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I pledge allegiance to all life
in its interdependent diversity;
and to the Planet upon which it exists;
one World, under the sky, undividable
with harmony and balance for all. ~ Tom King, 2001, for Blue Sky Institute -
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Me This is my personal website which contains links and information to all aspects about me.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Mid day protest of Bush in Salt Lake City, May 28
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 2008 elections, bush regime, governmnet corruptioin, politics
Photos of Bush Protest – preview
Yesterday about a dozen people came to the venue where Bush held his private luncheon in the Avenues in Salt Lake City.
I have not had time yet to process all the photos and movies I took, but here is one photo as a preview. I cannot access LJ at my work, so I will be getting the photos up here as soon as I can after work hours.
Pictured below are Eileen McCabe, Jenni Killpack-Knutsen and Shea Wickelner – we are all in Pom Poms Not Bomb Bombs (Utah’s Radical Cheerleaders) together.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged bush regime, government corrpuption, iraq, peace, war crimes
Protesting Bush in Salt Lake City
I and several other people got right up to the Stewart’s luxurious home where Bush had
his mid day luncheon fundraiser today. I am in the brown shirt holding the sign that
says “George ‘War Crimes’ Bush”!
Here is the link:
Spend this Memorial Day honoring living veterans
By Pat LaMarche
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 – Bangor Daily News
Memorial Day – what does it mean to you? Barbecues and family get-togethers and the seasonally granted freedom to wear white shoes?
It’s also a time when many folks head over to the cemetery or the town park or the VFW hall and remember those who’ve died.
Some celebrations combine all three — although I can vouch for the fact that planting flowers at your mom’s grave can be tough on those white slacks.
I’ve got an idea: Let’s change the holiday a bit. How about this year we change the name of our spring holiday from Memorial Day to Honorarium Day? That way we could revere folks while they’re still alive.
I actually got the idea when I overheard a couple of older guys talking. Both former military, they discussed a young soldier one of them had seen at a veterans center earlier that week. One of the fellas said, “Oh, yeah, this country loves it soldiers. They love us when we’re fighting and love us when we’re dead. It’s the time in between that they don’t much care about us.”
He’s right. We do put yellow ribbons on the backs of the cars for the troops. If the yellow ribbons show support for soldiers, maybe we need different colored ribbons to show support for veterans when they get home.
So here are a few color suggestions.
And if you’re some enterprising entrepreneur, feel free to start selling them. I make only one request, if you take my ideas and run with them: Please have the decency to give a percentage to the veterans themselves. See, with extremely rare exception, the money that folks spend on those yellow car magnets doesn’t help the troops at all.
Prototype No. 1: the bricks-and-mortar ribbon. You can slap one of those on your car to show support for homeless veterans. You may remember a few months ago I mentioned the 400,000 homeless veterans in our country. Well, guess what, they’re still homeless! You aren’t surprised, are you? Why? Did you write to your congressperson and tell them to do something about fixing the problem? No? Did you think somebody else would do it?
I’ve got an idea. Go get that yellow ribbon off your car right now. I mean even before you finish reading this column. You can put it back on after you do something about the 200,000 who slept in the street just last night — and not a moment sooner.
Then there’s the ball-and-chain ribbon, for incarcerated veterans. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the same folks who gave us the statistic on veterans living in the streets, tell us that veterans are more likely than any other inmates to serve time for violent crimes. Maybe if we buy enough ball-and-chain ribbons we can find therapeutic solutions for our soldiers — after our military has honed their violent tendencies — so that they can reassimilate into society when our government’s done using them.
Prototype three: the pink-slip ribbon. This little bright spot on the back of your bumper will honor the returning veterans who can’t find a job. According to Military.com, the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics found the 2005 jobless rate for returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to be three times the national average; a whopping 15 percent for our heroes between the ages of 20 and 24.
And lastly there’s the gold-watch ribbon. Heck this one’s so nice you could get two and put one on your fridge so that you can think of a wounded veteran whenever you grab a snack. Otherwise these ribbons on your car just remind the folks driving behind you of their obligation to care for our valiant men and women.
The gold-watch ribbon highlights all the active-duty service personnel whom the U.S. government retires to keep from getting full benefits. A 2007 news expose by KABC in Los Angeles explained, “Veterans, facing medical troubles, are trying to deal with their injuries, and find that they can’t get the care they want, because they’ve been forced out of active duty.”
If you’ve lost someone you love, then every day is Memorial Day.
This year let’s honor those still with us.
Pat LaMarche of Yarmouth is the spokesperson for the Evergreen Mountain Resort & Casino referendum campaign and the author of “Left Out in America.” She may be reached at PatLaMarche@hotmail.com.
Memorial Day: How the U.S. treats its veterans
Memorial Day
by: Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, truthout
We honor our war dead this Memorial Day weekend. The greatest respect we could pay them would be to pledge no more wars for erroneous and misleading reasons; no more killing and wounding except for the defense of our country and our freedoms.
We also could honor our dead by caring for the living, and do better at it than we are right now.
There has been a flurry of allegations concerning neglect, malpractice and corner-cutting at the Veterans Administration, especially for those suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – PTSD – or major depression, brought on by combat.
A report released by the Rand Corporation last month indicates that approximately 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffer PTSD or major depression. That’s one of every five military men and women who have served over there.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged afghanistan, government corruption, iraq, military, u.s. government, veterans
“Welcome” Bush to Salt Lake City
I was invited to help organize a rally to protest Bush being in SLC on Wednesday. The organizing is taking place through Rocky Anderson’s non-profit organization, High Roads for Human Rights Advocacy Project. Although I am happy that some type of event is being held and that Daniel Ellsberg will be a featured speaker, I chose not to continue my participation in organizing that event. Instead, I and a number of other folks, feeling a need to do something more than just stand around and listen to speakers at a time of day when GW won’t even be around, organized an opportunity for folks to actually make a statement. Below is the result of our organized response to Bush being in Salt Lake City to raise funds for John McCain at two high priced dinners.
If you want to make a statement, attend the mid day protest.
If you want to make a statement, attend the mid day protest.
To listen to speakers and music, attend the evening rally.
Resident Bush and Mitt Romney will be in Salt Lake City Wednesday, May 28 to engage in fund raising for the presidential campaign of John McCain. They will be doing a fund raising luncheon at or near the Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake early in the afternoon that day and a more high priced affair at the private home of MItt Romney that evening. The following day Bush plans to meet with LDS officials.
Come out to “welcome” George W. Bush on Wednesday:
Meet Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. at the fountain on the west side of the City/County building at Washington Square (500 South State Street). We will be just a short walk from where the luncheon is supposedly going to be held and we can get set up with signs for the cavalcade’s arrival that way.
If you don’t want to meet – that’s cool too, just show up at the Grand America whenever your intuition tells you would be the most effective time (I’m guessing a little before noon).
Bring signs and your great energy!!
Tell everyone!
There will be another rally at 5:30 at Washington Square with guest speakers. You can view the details of that event at:
http://peaceandhumanrights.com
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 2008 elections, bush regime, government corruption, peace
Utah Phillips
Utah Phillips’ music has been part of my library and inspiration for many years. Utah died peacefully at his home in California Friday night after a period of illness.
I saw Utah in concert in Ogden several years ago.
Utah’s legend will live forever.
Here is a list of links to articles about his passing:
Folk music legend Utah Phillips dies (TheUnion.com)
Folk singer Utah Phillips dies at 73 (MercuryNews.com)
Singer Utah Phillips left a colorful legacy (sacbee.com)
Folksinger, Storyteller, Railroad Tramp Utah Phillips Dead at 73 (Central Valley Indy Media)
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged iww, music, peace, people power, unions, wobblies, workers rights
Ruining America’s Past????
Okay, so today Tom and I took a beautiful walk in the Wasatch Mountains. We walked through terrain with which we were familiar and came across a new sign by a rock overhang that forms a cave we often walk by:
It’s hard to read in this photo, but basically it tells passersby not to disturb or deface ancient/prehistoric artifacts,(there are petroglyphs in the cave – see ablove) which would ruin “America’s Past”.
So my big question, then, is What is the difference between that and this:
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 