2008 October 14 | VivirLatino

Archive for October 14th, 2008

Fast For Our Future: Stand Up For Immigrant Rights

8:50 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Immigration|US Presidential Race 2008 · 2 Comments

14 Oct 2008

I got this on a listserve!

21 DAYS BEFORE THE 2008 ELECTION
THE LARGEST HUNGER STRIKE IN U.S. HISTORY CALLING ON 1,000,000 PEOPLE TO SIGN A PLEDGE TO VOTE FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS

The “Fast For Our Future” campaign will begin in Los Angeles on October 15th, 2008, three weeks before the November 4th presidential election. Over 100 people will fast in order to mobilize our community to vote for immigrant rights.

Fasters will give up all food and juice liquids. When engaging in a hunger strike, we will commit to only drink water.

The Fast will be based at an encampment at La Placita Olvera, the historic heart of Los Angeles. The encampment will be a visual representation of the size and growth of the hunger strike. Fasters will sleep in tents and live at the encampment for the duration of the Fast.

The Fast will continue until at least 1,000,000 people have signed the Pledge to vote and take action for immigrant rights.

*To download other resources, visit our Resources page.

Goals of the Fast

Mobilize 1,000,000 People to Vote on November 4, 2008 for Immigrant Rights!

Distribute the Pledge Nationwide and Re-energize the Movement through Infectious Action and Viral Communication Based on the Momentum We Create Collectively.

Recruit a Critical Mass of Fasters (water only fast between 1-day to over 3 weeks) to Make a Deep Personal Sacrifice for the La Causa.

Build the Encampment at La Placita Olvera in Downtown Los Angeles, Make It a Visual Representation of Our Strength and Numbers.

Donate to the RISE Movement In Order to Strengthen the “Fast For Our Future” Campaign and Mobilize Future Nonviolent Actions.

One Million Pledges

We are fasting until at least 1,000,000 people sign the Pledge to vote on November 4th and take action to hold the next administration accountable to immigrant rights.

The demand of the hunger strike is not directed toward any political leader, legislative bill, or proposition. In the same spirit as César Chávez and Mohandas K. Gandhi, we are engaging in a hunger strike directed at the movement itself.

When fear, discouragement, and despair plagued the social movements of the past, it was the deep personal sacrifice of its leaders and members that re-energized their cause and placed them on a path to victory.

We have witnessed the power of sacrifice to re-ignite movements. In a time of aggressive enforcement of broken immigration laws, the tearing apart of families through detention and deportation, and the shredding of our civil and constitutional rights–now is the time to take action.

Help us spread the word to get 1,000,000 people to sign the Pledge saying that they will vote for immigrant rights.

If you have not yet signed the Pledge (or invited your friends and family to sign the Pledge), please click here and sign the Pledge today!

Watch the 8-10 minute YouTube video (English and Spanish) that provides a strong visual description of the “Fast For Our Future” action and demands.

What a U.S. Passport Won’t Get You As a Rican : A Vote!

3:21 pm By Maegan La Mala · Puerto Rico|US Presidential Race 2008 · 7 Comments

14 Oct 2008

Not all U.S. citizens can vote. Specifically I am referring to Puerto Ricans. Pero before I am accused of bringing up my background, I direct you to the words of another Rican:

In October of 2008 I have discovered yet another off-putting situation. The other bearers of this passport are receiving their ballots this month, a head start to this November election. It’s an ex-pat party: the hitchhiker who went south from Recife and voted in Salvador, the old roommates from Buenos Aires, the new friends in Recife. All of them received their absentee ballots or voted at the embassy. Friends, acquaintances, strangers: all American citizens.

But, somehow, I am different than them. I cannot vote. Though I am weighed down by the negatives of carrying the same passport, I do not have the same rights. Why? The last address I registered with the IRS (and the American government in general) is in Puerto Rico, my home (non) state. And Puerto Ricans, though US citizens in paper, are second class citizens in practice. Therefore, I am not allowed to vote in the presidential elections, unless I move and prove that my current legal residence lies in of the (actual) 50 states.

I carry the weight of this passport because I have no option. There is no Puerto Rican passport; I am a second class citizen with no alternative.

Read the entire post and the struggle that the colonial status creates at Zerotres

y mil graciaa a Elenamary for sending me the link.

Third Parties will not destroy the U.S., I swear!

1:31 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

14 Oct 2008

If you’re like me and not inclined to be all that supportive of a two party system, you’ll be really interested in the most recent commentary by Democracy Now! hostess, Amy Goodman. In it, she takes on the reason that the presidential debates suck on so many levels (a debate only works if there is fundamental difference between those debating) and what is being left out of debates as a result of two party dominance (poverty, labor protections, military industrial complex, and as Mala noted, immigration).

Some of the good done by third party pressure:

George Farah directs Open Debates, a group that works “to ensure that the presidential debates serve the American people first.” He told me that “historically, it has been third parties, not the major parties, that have supported and are responsible for the abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage, public schools, public power, unemployment compensation, minimum wage, child labor laws. The list goes on and on. The two parties fail to address a particular issue; a third party rises up, and it’s supported by tens of millions of Americans, forcing the Republican and Democratic parties to co-opt that issue, or the third party rises and succeeds, which is why the Republican Party jumped from being a third party to being a major party of the United States of America.

Many people have pointed out to me that voting green (or libertarian) could ultimately be a vote for the opposing team rather than a vote for an issue they believe in–and then of course they point frantically to Florida and Ohio as proof.

I wonder–could it be possible that if those voters were inclined in the slightest to stand up for the multitudes of homeless/people of color who voted and were actively disenfranchised, Florida and Ohio wouldn’t have happened?

Could blaming third parties be the easy way to avoid the messy realization that voter disenfranchisement is an essential part of a dirty rotten corrupt system that needs some serious cleaning up?

VivirLatino Editor, Maegan la Mala, Speaking Tonight at What Women Want Debate Eve Speakout- NYC

1:21 pm By Maegan La Mala · Events|New York City|Politics|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

14 Oct 2008

Tonight yours truly lends her voice to the This Is What Women Want Speaking Tour at LaGuardia Community College, in Long Island City, Queens, NYC. Slated to speak are Kate Bornstein, Kety Esquivel, Shelby Knox, Betsy Reed, Amy Richards, and Carmen Van Kerkhove. Done with being represented by skewed polls and stereotypes?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
7:00pm – 9:00pm
LaGuardia Community College
Mainstage Theater, 31-10 Thomson Avenue
Long Island City, NY

Got something to say about the economy, the war, health care, or any other issue?

Then don’t miss This Is What Women Want: a pre-debate speakout in NYC!

This Is What Women Want is your chance to cut through the spin and tell the media, the candidates and the world exactly what you want this election season.

We’re on a This Is What Women Want Tour of speakouts across the country. We started in Boston on Thursday, 8/21, and now we’re taking it to each debate city the night before the debate.

On Tuesday, October 14, local and national media will sit up and listen to women in NYC – from national leaders to the not-yet-known. It could be your voice at that mic!

Come tell us exactly what you want from the candidates, the media and the next President. We’ll be sending the best speakouts to the media and the candidates.

From the economy, to sexism, racism, and other bias in the media’s coverage of the campaign, to immigration, war, poverty, health care, reproductive justice, sexual freedom, worker’s rights, violence, education, environmental concerns and more, this is an unprecedented chance to set the agenda for the country. Whether you’ve got a criticism of the status quo or a visionary idea that no one has yet considered, we want to hear from you.

Our goal is simple: to ensure that the real and varied concerns of women are a force to be reckoned with this election season.

This is What Women Want
Find the Event on Facebook

Barack Obama’s Secret Group Affiliations

11:21 am By Maegan La Mala · Funny|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

14 Oct 2008

Gracias a Jay Smooth for channeling what McCain and company are really thinking.

How Would the Proposed Health Care Plans Impact Real People?

9:21 am By Maegan La Mala · Health|US Presidential Race 2008 · Comments Off

14 Oct 2008

Alternet takes a look at how the proposed health care plans of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates would translate into the real lives of people living without insurance. Today they look at a Latina mother and her children.

Hernandez is uninsured. She cannot afford to buy a policy in the commercial market even if she could qualify, which she couldn’t. Arkansas Medicaid won’t take her either. She doesn’t fit any of the eligibility categories. Medicaid officials have said that she might qualify under the “medically needy” program, but first she has to spend a large part of her income on medical care. But, she says, she doesn’t have seventy-five dollars to pay for doctors’ visits, even though she needs a check-up and an eye exam. Retinal exams, the standard of care for diabetics, are out of the question. “I can’t see through these glasses,” Hernandez says.

She finds herself in the classic Medicaid dilemma. She needs medical bills to qualify for Medicaid, but has no money to pay doctors in order to accumulate those bills. She has often gone without her medicines — for a thyroid problem and her diabetes — because they are unaffordable. Although a drug company assistance program periodically supplies insulin, the lack of proper, continuing care for her disease is taking its toll.

So will John McCain’s Plan or Barack Obama’s plan serve her better?

VivirLatino

Archive for October 14th, 2008

Fast For Our Future: Stand Up For Immigrant Rights

What a U.S. Passport Won’t Get You As a Rican : A Vote!

Third Parties will not destroy the U.S., I swear!

VivirLatino Editor, Maegan la Mala, Speaking Tonight at What Women Want Debate Eve Speakout- NYC

Barack Obama’s Secret Group Affiliations

How Would the Proposed Health Care Plans Impact Real People?

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