Holly and I are roundly pleased to present the February Just Posts, the latest round of social justice posts that have been rounded up for our roundtable. Gather ’round!¹
We’re getting quite close to having the Best of 2009 JPs up and running for voting–I can say quite confidently that we will have this together by the end of 2010. And quite likely by the end of the week, even. In the meantime, please enjoy the February list.
I would like to announce that finalists for the Best Just Posts of 2009 will be posted and ready for your voting by the end of January.
However, seeing as I have not yet successfully managed to manipulate the passage of time to suit my desires, I will have to settle for announcing that the finalists will be ready by a date in the near future. Our goal is for Monday, March 1st.
It may not shock you to know that this project grew larger than either Holly or I had anticipated. For one thing, we quickly realized that due to the subjective nature of responding to posts, it would be much fairer to make sure that each post was evaluated independently by more than person. Seeing as we had about 300 posts to evaluate, this meant 600 separate reviews.
And extra big fat sloppy kisses go to De, denguy, Donna, Erika , Heather, Kitty, Leslie, Mad, Mary G., Sarah and Tabba for going above and beyond the call of duty, and coming back to help with more. (For that matter, I’m pretty sure I owe Heather my firstborn child (or at least my firstborn child’s weight in chocolate) for all of the additional reading she took on for us.)
We also greatly appreciate those of you who, while you were not able to actively participate in the project through reading and reviewing posts, expressed your interest and support in the endeavor. Thanks, friends!
In the meantime, our list of semifinalists may be of interest. These posts are those which at least one of two reviewers asserted should make our finalist list. Our final finalist list (I love writing that) will be selected from these semifinalists, based on reviews and comments and a few other considerations.
Welcome to the latest edition of the Just Posts, a monthly roundtable of posts on topics of social justice hosted here and at Holly’s.
January was tough month. The earthquake in Port-au-Prince was a tragedy of such mind-numbing proportions, and the healing and recovery for Haiti has barely begun. Many of the writers this month’s roundtable have reflected on these events.
January also saw the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States, an occasion which inspired some happier reflections on progress our society has made.
Slow as it seems, it helps to remember that progress has been made. In my quest for new voices to bring into the Just Posts community, I came across a short post from early February that really stuck with me:
On February 1, 1960, for the first time, black students went to a drugstore, made some purchases, sat down at the lunch counter, and wouldn’t get up. It was the first sit-in.
In six months, that drugstore counter in Greensboro, NC, was desegregated.
If you have a post in the list above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you would like to have a post included next month, you can find out how to submit posts and all sorts of other stuff about the Just Posts at the information page.
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We should have more updates soon on our big project to highlight the fantastic Just Posts of 2009. We have gotten 2 independent reviews on all 300 posts, and are working on finalizing our lists of finalists. (Hmmm…our final lists of finalists…) Thanks so much to all of you who have participated in this project! We couldn’t do it without you.
Welcome to the December 2009 edition of the Just Posts. Holly (of Cold Spaghetti) and I are pleased to be hosting our 12 roundtable.
It’s hard to know what to say in response to some world events. The world is reeling from news of the devastating earthquake in Haiti yesterday. Living far away as we are, it is hard to know how to help.
Many organizations around the world are gearing up to join relief efforts, and many people are ready and willing to go to Haiti. (I was very moved reading the comments on this post from Mercy Corps, as dozens of people offered up their qualifications to serve as relief workers in Haiti, and offered to fly there immediately to help.)
For most of us, though, the best way to help is to donate to organizations that are active in relief efforts.
I made a donation this morning to UNICEF, and will probably make one to IRC as well. Both are international relief organizations of which I am a regular supporter, and both are actively sending relief to Haiti.
Holly has suggested donations to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer as a smaller, Haiti-based organization where funds will have more of an immediate impact.
You can also find a fairly extensive list assembled on the NPR blog of ways to help.
And now, for this month’s list. As ever, I am inspired and heartened by the range of voices speaking out on topics of social justice.
Welcome to the latest Just Posts, a monthly roundtable of posts on topics of social justice and activism from around the blogosphere. Holly (of Cold Spaghetti) and I are pleased to present an excellent round-up of posts that explore a range of topics that affect our world and our worldview: race and gender, health and wellness, lifestyle and socioeconomic disparities, to name a few.
Each month that I’ve been hosting the Just Posts, I’ve been highlighting a song that speaks to some of the issues that get discussed in the posts of the roundtable. This time I’ll put it at the end so we can get right to the all-important lists.
The July Just Posts:
anvilcloud of Raindrops in the Desert with Dedicated…
And now for something completely different. Or for the song. This month, I’ve been drawn to a somewhat odd choice: Chumbawamba’s “Pass it Along.”
(Forgive the bizarre video. It’s a zombie montage. It’s what’s available.)
It’s got nice harmonies and a good beat, and it’s catchy. This catchiness landed the song a role in a car commercial for GM in 2002. Amusingly, after the band accepted the $100,000 from GM, they handed the money over to “the anti-corporate activist groups Indymedia and CorpWatch who used the money to launch an information and environmental campaign against GM.” (From the Chumbawamba wiki page. You can read the full scoop on Salon.)
This song popped up on my iPod, while I was driving around a few days ago, and simple as it is, it’s one of those songs that has made me think.
Pass it along by word of mouse
Save the world, don’t leave the house
With my insatiable appetite for puns, the “word of mouse” phrase really caught my attention. The Just Posts are all about transmitting ideas by “word of mouse.” And, well, we want to save the world.
It’s easy to wonder how much we can do to save the world without leaving the house. I still haven’t forgotten the call to action from jen and Mad, illustrious co-founders of the Just Posts, to get up off our sofas and volunteer. To put our hands to work in ways that impact the world more directly than typing on our laptops.
But I’m sorry to say that I still haven’t acted, even on my idea to volunteer with Phoebe and Theo. I don’t want to make excuses, but lately there hasn’t been enough of me to go around without committing hours and energy to volunteer work. I’ll get there one of these days.
Enough about me. Back to the song.
Because a virtual office in a virtual home
Means you never have to drive through the wrong part of town
Hey! Are you guys dissing telecommuting? Because at least working from home can save gas.
I know, I know. It’s not just about telecommuting. The lyrics speak to the tendency of the better-off to hole up in safety, and avoid looking at, and interacting with, the problems that threaten our world. It’s a protest against closed gates, closed minds, and corporate greed. (It’s no coincidence that a line from the refrain of the song, “Where do you want to go today,” was also a slogan used by Microsoft.)
So here’s your final resting place
Your heaven is protected by security gates
Shut out the world, it’s getting worse
Save yourself, don’t leave the house
Because a happy future is a thing of the past
I take your point, Chumbwamba. But hopefully we can still work towards that happy future.
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Thank you for visiting this month’s Just Posts. Please drop by Holly’s to see what she has to say this month.
If you have a post in the list above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
Welcome to the June edition of the Just Posts, a monthly roundtable of posts about topics of social justice and activism in all shapes and sizes. Holly and I are pleased to share this wealth of posts that inspire and move and make us think.
The beginning of June saw the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing in 1989. Not even two weeks later, the world’s eyes turned to Iran as news came through of suspected fraud in the results of the presidential election. Reports and images of large scale protests of the disputed results were followed by those of violent crackdown against the protesters.
Each month, I have been highlighting a protest song in my introduction of the Just Posts list. The Tiananmen anniversary and the ongoing crackdown against protesters in Iran bring to mind the song “Ohio,” by Neil Young:
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunning us down
Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her
And found her dead on the ground
How can you run when you know?
The song was written in response to the the 1970 shootings at Kent State University in Ohio, in which 4 unarmed students were shot during a protest of the Vietnam War.
(This is a concert performance by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, with not-so-great sound quality. You can find a better quality acoustic version by Neil Young here.)
Whether or not the Iranian election results are legitimate (and I’m inclined to doubt their validity), it has been inspiring to witness the passion of so many in Iran as they call for reform in their government and demand that their voices be heard and their votes be counted. It has also been sobering to see the violent and repressive response from the government of Iran and the conservative supporters of that government, who have been acting to suppress the free flow of information.
While there is little that we can do to help, as individuals outside of Iran, recent technologies (like Twitter) have empowered those who are speaking out within Iran, and provided tools for organization and communication in the face of official attempt to silence the protests.
I’d like to take this as reminder that the act of speaking out by an individual can be part of a powerful movement for change. To speak out against the violent crackdown against protesters in Iran, you can add your voice to those of others around the world, such as by signing the petition organized by Avaaz.
I would also like to cheer on those people in the list below for speaking out on topics that are meaningful to them. I’d like to entreat you to visit their posts and encourage them to continue to speak out. Please click on the links!
If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
Holly and I are pleased to share the May Just Posts, the latest installment of the social justice blogging roundtable. This month’s collection of posts cover a range topics. Poverty. Racism. Sexism. Marriage equality. There are also several posts about the impact of health concerns and health care.
Each month, I’ve been sharing a song that speaks to topics of social justice. The song I’ve chosen this month is “Dust Bowl” by 10,000 Maniacs, a title fitting for these lean times being dubbed the “Great Recession.” Natalie Merchant gives voice to a mother struggling to make ends meet for her family. The illness of her daughter leads to additional hardship due to loss of work time and medical costs:
My youngest girl has bad fever, sure. All night with alcohol to cool and rub her down. Ruby, I’m tired, try and get some sleep. I’m adding doctor’s fees to remedies with the cost of three day’s work lost.
I try and try but I can’t save. Pennies, nickels, dollars slip away. I’ve tried and tried but I can’t save. The hole in my pocketbook is growing.
Sadly, many families can’t afford adequate healthcare for their children. SCHIP programs exist to provide insurance to children in low income families. However, many families still fall through the cracks, as they neither qualify for those programs, nor can they afford other insurance options. (For a very personal and eloquent account of these issues, please go read Kyla’s recent post.)
(The sound quality isn’t great in that video. Someone has posted the studio version, as well. )
Please go pay a visit to the blogs below, and encourage the bloggers to keep speaking out (well, keep writing out) for social justice. Let them know that their voices matter to you.
Please also drop by to see what Holly has to say this month.
—– If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
The April Just Posts roundtable is here, and Holly and I are pleased to serve up another round of posts on topics of social justice from around the blogosphere. Come join us ’round the table!
This month, I’d like to raise a glass to recent progress in the US towards marriage equality rights. In April, Iowa and Vermont joined Connecticut and Massachusetts in passing legislature allowing marriage rights to same-sex couples. Just a few days ago, Maine followed suit. There’s also news of progress in New Hampshire and New York.
While this doesn’t serve to wash away the bitterness of California’s Proposition 8, it shows that more and more people across the country are becoming more accepting of marriage equality.
Of course, there’s still lots of work to be done, with a vocal portion of the population speaking out “in defense of marriage” in its less inclusive definitions. In response, I offer up “Defenders of Marriage” by Roy Zimmerman:
Mr. Zimmerman scores bonus points for this line:
Let’s get the government out of our lives and into our pants
Thanks for reading! Please also pay a visit to Holly at Cold Spaghetti, and see what she has set on the table.
—- If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
Here we are, finally arriving at the March Just Posts. Holly and I are pleased as ever to offer to you this selection of posts from around the blogosphere that all seek make a difference in our world.
Continuing in my newly minted tradition of highlighting protest songs, this month I offer to you “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. The Indigo Girls cover of the song is one of my favorite songs, both for the messages it contains in the lyrics, and for its musical qualities. It’s an angry song, with a strong beat, and yet at the same time beautifully melodic. It’s one of those songs that I have to sing along with.
The lyrics tell of injustices being committed against Native American society even in recent days, crimes committed out of ignorance, arrogance and greed:
They got these energy companies that want the land
and they’ve got churches by the dozen
who want to guide our hands
and sign Mother Earth over to pollution, war and greed
One of the messages the song drives home to me is the reminder of the biases rampant in most of the versions of history that we are fed. (…our history gets written in a liar’s scrawl…) (I am also frequently reminded that I should finish reading the book by Dee Brown, also entitled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.)
Below is the Indigo Girls version of the song, which I know best. I also recommend listening to the version by Buffy Sainte-Marie herself, also on YouTube.
Thank you for reading! Make sure to stop by to see what Holly of Cold Spaghetti has to say.
If you have a post above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Cold Spaghetti. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.
collecting tokens 