The message in Forté's commuted sentence

When President Bush pardoned 14 people and commuted two sentences on Monday night, the hip-hop community’s ears perked up.

John Forté, a rap artist and producer for The Fugees’ 1996 Grammy Award-winning album “The Score,” was on the commuted sentence list and is expected to be released December 22, when he will begin his five-year probation.

The 33-year-old Brooklyn native was nabbed by authorities at Newark Airport in 2000 and was convicted the next year of possessing 31 pounds of liquid cocaine (read: street value $1.4 million) with the intent to distribute, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years.

Carly Simon (whose son befriended the elite Phillips Exeter Academy graduate) and Republican Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (who wrote President Bush on Forté’s behalf) are among the musician’s supporters.

But they are not the only people heartened by Forté’s upcoming release. Joining them are sentencing reform advocates who see presidential clemency as a time to look at the bigger picture.

“For us it helps underscore just how insane these sentences are,” said Julie Stewart, founder and president of the non-partisan non-profit Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

“John was serving 14 years for a first offense for which he was remorseful, which was abhorrent behavior, which was not part of his regular lifestyle,” Stewart added. “It was a crazy sentence.”

While Stewart told me she was happy with Forté’s upcoming release, she added that President Bush’s commutations highlight the underlying problem that still needs to be addressed – mandatory minimum sentences.

“Repeal all mandatory minimums,” Stewart said. “Make the sentences make sense. We’re trying to make that happen by giving the courts the discretion that has been taken from them in the cases that carry mandatory sentences,” Stewart said.

In other words, the (federal or state) legislature needs to get out of the way.

Oh, yes. I almost forgot.

For those of you who have no idea who Forté is or for those of you who would like a trip down memory lane, listen to Forté ‘s “Ninety Nine (Flash the Message).”

Obama's address: Cool factor 2, Specifics 0

I'll definitely give President-elect Obama cool points for having a weekly address available on YouTube. I'll also give him kudos for adding a section to the right of the video on the Change.gov page for people to share their thoughts. I'm even happy that the Change.gov site will send me a weekly reminder with a link to the video (because Lord knows I won't remember to check in with Obama every week).

BUT ...

(you knew it was coming) ...

Give me some actual information, please! He spent nearly four minutes talking about how his economic team is developing a "bold plan" to create jobs, but adds "we'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead."

So why am I watching your almost four-minute video? It ain't THAT cool. One minute will do, thanks.

Black Chrome

You can’t tell by looking at me, but anyone who knows me well can tell you that I love motorcycles. And as soon as I learn to ride (don't laugh) I intend to travel this great country on my Sportster.

So you can imagine how excited I was when I learned that the California African American Museum has an exhibit that looks at the African American contribution to motorcycle aesthetics, technology and culture in post-World War II America.

I met with the history curator for the exhibit, which runs through April 12th, and I found that not only did African Americans shape American motorcycle culture, but there’s also a special place for African American women within that culture. There’s hope for me yet.

Change takes time

Americans (myself included) have been high for the last week and a half. Even with the economic crisis, anyone who supports President-elect Barack Obama, or the Democratic Party, or a new approach to U.S. foreign policy, or the notion of a (probably lofty) post-racial society, has been high as a kite.

Why? Because President-elect Barack Obama told us that "change has come to America."

And surely it has. The American people have clearly articulated what they want from their Executive Branch.

But this afternoon, when I was driving through L.A.’s Crenshaw District and Leimert Park, I came down from that high.

I was on Rodeo Road (not to be confused with Rodeo Drive. L.A. locals will tell you the two are worlds apart) when I saw two LAPD vehicles descending on a street corner that I was quickly approaching.

The squad cars stopped, the car doors flew open and out jumped four, large white police officers. I couldn’t see why they were moving so rapidly.

Fearing that I might be driving into a hail of bullets, I slowed down as I got to the street corner.

The four officers were wrestling a man to the ground – a young, African American man wearing a white cap, a white t-shirt and light denim pants.

He was struggling with them a bit it seemed, but I couldn’t tell if he was resisting.

There was no judgment of the officers or the young man on my part. Who’s to say what was going on there? I was just driving by.

But the image stuck with me. Four white men dressed in dark blue suits. Extremely dark blue. Almost black. One black man in the middle wearing mostly white.

Aside from the color juxtaposition, the incident was sobering. I felt for my brother. He could have been wrong. He could have been right.

But I wished the young man were on his way home from school, or on his way home from work, or busy mowing the lawn for his grandmother. Just anything other than being wrestled to the ground by four police officers.

I felt as sad for him as I felt happy for President-elect Obama on election night. I hope you can understand that.

So, yes. Change has come to America. But real change will also take time.

Vigil for Esha

The good news of Esha's release has faded a bit. Although the Cal-State Northridge student is no longer in jail, the Iranian government will not permit her to leave the country and fly back to the United States. Esha must stand before a political tribunal on the charge of acting ‘against national security’ and ‘propagating against the Islamic Republic.’ Her father told the Los Angeles Times that he posted $200,000 bail for her release.

Esha is an inspiration. Displaying courage and passion for Women's Issues, she assumed great risk to expand her education. Esha should be commended for trying to bridge the cultural gap between Americans and Iranians and spreading awareness about her home country.

Students at Cal-State Northridge gathered for a vigil last night to celebrate her release...in the hopes she will be permitted to return home soon.

Please see the For-Esha Blogspot for more information.


Video from the Los Angeles Daily News.

What's up doc?

I chose to pursue a career in documentary filmmaking during the W years, post 9/11. Scary times inspired several wonderfully provocative docs like "Fahrenheit 9/11," "Why We Fight," "No End in Sight," "Taxi to the Darkside," among many others.

It will be interesting to see the kinds of documentaries that will emerge under a new administration that is bound to be more responsible, more transparent and more media-friendly. The documentary community has already facilitated much reflection and discourse on the past horrific 8 years that our country has endured and these filmmakers have done it in real time. What a gift that has been.

I predict that documentary filmmakers will now take a reprieve from investigating the atrocities of the Bush Administration and start making docs that focus on hopeful topics that inspire change and promote unity. I hope this transition occurs in all fields of art and science. It feels like a renaissance is just around the corner. But if I hear that "March of the Penguins Part Deux" is in pre-production, I am switching to a career in politics.

Esha...Free!

Joyous news to share! Esha has been released on bail and plans to return to the United States as soon as possible! Thank you to all who signed the petition to free Esha from Evin Prison. Please click on the link below to learn more about the details of her release.

Iranian Authorities Release U.S. Student

It's Veterans Day. Let's talk about peace.

The ceremonies are unfolding as I type. Patriotic music. Military vehicles. Skydivers. A veteran walks to the microphone to speak.

But we should start at the beginning.

The Allied Nations and Germany informally ended World War I on November 11, 1918. The war was officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in June 1919, and later that year President Wilson declared November 11 Armistice Day. The name was eventually changed to Veterans Day in the United States, and other countries celebrate a version of it as well.

Unlike Memorial Day, which remembers America’s war dead, Veterans Day commemorates both the LIVING and DEAD, both WARtime and PEACEtime military personnel who have served honorably. The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs puts the number of living war veterans at nearly 17.5 million, with about 6 million more living veterans who served during peacetime.

Even though there is an emphasis on living veterans and on including peacetime veterans, it must not be forgotten that Veterans Day was born out of war. Out of “The Great War” to be exact.

And so war got me to thinking about peace.

There have been times when the United States was not at active war, but I consider myself a world citizen too. And can you remember a time when there was not war in the world? It sounds like a silly question. But with all of the unparalleled human advances in science and technology over the last century, why don’t we have world peace? (Humor me.)

I’m discouraged by our ongoing Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the five-year war and genocide in Darfur and the more than half-century Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to name a few.

So I decided to use this Veterans Day to do a little research on how we can have world peace. (Again, humor me.)

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission was a great start. Although I was pleased with the three-year-old commission’s mandate of bringing “together all relevant actors to marshal resources and to advise on the proposed integrated strategies for post conflict peacebuilding and recover,” I still wanted answers on how to PREVENT war. Not just build peace after war.

Then I read a Veterans Day statement by two veterans of the Global War on Terror, who are now peace activists. They are calling on the American people to stop the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In their joint-statement, the Iraq War veterans said, “We believe that veterans and active-duty GIs are in a key position to stop illegal and unjust war, and we are inspired by the resistance of troops who stood against the war in Vietnam.”

That was promising. But I still didn’t want to differentiate between just and unjust war. I’m looking for no war. Period. Thanks.

I was hopeful after reading about a 23-year-old peace organization run by veterans. You’ve probably heard of the non-profit humanitarian organization called Veterans For Peace. If you haven’t, the organization is working

“(a) Toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war
(b) To restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
(c) To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
(d) To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
(e) To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.”

Okay. Now we’re talking. “To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.” I like that. But how can we achieve that globally?

Well, I wasn’t fully encouraged again until I took a break from my research to listen to some music. I’m not sure if anyone was listening a few decades ago, but all of the answers were spelled out by legendary musician Bob Marley in his song “War:”

“Until the philosophy which hold one race superior
And another
Inferior
Is finally
And permanently
Discredited
And abandoned -
Everywhere is war -
Me say war.
That until there [are] no longer
First class and second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance than the colour of his eyes -
Me say war.

That until the basic human rights
Are equally guaranteed to all,
Without regard to race -
Dis a war.

That until that day
The dream of lasting peace,
World citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion to be pursued,
But never attained -
Now everywhere is war - war.”

I had other thoughts to add, but I think I’ll leave it at that. Have a peaceful Veterans Day.

Whisky on a Bluebird

Okay - so I am telling you one of my passwords. Bukowski.

I told my friend about it, too. She didn't approve. You are using that drunk poet as a password? But he was a chauvinist! A womanizer! He doesn't deserve password status. Period.

I tried the Anne Frank defense: "In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart."

I also suggested an alternative: "Okay - fine. 'Bluebird' may work? Or is 'Bluebird' guilty by association to an inebriated poet?"

Are Bluebird and Bukowski one and the same?

Let me know what you think, as I have password guilt.

///

BLUEBIRD
By: Charles Bukowski

there's a bluebird in my heart that wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him, I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

I might miss "a new birth of freedom"

I was having brunch with a friend today, and we were discussing our brilliantly unique idea of traveling to Washington, D.C. for Inauguration Day. I was so excited when I left. I immediately got to work, researching transportation, lodging, tickets, etc. Countdown on!


Then I realized that our brilliantly unique idea wasn't so unique. And if I can't get a hotel room or reasonably priced airline ticket, the idea won't be so brilliant either.

Apparently a million other people are thinking the same thing. Something about this being an historic election (I crack myself up).

And there's a process for securing the (free) tickets for the swearing-in ceremony. I would have to go through my U.S. Representative or Senator. And even though this is the 21st century, they actually expect me to call them (on the phone!) for the request and to pick up the tickets in person.

(But not to worry. SOME offices are working on taking requests online. And if I lived in the 7th Congressional District of Washington State, I'd already be in business).

The thought of a visit to my U.S. Rep's office, an overpriced airline ticket, a far-flung (cheap) hotel room, and traffic in D.C. on Inauguration Day makes me nauseous.

I might actually have to miss the ceremony. Shoot! And it's got such a catchy theme.

Free Esha

I heard her story while driving up from San Diego. KNX News Radio blaring, as I wove through traffic along the 5 freeway. A young Iranian-American imprisoned...worlds away from my trip through Orange County. Her name...Esha Momeni.

I am an Irish Catholic girl with a Persian last name - Maleki. My marriage has tied me to many beautiful Iranians who have spoken about love, poetry, tragedy, culture and hope. Perhaps that is why I couldn't turn the dial; I couldn't stop thinking about what happened to Esha and why she has been prevented from teaching the world more about the women of Iran and her family's incredible home. The home of my husband's family...people who long to share what is true and beautiful about Iran.

I write about this carefully. I choose my words wisely, as I know that a courageous woman prays for her release in a faraway prison.

///

October 15th. Esha Momeni drove down a highway in Tehran. The 28-year-old Cal-State Northridge student began her journey in Iran two months earlier, feverishly working to complete her Masters thesis project - a documentary focusing on the Iranian Women's Movement.

Written by Esha Momeni (2007):
Iran and all that makes it unique - steep streets, narrow alleys and unmarked homes - is still the land of promise that we hold dear to our hearts. The women of this land are peacefully writing a glorious end to the bitter long story of inequality and injustice. Iran is still the covenant to those hands that would like to wash the mud of distress from the yarns of this land in the stream of peace and unity. Only then we can resurrect equality and knit white wings for the dove that represents unity.

Sirens came on. Men identifying themselves as undercover police pulled Esha over for a supposed traffic violation. They took Esha into custody. Her journey to uncover the female experience in Iran had taken a frightening turn.

Now in solitary confinement in the notorious Evin Prison, Esha faces the possibility of torture and mistreatment.

But - in the eyes of the Iranian Government - what has Esha done wrong? She has not officially been charged with any crime. Why would police arrest an Iranian-American for a traffic violation?

Iranian police searched Esha's home in the city and confiscated her laptop and video she had taken. As part of her documentary, Esha conducted interviews with Iranian women about their experiences living in the Middle East. Women who want change and equality - members of the One Million Signature Movement: a campaign to end discriminatory laws against women in Iran.

Another possible reason? Esha is a member of the Campaign for Equality, a two-year-old group that also works to end Iranian laws that discriminate against women. Apparently, many supporters of the campaign have been arrested and Iranian authorities have worked to shut down the website.

According to Amnesty International, Officials of Iran's Revolutionary Court told the family no information about the case will be released until the investigation is complete.

Esha holds dual citizenship with the United States and Iran (which does not recognize dual citzenship). And the United States, having no diplomatic representation in Iran, must work through the Swiss Embassy to gain information about the case. Previously, the Iranian government has said the arrest of a U.S.-Iranian citizen is an internal matter.

In a statement on the Cal-State Northridge website, President Jolene Koester said:
She is a student invested in learning and understanding current conditions in the country of her family's origin. Anyone who values knowledge and the role of academic inquiry in shedding light on the human condition should be concerned.

Amnesty International is monitoring Esha's situation, as friends and family work for her release.

PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK AND SIGN THE PETITION TO HELP FREE ESHA!

Gay is the new black

In a statement released today regarding the passage of California's Proposition 8, which seeks to amend the state constitution to define marriage as a union between a man and woman, No On 8 said the following:

"We achieve nothing if we isolate the people who did not stand with us in this fight. We only further divide our state if we attempt to blame people of faith, African American voters, rural communities and others for this loss. We know people of all faiths, races and backgrounds stand with us in our fight to end discrimination, and will continue to do so. Now more than ever it is critical that we work together and respect our differences that make us a diverse and unique society. Only with that understanding will we achieve justice and equality for all."

In case you're wondering, the part about African American voters is in response to the fact that 70 percent of African Americans voted Yes on Proposition 8.

The theory goes, African Americans turned out in higher numbers to support their man, Barack. They got to the polls, and the socially conservative lot thought "gay people shouldn't be calling their unions 'MARRIAGE!'

Whether African Americans did in Prop 8 is being debated as I type. (Also check out Meg's post on Prop 8).

Either way, the theory was discussed well in advance of November 4th because a) African Americans were expected to come out in record numbers and b) our President-elect stopped short of calling gay unions marriage.

But I am left with this: California voted to elect an African American president while simultaneously voting to amend the state constitution to exclude gays from calling their unions marriage. Does that mean that gay is the new black?

Wait, wait, eye contact... hello!

I exercise outside in my neighborhood many mornings during the week. Sometimes I wake up feeling perky and eager to say good morning to people I pass by. I feel really connected with the universe on those mornings, and proud to be a human. Sometimes I wake up with social anxiety and adamant about not making any eye contact with anyone, not even puppies and babies. On those days, I feel annoyed that I am even expected to acknowledge living beings. Respect my boundaries, god.

But even when I do decide to make eye contact and say hello to people, I always feel awkward about the timing of the whole encounter. I don't want to make eye contact too early because the stare may have to sustain for an uncomfortable amount of time. I usually pretend I am so engrossed in the NPR story I am listening to on my walkman, that I am oblivious to the outside world. I mean, really engrossed. I don't even see what's in front of m... Oh! (smile) Good morning! And pass.

Most mornings, I pass by the same 20 men who live in a halfway house down the street. I am pretty sure they have all recently been released from jail. They walk to a coffee shop for breakfast every morning. I try to make it a point to smile and say hello. It's important to help them integrate back into society. But I try to use my I-am-a -kind-person-but-have-boundaries-show-no-teeth smile with a nod. After all, they are a bunch of men who live in a halfway house down the street and have just been released from jail.

The workplace poses the same problem only worse because these are people you see all day. Now I take my iPhone with me whenever I walk around so I can stare at that until the moment to make eye contact occurs. Oh yeah, I gotta download that Labyrinth App now! Touch, touch, zoom, tou... Oh, hi! (smile) And pass.

There is one woman in my office who NEVER says hello to anyone and NEVER makes eye contact with anyone. For a while, I thought she was so cold. But I have grown to appreciate her consistent policy. I love passing her in the halls now because I follow her lead. It's liberating. I just look straight ahead. I don't worry about timing, fake smiles, things in my teeth, bugars in my nose, nothing. Just walking, which is hard enough for me sometimes.

Little kids have it so easy. They can get away with incessantly staring at strangers for uncomfortable amounts of time, or hiding behind mom's leg if they don't feel like being social, or actually being so engrossed with mom's keys, they truly don't see anything in front of them. I wish I could be a little kid again. But that would mean I would have to sit in my own feces for uncomfortable amounts of time. Never mind. I'll deal with the social awkwardness.