February 03, 2008

Annie Leonard's Story Of Stuff

Activism  Economy  Environment

Good chance you've already seen this, but if not go check out Annie Leonard's video Story of Stuff, viewable here. Much of it is familiar, but it's got some startling statistics and a great quote or two. Its real strength, though, is the way it pulls together some of the big picture. Recommended.

A teaser:

Posted by Jonathan at 06:14 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

January 30, 2008

Wendell Berry On The "Environmental Crisis"

Activism  Environment

Had some time on my hands today as I spent the day hooked up to an IV, which gave me the opportunity to do something that's been on my to-do list for a while — type in a passage I love from Wendell Berry's essay "The Idea of a Local Economy":

The "environmental crisis" has happened because the human household or economy is in conflict at almost every point with the household of nature. We have built our household on the assumption that the natural household is simple and can be simply used. We have assumed increasingly over the last five hundred years that nature is merely a supply of "raw materials," and that we may safely possess those materials merely by taking them. This taking, as our technical means have increased, has involved always less reverence or respect, less gratitude, less local knowledge, and less skill. Our methodologies of land use have strayed from our old sympathetic attempts to imitate natural processes, and have come more and more to resemble the methodology of mining, even as mining itself has become more technologically powerful and more brutal.

And so we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as "environmental" problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them. This oversimplification is now either a matter of corporate behavior or of behavior under the influence of corporate behavior. This is sufficiently clear to many of us. What is not sufficiently clear, perhaps to any of us, is the extent of our complicity, as individuals and especially as individual consumers, in the behavior of corporations.

What has happened is that most people in our country, and apparently most people in the "developed" world, have given proxies to the corporations to produce and provide all of their food, clothing, and shelter. Moreover, they are rapidly giving proxies to corporations or governments to provide entertainment, education, child care, care of the sick and the elderly, and many other kinds of "service" that once were carried on informally and inexpensively by individuals or households or communities. Our major economic practice, in short, is to delegate the practice to others.

The danger now is that those who are concerned will believe that the solution to the "environmental crisis" can be merely political — that the problems, being large, can be solved by large solutions generated by a few people to whom we will give our proxies to police the economic proxies that we have already given. The danger, in other words, is that people will think they have made a sufficient change if they have altered their "values," or had a "change of heart," or experienced a "spiritual awakening," and that such a change in passive consumers will cause appropriate changes in the public experts, politicians, and corporate executives to whom they have granted their political and economic proxies.

The trouble with this is that a proper concern for nature and our use of nature must be practiced not by our proxy-holders, but by ourselves. A change of heart or of values without a practice is only another pointless luxury of a passively consumptive way of life. The "environmental crisis," in fact, can be solved only if people, individually and in their communities, recover responsibility for their thoughtlessly given proxies. If people begin the effort to take back into their own power a significant portion of their economic responsibility, then their inevitable first discovery is that the "environmental crisis" is no such thing; it is not a crisis of our environs or surroundings; it is a crisis of our lives as individuals, as family members, as community members, and as citizens. We have an "environmental crisis" because we have consented to an economy in which by eating, drinking, working, resting, traveling, and enjoying ourselves we are destroying the natural, god-given world.

I usually highlight the important bits in bold, but in this case that would mean highlighting the whole thing. It's a deeply considered and beautifully expressed set of ideas. Each sentence, each thought, is well worth savoring and reflecting on. That's what I think, anyway. I love it.

I don't take it to mean we shouldn't be acting politically to rein in the corporations, rather that just reining them in (or getting some leader to rein them in) isn't enough. We need to replace them with something better, something more on a human scale, something sustainable that nourishes us in the deepest sense of the word and that truly belongs in the "natural, god-given world."

There's a lot more that could be said — about the bizarre legal doctrine that grants corporations the same legal rights as persons, for example; or that they, unlike persons, can live forever, amassing enormous wealth and political power; that they don't need clean air to breath or clean water to drink, they're just machines programmed to maximize profit, and they behave accordingly; that they have almost limitless powers of persuasion via advertising and media generally, so the struggle of persons versus corporations long ago stopped being anything resembling a fair fight. Those are important issues. But for now, let's just read Berry's words and take them in. We'll come back to them.

Posted by Jonathan at 10:08 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

August 23, 2007

Foxtrot Tango Alpha

Activism

I'm old enough to remember that the Sixties were a whole lot more political — tougher, more determined, more tumultuous, more dangerous and cataclysmic — but also more exuberant, more high-spirited, more giddily wild and joyous and free — than the sugar-coated image that has come down to us since. Political assassinations, urban riots, armed troops rolling through the streets, student rebellions worldwide, Black Power, mass mobilizations against the war — alongside free concerts, communal experiments of every kind, and of course sex, drugs, and rock and roll. And casting a shadow over it all: The War. But it was all political, all — dare I say it — revolutionary. An explosion of activism and a whole new culture, grass roots rather than corporate. We felt like we were creating a new world, and a lot of people put a lot on the line.

A lot of that history has been erased. One chapter that is almost completely gone from the collective memory is the very important, very determined and widespread GI resistance to the war. But Feral Scholar alerts us to the documentary Sir! No Sir! that tells that forgotten story in compelling fashion. The trailers are electrifying.

The theatrical trailer:

And a 12-minute extended trailer:

Watch them both.

The DVD contains the feature film plus another 100 minutes of extras. Read about it here. Then buy a copy. I did. Well worth supporting, especially in times like these. And if you have a place to host a showing, what are you waiting for?

Posted by Jonathan at 03:20 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

May 06, 2007

Premise Four

9/11, "War On Terror"  Activism  Ethics  Rights, Law

Footage of the LAPD attack on the peaceful May Day immigration rights rally in LA. I recommend you watch it. The LAPD decided it was time for the people to leave and go home — "the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" apparently having expired. They waded in with batons (i.e., clubs) and shotguns firing rubber bullets.

Bradblog (via Feral Scholar) has some amateur video, too, via the participatory panopticon. An LAPD helicopter flies over for a few minutes telling people to go home, then the black-uniformed lines of police march into the park and begin clubbing everyone within reach and firing rubber bullets at the almost universally peaceful crowd that included many families, women, children. You've probably read about it. But watch the videos.

It's food for thought on a number of levels.

For one thing, it's a stark reminder of the ongoing militarization of the nation's police forces. The police put on their black SWAT gear and inevitably their mindset is transformed. "To protect and to serve" becomes "to intimidate and to coerce." See also this — SWAT team deployments were once the last resort but are now happening more than 100 times a day, on average. Police forces everywhere want to play "war on terror."

For another thing, the usual rationale for the deployment of non-lethal weapons — that they will decrease the level of violence — clearly has it backwards. If the choice were between rubber bullets and real bullets, rubber bullets are better. Of course. But when it comes to domestic crowd control, that's almost never the choice. Instead, it's a choice between asking people to move along or opening fire with rubber bullets to force them to. Give a militarized police force non-lethal weapons and their use soon becomes the default. But "non-lethal" is light years away from appropriate, let alone harmless.

But the point I most want to make is this. In his masterful two-volume critique of civilization, Endgame, Derrick Jensen lists the twenty premises that inform his work. Here's the premise Jensen calls his favorite:

Premise Four: Civilization is based on a clearly defined and widely accepted yet often unarticulated hierarchy. Violence done by those higher on the hierarchy to those lower is nearly always invisible, that is, unnoticed. When it is noticed, it is fully rationalized. Violence done by those lower on the hierarchy is unthinkable, and when it does occur is regarded with shock, horror, and the fetishization of the victims.

One group of Americans puts on black uniforms and attacks another group of Americans who have done nothing to provoke the attack. But because the first group is directing its violence down the hierarchy, the violence is, at worst, regarded as a bit excessive. But imagine if the people in the park had attacked the police with clubs and shotguns firing rubber bullets. The response would have been apocalyptic.

Premise Four is such a fact of life that we scarcely notice it. But once it's pointed out to you, things never look the same again.

Posted by Jonathan at 07:03 PM | Comments (1) | Link to this  

April 16, 2007

Conservation Is Cool

Activism  Environment

Posted by Jonathan at 05:38 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

February 16, 2007

Gore To Host World's Biggest Party

Activism  Environment

Al Gore is promoting a 24-hour worldwide concert July 7 to raise awareness of global warming. MSNBC:

Al Gore, the former vice president and now hit documentary maker, on Thursday added rock promoter to his résumé, announcing plans for a 24-hour concert series on all seven continents to highlight, you guessed it, the dangers of global warming.

With a powerhouse lineup of acts from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Snoop Dogg to Bon Jovi, what's being called "Live Earth" aims to gather more than 100 of the world's top musicians on July 7 — and attract 2 billion viewers, most of them via television, radio and the Web.

It's easy to view this kind of thing cynically, but I choose not to. I think anything that lets the world's people connect, transcend cultural and political borders, and redirect their energies in a peaceful direction is welcome in a world where so many things push in the opposite direction.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:21 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

January 20, 2007

Making Their Point

Activism

With a bang.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:20 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

December 17, 2006

Tell New Congress To Act On Global Warming

Activism  Environment

Al Gore wants to deliver a million postcards to the incoming Congress, telling them that now is the time for decisive action on global warming. Go here and fill one out. Go!

Posted by Jonathan at 05:44 PM | Comments (8) | Link to this  

December 03, 2006

Bill O'Reilly's Question

Activism  Iraq  Politics

Stan Goff is somebody worth reading and listening to. He's a veteran of the US Army Rangers, Airborne, Delta Force, and Special Forces, who served in Vietnam, El Salvador, Grenada, Panama, Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Somalia, and Haiti. Which is to say, he's seen imperialism up close in a way few of us ever will. Now he's a very determined, very smart, and very thoughtful activist, working against war, patriarchy, and empire. Here's a post of his on a question of Bill O'Reilly's:

There is nothing more tragically amusing than watching the right-wing catch liberals off guard.

Bill O'Reilly has caught the whole crew flat-footed with one of those trick questions: Do you want the United States to win in Iraq? Set aside for the moment that this ignores the fact that the US government has already lost in Iraq, and that the question is constructed a little like, "Yes or no, have you stopped beating your wife?"

This is pissing off the Democratic Party establishment because it is outing them, the same way Republicans outed John Kerry by stating, quite accurately, that Kerry supported the war when the national blood was up. Not a single public official will answer this question the way it needs to be answered if we want go on record saying that the lives of people from abroad are as valuable as American lives.

O'Reilly needs his bluff called.

Do you want the United States to win in Iraq?

ANSWER: No.

The US occupation force in Iraq is there with a malignant purpose. It was sent there to install a puppet government and establish permanent US bases as part of the post-Cold War re-disposition of an imperial military. The invasion and occupation was illegal and immoral; and it has been characterized by the slaughter of innocents by US forces, by premeditated murder and rape, by prisoner abuse, by the systematic humiliation of the people who live there, by the destruction of whole cities, and at the material, mental, and moral expense of the people who — for a host of reasons — find themselves in the US military. The Iraqis have a right to defend themselves, and a right to fight invaders.

Moreover, the US reliance on the miltiary to prop up its domestic economy and justify the future employment of militarism against other people is a net negative in the world. It is also a net negative for the US people, as opposed to defense contractors and politicians. One way to inhibit the future use of military invasion and occupation as a tool of US control over other peoples' lives and economies is to learn the hard way — by accepting the humility that comes with divesting of our overweaning naitonalist pride, our self-delusion of superiority, and our belief that we have the right to direct the affairs of the whole damn world (using soldiers, of course...none of the engineers of these adventures suffer a day of discomfort).

Not only do I not want the US to "win" in Iraq — whatever that is supposed to look like. More importantly, Bill, the US has already lost. What I want is, I want the US to acknowledge its loss sooner than later. Because the Bill O'Reillys and George Bush's of the world are not paying the price; and neither are the Democrats who are wringing their hands when they are confronted with the terrible specter of their own inescapable national chauvinism.

You're acting like cornered rats. Oh me, oh my, yes, we want to win, but it's complicated. Your complication is your desire to further your shitty careers by avoiding the uncomplicated truth. I'm glad Bill O’Reilly put Democrats' asses on the spot. You are walking over the bodies of the dead when you equivocate.

The price of this standing defeat is being paid right now, today, by Americans and Iraqis inside Iraq. And the civil war there now is not being quelled by the American presence; it is being catalyzed by it.

Bring them home now. [Emphasis added]

Amen to that. Dennis Kucinich aside, where is the Democrat with the courage and heart to say such things?

(See also this, from a year and a half ago.)

Posted by Jonathan at 04:11 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

October 24, 2006

Cindy Sheehan Considers Forming A Third Party

Activism  Politics  War and Peace

Joshua Frank interviews Cindy Sheehan at GNN:

Joshua Frank: Cindy, we are in the armpit of another election season and it seems that the mainstream antiwar movement is rallying behind the Democrats once again, hoping if the Dems can just recapture the House that the Republicans will finally be held accountable for all their horrible faults. Impeachment will follow and the war will end. What do you think? Where do you stand on all of this?

Cindy Sheehan: I hold very little hope that, due to the utter corruption of our electoral system, and the Republican reign of terror and fear against the American public, the Democrats will even take back one or more Houses of Congress.

Even if the Democrats take back the lower House, the potential Speaker, Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca) has already said that impeachment would not be "in the cards." Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi) has also backed off of impeachment rhetoric. Since Bush has said over and over again that the troops aren't coming home while he is president, it is up to us to make sure that his presidency is cut short.

We all know that the Vietnam War ended when Congress cut its funding. There is a bill that has been sponsored by Rep. Jim McGovern, (D-Ma) HR4232 that cuts funding to leave our troops in Iraq, but he has very little support and even a smaller chance of getting it to the floor for a vote. I believe that most representatives don’t support the bill because they will be accused of "not supporting the troops." I believe that it is not supporting the troops to leave them in that nightmare.

Although I admire the Democrats on many issues, when it comes to war and peace, most get their pockets lined by the same corporate interests.

No matter which party has control of Congress come November, we the people have to keep the pressure up to stop the current course our country is taking.

Frank: You are currently serving on the Board of Directors for the
Progressive Democrats of America, a pro-Democrat organization that calls for reform of the Democratic Party from within. The PDA consistently ignores progressive antiwar alternatives to the Democrats. Do you think that such a position could actually hurt the antiwar movement? Should we instead be supporting antiwar candidates who want to hold both parties accountable?

Sheehan: I think that the PDA endorses candidates based on their entire platforms. Of course, I only care about candidate's record on the war and what they say about peace. I prefer to call our movement a "peace" movement, because "antiwar" is too narrow.

I think it would be great if we didn't need a PDA, if all Democrats were progressive peace candidates, but we know they are not.

I would vote for a Republican if they were calling for the withdrawal of troops and for impeachment, and I definitely think a viable third party could rein in the "two" parties we have now.

We will never have a viable third party, though, as long as we vote out of fear and not out of integrity. Instead of voting for the "lesser of two evils" we should be voting for a candidate that reflects our "beatitudes" and not the war machine's. [...]

Frank: I've heard a rumor that you may be looking to start your own third party. Is that true?

Sheehan: Yes, it is true. I think that to save our democracy our country needs a viable and credible third party. This nation was founded on rule by a few rich white males, and for all intents and purposes, we are still ruled by a corporate elite.

We need a third party that will represent all the people, not just the wealthy. [Emphasis added]

Cindy Sheehan is the kind of figure who could mobilize the passionate support needed to make a meaningful third party possible. She's the closest thing we have to a Martin Luther King or a Gandhi.

Her energy is the energy of peace, not of angry opposition. It's what we all hunger and thirst after. It's what the world desperately needs. And it's time for a woman to lead.

I hope she goes for it.

Posted by Jonathan at 10:40 PM | Comments (1) | Link to this  

September 13, 2006

Taking The Long View

Activism  Environment  Ethics

Somehow or other, we need to foster the mental and moral habit of taking the long view. We need to visualize humanity and the Earth as here to stay, not just for 7 generations, but for 7 hundred, 7 thousand, or 7 million. Consider this (from WorldChanging):

The KEO project aims to launch a satellite into an orbit which will decay over 50,000 years, eventually returning the capsule and its contents to Earth intact.

The capsule will contain what the folks putting together the project imagine will be an archeological treasure-trove for future generations: an astronomical clock; a diamond-encased set of samples (of sea water, fertile soil and human blood [before any genetic engineering], a library (with instructions for decoding), portraits of people from all the major contemporary ethnic groups (since the ethnic make-up of humanity will undoubtedly be completely transformed in 50Ks) and a bunch of messages contributed by supporters.

Like Stewart's Clock of the Long Now, Jaron Lanier's library written in cockroach DNA, or Jamais' Retrospect Project, the real value here is in getting us to think of responsibilities and continuities that extend 50,000 years. After all, when we think of building a future, we ought to be imagining a future that goes on a very, very long time, for simply conjuring the idea of our decendents living here on this planet fifty millennia hence changes the meaning of our lives and actions today. [Emphasis added]

A time capsule, yes, but more than that. It will be up there, overhead, not buried somewhere out of sight. I like the symbolism of it, and the implied optimism. When was the last time any of us seriously contemplated humanity 50 millenia hence? Consider the responsibility such a time horizon entails, the reverberations down the millenia of the choices we make today.

Posted by Jonathan at 08:26 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

September 12, 2006

Re-Greening The World

Activism  Environment  Science/Technology

I must confess that things have sometimes felt pretty hopeless to me of late. But this is an antidote. It's positively brilliant. Do yourself a favor, stop what you're doing, and watch it. Excerpt:

We could re-green the Middle East. We could re-green any desert and we could de-salt it at the same time...You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. You can solve 'em all in a garden, you can solve all your pollution problems and supply-line needs in a garden. Most people today don't actually know that, and that makes most people today very insecure.

How's it done? Watch the video.

Anyone can do it; it's based on know-how, not massive capital investment. And it's based on humbly cooperating with Nature, not aggressively trying to dominate it.

I love this kind low-tech, common-sense solution to problems.

Posted by Jonathan at 09:58 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

September 09, 2006

Bob Fest

Activism

Just got back from Fighting Bob Fest in Baraboo. A chilly afternoon for an outdoor event, but it was most inspiring nonetheless. Speakers included Jim Hightower, Amy Goodman, Senator Tom Harkin, and Greg Palast, all of whom were excellent.

Something Amy Goodman said really struck me. She was talking about women and the power of movements, and she got on the topic of Rosa Parks. She said that the popular idea of Rosa Parks is of an ordinary seamstress, tired at the end of a long day, who just spontaneously decided not to give her bus seat to a white passenger. In fact, Parks was an activist, the secretary of the local NAACP chapter, with some experience in strategizing for direct action. But US media seem to think that being an activist somehow de-legitimizes a person, when it should do the opposite. What could be more legitimate than devoting oneself to bettering the world.

But here was the striking thing. Amy Goodman said that the day everyone remembers, December 1, 1955, was not the first time Parks had refused to vacate her seat. But those other times, nothing much had happened. And then came the day that lit the spark that launched the modern civil rights movement. There's a lesson there. You never know what moment, what act, will become the tipping point. You just live your life according to principles of justice and speaking truth to power. And any moment of that life may turn out to be a catalyst that reverberates down through time, in a sort of activist version of the Butterfly Effect.

Posted by Jonathan at 06:52 PM | Comments (3) | Link to this  

September 04, 2006

Happy Labor Day

Activism

Solidarity forever
Solidarity forever
Solidarity forever
For the Union makes us strong.

Solidaridad para siempre
Solidaridad para siempre
Solidaridad para siempre
Con la fuerza sindical.

Happy Labor Day.

Posted by Jonathan at 06:51 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

September 02, 2006

Fightin' Bob Fest

Activism

Those of you living in the Upper Midwest, mark your calendars: this year's Fightin' Bob Fest is next Saturday, Sept. 9.

Speakers this year include Amy Goodman, Greg Palast, Jim Hightower, John Nichols, John Stauber, Tom Harkin, Tammy Baldwin, and more. It's a great event. Baraboo, Wisconsin. I wouldn't miss it.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:20 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

August 01, 2006

Bagram

Activism

Source

Posted by Jonathan at 10:26 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

July 22, 2006

Awesome Video

Activism  Media

(For links, see the comments)

Posted by Jonathan at 09:12 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

July 07, 2006

Getting Started

Activism

Lucy Borja is executive director of Generación, an organization that helps street kids in Lima, Peru. Here's how she got started. It's a beautiful and inspiring story. Sojourners:

One day back in 1992 Lucy simply felt compassion for two boys — neither older than twelve 12 — who feared to spend the night on the rugged streets of Lima. Lucy only recently had learned of the existence of a subculture of street kids in Lima. Parents sometimes abandon these children — in some cases selling them into servitude — while other young boys and girls flee severe abuse at home. [...]

[W]hen Lucy encountered two young boys who expressed a deep fear for passing the night on the streets, she invited them to use her office as a safe haven. She told them to extend the invitation to any other child who shared their concerns. Since Lucy already had plans to attend a family party that evening, she informed the office custodian to give entry to any child who arrived in search of refuge.

After the party, Lucy decided to check in with her young guests. She hoped that the custodian, upon meeting the ragged vagrants, had not balked at her instructions. She half expected to find the boys sitting on the curb in front of her office, locked out. [...]

Lucy had a puzzle awaiting her that evening at the office. The key unlocked the front door but, try as she might, she could not shove it open. It felt like someone had lodged a rolled-up carpet behind the door to block the entry. With the help of her sons, Lucy finally moved the door to create enough space to squeeze through and pass inside the building.

As she reached blindly in the dark in search of the light switch, Lucy tripped over the "carpet roll." She caught her balance and leaned her body against the wall. Holding her pose, her fingers continued to work the wall until they eventually found the light switch and flicked it upward.

Lucy initially looked down at her feet and discovered several young kids curled up on the floor, sleeping, their bodies jammed against the door. She then cast her vision around the room, though it was hard to register at first what she saw. Every nook and cranny of the office was covered with sleeping children. "I even found young kids snuggled tightly inside the cupboards where we stored our office supplies," Lucy said.

Lucy counted more than 600 children who slept in her office that night. The word had passed like wildfire on the streets of Lima. Found: a shelter from the storm.

At that moment, Lucy did not know all the details that caused these boys and girls to run scared. But she clearly sensed that her life would never be the same. "Those children, stacked one against the other asleep on the floor of my office, looked so defenseless and vulnerable," Lucy said in a slow, soft voice. "They had no one to be their advocate, to defend their rights," she added. "I knew then what path I had to take."

It started with one small act of instinctive kindness.

You start from where you are. You take one small step towards the world. If it's the right step, and if you're open to going where it leads you, you find the world takes ten steps toward you. You don't have to know where the journey will end. You just have to take the next step. Your reward: a life worth living.

Posted by Jonathan at 05:36 PM | Comments (1) | Link to this  

June 30, 2006

Bumper Sticker

Activism

Seen in traffic:

Without dissent, it isn't America

Posted by Jonathan at 10:01 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

June 27, 2006

The Real WMD

Activism  Environment

Parade Magazine, which reaches 75 million people, began its Sunday cover story "How Climate Change Affects You Right Now" with this bold sentence:

As we learned last year in New Orleans, weather can be a weapon of mass destruction.

Momentum is building.

Global warming: the real WMD. Pass it on.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:59 PM | Comments (1) | Link to this  

AIT

Activism

Reaching the young. Yes!

Posted by Jonathan at 11:55 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

June 14, 2006

Robert Newman's History Of Oil

Activism  Humor & Fun  Media  War and Peace

This is absolutely, bar none, the most brilliant piece of political video ever. Also the funniest. No contest.

Learn the real cause of the First World War. Learn what Salvador Dali's checkbook has to do with the Axis of Evil and the current invasion of Iraq. And many more things besides.

It's genius.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:29 PM | Comments (1) | Link to this  

June 11, 2006

Al At The Movies

Activism  Environment  Media

Who wants to see an Al Gore documentary about global warming? Lots of people, apparently. Weekend box office (via Atrios), per screen:

Movie	Per Screen Average
Cars	$15,759
An Inconvenient Truth	$12,073
The Break-Up	$6,669
A Prairie Home Companion	$6,146
The Omen	$5,673
X-Men: The Last Stand	$4,225
The Da Vinci Code	$3,103
Over the Hedge	$2,920
Keeping Up with the Steins	$2,037
Mission: Impossible III	$1,592
RV	$1,233
Poseidon	$1,067

Not too shabby.

122 screens this weekend, 400 next. Opens here in Madison Friday. Be there or be square.

Posted by Jonathan at 10:43 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

May 14, 2006

An Inconvenient Truth

Activism  Environment  Media

I know what I'll be doing June 16.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:14 PM | Comments (1) | Link to this  

May 10, 2006

Fritjof Capra On Sustainability, Part I

Activism  Environment

From Transition Culture via Energy Bulletin, a two-part interview with Fritjof Capra, author of The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Web of Life, and, most recently, of The Hidden Connections. Excerpts from part one:

On sustainability:

The key to [sustainability] is that we can use ecosystems as models. They are adaptive and sustainable, they support life, they recycle, they are solar powered.

In terms of creating sustainable human communities, our aim has to be to redesign them so that they don't interfere with Nature's inherent ability to sustain life. Our first step is to understand how Nature sustains life. The second step is then to introduce these principles into design, which we call "eco-design," to redesign our technologies, social institutions, commerce and so on. [So the] first step is that we have to help communities become what I call "eco-literate," there is really no way round this. It needs to happen at a very early stage in a relocalisation process. [Emphasis added]

On networks and community:

The 6 [basic principles of all living systems] are;

Networks

Nested Systems

Cycles

Flows

Development

Dynamic Balance

Networks is...the first principle because it is it the defining characteristic of life. Wherever there is life there are networks, be they metabolic networks, food webs, human social networks...Nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities. We all know what a community is, even if we don't have it...Community is visceral and real, and that is why I think it is central to a definition of sustainability. The experience of a living network is the experience of a living community. The network concept is important, as sustainability is the quality of a community, an individual cannot be sustainable. Creating communities is creating sustainability. [Emphasis added]

On economic globalization:

[E]conomic globalisation [does not have a future]. It has peaked, in much the same way oil has. The current global capitalism has created a number of interconnected problems — increased poverty, alienation and pollution, destroyed communities, environmental destruction. In the human political realm, we have seen diminished democracy. Within the last year we have seen a turning point in perception. The model no longer works, even within its own perameters, never mind those that you or I might use. Opinion polls in the US show that people don't believe in it anymore. South America appears to be turning away from it as a continent. [Emphasis added]

Can technology save the day?

Technology has a big part to play, but if technology could solve the problems they'd already be solved. If it was only technology that is the problem we would already be there. I drive a Toyota Prius, and if everyone in the US drove one too, the US would be self-sufficient in oil, and not need to import anything from the Middle East. Wind power and biofuels are there and ready when we decide to use them. In the supermarket the organic food costs more than the non-organic, of course it should be the other way round. This is a question of taxes and subsidies. As a scientist I believe in human creativity and human discoveries, but the problem is not a matter of technology, but one of short-termist politics, vested interests, and so on. The solutions exist and make sense, sense that is clear to most people. If we feed our children good food they won't become obese, if they grow the food too they will be healthier and more cooperative, with the added benefit that they will be building soils which will be locking up carbon. There is no downside to this. [Emphasis added]

I love his emphasis that the way to a sustainable life is to learn from and mimic natural ecosystems. I.e., the way to be a successful life form is to act like successful life forms act. Makes sense, eh? What are ecosystems like? "They are adaptive and sustainable, they support life, they recycle, they are solar powered." And, above all, they are networks, they are communities.

As Capra says, we already know much of what has to be done, and it's not rocket science. We just have to do it. A better life awaits.

(Capra is also a founder of the Center for Ecoliteracy. One of their projects is a program called "Rethinking School Lunch," which I'll have more to say about in a future post. Great stuff.)

Part two tomorrow.

[Thanks, Erik]

Posted by Jonathan at 09:18 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

May 04, 2006

Brave New Films Reaches Its Goal

Activism

A little over a week ago, I posted a link for documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, who made Outfoxed, Uncovered, and Wal-Mart. Brave New Films needed to raise $300,000 to finance production of a new documentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, so they can get it out in time for the fall elections.

Well, they made it, and then some! As I'm writing this, donations stand at $351,517, thanks to donations via the Web. The Internet truly is something new under the sun.

Posted by Jonathan at 11:04 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

April 30, 2006

Peace Takes Courage

Activism  Iraq

Alabama native Ava Lowery, 15, has produced an excellent set of Flash animation videos against the Iraq war.

WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) is a powerful piece that provoked a lot of positive response, but also death threats and other vicious emails, as reported by my friend Matt Rothschild of The Progressive. Undaunted, Ava pieced together many of those comments for a new video, The 32%. As Ava says, peace takes courage.

Perhaps most poignant of all is No More Broken Promises, that looks at the heartbreak from American soldiers' families' point of view. Hard to watch without weeping.

Be sure to have the sound turned on.

[Thanks, Kent]

Posted by Jonathan at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

April 25, 2006

Slobbering Honey-Baby

Activism  Humor & Fun

Five students, ages 7-10, wrote speeches they'd like to hear from President Bush, assuming he somehow came to see the error of his ways.

Go here to hear them read by Bush impersonator Jim Meskimen. Great stuff.

[Thanks, Kevin]

Posted by Jonathan at 04:10 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

A Great Way To Spend $50

Activism  Iraq  Media

Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films, who made Outfoxed, Uncovered, and Wal-Mart, is starting production on a new documentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.

This is from an email from Brave New Films:

Hello friends and brave new supporters,

Some exciting news at Brave New Films. We're ready to start production on Robert's new documentary: "Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers." Over the last few months we've recruited a core team, and with the help of our volunteer field producers, have uncovered some devastating and powerful material that hasn't been seen before. We need your help to make it, more about that in a minute.

We can't tell you anything more specific about the film yet, but I can assure you it will have an enormous impact when it comes out shortly before the elections this November.

War time is about sacrificing for the common good. So many soldiers and families have paid unimaginable sacrifices, and for some to profit OBSCENELY from that sacrifice is one of the worst crimes possible. It's a crime against all of us, not just as Americans, but as human beings.

IRAQ FOR SALE: The War Profiteers will hold these corporations accountable for crimes against humanity. Watch the teaser trailer and a message from Robert here:

http://iraqforsale.org/

To start shooting, we need money. Overall, the film will cost about $750,000. We can expect about $450,000 of it to be offset by DVD sales, selling foreign rights, and an advance from our retail store distributor, but we still need $300,000.

A generous donor just stepped up and will contribute $100,000 if we can match it with $200,000 from someone else.

That someone else is you! 4000 people giving $50 each. We'll put everyone's name in the credits. You can give these donations as gifts in someone's name or in memory of a loved one if you'd like.

http://iraqforsale.org/donate.php

Imagine that. 4000 names scrolling by at the end of the film. Almost as many people as in the Lord of the Rings credits!

More importantly, this is people standing up to corporations. It's a clear message... a beautiful thing and exactly what the film is about. Every newspaper article written will talk about how IRAQ FOR SALE was funded by YOU.

This is 50 bucks well spent. I would love to see this film come out before the elections, and I'd love to know I helped make it possible. So I gave my $50, and I urge you to do the same.

This is extremely important material. So long as people in high places make a killing off of war, they'll continue to see war as a good idea. The best way to stop them is to expose them.

50 bucks. That's not even a tank of gas anymore. And how cool will it be to see your name in the credits (and on their web site). Go chip in.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:53 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

April 10, 2006

Un Día Con Latinos

Activism

I took the day off from work today to go to Madison's contribution to the nation-wide "Un Día Sin Latinos" demonstrations. It was glorious, a total blast. Many thousands of people turned out on an absolutely perfect spring day. For those of you who know Madison, the overwhelmingly Latino crowd filled one side of West Washington Ave. from Brittingham Park all the way up to the Capitol. It was something to see. Young people, whole families, high spirits, laughter and smiles galore. Lots of Spanish, always music to my ears.

I looked around at the crowd, and I thought, wow!, what a great bunch of Americans! And what a shot in the arm to American democracy. I'd like to know how they pulled it off: simultaneous demonstrations in more than 140 cities in at least 39 states, according to CNN. They could teach the rest of us a thing or two about organizing. (But what's up with CNN's online headline: "Illegal immigrants unite to demand rights"? Are all Latinos "illegal immigrants" to them?)

Alert reader Charyn (she likes it when I call her "alert reader" Charyn) sent me this photo. I'm the guy pretty much dead center with the red shirt over a black Democracy Now! t-shirt. Hard to tell, but I'll bet you I was smiling.

¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!

¡Sí, se puede!

Posted by Jonathan at 11:31 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

April 06, 2006

Energy Execs To Senate: Cap Us!

Activism  Energy  Environment  Politics

In a Senate hearing Tuesday, executives representing a number of major energy companies actually requested federal legislation that would place caps on carbon emissions. Why? They're afraid of local and regional regulations that are gaining momentum. Grist:

Tuesday saw a tectonic shift in the climate-change debate during an all-day Senate conference on global-warming policy. A group of high-powered energy and utility executives for the first time issued this directive to Washington: Bring on the carbon caps!

The Energy and Natural Resources Committee heard statements from leaders representing eight big energy companies, including General Electric, Shell, and the two largest owners of utilities in the U.S., Exelon and Duke Energy. Six of the eight said they would either welcome or accept mandatory caps on their greenhouse-gas emissions. Wal-Mart too spoke in favor of carbon caps. The two outliers from the energy sector, Southern Company and American Electric Power, delivered pro forma bids for a voluntary rather than mandatory program, but they, too, broke with tradition by implicitly acknowledging that regulations may be coming, and offering detailed advice on how they should be designed.

Many industry players are increasingly concerned about the inconsistent patchwork of climate regulations that are being proposed and adopted throughout the U.S., from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative that seven Northeastern states put forward in December to plans for greenhouse-gas caps unveiled in California this week. Worried companies say federal regulations would bring stability and sureness to the market. [...]

Senate hearings rarely manage to draw a crowd of 60, but for this one some 300 members of Congress, lobbyists, and advocates crammed themselves into the hearing room...and more watched via a live webcast.

"It's the most widely attended hearing that I've ever been to for this committee," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), "and that shows the gravity of this issue."

Said John Stanton, a vice president of National Environmental Trust, "I began the morning far more cynical than I felt at the end of the day." The conference was "remarkably devoid of the climate-skeptic malarkey that usually derails the debate at these sorts of events," he said. "You actually had real experts making real progress — hashing out the nitty-gritty of exactly how this emissions-trading system could be implemented."

Of course, there are still plenty of energy companies that oppose caps, and the conference didn't hear from anyone in the auto industry, a major contributor to greenhouse-gas emissions and a major opponent of moves to curb them. [Emphasis added]

Take note: local and regional activism matters! Getting local/regional regulations enacted forces the feds to act on the national level. That's the good news. The bad news is that federal legislation may turn out to be a watered-down version of what local/regional activists accomplished. Still, it's good to see the beginnings of movement on this front.

Posted by Jonathan at 03:00 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

March 29, 2006

Wombats Never Lie

Activism  Environment

Everything we need to know, in a nutshell. (Flash, with sound)

Now we just have to learn it. While we still can.

[Thanks, Carie]

Posted by Jonathan at 11:19 AM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

March 06, 2006

Question War

Activism  War and Peace

The new, improved yellow ribbon.

[Thanks, Maurice]

Posted by Jonathan at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

March 02, 2006

Denial, Despair — Or Activism?

Activism  Environment

From TedBlog (via TreeHugger):

One of the more poignant points that Al Gore made in [February 22nd's] powerful speech about global warming was that a lot of people move directly from a state of denial about this issue to one of despair. People in the first state don't go out and try to change things because they don’t see a problem. People in the second state are often no more inclined to act because they think the situation is hopeless. The fact that these are the two most stable cognitive states on this issue probably explains why a lot of people do, in fact, remain in denial. It's human to avoid pain, and therefore perhaps natural to subconsciously choose a state of denial over the daily trauma of despairing for the future of humanity. [Emphasis added]

My guess is that most of you who read PastPeak are too smart and too well-informed to choose denial: you already know better. Despair's not much of an option, either: it's not only self-defeating and pointless, it's no fun. That leaves activism. Activists are lucky. They get to interact with some of the brightest, most ethical and compassionate people on the planet. They get to look themselves in the mirror — and look their children in the eye — and know they're working on the side of the angels. And history is full of examples of movements that had miniscule beginnings against what seemed like overwhelming odds, only to triumph in the end. Forget denial. Forget despair. Activism is the only stance worth taking, if not for yourself, then for your children and the generations yet to come. It's part of the good life.

Posted by Jonathan at 08:21 PM | Comments (2) | Link to this  

February 03, 2006

Iraq: The Musical

Activism  Humor & Fun  Iraq

The Scarlet Pimpernel of freewayblogger.com has posted an animated musical bit on Iraq, dancing Abu Ghraib figures and all.

Go here and click on Iraq: The Musical.

Posted by Jonathan at 04:27 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

February 01, 2006

Cindy Sheehan's Side Of The Story

Activism  Politics  Rights, Law

You've probably heard that Cindy Sheehan was arrested in the House chamber last night before the SOTU address, and you may have heard various versions of what happened.

Cindy tells what actually happened, here.

Glenn Greenwald explains that US law is clear — wearing a t-shirt on Capitol grounds is specifically called out as not constituting a "demonstration":

In Bynum v. U.S. Capitol Police Bd. (Dist. D.C. 1997) (.pdf), the District Court found the regulations applying 140 U.S.C. § 193 — the section of the U.S. code restricting activities inside the Capitol — to be unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds. Bynum involved a Reverend who was threatened with arrest by Capitol Police while leading a small group in prayer inside the Capitol. The Capitol Police issued that threat on the ground that the praying constituted a "demonstration."

That action was taken pursuant to the U.S. Code, in which Congress decreed as follows: "It shall be unlawful for any person or group of persons wilfully and knowingly...to parade, demonstrate or picket within any Capitol Building." 140 U.S.C. § 193(f)(b)(7).

As the Bynum court explained: "Believing that the Capitol Police needed guidance in determining what behavior constitutes a 'demonstration,' the United States Capitol Police Board issued a regulation that interprets 'demonstration activity,'" and that regulation specifically provides that it "does not include merely wearing Tee shirts, buttons or other similar articles of apparel that convey a message. Traffic Regulations for the Capitol Grounds, § 158" (emphasis added).

I wish I had a t-shirt for every time Bush mouthed the words "liberty" and "freedom" in his speech last night. Orwell lives.

Posted by Jonathan at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

January 23, 2006

That Day Shall Come

Activism

Matthew Klippenstein, a Canadian Green Party volunteer and PastPeak reader, sent me a link to a short speech he wrote for an election-eve Green Party rally yesterday in Vancouver.

I love the positive energy of it. A welcome respite. Go check it out.

Posted by Jonathan at 09:40 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

December 15, 2005

Store Wars

Activism  Humor & Fun

This is priceless. Laugh-out-loud funny, and oh so clever.

Go see for yourself.

[Thanks, Carie]

Posted by Jonathan at 04:07 PM | Comments (0) | Link to this  

Occupy. Resist. Produce.

Activism

As documented by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis in their excellent documentary film "The Take", there's a workers movement underway in Argentina where workers take over facilities abandoned by bankrupt companies and get them operating again, without owners, without bosses, under the motto "Occupy. Resist. Produce."

Today, one of the most important of the recovered companies in Argentina, the Hotel Bauen, is facing a do-or-die moment, and they need your help. Here's a message from The Take:

Today the International Support Campaign for the Hotel Bauen Cooperative is flooding the inbox of the head of the Buenos Aires city government.

Please send the message below RIGHT NOW to this email address:

jtelerman@buenosaires.gov.ar

**Please include where you're from (maybe in the subject line) to show the internationalism of the campaign. [E.g., the subject line could be: "Un mensaje de Madison, Wisconsin, USA" — substituting your own city and country.]

**Please cc: apoyoalhotelbauen@yahoo.ca, so we know how many emails we generated.

EMAIL TEXT:

---

Señor Jorge Telerman:

Hoy el destino del Hotel Bauen, recuperado por sus trabajadores, está en sus manos. Miles de personas en el mundo lo están mirando. Vete la ley que consagra la impunidad de los empresarios inescrupulosos y apoye a los 140 hombres y mujeres que todos los días están demostrando cómo construir trabajo digno en ese espacio que es modelo de eficiencia y solidaridad.

Saludos,

[Your name, city, country]

---

And now for some background and translation of the message...

BACKGROUND
At 2 a.m. on Wednesday December 6, the Buenos Aires city Legislature passed a law that will in effect evict the workers' cooperative at the Hotel Bauen. This law, voted for by 29 legislators, "invents" a boss for a workplace without