12.16:top.10.reads

Chris Hedges: Gravel’s Lament: Fighting Another Dumb War – Chris Hedges’ Columns – Truthdig.  I want to be Chris Hedges when I grow up.

‘Just War’ Is Just Words | CommonDreams.org.  Ralph Nader

The Land Mines Obama Won’t Touch | CommonDreams.org.  Bill Moyers

Now WE Must Earn Obama’s Nobel | CommonDreams.org.  Harvey Wasserman

[so far the top.10.reads has a lot of heavy hitting men...]

and speaking of heavy hitters:  Kucinich, Hedges, Nader Rally at the White House – Truthdig.

Now bring on the women:

t r u t h o u t | Naomi Klein | Memo to Danes: Even You Cannot Control This Summit.

Chloe Angyal: New Media Embraces Old Media’s Male-Centricity.

Why James Chartrand Wears Women’s Underpants | Copyblogger.

Does the US Owe a Climate Debt? | Mother Jones.

Female Depression – ELLE Investigates Why Women are Unhappy in Life.

t r u t h o u t | Argentina: Solar Villages Light Up the Andes.

letters.towards.hope.#2

15 December 2009

Dear President Obama,

I expect our correspondence to be once a month considering our hectic schedules, with extra leniency around the holiday season.

Today I was lobbying a staff member of one of the County Supervisors to grant extra money towards one of their Health Services contracts.  This measure would not only save jobs, but would continue the perinatal therapy services that the clinic provides to the low-income community.  I generally like to get straight to the point when it comes to lobbying, in part because I don’t like to dance around the heart of the issue and frankly, I’m not big on hearing myself speak.  While laying out “the ask” the staff member interrupted me and proceeded to first introduce himself, with a full 1000 bio, complete with professional references, and then scolded me for not using the title “Supervisor” when speaking of one of the elected officials.  “Now, I know that you are new at this, and I’m not sure where you are from, but don’t you think that they have earned that title and deserve at least that much respect?”  Because I was feeling nice, I merely said, “On one point you are correct, I’m not from here.  I just moved from Texas, I’m a foreigner to these Californian ways.”  And I left it at that and let him fill up the rest of our meeting with his boastin’-n-name-droppin’.

I believe all people deserve respect, but what he had asked that I show for the Supervisors was not that kind of respect–but rather an acknowledgment of their political position, an acknowledgment of the air they breathe being more important than mine and certainly more important than the workers I represent and the clients they serve.  Do I think they have earned that title?  Well, Mr. Supervisor Staff Member, define earned?  If you mean bought and paid for, then of course.  Politicians buy their way into the position, they earn it by making tough decisions, by saving jobs and providing care for the people who elected them and when they can acknowledge the real needs of their community and can meet them.  Then they can deserve at least that much respect.  They earn their position when they are no longer just a politician, but a leader.

Mr. President, I read about a protester’s sign in Copenhagen that read “Politicians Talk.  Leaders Act.”  I thought it was very appropriate and hope that “act” for you means pushing and signing a binding resolution at the summit that will trickle down into our domestic policy.  You, sir, are a politician, and as any card-carrying Republican will remind us, you did pay quite a lot to have your title.  But have you earned it?  While there is much to say about hope and faith that one day your inspiring words will turn into action, at the end of the day–and presidential term–what will we have to hold onto?

More to come soon.  I’ve read many essay’s on hope lately that I’ll include with this letter.  I’ve highlighted the areas I think you’ll find especially pertinent to our current national dilemmas.

Si Se Puede,

Amanda

11.20:top.10.reads

Truthdig – Reports – Who Are You and What Have You Done With the Community Organizer We Elected President?.

Comparing the Health Plans – Interactive Graphic – NYTimes.com.

Advice on Afghanistan | CommonDreams.org. By: Ralph Nader

The New (Green) Arms Race | CommonDreams.org.

Truthdig – Reports – Hungering for a True Thanksgiving. By: Amy Goodman

Truthdig – Reports – Lipstick on a Rogue.

An Inconvenient Solution. The Nation Bill McKibben

Regreening Africa. The Nation

t r u t h o u t | “So Let Us Begin Again”.

t r u t h o u t | Protests Don’t Stop UC Regents’ 32 Percent Fee Hike. So…qualifying for in-state tuition really won’t help out that much.

 

11.17:top.10.reads

t r u t h o u t | Zombie Politics and Other Late Modern Monstrosities in the Age of Disposability. This guy’s new book is going to change my world.

Monsters of disaster are special kinds of divine warning. They are harbingers of things we do not want to face, of catastrophes, and we fear they will bring such events upon us by coming to us.

Do We Need Websites For Women? – Women’s blogs – Jezebel.

Because of these possibilities, women’s blogs aren’t just blogs for women. They’re blogs about issues that affect women — issues as various as reproductive rights, healthcare reform, world affairs, and yes, Battlestar Galactica — for anyone who happens to read about them. Many of these readers are women, but many of them are men, and some of them — both male and female — are bound to be people who haven’t thought much about feminism or women’s issues per se before. Women’s blogs can sometimes be echo chambers, but they can also reach a wide and diverse audience, some of whose minds will surely be opened by the experience.

Going Rogue: It’s All About The Insults – Going rogue review – Jezebel.

Feministing.com “The Washington Times Wes Pruden’s racist-ass remarks about the president’s lack of “blood impulse” only further proves we live in what is very far from a post-racial America.”

Asshat Interview of the Day, with Director James Cameron – Feministing.

Among Late-Night Writers, Few Women in the Room – NYTimes.com.

Truthdig – Reports – The Demilitarization of the White House.

Truthdig – Ear to the Ground – Toxic Fallujah. [*pictures/videos will make you cry...so send to everyone who is pro-life and supports the occupations in Iraq/Afghanistan].

t r u t h o u t | Girldrive: Talking to 200-Plus Women About the F Word.

But Are Ballet Slippers & Blake Incarcerated Included? – Amy winehouse barbie – Jezebel.

letters.towards.hope:#1

[Scene: bungalow apartment in Santa Cruz, CA, season finale of WW Sn.6 just finishing on the television, quiet girl on lime green couch. Chilly, mid-November night, 2009]

16 November 2009

Dear President Barack Obama,

I will begin by saying this is the most ineloquent letter I have ever written, and surprisingly for my age, I have written many letters.  Recently having moved away from everything that had grown familiar, writing letters is a way for me to stay connected with that part of my life while trying to create a new one.  I have my first serious pen-pals at 23, and now you, Mr. President are joining the ranks.

I wish I could say I’m writing to you for one clear reason, but nothing is that simple, as you understand more than anyone else in the nation.  This being my first letter to you, I won’t send a long list but I’ll start with the reason that is urgent, but we mustn’t forget about all of the reasons that are merely important.

Let me lay out a narrative.  As a community organizer, you know that telling the story is a way to get your foot in the door and build trust.  Here is today’s story:  I’m 23 years old and a believer–a believer in equality, justice, democracy.  I hope not only with my spirit but with my feet and my hands and careful rhetoric.  Formally a straight-A student, I gave it up in college for an education I thought to be of greater value, one that could mobilize people to stand up for what they believe in, to conquer fear and silence in the hope of a better world.  After plenty of distractions, I finished school, handed my diploma to my parents to put on their wall and headed towards the urgent–work that called my name even through the recession.  I took a job as a labor organizer because I believe in respect for all people and a place at the table for all to voice their concerns with our nation–and unions always need an organizer or two.  Now, nearly three months in, I’ve seen why our nation is static, complacent, unwilling to sacrifice comfort for truth.

I would say 85% of what I’m doing is important for the greater good, yet it is the other 15% that distracts me and becomes the priority when it comes to my supervisor and keeping my job. It is the games, the politics, the struggle for power and praise that I cannot take, not solely because it is irrelevant, but because it is so narrowly focused.  The struggle for power should be against those that are holding back progress, not someone in the office or down the street.  The right hand needs to know what the left is doing so we can use both hands to dig in and not let ourselves tie one behind our back–we have no time to waste.  It seems easy to lose hope for a better tomorrow when the goal of each day is to just get through it, forget about demanding things to get done. I myself sometimes can’t wait to leave work, so I can get home and ignore it. I hate those days, being burnt out is too selfish for me at 23 or the United States at 233.  My coworkers said “it gets easier once you’ve lost hope of really changing things.”  Lose hope?  Mr. President, do they give you this same advice?

The business of change was not meant for everyone, but if nothing else it requires great hope.  Today, sitting at my desk helpless to do anything that would really change the status of the workers in our union, I grew desperate for some inspiration–not for myself, but for those setting my priorities, priorities that are crushing the only real gift I can give to the world–my hope, my spirit, my soul that believes that one day our words will match our actions so that we’ll have no more need to keep talking, we’ll just do and be.

We need no more distraction, or intimidation, we need real strategies for making changes but first we need the vision and the inspiration to get there.

You sir, were that inspiration for many people just one year ago, myself included.  And still, thought I can get riled up like the rest of them who are tired of standing still, I’ll still go knocking on whatever doors you need me to–but while you’re working on alternative fuels and fixing our environment you should know too, that I’m running on empty looking for a sustainable way of filling up on hope.

This is where the narrative gets a little fuzzy, there is no final “ask” because I don’t know today what it is I really need.

A pen-pal will do for now.  And while I don’t expect a response, the idea that my words have been released from my clenched teeth, is of great relief.

I’ll write more soon.

Love,

Amanda

P.S. And no, you will not get out of having to discuss Afghanistan with me either so prep some new talking points.

back.in.blog

As you maybe, definitaly, probably did not notice, I will occassionally throw up a top.10.reads with no mention of how I am doing.  Originally I had wanted to take ample notes throughout my “work” so I could compile a storyline of what it is like to be organizing in an environment like the one that has now adopted me.  But alas, I started living too much in the now not thinking about how I could be living in forever–forever meaning what I could share could make a greater difference than not sharing it at all.

Rewatching West Wing certainly has led to my reinspiration and return to “writing” [or whatever it is when I actually sit down and type a few things, some of which you get to see here] but really I think it more of a return to THINKING.  Not to say I’ve been caught-up and transformed into the cliche California airhead, but that I’ve removed myself from a larger consciousness.

I have been writing letters to friends since I started work, mainly because I enjoy it but also because I myself like getting mail–it reminds me that I do, in fact, live here.  My next post will be the first of many.  I cannot promise consistency in their postings, but know that everyday in my mind I write a letter like the one I’m about to post, and not just to that one recipient, but to many who will never receive these letters because I will never write them.  This series I am doing because it is an easy way to get my mind back into the present-politik in a manner that I have grown comfortable with.

There will be other updates, some not so serious that I know you’ll giggle over and hide your screen…but those must wait for the more serious updates hold the most urgency, as they are at the point of spilling over into tears, or sprints, or whatever it is that makes me go uncomfortably crazy.

11.16:top.10.reads

How I Stopped Hating Thanksgiving and Learned to Be Afraid | CommonDreams.org.

Truthdig – Reports – The New State Solution.

Truthdig – Ear to the Ground – 1 in 7 Americans Went Hungry in 2008.

How the US Funds the Taliban. The Nation.

Aren’t Latinas women too? – AWEARNESS: The Kenneth Cole Blog.

Racism and Sexism in Standardized Testing – Feministing.Community.

Mr. President: Time to Quit Fibbing and Spinning | Mother Jones.

“I’ll always knock on doors for Obama. But on the climate, we need more than rhetoric and excuses.”

And the Sarah Palin obsession continues:

FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: Why Palin Will Run for President in 2012.

8 Ways Sarah Palin Contradicted Herself On Oprah.

Liveblogging Oprah’s Sarah Palin Interview – Sarah palin oprah live blog – Jezebel.

Remembering Sarah Palin | Mother Jones.

Tomgram: Max Blumenthal, How Palin Became a Rogue.

11.15:top.10.reads

Copenhagen: Seattle Grows Up. Naomi Klein

The Fifty-Year War.  Jonathan Schell: We learned so much, at such cost, in Vietnam. Why must we learn it all again in Afghanistan?

The Perils of Palinism. “With enemies like Sarah Palin, who needs friends?”

Real Recovery Is Easy to Spell: J-O-B-S by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

School’s Cool — In These Times.

How to Create Good Jobs Now — In These Times.

How to Speak Tea Bag | Mother Jones.

Interview with Arianna Huffington | The Progressive.

Capitalism, Sarah Palin-Style | The Progressive.

Spot The Plus-Size Model In Glamour – Glamour plus size – Jezebel.

Naomi Klein on Climate Debt | CommonDreams.orgV.

11.08:top.10.reads

t r u t h o u t | A Social Agenda for all Americans.

t r u t h o u t | Dennis Kucinich: Why Is It We Have Finite Resources for Health Care but Unlimited Money for War?.

Why I Voted NO | CommonDreams.org.

Obama’s Big Power Play | Mother Jones.

Sarah Palin’s Purity Problem | Mother Jones.

Truthdig – Arts and Culture – Steve Fraser on the Crisis of Capitalism.

Swine & Dandy: What if we did as much to prevent rape as we do to prevent H1N1? | Bitch Magazine.

Ultra Violet » Storm in a T-Cup & The Language of Experience.

Quoted: Kenji Yoshino on Covering and Conformity [Racialicious Read-Along] | Racialicious – the intersection of race and pop culture.

more about “The Dark Side of Planet Earth on Vimeo“, posted with vodpod

11.07:top.10.reads

Playing for Keeps | Derrick Jensen | Orion Magazine.

Noam Chomsky: ‘US foreign policy is straight out of the mafia’ | World news | The Guardian.

War, Peace and Obama’s Nobel — In These Times. Also by Chomsky.

Free Speech Radical — In These Times.

If this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the board of directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I’ll tell you something—the faculty are the workers, and we’re the raw materials. But we’re a bunch of raw materials that don’t mean to have any process on us, don’t mean to be made into any product, don’t mean to end up being bought by some clients of the university, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor—be they anyone. We’re human beings!

There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who own the machine that until you are free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!

Can the Rich Really Save Us? — In These Times.

t r u t h o u t | Market-Driven Hysteria and the Politics of Death.  Can’t wait for this guy’s book.

t r u t h o u t | Democracy and Capitalism Are NOT One and the Same.

Truthdig – Reports – Sen. George McGovern on the Presidency From Lincoln to Obama.

Feminist artist Nancy Spero has died at the age of 83. She has written:

“I have come to the conclusion that the art world has to join us, women artists, not we join it. When women are in leadership roles and gain rewards and recognition, then perhaps ‘we’ (women and men) can all work together in art world actions.”

An Insider’s View of the Fort Hood Tragedy – Boing Boing.

Ewan McGregor Tells Craig Ferguson That His Constant Nude Scenes Are “A Feminist Thing” – Ewan Mcgregor – Jezebel.

Democrats To Allow Vote On Amendment Restricting Abortion Coverage In Hopes Of Ultimately Passing Health Care Bill – Health Care – Jezebel.  Same kind of thing just happened on WW.  Politicians should have to watch the show as that is how so many citizens relate to DC actions.