From: "M&K DuPree" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org
To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Fw: Earth Hour
Date: Thu, 5 Apr 2007 05:00:53 -0500
Hi Keith...thanks for this response--a real eye opener for this closed in,
cutoff from truth, middle American white boy. I'd like to add the
following: http://www.truthout.org:80/docs_2006/040407R.shtml Mike DuPree
The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV
By Jeff Cohen and Norman Solomon
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributors
Wednesday 04 April 2007
It's become a TV ritual: Every year on April 4, as Americans
commemorate
Martin Luther King's death, we get perfunctory network news reports about
"the slain civil rights leader."
The remarkable thing about these reviews of King's life is that
several
years - his last years - are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory
hole.
What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King
battling segregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial
harmony at the rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in
Selma, Alabama (1965); and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in
Memphis (1968).
An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to
1968. Yet King didn't take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact,
he was speaking and organizing as diligently as ever.
Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they're not
shown
today on TV.
Why?
It's because national news media have never come to terms with what
Martin Luther King Jr. stood for during his final years.
In the early 1960s, when King focused his challenge on legalized
racial
discrimination in the South, most major media were his allies. Network TV
and national publications graphically showed the police dogs and bullwhips
and cattle prods used against Southern blacks who sought the right to vote
or [the right] to eat at a public lunch counter.
But after passage of civil rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began
challenging the nation's fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil
rights laws were empty without "human rights" - including economic rights.
For people too poor to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King
said, anti-discrimination laws were hollow.
Noting that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white,
King developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between
rich and poor, and called for "radical changes in the structure of our
society" to redistribute wealth and power.
"True compassion," King declared, "is more than flinging a coin to a
beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs
restructuring."
By 1967, King had also become the country's most prominent opponent of
the Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall US foreign policy, which
he
deemed militaristic. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's
Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 - a year to the day before he was
murdered - King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence
in the world today." (Full text/audio here.)
From Vietnam to South Africa to Latin America, King said, the US was
"on
the wrong side of a world revolution." King questioned "our alliance with
the landed gentry of Latin America," and asked why the US was suppressing
revolutions "of the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World,
instead of supporting them.
In foreign policy, King also offered an economic critique, complaining
about "capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa
and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the
social betterment of the countries."
You haven't heard the "Beyond Vietnam" speech on network news
retrospectives, but national media heard it loud and clear back in 1967 -
and loudly denounced it. Time magazine called it "demagogic slander that
sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi." The Washington Post patronized that
"King has diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."
In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of
his
life: the Poor People's Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble
"a
multiracial army of the poor" that would descend on Washington - engaging
in
nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be - until Congress
enacted a poor people's bill of rights. Reader's Digest warned of an
"insurrection."
King's economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs
programs to rebuild America's cities. He saw a crying need to confront a
Congress that had demonstrated its "hostility to the poor" - appropriating
"military funds with alacrity and generosity," but providing "poverty funds
with miserliness."
How familiar that sounds today, nearly 40 years after King's efforts
on
behalf of the poor people's mobilization were cut short by an assassin's
bullet.
In 2007, in this nation of immense wealth, the White House and most in
Congress continue to accept the perpetuation of poverty. They fund foreign
wars with "alacrity and generosity," while being miserly in dispensing
funds
for education and health care and environmental cleanup.
And those priorities are largely unquestioned by mainstream media. No
surprise that they tell us so little about the last years of Martin Luther
King's life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Cohen is the author of "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures
in Corporate Media."
Norman Solomon's book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep
Spinning Us to Death," is out in paperback. For information, go to:
www.normansolomon.com.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Keith Addison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Fw: Earth Hour
> Hello Mike
>
>>I love it...looking forward to trying my hand at making candles per
>>technique described. And please no one get me wrong about possibly
>>eschewing the benefits of lights off for at least an hour...at least
>>an hour!!!!!
>> Keith...I have these questions, however. You mention "plenty
>>of room" regarding more people on the planet. I seem to remember
>>you having made this comment before. While I don't doubt we might
>>have "plenty of room," quantitatively, what about the resources to
>>support more...and more...and more of us? It seems to me that human
>>overpopulation is the single most imbalancing act occurring on the
>>planet, making all efforts to introduce and manage behavior that
>>might be beneficial to the planet and each other incredibly
>>difficult, if not impossible. It seems to me the sooner the world
>>adopts a zero population growth strategy the better it will be for
>>all. Your thoughts? MD
>
> Check out the eco-footprints, see just which humans are doing the
> overpopulating and the imbalancing.
>
> "... there is enough for everybody except the greedy".
>
> http://journeytoforever.org/community.html#credo
> Community development: Journey to Forever
>
> Please see next post, chapter 3 of World Hunger: 12 Myths, by Frances
> Moore Lappé, Joseph Collins and Peter Rosset: "Myth 3: Too Many
> Mouths to Feed". That's about hunger, but it pretty much applies to
> environment and resources as well. Have a good browse around
> www.globalissues.org while you're there.
>
> Best
>
> Keith
>
>
>
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Keith Addison"
>><<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>>To: <<mailto:biofuel@sustainablelists.org>biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
>>Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:48 AM
>>Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Fw: Earth Hour
>>
>> > >I like it...I can imagine kind of a twist on John Lennon's Imagine,
>> >>except that asking folks to imagine living a life of peace, imagine
>> >>living a life in darkness...cool. But what do people do when
>> >>they're in the dark??? Hmm...well...I might suggest that although
>> >>we might take the equivalent of 75,000 cars off the road for a year,
>> >>Earth Hour might add a million new souls to the planet. Just a
>> >>thought. Mike DuPree
>> >
>> > :-)
>> >
>> > Plenty of room.
>> >
>> > This was for Candle Night - that's where "Earth Hour" comes from. See
>> > "Cooking oil candles" (scroll down a little):
>> >
>><http://journeytoforever.org/edu.html#biofuel>http://journeytoforever.
>>org/edu.html#biofuel
>> >
>> > Candle Night:
>> >
>><http://www.candle-night.org/index.html>http://www.candle-night.org/in
>>dex.html
>> >
>> >
<http://www.candle-night.org/english/>http://www.candle-night.org/english/
>> >
>> > Best
>> >
>> > Keith
>> >
>> >
>> >>----- Original Message -----
>> >>From:
>><<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Dawie>mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>.uk>Dawie Coetzee
>> >>To:
>><<mailto:biofuel@sustainablelists.org>Biofuels>mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>>blelists.org>Biofuels Mailing List
>> >>Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 12:35 AM
>> >>Subject: [Biofuel] Fw: Earth Hour
>> >>
>> >>----- Forwarded Message ----
>> >>From: " " < >
>> >>To:
>> >>Sent: Wednesday, 28 March, 2007 7:59:04 PM
>> >>Subject: Fw: Earth Hour
>> >>
>> >>Subject: FW: Earth Hour
>> >>
>> >>EARTH HOUR - 7.30pm to 8.30pm - Saturday March 31, 2007
>> >>
>> >>Earth Hour is a fabulous opportunity for you and your family to do
>> >>something about climate change. On one night, in one hour, more will
>> >>be
>> >>done, more will be demonstrated, and more will be learned than
>> >>through a hundred 'talk-fests'. And you can help make it happen.
>> >>
>> >>What is Earth Hour?
>> >>
>> >>It sounds simple, but it is very, very dramatic. At 7.30pm on March
>> >>31st 2007, we will be encouraging companies, government departments,
>> >>individuals and families to turn off their lights for just one hour.
>> >>If we meet our objectives during the first Earth Hour, the savings
>> >>in green
>> >>house gas emissions will be the equivalent of taking 75,000 medium
>> >>sized cars off the road for one whole year! Now that's something
>> >>worth doing.
>> >>
>> >>Why?
>> >>
>> >>The facts are alarmingly clear:
>> >>
>> >>* The climate is changing! The 10 hottest years on record have
>> >>occurred since 1990. In fact 2005 was the hottest year since record
>> >>keeping
>> >>began.
>> >>* More than 95% of the Great Barrier Reef will have been destroyed
>> >>by 2050 if carbon dioxide emissions aren't reduced.
>> >>(WWF-International)
>> >>* One million species worldwide are facing extinction due to
>>climate change.
>> >>
>> >>But not everybody listens to the facts. Earth Hour is your
>> >>opportunity to demonstrate how a simple change in our way of life
>> >>could change, and
>> >>help save, our planet.
>> >>
>> >>The goals of Earth Hour:
>> >>
>> >>Households : Most of us use unnecessary electricity. Appliances on
>> >>standby, old style light bulbs, lights left on when we're not using
>> >>them. Earth Hour will help us all to realise just how simply we can
>> >>make a dramatic impact upon global warming (and our own power
>> >>bills). We will
>> >>see it in action.
>> >>
>> >>Companies : We want companies to be involved. If every company
>> >>turned off its lights when the buildings weren't in use, and
>> >>combined it with energy saving technology, we would save between 2
>> >>and 4 million tonnes of greenhouse gasses every year. Earth Hour
>> >>will show companies just how easy that is.
>> >>
>> >>To make it an annual event : Out of the 8,766 hours in a year, let's
>> >>give one back to the earth.
>> >>
>> >>What you can do:
>> >>
>> >>Sign up to Earth Hour and Pledge to turn off your lights on March
>> >>31st from 7.30pm to 8.30pm by logging onto
>> >><<http://www.earthhour.org/>www.earthhour.org>http://www.earthhour
>>.org/>www.earthhour.org
>> >>
>> >>You will receive all the information you need to make Earth Hour a
>> >>great success (and to cut your own energy bills in the long term).
>> >>Pledging is
>> >>free.
>> >>
>> >>Get off standby : Turn off all the electronic equipment and
>> >>appliances in your home that are not being used or are on standby.
>> >>Computers,
>> >>televisions, stereo equipment, phone chargers, DVD or video
equipment.
>> >>
>> >>Tell a friend : Spread the word about earth Hour by involving your
>> >>friends, family and workmates. Get them to pledge at
>> >><<http://earthhour.org/>earthhour.org>http://earthhour.org/>earthh
>>our.org and
>> >>most importantly, turn off the lights at 7.30pm Saturday 31 March
2007.
>> >>
>> >>Spread the word - Once you have signed up for Earth Hour tell a
>> >>friend; spread the word at work; tell your boss; mention it at
>> >>school, at your
>> >>local sports club or society group, you can even run it past your
>>neighbours!
>> >>
>> >>Make it an event. Get your family and friends to switch off their
>> >>lights as well;
>> >>
>> >>Take some binoculars and look at the stars; sit and talk by
>> >>candlelight;
>> >>
>> >>Explore your backyard by torchlight;
>> >>
>> >>Have fun with sparklers; or just do something non-electric as a
family;
>> >>
>> >>Have a picnic-at-dusk; pretend you are camping; or have a
>>candlelight dinner.
>> >>
>> >>For more info on Earth Hour, check out
>> >><<http://www.earthhour.org/>www.earthhour.org>http://www.earthhour
>>.org/>www.earthhour.org
>> >>
>> >>EARTH HOUR. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
>
>
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