appreciate a bailout by the federal government, as our services provide irreplaceable benefits to our communities. Funding available to non-profit organizations continues to plummet as individuals are less likely to donate, and major funding institutions close their doors as the economy continues to plummet.

 

If the administration really cares about communities, about individuals, about small businesses, then it needs to invest in communities. It needs to invest in small businesses; it needs to keep money in the pot for these individuals, businesses and community groups. Spending $2 trillion on banks, $30 billion on car companies, and $1 million on community groups is unacceptable.  After trillions of dollars have been spent on big businesses, what will be left for the American public? After all our hard earned tax dollars have been poured into corporations, what will be left for us? As funding for unemployment, funding for medical care, funding for low-income housing shrivels up, the American government will have spent all its funds on businesses.

 

Where is American people's bailout? We are hurting. We cannot continue to withstand the pressures of minimal funding, minimal income, and an increasing cost of services.

 

So I would like to know three things:

1)      How will the bailout of the banks be reclaimed? Will this money be returned to the American public in the form of increased revenue from rising stock options? Will this money be returned to the American public in the form of returns on a loan? Or was this bailout simply a large cash give-away for a series of very rich individuals able to whine their way into receiving money from the government?

2)      How does the Obama Administration propose to bailout small businesses, small non-profits, community groups, and the American public struggling with debt or decreasing income in the face of rising costs?

3)      How can we as the American public contribute to building a better more financially stable future? What time can we volunteer, what ideas can we volunteer, what services can we provide?

 

I look forward to the future of this country, but also have considerable trepidations about the present. The Administration's open willing attitude to listen to concerns of the American public has already heralded a new day in American politics.

 

Thank you for your time and energy.

 

Take care,

Gardens For America

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Reader Post: Gays United Network AND Truth Wins Out!!!!!



The following post was sent in by Obama IS America! contributor Nakhone about an organization he has founded called the Gays United Network. Please find the organization's mission statement below.

This post also includes information on a movement called Truth Wins Out (TWO). Here is information about this organization pulled *straight from their website*:

Mission: TruthWinsOut.org is a non-profit organization that counters right wing propaganda, exposes the “ex-gay” myth and educates America about gay life.

Creed: TruthWinsOut.org is resolute in its belief that ex-gay programs are a politically motivated fraud designed to exploit vulnerable clients for financial gain and pass anti-gay legislation. Attempts to change sexual orientation are patently offensive, discriminatory by definition, theologically shaky, uniformly unsuccessful and medically unsound. TruthWinsOut.org firmly believes that ex-gay programs can damage families, lower self-esteem, generate guilt and shame and sometimes lead to suicide. The organization holds as self-evident that the world would be a better place without ex-gay programs, which are an unnecessary and destructive hindrance to the natural coming out process.

Goal: TruthWinsOut.org aims to end the dangerous practice of ex-gay therapy in all of its injurious forms. The organization will tirelessly advocate against such programs, vigorously disseminate educational material, and doggedly pursue actions that will help undermine the ex- gay myth.

I (the Editor of OIA!) would like to take this opportunity to say (from personal experience) that the Prop 8 protests (at least in California) have been PEACEFUL PROTESTS.

The letter Nakhone wrote in conjunction with his submission has also been included to give some background and a personal voice to the information you can find below.

Finally, please note that on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14) 2009, Gays United Network will be hosting a fundraiser dinner on behalf of TWO called --> "Dinner for TWO: Dining for Equality."


Here is information about this event, and more information will be posted about the event in January:

Event Info
Host: GAYS UNITED NETWORK
Type: Causes - Fundraiser
Network:Global
Time and Place
Start Time: Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 5:00pm
End Time: Sunday, February 15, 2009 at 12:00am
Location: Across the United States of America
Contact Info
Phone: 323.635.5384
Email: nakhone@gaysunitednetwork.org

THANK YOU!!! And enjoy the post below!!!






Hi There,

We met at Marriage Equality USA's town hall last Sunday and I came up to you to ask for your email. You told me to email you info about my organization Gays United Network. I am posting our mission state below.

More importantly, I am reaching out to you to enlist Obamaisamerica.blogspot.com to do a feature on both Gays United Network as well as a Call To Action to help support Truth Wins Out (TWO). TWO has finally responded to the hateful ad from No Mob Veto.org, the frontman for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty (or as I like to call it "Bigotry). I will also post a letter from Wayne Besen, executive director of TWO. I also created a cause on facebook named Gays United Network to help raise money and the funds that will be raised through that cause will benefit TWO. The link to donate to Gays United Network on facebook is https://www.causes.com/fb/donations/new?cause_id=173608&fundraiser_id=28763246&m=a8965384. I would really appreciate getting the word out about Gays (UN) and TWO. Thanks for all to do.

I enjoyed listening to your impassioned speech on Sunday, and, apparently, I recruited you at the reception for speaker of the house Assemblywoman Karen Bass. What a small world.

Much love,
-Nakhone Keodara
Gays (UN)
Founder


Wayne Besen's Letter:

December 10, 2008
From Wayne Besen, Executive Director, Truth Wins Out:

Today, I took a big risk for equality.

I placed a $6,000 full-page ad in the Salt Lake Tribune with the limited funds of a small organization in tough economic times.

What was so important that I felt I had no choice?

Last week, on Friday, December 5, the anti-gay organization "No Mob Veto" took out a full-page ad in the New York Times that accused our community of engaging in "anarchy and mob violence" just for protesting Proposition 8!

Maybe you took part in one or more of those peaceful protests, or maybe you didn't. But whether you participated or not, we can all agree on how scurrilous it is that the right-wing wants to vilify the gay and lesbian community by falsely accusing us of acting like a mob!

This is a dangerous moment. We cannot just sit back and do nothing while the anti-gay crowd works to convince people that we're conducting a "jihad" against the Mormon Church...or any church for that matter. If such a smear should be allowed to take hold in the minds of fair-minded Americans, it could set the cause back five or even ten years.

Truth Wins Out believes that when our opponents openly defame us, we must strike back twice as hard. No one will hand us our rights – we must take them by exposing the other side for who they are: a group of dishonest anti-gay crusaders who will say absolutely anything in order to deny us full equality under the law.

I chose to run our ad in the Salt Lake Tribune to highlight their hypocrisy and to torpedo their "Big Lie" before it has a chance to take hold. The headline of our ad---"Lies in the Name of the Lord"---is bold and hard-hitting. It will surely get the attention of Utah's Mormon leadership.

These "No Mob Veto" activists include notorious homophobes such as convicted felon Chuck Colson (Prison Fellowship); Rich Cizik (National Association of Evangelicals) and William Donohue (The Catholic League).

In their ad, these men claim to be great defenders of the Mormon faith! Yet, T.W.O.'s research has found that their statements contain blatant anti-Mormon bigotry. It's crucial that we highlight their offensive statements to let people know it is totally preposterous for them to pose as friends of Mormonism.

Please take a moment to view their dishonest "No Mob Veto" ad.

http://www.nomobveto.org/images/nytad_lg.png

Then, take a look at Truth Wins Out's ad, "Lies in the Name of the Lord."

http://www.truthwinsout.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/two_ad_large.jpg

The Salt Lake Tribune charged us $6,000 for the ad. We need your help to pay this invoice and to continue doing the kind of hard-hitting activism that some gay organizations have refused to do.

If you're like us, you believe that lies about the gay community must never go unanswered. We're looking for 60 people to give a $100 tax-deductible gift. If you agree to do so by joining our "Group of Sixty", we will also send you an original copy of the Thursday edition of the Salt Lake Tribune, the issue which contains T.W.O.'s full-page ad. This is our modest way of saying "thank you" for joining us on the front lines of this new gay activism.

Together, we can stand up to anti-gay lies and win full equality. The days of sitting back and doing nothing are over. Please join our "Group of Sixty" by giving a $100 gift right now.

You have always been able to count on T.W.O. to speak the truth, and now, we are counting on you.

Please donate here: http://www.truthwinsout.org/donate.html

P.S. If you are able to give more we would greatly appreciate it. If you are unable to give at this level, please consider a gift of $10 or more and help us fight back. Every dollar helps.


GAYS UNITED NETWORK MISSION STATEMENT:

SILENCE = OPPRESSION!

When the voters of California took away basic fundamental rights for Gay people to marry, they committed an emotional rape on our Community and "left a STAIN upon our State Constitution (Robin Tyler's words)."

Gays United Network ("Gays (UN)") is a direct response to that injustice--the long overdue antidote to smear-the-queer tactics that have been used against Gays. Gays (UN) has been formed to provide the GLBTQI (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex) Community with an avenue of political activism with the goal of achieving full Gay Liberation.

We cannot let them define the debate EVER again. We MUST go on the offense and get in their faces. We WILL exposed their lies, hold a mirror up to their hypocrisy and hold them accountable for the deceitful and immoral Campaign that took away our hard won civil rights.

Our charge is to enlighten these voters by demythologizing deeply woven institutional lies surrounding marriage. Let's help our fellow citizens find their way out of the labyrinth of religious tyranny! Civility will be our Ariadne's thread.

With that said, only by taking action and getting our cause out there in the media and in the faces of conservative hate, is the only way they will really see us.

Gays (UN)'s strategy is to organize a large scale Street Theatre and Guerrilla Film Projects, across the state and the nation, à la Theater of the Oppressed style.

To that end, we will also produce eye-opening and informative Public Service Announcements.

Through organized planning and well thought out actions, we can show we mean business.

We are the creative ones so let's show them just how creative we can get. Let's produce another Prop 8 Musical. This time it should be titled "Prop 8 Musical: Joseph Smith and his 33 wives."

In 2008, the California State Supreme Court ruled that "It is illegal to hide discrimination behind religious beliefs." The time to organize and to fight for equal rights is NOW. We will no longer accept religious tyranny that justifies bigotry based on its "Deeply & Bigotedly Held Religious Beliefs."

We are committed to restoring integrity to our Constitution and dignity to our Community. We will use any means necessary (within the bounds of civility) to get our point across--that we will no longer stand for oppression. Not for one more second. No More Mr. Nice Gays!

We will soon march to victory, but it will take everybody's blood, sweat and tears.

Rise. Now. For freedom cannot wait!


UNITED WE CAN, OVERCOME WE SHALL!


Thursday, December 11, 2008

Public Declarations and Remembrance for Those Killed in the Bhopal Tragedy






In 1984 something tragic happened in India.  

Atrociously enough, it was more tragic than the terrorist attacks in Mumbai that just occurred two weeks ago.  In the 1984 tragedy, the perpetrator was an American company located in Michigan called *Dow Chemical*.  And they *still have not cleaned up the chemical spill*...it still infests the groundwater and continues to poison the people that live there over twenty years later.

This blog post will first provide you a snippet of background information from Wikipedia page on the Bhopal disaster (*click here* to connect to the page).  

It will then provide you with a Public Declaration for Collective Action and accompanying press statement on the 24th Anniversary of Remembrance of this disaster submitted by Obama is America! blogger *GardensForPeace*.

*Click here* to connect to Dow Chemical's 'Contact us' page to submit a request that they clean up the mess in Bhopal, or to declare your anger at the human injustice their corporation has perpetuated.

Snippet:

The Bhopal disaster was an industrial disaster that occurred in the city of BhopalMadhya PradeshIndia, resulting in the immediate deaths of more than 3,000 people, according to the Indian Supreme Court. A more probable figure is that 8,000 died within two weeks, and it is estimated that an additional 8,000 have since died from gas related diseases.[1][2]

The incident took place in the early hours of the morning of December 3, 1984, in the heart of the city of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. A Union Carbide subsidiarypesticide plant released 42 tonnes of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, exposing at least 520,000 people to toxic gases. The Bhopal disaster is frequently cited as the world's worst industrial disaster.[1][2][3][4][5] The International Medical Commission on Bhopal was established in 1993 to respond to the disasters.



PUBLIC DECLARATION OF REMEMBRANCE

Let us pray for the lives and health of these Global and Indian citizens so easily forgotten by the international media, and the international community. When we think about global citizenship, human rights, and the idea of the individual, how can we as an internationally community mourn foreign tourists killed in Mumbai, but so easily forget the truncated lives, poisoned environments, and daily deaths of Bhopal. What makes our society so enraged and inspired by 9/11, but so deeply disassociated from Hurricane Katrina. What makes the preservation of wealth more important than the preservation of life? 

At this moment we are at a critical junction  where global society needs to take decisive and immediate action to address the impending crises facing our world, and the dream of effective and immediate mobilization has been awakened to in the hearts of Americans and global citizens. However, to really create the change needed, we will have to to build a new generation, a new approach, and a new vision of priorities, morals and values to really move change. Change will come from the bottom up as can be seen by the way Obama's presidential campaign was conducted. But it must also come from the top down. Governments, big business, well-paid individuals need to re-evaluate key priorities critical for mutual societal benefit. Only when we work together, can real change happen in society and within ourselves.

We are at a critical juncture where we must collectively envision a better world, and actively work towards that goal. Primary in my vision, is the fundamental right to a healthy environment. We can no longer forget the lives fighting for justice in Bhopal and around the world. We must envision a sustainable society that does not rely upon the destruction of our environments to fuel our economies. This environmental destruction inevitably becomes a destruction of human life, dream and possibility that affects everyone living on this planet.

______________________________

December 03, 2008

Bhopal's 24th anniversary rally honours its own

Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmachari Sangh 
Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha 
Bhopal Group for Information and Action

December 3, 2008

*Press Statement*

On the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the Bhopal gas disaster thousands of survivors along with neighborhood residents exposed to pollution from Union Carbide's chemical waste today marched in a rally to the abandoned factory that is the site of the world's worst industrial disaster. They burnt an effigy of Dow Chemical, the current owner of Union Carbide in front of the factory and held a public meeting where individual survivor activists were felicitated.

Leaders of the three organizations: Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Stationery Karmchari SanghBhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Purush Sangharsh Morcha and Bhopal Group for Information and Action leading the 24th Anniversary rally warned the Central and the State governments that if the Empowered Commission for long term rehabilitation of the survivors and their children is not set up soon they will intensify their agitation in Bhopal and New Delhi.

They said that there were still over 100,000 people battling with chronic illnesses caused by Union Carbide's chemical poisons. Additionally an unusually large number of people are suffering from Tuberculosis, Diabetes and Hypertension and mental health problems as a consequence of toxic exposure. Government agencies such as the Centre for Rehabilitation Studies have reported that contaminated ground water is causing diseases of the lungs, eyes, skin and the digestive system in a population of over 25 thousand people living next to the abandoned factory.

Most worrisome is the fact of unusually large number of children in the affected communities with birth defects such as damaged brain, undeveloped limbs, cleft lip and missing palate and severe growth disorders. The organizations said that currently the government does not provide any help to thousands of children born with disabilities and the country's apex research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is yet top carry out studies on the effects on the next generation of Bhopal victims.

The organizations said that the state government has completely failed to provide economic and social rehabilitation to the victims and has caused more harm than good in the matter of the thousands of tones of hazardous waste dumped in and around the abandoned Union carbide factory. They said that they have a lot of expectations from the Empowered Commission on Bhopal for sustained medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation and they will not tolerate any delay in its setting up.

The organizations said that the support given to Union Carbide and Dow Chemicals by the governments of USA and India is the main cause for continuing injustice in Bhopal. Warren Anderson and the authorized representative of Union Carbide are still absconding from the criminal case on the world's worst industrial massacre. Violating principles of 'polluter pays' and that of 'successor liability' that are established both in USA and India, Dow Chemical continues to deny liability for the toxic contamination of soil and ground water in and around the factory in Bhopal.

On 3rd Dec hundreds of gas affected survivors and people affected by water contamination will stage a massive rally from Bharat Talkies to the infamous Union Carbide factory. Survivors' organisations will hold a public event to felicitate people who contributed significantly to the victory of the 2008 Bhopal to New Delhi Padyatra. Replicas of the iconic mother-and-child statue commemorating the disaster, and citations will be handed over to more than 100 people, including children who participated in the Padyatra.

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Reader Post: To a new cause

To a new cause

 

It has been more than a decade since I had the pleasure of becoming an American Citizen. To be an American Citizen means that as a person of foreign background, I have the obligation to involve myself with the hardships of this land. One can be an American citizen, but not everyone can truly know what it really means to be an American citizen.

Time has shown that this country has been built upon the hard struggles of immigrants who came here for the chance to better their lives and their progeny. The bourgeois society who feel above themselves to be "the ones" who are making the difference, often are misguided to the truth of the American dream—to be free from prejudgments.

An American has civil rights that are inherited truths. No one under any circumstance can ever take away such rights. It is true that situations call for dreams to be upheld by the sacrifice of those who often die in the process in creating the dream. However, as American citizens, we must each burn in our psyche that another human gave way to my path.

With today's distinctions, we often misunderstand the cause of idealism. cause must, and should, be a collective ideal that has both the motives of love and strife. This duality helps and allows us to understand that the coming of any dream has to take shape as an ideal and then, as a manifestation of culture and identity of and for the people.

Therefore, with all the histories that have come and gone, and with now the new president-elect Barack Obama, we, as American Citizens, hope to now be united by diplomacy rather than by blood. As often, we must be reminded that the Constitution of the United States was written with hopes and regrets; hopes that we always remember how this country came to be, and regrets in how it can be stolen form us if we do not unite as a people regarding our great diversities.


emanuel perez


Sunday, December 7, 2008

Indian Muslims Protest Terrorist Attacks in India





Not all terrorists are Muslim and not all Muslims are terrorists!!!!  Everybody suffers from terrorism, and nobody wins! 

THE HATE NEEDS TO STOP!


Today's blog post has 3 sets of information:

1.  A poem by Sufi poet *Rumi* on God.  *Sufism* is a form of Islam.  Like any of the world's major faiths, there are multiple ways to practice Islam.
  • A note on Sufism:  The current War on Terror has probably made a lot of people aware of the term Jihad, or Holy War.  In Sufism, Jihad would be defined as an internal struggle - a battle against forces that would seek to do bad, or work evil through you.  Just like the Christian faith, not everyone interprets religious definitions literally.

2.  An article on the protests against the attacks in Mumbai, India by Indian Muslims.  You can access this article directly by *clicking here*

3.  An article about how Muslims around the world condemn the attacks in India, and are worried about the negative impact these attacks have on them and thier faith. You can access this article by *clicking here*.


Where is God?  
By Rumi

I tried to find Him on the Christian cross, but He
was not there; I went to the Temple of the
Hindus and to the old pagodas, but I could not
find a trace of Him anywhere.

I searched on the mountains and in the valleys
but neither in the heights nor in the depths was I
able to find Him. I went to the Ka’bah in Mecca,
but He was not there either.

I questioned the scholars and philosophers but
He was beyond their understanding.

I then looked into my heart and it was there
where He dwelled that I saw Him; He was
nowhere else to be found.




Muslims denounce Mumbai attackers as enemy of Islam
8 Dec 2008, 0206 hrs IST, Roana Maria Costa & Mohammed Wajihuddin, TNN
MUMBAI: Outraged at the recent terrorist attacks on Mumbai and terrorists who have painted a distorted image of Muslims in the name of Islam, hundreds of Muslim men, women and children publicly denounced all the killers of innocents as enemies of Islam on Sunday. The protesters, which included several members from Bollywood, also said that the enemies of India were enemies of Muslims too. 

On Sunday afternoon, a silent march of the Muslims started from the CST station, one of the places the terrorists had chosen to create mayhem on 26/11, winding its way through Churchgate to the sea-front near the Oberoi-Trident. Similar protest walks, condemning terrorist outfits like the Al Qaeda, Taliban, ISI, LeT and SIMI and Huji were simultaneously held in cities like Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Indore, Hyderabad and Delhi. 

"We disown and denounce all those who kill in the name of Jihad. Terrorists are fascists and enemies of Muslims since Islam doesn't preach killing of innocents," said poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar. 

Akhtar said 26/11 attacks were unprecedented and were attacks on the dignity of the country. "Fascists are those who distort religion. There are bad elements in all religions. On 26\11 they didn't just place bombs and run, they entered our buildings, killed people and held hostages. No religion preaches killing of innocents," he said. 

26\11 has changed the psyche of Indians, he said. "For the first time I've seen tears in so many eyes, people with so much grief," he said. 

Perhaps for the first time liberal Muslims were joined by the clerics coming from organisations like Jamiat-ul-Ulema in expressing their anger against the terror outfits who have hijacked Islam. Actor-TV anchor Javed Jaffri said the Muslims had to speak out openly because after all it's Islam which is being maligned. "There is nothing called Islamic terrorists. Islam is being misinterpreted by some groups. They kill people in the name of jihad. A religion which asks its members to greet each other with Assalamu Alaikum (peace be with you) could never sanction killing of innocents," he said. 

The rally walked the streets of Mumbai through DN Road, Hutatma chowk, passed by Churchgate station and ended near the Oberoi- Trident. Slogans like " Killers of innocents are enemies of Islam", "Our motherland's enemies are our enemies ", "Declare Pakistan a terrorist state" and "Close terrorists camps at once" were some of the slogans which screamed out from banners and placards. 

Javed Anand of Muslims for Secular Democracy (MSD), the man who had galvanised several groups and individuals for the Sunday's peace march, said that for too long the terrorists had exploited the name of Islam and it is the duty of every Muslim to call the bluff of individuals and organisations who spread terror and violence in the name of Islam. 

Actor Farooq Sheikh voiced similar opinions. "Terrorists are Muslims' number one enemy," he said. 

Ad-man and activist Alyque Padamsee, who was instrumental in getting the famous Deoband fatwa against terrorism a couple of months ago, said there were two kinds of Muslims: Real Muslims and fake Muslims. "Terrorists are fake Muslims while peace-loving tolerant Muslims are real Muslims," he said. "99.9% of Indian Muslims believe the Quran which says killing of the innocents is wrong. Those who don't believe it are naqli (fake) Muslims," he said. "Committing suicide is a sin in Islam, so how can a suicide bomber believe he would go to Jannat (paradise)," he said. 



Muslims Condemn Mumbai Attacks, Worry About Image
By Karin Laub Associated Press   Published on 12/1/2008
Total 1 images.
 Enlarge this ImageBy Associated Press
Indian Muslims protest against the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.



Ramallah, West Bank - Muslims from the Middle East to Britain and Austria condemned Sunday the Mumbai shooting rampage by suspected Islamic militants as senseless terrorism but also found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion.

Intellectuals and community leaders called for greater efforts to combat religious fanaticism.

Indian police said Sunday that the only surviving gunman told them he belongs to the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group is seen as a creation of Pakistani intelligence to help fight India in the disputed Kashmir region. Another group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, has also operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.

Ten gunmen attacked 10 targets in the three-day assault including a Jewish community center and luxury hotels in India's commercial hub. More than 170 people were killed.

Many Muslims said they are worried such carnage is besmirching their religion.

”The occupation of the synagogue and killing people in hotels tarnishes the Muslim faith,” said Kazim al-Muqdadi, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University. “Anyone who slaughters people and screams “Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) is sick and ignorant.”

In Britain, home to nearly 2 million Muslims, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, said that “a handful of terrorists like this bring the entire faith into disrepute.”

A previously unknown Muslim group, Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The name suggests origins in India.

Pakistan has denied involvement and demanding that India provide proof. In Pakistan, Jamaat-ud Dawa, an Islamist group believed to have ties to Lashkar-e-Taiba, denounced the killing of civilians.

In Islamic extremist Web forums, some praised the Mumbai attacks, including the targeting of Jews.

A man identified as Sheik Youssef al-Ayeri said the killings are in line with Islam.

”It's all right for Muslims to set the infidels' castles on fire, drown them with water .... and take some of them as prisoners, whether young or old, women or men, because it is one of many ways to beat them,” he wrote in the al-Fallujah forum.

In the Gaza Strip, the territory's Islamic militant Hamas rulers declined to comment. Hamas has carried out scores of suicide attacks in Israel, killing hundreds of civilians in recent years. However, Hamas has said it does not want to get involved in conflicts elsewhere.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad referred to the attacks as terrorism, but added that the violence is rooted in “unjust policies” aimed at destabilizing the region. He did not elaborate.

India is seen by many in the Arab and Muslim world as a Western ally. For example, Israel has become an important arms supplier to India, angering Muslim Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia said in a statement carried earlier this week by the Saudi Press Agency that it “strongly condemns and denounces this criminal act.” An editorial Friday in Saudi's English-language Arab News said that “no civilized person ... can be anything but revolted and sickened by the terrorist attacks in Mumbai.”

However, Jonathan Fighel, an Israeli counterterrorism expert, said Saudi organizations have been funneling money to Muslim militants in Kashmir.

”This demonstrates exactly the double game and, I would say, the hypocrisy of the Saudi regime,” said Fighel of the Israel-based International Institute for Counter-Terrorism.

Throughout the Muslim world, the attacks set off soul-searching.

”I think that Muslims should raise their voice against such actions. They should forge a coalition to fight such phenomena, because it harms them and damages their image,” said Ali Abdel Muhsen, 22, a Muslim engineering student in the West Bank city of Nablus.

Muslims and Arabs must confront the violence “that is taking place in our name and in the name of our (Islamic) tenets,” wrote Khaled al-Jenfawi, a columnist for Kuwait's Al-Seyassah daily.

”Unfortunately, we have yet to see a distinguished popular condemnation in the traditional Arab or Muslim communities that strongly rejects what is happening in the name of Islam or Arab nationalism,” wrote al-Jenfawi.