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Two tome picks for summer

AUSTIN — What a glorious year for the summer reading list! Enough gems to stock any list — fiction and non-, funny and tragic, sometimes both simultaneously; plus a perfect plethora of peppy public policy books.

But there are two books I especially want to recommend, both by women I admire and know slightly: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich and Washington by the late Meg Greenfield of The Washington Post. If you read them in conjunction, it more than doubles the strength of each.

Ehrenreich’s book, it seems to me, is the stronger of the two. She did what reporters used to do before they became so unbearably self-important: She reports what the society actually looks like from the bottom. Starting in 1998, she went out and got successive and sometimes simultaneous no-skills, close-to-minimum wage jobs and tried to make it from one month to the next. She couldn’t do it. As she so painfully shows, the joker in the deck for low-wage workers is the cost of housing.

Overdue verdue: Media scrutiny of the 'White Bloc'

As police fired rubber bullets through tear gas in Quebec City, many reporters echoed the claim that “free trade” promotes democracy. Meanwhile, protesters struggled to shed light on a key fact: The proposed hemispheric trade pact would give large corporations even more power to override laws that have been enacted — democratically — to protect the environment, labor and human rights.

Newsweek responded to the turmoil at the Summit of the Americas with a column by Fareed Zakaria, a favorite policy analyst in elite circles. He declared that “the anti-globalization crowd is antidemocratic ... trying to achieve, through intimidation and scare tactics, what it has not been able to get through legislation.” In recent decades, of course, the same was said about cutting-edge demonstrations for such causes as civil rights, peace in Vietnam and environmental safeguards.

Why is everybody always picking on US?

In a five day period in early May, the United States was justifiably slapped around at the United Nations. It’s about time. While the mainstream media encourages U.S. citizens to angerly mutter “Why are they picking on us? We’re so good,” the reality is the U.S. deserved to be voted off the Human Rights Commission on May 3. This is the first time in the history of that body that the U.S. has not had a seat on the Commission. It would be an irony of the highest sort to keep the U.S. on the Commission when our current president routinely executed people as Governor of Texas at a rate higher than the vast majority of nations in the world. The U.S. came in last of the four nominated countries – Sweden, France and Austria. Not only do they all have better records on Human Rights, they all have significantly higher rates of voter turnout. With the recent findings by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission – the fact that for every ten black votes not counted in Florida’s last election, only one white vote was voided – perhaps the first thing the U.N. Human Rights Commission could do would be to investigate the massive human rights violations in the rogue state of Florida.

What is Beacon Fellowship?

Beacon Fellowship is a non-profit, Interfaith organization who’s Mission is to unite people to create change in communities. We are not a political group, we are not a church, we are a small community organization working on Social Justice issues that impact all of us.

Our Social Justice focus includes racism, homophobia, violence, poverty, substance abuse and youth issues. Ongoing projects include:

  • Beacon Against Violence Initiative (BAVI)

  • Quarterly and Monthly publications

  • Beacon Against Racism project

  • Interfaith Socials and Social Justice Gatherings

  • Small group Educational Programs

  • Day of Remembrance Interfaith Gatherings, April 20, 2002

  • Beacon Against Violence Day, October 12, 2001

Celebrating Cindie Cyrus

Cindie Cyrus, Democratic Party regular and progressive activist, passed away this past April. Cindie’s untimely exit from our world has caused tremendous mourning among her friends and admirers.

A large group of Cindie’s friends, family, activists and party regulars got a chance to reminisce at her memorial, presided over by the Rev. Gary Witte, about her dedication to social justice and human rights. There are many who have fond memories of working with Cindie Cyrus, here are some excerpts from her friends’ words:

Cindie had many passions in life. But three loves were greater than others. Cindie dearly loved her mother, daughters and grandson. She read books to him from the time he was born. When he showed an interest in plants and flowers, she encouraged him to create his own garden in the backyard. People just naturally bloomed around Cindie.

j o i n t e f f o r t s - Local Cannabis reform group takes a stand, proves a point

For A Better Ohio (FABO), Columbus’ own advocacy group for the reform of cannabis legislation, had several successful acts of hemp activism and agitation this spring in hopes of raising awareness regarding its current efforts to decriminalize personal use. This effort, in the form of an initiative petition utilizing the city’s policy of home rule, would, if successful, make misdemeanor quantities of marijuana the lowest priority misdemeanor in the city. Misdemeanor quantities can safely be defined as quantities that are for personal use and not for distribution.

FABO has been spending this year collecting signatures to put the initiative on the ballot this November. In order to promote the initiative, For A Better Ohio has also staged a “potluck” picnic on OSU’s campus, a march down High Street, and most recently, the annual Hempfest, also held on campus.

on a move - the story of Mumia Abu-Jamal

The first biography of Mumia Abu-Jamal by Terry Bisson

Covering Mumia’s childhood in the North Philly projects, a turbulent youth in Oakland and New York, a promising career in radio journalism, and a fateful sidewalk altercation that changed everything, Bisson’s colorful sketches tell the story of one of the stormiest periods in American history, and of a young rebel who came of age in its crucible.

$12.00/£8.00, Softcover, 240 pages, 36 photos, ISBN #0874869013 Discounts for 10 or more copies. To order phone:

US: 800-806-3079, UK: 0800 018 0799, INT: 44 (0)1580 883 344

Email: editor@litmusbooks.com

Mojo and the Libertarian Party

Disclaimer: The Free Press wants to point out that the opinions in this article are those of the writer, that Libertarian Party members do not particularly behave the way those in this article do, and that this article is mostly about Mojo Nixon and should be taken as such by the reader. Libertarian Party members are given our wholehearted welcome to write their own article and email it to this site.

As I was sifting through my agenda for the week, trying to figure what I was supposed to write about, I saw that Mojo Nixon was coming to town for the Libertarian state convention. I guess we all have bills to pay and it sounded better than the usual Monday night city council meeting—that and the fact I have been a Mojoholic for a while now. For years Mojo used to wear a blue t-shirt on stage that said Vote Libertarian. He had been practicing for this gig forever.

In Mojo’s opinion, “the Republicans and Democrats are selling us the same bag of shit with different colors on it! They have a monopoly on politics. If you don’t go through them you’re screwed, except in a few little places…like Vermont, apparently anything goes in Vermont.”

There’s a New Sheriff at 270 State Street

On Monday June 11th. the Columbus Board of Education sans two selected Deputy Superintendent Gene Harris to lead this beleaguered school district as its next superintendent. Well now what does that suggest for the system? Harris former student of, teacher in and administrator for the system certainly has enough familiarity with the system to know where all of the skeletons are buried. After serving for nearly a year as the number two person, she will now have the opportunity to step up to the plate and take a swing at rescuing a system that seems to many to be beyond repair. The Columbus Public Schools system has a major image problem, not to mention the substantive challenges that plague it. A staggering drop-out rate, truancy rate, unreliable figures on college placement and a low graduation rate are but among a few of the minor issues that face Harris as she ascends to the leadership role.

Journey through a land of fear

I had been told that flying to Tel Aviv was like flying to no other place in the world. This turned out to be correct; before even allowed to my gate I was extensively questioned, (including a few inexplicable questions, like “What is alchemy?”) and searched. Fortunately, my answers were satisfactory enough to get me on the plane.

I was going to Israel as a member of a small delegation to visit Christian Peacemaker Teams, a small group of committed Christians who are, somewhat quixotically perhaps, trying to help improve the situation in the Middle East through their simple non-violent presence. They are based in Hebron, a large city located south of Jerusalem in the West Bank. Hebron is one of the tensest locations in the ongoing conflict, with plenty of extremists on both sides, and I had been warned that I would be going into something very much like a war zone. Of course, all the literature I had read was insufficient preparation for what I was going to see.

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