Haven't seen a diary about this tonite , and it's late so here goes...

I think this week in Asheville could be called "Voices of Conscience".  There are several events going on that revolve around people speaking out, or people having spoken out in the past - some of them at a great price to themselves, and all of them enriching our world.

Thursday – The play "The White Rose" starts at NC Stage Company.   From their website comes this description of the group called the "White Rose".

In 1942, a group of students in Munich stood up against Hitler’s regime in six anonymous leaflets titled The White Rose. Hans Scholl, Sophie Scholl,Willi Graf, Christoph Probst, and Alexander Schmorell used these leaflets to wage a war of propaganda in the hearts of the German people in the closing months of World War II. The movement eventually spread across all of Germany, becoming a voice for its people who were against what was happening to their country.  "Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as allowing itself to be ‘governed’ without opposition by an irresponsible clique the has yielded to base instinct." -The 1st Leaflet of the White Rose

More below.....

Having written my fair share of political diaries of late, today, Sunday, seems the day to post something a little different, something outside of the political box. The kind gift of your precious minutes in reading will make me glad, and I hope that my words will return the favor.

I am to give a commencement speech at a local high school later this month. I was asked to keep it short, inspirational, and relatively apolitical (my community knows me too well). What follows is my best effort.

If after you read this you feel so inclined to leave a tip, I thank you now. If you know someone who is graduating from high school or college this month or next and feel so inclined to pass this on to them, I thank you again. And if you wish to leave a constructive comment on how I might improve this, I would be grateful for advice.

On May 8th, Jes Richardson, Leslie Angeline and Medea Benjamin of CodePink crashed a Hillary fundraiser and managed to unfurl a banner protesting her remarks about "obliterating" Iran. Clinton's dismissive reaction as Jes was led from the room was to hope that "he didn't step on any of the cookies or the cakes."

Well Hillary and supporters, I am sorry to have to go to this extreme, but here it is...

Warning: graphic picture of some cookies and cakes that got stepped on below the fold...

Today was the launch of a massive 50-state voter registration drive, VOTE for CHANGE. The Obama campaign is building it's volunteer base and increasing voter participation.

Precinct Delegate's bowling average, pastor's remarks called into question by opponents

KENTWOOD, MI (Don't-Want-To-Be-Associated-With-McCain Press) - Democratic Precinct Delegate Scott Urbanowski (D-Smartypants) told reporters that his experience - and love for man's best friend - will be key to saving Kentwood's Third Precinct from Complete and Utter Annihilation.

The Delegate made those remarks Friday after filing to run for a second term as Precinct Delegate. He had announced his intention to run for re-election last year.

Just a short diary today. I had a letter in my inbox from Patrick Leahy and John Conyers asking for help in protecting America from At&T, and thought I'd forward it to everyone who didn't get one.

Here it is:

email to senators on FISA update WITHOUT amnesty

Brief description below

Over the past month, Mediamouse.org has been hard at work updating and revising the Progressive Directory of Western Michigan and are excited to be re-launching it.

How much more will it take before everyday Americans collectively hang their heads in shame over their (sic) nation's contemptible conduct?

I'm a little nervous posting this suggestion, but I'm sure I'll find out soon enough if it was a bad idea.

I was surfing around various political blogs, and I needed to look up the listings for this weekends cable listings, so I googled the show and clicked on  one of the results.

What I found shocked me.  Sort of.  I landed right in the middle of a pool of hatred - definitely unfriendly territory.  I read the blog comments in disbelief - I knew it was bad, but I didn't think people said these things with such conviction.  Are they ignorant, racist, uninformed, or all three?  Maybe I'm too naive, but I have an increasing level of anger with the level of deep, deep hatred and small-mindedness in this country.  I couldn't imagine what it must feel like to be black, knowing these comments are directed at me.

"THE BLOOD OF A MILLION IRAQIS IS ON YOUR HANDS!"

Photo by Charles Dharapak of the Associated Press

Desiree Fairooz, CodePink's "house mama" and the gutsiest librarian from Texas you'll ever have the honor and pleasure to meet, has been found guilty only of a single "disorderly conduct" charge and given a 5 day suspended sentence, a $50 fine and 3 months unsupervised probation. She WAS facing up to a 180 day jail sentence and two counts of assaulting a police officer that were dismissed.

More beneath the fold...

iampunha already did a wonderful diary on this heartbreaking anniversary, but it has slipped from the front page and I don't see another.  I simply cannot allow this to be in a progressive community.  

So I am posting a diary to ask that you go back and read and recommend that wonderful diary.  Since it is too late to get that one back up and on the Rec list, I will ask you to recommend this one, just so the day does not pass without our acknowledgment of this piece of our history.

...for Obama supporters I've ever seen.

PLEASE UNRECOMMEND THIS DIARY and recommend Seneca Doane's phonebanking diary.  Let's keep the liveblog going.

You sit here and just hit F5, again and again, over and over.  You post a pootie pic, or make a relevant point, or HR someone, and think you've done your part.  You sit on your asses and think that by posting in this big orange echo chamber you've made a difference in this election.*

You know how I know that?  Because I do it too.

I'm committed to change.  Are you?

Crossposted at Docudharma

Who Remembers the Snail Darter?

Or the Crazed Rabbit that attacked Jimmy Carter’s fishing boat in the 70's?

This is the tale of the tragic flooding of the Valley of the Little Tennessee River, the heroic folks who fought the TVA action, the creative lawyers and law students who won the precedent setting supreme court decision, the brave folks whose farms were taken and the stoic Native Americans whose homeland it was before - and the roles of the snail darter and the crazed rabbit.  And how it all comes down to - you guessed it - politics.

I meant to write this a couple weeks ago, but got distracted by my own environmental activism, Sierra Club meetings, showing William McDonough’s great film the Next Industrial Revolution, Earth Day events, lobbying in the state legislature for an increase in the coal severance tax, and an on-site visit of a mountaintop removal site.  

I originally thought I might tie this up with a message about activism to effect change.  Don’t know that I’ll make it to that point, as I am  demoralized recently about my own local efforts. And am ready to take a break in my garden for the summer.  Maybe that’s change enough . . .

rather than just blather on about it?  Want to do something about sexism, our class divide?  Because when we don't take care of our veterans drawn to the military and National Guard as young men and women who are looking for a hand up because of race, gender, and class issues then all the rhetoric in the world means nothing.
I know this diary is not very sexy or controversial, but it is a something we can actually do something about.

Check this diary and find out what to do below.  

765 American Universities have combined endowments of $340 billion.  The top ten total $100 billion.  Eleven members of SDS at the University of FL are on hunger strike to pressure administrators to invest its $1.2 billion endowment in Socially Responsible Investments.

These crazies obviously failed econ 101.  From HuffPost

At the core of the students' demand is the notion that investors are ultimately responsible for the practices of the companies in which they are invested. If profits are being made by violating human rights or international environmental norms, then investors are morally obligated to do something about it . . .

Maybe not so crazy.    

SRIs screen investments for social and environmental bad behavior.  Typically they reject weapons makers, tobacco goons, union-busters and polluters.  At $340 billion, university endowment funds could profoundly influence corporate behavior.  

Make a call to support SDS.

Last night I dreamed that a million ordinary young people of all sizes and shapes and genders and colors (a few of the 90% whose fathers AREN’T getting richer while most get poorer nowadays) marched – no, not on Washington, on Westchester County New York.

It's a video that many of you saw when it was released prior to Super Tuesday in February.  I have no doubt that seeing it raised many a voter's hopes.  But for me, it represented something much greater - a representation of a sea change in my entire life.

When I shared a synopsis of this change in this comment in another great fundraising diary by Populista, I was encouraged to tell the whole story.

Here's that story of what "Yes We Can" means to me.