Activism

Shouting at the library

editor — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees ended months of bitter debate on Aug. 20 when it voted 5-2 to start televising its monthly work sessions, every other month.

Bitter may be an understatement. Trustee Penny Austin said at an Aug. 13 board work session that coming to meetings makes her feel physically ill. She reiterated that point at the board’s regular meeting a week later.

At the work session, board President John Walsh characterized Trustee Randy Paul’s “behavior and tactics” as “selfish, narcissistic, disrespectful, dishonorable, unethical and detrimental.” He repeated disrespectful, dishonorable and unethical twice.

Board Vice President Fred Risinger shouted at Paul during the work session. He too restated his frustrations at the Aug. 20 meeting.

“I really feel like we’ve been pressured into this, and I resent it,” he said of a vote to have Community Access Television Services (CATS) broadcast the board’s previously untelevised work sessions.

Preliminary notes from 'No Man's Land'

editor — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0500

The following is an excerpt from the new book Red State Rebels: Tales of Grassroots Resistance in the Heartland, published this month by AK Press. The book has two chapters on Indiana, both of which appeared in The Bloomington Alternative: “Young and radical” by Steven Higgs and "Criticize Cheney, go to jail" by John Blair.

***

We are not supposed to exist.

According to the political Steinberg map of the nation, we come from no man's land, fly-over country, the unredeemable middle, where political progressives are as rare as a Hooters in Provo, Utah.

We are children of the wasteland. The rural outback. Where folks carry guns and use them. Where fenced compounds and utopian communes exist side-by-side with a cyanide heap-leach gold mine. Out here cell phones don't work. Not yet, anyway. And some of us would like to keep it that way.

Frank grew up on the wheated plains of eastern Montana. St. Clair hails from the humid cornfields of central Indiana. These states span the glaciated heart of the continent, a region carved and ground smooth by the weight of ice. From a distance, the terrain of the Great Plains appears homogeneous..

'Hey, what's going on?'

editor — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

At 9 p.m. on June 21, dozens of protesters gathered in People’s Park. With signs, whistles, 10-gallon buckets, firecrackers, and torches -- real fucking torches! -- we marched through downtown Bloomington to protest the building of Interstate 69 and the recent arrests of the Evansville and Berkeley tree sitters.

As we moved from Kirkwood to the Courthouse and past the jail, the march amassed both police and onlookers.

At the start of the event, I was carrying a banner at the front of the march. Eventually I managed to free myself up to take pictures. Unfortunately, those pictures were terrible, just awful. So I stopped taking pictures and started asking questions.

Related Story: Arrogance, ignorance, resistance
Photo Albums: I-69 March -- Martinsville Flood Damage

How LCW failed the community

editor — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0500

For more than 100 years, the Local Council of Women (LCW) has held significant control, on the community’s behalf, over Bloomington Hospital. On June 16 it gave up that power to pave the way for a friendly takeover of the hospital by Clarian Health Partners Inc., hopefully to improve local health care.

In return, LCW is supposed to ensure community influence through its appointments to a post-merger board. The events around the recent vote suggest LCW is not yet able to do that but could with increased community participation.

LCW founded, built and ran Bloomington Hospital throughout most of the 20th century. Eventually, the business of health care overtook the caring part, and LCW gradually ceded control to the professionals. In 1988, LCW gave Bloomington Hospital the property it was built on.

LCW board threatens Holly for speaking out

My comic book heroes

editor — Sun, 04 May 2008 08:13:26 -0500

How would a real person feel about becoming a comic book hero?

If you asked Rev. Bill Breeden that question right now, you'd probably find he's quite pleased.

Bill is definitely a real person. And, to most of us who know him, he was already a hero before he turned up in this big, new $30 "comic book" titled A People's History of American Empire.

The book is the latest manifestation of the great influence of historian and peacemonger Howard Zinn.

Ellsberg speaks against 'a lawless regime'

editor — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Former Pentagon and State Department analyst Daniel Ellsberg knows a lot about the lies politicians from both major parties use to generate support for unpopular and costly wars.

He also knows something about warrantless wiretapping, having been a victim of the Nixon administration's efforts to intimidate and silence the outspoken critic of Vietnam War.

Though it felt awkward asking him for permission to tape our recent phone conversation, he readily agreed. Since the host of his upcoming will be ACLU-Indiana, we began our conversation with that topic.

TPH: The theme of the ACLU-Indiana banquet that you will address is: "Restore American Democracy: A Call for Change." What kind of changes will you be calling for?

Citizens boycott IDEM coal-plant hearing

editor — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 10:15:49 -0600

Dec. 20, 2007 -- Concerned Citizens, Duke Rate Payers, Consumer and Environmental Groups announced they will boycott the only public hearing scheduled for Thursday evening December 20th in the little town of Bicknell, in which IDEM is considering issuance of an air permit for a 630 megawatt Coal Fired Power Plant proposed by Duke Energy and supported by Governor Mitch Daniels.

Members of the public have requested an extension given the timing of the hearing right before the holidays and the magnitude of the request. John Blair, Executive Director of Valley Watch said, "US EPA recently applauded IDEM in a review of IDEM's Title V program for their willingness to extend comment periods when requested. Apparently, IDEM no longer believes in a fair response time to complex permits. Instead it's an attitude of the public be damned." Blair sited a communication from Dan Murray, the Assistant Commissioner of the Air Section of IDEM in which he indicated that he would have to discuss an extension with Duke Energy and get back to him.

Outrage

editor — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0600

In a meeting of climate change activists recently, I told those assembled that I did not understand why everyone in the room was not outraged at the seeming inaction of policy makers to tackle global warming when the evidence shows that serious response is required

Maybe that is the question that needs to be asked by all.

While Al Gore has served the role of Paul Revere in this revolution, the movement lacks a Patrick Henry. Instead of "give me liberty or give me death," we get muted voices that make it home in time for supper.

That does not mean everyone involved is not deeply committed to our cause. It simply means we lack the necessary will to affect the change our issue demands. Like most policy makers, we are all to tied to a comfort zone that interferes with saving the world.

Peace draws 100,000

editor — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600

A busload of card-carrying peace activists, jacked up on caffeine and shared contempt for the Bush war machine and a Democratic Congress that needs to dial 1-800-GROW-A-SPINE, rolled out of Bloomington early Oct. 27 to join several thousands more in Chicago for one of 11 regional anti-war demonstrations that took place that day.

Bloomington Peace Action Coalition (BPAC) organizers Christine Glaser and Timothy Baer led that group to the Windy City. And several other area groups and individuals met them there.

Other cities that participated included Boston, Philadelphia, New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Orlando and Seattle.

Bustan healing wounds of injustice

editor — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:00:00 -0600

For the first 17 years of his life, Ra’ed Almickawi lived in a tent in the desert with his parents and nine brothers and sisters. And he was happy.

He awoke every morning to his mother’s fresh-baked bread. He never had to wash his salad greens, which came from the organic garden that he, his father and his brothers tended.

His mother helped him with his homework between their homemade lunch and homemade dinner. It wasn’t always comfortable sleeping in tight quarters side-by-side with his brothers, but he was never lonely, and he always had someone to look out for him.