40 years of youth liberation

Commentary by Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez for New America Media :

In my class, History of Red-Brown Journalism & Communications, at the University of Arizona, I see the future mayor of Tucson. I see it in her eyes. In another student, I see the next Sandra Cisneros. I hear it in her Xochitl In Cuicatl – in her poetry and song. I also see the next Ruben Salazar. In others, I'm not sure if I'm seeing Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta or Barack Obama. In still others, I see temixtianis or great teachers, members of the noblest profession.

These same students are found in every corner of the nation. Some of them are former students of Raza Studies at Tucson Unified School District. Others are direct descendants of the 1969 Chicano Youth Liberation Conference, convened by Denver's Crusade for Justice. Others are members of Movimiento Estudiantli Chicano de Aztlan or MEChA, also founded 40 years ago.

I can proudly say that I was part of that movement in its incipient Stages. Not as a founder, but simply as a youngster who was swept up in this youth liberation movement. I was not even Chicano, but what one of my students terms a Mexican Mexicano. I never got be a Mexican American, much less Hispanic. In spirit, this volcanic political eruption was akin to the Mexican Independence Movement of 1810 and also the Mexican Revolution of 1910. We rebelled, not simply because of a war or because of the daily denigration in the schools, the streets or the factories, in the cities and fields; more than anything, we rebelled against dehumanization.

Often missing from history's pages is preeminent American-Indian scholar Jack Forbes, who was part of the founding of another movement in the early 1960s: Movimiento Nativo Americano or the Native American Movement, which at its core called upon people of Mexican, Central and South American origin to reclaim their Indigenous roots. This was the antecedent for the Chicano Movement.

~ more... ~

Thoreau, economy inspire students to learn lessons of less

"Sweep away the clutter of things that complicate our lives." - Henry David Thoreau
_ _

Chicago Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune News Service --

Nathen Cantu jotted down dozens of telephone numbers he had programmed into his cell phone but never bothered to learn.

The Mundelein High School senior then shut down the phone that for years has been a social lifeline to his friends and a reassurance to his family. He surrendered it to his teacher last week, beginning a month without a text message or single call.

Five days later, Cantu was feeling twinges of withdrawal.

"It kind of feels naked, like you don't have something there that should be there," Cantu said.

More than a dozen students at the north suburban high school this year committed to going without something different each month, borrowing a page from author Henry David Thoreau, who famously withdrew to Walden Pond for two years "to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what (nature) had to teach."

The Mundelein teens' project began in November, when they gave up sugar and eating at chain restaurants. A television blackout followed in December, and January's challenge was to forgo using sheets of new paper. They pledged in February to avoid buying anything that might end up in a landfill.

The next challenges are the boldest yet: a March without cell phones and an April without the Internet.

Cantu said he and his classmates have discovered parts of themselves with every sacrifice. As his voluntary cell phone ban continues, Cantu said he's more focused and inclined to spend time with friends rather than just send a text message.

"There's a pride to it too. There's a pride to saying 'no' to things," Cantu said.

~ more... ~

In new terror video, AIG demands huge ransom from U.S.

From the Borowitz Report [Via my good friend Mohammed John] :

Shadowy Group Seeks Bonuses, Golf Retreats

 American intelligence experts are analyzing a new terror video from the American International Group (AIG) in which the leader of the shadowy organization demands billions of dollars from the United States.

In the four-minute tape, which surfaced over the weekend and caused deep concern among U.S. officials, a man believed to be the chairman of AIG says that if his organization is not paid its ransom, "chaos and destruction will rain down on the American economy."

"If we are not paid billions more in bonuses and corporate golf retreats, America will be made to suffer," the man threatens.

Intelligence analysts said that the man, AIG chairman Edward M. Liddy, appears to be speaking at a luxury beach resort that offers few clues as to his exact location, although there is "good intelligence" pointing to the Ritz Carlton in the Cayman Islands.

"We have some reason to believe that he and other AIG executives are there, based on a series of intercepted room service orders from the all-day dining menu," one analyst said.

Reacting to the video, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano raised the nation's terror alert level to orange, meaning "taxpayers are about to get reamed again."

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also released a response to AIG's latest demands, but intelligence experts said they would need several weeks to decipher Mr. Geithner's response.

Boat made from recycled plastic bottles to sail 11,000 miles

An adventurer is collecting thousands of recycled 2-liter plastic soda bottles to make a boat and sail it from California to Australia, a journey of 11,000 miles through treacherous seas.

Expedition leader Davis de Rothschild hopes his one-of-a-kind vessel named “Plastiki”, now being built on a San Francisco pier, will boost recycling of plastic bottles, which he says are a symbol of global waste. Except for the masts, which are metal, everything on the 60-foot catamaran is made from recycled plastic.

"The idea is to put no kind of pollution back into the atmosphere, or into our oceans for that matter, so everything on the boat will be composted, " he said.

"Everything will be recycled. Even the vessel is going to end up being recycled when we finish."

The vessel's twin hulls will be filled with 12,000 to 16,000 bottles. Skin-like panels made from recycled PET, a woven plastic fabric, will cover the hulls and a watertight cabin, which sleeps four.

Two wind turbines and an array of solar panels will charge a bank of 12-volt batteries, which will power several onboard laptop computers, a GPS and SAT phone.

Only about 10 percent of the Plastiki will be made from new materials, de Rothschild said. He declined to reveal how much it's costing him to build the boat.

The ultimate goal of the Plastiki voyage is not just to encourage people to embrace clean, renewable energy but also to see consumer waste as a potential resource.

Plastiki is scheduled to set sail from San Francisco in April and the trip is expected take more than 100 days.

~ Source: Yellows and Blues ~

A peacemaker's passing

From Linda LeTendre's Waging Peace blog :

Peter DeMott was one of the waging-peace type of people I promised to write about when I started this blog. Unfortunately, the first thing I have to tell you about him is that he died on Feb. 19 during emergency surgery after suffering an accident.

He fell out of a tree while trimming it.

He was one of my heroes and I had the great honor and blessing of witnessing with him a couple of times.

Peter was one of the “St. Patrick's Day Four” and even The Daily Gazette mentioned this group.

On March 17, 2003 (two days before the illegal U.S invasion of Iraq) four peace witnesses from the Magnificat Catholic Worker in Ithaca entered a local recruiting station and poured small amounts of their blood around the vestibule of the building as a symbolic protest to the imminent invasion of Iraq and as a portent of the death and destruction to come. They were alone and prevented no one from entering or leaving the center.

They were all arrested and charged with criminal mischief and trespassing. A trial in county court, where the defendants argued that their actions were consistent with international law and the Nuremberg Principles, ended in a hung jury with nine of the 12 jurors favoring acquittal.

The Nuremberg Principles of international law is one of those civic lessons that is conveniently overlooked in our public education system. They state that individuals have international rights and duties to prevent crimes against humanity which transcend the national obligations of obedience imposed by the individual state.

I attended the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School system (which touts itself as one of the finest in the nation) from K-12 and I never heard of the Nuremberg Principles until this past year when I got involved with the national Campaign for nonviolent Resistance last year. I would like to note that my esteemed alma mater did, however, have recruiters a aplenty in the school. Sadly, BH-BL is an all too typical school in this regard.

Anyway, after losing the trail, the district attorney decided it was too expensive and time consuming to retry the four defendants.

That's when the Federal Government (translation: Bush Administration) stepped in.

Bush & Co. pressed federal conspiracy charges, as well as criminal damage to property and two counts of trespass against the four Christian witnesses; marking the first time they had done this against civilians who were protesting the Iraq war. The felony charge carried punishment of up to a $250,000 fine and six years in jail, with the other charges punishable by two additional years in jail.

Bill Quigely, a public interest lawyer and law professor, who acted as legal advisor to the defendants, said at the time, “Federal intervention in this case represents a blatant act of government intimidation and will have a chilling effect on expression of the first amendment rights of any citizen to protest or speak out against their government.”

Which of course was the whole idea.

The four were found guilty of the charges and the U.S. attorney demanded that they be sentenced at the conclusion of the trial. The presiding judge would have none of that and set a sentencing date so that the four could put their affairs in order.

I believe they spent six months in jail.

~ more... ~