Occupy: A Call for Accountability

Being part of a mass movement, the energy, the emotions and the determination of people drawn together to change what they believe is unjust is a powerful and addictive thing. I got a taste when I literally ran into hundreds of protestors marching in Occupy Oakland on Tuesday heading back to my hotel after a meeting. It was as if the crowd drew me in. Without thinking I pulled into a side street parked my car, joined the march, and got my cell phone to take pictures and video of history unfolding.

It was the most diverse group I’ve ever seen, made up of people from all walks of life, all racial and ethnic backgrounds, all religions and all ages – which our political leadership should realize is in itself a force to be reckoned with. It’s one thing to see it on TV, but being amongst them, you instinctively grasp and feel a part of an organic movement to fight for a common cause: demanding real change to address the inexcusable wealth gap in America and standing against the people and policies who have created this gap and those who still continue to benefit from this inequity.

Granted one of the critiques of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement has been the lack of a clear agenda; another has been the diversity of messages, issues, and demands made by the protestors. But one thing is undeniably clear: the 99% is unhappy and feels betrayed. And if our lawmakers and political leaders are smart, they won’t ignore this dissatisfaction as merely the complaints of a disgruntled few, because it absolutely is not. People are genuinely suffering and unhappy.

On Tuesday, I also felt the anger of the crowd; anger at the city of Oakland for raiding a camp where protestors had engaged in peaceful demonstration for two weeks; and anger at the fact that those in power don’t seem to be listening. And there was definitely anger at the hundreds of armed police officers in riot gear stationed around the city to treat the residents of Oakland as unruly lawbreakers. At one point, as we were congregated in what is now known as Oscar Grant Plaza (in memory of a young unarmed African American needlessly shot to death by a BART police officer), we began chanting “Oscar Grant,” at the police who were ready to attack the crowd with tear gas and batons. A few began cursing at the officers, some using very insulting language to convey that the police had betrayed the people. Others in the background were kinder, saying to the officers, “We love you, we’re doing this for you too.”

And at that point, I realized that this is all about accountability, whether it’s accountability for police officers, for government, for banks or for corporations. And that’s what the underlying demand of the protestors is: reforming our system to hold accountable those driven (perhaps by greed or simply by a system that allows them to do so) to increase their power, bank accounts and assets at the expense of those who are struggling every day just to make ends meet.

And it’s a call for accountability for America as a nation, with abundant wealth, resources, and the ability to house, feed and clothe every person who calls this country home. Yet, all you have to do is walk into any major city and visit the low income communities or areas of the city where the homeless congregate to see that we have failed to provide for the basic needs of those who are less fortunate. And for this we are all accountable.

As I get ready to leave Oakland, I hope that the OWS movement – of which I now consider myself a supporter – succeeds. I hope it stays true to the diversity that gives it an immense power. I hope this country lives up to its promise of justice, fairness and equality. This is the hope of people all over the world – as evidence by the Iranian reform movement and the Arab Spring. But the difference is that our system – at least in principle – allows us to express discontent and work towards progress without fear of repression or imprisonment. We have to work to translate these foundational principles into reality. And it won’t be a new phenomenon; America has seen great change come about through peaceful protest and civil disobedience – these were the cornerstone strategies of the civil rights movement. I hope we use lessons from our great history to ensure that the Occupy movement changes this country for the better, just as our predecessors who fought for racial equality did a generation or two before us.

Things That Matter More Than Us: Justice

Last week I was feeling a little bogged down, pondering questions of personal and professional growth, challenges that I face and had let weigh down on me like the weight of the world. Then I had a total moment of reality check as I went on a work trip to Georgia to advocate for saving the lives of two men – one who is close to being wrongfully executed and another who is serving a life sentence for rightfully protecting his family against an armed intruder. John McNeil and Troy Davis both have stories that will make your head spin.

McNeil was sentenced to life for shooting an armed intruder who had threatened his son and family on their own property – despite that Georgia is a leading gun-rights state and has the castle doctrine law on the books which gives the right to anyone to use force if they feel threatened on their own property without having to wait for the situation to escalate. I stood there next to his wife who is battling cancer for the second round and all she wants is to have her husband back home. I wonder if there are any cases of white men who have gone to prison for life for taking the same actions against a black armed intruder – or any armed intruder for that matter. Research to follow….

Any day now, Troy Davis’ name is about to be called for execution yet again. Troy was convicted of killing a police officer on the word of nine witnesses, seven of whom have recanted their statements. So, as we sit here the state of Georgia is preparing to kill a man on the shaky testimony of two witnesses, one of whom happens to be the other main suspect in the case. So, it means nothing that we – and I say we because we as residents of this country all have a hand in this – have serious doubts about a man’s guilt, but we’re still prepared to execute him and live up to our reputation as the one of the world’s leading countries who still relies heavily on the death penalty (another blog definitely required on this topic alone) as a form of social control – a failed form I might add.

Then I remembered again why I got into this work to begin with: because there are things that are more important than just us individually. There are people who have been wronged in ways that you and I can’t even imagine and we need to understand the power we have in working to correct a system that can and does commit such egregious injustices. And even if you want to take a personal perspective, think about this: it could be you sitting in that prison cell for life, or waiting to take that final walk towards the death chamber.

Being politically educated and aware and active is a must in this country – even though many among us may have stayed away from politics in the past or in our own respective countries for whatever reason. That’s what makes the U.S. great; we have the opportunity to be involved, to criticize the system and work to make it better. But we have to care first, and sometimes we have to care about things that are just more important than our own daily challenges; we have to care about others who have it much worse than we do and we have to be ready to roll up our sleeves and fight, and advocate, and have the difficult discussions and the difficult arguments.

And the last thing that we have to accept is that what this country does is a direct result of our action on inaction. Apathy is not an excuse. Every time someone is put to death, you and I are also partly responsible by virtue of being a part of this nation. So act and advocate with integrity and passion and maybe we can work to correct some of these wrongs, and maybe we can be part of a solution together. I promise you, we can save lives if do that.

Will Bin Laden's Death Change Anything? So Many Questions...

I got a late night text message from a friend who told me the news: FYI the US got Bin Laden. What?? That was my first reaction. The thoughts and emotions that followed kept me from going back to sleep, so I got online and decided to share these complex feelings, write them down, maybe it'll all start to make sense.

Many questions keep repeating in my head. Am I happy that Bin Laden is dead? I despised the man, he was a murderer, and I'm thrilled he can no longer lead, spread hate and death in the name of Islam. I don't know if that is happiness...I truly don't. I think more than happiness I feel sorrow for the lives that have been lost all over the world, I feel an immense sadness for the divide and sometimes mistrust and fear this "war on terror" has created between us and of those who are Muslim or from the Middle East. And I feel remorse for some of our misguided policies in the Middle East, policies that you and I both know are not just based on national security interests.

Do I think anything is going to change? Will we as a nation grow from this, learn, not repeat out past mistakes? Remains to be seen I guess. Were Bin Laden and Al Queda so short sighted as to not account for a plan of action should he be taken out? Will the resentment some in the Middle East feel towards us because of how we have treated them continue to grow and hurt us all? Will the actions of those like Pastor Jones - the crazy man who was so hell bent on burning the Quran - or the policies that we have implemented profiling those with Muslim or Middle Eastern backgrounds and discriminating against them...will the wounds that these and many other actions have created begin to heal?

These questions keep playing in my head. As I try to catch a few hours of sleep before I have to get up and start the week, I also keep revisiting the images of 9/11 and the feeling the devastation we all felt for the last ten year. Yes a murderer is dead, yes we committed murder to kill that murderer, we have started several wars as a result of what happened almost a decade ago and we sacrificed a lot - including our freedoms, our values of equality and anti-discrimination and our civil liberties - to get here. And so, it's up to us to make sure how this goes down in history, it wasn't just the story of an evil man attacking the US and us protecting ourselves and getting him back in the end. That's an over-simplification of what has happened and it's up to us to make sure the complexities are not lost as we write this history.

That's where I'll stop my middle of the night ramblings for now. And my search for answers, to be continued, as always.

Secularism Is the Answer, Always

The world has been mesmerize with the popular uprisings and the events in the Middle East over the course of the last months. There is nothing more moving than watching a people risk their lives and join a mass movement to demand freedom, equality and all the other rights that everyone deserves to enjoy. I'm wishing the people of Egypt success. But I can't ignore the part of my brain that is also afraid that we may see religion and state mix in the aftermath of this beautiful show of unity and camaraderie by the Egyptian people. I hope that doesn't happen, but it is a possibility.

Friends have said to me, we should let them choose, who are we to tell them what government they should have. I see that point. I'm still greatly concerned, because we have seen revolutions that started on similar principles turn completely around and use religious ideals to create new forms of oppression and brutality. Religion is a private matter, it is a guide for people to lead good and virtuous lives - if chosen freely, because forcing religion on people is as bad a tool for tyranny as any other. Religious principles can govern individual lives, but governing a country by those principles can ONLY lead to suppression of those that don't have the same belief system, or those that interpret the same principles differently. It becomes another form of state control.

So in the end, I'm not trying to force my beliefs onto anyone. But, I have to say what's on my mind. I am overjoyed by the victory that the Egyptian people have achieved (I am praying for similar victories against all oppressive regimes in the region). All I can say to Egypt is please choose wisely. Your future, the future of generations of Egyptians to come will depend upon it.

A Wake Up Call to Women: We Cannot Compromise Roe v. Wade

Thirty eight years ago, women won a huge battle in their struggle for equality and respect of their privacy rights. Roe v. Wade allowed us the option to decide for ourselves whether we want to have a baby or be a mother. Today, we are witnessing the most sever attack on that right being launched by the conservatives who have since November gained much more control or our political system. Let's be clear, this is not just an opposition to our freedoms and rights, but it's also an attempt to shore up emotion and anger in order to win elections in 2012. I am here to tell you, my friends, my sisters, the fight is on again and if we don't speak up, if we don't work to keep that right intact, we will one day realize that we are again returned to being second class citizens.

We're seeing attempts at limiting our right to pay for our own abortion through our private insurance, people are trying to tell us that we have to have children even if we get pregnant as a result of being raped, or if having children puts our own lives at risk. This is no time to be sleeping. How many of us still hear people say, "well if she was smart enough she wouldn't have gotten pregnant," or "if she didn't want it, she wouldn't have dressed like that, or acted like that." We are still blamed for the actions of others and held accountable for their lack of ability to control themselves, or their incontrollable hunger to prove aggression and power over us. Why don't they ask, "if he wasn't an asshole, he would have stopped when she said no."?

It's not only about instances where we are raped. So what if we we made a mistake, what if the condom broke? Should we not get to decide whether we want to carry a person inside of us for 9 months? Should we not get to decide if we are ready to be a parent? I get it, men have rights too and they should have a say, and if possible these decisions should be made by both parents. But let's face it, it is women who deal with the repercussions of being pregnant and, basically, our body our right. Plain and simple.

It's time for the feminist movement to wake up. It's time for the spirit that got us the vote, and won us Roe v. Wade to arise once more. And it's up to every single one of us. Being a feminist is not about giving up our femininity or being manly. Being a feminist is about demanding and fighting for control of your own body and our own life. And in that space we can choose to be housewives or powerhouse career women, in that space we can choose to be more feminine or less so, in that space we can decide whether abortion is right for us as individuals or not, in that space we can truly be ourselves.

Quran Burning: Hate Speech, Not Free Speech

Here’s the bottom line: do we have the right to burn Qurans, Bibles, crosses, and to display swastikas and other hate symbols? Yes, the act in itself is not illegal and can’t be seen as threatening unless the intent to intimidate or threaten can be proven. The Supreme Court determined that in Virginia v. Black in 2003. And unfortunately the legality of hate speech – for that is exactly what this is – remains a controversial topic of debate in America. However, the question to ask is whether it’s wrong to do these things? Absolutely. I see the proposed Quran burning event planned by Pastor Terry Jones to commemorate 9/11 as a hateful act, as a symptom of the decay of human decency.

Imagine if someone announced they planned to hold a large neighborhood bonfire and burn Bibles. How do you think the country would react? Some have compared the recent news that Florida-based Pastor Jones plans to burn Qurans on 9/11 to instances of flag burning. It absolutely is not. For one, the Quran is seen by practicing Muslims as the word of God. Burning it doesn't just insult their national identity; it strikes at the core of their moral foundation. Second, it’s usually protestors on the street that engage in flag burning, it’s rarely an organized campaign led by a religious leader of a community.

I understand the pain that this country suffered as a result of the 9/11 attacks, I feel that pain. I also understand that it will leave a scar in America's psych forever. But the answer is not and will never be hateful, misguided acts of vengeance – acts that often target, offend, and hurt millions of innocent and honest people around the world.

After years of struggling, I finally get it, some people have views that are hateful, some will have views that I completely disagree with, some are downright racist and there’s nothing I can do about it. But all that aside, there’s an element of logic that’s missing here: if national security is as important as we say it is, don’t you think burning Qurans would be seen as a needless act of war and put Americans at risk all over the world? (I personally think the government should use "national security interests" -as they so often do these days - to stop this before it happens.) But also imagine if a group of extremists were angered by this act and sought revenge against America, the reaction of many would be: “See, we were right, Islam is a religion of violence.” We don’t stop to think how our actions contribute to this perpetuating cycle of violence that has gripped our world.

In the end, every religion has been used to incite violence, hatred, and has led to bloodshed. So if we want to condemn Islam, we must condemn them all. But if we want to promote peace rather than perpetuate hate, we have to learn to be open to people’s beliefs, even if we don’t like or agree with them. We have to give up on the idea of vengeance (which for some reason is so hard to do for humanity), and we must stop condemning the greater group because of the actions of a few.

I still remain resolute that we can counter this decay of human decency, but we first have to want to, and then we have to work for it. It starts with what you teach your kids – by words and by example. And Pastor Jones of Florida, to me, is not qualified to lead anything, much less a congregation.

"Ground Zero Mosque" Debate is Utterly Un-American

For a country that prides itself in our Constitution and points to it as a blueprint for others searching for a fair system of government, for a city which proudly houses and boasts about the Statue of Liberty, it’s a shame that we’re even having this debate. It’s something that should scare us all, because once you start to chip away at the basic rights of one group it sets a dangerous precedence that will be hard to stop.

Despite depictions on the news, in movies and in the media, all Muslims are not potential terrorists, and should not be held responsible for the actions of a few terrorists who happened to be Muslim - just like all whites are not responsible for slavery, and all Germans are not potential Nazi’s. The assertion is absolutely absurd.

What’s more offensive is the assertion that the Muslims in New York who want to build a community center where they can go to take classes, meet one another, and yes pray, are insulting the memory of those who died on 9/11. How soon we forget that Muslims died on 9/11, Muslims helped heal the community in the aftermath of 9/11, and many Muslim nations mourned with us when they heard of the tragic attacks.

There is, understandably, much sensitivity and emotion surrounding anything remotely related to 9/11. But to allow emotion – and emotion that discriminates against a group because of their religion no less – to override our Constitutional rights would be the most un-American act of all.

Legal arguments aside – because we all know that those who want to build the Islamic community center are well within their rights and are not breaking any laws – the implications of this debate are huge. Many of us proudly call the U.S our home precisely because of the many freedoms that are guaranteed to us. If we now become a nation that wants to dictate to people what to worship, how and where, we will become the same as the many dictatorial nations we so condemn.

There is no doubt that this debate has been chosen by politicians as an election year issue. That this issue is one which comes in a stream of anti-Islam fervor sweeping the nation is obvious – the fact that so much time is spent on debating whether President Obama is Muslim or not is testament to that. That this is all coupled with the U.S. occupying two predominantly Muslim nations in the Middle East and talks of attacking another, says so much more.

The terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 along with other Muslim fundamentalists are fueled by anti-American sentiment. They believe that Americans hate Islam and all it stands for. The fact that so much time and energy has been spent on debating the building of this Islamic center has given them more ammunition, and provided those who may be on the fence an opportunity to see eye to eye with extremist groups. In short, we are shooting ourselves in the foot, acting as the best recruitment machine for Islamic extremist groups. Coupled with the needless, callous, deadly and downright sinful wars we have waged in predominantly Muslim Middle Eastern countries, this should give us all cause for concern.