Tag: politics

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Like many of America’s greatest heroes Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had to be neutered before he could enter the pantheon of mythic heroes Americans look to for inspiration. This is a man who was reviled in newspapers across the country, north and south. This is a man who was tailed and investigated constantly by the FBI in the hopes of breaking his power. This is a man who not only stood for, and demanded, civil rights, but also social justice and and end to the endless wars that of the USA. If Dr. King had not been assassinated do you think he would say his goals, his dream, had been reached? Does our America look like the one he so beautifully envisioned?

No, it does not. Racism is still with us despite the progress, Poverty and War are still with us. More so now than ever. His struggle has always been our struggle and it must continue until the dream he fought and died for is a reality.

Hat tip to the American Prospect for inspiring this post.

Shame Comes to My Alma Mater

So you’ve probably already seen the video above. The story went national sometime last Friday afternoon and it seemed that wherever I looked over the weekend there it was. Oh, just another bunch of Occupy Wall Street kids and just another in the seemingly endless cases of Police brutality. And, maybe for you that’s all it is. Not for me though, see University of California is where I went to college; it’s where my wife is attending right now for her PhD. we live in Davis. Davis is a wonderful place to live with a great sense of community. The city itself has had an occupy movement that has camped in Davis Central Park for over a month now and the city has done nothing but support it’s citizens right to peaceful protest. Sadly, a block away on the UCD campus that sentiment is not shared…

I don’t know how to feel about all of this… Mostly what I’m feeling is ashamed. Ashamed that the school I attended, the school I loved did this to some of her students. Ashamed that the woman in charge of UCD doesn’t seem to understand what the role of a University is, or her role in guiding it.

I felt these things strongly enough to write a  letter to the Chancellor of UC Davis, Linda P.B. Katehi:

Chancellor,

You know what this letter is about. I imagine your mailbox is beginning to overflow with them. As a UCD Alumni I take some pride in my Alma Mater and the actions you initiated against peaceful student protesters is truly horrifying and unacceptable. “Alma Mater” is a funny Latin phrase, it means nourishing mother and was used as a term to describe numerous pagan deities, such as Ceres and Cybele, and to describe the Virigin Mary. This term is also applied though to our colleges and universities. These entities, UC Davis, exist to provide an education, to nourish the soul and mind of those who attend them who in doing so become their children. I can’t think of anything more opposed to the spirit of Alma Mater than the actions the UCD police, on your orders, took against students.

I’ve stopped my end of year donation to UCD and it won’t resume until the officers, not just Lt. Pike, are properly reprimanded if not removed and you personal apologize not only to the students your actions have harmed, but to all UCD students, alumni, and the institution itself. You shame us all with your behavior.

Sincerely,

Jonathon Howard

If you want to read a much more powerful and effective letter you can find one here.

If you want to sign the petition calling for Chancellor Katehi’s resignation you can find it here.

GO AGGIES!

My Name in Print on a Book!

I took this one day at work with a cheap instant camera

It isn’t exactly how I want to see my name on a book. The goal here is to be the name that comes after the title, you know, the author? But, I’ll take what I can get for now. You can’t ever be the author if you don’t ever sit down and write. That’s a problem I have, I don’t write nearly enough.

The new edition of California’s Legislature just came out (you can see the old edition here.) I was interning in the Chief Clerk’s office at the time it was being revised and such and helped do research for the book. I don’t quite recall what the research was. It was looking up various dates or verifying said dates. Anyway, that isn’t important; what’s important is that my name is in the acknowledgments section of the book:

That's me! I circled it for you to make it easier to find

Shock of all shocks they spelled my name wrong. Doesn’t matter that I had it verified twice with the editors. I’m sure some “helpful” person at the Printer’s decided I didn’t know how to spell my own name. To you “helpful” printer I say, “die in a fire, please.”

%d bloggers like this: