Black. White. Episode 3 We record the show as it has become an invaluable tool in family discussion. I am absolutely transfixed by Bruno, the white male/husband/father. He reminds me of a lot of white men. He has this attitude of “it’s all about how you carry yourself. It’s all about respect and confidence.” Sigh. The two white parents go into a bastion of African American culture in Los Angeles with Deanne, a friend that Carmen made while she was “black”. She “came out” to her, as she needed a guide through the culture. Anyway, Deanne is walking and talking about the different things that the business owners are enduring in the area – i.e. the city refuses to prune a tree on city property that is blocking the business signage of an African American store. The lease prices have skyrocketed in an effort by the owners of the buildings (white) to change the cultural makeup (currently black) to something else. Then Bruno, in his “black” makeup, Deanne (as...
Posts
MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY! If you want to know where I will be on Monday the 27th from around 11 to 1 or so, read on. Please join if you can. March 27 - Funeral Motorcade & Canadian Seal Slaughter Protest: to be held at Canadian Consulate 5847 San Felipe Street, Suite 1700 Houston , Texas 77057 . Tel: (713) 821-1440 Fax: (713) 821-1611 In observance of the 300,000+ seals that will be slaughtered in just a few short days, we will have a funeral procession from KPFT Studio to the Canadian Consulate. We will meet at KPFT at 11am ( 419 Lovett Blvd. Houston , Texas 77006 ) to get our cars ready for the procession. We will leave at noon to start our drive to the consulate for what we hope is a massive demonstration of Houstonions' disgust at this annual slaughter. Visit our website for more information. www.InSolidarityWithAnimals.com or contact Danielle, Co-Director of ISWA , at (832) 257-7200 Here is a moving video encouraging particip...
A Joke from my great friend, Lori: The President, First Lady and Dick Cheney were flying on Air Force One. George looked at Laura, chuckled and said, "You know, I could throw a $1,000 bill out of the window right now and make somebody very happy." Laura shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I could throw ten $100 bills out of the window and make ten people very happy." Cheney added, "That being the case, I could throw one hundred $10 bills out of the window and make a hundred people very happy." Hearing their exchange, the pilot rolled his eyes and said to his co-pilot, "Such big-shots back there. Hell, I could throw all of them out of the window and make 56 million people very happy!!!!
Can you believe that it's been 17 years and Exxon Mobil still hasn't paid the money it owes to the Alaskan communities devastated by the Exxon Valdez oil spill? On Friday, March 24 th , please join us in commemorating the anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill by calling Exxon Mobil to demand payment for the spill victims. It will only take two minutes to call - just dial 1-972-444-1000. Click the button below for talking points and to report that you made the call. http://action.truemajority.org/campaign/exxonvaldez/in6wbis4z5b6eid? Twelve years of legal appeals by a battalion of Exxon Mobil lawyers has added salt to the wounds of the 30,000 fishermen, Native Alaskans and others who suffered not just health and financial losses but also witnessed the death and maiming of thousands of oil coated seabirds, bald eagles, sea otters, seals and orca whales. Billions of salmon and herring eggs were destroyed and like many of the species, have yet to recover. Bob ...
I received this from the People For the American Way (PFAW). Please consider signing on. New Orleans municipal elections scheduled for this spring could set new records for minority disenfranchisement. The team that rebuilds New Orleans may be elected without input of the majority of the city's displaced residents -- who are largely African American -- who cannot afford to return to vote. This would add insult to the injury of those already victimized by Hurricane Katrina. An estimated 45-65% of the nearly 300,000 registered voters from New Orleans still remain displaced outside of the city, and the election is scheduled for April 22. Of these, 66% aren't even in the state of Louisiana. An overwhelming majority of these displaced voters are poor and African American and will be directly affected by their elected government. This is a national issue, not just a local one. Allowing an election to proceed that so clearly contradicts the principles of fairness ...
Many Musings Penny’s Pet Peeve: I can’t remember verbatim the comment but to paraphrase – Americans have an “I want it yesterday” mentality. That’s why public support of the war has deteriorated (oh! Is that why?) . I just wonder what would have happened during our own revolution! Would we have been able to be patient? Would we have allowed the process to complete before tiring of the entire endeavor? Yuck. Yuck. A group of people rising up FROM WITHIN their own nation is NOT COMPARABLE to a PREEMPTIVE strike and ongoing occupation of a sovereign nation by a much larger nation. Interesting Tidbit FBI – top-notch communications and surveillance experts – right? I’m not out of line here, am I? Investigation takes communication and surveillance from what I gather. A report released yesterday states that many in key positions within the agency have yet to get an email address. Why? Cost. That’s right. Cost. They simply do not have the money to hook everyone ...
Protestin’ Rodeo Hos Friday, my friends Lori, Karma and Casey and I went out and protested the rodeo for a few hours. Casey is like the Demo God (not demi, demo), as he is tireless in his outreach and effort for animals. He is what we wish we could be – completely immersed – yet still fully functioning in the workplace and society. It was just the four of us for a while and then a fifth showed up – Song – I believe her name was. We got called whores by a delightful older woman in a diesel spewing truck who felt it necessary to hang wildly out of her car and scream at the top of her lungs from four lanes away on the opposite side of the street. Our response? Ears cupped..what? What’s that you say, duckie? Can’t hear you. Veins were protruding. Very satisfying. We got some thumbs up. We got some thumbs down. We got honks. We got jeers. We got the standard “get a life” or “get a job”. I am always surprised by the general freaking out of usually older people mostly men....
Nightmares of Reality I had a very difficult time sleeping last night. I had watched a documentary – Torture – Guantanamo Guidebook which I found to be very disturbing. It’s not like I haven’t seen the pictures, I have and then some. I have read human rights reports from a plethora of reliable sources. The phrase that looped through my mind continuously was one from a prisoner that I read on the Amnesty International website. He said that he would take a physical beating any day over the psychological abuse that was inflicted upon him. The documentary was about seven guys who volunteer to endure, I believe, 40 hours of the same kind of treatment Gitmo prisoners are receiving. Three dropped out before the end – one was experiencing symptoms of hypothermia the other two were just broken mentally. All either had an ambivalent attitude towards torture or agreed with it completely. That was before the experiment. Afterwards all were against it. It bothers me to no end how this admini...
Scott Ritter - Revisted I heard Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector who resigned when he found that he was unable to do his job, last night. It was a riveting speech. He said that through the process they had located something like 98% of all Iraqi arms/weapons/arsenals. As they were closing in 100%, they realized that this was not something the US wanted. If they were able to account for 100% of weapons, sanctions would have to be lifted and the sentiment would be that Hussein was complying. This was not an image that the US wanted attached to Hussein. It is much easier to convince others that someone is a threat if they are not complying. Anyway, Lance and I were in stunned silence listening to this guy. So I went searching this morning to find a transcript of the speech he delivered. I haven’t yet, but I did find this. I like Ritter. I think he’s a stand up guy. And he’s a republican. Ha! Read on. Scott Ritter, the former United Nations weapons inspector who se...
Do You Care What Happens to Your Vote AFTER You Cast It? My husband and I went out to dinner last night – Udipi Indian Cuisine – our favorite restaurant as of late. It’s inexpensive and absolutely fantastic. We were listening to the radio and we heard a conversation about voting in Florida. Below is some of what we heard. But one of the most fascinatingly frightening things we heard was what was said about a law in Florida. It is against the law to recount a machine counted ballot. Yes. That’s right. Once a machine has registered the vote and counted the votes, the paper ballots cannot be counted. This was a a purposeful action taken to avoid any recounting embarassment replay of the 2000 debacle. It’s scary what going on. "Ignorance of the law is no excuse" used to be viable statement. But it is obsolete. There is no way one person can keep up with all the different laws being enacted without our knowledge. Here’s some of what was said last night. It might be long but it i...
Popcorn! Get Your Popcorn! I have to say….life is lessons. I had an epiphany of sorts on Tuesday. I can’t say that it was a lightning bolt as it was more like a storm and then the clearing. The parting of the dark clouds to a blue brilliance bathed in light. More like that. I have realized that all of my musings, or let’s be honest shall we, my ravings for the past few months have been terribly off the mark. I shudder at the misdirection of my sword-like pen, because I realize that there is but one real enemy in this country. One true enemy. Popcorn ceilings. The sprayed on concoction of coagulated plaster that graces far too many ceilings in this country. It is this type of ceiling that with no effort whatsoever grabs every drop of grease or any available adherent which in turn attracts every hair fiber from every being in the house, spider webs, as well as dust and the bevy of creatures that delight in that environment. And there is no way to clean it. Wipe it and your are covered wi...