The Welfare Poets: Warn Them

Fed Up by The Welfare Poets

Punk Rock Legend Patti Smith Wins National Book Award for Memoir _Just Kids_

Punk Rock Legend Patti Smith Wins National Book Award for Memoir _Just Kids_

Bruce Springsteen - Badlands - Live In New York City

Campaigns | Like Minds, Like Mine

Campaigns | Like Minds, Like Mine

Elizabeth Ann Snider 1914 - 2010

Photo by: Ellen Hall, Summer 2010

Thanksgiving 1996. That was the first time I met Anna. I drove down to Pulaski, Virginia from Aurora, New York in a lime green Honda Civic Hatchback (Why I had that car is not worth going into right now, but I shouldn't have had that car). Did it really take 14 hours? Did I really cross the Mason-Dixon line? I know I stopped talking once I did when I had to stop to fill up the tank. I kept to very few words. It was my first time south and I was a little scared, I'll admit my prejudice.

It was also the first time I was going to have Thanksgiving with Ellen and her family. Ellen's family included her two sons and former husband. I brought the wine. We had been together about a year.

Ellen was at Anna's apartment when I got there, having driven down a day or so earlier to visit. As I pulled up I saw her van and knew I had arrived. I got out of that car that I should not have ever had and walked to the door.

The main door was the kitchen door and it smelled delicious when Ellen opened it. My first memory of Anna is of her in her kitchen that afternoon, her big smile, and warm greeting asking, "Would you like some pie?"

Over the next 15 years it was a privilege and honor to know Anna Snider. She embraced me as one of her own. I know this because she would send me a $10 dollar bill for Christmas for years, until she could no longer do the things she always did. She loved talking about her homeplace and no one could have loved southwest Virginia more than Anna.

Up here in Auburn, New York she was known as the kind and gracious "southern lady." That she was, but she was also stubborn. She never said, "No," she just did "No" quietly. At those times, I was sure she had a little Puerto Rican in her.

Descansa en paz, Anna.

Photo by: Clinton Hild

Martina McBride - For These Times

Next Event

Condolences

AKWESASNE – Mr. Jacob A. “Tekaronhianeken” Swamp, 68, of 326 Cook Road, passed away unexpectedly Friday morning, October 15, 2010 at Massena Memorial Hospital.

Tekarohianeken, meaning "Where two skies come together", was born at home at Akwesasne Mohawk Nation Territory on October 18, 1941, the second child to Leo and Charlotte Papineau Swamp. He married Judy Point of Akwesasne on September 2, 1961 and they raised seven children together. At the age of 15, he left school to work iron, a trade he continued until his retirement in 2003.

He is survived by his wife, Judy; 7 children, Andrew Swamp; Angela (Alec) Elijah, Glenn (Shannon) Swamp, Philip (Terri) Swamp, Leona (Ryan) Phillips, Kahontineh Swamp (Gibson), Skahendowaneh (Cheyanne) Swamp, all of Akwesasne; 23 grandchilden, 13 great grandchildren; 12 siblings, Leonard Swamp, Raymond Swamp, Lawrence (Dyan) Swamp, Herman (Diane), Cecilia (Paul) King, Janice Sharrow (Vince Phillips), Shirley Oakes, Elizabeth (Kevin) Nanticoke, Ronald (Joanne) Swamp, Roy (Peggy) Swamp, Josephine Swamp, and Theresa (Sky) Fox; a sister-in-law, Sylvia Swamp, all of Akwesasne, and many nieces and nephews.

He was predeceased by a brother, Joseph.

Friends may call at the Akwesasne Homemakers, River Road, Akwesasne, Quebec, beginning Saturday 7:00 PM until 10:00 AM Monday. Funeral services will be held Monday 11:00 AM at the Mohawk Nation Longhouse. Burial will follow in Solomon Road Cemetery in Frogtown, Akwesasne. The family kindly invites all to the Snye Recreation Center for the memorial meal following the ceremony at the cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, those wishing may consider the Tree of Peace Society, 326 Cook Road, Akwesasne, NY 13655

October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Audra Simpson at Syracuse University

The Great Law of Peace October 4

Click to download flyer

(above)

No Music, Religion, French : Tenure Disappears at Wells College

These are the tenured and tenure-track faculty that have been cut at Wells College.

But, actually, even more faculty have been cut -- Visiting Assistant Professors.

Meanwhile, athletics continues to hire and grow: Is Wells a college or a sports camp?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Hui Takatāpui 2010 - He Puarere Mai Tawhiti.

Silvio Rodriguez En estos dias

First Books Burned, Then People Killed

First Books Burned, Then People Killed

A Commentary by Warren J.. Blumenfeld

As wisely and eloquently stated by English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton in his 1839 play, Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy, “the pen is mightier than the sword,” this adage holds that the written word is a powerful tool in the transmission of ideas. Why else would oppressive regimes and other insecure upholders of the status quo engage in censorship and book burning throughout the ages?

Book burnings consist of “ritual destruction by fire of books or other written materials carried out in a public context” (Holocaust Encyclopedia).

For example, Pope Gregory IX in 1239, in his quest to maintain the Catholic Church’s economic and ideological stranglehold, ordered all copies of the Jewish holy book, the Talmud confiscated, and one of his successors, Pope John XXI, commanded that the Talmud be burned on the eve of the Jewish Passover in 1322.

The Christian “reformer,” Martin Luther, in his 1526 treatise On the Jews and Their Lies, argued that “First, their synagogues should be set on fire.” Jewish prayer books should be destroyed and rabbis forbidden to preach. The homes of Jews should likewise be “smashed and destroyed” and their residents “put under one roof or in a stable like gypsies, to teach them they are not master in our land….These “poisonous envenomed worms should be drafted into forced labor. The young and strong Jews and Jewesses should be given the flail, the ax, the hoe, the spade, the distaff, and the spindle and let them earn their bread by the sweat of their noses.”

As Luther’s dire pronouncement make perfectly clear, what begins as torching of books and other property eventually results in the denial of civil liberties, torture, and eventually murder of people scapegoated by the dominant social groups and by their governmental leaders.

This was certainly the case in Nazi Germany. In 1933, Nazi storm troopers invaded, ransacked, and closed The Institute for Sexual Sciences in Berlin, founded by Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a Jewish and homosexual sexuality researcher. The Institute conducted early sexuality research, the precursor of the Indiana-based Kinsey Institute in the United States. Storm troopers carried away and torched over 10,000 volumes of books and research documents calling the Institute “an international center of the white-slave trade” and “an unparalleled breading ground of dirt and filth.”

Soon thereafter, Nazis and conservative university students throughout Germany invaded Jewish organizations, and public and school libraries and confiscated books they deemed “un-German.” The German Student Association, (Deutsche Studentenschaft) declared a national "Action against the Un-German Spirit.” On May 10, 1933, the students along with Nazi leaders set ablaze over 25,000 volumes in Berlin’s Opernplatz. Joseph Goebbels, the Reich Minister of Propaganda, “fired” up the crowd of over 40,000 sympathizers by declaring “No to decadence and moral corruption. Yes to decency and morality in family and state.”

Now we hear that Pastor Terry Jones of the misnamed Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville, Florida, is calling for an “International Burn a Quran Day,” on September 11, the ninth anniversary of the attacks.

Talking to CNN’s Rick Sanchez, Jones declared: “We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times." Jones is also the author of the book, Islam Is of the Devil.

This policy and proposed action are offensive to all of us who believe in religious liberty. To stereotype and scapegoat all followers of Islam for the events of 9/11 is as invalid as blaming all Christians for the despicable actions perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was a devout Christian.

I think it no mere overstatement to place Pastor Terry Jones’s proposed actions within the context of book burning through the centuries. For as Santayana reminds us: Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

We now have an opportunity to avoid the mistakes of the past by speaking out against the Islamophobia that surrounds us.



Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld, Associate Professor of Multicultural and International Curriculum Studies at Iowa State University. He is co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice and Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States.

Permission granted to forward or publish this commentary. Any editing must be cleared by the author: wblumen@iastate.edu

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011
Office 515-294-5931
Home 515-232-8230
wblumen@iastate.edu

Chambao - Duende del Sur

Myrna Pagan Fights for Vieques

Wells College : Where Are We Going?

7 May 2010: At the Wells faculty and trustee meeting students stood outside to witness. A student petition to meet with trustees that was signed by 364 students (in a college of about 500 students) was denied. A faculty member read the student petition to the Board of Trustees. Faculty and Staff also wrote and signed resolutions and petitions which were also read to the BOT. All who signed (and many who are too vulnerable to sign because they could lose their jobs) agree that the process of "restructuring" has been exclusive with a complete lack of transparency. There is both an economic and a governance crisis here.

Student petition = 364 signatures
Staff petition = 51 signatures
Faculty resolution = 39 signatures

= 454 signatures in a college community of 700 people

Is anyone listening?

Click here for the article that appeared in the Syracuse Post Standard

"Wells Faculty Cry Foul," Article in Inside Higher Education



Part of what I do as a teacher is summarize information using visuals, such as the one above. I think this diagram clearly shows that the academic program has been kicked to the bottom of priorities by the Administration. The academic program has been displaced by four new initiatives that will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars at the same time that staff and faculty are being cut. Somehow we are supposed to believe that these initiatives with a gutted academic program and tuition set at $43,000 will bring in more students. Where is the plan? Where is the vision?

The Office of Institutional Diversity (OID) has been eliminated. OID was an important initiative that many of us worked for years to bring to life. After the departure of Steve Gilchrist, the first and only Director of OID for three years, the Administration let the OID disappear. Diversity at Wells? Don't bother going to the website, none of it is true any longer. Diversity as an institutional priority no longer exists at Wells. This Administration is completely white, middle-class, gender normative, and heterosexual and there is not a soul on campus who thinks anyone in the Administration knows how to be an ally to LGBTQ people or people of color. Let me repeat; there are no allies in the Administration. Individual faculty and staff have had to work overtime to support students who are victimized by homophobia and racism on campus. But I also have to say that many White students report a complete breakdown in support systems overall. They, too, want diversity.

Let's see, where are we going?

The Business and Liberal Arts Center seems to be the designated silver bullet because apparently according to some statistic somewhere 20% of college students are interested in Business. But why would someone interested in learning good business practices come to a place that can't seem to pay its bills and has no interest in diversity? Still waiting on an answer to that one.

Just a few thoughts on the academic program. These two words sound cold and technical so I want to put some other words around what academic program means to me. The academic program comprises; the staff, faculty, and students -- it is the heart of the college because it is everyone who teaches and learns together. It is all the courses that we teach. And it is all the staff, who are frequently also mentors and teachers -- think Librarians, think Technicians, think Administrative Assistants, think Security, think House Keepers, think Off-Campus Study, think Coaches, think Dining Hall, think of the beauty of the land and the Grounds keepers -- all the folks who don't stand or sit in classrooms, but without whose support the curriculum couldn't take shape. The academic program is the heart of a college.

The academic program supports the vision and mission of Wells. We are the faculty and staff that do what we do so that what students learn adds up to something meaningful when students graduate. It is not something thrown together, but a program designed by people who know what they are talking about because we are experts in our fields. Look at the photo of students above; they are part of this thing called the academic program.

As the Administration of the college slashes 1.5 million out of the budget through processes which remain exclusive and lack any semblance of transparency, they are damaging, perhaps destroying, not just an abstraction called, "the academic program." They are damaging the relationships between people in this community that make the academic program possible.

With a sad heart, I have to write that none of these so-called new initiatives build relationships with the academic program. They don't build relationships with us or among us.

The academic program is the heart of Wells College and it is being kicked to the curb. Why would a college do that? Why would a college take out its own heart? How can a place think it can survive that way?

I'll end here for now with a poem that Bill Ayers sent the membership of the American Educational Research Association Curriculum Studies email list because it illustrates what the academic program can be:

*One Heart*

Look at the birds. Even flying
is born

out of nothing. The first sky
is inside you, open

at either end of day.
The work of wings

was always freedom, fastening
one heart to every falling thing.

*Li-Young Lee*

And then there is the cynical cartoon version:

Broad spectrum of groups to protest Fortuño’s speech - Puerto Rico Daily Sun - Timely news about Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and the world

Broad spectrum of groups to protest Fortuño’s speech - Puerto Rico Daily Sun - Timely news about Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and the world

Democracy Now!

House Vote On Puerto Rico’s Status Divides Hispanic Lawmakers

The House is set to vote on a measure Thursday which could to Puerto Ricans casting a ballot in a referendum about whether they want to change the territory’s status with the U.S.

Click to watch segmant on Democracy Now!

Jason Corwin : Youth Empowerment and Eco-Justice

On Wednesday, 28 April, come participate in learning about the use of documentary digital media for the empowerment of youth and eco-justice with Jason Corwin.

12:30 - 1:30PM, Art Exhibit Room, Macmillan Hall, Wells College. email me with any questions vmunoz@wells.edu

U.S. will review its position on Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Remarks by Ambassador Susan E. Rice, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues

Susan E. Rice
U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations
U.S. Mission to the United Nations
New York, NY
April 20, 2010


AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, Distinguished Representatives of indigenous groups from around the world, Excellencies and distinguished delegates. In his Presidential Proclamation last fall honoring Native American Heritage Month, President Obama recognized that the "indigenous peoples of North America-the First American-have woven rich and diverse threads into the tapestry of our Nation's heritage." What is true in the Americas is true around the world. There is no true history that does not take into account the story of indigenous populations-their proud traditions, their rich cultures, and their contributions to our shared heritage and identity.

But in the United States and many other parts of the world, indigenous communities continue to feel the heavy hand of history. Our first nations face serious challenges: disproportionate and dire poverty, unemployment, environmental degradation, health care gaps, violent crime, and bitter discrimination. Far more must be done-at home and abroad-to tackle these challenges, expand the circle of opportunity, and work with our Native communities to ensure they enjoy the security and dignity that all citizens deserve.

President Obama is deeply committed to strengthening and building on government-to-government relationships among the United States and our tribal governments.

For full text click

Tracy Chapman - Change

Dixie Chicks - Not Ready To Make Nice

Wilma Mankiller walks on

From Indian Country Today
“Our personal and national hearts are heavy with sorrow and sadness with the passing this morning of Wilma Mankiller,” said Chad Smith, principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, in a release.

Who's White?

Book Review of Nell Irvin Painter’s, The History of White People
By LINDA GORDON
Published: March 25, 2010
NYT

Nell Irvin Painter’s accessible study shows that deciding who is white has always been heavily influenced by class and culture.

click for complete book review

Next Event : April 5

Need a ride from Wells College or surrounding communities? Email me at vmunoz@wells.edu

Viva Cusco Libre de Transgenicos

On Thursday 26 February, Peruvian indigenous organizations, local government bodies and civil society organizations in Cusco, Peru, held a meeting to formulate a strategic response to a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) ABCD10 starting on 1 March that will push for greater use of genetically modified organisms. A demonstration through the ancient Inca streets followed up this multi-stakeholder gathering.

The meeting produced a Declaration which underlines that the FAO agenda does not represent the best approach for tackling agricultural challenges, including those brought by climate change. The President of the Government of Cusco is officially sending the Open Letter of the Peoples of Cusco to the FAO Director General, members of ABCD10 organizing committee, and relevant Mexican government representatives.

Open letter to the FAO and photo gallery of the event:
http://www.andes.org.pe/Transgenicos_No_Gracias/

Youtube video of the event: http://www.youtube.co/watch?v=4pxjyDBqyYU

Stephanie Waterman to Speak at Wells

Onondaga Nation lecture series kicks off with full house

By Sarah Moses / The Post-Standard
February 08, 2010, 10:25PM
Photo: Lauren Long / The Post-Standard

Stephanie Waterman (second from the right) speaks of her appreciation and lasting influence of having grown up a member of the Onondaga Nation during the Onondaga Land Rights educational series kickoff tonight at Syracuse Stage. Panelists included Jeanne Shenandoah (right), Faithkeeper Oren Lyons (left), Chief Jake Edwards (far left) and Tadadaho Sid Hill (not visible.)


Syracuse, NY -- Leaders of the Onondaga Nation stressed the importance of unity and healing as they began a yearlong educational series Monday at Syracuse Stage. More than 300 people attended.

Tadadaho Sid Hill, the nation’s spiritual leader, opened the lecture series, titled, “Onondaga Nation Land Rights & Our Common Future II,” with the Thanksgiving Address, giving thanks to the all living beings on the Earth.

“We have a lot of work to do and we have a lot of knowledge to share,” Hill said. “We need to come together as one mind and really get things done.”

Click here for full article in the Post Standard.

...

There will be transportation to all events in the series for the Wells College community and neighboring communities. If you would like a ride to the events, email me at vmunoz@wells.edu to reserve a place on the van.

Island residents sue U.S., saying military made them sick

By Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein,
CNN Special Investigations Unit
February 1, 2010 4:03 p.m. EST

Vieques, Puerto Rico (CNN) -- Nearly 40 years ago, Hermogenes Marrero was a teenage U.S. Marine, stationed as a security guard on the tiny American island of Vieques, off the coast of Puerto Rico.

Marrero says he's been sick ever since. At age 57, the former Marine sergeant is nearly blind, needs an oxygen tank, has Lou Gehrig's disease and crippling back problems, and sometimes needs a wheelchair.

click for complete article

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) - A Tribute from Democracy Now!

Howard Zinn (1922-2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove

Authenticity in a Community Setting - A Tool for Self-Reflection and Change

Authenticity in a Community Setting --- A Tool for Self-Reflection and Change

Hermana Haiti: Myriam Merlet, 1956 - 2010

"I look at things through the eyes of women, very conscious of the roles, limitations, and stereotypes imposed on us. Everything I do is informed by that consciousness. So I want to get to a different concept and application of power than the one that keeps women from attaining their full potential...The basis of my work with women is to open them up to other things, give them new tools, give them new capabilities...give women the opportunity to grow..."

"The More People Dream," by Myriam Merlet, excerpt from Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance.

Eve Ensler remembers Haitian Women's activist Myriam Merlet

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

I come this morning to my protest to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation. This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi, or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia, nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. This morning however I wish not to speak with Hanoi, the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans, who bear the greatest responsibility in ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.

Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings.

Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population.

We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in Detroit.

I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.


Click to listen to speeches.

Onondaga Land Rights and Our Common Future II

Wells Co-Sponsors 2010 Educational Series
There will be transportation from Wells to Syracuse and back for students, staff, and faculty that would like to attend the events. Opening event is Monday, Feb. 8. Email me to reserve a space on the van. vmunoz@wells.edu

Power Paths - Trailer

For Cape Cod Wind Farm, New Hurdle Is Spiritual

SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: January 5, 2010
NYT

Two Indian tribes successfully argued that a wind-power project would impede their ritual greeting of the sunrise.

In seeking the historical designation, the Wampanoag tribes — whose name translates to “people of the first light” — said their view to the east across Nantucket Sound was integral to their identity and cultural traditions.

click for complete article.

Foto: Julia Cumes/Associated Press

AuburnPub.com - Local project to grow produce hydroponically moving ahead

AuburnPub.com - Local project to grow produce hydroponically moving ahead

Rachel Todd Wetzsteon 1967 - 2009

Sakura Park

The park admits the wind,

the petals lift and scatter

like versions of myself I was on the verge

of becoming; and ten years on

and ten blocks down I still can’t tell

whether this dispersal resembles

a fist unclenching or waving goodbye.

But the petals scatter faster,

seeking the rose, the cigarette vendor,

and at least I’ve got by pumping heart

some rules of conduct: refuse to choose

between turning pages and turning heads

though the stubborn dine alone. Get over

“getting over”: dark clouds don’t fade

but drift with ever deeper colors.

Give up on rooted happiness

(the stolid trees on fire!) and sweet reprieve

(a poor park but my own) will follow.

There is still a chance the empty gazebo

will draw crowds from the greater world.

And meanwhile, meanwhile’s far from nothing:

the humming moment, the rustle of cherry trees.

...

In Memory, and Admiration, of Rachel Wetzsteon in The New Republic

Dr. Oliva M. Espín - Women Crossing Boundaries: Gender, Immigration, and Domestic Violence