$1 billion for fuel. $20 million for relief. What does that say to you?
Friday, January 30, 2009
Let me get this straight ...
Since 2004, the United States has supplied the Israeli military with more than $1 billion for 500 million gallons of refined fuel. Israel and Hamas duke it out in Gaza. 1,300 Palestinians die. There’s $2 billion in damage. The United Nations makes an appeal for $613 million in relief funds for the Palestinian people. The United States offers $20 million.
$1 billion for fuel. $20 million for relief. What does that say to you?
$1 billion for fuel. $20 million for relief. What does that say to you?
Sunday, January 25, 2009
A Voice for the Voiceless
There is one thing all leaders have in common. They’ve all stood in a room and were mocked for what they believed in. More importantly, they left that room and continued to believe.
In October, I attended a CNN roundtable discussion on the 2008 election. Naturally, the conversation led to the economy and its downturn. Toward the end, I mustered up the nerve to ask the respected panel full of news executives and respected journalists a question about over-reporting. My question, perhaps poorly phrased, was how to keep the audience interested in a story that was so over-reported. How do you get people to care?
And the laughter came. “I think people do care, you may be the only who doesn’t.”
“You can’t force someone to care, you can only tell them the story,” said the president of a popular political blog.
I wanted to scream at him, but the mic had already been passed back to the host. The panel full of privileged individuals from generations of wealthy families all agreed that you can’t force the audience to care about issues. I wanted to tell them that they were wrong. I wanted to lecture them on the responsibility of journalists to draw the viewers in and make them care. But I knew they would think I was naïve and perhaps blinded by foolish optimism.
After that morning, I believed that true change started with anger. I was so angry at myself, at that room, at that CNN president. I was angry at the ignorance and the audacity to just brush away my ideas as if they meant nothing. But only a few weeks later when I saw Barack Obama win the presidency, the anger faded and hope was reborn.
In my work as a journalist, I’ve met people who have tuned out politics and journalism completely. The two fields are remarkably similar in how they treat the average individual. In the words of Edward R. Murrow, "The American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry's program planners believe." If you treat the audience as if they have a valuable opinion, they will express it. Some may go overboard, but others will most likely appreciate being treated as thinking individuals. President-elect Obama certainly appealed to the average person. New voters turned up at the polls in record numbers. Citizens who couldn’t care less about politics were all of a sudden joined together in believing they could unite and change the norms that have been accepted for centuries.
I pray each day that the same thing will happen in journalism. Today, when we turn on the news, you don't see diversity. The reporters may be diverse, but the stories are not. As an Asian woman, I really can’t see this country with an Asian president. I can’t even see an Asian senator. Asians are the fastest growing minority next to Hispanics. Many go to college and make great lives for themselves. But many live in poverty. With lack of money comes lack of opportunity. That is why I chose to be a journalist. Giving a voice to the voiceless is how change comes about. I’ve done stories on Hispanic families whose lives are in such despair that they can never imagine what it’s like to own a home much less lose one in a bad economy. I met a black mother who lost her son in a gang-related drive-by shooting. When I pitched that story to a news station, they brushed it off as old news not worth reporting.
When everyone around you is telling you to give up, you hear a voice that faintly tells you to go on. There has to be a constant push to force the voice inside you to grow louder. The time has come for change in Washington. I believe the time has come for change in news.
In October, I attended a CNN roundtable discussion on the 2008 election. Naturally, the conversation led to the economy and its downturn. Toward the end, I mustered up the nerve to ask the respected panel full of news executives and respected journalists a question about over-reporting. My question, perhaps poorly phrased, was how to keep the audience interested in a story that was so over-reported. How do you get people to care?
And the laughter came. “I think people do care, you may be the only who doesn’t.”
“You can’t force someone to care, you can only tell them the story,” said the president of a popular political blog.
I wanted to scream at him, but the mic had already been passed back to the host. The panel full of privileged individuals from generations of wealthy families all agreed that you can’t force the audience to care about issues. I wanted to tell them that they were wrong. I wanted to lecture them on the responsibility of journalists to draw the viewers in and make them care. But I knew they would think I was naïve and perhaps blinded by foolish optimism.
After that morning, I believed that true change started with anger. I was so angry at myself, at that room, at that CNN president. I was angry at the ignorance and the audacity to just brush away my ideas as if they meant nothing. But only a few weeks later when I saw Barack Obama win the presidency, the anger faded and hope was reborn.
In my work as a journalist, I’ve met people who have tuned out politics and journalism completely. The two fields are remarkably similar in how they treat the average individual. In the words of Edward R. Murrow, "The American public is more reasonable, restrained and more mature than most of our industry's program planners believe." If you treat the audience as if they have a valuable opinion, they will express it. Some may go overboard, but others will most likely appreciate being treated as thinking individuals. President-elect Obama certainly appealed to the average person. New voters turned up at the polls in record numbers. Citizens who couldn’t care less about politics were all of a sudden joined together in believing they could unite and change the norms that have been accepted for centuries.
I pray each day that the same thing will happen in journalism. Today, when we turn on the news, you don't see diversity. The reporters may be diverse, but the stories are not. As an Asian woman, I really can’t see this country with an Asian president. I can’t even see an Asian senator. Asians are the fastest growing minority next to Hispanics. Many go to college and make great lives for themselves. But many live in poverty. With lack of money comes lack of opportunity. That is why I chose to be a journalist. Giving a voice to the voiceless is how change comes about. I’ve done stories on Hispanic families whose lives are in such despair that they can never imagine what it’s like to own a home much less lose one in a bad economy. I met a black mother who lost her son in a gang-related drive-by shooting. When I pitched that story to a news station, they brushed it off as old news not worth reporting.
When everyone around you is telling you to give up, you hear a voice that faintly tells you to go on. There has to be a constant push to force the voice inside you to grow louder. The time has come for change in Washington. I believe the time has come for change in news.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Well, that's just silly
Was it really necessary for President Obama to take the oath of office again?
As I mentioned yesterday, Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the whole swearing-in thing. It made everyone uncomfortable. But we got the point.
And, according to the U.S. Constitution, Obama became President at Noon yesterday, regardless. So, was the re- swearing-in really necessary?
Well, if you want to be picky, the Constitution also states:
Like I said ... silly.
As I mentioned yesterday, Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the whole swearing-in thing. It made everyone uncomfortable. But we got the point.
And, according to the U.S. Constitution, Obama became President at Noon yesterday, regardless. So, was the re- swearing-in really necessary?
Well, if you want to be picky, the Constitution also states:
Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."So since Roberts took Obama down some winding road around the "faithfully execute" part, rearranged some words and replaced one preposition with another preposition of his own choosing, the Obama Administration felt it was necessary to bring the two men together to do the whole thing again.
Like I said ... silly.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Renewal and Reconciliation
President Barack Obama's first official act:
NATIONAL DAY OF RENEWAL AND RECONCILIATION, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the American people, and fortified by my faith in an awesome God.
We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and we know that there is a purpose for everything under heaven.
On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and that this legacy is not simply a birthright -- it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as a people to carry it forward once more.
So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us remember that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
NATIONAL DAY OF RENEWAL AND RECONCILIATION, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
As I take the sacred oath of the highest office in the land, I am humbled by the responsibility placed upon my shoulders, renewed by the courage and decency of the American people, and fortified by my faith in an awesome God.
We are in the midst of a season of trial. Our Nation is being tested, and our people know great uncertainty. Yet the story of America is one of renewal in the face of adversity, reconciliation in a time of discord, and we know that there is a purpose for everything under heaven.
On this Inauguration Day, we are reminded that we are heirs to over two centuries of American democracy, and that this legacy is not simply a birthright -- it is a glorious burden. Now it falls to us to come together as a people to carry it forward once more.
So in the words of President Abraham Lincoln, let us remember that: "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 20, 2009, a National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation, and call upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.
Apparently, the oath of office is on CP time
It's Noon Eastern, Obama is President, but he hasn't taken the oath of office yet. I'll just leave it at that.
Monday, January 19, 2009
King: "it's nonviolence or nonexistence"
On this holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., over and over we will see his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
While I do love that speech, I have always had a closer connection to his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech that he delivered to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, the night before he was killed.
I understand why the excerpt at the end of the "Mountaintop" speech is played over and over again - it can make the hair stand up on the back of a person's neck with its intensity and foreboding.
But my favorite part of that speech is closer to the beginning when King discusses why he is happy to live during such troubling times.
“ … I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men in some strange way are responding. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee, the cry is always the same: 'We want to be free.'
And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men for years now have been talking about war and peace. But now no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.
And also, in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done and done in a hurry to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that he’s allowed me to be in Memphis.”
And with the swearing-in of the nation's first African-American president tomorrow, I'm sure King would have been happy to live in this period too. Ever mindful of the fact that the struggle continues - for human rights, civil rights, peaceful co-existence, existence.
While I do love that speech, I have always had a closer connection to his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech that he delivered to striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, the night before he was killed.
I understand why the excerpt at the end of the "Mountaintop" speech is played over and over again - it can make the hair stand up on the back of a person's neck with its intensity and foreboding.
But my favorite part of that speech is closer to the beginning when King discusses why he is happy to live during such troubling times.
“ … I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars. And I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that men in some strange way are responding. Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee, the cry is always the same: 'We want to be free.'
And another reason that I’m happy to live in this period is that we have been forced to a point where we are going to have to grapple with the problems that men have been trying to grapple with through history, but the demands didn’t force them to do it. Survival demands that we grapple with them. Men for years now have been talking about war and peace. But now no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.
And also, in the human rights revolution, if something isn’t done and done in a hurry to bring the colored peoples of the world out of their long years of poverty, their long years of hurt and neglect, the whole world is doomed. Now I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding. And I’m happy that he’s allowed me to be in Memphis.”
And with the swearing-in of the nation's first African-American president tomorrow, I'm sure King would have been happy to live in this period too. Ever mindful of the fact that the struggle continues - for human rights, civil rights, peaceful co-existence, existence.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
"Let Gaza Live"
They were a noisy bunch. But that was the point. And boy did they make their point.
About a thousand demonstrators marched and rallied last Saturday in Los Angeles to protest not only Israel's recent military actions in Gaza, but also the Palestinian humanitarian crisis, ongoing U.S. support for Israel, and what they feel is an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
I talked to a few of the organizers from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. They wanted to stress to me that they were not alone in their outrage about recent developments in Israel's fight with Hamas but were joined by an international community unhappy with the treatment of Palestinian civilians. (See video below).
Senior Israeli officials have said that they will announce a unilateral cease-fire this evening. I guess if enough people in enough places make enough noise, somebody will hear.
About a thousand demonstrators marched and rallied last Saturday in Los Angeles to protest not only Israel's recent military actions in Gaza, but also the Palestinian humanitarian crisis, ongoing U.S. support for Israel, and what they feel is an Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
I talked to a few of the organizers from the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. They wanted to stress to me that they were not alone in their outrage about recent developments in Israel's fight with Hamas but were joined by an international community unhappy with the treatment of Palestinian civilians. (See video below).
Senior Israeli officials have said that they will announce a unilateral cease-fire this evening. I guess if enough people in enough places make enough noise, somebody will hear.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Please, turn your attention to Oakland
I wanted to call everyone's attention to the fatal-shooting of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III on New Year's Day by a BART police officer.
If you haven't already seen the video, this cell phone video captures the shooting.
Grant was buried Wednesday in Lone Tree Cemetery in the hills of Hayward, where he lived. Mercury News covered his funeral.
Since the shooting there have been ongoing protests in Oakland. Wednesday night's protest escalated with some vandals looting, smashing windows, starting fires and damaging buildings and cars. 105 people were arrested, and some businesses are closing early Thursday for fear that there will be more property damage.
Here's protest footage from Wednesday night.
The officer who fired the fatal shot has since resigned. Community members voiced their outrage at the BART Board meeting Thursday and demanded that the investigation of the shooting be turned over to state and federal authorities.
What are your thoughts, reactions or plans? Share them below.
If you haven't already seen the video, this cell phone video captures the shooting.
Grant was buried Wednesday in Lone Tree Cemetery in the hills of Hayward, where he lived. Mercury News covered his funeral.
Since the shooting there have been ongoing protests in Oakland. Wednesday night's protest escalated with some vandals looting, smashing windows, starting fires and damaging buildings and cars. 105 people were arrested, and some businesses are closing early Thursday for fear that there will be more property damage.
Here's protest footage from Wednesday night.
The officer who fired the fatal shot has since resigned. Community members voiced their outrage at the BART Board meeting Thursday and demanded that the investigation of the shooting be turned over to state and federal authorities.
What are your thoughts, reactions or plans? Share them below.
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