This week’s Carnival of the Green is hosted by Science and Politics – A Blog Around the Clock.
Topics this week include:
Happy Green Reading!
(Sources: Peace Buttons, War Resisters League, and the Peace Center.)
June 13
1966
In Miranda v. Arizona, the Supreme Court rules that a suspect must be read his rights by police before interrogation.
1967
Thurgood Marshall was nominated for justice of the Supreme Court by President Lyndon Johnson. Marshall was the Solicitor General of the United States and had been the lead attorney in the Brown v. Board of Education case that ended legal segregation. He would be the first African American on the Court.
1971
The New York Times began publishing the “Pentagon Papers,” a series of excerpts from the government’s classified history of the Vietnam War, giving details of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from the end of World War II to 1968. Publication was interrupted after the Nixon administration went to court to block it, asserting its power to exercise prior restraint. The Washington Post then began publishing the papers. On June 30 the Supreme Court, 6-3, allowed publication to resume.
“But out of the gobbledygook, comes a very clear thing: [unclear] you can’t trust the government; you can’t believe what they say; and you can’t rely on their judgment; and the – the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the President wants to do even though it’s wrong, and the President can be wrong.”
— H.R. Haldeman to President Nixon, Monday, 14 June 1971, 3:09 p.m.
1979
The Sioux Nation is granted an award of $17.5 million for land taken from them by the United States Government in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1877.
1985
1,765 arrested in 150 cities protesting US aid to Nicaraguan Contras
1991
Jeffrey Collins was awarded a $5.3 million settlement from Shell Oil which had fired him for being gay. Collins had offered to settle out of court for $50,000, but Shell refused.
There is an article in today’s Salt Lake Tribune on a new homeless housing initiative, a project that places transients in housing. While there are some “bumps” in the project, it is an overall success and frees up space in shelters for families.
It has been 25 years sinces the AIDS epidemic was declared. The UN projects that by the year 2025 31 million people in India and 18 million in China will die from complications associated with AIDS.
A man who suffers with AIDS, Eric Sawyer, has an article published on Common Dreams, What 25 years of AIDS Has Taught Me, where he addresses the lack of a global funding commitment on the U.S.’s part to combat the disease and the lack of information being desseminated to the public.
Sawyer attended last week’s United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS and reports what was……or more significantly, what was not…..accomplished.
….Iraq murders reveal the warping power of conformity and dehumanization.
by Rosa Brooks, who is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, is an interesting look into the issue of Americans being “good people”.
She begins
Are Americans good people?
After Vietnam — after My Lai, after the free-fire zones — many Americans were no longer sure.
After Haditha, the same question is again beginning to haunt us. We’re supposed to be a virtuous nation; our troops are supposed to be the good guys. If it turns out that Marines murdered 24 civilians, including children and infants, how could that have happened?
She addresses the “bad apple theory” and provides a look at these “key factors” leading to good people doing terrible things, substantiated by examples in far past and recent history:
(Sources: Peace Buttons, War Resisters League, and the Peace Center.)
June 12
In the driveway outside his home in Jackson, Mississippi, civil rights leader Medgar Evers was shot to death by a white supremacist. His murderer was not convicted until 1994.
1964
Nelson Mandela, a 46-year-old lawyer and a leader of the opposition to South Africa’s racially separatist apartheid system, was convicted of sabotage in the Rivonia Trial and sentenced to life imprisonment.
“I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
Nelson Mandela, 1963
1967
The Supreme Court struck down state miscegenation laws prohibiting interracial marriages as violations of the 14th amendment which guarantees equal protection under the law. In June of 1958, Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter had married in Washington D.C. Upon return to their home state of Virginia, the couple was arrested, convicted of a felony, and sentenced to a year in jail. Their appeal led to the decision.
Mildred and Richard Loving
“The freedom to marry has long been recognized as one of the vital personal rights
essential to the orderly pursuit of happiness by free men.”
From Chief Justice Earl Warren’s majority opinion in Loving v. Virginia
1982
In the largest U.S. peace demonstration to date, one million rallied in Central Park to support the newly formed Nuclear Freeze Campaign which called for a halt to all nuclear weapons testing.
One million rally in Central Park for nuclear disarmament; largest US peace demonstration (1982
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This came across my desk today:
Newest federal land sell-off plan: Today’s most viewed story in LA Times online
June 6, 2006
Today’s Los Angeles Times highlights the Washington County Growth and Conservation Act, the most recent quid pro quo deal for the West’s public lands. Washington County, Utah is home to red rock wilderness, threatened desert tortoises and great weather; and has been attracting retirees to communities like St. George in increasing numbers in the past few years.
Following the precedent set by Harry Reid in Nevada in 2004, Utah Republican Senator Robert Bennett is about to introduce a bill that would allow sale of up to 25,000 acres of federal land for development.
What does the public get in return?
* 219,000 acres of wilderness designation–half of which is land already being protected as part of Zion National Park.
* A 66,000-acre tortoise preserve with a highway running through it.
The bill will be introduced in the coming weeks and is expected to be followed by others like it for Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico, where there is similar pressure for developable land.
As one County Commissioner baldly states, “We’re in it for the land.”
Here is the article:
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-landbill6jun06,1,4464841.story
You can see a photo gallery also at the above site.
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Dan Webster, Communications Director for the National Council of Churches, former Episcopal Public Relations Director here in Salt Lake, and good activist friend of mine, sent this today:
Suicides at Guantanamo Bay prison lead to renewed calls to close the facility
New York, June 11, 2006 — The suicides of three prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba have prompted a renewed call by the National Council of Churches USA that the facility be closed.
The suicides are “another milestone in a sordid history of human rights denial and crimes against humanity,” said the Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, NCC General Secretary.
“Americans who love their country and its historic ideals are mortified by this continuing blot on our honor, on our steadfast defense of freedom, and on our commitment to democracy and the rule of law,” Edgar said.
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Why is it that a good thing for our planet ends up being challenged?
Today’s Salt Lake Tribune is reporting that Biodieselers are being challenged by big business.
Big collection and rendering companies are turning to the health department to challenge the hobbyists who make the fuel solely for their own use. They claim biodieselers shouldn’t be allowed to reap the “yellow grease” – so valuable it is traded on the commodities markets – unless they play by the rules.
The Salt Lake Valley Health Department is listening.
That means the little guys who make their own biodiesel who introduced the biodegradable, low-pollution, sustainable fuel to Utah long before anyone sold it commercially – already are the losers in this grease war, said Graydon Blair, a member of a 100-member grassroots group called the Utah Biodiesel Cooperative.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re doing it for yourself, you’re pretty much screwed,” he said. “This has pretty much killed [home-made] biodiesel in Salt Lake County.”
Big business buddies stick with big business buddies it looks like: The Health Department and these big companies.
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I have developed another position statement for my campaign, this time a personal experiences statement on women’s issues. I’m sure there are many women out there who can sympathize and have even more hardship stories to share.
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I raised three children and have a grandchild on the way. While I haven’t had what I would term a “hard” life by comparison to many, I feel I’m in position now to speak out and be involved in issues that are near and dear to our residents due to my experiences.
I am passionate about women’s issues and human needs in general(hunger, housing, healthcare, etc.) and issues that affect the elderly (I grew up around nursing homes all my life).
I’ve been a single mom, been on welfare and food stamps, been through divorce and bankruptcy. I’m passionate about improved mass transit not only for the environmental issues surrounding the latter, but also because I know first hand what it’s like to have to transport myself and three small children using inadequate mass transit because I had no car, having to also drag around a
wheeled suitcase (again with three children) so I could bring home our groceries from the supermarket by bus.
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Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 