Bloomington-Normal Ready to Take Action on Anti-War Agenda

The anti-war movement is again on the move. 800 activists from around the country attended a national conference, the United Anti-war National Conference, and have produced an action program. We'll be meeting here in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois to discuss how to end the wars, working to implement the national program in central Illinois.

If you're interested in attending, the Bloomington meeting will be at the Unitarian-Universalist Church, located 1613 E. Emerson Drive in Bloomington, at 4 pm on September 12. Together we can end the imperialist wars and occupations destroying our country.

Social media revolution

I posted here an interview I saw on Democracy Now!, broadcasted from Las Vegas, covering a conference on social media being held there. This interview highlights the role social networking can play in democratizing the media, taking the news away from the corporate deceivers of CNN, FOX, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post....   

What does a "failing school" look like?

This NPR interview exposes the lie of what it means to be a "failing school," both under Bush's No Child Left Behind and Obama's Race to the Top.

Internal crises of capitalism animated

While the discussion here is somewhat abbreviated, and there are competing Marxists theories of the exact nature of capitalist contradictions, I thought this animated talk was a nice introduction to the discussion (and it's fun to watch!).

Fútbol fever, is it contagious?

I watched this game, Spain vs. Paraguay, with a friend from Spain. He was excited when Spain scored the game-winning goal, but he didn't quite match this level of excitement.

BNCPJ Educational on Community Organizing

Bloomginton-Normal Citizens for Peace and Justice is having an educational on community organizing. We will be showing Bill Moyer's last PBS production, his profile of the community organization Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, which is very similar to our own Illinois People's Action here in Bloomington. You can find event details by downloading the flyer here.

My union leadership, all bluster?

I didn't go this year to the National Education Association (NEA) Representative Assembly, but having gone twice, I have a sense of the results by looking at the new business items passed by the delegates. I was particularly interested in how the NEA would respond to the increased attacks against teachers and our unions, specifically with Obama's Race to the Top and his horrible plans for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (titled NCLB under Bush).

With the attacks suffered by our teacher unions this year, there is no better time than now to start fighting back.

In his keynote address, NEA head Dennis Van Roekel thundered, "We must not allow another bad ESEA. Because if they take the old NCLB, fancy it up and call it the new ESEA, I think we ought to just call it TNT and blow the whole damn thing up!”

But a look at the passed business items suggests that the NEA leadership does not intend on leading a grassroots mobilization, but rather plans on continuing with their ineffective support of Democratic Party politicians and lobbying efforts.

Van Roekel does call for state affiliates to organize a Day of Action against Obama's plan for ESEA, which in my opinion is even worse than Bush's NCLB. But such devolution of organizing to state bodies insures a mediocre effort. The New Business Item that would have committed the NEA to a national mobilization in the streets failed, undoubtedly due to the leadership's opposition to it.

More tellingly, New Business Item 95, passed late in the proceedings by the delegates, assists state affiliates in attracting Race-to-the-Top grant money, apparently contradicting the NEA position laid out in NBI A. NBI A commits the NEA to opposing "federal educational funding through competitive grant models" like that of Race-to-the-Top.

What we need is a national leadership willing to lead by mobilizing the ranks. Instead, once again, I suspect that we are getting fiery rhetoric with no substance. That said, we need to nevertheless influence our state affiliates to organize a Day of Action against Obama's ESEA. But it should be a real Day of Action by marching in the street, not worthless texting or call-ins.

Dale Watson in Chicago

This past weekend, 4th of July weekend, we visited Chicago with our friends and saw Dale Watson at Martyr's. I have to say, it's a little different to see a performer drink himself under the table while on stage! We did our share of carousing around town, eating at a number of different establishments - burgers and beer at BadDog's, sushi at Tank, and Italian at Topo Gigio's.

Walking and driving around town, I also ran into some interesting bookstores that I will review on my Indie Bookstore Travelogue. The best one I happened upon is Tres Americas, which specializes in books in Spanish, the best I've seen in the country.

Help us! Which shingle color looks best?

We need help! Which shingle color looks best on our house? Look at the pictures below (click on picture to enlarge), choose your favorite, and then navigate up to just below the blog title and vote! (In case the picture and name of shingle type don't line up below, they are listed in the same order as the poll (and alphabetical order): 1. burnt sienna, 2. colonial slate, 3. cottage red, 4. hunter green, 5. terra cotta).

Rank-and-file teachers win in Chicago

The most promising political news of the year has to be the victory in the Chicago Teachers Union of the Caucus of Rank-and-file Educators. This grouping was formed two years ago to contest the closing of Chicago neighborhood schools due to No Child Left Behind.

For anyone who has worked in an urban school, it is obvious that the NCLB-mandated tests are entirely unfair to schools with diverse school populations. I won't go into the details, except to say that I support accountability, and what we have with NCLB has nothing to do with accountability. The sad reality, though, is that the leadership of our teacher unions are retreating from the battle. Finally we have a union leadership willing to fight back, and do so by promoting democracy and grassroots mobilization of teachers and community members.

Right away, the CORE-led Chicago Teachers Union has a big battle ahead over layoffs. I couldn't believe that the Chicago Board of Education voted to layoff teachers, not by seniority, but by their evaluations! As if evaluations can be compared, and as if they are always to be trusted! While I have had good principals, I know teachers who have not. There goes our right to speak our minds and exercise professional judgment, when our future is held in one person's hands!

Blues festival trip 2010

Here are a few pictures of the Chicago Blues Festival, which I've attended now for the second year. I tend to like the acts during the day the best. The night brings some well-known people, and some tributes like the one this year to Hubert Sumlin, but I never have a chair and sitting in grass - with or without a towel - isn't that fun. This year, though, I got to see Jimmy Johnson in a performance at B.L.U.E.S bar on Halstead Street, and saw Mike Wheeler, an up-and-coming performer in Johnson's band.

The picture outside of the Chicago Museum of Art (where we saw the Matisse collection) is not of the blues festival, but shows the pride demonstrated in the city over the Blackhawk winning the Stanley Cup.

Tea baggin' blame game

Two weeks ago I submitted a letter to the editor to the Pantagraph (or Slantagraph, as I like to call it, our very conservative-leaning local paper in Bloomington-Normal), defending undocumented immigrants from attacks by the right-wing. You can find the letter, along with its discussion forum, via this link. From these debates online, including others involving other letters and articles, I couldn't help but notice that there is some dislike of big corporations out there. But this fledgling perspective is dwarfed by the blame game directed at people who are by no means the problem. Many contributors have bought into the blame game promoted by FOX News and other corporate media outlets. Top in the people to blame for our society's problems:

---undocumented immigrants (or as racists and xenophobes put it, the "Mexican invasion"; they definitely top the list for right-wing ire)

---teachers (heaven forbid that they want decent working conditions and pay, after all they already have their summer's off!)

---teacher unions (by promoting a decent standard of living for teachers, they are stealing our money, and thus "destroying the public system of education in the U.S"!)

---liberals (they're after our money and guns!)

---socialists (Obama is a socialist! He wants to redistribute the wealth. Never mind that he was elected by Wall Street and has pro-corporate policies.)

---traitors (If you think differently than me, or don't love the flag more than humanity as a whole, you are a traitor. "How does it feel to be a traitor, Corey?" By your definition of traitor, GREAT!!!)


I imagine that these views are characteristic of the Tea Baggin' movement, which if they had better organization and competent leadership, would represent a threat. Now they are just one more obstacle, albeit huge, to building a decent country and world.

Grassroots Immigrant Justice Network

What kind of comprehensive immigration reform do we want? More enforcement or social justice?

With many pro-immigrant rights organizations calling for immediate comprehensive immigration reform, a group of those organizations is calling for an open debate on the proposals on the table. The Grassroots Immigrant Justice Network published on Open Letter criticizing the Democratic Party proposals. The problem with these reforms, including the Gutierrez bill, is that it strengthens the punish and enforce stance of the government - further militarizing the border, putting in place an e-verify system, and making the path to citizenship very difficult for immigrants.

I agree with those on the Left who say that the primary purpose of the considered proposals is to garner votes for Democrats among the pro-immigrant rights crowd, not bring about humane reform for immigrants living and working in the U.S.

Our response to the Tea Baggers

I participated last week in the large Save Our State rally calling for Illinois budget that covers the state's needs. Called by the unions of the public sector, including the Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Federation of Teachers, the coalition behind the rally is calling for an increase in the state income tax from 3 to 5% and a slight increase to the corporate tax. My own view is that we need an ongoing campaign and not just one rally. But it's a start.

Oregon passed a bill that taxed the wealthy to fill the state's budget gap. If they can do it, why can't we?

I also found some good coverage of the rally on Progressive Illinois' webpage.

ICPJE brings Cockburn as keynote speaker

Last weekend we participated in the annual meeting of the Illinois Coalition for Peace, Justice and the Environment, and for the opening keynote address, listened to Alexander Cockburn speak on sad state of the American left with Obama as president. I generally agree with him on his analysis of liberal capitulation to Obama's rightwing corporate agenda.

Our Race to the Bottom

This article on Obama's Sec. of Education, Arne Duncan, as leader of the corporate take-over of education, is the best I've come across yet. But I would have been a little harder on the leaderships of the two national teacher unions, which have done so very little to educate and lead on these issues. The NEA under Van Roekel is so enamored with Obama that his mild criticism of Race to the Top (RTTT) and merit pay gets lost when it isn't absent. And as for the AFT, which is getting hit hardest on NCLB and now RTTT because it represents teachers mostly in urban districts, Weingarten's appearance on Bill Maher's HBO show Real Time was absolutely pathetic. Honestly, almost anyone could have done better. The worst part was her refusal to defend the fired Rhode Island teachers, preferring instead to blame the school's administration on its "failures". Of course we can't depend on these bureaucrats, but it's infuriating nonetheless.

Health care analysis

I'll update this post from time to time with the best analyses I can find on the health care plan recently passed. I opposed the bill, but from the left, believing that we need to cut out the insurance companies from health care with a single-payer system.

Press release from the Physicians for a National Health Program

Stand up to Obama's No Child Left Behind

Obama and his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, told us they would change the name of No Child Left Behind. Well, now we have it - Race to the Top. Unfortunately, we're now seeing that Race to the Top is an extension of NCLB. Using the punitive measures of the Bush era law, Race to the Top doles out money to states and districts that are willing to privatize and open up to charter schools. Meanwhile, it further demands that the "failing" schools of NCLB, mostly in cities meeting the needs of our poorest students, be punished. The recent Rhode Island firing of teachers is the model: blame the teachers and their union.

Sadly, our union here in Bloomington, Illinois approved District 87's application for Race to the Top funds. In assigning blame for this blunder, I have to say that it sits squarely with the national union leaderships, both of the AFT and NEA in failing to lead on this issue from the top. The NEA in particular seems unwilling to criticize Obama and his education policy. The NEA leadership contents itself with decontextualized criticisms of teacher merit pay based on test scores, failing to point out that Obama's Race to the Top seeks to implement such merit schemes. Without leadership from the national unions, teachers outside of the urban districts will fail to recognize how inner city schools are being unjustly attacked by NCLB. More than ever, these schools need our solidarity.

For information background on NCLB, watch Diane Ravitch on Democracy Now, embedded below in this same post. For an article on the Rhode Island situation, which includes info on their capitulation, see the article on Susan Ohanian's website.

Rebuilding the anti-war movement

Renegades for Peace, a student group at Illinois Wesleyan, and the Bloomington-Normal Citizens for Peace and Justice (BNCPJ) hosted a panel forum on different perspectives against the current wars and occupations. The event was a huge success, bringing at least 30 people to discuss their opposition to the Afghanistan war, including a contingent from Peoria. The discussion was particularly interesting in that the participants were from both the left and right, all who converged on their opposition to American military interventions.

Prior to the event we had our monthly picketing against the wars and occupations. BNCPJ converges every first Thursday of the month at 5:30 pm, in front of the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, downtown on Main Street.

Don't move the farmer's market from Bloomington

The Slantagraph reported today that the Bloomington Farmer's Market, one of our favorite weekly summer events here, might be moved to another location, possibly to Uptown Normal. We'd probably still go, by biking up Constitution Trail, but the current location is much better than Uptown. Hopefully it won't go through!

The Passion of Jesus Christ Superstar

Regarding my last post, written two weeks ago, I have to say that I was extremely disappointed with the production of Jesus Christ Superstar, the Ted Neeley (playing Jesus) tribute performance, that came here to Normal, Illinois. I don't have definitive proof, but I suspect that it was sanitized of its subversive elements for mainstream church-goers. Compared to the 1973 version, which questioned Jesus' divinity and openly compared the Jesus movement to the 1960s counterculture against violence and traditional authority, this production emphasized supernatural biblical themes such as the purported miracles and divinity. The musical even opens with a miracle during the overture and ends with ascension. Most of the whitewashing happens by a subtle shift in mood and mannerisms, such as Jesus' constant mumblings to some unseen force in the sky. But at one point, they even change the words to make sure no devout person is offended. To Pilate Pontius, Neeley's Jesus says "There might be a heaven somewhere, if you only knew" instead of the much more doubting statement "There might be a heaven somewhere, if I only knew."

While I enjoyed the songs, and thought that they were well-sung except for those parts sung by Ted Neeley, this sanitized version left a bad taste in my mouth. I understand that it is supposed to be a tribute to Neeley, but I wondered how he could participate in such a travesty. If the musical wasn't made palatable to the devout, I could forgive Neeley's raspy voice playing a man 32 years his younger. But when he sings, "I have tried for 3 years, feels like 30," I had to laugh. The worst part came at the end, when after Jesus' ascension to heaven, some people were crying at his death and resurrection. In the 70s, the controversy of the musical was to problematize the conflict between Judas and Jesus, to force a reconsideration of who Jesus was and what his death on the cross means. It inspired hate among devout sectarians. Today, the musical might as well be named The Passion of the Superstar. As my wife said on the way out, it was like the story I heard in Sunday school, the rock music version, and perhaps a little more interesting.

Jesus Christ Superstar comes to Illinois State

Next Monday, my favorite musical - Jesus Christ Superstar - is coming to ISU's Braden Auditorium. I've actually only seen the movie version of the musical, so seeing it live and with the original Ted Neeley starring is definitely a thrill. Posted here is one of my favorite scenes, where in his polemic with Judas, Jesus seems a little megalomaniacal in the end. I love this scene because, in unions and social movements, leader worship has been a problem up to the present day.

Hanging out at Theatre's Cool

This past Saturday night we went with some of our friends to Theatre's Cool to hear the bands Oh Alchemy and Constant Velocity. All in all a good time. The venue, located in downtown Bloomington, is next to a coffee shop I sometimes frequent and I always wondered what kind of events they hosted. Turns out that Theatre's Cool is an all-ages theater and acting school, and also host bands. We'll be back in a few weeks to hear my friend's band, Trashing X Paramours.

Learning something new

Thinking about my ecological footprint

I was reading Robert Jensen's book All My Bones Shake, and in the section on living sustainably, he mentions this interesting website by Redefining Progress that estimates your ecological footprint. I took their quiz, found at www.myfootprint.org, and discovered that if everyone in the world lived like my partner and I we would need 4 Earths. We didn't do too badly, relative to the country average, even though I had to include my wife's 7000 miles traveled by plane per year! Check out the site. There might be more like it, though, that use other methods to estimate your footprint. The aspect of the site that I wondered about was Coca-cola's sponsorship. I wonder what Coke's ecological footprint would be?!?! Well, anyway, here are my results.

Winter break memories

Over winter break I traveled by train to Austin, Texas, visited my friend and his family there, did a fair amount of reading, met up with my partner and our friends in St. Louis for New Years, and arrived home to promptly get sick. Tomorrow I go back to work, still sick of course, so I'm fighting off the blues. Just to remember the free times of vacation, I thought I'd post a few pictures from the past 2 weeks...

Demand an end to war for X-mas

Who would Jesus bomb? "Peace on Earth" is an end to imperialist wars.

Trovers Inc.'s Healthcare Recoveries

I have gotten two letters from Cheri A. Hall from Healthcare Recoveries, wanting me to call them regarding the insurance coverage of my recent tendinitis injury. I'm sick of these jokers. It's the insurance companies, and these parasitical companies like Trovers, that are pushing health care costs through the roof. Single-payer now!

Climate crackdown: capitalism at work

I've been following the developments in Copenhagen on Democracy Now! but not as well as I should be. From what I've gleamed the rich nations, including the U.S. and Canada, have controlled the talks and have pushed forward plans for a much weaker agreement than that of even Kyoto. Obama's emission targets have been laughable, amounting to a reduction of 4% of 1990 levels by 2020.

This interview with the leader of Friends of the Earth, who was being kicked out of the conference, was simply incredible.Climate Crackdown: UN Bars Friends of the Earth and Other Environmental Groups from Climate Talks

P.S. Later I found this excellent synopsis on Copenhagen written by Christine Frank.