The X Fact(her): I Got a Gangsta Green Thumb

I haven’t been food shopping in over a month.

I should grow my own food, but don’t. Jay-z said “dig a hole” and maybe I should. Fill it with some seeds, sprinkle with water and some TLC. I’ll be feasting on next season’s dinner in no time.

Seriously, I would love to eat fresh, organic produce every day. A while back I came across this documentary about eight UK adults picked to live in the monkey section of a zoo and eat the exact same diet as monkeys—all fresh and raw fruits and vegetables. One man never saw cauliflower before. In the end they all lost weight, felt better, had improved some of their medical conditions and vowed to each healthier. There is even an American documentary out about the same sort of thing.

… Continue Reading

Posted by:

Chloe

Where You Gonna Sleep Tonight

Foreclosures are at the center of out economic crisis.  If our friends and family don’t even know where they’ll be tonight, how can they muster the strength to rebuild our society?

We need to help people stay in their homes.

Listen to Dani’s message and be a part of it: http://colorofchange.org/homes/

Posted by:

Heather Box

MTA Fare Hikes? Service Cuts? Fuggettaboutit!

In January, 99Problems broke news on a budget crisis within the New York public transportation system and potentially drastic rate hikes and service cuts (“Too Broke To Go To Work“).
Much to the dismay and agony of many New Yorkers, those rate hikes and service cuts are becoming reality. On Wednesday, March 25th, they were approved by the MTA.

So, New Yorkers and tourists everywhere…here’s what we can look forward to:

-increased price of a single ride from $2 to $2.50 and monthly fares by 20%

-elimination of two subway trains and more than 33 bus services completely

-longer waits for trains and more people on them

-thousands of jobs lost, more dangerous subway stations

There is currently a plan in the NY State senate to pass a new budget that will prevent these changes from taking place. This plan is currently stalled and the Brooklyn League of Young Voters Education Fund is asking for all New Yorkers to speak up and demand fair treatment for lower and middle income residents.

Send a message to New York’s elected officials!

Posted by:

Steve Romain

What do you do to change the world?

Most of the time, we act like education is supposed to end at 12th grade, or when you get that college diploma. Why do we think adults should keep their heads down, stop paying attention to the world, and live for that biweekly paycheck?

Why do we leave it to the idealism of kids to energize us and to dream big? That is a mindset that we’ve let ourselves settle into; we need to break the mold and let our unique creativity, our natural thirst for knowledge, come out.

The key to social change is the understanding that we have to think bigger, do more, and learn from our victories and defeats. Education is a life time pursuit; it’s the pursuit of a life time, facing the challenges of our world and bringing each other across the finish line.

Posted by:

Heather Box

Unconditional Love and Respect, Everyday

Violence is a sickness….

and it goes both ways.  No matter who ends up in the ground, it is a tragedy, and it is a social illness for which the only cure is unconditional love.  It is naive to believe that trust can exist without communication.

We have to open up, believe in each other’s humanity! Honor the memory of Dr. King, honor the memory of Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, and the policemen who lost their lives needlessly.

Posted by:

CJ

First Comes Love

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The problem: LGBT people are not allowed the same rights to marriage as heterosexual people. Some watchdog and religious groups have spent millions to get Prop 8 passed. Now, the thousands of LGBT couples who rushed to the altar to marry when they had the right to do so in the state of California are unsure of where their union stands.

Benjamin Manson and Sarah White waited 23 years before their marriage was deemed legal and honored by the United States of America. Their formal yet non-binding wedding ceremony in 1843 while enslaved is one of the few documented. Today, it’s viewed as a testament to the injustices of slavery and the heart wrenching tale of love conquering all. After their wedding, they returned to their respective plantations to work for their masters, spending most of their “marriage” living apart.

On April 19, 1866, 23 years, nine children and one Civil War later the two were officially acknowledge as man and wife.

Ninety-two years later, Mildred and Richard Loving eloped in Washington D.C. to avoid prosecution. She was black, he was white. Under their home state of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act they could not marry. The Jim Crow era was in full effect. Their marriage wasn’t legal in Virginia. The two were arrested one night while they slept. Someone tipped off the local police about their nuptials. They were found guilty of being married and sentenced to either one year in jail or extradition from the state. It took a decade and a Supreme Court ruling to overturn the laws.

Today, thousands of LGBT couples, families and their supporters will take to the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall to announce the Civil Rights March to Sacramento, a 5-day march from San Francisco to Sacramento to call on the Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8.

They are walking for what they feel are their rights, not as men who love men or women who love women, but people who love people.

The Solution:

Benjamin and Sarah were people in love. Over time they were allowed to marry.

Mildred and Richard were people in love. Over time they were allowed to marry.

Raymond and Byron are people in love. Over time they will be allowed to marry.

Posted by:

Chloe

Talk is Cheap, Just Ask John Salley & PA Gov. Ed Rendell

Every now and then I try to remind myself that, at the end of the day, the action of social change is where the rubber hits the road.

Thought and talk are important; through communication, we can motivate each other, make our movement a hundred or a hundred thousand people strong. But what we all need — from each other, and ourselves — is action.

Posted by:

Sam Patton

It is hard, but not impossible…if we act together

Asthma, the high cost of education, the high cost of food; Annie’s experience in Harlem is ridiculously common. Many of our biggest cities have the biggest problems, concentrated in the communities who have the least amount of clout with the politicians who regulate our lives. For that reason, Majora Carter is an inspiration. She started the Sustainable South Bronx organization to take on industrial pollution in her community and succeeded in changing her landscape and the lives of her neighbors.

Majora Carter stands up for what she knows needs to happen. Selected as an Olympic torch bearer in 2008, Majora Carter got kicked right out of the parade when she revealed a Tibetan flag she had concealed in her sleeve and made a defiant gesture for the world to see.

Solidarity and the unity of our common desire to live in peace and prosperity: we have to work together!

Posted by:

Sam Patton