Rag Blog Digest: Aug. 25, 2011
http://e2ma.net/map/view=CampaignPublic/id=32516.7178357633/rid=8daa27323e57f975d580e1747c47c6f9 ___ The Rag Blog Digest August 25, 2011 theragblog.blogspot.com ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376562/32516/goto:http://theragblog.blogspot.com/ ) Richard D. Jehn, founderThorne Webb Dreyer, editor Glenn W. Smith : Is Rick Perry a Person? ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376563/32516/goto:http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/glenn-w-smith-is-rick-perry-person.html ) by Glenn W. Smith / The Rag Blog. Smith -- who has followed Rick Perry since the '80s, both as a reporter and while workingin Texas politics-- says, If Rick Perry can be president, I can play center field for the New York Yankees. Glenn's take on coyote-whacking Rick and his Texas Miracle is insightful and funny. (Scoop: Perry reportedly shaves his legs to ramp up his jogging speed!) Smith will be Thorne Dreyer's guest on Rag Radio, Friday, Aug. 26, 2-3 p.m. (CST) on Austin's KOOP 91.7-FM, and streamed live. (See Rag Radio info below.) Richard Raznikov : Libya Falls (Or Was it Pushed?) ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376564/32516/goto:http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/richard-raznikov-libya-falls-or-was-it.html ) by Richard Raznikov / The Rag Blog. Raznikov questions the mainstream line on Khadafy and the apparently successful uprising in Libya -- and the role of the U.S. government in the revolt. He points out the significant reforms of Khadafy's secular state, including universal health care --and the fact thatLibya was the region's most progressive on women's rights. The U.S. supportfor the rebels had much to do with the privatization of the nation's rich oil reserves. VIDEO / Jeff Zavala and Thorne Dreyer : Anarchist Organizer and Author Scott Crow on Rag Radio ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376565/32516/goto:http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/video-jeff-zavala-and-thorne-dreyer.html ) Video by Jeff Zavala / Interview by Thorne Dreyer / The Rag Blog.Austin documentary videographer Zavalaproduced this lively video ofThorne Dreyer's Rag Radio interview with Austin-basedanarchist Scott Crow. Crow, who helped organize the massive post-Katrina Common Ground collective in New Orleans, has been called a domestic terrorist by the FBI and was the subject of a front page New York Times article about surveillance of political activists. Bob Feldman : Hidden History: Slavery in Coahuila y Tejas ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376566/32516/goto:http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/bob-feldman-hidden-history-slavery-in.html ) by Bob Feldman / The Rag Blog. Our revealing series on the hidden history of Texas continues with the 1827-1836 years when Texas was under Mexican rule. During this time slavery flourished in Texas -- which was part of the state of Coahuila y Tejas -- despite the fact that it was officially prohibited by the Mexican government. Carl Davidson : Time to Get Serious About Full Employment ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376567/32516/goto:http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/carl-davidson-time-to-get-serious-about.html ) by Carl Davidson / The Rag Blog. Carlsays we need a jobs program that doesn't tinker around the edges. In a down economy, jobs are created by increasing demand -- and consumer demand has taken a nose dive since the credit bubble burst. Now, Carl says, the government has to become the key customer, making huge productive purchases for local work and local materials to build infrastructure like new and improved schools and county-owned green energy plants. EVERY FRIDAY: KEEP TUNED IN WITH RAG RADIO! Rag Radio with Thorne Dreyer ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376568/32516/goto:http://www.koop.org/schedule/detail.php?ext=infooa_id=33 ): Every Friday, 2-3 p.m. (CST) on KOOP 91.7-FM in Austin. To stream online, go here ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376569/32516/goto:http://www.koop.org/pages.item.86/stream-koop-listen-online.html ). Rag Radio features hour-long in-depth interviews and discussion about issues of progressive politics, culture, and history. Our guests include newsmakers, artists, leading thinkers, and public figures Aug. 26, 2011: Progressive Blogger and Political Consultant Glenn W. Smith on Rick Perry and the Texas Miracle. Sept. 2, 2011: Film Scholar and Critic Chale Nafus of the Austin Film Society. Sept. 9, 2011: Noted Writer and Political Activist Carl Davidson on the Mondragon Corp. and the Workers' Collective Movement. Sept. 16, 2011: Singer/Songwriter and Storyteller Don Sanders. Listen to earlier shows on Rag Radio. ( http://e2ma.net/go/7178357633/208650854/224376570/32516/goto:http://www.koop.org/schedule/detail.php?ext=infooa_id=33 ) Rag Radio is
Whitman the movie
I hereby introduce a film very dear to my heart, simply named “Whitman,” inspired by Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” As a filmmaker, I understand literature’s role in film, and the role Great literature occupies in our lives. Leaves of Grass played a significant role in American culture, which help mold the free society we cherish today. Help bring Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” to those who haven’t yet been previously introduced, to America’s father of free verse. I ask you, fellow patrons of the arts, Intellectuals, and fans of Whitman and Literature, to take “Whitman” and SPREAD THE WORD!!! Give it to new generations, old generations, and anyone who is willing to listen to “Leaves of Grass,” a message of love, kindness, and fearlessness. The film is here. It's ready to be seen, Today!!! Please buy a copy for yourself, a couple for your friends, and spread the word to other troops using your most reliable messenger. “Whitman” is available on DVD exclusively at www.whitmanthemovie.com. Thank you. Sincerely, Vincent Williamson, Writer/Director/Producer Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whitmanthemoviecom/241416325878983 Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Whitmanthemovie YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAHy4oWZeTY URL: www.whitmanthemovie.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Sixties-L group. To post to this group, send email to sixties-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sixties-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
My Life Is Jane Fonda
My Life Is Jane Fonda http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2011-08-24/article/38293?headline=My-Life-Is-Jane-Fonda By Cristina Doan Thursday August 18, 2011 I feel really confused after meeting Jane Fonda last night and having her answer my question about the Vietnam War. Basically, she was in Berkeley last night to promote her new book about being healthy and aging nicely, I guess. And she kept repeating to the audience: Stay positive. Always think positive thoughts. So index cards were circulating in the audience. The talk took place in a church--in the middle of Berkeley's so-called Jesus Jungle of churches sprawled around a cross-street near a residence hall. The index cards were meant for us to write our questions down to Jane Fonda and she would read them aloud and answer them. I guess it sped up the question-asking process and kept things a bit more anonymous. I wrote something along the lines of: I appreciate your efforts during the Vietnam War to stop all the killing. However, my family remains dysfunctional after the war, with more people in my family going to jail than to college. How can I 'stay positive' as I pay for a UC Berkeley education on my own without any support from my family? The audience had a dramatic oh my hum throughout the dark church. She seemed to stumble a bit, probably thinking about how guilty she felt for assisting North Vietnam as they slaughtered my South Vietnamese brothers and sisters. Well, first off, she said. I would like to say that I have been to other countries that were at war with the US, and that they always said something like, 'Go home Yankee' [when they saw Americans]. I never sensed that among the Vietnamese people. You come from a beautiful country and are a beautiful, Vietnamese person. Have gratitude for that. Be grateful that you come from a country so beautiful and so forgiving and so brave...I think, thinking about the fact that you're alive, that you are at UC Berkeley, that you can pay your way through Berkeley, gratitude that you are in that situation...I would just be grateful for all the things you already have. I have to be honest here. Having a renowned, famous actress address my humble Vietnamese self was inspiring at first. I bought into the hype of her bubbly, cheerleader demeanor. Her preaching of, It doesn't matter how old you are, you can still have a rockin' body like me...even though I used to be anorexic and bulimic. Oh, and I've never done research in my life and was a drop out, but now I'm just starting and I'm so smart and BUY MY BOOK OR ELSE YOU WON'T GET AN AUTOGRAPH. I was hypnotized by my surroundings, of older people nodding their heads in agreement to everything she said. And feeling like the coolest fucking young person there for even knowing who Jane Fonda was. After the autograph and the picture with her--after the glam was over, I was brought back to reality. She literally told me to be grateful for what I have. Which is fine, but...has she not owned up to her actions in North Vietnam? If she really wanted the killing to stop back then, I don't think going to North Vietnam and sitting on artillery guns to shoot down airplanes was the best choice. How am I supposed to feel about that? Well, I guess I don't have a choice because constantly--over and fucking over--people who are NOT Vietnamese are telling ME how to feel about that god-damned war. When I mourn for the three million Vietnamese that were killed in the Vietnam War, I am seen as a self-pitying, self-victimizing type. When I say, Hmm, maybe it was a cool hip thing to do back in those days to support Communism. So maybe that's why Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam, I'm considered a Communist and a traitor to the non-Communist South Vietnamese people. Maybe I just wanted to feel grateful for what I have. Given the cards dealt to me, I've done a fucking good job. Straight A's, two sources of income, being featured in every Bay Area newspaper and news channel you can think of for standing-up-for-what-I-believe-in...the list goes on. I'm grateful for that. What I'm NOT grateful for are people who refuse to research the facts before they do something detrimental to another country. I wonder if Jane Fonda knew a damn first thing about what her actions in North Vietnam would mean to us South Vietnamese. I know the South Vietnamese were not all comprised of angels either, but what the fuck did she do there that was so important and life-changing for the politics of a war-torn country? She's pretty. Yes. She's rich. Yes. She knows how to market a book. Yes. But does she know how to reconcile the tremendous pain felt in the heart of the only young, Vietnamese girl in the audience, who still carries the trauma of her Vietnamese refugee aunts, uncles, parents, and grandparents? I wanted to go back in time, before I was even born, and run through the jungles of
Alan Watts' life celebrated in his son's animated documentary
Alan Watts' life celebrated in his son's animated documentary by Paul Liberatore, marinij.com August 18th 2011 5:39 AM Click photo to enlarge Marin Independent Journal Alan Watts, the charismatic British-born Zen philosopher who lived and died in Marin County, is enjoying an unlikely rebirth — as a cartoon character. He'll actually be three animated versions of himself at different phases in his extraordinary life in Why Not Now?, a new documentary by his eldest son, 59-year-old Mark Watts of San Anselmo. His mediascape-style film, which he is racing to finish, is set to have its world premiere Aug. 21 at the Third annual Sausalito Film Festival (Aug. 19 to 21). The three-day festival features 13 films, including 10 Bay Area and world premiers, as well as topical panels and other events. As one of its colorful hometown legends, Sausalito is a fitting place for Watts, who died in 1973, to make his big screen debut. Credited with being a major force in popularizing Eastern philosophy for a Western audience, he lived on the ferry boat Vallejo on the Sausalito waterfront in the 1960s, holding court with the luminaries of those LSD-soaked times. There's a clip in the film of him and Tim Leary and Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder at the 'Houseboat Summit' in 1967, which was featured in a rainbow-colored issue of the San Francisco Oracle, Mark Watts said. It's just after LSD was made illegal, and my dad's leading a conversation about the Great Society. It's fascinating. Watts wrote about dabbling in psychedelics, experimenting with mescaline, LSD and marijuana, once commenting on mind-expanding drugs: When you get the message, hang up the phone. In his celebrated career, he wrote more than 25 books on philosophy and spirituality, including one of the first best sellers on Buddhism, 1957's The Way of Zen, which introduced baby boomers and the burgeoning counterculture to Eastern mysticism. In the Bay Area, he became an intellectual celebrity through his entertaining weekly programs on Pacifica radio station KPFA-FM in Berkeley. To escape his flood of fans and to find peace to write, he fled from the houseboat community into the seclusion of a lotus-blossom-shaped cabin, called Mandala, in Druid Heights, an enclave near Muir Woods on Mount Tamalpais where he lived in what he called shared bohemian poverty with a group of alternative lifestylers. His book The Joyous Cosmology is dedicated to them. After an international lecture tour, he died in his sleep there when he was 58. He moved up there in 1971 so he could continue to write, his son remembered. So I moved onto the ferry boat because there was so much energy there. There were so many people around that I ended up being, in effect, a gatekeeper. I had to decide who See Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4 I could give his phone number to and who to tell how to find him. There were some fascinating people who came by. Married three times, Alan Watts had seven children, five girls and two boys. Although his parents divorced when he was 11, he has fond memories of his brilliant father during his childhood. My father was a busy person, but somebody who was a lot of fun, he recalled. He would set up hay bales because he loved to shoot arrows and practice archery. He told us a series of stories every night that he would adapt from Hindu mythology about the great game of hide and seek. Through the Internet, nearly 40 years after his death, Watts has been discovered by a new generation that includes Matt Stone and Trey Parker, creators of the edgy animated series South Park. An audio field recorder and archivist of his father's work, Mark Watts had little or no experience in film production when Stone phoned him out of the blue late one evening in 2000, asking permission to make a series of animated shorts of his father's work. He said you probably don't know who I am, but I do this funny late night comic called 'South Park,' I love your dad's work and I wonder if you would let us use some of it for animation, he recalled with a chuckle. I said, 'Matt, I know who you are, I love your work and, yes, you may use it for animation.' That resulted in three short South Park style Internet animation series, all available on YouTube. Mark Watts later used some of the South Park animators to produce three more on his own. He has included some of that animation as well as vintage footage, recordings, photos, art and segments by other cartoonists, among them The Simpsons animator Eddie Rosas, in the hour-long Why Not Now?
Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the B
Inside The LC: The Strange but Mostly True Story of Laurel Canyon and the Birth of the Hippie Generation Part XIX sott.net | Mar 23rd 2011 This is going to break your heart, but much of the music you heard in the '60s and early '70s wasn't recorded by the people you saw on the album covers. It was done by me and the musicians you see on these walls ... Many of these kids didn't have the chops and were little more than garage bands ... At concerts, people hear with their eyes. Teens cut groups slack in concert, but not when they bought their records. Hal Blaine, longtime drummer for the Wrecking Crew, quoted in the Wall Street Journal Before moving ahead with the John Phillips saga, I first need to pose an extremely important question to all my readers: is anyone out there in the market for a slightly used, covert film studio? If so, then all you need do is pull about $6.2 million out of your penny jar (though in today's housing market, you might be able to cut a better deal) and Lookout Mountain Laboratory can be yours! And if you act fast, you might be able to get a package deal on the lab and the Hodel house! (the photos in this post are of the lab as it looks today as a converted residential dwelling). Another item worth noting: as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle on January 28, 2011, Ron Patterson, the flamboyant, free-spirited creator of the Renaissance and Dickens fairs, died Jan. 15 at a friend's house in Sausalito after an illness. He was 80. As staff writer Carolyn Jones noted, Patterson's creation was sort of a medieval precursor to Burning Man. And Burning Man is, of course, a rather explicitly occult ritual first performed on the Summer Solstice of 1986 and now performed every summer in Nevada's Black Rock Desert before an audience of 50,000+. What does any of that though have to do with Laurel Canyon? As we have seen so many times before, all roads on the Conspiracy Superhighway seem to lead to Laurel Canyon: In the beginning, the Renaissance Faire was an experiment in Mr. Patterson's backyard. In the early 1960s, Mr. Patterson and his wife, Phyllis, who were both interested in theater and art, began hosting children's improvisational theater workshops at their Laurel Canyon (Los Angeles County) home. One naturally wonders whether aspiring thespian and golden child Godo Paulekas (originally cast, it will be recalled, to play Satan in Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Rising) was involved in those workshops. In any event, there is certainly nothing creepy about children's workshops being hosted in a small, tight-knit community that was home to more than its fair share of pedophiles, so let's just move along. One last item of note, this one from, of all places, the pages of Sports Illustrated circa June 29, 1981. The following excerpt is from a short piece written by publisher Philip Howlett to introduce readers to writer Bjarne Rostaing: Born in Lincoln, N.Y., Rostaing grew up in various places in Connecticut, where he attended what he recalls as an even dozen schools. 'I got my B.A. and master's in English from the University of Connecticut,' he says. 'Then I did part of a Ph.D. at the University of Washington before going into the Army Intelligence Corps in 1959. We had Paul Rothchild, who later became producer for The Doors and Janis Joplin, to give you some idea of what the unit was like.' I'm guessing that it was like countless other intelligence units designed to churn out shapers of public opinion, whether actors, novelists, newsmen, or, in this case, sportswriters and producers of popular music. It is quite shocking, of course, to learn that the handler of two of Laurel Canyon's most influential and groundbreaking bands (Love and the Doors) had an intel background. Apparently the search is still on for anyone of any prominence in the Laurel Canyon scene who didn't have direct connections to the intelligence community. Anyway ... during the heyday of the Mamas and the Papas, John and Michelle Phillips knew, and regularly played host to, virtually everyone of importance in the canyons. In addition to all the singers and musicians living in Laurel Canyon, the power couple's circle of friends included Warren Beatty, Peter and Jane Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Terry Melcher and girlfriend Candace Bergen, Marlon Brando, Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger and Voytek Frykowski, soon-to-be-dead gossip columnist Steve Brandt, Larry Hagman, presidential brother-in-law Peter Lawford (fresh from his probable involvement in the murder of Marilyn Monroe), Dennis Hopper, Ryan O'Neal, Mia Rosemary's Baby Farrow, ethereal Freemason Peter Sellers, and
Keep Your Head [Jorma Kaukonen]
Keep Your Head http://www.citypaper.net/music/2011-08-18-jorma-kaukonen-jefferson-airplane.html Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen lands at Old Pool Farm for Folk Fest's 50th. By Mary Armstrong Aug. 18, 2011 [ what the doormouse said ] Dont let the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction fool you. Or the fact that, right after this interview, he was due at a shockingly early workshop at FloydFest. Jorma Kaukonen doesn't consider himself a rocker. I was just thinking about it as I was waiting for your call, he says, right after hello. I've always characterized myself as a folkie. Witness Embryonic Journey, the stand-out cut from Jefferson Airplane's legendary 1967 album, Surrealistic Pillow . Kaukonen says the engineer heard him noodling that tune and insisted it be included on the otherwise side-to-side rock album. People with big ears — like folk radio legend Gene Shay, who has hosted all 50 Philadelphia Folk Festivals — jumped on it right away. And you can't get much more folk than Martin guitars; they produce a Jorma Kaukonen signature line. So, does Kaukonen have memories of playing the festival early and often? No. Only recently has Hot Tuna, the Airplane spinoff that he and boyhood pal Jack Casady formed in the late '60s, performed a set at the Folksong Society annual throwdown. Better late than never: To be included in the Folk Fest is an honor, he says. Growing up in the D.C. area was as good as Philly for opportunities to hear live acoustic music, launching Kaukonen into playing bluegrass and old-time. When he went off to Antioch in Yellow Springs, Ohio, his guitar went with him. There he became close friends with Ian Buchanan, my first fingerpicker — and that changed his world. Buchanan was friends with Eric Von Schmidt and Dave Van Ronk, two leaders of the folk revival. Kaukonen remembers moving to New York and being invited, sorta, to a card game at Van Ronks (Sit in a corner and don't say anything, he'd told himself at the time). Also in that era: I was a distant disciple of Reverend Gary Davis, the finger-style genius who was a Festival stalwart through the end of his career. Kaukonen recommends the film Don't Look Back , finding it true to the folk scene of the era in New York, where he himself was a non-entity from a small town in Ohio. Fast forward through San Francisco and out the other side, where Kaukonen and wife, Vanessa, are tired of the rock meat grinder and figuring what to do next. They settled on a performance and teaching center in Ohio, Fur Peace Ranch. Teaching is one of the things he prides himself on. Nobody will suffer the indignities he did as a lad. Ian would show me something, but couldn't explain it. You were just to go into your room, practice, come back out and have him say, 'That sucks, it goes like this, and listen/practice some more. In keeping with his look-to-the-future philosophy, in addition to residential guitar camp, he now offers lessons online, on demand at breakdownway.com. You can compare Kaukonen's in-person teaching style with some other greats on Sunday at noon during the blues workshop with David Bromberg, Roy Book Binder and Tom Rush, among others. Kaukonen is big on encouragement, and likes sharing a tip or two. Want to join a jam? Hide your pick! I love bluegrass, and since Im a finger-picker they cut me slack. I'm not expected to play like Bryan Sutton or Tony Rice. Speaking of his own career, consider this: My successes are predicated in my inadequacies. I couldn't mimic so I had to develop my own style. ( m_armstr...@citypaper.net ) Jorma Kaukonen plays Sat., Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m., Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, 800-556-FOLK, pfs.org. . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Sixties-L group. To post to this group, send email to sixties-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sixties-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
Peter, Paul and more than memories
Peter, Paul and more than memories http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/musicnightlife/2016011193_peter26.html Though Mary Travers died in 2009, Peter Yarrow and (Noel) Paul Stookey have continued to perform as the remaining two-thirds of the classic '60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow and Stookey perform Monday, Aug. 29, at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. By Tom Keogh August 25, 2011 Peter Yarrow recalls looking out from a stage at the Lincoln Memorial, guitar in hand, at a quarter-million people gathered for the March on Washington. The crowd, soon to hear Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his immortal I Have a Dream speech at the Aug. 28, 1963, National Mall rally for civil and economic rights, was also stirred by what Yarrow calls music of conscience performed by Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mahalia Jackson, and his own hugely popular folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Yarrow remembers Mary Travers, his partner along with Noel Paul Stookey in the acoustic group, taking his hand in acknowledgment of the history they were witnessing. Peter, Paul and Mary then added to the day's lore by playing Dylan's Blowin' In the Wind and Pete Seeger's If I Had a Hammer. The air was thick with love, hope and anticipation, Yarrow says by phone from New York City. Exactly 48 years and a day later, on Monday, Yarrow and Stookey will perform both of those classics, and many more, at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe. The two singers and hit songwriters — Yarrow wrote Puff, the Magic Dragon, Stookey, The Wedding Song (There Is Love) — have continued as a duo since the 2009 death of Travers. People love the music, and the music should, for them, carry on, says Yarrow. We're not saying we're Peter, Paul and Mary. There will never be another Mary. But I'm proud of the legacy. That legacy began in 1961. Yarrow was one of many aspiring folk artists playing coffeehouses and clubs in New York. Up-and-coming manager Albert Grossman, who would eventually sign Dylan and Janis Joplin, persuaded him to form a group. I started looking at other performers in Greenwich Village and found Mary, Yarrow says, noting that Travers was not particularly focused on a career. Similarly, Stookey, a comedian who also played music, was reluctant to change gears. But I knew he'd come around, says Yarrow. The enormous success of their first recording, 1962's Peter, Paul and Mary, with half its material written by Stookey and Yarrow and the rest covers such as Seeger's and Joe Hickerson's Where Have All the Flowers Gone, was followed by nine albums before the group broke up in 1970. Touring and memorable appearances on television and at the Newport Folk Festival placed Peter, Paul and Mary at the forefront of the early 1960s folk-music phenomenon. On stage, Mary's charisma was so profound, it was the dominant performing force, says Yarrow. But the quieter perspective brought by Noel and I was a counterpoint. Noel invited people to feel the poetry of a song, whereas I invited the audience to sing. The group's spirit was carried by all of us. Peter, Paul and Mary were always closely linked to progressive politics. They performed together in the 1970s to support George McGovern's presidential campaign and protest nuclear energy before reuniting permanently in 1981. Yarrow's extensive activism has included coordinating major anti-war events, aiding Soviet Jewry and, recently, decrying the felony conviction of environmental protester Tim De Christopher, who disrupted a Utah oil-and-gas-lease auction in 2008. These days, Yarrow is most focused on his 13-year-old Operation Respect, a free curriculum of conflict resolution and tolerance currently taught in 22,000 schools in America, Israel, Ukraine, Croatia and elsewhere. In 2003, the U.S. Congress recognized Yarrow and Operation Respect with a special resolution. It's the most important thing I'm doing, he says. The beginnings of hate and war start with exclusion and bullying. If you want to change that trajectory, educate kids to accept and value one another. Tom Keogh: tomwke...@yahoo.com . . -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Sixties-L group. To post to this group, send email to sixties-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sixties-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
Democracy Convention under way in Madison
Democracy Convention under way in Madison http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/128361418.html The liberal five-day program will features panels and workshops at Concourse Hotel, MATC By Bill Glauber Aug. 24, 2011 Madison - The first Democracy Convention got under way Wednesday, and the five-day gathering is expected to draw up to 1,000 political and social activists from across the country. The convention brought together at least two generations of left-wing activists ready to hash out such issues as voting rights, access to education and U.S. constitutional reform. Tom Hayden, a key figure in anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam era, was among the scheduled keynote speakers. The convention was organized by Ben Manski, a 37-year-old Madison attorney and former co-chairman of the national Green Party. The convention is focusing on building democracy where regular people live, eat, play, pray and work, said Manski, director of the Liberty Tree Foundation think tank. Manski said he began organizing the event a year ago. Momentum built after demonstrations that brought thousands of people to the state Capitol to protest Gov. Scott Walker's bill that curtailed collective bargaining for most public workers. What Wisconsinites have done has inspired people all over the nation, he said. This is the first time that various strands of the democracy movement have come together in one place. Manski traces the origins of the democracy movement to street protests during the 1999 World Trade Organization's ministerial conference in Seattle. He said the movement was a response to increased corporate power with a desire to bring democracy closest to the people. We're populist, Manski said. He said the goal of the convention is to establish formal networks. We'll be much more organized, Manski said. We plan a follow-up. This is seen as the first of many conventions. The program is scheduled to include panels and workshops such as Challenging the Gender Boxes, Resisting Foreclosure, and The Co-Op Alternative to Corporate Capitalism. Events will be at the Concourse Hotel and the downtown campus of Madison Area Technical College. Registration to attend is open to the public and ranges from $50 to $100. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Sixties-L group. To post to this group, send email to sixties-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sixties-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
