“Resisting Juan Crow in Alabama”

“Resisting Juan Crow in Alabama” by Shaun Harkin and Nicole Colson is an excellent update on Alabama’s horrific anti-immigration law and the resistance it’s generated. Clear-headed and informative, this is a good read.

apocalyptic breathing

This phrase haunts me — it’s how I describe the pain of being conscious in this twenty-first century. Impossible to live this way, see this way each moment. But I think I’ve finally finished the poem that goes with that title:

apocalyptic breathing

one world
clogs my airway
each time I inhale

the yellow stomach of an albatross chick
plastic heap of bottle caps
part of a syringe, a toy soldier

the skin of a five-year-old son
tattoed with barbed wire

the noise of new missiles
the sweat between martyred limb
and patriotic prosthesis

dead oceans
famine
local homicides
 
in one world
one throat

I breathe death
a pebbled piece of sin
too far from any gods
or new language
imagining us beyond war
and waste

words rattle
my airway thins
soon this tongue

detonates into inferno

my voice burns to ash
an orphaned pile near my left tonsil
one willowed breath scatters
cinder to its rightful vacuum

If I could end
with hope
I would

wrap myself
in a hope cape

hook my feet to the stars
and dream wrongside up

claim
my ounce of batty vision

one brook-clear
heart-strung
conversation with a neighbor
unplanned unasked for
dispels cataclysm
arrests hiccups
jumpstarts this breath

then the next

effects on health from BP oil disaster

Dahr Jamail has a powerful article at Al Jazeera, “Sick Gulf residents continue to blame BP.” Widespread respiratory problems, rashes, miscarriages. One of the major problems is the chemicals used in the oil dispersants — many of these are showing up in the blood of Gulf residents.

in-depth article on U.S. Postal Service crisis

Nicole Colson’s article, “Why postal workers need your support,” offers an in-depth and nuanced take on the labor issues as well as the history of the current problem. Excellent piece.

Southern Poverty Law Center sues state of Alabama

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other groups filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama and HB 560, set to take effect on 1 September. In an email to subscribers of the SPLC newsletter, Morris Dees writes, “Today we filed a lawsuit against Alabama’s new, draconian anti-immigrant law. The New York Times calls it “the most extreme” in the nation. It makes Arizona’s anti-immigrant legislation look like child’s play.” Here’s a snippet from the SPLC website:

“We have filed this lawsuit today because Alabama’s immigration law is blatantly unconstitutional,” said SPLC Legal Director Mary Bauer. “This law revisits the state’s painful racial past and tramples the rights of all Alabama residents. It should never become the law of the land.”

captain of US to Gaza boat imprisoned

The Greek Coast Guard seized The Audacity of Hope, the US boat trying to sail to Gaza, and jailed the captain. For more information, visit the USToGaza website. With Hilary Clinton’s recent comments that the actions of the Freedom Flotilla II are “provocative” and “dangerous,” we can see the Obama administration’s continued dismal record on Palestine — the Arab Spring apparently skipped straight to winter when it comes to Gaza and the occupied territories. Paul Murphy criticizes Clinton’s comments well:

Clinton’s comments are disgraceful. She has essentially given the green light to Israeli Defence Forces to use violence against participants in the flotilla. She has ignored the reasoning behind the need for such a mission, the criminal and illegal blockade of Gaza, which is resulting in enormous suffering for the Palestinian masses.

Many of the 36 passengers on board are staying on the ship in solidarity. How long before anyone from the US government protests the treatment of the captain of The Audacity of Hope or the seizing of the ship? I’m not holding my breath…

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar reverses decision to visit Israel

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was slated to receive an award from the Jerusalem Film Festival for On the Shoulders of Giants, but Abdul-Jabbar cited “concerns arising ‘after the Nakba Day violence‘” as his reason for not attending. As with Alice Walker’s piece about joining the Freedom Flotilla II, Abdul-Jabbar’s boycott stems from long engagement with civil rights. Here’s a paragraph from the statement by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation:

Abdul-Jabbar’s film documents the policies of segregation and racism that characterized the world of basketball in the 1930s. “Ironically,” the signatories told Abdul-Jabbar, “the majority of Muslim and Christian Palestinians could not even have attended such a screening because they are excluded from entering Jerusalem on the basis of their ethnic and religious background.”

Israel threatens to ban journalists for 10 years

If journalists cover the Freedom Flotilla II, Israel threatens to confiscate their equipment and ban them for ten years.

flying the Goodman, Chaney, Schwerner flag to Gaza

Alice Walker is 67 years old, and she’s sailing to Gaza. In “Why I’m joining the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza,” Walker interweaves civil rights, anti-Semitism, and anti-apartheid in Palestine in a poignant and insightful piece. This is a fine read.

Freedom Flotilla II — Europe leads the way

Freedom Flotilla II is supposed to sail the third week of June to Gaza, and if you go to the Witness Gaza website, you can see all the European countries who are participating, from Turkey (the main organizer) to Germany to Italy to Denmark to Ireland, and more. Some excellent YouTube videos to check out:
Gaza Island
Message in a Bottle