IN MEMORIAM: TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE - NOVEMBER 20

Share

TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE November 20
"This day was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.   Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.   The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence."   Note: The original post can be found at http://www.rememberingourdead.org/day/what.html   The Remembering our Dead Web Project and The Transgender Day of Remembrance are owned by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, All Rights Reserved

SF Peaceful march for health care on Sept. 13, 2009

"Hello true believers!"

(View pictures of the event)

With these words, At City Hall, State Sen. Mark Leno, who represents the 3rd Senate District-- including portions of San Francisco, saluted us after our march, of course, it is always a pleasure to give and receive a hug and a peck on the cheek by an old friend who is doing many good things.

I'm so glad I did March, I saw so many beautiful people who are very committed to fight for True Health Care Reform for All.

I got to talk to Elizabeth Ward is a 53-year-old Republican who held a sign stating "Rational Republicans for Reform." - She is part of a disappearing breed, 'Rational Republicans'

I got to talk to members of two sight-seeing groups, from Spain and from Italy, they took pictures of us and maybe wondered: 'what is wrong with this country?'

A middle-aged Italian lady, borrowed my sign for her friend to take a picture of her holding it.

I do not own a camera and I didn't even take pictures with my cell, I was more focused on marching and displaying the signs I made -

I'm terrible at making signs, but they had a lot of work and loving care in them - in one I placed a picture or our dear and, sadly departed friend, Teddy, with the captions "THANK YOU TEDDY, FAREWELL!" "THE DREAM LIVES ON... IN US!", on the lower right hand side in a 8 1/2" by 11" page, I included two quotes from our President:

"If we are'nt willing to pay a price for our values, then we should ask ourselves whether we truly believe in them at all"
-- Barack Obama
From his autobiography "The Audacity of Hope"

The other quote was:

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."
-- Barack Obama<> 'February 2008 Election Night'

My intentions for adding these quotes, were not so much to inspire us in following our President's beautiful words, no, quite the contrary, I wanted for us to let him know that we remember the words with which he inspired so many of us, to put aside our cynicism and loss of faith in politicians, and to believe against historical facts, that maybe in him we had found 'un frijol de un kilo' (A bean which weighs one pound (old Mexican saying)), and that he was ready to work with us to make the changes that the people in this country, and the country itself, desperately need.

There was no ambiguity during last year's campaign in what he proposed we would accomplish were he, with our support, be elected President; then, why the ambiguity now?, the parsing of words?, the compromising of the bargain we made during his campaign and which was sealed at the Ballot Box?

I wanted to tell him, yes Mi Presidente, I remember your words and I want to also ask you if you still believe that we must ask ourselves if we truly meant what we said, as you so beautifully stated, I know many of us did and still do, how about you?

Anyway, back to the story about our SF March, staff from the SFSU Student paper were covering it, Martha Vallejo, a staff writer wrote a piece and there were two staff photographers, Anthony Anastasi and Maria Katrina Echon who took some great pictures which they share in a photo gallery.

Well, that's about it on the March for HealthCare in San Francisco, organized out of OFA, except, that I can't get out of my mind the thoughts that I had while we were marching: "Many of us here worked very hard to elect B. H. Obama President and give Dems majorities" And there are many others, millions actually, who did the same, "Where are they?", "Did they lose their hope and faith?", "Did they miss the words 'it is up to you to make change happen' that our candidate kept voicing?"

Oh well, I guess it is much easier to complain that Barack Obama is not doing this, or doing that, hey! What a great way to relieve oneself of any responsibility, isn't?

While it is true that our President and the Dems seem to be ready to throw us under the bus, it is also true that many of us are abdicating our responsibilities inherent in a Participatory Democracy, albeit Representative in large part, it is still supposed to be participatory and allegedly is what we have in these United States of America.

But in any event, it is up to us because we are the stakeholders in this Franchise, yes indeed, we are the Government and whatever is done in our name or happens, it is on us.

There is a quote whose words I have been trying to find out, for quite awhile, who voiced them, Cesar Chavez's name keeps popping in my mind as the possible source, maybe one of us here can help me with it; I include it because I do so happen to believe it to be true, paraphrasing:

'Our Struggle will be lost the moment we take it from the streets to the boardrooms'

Workers Without Borders, United in Struggle: San Francisco Mayday '09 March

Other Mayday and we march again in cities throughout the Country, in San Francisco, once more, we will be starting from my favorite Park, the beautiful Dolores Park on the corner of 18th & Dolores.

For many of us, this park has spiritual significance, for centuries this is where the bones of native ancestors were laid to rest and, in our time, this is where we have ceremonies in observance of Native Americans Traditions.

Appropriately this is where we, their descendants in the struggle gather in our quest for fairness and justice.

Dolores Park -- officially Mission Dolores Park -- is named after Mission Dolores, established by Spanish missionaries in 1776. Native Americans of the Ohlone tribe inhabited the area for several centuries before Spanish missionaries arrived. The Ohlone shared the land with Spanish ranchers and shopkeepers until the 1849 Gold Rush, when new settlers, gamblers, and tavern keepers flooded San Francisco.

San Francisco, a city of Immigrants, a city of Workers, the city of Saint Francis of Assisi, once more honors it's tradition as the accepting place we have come to know and love.

A city of workers where we have written a history of struggle, sacrifice and advances for the betterment of all, is writing another chapter in solidarity, honoring our worker tenet that "An Injury to One, Is An Injury to All", this year Union and Non-Union workers will be marching shoulder to shoulder making the statement that "Native or Foreign Born, We Are The Same Working Class" ("Nativa o Extranjera, La Misma Clase Obrera")

The AFL-CIO and Change to Win, the nation's top two labor federations announced a framework for comprehensive immigration reform, setting aside differences with the hope of pushing legislation through this year.

Bravo for Organized Labor for finally doing the right thing, yes indeed, a worker, is a worker, is a worker, period.

Immigrant Rights Groups and Unions in the Bay Area have announced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) . Workers Without Borders, United In Struggle is a coalition of organizations representing of the different communities advocating for the rights of immigrant and workers, and currently is organizing the May 1^st March in San Francisco.

“We want to show that we support the initiative for the liberty of all the workers in this country to decide to collectively organize in unions to improve their standard of life.”

An historical alliance during a Mayday March in a city where Labor and Immigrants have made our mark and have established San Francisco as a city of Workers and Immigrants and where the Honorable Board of Supervisors in a Resolution, Proclaimed May 1st 2008 to be "International Workers Day, affirming San Francisco as a Sanctuary City and urging the Congress of the United States to repeal the REAL ID Act of 2005"

Sf Mayday09 Flier Eng

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs kucinich Uncategorizable-Unca

Sf Mayday09 Volante Esp

Publish at Scribd or explore others: culture literature

Sfbos Mayday08 Intl Workers Day Resolution

Publish at Scribd or explore others: School Work Essays & Theses rights conflict

Infamous day for the SFPD, arresting a 9 year old boy & followed by brutality.

NOTE: UPDATE FROM A.N.S.W.E.R AT FOOT OF POST WITH PRELIMINARY VICTIMS AND ARRESTS COUNT - SEEKING EYEWITNESS TO THESE EVENTS.

Yesterday (March 21, 2009), I attended the action organized by the ANSWER Coalition in SF against the 6 year-old occupation of Iraq, what started as a day with some drizzle, turned out to be beautiful weather for a peaceful demonstration / rally at Civic Center Plaza.

It was peaceful in spite of a couple of dozens pro-Iraq occupation counter-protesters, waving Israeli flags, and the usual verbal exchanges between the two sides across a cops-lined Polk street.

I started hearing that the cops were arresting a young boy behind the stage, I was located to the left of the stage as you face it and saw that there was a commotion to my right and saw cops and ANSWER Security volunteers moving toward the side where I was, the group marched and continued to an area to the left of my location, I started to shot video with my cell camcorder as I moved toward the area where they had stopped.

As you will see in the video, the group was calm, I started to hear that the cops had decided not to arrest the boy after all, while I have not confirmed that this is what happened, this was indeed the info that was circulating among the people around me.

One of the cops in the back of the group, relative to my location, can be seen given instruction to the other officers, then he moves in to where the boy and what I assume was his mother, were starting to leave walking in my direction, the cop intercepted the boy and started to push him to the back and right, members of the group started to yell in protest of the cop's action, what happened next was chaotic, to put it mildly, the other officers charged the group, pushing them as other cops converged in a flash, pushing, shoving and clubbing people in what appeared to me to be in a undiscriminated and unwarranted fashion.

As a eyewitness to these events, in my opinion, the police over-reacted and their actions were totally disproportionate to the situation, they inflamed an, albeit emotionally charged, peaceful conditions, into a melee where police abuse of force can be seen.

SF Cop moves in to arrest 9 year old boy

In this clip (1 of 4), a Cop moves in to arrest 9 year old boy - 032109 SF Anti Irak Occupation March & Rally

This is one of the clips I shot with my cell camcorder during the protest in SF against the 6th year occupation of Irak, some of it was done with my hand over the head trying to aim by feel, sorry if I miss the heads of participants in some scenes but by chance I got some of
the action.

As a witness, in my opinion, the cops' actions were unprovoked and disproportionate to the situation, they over-reacted, although to call it over- react may not be the correct term to use, a more accurate description would be to say 'they acted'

On this clip, you can clearly see how all was relatively calm, as the video rolls, there was a small cluster of people and cops on the street, the young boy they wanted to arrest, his mother? when the young woman, the boy and a young man started to walk away because I believe the decision was made not to arrest the boy, a cop on their right moved in to stop them and push the boy back, from then on, as you know, was very chaotic, anyway, this is the clip that captured some of that action.

UPDATE: This video taken by Meklorka of same scenes but clearer.

- Here is a completely unedited video of the very beginnings of this confrontation, which clearly shows the police attacking the crowd without provocation. The situation began when it was announced from the stage that the police were trying to arrest a nine year old Palestinian boy for reasons they would not divulge. A crowd of people rushed over to video tape and witness what was going on.

UPDATE: This video taken by herbnotbombs is more complete in that it shows the very beginning, it also includes the scenes of the other two videos above.

- The video start after the police have plucked the boy from the other demonstrators, from here they walked in the direction where I was located, you can see that all was calm, you can see protest's volunteers talking to officers in what appear to be negotiations to not have the boy arrested. The peaceful discussion continued until one cop goes and talks to a grup of officers and then moves in to detain the young boy, this scenes ware the ones captured by the videos above.

Young man arrested - cop with loaded grenade launcher

- In this clip (3 of 4), I captured some of the activity when a young man was arrested and at the end he was led away, somewhere in the middle of the clip, there is cop with a fully loaded grenade launcher and two more grenades on the butt of the launcher, he looked very menacing,on two times I focused on him, you will catch a brief sights of another cop on his right with what appears to be a belt full of grenades

Seeking Eyewitnesses & Video of Mar. 21 SFPD Attack; Demand Release of Those Arrested San Francisco police arrested 10 people and assaulted many more during and after a permitted March 21 rally in the Civic Center marking the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Dozens of people suffered bruises, cuts and other injuries in unprovoked attacks. The police particularly focused their attack on young Palestinians and other Arab Americans. As of this writing, eight of those arrested remain in jail, all but one facing felony charges, their average bail is set at $50,000. One of the women arrested remains hospitalized for a head injury inflicted by an SFPD officer. The ANSWER Coalition, which was one of the central organizers of the March 21 march and rally is calling upon everyone to take action. What follows are: 1) An appeal for anyone who has eyewitness testimony and/or video to call the National Lawyers Guild Hotline; and 2) An appeal from Arab American community organizations to make calls to the offices of the Mayor, District Attorney and SFPD demanding that charges against all those arrested at the March 21st rally be dropped and that they be immediately released. Legal Update from the National Lawyers Guild on Mar. 21 Anti-War March in S.F. There was a large amount of police violence at yesterday’s anti-war rally and march. The SFPD arrested ten people. Five are being held on felony Lynching and Resisting charges after a skirmish with police in the Civic Center. Their bails are $53,000 each. At least one woman reportedly suffered a head injury during the arrests. During the same incident SFPD also reportedly seriously injured two women who were not arrested but were hospitalized with numerous injures including reports of head trauma and multiple broken bones. Another five people were arrested in the BART station as the rally was ending after an incident involving pepper spray. Police arrested five Arab youths who were reportedly the victims of the pepper spraying. Two of them who were under eighteen were released to their parents; the other three are being held on Battery and Conspiracy charges also with bails of $53,000 each. The NLG and legal volunteers are keeping track of evidence concerning these arrests. If you witnessed the incidents or know anyone who did, please have them call the legal support hotline at 415-285-1011. The NLG will also be looking for lawyers to help with arraignments anticipated for next week. Immediate Action Alert from Arab American Community You can use the following to call or email city officials about the March 21st arrests: Hi my name is____________________________. I am calling about the arrests of: Mustafa Albouyha Majdi Abu Hamdieh Elizabeth Haskell Mohammed Ibrahim Nadeen Elshorafa These individuals were wrongfully arrested while participating in a legal, peaceful march yesterday. We are demanding that the charges be dropped immediately and that they be released to their families. Make your call immediately to all of the following: SFPD Public Affairs (415) 553-1651 (ph) (415) 553-9229 (fax) sfpd.online@sfgov.org SF District Attorney Bureau of Investigation: (415) 553-1030 Public Inquiries: Erica Terry Derryck (415) 553-1167 Connie Chang (415) 553-9108 Mayor Gavin Newsom (415) 554-6141 gavin.newsom@sfgov.org If you find out any update about these arrests during your calls, please let us know by calling (510) 534-7933. Additional calls for action are to follow. Forward Widely
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Act Now to Stop War & End Racism http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.answersf.org answer@answersf.org 2489 Mission St. Rm. 24