Portland Jobs Vigil

Sarah Levy

August 18, 2010

Nearly 20 un- and underemployed workers and allies demonstrated in front of Portland’s City Hall on August 18 in the first of what is to become a weekly vigil demanding living wage jobs for all and a security net that doesn’t let anyone fall through the cracks.

Organized by a coalition consisting of the Sunnyside Self Help Employment Group; the Coalition of Unemployed, Underemployed and Marginalized Workers; and Jobs with Justice, the weekly vigils are meant to raise awareness and visibility of unemployed and underemployed workers in the Portland metro area—a group that is being pushed further and further under the radar.

“Only in America can you have a full-time job, be poor, live on the streets, and have no benefits,” organizer Ted Pyle announced through a megaphone to downtown passersby.

Oregon’s unemployment rate is now officially at 10.6 percent, over one percentage point above the national average. In addition, the rate of Oregon’s unemployed has continued to increase, as opposed to Washington D.C.’s recent decline, and in the midst of a national economy that is reportedly “recovering” (though for some reason the recovery has nothing to do with jobs creation). According to the Oregon Employment Dept. and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, when those who have given up job hunting and those working less hours than desired are included, the rate jumps up to 20.6 percent, compared to 16.5 percent nationally. And of course, it’s still much worse for minorities.

“It’s not our fault that we are unemployed,” said Eleyna Fugman, one of the main organizers of the coalition. “We are looking for jobs. We want to work.” With an Ivy League degree and plenty of experience working in the non-profit sector, Fugman is among the growing ranks of a well-educated and qualified workforce finding an increasingly bleak employment outlook ahead. She hopes that the vigils will make the unemployed more visible, and make it easier to connect with other groups, such as Oregon People Activating Leaders (OPAL), which came out in solidarity and to promote an upcoming march and rally against bus service cuts.

The visibility is also part of eliminating the shame and isolation that many people feel regarding unemployment. “There should be no such thing as the ‘working poor,’” Fugman said. “A jobless recovery is like a foodless meal.”

The coalition began in summer of 2009 when a group of four un- and underemployed neighbors started having monthly meetings. George Slanina, Jr., one of the founding four, said that the group shaped their goals in the first few meetings, and then focused on organizing a support network for those in need. Until now this had mainly evolved into a monthly potluck. Slanina said he envisions having more neighborhood groups so that people don’t have to spend money to go to a meeting. The groups can then help people get by on a daily basis, as well as provide a way to organize around a larger political struggle.

“Ultimately we want to build a nation-wide movement,” said Slanina. “Like back in the 30’s. You know that slogan, ‘start local, think global.’” For outreach, the coalition has put out an Unemployment/Underemployment Survey, with the hope that people will fill one out and then contact the group and get more involved.

For now, he said, the goal is for each person who comes to one of the vigils to bring another person to the next one. “We want to get enough people here to get noticed.”

Paul Dean, a member of the coalition, said that the next step is to get the unions involved, to make sure that the city doesn’t contract out jobs while undercutting the jobs that exist.

Also outside of City Hall on Wednesday were several mainstream media representatives, though to cover a different story. They were interested in the fact that city representatives were in the midst of rushing through a deal for the wind turbine company Vestas to expand in Portland. The [now in place] deal includes a fifteen-year $8 million interest-free loan—consisting of tax-payer dollars—from the city council to the company, with the added stipulation that they create 100 jobs over five years. That’s 20 jobs a year—barely crumbs when compared to the over 220,000 Oregonians in need. Possible reasons for the secrecy and speed behind the deal could be that the company’s stock value has recently plummeted, or the fact that Vestas is widely known throughout the UK as the Danish company that last year, after soaking up government money, closed their Isle of Wight plant, laying off 700 workers (http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=18566). While this led to a worker-led occupation of the plant, it is a bad sign for Oregon, and a poor reflection on City Council that indicates at best inadequate research and at worst misguided or biased interests.

It is also a sign of the enormous corporate welfare the city is capable of, and that the money exists, just not for the people who desperately need it.

-------------------------------

The vigils are set to continue every Wednesday from noon to 1pm in front of City Hall, at least through the November elections.

(more info)--

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/08/16/daily22.html?page=1

http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=18566

http://bojack.org/2010/08/taxpayers_shell_out_millions_t.html

Cut Backs That Will Kill in Detroit

Sarah Levy

June 26, 2010

Dozens of Detroit Paramedics protested June 25 because they want to be able to come to your assistance in the case of an emergency. Raising signs that said “Save Us So We Can Save You” and “Don’t Get Injured—EMS Can’t Respond,” the Paramedic workers withstood the 90-degree heat in order to raise awareness of cuts that are about to take place that will affect the safety of Detroit as well as anyone who happens to pass through.

Alarmingly, seventy-five percent of the demonstrators had worked all night, their shifts having only ended at 7am, and they would return to another full night on the job at 7pm.

“That’s how big of an issue this is,” said paramedic of 15 years Tim Goodman.

The issue is that in less than a week the city’s Fire Commissioner, James Mack, is planning to cut 75 Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) and Paramedic positions from the Detroit Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division as well as cut 33 active members—a cut that would leave only 12 ambulances to cover the entire city of Detroit. As it stands, the city only has 24 ambulances available at any time, a total the paramedics say is devastatingly inadequate.

“Some people are actually dying,” said Kent Hammer, one of the paramedic workers. “This can’t go on.”

Hammer explained that the national standard for response time is four minutes—the time it takes for an untreated brain injury to leave permanent damage.

“Our response time is already over 10 minutes,” he said. “And that’s [before the cuts] with 24 ambulances.”

For reference, Detroit is larger geographically than the city of Chicago, although it is less populated. However, Chicago runs 62 paramedics at any time—almost six times more than Detroit will be left with if the fire commissioner gets his way.

One of the paramedics said he has had to drive more than 20 miles to get to a call, and that those in need are often forced to wait for over an hour.

There have already been many cuts that have hindered the ability of the workers to respond in the case of an emergency. Recently five advanced life support units were reduced to basic units, making them less effective. The basic units only include stretchers to transport people, but aren’t equipped with any of the materials to actually treat them.

Goodman said that on top of this, the city already doesn’t have a first response system in place—the system that allows the fire department to come to the scene of an emergency in most other cities before the ambulance can get there.

“Sometimes calls are backed up for four hours and we’re left showing up hours after calls,” said Hammer. “We’ve even had to take other forms of transportation.”

In illustration of the absurdly drastic nature of the situation, the police driving by the demo enthusiastically honked and shouted in support of the protesters—not a typical reaction to street-side protests.

“You know the cops are in support of us because every time they call for us, we’re not there,” said Jim Atkinson, a paramedic of 14 years.

He explained that (for example in the case of a shooting) because the police don’t want to just sit there and watch someone die, they are often forced to handle bloody bodies—something they are not trained to do.

Goodman gave an example to demonstrate the horrifying result of this lack of proper treatment.

“Even when we had 24 ambulances, there was one case—that wasn’t out of the ordinary—where there was a man in critical condition with a spinal cord injury only four blocks away from Medic 17’s quarters. Even four blocks away, we didn’t have anyone available, so the police had to put the man in their car [without any proper medical treatment or handling]. Because the man wasn’t handled properly, his spinal cord was permanently damaged. Now he will never be able to walk again. If we had been able to reach him, we could have handled him correctly and he could have been saved.”

Craig Mancini gave his own explanation for the police solidarity.

“They need us as much as we need them,” he said. “It’s the same with the firefighters. If they get hurt on the job, they want us to be there. That’s why they’re supporting us out here today.”

While a particularly ugly example, the proposed EMS cuts reflect the budget cuts that have been occurring across the nation, in everything from education to affordable housing, even as corporations and banking bandits continue to rake in obscene profits and bonuses. These upside-down priorities were clearly a source of anger among the protesters.

“Lots of administration could be cut, as well as other things that are not necessary,” said Hammer. “But instead they’re cutting the things that are essential.”

According to Goodman, the mayor put out a memo proposing cuts in administration as a way to balance the city’s budget. Goodman said that there are 19 various administrative Chiefs on duty at any time, who are paid lavishly but don’t actually do anything tangible for the citizens of Detroit.

Instead, Fire Commissioner James Mack—who is in the position to make the final decision on the issue—has disregarded the mayor’s proposal and is moving to cut the most necessary positions almost by half starting July 1^st. Although both the city council and the mayor say they are opposed to the EMS cuts, neither of them have actually done anything to stand up to Mack.

“We think there’s a deliberate misinformation campaign regarding where they want the cuts to come from,” Paramedic Jesse Rangel said. “The council proposed the cuts to areas that were not essential [but that’s not what the fire commissioner is trying to do].” Rangel said he thinks the city council is placing too much trust in the fire administration and that in return it is deliberately misleading the city administration.

Hence the paramedics took it upon themselves to profile the issue to the community and media. Rangel said the paramedic union has given presentations to various religious groups in the city as well as other community groups.

“People don’t have any clue of how bad things are,” he said.

In fact it’s hard to imagine how things could get much worse. Besides resulting in unnecessary deaths and forcing the paramedics to work insanely long hours, the cuts make it so that any time off from work is emotionally burdened with the knowledge that people are dying because not enough EMTs are on call to save them.

“The moral of the story is, when you’re in town, be careful,” said Rangel.

There is another moral to be gotten out of the story of the EMS cuts in Detroit. And that is that as long as profit is the driving force of society and carries the most weight in deciding what is necessary for a community, the lives of regular people will continue to be completely disregarded. Detroit shows that this is the case even when those profits compromise the safety of everyone—rich and poor—who could ever possibly get into an accident. And the story shows us how incredibly important it is that we organize to challenge these backward priorities.

Fire Commissioner James Mack can be reached at (313) 596-2901.

The New Face of Blackface

Sarah Levy

May 30, 2010

Following the creation of Arizona’s SB1070, the last thing the world needs is more “whitewashing” from the film industry.

In the midst of the new Arizona bill that makes being off-white a crime, Hollywood has essentially endorsed an all white America with two new films, The Last Airbender and Prince of Persia. But grassroots struggles are emerging to challenge these “whitewashing” efforts on behalf of the film industry.

Opening July 2, Paramount Pictures’ movie The Last Airbender is based on the popular children’s cartoon television series about a group of Asian and Inuit martial artists, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” The series is noticeable for its widespread and genuine incorporation of Inuit and Korean culture, from (animated) costume design, written language, landscapes, philosophy, spirituality, and even eating utensils, with many fans (http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html) seeing it as an “evocative… re-imagining of ancient Asia.” However, when it comes to the movie adaptation, more noticeable than its feature length or use of actors instead of animation is the film’s choice of cast: dominantly white, as opposed to the ethnically Asian characters depicted in the cartoon. In fact, three of the four main characters in the movie are white—Noah Ringer, Nicola Peltz, and Jackson Rathbone—and while the fourth is played by Dev Patel of Slumdog Millionaire, directors had originally wanted Jesse McCartney (white) to play the role. Patel’s character also happens to be the antagonist.

Rightfully outraged, a largely internet-based grassroots coalition (mainly consisting of fans of the TV series) has organized to challenge Hollywood’s attempt to erase the face of minorities from its screens. For starts, they are calling for a boycott of the film.

"People need to realize that recasting Asian actors as white actors is institutionalized discrimination,” said Loraine Sammy, public relations coordinator for Racebending.com—a website which has attracted over 6,000 supporters since it was formed in 2008 with the intention of spreading the boycott. (As of now, the petition (http://www.petitiononline.com/racebend/petition.html) to Protest the Unethical Casting of "The Last Airbender”, directed to the president of Paramount Film Group, has upwards of 8,500 signatures.) Sammy continued, saying it is particularly harmful to minority children who are being told that “white [i]s the norm, even in a [fantasy] world that is Asian-based." (http://pacificcitizen.org/site/details/tabid/55/selectmoduleid/373/ArticleID/287/reftab/87/Default.aspx?title=APA_Groups:_Casting_in_'The_Last_Airbender'_is_'Whitewashing')

Asian American artist Derek Kirk Kim, author or Same Difference and Other Stories, created a petition of industry professionals who plan to boycott the film. In a 2009 blog entry (http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html), Kim wrote:

What if someone made a ‘fantasy’ movie in which the entire world was built around African culture? Everyone is wearing ancient African clothes, African hats, eating traditional African food, writing in an African language, living in African homes, all encompassed in an African landscape…but everyone is white. How offensive, insulting, and disrespectful would that be toward Africans and African Americans? How much more offensive would it be if only the heroes were white and all the villains and background characters were African American?

Unfortunately, when it opens, Airbender will not stand alone in its fashion of “whitewashing”—the new term for having white actors play the roles of non-white characters. This past week saw the release of the video-game-turned-feature-film Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as, fans claimed, the clearly and should-have-been Iranian main character.

Amidst the current Obama era of “colorblindness” this seems to be the new form of blackface— it’s as if Hollywood is thinking, ‘rather than have white people pretend to be other ethnicities, let’s just pretend that everyone is actually white.’ In this bipolar time when race is supposed to no longer matter (see Obama,) but you can simultaneously get pulled over for “looking illegal,” Hollywood’s blatant racism makes clear that they don’t just want viewers to look past a person’s race, but they want them to look past the non-white races entirely. As Gene Yang, author of the graphic novel American Born Chinese and National Book Award nomineed, described it, (http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html) the casting is like “a white Asian fetishist's wet dream. All the Asian culture they want, without any of the Asian people."

Luckily, the power of internet organizing makes it look like by the time the movie hits theatres, Airbender will be met with a loud voice of dissent. As Racebender.com states,

We know we cannot change the casting of The Last Airbender, but working on this project [will not be] the end of our movement. We will continue to monitor other projects in Hollywood and advocate on behalf of artists of color.

This is a pivotal moment. We can help Hollywood see that Americans care about treating everyone fairly – and about showing our children that prejudice shouldn’t profit.

Global Citizenship— Brought to You by… Apartheid?

Sarah Levy

November 13, 2009

I’m going to start off by saying that yes, I know the new Institute was paid for with specific donations for said Institute. But what I want to get at is this: while so much of our campus and the supposed ideals we aspire to revolve around being Good Global Citizens, how can we continue our business relations with, let alone prosper financially from, international atrocities?

Right now Macalester’s endowment is kept largely in hedge funds—much like mutual funds,—which the Macalester Investment Board chooses outside investors to be in charge of. Each year tuition pays for about 60% of the college’s expenditures, and money from the endowment pays for the remaining 40%. The details of the endowment are kept classified, and on top of this the complex web of people and funds we pass our money to makes it so that not even Brian Rosenberg is fully aware of the companies we are invested in. While we have a Social Responsibility Committee and the Board of Trustees is supposedly allowed to “take non-economic factors into consideration when making investment decisions,” ultimately the only instruction we give our investors—and the only one they are likely to follow—is to maximize the earnings on our money. Period.

For instance, despite seeking to avoid investments that cause “grave social harm,” right now we are invested in the S&P 500, America’s top 500 companies, indirectly through an index fund. As of September of this year, the S&P 500 included Boeing, Caterpillar, Coca Cola, Citigroup, General Electric, Halliburton, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart, all and all making it a very socially irresponsible package.

This means that while Café Mac serves Fair Trade coffee (thanks to an effort by the students of MPIRG), Macalester is simultaneously supporting and benefiting from companies such as Knight Ridder that rely on the work of slaves in the Amazon state of Para to produce their wood products. Or, while MacCARES and other student groups push to make our college and the greater community energy efficient and environmentally friendly, we are still funding and profiting from the oil and coal giants who are deterring global efforts against climate change.

But besides the distressing hypocrisy of the issue, why does any of this matter?

Divestment from corporations we don’t want to be invested in is often seen as dogmatic—a way to put weight behind the principles we stand for as a school.

However, divestment can and has also been used successfully as a direct tactic to stop injustices around the world, most famously being South African Apartheid which was finally ended after a widespread campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) that involved many campuses across the U.S.

Which brings us to the situation today.

In 2005 Palestinians put out a call for “boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.” They call for Israel to 1.) End its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; 2.) Recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3.) Respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

It is precisely that the BDS movement comes from within Palestinian civil society that makes it so powerful and effective, and the fact that we are in the U.S. makes it all the more important to respond to the call. Each year the U.S. gives Israel $3 billion in the form of both military and economic aid, which is crucial to continuing its policy of territorial expansion and repression of Palestinians. Being in this economically dependent relationship with the U.S. necessarily makes Israel’s actions far more accountable to the international community—and thus makes divestment a crucial tactic—more so than with places like Sudan.

Yet as long as we are invested in companies such as Caterpillar, Motorolla, General Electric, and ITT Corp, (to name a few), Macalester College is indirectly supporting Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian people. (For more information, check out http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel.php) And with our endowment assembled the way it is, we are essentially making the statement that although we may say we stand for Higher Global Social Principles, when it comes down to it, we care about money first.

If we truly want Mac to be both sustainable and socially responsible, we need to approach the issue from a deeper level and expand the frame of our global consciousness. We’ve already taken a lead in sustainable building, let’s not be left in the dust when it comes to the sustainability of where our money comes from.

Macalester Joins the Masses as they Demand Full Equality for LGBT People

Sarah Levy
October 14, 2009

Last Sunday, October 11, while the majority of Macalester was enjoying a typical weekend, 16 students were in Washington, D.C., marching along with over 200,000 people to demand equal rights for all LGBT people under the 14^th amendment.

The march was called by Cleve Jones, a close collaborator of the late Harvey Milk, after he received thousands of letters and messages from mostly young activists who wanted something to be done following Proposition Eight’s loss last November. The intention was to get people from all 50 states and all 435 congressional districts to the capital, in a new effort to make the struggle a national one.

“I am sick and tired of fighting state by state, county by county, city by city, for fractions of equality--for impermanent victories that can be done away with by a popular vote of 50 percent-plus-one, and we're returned to second-class citizenship again,” said Jones in a rally on the lawn of the capital following the march. “Because the most important and significant rights granted to heterosexuals through marriage are determined not by the states, but by the federal government.”

This is a crucial point to be made.

Currently LGBT couples are denied over 1,100 basic rights that are attached to the legality of the word “marriage.” These include things such as: the legal rights to visit a spouse in the hospital; the right to special consideration for the immigration of a spouse when from a foreign country; being eligible to receive a spouse’s healthcare benefits; the right to filing taxes jointly (resulting in significantly higher taxes for LGBT couples); the right to inheritance of property; and many other basic rights that most heterosexual couples take for granted.

Of note Sunday was the prevalence of young people. With an actual rainbow in the sky above them and enough sun to qualify the day as “hot,” a student contingent of hundreds led the march from McPherson Square to the U.S. Capitol, chanting “Hey! Obama! Let Mamma marry Mamma!” and “Get Up! Get Down! There’s a Civil Rights Movement in this Town!”

In addition, according to Time Magazine, the average age of the people behind most of the organizing effort wasn’t above 30.

“You young people really have a hand up on what we’re trying to do here,” said Catharine Marino Thomas of Marriage Equality New York, addressing the packed and overflowing capital lawn.

In a message to students prior to the march, Glenn Omatsu, Professor at California State University, Northridge had expressed a similar sentiment.

"Students around the world have been at the forefront of movements to promote democracy and human rights,” he said. “Student movements have toppled powerful dictatorships and military juntas. Student movements have ended wars. And student activism has often served as the conscience for nations, reminding people in times of turmoil of the founding ideals of their countries and the aspirations of all people for justice, dignity, and equality."

Brett Srader, a Macalester student, was affected by this conscience and took home a sense of motivation from the march, saying that it gave him new knowledge and insight into the LGBT struggle. He said he saw it as a call to action, particularly for those who consider themselves allies.

“It is hard at times to motivate yourself to fight for the causes of others, and unfortunately [before the march] I had fallen into this trap,” said Srader. “[However,] the march stressed the importance of [straight] allies in pushing for change. Speaker after speaker reminded me that my country cannot consider itself the land of the free until all people are truly equal under law in all 50 states.”

Another theme of the rally was that the day was by no means an end in and of itself, but rather a point from which to strategize and grow as a movement.

“[There was the main idea that] during the march, the National Mall belonged to LGBT Americans and the Struggle for Equality, but that we all must continue the fight in our own "backyards" -- geographically, socially, politically, in our workplace, etc.,” said Kevin Schaeffer ’13. “The purpose of the NEM was not just to show the nation that we fight together for equality, but also to show those who feel alone that they are very much NOT alone.”

Srader said he could envision several ways Macalester could bring the fight into its backyard, focusing on the importance of the upcoming vote in Maine that could repeal marriage equality in the same way as Prop 8.

“Phone banks should be set up on campus for Mac students to make calls to voters in Maine to garner support for voting No on 1,” he said. “Or fundraisers could be another possible route, because the Equality movement in Maine is being out fundraised by huge margins.”

Back in Washington, Jones ended his speech by addressing the importance of mass demonstrations, besides just lobbying and letter-writing.

“Protest confirms dignity,” he said. “This march is an act of self-respect—that we will settle for nothing less than full equality under the law. We must take our president’s advice and command the audacity of hope.”

The Consequences of Coming to College

Sarah Levy
November 17, 2008

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Though pretty much every other topic is addressed, there is one aspect of how life changes upon leaving for college that never comes up, even with all the pamphlets and weeks of organized introductory activities.

Masturbation.

“I definitely thought about it before coming,” said Stefan Mathews ‘12. He said he was worried about how he would be affected by the lack of privacy that dorm life would bring.

Mathews is not the only first year that worried about personal changes that would come with college life. For many it was an issue.

Rosa Montague ’12 said she thought about the change beforehand, but wasn’t worried about it.

“I wondered if I would have time, what if my roommate were to find out, that kind of thing,” said Montague.

Montague said her habits have changed since college, because they are more random and more rushed. However, she said she does not do it any less than at home. And she does not really plan it out.

“I’ve learned [my roommate’s] schedule,” she said. “It’s just like, ooh, she’s left. This will be fun.”

Not everyone has been able to so easily cope with the burdens of dorm life.

“Yeah [my masturbatory habits] have changed!” said Alister Korb ‘12. “How have they changed? I don’t.”

Korb said that he did not realize until he got here that things would be different than at home. He said he cannot masturbate in his room because his roommate is usually there, and he does not feel comfortable doing it in the bathroom.

“I feel like it’s gross to do in a public shower and I think how I would feel if I were in the shower next to mine,” he said. “That would suck.”

Korb is not the only male who held off from this practice because of college. Gabriel Sutherland ’12 said the first time he masturbated after coming to Macalester was almost two months after leaving home. But for him this was not that big of a deal, even though he described his habits since coming to college as “somewhat moderately different” than at home.

“There are a lot more things to keep me occupied here,” he said. Sutherland said he has not really been affected by the change and that on average he does it less than once a week.

“I guess I just keep it all bottled up,” he said.

Another issue that comes with dorm life is that of walking in on people having sex, or being walked in on.

Suzanne Li, a senior, said that sophomore year she and her roommate would draw a “5” on their white board as a sign of “Do not enter.”

“If there was a 5 and you really wanted to go in, you knocked once and waited and if no one answered you still wouldn’t go in,” she said.

As for Montague, she said she has worried about someone walking in on her. But she does not lock the door.

“If I’m in there alone with the door locked, I’m worried about what someone walking by will think,” she said. “Because I don’t want them assuming I’m doing that.”

While some students have found ways to cope, for others relative problems have arisen. One such issue is stress.

“Masturbation is a mood-booster and if you can’t do it as often [as you would like], it does make you a bit grumpier,” said Mathews. He said that since college, he has been masturbating much less frequently than before and only during certain planned out times, which he said at times affects his stress-level.

The lack of privacy can also affect students in ways beyond just the emotional.

“I keep getting urinary tract infections because I don’t go pee after sex because it’s too much effort to go down the hall [of Dupre],” said Cece Harkins, a sophomore. “And I don’t want to have to see my RA, or that girl I have class with, or that neighbor who just heard me having sex.”

But generally students learn to cope.

“The first week or two was pretty bad,” said Jon Royce ‘12. “Then I figured out [my roommate’s] schedule.”

Montague said she doesn’t worry about walking in on her roommate or visa versa.

“We knock. I figure if you give it like two seconds, anything that’s going on can stop.”

Li said she hasn’t been walked in on, or walked in on anyone in her time at Macalester.

“But I have done things while other people were in the room and I’m not sure if they woke up or not,” she said. Li shed some light on the issue as someone with more collegiate experience.

“As you get older it gets a lot less awkward,” she said. “Because everyone, by the time they’re a senior, has been in a room while other people are having sex. They call it ‘being caught in the wing.’”

Harkin offered advice to first years regarding what she has learned.


“You learn to be silent,” she said. “You learn to do it when it’s convenient for your roommate and not for you.” She added that she has been walked in on a couple times in awkward positions.

“To make sure you get to the end, you’ve got to make it fast sometimes even though you don’t want to,” she said.

With two more years’ experience under her belt, Li continued.

“It’s just kind of like, look, we’re in a cramped space. When I say ‘Go,’ go. People understand.”

She paused to think.

“People don’t get more mature, though.”

20,000 Travel to Georgia to Say, "Shut Down the SOA"

Sarah Levy
November 24, 2008

On Sunday the 23rd, upwards of 20,000 people attended a Georgia vigil to commemorate those who have died as result of School of the Americas violence.

“We are here once again to say, ‘Basta. No mas. No More,’” said Father Roy Bourgeois, who started the School of the Americas Watch 18 years ago. The yearly event takes place outside the gates of Fort Benning, the military training site for the school.

“The problem is that most Americans don’t know it exists, or don’t know the terrors that have resulted because of it,” he said.

Father Jon Sobrino, one of the only survivors of his Jesuit community in El Salvador because of SOA-incited murder, explained the reason to be there.

“Any school in which violence and torture is being taught should be closed,” he said. “Any school in which lies are being taught, should be closed. Any school in which the accumulation of wealth as the main joy of life is being taught, should be closed.”

The funeral procession consisted of the names and ages of those who had died as result of SOA violence, being sung off, one by one, alternating Spanish and English. Following each name, a sea of voices solemnly sang back “Pre-sen-te,” each holding up a white cross to represent one person. A single drumbeat followed every name.

“It feels really powerful to remember the names of the dead and to bring that to the doors of the people that murdered them,” said Zeph Fishlyn, an artist who was attending the event for the first time.

Earlier that morning, six people had crossed the border onto the military base in an attempt to bring the protest down to the school. They were arrested and are facing up to six months in federal prison.

The night before, Brian Derouen, who served four months in jail for crossing the line in 2006, addressed a crowd regarding why this protest is important.

“This weekend is not what matters,” said Derouen. “If everyone goes home and tells one person and writes one letter to congress, the school could be shut down in a year. People can’t just be here and then go home and feel good about themselves.”

After putting their crosses on the fence as the culmination of the procession, people stood crying, hugging, and simply staring at the scene in silence. On a patch of grass near the fence, dozens of actors with white face paint lay in black cloths strewn with red paint to represent the dead.

Police loudspeakers didn’t seem to notice the sentiment, and proceeded to blare their message.

“Anyone who crosses the line is subject to fine and imprisonment,” a recording projected for the umpteenth time throughout the weekend. “The sole purpose of this institution is to provide military training of soldiers. It is a non-partisan operation. As a democratic institution it is upholding the constitution.”

Luckily, the weekend’s events, which consisted of many speakers and educational panels, had taught the crowd what a lie this was.

Said Deroen, “In the end, change happens when good people break bad laws and accept the consequences.”

The Unheard Tale: What It's Like for Lefties and Repubs at a Truly "Liberal" Arts School

Sarah Levy
November 3, 2008

With two days until the election, Minnesotan Democratic-Farmer-Labor candidate for U.S. senate Al Franken spoke at Macalester, urging people to “stand up and fight for the next 48 hours.”

Leading up to the event titled “Two Days ‘Til Tuesday,” for anyone living on campus it was hard not to see a flyer advertising Franken’s visit. On multiple levels of dorm stairwells and poster boards, as well as in class buildings and the campus center, Franken’s face could be seen smiling at passers by.

While some students weren’t fazed by this phenomenon, others, such as Dan Castelli ’11, said they were frustrated by the occurrence and others similar to it that have become more and more common as the election nears.

“As a person whose politics lie well outside the corporate framework of the Democratic and Republican parties, I can't help but feel alienated by the political culture on this campus,” said Castelli, who said he is planning on voting for Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney.

“Everyday I'm told that if I voted for the candidates who best represented my views, the ones who best sought to dismantle racism, economic inequality, homophobia, sexism and the overwhelming corporate privatization of society, that by expressing interest in the candidates with real principles and with real agendas, that I was throwing my vote away,” continued Castelli. “So don't come to my door and tell me to vote, when you're telling me my vote doesn't matter to begin with.”

Jenny Dawson ’12, said she merely thought the Franken advertising was excessive and unnecessary because it was wasting paper.

None of this seemed to affect the enthusiastic crowd of around 450 who attended the Sunday night rally sponsored by Mac Dems and held in the Campus Center, according to Alex Rosselli, president of the group. Besides Macalester students, present were students from nearby campuses and community members.

Following a brief performance by the Trads, which was flavored with several pro-Obama and pro-vote messages within their songs, Franken addressed the crowd.

“I’m pro-A’capella,” he said. “[My opponent] Norm Coleman hates A’capella.”

Franken acknowledged that there are specific reasons to come to a campus like Macalester where the majority of students are already going to vote Democratic.

“I want people out working,” he said. “The future belongs to those who are passionate and work hard.”

While Rosselli said he was pleased with how the event turned out, he said he was not sure how much of an influence it could specifically have to further mobilize students.

“[Macalester] is already one of the most active communities in the state,” he said. “It has been recognized as being extremely effective in getting out the vote.”

However, while many Mac students have been taking Franken’s message to heart as Rosselli said, not everyone has been acting as part of the Macalester Democratic status quo.

James Weismuller ’12, said he thinks all the pro-Obama energy of Macalester could be harnessed more effectively.

“I think this kind of political energy, especially on such a widespread and vibrant scale as we have witnessed during this election, could be used in ways that directly assert the will of the people instead of merely electioneering,” he said. Weismuller said he is not sure yet whether he will vote.

Paul McGuire ’12, said he doesn’t feel attacked by the Obama vibe of Macalester, but rather is amused by it. McGuire said at this point he is not sure whether he will vote for Republican candidate John McCain or Libertarian Bob Barr.

“I knew it was going to be like this when I decided to come to this college,” said McGuire. “I’m amazed by how people respect [Obama] so much, but I’m not surprised by it at all.”

On the opposite side of the political spectrum, Castelli did not take the issue so lightly.

“I feel like my views are made to be illegitimate,” he said about the mass of Democratic propaganda at Mac. “I am whole-heartedly disappointed with Macalester College for being so vehemently supportive of this two party system. If you want change then don't trust politicians; force them to act on your behalf.”

Though it cannot be told whether Franken was aware of this or not, at one point during his speech he seemed to be addressing the issue.

“Some of you—and you know who you are—need new friends,” he said, only partly joking.




The Election-Related Statistics, according to Al Franken:
• Number of Minnesotans without health insurance: 440,000
• Number of Minnesotans who can’t find a job: 170,000
• Number of years it has been since the unemployment level of this state has been this high: 22
• Number of phone calls made so far for this election: 1.5 million
• Number of doors knocked on so far for the election 2.8 million
Al Franken was a writer and performer on the show Saturday Night Live between the years 1975 and 1980, and again from 1985 to 1995.
In 2003 he published the book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.
Now he is running as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidate for the U.S. Senate in the state of Minnesota.

Michelle Obama Takes to Macalester in the Final Days Leading up to the Election

October 20, 2008
Sarah Levy

More than 4,000 people waited in line for hours Monday despite rain and cold to see Michelle Obama speak at Macalester.

Waiting to go into the Snelling Street side entrance of the Leonard Center, the line of people, sporting rain coats and umbrellas, reached all the way down Macalester Street to the parking lot by the Wallace Fine Arts building, before it began to move.

Ross Donihue ’11 said his Geographic Information Systems teacher cancelled class for the event. Others, such as Olivia Nichols, a senior at Henry Sibley High School, cut class to see the possible future first lady speak.

“I’ll definitely be affected by Michelle,” Nichols said, about missing her psychology class to be at the event. “I’ll be more motivated to start [campaign] phone calls.”

Nichols’ father, Michael Nichols, said he too was excited to be there.

“I think Michelle is very inspirational, especially to young women,” he said.

Not everyone felt the same, however. Some Macalester students stayed away from the event, such as Paul McGuire ‘12 who scoffed at what he said he considered absurd and unnecessary hubbub and “Obama-Mania”.

Dara Hoppe ’11, a sociology major, went for the mere spectacle. Hoppe said she enjoys critically analyzing what politicians are doing to get votes.

“I guess it’s the point to say those buzz-word phrases to get people riled up,” she said. “It’s exciting to feel you’re a part of the giant excitement.”

Upon entering the Leonard Center, attendees were immersed in a world of political pump-up music and Obama cheerleaders staggered about to act as a pathway into the gym. Beyond the chants of “Ready to go! Fired up!” thousands of people stood so close they were touching their neighbors, waiting for the event to start.

Following several speakers including Mayor Chris Coleman and 16-year-old Natalie Miller of Northfield, MN, Obama was welcomed onstage to deafening applause.

After she skimmed over some of the campaign highlights, Obama asked the crowd, “Don’t we deserve leaders who get it?” She continued, “The thing I’ve been doing is I’ve been traveling around this country for the last 18, 19 months telling people that Barack Obama gets it.”

Obama stressed that people need to get involved in the campaign if they haven’t already, or kick it up several notches if they have.

“Barack has gotten us 85% of the way there,” she said. “The rest of it’s on us.”

Following the event, Grace Erny ’12 noted how Obama’s speech brushed over many of the issues without addressing any of the actual policies. She said this made sense, however, considering events like this are not centered on policy and educating people on the issues, but are more about getting people excited and mobilizing them.

“While it was obvious that she was intelligent and poised, it would have been more interesting if she hadn’t had to so strongly campaign,” said Erny. “I would like to see what she would have said if she hadn’t had such a strong agenda.”

Elizabeth Anna Hall of Minneapolis said she was glad to be at the event, but it didn’t change her thinking.
“She grabbed hold of the crowd’s emotions in a really positive way,” Hall said. Originally a Kucinich supporter, Hall said that some of Obama’s positions aren’t as far left as she would like, but she is still planning on voting for him.

Tom Froyum, a St. Paul fire inspector, said his purpose on Monday was to keep the peace and make sure the crowd didn’t get too big, but that he was especially glad to be stationed at this event.

“Sure I’m excited—I’m unofficially excited,” he said regarding the content of his particular job assignment.

Surrounded by smiling people donning Obama t-shirts and having their pictures taken in front of an enormous American flag, Erny said that the event didn’t make her think about anything in a new way, at least not in the way it was intended to.

“It made me think about the way that propaganda works, but not about the issues of the campaign,” she said.

Many local politicians and political candidates were there on Monday, including senate candidate Al Franken and the mayors of St. Paul and Minneaoplis.

Also present were national news media, many of which filmed the event from a stage in the middle of the crowd.



The last time Michelle Obama was in Minnesota, her husband was accepting the nomination for the party. This Monday she returned to speak at Macalester in the final days leading up to the election.
A few of the numbers she brought up include:
• Number of votes John Kerry won Minnesota by in 2004: 98,000
• Number of unregistered youths in Minnesota in 2008: 140,000
• Number of days until the election: 15
• Least number of days you must wait in Minnesota between registering

America: The New Pornographers

"Masturbation is only for ugly people. And albinos."

No, this isn't a line from South Park, or some skewed Christian Right mantra to try to convince people who consider themselves good looking not to jerk off. It's what the natives of the Trobriand Islands explained to an anthropologist regarding their confusion as to why masturbation is such a common pastime in the West.

Now don't think this means that we as Americans simply enjoy pleasure more than other cultures, or by some *stroke* of luck are more comfortable with our bodies. According to Jack M. Weatherford, author of "Porn Row" and Macalester College Anthropology professor, it's actually quite the contrary.

In the chapter "Sex Without Partners" of his anthropological analysis of the porn industry, Weatherford looks at a tribal group living in scattered villages of east central India that are known as the Muria. In their culture, a part of adolescent life and education is participating in the Ghotul, a night activity that begins with singing, dancing, and coupling off to rub one another with sensual oils. As the night continues, the massages slowly turn into "more intimate touching and feeling of the other's body, and if both agree, they make love, or spend the night just caressing each other, or sleep snuggled closely together." They do this nightly, switching partners so that no two people are together for more than a couple days, and no one is left out.

Through these nightly encounters, each person learns everything about their partners' bodies-- every curve and crevice, how much oil they enjoy being rubbed with, how they respond to certain touches, how long they can keep it up, et cetera. In their view, the woman is seen as deserving wonderful sex since she has to bear the brunt of menstruation and child birth, and so each male is taught he must keep going until she is completely satisfied. Because of this practice, the male learns stamina and to stay erect for longer, so that he can keep going until she is set. Additionally, since adolescents jump right into coital rather than going through a period of masturbation, the female learns to come from vaginal stimulus alone, rather than learning to orgasm clitorally and later having to switch.

For the Muria, the concept of a platonic relationship is virtually unknown. "Every male-female relationship among unmarried people is expected to be sexual," and as their proverb goes, "Thirst is not quenched by licking dew."

You may be thinking 'But what about the STDs?' 'And all the babies?', but this is not an issue in their society.

As Weatherford explains,
"The Muria consider it bad for young people NOT to have sex, and for them teenage pregnancy does not seem to be a problem. Despite the possibilities of pregnancy, other issues are more important. In their explanation of the world, sex is a powerful force, and if it is stored too long inside the person, it may emerge in strange and harmful ways. To prevent such harm, sexual desires need to be exercised constantly."

In time, families set up arranged marriages for the young people, which are generally extremely satisfactory. In result of the Ghotuls, everyone in the same age group has been with everyone else, and so there is no urge from one partner to know what it would be like to be with a different partner, because-- oop! They already have! Also, since everyone has learned from everyone else, everyone knows everything that everyone else does, and so they're all amazing in bed.

------------------------------------------------------------------

The entire experience is contrasted abruptly with the industrial society, particularly the masturbating habits of the citizens of our grand ol' U.S. of A.

As Weatherford puts it, "Muria youths learn coitus and may occasionally masturbate, but Western youths learn masturbation even though they may occasionally have coitus."

Weatherford points out that many of the ways westerners learn about sex end up being relatively detrimental to their sex life later in life. For the male, he learns to reach orgasm as quickly as possible, maybe in his parents' bathroom, hoping he'll come before his mom walks in, or at night under the covers, dreading the appearance of an older brother. He learns the goal of speed. As Weatherford says, "while the Muria boy learns through several years of practice in the Ghotul to sustain coitus until the female is satisfied, the American boy learns merely to rush through the act and get to the climax as quickly as possible."

Meanwhile, the female gets used to reaching orgasm through clitoral stimulus alone.

Once the two combine the masturbation backlash occurs.

For the male, it is difficult to unlearn speed. Now that he is doing it with another person, he allows for no dialogue between bodies as he simply goes in to finish the act as soon as possible and then leave. *On top* of this, being used to the strong and hard pressure of the hand, the switch to the softer, looser flesh of the vagina makes it difficult for him to come.

The woman is now faced with the challenge of coming through vaginal stimulus rather than clitoral, making the process irrelevant and frustrating for her. "By contrast, women in societies such as the Muria learn from the beginning to reach orgasm with penetration."

Weatherford explains how this ends up screwing us over for the future:

"During the initial years of adulthood, when coitus is new, the novelty of the act may be enough to overcome the problems of changing from masturbation to copulation, but in time problems arise. As the female's vagina becomes less firm and tight with age, her partner may experience greater difficulty maintaining an erection or attaining on orgasm. Problems of impotence, premature ejaculation, and lack or orgasm may all be connected with the early from of solitary sex training."

This does not happen for the Muria who learn to copulate (rather than masturbate) at an early age.

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The most interesting difference between sex styles is that, for the Muria, the emphasis is upon learning the other person's body and knowing everything about it and them so you can confidently please them. This, compared to our western way of learning all alone and all about your own body, so that you know it perfectly and are set for autosex, but don't have much consideration for the other person and what they want or how they work. In our culture, sex is selfish.

Even before addressing sex, the issue of one's partner becomes possessive. You can only be with one person at one time, or else everyone will be jealous because that person was supposed to be YOURS. As the Muria would say, this inhibits greatly upon sexual learning and the overall skills of all in the population. (Remember, however, that the Muria do end up marrying, and staying with that one partner for the rest of their life.)

The system of the Muria could never work in out society because people couldn't be trusted enough. They've been taught to think for themselves and only of the good of themselves, so in a theoretical Ghotul, you wouldn't be sure if some person had sketchy reasoning to be there in the first place. For the Muria, jealously doesn't take shape because everyone is equally participating and sharing everyone else.

All because Capitalism turns sex into a commodity.

[Another problem is how that kind of set-up would only work when you have a relatively small population and really only one community.]

America also has an incredibly interesting dynamic where we have a super-sexed-up culture, with music videos, clothing advertisements, and just about anything you can think of, juxtaposed with the extreme-Christian Right and conservative government that are constantly blaring messages of chastity and abstinence until marriage (if not after as well). This creates an atmosphere of urges and fantasy that are often awkwardly contained, or let to escape in secretive, sometimes embarrassing or harmful ways, as people wish their sexual thoughts didn't exists almost as much as they wish they would come true. Making it so the last thing most people want is to TALK about sex. Because that would be awful!

In severe contrast, in the Muria society, parents see the Ghotul as a way to keep adolescents out of mischief! Compared to ours which would see the mere concept of such a thing as promiscuous and sinful, let alone a case of minor scandal.

The overall result of severe shame related to sex, bombardment of sexual imagery, lack of sex, and lack of dialogue around said subject is that people grow up with often unattainable fantasies and expectations. This is what creates a need for porn, though it merely perpetuates the cycle when real human contact actually occurs and is unable to meet expectations, only creating more of a need for said images.

I'm still not sure what to make of our culture. I had always thought that the whole taking-it-slow thing was a good plan, but Weatherford and the Muria seem to make out anything beside penetration to be unnatural and oddly Western/industrial-based. I guess the key note of this label is the mentality of a mystery around sex and the other person, extenuated by a selfish goal of purely self-pleasure. But he still makes masturbation seem oddly pathetic.

While I had always thought the [sex-related] steps to overcome in our society were purely shame in sex and lack of sex-education, now it seems that there is so much more. That it's possible we are incredibly immature in the world of erotica.


*(All quotes come from Jack M. Weatherford's book, "Porn Row")

Public Service Announcement that Promotes Abstinence (See February 2 Post)

Public Service Announcement, Radio: AIDS

TINA: Hey, Gina! So I heard that you and Billy have been going steady for a while now.

GINA: Yeah. We love each other. It’s cute.

TINA: So have you had sex yet?!

GINA: Tina!! You know that I made a chastity pledge back in the third grade! You were there!

TINA: Oh, yeah. I remember now. That was a pretty cool ring. The chastity ring, that is. The one that binds you to virginity until marriage, and if you end up deciding to have sex before then that you have to give up. And you can never wear it again. Didn’t your parents pay a lot of money for it? I think they did.

GINA: Yeah. I wear it everyday, and they check to make sure I’m still wearing it everyday. It motivates me to not have sex. But I barely need the motivation in the first place because I have so much support from my family and friends that I barely even think about sex. I’m waiting until I find the perfect person who I will spend the rest of my life with.

TINA: That’s cool. Just don’t be one of the 88 percent of teenage girls who break their chastity vows before marriage, most of which do within a few years!

GINA: Don’t worry! I won’t be!

TINA: I’m glad. You, know, I care a lot about you, Gina, and I just want you to be aware that girls who take chastity pledges are less likely to use condoms and less likely to seek testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, because if they end up giving in to their natural sexual urges, they would rather pretend it isn’t happening, and if it isn’t happening, they see no need to use protection, because that just makes it seem like it is happening.

GINA: Thanks for the tip, Tina! But you don’t have to worry, because I really will never have sex until I’m happily married at the age of 40.

TINA: Me too! We can not worry about contracting HIV/AIDS together! Because, you know, the only for sure way to not have to worry about it is by being sex-free!

GINA: Yeah!… Wait, a minute, Tina—I was already planning on abstinence, but I don’t know all the facts about AIDS. Can you fill me in?

TINA: I could, but here comes Jed. The kid who had sex before he was married. And ended up with human immunodeficiency virus. I’m sure he’d be happy to fill you in!

JED: Hey, guys!

TINA and GINA: Hey, Jed!

GINA: Jed, Tina tells me that you had sex before you were emotionally ready for it and now have HIV. Would you mind telling me about it?

JED: Sure! Yeah. I figure that because I can’t do anything to go back in time and save myself, I might as well go around as a sort of living sexual martyr figure and spread the word of abstinence.

TINA: That’s sooo cool! What a great idea!

JED: It’s the best I can do. Here, let me give you the run-down: You can’t contract AIDS from another person, but you can get HIV, which leads to AIDS, through contact with various bodily fluids, such as blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or breast milk. This majority of HIV/AIDS cases are in result of unprotected sexual relations, when one partner has the disease and their sexual secretion comes into contact with the genital, oral, or rectal mucous membranes of the other partner. This is why it’s better to just wait until you’re married, because if you know that you don’t have HIV, and your partner doesn’t have HIV, and you two are the only ones you have sex with, then you won’t have to worry about contracting the disease.

GINA: Okay… but what happens if you get it? Is it really that bad?

JED: You betcha! What HIV does is it makes the body incredibly and dangerously susceptible to otherwise not-so-harmful infections. That means that what your body could normally handle, now becomes possibly lethal. Personally, I know that I don’t have AIDS yet because I don’t have any of the symptoms. But if you see me with fevers, sweats (particularly at night), swollen glands, chills, weakness, and weight loss, skin rashes, oral ulcerations, and various respiratory infections, you’ll know that I probably have developed AIDS.

TINA: How long will it take you to get AIDS?

JED: Probably between five and eight years, but with some people it takes even longer.

GINA: Can’t you just take medicine to make it go away?

JED: Sadly, no. The scary thing about the epidemic is that as of yet there is no cure.

GINA: That is scary!

JED: Yeah. The only for sure way to prevent it is by preventing exposure to the potential causes. Which is what I’m advising you guys to do. However, there are various medications that are used to reduce the risk of an infection after known exposure. I’m currently taking some of these, and they aren’t very fun, but these antiretroviral treatments reduce both the mortality and the morbidity of the HIV infection, so I’m happy to take them. Unfortunately, these agents are expensive, and the majority of the world's infected individuals do not have access to medications and treatments for HIV and AIDS, making it much more common in poorer areas and countries with higher rates of poverty.

GINA: So that’s why AIDS is such a bigger problem in Africa than in the United States!

TINA: And that’s why you shouldn’t have sex.

JED: Right, but it still is an enormous problem here in the States.

GINA: Oh, yeah, like you.

JED: I’m glad that I could at least tell you guys that the only way to stay safe is to be abstinent, since it’s too late to save myself!

TINA: Boy, I’m sure glad we were lucky enough to have abstinence-only education written into our welfare reform bill 1996. Think how many kids it must have saved already! I’m so afraid of HIV/AIDS that I’m not going to have sex until I’m happily married.

GINA: Me too.

JED: That’s great, guys. I’m glad I could fulfill my role as the sort of living sexual martyr figure and promote abstinence. My work here is done.

The Human Peace Sign

One of the highlights of the day.

The Start of a New Student Movement?

The Start of a New Student Movement?

By Adam Sanchez

A week of antiwar activities in Portland, Oregon, culminated on Thursday, March 20th with a student walkout that drew over 2,000 students. The larger-than-expected crowd began in the downtown North Park Blocks where students chanted and a couple of rally organizers spoke. Sarah Levy, a Lincoln High School senior and a member of the International Socialist Organization yelled out to the crowd, "We're here today, not because we're mad at our schools, in fact, they're some of the establishments most affected by this war, but because we realize that we aren't being taught what we need in order to end this occupation, and so have learned that we must educate ourselves if we want to make a difference. The goal for today is to reinvigorate the student anti-war movement, and demonstrate through struggle the immense power that we can have as a mass of students."



And that, they did. What started out as an unpermitted march on the sidewalks of downtown Portland soon slipped out of the organizers' control as the larger than expected crowd quickly finished the short march route and thousands of high school students, many of whom had never been to a protest before, grew restless and decided to continue the march. The students strode, still on the sidewalks, down to city hall where students began scaling the walls and shouting slogans from the top of the building. A small group of organizers, realizing the moment's potential, began scribbling a list of demands onto a piece of notebook paper. After quickly settling on four demands (funding for schools not the military, no more funding for ROTC programs, all military recruiters out of Portland schools, and making Portland a sanctuary city for GI Resisters), a few of the organizers tried to take them into city hall as the students kept shouting slogans outside. They found the doors locked and the mayor had already left the building to address the crowd. Few protesters could here the mayor's speech, and few seemed to care. The energy of the crowd was far from over.



As the students headed next door to the Wells Fargo building, a number of the organizers managed to swindle a megaphone from the police in exchange for directing the crowd away from much of the downtown traffic. After march organizer, Marko Lamson, spoke about corporate profiteering from the war, the megaphone was used to rattle off the four demands, each one receiving a loud approval from the crowd. But when organizers finished the demands, a number of students in the crowd began yelling for the march to go to Pioneer Square, a central downtown location. This quickly won the approval of the crowd and the march headed to the center of the city. On the way to Pioneer Square police arrested a few students for stepping off the sidewalk, handcuffing one high school student and forcing him into a cop car in front of the crowd. After angry chants of "Let Him Go!", the incident backfired on the police as the protest split into two and took to the streets. I marched with a group who went down Broadway, one of the main Portland arteries and took over two lanes until they reached Pioneer Square. The police, taken by surprise, could not stop the crowd.



At Pioneer Square the group gathered behind the PDX Peace Coalition Banner that read: "Stop the War, Bring the Troops Home Now," and collected money for those who had been arrested and received traffic tickets. The march, now a bit exhausted, headed down to the Willamette River waterfront where they formed a gigantic human peace sign and ended by strolling back up to Portland State University where participants discussed the possibilities for future student organizing.

I have never seen such energy, creativity, and excitement at a protest. Rarely do Portland students get together, unless they are competing against one another for sport. On Thursday, students from over ten different high schools and colleges came together in a stunning display of solidarity against the war. By taking a day out of school to protest the war these students were able to educate themselves and those around them about something most rarely feel—the potential of protest to shake up a city. By the end of the day there were about 30 cops on horses, another 30 on bikes, 30 on motorcycles, 20 or so police cars, and a helicopter, all trying to figure out what was going to happen next and arrest any leader they could find. But the movement was organic, spontaneous and difficult for even the organizers to control. It revealed that students were angry and no longer willing to let politicians continue to cut funding for education while spending exorbitant amounts on the military. This protest was an inspiration, not just to students, but to long-time activists as well, many of whom had never seen such an outburst of mass spontaneity.

Student Revolution, March 20: Why We Did It

The Costs of War on Education and Why We Must Voice Our Dissent

We’re here today, not because we’re mad at our schools, (in fact, they’re some of the establishments most affected by this war), but because we realize that we aren’t being taught what we need in order to end this occupation, and so have learned that we must educate ourselves if we want to make a difference. Another goal for today is to reinvigorate the student anti-war movement, and demonstrate through struggle the immense power that we can have as a mass of students.
In recent years, it seems student activism has died down. Although the sentiment’s still there—kids still think we shouldn’t be in Iraq—we just seem to have come to terms with the idea that as students, we can’t make any difference on U.S. policy. So go join a Facebook group proclaiming your views. “1 Million Against the War in Iraq.” “No More War.” But lord knows actually doing something won’t make a difference, so why bother?
I know that in the past I, and probably many of you, have felt isolated in this frustration about what our country has been doing in the “name of democracy.” But look around you now. And just see how many other people your age feel the same way. What we need to do is act together to put forward a booming anti-war voice that can be heard across the country that will not only inspire other students to voice their dissent, and act upon it, but hopefully inspire adults as well, and eventually get the entire country up in arms about what is being done in our name, and with our tax dollars, so that we can not be ignored.

So going back to how our schools have been horribly affected by this war: let me illustrate for you the reason why many public schools suffer from budget cuts, and less and less teachers, and larger classes… you know the jist. According to the Congressional Research Office, looking at the Federal Discretionary Budget, whereas the United States spends between 57 and 60 percent of its budget on the military, only around 8 percent of this budget is spent on education, training, and social services combined! That’s about one tenth as much, being spend on education. So that means that the reason there isn’t the funding for teachers to make a decent wage, or to have classes of less than 30 people, or to have full-fledged music programs in our schools, is because that money is going towards building up weapons and destroying another country. What a good deal for everybody.

Another way to look at it is if you think about just how much we are spending on this war. According to Nobel Prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, the Iraq war has cost us more than $1 trillion in just the first four years. In the time it will take me to say this sentence, $250,000 will have been spent on the Iraq war. That’s $720 million every day. Do you know what $720 million dollars could pay for in just one day? To all you seniors out there, that number represents 34,904 four-year scholarships for university students. Paid in one day. But it also could fund 12,478 elementary school teachers. Or 84 entire new elementary schools. Over 1 million free school lunches, paid in one single day. But instead of these good causes, it’s being used to ruin the lives of Iraqis.

Not only are we putting our own education in a tight squeeze, but we have made it nearly impossible for Iraqis (and Syrians) to get an education at all. It’s hardly safe for Iraqis to leave their homes, let alone go to school, and with the amount of refugees fleeing to Syria as well as Jordan, Egypt, Iran, and Lebanon, (about 2.5 million total) each of these countries’ own school systems are becoming more and more crunched as they accumulate more and more students with no additional funds.

You may still think that protesting won’t make any difference. But if you look back 40 years, in the Vietnam war, it was only after repeated years of enormous protests, some with half-a-million people, that the GIs finally felt the courage from the support of their country, to revolt against what they were being forced to do. We need to show the troops that though we support them, we do not support what our government is telling them to do. Only once they see that their country—their friends, parents, brothers and sisters—do not agree with what they are doing, will they gain the will and strength to fight back.

This is why we need to step up the action.

It doesn’t work to just focus all your energy into an election and be done. We can’t leave these crucial decisions about what we do or do not do in other countries in the hands of a few people at the top. We have to keep fighting for what we know is right and just, and make sure that our elected officials stand up to what they promise us. We have to demand that troops leave Iraq. This is not a war. There is no Iraqi army that we are legitimately fighting against. This is an occupation. And you can’t win an occupation. You just have to leave.

We have to start an ongoing discussion, and educate ourselves about the side of the war that is not told in common media. I urge you to talk with you friends, talk with your parents, make Iraq a common topic for discussion. We have to educate ourselves and spread the truth so that more people will feel a need for something to be done, if we want this war to end in the near future.

Eskimo & Sons do 'Mediated'

"2012"; by Eskimo & Sons

They put the women with white teeth
Inside every TV screen.
They said expect some rain
But a tidal wave ca-a-ame.
Oh oh, oh-oh.

And everything I swallowed up
In the greatest aquarium
But the seahawks drowned
And the fish turned upside down.
Oh-oh, whoa-oh.

So we'll mail wood in your windows
And we'll make sales from shirts and your
And we will put you up
You and who you lo-o-ove
This house is a home, a home is your-ours

A great song. Not only does [at least the first stanza] infer that the apocalypse will have to do with television and artificially white teeth, but it uses deZengotita's reference to "comparing a wind to a hurricane."

Genre: Angelic Post-Rock

The War Will Not Be Televised

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."
-Martin Luther King Jr.

The Media Is Lying To You About Iraq

Unless you're living in a cave, you probably don't think the war's recently been all that successful.

'But we can't leave,' you'll say. 'I know we aren't necessarily causing dramatic good, but just think how horrendously things would escalate if we were to simply get up and go!!'

I tell you, this is the Blob speaking.

The common sentiment that "if the U.S. leaves Iraq, the violent sectarianism between the Sunni and Shia will worsen" is exactly what Republicans and Democrats want us to believe so they can "justify the continuance of the occupation of Iraq" (Dahr Jamail). This entire conception of an intense hatred between the sects has actually been manufactured and played up out of an unprofessional ignorance of culture by our leading officials, and so that the war can be more easily spoon-fed to Americans. Jamail continues, "This propaganda, like others of its ilk, gains ground, substances, and reality due largely to the ignorance of those ingesting it. The snow job by the corporate media on the issue of sectarianism in Iraq has ensured that the public buys into the line that the Sunni and Shia will dice one another up into little pieces if the occupation ends."

In reality, "prior to the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq there had never been open warfare between the two groups and centainly not a civil war." When Dahr Jamail was in Iraq in 2003, he quickly learned of the grand faux-paus it was to ask someone of their sect. When asked, the most common response (after an awkward look that told you how rude the question was,) would be, "I am Muslim," or "I am Iraqi." Further demonstrating this was the amount of intermarriages between the sects, mixed neighborhoods, and even Shia and Sunni praying in the same mosques. Quite contrary to how our media would have it depicted...

However, as soon as Americans went in, they assumed that the country was strictly divided and went on to create their own Iraqi puppet government that was numerically based on the break-down of the percentages of Sunni, Shia, and Kurds (and "for good measure, a couple of Turkoman and Christian") representatives, so we could prove just how "democratic" we really were and wanted Iraq to be. (It is important to note that when the U.S. military commander showed up and asked these Iraqi tribal and religious leaders to divide themselves by sect, they were "utterly perplexed" by the oddity of his request.)

Much later, "U.S.-backed sectarian death squads have become the foremost generator of death in Iraq, even surpassing the U.S. military machine." The U.S. military has been known to let "Iraqi police" and "Iraqi army" personnel "masked in black balaclavas, through their checkpoints to carry out abductions and assassinations in the neighborhoods. But when we get the word back home, these men are referred to as "concerned local citizens," or simply "volunteers."

Consequent to what we have birthed, "almost all of Baghdad and much of Iraq is now segregated." Although we are constantly told that the violence has lessened, the truth is that that "all that has happened is a dramatic change in the demographic map of Iraq," that because of us, "Baghdad is a divided city."

Yeah, but even so! We can't evacuate! Iraq would descend further into a sectarian nightmare! And we would be to blame! (Just to refresh- where did we get this idea? Oh, right- from what we've been reading.)

The one example that shows what would likely be expected if we did leave (that the media doesn't want you to know about) is from early September. This was when "500 British troops left one of Saddam Hussein's palaces in the heart of the city and ceased to conduct regular food patrols." And just what was the result? "According to the British military, the overall level of violence in the city has DECREASED BY 90 PERCENT since then."

No WONDER we haven't left yet... (?)

As Jamail concludes, although this obviously can't be guaranteed, "it does prove that when the primary cause of the violence, sectarian strife, instability, and chaos is removed from the equation of Iraq, things are bound to improve rapidly."

Are you still going to believe that we're what's holding Iraq together?



(All quotes come from Dahr Jamail's article, "The myth of sectarianism," out of the current issue of the ISR. Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spend eight months in Iraq and is the author of "Beyond the Green Zone: Dispatches From an Unembedded Journalist in Occupied Iraq")

Why You Should Take Action, And Why The Media Doesn't Want You To

If you ask most people, they'll say that protesting is dumb, that it doesn't make a difference, and even if it does make participants "feel good," it doesn't actually contribute to ending the war.
This is because this mentality has been engrained in them by the media over and over, in order to prevent anything seemingly "sharp."

For instance, as Eric Ruder wrote in his article, "Does It Matter If We Protest?", during the Vietnam war, when between 500,000 and 750,000 anti-war protesters gathered around the whitehouse for a series of rallies and speaches calling to end the war, "[t]he media reported that Richard Nixon paid the protesters no attention whatsoever, and spent the afternoon watching college football. But the true story was different. As history books later revealed, Nixon was frantic about the size of the 1969 mobilizations."

“The demonstrators had been more successful than they realized, pushing Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger away from plans to greatly escalate the war, possibly even to the point of using nuclear weapons, and back toward their ‘Vietnamization’ strategy of propping up the Saigon regime,” author Gerald Nicosia wrote in Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans’ Movement.

This is just one example when the American public has been lied to through the media in order to stop them from making a difference.

Eric Ruder continues, "In 2007, public opinion against the war on Iraq may run even higher than sentiment against the Vietnam War did in 1970--certainly George Bush’s approval rating is lower than Richard Nixon’s that year. This is encouraging considering the absence of high-profile protests like those of 1970.

"But the tide of antiwar public opinion is having less direct impact on government policy today, and that’s a result of the fact that the sentiment isn’t backed up by any organized expression.

"The problem isn’t that mass protests don’t work, but that today’s antiwar movement hasn’t risen to the challenge of mobilizing antiwar sentiment into mass protests.

It's not that mass protests on their own lead to change, but that they are a starting point for a movement that can make a difference. For instance, the massive Vietnam protests inspired the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War to get back into action, and allowed the vets to join in solidarity against what they all knew was evil, but didn't think there was any point in fighting alone.

Ruder explains that "[t]he Vietnamese resistance kept the U.S. from imposing its will, but couldn’t expel the U.S. on its own. The rise of resistance among U.S. soldiers undermined the effectiveness of the U.S. military as a fighting force, but GI organizing didn’t happen in a vacuum. The antiwar movement in the U.S. shook up American society, but it didn’t have the power to stop the war machine.

However, "[t]ogether, these three forces combined to compel the U.S. ruling establishment to conclude that only further ruin of its military and turmoil within U.S. society would result from continuing the war on Vietnam. So national antiwar mobilizations are a necessary part of a movement that can end the war, even if they don’t have a direct impact on war policy themselves."

"A large national protest that attracts new as well as experienced activists helps people in the antiwar movement overcome feelings of isolation they may experience in their own cities and towns. It also strengthens local organizations that mobilize for the protest--and these groups in turn benefit from the politicization of individuals who return home invigorated to continue the struggle. And of course, the larger such mobilizations, the greater the impact they can have on shaping mass public opinion.

"This last point is one of the most important ways that a strong civilian antiwar movement can assist in the development of GI resistance--another crucial ingredient in the antiwar struggle... During the Vietnam era, the peak of the GI revolt followed years of domestic protest, the growing radicalization of the student antiwar movement and the obvious futility of the war effort itself in the face of the Vietnamese resistance."

Yann Tiersen

Mutual Masterbation and Babies... (This will eventually relate to media, just wait)

Recently, while looking at my Health by Correspondence homework, I came to an assignment on HIV and AIDS. Seemingly legitimate, until I get the to the second part, asking me to write a "Public Service Announcement" on AIDS.

And I quote:
"Write a PSA for TV or radio aimed at teens that warns about the dangers of contracting AIDS and PROMOTES ABSTINENCE." (Mind you, this is in bold, AND underlined.)
Continuing,
"Content: The announcement should:
-->Demonstrate your overall knowledge on the facts concerning AIDS.
--> PROMOTE ABSTINENCE"

Hmm...

And here's where the media only starts to come in. When did my health book come out? The 90's. And what year was abstinence-only education first written into our welfare reform bill? 1996. And who was it that oh-so willingly wrote it in? BILL-FUCKING-CLINTON.

This law included, among other things, a stipulation that teenagers must be taught that abstinence is the only acceptable behavior outside of marriage AT ANY AGE, that premarital sex can have harmful physical and psychological consequences, and that birth control can only be mentioned in relation to its failure rates.

And so, with the fuel of millions of dollars, George Bush has continued this legacy by funding faith-based community organizations that are led by the Christian Right, to produce tons of media through advertisements as well as educational programs and curriculum materials that are aimed at "scaring and bullying teens into abstinence." (Jen Roesch, "The Abstinence-Only Lie")

Here is some of what Rep. Henry Waxman found in reviewing 13 curriculum materials used in states across the country as far was what is being taught to students under this new curriculums:

-Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.

-Touching a person's genitals can result in pregnancy; mutual masturbation can cause pregnancy.

-HIV can be transmitted by tears and sweat, and 50 percent of gay teens have AIDS.

-A pregnancy occurs one out of every seven times that couples use condoms.

-A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."

-Five to 10 percent of women will never again be pregnant after having a legal abortion.

-Suicide is a consequence of pre-marital sex.

I can't figure out which of these is the most rediculous. They're all nearly laughable- until you realize that somewhere, kids are being taught, and most likely believing some of it.

Just from reading this, it seems clear that the recent rise in teen pregnancy (for the first time in 14 years) it probably due to a "manufactured ignorance about sex and brith control that is being forced on American teenagers," and to a "likely result of an unprecedented expansion of anstinence-only programs in schools," rather than becuase "U.S. society has become too accepting of teenage sexuality," as constantly argued by the Christian Right. (Roesch, Jen)

Although the latter argument seems to fit with Brave New World and sex being nothing, see current Hip Hop/music videos/song lyrics, and Postman's comment on how "serious discourse [--or INTERcourse-- hahahah] has dissolved into giggles," this is one time where the media is actually coming at this visciously from both sides.

Because "numerous studies show that abstinence-only education is ineffectice and sometimes harmful," (Roesch, Jen). Although when teen pregnancy rates were still declining, the right argued (and mind you, was PAID to argue,) that this was because of their spiffy new abstaining tactics, a Columbia University and Guttmacher Institue study found that "86 percent of the decline was atributable to increased use and effectiveness of birth control, while only 14 percent could be attributed to teens delaying sex." (Roesch, Jen). The study also found that "teens in abstinence-only programs were JUST AS LIKELY TO HAVE SEX, initiated sex at the same age, and had a similar number of sexual partners" as kids who hadn't been suckered by the Right-Wing media. (Roesch, Jen).

My favorite part of the study, and what's utterly terrifying when you think of all that's going into this education, is that "of one in six girls who took [chastity pledges], 88 percent broke their vow before marriage, many within a few eyars. And girls who had taken chastity pledges were LESS LIKELY TO USE CONDOMS, and LESS LIKELY TO SEEK TESTING AND TREATMENT FOR SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES."

Moral of story: don't trust what the media throws at you.

This whole abstinence-only approach is rooted in a denial of facing the reality of teenage sexuality. And so "state-mandated pre-abortion counseling exaggerates the physical and mental health risks of abortion-- for example, ASSERTING A LINK BETWEEN ABORTION AND BREAST CANCER, or claiming that WOMEN WHO HAVE ABORTIONS MAY HAVE SUICIDAL THOUGHTS." Jesus.

And now for more media:

This has all come hand in hand with a cultural backlash where abortion has been portrayed almost unilaterally in a negative spot-light, and almost never as a viable choice. (See several recent movies and TV shows.)

Conclusion: The media gets paid to promote its agenda to you, and it will twist whatever facts that come out to fit with the message it wants to get across, no matter the actual accuracy. So don't just accept what it tell you. Even if it's nonchalantly through a Health assignment.