Hafa adai ginen i hagan Guahan

Ka oha Taibo Hafa adai Ráán ánnim Bula vi naka Jinisa Aloha Naimbag a bigatyo Maayo nga adlaw Halo Nagapuam Mayap ayabak Malia goe Mauri Lwen wo Ena koe Kia ora Kaoha nui Yokwe yokwe Fakaalofa atu Etowi Danuaa Alii Kauangerang Maabig ya kabuasán Kaselehlia ‘Iorana Noa ‘ ia ‘e mauri Talofa Mabuhay Ia ora na Taloha ni Malo e lelei Maqayu Mogethin Wis wei

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Toddler World


I understand it is a constructed term, but the "toddler" world I am immersed in is another level of a child's connection to the universe. But then she gets parented, socialized, educated, employed; seems that all the constructed institutions to guarantee a successful and productive life...only if you are of a certain stripe, strip those very sacred and vital connections away from her. How do we provide that safe, nurturing, engaging environment for every child to build the world we want?

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Killing Game-The Writings of An Intrepid, Investigative Reporter


Sacramento News & Review on Gary Webb’s new anthology | Seven Stories Press

May 19, 2011

It's important to remember that he was right.

Gary Webb, who occupied a cubicle just a few feet from mine in 2004, during the last year of his life, took a lot of grief from big press outlets over his amazing work tracking drug sales in South Central Los Angeles back to the CIA, but ultimately, he was right—as noted in a condolence message sent to this paper by Sen. John Kerry.

A new anthology of some of Gary’s other, lesser-known work—including two stories he wrote for SN&R—serves as a big reminder of just how good he was at what he did. “The Killing Game”: Selected Writings by the Author of Dark Alliance demonstrates that what he did, all the time, was investigative reporting. He did it like other people walk or breathe. Gary corralled facts, sniffed out leads, tracked down documents and then put them into a story that wasn’t just coherent, it was interesting and important.

That started with his first job in 1978, at The Kentucky Post, where he teamed up with another 20-something guy to write a 17-part story (yeah, 17 parts! Newspapers did that in those days) exposing corruption in the coal industry.

He did it over and over again. He reported on surrogate parenting, dangerously inept doctors who were still allowed to practice, the safety problems with elevated freeways—and the way Caltrans had ignored them, with disastrous results during 1989’s Loma Prieta earthquake. He reported on police misconduct, racial profiling, Internet porn, violent video games and “those damned red-light cameras.” That’s what he called them. Injustices, big and small, are, well, unjust.

It’s best to say that Gary “reported,” although he wrote very, very well. But what’s noteworthy about these stories is that he did the legwork. He didn’t just work the phones, he worked the archives and the courts and the streets. He rifled through documents and talked to people.

The incredible work on “The Coal Connection,” which he wrote 1980 with Thomas Scheffey, should have gotten a lot more attention. In it, they document the relationships between criminals, coal magnates and politicians, and how coal mines that weren’t even producing any coal still managed to produce mountains of cash. In fact, it would be fertile to go through this story carefully, and then take a good, long look at the current moves to increase our reliance on coal as an energy source, just to see if some of the same tactics are still being used to rip off the public. All the stories that Gary wrote are still timely, even those damned red-light cameras.

As the daily papers die around us, we need people like Gary more than we ever did—people who know who to call, where to find those sources if they won’t pick up their phones, which documents to ask for and where they’re located. We need reporters who will work as hard as Gary worked.

Here at SN&R, we didn’t get to know Gary as well as we’d have liked, and we certainly didn’t get to learn all we needed to about his skills. Still, it’s easy to recognize him in the notes that his editors and colleagues provide for this anthology.

One notes his willingness to file a lawsuit to get information, which is an immediate reminder of the first words he ever uttered at an SN&R editorial meeting. Another writer was talking about an agency’s refusal to release some information.

“So let’s sue ’em,” growled Gary.

“The Killing Game” is another reminder of just how good a reporter he was, and of how much we lost when his life ended.

Because Gary Webb was right about a lot of things.

Read the article on the Sacramento News & Review’s website.

Wikipedia on Gary Webb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Webb

Freeway Ricky Ross - A Pawn in the CIA's Drug Game

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Kanini:: Animism - Loving of the Ancients


thanks to Organizing Notes Sunday Songs:




affirming, unconditional, ever-present, all-encompassing...

"it doesn't push anybody out, it brings everybody in."

The Owl and the Cat



I love cats. I love owls more. They hold a stature in the wild kingdom that is stately, magnificent and mysterious. Every year for un-thanksgiving or neo-christmas I request time w/my family to spend the day at the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge just off of Interstate 5 between Davis and Willows. It is a six-acre tract of land that has been restored to the original habitat of the Central California Valley: marshland. SWR is part of the Pacific Flyway, the route migrating birds use to traverse the hemisphere to feed and mate.

If you go around feeding-time, that is early dawn or dusk, you can see the birds of prey (bald & golden eagles; red-tail, red-shoulder, and harrier hawks, kestrels, kites, and owls) fly over the hundreds of thousands wading, diving and dabbling ducks, seeking out breakfast, dinner or an occasional snack.

This is a barn owl.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

JFK Islanders, Warriors, Artists, Our Promise for the Future







The JFK community is working to ensure future classes don't go through what previous ones have. And continue to.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Return to Palestine

It's only natural....to resist. It's only human....to feel.





Uploaded by neverbeforecampaign on May 5, 2011

On the 15th of May of every year, Palestinians and the whole world remember how it all started. How the Israelis' ethnic cleansing of a people and the destruction of a society - the Nakba - was met with global indifference. Many factors made it so, but among them was a Zionist propaganda machine that illustrated the crime committed in Palestine in 1948 as a war of independence against aggressive Arabs and Palestinians.

It is true that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab people resisted the establishment of a racist regime in Palestine. And they still do. It is only normal. If anyone comprehends the extent of the injustice that has been committed against the Palestinian people, they would not even ask why they are so determined in their pursuit of justice. And if anyone knows the history of the Palestinian struggle, they would realize that this people will continue to resist in every form until they see the justice they have so longed for restored.

On 15 May 2011, the world is invited to express its understanding, solidarity and support to a people that has resisted... and continues to do so, for Justice in Palestine.