June 2013 – kimi blog

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Early voting will help Cory Booker

The New Jersey primary to elect party candidates for the Wed Oct 16 2013 special Senatorial election will be held on Tues Aug 13 and voting is set to begin as early as next week, with counties getting ready to sending out vote by mail ballots early to the 15,000+ voters registered to receive them for the year. People who vote early may not have enough time to learn about the Real Cory Booker.

The buzz is just starting to build about Cory Booker’s sellout of the people of Newark he is pledged to serve in favor of the big money financiers he’s so in love with. They want to run the voters who elected Cory out of Newark and destroy Newark public education for children so departing residents will have nothing to come back to. We’re talking financiers like Mitt Romney, whom Cory lavishly praised on public television during the last presidential election. sneich reacts with comments and a hard-hitting question on the Daily Kos: read more

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Dems aren’t perfect. Republicans are a little worse.

Today, the highest court in our nation stooped to a new low, thanks to Republican ideology loyal Supreme Court justices who voted to strike down a part of the Voting Rights Act designed to protect the voting rights of this country’s most vulnerable citizens. Adam Liptak of the New York Times writes,

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg summarized her dissent from the bench, an unusual move and a sign of deep disagreement. She cited the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and said his legacy and the nation’s commitment to justice had been “disserved by today’s decision.” read more

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This cartoon shows us where we DON’T want to be – in a place of hate

My friend David Meza sent me this anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon created by Disney during WWII to stimulate United States citizen’s hatred for Germans. I’m a Jew who lost family in Hitler’s holocaust, so I’m far from being a Nazi sympathizer. But, I like to remember that not everything that reinforces my experiential and cultural judgments is factual or true. And I am a lover of truth. So, please, when watching this disturbing 10 minute cartoon portraying how Nazis killed love and hope in their young men to make them into the optimal fighting machines they wanted them to be, keep in mind that this is the American propaganda version of Germany. What really went on there may have been quite different from what this film portrays.

The cartoon disturbed me for another reason. In the militaristic, unfeeling youth mindlessly pledging obedience to the heartless Nazi philosophy, I see too many parallels with American society today. Which makes sense, right …. as this film is an American brainchild. Today in America, there are too many parents and children taking an approach to education and career preparation that embraces arrogance, elitism and a willingness to hurt anyone who blocks a student’s path to academic success, job security and the acquisition of material goods. In today’s education system, financially stable parents want their children to be separate from those who are not; standardized tests which are culturally skewed to favor middle class children over others and are used as leverage for separating students by economic class or ethnicity. And Blacks, Latinos and other students who struggle with the challenges poverty exerts on their school performance – and their lives overall – are ruthlessly deemed by financially secure student families to be worthy only of condemnation, and neither of inclusion nor assistance. read more

2013061520131213

Powerful reasons women should stop calling other women bitches

My Facebook post

What is this trend, that even women refer to women as bitches? Stop doing this. Demand respect.

is generating quite a bit of discussion. Lady friend Marilyn admits that she uses this word, but in a popular language context (meaning, not with derogatory intent) and @Han Broekman points out that language mutates with time and across cultural lines. But a bunch of my Facebook friends say they’re glad I took a stand.

(BTW, if you’re interested in the Wonderwomn Poster, one of the twin sister artists talks about it here. And, they have an Etsy store where you can order a print.) read more

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Sharpe James corrects NY Times reporter on Newark history

Branch Brook Park & cathedral — Branch Brook Park

Today I came across this letter from former Newark mayor Sharpe James to the author of a front page December 2012 New York Times article about Cory Booker: Promise vs. Reality in Newark on Mayor’s Watch. Written by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter author Kate Zernike, the article presents an unflattering view of Booker, but it also refers offhandedly to Mr. James as corrupt. In this statement, Mr. James rebuts that characterization and shares some history about Newark and its governmental accomplishments. read more

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Almost 1 in 100 jailed in US

Here are a few quotes and visuals to help us see what the United States’ almost 1% incarceration rate looks like – a phenomenon the ACLU condemnsin its new report Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration.

The imprisonment of human beings at record levels is both a moral failure and an economic one …

refers to the reality that 750 people out of each 100,000 residents in the United States are being jailed. In mathematic terms, that equates to .0075% of our population (3/4 of a percentage point) meaning that it comes way too close to being 1% of our population (1 person out of every 100). read more