I am thankful today for Hope, the hope that we can all share right now,
that love can heal our world.
And I am thankful for the love that I feel right now.
It's burning inside me, and everyone.
We need to come together, and let our love burn like a big flame.
So that everyone can feel it.
And we can heal our Earth.
Today, as most Thanksgivings, I am thankful for my amazing family and for the good fortune that fate has dealt me in this life. The idea of good fortune fits in really well with what I've been feeling since the School of the America's protest I was part of in Fort Benning, Georgia last weekend.
For blog-fans not familiar with the School of the Americas (SOA), it's a special school where the U.S. government trains Latin American cadets in the art of assassination, kidnapping, torture, and mass executions. Graduates of the school are entrusted the sacred duty of protecting free markets and wealth by murdering priests, union members, artists, and entire villages of violent Marxist revolutionary terrorists (SOA in a nutshell, find more at www.soaw.org/).
I went down to Georgia with an eclectic group of peace-lovers from Syracuse to attend this non-violent protest that drew over 20,000 people this year. It was great. All weekend long, we convened to listen to testimonies from people that have seen the true face of Free Trade. Union leaders from Colombia spoke about the murder of activists who protest the dangerous work conditions in the coal mines run by U.S. based Drummond coal. Migrant workers told the story behind their search for work in the picking fields of U.S. farms. An indigenous Guatemalan man told us how he hid during a paramiltary raid on his village, and how he was the only survivor of the massacre. And Americans spoke of what they had seen and heard from the people in their visits to Colombia and Mexico and Guatemala, and how these connections had changed the course of their lives. Recognizing the violence and injustice behind NAFTA and U.S. military aid, American citizens are the only ones who can push our government to abandon the free trade model because the costs are just too high. The policies the United States has advocated in Latin America for over a century have spilled the blood of countless innocent victims (collateral damage, right?) and we the people, knowing what we know, need to continue making our collective voice heard, louder and louder until it can't be ignored.
The weekend was serious and the discussions were heavy, but at the same time, it felt as though the majority of the people I spoke with shared the hope that things could change. And we shared a joy that we were all there, 20,000 of us, fueled by a love of life and truth. And we heard stories from individuals from the U.S. and the Latin America who were organizing for their rights, challenge the system, and and working to build peace. I listened to a member of the Coalition of Immokalee workers. his words so full of determination, "No estoy satisfecho." We are not satisfied with the status quo, and we will work together to change things for the better.
Is the country still high on Obama's change? Let's see if he closes the School of Assassins in 2009. Or maybe we can give Guantanamo back to Cuba (not before excommunicating the demons of the islands' only from the only McDonalds). As commander in chief, Obama will have choices to make, the most important one being, who he will listen to. We the people need to make sure he hears us, and he needs no reason beyond justice to guide in his decision making. I want to invite Obama to take a trip wearing only his CITIZEN chat to Colombia or Mexico or maybe Syracuse, and then start making choices that will fix the power imbalance in this world.
On the long long drive back to Syracuse, I felt like I had in August after Spanish for Activists camp. Refueled and regenerated, ready to give all my energy to the struggle. Except it's a lot colder and I can't just go around singing revolution all day long. My personal challenge in the coming days and months is going to be figuring out, What can I do for the struggle? How can I be an agent of change in this world?
So it's Thanksgiving, and me and my mom just had a kick-ass dinner of free-range cow and fall fruits, including starring collards, sweet potatoes, acorn squash. I am very thankful this year, because I am full of the hope that our love for one another, that Namaste love that sees the light burning in everyone, that love for the Earth and all it's living things, will one day heal the world.
And don't shop tomorrow! Buy Nothing Day! We've got enough stuff.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Manna from Obama
In about 48 hours we'll know the consensus of more voices than this country has ever heard. The most beautiful thing that I've witnessed this election season are the reports of record breaking numbers of new voter registrations. I work for Citizen Action, who proudly registered close to 5000 new voters in the the City of Syracuse. If not for my job, who knows if I would've gotten infected with Obamamania. I got it cause I get it. Obama's gotten me and everyone else around (me, my dad, Oprah, the Southside of Syracuse) to truly believe that a CHANGE is possible. Just check the Daily Show interview: http://blog.indecision2008.com/2007/08/23/barack-obama-on-the-daily-show/).
As a society, we need to mold our politicians. We need to challenge them, from within and without, which means giving them a chance. And just doing it, VOTING ON NOV. 4th, because it's a right that we have in our country. Lots of people worked really hard to guarantee voting rights so that capitalist males weren't the the only voice in the running of our country. OK, they're still messing things up, but we the people can't let up, and voting is just one way that our dissent can be heard.
I am constantly reminding myself to take off the Obamavision glasses. I believe that in his heart, Barack Obama believes that we need to heal the world and make it a better place and end our support for states that are guilty of using paramilitaries against their populations. While maybe he couldn't close the School of the Americas or end the Cuban embargo right of the bat, his presidency would allow the voice of popular dissent to be heard, in the streets and in the corridors where decisions are made. In the final debate two weeks ago, Obama made the direct link between NAFTA and human rights abuses by the Colombian government against Colombian labor union organizers. Could a President Obama ignore the thousands of protesters that arrive at Fort Benning, Georgia to demand that we stop teaching foreign soldiers how to violently suppress their populations? We need to make sure that we don't let ourselves be ignored after Nov. 4th.
A sad truth that we the people need to confront is that the riches that some people here have are the result of a very particular social arrangement. Let a select few make decision and develop a enforcement capabilities, and let the rest work really hard, sweat and bleed, and convince them to accept intolerable living standards. Disenfranchisement is more than just denying people the vote. It's a violent system, and we can't let it beat us, so we the people need to assault it from every angle, until we can reach a consensual arrangement, where no matter what my job is or how many babies I end up having, I can eat organic local food and never ignore a medical issue just because I'm scared of the doctors bill. It's a long way to the promised land, but I think we're on our way. And I trust Barack Obama, that he'll work to make sure that tomorrow is better than today, for as many people as possible. Our responsibility, as we the people, is to never stop challenging the system and molding our politicians. They're supposed to be working for us, right?
Syracuse and the rest of urban America are going crazy for Obama and the dream of affordable health care and better schools. Record numbers are participating in this years election because it's about time that things got better. Expectation of change are going to be high. If you live in Syracuse, you should call me and then you should get your booty into my office and help me call new voters and tell them to get their booty over to their assigned polling place and vote in this historic election. Let's make our collective voice heard. And then Wednesday, we can keep fighting the military-industrial complex, organizing for peace, and maybe make time for some yoga. It's a beautiful struggle, and election season is part of it.
Be sure to make your calender for November 9th to attend a very special event, "And Justice for All..." It's dinner and a movie, a date with the Detainment Task Force, an invitation to discuss immigration justice over beans and rice. Sunday, Nov. 9th @ 4:30, Plymouth Congregational Church, downtown. If you need more details, get in touch, ursula.rozum@gmail.com.
As a society, we need to mold our politicians. We need to challenge them, from within and without, which means giving them a chance. And just doing it, VOTING ON NOV. 4th, because it's a right that we have in our country. Lots of people worked really hard to guarantee voting rights so that capitalist males weren't the the only voice in the running of our country. OK, they're still messing things up, but we the people can't let up, and voting is just one way that our dissent can be heard.
I am constantly reminding myself to take off the Obamavision glasses. I believe that in his heart, Barack Obama believes that we need to heal the world and make it a better place and end our support for states that are guilty of using paramilitaries against their populations. While maybe he couldn't close the School of the Americas or end the Cuban embargo right of the bat, his presidency would allow the voice of popular dissent to be heard, in the streets and in the corridors where decisions are made. In the final debate two weeks ago, Obama made the direct link between NAFTA and human rights abuses by the Colombian government against Colombian labor union organizers. Could a President Obama ignore the thousands of protesters that arrive at Fort Benning, Georgia to demand that we stop teaching foreign soldiers how to violently suppress their populations? We need to make sure that we don't let ourselves be ignored after Nov. 4th.
A sad truth that we the people need to confront is that the riches that some people here have are the result of a very particular social arrangement. Let a select few make decision and develop a enforcement capabilities, and let the rest work really hard, sweat and bleed, and convince them to accept intolerable living standards. Disenfranchisement is more than just denying people the vote. It's a violent system, and we can't let it beat us, so we the people need to assault it from every angle, until we can reach a consensual arrangement, where no matter what my job is or how many babies I end up having, I can eat organic local food and never ignore a medical issue just because I'm scared of the doctors bill. It's a long way to the promised land, but I think we're on our way. And I trust Barack Obama, that he'll work to make sure that tomorrow is better than today, for as many people as possible. Our responsibility, as we the people, is to never stop challenging the system and molding our politicians. They're supposed to be working for us, right?
Syracuse and the rest of urban America are going crazy for Obama and the dream of affordable health care and better schools. Record numbers are participating in this years election because it's about time that things got better. Expectation of change are going to be high. If you live in Syracuse, you should call me and then you should get your booty into my office and help me call new voters and tell them to get their booty over to their assigned polling place and vote in this historic election. Let's make our collective voice heard. And then Wednesday, we can keep fighting the military-industrial complex, organizing for peace, and maybe make time for some yoga. It's a beautiful struggle, and election season is part of it.
Be sure to make your calender for November 9th to attend a very special event, "And Justice for All..." It's dinner and a movie, a date with the Detainment Task Force, an invitation to discuss immigration justice over beans and rice. Sunday, Nov. 9th @ 4:30, Plymouth Congregational Church, downtown. If you need more details, get in touch, ursula.rozum@gmail.com.
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