California NOW

From our friends at CodePink and Global Exchange

Anne Lamott is one of my favorite writers on the planet. Check her out at this CodePink and Global Exchange event!

Sacramento LOVES Consensual Sex

We know that sex sells. But usually when advertising executives use sex to sell something, it's for a product like a car or a hamburger or another luxury item that has nothing to do with sex. Why not use sex to sell…well, sex? That's exactly what California NOW's "I Heart Consensual Sex" campaign is doing and there are several chapters that are doing it, and doing it, and doing it well.

Recently highlighted in their local weekly publication, the Sacramento News and Review, the vivacious Sacramento chapter has taken a particularly innovative approach to the I Heart Consensual Sex campaign. Paired with a gallery-style art display, accompanied by a number of local, very talented musicians and hosted at an adult erotic toy store, the chapter is hosting sex-themed variety show. But it's not what you think. Well, not all of it.

The Sacramento chapter, affectionately known in their community as "SacNOW," has partnered with their local domestic violence prevention program, WEAVE, and their local Planned Parenthood to present a program filled with informative and sex-positive facts. The program will include the important and necessary information about sexual assault prevention and rape awareness but will additionally include a non-traditional curriculum on the latest technology for sexual pleasure and stimulation as well as poetry and spoken word ranging the topics from sexual assault to sexual desire and everything in between. The chapter published a resource book for the event that includes a number of articles including a piece on sexual harassment in the work place and a well-researched expose how poverty affects consent. The resource book is littered with amusing quotes about sex and includes an original comic by April Brayman that is a sexy instruction manual of sorts on the topic of consent and communication. The art for the event is provocative and was highlighted at the top pick by the definitive resource for Sacramento's 2^nd Saturday Art Walk, a well-known and highly trafficked monthly event in Sacramento's trendy midtown. The chapter and its hosting facility, Grind and Groove, expect a large and enthusiastic turn out for the event this Saturday, April 12^th at 6pm-10pm at 22^nd and K Street in the heart of Sacramento. Bring and friend and get ready for some consensual sex!

 

Hilary Hodge

Co-president, SacNOW

Starhawk Deported from Isreal

Starhawk, the internationally known author of many books on earth based (feminist) spirituality, and self described  'peace, environmental, and global justice activist and trainer, a permaculture designer and teacher, a Pagan and Witch', was deported yesterday from Israel. She arrived in Tel Aviv yesterday to develop a permaculture project in the West Bank.

The International Middle East Media Center included a quote by Dr. Joanne Taylor, a British psychologist who commented on the deportation "clearly the Israeli authorities are paranoid even about letting people grow crops and conserve rainwater on their own land."

Starhawk.org highlights that she's been working with Palestinians for years. The articles on her Israel/Palestine page, shows that she has created deep relationships there, teaching "techniques for self-protection when facing tear gas, sound bombs, rubber bullets, beatings, the ominous approach of the Wall that will shatter the fabric of these villages, the overwhelming oppressive realities of the occupation."

As this news is revealed through American mainstream newspapers, I will be watching to see how this peace activist is portrayed. We are certainly accustom to seeing those assisting Palestinians as anti-semitic rather than anti-war.

Photo of Starhawk by Bert Meijer

The Shift Movie Looks So Inspiring!

How inspiring is this? (Thanks for sending this to me Lindsey!)

Love Is Respect Video Contest

The Love Is Respect campaign is awesome! The video contest entries are great. This vid didn't win, but it get's my vote!

One Day of the Iraq War Could Pay For...

Close Gauntanamo: Wear Orange Friday

Brought to you by our friends at ACLU:

Tomorrow, Jan. 11, will mark six years since the first prisoners arrived at Guantánamo Bay.  That’s six years since Guantánamo began serving as an international embarrassment and six years that it has been damaging our country’s reputation in the world.

    In San Francisco, a silent candlelight vigil to close Guantánamo will be held on Jan. 11 at 4 p.m.  Demonstrators will march from the Federal Courthouse in San Francisco to Justin Herman Plaza. Visit the ACLU for more information.

    In Fresno, a demonstration will be held on Jan. 11 from 11:15 a.m. - 1 p.m. in front of the new Federal Building at 2500 Tulare Street in downtown Fresno. Organizers include the Fresno Area Chapter of the ACLU-NC, Peace Fresno, Fresno W.I.L.P.F., and The National Network In Action. Please RSVP.

We ask you to stand in solidarity with human rights advocates across the country on Friday, Jan. 11, by wearing orange.  The ACLU is calling on people of conscience to wear orange because torture is immoral, illegal, and un-American.  We will wear orange because we believe in human rights. 

Sign the petition to close Guantanamo Bay!

Dorky Video, Good Safety Tip

Halliburton Gang Rape

Why am I not surprised when I read that a 20 year old working for Halliburton was drugged and gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR co-workers in Baghdad,  then held in a shipping container injured and bleeding, without food or water for at least 24 hours and warned to keep her mouth shut or lose her job.

After hearing similar threats, Jamie Leigh Jones had to persuade a sympathetic guard to loan her a cell phone to call her father who then called their congressman, who contacted the state department who sent US Agents from the Embassy in Bagdad to rescue her from her own American employer!

For the last two years, she's been asking the US government to hold the perpetrators accountable, but the men who raped her may never be brought to justice because Halliburton and other contractors in Iraq aren't subject to US or Iraqi laws.

MoveOn.org is calling on Congress to investigate Jamie's case, hold those involved accountable, and bring US contractors under the jurisdiction of US law so this can't happen again. Sign the petition NOW!

Donate to Jamie Leigh's Foundation.

New ACLU Report Details Pervasive Racial Discrimination in America

The American Civil Liberties Union has just released a comprehensive analysis of the pervasive systemic and structural racism in America. The report, Race & Ethnicity in America: Turning a Blind Eye to Injustice, is a response to the U.S. report to the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) released earlier this year. The U.S. report, which the ACLU called a “whitewash,” swept under the rug the dramatic effects of widespread racial and ethnic discrimination in this country.

In California, the report presents research about the persistence of racial inequity and evidence of institutionalized discrimination in California’s educational and criminal justice systems, and in the treatment of immigrants.