to move up and down
cornbread con frijoles
"Desire is never politically correct"
-Cherríe L. Moraga
FlowerpotRhinos: An Open Letter to the Democratic Party of Virginia
Dear Charniele Herring and the Democratic Party of Virginia,
Before I begin, I want to say that this letter comes out of over a year’s worth of frustration and disappointment. You see, I used to be an intern at the DPVA. I enjoyed my time there, the people, and the experience. I am grateful and…
Preach.
Lavender Lemonade
4 tbsps (1/4 cup) culinary lavender*
2 cups boiling water
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 8 lemons)
2 cups cold water
* Culinary lavender is lavender harvested for the purposes of cooking/eating. Please don’t buy the perfumed air-freshening kind because that is going to be utterly gross. Steep the lavender in 2 cups of boiling water for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and discard the lavender. Place the lavender tea and the sugar in a small saucepan and set over high heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves (you don’t have to put it over heat, but I do this because I’m impatient and want the sugar to dissolve faster and completely). Remove from heat and let cool to warm. Stir in the lemon juice. Stir in the cold water. Add more to taste. I prefer to keep mine on the concentrated side because I like to mix it with seltzer water when I serve it. Serve over ice. Makes about 6-8 cups depending on how dilute you want it.
This looks delicious. Thank you Safiya <3
(via wanderblog)
New WikiLeaks cable reveals US embassy strategy to destabilize Chavez government
April 6, 2013In a secret US cable published online by WikiLeaks, former ambassador to Venezuela, William Brownfield, outlines a comprehensive plan to infiltrate and destabilize former President Hugo Chavez’ government.
Dispatched in November of 2006 by Brownfield — now an Assistant Secretary of State — the document outlined his embassy’s five core objectives in Venezuela since 2004, which included: “penetrating Chavez’ political base,” “dividing Chavismo,” “protecting vital US business” and “isolating Chavez internationally.”
The memo, which appears to be totally un-redacted, is plain in its language of involvement in these core objectives by the US embassy, as well as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), two of the most prestigious agencies working abroad on behalf of the US.
According to Brownfield, who prepared the cable specifically for US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), the “majority” of both USAID and OTI activities in Venezuela were concerned with assisting the embassy in accomplishing its core objectives of infiltrating and subduing Chavez’ political party:
“This strategic objective represents the majority of USAID/OTI work in Venezuela. Organized civil society is an increasingly important pillar of democracy, one where President Chavez has not yet been able to assert full control.”
In total, USAID spent some one million dollars in organizing 3,000 forums that sought to essentially reconcile Chavez supporters and the political opposition, in the hopes of slowly weaning them away from the Bolivarian side.
Brownfield at one point boasted of an OTI civic education program named “Democracy Among Us,” which sought to work through NGOs in low income regions, and had allegedly reached over 600,000 Venezuelans.
In total, between 2004 and 2006, USAID donated some 15 million dollars to over 300 organizations, and offered technical support via OTI in achieving US objectives which it categorized as seeking to reinforce democratic institutions.
Much of the memo details efforts to highlight instances of human rights violations, and sponsoring activists and members of the political opposition to attend meetings abroad and voice their concerns against the Chavez administration:
“So far, OTI has sent Venezuelan NGO leaders to Turkey, Scotland, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile, Uruguay, Washington and Argentina (twice) to talk about the law. Upcoming visits are planned to Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.”
In his closing comments, Brownfield remarked that, should President Chavez win re-election during the December 2006 elections, OTI expected the “atmosphere for our work in Venezuela” to become more complicated.
Ultimately, it seems that the former ambassador’s memo wisely predicted a change in conditions. Following his re-election, President Chavez threatened to eject the US ambassador from Venezuela in 2007, amid accusations of interfering in internal state affairs.
“We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” - Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 - April 4, 1968)
Remembering today.
Undocumented Youth Pay Tribute to the Original DREAMers
As a member of the Arizona Dream Act Coalition and a self-taught photographer, Carla Chavarria, 20, has been capturing images of fellow undocumented youth for about three years. Her parents, who are currently undocumented, brought her to the United States from Mexico City when she was 7. As a kid, she didn’t understand the concept of immigration status. “I grew up in Arizona in a predominantly white neighborhood. I didn’t really know what it meant to be undocumented because I just went to school,” says Chavarria, who received temporary status through President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in February.
But when the federal DREAM Act failed in 2010, Chavarria says she started taking pictures in protest. “Art has always been my passion, and I wanted to do something that could help the movement even though I’m not that into the politics and policy side. That’s why I started the iDREAM campaign—photographing DREAMers and telling their stories. .”
The photos below are from “Por Ella,” (For Her) a series Chavarria created this month to highlight the Arizona immigrant youth movement as the so-called Gang of Eight senators hammer out the terms of a comprehensive reform bill. Chavarria says the photos represent a more expansive message: “We may have DACA now, but our parents are still waiting. They were the ones who have been pushing for reform all along. So this is us saying, ‘It’s [our] turn to take care of you.’”
Here are some new faces of the immigrant movement, through Chavarria’s eyes:
(Top photo)
Mom: Carmen Irene, 56, stay-at-home mom
Daughters: Asuzena Castro, 12, student; Maria Castro, 19, Arizona Dream Act Coalition treasurer and Arizona State engineering student Says Chavarria: “Maria [isn’t] undocumented but she’s a great leader in the Arizona immigrant movement; her little sister is as well. [I] shot them sort of standing behind their mom, like, ‘I have your back. You’ve always raised me and had my back. … So now it’s time for me to stand behind you.’ Their mom is undocumented but not them. So them holding hands is representing the bond they all have. It looks so much stronger that way.”(Bottom left photo)
Mom: Rosa Maria Soto, 59, undocumented
Daughter: Dulce Matuz, 28, legal resident, former undocumented DREAMer, Arizona Dream Act Coalition co-founder
Says Chavarria: “Dulce is always talking about her mom, Maria, who is trying to learn English and go back for GED classes aside from being a mother, grandmother and being involved in the movement. I’ve seen Maria involved and at protests; she’s always there. In the photo Dulce is just admiring her.”(Bottom right photo)
Mom: Olga De la Rosa, 43, undocumented, part-time caregiver and housekeeper
Daughter: Ileana Salinas, 23, Arizona Dream Act Coalition co-founder and Arizona Worker’s Rights Center co-director
Chavarria says: “Iliana is in the process of receiving her deferred action but she’s still going to fight for her mom, who is undocumented. So she’s standing behind her with the other hand holding her shoulder. You know [that phrase], ‘I had a shoulder to cry on?’ That was the inspiration for this picture.”
Love this.
(via kaleicious)
This legit makes me want to cry because I have *never* seen a picture of an older trans man naked. It’s always young guys, usually much younger than me. It’s like we don’t have a future, an adulthood, a middle age, an old age. It’s like we just stop.
As a trans man who’s well past the age (and transition status) of ~sexxay tranz boiz~, pictures like this give me some kind of hope. We’re not just one image stuck in time, snapshot of a skinny white andro urban-queer young trans dude with perfect top surgery scars, poster boys for young radical queerdom. We’re not all Youth. We live in more than two dimensions, and one of them is time.
Older queers tend to fall off the map full stop. Trans people, even more so. But we don’t disappear once we stop being, basically, fashionable. Supporting our young people is important, but we need to show them we have a future, too.
I literally cannot envision my own future. There are no images of older men like me.
One image obviously can’t address all the lacks in representation, much less one image of a hot skinny (apparently?) white man. But just to have that one extra factor in there, of age, it’s - it’s important.
More, please.
(Source: unicornboyz, via lips-richmond)
When The Movement Does Not Save Your Life
“I’ve learned this inconvenient but critical lesson about leadership: the most difficult part is loneliness.”
