Civil Rights

Gosh, it all looked like a war on women to me.  Not just in Wisconsin, but across the country. In an interview with Channel3000, Walker and J. B. VanHollen made it clear that lowering the penalty for inequity in pay wasn't against women, but was in fact a job creation bill.  Well, that explains it -- here I'd thought that the GOP hadn't passed any job creation bills, but apparently I was wrong. The paternalism of all of this is revolting.  I am also a little confused by the idea of "public signing".  Most of these signings are happening at very closed events which are announced at the last minute.

"We care about their future," Walker said. "That's really what we need to be waging our time and efforts on and that's why when I do public signings, I focus on bills that I think will make a better future for our state."

"Most of the legislation signed by the governor today makes tremendous advances in the protection of women, so I would submit it's just the opposite of what you suggest," said Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, answering Walker's critics.

Do yourself a favor, and slow yourself down enough to read this piece in its entirety. I don't know who the author is, but it really captures the feeling of people trapped in Milwaukee's inner city.

  Two Minutes of Silence -- A Milwaukee Vigil

Congressman Jay Inslee (WA-01) announced his candidacy for Governor of the State of Washington in Seattle Monday, and Your Erstwhile Reporter was present.

The candidacy was announced with a speech that focused on “process improvements” and the invocation of new technology jobs as an economic engine for job growth (and in fact the event took place at the headquarters of a company that has developed seed-derived biofuels that have been used to power military and commercial aircraft).

But that’s not the part that’s going to be the most interesting for the civil-rights supportive reader.

The most interesting part is that Inslee was quick to offer his support for full marriage equality in the State of Washington, should he find himself elected.

Somehow I missed John Gilman's passing last week.   I feel privileged to have had a chance to know him and work with him on occasion, in a small way, for social justice.  He never gave up.  John will be missed.

Journal Sentinel obituary: WWII hero John Gilman took on racism, fought for civil rights

Dom Noth's tribute

Death notice and guest book.

Got a simple little story for you today of a multinational corporation that wants to build a great big cement plant in North Carolina really, really, bad, and the local opposition to what appears to be a corrupt and distorted decision process.

Two local activists in particular have drawn the ire of Titan Cement, the Grecian corporation who seeks to build the plant—and because the Company doesn’t like what the activists have been saying about what the impact of that plant will likely be or how the deal’s going down…they’re suing Kayne Darrell and Dr. David Hill, residents of North Carolina’s New Hanover County, and the two folks who are doing the complaining the Company dislikes the most.

The Company further claims that they were slandered and defamed by the damaging statements that were uttered by the two at a county commissioners’ meeting and that they have lost goodwill and the chance to do business with certain parties as a result of these statements.

But what if everything the Defendants said was not only true…but provably so—and the Company was, maybe…just looking to shut people up by sending teams of lawyers after them?

As I said, it’s a simple story today—but it’s a good one.

We have tomorrow

Bright before us

Like a flame.

Yesterday, a night-gone thing

A sun-down name.

And dawn today

Broad arch above the road we came.

We march!

--From “The New Negro”, by Alain Locke

Since Christmas we’ve been talking about the story of Betsie Gallardo, a woman who is dying of cancer in a Florida prison. When we last met, she was being starved to death, literally, at the direction of the Florida Department of Corrections (DOC), who had decided not only to withhold further treatment for her inoperable cancer, but to withdraw nutritional support as well.

Her adopted mother is fighting to have her discharged from prison so that she can die at home—and the DOC have recommended that she be released.

On December 9th, Florida’s Board of Executive Clemency (“the Board”) chose to ignore the DOC advice.

Since then, thanks to a whole bunch of outside pressure, things have changed, for the better, which we’ll be talking about today.

On January 5th, the Board meets again—and if we do this right, we can bring some closure to this story.

There are many gifts to be given and received this holiday season; some that you can wrap and put under a tree, and some so intangible and ethereal that they cannot be held within the boundaries of paper and ribbon.

Instead, they exist within the boundaries of our hearts.

Among those intangible presents, few matter more than the chance to be with those we love—and at the time of our death, it’s the most important thing of all.

We have a chance to bring all of this to a dying woman and her family—but the only way it can happen is if we convince the Florida Department of Corrections not to kill her first.

It’s not a tale of light and joy—but if we get lucky, there could still be a happy ending.

The Salon article at http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning alleges (and it seems true to me) that Manning has been held in psychologically crippling solitary confinement and is denied even a sheet and pillow for his bed.

No civilized nation should treat its prisoners this way - whether proven guilty or not. Do our government officials not know that God is watching them and will hold them accountable to Him? How is it that our government turned into this kind of entity, and when did it happen?

What - if anything- can everyday ordinary Americans do about this? 

See also the companion piece at: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/16/alleged_wikileaks_whistleblower_b...