Two nights ago I was on the basement stairs trekking laundry up and down from the washer when all of a sudden I was falling backward. There is no hand rail so I tried to brace myself with my right leg. I have knee replacement on both knees so my legs don’t have the strength of an ordinary leg.

 

My leg gave way and twisted out like a pretzel with my knee cap being dislocated, I glanced at the strange position of my leg and then I landed flat on my back with a hard thud, striking my head, back and elbows.

 

My fall was out of control. I don’t know how long I was there on the floor. But I remember first checking to see if my leg was straight. The knee cap had popped back in but the leg was already throbbing with pain.  I was afraid to find a bone sticking out of the flesh of my leg …I has thought the worst.

 

Everything hurt.. I did not know if I could standup.. no phone and no one knows I am down here in the basement. I was a concerned. .. it took a while but I scooted my butt onto the stairs one and then two and then I gingerly got up.  Great I thought at last I am standing up ..then I slowly and   carefully worked my way up the stairs..  Immediately I took a ton of Advil and sent an email to family telling of my fall just in case this was serious and out my control…

 

It took about ½ hour to get my now swollen and throbbing painful leg into the bed.. by then I noticed that my phone I phone  was too far to reach

 

By the next day I had friends and family checking up on me. When you take a hard unexpected fall anything can happen… Lisa Radelet in Boulder had a horrific fall some months ago and my friend Jim Garcia had a fall while jogging that injured more than what was visible at the moment. These falls can happen to anyone at anytime…

 

Besides the pain in the right leg  and a strange sensation on my left front of my head and bruises I seem to be healing… I am moving much slower but moving ..

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.       got health plan

b.      sins and sinners

 

GOT HEALTH PLAN ????

 

Today the ever charming Della came to our office to talk to us about the changes to our health plan and options that we might consider. She is an independent insurance agent and was offering us many options.

 

As I sat there listening to Della I thought to myself. Here we are thinking about some increase to our health plan when many Americans have none. And for many who think they have good health plan, they find out only too  late that much of their serious and expensive medical  procedures are not covered.  The only answer for me is Single Payer .. or at least some kind of a public option.

 

Some Right Wing Senators call Single Pay or a Public Option as SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. This so called socialized medicine is working  well for Senators and Congressmen and women, our Military, our Seniors and all government employees.. hmmmm???

 

These right wing folks are being funded by the pharmaceuticals and the hospitals to challenge a good health system proposal that would protect everyone.. if the medical services industry would provide better and cheaper medical services than a public option then I am sure that many would choose them over the Public Option. After all wouldn’t a free market be what we are after.??  Let the private insurance providers have to hustle a little… might do them some good.

 

 

In this debate many ask  if there is the world’s perfect system.????. I don’t think so … but we can surely do better as a country than we what are doing today. If you look to Europe or Canada you will see that single payer plan can work and is good for the public..

 

One of the growing new avenues for medical assistance is what is called MEDICAL TOURISM. This is where people go to another country for less expensive medical procedures. At first the boon was in the cosmetic surgery but now many who can organize it go abroad for major medical issues and actually save money. They most often get medical attention comparable to that in this country and sometimes much better.

 

 

SINS.. SINNERS AND STUPIDS..

 

James Hodson a British Diplomat is having to resign his post after a video surfaced of him titled

ADVENTURES OF MR. HODSON IN RUSSIA.. .in this video he frolics with two prostitutes. This had been an old trick by both sides during the cold war to catch their diplomats doing some un diplomatic liaisons. Now this is plain stupid.

 

Now it seems according to some news sources that former Presidential Candidate John Edwards and his lover and film maker Rielle Hunter made a video of them making love. This is worse than Mr. Hodsons tape because John and Rielle made it. It was not done by a third party spying on them.

 

I am sure that there is something at the movies or HBO that would be most interesting than watching either of these two videos. Now with cameras that can take photos and video we might get offered even more juicy items.

 

Recently I liked watching Sarah Palin (in a perverse way) dressed up in fishing gear hauling in Salmon and rambling on and on in who knows what language…I bet McCain wishes he had never met her.  And if you watch the news you will learn just how deep she goes into explaining her math about court expenses and other lies… ..

 

And hot lover Sen. John Ensign seems to have paid his lover a campaign staffer a bonus of almost $100,000  ($96,000) through his parents as some sort of severance and never reported it .. .the parents did this in $12,000 checks to avoid having to report it. Now this all needs to be investigated.

 

Meanwhile Gov. Mark Sanford is praying to his god, quoting scripture and trying to re-fall in love with his wife.. and that would be good for him given that she is the wealthy one in the family…

 

And then former quarterback Air Steve McNair is killed by this girlfriend. Some say that he was cheating on his girl friend and yes he was also cheating on his wife.. there probably a long line of women who had taken a number and were loading their guns..  

 

Tonight I am checking to ensure there are no videos of me and others (cant destroy videos and photos already in the hands of the FBI), I am paying off anyone I need to in pesos from Mexico and changing my address so no shooters can find me and I am not going fishing in hip wading boots and will not talk in a disconnected sentences to the media….

 

ONE TOMATO PLANT    

 

I have not done a lot of gardening this summer given that I am changing homes in August and moving to Beacon Hill in Seattle.  But I did do have one tomato plant that stands right next to the drive way … another friend has two and another has three so there is competition… it is great to have plants that you care for.  Between my tomato plant and my cat Estrella I have more than enough work taking care of these two. On the third week of August I move to Seattle and have two extra rooms and looking for roommates..

 

My Best

Leno

 

LOS ANGELES

I will be in Los Angeles to perfom a Wedding, visit friends DO some work on the case of Alex Sanchez and attend a meeting about a documentary of THE LAST FAST OF CESAR CHAVEZ. It will be a very busy four days.

206-618-9909

 

 

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers

 

I hope that you are all having a wonderful summer. During this time I need to remind you that we all need to give to an organization of our choosing. Obviously I would like you to donate to the Social Justice Fund in Seattle so that we can help others.

 

But the main idea is that we all give of our time and money to change the world.

 

There is a great movement called BOLDER GIVING that encourages donors to give all that they can to create change. If you go to this link you can see a u tube piece they posted of me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNJUOeiOnpU

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Film of Cesar

b.    Crazy things

c.    We are all Alex

 

INVITATION TO JOIN YOUR VOICE AND SPIRIT WITH OTHERS REGARDING A FILM ABOUT

CESAR E. CHAVEZ

Friends,

I have a very special invitation for you.

All of you know that I spent my early years working for Cesar Chavez, and

was the first Executive Director of the Cesar E Chavez Foundation. And, you

all know how much Cesar and his work, his principles, his adherence to

non-violence, and his life deeply influenced mine.

Now, two wonderful filmmakers, Richard Perez and Molly O’Brien are making a

documentary about Cesar’s life, centering the story around his last fast in

1996. It’s not finished yet, but it’s a beautiful sharing of Cesar’s life,

and we want to make sure that it gets distributed far and wide, so that all

people can be inspired by his life and the example he set.

—————————————————————————-

ON JULY 18, PLEASE JOIN ME, RICHARD PEREZ, & MOLLY O’BRIEN AT AN INFORMAL

GATHERING IN SUPPORT OF THE FILM.

—————————————————————————-

We’re trying to brainstorm ways to create a groundswell of grassroots

support and word-of-mouth buzz for the film.

It’s an ³idea-raiser² NOT a fund-raiser.

We want your advice, thoughts, dreams, and your ideas. We want you to

support the film, too.

So, come on by and spend some time with us. Watch a clip of the film. Drink

some punch and share some great conversation.

DATE: SATURDAY, JULY 18

TIME: 6:00 PM

PLACE: the beautiful Silverlake home of Molly O’Brien

RSVP: beverleykeefe@gmail.com

//We’ll send along the address with your confirmation email.//

——————————-

ABOUT THE FILM:

——————————-

This was CESAR¹S LAST FAST: 36 days of self-sacrifice and deep spiritual

commitment to the fight for justice and dignity for America¹s poorest

workers.  This was the cause, La Causa, to which Cesar Chavez was willing to

give up his life.

For Cesar, it was time for dramatic action ­ an action that was inspired by

a power greater than any ideology or political doctrine.  He turned to his

faith:  a non-dogmatic devotion to Catholicism, a disciplined adherence to

the practice of yoga and vegetarianism, and a deep dedication to

non-violence that inspired his every action. While Cesar¹s faith and

spirituality were personal they had immense public repercussions.

CESAR¹S LAST FAST will shine a light on the spiritual landscape that

sustained Chavez through decades of struggle. Like Cesar, who espoused no

dogma and did not hide his personal convictions, this film too will explore

and embrace the power of conviction rather than shy away from it.

http://www.cesarslastfast.com

CRAZY THINGS GOIN ON:

a.      Sarah Palin will resign as governor of Alaska .. is she running for the Presidency, chair of the Republican Party or Pope..??? we will know more in the weeks ahead..she says she is responding to a higher calling.. what can that be some other 800 number ???

b.      Jenny Sanford the wife of Governor Mark Sanford is willing to forgive and cites the bible. Just when we thought she might be sane. ..she is looking to save this marriage even after Mark said the Argentina woman was his SOUL MATE.. whatever that means.

c.       Michael Jackson dies and more rumors abound about his life, his problems and his will.

d.      Bernie Madoff is getting a consultant to help him to get the right prison. Hmmm?? I did not know that you could choose the prison of your liking…

e.      Honduras has a military coup but wants t o call it democracy in action..

f.         Iran is boiling on the inside … while the government tries to keep a lid on change

g.      The Vatican is running a deficit …is it financial or spiritual? Or both??

 

YOU TOO ARE ALEX SANCHEZ

            When they attack one of us they attack us all. Thus we are all Alex and we must understand that this could happen to all of us in one form or another. While we have a new President and new head of the justice dept. we still have the same agents in the field.

I ask you to join our campaign to get Alex Sanchez bonded out and also get him a fair trial. We need you to stay in touch with the campaign by going to the web page for Homies Unidos or by writing to me …

We need your support and that of those with in your net work.

We will not stop until we get justice for Alex Sanchez

——————————————————————————————-

GOING TO LOS ANGELES JULY 16-19

I hope to see as many of you as possible. I will try to find a central location to meet up with as many of you as time allows..  I will be staying at two different homes while in Los Angeles which will save me money.

THURSDAY July 16^th

            Arrives at 4 pm

            Tentative work on Alex Sanchez Case

Friday

            10am – 6pm open

           

            Dinner booked tentatively

Saturday

            10-am-4pm open  

6pm CESAR E CHAVEZ FILM DISCUSSION

If you would like to attend contact Beverley Keefe at Beverley@gmail.com

Sunday

            7:00 am Wedding of William and March in Hermosa Gardens

            Wedding goes on till about 8pm .. could use a date to go with me

            I will probably leave the  wedding  at about 4pm.

Monday

            10 am flight to Seattle

 

READING CAN BE MOST INTERESTING

One of my personal pleasures is reading.. .it is interesting and relaxing and gives me a chance to use my imagination… If you have young children in your midst please read to them as often as you can.. and when you don’t have anything to read then tell them stories..

This summer I am reading and working on my tan

 My best

leno

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS

I am amazed by all the items in the news.keeps me busy`         `.. as we get ready for the 4^th of July… I wonder if we understand what a revolution is and who makes the sacrifice for freedom. And while we celebrate this war anniversary we must also find a day to celebrate all of the peace makers.. And those who are revolutionaries in their own time because they would stand for the truth no matter the odds.  And standing for freedom does not always mean you have to take up arms..

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.     Gay pride parade

b.    Iran Iran

c.     Sanford and sins

d.    Al Franken declared winner

e.     ALEX SANCHEZ BY TOM HAYDEN

f.       Boulder killer gets life sentence.

GAY PRIDE PARADE SEATTLE

          A good celebration for all

 

I went to my first Seattle Gay Pride festival in 2004 when it was still held on Broadway in Capitol Hill… This Sunday it was in Downtown and went down Fourth Avenue..

It was a huge and festive event.. The parade was long and organized and the crowds were very large.. It was fun experience..  I was given beads, stickers, (some by candidates), buttons and a couple of condoms. I stood there guarding my spot just few feet from the parade.

 

The creative costumes and floats were wonderful .. Some had only the costumes that they were born in and that was fine by everyone.. Plenty of family and straight groups were in the parade including Aztec and Filipino dancers… there was lots of cheering by all present…

As I was leaving I had to pass some so called Christians who were condemning the marchers… they were few in numbers but had huge signs… I asked one of them if they might want to go with their signs to visit Governor Sanford of South Carolina.  This red faced young man pointed to my shirt and said… THAT MAN SET UP SANFORD.. HE SET HIM UP …I looked down at my chest and noticed that I was wear one of my many Obama shirts.. Wow  … so it was obviously Obama that got Sanford to begin his affair with Maria of Argentina… I smiled and began walking towards my car. The right wing can blame the democrats for any and everything..THIS IS RIDICULUS.

In spite of these couple of crazies I had a great time and was proud of all those who marched…

IRAN IRAN ..

In a country where a council chooses the candidates and where they are governed by a religious council land a Supreme Ayatollah .. There were questions and dissention over the results of the election. More than what we had about our own elections in 2000 and the Ayatollah like our Supreme Court seems gave the election away.

 

At first the protestors were allowed to march and protest and then they began the harsh crackdown of the demonstrators. They attacked them with water cannons, tear gas and eventually live ammunition. Later they would roust people from their beds, beat them and jail many.  In the process the government injured its youth, and killed several … by being so harsh they were able to quell the immediate protests but they planted many seed of mistrust and hatred amongst these protestors and their supports. By being so harsh the government has planted its own demise. … Which may not come tomorrow but this historical wheel of change has begun moving

SANFORD AND SINS … THE DRAMA CONTINUES

Seems the governor saw Maria more times than he first admitted and now … now it turns out he had some other extra relationships with other women.  He is a very active governor and to think he would not take some of the stimulus money … seems as if this governor was already over stimulated.. But he is a right wing, family loving conservative.  Not too long ago he was urging Bill Clinton to resign. Mark Sanford is a marked man.

STATE SUPREME COURT SAYS THAT FRANKEN WON THE ELECTION.

Took them forever … now we will have Al Franken in the Senate. Now we have a senator who can tell a good joke… and he is smart….how soon can we get him sworn in?

————————————————————————————-

ALEX SANCHEZ

By Tom Hayden
THE NATION

The indictment of Alex Sanchez, a revered gangbanger-turned-peacemaker, raises new doubts about whether the Los Angeles police department has reformed enough to be released from a federal court order.

The Sanchez indictment makes the same charges hurled by the LAPD and federal anti-gang task force a decade ago, that his community-based violence prevention work is only a “front” for continuing ties to Mara Salvatrucha, the feared immigrant street gang that arose after the 1970s Central American wars.

The Rampart scandal, named after a police precinct in the immigrant Pico-Union neighborhood, erupted in the late 1990s when a corrupt police officer, Rafael Perez, began testifying to widespread police criminality after being caught selling cocaine out of his locker room. The US Justice Department charged a pattern and practice of constitutional violations, including shootings, brutality, and planting of evidence. Sanchez was targeted for deportation by the LAPD and INS in January 2000, months after testifying publicly about police harassment of community peace workers. As the scandal mounted, federal prosecutors chose not to prosecute him for illegal entry to the US, where his two-year old son and family lived, but turned the case over to an INS court. On July 10, 2002 the INS judge granted him political asylum, the first such verdict in history.

Since those days, Sanchez has built up Homies Unidos, a transnational gang peace organization from the US to El Salvador. Its hazardous work centered on trying to prevent gang violence and open alternative paths for young people, including art therapy, spiritual exercises, education, rehabilitation, training and job development. Alex became a beloved figure in the community, making endless presentations before wider audiences around the country. His activity spawned enemies in the gang world, and never satisfied the LAPD and federal war-on-gangs units’ desire to retaliate against one who caused them unprecedented embarrassment.

The escalating war against mara salvatrucha provided the prosecutors the opportunity. The use of federal racketeering and conspiracy laws is the favored prosecution tool in this war, charging large numbers of alleged MS members with operating a large top-down enterprise with a board of directors, finding them guilty of conspiracy instead of trying them on individual counts of drug-dealing or violence. Alex Sanchez is named in the indictment as one of four “shot-callers” in the Normandie neighborhood in Pico-Union. He therefore is held accountable for any crimes of anyone who can be connected with the organization. The indictment includes 153 overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy to violate the racketeering laws.

Fifty-six of the overt acts consist of street corner drug sales to undercover FBI informants. The serious counts include eight murders and one murder plot, five of them occurring between 2001 and 2003. Instead of bringing murder charges in individual cases, where evidence might be difficult to accumulate, the defendants need only to be “associated” with the conspiracy to be found guilt.

Alex Sanchez is accused of being heard on wiretapped phone calls on May 6 and 7, 2006, in which several members of MS “conspired” to kill Walter Lacinos, whose street name was Cameron. On May 15, an alleged MS member killed Cameron in La Libertad, El Salvador.

To illustrate the nature of the charge, imagine that the following conversation took place:

First party: that dude should be shot.
Second party: No question.

In an ordinary criminal trial, it would be difficult to connect these words to an actual deed one week later. There would be evidence, for example, that all kinds of people wanted Cameron dead. He was deported to El Salvador after serving at least fifteen years in California state prisons as a high-ranking gang member. He had enemies as well as friends. But in the conspiracy model, it is easier for the prosecution to “prove” that the wiretapped voices are people who “conspired” in his death.

This example is purely hypothetical. The government has not released the actual content of the tapes, nor a list of its witnesses, nor any of the documents it will be compelled to hand the defense.

Alex Sanchez denies the charges.

Most gang researchers and defense attorneys are critical of RICO and state laws like California’s Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act [STEP]. Malcolm Klein, considered the dean of gang research at the University of Southern California, thinks the notion of vertically-organized cartels with an Al Capone at the top makes no sense.

“These [federal] agencies know and understand organized crime. They do not know street gangs. They often assume the two are similar, when in fact they are not…Calling each kind of group a gang leads to the application of cartel thinking to street gangs.”  [Klein, The American Street Gang, Oxford, 1995, p. 167]

Even more dismissive is Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit who works directly with street gang members in the most well-known organization of its kind in the country.

“These [federal] agencies know and understand organized crime. They do not know street gangs. They often assume the two are similar, when in fact they are not…Calling each kind of group a gang leads to the application of cartel thinking to street gangs.”  [Klein, The American Street Gang, Oxford, 1995, p. 167]

Even more dismissive is Father Gregory Boyle, a Jesuit who works directly with street gang members in the most well-known organization of its kind in the country, from whose June 28 email I quote here:

“This is all heartbreaking, I’ve sent a letter for the granting of bail…A New York Times reporter called me and what they think they have is a ‘gang interventionist gone bad’ story. I’ve told  two reporters here’s your story: law enforcement is unable to interpret what they have.

“There is a gulf between what they have [wiretap evidence, witnesses] and what they think they have. The FBI could multiply their tools and resources and this still would not issue in actual knowledge of how gangs think or operate.

“I spoke to two MS members who I trust and who would tell me the unvarnished truth about Alex. They actually hadn’t heard the news. I said, “They claim that Alex is the shot caller for the Normandie clique of MS.”  They laughed and deemed the whole thing ridiculous. They would  have told me otherwise if it was true.  I didn’t need affirmation in this but it just underscores my point.  Law enforcement will never have access or knowledge of this issue. But they see through a glass darkly and so Alex gets caught up in their ignorance.

“Just yesterday, a homie who works for me, gets stopped by Hollenbeck cops, who tell him, “I know for a fact that Fr. Greg is affliated with the Mexican Mafia.”  A month ago , a cop tells another homie that the Mexican Mafia holds meetings at Homegirl Cafe (Chief Bratton has his Tues. morning meeting at the Homegirl Cafe every week–but I don’t know when the EME has their meetings at my place.)

“They aren’t just trying to discredit me–I think they believe this stuff–because they know very little about gangs, and so have to interpret what they see from a place of real ignorance.  Yet every jury and judge in the land think law enforcement (and of course, the FBI,) know what they’re talking about. But no one who lives in any of the 12 hot-zones in LA think cops know very much about this. Anyway–it’s complex.  The cops must force the square peg into the round hole. It’s not a conspiracy to get Alex, it’s what happens when you only possess half the pieces to the jigsaw puzzle and feel forced to assert that they have all the pieces.

Later I received a follow up email from the priest:

“You know me–I’m not much of a conspiracy buff–it requires so much
sophistication. Cops don’t possess this.  All of this is cultural–a
bias and predisposition, a by-product of wholesale demonizing. Which is
to say, it’s worse than a conspiracy.

“Had mass at the Chino YTS last night–again, illuminating to speak to
MS guys. They were very clear about Alex’s role in the community and
how he was, in fact, the opposite of “shot caller” for MS.  If he is
the shot caller, why do all his troops not know it?

All this raises severe questions about whether – and how – the LAPD has been reformed, almost a decade after agreeing to terminate its patterns and practices about rampant constitutional violations at Ramparts.

URGENT UPDATE: THIS AFTERNOON A LOS ANGELES MAGISTRATE JUDGE DENIED BAIL TO ALEX SANCHEZ.  WE WILL PROVIDE MORE INFORMATION AS IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.

===================================================================

Alcalde receives life sentence for Chase murder

Family members remember Susannah as ‘sunshine of my life’

By John Aguilar (Contact)
Monday, June 29, 2009

Susannah Chase Homicide

BOULDER, Colo. — Diego Olmos Alcalde will spend the rest of his life in prison with no chance of parole for the 1997 murder of Susannah Chase, a Boulder judge decided Monday.

Boulder District Judge James Klein also handed Alcalde, who turns 40 on Tuesday, 48 years for sexually assaulting Chase and 24 years for kidnapping her — the maximum for each charge.

“The thought of any human being doing to another human being what Diego Alcalde did to this victim is simply unthinkable,” he said. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like to live with this for 12 years.”

Klein said the sentences for Alcalde’s lesser offenses will run consecutive to the life term.

Alcalde’s attorney, Mary Claire Mulligan, asked the judge to consider her client’s tumultuous history and allow her to gather information about him for the court before imposing a final sentence.

“Mr. Alcalde has had a background that would make most people blanch,” she said.

Klein declined her request.

A jury last week convicted Alcalde, a Chilean native who has lived in the United States for more than 20 years, of beating the University of Colorado senior with a baseball bat, raping her and then dumping her nearly lifeless body in an alley near her Boulder home.

For more than a decade, police were unable to link a suspect to the Dec. 21, 1997, killing until sperm recovered from Chase’s body and preserved in evidence was matched to DNA taken from Alcalde and submitted to a nationwide criminal DNA database.

Members of Chase’s family took to the podium Monday and spoke to a packed courtroom about the woman who would have turned 35 in October.

“Some days, I think I’ll turn a corner in New York and see her crouched down and talking to a homeless person — the nicest words he’ll hear all day,” said her brother Stephen Chase, who, like most of the family, flew out from the East Coast to attend the hearing.

He said his sister “paid the biggest price for her random encounter with evil,” but that if anything good comes from the tragedy, it’s that Alcalde will no longer be on the streets to terrorize others.

Chase’s other brother, Doug Chase, recalled ribbing his little sister as they grew up in Connecticut. He said he noticed Susannah growing into someone who saw the good in people and beauty of nature.

“When she died at 23 years old, Susannah was a young woman who I was immensely proud of,” he said.

He thanked the Boulder Police Department and the prosecutors for their work on the case, and he expressed gratitude to the community that rallied around the family.

“This is not a place to fear; this is a place to love,” Doug Chase said of Boulder. “This city has embraced our family in a community hug.”

Then, turning to Alcalde, he said his sister would have hoped that he put his energies into redeeming himself.

“She would hope that in some way you redeem your existence on this earth so you are not just a rapist, a kidnapper and a murderer,” he said.

Alcalde, who declined to speak at the sentencing, mostly conferred with his attorneys and wrote on a piece of paper as the Chases spoke. Occasionally, he looked up to glance at a childhood photograph of his victim that was being displayed on a screen.

Christy Chase called her little sister the “sunshine of my life.”

“I felt such joy on the day she was born, and I rode around on my bicycle and shouted to anyone who would listen that she had been born,” she said, her voice cracking.

Susannah’s other sister, Carrie Chase, said she wished her daughters could have met their aunt before she was killed.

“If Susannah were alive, my girls would sing loudly and out of tune with her,” she said, as several spectators sniffled and laughed in the courtroom.

Eight of the jurors who sat through the three-week trial came to the sentencing Monday. Many of them hugged members of the Chase family after the hearing was over. They all declined to speak to reporters.

Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett said justice was done in one of Boulder’s most confounding cold cases.

“A guilty sentence in a murder case is never a happy thing, but it’s satisfying,” he said Monday.

Alcalde will be psychologically diagnosed at the Colorado Department of Corrections Diagnostic Center before being assigned to a prison facility in the state.

Note; the Chase family are opposed to the Death Penalty and spoke out in favor of a Life Sentence.
===========================================

My cat Estrella

She is providing me with gifts … parts of dead birds that she deposits on the rug….nice but I don’t need these gifts.. But I guess you should not look a gift cat in the mouth

 

My best

leno

 

 

 

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS

At least eight states are considering drug testing for those citizens who would receive unemployment benefits, food stamps or welfare. When you here this it seems so contrary to the core values of our American Life.

But let me just say (tongue in cheek) that I am for testing these individuals as long as we first test all elected officials and their staff. And that we test every board member and staff of those companies that we have bailed out in one form another. Let them start there with their testing.. After all these companies are getting billions of dollars and that’s where our attention should be if we want to track drugs. I would further suggest that far more cocaine is consumed by those working in high rise buildings than is consumed in the poor neighborhoods.

We must be careful that we do not give up our rights and liberties to these radical efforts by a handful of individuals who want to punish those that have been pummeled by this economic disaster.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.       Cesar’s birthday

b.      Wage theft

c.       Health Care

d.      Social Justice Fund receptions.

————————————————————————————————————

Cesar E Chavez birthday is March 31^st

Across the country many will celebrate the life and legacy of Cesar Chavez… I like many had the pleasure of knowing Cesar and working in behalf of the union, its boycotts and its strikes.  Cesar was an important voice for our times and we are glad that he was amongst us reminding us of the honest and hard working farm workers.

Today the legacy of Cesar lives on through the Foundation in his name and in the many actions taken by the Union. Cesar would have been proud about how the movement continued since his passing. He would also appreciate all those who learned from the farm workers struggle and learned how to become leaders in their own right.

Co-founder of UFW Dolores Huerta, the Filipinos and so many others are the special spirits that built the movement and dreams that we know now as the work of Cesar. The success of this movement was that it built leadership amongst so many so that all the work could be done. Every victory of the union has belonged to so many and so many owe their lives to this movement.

In my own case I was able to leave the life of drugs and violence because of in great part the experience I had working for the union. I also learned how to organize from Cesar, Fred Ross and Dolores.  They opened up a new world of possibilities to me and others.  I must also say that the examples of MLK and Malcolm X heavily influenced me in my responsibilities to my community.

When I went to work for the UNITED FARM WORKERS UNION in 1970 I and everyone else including Cesar and Dolores were paid $5 week in wages and $10 for food. And many volunteers who supported the strikes and boycotts gave of their time and money to make sure that we could keep our movement alive. We all were part of a magical journey into the future.

Often we look for the perfect leader or voice that will lead us out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.  And at times we listen too quickly to critics who find fault with our leaders instead of finding the grace and wisdom and courage that it took for them to do so much.

When we look back to our past leaders measuring every one by the standard we have set for some one to assume leadership we some times are unrealistic.… We want out leaders to be perfect. But we should know that their humanity makes them even more special for all that they were able to do. And we should appreciate their contribution to our lives and the lives of others.

Some of my dear friends try to make Cesar into a saint or a god.  He was just a common man with an uncommon drive and charisma..A man who had this incredible dream and vision of hope. He was willing to sacrifice to get the rest of us to do what was needed to be done.

 

Cesar was not perfect but he was the best we had.

 

IMMIGRATION RALLY SUNDAY MARCH 29

                                HOMESTEAD FLORIDA

 

FAMILIES UNITED

Interfaith Rally with Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Chicago

For Just and Humane Immigration Reform

Sunday, March 29

1 pm-5 pm

First Christian Church of Homestead

1001 NE Kings Highway

Homestead, FL  33030

(next to the Winn-Dixie Shopping Plaza on SW 304^th St., just west of US 1)

Event organized by FLORIDA FAITH COALITION CORP.

.FAMILIAS UNIDAS

Concentración con el Congresista de Chicago, Luis Gutiérrez

Por una Reforma Justa y Humana de las Leyes de Inmigración

Domingo, 29 de Marzo

1 pm-5 pm

First Christian Church of Homestead

1001 NE Kings Highway

Homestead, FL  33030

(al lado del centro comercial de Winn-Dixie en la SW 304 St., al oeste de US 1)

Evento organizado por FLORIDA FAITH COALITION CORP.

Jonathan Fried

Executive Director

WeCount!

Office: 1350 SW 4th St., Homestead, FL  33030

Mail: P.O. Box 344116, Florida City, FL  33034

Phone: (305) 247-2202

Mobile: (305) 281-9377

Email: jonathan@we-count.org

Website: we-count.org

Member of the FLORIDA IMMIGRANT COALITION and the NATIONAL DAY LABORER ORGANIZING NETWORK

—————————————————————————————————-

—-

Meet Kim Bobo, nationally recognized author of Wage Theft in America   Monday, 03-30, 3 – 5 pm, FIU’s University Park Campus — Labor Center 110, 11200 S.W. 8th Street, Miami, Florida 33199   Tuesday, 03-31, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, Trinity Ep           iscopal Cathedral — Church Hall — 464 NE 16th Street, Miami, FL 33132     Wage theft is a crucial issue in South Florida that, while not limited to immigrants, disproportionately affects immigrants and low-wage workers. Kim Bobo’s new book Wage Theft in America, released in November, is the first and only book to document the wage theft crisis in the nation and proposes practical solutions for addressing it. Wage theft affects millions of workers in the United States every year that are either forced to work off the clock, not paid the minimum wage, not paid for overtime they work, misclassified as “independent contracts,” or simply not paid at all. Bobo offers a sweeping analysis of the crisis, citing hard-hitting statistics and heartbreaking first-person accounts of exploitation at the hands of employers.     “Kim Bobo has written an excellent and informative book on one of the most pressing issues facing millions of hardworking Americans. She offers bold, practical, and progressive solutions for how policymakers and advocates can end the growing crisis of wage theft in America.”                                               —Senator Edward M. Kennedy

__._,_.___

 

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE AND ACTION ON HEALTH CARE.

Friends:

The federal budget is being decided this week, and today is a critical time
to make sure our members of congress hear from us!
Don’t procrastinate, don’t delay, no excuses… CALL!

It’s very easy: go to the following website:
http://tools.advomatic.com/8/budget

Enter your name, phone, address, city and zip code.
You’ll be directed to a new page with talking points, once ready click on
“PLACE CALL”
And your phone will receive a call from HCAN- Health Care for America Now-
explaining they will direct your call.
Make the three calls- two to your senators and one to your representative

Tell them: Support President Obama’s Budget
The budget President Obama has proposed $634 billion down payment on health
care reform, a significant upfront investment that signals his historic
commitment to quality, affordable health care for all.
If President Obama’s budget doesn’t pass with this investment in health care
intact, it is unlikely we will see health care reform become a reality.
If you can’t make the call through the website, call the toll free number to
the Capitol Switchboard to be put in touch with specific Members of
Congress:
1-888-436-8427

Thank you,
maru
Maru Mora Villalpando, Lead Organizer
Immigration and Economic Justice
Washington CAN!
La Red Activa Comunitaria de Washington
Phone: 206-805-6672 (direct line)
Mail: 220 S River St WA 98108
Web: www.washingtoncan.org

————————————————————————————————-
.APRIL 30 – SJF Welcomes New Executive Director

Time: 5:30 – 8pm
Location: The Spitfire (2219 4th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121)
RSVP to: Melissa@socialjusticefund.org at the Social Justice Fund office

Come welcome our new Executive Director, Leno Rose-Avila to the Social Justice Fund community! Join us on Thursday, April 30th at the Spitfire for drinks and light appetizers as we welcome new leadership at SJF!

AND SAVE THE DATE ….SATURDAY MAY 9^TH  SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND RECEPTION IN PORTLAND OREGON TO WELCOME LENO AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.                                                                                                                          —————————————————————————————

REFRIED BEANS…

This afternoon I coached my nephew David as he made his first official batch of Refried beans.  Of course he was using my recipe and the beans turned out fabulous. So our lunch was of hot bean burritos. Life doesn’t get any better than this.

Cultural foods no matter the culture are good comfort foods and for me I enjoy them all

But today it was a bean burrito that hit the spot. Even my daughter (the bean critic) approved of the beans.

My best

leno

 

 

DEAR FRIENDS

I am today getting the drivers side door on my minivan fixed. I found a good place to get this done and at a reasonable price. I am getting my van ready for the trip to Seattle the middle of next month. I guess I should clean it out before I begin packing it with my luggage.. There is a lot to do when one is getting ready to move.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Richardson kills death penalty

b.    Natasha Richardson

c.     Madoff victims get IRS break

d.    AIG

e.     Incredible woma

f.       FMLN wins

 

Governor Richardson take a step into the future

          Abolishs the Death Penalty in New Mexico.

 

New Mexico governor bans death penalty

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson made his state the 15th in the nation to outlaw capital punishment when he signed a law abolishing the death penalty, his office said.

“I have decided to sign legislation that repeals the death penalty in the state of New Mexico,” Richardson said in a statement, adding the move marked “the end of a long, personal journey for me.”

Rights groups urged Richardson, who ran a brief bid for the US presidency in 2008, to sign the law after New Mexico’s Senate voted Friday to abolish the death penalty. The measure had already been approved by the lower chamber.

“Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,” Richardson said.

“If the state is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong.

“But the reality is the system is not perfect — far from it. The system is inherently defective. DNA testing has proven that. Innocent people have been put on death row all across the country.”

Richardson said that he had been a “firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment,” and that he still believed it was appropriate to mete out capital punishment for the most serious crimes.

“But six years ago, when I took office as governor of the state of New Mexico, I started to challenge my own thinking on the death penalty,” he said.

Richardson said what convinced him to change his mind was “the finality of this ultimate punishment. Once a conclusive decision has been made and executed, it cannot be reversed. And it is in consideration of this, that I have made my decision.”

Richardson, who is Mexican-American, also said that he was disturbed “that minorities are overrepresented in the prison population and on death row.”

Rights groups had been pressing Richardson to ban capital punishment since the state Senate voted to abolish it last week.

American Civil Liberties Union director John Holdridge, convinced Richardson would sign the bill into law, said on Tuesday that the governor “deserves credit for taking seriously the reality that the bankrupting system of capital punishment cannot be statistically or legally defended.”

“Beyond the exorbitant cost to the taxpayers of maintaining the death penalty, there are serious and rampant flaws inherent to our nation’s capital punishment system that cannot be ignored,” Holdridge added.

Supporters of the new law said that replacing the death sentence with life in prison without parole will save the state more than one million dollars each year. Opponents believe the death penalty is a deterrent to the most heinous crimes.

New Mexico has executed only one inmate since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. It currently has two inmates awaiting execution.

Richardson, 61, was President Barack Obama’s pick to be commerce secretary and would have been the most prominent Hispanic in his cabinet, but he withdrew his name in early January before Obama was sworn into office, because of an investigation into a company doing business with his state of New Mexico.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

Please … Please …Please write the Governor

I would ask my readers to thank Gov. Bill Richardson for taking this most important step. You can send an old fashion letter or you can send him a message via his web page.

Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail
Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501

————————————————————————————————————

 

Natasha Richarson dies

I was saddened because of the loss of this wonderful actor. I had met her about 1999 in LA when she was in a film that did its premier for Amnesty International. Somewhere there is photo with me and Jack Healey with her on that special evening.

IRS HAS GIVEN TAX BREAK TO MADOFF VICTIMS..

The IRS has made a special provision giving the victims of this Ponsi scheme some additional tax breaks. They now can go 5 years back in their taxes to average out their income accounting for the loss from the Madoff theft. And then they can factor this in on their taxes for another 20 years. This is most unusual for the IRS to take this additional step but it must come from all of the high profile clients of this Ponsi run.

In one way I am glad to see many getting some benefits from this theft I wonder about all the families who have been hijacked by unscrupulous banks and mortgage companies that took advantage of them .. and now these families are losing their homes and everything else they own.. .

WILL THE IRS GIVE THEM A SPECAIL BREAK TO THE AVERAGE FAMILY ALSO … or are they too poor to get the interest of the IRS.??/.  as I remember it the IRS is only too quick to garnish wages and take property from those who can not pay their taxes … most often these are the middle class and the poor.

AIG and paying bonuses

Paying bonuses to people who helped you fail ….now many of us would like a job where if you drove the company into the ditch that you would be paid a bonus and kept on to help get the company out of the ditch.

I wonder where the media and congressional outrage was when all the money was disappearing in Iraq . There were also those no bid contracts where millions have been lost and most of these AIG critics were silent… I think we need to go back and collect our missing money or throw the abusers in jail for all the money that disappeared in Iraq.

After all we give long sentences for folks that steal a few hundred dollars … who happen to be the poor of this country. Why not give equal justice to all …

——————————————-

 

MAKHTAR MAI .. marrys former body guard

From gang rape victim in Pakistan to feminist spokesperson

In 2002 she was gang raped on the orders of the village council. She protested and could have been killed and had to have police protection. The relatives of the rapists threatened her and tried to get her to stop the prosecution of the rapist. She was raped because of  her younger brothers illicict affair not because of something she did.

Now she is doing the unthinkable.. getting married when in the past no one wants anything to do with a rape victim. She becomes the second wife to constable Nasir Abbas Gabol. Makhtar made Nasir, before agreeing to marry him that he  agree to transfer the ownership of his ancestoral home to the first wife plus giving the first wife a financial stipend and another plot of land. And then she said that while she would marry Nasir..Also stipulated that  she would  not move in with him and the first wife but he that he can come visit her when ever he wants. In Pakistan a man can have as many as four wives.

Makhter runs schools, an ambulance service and a women’s support group and does not want to leave this work.

I find her to be a most amazing example for change and hope that she will be invited to the USA to share her stories with us all.

————————————————————————————

FMLN WINS IN EL SALVADOR

Friends from both coasts joined hundreds over others as Election Observers.

Today I spoke with a former gang member in San Salvador who was laughing as he celebrated the results.

El Salvador voters welcome left-wing victory

March 17, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

SAN SALVADOR: El Salvadorans have ended two decades of right-wing rule in an election that marked the country’s first peaceful change of government since it gained independence 171 years ago.

Mauricio Funes, candidate of the party of left-wing former rebels, emerged yesterday as the winner of El Salvador’s closely contested presidential election. He had won 51.2 per cent of the vote after more than 90 per cent of ballots were counted, the electoral authorities announced.

“I’m the president-elect of the Salvadorans,” Mr Funes told reporters in the capital of the small Central American nation. “Citizens who believe in hope and who have overcome fear have triumphed today. This is a victory of all the Salvadoran people.”

Mr Funes, of the ex-guerilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) front, pulled ahead of Rodrigo Avila, from the ruling right-wing Arena party, who had secured 48.7 per cent of the vote as the count neared its close. Mr Avila conceded defeat shortly after Mr Funes’s declaration.

Mr Funes, 49, is a popular television newsman and the first FMLN candidate who was nt a guerilla fighter in the long and bloody civil war that ended 17 years ago.

Mr Avila, 44, is a former police chief and protege of outgoing president Elias Antonio Saca. He served in a pro-government civilian militia unit during the war, which took place between 1980 and 1992 and cost an estimated 100,000 lives.

While the campaign rhetoric echoed the bitter Cold War struggle that took place in El Salvador 20 years ago, the two candidates themselves signified generational change.

Mr Funes’s image on billboards emphasised his newness. “This time it’s different,” said one slogan. Another: “A safe change.”

Arena countered with “Vote with wisdom”, painting FMLN supporters as fellow travellers with Latin America’s most radical left-wing regimes, especially Venezuela.

Mr Avila warned voters that a left-wing victory would turn the country into a satellite of Venezuela and damage its strong ties with the US.

With the FMLN’s victory, El Salvador joins a growing tide of left-wing Latin American countries from Brazil to Bolivia.

An estimated voter turnout of more than 70 per cent was a considerable increase from the 2004 elections, when the Arena party won its fourth presidential campaign.

Thousands of the 2.5 million US-based Salvadorans came home to vote in an election that was watched closely by Washington, which backed the repressive military regime during the civil war.

The State Department’s top diplomat for Latin America, Tom Shannon, said before the poll that the US would respect the choice Salvadorans made, after several American politicians warned that a Funes victory would jeopardise US national security interests in the region.

Both parties mobilised hundreds of buses, taxis and private cars yesterday in an epic effort to get people to vote.

El Salvadoran voters do not cast their ballots where they live, but go to polling sites arranged alphabetically within their city’s limits. The capital San Salvador has almost 300,000 voters, many of whom had to travel across the sprawling city to reach their designated polling booth.

The FMLN complains that this system favours the car-owning rich.

We all have to find a way to help  

During this economic tsunami we must raise our voices, support financially our special organizations which help others and then when you can volunteer some where that needs your skills or talents to help others..

We all need to find a way to do something.. We must create change and make a difference in our own communities

My best

leno

 

 

 

 

 

DEAR FRIENDS

I am today getting the drivers side door on my minivan fixed. I found a good place to get this done and at a reasonable price. I am getting my van ready for the trip to Seattle the middle of next month. I guess I should clean it out before I begin packing it with my luggage.. There is a lot to do when one is getting ready to move.

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.    Richardson kills death penalty

b.    Natasha Richardson

c.     Madoff victims get IRS break

d.    AIG

e.     Incredible woma

f.       FMLN wins

 

Governor Richardson take a step into the future

          Abolishs the Death Penalty in New Mexico.

 

New Mexico governor bans death penalty

LOS ANGELES (AFP) — New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson made his state the 15th in the nation to outlaw capital punishment when he signed a law abolishing the death penalty, his office said.

“I have decided to sign legislation that repeals the death penalty in the state of New Mexico,” Richardson said in a statement, adding the move marked “the end of a long, personal journey for me.”

Rights groups urged Richardson, who ran a brief bid for the US presidency in 2008, to sign the law after New Mexico’s Senate voted Friday to abolish the death penalty. The measure had already been approved by the lower chamber.

“Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to who lives and who dies for their crime,” Richardson said.

“If the state is going to undertake this awesome responsibility, the system to impose this ultimate penalty must be perfect and can never be wrong.

“But the reality is the system is not perfect — far from it. The system is inherently defective. DNA testing has proven that. Innocent people have been put on death row all across the country.”

Richardson said that he had been a “firm believer in the death penalty as a just punishment,” and that he still believed it was appropriate to mete out capital punishment for the most serious crimes.

“But six years ago, when I took office as governor of the state of New Mexico, I started to challenge my own thinking on the death penalty,” he said.

Richardson said what convinced him to change his mind was “the finality of this ultimate punishment. Once a conclusive decision has been made and executed, it cannot be reversed. And it is in consideration of this, that I have made my decision.”

Richardson, who is Mexican-American, also said that he was disturbed “that minorities are overrepresented in the prison population and on death row.”

Rights groups had been pressing Richardson to ban capital punishment since the state Senate voted to abolish it last week.

American Civil Liberties Union director John Holdridge, convinced Richardson would sign the bill into law, said on Tuesday that the governor “deserves credit for taking seriously the reality that the bankrupting system of capital punishment cannot be statistically or legally defended.”

“Beyond the exorbitant cost to the taxpayers of maintaining the death penalty, there are serious and rampant flaws inherent to our nation’s capital punishment system that cannot be ignored,” Holdridge added.

Supporters of the new law said that replacing the death sentence with life in prison without parole will save the state more than one million dollars each year. Opponents believe the death penalty is a deterrent to the most heinous crimes.

New Mexico has executed only one inmate since the US Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976. It currently has two inmates awaiting execution.

Richardson, 61, was President Barack Obama’s pick to be commerce secretary and would have been the most prominent Hispanic in his cabinet, but he withdrew his name in early January before Obama was sworn into office, because of an investigation into a company doing business with his state of New Mexico.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

Please … Please …Please write the Governor

I would ask my readers to thank Gov. Bill Richardson for taking this most important step. You can send an old fashion letter or you can send him a message via his web page.

Office of the Governor
490 Old Santa Fe Trail
Room 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501

————————————————————————————————————

 

Natasha Richarson dies

I was saddened because of the loss of this wonderful actor. I had met her about 1999 in LA when she was in a film that did its premier for Amnesty International. Somewhere there is photo with me and Jack Healey with her on that special evening.

IRS HAS GIVEN TAX BREAK TO MADOFF VICTIMS..

The IRS has made a special provision giving the victims of this Ponsi scheme some additional tax breaks. They now can go 5 years back in their taxes to average out their income accounting for the loss from the Madoff theft. And then they can factor this in on their taxes for another 20 years. This is most unusual for the IRS to take this additional step but it must come from all of the high profile clients of this Ponsi run.

In one way I am glad to see many getting some benefits from this theft I wonder about all the families who have been hijacked by unscrupulous banks and mortgage companies that took advantage of them .. and now these families are losing their homes and everything else they own.. .

WILL THE IRS GIVE THEM A SPECAIL BREAK TO THE AVERAGE FAMILY ALSO … or are they too poor to get the interest of the IRS.??/.  as I remember it the IRS is only too quick to garnish wages and take property from those who can not pay their taxes … most often these are the middle class and the poor.

AIG and paying bonuses

Paying bonuses to people who helped you fail ….now many of us would like a job where if you drove the company into the ditch that you would be paid a bonus and kept on to help get the company out of the ditch.

I wonder where the media and congressional outrage was when all the money was disappearing in Iraq . There were also those no bid contracts where millions have been lost and most of these AIG critics were silent… I think we need to go back and collect our missing money or throw the abusers in jail for all the money that disappeared in Iraq.

After all we give long sentences for folks that steal a few hundred dollars … who happen to be the poor of this country. Why not give equal justice to all …

——————————————-

 

MAKHTAR MAI .. marrys former body guard

From gang rape victim in Pakistan to feminist spokesperson

In 2002 she was gang raped on the orders of the village council. She protested and could have been killed and had to have police protection. The relatives of the rapists threatened her and tried to get her to stop the prosecution of the rapist. She was raped because of  her younger brothers illicict affair not because of something she did.

Now she is doing the unthinkable.. getting married when in the past no one wants anything to do with a rape victim. She becomes the second wife to constable Nasir Abbas Gabol. Makhtar made Nasir, before agreeing to marry him that he  agree to transfer the ownership of his ancestoral home to the first wife plus giving the first wife a financial stipend and another plot of land. And then she said that while she would marry Nasir..Also stipulated that  she would  not move in with him and the first wife but he that he can come visit her when ever he wants. In Pakistan a man can have as many as four wives.

Makhter runs schools, an ambulance service and a women’s support group and does not want to leave this work.

I find her to be a most amazing example for change and hope that she will be invited to the USA to share her stories with us all.

————————————————————————————

FMLN WINS IN EL SALVADOR

Friends from both coasts joined hundreds over others as Election Observers.

Today I spoke with a former gang member in San Salvador who was laughing as he celebrated the results.

El Salvador voters welcome left-wing victory

March 17, 2009

Article from:  The Australian

SAN SALVADOR: El Salvadorans have ended two decades of right-wing rule in an election that marked the country’s first peaceful change of government since it gained independence 171 years ago.

Mauricio Funes, candidate of the party of left-wing former rebels, emerged yesterday as the winner of El Salvador’s closely contested presidential election. He had won 51.2 per cent of the vote after more than 90 per cent of ballots were counted, the electoral authorities announced.

“I’m the president-elect of the Salvadorans,” Mr Funes told reporters in the capital of the small Central American nation. “Citizens who believe in hope and who have overcome fear have triumphed today. This is a victory of all the Salvadoran people.”

Mr Funes, of the ex-guerilla Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) front, pulled ahead of Rodrigo Avila, from the ruling right-wing Arena party, who had secured 48.7 per cent of the vote as the count neared its close. Mr Avila conceded defeat shortly after Mr Funes’s declaration.

Mr Funes, 49, is a popular television newsman and the first FMLN candidate who was nt a guerilla fighter in the long and bloody civil war that ended 17 years ago.

Mr Avila, 44, is a former police chief and protege of outgoing president Elias Antonio Saca. He served in a pro-government civilian militia unit during the war, which took place between 1980 and 1992 and cost an estimated 100,000 lives.

While the campaign rhetoric echoed the bitter Cold War struggle that took place in El Salvador 20 years ago, the two candidates themselves signified generational change.

Mr Funes’s image on billboards emphasised his newness. “This time it’s different,” said one slogan. Another: “A safe change.”

Arena countered with “Vote with wisdom”, painting FMLN supporters as fellow travellers with Latin America’s most radical left-wing regimes, especially Venezuela.

Mr Avila warned voters that a left-wing victory would turn the country into a satellite of Venezuela and damage its strong ties with the US.

With the FMLN’s victory, El Salvador joins a growing tide of left-wing Latin American countries from Brazil to Bolivia.

An estimated voter turnout of more than 70 per cent was a considerable increase from the 2004 elections, when the Arena party won its fourth presidential campaign.

Thousands of the 2.5 million US-based Salvadorans came home to vote in an election that was watched closely by Washington, which backed the repressive military regime during the civil war.

The State Department’s top diplomat for Latin America, Tom Shannon, said before the poll that the US would respect the choice Salvadorans made, after several American politicians warned that a Funes victory would jeopardise US national security interests in the region.

Both parties mobilised hundreds of buses, taxis and private cars yesterday in an epic effort to get people to vote.

El Salvadoran voters do not cast their ballots where they live, but go to polling sites arranged alphabetically within their city’s limits. The capital San Salvador has almost 300,000 voters, many of whom had to travel across the sprawling city to reach their designated polling booth.

The FMLN complains that this system favours the car-owning rich.

We all have to find a way to help  

During this economic tsunami we must raise our voices, support financially our special organizations which help others and then when you can volunteer some where that needs your skills or talents to help others..

We all need to find a way to do something.. We must create change and make a difference in our own communities

My best

leno

 

 

 

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS

 

Bernard Madoff finally was taken off to jail.. Wondering why they don’t put these white collar criminals in general population in the prison. When you look at the most recent top white color criminals they often get sentences of 5 years or less. Even thought they break more laws and ruin more peoples lives they get a less of a sentence than some one who did a car jacking or broke into an ATM…

 

I am still in shock over the past and current theft taking place on Wall Street. People are still being rewarded for leading financial institutions into the ditch. We would be fired if our cash register at the store where we were working was short for a week … but these money changers continue to lose Billions and are still rewarded…

 

Fire them all and start over… that’s at least one option…

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS  

a.    leno’ got a new job

b.    Destination love

c.     Death penalty and new Mexico

d.    David Avila a free man

 

 

LENO THE NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE SOCIAL JUSTICE FUND NORTHWEST…

 

Below you will see the formal announcement and my request that you attend this welcoming reception on April 30^th in Seattle . There will also be a reception in Portland so look for that in the next Ahora’s.

 

 I  look for to this opportunity to do more with so many who believe in Justice and Freedom.

 

 

MESSAGE FROM SJF BOARD

Please join us on Thursday April 30 from 5:30pm – 8:00pm to welcome Leno to the Social Justice Fund NW community.  The Welcome Reception will be held at The Spitfire in downtown Seattle. Please visit our website for details and directions.

 

 

NOTE FROM LENO

And I would like to invite you to be part of the Event Committee. This will mean that you will let us put your name on the invitation and that you will attend.  If you can be part of this effort it would be appreciated and if you would ask any other of my friends that you know to do the same. Please ask folks to contact Sarah Studer at sarahs@socialjusticefund.org so that your name will be placed on the list.

 

SJF Welcomes New Executive Director! Dear Friends, Social Justice Fund NW welcomes Magdaleno “Leno” Rose-Avila to the position as our new Executive Director.  Leno will officially join the SJF staff on April 15, 2009. Leno brings over forty years of experience an organizational manager, community organizer, and human rights advocate. He has served as United States Peace Corps Country Director for Nicaragua and Guatemala, and as the Executive Director of the Colorado Migrant Council, the Cesar E. Chavez Foundation, Homies Unidos, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. Currently, Leno is the Miami Project Director of International Relief and Development, an organization that reduces the suffering of the world’s most vulnerable groups and provides tools and resources needed to increase their self-sufficiency. Leno is an experienced fundraiser, grant writer, and community organizer.  The SJF Board is excited to have Leno on staff as we launch the Civic Action: Delivering on Change initiative.   “I am inspired by the vision of change that the SJF community has put forward by creating the new funding initiative, Civic Action: Delivering on Change,” says Leno.  “After 30 years of fighting the right, Civic Action is providing the resources necessary for us to finally take the offensive and proactively claim a place at the decision-making table for the grassroots communities and leaders who contributed so much to the positive changes that came out of the last election.”   Please join us on Thursday April 30 from 5:30pm – 8:00pm to welcome Leno to the Social Justice Fund NW community.  The Welcome Reception will be held at The Spitfire in downtown Seattle. Please visit our website for details and directions. On a sadder note, SJF says goodbye to Interim Executive Director Scot Nakagawa.  Scot has been on the staff of Social Justice Fund since 2005 as Program Manager and Director, and stepped up to fill the position of Interim Executive Director in August of 2008.  We will miss Scot’s leadership, but we share his excitement as he pursues new opportunities.   Respectfully, The Social Justice Fund NW Board of Directors Vickie Goodwin and Sharon Gary-Smith, co-chairs, Jim Becker, Rujuta Gaonkar, Felicia Gonzalez, Larry Kleinman, Natalie Lamberjack, David Rogers If you would like to be unsubscribed from our email list, please email us at info@socialjusticefund.org.

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THE WEDDING IN MEXICO \                                                                                                                                a destination wedding… destination ..Love

Finally I get to wedding site on Thursday March 5^th and discover that it will be at the beautiful on the  Isla de Navidad in the state of Jalisco.

Driving from the airport with other wedding attendees I sat in the front of this big Chevy van and translated for some of our visitor’s notable items given to me by the driver.

Soon we arrived at the resort where we joined about 150 others from across the USA that came to see Rafe and Laura married..The resort is this well manicured rolling estate that sits next to the pacific ocean… As we pass the massive golf course I mutter to myself that  this resort is larger than my hometown Las Animas Colorado… and in many ways like an adult Disney land.

Finally as I pass through all the beauty we finally arrive at the main hotel where our luggage is unloaded. Then we are shuttled off to a special building 5 blocks away called El Mezon which is in fact used on occasion as the home of the owner of the resort. There I and my family are housed along with the wedding couple and their closest family members. I got the second largest suite given I was performing the wedding . Or was it because of my size… but it was  nonetheless very nice

It was great being there because many family members were there… and there were many other wonderful individuals and activities…

The food was great as were the many parties..dinners and activities.. I even danced

I ate chiliquiles every morning with my early coffee. And one special morning I shared coffee with my 23 year old daughter Aviva as we watched the sun come up …the first time we have had breakfast together at sunrise .. Aviva has always been a late riser.. Once she had eaten breakfast she ran up to the room and  jumped back in bed…

The Wedding of Rafe Furst and Laura Rose was beautiful .While I sent them an outline for what could be included in the wedding ceremony they took this draft  and made it more wonderful. At one point they had dueling vows as each on delivered a phrase of personal and funny statement and then the other responded …then they did the more serious vows…

And of course, I served as the minister for this beautiful ceremony.. This was great for me because it brought me closer to the couple and other family and friends…

While I met many wonderful individuals I must tell you that I again fell in Love with yet another women there by the name of Ariel … She was there with her teenage  son. Ariel has brain cancer and had interrupted her treatment so that she could attend the wedding. She has such a peaceful spirit that she made me fell most at home. On the wedding night when the dancing began she just sat there watching and smiling… I finally asked her to join me and dance with family members that had formed a circle. We invited her  into our circle of dance…  she went on to dance the evening away … I gave Ariel one of my books and hope to talk to her soon .

In life you will meet many wonderful individuals and have many great experiences… At this wedding I had a lot of both..

New Mexico Legislature repeals death penalty
By Deborah Baker / The Associated Press 03/13/2009

SANTA FE — The New Mexico Legislature has voted to repeal the death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The state Senate voted 24-18 on Friday for the repeal bill, sending it to Gov. Bill Richardson for his signature.

The House approved the legislation a month ago.

Richardson, a second-term Democrat, has opposed repeal in the past but now says he would consider signing it.

“I haven’t made a final decision,” the governor said this week.

New Mexico, one of 36 states with capital punishment, has two men on death row whose sentences would not be affected by repeal.

The state has executed one man since 1960, convicted child killer Terry Clark in 2001.

New Jersey banned executions in 2007, the first state to do so since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Opponents of the death penalty said it does not deter murder and is administered unfairly, and that there’s a risk of executing innocent people.

“As beautiful as our justice system is … it is still a justice system of human beings, and human beings make mistakes,” Sen. Cisco McSorley, an Albuquerque Democrat, said during nearly three hours of debate.

For convicted murderers, life in prison without the possibility of parole is more severe than “the luxury of death,” said Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, who sponsored the bill in the Senate.

“We’re not talking about life in prison; we’re talking about death

DAVID AVILA

            Is released on Parole after 10 years of prison.

David who was in prison in Colorado for a series of minor violations  was paroled to me in Florida.  My family members especially my Sister Tencha (his aunt) and her Husband Walt worked this deal with the prison so that David could come to live with me and my family.. The parole board found me acceptable in spite of the fact that I am friends with  you LOL… so they approved as an out of state parole location..

So David is now here with me in Miami …  my family and house mate are helping to get him settled into life on the outside along  with the help  of other family members and friends.

David who like many minor offenders needed originally to get probation or place in half way house or work release program. Too many individuals are serving long sentences due to these minimum sentencing laws and three strike laws.. Today this long term incarceration serves little or no prupose..Other than to be a big drain on the budgets of State governments. Now with this awful economy I believe that it is our time to raise the issue of COST AND PUNISHMENT.

Having a good lawyer is crucial when one is arrested. David would have had less time given to him if he would have had a good and experienced lawyer at his side. The rich get probation, house arrest, or reduced sentencing and the poor get the full punishment allowed under the law of the day.

Another issue is that when you get out on parole you are asked to find a job.  It has always been hard to find work if you are an ex-convict. Now with this economy it is even harder and the parole system should take a look at this requirement.

The only difference between me and David is that he was caught .. In my youth I did many of the things that David did and more but I was lucky and was not caught…

IMMIGRATION     

            How to take the right steps

Last night I had a very interesting and invigorating conversation with Larry Kleinman of PCUN in Oregon about immigration and what is being done and needs to be done. There are a lot of efforts to be organized and a lot of conversations to be had. We all have our work to do to continue to move the conversation forward on COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION REFORM and at the same time continue fighting these abusive raids being done across the country.

We must continue our good work and be the voice of reason and decency.

My best

leno

 

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS

 

On Thursday of this coming week I am going to Manzanillo, Mexico to perform the wedding of my niece Laura Rose. She and fiancé Rafe Furst decided to get married in Mexico which is most exciting.  So some of their friends and many of their Families will be in Mexico for this special event.

 

This is going to be a fun event with love and dreams in the air.  I look forward to going to Mexico and only hope that Home Land Security will let me back into the USA.

 

NOW FOR MY VIEW OF THE NEWS

a.     What’s up republicans?

b.    Mexico’s undeclared war

c.     Hilda Solis confirmed

d.    Want green chili

e.     Forgive them all

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What is up with the republicans…???

Why Bobby, Michael and Sarah ????

There is something very sad and painful to watch going on with in the Republican Party. They don’t know how to react to the steps the Democratic Party has taken to diversify and broaden its base.. And now the republicans are trying to find a way change the appearance of their party.

First they chose as their darling Vice Presidential Candidate in the this last election a woman hoping to draw from Obama those disgruntled Hillary supporters who might vote for a woman.. These women would only be only to vote for such a candidate by closing their ears and minds to what was being said by McCain’s chosen VP running mate.. There were some elected officials who are women that could have drawn some women to the Republican ticket but they were too moderate and their party barely tolerates them. What Sarah chanted across the country was too conservative and too anti choice to raise women voters.

Now the Republican Party has chosen Michael Steele a black man to be the Chair of their national committee. I don’t believe he would have had much of a shot at that leadership position if he had not been black. They seem to think that by having and Afro-American at the head of the party that they will automatically attract more of the same. But blacks like women want to see the programs and the substance not the same right wing rhetoric.

Then comes Bobby Jindal Governor of Louisiana son of immigrants and on all accounts a very smart man who happens to be Indian and yes has a dark skin. I believe they chose him in great part because of his skin color to give the response to President Obama’s statement to Congress. Bobby fell flat on his face on both substance and delivery.  He was scripted by those in the basement of the right wing of the Republican Party headquarters basement. It was the wrong speech on such an important occasion. And his having a dark skin was not enough.

Governor Bobby talks better when he is free to express his ideas and not follow a scripted speech but they did damage to him and their party by presenting such a pathetic attack on a sincere efforts to help those suffering in our Country by the Obama administration.  And then on top of everything it seems that Gov. Jindal made up the hokey story about him and a sheriff working together during Katrina.

The Republican Party is still searching for an answer, a strategy and a leader.

.And would you believe it they are still parading around JOE THE PLUMBER… I can not believe that they are so desperate as to believe in fairy tales that they have to keep using this man. Who is not a certified plumber to show that they can connect with the working class?

Now they need a Latino …and give him or her big title…

While I don’t want to help the Republicans I will advise them to tone down the rhetoric and sit down with the Obama government to work on solutions to this economic crisis. They can always disagree on some points in any final plan but they do need to show that all of us are working as Americans for America.

Those losing their homes, their jobs and health benefits don’t want to hear us squabbling about party lines or positions. They want help and they want it now. And they will take assistance from any of us no matter our party affiliation.

THE UNDECLARED WAR IN MEXICO

          Drug lords vs. drug lords vs. the government vs. business

Last year over 5,000 individuals died many of them horrific death as the drug territorial wars escalated. On DON trying to move out another DON … Both DONS fighting the police and the military. And many innocents being killed and more terrified. And there will a spill over across the border in many locations.

The hardest hit area is Juarez, Chihuahua which is the sister city to El Paso, Texas. Juarez has the most killings in this war of any city in Mexico. Juarez is the city where also over 400 women have been tortured, raped and killed. Their bodies populating the desert just outside of this border city. These women’s deaths have never been investigated in the manner that we would investigate a missing blond American woman in the Caribbean. I believe they are a by product of this lawless environment created by the influence of drugs and violence.

These drug lords have infiltrated the police and known when and where to target government officials in particular the police. No one is safe and you can trust no one.

The death toll of this undeclared war is on schedule to double the deaths of 2008.  Eventually this will begin to hurt commerce and tourism. ‘Then it will begin a most difficult slide into economic ruin. This will also affect tourism and business in the USA border area and soon bodies will be discovered along this border belt on both sides.

Not as many drugs would be coming in through Mexico if there was not such a demand in the USA.  Not to mention that many of the high powered weapons are being sold by arms dealers in the United States. So the problem is on both sides of the border and it will take both sides to resolve this issue.

Since most of the drugs are just passing through Mexico on the way to our streets it might be time for both governments to work together to reduce this tsunami of killings.

 

HILDA SOLIS CONFIRMED AS SECRETARY OF STATE ..

At last Hilda is confirmed and she is the first Latina in this position. This is a tremendous opportunity for her and all of us who believe in workers rights… She understands workers and the needs of their families.

I am told that Hilda will come to Miami on Monday night and I along with others will stand in line to say hello. I have known Hilda for many years and hope she remembers my smile amongst the many who will meet her at the Labor event.

 

GREEN CHILI AVAILABLE

FORGIVE Them All

A man who tried to destroy my career some years ago with a campaign of lies is now in hospice care and fighting throat cancer. I was saddened when I heard that the cancer had come back. I had forgiven him and others long ago. I am so busy living my dreams that I don’t have time to hate. Hate takes too much energy and love is so much more productive.

I decided to send him one of my books thanking him all that he had done to help so many.

Everyone has a good side and some have two or four good sides … me? I think I have one and a half good sides and a silly side thrown in for good luck. What do your sides look like????

My best from my gooder side

leno

Dear Sisters and Brothers

 

We need to find a way to get the stimulus package approved.  Everyday we hear about more jobs being lost and more houses being forclosed..And some cities are seeing a spike in certain crimes as a result of this economic mess.

Today some republicans are playing games and slowing down this effort to give our economy an infusion of money that can and will create jobs. We might need to call in and demonstrate at some congressional offices in the days ahead…

Today’s Ahora will continue to concentrate on the inauguration and all that it meant to so many…

——————————————————————————————————–

 

THE INAUGURATION

I was in the Washington DC since the 12^th of January and was able to watch the number of tourists grow in the city … it was amazing to see the streets getting more crowded and it took almost as long to get the people out of the city .. I was working at IRD‘s office in Arlington and was able to be there at this most important time.

The city was organized and only taxis and buses were allowed in the city on inauguration day.  My spouse Carolyn got an apartment two blocks from the White House and that was our headquarters over this wonderful week. In the end she got a purple ticket and was closer than most in the mall and had to stand for many hours in the cold …

Days before barricades were set up on the side walks so that they could easily push on to the streets ..This is not to mentions the thousands of PORTA POTTIES or toilets that were unloaded at key areas on the mall and in the surrounding area. On the night of the 19^th the barricades came together,, and there were only so many places where you could enter the mall

It was a magical time to be in Washington.

 

What I saw in Washington DC was what we have all expected of America. It was the America I have dreamed about. It was people of all walks of life walking, talking and smiling together. People helped each other were polite to each other and often hugged each other with out knowing whom they were hugging. These huge rivers of people were a sight to see… it was so beautiful that often I would just stand there and just watch in amazement…

I also saw this kind of energy at the funeral of Cesar Chavez and at the massive Immigration marches of a few years ago.. but the inauguration gathering took us all to a new and higher level.

This city became a slow moving river of people who were one for many days and it was beautiful to watch.

 

Vendors

Jack Lieberman his wife Marilyn and staff from Miami were in DC selling my favorite Obama products.  They were there in the cold amongst the many approved and unapproved vendors who sold just about everything that you wanted to have that had Obama’s name or picture.

 

SOUTH AFRICANS

At this inauguration I was able to connect with two important South Africans Lulama Ntshingwa and Ntsiki Langford whom we had known when we lived in New York. They like so many left the violence and the apartheid system of South Africa. I met them about 1987-89.

Lulama a South African Anglican priest was arrested by the Sheriffs department in 1993 in Altadena for basically jogging while black in a rich white neighborhood. I was working with Amnesty International and we did a press release protesting the harassment of this man of peace. In the days following I got a number of serious threats saying they were going to kill me and that other black person (in all the threats they called us the N word). The threats were serious and I had to move out of my house for several weeks.

Lulama and I recalled this as he and his family celebrated with us Obama’s inauguration.

I joked telling him that in Pasadena I was living as a Mexican but I almost died a black man.

In 1989 around that time I was living in New York when a friend Ntsiki Langford lost her son Bangile who had gone back to South Africa to work with the youth.  I ended up writing two poems for her son which she later used for his funeral program and some words of one of my poems is on his tomb stone in Soweto.

After the book LOOKING FOR MY WINGS was printed I could not find her. I had put both of his poems in the books.  Many months ago I send her emails and she finally called me four days before Obama’s inauguration. I decided then to send her the book over night not telling her the book had the poems about her son. The book arrived in New Jersey two hours before the inauguration.. She called …she was ecstatic to get the book with the poems in it about her son and on the Obama inauguration day.

 

LOTS OF FRIENDS

Many individuals that I know got to the Inauguration and I only got to see a handful of them.. .folks were at the concert, at MLK events, on the mall for the inauguration and some went to balls. I am so happy that they could all be there and enjoy this most incredible event… and when I catch up with them I hope to hear their stories and see their pictures.

 

WATCHING ON TELEVISION

Many Americans and other around the world and gathered to watch this magical event by watching in community via television or the internet. And these folks also had very special experiences because they shared this magic time with others.

 

ECO-SENSITIVE TRANSPORTATION

A organization handed out something like 2,000 bicycles to folks attending the Inauguration so that they could get around downtown DC given that many roads were restricted to only buses and taxis… they said they got back every one of their bikes and that is wonderful

 

THE CONCERT

I had expected a Rock Concert on the mall … instead it was a wonderful mix of music with many supporting choirs… I enjoyed them all but in particular I was taken that Obama had Garth Brooks the most popular HAT … COUNTRY MUSIC ACT who gave a great performance ..Garth Brook’s performance will reach a new segment of our country that needs to celebrate Obama… and all of this was done at the Lincoln Memorial. It was great after the concert and to see the happy faces and the good people as the streamed out of the mall .. Reminding me of a major river like the Mississippi but this made up of so many people from so many places both rich and poor.

MLK DAY

DEBRA LIVINGSTON and the National Rural Coalition.

On Monday the 19^th I went to Dumbarton Church to celebrate Kings Birthday and to hear my old friend Rudy Arredondo play some music, this event was sponsored by the National Rural Coalition.

I was surprised by the most personal testimonies by so many at the event which chronicled their lives and the intersection of civil rights. I was impressed by the personal insights and courage by those in the audience… some of the testimony talked about white people finally finding a voice for civil rights in a difficult time.

I got up and said a few words… wanting to share my love for MLK … and justice. One of the last to speak was a woman Debra Livingston who was a good and strong voice. She came up later and reminded me that in about 1982 we did voter registration and education for a young congressional candidate in I believe Connecticut. She claims that I set her on her path to do community work … but as we all know we help each other to remain faithful to the best in our hearts.

When Rudy dropped tried to drop me off at the apartment at H&15 which is two blocks from the White House we found many streets closed and the streets congested with traffic that included many foreigners…it took us an hour to do a 15 minute trip .. Rudy finally dropped me off with his guitar .. Which was in a professional padded case… I was afraid that given the security that we might have trouble getting his guitar past Secret Service Security on Inauguration. You had to be on a list to get to our apartment and it was much worse than any airport security.

I got out on H Street and found it filled with thousands of festive individuals.. It was so wonderful that you wanted just to be swept away with the crowds… there I was on a busy street with a guitar in hand… It was the night before the grandest of all inaugurations.

A couple of guys came by and asked ARE YOU ONE OF THE MUSICIANS..

Meaning was I playing at one of the many musical events…

YES I AM ..I said getting out a little brown lie.

I BET YOU ARE GOING TO PLAY GREAT MUSIC …one of them smiled and hugged me close

THANK YOU … it was love at first hug…

Later that weekend I was hugged many times more by strangers (and I didn’t have to lie)…some thinking I was black hugged me some giving me a fist bump. … .. Bundled as I was for the cold you could not tell who was what..Race and gender disappeared by behind the many layers of clothing..

There was a great attitude of sharing and cooperativeness and acceptance… it felt good.

You could already notice the many super limos as they seemed to multiply by the hour. Motorcades were every where and being close to the White House I saw Obama’s motorcade more than once and waved….

I wanted to yell …HEY BARACK .. IT’S ME LENO…

But he would probably not have recognized me in my igloo of coats, scarf’s, hat and gloves… LOL.. I looked like everyone else except a bit larger.

 

The Oath of Office..

Many of us were taken in by the various elements of the inauguration, some loved the poet, some Warren some Aretha Franklin, but the favorite amongst many was Reverend Joseph Lowery. Joe was the former Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Council.  When I worked for Amnesty International in Atlanta I worked with Lowery on many events and marched side by side with him in Atlanta, Houston and other locations.

Joe would call me often to give him talking points on human rights situations. I last talked to him two years ago when I was trying to get him to Seattle to speak.

We at amnesty held a conference in Atlanta on the death penalty in 1986 and had rev. Joseph lowery, Coretta Scott king, Martin King the third, congressman John Conyers, Congress man John Lewis and Ron Hampton of the Black Police association. It was a great meeting on the death penalty and at this even I got to introduce Lowery and did it almost as good as any junior black minister.

Lowery got up to speak after my introduction which had the African Americans shouting and saying many Amends as I tried to get them primed for Joe  Lowery… he looked at me smiling and said NOT BAD FOR A CHICANO

Yes I was in Washington DC for the Inauguration activities. .. It was wonderful … it was beautiful and memorable… I was here in the historical moment of a life time…

IT WAS COLD … did I say it was cold …

But the Presidents words were serious and most important… at last we has a president who could speak English…

People watched in person on jumbo torn screens on the mall, on television, and on the internet .. More people watched this inauguration in the USA and internationally and ever before.

In the mall and in the streets around the mall represented people from all over the world. Many Africans were found in the crowd and most of them not ready for the bitter cold

On the mall there were people from all over the world.…

People shared gloves, hats, scarf’s chemical warmers for the hands.. and many many smiles

On Sunday before the Inauguration I went to the church where Abe Lincoln used to go and now has a ministry to the homeless.

Police came from many cities at one point the camera showed a line of about 100 Miami Police.. now I know that these police were having trouble with the weather..But they did their work and went home a bit frozen but happy I am sure…

It was beautiful to be a part of this event that stretched its arms around the world.

 

IMAGES

Leno!

I wished I’d known you were going to be in DC–I should’ve guessed!  I was there with my family, freezing on the mall but so very happy to be part of this history.  Our little YouTube video is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsVGVOfkyKw

Peace and hope!

–Lori Walls

 

Photos from around the world

These pictures from here and around the world are beautiful and almost surreal.  Click on the link and keep scrolling.  ! I don’t think there has ever been a moment in history so uniting and so far reaching…,cutting across countries, oceans, cultures, socio-economic classes, and religions, as this one!!  Courtesy of the Boston Globe, they should get an award in photojournalism for this!   Enjoy. 

Sent by Zafeiria C Nomicos

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/01/the_inauguration_of_president.html

THE INAUGURAL EXPERIENCE OF SYLVIA QUINN

            She is a first time voter and an immigrant mother from Nicaragua…

Obama’s victory as President-Elect was of special significance to me.  It was the first election in which I was able to participate and have my vote count.  My parents sacrificed everything – families, careers, friends – to bring us over to the United States so that we could grow up in a peaceful and opportune country.  Nicaragua was in the midst of a civil war, and the decision was made to come to America.

When it was announced that Obama had won the election, I was overwhelmed with emotion.  All I could think was, “This is the country my father died for!”.  This is the America we immigrated to, where dreams really do come true!

I didn’t think I would be able to attend the Inauguration.  I have a young family, was starting at a new job, and was financially intimidated by the inflated prices of room, board, and airfare into Washington, D.C., due to the tremendous demand.  ”You’re going to pay over $1,000 for the plane ticket” “Hotel rooms are going for $600-$800 per night” “Everything is already sold out”.

My boss realized that I was interested in attending the Inauguration, and with an incredible act of kindness, arranged it so that I would work the weekend prior to the 20th and have those days off.  So on Thursday, January 15th at 4 pm, my trip to DC was approved and my plane ticket was purchased.  I was to leave from work and return to work on a budget airline from Ft. Lauderdale, catching a red-eye flight.  I didn’t know what I would do when I got there or where I would stay, but I was going!  I was elated.  I began calling friends and family to share the good news, hoping also that a place to lay my head would turn up.

It so happened that my cousin resides in Alexandria and would be out of town for Inauguration.  From one day to the next, I had an apartment (and car!) if needed.  I had to plan my stay very carefully, since the Metro into DC was going to be running at capacity that morning.  Then, on Monday the 19th, when I was to fly out straight from the office, “floor space” opened up at a friend-of-a-friend’s place, 2 blocks from the Capitol grounds!  Bring a sleeping bag, read the e-mail, but I had already packed and did not have one available.  Off I went to begin my Inauguration adventure!

I felt that my trip started at the airport.  The flights were full, and all delayed.  It didn’t matter.  We were going to be a part of history in a few hours.  People from all walks of life were traveling to support Barack Obama at his swearing-in ceremony: families, elected officials, campaign workers, young children, couples, African-Americans and every other race on our planet.  Our luggage took over an hour to appear on the carousel, but that was alright, we knew that the airport staff probably had to go through each piece meticulously, and the sheer number of travelers was placing additional stress on the usual operations.

I realized that it was going to be colder than I was normally accustomed to (Miami is typically 80 degrees unless there is a cold front) so I tried to pack accordingly.  However, I was not prepared for the frigid chill that awaited me as I stepped outside of the airport doors!  I was high off the excitement of my arrival, but my body had trouble coping: my eyes watered, my nose ran, and my face began to take on a bright red hue.  I arrived at my more than hospitable hosts’ home extremely grateful to have a warm place to stay the night.  The building security was very tight, as secret service had barricaded access to the street, and there were counter-snipers stationed on the rooftop.  I had to show identification, and I was not to leave the building without it, or risk being not allowed in!

The news coverage quickly pointed to those who would camp-out on the grounds from 3:00 am.  My head was racing with my upcoming preparations – where I would need to walk, what I could bring, how early I would have to get up and going.  Although I didn’t think I could, my hosts recommended that I try to sleep, for the day ahead of me would take a lot of energy.  Incredibly enough, a neighbor was able to provide an air mattress for me, and I found sleep easily under a pile of thick blankets.

Morning came quickly.  I nourished my body with a light breakfast, layered my clothing, and laid out the maps of the mall and center streets.  Dumping my large tote, I opted to take only the essentials in my coat pockets.  I was concerned about my shoes.  Since I had left straight from work, the plan had been to buy a comfortable, flat pair of boots.  I was ready as I was ever going to be, and I made my way into the crowd.

Streets were shut-off at different points leading into the mall.  As the mass filled-in, access was closed off.  We overheard, “You will eventually be able to make a Left. Then you have reached The Mall”.  Some ran, others had a steady pace.  All were bundled, walking briskly, following the throngs of people, a herd seeking the first available opening onto the lawn.  Lights and sirens would break through the streets, disrupting the flow momentarily.  Armed guards, security, and police manned the barricades.  The parade route was closed for the later spectators.  Eventually, I arrived at a clearing.  Ahead was the Washington Monument, and the crowd was filling in the empty spaces.  To my right were rows and rows of portable toilets.  I found a screen, and parked myself in front of it.  I didn’t want to lose visibility or my ability to hear the ceremony.   I quickly made friends with those around me (we were only standing right next to each other since 9 am).

The hours to follow tested my mettle.  An intense headache would come and go.  My toes began to go numb.  I knew my shoes weren’t the ones appropriate for the weather, and it was affecting me.  There were times when I thought that I would make the news, this girl from Miami fainting in the crowd.  A woman in front of me overheard my predicament, and gave me warmers to put inside my shoes.  I thanked her, and found my second wind.  The sun began to rise up higher in the sky, and that helped somewhat.  Although, when the motorcade started to arrive, I almost forgot about the cold.  Soon we were lost in the cheering and squeals of joy, and President-Elect became the 44th President of the United States of America.  Hugs were exchanged, kisses were given, tears streamed down, laughter erupted, and silence ensued once our new President began addressing the nation, millions hanging onto every word, absorbing the enormity of the task ahead.

Later, I ventured into the city.  There was an electricity palpable from the shared experience.  Songs could be heard throughout the crowd, as millions left the capital grounds.  The city was alive with hope, a feeling unlike any other.  What a magical time to be in our nation’s capital, witnessing a historical event of fantastic proportions.

 

CAN YOU SHARE YOUR STORY OR THOUGHTS

Many of you celebrated or witnessed this event in many different ways … and I would love sharing your experience with others

I send my best

leno

Dear Sisters and Brothers

I came to Washington DC on the 12th to work at the head quarters of International Relief and Development the organization with which I work. I had already planned to attend the Inaugural activities and then make my way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for the national conference of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Arriving in DC I saw the many barricades already in place so that they could be erected by the 19^th and in place for the 20^th.  I saw thousands of port a potties or toilets in place and more continued to trickle in over the weekend. There are more police, military, FBI Secret Service and other security individuals on the streets and revisiting buildings on the parade route.  The apartment where we are staying is only two blocks from the White House and anyone entering the building will have to be on a list and there will be sharp shooters on the roof on inauguration day.

Moving around the city you see many other preparations being made….the parade viewing stands were up and as the days moved forward they began closing off streets.

I am writing as I listen to the concert at the Lincoln Memorial what a moving event..Finally I went out to the mall and got in the mix and it was wonderful

HISTORY CANT WAIT

 

During the past month we have lived through a most challenging time in the history of our county. We are involved in two wars, our president has damaged the constitution and our bill of rights, our economy is in the trash can and too many are unemployed or underemployed. Today many are losing their homes and businesses. We are near the bottom of a total economic and political meltdown.

And History can not wait .. .we must take action and we must defend the rights and the lives of everyone… HISTORY CANT WAIT…

The Inaugural Invitation

I received about 10 days ago like many donors did a beautifully printed COMMERATIVE INVITATION with wonderful printing … something that should be framed and saved …the Obama campaign has taken steps to recognize the many that have supported this campaign over the many months. But if you didn’t get thanked then let this be your big thank you and hug.

 

THE PRESIDENTIAL INAUGUATION COMMITTEE

A Friend Bobbie who has been volunteering at the committee hooked me up so that I could volunteer some hours calling folks to volunteer for activities on Inauguration Day.

Our calls were to confirm the availability of folks to volunteer at the Convention Center where there will be a number of balls and other activities.. The names we were calling were folks that had offered to volunteer weeks ago. We were asking them to stand in the cold outside the Convention Center and assist in directing folks to the right ball. It was amazing hearing the enthusiastic voices of these individuals who wanted to be a part of this historical event even if they had to stand in the cold for hours.

It was also good to come here to DC and to be able to volunteer again for Obama.

MLK DAY …           

Just one day before inauguration…

It is wonderful that we can celebrate on Monday the birthday of Dr. King and then the next day celebrate the inauguration of the first Afro-American President. The historical nature of this inauguration will inspire others to believe in the possibility of change.

I and my family were living in DC when we held what would be the last demonstration on King’s birthday calling for holiday in his name. That historical year our choir director was none other than Stevie Wonder who will also perform here at one of the concerts. Last month I found the poster of the last demonstration that announced Stevie and the event. That year we celebrated King’s birthday on the west steps of the capitol with snow blessing with a white blanket.  And today we have the HOLIDAY.

WHAT A TIME IN AMERICA

            WHAT A TIME IN THIS WORLD

                        WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

                                    WHAT A TIME TO DO THE RIGHT THING

                                                                        FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

 

My best

leno