Beyond Gratitude

A recent headline states "Forty-one years ago, the US took a big gamble on Vietnamese refugees."

This gratitude narrative makes me ill.

Accepting refugees is this country's responsibility.

I likely would not exist if my parents had not come to the US-- AND US foreign policy caused them to be refugees.

Highlighting economic successes achieved by refugees in this country is a distraction from the broad impact of US imperialism and its war economy.  It feeds into the colorism and anti-blackness that we must actively work against. The model minority myth is used to pit Asians against black and brown communities when what we need is solidarity.

People survive as best they can according to what white supremacy and colonization have allowed them.

If it were possible, I would trade my existence in a second for my parents to not have gone through the horrors that they did.

I can be thankful for my life and my loved ones and still hold this government accountable for what it's done and for what it does.

Our country has entered a new era of constant urgency and protest. This is an opportunity to shift our perspectives, to deeply examine history, and to investigate a new way forward.

One Week Later

I've spent the last week digesting the news, trying to sort out all the layers of what the election results mean to me, how they've affected me, and how they will impact this country. It has been hard. It has been really hard. 

I can see how Donald Trump appeals to those who have grown tired of being asked to empathize with immigrants, with people of color, with LGBTQ people, with women, with people whom they do not consider "real" Americans. I can see how Donald Trump represents dreams of money and power and freedom. 

I wish there were a way to sum it up so that those who voted for Trump might be able to hear me, to be in conversation with me, to empathize with the hurt that so many of us are feeling right now. That will explain the rage that so many of us are feeling right now. I want so badly for that to be possible.

I woke this morning with my composure cracked because the implications of Trump's win have become more clearly articulated in my mind.

• I am the child of refugees. The inherited trauma of what my parents and grandparents and older family members have been through has been triggered in a way that I have never felt before. We have talked at length and often about the difficulties, the terror, of their years in Cambodia during Khmer Rouge rule. I consider how things were in Cambodia before April 17, 1975. How there were those who could see what was coming and fled to the US, France, Australia, before tanks began traveling down the streets. And there were those who perhaps could see it but could not leave, those who had some sense of dread, but could only go about their lives affecting normalcy. I have a suspicion that "normal" changed by slow, small degrees, much as Trump's presidency and cabinet appointments are being normalized now.
  
  And I recognize how I have been grieving and angry but for the most part still living life as normal, going to the ceramics studio, working, cooking, seeing friends. How news fatigue settles in. How this is what many of us are doing. And there is a feeling in the pit of my stomach that hunkering down is not and has never been enough. That perhaps it would help me survive, but that the cost might be higher than I can stand.
  
• I am an outdoor educator. On expeditions, it is imperative that groups build trust and respect. We emphasize valuing diversity and inclusion, and I work hard to hold my students to high standards in their behavior and language toward one another. Our safety depends on being able to work together and take care of one another.
  
  Trump's win is an affront to everything I've been trying to teach. It tells us divisive, rude, sexist, Islamophobic, and racist behavior will not keep a person from winning the top office in this country. That so many in this country do not hold him to anything near the standards that I have asked of my students. 

Many people want to argue in abstract terms, many request not to be lumped in with white nationalists, racists, misogynists, Islamophobes, homophobes. I don't have the energy to provide that kind of reassurance right now. There is fear and dread, there are echoes of horrific histories, and there is an enormous grief. 

There is a part of me that still does not believe that Trump's administration will actually take power in January. And I know that I have to fight against that disbelief because what we need now is to strategize against that event. 

Reflections on CA Props 30, 34, 37

Today was not as emotional as the day after the 2008 election. After the presidential race (phew) and the historic victories for LGBT and Asian American communities across the nation, I was also watching closely for the results on California propositions 30, 34, and 37.

Prop 30 - Increase Education Tax - Passed

I'm excited at the margin with which this passed. The tides are turning, however slowly, toward more equitable taxation, and increased willingness to pour money into our education system. Now, the question of whether our education system is even effective is a whole other issue. When are we going to start reducing standardized testing (and the millions of dollars that go to the College Board, Princeton Review, and Kaplan), and spend more of that money on teachers, providing students with enrichment beyond the classroom (and, I daresay, beyond computers), and better food in schools? 

Prop 34 - Repeal Death Penalty - Failed

When I was a sophomore in high school, I wrote an impassioned essay about why I believed in capital punishment. My arguments were based mainly, I recognize now, on wanting vengeance. My feelings on how I would want to punish someone who badly hurt someone close to me haven't changed, but my perspective on whether the state ought to be allowed to do so has. I no longer believe in capital punishment. I don't even believe in our current prison system. Evidence shows a significant probability that innocent people are put to death. There's also the matter of the hypocrisy in criminalizing murder and then using murder as a punishment. I look forward to the day when California joins so many developed nations in abolishing capital punishment. 

Prop 37 - Label Genetically Modified Food - Failed

Big agriculture and companies like Monsanto have so much power that It didn't surprise me that this proposition didn't pass. I would have to see it pass, if only for the spectacle of stickers declaring genetic modification that would (likely) be slapped on to nearly everything in grocery stores. Since humans began practicing agriculture, we've employed genetic engineering; the difference (and problem) today is that the modifications are often made to increase productivity and transportability rather than for nutrition. Beyond getting the companies to employ these practices to stop, we have to begin to find other ways of feeding ourselves.

So there have been victories and setbacks, and the exhilaration of election night will fade, but it's not going to be one election or one ballot that will create the world we want. It happens every day, bit by bit, and it's happening constantly. It has to.

Indeed ! "@andiran: Now the work continues. RT @arc_rinkusen Now the work begins."
— Rinku Sen (@ARC_RinkuSen) November 7, 2012

Tomorrow is Election Day

I mailed in my ballot on Saturday. This election has come so quickly. Hopefully Tuesday's results will lead us to four more years of Obama, and in California: GMO labeling on our food, more money for education, and no more death penalty. 

One voter guide I used to help me in my decision-making:

I'm sure we must, we can, and we will eventually change our two-party system, but I voted for Obama because I don't think that it can happen in this country from the top down. Is it possible to convince enough people to elect a Green Party or Independent President before there's a significant presence in the rest of our government?

Another Reason to Garden in Los Angeles: Saving Water

When I first started gardening last year, I worried about whether it was right to expend all this water trying to grow things, especially considering Los Angeles' complicated history (and present) with water. I didn't want to be wasteful, or ultimately do more harm than good.

In an effort to assuage my conscience, I started to save water run off from my showers, washing rice, rinsing out my coffee mug and french press, from as many non-toxic water uses as possible and using that to water my garden instead. Admittedly, things have gotten a little grimy in my household, for which I will be eternally grateful to my roommate for tolerating. I guess the conservation is also an exercise in figuring out how to do things neatly as well. I have a tendency to allow my habitat to start looking like a zoo.

I store the salvaged kitchen water in these plastic orange juice bottles. I drilled holes in the caps, creating a makeshift watering can to avoid crushing delicate sproutlings. After about 8-10 months of use, the plastic eventually cracks, unfortunately, but at least their use got stretched a little bit. Eventually, I remembered how my family always had white five-gallon buckets around that once held various doughnut batters and fillings, and I asked politely for one from a beloved neighborhood donut shop. I use this bucket to capture water from my shower that otherwise just drains off into our municipal system-- perfectly good water that I waste by running the shower until it gets warm. Seeing how quickly the bucket filled up during this pretty typical routine has me considering taking bucket-baths as I did when I was growing up. (I distinctly remember the feeling of switching to showers and getting a thrill from the feeling of assimilation. Now, I want to turn back.)

Imagining Justice for Trayvon Martin (and All of Us)

I stopped by the Million Hoodie March for Trayvon Martin after work today, my hoodie up in solidarity.  There was a huge crush of people and an ABC7 van on Hill just south of Fifth, and the sea of bodies filling the square was heartening to see. I walked my bike carefully through the crowd, careful about keeping people from getting poked by my pedals. I was below the stage, separated by a concrete divider. I stood up on the rail so that I could see above the wall and catch a glimpse of the speakers, trying to listen to what they were saying, taking in the surroundings for the short time I could be there. 

Skittles & Tea 03/26/12

I've been in a few conversations about Trayvon Martin's killing in the last week, and it was only yesterday that it was pointed out to me that there is a language of innocence used as a tool to evoke  an emotional response about the injustice of this boy's killing. Someone presented the question: If he weren't holding only Skittles and iced tea, would that have made it okay? Would we accept this kind of killing if a knife or a bag of weed had been found on him? 

Bilingualism is Good for You // Time to Rethink Prop 227

A recent New York Times article, The Benefits of Bilingualism, presents that studies have shown cognitive benefits to being bilingual:

Bilinguals, for instance, seem to be more adept than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles. In a 2004 study by the psychologists Ellen Bialystok and Michelle Martin-Rhee, bilingual and monolingual preschoolers were asked to sort blue circles and red squares presented on a computer screen into two digital bins — one marked with a blue square and the other marked with a red circle. 

...

The collective evidence from a number of such studies suggests that the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention willfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.

This signifies that it's time to take a long, hard look at our monolingual education system and how it came to be, as well as consider its impact on the quality of our public education system.

Gentrification, USC, and U.N.I.D.A.D. (Part 1)

Tonight I went to the public hearing during which community members were allowed to speak on their feelings about the USC Specific Plan to develop University Park. I was there from 6-7:35 and counted 16 speakers who spoke in favor of the development as it is written, and 12 people who spoke against the development as it is written.

One thing that I noticed is that there is a false sense of opposition between those from USC's community programs like KidWatch and Neighborhood Academic Initiative and those from the U.N.I.D.A.D. coalition. U.N.I.D.A.D. is in no way against further development of student housing or amenities; what I gather the campaign wants is for USC to include community organizations that have been creating and building in the community for years in the development of the plan.

600 Jobs vs. 350 Families // South Central Farm News

Last November, LA's City Council voted 12-0 to allow the development of industrial warehouses at 41st & Alameda, breaking its promise to the community that any new development would include 2.6 acres of green space. I learned this after I stumbled across the 30-minute documentary Save The Farm, the story of the South Central Farmers and their fight to keep the 14 acres of land that was the largest community garden in the United States.

From 1992 to 2006, the 14 acres of South Central Farm looked like this:

Courtesy Mitch Glaser

Since the Farmers were evicted in 2006, it has looked like this:

From Google Maps

When I saw the footage of bulldozers razing the farm, pushing down fruit trees and destroying acres of crops, I cried. Watching that destruction, that waste, that disregard for the community, the brutality of the police breaking the picket line, hurt. The pain of the people who had worked that land for a dozen years was very real to me. From my own tiny parking lot garden, I've learned how much it means to coax fertility from unwelcoming ground. Furthermore, I have relationships with my neighbors that come from being out there watering and digging, and probably connections that I'm not even aware of-- a few weeks ago, three big plastic pots half-filled with dirt appeared in front of my door. I thought my roommate had brought them, only to find out from another neighbor that someone a few doors down had left them for me upon moving out. 

So it is hard to think of industrial development as having more real, lasting public good than a parcel of land where people grow things. The 600 jobs that come to the community also come with more traffic from trucks and commuters, adding pollution to to the area. Is "600 hundred jobs" really so much better than "350 families farming"? 

In the same month in which the USDA reported a record number of people receiving food stamps, LA City Council missed an opportunity to declare that a place to grow food and community is more important than a place to conduct commerce. Factories and warehouses close and decay when they are no longer profitable or useful to the owners. Poof, jobs--gone. A community garden will last as long as there are hungry people willing to tend it. LA once had the largest community garden in the nation and proved itself once again to be a city with no qualms about destroying what it has built. 

I look at the urban gardening movement in Detroit and in the world, and I look at empty lot after empty lot in Los Angeles, corralled by chain-link fences and occupied only by trash and weeds. I wonder what might grow there. I wonder how much more concrete will be poured, how much more asphalt will be spread, before we realize what a woman in the feature-length documentary The Garden said: Try planting on cement. You'll get nothing. 

Screenshot from The Garden

"It's a pretty simple idea-- land, people, food. Happy days." - Doris Bloch

If only modern politics were that simple. I've joined the South Central Farmers' email list to try to stay updated. Please share any further information around this issue. 

Donate to 'American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs'

Truth:

The Los Angeles-based writer/director Grace Lee's next project is a documentary about this bad-ass, nonagenarian philosopher/activist:

American Revolutionary - Indiegogo 09/1/11 from American Revolutionary on Vimeo.

She's sent out these compelling messages to the Occupy Together movement activists (and to all of us).

Grace Lee Boggs' message to Occupy Wall Street - 10/9/11 from American Revolutionary on Vimeo.

Grace Lee Boggs' Message to Occupy Wall Street Part 2 from American Revolutionary on Vimeo.

Donate to the IndieGoGo campaign today--ends at midnight and it's less than $2,000 away from the goal thanks to a promised pledge of $1,500!

Demands for Los Angeles // Occupy LA

"In the end, what we want to do is inspire working-class people to get involved in the political process." This was in an LA Times article when the occupation first began.

A more recent article cites that there are "plenty of complaints and few specific demands other than holding banks and major corporations responsible for the country's economic crisis." Reading this brought a couple of potential demands for the City of Los Angeles come to mind:

• A hold on construction plans for the new football stadium in Downtown. In The Nation's special sports issue this summer, Neil DeMause asks Why Do Mayors Love Sports Stadiums?  

Studies demonstrating pro sports stadiums’ slight economic impact go back to 1984, the year Lake Forest College economist Robert Baade examined thirty cities that had recently constructed new facilities. His finding: in twenty-seven of them, there had been no measurable economic impact; in the other three, economic activity appeared to have decreased.

Governor Jerry Brown just signed two bills that will expedite the development process, saving the developers money but giving the public less opportunity for discussion and dissent. “We’re going to protect the environment,” Brown said. “But there are too many damn regulations. I’ve got some power now. Let’s cut the barriers and regulations and move ahead.” Building a stadium will get some construction jobs, then some more contracts for service employees, but will that really contribute to a better Los Angeles in the long run? I don't think so.

• Raise taxes on major corporations and that top 1% and invest funds in public education, mass transit, neighborhood beautification, increase hours of service for public libraries. 

The time seems ripe to stop being scared of companies leaving our cities, our states, our countries, and time to start thinking about the impact of these companies' whose bottom line has nothing to do with what the surrounding community needs and wants. I'm more concerned with mom-and-pop shops closing their doors than whether or not Wal-Mart decides to build a superstore in my neighborhood. Isn't it time to stop being dependent on big business for employment and instead create an environment for more creative development?

A study by researchers at Loyola University found that, two years after a Wal-Mart store opened on Chicago's West Side, more than 80 local businesses within a four-mile radius (nearly one-quarter of the total) had closed and about 300 people had lost their jobs 

That Wal-Mart stores cause job losses was also the conclusion of a study by the University of California, which tracked Wal-Mart's expansion across 3,000 counties. The study found that the opening of a Wal-Mart store resulted in a net loss of 150 jobs on average. For every 5 people hired at a new Wal-Mart store, the results showed, 7 people lost their jobs at existing businesses. - Marjorie Pritchard at The Boston Globe 

I haven't been out to the encampment in Downtown LA. I'm not about to tell the people there what they "should" be doing. Whatever reservations I may have about the way things are playing out, I'm glad to see something happening. I'm glad to see people out doing something. I'm glad to see people out there feeling something. With a 12.5% unemployment rate, it's only right.

Los Angeles DREAMs

I had an eerily calm commute from Downtown LA to my current residence in the South Bay yesterday. Heading south at two in the afternoon on the 110 through South LA has not been that clear on a weekday in-- ever. No congestion passing USC, no slowing-down at Gage or Manchester. 

One thing about having a commute is that I've come to appreciate Los Angeles public radio much more than before. I'm not a big podcast-listener so I never subscribed.

Today I was listening to KCRW when UnFictional came on. I got to hear American Dreamer, the story of a talented jazz saxophonist who could not gain admission to college because of his undocumented status. It was a timely broadcast-- this week is a DREAM Act Week of Action to pressure Congress to finally pass the DREAM Act, giving undocumented students a path to citizenship. 


A few of the actions happening in Los Angeles:

Wednesday Dec. 1, 2010:
* Phone Banking at the “I Believe in Dream Act in 2010″ Call Center
Morning Shift: 6AM- 10AM
Evening Shift: 6PM-10PM
Asian Pacific American Legal Center 1145 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90017

Thursday Dec. 2, 2010:
Press Conference and Rally
* “Nation supports Dream Act and Trutanich wants to punish supporters?!”
8AM
210 W Temple St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Friday Dec. 3, 2010:
* Coming Out in Support of Wilshire Dream 9 Allies
8AM
Press Conference and Rally
210 W Temple St
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Read more:

• Daring to DREAM: In Memory of Student Warriors Tam Tran and Cynthia Felix
• DREAM Act could generate $1.6 trillion (I'm not one for number crunching, but whatever gets this passed.)
• Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa Announces Support for DREAM Act
• CA already has legislation in place to assist undocumented students