Why Most People Won't Know About Drones Until One Is Right Over Their Head

From Portland, Oregon anti-austerity protest Nov. 3 where about 25 people were pepper sprayed by police.

I'm in an interesting discussion with sister activists about our ongoing campaign to raise awareness among the general public about drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles. These flying killer robots cost a bundle, and are used both to kill people and to spy on them. They are already flying over the borders of many countries, including our own.

Here we are performing a die-in during the First Friday Art Walk on Nov. 2 in Portland, Maine.

You can see a daylight performance of the die-in in this video made the last time we staged the event (with a lot more people) at various locations in Portland, Maine on Oct. 8:

The discussion we're having is about whether we're reaching anybody to accomplish our goal of raising awareness about drones. Most in the U.S. go "huh?" if you ask them if they know about drones. If you follow by saying that drones have killed people this year not only in Pakistan and Yemen but also Somalia, Indonesia and the Philippines, they are incredulous.

The Washington Post did a three piece series plus an op-ed on drones recently, which was seen by many as evidence that awareness is growing. They didn't echo CODEPINK's call to ground the drones, but they did at least question the wisdom of the extreme secrecy that surrounds the Obama administration's drone assassination program.

Activists are debating (yes, actually debating -- you know, where each person offers the best arguments they can muster for their position, and the tone is civil with no interrupting) how best to bring the message about drones. Our theatrical director wants to keep it non-didactic, so that spectators are not told what to think but are offered a provocative spectacle to stimulate their own thinking and analysis. Signs and flyers offer additional factual information about drone casualties.

Another organizer wants us to be more explicit, to make sure that passersby really understand why people are dropping to the ground and being covered by bloody sheets and prayed over while people clad all in black labeled with names like Reaper and Predator hover menacingly to the steady beat of a drum. Part of the discussion is about whether to stage these performances in daylight, after dark, on holidays, on public streets, in front of grocery stores, or during well-attended cultural events like the art walk.

This month we did it in the semi-dark because a group of Occupy activists invited the die-in to be part of their Halloween-to-Friday-art-walk series of events "99 Horrors of Capital." They took time out from their sweet occupation of a different corner of Congress and State streets to help leaflet and hold signs. Afterwards everyone enjoyed free local food and entertainment including a fire eater, a pumpkin headed guitarist, a rapper, and much more.

There was also a ton of political art on display in other places that night, including a group show at the Meg Perry Center, and Kenny Cole's solo show at Aucocisco Galleries.

"The Luckiest Generation" by Kenny Cole who wrote in his artist's statement: "I’ve begun to grow alarmed at the storm of misinformation levied by a retrograde army of spin brokers working today."

What to do about the perfect storm of misinformation that characterizes the 21st century? That is the question.

Students Get It. #HereUsNow Statement @Ohio Obama HQ

In Ohio students are on the march (livestream link) chanting “When education is under attack, what do we do? Stand UP fight BACK!” at the president's campaign headquarters in big swing state Ohio. Right cozy up next to Illinois, as in Chicago, as in big buck$ available to help with staffing the white house.

#HereUsNow's statement is a comprehensive embrace of problems related to the rapidly retreating dream of higher education accessible to everyone. Not just rich people's kids.

Environmental risks + economic exploitation + militarization on behalf of the 1% + equality for ALL = Included. Nice.

“You can preach economic growth all day but there are no jobs on a dying planet." Tabitha Skervin, Michigan State University

Bill McKibben could take a leaf from their journal. His "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math" in Rolling Stone earlier this hot, hot summer was a great focus on global warming/carbon's defining numbers, and on identifying an enemy for the purposes of movement building. It's the petroleum companies (not the banks who bankroll them, bet on them, and manipulate their share value, or the government officials that allow it.)

McKibben's reductionist approach makes for clear communication, but it seems to ignore a couple of elephants in the room: how petroleum companies use military spending to keep demand for their product high while scrambling after more of it, and of how much that adds to CO2, as well as how that affects our governance abilities here in the self-styled experiment in democracy.

When I'm working against war and militarization, I feel like I'm resisting the bulldozing of olive trees in occupied Palestine, and D.U. contamination all over Eurasia, and the gutting of education and other social programs to pay for continuing to degrade our natural environment, planet Earth. (And don't even get me started on the takeover of what paltry school funding there is by more and more corporate recipients under the No Child Left Behind Act, which Obama has continued to renew. And whether that generation will receive its notions from the market of free thought, or the market of selling to children.)

It's all connected. Thank the goddess for bright students interested in connecting the dots, and standing up and fighting back on behalf of humanity.

Source: Pictures of Afghanistan, photo by Teddy Wade

 

Blair Witch Trial: Occupy Bangor Protester In Court Aug 21

A hearing on some internationally infamous disorderly conduct takes place Tuesday, August 21 at 1 p.m. in Maine District Court, 18 Colby Street, Waterville. 

Happiest mug shot: Lawrence Reichard after his arrest (Source: Bangor Daily News)

Lawrence Reichard was charged following his act of civil disobedience disrupting a speech by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair at a Colby College graduation ceremony on May 20.

Reichard was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for yelling “liar” and “warmonger” at Blair. A common occurrence in the UK, it was the first such protest in the U.S. to receive widespread coverage internationally.

It was a bad week for Tony Blair -- just a few days later he was shouted at by a protester who entered from behind the judge's seat at a court hearing in London.

Blair was reportedly invited to be the keynote speaker by Colby College board of trustees chair Robert Diamond Jr., formerly CEO of Barclays Bank. Diamond has now stepped down from both posts under investigation for banking fraud. Barclays was ordered by regulators to pay fines in both the U.S. and UK for rigging LIBOR, the world's benchmark interest rate.

Source: photo by David Leaming "Choose A Cause" Waterville Morning Sentinel 5/21/12

Reichard was with a group of protesters who greeted Blair at Colby College with signs. During Blair's introduction some of us shouted that Blair is a war criminal and should be arrested for lying us into war on Iraq, and were asked to leave. 

Source: "Tony Blair At Colby College: 'Are We An Empire That's Fading?'" by Hunter Stuart, Huffington Post

Reichard and another silent protester, Jody Spear (Colby '63), whose sign criticized globalization, remained.

When Blair began speaking, Reichard continued to shout until he was led away by police.

At his hearing for disorderly conduct in Maine District Court, Reichard will read a statement, copies of which will be made available. Reichard, a Bangor resident, is active with the Occupy Wall St. movement.

For further information contact Lawrence Reichard, (207) 907-2086, (home) (415) 794-2955 (cell) or by email: lreichard@gmail.com.

Read My Lips: No New Roads in #Maine

Source: Bangor Daily News "Renewed interest in east-west highway reaches State House"

I live in the hollow middle of Maine, according to the Cianbro Construction CEO who wants to construct a private 2000 foot wide “corridor” road through it. My family has lived in the hollow middle for generations, clinging to the shores of either the Kennebec or Carrabassett rivers, but I traveled all the way down to southern Maine to attend a discussion with transportation experts in Biddeford this week including consultants, engineers, plus my hollow middle former state senator Peter Mills, now head of the Maine Turnpike Authority.

I arrived late for what was billed as a centrist discussion of all matters pertaining to transportation in our state, but no one had yet talked about “the elephant in the room” as investigative journalism Lance Tapley of the Portland Phoenix termed it when he was finally able to raise the issue about an hour into a two hour meeting.

OneTable, free and open to the public, is put on by OneMaine, a group affiliated with Elliot Cutler, the man who brought us Governor LePage. Cutler swooped in out of nowhere with a resume full of Chinese venture capital and flooded the market, especially the internet, with advertising, claiming he was a centrist, and independent like Maine. As a result of splitting the liberal vote, our now infamous buffoon governor claimed victory with 39% of the votes. I did not spot Elliot Cutler in the crowd, along with not spotting David Bernhardt, Commissioner of Maine Department of Transportation, who was supposed to be on the panel but canceled.

Once the topic that most interested the audience was raised, precious little was said about it. Panelists feigned ignorance of the shocking fact that the plan for the E/W Corridor specified a 2000 foot right of way. (The current Maine Turnpike has 300 ft at its widest.) They expressed finding this “confusing.” Panelists also said it was too soon to talk about the project, even though $300,000 of taxpayer money was allocated to a feasibility study for what is intended as a private, limited access road connecting Canada to Canada across the – yup, hollow middle.

Source: Kenny Cole, Maine Draw-A-Thon blog

Dennis Damon, a retired legislator, said disingenuously that “the state” shouldn't build any new roads until it has a plan for maintaining what's already in place but crumbling. I think Damon was playing word games because the E/W, of course, would be a private road, not built by the state. He did give me the idea for a good resistance slogan though: NO NEW ROADS. So simple, even a first grader in the hollow middle wouldn't feel confused.

One panelist who wasn't afraid to support the E/W Corridor, Maria Fuentes, said the spinoff (whatever that is) of the highway would “connect Washington County to the rest of the world.” I guess the county hasn't even made it to hollow middle status; like so much of rural Maine, it is still nowhereville.

Ms. Fuentes seemed to be on a first name basis with Cianbro's CEO, and assured us that she has heard him say he doesn't want to build the road unless he can do it right. Also that the $300k seed money made all the sense in the world, because as long as the road gets approved, the investors will pay the state back.

Extracting resources is the most likely raison d'etre for the corridor, which also contains provisions for mining rights. Tar sands from Canada, water from the Appalachian aquifer, lumber from the great north woods – okay, and maybe some potatoes from the county.

Luckily there were some knowledgeable folks in the audience, in particular Chris Buchanan of Defending Water For Life, who helps ask the right questions of elected and un-elected officials involved in the “private-public partnership” pushing for the Corridor to be built. Video below of what she had to say about that prospect, plus plans to supposedly avoid conservation land (“just not possible”), and the feasibility of protecting wildlife by building bridges for them across the 2000 feet of hollowness.

Panelists (l to r): Moderator Sarah Skillin Woodard, One Maine; Peter Mills, Director of Maine State Turnpike Authority; Maria Fuentes, Maine Better Transportation Association; Dennis Damon, former Senate Chair of the Maine Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Transportation; Matt Jacobson, Oxford Networks; Steve Workman,Workman Consulting; and Kristina Egan, Transportation for Massachusetts.

For more information about Cianbro's East/West Corridor you can visit stopthecorridor.org.

We Need Feminism Cuz Mother Earth Needs Patriarchy To Step Down Now

Facebook album "I Need Feminism Because" on A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World

Who knows how much progress we've missed out on because of sexism?

Do most young people even relate to the concept of feminism? And if so, what do they mean by that term?

Here I share my short video of just a few out of hundreds of conversations on that topic, and on how to save the world. From the Feminist General Assembly held at the Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia, July 1, 2012.

Special thanks to Curtis Cole for much of the video. And for modeling his Bring Our War $$ Home black and white t-shirt on camera -- looking good!

Facebook album "I Need Feminism Because" on A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World

Yesterday I blogged about why Israeli and U.S. policies aim to keep smart young Palestinians down.

Today I'm asking myself, why would elites in the Dominican Republic want to keep smart young women down?

And, can earthlings afford to keep anyone down who might have good ideas at this point in human history?

Satellites See Unprecedented Greenland Ice Sheet Surface Melt Source: NASA

#NatGat: Occupy National Gathering Philly - Day 1

My first day at Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia. It was good to see some familiar faces.

 An excellent sign that I had never seen before, which aptly summed up why we occupy.

The march to end corporate personhood took us to Wells Fargo Bank -- a big forecloser -- as well as Fox News, the Mint, and Dow Chemical. "Whose streets? Our streets!" chanting a rambling crowd of about 300.

At the very start of the march, who should I see but Capt. Ray Lewis (left), retired Philadelphia policeman who showed up at Occupy Wall St. back when the first police brutalities had occurred, to remind officers that force is only supposed to be used when people are in danger of getting hurt, or killed. Oh, yeah, that. I wanted to shake his hand and he wanted to say, "It's you people who brought me out here. You're the ones that did this."

Soon encountered my good peace friend from Maine Palma Ryan, who helped me hold a flag that was very popular with the photographers in Philadelphia in the run up to 4th of July.

Also very glad to see Vets for Peace there.

This occupier on the cot had several run ins with federal park police, who insisted that he remove his cot -- which he would then flip up to display big words saying, "Now it's a sign," or collapse one of the legs asking, "Now, is it still a sleeping structure?" As our wonderful hostesses arrived from picking up FreedomLA at the airport to whisk us home,  we left behind a lengthy debate on the fine points of occupying public space.  More to come tomorrow....

Occupy the Roads at Summer Camp: Whose V? RV!

Source: Occupy The Roads, posting from Occupy Maine Summer Camp

When the big RV pulled in to camp on the evening of Day 1, I was most enthralled by the Wikileaks and Free Bradley Manning messaging on the starboard side.

 

Once I got a chance to talk with V owner and roads occupier Janet Wilson, I realized that the V is one big Occupy scrapbook: the side I loved was contributed by Occupy Newark, while the other sides of the boxy rolling encampment are a montage created in visits to 104 sites as of Kennebunkport.

Janet started out in Seattle, where she sort-of lives, purchasing an RV owned by an elderly couple and taking to the road. Occupy Portland, OR gave her the slogan, "Whose V? RV!" The arrest of 700 people on the Brooklyn Bridge gave her the motivation to cross this great country of ours, "uniting American communities for change."

She has a bookkeeping job she can take on the road, especially after being wired for connectivity by Occupy friends on the east coast. She has a husband back home who sighs over the credit card bills, and who talks her back from the edge of the cliff when the going gets tough.

Mostly she has fun connecting with everyone, though. She told me, "The great thing is, every encampment that I've gone to, when I leave I say, Those are the most amazing people! But then I get to the next camp and I feel the same way!"

As she prepared to head out again from Occupy Maine Summer Camp, Janet took a group of campers over to the gated compound of the Bush dynasty, a site of frequent protests by large crowds back in the day. 

Source: Jen Drury of Occupy New Haven, now Occupying the Roads!

Maybe it was even a little bit nostalgic for the Kennebunkport police.

I hope I meet up with the V and its denizens again at Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia this coming weekend! 'Cause they really know how to have a good time.

Another photo lifted from Jen Drury, of the great banner produced at summer camp and now adorning the front of the V as it heads to Philly by way of Worcenster and a whole lot of other places. Check out where they've been and where they're going at OccupyThe Roads.com.

Feminist GA at Occupy Maine Summer Camp

Occupy New Haven, Maine, The Roads, Our Neighborhoods, TV, and Farms exchanging ideas.

Young, old and in between, we've all got to feed ourselves. Consensus: Local food as the basis of local economies is an idea whose time has arrived in a big way.

I was able to be part of three good discussions during day 2 at Occupy Maine summer camp. We started on the patio surrounded by fields sprinkled with tents, and the bugs weren't too bad as long as you slathered up with fragrant oils that bugs hate.

In the morning we heard from local farmers and transition town planners, and talked about how how we can work together to make our food supply sustainable, healthy and democratic. Diverse models of engagement between people and their food were considered. The people in the group were of varied ages, life work and, to some extent, geographic origin, which made for a rich discussion about the all important questions of what to eat and how to live.

Potluck lunch followed and who should appear but The Stolen Mural, a band from the area, high school students that totally rocked the neighborhood, performing revolutionary songs with verve. One could still talk if one shouted as if at a night club, so I listened and ate while having some interesting talks with people as I look forward to anywhere I am able to Occupy. When the band ended to loud applause, as it faded away the neighbors could be heard singing "God Bless America."

After lunch the subject was local citizens fighting corporate polluters and water miners. Activists discussed  ongoing efforts to exercise the right to Home Rule and stop Canadian Tar Sands from entering our bio-region! Successful campaigns to block corporate development of local water supplies, and to clean up a river so polluted that the mist peeled the paint off buildings along its shores were described. By now large and engaged group had crowded into the upstairs floor of the barn where antique fans were moving hot, humid air around. (The first four days of summer have hit at least high 80's and often 90's around Maine. Scary hot for this part of the world. How do we stop global warming before it's too late?!)

In late afternoon it was time for the Feminist GA, co-led by myself and Pat Taub, CODEPINK Maine's newest Local Coordinator in Portland. We went back to the patio, hoping for a cool breeze.

Feminist GA note taker and facilitator at work.

Twenty-eight people, nearly as many men as women, gathered and introduced ourselves. We each commented on why we had chosen to take part in a Feminist GA. Options for a meeting structure were considered briefly and there was a strong consensus in favor of breakout sessions. This turned out to be a very productive arrangement in that it created supportive space for people to talk about how they experience gender, and what that has to do with the patriarchal systems that all people and the Earth suffer under. 

Men and women held their own circles for about 40 minutes, and then after a short break reconvened as a whole group for another 30 minutes, hearing reports from the breakout sessions, and continuing discussions.

Occupy Freeport, MDI and Maine come together at Feminist GA

Wonderful notes were kept thanks to Diane, Ian, James and Susan. Just some of many interesting ideas:

• Coming together as women is an opportunity to recognize the power of our intuition, and the wisdom of collectively listening to it. This experience builds trust, which also strengthens connections among people. Occupy is about horizontal democracy, and Fem GA is about changing relational dynamics of power that we are all conditioned to, replacing them with trust. Equality can be expressed by “Level Glance” when people are on the same level, eye to eye. Also, we can aspire to listening without being afraid there won't be time to speak, and to not rush when it comes our time to speak.
  
  
• Women tend to hide their light under a bushel, to defer, and to deprecate themselves in relation to others. Getting over this tendency and celebrating our best qualities and strengths would be good for the pool of ideas. Women supporting other women is a good way to help them step out and speak up, even if their voice shakes a little. Supporting younger women is a way of bearing witness to the strength of their individual contribution, and will tend to encourage their participation. Women are very under-represented in media, even more than in government or other decision making roles.
  
  
• Raising decent, healthy sons in a vicious patriarchy is a challenge. The culture is against you. Men suffer as much under patriarchy as women and children do. It's an inhumane system that would benefit everyone and the Earth if dissolved.
  
  
• Men reported their families influenced their understanding of what is is to be masculine. Sometimes groups they are in make them feel they don't belong if they are not masculine in an “acceptable” way. Some men felt listening and observing carefully would be a masculine strength if this was valued. Men reported a lack of any opportunities at all for discussing these issues, and that being able to do so at Occupy summer camp was appreciated.
  
  
• There has been so much loosening up of masculine gender requirements. It's all over the map how you can choose to be a man now. Paradoxically, at the same time as that has been changing, patriarchy has gone out of control, with dominance, violence, war and destruction of the environment everywhere. (I was intrigued by this point and have been mulling it over ever since.)
  
  
• Gender roles are in flux – don't make assumptions. Accidentally hurt feelings made us realize we had erred in offering only two choices, male or female, and we need to remember than gender identity is fluid, and multi-faceted.

As a wrap-up each person was invited to share one thing they would be doing to bring about the better world that is possible. Many people voiced the wish for more opportunities to have conversations around ending patriarchy. As the meeting ended, little conversations broke out all over the room. We had now taken refuge in the barn again because....

There came an enormous thunderstorm and torrential rain -- followed by a

 A good omen! 

And after that I met up with Occupy the Roads, a story that deserves its very own post.