tagged w/ Social Injustice
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In a debate over Republican attempts to restrict womens' right to health care, Representative Lisa Brown, making reference to the context of the bill under debate, said: "Finally Mr. Speaker, I'm flattered that you're all so interested in my vagina, but 'no' means 'no.'"
Brown continued: "While there was a scatter of applause from my colleagues, there were no dropped jaws, bulging eyes or fainting. In fact, the only remarkable thing about their response is that there was virtually no response at all." However, the next day Brown got word that Republican House leaders had banned her from speaking on the House floor. Later that day, Rep. Mike Callton told the press that what I had said was so vile, so disgusting, that he could never bear to mention it in front of women or "mixed company."
A storm of protest has ensued, but Brown remains at odds with the Michigan legislature. Watch the video. Experience today's Republicanism, emboldened by the Democratic failure to unseat Wisconsin's anti-labor governor. Anti-labor, anti-woman, inhumane.In a debate over Republican attempts to restrict womens' right to health care,... more
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The very rich on today's Wall Street are now so rich that they buy their own social infrastructure. They hire private security, they live on gated mansions on islands and other tax havens, and most notably, they buy their own justice and their own government.'
http://veracitystew.com/2011/12/26/merry-christmas-from-the-one-percent/The very rich on today's Wall Street are now so rich that they buy their own... more
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October 15-16, 2011
The second weekend of Occupy Atlanta proved to be a much different experience than when it began. Emotional, personal, and what started as an outcry for Economic justice seemed to have morphed into a protest, a movement against Social Injustices. Such is the atmosphere in the South, how fitting Atlanta has turned inward and demanding more from their own community.
The introduction of changing the name of the park from Woodruff Park to "Troy Davis Park," has certainly resonated with many of the protesters as racial injustice, despite that many of them do not know just how convoluted the case of Troy Davis really was. While some, justly, protested the Death Penalty, there are still others who are concerned with what they call an unfair and racist trial for man convicted of ultimately, two murders. But neither here nor there, the passion over this man's life and death was evident among everyone who participated.
On the day Washington D.C. was dedicating the Martin Luther King Jr. statue, The Almighty Movement of God church joined Occupy Atlanta. They set up a tent for church services and ministry. They held a press conference and attracted local news entities in order to show their support for the protesters. They led a March down to the MLK Memorial singing "We Shall Overcome," and preached the victory of the people in the Name of Jesus. During the speeches at the Memorial, one man stood in the middle circle - and what he said, I will not forget, he stated that he realized not everyone, including himself, was a person of faith, but that there was, "something holy about this place, and it makes me nervous." He went on to talk about the failure of leadership in the US - and King's message about the "urgency of now," and rallied the protesters around the desperateness need for change. Another man called out and shouted, "we are the solution," and urged the younger people to change their world. A young 20 year old said he didn't know much but knew that he wanted to make a better future- eliminating the obstacles of not finding a job, being able to live a life of freedom. Still another man, who was very emotional, admitted he was new to the movement but he didn't understand why the community wasn't working to help prostitutes and put an end to street violence. From eliminating racial tensions to increasing community care and participation - the outcries were not really about economics and taxes and corrupt capitalism. It was about the people. When they left the memorial, they continued to sing "We Shall Overcome," and chant.
Later, when asked by a local media station, if they were now aligning themselves with the Almighty Movement of God Church and becoming a religious movement, their answer was, simply, was that they were a Social movement that was not aligning themselves with anyone, but accepting the help of everyone who offered to step in.
Occupy Atlanta has made it evident they do not trust police, authority figures of any kind and are weary of even the kindest Officials - who ironically offered a protective police escort to and from the King Memorial Site. In fact, Sunday night, an announcement was read by a member of their Media Committee - stating that a young 19-year-old had been shot in the back by a Marta Police Officer while running away from a crime scene with his hands in the air-- following a football game. In response; the encampment held an immediate vigil, lighting candles and solemnly commemorating the boy's life. It was as if they had become more determined to fight. Still the Atlanta Police have not made a single arrest at the park. Mayor Reed has extended the deadline more than once to allow the protesters to stay at the park as long as they are co-operative with park cleaning and noise levels. With the social turn of debate it seems the Mayor has extended sympathies to the protesters and a certain report has formed between Occupy participants and City Officials.
But there was something, even more, that stuck out at the Occupy camp this weekend - They had wall, a wooden fence - and written on it were stories of Occupiers, citizens who are in protest of the system. And while some of them described losing jobs or not getting loans from the bank, many many more told stories of broken homes, addict parents, loss of security, homelessness, anger because they couldn't get an education, jealousy, and one even read, "So What's The Point Anymore?" My first thought was, this is Wailing of Wall of Occupy, the desperation of my generation and the one following. As I peered through the lens of a camera, eyes stinging in wonder and sadness, all I read were people who were broken. Sometime later, protesters dressed as zombies, fitting for those who feel dead in the world, spilled fake blood on the wall - and while some were quick to defend that it was ruining artwork, other saw it as a testament to what the words on the Wall read. I did.
Of all the desperation that proved itself evident over the course the weekend, one thing brought a smile - how many of homeless were actually being taken care of, with jobs in the camp, food, responsibilities and given hope that they were worth enough to be trusted enough to accomplish something and contribute to a society, to a community.
Occupy Atlanta is beginning to show itself less as an Economic protest against the banks and governmental injustice. Rather it is showing the faces of social and personal needs for a freedom many of them don't have.
Their continued complaints against political systems are only the mask of far greater issue. As the advocates and protesters continue, one thing is for certain, they are persistent in creating a changed community. The only obstacle it seems is they have yet to define what it looks like when "their work is done." The question still poses, what does the current system and government need to do to show the Occupy movement that they've been heard?
Time will tell.
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Photography: Ashley Gallagher
FB: Untamed Focus Media or untamedfocus.comOctober 15-16, 2011
The second weekend of Occupy Atlanta proved to be a much... more
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"We don’t really care that much how they’re going to fix the economy, how they’re going to fix the whole situation. Our job is to make money from it, and personally, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years. I have a confession, which is, I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession. I dream of another moment like this. Why? Because people don’t seem to maybe remember."
http://veracitystew.com/2011/09/27/stock-trader-goldman-sachs-rules-the-world-video/"We don’t really care that much how they’re going to fix the economy,... more
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And that’s why they’re running scared and doing everything in their power to block this movement’s purpose from reaching the awareness of the people. It’s the very last thing the monied interests want, because once that happens, their tenuous control over the country ceases to be, and that ain’t good for profits.
http://veracitystew.com/2011/09/27/occupy-wall-street-ignoring-a-growing-movement-video/And that’s why they’re running scared and doing everything in their power... more
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Lynn Hershman Leeson ("Conceiving Ada," "Teknolust") was at the epicenter of the feminist art revolution in the 1960s and has never stopped chronicling it's evolution. Now armed with over 40 years of interviews and archival footage, Leeson in her new film "!Women Art Revolution" provides names, places, dates and times that up until now have been missing from art history. Before this film many artists like Ana Mendieta, Howardena Pindell and Rachel Rosenthal would have been forgotten. Today Leeson insures that they did not live, work and create in vain.
Lynn Hershman Leeson talks about her new documentary film on ReelMATERIAL. http://www.reelmaterial.com/2011/08/interview-with-lynn-hershman-leeson/Lynn Hershman Leeson ("Conceiving Ada," "Teknolust") was at the... more
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palexb
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added this
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1 year ago
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By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, August 11th, 2011 -- 5:05 pm
A police officer from Springfield, Massachusetts has filed an application for a criminal complaint against a woman who recorded his fellow officer beating a black suspect while he stood by, according to The Republican.
In November 2009, Tyrisha Greene made a 20-minute recording of now-retired Springfield patrolman Jeffrey M. Asher repeatedly beating Melvin Jones III with a flashlight during a traffic stop. The recording shows a group of other officers standing around Jones without intervening.
Jones was partially blinded in one eye from the attack, and had bones all over his face broken. The officers claimed that Jones grabbed one of their guns as they tried to arrest him and that Asher struck Jones with his flashlight in order to "disorientate him."
But a grand jury rejected that claim, finding no evidence that Jones behaved aggressively towards them.
Michael Sedergren was one of the four officers disciplined for the incident. He was suspended for 45 days. Sedergren claims Greene violated the state's wiretapping laws by recording him without his consent.
“If officer Sedergren feels his rights were violated under the law then he has the opportunity to make his case in court, just like everyone else,” Sedergren's lawyer said.
"When you start charging people who have videotaped police wrongfulness, it borders on, in my opinion, an attempt to silence people,” Democratic Rep. Benjamin Swan told The Republican.
“I think it would be dangerous if this person were to be charged with a crime,” added the Rev. Talbert W. Swan, president of the NAACP's Springfield branch. “It would say to the public that we don’t have the right to hold law enforcement accountable for their actions.”
Jones has been charged with shoplifting, domestic battery and drug trafficking on separate occasions since 2009.
"D'Oh!!! How LAME is that???"By Eric W. Dolan
Thursday, August 11th, 2011 -- 5:05 pm
A police officer from... more
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Two Excerpts:
"Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail."
"The math makes sense only because the politics are so obvious. You want to win elections, you bang on the jailable class. You build prisons and fill them with people for selling dime bags and stealing CD players. But for stealing a billion dollars? For fraud that puts a million people into foreclosure? Pass. It's not a crime. Prison is too harsh. Get them to say they're sorry, and move on. Oh, wait — let's not even make them say they're sorry. That's too mean; let's just give them a piece of paper with a government stamp on it, officially clearing them of the need to apologize, and make them pay a fine instead. But don't make them pay it out of their own pockets, and don't ask them to give back the money they stole. In fact, let them profit from their collective crimes, to the tune of a record $135 billion in pay and benefits last year."
The article is very informative!
By Matt Taibbi - Rollingstone.com
Read more at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/why-isnt-wall-street-in-jail-20110216
Where is Justice?
Join the Organic Movement:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/Two Excerpts:
"Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis... more
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The Town of Eatonville, Florida has a population of just over 2,000 people is known as the "Oldest Incorporated Black Municipality in America. It's home to major artists and serves as a symbol of how blacks survived and made a life for themselves after slavery. Home to author Zora Neale HurstonThe Town of Eatonville, Florida has a population of just over 2,000 people is known as... more
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This is a film that captures the essence of Susan Lankfords work as a photojournalist in San Diego, CA. She worked with the San Diego Jail system for a period of two years. Her book, Maggots in my Sweet Potatoes: Women Doing Time has received a tremendous amount of attention in the world of publishing...please visit humaneexposures.com for more information. Please find below a brief description of her book.
Through the eye of the lens, Susan explores the kaleidoscope of alienation, personal despair, and fragile hopes of women caught up in the state’s zeal for incarceration. The product of more than two years work, photographing and interviewing within the concrete-and-steel confines of a typical women’s jail in the United States, the book combines 326 powerful black-and-white photographs with the frank and graphic voices of both the jailed and the jailers, presenting us with a cogent portrait of diffused lives, and a reflective glimpse of emotional and physical imprisonment. Quotes from experts in the fields of justice, rehabilitation, and mental health add depth to the picture, building the case that changes in American society, including neglect and abuse of our youth, contribute to the overloading of our detention system and the brutal cycle of institutionalization.
She also consulted with over 30 outside professionals like Dr. Bruce Perry, Dr. Vincent Felitti, Scott Brandt, Ph.D., Maryam Razavi Newman, Ph.D., and Stephanie Covington, Ph.D., L.C.S.W. whose expert observations are included in the text.This is a film that captures the essence of Susan Lankfords work as a photojournalist... more
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Th fruits of McCain/Palin hatred are growing
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Guardian: Gurkha veterans fight for right to settle in UK.
Video courtesy of The Guardian.
Who are the Gurkhas? Find out all about them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha
Guardian: Gurkha veterans fight for right to settle in UK.
Video courtesy of The... more
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Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and injustice. Together with individuals and local groups in more than 120 countries, Oxfam saves lives, helps people overcome poverty, and fights for social justice. We are an affiliate of Oxfam International.Oxfam America is an international relief and development organization that creates... more
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Are taxes being levied fairly when it comes to the rich and the poor?
PBS NOW correspondent David Brancaccio investigates and finds that, for the rich and those doing their bidding in government, their obstinance is their bliss. Many states are providing corporate welfare on massive scales to big business interests in the context of "providing jobs" that do very little to alleviate crippling poverty in the communities they exploit with staggeringly inadequate wages and benefits--and this even after decades within those very communities their presence was expected to improve.
While most of the rich carefully concern themselves about which set of new clubs may best improve their golf game, working class families are irresponsibly left to teeter on the edge of complete destruction for the privilege of footing the bills for so many of those very luxuries the rich enjoin for themselves.
It is a fact that growing numbers ***within the United States*** are barely subsisting, often in poor conditions, and often going hungry without food, and without so many of just the basic "necessities" most of us take for granted every day. (Perhaps you should read that again.)
Watch and learn about reality in the land in of the "free", because if it's true you may not be rich, you certainly are paying for it.
Are taxes being levied fairly when it comes to the rich and the poor?
PBS NOW... more
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echoz
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added this
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4 years ago
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Lisa Hatchell's birthday is July 19. It also marks the 5 year anniversary of being missing. She has 2 small children and a grieving mother who need answers. Once again I am enlisting the help of all of you here to give up just a few minutes and make a phone call, write an email, hit up a friend in high places. I know a lot of you know people who can bring awareness to subjects that have just smoldered on the back burner of the internet and bring it to the main stream. Please lend your hand and make this happen, there isn't much time and....It's her Birthday!....
Read about the case for details............
http://helpfindthemissing.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1699
http://mothersarevanishing.blogspot.com
July 19th marks both Lisa’s Birthday as well as the very date that she disappeared. Such a bittersweet day, I can only imagine, for all those who love her as they celebrate her birth while at the same time are constantly painfully aware of the day she went missing. In honor of Lisa, Peace 4 the Missing is dedicating July 19th as Lisa Michelle Hatchell Day.
Please leave a message of support, encouragement, prayers…for Lisa’s Mom and two Children who so miss her. Let’s surround them with our compassion and love especially on this most difficult day.
http://peace4missing.ning.com
Lisa Hatchell's birthday is July 19. It also marks the 5 year anniversary of... more
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In Africa, albinos are hunted for for there body parts and are slowly becoming endangered.
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"Discrimination against albinos is a serious problem throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but recently in Tanzania it has taken a wicked twist: At least 19 albinos, including children, have been killed and mutilated in the past year, victims of what Tanzanian officials say is a growing criminal trade in albino body parts...""Discrimination against albinos is a serious problem throughout sub-Saharan... more
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Slate posted a letter from John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary committee, to the DEA's acting administrator Michele Leonhart about the agency's "dramatically intensified … frequency of paramilitary-style enforcement raids" on legal cannabis users and dispensaries.
Conyers asked for an accounting of the agency's costs for these measures against "individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness" and for its rationale for threatening landlords of licensed dispensaries with "arrest and forfeiture of their property." Meanwhile, the California State Legislature is considering a measure that would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to refuse cooperation with the DEA.
http://www.slate.com/id/2192062/entry/2192063/
Slate posted a letter from John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary... more
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Cannabis has been enjoyed for centuries, this modern day war on drugs is a farce. watch An American Drug War http://www.americandrugwar.com/ Cannabis has been enjoyed for centuries, this modern day war on drugs is a farce.... more
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9,350 marijuana plants found in Georgia. Biggest bust in county's history!
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