On this Black Friday, brave Walmart workers will be picketing in protest of their low wages and the retaliation they experience for speaking out.
What you can do:
Find a protest near you, and stand in solidarity with these brave Walmart workers.
Every worker deserves fair treatment and a living wage.
On this anniversary, I recall the time I happened to come face-to-face with JFK, while he was in the White House and I was barely in kindergarten.
My family was taking the standard White House tour, when we came to a room with a curtain blocking the entrance. The guide indicated that the president was in a meeting behind that curtain.
Being a curious child, and standing very near one end of the curtain, I pulled the corner back slightly and peeked in. The president noticed me - a little girl Caroline's age - and he smiled and waved.
He radiated friendliness and charm. That day, he became my first crush.
I will never forget that brief moment when I learned at a very young age that great people are human and can be so down-to-earth.
And I think that lesson emboldens me in my human rights work today.
Vigils are scheduled around the country to mark this occasion.
>> Click here to find an event near you.
Mary Cheney and her wife, Heather Poe, promptly fired back. A recent article from The Hill summarizes their reaction quite well with this quote from Poe:
"Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 — she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. To have her now say she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least."So it appears that Liz Cheney's newfound(?) rejection of same-sex marriage is intended to score political points with the far-right factions of the Wyoming electorate.
But I'm not worried about the electorate. I'm worried about Liz Cheney's niece and nephew - Mary's and Heather's children. Samuel is 6 years old. Sarah is 4. How will they feel when they someday learn that their Auntie Liz has suggested that their moms' marriage is somehow invalid, perhaps making them "bastards" under some definitions?
Has Liz Cheney thought about this? Does she care at all about their feelings? Or does she care only about her political ambitions?
Amnesty International believes that Chelsea Manning, the US soldier sentenced to 35 years' imprisonment for leaking classified government material she believed was in the public interest, should be shown clemency and immediately released. This is in recognition of:What you can do:• Her motivation: Manning acted in the hope that she could spark a meaningful debate on the costs of war and specifically on the conduct of the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• The extended period of time she has already spent in pre-trial detention and the treatment she received, which was described by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture as cruel and inhumane.
>> Read more and sign Amnesty's petition here.
The bill is now on its way to Governor Neil Abercrombie's desk. Abercrombie, a Democrat, has indicated that he will sign the bill.
With this measure, Hawaii will become the 15th U.S. state (plus District of Columbia) to legalize same-sex marriage.
35 more states to go.
Most prisoners fight for a stay of execution. But not McCoskey
McCoskey wants to die to escape the horrific conditions on death row. In an open letter to Governor Rick Perry, McCoskey's friend Petra de Jong describes the prison conditions:
"They are basically stuck in a box for at least 23 hours a day. No human contact, hardly any daylight, abysmal food with hardly any nutritional value, relentless heat, continuous noise and harsh, if not outright violent, treatment by guards. Men go insane in there. Men smear themselves with feces, men gauge their own eyes out (google for Andre Thomas if you are blissfully unaware of his tragic story), men scream day and night in absolute terror."Amnesty International and other organizations and individuals consider the death penalty to be a gross violation of human rights. But McCoskey has volunteered for death in order to escape other gross human rights violations that he and the other inmates endure every day.
And Governor Perry just continues to brag about the "justice" system in his state.
Sadly, however, many low-income vets may go hungry on this holiday due to Congress's recent cuts in SNAP benefits (formerly called food stamps).
This is how Congress chooses to thank the brave men and women who risked life and limb for us, many of whom have been wounded or otherwise traumatized in service to this country.
It is nothing short of shameful. And it is nothing short of cruel.
Today, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) announced that Secretary Chuck Hagel has directed U.S. Pacific Command to support federal humanitarian relief operations in the Philippines.
According to the DoD, "The initial focus includes surface maritime search and rescue (SAR), medium-heavy helicopter lift support, airborne maritime SAR, fixed-wing lift support, and logistics enablers."
Further, said the DoD, "In coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the U.S. ambassador in Manila, the Department of Defense will continue to monitor the effects of Typhoon Haiyan and stands ready to help our ally recover from the storm."
It's nice to see the U.S. military being used for constructive - rather than destructive - purposes.
Today, the U.S. Senate passed the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) by a vote of 64-32. The New York Times called it a "a bipartisan show of support that is rare for any social issue." ENDA, if it becomes law, would prohibit discrimination against LGBT persons in hiring and in the workplace.
Now, the bad news:
It still needs to pass in the House. Speaker John Boehner opposes the bill, and has threatened to not even bring it up for a vote. Apparently he thinks that discrimination is a value worth preserving.
What you can do:
>> Sign this petition urging Boehner to allow the House to vote on ENDA.
Here is a summary of her case, via the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), followed by a link to a petition on her behalf:
"Sixty-six year old Rasmea Odeh is a Palestinian-American feminist, activist, educator and community leader who has served as the Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) in Chicago since 2004. On October 22, Rasmea was arrested by the Department of Homeland Security and charged with immigration fraud. [...] Rasmea's hearing is scheduled for Nov 13. [...]How you can help:"Allegedly, in her application to enter the United States, Rasmea didn't mention that she had been arrested in Palestine by an Israeli military court. Apparently she was held in Administrative Detention by Israel 45 years ago for at least six months, without charges, a hearing, or a trial. The question on the form she had to fill out is generally interpreted to mean 'Have you ever been convicted of a crime and spent time in prison for that offense?' Her supporters say without a trial, there can be no conviction, and therefore she did not falsify her application."
An online petition calls for the charges against Rasmea Odeh to be dropped.
>> Read and sign the petition here.
Governor Pat Quinn has indicated that he will sign it into law.
I think it's very cool that Abraham Lincoln's home state has now taken this modern-day step towards equality for all.
Just a few days earlier, there was a deadly shooting at the Los Angeles airport.
The NRA (on whose board sit the CEOs of 2 gun manufacturing companies) would like us to believe that these things happen because we need "more good guys with guns."
But I think it's because there are too many bad guys with guns, and too many mentally unstable people with guns - a problem that reasonable gun regulations could reduce.
Big difference.
Sadly, those who have the power to enact such regulations prefer to take their orders from the NRA.
How many more people must be killed or injured because of this?
I grew up in a small, depressed Appalachian town. My family had enough to eat because we had a large garden that yielded enough fruits and veggies to last throughout the year, and because my Italian grandmother, who lived with us, knew how to turn some cheap flour and yeast into wonderful homemade baked goods.
We also regularly fed many of the kids from the neighborhood, who would flock to our house when they smelled the delicious aromas emerging from the kitchen, where Grandma held court each day.
But we couldn't feed them three meals each and every day. So much of the time I saw my less fortunate friends and their siblings munching on mayonnaise sandwiches, or, if they were lucky, SpaghettiOs with buttered bread.
The parents in that town were not lazy. In fact, many of them worked harder than any Congressman or CEO.
My father was an auto mechanic. In fact, he was a mechanical genius, having built his own tractor (for the aforementioned garden) from spare parts. But he had neither the education nor the opportunity to make it big. He wouldn't have wanted to. He was comfortable in his little garage, adjacent to our modest house, fixing the townspeople's cars and trucks. But he could charge only what the market would bear. And, in that town, people didn't have much money to spend.
Most of the other fathers worked either in the nearby coal mines or for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which ran through the town. Often, the workers would go on strike, and I would see my friends panic because of the hardships they would endure when the household income went away for a time. But collective bargaining is a human right, and labor strikes are a frequent part of that. Without the unions and strikes, things would have been even worse. Fortunately, many of these families received food stamps.
Today, two of the GOP's main goals are to cut social services like food stamps (now called SNAP) and to crack down on the unions - with the ultimate goal of eventually destroying both. And they are doing this at a time when our troubled economy has created more families that desperately need these support systems. These people are not lazy - there just aren't enough jobs to go around. And many of the employed are stuck in part-time jobs, or are struggling to make ends meet at minimum wage.
Still, the GOP just continues to feed us the myth of the lazy poor, as they have for decades.
They have the nerve to call themselves "Christian". But, as I recall from reading the Bible, Jesus fed people liberally without judging them. The loaves and fishes, if you believe the story, came with no strings attached; they were simply an act of Christian generosity.
Sadly, Christian generosity is something we rarely see these days in Washington or on Wall Street.
According to Reuters, Syria's next deadline is November 15, when Syria and the international Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) "must agree to a detailed plan of destruction, including how and where to destroy more than 1,000 metric tonnes of toxic agents and munitions."
So far, so good. Diplomacy seems to be working. No U.S. military strikes were necessary.
I hope this will be a lesson learned.
The OPCW won this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Zeke Johnson, Director of Amnesty International USA's Security with Human Rights campaign, explained that excessive surveillance is a threat to each person's right to privacy and self-expression. "Finally," he said, "Congress has introduced a bill to reform the NSA mass surveillance program that everyone should support. It's not perfect, but it is an important step in the right direction and Congress should pass it."
In a news release today, Amnesty described the favorable and not-so-favorable components of the Act:
"Particularly notable are: the bill's creation of an Office of the Special Advocate, with strong authority to take part in cases and appeal them; an opening for the participation of amici curiae; and new requirements of disclosures of the courts' opinions. Also positive are requirements throughout the bill of greater reporting on what kind of surveillance is used and how many people are affected.For now, we'll take what we can get. But we must keep on fighting for our rights and liberties."However, Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the bill retains discriminatory distinctions between the rights of U.S. citizens and non-citizens. Any final solution to the mass surveillance program must uphold the rights of all people equally without distinction based on national origin or other discriminatory factors."
Ann Burroughs, chair of the Board of Directors for Amnesty International USA, reacted to his death with the following statement:
"With the sad passing of Lou Reed, the human rights movement has lost a powerful voice for humanity and a strong ally in the defense of freedom and justice.RIP."Just as he inspired generations of rock fans with his indelible songs, he was also a passionate proponent for our cause. At his core, he bridled against repression in all its forms and he inspired others to speak up to protect human rights.
"One of his many admirers was the late Czech President and human rights activist Vaclav Havel, who famously smuggled a Velvet Underground album out of New York in the late 1960s. The two men later became friends.
"In 1986, Lou joined with other leading musicians for the first of Amnesty International's 'Human Rights Concerts' series - performing at all six concerts on the 'A Conspiracy Of Hope' U.S. tour. Recently, he very generously supported the release of his historic performances as part of Amnesty's DVD box-set of those concerts.
"We send our deep condolences to his loved ones. He will be greatly missed by the human rights movement that he so strongly and eloquently supported."
It is the true story of a free-born black man living well in upstate New York who was then kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South prior to the Civil War. The movie is based on the book of the same name, which is a memoir by the actual lead character, Solomon Northup.
The movie was difficult to watch at times, due to the brutal violence and humiliation forced upon the enslaved characters, and I still feel quite shaken. But it is a story that needs to be told. And it is a movie that needs to be seen.
Overall, the filmmakers did a very good job of condensing the book (which I recently read) into a powerful 2-hour film.
It will open nationwide next week. Please see it.
Meantime, you can visit the film's official website here.
As usual, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement to mark the occasion.
Here are some excerpts:
United Nations Day is a chance to recognize how much this invaluable Organization contributes to peace and common progress.Amen.It is a time to reflect on what more we can do to realize our vision for a better world.
The fighting in Syria is our biggest security challenge.
Millions of people depend on UN humanitarian personnel for life-saving assistance.
UN experts are working hand-in-hand with the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to destroy Syria’s stockpiles.
And we are pushing for a diplomatic solution to end suffering that has gone on far too long.
Our most urgent development challenge is to make sustainability a reality.
The Millennium Development Goals have cut poverty in half.
[...]
We continue to show what collective action can do. We can do even more.
In a world that is more connected, we must be more united.
On United Nations Day, let us pledge to live up to our founding ideals and work together for peace, development, and human rights.
The UN is certainly not perfect, but the world would be far less secure without it.
Today, a memorial in her honor will be dedicated at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, where Rachel had taken classes. The memorial features a beautiful bronze and polished steel sculpture of a dove on the tip of a pyramid. The piece, titled "Reflecting on Peace and Justice", was created by international artist and Evergreen graduate Ross Matteson.
See pictures of the lovely sculpture here.
Today, Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights watch (HRW) jointly released two disturbing reports on U.S. drone strikes and other air strikes in Pakistan and Yemen.
The AI report, titled "Will I Be Next?", documents nine drone killings in northwest Pakistan in 2012 and 2013 that "may amount to war crimes or extrajudicial executions, including the killing of a 68-year-old grandmother and 14-year-old boy," according to an AI news release.
The HRW report, titled "Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda", documents six strikes in Yemen from 2009 to 2013, "two of which indiscriminately killed several dozen civilians in violation of the laws of war," according to the same AI news release.
Read the full reports online via these links:
• AI report: "Will I Be Next?"
• HRW report: "Between a Drone and Al-Qaeda"
The AI report documents nine drone killings in northwest Pakistan in 2012 and 2013 that "may amount to war crimes or extrajudicial executions, including the killing of a 68-year-old grandmother and 14-year-old boy," according to an AI news release.
The HRW report documents six strikes in Yemen from 2009 to 2013, "two of which indiscriminately killed several dozen civilians in violation of the laws of war," according to the same AI news release.
I will post links to the reports when they are available online.
Stay tuned.
Update 10/22/2013: Links to the two reports are available here.
Compare this with the fact that 12.6 percent of the U.S. population is African-American (as of the 2010 census).
Those who say that race no longer matters should think again.
Spirit Day, named for the purple stripe of the rainblow flag representing "spirit", was established as an opportunity for people to speak out against the plague of bullying aimed at LGBT youth.
On Spirit Day, please wear purple to show your support. I certainly will, as I do every year. (The photo is of me wearing purple for the first Spirit Day in 2010.)
Do more:
>> Find more Spirit Day actions at www.glaad.org/spiritday.
I've heard some people (mostly older white men) say that they don't find the "Redskins" name offensive at all. But KKK members were probably not offended by the N-word. They're not the targets of those slurs.
The best people to judge the offensiveness of a potential slur are the targets of that slur. In the "Redskins" case, Native Americans.
So I emailed a close friend who had married into a Native American family, and asked how her husband and his family feel about the term.
Her response was brief and straightforward:
"Redskin(s)" is derogatory and racist. Can you imagine any sports team named the N-word?
I rest my case.
But I will not be celebrating. Here are my reasons:
What we learned about Columbus in school was not the whole truth. In some cases, it wasn't the truth at all.
First of all, Columbus did not originate the theory that the earth is round. Such had been known since ancient times.
Columbus also did not discover America. Leif Ericson and his Norsemen had built a settlement in what is now the Great Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland and Labrador some 500 years before Columbus wandered into the West Indies.
And, once Columbus got here, he enslaved the Native Americans, while helping himself to the new world's gold and other precious resources.
This is what you are really celebrating on Columbus Day.
I consider it a national embarrassment at best.
Fortunately, there has been a steady trend towards abolition in some parts of the world. The death penalty has already been abolished in all European countries except for Belarus. In fact, today over two-thirds of the world's nations - 141 - have ended capital punishment in law or practice. This reflects the growing awareness that there are alternative punishments that are effective and which do not involve state-sponsored killing.
Amnesty International (AI) has called the death penalty "the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights." Indeed, its finality is a huge problem, given so many cases of death row inmates here in the U.S. and around the world who have been exonerated after conviction, based on DNA or other evidence. How many other innocent persons were not lucky enough to be proven innocent prior to their executions? We know of at least a few.
Some proponents of the death penalty believe that it serves as a deterrent. That theory is demonstrably untrue. According to AI, the murder rate in non-death-penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rate in states with the death penalty.
Others argue that the death penalty is the only way to bring closure to a murder victim's family. But not all such families agree. In fact, so many families oppose the death penalty that some have formed organizations such as Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation and Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, through which they actively work to abolish the death penalty. As noted on the latter organization's website, "MVFHR members have come in different ways and times to the understanding that the death penalty does not help us heal and is not the way to pursue justice for victims." They should know.
The death penalty does not represent justice. It represents revenge - sometimes misdirected revenge.
We as a society need to evolve beyond this kind of thing.
What you can do:
>> Read more about the death penalty - and take action - on the AIUSA site here.
Steven W. Hawkins, the new executive director of Amnesty International USA, marked the occasion with the following statement:
"Amnesty International USA's birthday wish to President Putin is: do not blow out the flame of freedom. The vibrant Olympic celebrations will not obscure the Russian government's vicious assaults on the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association.Indeed."Since Vladimir Putin's return to the presidency in May 2012, punk musicians cannot sing about repression in Russia, LGBTI individuals cannot organize a Pride parade or wear a rainbow ribbon without risking arrests or beatings by police, and peaceful protestors are brutally beaten and detained for expressing their political opposition.
"As the Olympic torch arrives at the stadium celebrating athletic competition, it should also shine a light on Russia's failure to safeguard the dignity and rights of all its people.
"The ruthless suppression of human rights and the rule of law in Russia are incompatible with the spirit of the Olympics Games and should be protested."
What you can do:
Click here to send a birthday message to President Putin urging him to end the attack on human rights.
Davis was convicted of the 1989 murder of police officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia. Years of appeals were unsuccessful despite significant doubts about his guilt.
Davis's original trial was flawed, and most of the witnesses later recanted or contradicted their stories. There was no physical evidence linking Davis to the crime, and his conviction was based solely on that questionable testimony by witnesses. In other words, there was reasonable doubt as to Davis's guilt.
Davis's case was so compelling that Pope Benedict XVI called for the case to be reconsidered. So did Desmond Tutu, Jimmy Carter, and countless private citizens. Amnesty International called it "an outrageous affront to justice." But the public outcry was ignored by those in charge.
As a longtime member of Amnesty International, with a particular interest in death penalty issues, I was already quite familiar with the case, which I had followed and written about through the years leading up to the execution. Still, I learned so much from Marlowe's in-depth book, which teaches us more about the case details - and the remarkable Davis family - than we could ever have learned through the mainstream media's coverage of the case.
The book has four heroes:
1. Troy Davis himself, who spent his 20 years on death row selflessly doting long-distance over his family on the outside, and caring more about their wellbeing than his own fate.
2. Virginia Davis, Troy's mother, who nurtured the family through the hard times until her death just a few months before his execution.
3. Martina Davis-Correia, Troy's older sister, who fought tirelessly for justice, even as she fought her own battle against breast cancer.
4. De'Jaun Correia, Martina's son, now a young man, who bravely and strongly carried the torch while his mother's health was failing.
This is a story about Troy Davis's legal battle, and the flaws in the legal system that led to this miscarriage of justice. But, even more, it is a story about the love that holds a family together even through the worst of times.
I recommend this book to anyone who cares about justice - whether you favor the death penalty or oppose it.
I don't think any human being could read this book and not be strongly moved - and maddened.
Most of them are not rich. And so, as long as they're out of work, they will need to cut back on spending. And that could significantly stall our economy, which is already recovering too slowly.
Furthermore, national parks and other federally owned attractions are shutting down, which will take a toll on the tourism industry.
The combined effects could be devastating to the economy and to so many American families.
But the House Republicans don't care. They have theirs.
