May 10, 2013

So is turns out that Merida, the rebellious redhead star of Disney’s Pixar film “Brave,” is true princess material after all, and Disney is coronating her as its 11th official princess on Saturday at Walt Disney World to prove it. But wait, there’s a catch.

Turns out that Merida’s only joining the royal lineup after a corporate makeover that’s rendered her skinnier, sexier, and more glamorous than her original spunky, tomboyish self—stripping her, at least in some images, of her trusty bow and arrow, and putting her into the very dress that her character detested in “Brave.” It’s sparked outrage among thousands of mothers for whom Merida offered, finally, an empowering Disney role model for their girls. 

“Merida was the princess that countless girls and their parents were waiting for—a strong, confident, self-rescuing princess ready to set off on her next adventure with her bow at the ready,” reads a Change.org petition, “Keep Merida Brave,” asking Disney to reconsider the character’s redesign. The petition, created Saturday by “A Mighty Girl,” a blog and online girl empowerment marketplace, had already surpassed 50,000 signatures by Friday afternoon. 

“She had a uniqueness that people really loved, so when they took that away, it was a real affront to a lot of people,” Carolyn Danckaert of “A Mighty Girl” told Yahoo! Shine. Danckaert solicited opinions from her Facebook followers before starting the petition, and said she was quickly bombarded with more than 800 comments, “overwhelmingly negative and very passionate.” 

Signers of the petition, who include Peggy Orenstein, author of “Cinderella Ate My Daughter,” object to what they’ve called the sexualizing of Merida’s image, in which the character now appears older, with a tinier waistline, sultrier eyes, a coquettish expression, tamed curls, and more exposed skin peeking out from a bedazzled, off-the-shoulder version of the constricting teal dress she so resented in “Brave.” 

A Disney spokesperson offered the following official statement about the controversy to Yahoo! Shine: “Merida exemplifies what it means to be a Disney Princess through being brave, passionate, and confident and she remains the same strong and determined Merida from the movie whose inner qualities have inspired moms and daughters around the world.”  

But the makeover—put in place, at least in part, to lend Merida more easily to product designs, according to a report in “Inside the Magic,” which covers Disney news—was still inspiring impassioned criticism at a rapid clip as of Friday. 

“My little girl has unruly curls, wants to climb trees, run with wind, and challenge stereotypes everyday AND she is only 4 years old,” writes one petition signer, Kerri Gaskin of Canada. “How can I possibly tell her that her favorite character has given in and given up to become an overly sexualized pin-up version of her former self?” 

Other signers call the new Merida “arm candy,” “unrealistic,” “vacant looking,” “too sexy,” and “vapid.” 

“Merida was the anti-princess for all of us who don’t wear makeup, let our hair rampage free, and prefer to wear real clothes that let us hike, climb mountains, and ride horses,” wrote petition signer Kris Dorman of Utah. “Please allow Merida to remain the fiercely confident young woman who doesn’t need glitter or skin to know she is of incredible strength and worth.”

Orenstein wrote about the redesign on her blog with a tone of resigned disgust, noting that, “in the end, it wasn’t about being brave after all. It was about being pretty.” She continued, “I’ve always said that it’s not about the movies. It’s about the bait-and-switch that happens in the merchandise, and the way the characters have evolved and proliferated off-screen. Maybe the problem is partly that these characters are designed in Hollywood, where real women are altering their appearance so regularly that animators, and certainly studio execs, think it’s normal.”

For the parents who say that Merida is “only a cartoon,” asking, “Why does it matter?” Danckaert says, “It’s sending a message,” which is one that puts forth a very narrow definition of beauty. “This is how children pick up cultural messages about what is important,” she adds. “Young children don’t really distinguish between reality and fantasy, and these characters are their role models.”

Taken from: http://www.fronterasdesk.org/news/2013/may/07/disney-wants-trademark-dia-de-los-muertos/

May 7, 2013

UPDATE: A Disney studio spokesperson told Fronteras Desk late Tuesday afternoon the company will be withdrawing its trademark filing.

“As we have previously announced, Disney-Pixar is developing an animated feature inspired by the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos. Disney’s trademark filing was intended to protect any potential title for our film and related activities. It has since been determined that the title of the film will change and therefore we are withdrawing our trademark filing.”

As first reported by Stich Kingdom, on May 1, Disney Enterprises, Inc., a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, filed trademark applications to secure the phrase “Dia de los Muertos” across multiple platforms for an upcoming Pixar film.

Dia de Los Muertos is a popular holiday celebrated across Latin America, especially in Mexico and Central America, and it has become more popular in the United States. Families commemorate the lives of lost family members or friends between Oct. 31 and Nov. 2 each year.

Disney filed 10 requests in the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office this month to coin the phrase. Disney’s filings are mainly for merchandise, presumably connected to an upcoming film.

The areas they are hoping to secure include “education and entertainment services,” “fruit preserves; fruit-based snack foods,” “toys, games and playthings,” “clothing,” “footwear,” “backpacks,” “clocks and jewelry” and more.

Rod Berman, a patent attorney in California, says Disney is filing to protect products, not steal a holiday.

“Even if Disney were to obtain trademark registration, that wouldn’t prevent anyone from practicing their faith or having the holiday,” Berman said.

In the past, Disney sought to trademark “SEAL Team Six” the Navy SEAL team that assassinated Osama Bin Laden. They wanted exclusive rights ranging from toys to snow globes. After outcry from critics, The Wall Street Journal reported Disney withdrew the application “out of deference to the Navy.”

Many reacted angrily to the “Dia de los Muertos” news on social media, with some accusing Disney of trying to profit from a sacred Mexican tradition. Disney has not yet responded.

A Houston company listed as The Valence Group already holds a 2007 trademark for “Día de los Muertos” for entertainment services like theater, plays and musicals. A gaming company in Nevada holds a 2012 trademark for “Día de Muertos.”

The U.S. Trademark and Patent Office has issued trademarks related to other holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah.

Taken from: http://www.examiner.com/article/ugandan-leader-passing-kill-the-gays-bill-will-be-christmas-gift

November 12, 2012

Merry Christmas? Ugandan Speaker of Parliament promises the draconian anti-gay (Kill the gays) bill will pass before the end of 2012, and will be a Christmas gift for Uganda’s Christian community.

On Monday, November 12, Ugandan Speaker Rebecca Kadaga told The Associated Press that Uganda’s anti-gay bill will be passed before the end of 2012 despite vigorous and vocal international criticism of the odious legislation. Kadaga insists it is what most Ugandans want: Ugandans “are demanding it,” she said. Last Friday Kadaga met with Ugandan anti-gay activists who spoke of “the serious threat” posed by homosexuals to Uganda’s children. Some Christian clerics at the meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, asked the speaker to pass the law as “a Christmas gift.”

Gay Star News reports the law will broaden the criminalization of same-sex relationships by dividing homosexuality into two categories; aggravated homosexuality and the offense of homosexuality. ‘Aggravated homosexuality’ is defined as gay acts committed by parents or authority figures, HIV-positive people, pedophiles and repeat offenders. If convicted, they will face the death penalty. The ‘offense of homosexuality’ includes same-sex sexual acts or being in a gay relationship, and will be prosecuted by life imprisonment.

November 12, 2012

On Saturday, a Neo Nazi hate group in Charlotte, North Carolina held a rally made up of about 50 supporters. But their biggest enemies turned out to be over a hundred clowns. According to local reports, the Neo Nazi protesters were outnumbered at least five to one.

The National Socialist Movement (NSM), a neo-nazi hate group, was supposed to hold an anti-immigration rally but they were drowned out by all the clowns making noise. Counter-protesters brought squeaky toys, whistles, noise-makers, red noses and flour—every time the NSM mentioned “white power” the counter demonstrators sprinkled white flour in to the air.

The counter demonstration was organized by the Latin American Coalición, according to their website they’re “a community of Latin Americans, immigrants and allies that promotes full and equal participation of all people in the civic, economic and cultural life of North Carolina through education, celebration and advocacy.”

“The message from us is, you look silly,” Lacey Williams, the youth coordinator for Charlotte’s Latin American Coalición, told WCNC. “We’re dressed like clowns and you’re the ones that look funny.”

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the NSM is an organization that specializes in theatrical and provocative protests and is one of the largest and most prominent neo-Nazi groups in the United States.

November 12, 2012

STUDENTS at almost 500 schools are running Facebook sites dedicated to humiliating their peers as more and more children are forced to carry the incessant burden of cyber-bullying outside the school gates.

A News Ltd investigation of more than 4800 Australian primary and high schools has revealed more than 10 per cent have a Facebook page on which students are taunting each other and teachers with abusive language and offensive pictures.

Many of the posts are too offensive to reprint, but include graphic sexual discussion of students and teachers, shocking gore photos of suicide and accident victims, underage girls labelled “sluts”, male teachers named as pedophiles and references to Nazism. The majority of pages – many which carry the school’s full name and logo – contain homophobic, racist and misogynist jokes and drug references. Some of the most insidious pages, typically called “burn books” or “goss pages”, name and tag students in vicious rumours, which are then “liked” and shared around other students’ social networks.

One of the most shocking pages, from a school in Queensland, features gory photos of suicide and accident victims and a horrific picture of a battered child with an accompanying “joke” about domestic violence, all alongside references to the school and photos of the campus. Also on the page, which has accrued more than 760 fans since being launched in late August, is a photograph of a baby with a gun to its head with the caption “one like = one baby shot”, and a cartoon advocating methamphetamine use.

Another school page, from NSW, names a teacher as a “child molester” and calls another a “c***”, while students who have posted complaints have been abused with homophobic slurs.

A page from WA featured a photograph of a male teacher and female students overlaid with the logo of a pornography website, accompanied by snide comments joking that he was a pedophile.

The page, which accrued more than 600 fans since its launch in mid September, also featured photographs of students fighting, jokes about female Year 7s being “sluts” and arguments between students using extremely offensive language, all underneath the school’s official logo.

That page has since been deleted, but two others using the school’s name still exist.

One principal admitted his school had little control over what students did on the internet outside of school hours. ”You can block all these things on our intranet and they can’t do it at school but they have their own ways from home,” he said. But another principal added: “If students make threats over Facebook we are going to deal with them … as if it were an incident in the schoolyard.”

Cyber-bullying expert Dr Barbara Spears, from the University of South Australia, said “liking” nasty Facebook posts was the new face of schoolyard bullying. ”Clearly, `liking’ such pages contributes to the ongoing humiliation of others, and bystanders – those who contribute to bullying by not doing anything about it – are actively supporting it,” she said. Studies suggest 15 to 30 per cent of children are bullied at school, and around 10 per cent have been cyber bullied. Dr Spears said bullying was not shifting from the schoolyard to the screen, but “expanding” there. Constant access to technology meant “there is no escape”, she said.

Child psychologist and National Centre Against Bullying founder Michael Carr-Gregg said traditional playground bullies were taking their warfare online. ”What we’re finding now is that a lot of these kids are using the technology to literally make other people’s lives hell and the burn books are a really good example of this because so many people see it,” he said. Dr Carr-Gregg said vulnerable children could not brush off that kind of humiliation. ”For them, they’ve already got depression or they’ve already got anxiety so the gun is already loaded and the cyberbullying, the burn book, simply pulls the trigger,” he said.

The most serious forms of cyber bullying can attract stalking, harrassment or defamation charges. And it is illegal to use a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence under federal law, but a Federal Police spokeswoman said no minor had ever been charged. She said parents should try to deal with cyber-bullying through schools and only go to police as a last resort.Dr Carr-Gregg said too few people were charged over their heinous online behaviour. ”Some of these burn books can result in young people harming themselves so I don’t think the law is up to scratch,” he said. ”I think we need a social norm that says this type of behaviour is unacceptable and it needs to be enforced.”

WORST OF THE WORST

Examples of depravity on Australian schools’ Facebook pages

• Photo of a baby with a gun to its head, a photo of a battered child, gory pictures of suicide and accident victims, graphic pornography (QLD)
• Photo of a male teacher with female students captioned that he is a pedophile (WA)
  
• Male teachers pictured and captioned as “child molester” and “raper” (NSW)
  
• Messages telling students to kill themselves (NSW)
  
• Students threatening to rape other students (NSW)
  
• Female student named as having an affair with a teacher (NSW)
  
• Female student named as having AIDS (QLD)
  
• School classrooms pictured and captioned as “rape dungeons” (WA)
  
• Male student named as having had sex with goats (SA)
  
• Graphic sexual discussions about a female teacher (SA)
  
• Female teacher called “slut” and “hooker” (WA)
  
• Student with a speech impediment pictured and teased (SA)
  
• Black male student pictured and called a “n****r” (WA)
  
• Page with a profile picture that reads “kill yourselves” (QLD)
  
• Pictures of Hitler and references to Nazism (NSW)
  
• Praise for students who egged a teacher’s car (VIC)
  
• Message to students about a particular teacher: “spit on her shoes and s*** on her face” (VIC)

November 12, 2012

The annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show taped last Wednesday caused a minor stir last week — but not because of any sexy underwear on display.

Model Karlie Kloss (pictured at left) set off some controversy when she walked the runway wearing a Native American headdress (also called a war bonnet), a culturally insensitive faux pas that led the company to pull the footage of the offending outfit from its planned Dec. 4broadcast.

Several Native American groups called the lingerie company out for the blunder. Native Appropriations, a blog covering imagery of indigenous cultures, accused the retailer of “egregious cultural appropriation, stereotyping, and marginalizing of Native peoples.” Ruth Hopkins, a columnist for a Native American news site, wrote that “after years of patronage and loyalty to the Victoria’s Secret brand, I am repaid with the mean-spirited, disrespectful trivialization of my blood ancestry and the proud Native identity I work hard to instill in my children.” Putting a headdress on a white model is particularly offensive, she wrote, because among the Sioux tribe, war bonnets are exclusively worn by men, with each feather symbolizing an act of valor.

The $12 million show, which had musical performances by Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars, showcased plenty of not-meant-to-be worn ensembles, including circus-themed outfits and a $2.5 million “fantasy bra.” Last year the show averaged nearly 10.4 million viewers, up from 8.9 million in 2010, according to Horizon Media. (This year’s show was taped on Nov. 7 and is set to air Dec. 4.)

Kloss, who walked the catwalk in a leopard bikini, turquoise beaded jewelry, high-heeled moccasins, and a floor-length feathered headdress (with the word “Thanksgiving” projected on a screen behind her), issued an apology via her Twitter account on Sunday: “I am deeply sorry if what I wore during the VS Show offended anyone. I support VS’s decision to remove the outfit from the broadcast.”

Victoria’s Secret, owned by Limited Brands (LTD) also apologized on Twitter, and issued a statement: “We are sorry that the Native American headdress replica used in our recent fashion show has upset individuals. We sincerely apologize as we absolutely had no intention to offend anyone. Out of respect, we will not be including the outfit in any broadcast, marketing materials nor in any other way.”

Whether the controversy will put any kind of dent in Victoria’s Secret’s sales is questionable. By apologizing and pulling the offending clip from the show, the company addressed the goof quickly, so the damage will likely be minimal, says Brad Adgate, director of research at Horizon Media. With a presence in nearly every shopping mall in the country, it’s the biggest specialty retailer for intimate apparel. In 2011 Limited Brands sales sales increased $751 million to $10.364 billion, while Victoria’s Secret Stores sales rose $601 million to $6.121 billion.

The lingerie seller isn’t alone among big-name retailers accused of insensitivity. There was a fair amount of anger aimed at American Apparel, which sent an e-mail blast to customers during Hurricane Sandy for a 20% off sale for people living in the affected states, with a tagline that read “In case you’re bored during the storm.”

The headdress gaffe also — oddly — comes soon after the band No Doubt pulled its music video last week after getting complaints that it was insensitive to Native Americans. In the video for “Looking Hot,” band members dress up in stereotypical cowboys and Indians attire.

November 12, 2012

SIX PEOPLE have been sacked and one has resigned from two branches of a funeral services company following secret recordings showing staff making racist comments and disrespecting the dead.

The funeral services workers, from Gillman Funeral Service branch in Tooting southwest London and another branch in Slough, lost their jobs after an inquiry carried out by parent company Funeral Partners Limited (FPL).

They were investigated after racist and disrespectful behaviour was captured by undercover journalists and shown on ITV’s Exposure programme, The British Way of Death. The show was aired on September 26, causing huge public outcry.

In a statement, Funeral Partners Ltd (FPL) said five staff members from Gillman’s Tooting branch were sacked. FPL added: ‘One other person has also been dismissed and a second has resigned at an FPL branch in Slough after making racist comments.’

Among the incidents seen on ITV’s Exposure were:
• Family members being called ‘animals’ at an African Caribbean man’s funeral after his widow complained about an “awful” smell at her own husband’s funeral. The body had been left unrefrigerated for six days, according to the programme description on ITV news.
• Funeral staff chanting ‘Chelsea scum’ at a corpse before sealing his coffin
• Staff failing to dress the deceased in clothes their loved ones had provided for them and
• Staff watching pornography on a mobile phone while driving a hearse

FPL’s chief executive Phillip Greenfield said: “Their comments and actions disgusted not only myself and their fellow colleagues but rightly incurred the wrath of the whole community. I want to reiterate my heartfelt apology to everyone who has been affected by this, especially families of the deceased in our care. We are extremely sorry for any distress and hurt that has been caused. Having followed due legal process, we have dismissed six people and one has resigned. We have also commissioned an independent inquiry to look into this.” Greenfield added: ‘We want to work with all our local community organisations to build bridges. We know it will take time but we will do everything we can to rebuild trust in our staff and in the services we offer.”

FPL, which said it acquired Gillman’s six branches two years ago, said the sacked staff was not following FPL’s policies and procedures. The company said was putting in additional procedures including a new training programme. Greenfield said: “It has become clear to us that these staff were not following our very clear policies and procedures about respecting the deceased. We will be introducing a new training programme throughout our business and improved HR procedures along with additional investment to ensure this never happens again.”

Veteran anti-racism campaigner, Lee Jasper, who co-chairs BARAC UK, has called for legislation to be strengthened to tackle bigotry in the funeral services sector following the programme. He told the Voice in September that what he saw was “profoundly disturbing. The desecration of the dead, the most toxic racism and sexism against a backdrop of extortionate pricing will case deep and profound distress.”

November 12, 2012

The attack came seemingly out of nowhere. As the 28-year-old Bangladeshi man dug around trash bins one recent afternoon for scrap metal, two women and a man set upon him with a knife. He screamed as he fell. Rushed to the hospital, he was treated for a gash to the back of his thigh.

Police are investigating the assault as yet another in a rising wave of extreme-right rage against foreigners as Greece sinks further into economic misery. The details vary, but the cold brutality of each attack is the same: Dark-skinned migrants confronted by thugs, attacked with knives and broken bottles, wooden bats and iron rods.

Rights groups warn of an explosion in racist violence over the past year, with a notable surge since national elections in May and June that saw dramatic gains by the far-right Golden Dawn party. The severity of the attacks has increased too, they say. What started as simple fist beatings has now escalated to assaults with metal bars, bats and knives. Another new element: ferocious dogs used to terrorize the victims.

“Violence is getting wilder and wilder and we still have the same pattern of attacks … committed by groups of people in quite an organized way,” said Kostis Papaioannou, former head of the Greek National Commission for Human Rights.

As Greece’s financial crisis drags on for a third year, living standards for the average Greek have plummeted. A quarter of the labor force is out of work, with more than 50 percent of young people unemployed. An increasing number of Greeks can’t afford basic necessities and healthcare. Robberies and burglaries are never out of the news for long.

With Greece a major entry point for hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants seeking a better life in the European Union, foreigners have become a convenient scapegoat. Some victims turn up at clinics run by charities, recounting experiences of near lynching. Others are afraid to give doctors the details of what happened – and even more afraid of going to the police. The more seriously hurt end up in hospitals, white bandages around their heads or plaster casts around broken limbs. ”Every day we see someone who complained of (some form) of racist violence,” said Nikitas Kanakis, president of the Greek section of Doctors of the World, which runs a drop-in clinic and pharmacy in central Athens that treats the uninsured.

Racist attacks are not officially recorded, so statistics are hard to come by. In an effort to plug that gap and sensitize a population numbed by three years of financial crisis, a group of rights groups and charities banded together to document the violence. They registered 87 cases of racist attacks between January and September, but say the true number runs into the hundreds. ”Most of the time the victims, they don’t want to talk about this, they don’t feel safe,” Kanakis said. “The fear is present and this is the bigger problem.”

Frances William, who heads the tiny Tanzanian community of about 250 people, knows the feeling well. ”People are very, very much afraid,” he said, adding that even going next door to buy bread, “I’m not sure I’ll be safe to come back home.” The community’s cultural center was attacked several weeks ago, with amateur video shot from across the street showing a group of muscled men in black T-shirts smashing the entrance. Earlier that day, children standing outside during a birthday party were threatened by a man brandishing a pistol, William said.

The recent elections showed a meteoric rise in popularity of the formerly marginalized Golden Dawn, which went from less than half a percent in 2009 elections to nearly 7 percent of the vote and 18 seats in the country’s 300-member parliament in June. Campaigning on a promise to “clean up the stench” in Greece, the party whose slogan is “blood, honor, Golden Dawn” has made no secret of its views on migrants: All are in the country illegally and must be deported. Greece’s borders must be sealed with landmines and military patrols, and any Greeks employing or renting property to migrants should face punishment.

The party vehemently denies it is involved in racist attacks. ”The only racist attacks that exist in Greece for the last years are the attacks that illegal immigrants are doing against Greeks,” said Ilias Panagiotaros, a burly Golden Dawn lawmaker who divides his working time between Parliament and his sports shop, which also sells military and police paraphernalia. His party is carrying out a “very legitimate, political fight . through parliament and through the neighborhoods of Athens and of Greece,” he said. The party’s tactics – handing out food to poor Greeks, pledging to protect those who feel unprotected by the police – are working. Recent opinion polls have shown Golden Dawn’s support rising to between 9 and 12 percent.

In late August, the conservative-led coalition government began addressing the issue of illegal immigration by rounding up migrants. By early November, they had detained more than 48,480 people, arresting 3,672 of them for being in the country illegally. Rights groups also warn that what started as xenophobic attacks is now spreading to include anyone who might disagree with the hard-right view. Greek society must understand that the far-right rise doesn’t just concern migrants, said Kanakis. ”It has to do with all of us,” he said. “It’s a problem of everyday democracy.”

Taken from: http://www.inquisitr.com/378153/were-a-culture-not-a-costume-ohio-students-seek-to-end-racist-halloween-garb/

October 27, 2012

Ohio University student group Students Teaching About Racism in Society (STARS) is reviving their 2011 social awareness campaign “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume” in an effort to combat racially stereotypical costumes this Halloween season. Featuring the tagline “You wear the costume for one night, I wear the stigma for life” the images have incited a discussion across the web about the appropriateness of some costume choices.

The campaign features a series of ads showing people of different races and ethnicities posing alongside some of the insensitive costumes many of us are used to seeing this time of year. The images range from rappers and gang bangers, suicide bombers, Asian “mathletes” to even depicting African tribal women and an African American woman pregnant and smoking a cigarette.

After receiving criticism last year for failing to include Caucasian stereotypes this year’s campaign also includes a white man posing next to an “Appalachian” or “Redneck” costume.

STARS President Keith Hawkins, an Ohio University senior, spoke with CNN about the group’s decision to resurrect their “We’re a Culture, Not a Costume” campaign to increase social awareness of the dangers of racial stereotyping:

“[We] decided to continue with the posters because we agreed that they were not only successful last year but actually made a difference on campus and in the global community … We were told by many professors that students wanted to talk about it, and this is exactly what we were looking to do. So we hoped we could put out another strong campaign this year that will continue the message of racial awareness and inclusiveness.”

So what exactly makes an offensive costume? Where is the line between homage and insult? Hawkins believes a costume falls into a questionable area when it portrays negative cultural stereotypes meant to poke fun at an already ostracized culture.

“When the costume portrays a hero or legend in general, I would say it is not offensive … It is the act of either using the hero or legend that over-exaggerates negative stereotypes that often stigmatize marginalized cultures that makes the costume offensive.”

Link to last year’s post: http://agentsofsocialchange.wordpress.com/2011/10/24/stars-were-not-a-costume-campaign/

To all the veterans and active armed forces, thank you for your service. You remind us every day that freedom is a privilege, not a right. Whether you’re from America, South America, Asia, Africa – wherever, may you take a moment today (if not everyday) to acknowledge the sacrifices the men and women in uniform have made and are making everyday. May war and armed conflict end soon, and let all our troops quickly return home safe and sound.

November 7, 2012

Before election results came in, Arapahoe was considered the swing county in the swing state of Colorado. Roughly a third of the county’s voters are registered Republicans, a third are registered Democrats, and the remaining third are independents. The county and the state ultimately swung to reelect President Obama—and voters of color had a crucial voice in that decision.

Law enforcement and poll workers in other Colorado counties had already harassed Latino canvassers and early voters (story down below). And on Election Day, Arapahoe County voters experienced very long lines, and rumors began to emerge about possible voter challengers.

When I arrived to Arapahoe’s Aurora CenterPoint voting center, people were braving chilling temperatures to wait their turn to cast a ballot. A handful of volunteers handed out water bottles, some cups of coffee, and even pizza to thirsty and hungry voters—and their sometimes exhausted kids—in line.

Shortly afterwards, I noticed a man wearing a suit with a distinguishable US flag tie, who seemed especially irritated as he walked around the voting center, sometimes looking at people in line and turning red with anger. Long after the doors were closed, and the final batch of voters were casting their ballots, this gentleman made two phone calls to report what he had observed—all within earshot of several voters and poll workers, who sometimes stared at him in confusion or disbelief.

The man, who later identified himself to me as Republican poll watcher Dayton Conway, complained not only about the water and pizza handed to voters in line, but also about what he said was the disproportionate amount of people of color who were casting ballots. According to the 2010 census, “White persons not Hispanic” made up less than 50 percent of Aurora’s population—and that’s a big change from just 20 years ago previously, when they made up nearly 80 percent of the city’s population. In some ways, Aurora is a present day microcosm of this country’s demographic future, which is shifting towards a numerical majority of people of color.

Conway, meanwhile, was in denial about his city’s population, and frustrated that so many people of color cast their ballots at the CenterPoint voting center. Many did so because Colorado’s Secretary of State, Republican Scott Gessler, encouraged voters in several counties, including Arapahoe, to use voting centers anywhere in the county, instead of assigned polling stations. That means people driving to and from work could stop by at a location most convenient to them—and they did.

Conway’s comments and physical irritability didn’t seem to deter any voters from casting their ballots during the three or so hours I was there. But his statements do illustrate some of what’s wrong with far-right poll watchers like the True the Vote group, which insists there’s rampant voter fraud despite any real evidence to support its claims. What Aurora’s voters proved last night was that they recognized their right to cast a ballot, and they weren’t swayed by people who think otherwise.

***

Taken from: http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/11/sheriff_deputies_poll_worker_harass_latinos_in_swing_state_colorado.html

November 6, 2012

Although both presidential candidates stopped their visits to Colorado days ago, it remains a crucial swing state in this election. With just nine electoral votes, and its distance from the eastern part of the country, the Centennial State has lost its spot in the national media, but may prove important in this tight race.

That’s why canvassers have been busy encouraging people to vote here. But it hasn’t necessarily been easy to either canvas or show up to the polling station for some Latinos. One canvasser, who works with a coalition of groups leading a get out the vote initiative told me that, during her training, she was told, “And watch out for police. They don’t always think people who look like us should be out in the street.”

Not many job descriptions include a warning that the work may entail police harassment, but this is Colorado, where demographics are changing. In 2010, the Latino population hit one million—accounting for every one in five Coloradans. As more and more Latinos turn 18, it’s that younger generation that may hold the key to sway this election. The Latino vote here is expected to increase 15 percent over the last presidential election, accounting for nearly 9 percent of the state’s electorate.

The quiet, rural town of Pueblo West, just a two hour drive from Denver, is a mixed neighborhood that’s part of the greater city of Pueblo, which makes up more than 40 percent of the state’s entire Latino population. And canvassers there are eager to encourage all voters to get out to the polls. One canvasser, who declined to have his name for publication, was doing just that last week when he ran in to trouble. He and his canvassing partner, who are both Latino, noticed local Sheriffs were sometimes tailing them, but they continued their work.

They drove to a local convenience store for snacks, but when they got back into their car, they realized they couldn’t back away from the parking spot because it was blocked by two Pueblo County Sheriff’s vehicles. They were both asked to show identification, and deputies ran these for outstanding warrants. The canvassers explained they were simply urging people to get out and vote, but the deputies replied that local residents called in to complain about two suspicious Latinos in the neighborhood. The deputies then told them they should quit immediately, and “call it a day.”

And it’s not just Pueblo County where Latinos feel they’re being harassed. I spoke with one woman who was a first time voter in Boulder. A mother who’s originally from Central America, she also declined to have her name in print for fear of retaliation. She became a citizen last year, and was so excited to cast her ballot that she voted early last week. But the process was confusing for her, and after she came home and spoke with family members, she realized she had accidently skipped a portion of her ballot. She returned with her daughter and son-in-law the next day, to inquire if she could fix her ballot, or have it annulled and cast a new one in its place.

That’s when she says things got out of hand. One poll worker, who was white, began to get angry. He told her she would be charged with a felony, have to pay fines, and serve time in prison. He then rose from his seat, and she says she was afraid he might strike at her son-in-law. Fellow poll workers, she says, all went absolutely silent, and essentially embarrassed him from any further harassment. This new voter told me that had her daughter and son-in-law not been there with her that day to protect her, she would never consider voting again.

The Department of Justice is monitoring elections in Denver County, and hundreds of volunteer poll workers, recruited through the Colorado Civic Engagement Roundtable, will be making sure that voters aren’t harassed at the polls. But they may meet their match if poll challengers begin questioning voters’ right to cast a ballot. True the Vote, which held a summit here earlier this year, claims that they, too are dispatching thousands of monitors.

If today’s outcome comes down to Colorado, that will mean it may likely come down to the state’s Latino voters. But they may have to overcome unnecessary obstacles to cast their ballots.

October 21, 2012

Sometimes the best life lessons can be learned from kids.  Kids like Miss Vivienne Harr of Fairfax, Calif. Vivie, as she likes to be called, is a personality-full-cup-runneth-over, 8-year-old philanthropy phenom who set up a lemonade stand – or what I like to call Lemonade Stand 2.0.

Vivie was inspired to take a stand against slavery after seeing an installation on slavery by Lisa Kristine, a photographer who captured these authentic, haunting, gut-wrenching snapshots of modern-day slaves around the world. The family cried in disbelief. They went home and researched slavery and human trafficking.

Vivie was inspired to take action. She quickly garnered tens of thousands of supporters from the local and worldwide community and raised more than $50,000 dollars in just under two months.

Vivie’s project went viral after Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times op-ed columnist, tweeted about @vivienneharr and #MAKEASTAND LEMONADE. She’s also been featured on many media outlets including the BBC, Yahoo and is slated to appear on Jeff Probst’s talk show, which debuts on Sept. 10.All the business acumen that Vivie had was selling lemonade. She took a stand and did something – selling lemonade was in her power to be a voice for the voiceless.  Rain or shine, Vivie plans to set up shop and sell her organic, free trade, made-with-love lemonade every day until they raise $150,000 to free 500 slaves. All of the proceeds will go to NOT FOR SALE, a nonprofit organization that re-abolishes slavery around the world. Won’t you join her and make a stand?

Vivie isn’t stopping at her $150,000 goal. She’s working with investors to bottle her #MAKEASTAND LEMONADE … stay tuned!

Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane in history, and the subsequent Nor’easter has ravaged much of the Caribbean  the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern U.S., causing countless power outages, long lines for gas and voting, much damage and destruction, and most tragically, taking lives. Please help do or donate whatever you can to help bring needed supplies, resources, and funds to the devastated areas.  Here is a list of several donation/relief sites we found with a quick scouring of the internet, but by no means is this list representative of the myriad disaster relief efforts taking place, or comprehensive. If you have other organizations you want to include, please let us know!

Red Cross

Salvation Army

Waves for Water

The Mayor’s Fund to Advance the City of New York

Interoccupy

Red Hook Initiative

Family to Family

Food Bank of New York City – Sandy Emergency Fund

350.org

City Harvest

Guiliani’s Staten Island Relief Fund — via Tunnel To Towers

City of Long Beach, NY Relief Fund

Feeding America

Tzu Chi

November 9, 2012

CIA Director David Petraeus resigned his post on Friday, confessing to having shown “extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair.” The former Army general rocketed to global prominence as the man in charge of the “surge” in Iraq and later the commander of American forces in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama said Petraeus had led the Central Intelligence Agency “with characteristic intellectual rigor, dedication, and patriotism. ”I am completely confident that the CIA will continue to thrive and carry out its essential mission, and I have the utmost confidence in Acting Director Michael Morell and the men and women of the CIA who work every day to keep our nation safe,” the president said in a written statement. ”Going forward, my thoughts and prayers are with Dave and Holly Petraeus, who has done so much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the very best at this difficult time,” Obama continued.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a statement that did not specify a reason for Petraeus’s departure but praised his colleague extensively. ”From his long, illustrious Army career to his leadership at the helm of CIA, Dave has redefined what it means to serve and sacrifice for one’s country,” said Clapper.

Petraeus went to work as CIA chief in September 2011 after heading up the war in Afghanistan. He had drawn fire in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya. His departure comes barely a week before he was scheduled to testify about the assault in closed-door sessions with the intelligence committees of the Senate and House of Representatives. Morell was expected to take his place, congressional aides said.

Petraeus’ resignation letter, quoted by several news outlets, centered on his personal behavior. ”Yesterday afternoon, I went to the White House and asked the President to be allowed, for personal reasons, to resign from my position as D/CIA. After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair. Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours,” he said. “This afternoon, the President graciously accepted my resignation.”

Petraeus, 60, has been described as the father of the military’s counterinsurgency doctrine. The charismatic officer had been cited as a possible future presidential or vice presidential prospect. His wife Holly has worked inside the Obama Administration, serving at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Republican Senator John McCain, his party’s senior member on the Senate Armed Services and one of Petraeus’s most outspoken admirers, said the general “will stand in the ranks of America’s greatest military heroes. ”His inspirational leadership and his genius were directly responsible—after years of failure—for the success of the surge in Iraq,” McCain said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.”

In a statement, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said, “I very much regret the resignation of David Petraeus. This is an enormous loss for our nation’s intelligence community and for our country. ”I wish President Obama had not accepted this resignation, but I understand and respect the decision,” Feinstein added.

Taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hdvyvLhw2s

Actress Sally Field speaks at HRC’s 16th Annual National Dinner and explains why she loves and supports her gay son Samuel Greisman.