March 31, 2022

Slavery reparations

California task force: Reparations for direct descendants of enslaved people only

BY LIL KALISH
MARCH 30, 2022

After more than six hours of debate Tuesday, California’s reparations task force voted that only Black Californians who can prove a direct lineage to enslaved ancestors will be eligible for the statewide — and first-in-the nation — initiative to address the harms and enduring legacy of slavery.

The nine-member task force voted 5-4 in favor of defining eligibility for reparations based on lineage “determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or the descendant of a free Black person living in the US prior to the end of the 19th century,” the motion read.

….

Kamilah Moore, task force chairperson, said that not going with a lineage-based approach would “aggrieve the victims of slavery.”

Others, like Los Angeles-based civil rights lawyer Lisa Holder, argued against a strict lineage approach. “We must make sure we include present day and future harms,” Holder said. “The system that folks are advocating for here, where we splice things up, where only one small slice benefits, will not abate the harms of racism.”

https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/03/california-reparations-task-force-eligibility/

March 30, 2022

'We took our children and ran': thousands displaced as Senegal's 40-year war crosses border

More than 6,ooo people have left their homes as renewed violence in the Casamance region spills into the Gambia
Villagers meet in Kaimo Karanai, near the Gambia’s border with Senegal, to discuss the latest refugee crisis.

Nick Roll in West Coast region, the Gambia
Tue 29 Mar 2022 01.30 EDT

It was late morning when the bullets burst through the corrugated roof of Maimouna Kujabee’s farmhouse. First, she hit the ground. Then she took off, running from her village in Ziguinchor, in Senegal’s Casamance region, as fast as her children could manage.

Through fields and forest, with only the clothes on her back, Kujabee did not stop until she reached Bajagar, in the Gambia, about a mile north of the border. “The sun was hot. I ran until my sandals were cut up,” says Kujabee.

(More)

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/mar/29/we-took-our-children-and-ran-thousands-displaced-as-senegals-40-year-war-crosses-border

—————

Also today’s Democracy Now story about US treatment of Haitian and South American refugees.

March 29, 2022

Today's Thom H program on end of life

42% of WA hospital beds are now under Catholic Church control. Medical decisions under local Bishops’ control.

Recent merger of Virginia Mason with Catholic conglomerate:

https://healthglitz.com/israel/virginia-mason-chi-franciscan-merger-is-official/

…

As a Catholic system, CHI Franciscan adheres to the church’s Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which forbid providing services like abortions, contraception, physician aid-in-dying and gender transition surgery.

Virginia Mason has not previously said exactly which services it would stop providing. A spokesperson in July wrote in an email at the time that “Virginia Mason would ensure it does not cause CHI Franciscan to come out of compliance with the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERDs).” That concerned healthcare advocates like the ACLU of Washington, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and End of Life Washington. (More)

March 29, 2022

Bostelman (r): Littter boxes, furries, schools.

Republican retracts false claim schools placing litter boxes for ‘furry’ students

Nebraska’s Bruce Bostelman apologises for repeating rumor that schools accommodating children who self-identify as cats

Nebraska state senator Bruce Bostelman in 2019.
Associated Press
Tue 29 Mar 2022 10.47 EDT

A Nebraska state lawmaker apologized on Monday after he publicly cited a persistent but debunked rumor alleging that schools are placing litter boxes in school bathrooms to accommodate children who self-identify as cats.

State senator Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican, repeated the false claim during a public, televised debate on a bill intended to help school children who have behavioral problems. His comments quickly went viral, with one Twitter video garnering more than 300,000 views as of Monday afternoon, and drew an onslaught of online criticism and ridicule.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/29/nebraska-lawmaker-litter-boxes-claim-debunked

March 28, 2022

Anniversary of Tribes Fort Lawton takeover

(A tiny bit dated but important.)

Listen to Daybreak Star Radio + Indigenize the Airwaves!

MARCH 6, 2019MKELLERUNCATEGORIZED
49th Anniversary of the Takeover of Fort Lawton

On March 8, we celebrate the 49th anniversary of the 1970 Takeover of Fort Lawton. This dramatic protest brought together urban Natives and allies responding to a international call to join in community and work towards justice. The Takeover led to the founding of United Indians of All Tribes Foundation, and the creation of a home for urban Natives at Daybreak Star Indian Cultural Center.

Bernie Whitebear: Founder, Activist, Visionary

Bernie Whitebear (Colville) was inspired to organize the takeover of Fort Lawton in Seattle by his participation in the 1969-70 occupation of Alcatraz. The Fort Lawton Takeover in the spring of 1970 was launched by the declaration by Bob Saticum that “We, the Native Americans, reclaim the land known as Fort Lawton in the name of all American Indians by the right of discovery.” The occupation lasted for many weeks, as hundreds of Natives and allies assembled and faced violent responses from military police multiple times. For more details on the Takeover, see Lawney Reyes’ biography of Bernie Whitebear, as well as the University of Washington’s Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project and HistoryLink.

Bernie Whitebear and other activists formed the United Indians of All Tribes Foundation to represent Native interests in the negotiations over the future of Fort Lawton. In November of 1971, an agreement was reached to indefinitely lease to United Indians the 20 acres where Daybreak Star now sits. The founders of United Indians then began the process of building up the organization into the social service provider, community center, and cultural fixture that it has become today.

Bernie’s goal was to create an organization which would be responsive to urban Natives from across all tribes, bringing together the ideals of the American Indian Movement with the centralization of the desperately-needed social services which Bernie saw as necessary to the well-being of the urban Indian population.

“It’s hard with so many different tribes here,” observes Pam Nason, a Kia Elder who has been with United Indians for nearly 30 years. “We’re 500 tribes strong here in Seattle, and that’s not counting the ones who aren’t in existence anymore because of the federal government.” Pam remembers that Bernie recognized the centrality of education and art in bringing together the eclectic urban Native community, and sustaining its well-being. (More)

https://unitedindians.org/49th-anniversary-of-the-takeover-of-fort-lawton/

March 28, 2022

Girl Scout and her queer little libraries

The amazing true story of the "Little Queer Library" and the Girl Scout behind it

by Renee Raketty, SGN Contributor
Friday March 25, 2022

When Amelia Hare, a fourth-generation Girl Scout, sought the organization's highest honor, the Gold Award, it was no surprise to the women in her family.

However, she had no idea just how many twists and turns lay ahead over the next four years, including a global pandemic, remote learning, and business closures.

"I had a bunch of places in my community near my school where I was hoping to install these little Queer libraries that I had planned to build myself," she said. "I finished one completely and I started on the second, which was very large. Then, the pandemic happened.

(More)

https://www.sgn.org/314144

March 24, 2022

Ukrainian street artist paints tanks as resistance art.

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-the-wednesday-edition-1.6394867/ukrainian-artist-turns-abandoned-russian-tank-into-resistance-art-1.6394872

When you can't buy art supplies, burned out tanks make the 'best canvas,' says Max Kilderov

CBC Radio · Posted: Mar 23, 2022 5:17

Max Kilderov, a street artist in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka, makes a fireball with a spray-paint can and a lighter as he poses in front of the abandoned Russian tank he transformed into art. (More)

March 22, 2022

Seattle hard right reporter fired

Source: Daily Kos

Star ‘Seattle is Dying’ reporter for KOMO fired for video tweets promoting Proud Boys rally

Mar 21, 2022 2:00pm PDT by David Neiwert, Daily Kos Staff

One of the star TV reporters for Seattle’s venerable KOMO-4 News operation this weekend traveled to Olympia, Washington, to attend a scheduled Proud Boys-sponsored “March for America” to protest the continued detention of people arrested for attacking the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. But Jonathan Choe wasn’t there to report for KOMO, and instead wound up posting a series of tweets Saturday that served primarily as thinly disguised promotional material for the hate group.

He ended up getting fired for the tweets and his handling of them on Monday. “KOMO did not direct or approve Jonathan Choe’s decision to cover this weekend’s rally, nor did his work meet our editorial standards,” read the statement from news director Philip Bruce. “We have decided to end our employment relationship with him effective today. We cannot comment further on personnel issues.”

Read more: Dailykos.com

March 22, 2022

Children protected in Violence Against Women Act

Friend’s children were ‘kidnapped’ by vicious family court. He took his pain and did good.

He reported: The part I was lobbying for starts on page 305.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/3623/text?r=2

Synopsis:

The United States Federal government passed the Violence Against Women Act which includes Kayden's Law, a law that puts the safety of the child first in custody cases that involve domestic violence. The law is named for 7 year old Kayden Mancuso, who was murdered by her father when she was forced to spend time with him.

Included in VAWA are prohibitions against keeping children away from protective parents for arbitrary amounts of time until children stop reporting being abuse. There is specific mention of not using reunification camps that use threat therapy to torture children to force them to stay with abusive parents.

Credit to:

Center for Judicial Excellence

https://centerforjudicialexcellence.org/

The National Family Violence Law Center

https://www.law.gwu.edu/national-family-violence-law-center

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/kaydens-law-kathryn-sherlock-violence-against-women-20220321.html?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=edit_social_share_facebook_traffic&utm_medium=social&utm_content&utm_term&int_promo

March 20, 2022

Your best hello to spring poem?

Chanson Innocente/e. e. cummings

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

//