It was today. I couldn't believe it. I got an e-mail from a friend in Beantown who saw this post today on FB. He was outraged. He is of the most patient and kindest people, and he is someone I can chat with when I am or was feeling blue about my mom. He had lost his mom a few years ago.
Yes, he is gay. And his patience was tested. He was right to be upset. Here's why.
Today, the GLBT community feels betrayal. I'm unclear as to whether or not the DOJ actually had to defend the DOMA act. I'm guessing not, but some lawyers say yes over at the Daily Kos.
I do know that if a certain person's husband had been elected president instead of Obama, this would have not happened.
See Elizabeth Edwards' speech at the Human Rights Campaign dinner in SF 19 months ago.
Too bad she or JRE isn't the AG in charge. I'd like to think Obama is above all of this, but maybe the true colors are appearing.
Fighting Back on Heat Deaths: Farm Workers going to Sacramento
I grow tired of paparazzi, don't you, about John Edwards, Barack Obama, or worse, the Hollywood elite's whereabouts, stories of what? Instead, I'd rather be focusing on the folks who need justice and help. Here's a great post, reproduced by permission by the author, TomP, who is a workers' rights blogger in his spare time. This was posted at the Daily Kos. And this is BW Readers your opportunity to speak up in writing, here, whatever, to serve justice as you see fit. I think the workers need a voice.
------------- Six California farm workers have died since May from what appears to be heat related causes. The latest one was Maria de Jesus Alvarez, 63, mother of nine, who died early this month. The first one to die was 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, who died in May. Marie was about a month pregnant when she died, and likely did not ever know she was pregnant. The state fined the labor contractor $262,700 for failing to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken, but that won't bring her back. And the deaths have continued at an accelarated pace since then. You can help to end this tragedy. This Monday, August 18, more than 800 farm workers from throughout California want to go to Sacramento to lobby the Legislature on a key bill that will help them help themeselves. They want the chance to tell the Governor and their elected officials to support AB 2386, "Secret Ballot Elections for Farmworkers," which has moved out of the assembly and which will be voted on that afternoon in the state senate.
How can you help..?
I have been writing for months on the deaths of farm workers in California from the heat. Six farm workers deaths are being or have been investigated because of heat-related causes since May. This brings to 15 the number of farm workers whose death have been investigated as heat-related since Governor Schwarzenegger took office. You can learn more details of this continuing tragedy in these diaries:
As UFW President Arturo S. Rodriguez said at the funeral of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez:
How much is the life of a farm worker worth? Is it less than the life of any other human being?
The state has fined the labor contractor for whom Maria Isabel worked:
Atwater-based Merced Farm Labor, the contractor investigated in the death of Lodi teen Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez last spring, was fined $262,700 by the state [in July] for failure to follow heat illness prevention regulations at the time Jimenez was stricken. Jimenez, a 17-year-old pregnant farm laborer, collapsed May 14 in a Farmington vineyard operated by West Coast Grape Farming and died two days later. Her death from heatstroke was ruled an occupational death by the San Joaquin County coroner.
In honor of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, the march from Lodi, CA to Sacramento State Capitol, June 4, 2008:
Since then, five more farm workers have died from what appears to be heat-related causes.
August 2, 2008: Maria de Jesus Alvarez. July 31, 2008: Jorge Herrera. July 9, 2008: Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez. July 9, 2008: Abdon Felix Garcia. June 20, 2008: Jose Macrena Hernandez.
Farm worker dies in Santa Maria, California. Television news report on the death of Jose Macrena Hernandez:
These deaths make it clear the state does not have the capacity to protect farm workers. With all the budget cuts and other issues in California now, the state, even if well intentioned, simply has not been able to protect these workers. So they must protect themselves. We can make a difference and it will not take much.
The vital legislation that Speaker Emeritus Nunez has introduced--and the workers want to go to Sacramento and lobby for--protects farm workers' right to a secret ballot election and will make it easier for farm workers to organize and enforce the laws that the state cannot enforce.
Please TAKE ACTION TODAY and ask California legislatures to support this vital bill. . If you can't attend please make a donation to help the United Farm Workers rent 14 buses, additional vans, plus pay for food and other supplies which will cost in excess of $31,770 for the day. There is nothing more powerful than hearing a farm worker story face-to-face, especially to lawmakers.
Doroteo Jimenez, grape worker and uncle of 17-year-old Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez who died in May explains why she must go to Sacremento.
I want to go to Sacramento and speak to the legislators. My niece Maria Isabel died because growers treat us like tools instead of like people. I spoke up and I was unjustly fired. This needs to change now. I don't want to see other families suffer like our family has. This bill can change farm workers' lives for the better. Please help us.
Margarita Hernandez, grape worker knows that that there must be changes in the workplace:
The reason for me to go to Sacramento is because I want changes in the working conditions at my job and the other companies. In the place where I work, Sun Pacific, we don't have shade and the drinking water is without ice until 9 am—though they know that by that hour it is already hot. There have been people have felt sick from the heat and the company people always ask if they feel bad because of something they ate... I feel there is no respect for the farm worker, even though many farm workers have died. The companies don't change their treatment towards the farm workers. That is why I am going to Sacramento. I have the hope that one day, we will be treated better.
Just to rent the buses and vans needed, will cost $26,570 and that does not cover the food and other supplies needed. The UNF hopes that internet supporters would contribute $5,510 towards this expense. This will cover the transportation costs of 140 workers at $39.36 per worker. Let's show them that Daily Kos can do it and more! Can you make sure Doroteo, Margarita and others get seats on the bus?
When the union is strong, growers and labor contractors follow the Californai heat regualtions, and lives can be saved. This bill is key to growing the union and, literally, saving lives.
Where farm workers are protected by union contracts, the laws are honored.
And when growers know it is easier for farm workers to organize and bring in the union, employers are much more careful about obeying the law because they don’t want to give the union an advantage. So the answer, sisters and brothers, is self-help—making it easier for farm workers to organize so the laws on the books are the laws in the fields. Then more important human beings like Maria Isabel won’t have to die.
Tennessee Valley UU Has Its First Service Since Shooting
The Tennessee Valley UU will have its first service to reclaim the church and to reinterate its principles of peace and love. Two stations are carrying the service live and (live stream via Net) at 9CT:
http://www.wate.com/global/Category.asp?C=144099 WATE (looks like Bright Cove)
Nice to see support for the church and its community to heal and celebrate an re-birth.
More l8tr as I will be watching...
Update: I just finished watching the service. It was totally amazing in many ways, but perhaps it's because I haven't been to UU service in awhile. Definitely very UU.
The order of service is here, and hopefully, I can embellish it by recounting my own experience watching it.
The service began with two songs, "Spirit of Life" and "May Nothing Evil Cross this Door." (Luckily, I have a UU hymnal to follow along on most of the readings and songs). Both very appropriate to the theme of forgiveness but reminding each other that we guard the sacredness of not only space but of spirits we carry in hearts and minds.
The Children's Story Moment was just that--not with a story today, but as the Lifespan Education director said, "The Children are the Story", an allusion to last Sunday's performance of Annie when the terrorist came in. Minister Chris Buice gave a personal homily. He said that when his children were scared of storms and they were seeking safety in the basement, often they wanted a toy of comfort, but it was upstairs in their rooms. He said to his children that if any of them wanted to go upstairs and bring down the toy, he would give them each a medal of bravery. He made them out of paper and crayons.
While Rev Buice's own children (now grown) handed out the medals of bravery to all of the children and their parents, 8 members of the congregation were acknowledged--I call them the "Let's Roll" team. I wrote their names down really fast, thus there will be misspellings for now (podcast to be posted later by the church, so you can hear them there when it becomes available):
John Bohstedt (who was the initial person who led the counter attack on the assailant and a precinct chair for the Democratic Party in Knoxville), Arthur Boddles, Michael Wilson, Robert Birdwell, Jamie Parkey, Terry Ulzleton, Amar Assef, and Jennifer Knowles. They were all given a celebratory standing "O". Then the minister asked for anyone in the Congregation to stand to keep the children safe. Everyone stood up---and were going to receive "medals of bravery".
A former congregation member who grew up in that church, attended Sunday School and services in his youth, and is now an associate pastor in a midtown Manhattan parish, read from I Corinthians 13: about love. (same one read at my wedding 7 years ago).
Reverend John Buehrens who was TVUUC's paster from 1973-81, and who later became a president of the UUA, talked about the meaning of "sanctuary". He quoted from a holocaust survivor, in which "sanctuary is often a small human gesture, not grandiose, but small towards alleviating human suffering".
In continuing his theme of sanctuary, Buehrens revealed some history of the TVUCC I was unaware of. Its congregation was the first in the area to set up racially integrated summer camps, long before Knoxville's schools were forced to do so. The camps had to be moved many times over the years because of harassment by the KKK. The Klan also blew up mailboxes at many of the congregations' homes, especially those who sat at lunch counters in solidarity for allowing blacks to be served with whites. In the 1970's, the church was one of the first to be a welcoming congregation to share its space with LGBT's who wanted a spiritual place to gather. Shortly after the first service, all of the church's sanctary's windows were shot out, while children and teens were downstairs. Thus, the latest terrorist who had problems with gays and liberals, was not the first to invoke violence in order to try to intimidate the UU's while children were in the building, and this congregation had set examples to rest of the UUA.
Annette Marquis of the District Office, read a letter from the UUA president, and said that a fund was available for any parish member who needed financial resources for extra counseling if needed. 300 contributions had come in the first 24 hours of the tragedy. Many congregations had been this week and would be doing special services today and many of those were taking up special collections for them. I noticed that some were continuing on after Labor Day to do benefit concerts for the Relief Fund.
Reve Lynn Thomas Strauss, minister of this parish from 1991-2000 during the time a new sanctuary was planned and built, used the theme of "Many Names" to express her love and solace. In 1998, the dedication and the blessing of the building took place. Following the meditation, the hymn, "Bring Many Names" was sung.
Building on Rev Strauss's theme of "Many names for healing", Rev Biuce gave a very rousing sermon, often times sprinkled with tears and his own emotions. He said a man came into their sanctuary:
"..believing that liberals were soft on terror. He had a rude discovery." (loud applause)
"A man came in to invoke violence and hate; he unleashed unspeakable amounts of love."
"A man tried to strike a blow and to divide the community; instead he brought people together."
Rev Buice was wearing a stole that some woman had given him that week. It was white with a gold Celtic cross, in which the foreground represents the sunrise of tomorrow. He explained the young woman's father wore it and was a good man; she wanted to give it to another good man. He removed the stole from around his neck and placed it on the pulpit to represent the goodness of the congregation, including Greg McKendry, who took a fatal bullet in keeping the children safe. The former minister who wore it was Presbyterian. This symbolism was not lost on the congregation because their neighbor Church, the Second Presbyterian Church, held a candlelight vigil for them that past Monday night.
Buice went on to say, "We are all Baptists [referring to an ecumenical service the First Baptist had to pray for peace on Tuesday], Jewish; we are young people of the Church of Christ who painted a rock at the UT campus." With a rising pitch reminiscent of MLK, "we are all liberals, we are conservatives".
He flashed a cap someone else had given him that read "Knoxville, TN" on it, and declared, "This cap reminds us that all its citizens are members of the cast of "Annie" and the sun will come out tomorrow."
He concluded his sermon with this powerful message:
We are all God's children, yellow, red, black, white, gay and straight. We are woven together. We are one.
The last hymn sung was "Circle of Song." Buice, in his final action, resanctified the space for peace, love and justice.
"Love is the spirit of this church," Rev. Buice said in unison with others in the congregation. "And service is its law. To dwell together in peace, to seek the truth in love, and to help one another – this is our great covenant."
The cast members of Annie led the congregation in singing "Tomorrow."
Indeed, justice, peace, and love have many names, faces, and symbols of hope. I will close my post with U2's "Pride (In the Name of Love)" video from The Joshua Tree.
A friend directed me to this weekly award from BuzzFlash:
Edwards deserves this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award, as the reader who nominated him declared, "For his daring race for the Democratic Presidential Primary 2008 riding on the themes of justice, integrity, a government of, for, and by the people, not the corporations, and for highlighting poverty in America and doing something about it, leading by example."
It was fitting of his campaign that Edwards began and ended his race for the White House in New Orleans, a city and people largely abandoned by the federal government.
This blog is for my friends and acquaintances who were formerly with the John Edwards campaign, which had the most progressive agenda. I am a progressive liberal, musing about politics and life.
