mother of three, professor, equestrian, small business co-owner (its called a medical office and we know how screwed up this system is first hand!), political activist
This evening we had the first night of Passover with a lively, warm seder at our house. Our usual guests, our fictive kin, and our three children were all assembled.
In one section of the Hagaddah, there is a section which lists the ten plagues. But before we list the standard biblical ten, there is an additional list, designed to focus our minds and hearts on the moral issues of the world. We read them each year, and the Hagaddah was published in 1974. But this year, as we read the list, we were all at first almost amused, and then silenced to realize that it describes our current government to a T. THis is no laughing matter.
The revised ten plagues beyond the fold. Cross over on dry land with me:
This evening at a meeting of the Tompkins County Democratic Committee, held in Ithaca, NY in the Greater Ithaca Activites Center on Court Street, the committee membership passed a resolution to urge Senators Clinton and Schumer to support the filibuster of Samuel Alito.
This coming weekend at the national meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Philadelphia, the Regions Committee is hosting a special program on the emerging problem of progressive religion scholars being targeted by the radical Christian right, in many cases in such a way as to silence these scholars. The panel, entitled "Responding to Political Targeting of Religion Scholars in U.S. Institutions of Higher Education" is Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. (panel A19-101) The case of Professor Miguel de la Torre (now at Iliff School of Theology), and his departure from Hope College in Holland, Michigan (a case we learned of from a diary here on KOS) will be presented, and we will be looking at the evangelical tracking of faculties and departments around the country. Below the flip are a series of questions I would like to throw open to the KOS community for consideration and assistance. I will post the results of our meeting here on KOS after the national meeting.
Gwen Wilkinson, a fine progressive and excellent candidate, is in the race of her life today to take the position of the District Attorney in Tompkins County out from under the control of a "good old boy" corrupt DA, George Dentes.
The race is a clear choice: Do you want someone who knows how to use alternatives to incarceration effectively to save taxpayers money while properly addressing the issues of drug abuse, understands how to prosecute domestic violence and is fair? Do you want someone who knows the difference between crime and political dissent?
Or do we want someone who has slapped domestic violence cases on the wrist, made a federal case out of an anti-war protest, and has lied publicly in this campaign?
Dentes is a local person, with tons of family and lots of favors in his pocket. Gwen Wilkinson is a fair, impartial attorney with 16 years experience who will restore our trust.
We have a chance, if we can turn out the votes. If you are in Ithaca, NY, get on the phone and do this:
The Ithaca City School District, an overall excellent school system, has adopted, as a PART of its sex education curriuculm for eighth graders in the system to use an abstinence only curriculum offered by Mothers and Babies in Owego, NY. On the surface, given that an abstinence only curriculum is being offered in the context of a larger, more comprehensive sex ed curriculum, it might seem like a tempest in a teacup to be worried about this. But read beyond the flip for why this should represent a line in the sand for parents and educators who care about keeping theologically driven agendas out of our public schools.
Today, in federal court in Binghamton, NY, the trial of four anti-war activists from Ithaca, New York (Catholic Worker members Peter DeMott, Clare Grady, Teresa Grady, and Daniel Burns) began. I am writing this entry to encourage bloggers around the country to follow this story, and to ask you to feature links to the work of these brave and inspiring people in your own blogs. I also want to alert people to the fact that these four people are being charged on FEDERAL CONSPIRACY charges for peaceful, prayerful (local) anti-war protest actions, AFTER a local jury could not reach a decision. The DA for Tompkins County (George Dentes, up for re-election this fall) was so angered that he sent the case to a federal court on higher, federal charges.
Their act was to peacefully and prayerfully enter an army recruiting station in Tompkins County, NY on the eve of the Iraq War (St. Patrick's Day) and pour small vials of thier own blood carefully on a picture, the wall, and the flag. They then sat down quietly, in prayer, and waited to be arrested.
Links and more beyond the flip. Make the jump and recommend for justice.
The area of Redbud Woods is a small parcel of land on the edge of Cornell University. People may be wondering, why the tempest in a teacup about the plan to remove an overgrown greenspace and replace it with a 176 space parking lot? And certainly, why be concerned with this on a day when Rove's behavior should still be front and center and the president has nominated a staunch anti-choice candidate for the Supreme Court? The reason is that, in the grand scheme of things, and especially in environmental work, small matters. More below the flip.
The area of Redbud Woods is a small parcel of land on the edge of Cornell University. People may be wondering, why the tempest in a teacup about the plan to remove an overgrown greenspace and replace it with a 176 space parking lot? And certainly, why be concerned with this on a day when Rove's behavior should still be front and center and the president has nominated a staunch anti-choice candidate for the Supreme Court? The reason is that, in the grand scheme of things, and especially in environmental work, small matters. More below the flip.
At 2:00 a.m., police began the extraction of a hunger striker who had chained himself into the ground at the gate in the security fence surrounding Cornell University's Redbud Woods. The woods are to be turned into a 176 acre parking lot. The hunger striker was using a lock box created by a group of Cornell University students who has occupied the woods, and who finally left peacefully on July 18 after negotiating a settlement for their amnesty, and a series of agreements with the university administration to provide bus passes for new students and increase the accountabililty on issues of sustainability in the university. The agreement is regarded by most people in this protest as a significant accomplishment and the students are to be commended.
Protesting faculty did not sign the agreement, though many expressed their support for the students, while reserving their rights of protest.
As a heavy security fence was being constructed to the sounds of drills, jackhammers and chainsaws to clear the fence line, people stood in line to get citations for violating the "NO TRESSPASS" order at Cornell University's Redbud Woods. The woods, consisting of 90 year old walnut trees and a growth of Redbud trees, comprises 9 acres of the former Treman Estate, one of the founders of Ithaca, NY. Among those receiving citations were over forty faculty, including the eminent entymologist Thomas Eisner, the former mayor of Ithaca, Ben Nichols, a large number of people from the town, and students. Interim President Hunter Rawlings is moving ahead with the plan to build a parking lot for first year students. (Cornell's former president Jeffry Lehman resigned suddenly, June 30, and so Rawlings stepped in.)
Today I had a conversation with Susan Murphy, a Cornell University Vice President about the students' safety. Students are on tree platforms and in lock boxes with their arms inside pipes cemented into the ground. I asked her for an assurance that " pain compliance or violence" (and I explicitly used those four words) would not be used against these non-violent students. She said she could not give that guarantee if they resisted arrest. I then asked her, in quick succession, this same question again four times, and all four times, her answer was the same. In the end I said, "Then I can take it that you would condone the use of pain compliance and violence against students." Her answer was, "If they resist arrest, yes."
Cornell University, after years of resistance from faculty, students, the City and Town of Ithaca and Historic Ithaca has announced today that it will pave the historic green space known as Redbud Woods. This decision came as a large contingent of senior faculty, including some of the best minds in ecology, historic preservation, urban planning and horticulture, as well as faculty from across the unviersity, pleaded with the president for a moratorium to get a better process and hopefully a better outcome. Student protesters occupied the forest in the spring, and forestalled the building of the lot until today. The polcie have moved in. Why does this matter?
I have been posting news of a march across New York by two retired people who are tireless and unretiring activists: Rebecca and Bernie (also avid swing dancers). Read their schdeule below and TAKE THE POLL to perk them up.
They are walking to highlight the need for universal health care. In the sweltering New York heat, they are marching on. Here is a quick report from Rebecca:
This is the first diary of what will be the saga of two wonderful, loving. committed activists who have been walking New York state since June 10 to raise awareness about the need for universal health care. More beyond the flip.
Yesterday I had a diary about how the right wing Christian internet group organized by Chris Carmouche called GrasstopsUsa is appealing to all its recipients to use their BLAST FAXES to try and pressure all Republican Senators to defend Tom Delay. There I outlined how Chris is using the tactic of geting his flock to believe they are personally being attacked when Tom Delay is attacked. That diary, complete with the e-mail text, is here:
I am always stunned and amazed at how easy it is to lie to some people, and how happy some people are to do that lying. When I was about nine years old, there was a very accomplished liar living in my neighborhood (he was about eight) and he told us all one day, with pride, that he followed a simple strategy: Act righteous, accuse everyone around you of doing exactly what you intend to do and be all indignant about it, and act hurt and misunerstood if you get caught. It worked for JC for a time (though he ended up in prison by the time he was 21 for a series of money escapades).
I am always amused by the way that JC's tactics seem to be getting used by the right, until my amusement wears off and I realize we aren't talking about who painted "kick me" on the neighbor's dog or jumped on the neighbor's flower bed, but about who is making off with the constituion. So I share with you the latest BLAST FAX coming out of the Christian Coalition's Grasstops group, run by Chris Carmouche.
One of the overt agendas of the current administration's plan or our country is to weaken public education. There are even people who would propose that we abolish the Department of Education. (See http://www.theocracywatch.org/schools2.htm )
Because public education is one of the first warriors of a civil society to fall in the war being waged against taxes by our tax cutting/burden shifting president and his crew, we need to look carefully at what happens to school budgets this spring. All over the country, we are facing higher local taxes as tax burdens from the tax cuts are being shifted onto property taxes. And when property taxes go up, people look for easy targets, and when your kids are no longer in school, school taxes seem like soft targets. And they are. In some palces, they are the only budgets tax payers get to directly vote on. People get mad as hell, think "taxes are bad" and vote donw the budgets without ever looking at 1) how they got that high, 2) what they cut in and cut out and 3) what happens to the schools in the long run if you cut those taxes.
A good while ago, long before it was fashionable to know such things, I figured it out: The religious right is mighty well organized and they are coming to make us a god-fearing nation. So, I did what any intelligent person about to be assaulted and rendered senselesss by ignorance and bigotry would do: I started spying on the,. I went to Christian Coalition meetings. I signed up for newsletters. I started learning the names of people on the back pages of their church bulletins and mass mailings. Then these hell spawned people discovered the internet (a few years ahead of the progressives, from waht I can tell).
I now have an in-box that would make the pages of Free Republic look mild. Let me introduce you to one of the people in my in-box: Chris Carmouch, better known as Chris@grasstopsusa.org (You may have heard of him: http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001269.html
