civil rights
scientificactivist | May 28, 2008When I was a student at Texas A&M University and active in politics there, I spent a lot of time on voter registration. Much of this effort was devoted to the community outside of the university, but my primary focus was on students at the university. And, although some people would contend that college students should register to vote from their hometowns, I strongly disagree. At the very least, students should be allowed to choose which location they prefer, but beyond that I believe there's a strong case for students to register at their university location, unless they have a…
terrasig | October 5, 2007Folks are probably wrapping it up in St. Augustine at this hour, but I just wanted to send out happy 91st birthday wishes to the Old Lion, Stetson Kennedy.
Anastasia Books invites the community to a birthday celebration for Stetson Kennedy during the First Friday Art Walk.
Kennedy, the 91-year-old civil rights activist, folklorist and environmentalist, authored four books on civil rights and the Florida classic "Palmetto Country," a social history of Florida's ethnic cultures and folklore in the 1930s.
(More at his MySpace site with "Stetson Kennedy" by Florida folk music patriarch, Frank…
scientificactivist | January 18, 2007Being able to see is so fundamental to the daily activities of the vast majority of us that we rarely give it a second thought. Take away that ability to see, though, and suddenly everyday tasks become a little trickier. Much of this difficulty can be overcome--to a degree at least--by a variety of means, including seeing-eye dogs for getting around or braille for reading.
If you are a blind American and need to buy a mid-afternoon snack, though, you might be out of luck--unless, of course, you're willing to blindly trust the honesty and generosity of every stranger with whom you exchange…
terrasig | January 15, 2007I couldn't think of much to write today until I saw Mike The Mad Biologist post a speech from Dr King to striking Memphis sanitation workers in 1968.
Economic justice is the general theme, but there is little more moving than the oratory of Dr King.
Mike didn't highlight this quote, but let me do so here:
We are going to also say, "You are even unjustly spending five hundred thousand dollars to kill a single Vietcong soldier, while you spend only fifty-three dollars a year per person for everybody categorized as poverty-stricken." Instead of spending thirty-five billion dollars every year…
terrasig | October 8, 2006Thanks, all, for sharing in my initial disappointment with missing Stetson Kennedy's 90th b'day party and then the happy accident of being home to take the call from Billy Bragg yesterday afternoon.
My response to the comments began to grow so lengthy that I felt it necessary to create a whole new blog post.
Here is the original post and here is the beginning of the comments - my responses:
Sweetpea: The only think I can think of that would be better than sharing wine with you and Erleichda would be to strum a real Martin - I've only been able to afford a couple of Taylors, myself. We will…
terrasig | October 7, 2006I'm sitting here, miserably pissed off, because a US Airways snafu has kept me from attending the 90th birthday party of Stetson Kennedy, legendary Southern author, rebel, and soldier for human rights and social justice, in Fruit Cove, Florida.
For readers who may recall my admiration of Mr. Kennedy and visit with him earlier this year, Stetson Kennedy was also a good friend and host of Woody Guthrie during the late 1940s and 1950s, during which time Guthrie wrote a lyric sheet called 'Talking Stetson Kennedy', about Stet's 1950 write-in campaign for US Senate between Claude Pepper and George…
terrasig | September 13, 2006I applauded Keith Olbermann in this space two weeks ago.
I finally got around tonight to reading his commentary presented Monday night at Ground Zero.
Apologies to my readers who may be overwhelmed by all of the 9/11 attention this week but, as Olbermann said, "I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal."
Some choice excerpts if you haven't the time to read it all or watch the eight-minute oratory:
History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered…
terrasig | September 8, 2006Next month, the family Pharmboy is headed down to Beluthahatchee, Florida, to help celebrate the 90th birthday of famed human rights legend, Stetson Kennedy, the subject of some Woody Guthrie lyrics put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco. Among ScienceBloggers, I've learned that Janet and Steinn are big Billy Bragg fans and Josh is a big Woody Guthrie fan, so it seems apropos to celebrate Mr Kennedy here. This is one post I've been meaning to move over here from the old blog, where it first appeared on 15 May 2006.
[I'm currently on the road and I've somehow screwed up the code for…
terrasig | August 3, 2006Let me just say that I love Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend and Pandagon.
"I'm black, I'm a lesbian, I'm in the South, and I have lived in the North. I represent different constituencies that aren't well-represented in the blogosphere," says Spaulding, an information technology specialist with Duke University Press.
I hadn't known much about her until my first blog meet-up where I met some dude named Bora, Coturnix, or some crazy thing like that, who first told me that she is one of my reality-based neighbors.
So, the other day, I'm over at one of the many campuses where I hold adjunct…