American Revolution Heroes

by Tyler Bejoian, 16 years old, New York, NY

At the conclusion of the 1960s, it seemed as if the world was about to erupt in a fury of revolution, war, and anger. The ongoing American occupation of Vietnam was intensifying, and millions of Vietnamese women and children were routinely slaughtered like wild dogs for no evident reason. Even though there had been much landmark legislation for blacks who had been drafted by 1969, many African Americans continued to endure the stifling burden of institutionalized American racism. The last two years of the 60’s also saw the shattered expectations and efforts of millions of activists who had attempted to work peacefully for societal and political change.

One of the most prominent non-violent protest organizations was the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) who had emerged in the early 60’s. At the annual SDS convention held in the summer of 1969, a young and fundamentally radical group was able to claim control of the crumbling SDS. Attractive and erudite young students, Bernadine Dohrn and Mike Clonsky, branded themselves as spokesmen for this organization. They called themselves the Weathermen. At the convention, delegates were handed a position paper entitled,  “You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows.”  It outlined the position of the fledgling Weathermen organization that already seemed almost fanatically committed to these radical  ideals.

The early members of the Weathermen proclaimed themselves as the real leaders of the SDS and totally claimed control of the organization. The Weathermen derived their name from one of the first electrically driven Bob Dylan songs,  Subterranean Homesick Blues . The name is found in the memorable stanza, ”You don t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” 1 This lyric is vital to understanding the ideology of the Weather Underground because it suggests that young people didn’t need their congressmen, newsman, or parents to inform them about what was happening in their world. They could determine the current state and future of their world independently, and without the aid of futile and corrupted institutions. The Weathermen also hoped they could appeal to the students who were inspired to protest by Dylan s music. (more…)

From One Person Can Make a Difference Facebook GROUP:

Dear members and friends!

I would love to add you all to my friendslist and i would if Facebook would allow me…unfortunately they dont!

Many problems in this world could be solved but they will not be solved until we realy start combining efforts!

The world has many pressing problems. Thanks to the efforts of governments, NGOs, and individual activists there is no shortage of ideas for resolving them. However, even if all governments were willing to spend more money on solving the problems, we cannot do it all at once. We have to prioritize; we all have our priorities and you are making decissions all the time for spending money or time to make the world a better place.

Did you ever hear about the Copenhagen Consensus..?

The Copenhagen Consensus exercise started as a simple but untested idea of prioritizing global opportunities.

The basic idea is the same as used in Copenhagen Consensus 2004: Imagine you had $75bn to donate to worthwhile causes. What would you do, and where should we start?

The conclusions from the roundtable are expected to be an eye-opener for policy-makers all over the world, and to act as a vehicle for improving decision-making on spending on global issues.

The Copenhagen Consensus Center is a think-tank in Denmark that publicizes the best ways for governments and philanthropists to spend aid and development money.

The ten challenges examined in Copenhagen Consensus 2008
http://www.copenhagenconsensus.com/Default.aspx?ID=1143

It does not matter how the experts rank the most effective investments…its all about YOU nobody else! And i dont care how you make a difference i know that you do!

There is no limit to what a person can do or how far one can go to help - if one doesn’t mind who gets the credit”

One person can make a difference ! Lets do it!

Namasté
Hans Lak
http://tinyurl.com/oneperson invite your friends to join us!

Dear friends!

You recently signed our letter from Archbishop Desmond Tutu regarding the Dalai Lama. Did n’t you?

The Archbishop wishes to thank you. Please see his personal message below.

“Keep it up. You are the people who make freedom happen.”
“It warms my heart to see so many of my fellow Nobel Laureates, stars, leaders, and people from around the world put their signature on paper, so to speak, to stand behind our friend the Dalai Lama.

“We have just seen a shameful example of South African leaders becoming timid in the face of Chinese “might” and their own economic interests, and refusing this incredible, peaceful being entry to our county –for a peace conference!

“It’s an embarrassment that this could happen in a country that has known how dark life can be when your human rights are being smashed. And we, of all people, know what it means when someone in another part of the world stands up for your rights and freedom.
(more…)

Dear Friend,

Today would be the 30th birthday of my daughter Rachel, who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza in 2003 as she tried to save a Palestinian family’s home from demolition. Last month, when my husband Craig and I traveled to Gaza with CODEPINK, it was so moving for us to reconnect with the families and the children that Rachel cared so deeply about. The 793,520 children of Gaza (56% of the population) have lived under occupation and siege all of their lives. They suffered unconscionably through the attacks and devastation inflicted upon them by the Israeli military during twenty-two days of horror in December and January. Hundreds did not survive. But those who did, still smile and laugh like all children. They are beautiful, resilient, curious and full of potential. They deserve the basics that all children in the world should have: ample food, clean water, healthcare, safe places to play and learn. They deserve the tools to deal with their nightmares, and sleep that is not punctuated by bombing. They deserve life, freedom, and hope. We can be a part of the hope and the solution by arming ourselves with the experience, knowledge, and insight to be stronger advocates for these children and their families–to open the borders, to end the siege, to end the occupation, and to see justice prevail. We hope you will join CODEPINK in the campaign to Speak Out for the Youth of Gaza. In peace, Cindy Corrie

Join a delegation:

• One, May 28-June 5, is open to everyone and will enter from Egypt
• A Jewish delegation, June 5-14, will enter from Israel. Click here to find out how to travel with us.

If you can’t join our delegation, you can still help the children of Gaza. Your donation of $10 will purchase a backpack full of school supplies for one child. $100 will contribute toward building an International Friendship Playground at one of the schools bombed during the invasion. To donate, click here and if you want to help Gazan children in your mother’s name, you can donate and we will send her a card with news of your gift.

by Ed Hale

Had this dream that I was helping an underground movement working for African American rights. Actually not sure if I was in the States or in another country. a lot of covert crawling through tunnels and jumping over barbwire fences to get to secret meetings… I was like “the white connection to the outside world” so to speak it seemed to be. All very hush hush and dangerous. The people in charge were all black from what i can remember and we were in a very impoverished environment. I was constantly sleeping amongst or jumping over homeless type people in rags or box-homes.

At a time when I am rethinking where to fuel my activist energies right now, a lot of prayer and meditation and observation about it… feeling the peace/anti-war movement is always going to be there but as a species we are essentially fucked in the face of these giant corporate-controlled entities that pose as governments on planet earth right now. ten million people marched to protest the United States’ invasion of the country of Iraq and it did absolutely nothing. It had no effect. There are still over one million Iraqi civilians dead at the hands of the so called “coalition forces.” Meaning what? corporate controlled/Matrix Styled robot-soldiers who do whatever “force” tells them to do. And we the people of the planet truly just have no say in it.

Inspiring that that many people came out on one single day to protest all over the planet? sure. but is it going to stop newly elected US president Obama from attempting to occupy Afghanistan? No. Won’t even be an issue. I don’t think anything is going to wake Americans up to the horrors of war and what it actually means for foreign insurgents to enter your country, boss you around, put up blockades, kill innocent people, and arrest thousands of your neighbors until it actually happens in their own country. Then we may be able to muster enough understanding to build a real coalition of a large enough group of people to actually have an effect on these “selected officials” and their war-mongering ways. Until then, anyone anywhere in the world is a target for arrest, occupation, imprisonment, or death at the drop of a hat if the United States and other large nations decides that’s what they want to do.

We not yet be living breathing batteries as suggested in the symbolic Matrix film series, but the people of earth for better or worse are clearly prisoners of powers much stronger than they are able to overcome. Only they’re not machines. (perhaps they are?) But by all accounts they appear to be living breathing human beings no different than ourselves. We live in a comfortable prison for some to be sure. Say if one lives in Kansas or New York. Not so comfortable for many others… Zimbabwe, Liberia, Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, China, on and on the list grows…. or shrinks, depending on how one views it. (more…)

by Tyler Bejoian

Recently, there was a provocative article written in the New Yorker magazine that confronted the issue of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. For those who are not aware, solitary confinement is a form of punishment employed by U.S. prisons, where individuals will spend up to 23 hours a day locked inside a cell, deprived of virtually all human contact (with the exception of the prison staff.) Those who are faced with solitary confinement find themselves enduring severe hallucinations and paralyzing loneliness that almost always leads to issues with “irrational anger”. 

The extremely informative article reminded me of something that I had long suspected, but hadn’t yet been validated by fact. Solitary confinement is a legitimate form of torture. And what is worse, this is a practice that Americans enforce upon other Americans. The prospect of ending this torturous practice rarely enters the public spectrum. I cannot recall a single press conference so far where President Obama had been asked about this practice. However, the good news is that most prison commissioners actually want to ban the practice but are constricted by politicians who threaten to withdraw basic funding, ridiculous stories appear in tabloids and correctional officers calling victims families and telling them that the commissioner has gone “soft on crime.”

While harrowing, this information can also be phenomenally empowering. It means that we as Americans have the ability to sway public opinion, and abolish this abhorrent practice. There are numerous journalists and activists who are working for a more humane prison system, and it is about time that their views are broadcasted to the nation. The use of solitary confinement symbolizes a much larger and devastating issue contaminating America. The United States currently has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. Over 2 million people were convicted in 2007, and we have seen increasing numbers of convictions within past years. The cost of keeping millions behind bars comes to an astonishing 60 billion a year! This is certainly not a price we can afford to pay any longer.

Link to the New Yorker article: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=1