video numero uno!

The Low Road by Marge Piercy

Each Day One More

by Marge Piercy

What can they do

to you? Whatever they want. 

They can set you up, they can bust you, they can break

your fingers, they can 

burn your brain with electricity, 

blur you with drugs till you 

can't walk, can't remember, they can

take your child, wall up

your lover. They can do anything

you can't blame them

from doing. How can you stop

them? Alone, you can fight,

you can refuse, you can

take what revenge you can

but they roll over you.

But two people fighting

back to back can cut through

a mob, a snake-dancing file

can break a cordon, an army

can meet an army.

Two people can keep each other

sane, can give support, conviction, 

love, massage, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation,

a committee, a wedge. With four

you can play bridge and start

an organisation. With six 

you can rent a whole house,

eat pie for dinner with no

seconds, and hold a fund raising party.

A dozen make a demonstration.

A hundred fill a hall.

A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;

ten thousand, power and your own paper;

a hundred thousand, your own media;

ten million, your own country.

It goes on one at a time,

it starts when you care

to act, it starts when you do

it again after they said no,

it starts when you say We

and know who you mean, and each

day you mean one more.

wow.

quarterlife

"Why does our generation have such incredibly high expectations for ourselves? Why do so many of us feel like as soon as we leave school, we have to rack up achievements quickly? That we have to be recognized? Why do we feel over-the-hill if we haven’t done something huge by the advanced age of 25? I think it’s attributable to a combination of things. The high-stakes testing education atmosphere. The seemingly plummeting age of celebrities. The sheer necessity of making a lot of money to pay back ridiculously high student loans. Helicopter parents."

This was posted in an article by Alexandra Robbins on the new website/community/show Quarterlife from Marshall Hershkovitz and Edward Zick, the creators of My So Called Life and Once and Again, two of the best dramas in the history of TV. Check out Quarterlife and post your thoughts.

Will Travel for Food

A friend's Facebook post called my attention to this amazing recent article in the NYTimes, talking about the role of markets in sight-seeing. Not the economist's "markets," but the fun traveler's kind of food and beverage, day and night markets. I have considered various kinds of markets and ethnic grocery stores to be one of the simpler pleasures in my life, enough to get me excited in my own neighborhood and while traveling. Mimi Sheraton writes:

Yet food markets deserve equally high billing on a must-see list. For as inspiring as the more standard sights can be, they do not rival the ebullience of modern-day markets and their colorful links to the economy, customs and even dialects of a city. In a world ever more homogenized, food markets afford visitors one of the few opportunities to glimpse locals going about one of their essential daily chores.

Unfortunately, my limited traveling experience has not taken me to any of the markets on her list, nor have I been to any markets, a highlight of the article. I must have been across the street from La Merced market in Mexico City without knowing it at the time. El Merced, in Mexico City, is compared to el Mercado (Central) de Abastos in Oaxaca City, which I did frequent, along with los mercados de Veinte de Noviembre and de Benito Juarez. I would also add the DeKalb Farmer's Market in Atlanta, which is actually a year-round indoor market, to Sheraton's list.

I also came across this meme inviting submissions to add to the list of Things to Eat Before You Die. Check it out and maybe add some of your own...

Ron Rifkin: Return of the Gay Jewish Trade Unionist?

Jon Robin Baitz, the creator of my favorite show currently on TV, Brothers and Sisters, has been spending his time penning mini-diatribes on Huffington Post, instead of scripts for the network drama.

He's been making a lot of good points about the need for unions in Hollywood and in the US as a whole, and defending the actions of the WGA against a number of harsh critics.

And Ron Rifkin, the actor playing the 60-yr-old-closeted-Jew Saul Holden, in one of B&S's best current storylines has been walking the picket line with him in solidarity with the writers saying things like "in perfect French, that he is here 'because without the word, what is there?...There is nothing...'"

It's been pointed out on Brothers and Sisters fan websites, that Rifkin has a history of paying closeted older men, and there is a clear old-skool, Ashkenazi, NY quality to his acting and dialogue as Saul Holden, despite that the family is born & bred California. Well, Rifkin was born in 1939 Brooklyn, near the end of the powerful Jewish trade unions in NY, but at the height of the Communist Party's power in the US and involvement by Jews in the CP. Not to suggest that Rifkin is, himself, gay, but if you blur the lines a bit, a picture starts to develop of the old stereotypical gay, Jewish trade-unionist, working in Hollyood. A picture which would not be entirely invaluable in this day and age when Jews seem to be tied to every Republican scandal that's uncovered.

A friend of mine spent the better part of 2007 working for the WGA-west, before moving on to a current job with the Teamsters. To be honest, at the time, I was incredibly skeptical of the value of her work in promoting any kind of vision of social justice, especially because she was working with reality TV show writers. Although I still don't understand the value of reality TV shows at all, I think the strike has made me understand her work a bit more.

Although I tend to believe that TV is for the most part contributing to the downfall of our society, seeing as how I have not yet sworn it off (and probably won't, although due in part to my love for CSPAN), it seems a bit hypocritical of me to not see the value of unionization in a sector that, rightfully or not, is at the center of the public eye. Maybe this strike will actually workers' rights to a larger audience than any awareness campaign, or even the NYC MTA strike could have. People seem more upset that their favorite shows might be off the air, then they did when they couldn't to (or home from) work 2 years ago during the MTA strike.

Anyway, I salute Baitz and Rifkin, for both their work on the screen, portraying the courageous struggle of Saul Holden, and off the screen sticking by the integrity of their craft and their fellow foot soldiers.

NY Groups Sue Pharmacies Over (Lack of) Translation

Make the Road by Walking and New York Immigration Coalition, two excellent organizations in NYC, last week announced their campaign against pharmacies in NY for discriminating against non-English speakers. The suit is specifically against 16 pharmacies Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island, some of which are operated by Rite Aid, CVS, Duane Reade, Walgreens and Wal-Mart.

According to the NYTimes article, the complaint argues that federal civil rights law and state health regulations require pharmacies to provide linguistic help to guarantee that people who speak little or no English receive equal access to health care. That assistance should include interpreters at pharmacies and written translations of medication instructions, the advocates say...

The complaints also cite the New York Education Law, which requires that medications be labeled in a way that ordinary people can understand. That is meaningless if they are in a language the patient does not comprehend, Mr. [Andrew] Friedman, [the director of MRNY] said.

As an intern for the NYUSOM's Center for Immigrant Health (CIH) 3 years ago, I learned first -hand some of the difficulties non-English speakers face in their attempt to get medical care, or in this case prescriptions.

For example, if prescription dosages are written only in English, there are often many problems with translations, even with numbers, which you would assume would make things simpler, not more complicated. The classic example is: "Take ONCE weekly" to a spanish-speaker looks like "ONCE" or Eleven-times.

MRNY, the NYC Immigration Coaltion, and CIH are among a number of groups researching and advocating for a variety of solutions to these problems, ranging from the kind of legal and legislative strategies in the NYTimes article, to remote simultaneous medical interpreting (RSMI), which CIH has done extensive research on, in conjunction with several city hospitals. I recently had a disagreement with a friend about the merits of simultaneous vs. non-simultaneous translation. While there may be disagreement about the best methods to solve some of these problems, there are still way too few resources devoted to researching and strategizing to fix the problem, especially when considered in comparison with the number of medical mistakes that happen every year as a result of language problems.

Obama in Boston

So, I haven't chosen a Democratic prez candidate since my last post, but Obama came to Boston and spoke at a huge rally with Governor Deval Patrick, and I went with some friends from school, because I wanted to hear him, give him the opportunity to win me over, and...it was just cool.

He didn't exactly win me over, but he was inspiring at times.

Here are some photos:

New Research on Newports

Anyone who has spent considerable amounts of time in urban areas with a high density of low-income African-Americans should not be surprised by a recent Johns Hopkins study that found extremely high rates of smoking amoung young, poor African-American adults.

The NYTimes article finds many researchers to be shocked by the findings, despite previously existing knowledge of high rates of smoking in low-income, minority and young adult communities.
The high prevalence of Newports and other menthol cigarrettes is also noted in the article, which is something I experienced every day while walking to and from work in Harlem two years ago, where there were always many people selling Newports in full packages and individually on the area's cultural and commercial hub of 125th st.

What was of greater interest to me was the information about the potential targeting of menthols, which may be easier to start and harder to quit smoking, to already vulnerable populations. This was denied by Lorillard Tobacco Company, the maker of Newports, but there may be reason to believe otherwise.

In recent years, the promotion budgets of major cigarette companies have been disproportionately devoted to menthols, said Gregory N. Connolly, director of tobacco control research at the Harvard School of Public Health. “It appears the industry is targeting the most vulnerable groups through advertising and manipulation of menthol levels,” Mr. Connolly said.

A professor of mine recently recounted her growing frustrating with the continuous research on "health disparities," when it is fairly common knowledge that being poor is connected to being unhealthy or sick, and has been for centuries. While I am interested in health disparities as an outcome to use as a goalpost for change, I agree that continued research into some of these phenomenon seems an almost unethical use of research dollars, when so much is already known about these disparities, but the real change is changing both the environmental and behavioral factors which contribute to them.

Revolution Against Whole Foods?

Although there are only 3 Whole Foods stores in Washington, DC, they've been the target of a lot of rage lately, both consumer rage and environmental rage.

The Slow Cook reports on its scuffle with Whole Foods over the store's continued practicing of sidewalk-washing even during the city's recent drought.

Then, what had to be an organized group of almost 2 dozen, tried to steal food from Whole Foods and get into cabs...and only two were arrested. It looks like it's the Whole Foods in between Shaw and Dupont, on M st is it?

Black Farmers in an Election Year

I've been struggling to find a single Democratic candidate with enough positive attributes and few enough negative attributes that I feel that I can support them above all others, even if, being a graduate student without a trust fund, this means only in conversations with friends, rather than any more substantial form of support. Yes, it is still early, but both inside and outside the Beltway, I'm constantly asked who I like, who I'm supporting.

For a while, I was a big fan of Gov. Bill Richardson, and I still think he has a number of great qualities. Unfortunately, as the days pass, one of them seems less and less likely to be an ability to actually receive the Democratic nomination, whether or not they do include an ability to be elected to an office not based in New Mexico. This is particularly unfortunate, because --as I see it-- he was handicapped from the start by the fact that he hadn't a) previously run for president, b) been First Lady or c) been his party's new young, fresh-faced celebrity. The fact that things got rolling so early, and that the media, and therefore the public, insisted on reporting on funding and polling so early in the game, has handicapped him further, and only created a snowball effect of supporting those already in the lead based on name recognition.

Nevertheless, when I start pairing candidates together in my head, the combinations all seem better than any one alone. I could change my mind tomorrow, but an Edwards/Obama ticket is starting to look great in my head.

Although Edwards already has an advantage in the South, here's another feather in the cap of that ticket. Ken Cook of EWG reports on a Hill story about the potential for Obama to win Southern black votes by campaigning on "his commitment to bring relief to black farmers" via Pigford.

While the Congressional Black Caucus was instrumental in requiring gains for minority farmers and food stamp increases in order for a Farm Bill to pass in the House, the picture does not look as rosy in the Senate, where there is a black caucus of 1. However, if Obama chooses to champion one or more of these issues in the Senate, it may accomplish multiple goals at the same time-- gaining him votes and pushing the issue to the forefront of Senate Farm Bill debate.

Senate Votes to End Global Gag Rule

As skeptical as I became this summer about Congress and our federal legislative process, I can recognize when Congress does something good.

In a reversal of the West Wing episode Privateers (Season 4- #83), the Senate passed its Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill with an amendment that would repeal the "Global Gag Rule,"--a provision which bans all money from going to foreign organizations that also provide women with abortions-- which was reinstated by Bush on his first day in office. Led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), the Senate accepted the amendment and voted for the bill (81-12), which also included over $5 bill to combat HIV-AIDS in developing countries.

Although the House version of the bill did not include this amendment, it did weaken the GGR, by "exempting contraceptives from the Global Gag Rule and repealing the abstinence-only funding restrictions for HIV prevention programs." Although President Bush has threatened to veto the Bill if these changes are included, we'll have to see a) what happens in conference and b) if he's bluffing or not.

In the West Wing episode, the tables were turned, and President Bartlet had to decide if he would veto a Foreign Ops bill that his Republican Congress had attached the Global Gag Rule to...in the end, I think he didn't do it, much to Abby's dismay. Despite everything I saw this summer, my trust falls with the real-life Democratic congress, and their ability to make some small incremental change successfully.

Sicko Leads to Action

I just returned from Michael Moore's new film "Sicko," which I did like as I usually like his films, though it was not perfect. Obviously there are some issues which I think he oversimplifies- the quality of complex surgeries and experimental treatments, is of course not as strong in his "model" nations--Canada, U.K, France and Cuba-- as it is in the United States. And while the Cuban medical model is lauded by many around the world for being extremeley efficient in its focus on prevention and its strength in the face of lack of technological resources, there are definitely problems with the system owing to a lack of resources and to the lack of esteem and remuneration afforded to Cuban doctors-- such that taxi driver is a more coveted profession than doctor.

However, I am really proud that he has selected a concrete issue to target his energies over the past few years, creating a masterpiece of investigative journalism. Where his 2 previous films opened eyes, their value as organizing tools was overshadowed by the criticism they attracted. Sicko, however, I think goes further in helping a specific policy agenda, that is at least more winnable than the vague links between GWBush and the Saudis that I recall as prominent in Fahrenheit 911. There is no way anyone can spin any part of Sicko as a mere conspiracy theory. Can you think of any single fact or scene that could be?

I just visited Moore's website, and have been prompted to call my congressman's office this week and ask his healthcare staffer [**Important Fact #1 that I learned this summer: You can call the office and ask who works on a particular issue. Then call back and ask to speak with that person and it will be much more effective in getting the message across than just speaking to whoever answers the phone. You can also email that person directly, for the house it's first.last@mail.house.gov.] for him to co-sponsor HR 676, which is Rep. John Conyers' (D-MI) National Healthcare legislation.

So this blog has been extremely slow of late, in part because I've been blogging at The Jew and the Carrot and US Food Policy, and in part because I've been too busy living life to blog about it (such is the nature of summer).

The exciting news is that this week I got a new camera, a Canon Powershot SD1000 Digital Elph, so I now have a fully functioning camera with re-chargeable batteries (good for the environment!) and 7.1 Mpixels (good for the eye?)!! I'm momentarily posting lots of photos from the past several months in Cambridge, DC and elsewhere.

Yesterday, I spent several hours with D & E (and E's friends) at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which this year is celebrating the cultures of Northern Ireland, the Mekong River and historic Virgina.

Today, Sarah and I went canoeing on the Potomac, westbound for a short stretch from the Thompson Boat House. pictures are vaguely reminscent of 4 yrs ago Thursday with Grace and Nina...

I feel like Christina Yang right now. My supervisors just went to a meeting with a staffer- I was supposed to go, but am left in the office to deal with my supervisor's computer, which she accidentally spilled tea on this morning- I'm waiting for the building management staff person to arrive with a small alan wrench so I can open up the computer and try to air it out further.

I don't really mind staying back- I understand that there is no real need for me to be at this meeting with them except for my own edumakation, and I did go to a meeting with another staffer with them this morning. But still, I feel very Christina-like, missing out on all the "fun" action, which I'm actually quite nervous about in the first place. There is also the Horticulture and Organic Agriculture subcommittee mark-up session going on right now, which I am also not at.

I'm sure I will have enough of these meetings and mark-ups next week when the Nutrition sub-committee has its mark-up session, let alone before the end of the summer.

I'm working on a post to recap the past month of hiatus from the blog, but in the meantime, here is an interesting article on Grist by Tom Philpott about some of the hypocrisy behind the Slow Food movement and its leaders: Slow Food Fight.

Eastern Market Destroyed, DDR at School

How sad!
Fires Ravage Eastern Market, Georgetown Library in 12 Hours

-I was just getting all excited about working near Eastern Market this summer. I know it's not quite the same as a FM, but for those of us who live in cities that are only pursuing the idea of a year-round public market, we are jealous of such places. Let the rebuilding begin!

In other news, NYTimes reports that DDR is joining the fight against childhood obesity:

“I like that you get to listen to music and you don’t have to be on a team or go anywhere special to play,” Anna said after their song. “If you do baseball or basketball, people get really competitive about it.”

Mikayla chimed in, “And you don’t have to be good at it to get a good workout.”

By next year, Dance Dance Revolution will be installed in all of West Virginia's public schools.

Man, I would have loved DDR when I was in school, and PE was most certainly always the bane of my existence, from elementary through high school. When we talk about encouraging physical activity among kids, I always have to think extra hard, because it's unclear to me how to do so without persisting with the negative gym associations. I know how much I hated it, and I wasn't even overweight. We have to foster the culture of wanting to be physically active.

regrets, moving forward

well, the conference was quite something. when something's called a "Networking Conference," don't underestimate the meaning of that. I can't believe how many people I met, and how many more amazing people were there who I didn't meet. If you're interested in hearing more, let me know.

And yet, I'm left with more questions than answers, as I journey toward some kind of tangible goal and life's work/interest. I'm left with questions about the role of non-profit work in America, and the foundation/grant cycle. and the degree to which things are ever black and white.

And I return to my constant battle with radicalism vs incrementalism. I thought grad school was turning me into more of an incrementalist. But yet when I'm faced with a hotel full of incrementalists, I end up siding with the radicals....
who knows?
what to do?

I'm left with many questions, and possibly many regrets. I know regrets are useless and parasitic. But I wish I had spent time doing passionate things like traveling and farming before feeling the need to be responsible and jump into the seriousness of grad school. Now I'm left feeling like I've missed out on more than I ever could have imagined.

I met some amazing folks, of all ages, but the youth were the most inspiring. the dreamers and the livers. not the deciders.

I saw some beautiful film clips and publicity photos. I have an image in my head of urban gardening and painting murals with kids, the echo of reggae music providing a frame, which seems like the ideal life. I know I don't need much to live on, but with impending student loans, even this image seems like a utopian dream.

With each exam and paper, am I resigning myself to a life of memos, office work and vitamin D deficiency? of black slacks and neat hairstyles? of cabs and conferences? isn't this what I wanted? Isn't this the only life I've ever lived? Others talked of growing up on farms, of agricultural grandmothers. I have nothing of the sort to ground me, only toiling city-dwellers, penny-pinching neuroses. But does that matter? Reinventing yourself is pretty fuckin hard. But it's awfully depressing not to.

genocidal memories

On Erev Yom Hashoah last Saturday, I went to an amazing performance of Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird with Michael Winograd, an old friend, performing on Clarinet. As posted on Jewschool, they performed last night at Barbes, in Brooklyn. We'll have to see the reactions of folks to that show on Jewschool.

The show at the Workmen's Circle in Boston, provided a nearly perfect space for the unique ensemble, whose name is based on a graphic and haunting novel by Kosinski about the aftermath of WWII in Europe for a young boy. The music is really hard to classify, but my first reaction to Dan Kahn was the cabaret quality of his voice; throughout the performance, I didn't know if I wanted to pay more attention to the lyrics or to the music, which rarely happens to me- it's usually one or the other. I could have thought of no better way to observe Yom Hashoah, then sitting in the front-row, surrounded by a multi-generational group of friends and secular Jewish activists, listening to musical fables, one of which was called "6 Million Germans" about a plot by Aba Kovner and his crew. I highly advising checking out the Myspace and buying some tracks on itunes.

And Mike Winograd's got some other gigs coming up- he is also an unparalleled musical treat, though generally less depressing when without Dan Kahn.

Soupbunnie writes about the desensitization many of us Americans are feeling about Darfur and the need for us to actually do something, based on an incredible evening she had last night. In typical style, quality prose from the bunnie, provoking deep thought. On this day sandwiched between Holocaust Remembrance Day (last Sunday) and Earth Day (tomorrow), I propose takign the Bunnie's advice to follow the Genocide Intervention Network's action alert and write to Congress urging support for the Sudan Divestment Authorization Act. I trust bunnie's recommendations on this issue (and many others.) But read her post also!

recent adventures in cooking

recent adventures in cooking
Originally uploaded by dj za.

sesame noodles

ok, I take back most of my previous post. I've been reading/seeing
more about this true tragedy today, as more about the shooter's
history has unfolded, and now this unbelievably crazy business about
his mailing a tape to NBC News....I've left my bubble and watched a
bit of CNN today- they've been showing lots of photos of the folks who
were killed. turns out one of my colleagues did her undergrad at VT,
and as I watched her today, I tried to imagine what this would have
been like if I were an alum.

There was definitely some insensitivity in my post earlier, but still
think the perspective needs to be maintained, remembering that the
Americans dying in Iraq are the same age as these students.


In other news, I just made the "80's Take-Out Style Sesame Noodles"
from the NYTimes that I posted on Jcarrot last week. They were soooo
amazing:


sesame noodles
Originally uploaded by dj za.

i've seen a lot of emails, blog posts, facebook stuff, etc about the horror of the killing rampage at VA-Tech. Yes, I agree it was horrible. But I honestly can't really get myself to feel a tremendous amount of grief. or fear. Maybe I'm just an insensitive person too caught up in my own life. I'm being completely honest here. I can't relate to students in Blacksburg, a town I've never been to, and fortunately haven't added school shooting to the list of paranoid fears in my head. Honestly, memories of the LIRR shooting by Colin Ferguson still loom a lot heavier when I think about random acts of violence.

And that's just what this was- random. Unless they can find evidence of some widespread condition or problem that can explain a large percentage of the variance, of the reason why the shooter would do something like this, it will remain a random act of violence.

In general, I have been much more concerned about ongoing large scale problems, violent and otherwise, which have been documented to kill more people than the crises, the anomalies. It's hard to get over the shock value of the school shooting, the sexiness of the car accident. But if you think of the numbers of people being killed every day by diarrheal disease, the rising tide of death in Iraq (the 127 killed in bombs today), it tends to put things in perspective.

Not to say that I don't often awaken with a startle in the middle of the night for fear of violent night intruders (based on personal experience). So maybe I AM just insensitive. Who knows. But come on, if we're praying for these victimes, the least we can do is also pray for the families of folks sent over to Iraq. and for the folks themselves.

Update: So, there was obviously a lot in this post that was highly insensitive and reductive. Now that more information about the shooter's mental state have become clear, I am embarrassed by some of the earlier assumptions I made and hope that I will not be judged based on. Yet, I have decided not to remove this post, as it remains accurate to my feelings at the time.