los anjalis

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action.

Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was written exactly 50 years ago, on this day. Do read it again if you can. A paragraph:

You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue.

MLK Jr’s tone is conversational — he tries to reason with his readers — as well as indignant and righteous. And he takes great aim at the ‘white moderate’. His description of the white moderate feels… timeless.

First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

Remember this speech from Charlie Chaplin, in The Great Dictator, a movie he wrote, directed, and produced himself? (did you know it was released in 1940, before we even went to war with germany?)

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”…

…Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security.

happy labor day to all.

[if interested, here's the full text of the speech.]

Alternet has a short news/analysis piece on the 1,500 farmer suicides in India and the contributing factors. It’s a good read, albeit disturbing.

At the end of the article is a well placed quote from Vandana Shiva, one of the most outspoken and articulate critics of bioengineered crops, and one of the most ardent supporters of honest trade and land rights for Indian farmers. Here’s the excerpt:

A few weeks ago, I was in Punjab. 2,800 widows of farmer suicides who have lost their land, are having to bring up children as landless workers on others’ land. And yet, the system does not respond to it, because there’s only one response: get Monsanto out of the seed sector–they are part of this genocide — and ensure WTO rules are not bringing down the prices of agricultural produce in the United States, in Canada, in India, and allow trade to be honest. I don’t think we need to talk about free trade and fair trade. We need to talk about honest trade. Today’s trade system, especially in agriculture, is dishonest, and dishonesty has become a war against farmers. It’s become a genocide.

Please check out the complete interview that Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! conducted with Vandana Shiva (read the transcript or watch the video). I *heart* Vandana Shiva, saw her speak at the World Social Forum in Nairobi and she is a RIGHTEOUS passionate woman who knows her shit. She is NOT one to be messed with. Love her.

And this is why:

Stephen Colbert and Nas bring it.

Lyrics to “Sly Fox” by Nas below…
(more…)

As performed by Saul Williams.

(original words from Not in Our Name’s Pledge of Resistance)

We believe that as people living in the United States it is our
responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government,
in our names

Not in our name
will you wage endless war
there can be no more deaths
no more transfusions of blood for oil

Not in our name
will you invade countries bomb civilians, kill more children
letting history take its course over the graves of the nameless

Not in our name
will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for

Not by our hands
will we supply weapons and funding
for the annihilation of families on foreign soil

Not by our mouths
will we let fear silence us

Not by our hearts
will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil

Not by our will
and Not in our name

We pledge resistance

We pledge alliance with those who have come under attack
for voicing opposition to the war or for their religion or ethnicity

We pledge to make common cause with the people of the world
to bring about justice, freedom and peace

Another world is possible
and we pledge to make it real.

From BuzzFeed:

In response to Barack Obama’s calls for change, the Republican’s have unveiled their new “Change You Deserve” campaign for 2008. It turns out the slogan was also used to market the popular anti-depressant, Effexor. Sometimes those Republicans just get things so right.

Check out the link to the drug’s possible side effects! (akathisia, elevated blood pressure, memory loss, brain zaps, vertigo, nausea, wow! How telling, about the GOP’s proposed change we deserve…)

And here’s more information about the “Change You Deserve” intiative, from the republican house leader’s website. Make your own conclusions…

(cross-posted at Cure This)

From the fine folks at RockRap, today’s musical thought for the day:

The problem is
We’ve been trained
We’ve been programmed
To not dream
Not want
Not think that there’s a better life available
Other than the one that’s being portrayed to us
Through the tube
Through the radio
We don’t even understand how much
The world is ours
But we just haven’t claimed it yet

Black Ice & K-Salaam

Digging in the crates — I was going through some old emails and reread this piece I flagged, from last year around this time, when Dave Chappelle surreptitiously took a break from his show and flew to South Africa to be inside his head.

“I’ve got to check my intentions.”

…”I want to make sure I’m dancing and not shuffling,” he says. “What ever decisions I make right now I’m going to have live with. Your soul is priceless.”

…But Chappelle also says that he must share the blame for the stalled third season. “I’m admittedly a human being,” he says. “I’m a difficult kind of dude.” His earlier walkout during shooting “had a little psychological element to it. I have trust issues, things like that. I saw some stuff in myself that I just didn’t dig. It’s like when I brought a girl home to my mom and it looked as if my mom really didn’t like this girl. And she told me, ‘I like her just fine. I just don’t like you around her.’ That’s how I feel in this situation. There were some things about myself that I didn’t like. People got to take inventory from time to time. That’s what this [coming to South Africa] is for.”

(From TIME.com: On the Beach With Dave Chappelle)

I’m feeling the dancing too.  Checking my intentions for sure.  Reflecting on the past few weeks and my months ahead, really wanting to dance.  Though this past month i’ve been working with the neurology consult team at my hospital, affording me the opportunity to see too many people shuffling along because they have Parkinson’s disease.

We are Virginia Tech

We are sad today
We will be sad for quite a while
We are not moving on
We are embracing our mourning

We are Virginia Tech

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly We are brave enough to bend to cry And we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again

We are Virginia Tech

We do not understand this tragedy
We know we did nothing to deserve it

But neither does a child in Africa
Dying of AIDS

Neither do the Invisible Children
Walking the night away to avoid being captured by a rogue army

Neither does the baby elephant watching his community Be devastated for ivory Neither does the Mexican child looking For fresh water

Neither does the Iraqi teenager dodging bombs

Neither does the Appalachian infant killed By a boulder Dislodged Because the land was destabilized

No one deserves a tragedy

(more…)

Thou shalt watch this video:

some words:

thou shalt not buy coca cola products, thou shalt not buy nestle products…

thou shalt give equal word to tragedies that occur in non-english speaking countries as to those that occur in english speaking countries…

guns, bitches, and bling were never part of the 4 elements [of hip hop], and never will be…

thou shalt not pimp my ride…

when i say hey thou shalt not say ho…

thou shalt think for yourselves…

[Some more tracks by them at their Myspace page -- I really like "A letter from God to Man". Some live performances are also available on YouTube, check 'em out, just search for them]

SAJAforum: There seem to be a lot of doctors who are also writers, journalists, etc. Any advice to physicians who are considering doing some writing?

Gawande: There does seem to be a sudden surge of physicians communicating in some way or another –through television, fiction, journalism, book-writing. And the great thing is to see the uncommonly high level of that work at present. It raises the stakes for all of us. My advice for would-be physician-writers? It’s the same as for any would-be writer: write! And find somewhere to publish – whether it’s a newsletter, an internet blog, or a magazine. The key is to write, put it out, and then learn from what went right or wrong in order to try again.

Seems like simple enough advice. Go physician-writers! I’m more of a physician-reader, physician-blogger or better yet a physician-linker (you know, “hey check out this article it moved me! [link]“). I started blogging in part to hone my writing skills, but I don’t put much time into honing them. Thanks, Sri, for the tip. More at “Books: Five Questions for Dr. Atul Gawande, author of ‘Better’”

Don’t you hate when people say “if you read one thing today… you should read this.” Ok, but it’s my turn. “Pearls before Breakfast”, an article in the Washington Post by Gene Weingarten, is a piece that moved me by its poetic and beautiful words, the results of an interesting experiment, and the article’s ability to sustain philosophical thought in myself and others for more than a fleeting second. There are a few clips of video that accompany the article, check them out for the real deal on how Bell’s music is hard to pass by. Here’s how it starts:

HE EMERGED FROM THE METRO AT THE L’ENFANT PLAZA STATION AND POSITIONED HIMSELF AGAINST A WALL BESIDE A TRASH BASKET. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L’Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant.

Each passerby had a quick choice to make, one familiar to commuters in any urban area where the occasional street performer is part of the cityscape: Do you stop and listen? Do you hurry past with a blend of guilt and irritation, aware of your cupidity but annoyed by the unbidden demand on your time and your wallet? Do you throw in a buck, just to be polite? Does your decision change if he’s really bad? What if he’s really good? Do you have time for beauty? Shouldn’t you? What’s the moral mathematics of the moment?

On that Friday in January, those private questions would be answered in an unusually public way. No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. His performance was arranged by The Washington Post as an experiment in context, perception and priorities — as well as an unblinking assessment of public taste: In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?…

Some [somewhat reassuring] thoughts from “experts” on the experiment:

MARK LEITHAUSER HAS HELD IN HIS HANDS MORE GREAT WORKS OF ART THAN ANY KING OR POPE OR MEDICI EVER DID. A senior curator at the National Gallery, he oversees the framing of the paintings. Leithauser thinks he has some idea of what happened at that Metro station.

“Let’s say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought it into a restaurant. It’s a $5 million painting. And it’s one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up and say: ‘Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the salt.’”

Leithauser’s point is that we shouldn’t be too ready to label the Metro passersby unsophisticated boobs. Context matters.

Kant said the same thing. He took beauty seriously: In his Critique of Aesthetic Judgment, Kant argued that one’s ability to appreciate beauty is related to one’s ability to make moral judgments. But there was a caveat. Paul Guyer of the University of Pennsylvania, one of America’s most prominent Kantian scholars, says the 18th-century German philosopher felt that to properly appreciate beauty, the viewing conditions must be optimal.

“Optimal,” Guyer said, “doesn’t mean heading to work, focusing on your report to the boss, maybe your shoes don’t fit right.”…

I’d very much have to agree with that. Context does matter. We’re not all “unsophisticated boobs.” But what does that mean about our busy lives? (not to sound overdramatically overdramatic). I’d like to slow down a bit, wouldn’t you? And more on this…

Souza was surprised to learn he was a famous musician, but not that people rushed blindly by him. That, she said, was predictable. “If something like this happened in Brazil, everyone would stand around to see. Not here.”

Souza nods sourly toward a spot near the top of the escalator: “Couple of years ago, a homeless guy died right there. He just lay down there and died. The police came, an ambulance came, and no one even stopped to see or slowed down to look.

“People walk up the escalator, they look straight ahead. Mind your own business, eyes forward. Everyone is stressed. Do you know what I mean?”

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

– from “Leisure,” by W.H. Davie

(more…)

I just heard a remix of Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make me Wanna Holler)”, then looked up something on Marvin Gaye, and realized that he was born today, April 2nd. And he died on April 1st, 1984, at the hands of his father (who shot him).  So I decided to throw down some of his famous piecees of wisdom:

“Music, not sex, got me aroused.”

Sweet!  I love that quote :>

“No doubt I could have been a Hollywood star, but it was something I consciously rejected. Not that I didn´t want it. I most certainly did. I just didn´t have the fortitude to play the Hollywood game and put my ass out there like a piece of meat.”

Holly-wood!

“Years back, when we were still in Detroit, Berry saw my acting potential, even before he started pushing Diana. He wanted to do the Sam Cooke story and have me play the lead. This was in 1964 when Sam had just died. I told Berry the idea was morbid. I got the chills thinking about it. There was no way I´d even consider the role. It made me extreamly nervous to even think about a soul singer who gets shot to death.”

Yikes.

I don’t do the whole horoscope thing, but I customized my google.com page to feature my daily horoscope — for kicks. This reality check below is what I get for treating them ‘scopes as entertainment and not the Word of Enlightened Folk:

Tuesday,March 27, 2007:

You may be facing a basic conflict between needing to work and wanting to play, yet you aren’t receiving enough support to ease your concerns. Let’s face it: you have been burning the midnight oil in order to get everything finished. Unfortunately, it’s not quite time yet to slow down. Pace yourself until you complete your work. The fun will follow.

I have not been more tired, or burning more of the midnight oil, at any time this year more so than now.  I have been hounded by guilty feelings of not putting enough into my “work” since i’ve been pulled in different directions with outside-of-work stuff (personal life, fun things coming up, the big 3-0 planning, and national physicians alliance organization work).  It’s as if god looked into my eyes and gave the folks over at google my soul and all its contents and thoughts. Ok ok, I know, i’ve gotta lay a bit lower for a while and really focus on work.  I just didn’t know I’d have THIS staring me in the face on a casual trip to google.com.  Oh Higher Being — next time would it be ok if you spoke directly to me and not through Google?

“…not the one you wish you had” — Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio)

I saw this artwork on Down on the Brown Side and had to share it:

Sweet! I love it! Where did you get it from, rage? It’s got the right mix of nerd chemistry and power politics in it. :>

[Update]: Rage (who first posted this photo) wrote in the comments that it was taken from a chemistry teacher’s website. fascinating! check out the rest of the artwork here, some exciting messages for those of you who dig conservation of mass and erlenmeyer flasks (don’t act like you don’t!)

From Lott: Bush barely mentioned Iraq in meeting with Senate Republicans, by CNN’s Ted Barrett:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Bush barely mentioned the war in Iraq when he met with Republican senators behind closed doors in the Capitol Thursday morning and was not asked about the course of the war, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi, said.

“No, none of that,” Lott told reporters after the session when asked if the Iraq war was discussed. “You’re the only ones who obsess on that. We don’t and the real people out in the real world don’t for the most part.”

Lott went on to say he has difficulty understanding the motivations behind the violence in Iraq.

“It’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these people,” he said. “Why do they kill people of other religions because of religion? Why do they hate the Israeli’s and despise their right to exist? Why do they hate each other? Why do Sunnis kill Shiites? How do they tell the difference? They all look the same to me.”

Wow. The mere fact that an actual Senator in the United States Senate can say this and not be ripped out of his post and shamed is infuriating. Iraq, torture, these are the moral issues of our time, these are the issues that a majority of Americans are so very concerned with right now.

Obviously this is not the first assasine, racist, anti-human rights, ignorant comment this dude has made, let alone actions he has taken, but FOLKS, Lott has been in Congress for THIRTY-THREE YEARS. This guy, and so many others in his position (white republican senators or congresspeople) are so out of touch with reality it’s bizarre. THIS is exactly why I’m so pissed at Dems in general (and looking for some good new blood in and outside of the party, at this point i’ll vote for anyone who has principals and has a track record, whether republican, democrat, green, libertarian, etc). We’ve had opportunity after opportunity (as if God herself handed them personally to us) to shame these racist, anti-human rights, anti-AMERICAN, war-mongering folks and we have done NOTHING in response (I’m talkin’ *we* as in the party of Dems, i’m not putting down the amazing work that so many individuals and organizations are doing).

How do we use these pieces of fodder to our advantage? Someone on another blog suggested taking these words or video and playing them on ads at election time to show that (many) republicans don’t actually care about the war, or that they don’t have a basic college education. Any other creative ideas? We need to capitalize on their bullshit while we can.

And to the rest of the world, I’m sorry that Lott thinks he can say things like “I think it’s hard for Americans, all of us, including me, to understand what’s wrong with these [Iraqi] people.” He didn’t speak for me, nor did he speak for the majority of the country. And he needs to go to high school, or college, wherever they teach world politics 101. Embarassing.

Ok, so much else to report on — hopefully I’ll get a few minutes to blog a bit over the weekend. I’ve got much to write about Ani Difranco in concert, Massive Attack in concert, a sweet new weekly spoken word event just blocks from my house, and a reportback from 1 year post hurricane katrina that I went to tonight (including exciting discussions on movement-building among brown and black people).

I’ve received a lot of spam comment attempts (automatically generated comments to post on blogs to distract folks or attract people to commercial spam websites) on this blog recently. Fortunately, WordPress (the software that runs this blog) allows you to moderate comments, so I can filter out the spam with ease.

Now my question is this — why is it that several of the spam emails have shakespeare quotes or modern sayings or jokes within them? What a weird feeling to receive a spam comment that’s followed by a profound quote by a famous philosopher. Anyway, the latest one I received had a joke attached to it.

Q: How many Marxists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None: The light bulb contains the seeds of its own revolution.

Get it? it’s hilarious!
-anjali

Thanks to my friend Julio for sharing the wikipedia entry for the Mother’s Day Proclamation with me:

The “Mother’s Day Proclamation” by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother’s Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe’s feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level. Today, the proclamation is included in the Unitarian Universalist hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition.

—————

Mother’s Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:
“We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says: “Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.”
Blood does not wipe our dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

—————–

How are we so lost now in mandatory gift-giving and obligatory consumerism? How do we bring the realness and the peace back?

Happy mothers day to my mom! (did you receive the diamond necklace and the laptop in the mail? just kidding)

My brother Nalin and I are itching to move about in this big city o’ Los Angeles. We’ve lived in a beautiful little house with lots of space and a front and backyard, for almost a year now, and we’re only a mile from the beach, and it’s so beautiful here, but as a friend mentioned to me when I had just moved here — Los Angeles is the kind of city that makes you want to move around each year and explore its various neighborhoods/scenes.

So we’re toying with the idea of living a bit closer to downtown but not too far from the hospital and clinic where i’m working. Upon casually browsing the los angeles craiglist housing options, I saw a title that grabbed my attention — Ode to a vacant apartment. Could it be? Poetry in the midst of angst about finding another really cute house with lots of space and a front yard and fun neighbors? No way! Friends, I post for you, several verses of this great ode:

Oh empty apartment,
in a building filled with potted trees.
All we ask from your new occupants,
is a simple 1 year lease.

Your sink and faucet,
brand new stainless steel.
The new flooring is slate,
although it’s not real…

With 18 foot tall vaulted ceilings,
you truly do rock.
Did I mention around the corner,
is a private grassy park?

A fireplace too!
Wow, you are exceptional,
so why are you still sitting here?
And empty, vacant rental…

I’d go check out this unit just to meet the poet, but alas, we’re not looking to move all the way to burbank. Good luck, dear apartment, I hope you find an appropriately dark, honest, and beautiful tenant.

Creationists make it sound as though a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night.
–Isaac Asimov

(thanks to Lindsey for reminding me of that quote)

Some inspiring thoughts from an interesting article on James West, inventors, patents, and where the US stands in the future of innovation:

“When inventors work independently, the invention itself is seen as an opportunity, whereas in the corporate world accidents are seen as failures,” said Peter Arnell, a marketing consultant who coaches companies about innovation. “When people exist outside of the corporate model and have vision and passion, then accidents and getting lost are beautiful things.”

And thoughts on failure and success by an accomplished inventor:

“I think I’ve had more failures than successes, but I don’t see the failures as mistakes because I always learned something from those experiences,” Mr. West said. “I see them as having not achieved the initial goal, nothing more than that.”