Wednesday, July 17, 2013

If you needed anymore proof that race matters and the US justice system is not just look no further than the acquittal of George Zimmerman

It's made national news for several days now. Protests have continued in numerous parts of the country. Look at the actions of the case and ask if this same situation would've played out if race weren't a central theme. Couple that with a critical look at a court system that legitimates taking the life of an unarmed youth. Does that sound just to you?

In the words of the Rev. Al Sharpton: "Let us be clear: It is now, because of these laws, and upheld by a jury in this trial, where anyone walking — committing no crime — can be followed or approached by another civilian, and they can use deadly force and say it was self-defense. That is something that is frightening and cannot be allowed to sustain itself in our society."

He's right, and while many white folks can not stand the Rev., look at how this statement is absence of race. Now insert the history of folks from African descent in the US and things get more volatile.

Even the US Attorney General, Eric Holder agrees. At the recent NAACP convention he said it is time to fight against "Stand Your Ground" laws nationwide.

"By allowing, and perhaps encouraging, violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety. The list of resulting tragedies is long and, unfortunately, has victimized too many who are innocent. It is our collective obligation: We must stand our ground to ensure that our laws reduce violence, and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent."

The picture attached to this post is true, and until all people are equally protected in the US there will never be justice, sustainability or peace. Follow this case, learn more, don't be quiet, speak your mind and contribute to the movement.

In solidarity. See www.solarliving.org for full course schedule

Friday, July 12, 2013

Farm Bill Gets Passed, Food Stamps Left Out, Low Income Individuals Bear U.S. Burden Once Again

When will people be consciously able to connect the dots? The Farm Bill just passed, finally, but for the first time in the last 40 years there are no safeguards for low income people who rely on the support food stamps provide. Republicans v.s. Democrats, really? That's what gets the headlines, not those who will be deeply impacted by this, which is another reason why if you pay attention, the system is clearly broken.

Read about it here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/farm-bill-passes-narrowly-in-house-without-food-stamp-funding/2013/07/11/53616a4c-ea52-11e2-a301-ea5a8116d211_story.html 

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/12/us/politics/house-bill-would-split-farm-and-food-stamp-programs.html?_r=0

 http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/11/politics/house-farm-bill And Demand Justice! See www.solarliving.org for full course schedule

Thursday, July 4, 2013

An Exceptional Read: "This Independence Day, Thank a Protester"


If you read anything today, it should be this... Article courtesy of: truthdig.com

By Amy Goodman,

More than 160 years ago, the greatest abolitionist in U.S. history, the escaped slave Frederick Douglass, addressed the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass asked those gathered, “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?” His words bear repeating this Independence Day, as the United States asserts unprecedented authority to wage war globally, to spy on everyone, everywhere. Independence Day should serve not as a blind celebration of the government, but as a moment to reflect on the central place in our history of grass-roots democracy movements, which have preserved and expanded the rights proclaimed in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence: Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Douglass answered his question about the Fourth of July, to those gathered abolitionists: “To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”

Douglass not only denounced the hypocrisy of slavery in a democracy, but worked diligently to build the abolitionist movement. He fought for women’s suffrage as well. These were movements that have shaped the United States. The civil-rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s set a permanent example of what can be achieved by grass-roots action, even in the face of systemic, violent repression.

Today, movements continue to shape our society. The trial of George Zimmerman, accused of murdering Trayvon Martin, would not be happening now in Florida were it not for a mass movement. Sparked by the seeming official indifference to the shooting death of yet another young, African-American male, nationwide protests erupted, leading to the appointment of a special prosecutor. A month and a half after Martin was killed, Zimmerman was charged with second-degree murder.

Gay men and lesbians have seen sweeping changes in their legal rights, as same-sex marriage become legal in state after state, the U.S. military has dropped its official discrimination against homosexuality, and the federal Defense of Marriage Act was recently judged unconstitutional. Again, undergirding this progress are the decades of movement-building and grass-roots organizing.

In Egypt, the revolution dubbed the Arab Spring continues, with mass protests forcing out President Mohamed Morsi. Where this goes now, with the military in power, is yet to be determined. As my “Democracy Now!” colleague, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, tweeted from the streets of Cairo on the night of the military coup, “After two and a half years, Egypt just went back to square one in its post-Mubarak transition.”

The United States has been for well over two centuries a beacon for those around the world suffering under tyranny. But the U.S. also has been the prime global opponent of grass-roots democratic movements. Amazingly, South African President Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress were not taken off the U.S. terrorist watch list until 2008. When the people of Chile elected Salvador Allende, the U.S. backed a coup against him on Sept. 11, 1973, ushering in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who murdered thousands of his own citizens, crushing dissent. Sadly, drone strikes and the U.S.-run prison at Guantanamo are not historical references; they are current crimes committed by our own government.

Now, National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden, as far as we know, is stranded in the Moscow airport, his U.S passport canceled. He has admitted to revealing a vast, global surveillance regime that has outraged citizens and governments the world over. He joins in his plight imprisoned whistle-blower Bradley Manning, who faces life in prison, being court-martialed now for leaking the largest trove of classified documents in U.S. history. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has now spent more than a year cooped up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. These three are central to the exposure of some of the most undemocratic practices of the U.S. government.

More than 100 protests are planned across the U.S. this July Fourth weekend, in opposition to the NSA’s surveillance programs. These protests are part of the continuum of pro-democracy struggles around the world. In closing his Rochester, N.Y., speech, Douglass sounded an optimistic note, saying, “Notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.” Grass-roots justice movements are the hope, the beacon, the force that will save this country.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,000 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.

© 2013 Amy Goodman

 Distributed by King Features Syndicate
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