When I was younger, February 11th or 12th was like my personal day for breaking up with boyfriends. There was even a year or two with my boyfriend, Julian, when we briefly took a break around that time, or at least had drama. My personal drama calendar has left a bad taste in my mouth about Valentine’s Day. You know, I just hate that decision you have to make, either “girls night” or just hang out by yourself and give yourself the Independent Woman pep talk. Even though I have a perma-Valentine now, I still find the holiday a bit annoying.

But this year, the Million Person Project has helped change my tone and broaden my idea of Valentine’s Day.

Here is my deal. Ever since I was a little girl, I have been overcome and overwhelmed by the cuteness of other people. I’ve always thought my mom and dad are the cutest people in the universe, and don’t even get me started on my sister or Arley. But it really extends further out into the world. As a kid, I remember just wishing that people would pick me up and hug me so I could snuggle my head into them. I love how different people smell and how different people’s hands feel. As a kid, I was pretty lucky. I had bright white hair and a speech impediment, so generally people thought I was cute too and would swoop me up quite often.

My favorite was one time when I was at Fisherman’s Wharf and a bus-full of Japanese tourists were unloading. Two ladies come over to my mom and asked if they could take a photo with me. My mom agreed and they grabbed my hand and I ran back in front of their bus with them for a photo. They picked me up and passed me around. They were so cute with their beige fisherman hats and socks with sandals on. They said things I didn’t understand, but I am sure they were saying something like, “wow she is so cute, but sort of funny-looking.” I smiled and thought the exact same thing. We were all laughing so much.

I loved this kind of stuff, but as I grew up, it became less and less appropriate to crawl up on to people’s laps when I thought they were sweet. I still wanted to though. As a teenager, that bench outside Baskin Robbins ice cream was the worst place for me.

People are so cute when they eat ice cream, especially when they go out for it. You know they really look forward to it, choose their flavor carefully and then just enjoy it as much as possible. There is just something so sweet about how ice cream is sort of considered a kid treat, but you know when parents give in to taking their kids to ice cream, it is also because they wanted it too.

So that bench always killed me growing up. I used the same tactics as I did when passing a car crash. Don’t look too much, but just try to make sure everyone is okay. I’d pass the bench and just think “okay, those people are enjoying their ice cream, don’t freak out too much.”

Sometimes, if it was two old people on the bench eating ice cream, I couldn’t help it. My heart would just surge and I would feel like cozying down between them and putting my arms around both of them. I never wanted them to know how cute I thought they were. I felt like they’d think it was condescending or something so I would just play it cool and say something like, “hey, are you enjoying your ice cream? Good day for it, it’s hot!” Anything they’d say back would just make me melt.

Even though I never pass that bench, sometimes it just sneaks up on me and can feel kind of crippling. Like if I am just eating lunch with someone and they order a milkshake or sometimes when Julian or one of my little cousins order a hot dog from a New York street cart, I just feel like dying because of cuteness.

I think it might just be the universalness of eating and trying to just be a person and enjoy life the best you know how. I just want people to have exactly what they want and be at peace and know that they are so loved.

The Million Person Project has helped me with this so much because I’m able to just talk about love all day every day with people from all over the world. I’ve really had to get over myself and my fear of being a weirdo and just say it:

“I love you.”

“It is love that brings us all together”

“Julian and I love you as people and as changemakers.”

Sometimes I preface it with a little self-deprecation to ease the blow. ‘You know I am the ‘crazy love girl,’ so I guess I just wanted to say that I love you and I love what you are doing.”

It is extremely rare that anyone ever says it back – but that’s not my point I guess. My point is to feel expressed and say what is true to me. Doing that makes me feel so much better about the world and less accosted by people like the ice cream eaters.

However, on this trip a lot of people have come around and thrown me a bone, and it is those moments that I will cherish forever.

Julian and I were in a café saying goodbye to John, a 60-year-old environmentalist, after spending a month together in Uganda

“The one thing I’ve realized through working with you two is that love comes before everything, it’s the root
of everything we do,” John said.

He finished and laughed really loud; so did we. I’ll never understand why it is so awkward to just say it like that. I mean, it was so awkward that we all had to crack up for longer than it took to say it.

Then there was this pastor who came up to me after a workshop she was in, fighting off tears.

“You two don’t talk much about God but you have really really touched me somehow,” she said.

We both pushed our tears off of our cheeks. I told her that, for me, it was just about love. She looked at me like I was weird, but hugged me anyway. Awkward, but awesome.

Another time I was closing up a training in Vietnam and I was trying to express how much I believed in our potential as change-makers, especially if we work together as a global community. Of course, I started to cry. This really sweet girl who was probably 19 years old looked up at me and said very quietly, almost silently, “I love you,” and patted her heart.

Isn’t it crazy how much we resist the awkwardness of just saying we love each other with all of our being? Almost instinctually?

To me, Valentine’s Day is now a sanctioned day for those awkward interactions. All those awkward interactions, once they are over, are what make me feel like me and make me feel good about the world. They all just
make me realize I am alive and living in the mysterious reality that deep down inside I think we all just love each other.

So, join me today and embrace the awkwardness and tell someone you love them, or at least open yourself up so someone can say it to you.

I had the honor of meeting Patrick Jacobs in a workshop on grassroots strategies for addressing climate change and poverty, hosted by Green For All, held in Durban, South Africa at the United Nations Climate Negotiations last month. I was drawn to his story because he shared about how it is peach season right now in his community and how horrible this season can be because the peaches are toxic. I sat listening in horror, my hands over my face.

“If the children eat the peaches, they will get sick. To save the children we just all go out and gather them and put them in the bin. They are so dangerous for the children.” He paused. “ I know there are times when we can’t be there and the children will eat one.”

Jacobs’ lives less that one kilometer from a coal plant in South Africa that is using explosives to remove the coal from the land. This process produces toxic dust that has devastated his community. Jacobs traveled to the UN Climate Negotiations to make his community’s story heard.

What is your name, how old are you and where do you live?: 

Patrick Jacobs, 45 years old. Schoongezicht, South Africa.

Who do you live with?:

My sister and my sister’s children.

What do you do for work?:

I was a furnace operator but then I realized I must go further with my studies, so now I study human resources.

Tell me what issues your community is facing:

In our community, we are surrounded by three coal plants, we live 700 meters from a mine. Over the past few years they have started using explosives, above the ground, to get the coal out. This method creates a lot of dust and this dust, because of the explosives used, is toxic. The dust falls on our communities all day long. This dust has devastated my community and now, almost all people that live near the mine have lung disease. They used to get the coal from doing the explosions underground and we didn’t see this illness.

I suffer from lung disease and according from the doctors it has become tuberculosis. I wrote Anglo American, the American company that operates the mine, a letter explaining to them that I have developed lung disease and they wrote back and said they are investigating. That was in July and I haven’t heard anything else, I contact them often to follow up.

Are there benefits of the mines?:

The mines employ a lot of people in my community; but most of my friends who work there have lung disease.

What do you say to people who say, “I know there is pollution, but we need the jobs!”:

We don’t want these mines to stop operating; we just want them to stop operating with the explosives above ground because that method is killing us. The dust is very, very dangerous. It is not regular dust, it is much more dangerous. When people go on with their lives breathing this toxic dust they get sick. It is affecting so many people…so many children. As I am talking about this now there are three children in my neighborhood that have serious lung disease and are being treated in the hospital.

And we must buy all of our food from the store now because we cannot grow anything. The food we grow is contaminated.

Why did you come to United Nations Climate Negotiations, COP17?:

I came to COP17 for the people that live near the coalmines in my community. I hope to make the voices of those people heard here in Durban and hopefully Anglo American will stop with those explosions.

What work do you do on this issue and what motivates you to do it?:

I work in my community to raise awareness about the issue and to raise awareness around the world. I do it because I myself and a victim and now that I have studied more about the issue and now I understand it can be stopped. I learned a lot from an organization, Groundwork, that came to my community in 2007 to do community education. I now work to help the Anglo American Company realize that they need to get the coal in another way and stop using the explosives.

How can someone reading this article support you?:

Help convince the management of these coalmines to stop using these explosive methods above ground and creating this dust. The reason they can continue is because most of the community members aren’t educated on the issues and don’t stand up to the company. We need help by Americans and people around the world writing to Anglo and asking them to stop these explosions.

What are you hopeful for?

I am hopeful that Anglo American stops using the explosives.

No, what keeps you hopeful, what are the conversations you have with your family when you are feeling down and you need to be inspired to continue doing this work?

We live in fear there, we don’t have any other stories. That is what we talk about with our families, in our homes. That is the only story we have. We just worry about the people on our community and who is sick and who is going to get sick.

If you would like to support Patrick, please write to Anglo American asking them to please respond to Patrick Jacobs’ letter about his health and the their plant. (Include a copy of Patrick’s letter).

Please mail letter to:

Anglo American South Africa
P.O. Box 61587
Marshalltown, Johannesburg 2107

South Africa

I know it can be a lot to mail something internationally, but if you can, I think it will have an impact and I know Patrick will really appreciate it.

Please let me know by e-mail if you do and I will make sure Patrick knows:
heather@millionpersonproject.org

This is the real Rick Ross!

So, this past weekend I hung out with Cashmere Agency’s Ryan Ford (former Executive Editor of the Source), the League’s Fahiym Ratcliffe and Tarik Ross. Boy ol’ boy did I learn a lot about hip-hop. I mean, you guys might not know this, but I didn’t exactly grow up in a hot bed for rap music.

So in the spirit of sharing, I’ve documented the top 5 things I learned while hanging out with these cool boys.

1. Hip hop can be dead to you but not dead

Yes, lots of people think hip-hop sucks right now. But according to these hip-hop aficionados, the spirit of hip-hop is still alive, even if it’s not present in mainstream music. Young people are still motivated by the same need to express themselves.

2. Asking people who their favorite rapper is is like asking them their favorite color

I learned this one from Ryan Ford. There are so many rappers out these days, it’ hard to chose, and it’s not really all that important because next week another one will show up.

3. The Boss is really just a different Ross

We actually ran into the original Rick Ross, a former Los Angeles based drug dealer who the rapper Rick Ross named himself after. Apparently, the rapper Rick Ross’ whole image is contrived and based off another person. How weird is that?

4. A culture is more true without corporate intent

This one speaks for itself. According to these guys, rap music was a lot better before money got involved.

5. Outkast could be the new Marvin Gaye

As in they make classic music. 20 years from now, your kids are going to be listening to Outkast in the very same way that we we listen to Marvin Gay. Good music never dies.

From my friend Christina Polcari:

“Whose world is this?
The world is yours, the world is yours
It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine” -Nas

Rapid response at midnight last night just after Obama broke the bad news and our activist hearts. Young people took to the conference center gates sounding “Our future is in your hands,” “Climate Justice Now,” and “EU don’t sign.” Props to some Bay Area flair for mixing up the straight chants with a taste of Nas. Had the enviros from the various other countries known the melody, we could’ve had something creative and real–a message from young people in our voice. Bookmark that kind of thinking for the strategy we need going back home.

Some thoughts on the protest…first of all, you should know I’m not a typical activist. I only believe in direct action when it’s clever, brilliant, beautiful, or necessary. And in the environmental movement, I’ve found that that caliber of direct action is few and far between. So I’m a cynic. This past week was no different. The march on the Bella Center Wednesday was an utter embarrassment. A few thousand people meandering down streets don’t reflect an urgent global movement. When we finally reached the entrance, police pushed even nonviolent activists around with pepper spray, tear gas, and German Shepherds. There was no “People’s Assembly” as planned. Delegates on the inside were supposed to do a walk-out to meet us, but we never reached each other. There was nothing effective or useful about it.

The only action I heard that was “useful” at the COP15 was a vigil the Saturday before I came. Activists and delegates alike called it beautiful.

But last night, I got excited. While I was wallowing after Obama’s press conference, the organizers were doing what they do best (and what I don’t). Rapid response. Storm the Bella Center gates. Bring candles. Hope you have warm clothes.

It was necessary. But I warned I’m a cynic, so it didn’t live up to what it could have for me. There weren’t enough people for enough of the time to stomp our foot down outside the gates. But there was something there. I started to think about our strategy again moving forward. And I started to see how we could combine the strengths of different types of activists differently than we are now. Next time, there will be Nas.

There was a collective cringe in the room last night as activists and journalists listened to Obama’s closing press conference. There was no video, only audio, so you had to do something with your eyes. You could pretend to take notes on your laptop, but there was nothing to note. The speech was empty. As was the “deal.” You could do a slow pan across the room, but that would require making eye contact with people from other countries and there was an unsettling familiarity about being American with a leader failing the rest of the world…again. It would also require making eye contact with the kinds of Americans most responsible for our President’s world-changing election in the first place. So instead, I looked down.

Although I may dream it, I didn’t come to Copenhagen expecting some bold and valiant legally binding treaty. I try to be more of a realist. So maybe I’m naive because I did expect something more than what we got.

The “deal” is a failure. It has no real targets and no real timetables–that’s policy failure. But more importantly, it was reached without the participation of most of the countries that will suffer most and have contributed least to the problem–that’s system failure.

Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein gave our group a much needed therapy session after the speech. McKibben said: “Movements at their best work as people figure out how to exploit the zeitgeist of the moment – what the openings are. We don’t know what the openings are right now. Where there are wedges to be exploited. We’ll find them. This issue isn’t going away; it becomes more important with every passing minute. We’re gonna have to find them. That’s what human beings do. We’ll figure out how to build a movement that influences what it has to influence. But if the terrain shifts, strategy will shift and it will take a little while to figure that out.”

Our movement is strong, but we’re growing. We have learned so much this week especially about how we need to grow differently as a movement. It’s an interesting parallel to the change for which we strive and it brings me hope, drive, ambition, and focus. Here’s to the months that lie ahead.

From my friend Christina Polcari:

What if Obama announced a plan today that promised green jobs for our urban youth, window panes and lower energy bills, urban gardens and lower medical bills, clean air and clean streets?

The Yes Men dare us to think so. They dare us to imagine the world is as we wanted it just for a minute. Earlier this week in Copenhagen, Canada dropped jaws when it announced a radical reversal of its climate change policy at the COP15. It was exactly the kind of action the world has been waiting for–bold and badass. But it was all a prank, compliments of the Yes Men.

We wanted a global deal out of the COP15. The Yes Men put the spotlight on countries standing in the way to publicly humiliate them. Because the people, the media, and the UN responded, and for a moment, we saw the change we believe in.

Last night, Jayme and Mahfam sat on the rogue Yes Men stage at the “Good COP15″ to tell our leaders about how urban communities are building a better environment and a better economy. People working together on projects like Green the Hood are the true agents of change.

This week, Mahfam has made us realize we need to go back home and “blow up our efforts and take them to the next level…to scale the movement.” She’s absolutely right. Coming from a global conference, to me, the next level looks more local. Our leaders can and must take bolder action but we have to do even more at home to show them exactly what that action looks like. Here’s to the next steps for our communities, the ones to scale the movement and to give our leaders no room to budge.

Follow all of Heather’s copenhagen coverage at http://youngvoter.org/cop15

“When Kim Nguyen, 28-year-old social worker, left his homeland of Australia in August of 2008, he thought of climate change as an abstract subject that was occasionally discussed on the evening news and something that politicians argued about. But Nguyen always sensed there was a bigger story out there.

So in the lead up to the United Nations (UN) Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen, Nguyen set out on a sixteen-month bike ride through 22 countries between his hometown of Brisbane, Australia and Copenhagen, Denmark to hear firsthand the story of climate change and it’s effects throughout the world…”

Continue reading the full article by Heather Box over at Huffington Post!

Stay tuned here at 99Problems.org for more updates from the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference!

Heather and Jayme interviewed by Current TV

The League of Young Voters Education Fund is on the scene in Denmark! It was inspiring to fly all the way across the world last night only to disembark from the plane and see dozens of familiar faces walking through the streets of beautiful Copenhagen. Some good friends, some co-workers, some acquaintances; all allies, but the quality they had in common was a visible, tangible feeling of exhaustion. As I jumped up and down in the streets of Denmark, taking in the experience and excited to connect with the people I knew to find out where I should be in the AM to get the best story I was stopped in my tracks by their warnings:

“Heather, lower your expectations. It seems like the decision to make no decision is already set.”

It’s stunning, honestly. So I am in search of the silver lining – the good news from Copenhagen – which I know is here, I just haven’t found it yet. A group of international youth sitting next to me right now are discussing the need for the United States Senate to mandate action in order to make the US move in Copenhagen. They are talking tactics for pressuring Congress. Many people are considering an international push on the US Senate; district by district pressure in the States, massive global direct action … I wish I could jump in the conversation with the answer but there are still so many questions.

What I can say with confidence is that we need to fight the exhaustion and keep pushing our elected officials. We don’t have time for exhaustion, only for action. We need to join the small nations, the independent voices, who are crying out for true change, for diplomacy and equal treatment.

Off to join the conversation – will send updates soon. Less than 24 hours on the ground and it’s a different world…

What’s the view from America?

When I was in DC last week at the Green Jobs Briefing the white house, Green For All and Hip Hop Caucus put on to honor the work we have all been doing in the community to build an inclusive green economy, I was in the presence on one of most powerful women in American history, Dorothy Height.

You know when you have those moments when you feel like you are on the right path at the right time, that is how I felt when I saw Mrs. Height enter in the room for a green jobs briefing.  When I saw her, I was like, if Dorothy and I are at the same meeting – I must be at the right meeting!!

Dorothy Height has been a key part of the women’s and civil rights movement since she was young.  She was standing on the platform with King when he gave his I have a dream speech during the March on Washington; she was one of ten young people selected to help Eleanor Roosevelt plan a World Youth Conference in 1938; in the 1960s Height organized “Wednesdays in Mississippi”, which brought together black and white women from the North and South to create a dialogue of understanding.  Basically she is a legend in our movement and she has paved the way for so many of us.

It was a warm spring evening on Milwaukee’s north side and four-year-old Jasmine Owens was playing double dutch outside her family’s home. As she enjoyed the simple pleasures of childhood, a stray bullet struck her in the head. She died on the scene. Days later, Carey Jenkins would stand over Jasmine’s casket, looking at the four-year-old in her pink dress and listening to the cries echoing in the church for the violence to end.

“I prayed to God that day that I would never be there to help bury another kid, but last year alone there were 71 murders in our small city of Milwaukee,” says Jenkins, a 33-year-old Milwaukee native who has launched a campaign to bring urban violence to the nation’s attention. The sky-high homicide rate in Milwaukee is not unlike many other American cities….

Continue reading at Huffington Post!

Ben Gilbarg is the Director of 3rd EyE Unlimited, a film/video producer and socially conscious Hip Hop artist from New Bedford, MA. Ben works in New Bedford to build a movement of young people to organize for the betterment of their communities. Check out: http://www.3rdeyeunlimited.com/

IEP stands for Individualized Education Program. This is a legally binding document that spells out exactly what special education services your child will receive and why. Makes a lot of sense, right? It is supposed to help our friends and children who need a different kind of education to succeed but a lot of school districts are just ignoring IEP’s and setting up young people to fail.

The League is gonna be in D.C. tomorrow standing tall with Congress to demand support for this pivotal bill.

Call your Representative [(202) 224-3121] and start building momentum for the Youth PROMISE Act in your hometown today!

Check back tomorrow for updates from D.C., where the League will be kickin’ it with Baron Davis and Cash Warren! Youth PROMISE isn’t a policy, it’s a movement.

There is something we can do to save our public education system and ensure that not only the arts and music programs we care about are sustained, but that every qualified young person can seamlessly attend college for little to no cost.

This week call your Congressmen and tell them that YOU support President Obama’s stance on education in his proposed budget by calling 1-888-299-1447 or go to www.unionvoice.org/campaigns/studentloans and write a letter. Every little bit counts to save our public education system to benefit US!

For more info on organizing around education issues, check out www.usstudents.org

Where is my money going?

We’re paying more for everything in NYC- including our subway fare going up on May 31st to $2.50 for a one-way ride and to $103 for a monthly pass and now their saying they’re probably going to have to raise it again in June because they didn’t get enough money in state tax revenue- this is a new change, but there’s consistently increasing expensive things like just trying to get a gallon of milk for under $5 anywhere. We’re not saying that we have a problem paying for things- but if I’m paying I want to make sure my money is going to things that actually affect me- like our healthcare and education.

So for the first time in a long time, I can say I support the President’s budget because that’s what it does- it goes to programs I care about.

Check out www.rebuildandrenew.org for more info.

-Jessica L. Pierce

Obama needs to hear from us if our issues are going to reach the top of his platform.

Get involved, make your voice heard- check out the League of Young Voters Education Fund: www.youngvoter.org

Here’s a revolutionary idea: get to know your town’s teachers. They’re pretty easy to spot; chalk on their shirts, rulers in hand. They’re the ones teaching our kids how to take charge of America.

Investing in education is an investment in ourselves. Moreover, it’s an investment in our businesses, in our technology…the minds of our children will enable the prosperity of tomorrow, and our schools will either discourage or encourage their dreams.

President Obama can not change the fate of our country on his own. It is up to free-thinking artists and activists everywhere to seize the opportunities we have to work with each other and realize our dreams.

The power of a real leader is to inspire the people to act. We must act together!

LIFT THE FEDERAL BAN TO FUND SYRINGE EXCHANGE PROGRAMS IN THE UNITED STATES TO REDUCE THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS

* One third of people with HIV in the United States were infected through injection drug use.
* Blacks account for 50% of all injection drug users infected with HIV in the US.

Allen Kwabena Frimpong is the Outreach Coordinator for an adolescent HIV/AIDS prevention program for HIV testing and education in New York City. He also works as a consultant with the Harm Reduction Coalition, a national organization that works through advocacy and capacity-building efforts to promote the health and dignity of those impacted by drug use.

GET INVOLVED!  http://www.champnetwork.org/

Call your congressperson: 202-224-3121

The history of unions in America is a turbulent one. These organizations, formed to ensure the vitality of the working class, have faced abuse, brutality, and intimidation since their earliest inception.

The balance of power in our country is incredibly off kilter. If corporations can use their vast resources to lobby, pressure, and coerce our legislatures into passing favorable measures, then every man should have the power to band with his fellow workers to ensure the rights of the common man are upheld.

Join the Employee Free Choice Act campaign at www.employeefreechoiceact.org and call your Congressional member today and ask them to support this legislation.