Environment
All evidence suggests that our lives and that of our planet are in grave peril. If we are to survive, we must immediately dismantle the forces of greed and power that are destroying our lives in the toxic pursuit of empire. It is our refusal to face the realities of global warming and our continued illegal use of Depleted Uranium that are the true terrors of our time. Our governments and the corporate empires they defend must be compelled to cease and desist from all forms of violence against our earth and its inhabitants, to work towards mitigating the damage done and to begin creating a livable future.
What could be wrong with farming in concert with nature—eliminating toxic agrichemicals and the use of genetically engineered crops? Well, plenty if you are a CEO at Monsanto, Dupont, or any number of other “life-sciences” companies that have invested in an escalating smear campaign aimed at discrediting organic farming. Promulgated by such well-funded surrogates as the right-wing Hudson Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the American Chemical Society, these multinational corporations can’t stand that consumers are voting with their pocketbooks because of their discomfort with conventional farming practices and have turned organic food marketing from a small, eclectic niche into the fastest growing segment of the food industry, with over $12 billion in sales this year.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." The agrichemical industry is definitely itching for a fight.
Mahatma Gandhi once said, "First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." The agrichemical industry is definitely itching for a fight.
Liberal Arts faculties at most universities are politically and philosophically one-sided, while partisan propagandizing often intrudes into classroom discourse. It is appropriate for faculty to want open-minded students in their classes, not disciples." This dire quote about academia is on the webs ite of a group called Students for Academic Freedom, a Washington D.C.-based group supported by rig conservative activist David Horowitz. What the quote doesn't say is that the group only approaches this issue from one side and that the group's mission is to win the war of words on this issue using a tactic called "framing."
In a 1993 scholarly article one of framing's chief theorists, Robert Entman, defined framing as, "to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described." Like a picture frame, framing shows some parts of the world outside the window, but not all. Framing is successful when it becomes part of the media discourse.
In a 1993 scholarly article one of framing's chief theorists, Robert Entman, defined framing as, "to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/or treatment recommendation for the item described." Like a picture frame, framing shows some parts of the world outside the window, but not all. Framing is successful when it becomes part of the media discourse.
Shovels ground into the four-foot high mound of mud in the road. Several cars were piled either on top or in front of the lump, freshly formed by a sudden landslide following a rainstorm. This was only a minor obstacle in our two-day journey through Sichuan Province to Da Ze Temple ("Temple of the Great Rule"), a small monastery in a remote region bordering Tibet. Our group consisted of over 20 people, mostly educated young or middle-aged professionals from Shanghai and Sichuan, all devout followers of a Living Buddha, or Huo Fo, whom they called "master."
They represented a growing contingent of people in Chinese society who have both the resources and the will to pursue something beyond material existence. Overwhelmed or disappointed with the influx of material wealth, people who came of age in the Reform Era are moving away from the drive toward wealth and toward another type of success, in which the profit margin is serenity and the chief asset is contained not in a bank but in a spiritual vision.
They represented a growing contingent of people in Chinese society who have both the resources and the will to pursue something beyond material existence. Overwhelmed or disappointed with the influx of material wealth, people who came of age in the Reform Era are moving away from the drive toward wealth and toward another type of success, in which the profit margin is serenity and the chief asset is contained not in a bank but in a spiritual vision.
Settled amid rows of urban housing and apartment buildings on a busy thoroughfare of Milwaukee's north side is the Growing Power Community Food Center. What at first glance appears to be a modest roadside produce market and aging greenhouse - the last of its kind, standing in an area that was once the thriving agricultural center of the city known as Greenhouse Alley - is a pioneer meeting place and educational facility, committed not only to growing food but also to growing communities.
Nine years ago, Will Allen, a local farmer and co-director of Growing Power, Inc., tapped into a movement that was emerging from beneath the shadows of waxy apple towers and pallid wilted greens of mega-markets across the nation. However, the vision of providing a community-based education center was never a part of his original plan. "I bought this place for my own selfish reasons, to sell my farm produce," he explains. His main desire was to expose his family to the pride and integrity he associated with farming, as he had experienced it first-hand as a child growing up in rural Maryland.
Nine years ago, Will Allen, a local farmer and co-director of Growing Power, Inc., tapped into a movement that was emerging from beneath the shadows of waxy apple towers and pallid wilted greens of mega-markets across the nation. However, the vision of providing a community-based education center was never a part of his original plan. "I bought this place for my own selfish reasons, to sell my farm produce," he explains. His main desire was to expose his family to the pride and integrity he associated with farming, as he had experienced it first-hand as a child growing up in rural Maryland.
It happens somewhere in America almost every day. On Chicago's South Side, dozens of elderly folks gather outside the power company's gates before dawn to block utility trucks from going to shut off poor people's electricity and are arrested. In Los Angeles, African-American, Latino, and Korean bus riders, all wearing yellow t-shirts and chanting, march one week against poor public transportation, and the next against the war in Iraq.
Despite the supposed lack of class conflict in the United States, hardly a day passes without angry crowds of ordinary people confronting the elites whose decisions affect their lives. In organizing terminology, these groups are frequently called community-based organizations, or CBO's. From national networks like ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation to locally based groups like Direct Action for Rights and Equality in Providence or the Bus Riders' Union in Los Angeles, these groups share a particular set of organizing methods first developed in the 1930s.
Despite the supposed lack of class conflict in the United States, hardly a day passes without angry crowds of ordinary people confronting the elites whose decisions affect their lives. In organizing terminology, these groups are frequently called community-based organizations, or CBO's. From national networks like ACORN and the Industrial Areas Foundation to locally based groups like Direct Action for Rights and Equality in Providence or the Bus Riders' Union in Los Angeles, these groups share a particular set of organizing methods first developed in the 1930s.
Food and its distribution have been the spark for more riots, revolutions, and political movements than anything else you can name. Still, in a rich country such as ours, food can ebb and flow as a political issue. The mid-1970s, however, was a time when food was in the forefront of many people's political work. Rainbow Grocery Cooperative started as part of an ambitious food system in 1975 that sought to incorporate collective stores, producers, and distributors into one big counter-cultural network that would destroy corporate agribusiness by providing healthier, less processed, cheaper food alternatives.
While almost all of the food collectives that made up that network have collapsed over the last 30 years, Rainbow has survived, becoming the largest natural foods store in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has gone from an all-volunteer staff to a 200-person worker cooperative, still dealing with the ongoing issues of how to best support its community - and who their community actually is.
Economic Power
While almost all of the food collectives that made up that network have collapsed over the last 30 years, Rainbow has survived, becoming the largest natural foods store in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has gone from an all-volunteer staff to a 200-person worker cooperative, still dealing with the ongoing issues of how to best support its community - and who their community actually is.
Economic Power
The “RAD ALERT Conference:
Nuclear Dollars versus the
Common Good” was held in Columbus on September 25, complete with national and international level speakers. The central intent of the conference was to provide the necessary information to understand several current nuclear issues.
What is most interesting is the coverage given to the conference by the Columbus Dispatch. In an article published on Sunday, September 26th, in response to facts and documents provided by Dr. Doug Rokke, health physicist, former Army Medical Corps, and former head of a team to clean-up uranium weapon damaged equipment, the Dispatch contacted a Robert G. Williscroft, a former Navy submarine officer who supposedly specialized in nuclear weapons.
What is most interesting is the coverage given to the conference by the Columbus Dispatch. In an article published on Sunday, September 26th, in response to facts and documents provided by Dr. Doug Rokke, health physicist, former Army Medical Corps, and former head of a team to clean-up uranium weapon damaged equipment, the Dispatch contacted a Robert G. Williscroft, a former Navy submarine officer who supposedly specialized in nuclear weapons.
Robert F. Kennedy was greeted with a standing
ovation on Wednesday at Campbell Hall on the OSU campus. A Harvard graduate, Kennedy is a professor at the Pace University School of Law, senior attorney for the National Resources Defense Council, and chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper Fund.
More than two hundred people came to hear him talk about his new book, Crimes Against Nature, and the Bush administration’s irresponsible environmental policies.
Kennedy blamed the public’s ignorance of President Bush’s environmental abuse on the timidity of the national press and the White House Press Corps, whom he referred to as “stenographers.”
More than two hundred people came to hear him talk about his new book, Crimes Against Nature, and the Bush administration’s irresponsible environmental policies.
Kennedy blamed the public’s ignorance of President Bush’s environmental abuse on the timidity of the national press and the White House Press Corps, whom he referred to as “stenographers.”
Robert F. Kennedy was greeted with a standing
ovation on Wednesday at Campbell Hall on the OSU
campus. A Harvard graduate, Kennedy is a professor at
the Pace University School of Law, senior attorney for
the National Resources Defense Council, and chief
prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper Fund.
More than two hundred people came to hear him talk about his new book, Crimes Against Nature, and the Bush administration's irresponsible environmental policies.
Kennedy blamed the public's ignorance of President Bush's environmental abuse on the timidity of the national press and the White House Press Corps, whom he referred to as "stenographers."
More than two hundred people came to hear him talk about his new book, Crimes Against Nature, and the Bush administration's irresponsible environmental policies.
Kennedy blamed the public's ignorance of President Bush's environmental abuse on the timidity of the national press and the White House Press Corps, whom he referred to as "stenographers."