To: sfj_deanza@yahoogroups.com
From: bamitssam@sbcglobal.net
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:15:48 -0800
Subject: Re: [sfj_deanza] Join The Impact Protest of Prop 8

The United States was founded on racism- and our country was built on slavery, does that mean that we should go back to that also? Just because our country was founded on a flawed concept doesn’t mean that it’s just or fair.

Also, whatever happened to seperation between church and state? There are many religions in this country, not just Christianity. The great thing about America (or the supposed great thing) is that this country is a mix of all different races, ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, and religions. It doesn’t matter how many percent of the nation is Christian, religion has no place in government.

If marriage was just a Christian concept then the religious authorities could invent their own rules and regulations and conduct the ceromonies in any way that it pleased. However, marriage is not a one- religion ceremony. It takes place within every culture and within every relgion (including Agnostics and Athiests). So why then, does a group think that it can determine how marriage is performed for everybody? Why do they have a right to say who can and cannot get married? Marriage is a government issue (hense the marriage license), and therefore has nothing to do with religion.

peace,

Samiyah

WSWS : News & Analysis : North America

The politics of community service in the US

By Nancy Hanover
4 August 2008

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“Under Socialism all this will, of course, be altered. There will be no people living in fetid dens and fetid rags, and bringing up unhealthy, hunger-pinched children in the midst of impossible and absolutely repulsive surroundings. … Socialism, Communism, or whatever one chooses to call it, by converting private property into public wealth, and substituting co-operation for competition, will restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and ensure the material well-being of each member of the community….” (Oscar Wilde, The Soul of Man Under Socialism)

Americans live in increasingly troubled times. Hunger, foreclosures and poverty are all around. Begging on city streets, a phenomenon that became much less common in the 1990s, is again becoming ubiquitous in urban centers. Not since the Great Depression has the gap between the rich and the poor been so visible and extreme.

The growing poverty and inequality has been fueled in part by the decay and virtual collapse of the labor movement, which has left working people almost powerless in the face of the onslaught on living standards and social conditions.

Social and political stability requires that the political establishment at least feign concern with these social problems, however. The mass media, schools and other institutions have campaigned for increased charitable giving and volunteer efforts to help the growing number of “disadvantaged.”

Young people in particular have been targeted for enlistment in volunteerism. With little or no political experience or historical frame of reference, they are told that they can make a difference one good deed at a time. To further encourage this outlook, community service has in many cases become a requirement for high school graduation, while many colleges and universities give substantial weight to hours of service in their decisions on admissions. Community service centers have been added to university student affairs divisions to meet the demand for placement, and many graduates, unable to find jobs, sign up for a year or two of government-sponsored volunteer work. (more…)

An article recommended by Rich Wood about Youth Activism.

Here is a short excerpt:

I just got back from a two-week campus speaking tour during which I had the privilege of hanging out in a women’s center at a Catholic college, eating bad Mexican food with Mennonite feminists, and chatting with aspiring writers and activists at a college in which half the students are the first in their families to experience higher education. I heard the stories of transgender youth in Kansas City, jocks with food addictions in Jacksonville, and student organizers who are too overwhelmed to address all the world’s problems in Connecticut.

When my plane finally landed with a resounding bump at LaGuardia, I felt totally inspired by the earnest enthusiasm that beamed out of almost every student I encountered — and also terrified that the university system is sucking the life out of them. At the risk of biting the hand that feeds me (I am usually paid to speak, in part, by student organizations and women’s centers), I have to attest that the institutionalization of activism on college campuses seems to be a key culprit in the absence of visible youth movements in this country.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/20/5339/

10 Days That Shook Olympia

For 10 days, anti-war activists in Olympia, Washington have slowed down and for two different periods of 12 hours or more, stopped the flow of military weapons and military cargo that were unloaded from a Navy ship that had returned from Iraq. For 24 hours a day, we have used a variety of tactics and actions. They have included sitting in front of trucks carrying Stryker vehicles and other military equipment from leaving the Port of Olympia, building barricades on the roads where these military vehicles were traveling, anti-war demonstrations through the streets of Olympia and vigils, downtown. A hearing was held at City Hall, last Sunday, November 11th, 2007 to document the excessive police force used against people who participated in these actions. We testified at the Olympia City Council and at a hearing of the elected Port Commissioners demanding that they take a stand opposing the U.S. war against Iraq by not letting our Port be used to transport war supplies. About 500 people have taken part in some or all of these protests.

From http://www.counterpunch.com/bohmer11152007.html

Peter Bohmer has been opposing the imperial actions of the United States since the 1960s. He is a longtime member of the faculty at The Evergreen state College in Olympia, WA

Read the rest to see the youtube links!
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