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Principles are Worth More than Political Awards


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You may have heard about our recent letter to General Treasurer Gina Raimondo requesting that she return an award from The Manhattan Institute, an extremist right wing group that promotes offensive, ignorant and hurtful positions towards the LGBTQI community, women, minorities, and our environment.

Marriage Equality Rhode Island was among a group of organizations that respectfully asked Treasurer Raimondo to return the award and condemn the hateful positions promoted by the Manhattan Institute. Instead of returning the award, she defended her association with the New York think tank by saying: “Accepting an award from any organization is never an across-the-board endorsement of its leanings.”  But that just misses our point.

Organizations like the Manhattan Institute use awards programs for many purposes, including raising money and validating their positions on a range issues to a broader, mainstream audience.  A cursory review of the Manhattan Institute’s website will, in fact, lead one to a number of articles and position papers that advance an anti-gay agenda and misogynistic agenda.

As LGBTQ people we know the power in who you will or won’t stand next to you. We know that standing for equality and fairness means refusing to stand next to ignorance and hatred. Raimondo’s close association with this organization could be interpreted by many as implicit acceptance of all their positions, not just those related to public pensions. We have advised the treasurer that those who aspire to political leadership are judged by the company they keep. Principles are worth far more than political accolades.

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Understanding The Intersection of Race, Music and Politics

(RHODE ISLAND, MASSACHUSETTS) – If I were to describe some of the events I have coming up as political, I’m sure someone would ask me, “hey Reza, what is political about an event featuring spoken word poetry and world rhythms?”  This is the type of question I love to answer, though, sadly, few seem to find the courage to ask it.  Still, I think I want to spend a little time breaking it down for you.

Now, I hate to make this sound clichéd or ultra familiar in terms of the African-American experience, but, really, it’s not clichéd; the transatlantic slave trade and American chattel slavery is where it begins.  Remember, this was (is?) a system and a series of policies that made reading and using native languages illegal; made breaking up families, forced breeding, and forced sterilization standard during different periods; and made identity and self-determination a muddled concept at best.  Family stories, national heroes, indigenous recipes – banned, marginalized, or high-jacked.  From these conditions, a people fought onward and moved forward, often in the form of Negro spirituals, blues music, and later hip hop.  In essence, if personhood, pride, and goal-setting could not be achieved through homeownership, the right to vote, or access to living wages, then it was through music, oral storytelling, and creating new (creole) sounds within which people of African-descent found courage and voice.

Today, we see challenges and struggles such as low high school graduation rates, exorbitant prison/probation rates, and disparities in healthcare access, treatment, and mortality rates – again, caused or condoned by this country and state’s systems and leaders.  Therefore it is in the tradition of our ancestors, activists, and cultural rebels before us that “The Rhythm Heard Round the World” event happening tonight is, in fact, a political gathering.  There will be new spaces, new sounds, and new ways to communicate our stories and build community – strategies we are forced to return to again and again; a recipe that calls for a dash of politics and a sprinkle of art.

That is one of the reasons I’m so excited about another event I have coming up: Soul Rebels Unite: An Empower Communities Event and Reggae Bashment.  Don’t tell me that a genre of music known for a song called “Legalize It” is not a place to discuss or engage in political conversations.  As I’ve explained to some: it is one thing to perform about smoking weed; it is another thing to write and sing a song asking people to mobilize, advocate and change laws.  This song, for instance, alongside others about unifying as a people to fight illegitimate governance are the subjects that make up the content of the reggae songs that launched the international appeal the genre has today.

So as I get ready to go out to do this musical-political work that I’m regularly engaged in, I ask those working on political and social change to take a peek at the events I have listed, and reconsider your stance about who and where you will or will not engage audiences.  Try analyzing things similarly to how I did above – tracing the historical perspective to trends we see today.  For the event on Saturday with Girls Rock! RI and Sojourner House, remember how long before women were granted the right to vote, observe the lack of women holding office today, and investigate the dismal number of women making decisions within the entertainment and communications fields.  Then tell me that there is no room for art in politics or no reason to mix the two topics.

If you still feel that same way – well, as Mr. T used to say, I pity the fool.  If you’re open, or just want to debate me, I hope you’ll join me over the next few days.

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1) “The Rhythm Heard Round the World”
A Night Of Spoken Word Poetry, World Rhythms & An Open Mic

Thursday, January 19, 2012
7:30 – 10:00 PM
Roots Cultural Center
276 Westminster Street
Providence, RI

Price: $5.00

Presented by VenusSings.com, Isis Storm & Funda Fest 14, the event features Singer-Songwriter and Recording Artist, The Dubber; Pecussionist Kera Washington and Bassist Joanna Maria of the band, Zili Misik and performers from the women’s art collective, Isis Storm. The event also includes talent from the RI Black Storytellers’ Funda Fest.

To sign up ahead of time for the open mic, email singsvenus@gmail.com or leave a comment here.

FB EVENT / MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/243212192414449/

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2) VenusSings.com, rhymeCulture, Isis Storm & La Soul Renaissance Present

Soul Rebels Unite:
An Empower Communities Event and Reggae Bashment

Friday, January 20, 2012
Black Watch Pub
266 Dartmouth Street
New Bedford, MA

Confirmed Artists:
Tem Blessed & Blest Energy ft. the Empress, aka Cita-Light ~ Isis Storm ~ The Dubber ~ King-I ~ Erik Andrade ~ The AS220 Criss Cross Orchestra ~ DJ Blade Mon ~ Rebel International ~ and more.

12-2 PM:
Empower Communities Youth Workshop with YouthBuild New Bedford

7-9PM:
“People of Culture Mixer and Marketplace” with local, regional and national activists, entrepreneurs, poets and musicians

9PM-2AM:
Hip Hop and Reggae Performances, DJ’s, and Sound Systems. PLUS album release party for “Re-Energized” by Tem Blessed & Blest Energy ft. the Empress, aka Cita-Light.

FB EVENT / MORE INFO: https://www.facebook.com/events/224041467674515/
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3) GIRLS ROCK THE SOJOURNER HOUSE: A JOINT BENEFIT FOR:
Girls Rock Camp Alliance & Sojourner House
And A Gathering for Empowerment

Saturday, January 21, 2012
7:00 PM – 1:00 AM
Roots Cultural Center
276 Westminster Street
Providence, RI

FEATURING:
-> Me Jane
-> Simple Etiquette
-> The Bookmarks
-> 5th Elament (CO-FOUNDER OF ISIS STORM)
-> ROUTE .44
-> JERI AND THE JEEPSTERS

FB EVENT / MORE INFO:
https://www.facebook.com/events/226863584050679/

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Santorum and Romney Square Off On Felon Disenfranchisement

Rick Santorum asked Mitt Romney point blank: “Do you believe people who were felons, who served their time, who exhausted their parole and probation, should be given the right to vote?”  This was in response to an ad by Romney’s “Super-PAC” attacking the former Pennsylvania senator.

The ad says Mr. Santorum voted to “let convicted felons vote” — something the senator says is “explicitly false” because it implies, though it never says, that he wanted felons to be able to vote from jail. The vote Mr. Santorum cast, Senate vote No. 31 in 2002, would have overridden state laws when it comes to federal elections. It would have required them to let felons register to vote once they have completed their prison sentences and any probation or parole.

Romney, at first, beat around the bush.  “I don’t believe people who have committee violent crimes should be given their right to vote.”

Santorum retorted that, while Romney was governor of Massachusetts, the law allowed people on probation and parole (including those who committed violent crimes) could in fact vote.  And Romney did nothing to fight it.

In fact, until 2000, prisoners in Massachusetts could vote– just as they currently can in Maine and Vermont.

The problem here is about creating and underclass in America, a caste of Americans with no stake in the democracy.  A group, millions strong, who are told to pay taxes, abide by the laws, yet have no representation.  How can  a democracy survive with parents barred from the ballot box?  How can such a large group, with further discrimination in employment and housing, be expected to abide by the law?  Most of them will, and most do, but this is a credit to people’s basic human instinct to live in peace and harmony.  It is not due to political leadership.

Was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts somehow saved when prisoners were barred from participation?  Was the state of Rhode Island somehow dismantled when people on probation and parole were granted their voting rights in 2006?  I was part of the latter ballot campaign, going so far as drafting the final constitutional amendment… just one year removed from prison, for a violent crime.  It is ironic that I move to Louisiana for law school and legally lose my right to vote.  It should come as no surprise that I felt much more connected to the democracy, to my responsibilities as a citizen, in the state where I could vote.

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Philadelphia Freedom: Is This The New Swing Vote?

A coalition of seventeen organizations have recently embarked on a revolutionary voter registration drive, and what better place to be revolutionary than Philadelphia?  The Returning Citizens Voter Movement is directed towards formerly incarcerated people, engaging many more people with felony records who never went to prison, and far more people without records who have a family member in the criminal justice system.  Is this an effort that will be replicated around the nation in 2012?

The goal of 10,000 new registrations may seem overly ambitious, but consider that at any given time, Philadelphia has between 200,000 – 400,000 residents who previously served time in prison.  These are people who have the right to vote, and surely some do, but have collectively never been engaged in the political dialogue of their community.  As Maelissa Gamble, founder of The Time Is Now to Make a Change puts it, “People are tired.  They’re saying, ‘somebody should have done this already.’  And they are not seeing the re-entry resources that get talked about all the time.”

Gamble and other community leaders have been tangling not only with getting people assistance in restructuring their lives, but also in successfully tearing down the barriers that keep people from following their good intentions.  Last year Philadelphia “Banned the Box” and eliminated “Have you ever been convicted from a felony?” from job applications in the city.  It is ironic that the same government allocating funds for rehabilitation/re-entry also has laws that create ever-higher hurdles for people trying to build a life in the community.

With the Pennsylvania Republican Primary on April 24th (the same day as New York, Rhode Island, and Delaware) it will be interesting to see how this specific criminal justice-based civic outreach can be bolstered by the media.  Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum has a history in Philadelphia, and his views on issues may be well known.  Meanwhile, Texas Senator Ron Paul has been an outspoken critic of the Drug War and the massive use of incarceration in America.  With the Texas and Wisconsin primaries on April 3rd, it is possible that Paul’s campaign will have a bounce that reverberates through three weeks of focus on Pennsylvania (a perennial “swing state”).

All but three of the coalition organizations in the voter registration and awareness campaign are led by formerly incarcerated people.  This is part of a concerted effort by the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement to register one million people across the country, and Philadelphia is leading the way.  One historical dilemma with a broad movement is the creation of factions and the challenge of coalition-building.  Gamble, formerly incarcerated herself, now finds herself in the middle of a group including the Human Rights Coalition, Proyecto Sol Filadelfia, ACLU, Reconstruction Inc., Educational Advocates Reaching Today’s Hardworking Students (EARTHS), and more.

It is often noted that over four million people are disenfranchised due to criminal records, however it should be also noted that there are tens of millions of people who are eligible to vote- people who have been (or still are) impacted by the criminal justice system.  This is an issue-based group, with no party loyalties.  The group is urban and rural, of all skin tones.  And the voices are beginning to be heard.

Politicians will be knocking on doors of “Likely voters” registered to their parties or as “Independents.”  If one is not registered and exercising their vote, there will be no knock, no pandering, no listening.  The coalition will be setting up registration stations all over the city, from grocery stores to community forums, probation offices to social services locations, they will even be registering people currently awaiting trial in the jails. When thousands of voters demand candidates who will call a cease fire in the Drug War, who will re-direct that money into education, to books rather than bars, the pandering will begin.  It is not likely that the GOP will hold an inner city debate with ordinary residents in the audience (these are made-for-TV controlled events); and it is not likely that Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, or Mitt Romney will come looking to do a “Town Hall” session with urban voters… but wait until 2016.  Rebuild it, and they will come.

Maelissa Gamble can be contacted at (215) 834-5165 and mgamblethetimeisnowtomakeachange@yahoo.com

 

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Girl at the Center of the Cranston “Prayer Banner” Case targeted by Cyber-Bullies

Upfront let me say that I am proud to be an uncle to the amazing Jessica Ahlquist, the student who two days ago won her case against the City of Cranston over an unconstitutional “prayer banner” on display at her school. It was not only a victory for Jessica, but a victory for everyone in this country who values the Constitution, freedom of conscience, and our secular society. Founder Roger Williams based the government of Rhode Island on these principles, establishing the first secular government in history and the freest land in the world at the time.

From time to time, of course, we need reminding of our history and of the importance of our Constitutional rights, and Jessica did so with a grace and poise not often found in people well older than her.

That’s why it’s so difficult to talk about the threats and cyber-bullying that she has been exposed to since the verdict came down. One website provided a long list of screenshots of these, and they are truly deplorable.

“shes not human shes garbage”

“I think everyone should just fight this girl”

“I’ll drop anchor on her face”

“Let’s all jump that girl who did the banner”

“When I take over the world I’m going to do a holacaust to all the atheists”

“i cant wait to hear about you getting curb stomped”

“everyone is going to beat you up prob”

“what a little bitch lol I wanna snuff her”

This from people defending a Christian Prayer on the wall of a public school. A prayer that says, in part:

“Help us to be good sports and smile when we lose as well as when we win,”

That’s irony.

To the credit of the Cranston School Committee, when I contacted them with my concerns, they were quick to assure me that the Cranston Police have been investigating these threats since last night, and that they are taking this issue very seriously.

Cranston School Committee Chairperson Andrea Iannazzi admits being troubled by what she has seen but “will not break confidentiality by discussing students behavior or discipline…” Which is fine, because most of this bullying behavior and threats come from minors, and as long as appropriate action is taking place, all should be well. Also responding were Steve Bloom, Frank Lombardi, and committee member McFarland. Cranston Superintendent of Schools Nero is aware of the situation, as is Assistant Superintendent Judy Lundsten.

As a parent, an uncle, and a citizen of Rhode Island, I am glad that the situation is being addressed in a forthright and professional manner. Title 16-21, concerning the Health and Safety of Students, defines bullying as “the use by one or more students of a written, verbal or electronic expression or a physical act or gesture or any combination thereof directed at a student that… places the student in reasonable fear of harm to himself/herself…” or “creates an intimidating, threatening, hostile, or abusive educational environment for the student…”

As an atheist Jessica is part of a minority that is currently under attack at her school. If she were black, Jewish or gay there would be a huge outcry against her being treated in this manner. Given that our society is, at its best, concerned with the health and safety of all our children, I am pleased by the prompt action Cranston city officials seem to be taking.

Update 2:00 PM:

The Providence Journal has picked up the story from Rhode Island’s Future here.

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Ron Paul no Friend to the Non-Religious

So last night Ron Paul gave a rousing speech in New Hampshire after he lost the primary there. He went on and on about FREEDOM of course, his supporters apparently unconcerned that Paul’s concept of freedom does not include a woman’s right to choose, many forms of birth control or laws that protect freedom, like the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Paul’s idea of FREEDOM is strictly a kind of faux free market libertarianism. Rousing the libertarian base, he claims that all problems will be solved by the free market. For instance, if you get really sick, and your health care doesn’t cover a procedure, the free market allows you to find a charity, enter indentured servitude, or die.

Problem solved.

But Paul did something unusual last night. In fact, as Republican candidates go he did something almost unheard of. The candidate obliquely mentioned Atheists and their right not to practice religion. Here’s the link to that part of his speech.

Paul may play the role of a libertarian ideologue, but he’s no fool. He knows that the youth support he enjoys because of his anti-war and anti-war on drugs policies sports the fastest growing non-religious population in the country. His speeches about FREEDOM resonate with that crowd, and indeed he can be a compelling speaker, but is Paul being honest with the crowds about his true beliefs?

In fact, there is plenty of evidence that Ron Paul may be a closeted Christian Fundamentalist of the worst kind. As Alternet reported:

A common misconception about the Ron Paul agenda is that he is a libertarian who just wants to let all humans live as they please. But Ron Paul is no libertarian; if not a Christian Reconstructionist himself, he is truly the best enabler a Reconstructionist could hope to have.

Ron Paul seeks to shrink the federal government to minimal size not because it intrudes in the lives of individuals, but because it stands in the way of allowing the states and localities to enact laws as they see fit — even laws that govern people’s behavior in their bedrooms.

I encourage you to read the article in its entirety, including the bit where Paul spoke to the openly segregationist John Birch Society, and revealed that he is entirely able to speak their language. Paul enjoys the support of such racist groups as Stormfront, as reported by Katha Pollitt at NPR:

No wonder they love him over at Stormfront, a white-supremacist website with neo-Nazi tendencies. In a multiple-choice poll of possible effects of a Paul presidency, the most popular answer by far was “Paul will implement reforms that increase liberty which will indirectly benefit White Nationalists.”

Atheists love it when they get mentioned in the larger political sphere. But we should be careful who we support and why. Religious opponents of atheism love to pull out the lie that Stalin, Mao and Hitler were motivated to murder and genocide by their lack of supernatural belief. Do we really want to reinforce that stereotype by supporting a man with racist, homophobic and misogynistic views, just because he uses the right buzzwords and tosses us the occasional shout out?

Hell no.

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The Passing of Robert L. Carter, and School Desegregation in the Metropolitan North


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Robert Carter

Robert CarterI was saddened to hear of the death of Judge Robert L. Carter yesterday, at the age of 94.  The passing of this great generation of civil rights reformers (Fred Shuttlesworth and Derrick Bell are gone too) was of course inevitable — Dr. King would be in his 80s, if he were still with us.  But studying their words and work, one is reminded of just how limited our visions of justice are these days.

I had the great privilege of spending a week with Carter a few years ago, as a participant in an NEH seminar on civil rights up at Harvard.  He was sharp, passionate and inspiring, as he regaled us with story after story about his legal work with Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and walked us through his informative memoir, “A Matter of Law.”  If I remember correctly, I was a bit combative in some of our exchanges.  Carter insisted on the transformative potential of school desegregation cases in the urban North, which he constantly pushed from within the NAACP in the mid/late 60s.  I argued that the real issue was metropolitan housing segregation, and that a focus on the cities alone would achieve nothing more than tokenism, resistance, and white flight.  He countered by emphasizing, rightly, the value of setting legal precedents.  This was, after all, how the Brown decision was achieved in 1954:  a long, slow walk through the court system.  It was particularly important to get the courts to focus on impact, not intent, in the application of constitutional doctrine to segregation in the North.  Once that was achieved, things could open up in much more transformative ways.

As background for my home ownership book, I’ve been doing some research on civil rights, the law and housing policy from the mid-60s to the mid-70s, and I’m in a much better position now to make sense of what Carter was trying to tell me — and of his legacy.  During this all-too-brief period, there was a possibility (albeit a thin one) that the nation might finally confront the pattern of metropolitan inequality and segregation (by race and class) that had emerged in the wake of World War II.  Real discussions of the necessity of ‘opening up the suburbs’ were taking place, not only within the civil rights and fair housing movements, but also within the Johnson administration, the courts, and even in the early days of Nixon’s first term (George Romney, Secretary of HUD, characterized suburbia as a ‘white noose’ around the neck of urban America).  Most parties to this discussion recognized that both access to employment and to quality public education hinged on whether American metropolitan areas could be restructured.  In other words, the future of the American opportunity structure was at stake — but time was of the essence.  The nation was on the cusp of a massive expansion in suburban development (and of home ownership), but the shape which our social geography would take was still somewhat plastic.  The intellectual, judicial and policy tools were there to trace direct connections between social geography and opportunity, and to expand civil rights jurisprudence beyond the limited individualistic ontology that had previously defined it.

And Carter was right there, at the forefront.  Unfortunately for all of us, this brief window of opportunity to unwind metropolitan inequality had slammed shut by the mid-70s.  There were small victories and experiments at the local and state level, here and there; the Mount Laurel decision, by the New Jersey Supreme Court in 1975, for example.  But my argument about the ‘window’ is mostly aimed at the federal level.

Nixon gets some of the blame, as much because of his racial demagoguery as his urban and housing policies.  His Supreme Court appointments get a lot of it, too.  The San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973) and Milliken v. Bradley (1974) decisions carved a direct path to the urban school crisis we presently confront.  Despite occasional exceptions at the state level, federal courts also continued to limit the reach of constitutional claims against exclusionary zoning, rendering fair housing law a dead letter in much of the country.  Suburban white America captured the lion’s share of the responsibility, and retains it today.  While the Republican Party has become the unapologetic champion of white suburban privilege (see this recent piece by Daniel Denvir, on urban issues in today’s GOP), the Democrats refuse to see what even George Romney (let alone Robert L. Carter) saw 40 years ago:  that racial and class segregation is a recipe for disaster for the country.

Thanks, Mr. Carter, and rest in peace.  That window is still closed, sadly.  But it is surely cracked.  And that, as Leonard Cohen once wrote, is how the light gets in.

Originally posted on Chants Democratic.

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RI ACLU Supports Occupy Providence’s Right to Peaceably Assemble

RI ACLU executive director Steven Brown yesterday on the Occupy Providence protest:The ACLU fully supports the right of ‘Occupy Providence’ to engage in forms of peaceful protest at the park and elsewhere in the city in order to express their political views and promote their cause. We believe that some of the particular rules and ordinances that have been cited by the City in an October 27th letter to protesters – including an apparent ban on any protest activity in the park after 9 PM – may be constitutionally problematic if they were to be enforced against members of ‘Occupy Providence.’ Peaceful First Amendment activity should not be subject to a curfew.The Projo oddly(?) buried the lede with their headline, “ACLU: Federal ruling limits Occupy Providence’s right to remain”. Contrast that with GoLocal’s take, “ACLU Supports Occupy Providence.” The ACLU did note the federal ruling and also their opposition to it:Issues surrounding the group’s indefinite encampment are more complicated. Unfortunately, there is a U.S. Supreme Court decision, called Clark v. Community for Creative Non-Violence, which upheld, in the similar context of a political protest, the constitutionality of a federal rule against overnight camping in certain public parks. We disagree with that ruling, but under the circumstances, we believe it significantly limits the First Amendment arguments that are available in support of the group’s right to indefinitely encamp at Burnside Park without a permit.The ACLU statement also hints at the possibility of legal action “for challenging Providence’s camping ban,” as yet unexamined.

For their part, the Taveras administration issued a statement with plans to pursue eviction via the courts. The mayor selectively quotes the ACLU statement in support of this action. Hopefully the rest of the words of the ACLU will weigh heavily as well:

This historic protest has been extraordinarily peaceful, and the participants appear to have been cooperative with city officials and respectful of needs relating to public safety. We appreciate the comments that have been made by the Providence Commissioner of Public Safety that any eviction proceedings will be done through an orderly civil, not criminal, process, and that there will be no effort to use force to remove people from the park. It is essential that all appropriate due process is provided before any such proceedings take place.


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