Category Archives: Uncategorized

Homeless housing project

Posted on June 12, 2006 | Leave a comment

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.

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The Fight Against Aids

Posted on June 12, 2006 | Leave a comment

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.

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Why Good People Kill….

Posted on June 12, 2006 | Leave a comment

….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:

  • authority
  • conformity
  • dehumanization of the victims
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    Today in history

    Posted on June 12, 2006 | Leave a comment

    (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.

     

     
    Medgar Evers

    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

    Read More

    “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.


    1982

    One million rally in Central Park for nuclear disarmament; largest US peace demonstration (1982

     

     

     

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    Newest federal land sell-off plan

    Posted on June 11, 2006 | 1 comment

    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.
    Continue reading →

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    Religious leaders renew call for Guantanamo shutdown

    Posted on June 11, 2006 | Leave a comment

    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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    Biodieselers are being challenged by big business

    Posted on June 11, 2006 | Leave a comment

    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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    Women’s Issues

    Posted on June 11, 2006 | Leave a comment

    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.
    ———————————

    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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    Larry H. Miller Empire

    Posted on June 11, 2006 | Leave a comment

    There is a lengthy article in today’s Desert News about the Larry H. Miller Empire and a historical account of its growth. The article also describes Miller’s charitable causes.

    Buried in the Utah section of the same issue is an article on ,a href=”http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,640186174,00.html”>Larry H. Miller’s Holdings:

    ADVERTISING
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    Today in history

    Posted on June 11, 2006 | Leave a comment

    (Sources: Peace Buttons, War Resisters League, and the Peace Center.)

    1880
    Birthday of Jeanette Rankin, pacifist, 1st US Congresswoman. (1880)

    1962

    Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held its founding convention in Michigan and issued The Port Huron Statement, laying out its principles and program.


    “Making values explicit–an initial task in establishing alternatives–is an activity that has been devalued and corrupted. The conventional moral terms of the age, the politician moralities–“free world,” “people’s democracies”–reflect realities poorly, if at all, and seem to function more as ruling myths than as descriptive principles.”

    1963

    Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from the Linh-Mu Pagoda in Hue, Vietnam, burned himself to death (self-immolation) in front of U.S. embassy in downtown Saigon to protest the the South Vietnamese regime and the war.

    1963
    University of Alabama desegregated when Governor George Wallace, facing federalized Alabama National Guard troops, ended his blockade of the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and allowed two African-American students to enroll.

    1968
    Daniel Cohn-Bendit arrived in Britain, stirring up fears of campus unrest. The 23-year-old Paris law student had been given permission to remain in the UK just 24 hours, but immediately threatened to defy the authorities and out-stay his welcome. Mr Cohn-Bendit — a German citizen — had been expelled from France in May for being an organizer of the French student and worker demonstrations which almost brought the country to a standstill the previous month.

    “I don’t know how long I will stay. I think it’s a free country”


    1988

    100,000 marched from United Nations headquarters to Central Park during the 3rd U.N. Special Session on Disarmament.

    1988

    100,000 march from U.N. to Central Park during 3rd U.N. Special Session on Disarmament

    1994

    Prairie Peace Park & Maze opens at Interstate 80 exit of Pleasant Dale, Nebraska.

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