philly

Immigration Rally Philadelphia: Photos

I was out today with 10,000 or so of my fellow Americans, all immigrants or descendents of immigrants, legal and illegal. It was incredible to be out there.

Sí se puede! was the chant of the day. Over and over everyone was screaming it. Everyone of every color was behind it. Yes we can!

A round up here on Philly Future.

Below are a few of my favorite shots from the day. Follow this link for the initial cull in a flickr set. 173 down from 340 or so. A tighter edit is to come.

***Final edit***
part one
part two
part three

Immigration Rally Philadelphia

During this afternoon, Monday April 10th, hundreds of thousands will be marching across the United States. From Boston to New York to Philadephia to DC to Tampa to Chicago to Houston to Omaha to Los Angeles to Seattle. Some seventy cities in all betwen Sunday and Monday.

There were 500,000 in Dallas on Sunday afternoon. Another 500,000 in Los Angeles two weeks ago. 300,000 in Chicago a couple weeks before that. PhillyIMC is doing their part in organizing the rallies here in Philly and they'll have audio and video, hopefully throughout the day?

More info on the day of action can be found at April10.org and locally at the PhillyIMC resource page and Day Without an Immigrant. I'm sure there will be plenty of posts on Philly Future throughout the day bringing together posts from the Philly blogs.

I'll be out in the fray as well. I'll have my bag o' camera gear with me. I don't plan on taking my laptop for live blogging though, too much to carry around. I also brought back with me from NY my micro cassette recorder. I'm gonna bring that with me. Maybe capture some audio of the rally. Talk to some people see why they're there. Too bad I don't have one of them fan-cay digital recorders. Those things are boss.

The Philadelphia rally will take place from Noon to 2p in Love Park. If you'd like to take a nice leisurly lunch hour in the nice crisp fall-ish weather, come on by and show your support!

DNA Testing

Brian Russell of Audio Activism down in North Carolina forwarded me some info on a case in NC about a man on trial to be executed May 12th, Jerry Connor. He was found guilty of murder and rape more than a decade ago. But DNA testing has improved since 1991 [when the original FBI tests were conducted in this case] and additionally

The SBI [State Bureau of Investigation] agent in charge of handling, preparing and transmitting the 1991 DNA to the FBI was Brenda Bissette, an agent who was forced to resign from the SBI lab for mishandling DNA evidence in up to 50 cases. Although the SBI has agreed to conduct re-testing in "any case that Bissette handled," the State is opposing Mr. Conner’s request.

According to this post on the blog keeping tabs on the defense case of Connor.

The blog recounts how Connor's confession was taken at the time of arrest under threats of the death penalty, I'm guessing implying that if he confessed, he wouldn't be killed.

The most recent post states that the judge sided with the District Attorney's request to deny additional DNA testing without discussion in open court. This single test could prove his innocence. Or, if positive, it would serve as the final strike and the state could go ahead with the execution with a more solid legal grounding with a more conclusive and technologically sound DNA test. Me, I'm against capital punishment altogether.

Brian knows and trusts one of the attorneys working on Connor's case. I know and trust Brian.

The Innocence Project is an organization which has found 175 cases overturned as of March 31, 2006. It does not seem they are involved in this case, but I immediately thought of them while reading about Connor. What they're about.

***UPDATE***
Brian has a great podcast interview up here.

Photo Harassment

On second thought, maybe harassment is too strong a word. I was accosted and chided perhaps. But completely without provocation this morning on my way to work.

There I was in a half asleep daze at 34th St station. Why was I at 34th St station? Because in my half asleep haze I got on the A train instead of the B train on the El from City Hall; had to get off or else I'd miss my stop. So I was just standing there staring off into the nothingness that is 34th St station when a SEPTA cop walks up to me and says something. I was half asleep, so I didn't hear him so I turned to face him and said "What?" [paraphrased] He repeated, "You know you're not allowed to take pictures down here" while pointing to my camera hung across my body. I woke up pretty quickly after he said that. I said back that I wasn't taking photos and that I wasn't aware that there were any rules against taking photos down there. He replied that "Techinically, SEPTA is private property and that you need to contact the press/public relations department to get a permit to be able to shoot" to which I replied that I had read otherwise and that such a regulation has never been shown to me in print. His radio was squaking away and he repeated something and then walked away.

To the best of my knowledge, there are NO regulations as to whether or not one is allowed to take photos on SEPTA. I know that they tried to get some law on the books in NYC for the subways, but it never got that far after some incredible public outcry. People have been taking photos on trains for decades. It's part of the essence of street photography.

And we all know that this stupid "rule" is to "stop terrorism" - yeah, that fucking works. Riiiiight. Are people not allowed to take photos of the White House? How about Ground Zero? And what about the Liberty Bell? The Washington Monument? Those are all likely terrorist targets right? Or so we're lead to believe by Big Brother.

What a fucking crock of fucking bull fucking shit. Fuck off SEPTA. The 1/100 of a percent of people you "catch" taking photos of the dirty, dingy, disgusting subway system is doing a bang up job in keeping our streets safe. And other SEPTA cops have seen me taking photos and they have never had a problem with it. This guy made a judgement call on someone who wasn't breaking the "rule" [which, as far as I know, is non-existant] he was trying to enforce.

I'm not blaming the SEPTA cop for doing what he's been told to do, hey anyone can be a terrorist, right? But jeez. I don't see cops handing out tickets to every single person s/he sees jaywalking [unless you happen to be in Tempe, AZ where they do ticket every jaywalker they see].

And finally, I wasn't taking photos when the SEPTA cop approached me. I was standing there, half asleep, staring off into the tunnel. He presumed I was taking photos through my mind's eye I guess; as an artists should be doing I presume. But I wasn't. By that logic, he should've been going up to every single person down there who could have been taking photos with their mind's eye. Maybe they have a photographic memory? Encylopedia Brown sure did. A human eye sees better than a camera lens in most cases [certainly better than the lens I have on my D70 today] and can pull more detail than your average digital camera's sensor can take in. There may have been eight megapixel point and shoots with twelve time optical zoom cameras tucked in people's pockets. It seems that over 75% of cellphones come with cameras these days, those dirty digitally connected terrorists should all be numbered, no?

If he didn't start walking away, maybe I would've kept going back and forth with this guy. Demanded that he show me some kind of proof that taking photos is not allowed, especially if I was simply standing there not doing anything. It's not like this is something obviously illegal like killing someone, everyone knows that's wrong and illegal. Everytime I hear about people getting accosted about taking photos underground, it never involves any kind of proof, just a Big Brotherish mannerism that it's wrong for one BULLSHIT reason or another.

And while I'm at it, Fuck Bush. Fuck Cheney. Fuck Rumsfeld. Fuck Rice. Fuck Wolfowitz. Fuck Powell. Blah, blah, blah. Stupid bullshit.

Give Me Your Tired

The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
by Emma Lazarus

I don't think I ever read the full poem before, but after reading Paul Krugman's latest, I thought I should.

Three weeks ago ~300K marched in the streets of Chicago in protest of HR 4437: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.

This passed Saturday, the 25th, ~500K marched in the streets of Los Angeles in protest of HR 4437: Border Protection, Antiterrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005.

On Monday April 10th, there will be a similar march here in Philadelphia, San Antonio, Chicago, Denver, Las Cruces, LA, Milwaukee, NYC, Tuscon and Washington for a National Day of Action on Immigrant Rights. The Philadelphia rally will be at LOVE Park from Noon to 2p [I hope it will last longer than that].

The borders are porous, but the answer is not erecting a 700 mile long wall in haste.

SD Planned Parenthood on Sioux Land

With the state of South Dakota chugging full steam in reverse in basically outlawing all forms of abortion within their state, someone has decided to take a stand. The President of the Oglala Sioux tribe, Cecilia Fire Thunder, [a former nurse and healthcare giver] had this to say:

To me, it is now a question of sovereignty... I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction.

via Pesky'Apostrophe

But I doubt President Fire Thunder can do this herself. Mac tracked down some contact info and an address to send her some funds to construct the building.

If you want to mail donations to the reservation, you may do so at:

Oglala Sioux Tribe
ATTN: President Fire Thunder
P. O. Box 2070
Pine Ridge, SD 57770

OR: and this may be preferred, due to mail volume:

ATTN: PRESIDENT FIRE THUNDER
PO BOX 990
Martin, SD 57751

Enclose a letter voicing your support and explaining the purpose of the donation. Bear in mind, the Pine Ridge Res is not exactly dripping with disposeable income, so do consider donating funds directly to the tribe as well as specifically for this effort.

ETA: Make checks out to OST Planned Parenthood Cecelia Fire Thunder. This will ensure that the funds get routed properly.

And I'm sure she'd appreciate a few emails of support too. Email info here.

Accessibility

I haven't paid that much attention to disability studies/issues for most of my life becasue I've been completely ignorant about it. No excuses. Just plain ignorance. I didn't pay attention to it. I was on crutches for about a week in high school after I sprained my left knee playing soccer, but other than that, I've lead a pretty 'able bodied' life.

I haven't had many friends with disabilities, but every one of them has taught me things. Things you learn not by them giving me a book or anything, just being around them in an everyday setting. I had a friend in college who was a boxer before I knew him. He had an injury and used a motorized wheelchair as a result. Hanging out with him around campus and waiting for his driver to pick him up was actually quite shocking to me.

Now, while living in Philly, I've become more aware. I've been reading the Disabilities Studies, Temple University blog for the last couple of months. I attended the Disabilities Caucus at the Young Dems regional conference last month with the group. And this post especially caught my eye. It's about this new buliding on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University:

[T]he elevators will be especially slow-moving. They will also be tucked away at the rear, while the atrium will feature a prominent set of stairs -- 28 to get to the second floor, and a total of 76 to get all the way up to the fourth floor.

Fear not--a "slimming mirror" will greet stairclimbers, to encourage them in their efforts to get fit. (Will they also put "fattening mirrors" in the elevators? Or just stamp "lazy" on the foreheads of elevator users?)

At the Young Dems caucus it was brought up that the fight for disability rights and minority rights go hand in hand and with that in mind, I couldn't help but think of the notion of separate but equal, not in a 100% correlation, but pertinent nevertheless.

This is a situation where a group of people are not allowed/capable to use certain facilities for one reason or another. Whether it is because they are black and they want a sip of water from a white-only waterfountain because let's say the black-only fountain is broken or inaccessible or if a person is unable to take on a set of stairs because they are on wheels or have a cane. Comically, Dave Chappelle addressed this issue in a skit on Chappelle's Show where a black man has to use a white-only bathroom and has a firehose set on him. Crudely funny, but point taken. The notion is ridiculous.

How about institutions taking a real step towards improving the health of their employees by providing some good healthcare coverage. Let people get the treatments they need before things get worse later on. Preventative medicine is underpracticed in America. It's only after a person has a condition of any sort that they get any attention paid to them. After all, what good is a person who is cured of a potential ailment before s/he needs more medicine? Where's the cashflow going? The money's in the comback as Chris Rock pointedly jokes.

Disability issues are often disregarded until an individual experiences them on a personal level. Whether they themselves go blind, a family member can no longer walk without assistance or a friend loses her hearing. And there are many more disabilities as well that are not as physically noticable. One example that comes to mind is diabetes.

I don't mean this post to say that people with disabilties are helpless. After watching Murderball, I know that there are tons of disabled athletes who are waaaay more physically capable than me. I know from meeting disabled people with PhD's that they are waaaaay smarter and more committed to things than I will ever be. I'm saying that there needs to be more light shining on the issues that effect everyone. Disability issues go hand in hand with minority issues and hand in hand with everyone else issues.

But how to reach the people who are ignorant as I very plainly was to get involved and pay attention? Problems can be solved as easily as having accessible elevators. Tables at restaurants that don't have bars underneath so that a person on wheels can fit. Differently textured surfaces along edges like a subway platform.

PA US Senate Primary Debates

Bob Casey's campaign manager issued a statement today in an AP story in regards to debates leading up to the May 16th primary. Paraphrased: Bob's a dick, and he's happy being a dick.

We'll pick [a date] in the coming weeks and they're welcome to show up

What an asshole.

Chuck Pennacchio [I'm volunteering for him] and Alan Sandals have been calling for debates for some time now; Casey's been dodging them. Now everyone's qualified and on the ballot and he's inviting them to a debate? Ha.

Casey's blown off plenty of debates. He blew off the Neighborhood Networks - African American Coalition candidate forum citing some bullshit excuse that he had some previous engagement. He didn't have that previous engagement some three months beforehand when he was invited. He's just a dick and is content to lurk in the shadows running his stealth campaign.

Funny though, because when he ran in 2002 for governor against now Gov. Ed 'The Hoagiemeister' Rendell, he said in a City Paper interview:

There are plenty of examples where this state has had a lot of tough primaries and then come together. In fact, the history shows, if you look at it, that the party with the tough primary usually wins.

And during the "conference call" Casey put on he lauded the number of debates there were in the 2004 general election. Let's air everything out.

But since Bob isn't willing to really discuss things, just forget about him and vote for Chuck Pennacchio, the real Progressive Democrat in this race.

Birth Control and Emergency Contraception

According to this WaPo article, there have already been more than sixty bills filed in state legislatures this year in regards to emergency contraception.

Many of the state bills intended to expand access give specially trained pharmacists in states including Maryland, New York, Kentucky and Illinois the right to dispense emergency contraception without a prescription. Other bills require pharmacies to stock and distribute the drug, and to ensure that the pill is made available to women who come into emergency rooms after a sexual assault.

But some bills would make it more difficult for many women to get emergency contraception, which is effective for only 72 hours after a woman experiences a contraceptive failure or unprotected sex. Legislation in New Hampshire, for instance, would require parental notification before the drug is dispensed, and more than 20 other states will consider bills that give pharmacies the right not to stock the drug and pharmacists the right not to dispense it, even to women with valid prescriptions.

Access to emergency contractptive pills [ECPs] is a good thing. To claim that it's some kind of Lefty form of everyday contraceptive is a fucking joke. Who in their right minds would take ECPs as a normal form of contraception?

And then there's an interesting article from Nerve.com [I used to work there] via AlterNet on access to birth control in general and Planned Parenthood. The writer of the piece describes the troubles of several young adults who have had problems in obtaining birth control from Planned Parenthood as a result of high cost.

Supreme Court to Hear Abortion Case

It's Justice Samuel Alito's first day too. Wow, that didn't take long at all. The case deals with a challenge to a federal law outlawing late-term abortion. The NY Times reports:

The case accepted by the court today does not involve a challenge to the core ruling that established a legal right to abortion, Roe v. Wade. But it is certain to rekindle questions of whether the court in the post-O'Connor era will be more sympathetic to efforts to limit abortion rights.

The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a plaintiff in the case, reacted angrily to the news. "The Supreme Court's decision to hear this case is a dangerous act of hostility aimed squarely at women's health and safety," the group's president, Cecile Richards, said in a statement. "Despite 33 years of Supreme Court precedent that women's health matters, the court has decided it will once again take up this issue."

Also, from the WaPo:

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., , who has in the past expressed the view that the Constitution does not protect the right to abortion, replaced O'Connor while Chief Justice John G. Roberts replaced the late William H. Rehnquist
...

The case does not challenge the core holding of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision legalizing abortion. It is highly significant, however, that the court chose to review the lower courts' holding as there has been little difference among them. The action suggests that at least four justices -- the number required to review a case -- probably disagree with the lower courts in one way or the other.

The changed makeup of the court was on the minds of both sides of the abortion issue today.

"Every court that has examined the federal abortion ban has struck it down because, among other things, the ban does not protect women's health," read a statement from Planned Parenthood of America, a participant in the case.

Good thing the Dem leadership chose a Senate candidate here in PA who would have voted to not confirm wackjobs like Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts from getting on the bench! Oh wait, they didn't.

If it were Sen. Pennacchio on the Senate floor, and this is assuming the wackjobs got passed the Judiciary Committee, Sen. Pennacchio would have voted NO on their confirmation. We should all be supporting the real Progressive Democrat in this upcoming Democratic primary on May 16th. Vote Chuck.

Conviction wins.