Rochester Air Show- Noise Pollution, Military Propaganda, and Imperialism in our city
Every year the International Air Show (sponsored by ESL this year) comes to the Greater Rochester International Airport, and every year- I'm so pissed off about it I'm moved to spend every waking moment getting the thing banned from our communities.
As I write, from my kitchen in the 19th ward, I can't hear myself think because the air force feels a need to show off its tax funded toys to the public. There are so many reasons this thing should be opposed. To name a few:
1- Huge waste of tax-payer dollars
2- In an era of declining petroleum resources, a major squandering of fuel
3- Pollution blanketing our cities
4- Lack of respect for people with Post Traumatic Stress who have experienced war
5- Invasion our right to be free of excessive noise
6- Taking an unnecessary risk with people lives- crashes have occurred with some frequency
I wrote this because I've talked with many people who are really irritated about the air show, and I want to hear what others have to say- so please respond if you have a few minutes….
Related: Civilian Death Toll Rises as US Intensifies Air Strikes in Afghanistan | ESL Federal Credit Union First Sponsor Targeted By The Campaign to Fire Bob Lonsberry
Indy TV # 11: Home Funerals
#media_2315;left#
When someone close to us dies, we all have different ways of dealing with the loss. But somehow the control over how our loved ones are taken care of in death has become an impersonal industry and within a couple of generations, we've forgotten that we have other choices about how this process should unfold. On this week's show Lynn Barnett and Francis Giraldo describe for us the options of home funerals and green burials. Lynn is part of a local group whose goal is to make information about home funerals available . Francis recently lost her husband Alex and following Alex's wishes embarked on the process of a home funeral and green burial. Both women share their wisdom about how these options allow for friends and family to honor the natural process of death.
Lynn Barnett explains: "People used to do this, people used to lay out their friends and loved ones in their homes; so not everyone does it now, its not as common but its something I want to let people know is a possibility... It (Alex's funeral) wasn't hard, it was easier than I thought and the reward was incredible for everyone who was there."
Weekend Events: Burlesque for Bail
An evening of strip-tease, drag, tap, music, and comedy! All proceeds will go towards the Unconventional Action Upstate NY legal defense fund for folks going to demonstrate against the the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado (August 25th - 28th) and the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota (September 1st - 4th).
When: Saturday, July 26, 8pm to Midnight
Where: The Mez, 389 Gregory St.
Suggested Donation: $5-$10
More Information: www.unconventionalaction.org, Bash Back!, Upstate, NY Unconventional Action Myspace, Mailing list for UA-ROC, Colorado IMC, Twin Cities IMC
Get Involved! [click me]
Weekend Events: Demonstrate at ESL to Fire Bob Lonsberry
This Saturday at 11:00am there will be a demonstration against the first targeted sponsor of the Bob Lonsberry show. Join us at the ESL Federal Credit Union at 518 East Ridge Road. We will be demonstrating vocally against their sponsorship of the Bob Lonsberry show, have petitions to sign, and letters with self addressed stamped envelopes to send to businesses, (specifically ESL, Geico, and Advanced Auto Parts).
Indy TV # 10: Myra Brown; Organizer with Rochester ARM (Anti-Racism Mov't)
#media_2303;left# Rochester ARM (Anti-Racism Movement) has been instrumental in the recent struggle by community members to hold WHAM (Radio 1180) accountable for the racist, sexist and generally derogatory remarks made by Bob Lonsberry, a local right-wing radio talk show host. But the group has been involved in a whole array of proactive programs to lead our community in the project to dismantle institutional racism throughout the past two years. This week on our 10th week of the new Indy TV, ARM organizer Myra Brown, joins us to discuss some of these activities.
"We have to be willing to recognize that we've learned a lot of stuff wrong about each other. We have to be willing to unlearn those old socializations that have taught us that certain groups are scary, certain groups are incompetent, certain groups are more competent; that taught us that there is this transparent preference for whiteness and anything that doesn't fit into that should be put into the category as outsider…. We have to be willing to have conversations and have listening revolutions, to listen to other peoples' experience in the world and in our own cities and in institutions…we have to take some courage to create opportunities to hear what is hard to hear to make visible what seems invisible"
Indy TV #9 - Know Your Rights with the Genesee Valley Civil Liberties Union
Join us as we interview Gary Pudupp of the Genesee Valley Civil Liberties Union. Gary talks to IndyTV about the rights we have on the streets, what to do when police stop you and what we can do to monitor the police.
Also check out the bonus short about the Cover America Tour that is travelling the country and collecting stories of our health care system.
Watch Full Show Online
Fight to Remove Bob Lonsberry Continues - Join Us
Last night, a group of activists appalled by Bob Lonsberry's most recent racist, classist, and sexist remarks, met again to discuss how to get Bob Lonsberry off the air once and for all (previous story on Lonsberry). We've been listening to his show for a week now and have a list of approximately 100 of the sponsors aired on his show. We've decided to target 5 of those sponsors to ask for their immediate removal of sponsorship from WHAM until Bob Lonsberry is removed from the air. Those five sponsors are:
- Tops Friendly Markets
- ESL Federal Credit Union
- Advanced Auto Parts
- Pace Windows and Doors
- Democrat Joe Morelli (Morelli is planning doing a monthly interview with Lonsberry)
Currently, we are asking all supportive community members to call these establishments/people and let them know that you are horrified that they can support this racist/classist/sexist man who attacks children and families on the airwaves. Please let them know that you want them to remove their sponsorship from all of WHAM until Bob Lonsberry is removed from the air.
If you call just one store, please call Tops Friendly Market. Tops will be our main target for our first action if they do not immediately remove their sponsorship.
The importance of unconventional actions
Four years ago, between 500,000 and 800,000 people mobilized in New York City to protest the Republican National Convention. This year during the last week of August (the 25th-28th), and the first week of September (the 1st-4th), the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions will meet again, and like four years ago, will be opposed.
This year, anti-authoritarian groups are organizing under the name “Unconventional Action†and "Bash Back" to nationally mobilize direct action during the DNC in Denver and the RNC in St. Paul. The Unconventional Action network, made up of autonomous groups in cities across the country, including Rochester (and Upstate, NY), unify under the following principles:
∑ Reject all forms of hierarchy including capitalism, party communism, patriarchy, white supremacy, colonialism, and so-called representational politics;
∑ Organize on a non-hierarchical, consensus-based basis that promotes autonomy, solidarity, grass-roots involvement, and the agency of those most affected by each decision
∑ Embrace a diversity of tactics
∑ Do not condemn any action on the grounds that it is illegal alone.
Additional Information: Unconventional Action | Unconventional Action - Rochester | Upstate Uprise Unconventional Action Faction | RNC Welcoming Committee | DNC Disruption '08 | Recreate '68 | Crash the Conventions | Obama Is Hot, Empire is Not!
Indy TV #8 - The Rochester Plaza Boycott
Indy TV interviews Reverend Kaaren Anderson from CLUE and Maggie Spallina from UNITE HERE! about the current boycott against the Rochester Plaza Hotel. The campaign at the Plaza hotel is interesting because the demand is not that the hotel to become unionized, but simply for management to agree to a set of standards that would create a level playing field for discussing the pros and cons of unionization. Watch on to see the problems workers face when trying to form a union, how labor laws create an environment that significantly favors management over unions and their supporters and what is being done in Rochester to challenge that.
Mapping the Police State: Police Cameras, Maps, and You!
Rochester Indymedia is working on putting together a detailed map of all the new police surveillance cameras that have been installed in the City of Rochester. But, we need your help (and eyes) to locate them!
So what's wrong with police cameras anyways? Surveillance cameras are a tool of social control used by the corporate-state industrial complex. Because most laws serve the interests of people who have money and power to draft, codify, and enforce them, "almost all of the 'problems' that surveillance cameras are supposedly being used to solve — shoplifting, theft and sabotage by employees, victimless crimes such as smoking pot, panhandling and exchanging sex for money — are only problems for people who have money and power, and are in fact solutions for people who are poor and powerless. We should legalize marijuana and prostitution — we should completely solve the systemic problems called poverty, homelessness and wage slavery — well before we use surveillance cameras to enforce unjust and fundamentally discriminating laws against behavior," states the position paper On Capitalist Law by the Surveillance Camera Players of New York City.
People in Rochester are entitled to know where these cameras are located so they can make an informed decision as to whether they want to be monitored and recorded by police or not. A map could also facilitate engaging, creative direct action against the cameras. You can usually spot the cameras because they are box-shaped with the RPD logo on all sides, positioned on lamp posts and at night there is a blue light that flashes.
If you know the location of a camera, please leave a comment about its whereabouts by street intersections or nearest landmarks. To read the full article and see a list of verified cameras locations, click here.
Additional Information: Hey Duffy, No More Cameras!—from rise up Rochester | Guerilla Programming of Video Surveillance | the Surveillance Camera Players: completely distrustful of all government. | How to Make Maps of Camera Locations | Privacy Under the 4th Amendment | ineffectiveness of surveillance cameras | On the Transparent Society | deterrence as crazy poker game | surveillance cameras in the grand scheme of things