While I didn’t do much for Halloween this year, on November 1st I attended the opening ceremonies with other Amnesty International friends for the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar exhibit at El Centro de la Razain Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. While the Aztec Dancers won’t be there, the altars, including AI’s on the Women of Juarez, will be on display at El Centro de la Raza until the end of this week, November 20.
El Centro de la Raza
I got there early, thanks to the new light rail system that stops a block away (and maybe a miracle, for people who know my lack of timeliness), and joined in the brunch before festivities started.
Aztec dancers opened with a ceremony in the gazebo of El Centro.
After that, we all went in to view the altars constructed by a number of community organizations.
Since 1993, almost 400 women and girls have been murdered and more than 70 remain missing in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, Mexico. While Amnesty International commends the recent measures taken by the Mexican government, the response remains inadequate.
AI Altar on Women of Juarez
Unfortunately, the violence has spread in Juarez due to drug cartels, with some newspapers now referring to Juarez as the “murder capitol of the world.”
The city of 1.5 million people just across the border from El Paso, Texas, had 1,600 murders last year but in 2009 that total was exceeded by late summer.
Latest figures from the Chihuahua state attorney general’s office showed there were 195 this month alone.
The annual murder rate has now reached 133 per 100,000 inhabitants, surpassing Caracas, Venezuela. The comparable murder rate in New York last year was six per 100,000.
El Centro de la Raza artwork on the Women of Juarez
On the way out, I realized ours was not the only display on the Women of Juarez. El Centro de Raza’s artwork on one of their stairs included crosses with the names of some of the dead young women of Juarez, with a green glass moon with a face in the center.
Not that the focus of the Dia de los Muertos is all gloom and doom. There is a tradition of welcoming the spirits of your ancestors back (which, I believe is also part of the Celtic ceremonies for Samhain, also on November 1, of which my knowledge is also woefully lacking). There were activities for children, including painting sugar skulls.
The moon was out over El Centro de la Raza by the time I left, hopping the light rail from the Beacon Hill station a block away.
Beacon Hill Light Rail Stop
Artwork inside Beacon Hill light rail stop
Altars will be on display from at El Centro de la Raza through the end of this week. El Centro de la Raza is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 10 am – 6 pm and Wednesday 12 pm – 8 pm. Volunteers from our local Amnesty International group will be hosting the exhibit on closing day, Friday November 20.
Members of our local group came early to set up our information table, including t-shirts from the Western Regional Office to give to members who signed up that night.
Thanks to the generosity of former AIUSA Staff and Board Member (and current Social Justice Fund Northwest Executive Director, Magdeleno Rose-Avila (Leno) covering the table, all of us got to meet Irene Khan before the event.
Irene’s new book, The Unheard Truth, focuses on poverty as a human rights issue, part of AI’s new Demand Dignity Campaign.
Amnesty International’s Demand Dignity Campaign works to end the human rights abuses that are a cause and a consequence of poverty. Poverty is not just a matter of lack of income – it is a matter of lack of security, inclusion and participation. These are human rights violations.
Irene highlighted how poverty itself is a basic human rights issue, how poverty works against people persuing other human rights – like a woman killed by her husband who didn’t have the money for bus fare to get help that was available, and the excuses countries like China gives claiming they can only lift people out of poverty by banning political human rights.
Maternal mortality is one of the issues Amnesty’s campaign and Irene Khan’s book focuses on. High maternal mortality isn’t limited to poorer countries who have suffered recent wars like Sierra Leone. Sadly, the U.S. has a high rate of maternal mortality, and I’ll have more on that when I report back on AI’s Western Regional Conference held in San Francisco last weekend.
After Irene Khan’s speech, we signed up members for AIUSA, offering the t-shirts as incentive, and encouraged people to join our local group to work on Demand Dignity and other issues with a sign up sheet for our listserv and bookmarks with our website and meeting time and place information.
I feel like I haven’t said enough, but I’m also realizing, at nearly 3 weeks and at least 5 events behind in my blog, I’m probably going to have to learn to be briefer and let people follow links to learn more on their own if I’m going to keep up.
So, Friday night, following a stop at Milagros at Pike Place Market to pick up a few items for our Amnesty group’s Dia de los Muertos display, I headed over to Ballard to hear some music.
I wanted to catch Camille Bloom & the Recovery again. I first saw them at the Rock School benefit that Mike McCready played last year. Then I saw that Christine Havrilla was also playing. Another musician whose music I’ve been listening to on the internet for years (probably dating back to the old mp3.com once again), and is from Philadelphia, so I wasn’t expecting a chance to catch anytime soon.
Christine Havrilla writes and sings insightful folk rock. Here she is with Every Now and Then at the Alberta Street Pub in Portland the following night:
Camille Bloom came out to sing with her later in the set.
Christine also borrowed Michael Cotta, Camille’s drummer at one point. Can’t say that I blame her!
I was especially impressed by Christine’s guitar playing. Fresh Sanity from her Portland gig below:
Camille had the whole band, so they were really rocking! Here’s Before You Told Them by Camille Bloom & the Recovery at the Columbia Theatre in Seattle:
They didn’t have the little guy on the bongo, though. He also played a full drum kit at the Rock School concert.
In addition to Camille and Michael, the full band includes bass player Jim Watkins, cellist Katie Kreter, guitarist Paul Fischer and back up vocalist Gaelen Billingsley.
Camille evidentally didn’t play with the full band in Portland. Here she is with Gaelen with Smells Like Rain:
Such a Northwest song, and perfect as it was a cold, rainy, fall night in Ballard.
Perfect night to be in listening to some great music. Alas, it was the early show, and over too soon!
Last Thursday, during Seattle’s Live Theater Week, I went to see Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicusfor free (which, it turns out to be for it’s entire run, through Oct.31, Halloween night).
This play was not for the faint-hearted (or stomached), as the Green Stage theater company putting it on warned everyone ahead of time. After billing the show as a “Hard Bard” production, they warn of every possible form of mayhem and adult theme including “lots of blood”. . .”a very bad clown, banjos & a hootenanny,” further warning that “the front row (at least) is a splash zone.”
Of course, this is Seattle, before the play started the house manager assured us the “blood” was corn-starch based and that no animals were harmed, further warning people with corn allergies to move out of the front row.
Titus Andronicus is early Shakespeare, and while having no great quotes, follows the familiar path of revenge, revenge and more revenge, and the play isn’t over until there are bodies strewn across the stage. Don’t be fooled by everyone going out into the lobby on break. This isn’t some modern play leaving loose ends hanging. No, they’re gathered up and baked into a pie.
The play was simultaneously funny and disturbing. Spoiler alert. How disturbing?
OK, I’m not usually bothered by clowns, but this one was very creepy. . .and he comes into the audience. . .
OK. I was ready for all the mayhem and corn-starch blood, but they didn’t warn me about. . .clown sex!. . . un-protected clown sex!
Never have un-protected sex with a clown!
Enough said. This is a scared straight production on that issue. . .
Definitely for Quentin Tarantino fans, with the rest of us a little queasy. . . In many ways, typical Shakespeare, though, as there’s terrible mayhem, revenge with more terrible mayhem, which continues until nearly everyone’s dead.
In many ways, it reminds me of modern day human rights. So often the case, one side has done something terrible to the other, who in turn does something terrible to the other’s side, who. . .
An excellent cast, and I’ll have to catch some of them doing Shakespeare in the Park this summer, which is where the Green Stage Theater company usually plays. This one is playing indoors, a block from Cinerama, under the monorail, and across the street from Top Pot doughnuts.
All seats are free, although reserving ahead of time online is always a good idea, and donations are encouraged (and needed to put on the plays).
Sunday I headed over to Volunteer Park for a march and rally in support LGBT equality. It seemed especially important to be there given Initiative 71 made it on the ballot. Initiative 71 was written by religious (and maybe non-religious) bigots to take away the “everything but marriage” civil rights our legislature gave to the LGBT community (and our senior citizens,who often stand to lose to many of their benefits they need to live on if they re-marry).
Due to the way Washington State ballot measures are required to be written, now that we’re now voting on civil rights for a group of citizens in our state, you need vote to Approve Referendum 71 if you support equal rights for lesbians, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people.
It was a good size gathering, though not as large as I would have expected, given the size of our Pride marches. Not only not as many supporters like me as I would have thought, but not as many older LGBT activists. As I discovered, the young people, once again, are leading the way, and some of their elders have lost touch with the need to take action and make change happen.
One of the speakers kept saying “This isn’t your father’s LGBT movement!”, which made me feel old since I knew I was the age of the fathers they were referring to, but they were right. I was encouraged to hear of support for LGBT rights and against bigotry from straight frat boys and pro-football players these days.
Rep. Barney Frank, the first openly gay member of Congress, has some advice for gay rights supporters: lobby, don’t march.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Frank called the demonstrations in Washington this weekend “a waste of time at best” and “an emotional release” that does little to cause change.
“The only thing they’re going to be putting pressure on is the grass,” the Massachusetts Democrat said Friday.
No, wait, his advice gets even more pathetic and out of touch:
Call or write your representative or senator, and then have your friends call and write their representative or senator,” Frank said.
“That’s what the NRA does. That’s what the AARP does,” he said, referring to the two most effective interest groups – the National Rifle Association and the American Association of Retired Persons.
The AARP?! If the AARP wants my support when they start asking for it in, umm, a few months, they better start taking lessons from these young people (or their own youth, when they were singing, with feeling, The Times, They Are a Changing). As I recall, the AARP caved to Bush on prescription drugs! Yeah, lobbying with stogey old groups is what you do when you really want to make change. . .NOT!
As several of the young speakers pointed out, that was not how change was made in the 60’s. People were out in the streets, staging sit ins at lunch counters. . . Activists were. . .active! The old. . .it’s not the right time (this time for marriage equality), just wait. . . was very familiar, too, as they noted. That’s what Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other civil rights leaders were told. If they hadn’t been ready to take a stand and ignore the advice of their not so helpful allies, they would still be in the back of the bus. Same bigots, and some of them haven’t let go of the racial issue yet, either, if you listen to the rabid right talk about our President.
We had music by Jared Douglas at the opening rally. Someone I’m, of course, clueless of, but the young people were very into.
Here’s a clip of Crazy Thing from the rally on YouTube:
A young woman talked about not wanting to be quiet about her love because she loved another woman, and why should she? Why should people be offended by any public show of affection from a gay or lesbian couple they wouldn’t be bothered by if it were a straight couple?
A young man read poetry of love that seemed much too old for his age (like not knowing how to love in this century).
Then State Rep. Jamie Pedersen came up and talked about coming out in Puyallup and his former girlfriend’s mom telling her she could get AIDS from talking to him.
Now, Jamie’s election is a case in point as to why these young people should ignore older politicians like Barney Frank. I remember the endorsement party for the 43rd the year Jamie was elected. I remember thinking I was toward the young age of the people there, which was not a good sign as I was in my mid 40s and the 43rd District takes in the U District and Capitol Hill, neighborhoods heavily populated by young people. Seriously, Capitol Hill is even more so than over here near the U. What happens to people over 30 on the hill? I keep expecting to see Charlton Heston warning “Soylent green (no, wait: tofu) is people!”
About the only young people at the endorsement meeting were Jamie’s friends and those of Stephanie Pure, a member of then City Councilmember Peter Steinbrueck’s staff. I felt bad when Stephanie came in dead last in the endorsements. Jamie didn’t do so well either.
Actual election? Stephanie did a lot better, I think better than the 43rd’s endorsements did, and Jamie, of course, won. If you left it to the old, out of touch, political machine to decide, no doubt Jamie would be still waiting to lead. This being Seattle, and the 43rd, his being gay wasn’t even an issue (other than bringing in a few more votes, with Capitol Hill also having a large gay population).
Then we marched. Out of Volunteer Park and down Broadway before turning downtown. They were chanting for people to come out of the bars and into the streets (unfortunately, not too many takers).
Marched ending up at the Federal Courthouse on 7th & Stewart and another rally. One of the issues mentioned there was “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which President Obama says he wants to end but. . .hmm. . .but, wait. . .? One thing that strikes me about that issue, at a human rights rally last year a young woman who just got out of the service as a medic noting no one is particularly concerned about whether you’re gay or straight when they’re wounded. . .
Ending the rally were two young women performing hip hop.
All in all, an encouraging day of youth activism. My one thought at the moment, is hoping they’ve also found a way to reach out in the suburbs and rural areas of the state. Seattle’s vote in support of Ref. 71 should be an easy one.
While the issue isn’t marriage, at least for this election, indeed, why not marriage? Who should have the right to say others can’t marry who they wish in a civil marriage? If we go by religion, who’s religion? The Catholic Church, where I was raised doesn’t recognize 2nd marriages. Should they decide for everyone else only a 1st marriage will be recognized and legal?
What if you had to ask everyone’s permission to get married (as this Irish video makes the point)?
I have been meaning to give a shout out to Pearl Jam’s local shout outs at their second Seattle show (the one I didn’t go to, being one of their poorer fans). Maybe now is good timing anyways, given that the official bootlegs of the Seattle shows are available on cd and to download in the Pearl Jam goods section (see my previous blog entry for a review and YouTube clips I found from show 1).
I wonder if some of their younger fans even get the lyrics:
See this needle…a see my hand…
Drop, drop, dropping it down…oh, so gently…
Well here it comes…I touch the plane…
Turn me up…won’t turn you away…
or
Pull it out…a paper sleeve…
Oh, my joy…only you deserve conceit…
Ah, remember?
You’re so warm…oh, the ritual…when I lay down your crooked arm…
Although, they were selling a lot of records (or, vinyl, as the kids now-days call it) at Easy Street’s midnight sale. So, they have fans that don’t just remember! Still, I remember how old I felt coming across a discussion on the Pearl Jam message board of one young guy trying to explain “vinyl” to another, then saying that this was all in theory only, he’d never actually played a record!
At least we still have Easy Street and a few other independent record stores in Seattle. I gather from reading other posts that they’ve disappeared from some communities. I especially like how Easy Street features and respects local artists, both long time bands like Pearl Jam and the new, up and coming ones. They have a lot of in store concerts, and an in store cafe at the West Seattle branch to bring in a little extra money. I also like how Pearl Jam is selling the cd and record at independent record stores like Easy Street (which is one of the things they negotiated for with the Target deal, no matter what you may think of them selling it there).
One more shout out from their September 22 Key Arena show, Eddie changed the lyrics to their new Supersonic song to relate to the late Supersonics basketball team, who used play the Key until they were shipped to Oklahoma and became the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Eddie had another shout out for Seattle at the Vancouver show, though. One we really didn’t want to hear. More at a later date, but . . .
I hadn’t been in the Capitol Hill branch since the remodel, and I really liked what they did with it, especially the cushioned window seats where people can sit and read. I’m really envious. We don’t have anything like that at the University District branch.
I noticed the rules for the window seats and especially with the ones on not laying down or sleeping struck me as targeting the homeless, and indeed a homeless man was warned while I was browsing the stacks, claiming he had just nodded off while reading.
Then there was the rule on not taking off your shoes in the window seats, where college students with their laptops and moms with their children were sitting in with their feet up on the cushions in their shoes. Hmm, my mom always said shoes off the furniture!
Another sign warned against bringing too large of a backpack, which also seemed to me to be targeting the homeless carrying all their worldly possessions.
Another backpack rule I witnessed a homeless man run afoul of yesterday evening at the University District Branch (yes, our’s is prettier, though – an old Carnegie building) was a rule that you can’t leave your possessions unattended or the library will immediately confiscate them. This was broadcast by loudspeaker to the whole library (as you can see, a very small branch) before the librarian talked to the homeless man who was reunited with his belongings and warned.
All these rules of the library, and even though I remember reading something about rule changes to harass (oh, I’m sorry, bring civility) to the homeless, most of which I wasn’t aware of even a couple of days ago, and any of which I could have run afoul of, too. Though probably not, because I’m not homeless (though I can look pretty scruffy some days). . .
It turns out the actual library rule is against “appearing to be sleeping” in the library. I believe I have rested my eyes sometimes when I have came in a little tired and sat down with my books at a branch while browsing.
I’ve been worried about the 14 x 17 x 20 rule on backpacks, which appears elsewhere (or maybe smaller? at Bumpershoot or for the Mariners game) and I haven’t found the measuring tape to check mine, but according to a story on KUOWit’s set to airline carry-on bag regulation and I’ve never had trouble there (in fact before the liquids issue forced me check my bag with shampoo, etc., my backpack was my “personal item” stored under my seat. Granted, I was starting to get leg cramps.). While I can go with a purse to a concert or game, the very nature of the library means hauling books both directions most visits, and I travel by bus. . .
Leaving my belongings though? Well, I wouldn’t go very far, having learned my lesson at the Portland State University Library when I was a returning student. I was sick that day and ignored the sign about thieves when I needed to go to the ladies’ room while studying. It was gone when I got back, though fortunately the police recovered it with a bunch of other stolen goods a day or so later. It had all my notes!
Back to using Seattle’s libraries. . . I have been known to put my backpack down and browse nearby or even get up and look for another book after I have my notebook out and bag open, all within sight of my bag; but still, was I in violation of this regulation I didn’t even know about? Again, not that it probably would matter, unless I look homeless that day.
When did it become part of a librarian’s job to harass the homeless? I’m kind of glad I didn’t go back to school to get my library degree now. What I loved about working in libraries through high school (at the St. Helens Public Library in Oregon) and both times at college was helping people and encouraging them to read and helping them find material, not driving them off.
While some or maybe most of the library rules are reasonable and necessary, the ones about things like sleeping (or appearing to sleep) and regulating backpacks are part of the move toward criminalizing homelessness. Of course the homeless often have all their possessions (if they can’t find any shelter or public locker to store them) and may be a little sleepy.
Then there is those always paired regulations against “having offensive odor or personal hygiene” and not using library facilities to bathe. While certainly not the ideal situation; the reason it is a problem at the library is that is the attitude toward the homeless in general. While everyone is offended that they smell, we often don’t have the facilities available for them to bathe, and in fact the same people opposed to odor are against funding hygiene centers.
I know part of what’s behind regulating/criminalizing the homeless is the “broken windows” theory. That somehow the allowing the homeless in, to use the library, for example, and more bad things will follow. I think the real “broken window,” though, is that there are homeless, that we don’t have enough places for them to stay.
So, Wednesday night I got to see the Mariners play at Safeco Field, thanks to a friend, James, who had an extra ticket and invited me. I headed over after work, hopping our new light rail for my first time to the Stadium station (and figuring out how to use my ORCA card right on the system).
We met at the Mitt sculpture to enter through the left field gate (how appropriate for me). Having never been to a Mariner game at Safeco Field before, I did all the touristy things, like having my picture taken with the Mariner Moose (there’s a better, official shot online they want to tempt me to buy a Mariner bordered 5 x 7 or refrigerator magnet of).
Then the catching the fly ball shot. Ahh, yes, Ichiro asked me to fill in at right field while he ran across the street for a bite to eat and a brew! Or, maybe not. . .
Safeco Field is a beautiful stadium and the weather stayed nice (if chilly) with no down pour like the night before, so the retractable roof stayed open. I did see the moon at one point, before it hid under some clouds.
It really enjoyed the game (and I’m not someone who’s followed baseball or any other sports; even ice skating it’s been since Michelle Kwan). I got to see Ken Griffey Jr. hit a home run, and one of the younger guys, Adam Moore as well, watch Ichiro in action, and a total close out of the rival Oakland As (7–0) pitched most of the evening by another young guy, Brandon Morrow.
When did pro baseball players start looking so young?!
Of course, even Ken Griffey (Jr!) is a few years younger than me. . .
All in all a fun game, even thought the Mariners didn’t score any runs either after the 4th inning.
I really liked the 7th inning stretch and sing along to “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” too!
It’s a shame the fans are so fickle and attendance is down, and the crowd only really got going with Griffey and Ichiro, and at the very end, after Morrow was finally relieved and it was clear we were one more strike out by the As away from winning.
Of course, I’m not a sports fan and maybe don’t know what I’m talking about; but I couldn’t help thinking about another comment about Seattle crowds about a week ago. . .
This was the M’s night, though, and it was good to catch Griffey and Ichiro while they’re still in it, and the young players on their way up!
Story with video of Morrow’s pitching online here.
Lisa Sullivan talked Monday night at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church about the growing movement to close the School of the Americas, including recent organizing in Latin American countries to quit sending their troops to the School of the Americas (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation – WHINSEC).
Lisa described how School of the Americas Watch founder Father Roy Bourgeois drew her into the project, first convincing her to accompany him in meeting with the Venezuelan Vice President to encourage Venezuela to withdraw their students from the School of the Americas, which led to a meeting with President Chavez, who did call his students home, as have several other countries.
More information on the School of the Americas Watch Latin America Project at:
Ironically, when Lisa and Father Bourgeoois met with recently ousted Honduran President Zelaya, he did not think it was a good time to ask the military to withdraw their members from the SOA/WHINSEC because he wanted them on his side as he worked for reform. Of course, Zelaya was removed from office by the military (and has since returned and is at their Brazilian embassy, currently under siege by gases being fired in by the Honduran military).
SOA-trained Honduran Army Attorney Col. Herberth Inestroza justified the military coup and stated in an interview with the Miami Herald , “It would be difficult for us, with our training, to have a relationship with a leftist government. That’s impossible.’’
Umm, doesn’t sound like we’re supporting democracy with our School of the Americas training, even with the new WHINSEC name change.
Unfortunately, President Obama hasn’t shown resolve to really change our course in Latin America. With the Honduran coup, first he called it a coup, then the State department handled everything and referred to it euphemistically as “the troubles” in Honduras; with Obama finally calling it a coup again, but not a military coup, as we’d have to drop all aid and withdraw our Ambassador (as many countries in Latin America have). Then there is Obama’s push for military bases in Colombia, opposed by many Latin American countries.
School of the Americas Watch is currently planning for their annual mobilization on November 20–22 to close the school located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Friday night I went down to Ballard for KISS Cafe’sTroubadour Night. I watched a blazing pack of bicyclists heading from Wallingford to the U District and caught a beautiful red sunset over the Olympics as the bus came over the rise from Wallingford down into Ballard.
When I got there a few minutes past 8, Clare Tonellihad already started and the very small cafe was totally packed. Clare has a beautiful voice and I’m impressed by her songwriting at such a young age.
Then I got to finally hear Lee Tyler Post live. I’ve been listening to his music on the internet for years, going back to the old mp3.com, back when they were the place for independent musicians. Lee writes and sings very heartfelt folk rock/Americana. Mary Pender sang with him and her singing is very heart felt, too (not to mention, she got up and danced while the other musicians were playing). Lee’s last song and his Emancipate album are dedicated to his wife, Jackie, who came with him from Port Angeles and was selling his cds.
“Lee Tyler Post “Howlin’ Wind” Video posted with vodpod
Headed off to catch my bus back to the U District feeling a definite autumn chill in the air. Managed to loose my poster not once, but twice on the way home – recovering it outside KISS Cafe the first time, only to find it gone by the time I got home, lost somewhere on the Ave.
