OB Update, V

[Aria Littlhous]

Greetings!

1. If you were arrested at either of the raids at Dewey Sq., it is very important--WHETHER YOU TOOK THE DEAL that you call the NLG: (617) 227-7335 for more info.

2. Yesterday was a great day to protest dirty energy! Big twinkles to everyone who showed up!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/26/portland-maine-tar-sands-protest_n_2558694.html

3.  RootCamp is gearing up, see below.

4. Strike Debt is up, up! The next meeting is 1/28/13. The minutes are here:  http://wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/Strike_Debt_Meeting_-_14_Jan_2013
More info is here:

http://www.occupyboston.org/
http://strikedebt.org/

5. OBIT/Steve R. is looking for some digital assistance, see below.

6. OB GA has been making decisions about $$$$.
http://www.occupyboston.org/2013/01/21/proposals-20-jan-2013-g/

7. Editorial on the Inauguration, see below.

OB General Assembly Schedule Change: Consented to 11/25/12: the General Assembly will meet twice a month starting immediately: the first Tuesday of each month from 7-9:30 and the third Sunday of each month from 4-5:30. (On Sunday the GA will be followed immediately by the Strategic Action Assembly, starting half an hour after its usual 5 p.m. Sunday start time.)

Join the Community Forum List Serv! This is the best way to get keep in touch with OB. https://lists.mayfirst.org/mailman/listinfo/community_forum

Forward!

A.

3. Socializing for Justice
RootsCamp MA Planning Meeting
Monday, January 28 at 6PM
at an office downtown by Park Street (RSVP for directions)
It’s very, very rare that Socializing for Justice finds an opportunity to co-sponsor events because we purposely don't align ourselves with single issue groups. So it is with great pleasure that I share that Socializing for Justice has once again partnered with New Organizing Institute (NOI) to host RootsCamp MA in early 2013. Just over two years ago, we gathered almost 100 local activists to discuss the successes and challenges facing social change organizations, and to help create a diverse, powerful and inclusive gathering of passionate activists. We heard each others organizing challenges and left with solutions to make our individual and collective efforts stronger and better.
We're ready to do this again, but we need your help. We're looking for a few more people to join the RootsCamp Organizing Committee. Our first planning meeting is on Monday, January 28th in downtown Boston. Email rob...@robbiesamuels.com to get the details. We're doing this as volunteers and could very much use your help to make this happen and strengthen Massachusetts' cross-issue progressive community, network and movement (see it's right in line with SoJust's vision!). We also need organizations to sign up as a RootsCamp MA partner and commit to spreading the word to their community. More information: http://www.sojust.org/events/100046292

5. Steve R. is looking for a volunteer to help with a little project.

 http://wiki.occupyboston.org/wiki/Working_Groups

is a list of Occupy Boston working groups.  At one point in time, all
of these groups were active.  However, many have become inactive.

I'm looking for someone to do a working group census.  Basically,
figure out which working groups are active, and which aren't.  Then
update the working groups page on the wiki.

Don't let the wiki part scare you.  This part of the process is super
easy, and I'll teach you everyting you need to know.  (The hard part
is figuring out which WG's are active, and which aren't.)

If you're concerned about the time commitment, this is definitely
something that could be done slowly, over the course of several weeks.

At any rate, I'm hoping there's someone who could spend a little time
to help clean up the working group list.  It would be greatly
appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

7. What is an American?
Thoughts on the Second Inauguration Speech of Barack H. Obama
--by Aria Littlhous

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.”
― Voltaire

The point of the Black president’s speech was that what makes Americans American is that Americans believe in equality. He didn’t say that you have to sucumb to the plagues of consumer brand fetishism and celebrity worship---which seem as uniquely American to me as anything on Senator Charles Schumer’s list---or even that you be able to utter his middle name. He said you have to believe in equality and that brought tears to my eyes. The president of the country where I happen to be born went on to give the mythic Americans a few new characteristics, like diversity and openness. The principles that seemed so new so many years ago drifted across a grassy mall again. Lighter this time, but still discernable.

And we must be a source of hope to the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the victims of prejudice –- not out of mere charity, but because peace in our time requires the constant advance of those principles that our common creed describes: tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice. We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths –- that all of us are created equal –- is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall; just as it guided all those men and women, sung and unsung, who left footprints along this great Mall, to hear a preacher say that we cannot walk alone; to hear a King proclaim that our individual freedom is inextricably bound to the freedom of every soul on Earth.

I like this president. I like his wife. “Ooh, ooh, look it’s Michelle! Look a her coat! She’s another Jackie O!” I like his kids, the way their smiles are just like their parents. I like Joe Biden and his friendly Irish Setter personality. But I don’t worship them. I can still ask that they do more than re-mouth the words of dead heros. Or at least that they make a little sense.  

We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. (because killing is one of the things that makes us Americans.).....We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully –- not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear (than killing).  -----Barack Hussein Obama

All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.
― François Fénelon

It’s possible that this president knows that nationalism leads inevitably to violence. He just can’t seem to bring himself to say what he believes as clearly as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.. And who can blame him? I mean MLK is dead, right? Shot by a racist nut bar and his Second Amendment christened love toy.  Remington or Colt? Tide or Clorox? Your choices make you who you are and if we apply the basic rules of logic to the words of this president, you can choose, by what you believe, whether you are an American.

Peace is the only battle worth waging.
---Albert Camus

There are plenty of patriots who will natter on about some of the very admirable things this thoughtful dignified president said in his speech. What I want to say is what other people won’t say and that is that based on this president’s speech, I am not an American because I don’t believe in war.  I don’t believe in killing and I won’t say that I believe it is necessary to kill protect our way of life (whatever that means) or anything about this particular piece of land. I won’t completely succumb to the Obama bug, not as long as the French have better food, better wine and better health care.

A.
http://arialittlhous.blogspot.com/

….the cutting room floor courtesy of http://www.goodreads.com/

Patriotism is, fundamentally, a conviction that a particular country is the best in the world because you were born in it....”
― George Bernard Shaw

“But you know as well as I, patriotism is a word; and one that generally comes to mean either my country, right or wrong, which is infamous, ormy country is always right, which is imbecile.”
― Patrick O'Brian

“Nationalism is an infantile thing. It is the measles of mankind.”
― Albert Einstein

“So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.”

― Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

“Je ne suis pas plus moderne qu'ancien, pas plus Français que Chinois, et l'idée de la patrie c'est-à-dire l'obligation où l'on est de vivre sur un coin de terre marqué en rouge ou en bleu sur la carte et de détester les autres coins en vert ou en noir m'a paru toujours étroite, bornée et d'une stupidité féroce.”

― Gustave Flaubert, Correspondance

"I'm not most modern reformer, and am no more French than Chinese, and the idea of the homeland---that is to say where one lives on a corner of land marked in red or in blue on the map and is therefore obligated to hate the other corners in green or black---always seemed a narrow, confined, savage stupidity. "

― Gustave Flaubert, Correspondance

“All wars are civil wars because all men are brothers... Each one owes infinitely more to the human race than to the particular country in which he was born.”
― François Fénelon

“So it is the human condition that to wish for the greatness of one's fatherland is to wish evil to one's neighbors. The citizen of the universe would be the man who wishes his country never to be either greater or smaller, richer or poorer.”

― Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

--

"Our goal is a society that prioritizes the needs of all before the profits of the few." passed by Occupy Boston General Assembly 11/29/11

--

"Our goal is a society that prioritizes the needs of all before the profits of the few." passed by Occupy Boston General Assembly 11/29/11