Pagan, married to a wonderful woman, proud dad of a beautiful little girl, sober, love dogs and cats, committed to the environment, equal opportunity, freedom of speech and religion.
Maze of Injustice: Netroots Nation Panel Announcement
In 2007, the progressive Netroots reached out to a tiny women's shelter on a Lakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Pretty Bird Woman House, named for a Sioux woman who was raped and murdered, faced closure. Lack of funds crippled their ability to function and staff labored without pay. Then, they lost their home to extreme vandalism and arson.
Over 2,000 individual members of the netroots raised in excess of $100,000 to keep Pretty Woman Bird House open, functioning with paid staff, and in the end, bought a new house for PBWH to carry out their mission.
But PBWH is just the tip of the iceberg. Native American women are subject to much higher levels of sexual and domestic violence than any other women in the United States. Come join us on Friday, July 18th 9:00am for: Examining the Maze of Injustice: Our Nation's Failure to Protect Indigenous Women From Violence . This panel will explore what can be done to ensure equal protection under the law for Native American women and the role the Netroots can play in combating these injustices.
As most of you know, Democracy For America is sponsoring scholarships to Netroots Nation for progressives who otherwise could not afford to attend. Today is the last day to apply for a scholarship and I think it is the last day to donate to help fund them. Monday, June 16th is the day that Democracy for America will start awarding the scholarships.
Among the scholarship applicants is somebody who deserves and needs a little bit of love. That person is Betsy Campisi , Daily Kos and Street Prophets user betson08. If you are willing, I would appreciate your taking the time to recommend Betsy for a scholarship.
Assuming Obama wins the Presidency, even if he serves two terms, he will still be a relatively young man. What would he do then? He could do the Clinton book and speaking thing. Or the Bush senior cozying up to middle Eastern tyrants (albeit tyrants nominally friendly to the USA) thing. But given his spirituality and faith, maybe there is a whole different path open to him...
Sorry I have been gone. I've been a little depressed, if you want, you can read about it below the jump. But I did feel I owed some explanation for my disappearance.
Alyssa is 13, Katherine is 14 and Amanda is 17 years old. It's a little disheartening that forty years after Dr. Martin Luther King's murder, African-American teens can just disappear like they never even existed. Don't these children deserve to have someone paying attention to the fact that they are gone?
Someone does look out for these kids. She does it part time, without pay. It is a spiritual calling for her. Her name is Deidra; she's a full time student, works in the offices of the university she attends and is an angel for black folks who vanish. She founded and publishes the blog Black and Missing: But Not Forgotten .
Deidra needs a little help.
Donations are nice , but that is not the primary thing you can do to make a difference.
While we have been chasing the primaries, these three children were killed by their father right before he took his own life.
Deidra is determined that not happen to any other children. She has stepped up her efforts to make Black and Missing the go-to resource for people of color with missing family members. She needs your help. Money is nice , but that is not the primary thing you can do to make a difference…
I am a precinct chair in Dallas County Senate District 16 and on this past Saturday we had our convention. And the bottom line is this: we, the Obama team, had the chance to shaft the Hillary team and if we had done so, Obama would have gotten both delegates from our precinct and Hillary would have had to settle for an alternate spot. Instead, we, the Obama team deliberately threw away that chance and made sure that the Hillary supporters had enough votes to secure a delegate spot.
The story goes that Saint Patrick was at the end of a long fast when the devil sent all the snakes in Ireland to attack him. So he stood upon the hill and with his staff directed the snakes into either the sea into a bottomless pool somewhere in the Kerry Hills. According to the legend, Ireland has been free from snakes ever since. Many view this tale as a metaphor for St. Patrick driving the Pagans from Ireland (although a sizeable minority holds that it is a reference to Patrick being sent to Ireland to stomp out the Pelagian heresy).
Actually, the Pagan snakes really never left Ireland. They just adapted and allowed themselves to be adopted.
Not my daughter, I am a fortunate man. But Franciene Black's little girl, the teenager who loved her new Chihuahua puppy, who was close to her family. Her name is Chioma Gray and she's gone. Missing since December 13th. Not a trace.
Chioma Gray
But nobody cares. Nobody outside of her family noticed. It hasn't made the news. It's like Chioma Gray does not exist.
There is someone besides her family who noticed. There is someone who cares. Her name is Deidra and she runs a blog called Black and Missing but Not Forgotten, a blog devoted to to missing black women and children whose cased are overlooked and ignored by the media. And Deidra could use your help.
Black and Missing But Not Forgotten is a blog on a mission - to call attention to missing African American women and children. Whether victims of crime, kidnapping, domestic abduction, runaways or simply vanished, this blog exists to make sure that these humans do not get overlooked. By collecting as much information as possible about each individual case, Black and Missing acts as a central clearinghouse for African Americans who have disappeared. When you look over this blog and see the vast amount of data collected, organized and posted, it's pretty clear that the people who do this blog must be a really professional team.
The newest feature is video, starting with the heartbreaking story of three children kidnapped by their father:
So who is behind this amazing blog? One college student and she could use your help.
