okay, first off http://www.saveaccess.org(a coalition dedicated to preserving community TV)
(a coalition dedicated to preserving community TV)http://action.freepress.net/campaign/savethenet
(the action page for the SavetheInternet.com coalition)
do you watch public access tv? if you do, you know it's an important resource. if you don't, maybe it's not your thing, i still think you can get behind wanting to preserve it. that's the public's way of speaking out. it's a medium that can cover what cnn and others refuse to.
when cable companies were getting all these financial breaks, 1 reason justifying them was that they would create this public space where communities could be served. maybe public access isn't something you watch (or maybe you don't watch tv), but this is something that i think you can appreciate the conecpt of.
in terms of the net, are the communications company going to be able to 'steer' traffic by denying you the access you have now? the net's the 'information highway.' now they want to put toll boths on it and create a tiered system that's, another example, is a great deal like 1st class, coach, et al on an airplane.
who told them that they could do that? who let them think we were fine with them seizing our internet?
it's our internet. this is a public common.
did we get it for free?
hell no. i paid for it, you paid for it, people before us paid for it. because the net is something that the government spent millions in tax payer dollars.
this is our space and we shouldn't privatize it anymore than we should allow some 1 to privatize a national forest or a park.
so join fair in the fight to save the communications commons.
last lecture, in 1996, the telecommunications act passed full of promises about how we were going to see all these low band radio stations and that didn't happen. me? i said it wouldn't. i told every 1 that it wouldn't.
you know what else?
i didn't do a damn thing but shoot off my mouth.
i knew it was wrong but didn't make my voice heard.
i won't make that mistake again and i urge you not to.
end of lecture.
"Ruth's Public Radio Report" went up yesterday and i hope you checked it out already, but if not, please do. i love ruth. she is a wonderful (to use betty's daughter's favorite word) woman.
she's had a life and then some and she was 1 of the community members who'd check in at the common ills and read it and think. she didn't even feel up to suggesting a link (because she always undervalues how great she is). then c.i. noted how npr gets a pass from most despite the fact that it reaches a larger audience than fox or any of the other cable channels. so that inspired
ruth to do a contribution. it was her 'morning edition report' and she'd check the show morning edition. then she moved over to doing that and highlighting pacifica. then npr started to get a little more serious criticism (not just when their 'reporters' popped up on fox 'news' and didn't bother to disguise their bias). so she moved over to just highlighting pacifica because she really wants to get the word out on pacifica.
just reading her reports, i knew she busted her ass on those. i knew it from c.i. and kat as well because they've taken the reports down in dictated form sometimes. but saturday night/sunday morning, ruth tried to post (she usually writes it in an e-mail and c.i. will copy and paste it into the square that blogger has you post in). she kept losing it over and over and having to start over. tracey put in the call for help (tracey's ruth's granddaughter) and we put the third estate sunday review on hold because it is important to pitch in with the community and we all love ruth. for the rest of us, it was an eye opener.
she has so much more she'd like to put it into every report. i knew that and that's why i picked up coverage here but i really didn't know it until we helping her put together another version of
the report. she was so tired and so frazzled from all the blogger problems and thank goodness tracey called because i would hate to think of ruth staying up all night attempting to put that together. how it worked was the stuff ruth had in long hand, tracey gave to jim, mike, cedric, kat and me over the phone (we're responsible for those typos) and the stuff she wanted to develop more, she discussed with c.i., ava, jess and wally. betty, ty, dona, elaine and dallas were hunting down links and tags (c.i. also helped with tags). and by all working like that, ruth's amazing report went up early, early sunday morning. but what she does, forget what she'd like to do (because she always wants it to be more), is really too much work for just 1 person.
so we're all trying to beef up our own coverage so ruth can just say 'check __' and not have to write up a summary or something else. there are too many programs that need to be covered. and since it is a 'public radio report' it can act as her report and provide links to others covering pacifica.
ruth says i remind her of treva. that's her best friend from college and treva was able to join us in dc for the september protests and will be with us in nyc this weekend as well. treva is far more wonderful than i am. but i do appreciate the compliment/faith.
i am so thrilled to be able to share that goldie and her mother are having a 'women's night' saturday. goldie is 1 of my very cool readers and she is always trying to participate (and doing way more than a lot of adults). this time, her mother's joining her. it's a mothers and daughters, female friends saturday. mothers and daughters are going to discuss the war, share their feelings and have the sleepover goldie's had before with her friends but this time it will include
adults. they're really excited about it. they're going to show a short film and goldie says c.i. had suggested it so i'm guessing it's eyewitness in iraq: dahr jamail: an unembedded report.
goldie wrote me for a suggestion but a lot of my e-mails have been going to my 'junk folder.' i would have just deleted everything in that folder without looking if i hadn't read an e-mail tonight from goldie's mother. i'm glad i checked. and sorry that i wasn't able to read it before now but eyewitness in iraq is a wonderful choice.
they're going to have a short movie and then they're going to discuss the war. every 1 is supposed to bring a book, newspaper or magazine article or a song. it can be on iraq or activism.
and they'll go around and discuss what every 1 brought and why. (they'll also have the music on which should be really cool). goldie has 15 friends coming and her mother has 11 confirmed and hopes to hear from 5 more.
that is so amazing and that's what it takes to stop the war - bringing it to your area, bringing it to your circle. addressing it with the people around you. goldie's mother wrote as well (and when she was talking about goldie's e-mail, that's when i thought 'what?' and checked the junk folder) and said 'isn't my daughter amazing?' she is. and goldie's mother gives her daughter all the credit for this. not just for the idea but for making her 'give a damn about it and stop acting like it's something that happens and i have no say.' she says seeing goldie take this so seriously and really dedicate herself to this cause inspired her. i can understand that because goldie inspires me as well.
she should inspire you to do something. you may not be able to go to nyc, but you can do something. next week, goldie, her mother and i are going to speak on the phone and i'll write up a thing on how their function went.
goldie is amazing. she wants to start her own blog. her mother says maybe in a few years and that's due to her (rightful) concern about some of the predators online as well as 'the men who bash women, i've seen what some have done to you and really don't want that to happen to my daughter.' but here's something goldie is doing with her mother's permission: each sunday, she's writing a column for polly's brew.
polly's brew is by english member polly and goes out on sundays in e-mail form. her mother's fine with this contribution because it's 'closed' - only common ills members get this. the gina & krista round-robin goes out on fridays, polly's brew goes out on sundays and every 2 weeks we get the uk computer gurus.
goldie went with polly's brew because she knows polly has just started this up and she thought the english members might enjoy hearing about 'a kid's life in america as she wonders what can stop the war.' i think every 1 will be interested.
so that's what the amazing goldie is up to. what are you doing this week? come on you older teens and adults, is goldie going to do all the work? or are we going to step up to the plate?
not being able to go to nyc is not a reason for doing nothing. you do something. you put your mind to it like goldie has. that's how we stop the war.
from c.i.:
Iraq snapshot.
Thursday, as Pacifica broadcasts the Iraq Forum, things remain the same in Iraq: violence and chaos.
Condi and Donnie took the PR Express to Iraq. And did anything change? CNN reports that "many of the troops stationed north of Baghdad, in Balad and Dujail, say either they didn't know about it or didn't care." No, nothing changed. But it's an election year and nothing's more likely to put the dove in the pants of an Nixon or Bully Boy than an election year. Which is why there are the grumbles of maybe we'll draw down the numbers of some troops (while increasing the air strikes). The AFP reports Muwaffaq Bubaie, national security chief of Iraq, made noises of "a sizeable gross reduction of troops" at year's end.
Far from Fantasy Island, in Baquba, at least one Iraqi civilian and four Iraqi police officers died while at least two police officers were wounded in attacks on checkpoints today. As the day continued, the number of dead would rise to at least eleven.
Reuters notes a Romanian soldier and three Italian soldiers died due to a roadside bomb (Italy's Minister of Defence had revised the figures from three to two but AFP notes that the third has died and that a fourth is wounded). In Ramadi, two missiles were fired by a US plane. In Ramadi,an Iraqi soldier died from gun fire.
The Associated Press notes that today, sixteen more corpses were found (signs of torture).
As noted by Australia's ABC and WBAI's Wakeup Call, Jake Kovco remains in Iraq. Kovoco died in Iraq last week. Jacob Bruce Kovco was twenty-five years old and was to be honored this week in the Gippsland community of Briagolong. For that to happen, Kovco's body would need to make it to Australia. The wrong body was in the coffin. Brendan Nelson, Australia's Defense Minister, tells of breaking the news to Shelley Kovco and when the widow demanded to speak with Prime Minister John Howard, Nelson dialed the number. Nelson then angered family members (brother of the deceased, Benn Kovco, and mother of the deceased, Judy Kovco) by making statements regarding the death (which is still under investigation).
And in England, the Telegraph of London reports, the government's attorney general has backed off from the prosecution of of any British soldiers in the shooting death of Steven Roberts. Like the Kovco family, Samantha Roberts (wife of the deceased) continues to seek answers and feels that the government has been little help to her.
remember to make your voice heard.
