What Internet?

Man, the internet.  While many think of it as an immense haven for funny videos of animals, social networking and file sharing, it’s incredible how much information on the web is accessible at the push of a button. If you’re online, you’re probably online a lot.

However, in countless communities nationwide, access to broadband is crippled, overpriced or non-existent. As technology gets more intensive and multimedia oriented, millions of people nationwide are stuck with staggeringly little access to the ever changing digital landscape for social interaction and information discovery. In an age where broadband access is absolutely essential for educational and professional purposes, low income urban and rural communities nationwide are being left out in the cold.

The US ranks as one of the highest priced broadband markets in the developed world, on average charging $53.06 per month, effectively ‘pricing out’ those who live in lower income areas. However, people whose voices have been silenced are finally getting the chance to speak up. The Internet For Everyone campaign and the Free The Airwaves campaign, among others, are leading the charge to bring affordable, fast and reliable internet access to all homes across America, fueled with the energies of forward thinking Americans like you and me.

Today’s Artist: Girl Talk

Girl Talk, aka Gregg Gillis, is something of an anomaly. Essentially, all he does is take a bunch of pop songs, mix them together and make a danceable collage. Why do we think he’s so cool? It’s because the guy is completely independent in what he does: he does his work using the power of the internet.

Singlehandedly, Girl Talk has brought a new kind of music to the mainstream, using technologies that can be found in the average household. He reminds us that with drive and dedication, anyone can start a revolution.

Posted by:

Steve Romain

Too Broke to Go to Work

When people think of New York City, images of the Statue of Liberty, skyscraping penthouses and high paid Wall Streeters come to mind. There’s a side to the city that the tourists never see, such as the struggling worker in Brooklyn who spends three or four hours a day commuting to work, barely scraping by to feed his family. That commute is about to get longer, harder and more expensive.

Due to a $1.3 billion budget gap, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York City is planning a widespread cut of services in the outer boroughs -- namely lower income areas of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. Even with these massive service cuts, base subway and bus fares could jump 50%, from $2 to $3 per ride. The Access-A-Ride service, which is used by the elderly and disabled as an alternative, may increase 300% to $6 per ride, hitting those who are the most financially vulnerable where it hurts the most.

New Yorkers aren’t taking this lying down, however. A number of groups around the city, such as the Straphangers Campaign and the Bailout The People movement are actively protesting the service cuts and fare hikes. Today’s Action is a single account of flyering in Union Square, New York and people’s reactions to the MTA’s proposals.

Today’s Artist: Larry Wright

All that Larry Wright needs to show off his incredible drumming is a couple of buckets and a pair of drumsticks. The subways in which he performs are the perfect backdrop to his frenetic, stripped down music, and street musicians like Wright keep New York City vibrant.

The subways of New York are an underground community, another world that travelers enter and exist on their way to wherever they’re going. The culture of music and performance that developed in the NYC subway systems is built upon the passion of artists who pick the masses over massive success. They play for the people.

Posted by:

Steve Romain

Getting in to I.O.U.

So, you’ve got a brain. You’re off to a pretty good start. If you’ve got an ok school system, you might be able to sustain the attention necessary to get through 12 years of education.

What’s the reward for graduation? If you’ve got a high school diploma, you have a couple of choices:

1. Enter the workforce straight out of high school, or…
2. Go to college.
Choice #1 doesn’t sound like the worst idea in the world, right? There are lots of legitimate, good reasons for beginning a career after high school; financial or personal circumstances can often make it a necessity.

Problem is, Americans with college degrees earn twice as much money as people without them.

So, you hear that fact, and you rightly conclude that college is a must, no matter the cost. Four years later your closest after college friends are a handful of lenders who can’t wait to flood your parents’ house with more paper than you pushed in school.

Many activists recognize the high cost of education as a major issue to be solved. We here at 99problems.org are proud to highlight the staff of our very own Portland League of Young Voters Education Fund for their incredible work on the initiative that became, dun dun du nuhhh … Opportunity Maine:

America benefits from every graduate and every skilled worker that good schools send back to our communities. We benefit from the innovations of a well conditioned mind, the confidence that an education gives you, and the compassion it often nurtures. The people of Maine see that. It is an understatement to say that Opportunity Maine is groundbreaking. Since its inception, many other states have ramped up their efforts to fight brain drain in their communities and keep graduates within their borders.

The thing about education is, it pays forever. But we shouldn’t have to.

Today’s Artist: The Cool Kids

The Cool Kids are a hip hop duo from Chicago and Detroit who are bringing a slow grinding old school hip hop feel back into the world of music. They’re remarkable because they’re mostly self educated in the business; until recently, all of their material was released through their MySpace page and moved through the magic of online conversation.

By this point, their single Black Mags (linked here) is up to almost 2.2 million views on YouTube, so we imagine they’ll be around for a while. We like the Cool Kids because of the atmosphere of their music--easy going but alluring, not much fronting--and their ability to stay independent for so long.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

Health Care Costs

Today’s Problem comes with a catch. This footage was taken at a Democratic primary debate among all the candidates. Watch, in turn, as each candidate speaks passionately to the need for universal coverage; surely our new President Barack Obama speaks even more eloquently, more brilliantly than any of his opponents.

But where does it go from there? Our government accepts the health care challenge as one of the biggest obstacles to an equal society. Each of the politicians in this video--Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama--are stars of their party. If anyone of us were in their position, it’s fair to assume, we would easily make social change happen. We would understand the existential threat of unavailable health care; we see it first hand, we live it every day.

The truth is, even the leaders we elect are bound within the framework of the political structure. Social change must always happen by swimming against the stream. We will never know how close we are to victory until victory arrives.

Today’s Action is meant to remind us of just how hard we must fight. The California OneCare plan would provide health care to all Californians for life. It centers around Senate Bill 840, and it is the fruit of massive organization on the part of residents of California, coordinated with congressmen and women who have taken up the struggle. The video featured today, from a health care rally in L.A., is meant to inspire all of us to see the power in activism, if we are unified in our message.

Any movement, no matter how big or small, must always rely upon the people who need it to succeed. We can not fake passion, fake the inspiration born of desperation that is sometimes an activists’ bread and butter. But, if we live our message…and with health care, we all truly live our message…then we will make it.

Today’s Artist: The U.H.C.F.

Today’s Artist isn’t a poet, or a writer. It’s an organization, based out of Connecticut, and their domain name (www.healthcare4every1.org) pretty much says it all.

The people behind the Universal Health Care Foundation understand that legislation doesn’t start with words on a page, but with an emotion in our minds. The first step to social change is to make people pay attention, and our allies in Connecticut went with some classic satire housed in a goofy animation to get you to hear their message while being entertained.

We don’t all have the budget to hire animators, voice actors…but we all have a voice. And we’re all pretty animated, if our friends get us talking, about the things that matter to us. So, pull out your phone (probably takes video, right?), work yourself up, shout out a call for social progress, for security, for healthy government…and send it our way. If it makes it to 99problems.org@gmail.com, we’ll put it online, and we’ll hit you up to hear your side of the story.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

We’re Killing Each Other

It’s hard to talk about this. There is an immediacy to urban violence, its proximity to our lives, and a horror at its effect, that can silence our conversations before they begin.

If you haven’t experienced gun violence, it’s easy to feel like you can’t relate. Like you don’t belong in the conversation, or don’t have the legitimacy to offer any solutions.

Not true. The fact is, we make it even harder to act by trying to ignore gun violence in our communities. We push it to the fringe, when the fact is that no one deserves to be killed, especially not a kid in the streets, and if you’re alive, if your heart is beating and your lungs breathing, then it is up to YOU to change the culture of violence in America.

We have to stop glorifying gangsters. We need to beat our pistols into plowshares, because violence, urban murder, spreads like fire. It is a threat to every single one of us. It is a violation of our deepest, most important sense of morality, and there’s nothing else to say about it.

We need to act. Many of us are; check out these videos, both of which come out of Seattle, Washington. Both videos are made by local kids whose communities don’t have the luxury of calling gun violence an ‘issue to address.’ This is life, for them.

If it’s not your life, how are you supposed to feel?

Lucky. And unified. Because it could be me, and because it could be me, I have to raise my voice, whoever I am, wherever I am, to whoever I can, so that there’ll be one less gun manufactured, one less future cut short by a piece of machinery whose sole purpose is the destruction of life.

Today’s Artist: Rafael Casal

Rafael Casal is a poet from the Bay Area who went public when he was fifteen and has been slinging his style of dramatic, personal poetry ever since. He’s the youngest artist to appear on Russell Simmon’s Def Poetry and is an underground superstar.

Rafael uses his poetry and music to take on the biggest issues of life today. All it takes is a camera, a keyboard or a mic to put your own voice online, and Casal is an inspiration to all artist activists, all of us who feel a tremor in our chests and need a platform to express how we are hurting, and how we’re gonna heal.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

Our Schools Suck

It’s Friday in America. Back in the day, Friday was a number one favorite day to skip school, go cruising with friends (who would all skip too, no repercussions), have lunch out, and start a nice long hazy three day weekend.

The American school system is so maligned, we don’t even think of it as a topic of conversation most of the time. Class dictates class; as Nisha Martin, one of our organizers from Milwaukee relates, private schools incentivize education with equipment, materials, and compelling educators.

And if you’re in the public schools, you’re lucky to come out literate. The necessity of teaching to the lowest common denominator means that, if you want to learn, you have to find your own way there.

America is outpaced, education wise, by practically every industrialized country on the planet. What can we do about it? Tell our leaders that it’s time for them to learn.

One leader who might just be willing to listen is Corey Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey. In 2002 he ran against the entrenched incumbent, Sharpe James, and their back and forth battle became a nasty, high school hallway style fight! fight! fight!

Booker lost in 2002, then came back in 2006 and was elected with 70% of the vote. The lesson? If you want something badly enough, you have to be ready to fight for it. Check it out here.

Today’s Artist: Joel Ortiz

We need more artists like Joel Ortiz. Like Will.I.Am and Steve Connell, Ortiz pays his tithe to the populace by putting political passion in his poetry (say it three times fast) and if words are actions, Ortiz is flowing his way to a new democracy.

The most important thing we can learn from activist artists is this: if we’re speaking our truth, the way we see it and the way we live it, then our unique voices are beautiful, and the picture we paint in air, in our ears, is a blueprint for a better world. Ortiz ID’s himself as a hustler for change, and we owe it to the man to ask him to step up with us and march a beat of progressive feats in the streets.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

Environmental Crisis

Things Aren’t As Simple As They Used To Be

The world is changing, and melting ice caps, rising unemployment, and the sickness of our cities and forests are universal and unequivocal symptoms of distress.  We realize that the success or failure of humanity is inextricably tied to the success or failure of Earth.

For some, that is a hard pill to swallow; for others, it has been clear all along.  While the effects of climate change are obvious, the solution is anything but.  Out of the chaos steps Van Jones and his organization Green For All, a dynamic group of activists who offer a compelling plan of action for our country, centered around Green Jobs.

Green Jobs is a concept that is already becoming reality in many major cities across the United States.  By retooling our industrial infrastructure and urban landscapes, we can simultaneously improve our environmental healthiness while also creating new employment opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Earn a living wage while saving the lives of every plant and animal on Earth…where do we sign up?

Check out Van Jones’ quick intro to Green Jobs and view Green For All’s website here.

Today’s Artist: Steve Connell

“Words are like actions.”  This truth, from Steve Connell’s performance piece titled I Am An American, represents a guiding principle for the crew at the League of Young Voters Education Fund as we created 99problems.org.  Each of us owes the passion and progress of our lives to the words of another, delivered at the right time, unlocking our awareness like a key in a door.

We can not form a community without communication.  We must talk fearlessly about our fears, for only by opening our hearts to one another will we begin to see the diversity of our talents and the commonality of our ideals.  In a world that can seem distressingly cold and suspicious, we must learn to talk, and trust, again.

We must help each other.  As much as we talk, we must learn to listen; to encourage new ideas, and the participation of every person in the great struggle we face to bring humanity into balance with our world once again.

Talk is action.  Silence breeds mistrust, and mistrust breeds destruction.  We were born to connect and rejoice in the wonder of our minds, the power of our thoughts combined.  We must unlearn our habits of isolation, and recognize our natural community once more.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

The 1st Problem: We Got a Whole Lotta Problems

Luckily, We’re Ready

Today is the first day of Barack Obama’s administration, and it’s time for us to get to work.  Barack Obama won the world’s trust with his inspiring speech yesterday, but it is up to all of us, citizens of America, to strive to embody the ideals that reside behind his words.

The crew at 99problems.org hit the streets of D.C. for the Inauguration, interviewing activists and tourists alike, all of whom had something insightful to say about Obama’s next steps.  We captured it on film, and we told them they were testifying; as the world watches, we’ve got to roll our sleeves up and start the hard work of fixing this country.

To that end, we’d like to introduce you to Generation WE.  They’re our Action for the day, and there couldn’t be a better kickoff than the awesome video they’ve put together.

Check ‘em out and let us know what you think.

Today’s Artist: Will.I.Am

Will.I.Am alerted us to his political passion with his breakthrough video, Yes We Can.  Since then he has repeatedly used his celebrity status to highlight social injustice and a need for sweeping change.  Will.I.Am is an earnest supporter of President Obama, and we hope that he will continue to inspire young artists to turn their talents and minds to the work of bringing beauty to social healing.

Posted by:

Sam Patton