onluckyfellow

1- Fight racism against Public School emphasizing  Arabic language & culture
Please learn about the attack and subsequent outcry of support for the Kahlil Gibran International Academy (KGIA)and Debbie Almontaser-

The Jewish Week has a really good article explaining the situation

Watch videos from a rally by Communities in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (especially watch the video of Sara Said, KGIA Student Family Member)

Also read this statement of support from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ)

=========
2- Remember Grace Paley

Grace Paley, poet, mother, activist, has died and there have been really wonderful outpourngs of rememberence honoring her life, her writing and activist work.

check it out-
NyTimes Obituary
Democracy Now! interview with Grace Paley
Account of Grace Paley as a role model for all of us

Just in the time between
April and June 2007, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (where I work) with leadership from Domestic Workers United had a real impact on the campaign for domestic
workers justice in New York.  It couldn’t have happened without SO MANY PEOPLE.  CONGRATULATIONS AND APPRECIATION to all.   

Over 350 people attended the 6/7 Town Hall!  The event was hosted by DWU
member Joyce Gill-Campbell, NY Jobs with Justice Director, Adrianne
Shropshire, Author, Barbara Ehrenreich, and JFREJ’s own Gayle
Kirshenbaum. There were moving testimonials from domestic workers and
JFREJ Employer for Justice, Caroline Batzdorf; powerful leaders from
the Labor movement (John Sweeney, President AFL-CIO), the State
Legislature (Labor Comissioner Patricia Smith and Assemblymember Keith
Wright) and the Jewish community (Rabbi Lippmann, Rabbi Kalmonfsky,
& Met Council’s Director William Rapfogel) also spoke. 

At the Town Hall, Ed Donnelly of the NY AFL-CIO announced that on his
way there, the Senate Labor committee called to say that they were
considering the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights on their legislative
agenda for this week- and low and behold, yesterday the Bill was voted
out of the Senate Labor Committee successfully (& we think
unanimously)!!  Speaker of the Assembly Sheldon Silver failed to send a
rep to the Town Hall, so a delegation of DWU members visited his office
on Friday with hundreds of signed postcards to show that we wished they
had been there and we won’t stop here.

The 6/9 March was loud and visible heading down Broadway.  The props
and creative actions at each stop were amazing- notable was the city
skyline with the message: "we keep this city running", the linking of
symbolic chains at the African burial ground, which we then broke and
through off in front of the immigration offices; and throughout- loud
and vibrant chants "down with slavery! up with the bill of rights!"

Some of the Press coverage includes-
the Daily News, The
NY Times, El
Diario, Democracy
Now!, WBAI’s
Wake Up Call, 15+
Blogs, and more is still coming in!

blogs/newsources i read or care about for some reason :

read:
http://saltyfemme.com/
http://sassafras.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/

care about for some reason (yeah, i’m jewish now, For non-jew good blogs - look at saltyfemme and she’ll tell you):
http://jspot.org/
http://jewschool.com/
http://jvoices.com/ (look I posted once!- http://jvoices.com/2006/10/20/passover-a-poem-for-jewish-americans-about-ip/)
http://wonderinghome.blogspot.com/

news source:
http://democracynow.org/
find your local station/s - http://democracynow.org/stations.shtml

and while we’re at it,  you should look here too-
http://www.jfrej.org/

Democracy Now! is  an independent radio/tv/internet news hour that airs on over 350 stations in the US. 

This summer, there are two fantastic interns working with the Democracy Now! outreach team (of which I am a part) (yeah Sarah and Liz!).  With them, I planned a meeting the other day with NYC area DN! supporters who want to help increase awareness (ie. "spread the word") about Democracy Now!. One DN supporter said we should all go on our online worlds (her’s is myspace, others have face book, I, of course, have friendster) and tell everyone to check out DN! at: www.democracynow.org

so, I figure I’d follow this lead.

You can read/watch/listen online at:
www.democracynow.org 
Or check what radio/tv stations air DN!  in your community by visiting: www.democracynow.org/stations

this is a great resource for everyday news, information and perspectives you really can’t get on corporate networks, or via NPR or PBS these days.  My mom says she watches corporate tv everyday and never ever hears about the stories I report to her from DN! so… check it out. and use the search engine to find old shows (text transcripts and downloadable audio+video files) about topics you are especiallly interested in.

Peace out. Democracy Now! (visualize me and/or Amy Goodman punching the air with a fist)