But honestly. The polls show the majority of people in this country are against the Iraq war. I’ll assume (without any empirical evidence) that largely applies to my FB friends. So, why vote for a War candidate? I’m afraid that we often let the media write history for us, rather than remembering what had actually happened.
By that, I mean we have had (except possibly Carter?) nothing but war presidents since WW2. Lest we forget one of the most famous leaders (who was of course shut up, because people largely shutdown when they are left leader-less) in our country, he said:

The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own country. – Martin Luther King Jr.

But I’m not the best spoken or most thoughtful, so check out this video which touches on social movements and the future of our country.

Don’t be mistaken. just look at recent history. Hussein asked us if we had any problems with us going into Kuwait, we said it wasn’t any of our business, then boom — Gulf War, Colin Powell, GBush Sr, et al, pounded him. Gulf war (“Desert Storm”)
So then Clinton decides he’s very unhappy with Iraq having Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), so convinces Saddam to abandon his weapons. But he doesn’t believe Saddam, so he imposes sanctions on Iraq. Several reputed organizations have reported that ~567,000 Iraqi children died under these sanctions, Clinton’s Secretary of State, when asked about this on 60 minutes, said “the price is worth it.”
Later, Bush got into office, and the Democrats authored and sponsored a resolution of war against Iraq because of these WMDs that they said they didn’t have, and Bush happily signed and went along. Rumsfeld, Powell and more pushed it, including lying to us, and THE UN!
All the names I have just mentioned Should GO TO JAIL. I didn’t mention Clinton’s bombings of Iraq, Somalia, Kosovo, Congo, Afghanistan and more. Nor did I mention Bush Sr or Jr’s other bombing/military escapades. Do I need to? How many wars is too many? What’s your breaking point? Do you have one?
When will we listen to a visionary like MLK?

Obama and McCain have talked sternly about Iran and its nuclear program. (for YEARS)
(Yes, India, Israel, NKorea, China, and others have nuclear programs.)
Obama has pushed for troops in Pakistan, more in Afghanistan, and IN THE USA. (Look it up, or talk to soldiers — restationed from Iraq HERE. To guard against civil disobedience, demonstrations and unrest.)
All these things have been done.

What else do they need to do, to say, to push, to support? Ironically, despite Clinton’s militarism, he shrank the military a bit. But Obama and McCain remain committed to increasing the size of the military.

We have had decades long bans on offshore oil drilling, new nuclear power plants, and have been fighting the pollution of coal-fired power plants since RN’s Clean Air Act (among other legislations) AT LEAST.
Obama and McCain have supported removing all of this regulations.

Are you really going to vote for them? Are these things you really support?
If so, you’re buying the corporate line, not the scientist or researcher’s views/papers/research on the implications of ANY of this.

The economy, you say?

Reagan is often blamed for much. He had this trickle-down economics theory, saying that if you cut the taxes on the richest people/corporations, people would prosper.
So now we have a faltering economy. The government waits months and months, and does nothing about it. Nothing about the foreclosures. The unemployment. etc. All of a sudden Bush says “Let’s bailout!” Obama and McCain say “Great!” (along with the Democrats, the Republicans were mostly against it. Ironically?)

Let’s not forget that this was tried in ~1931, and resulted in the Great Depression. The only thing that brought us out? Massive infrastructure projects, FDR’s — giving jobs to PEOPLE.
This bailout though? It’s a clear message — helping out the bankrupt wall street gamblers, because if they’re helped, the economy’s helped. How’s that? Trickle down.
This makes sense because..?

And I’m not even advocating anything here, ironically. Maybe we should help people with their home foreclosures. It sure as hell would have been a LOT cheaper than $700 BILLION. But if we don’t, whatever. People get burned. Corporations get burned.
Somebody learns a lesson. (One hopes).
So I could see reason of someone saying “let’s not help people who are failing economically,” but it’s hypocrisy to say “Let’s help corporations that are failing because of their greed.” It’s ridiculous. It’s unfair. It’s bankrupting our country — destroying our economy.

Patti Smith sings, “Awake from your slumber.”
Please. This is crucial. The time is now. We need to stand up.

Don’t waste your vote on corporate candidates that don’t stand for you or your issues.
Make a stand.
Slavery ended, people of color and woman got the right to vote, and many many other great things happened in this country because people took to the polls and VOTED For candidates that represented their issues. Slowly, the country changed, and the big institutions/corporations/

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Wild.  Weird.  Is it true, is it real?  After SO many years (of school, or even college in particular), it’s done, this is it?  No way.  Whatever will I do with myself?  I have watched friends graduate (especially in the last few years) with no seeming direction, but with a lot of nervousness/anxiety/similar emotions, and I admit, I thought they were a bit silly.  Like, what’s their problem??  Just, you know, go, do something cool at a neat place that fits in with your major, or at least something you’re way into, and do it!  The stories I had heard in the past of English majors working at McDonald’s had sounded silly until I saw similar things happening.  So, the point of this paragraph is: Now I feel silly for wondering what their problem was!
WHAT TO DO??  It’s weird to be done with school, I’ve taken breaks from school and worked or travelled, but this is different.  Even with those diversions, I still had one place to go to, one thing to get through – I was on a path to my Bachelor’s degree.  I only had to pick a school and a major (which was still a long process!), and follow some cookie-cutter recipe, and voila!  Here’s your degree sir!  Just follow this path, this structure, these steps (however you want to refer to it), and you’re there!  A lot of life has been like that.
Til now.  The entire past year has had a lot of NOT that.  China was weird and confusing and difficult to travel in.  Coming back to school, I had Bacteriology, and ”work” as an LGA (like an RA), among other aspects of my life such as career hunting, how to best take care of friendships, other problems/queries/etc, that did NOT allow for a structure or defined path, and really, required ME to take charge.  To put my critical thinking skills to good use, and take on life, via these various activities/challenges.  It seemed like it was all at once, but maybe the ending of a degree course made that all the more real.
My degree path has been a bit of a crazy ride, from Davis (where I was a CS major), to JCs (e.g. DeAnza), to the CCC, and then here, to Humboldt State.  (Working at startups– Assured Access (later purchased by Alcatel) and Talarian (later purchased by Tibco) on the way)  At DeAnza I finally decided on a major, Environmental Studies is what it was called there, but it was still like starting at the beginning, because it was a broad+ interdisciplinary field.  It wasn’t until my first 7 months at HSU, starting with learning about the Arcata Marsh in Engineering 115, and then when I went to Mexico (with the school, the first Parras program), where I was surrounded by Engineers, many of whom were way into in WasteWater (AKA, sewage.. playing with poopies!) that I too became interested/fascinated.  It helps that I take like 3-5 poos per day, and so feel very guilty about wasting [fresh, clean, potable!] water.
Alright, so brushed up my Spanish, learned necessary things about Appropriate Technology, got a career direction (later wrote a paper about it all and presented it in China), and made so then made a tweak to my degree plan. (Water quality instead of Appropriate Technology)  Did some volunteering here and there, some club participation, and finally ended off my last year being an RA in the Residence Halls on campus.
Well, I get bored of this entry (maybe because I’m tired!) and otherwise forget what I was writing, so I guess I should just end this entry now!  I did intend to give mad props to all of the great and amazing people that I’ve seen and otherwise shared time and energy with over this long-ish journey, but that would be too many names to even think about now, so if you’re reading this, probably I have to say to you: Thank you!  You’ve made my life better.   Seriously.  Let’s see, this post is missing some pics..

  It’s Jocelyn (And Gary), she was involved with the first two clubs I got involved with at HSU, Green Campus and (YES house’s) Environmental Education!

<– This links to the Asian Graduation Ceremony pics
* End of a bachelor’s really, maybe I’ll be back in school!  I could imagine it, but not RSN.. (Aka, a Masters is not Real soon now)

 < — This pic links to Pictures from Commencement!

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People that I think of as amazing can generally be thought of with the term ‘activists,’ and .. wow, this semester I’ve been meeting so many amazing activists, notably ones involved with Accion Zapatista (on campus, kinda).  It’s been REALLY awesome, I’m like, in love with them or something, or at least, way enchanted.  :)  And I’d love to tell you more about them, but.. no time for that now.
When I first got to HSU, I stopped by the Arcata Co-Op and met someone tabling for the local Earth First! chapter.  I took this as kind of a sign then, and took their flyer intending to participate in one of their nonviolence training workshops, but never talked to them or otherwise involved.  I would have been interested in doing the training, and ideally supporting a treesit in some way, but, didn’t happen.  Maybe just keeping the thoughts and ideas in ones’ mind is value in and of itself though?

But in the Spring’07 semester, Hillary told our Environmental Politics class about this SkillShare that was going on down in the Mattole.  I was curious, but never heard back from her.  Luckily, some of the AZ folks (Sierra, Verbena, and eventually Farmer) told me about the SkillShare, and luckily Verbena added me to her list so I got some updates, and so it happened!  I went to the Mattole Wildlands Defense Fund Skill Share, which you can read more about there.
In one of my last entries I was talking about my Winter Break. After I got back in January from that break, ~3 weeks off, I was completely unrefreshed. Somehow, trying to do nothing, sleep in, etc., didn’t relax me. Greg Handa told me that maybe I don’t know how to do nothing. I even had trouble sleeping in! He’s not right, it was really because I was so troubled and disconcerted. It was just.. such an unpleasant ending to this semester, having supervisors trying to get me in trouble, and at least putting the fear of getting fired in me, in addition to being a student and taking a heavy-load (And doing more poorly than I need to have in some classes, and so I was worried about failling them.) The lack of refreshment, added to all the normal stresses/problems/etc that go on, left me completely unable to enjoy this semester, or to do anything other than worry/stress/freakout. Until the Skill Share came.

I would have liked to go home, just for my parents sake, but that’s fine I Didn’t, that’s not enough reason for me. I’ve never been down to the Lost Coast either, and the weather there, I later learned, was AMAZING. It was great, to be in this activists space, to be greeted, and treated well, by these kind folks. A gathering of like-minded folks, which our Env. Politics teacher, Ralph Faust (possibly in relation to Emily saying things were too negative in class/world) is what is needed for one to stay happy/well in life. (That’s me oversimplifying, of course.) Meeting new, interesting and different people, having different kinds of conversations from the usual, spending time with passionate people, taking hikes, learning about nature, the world, ourselves.. oh! Just everything that is important to me in life, and so makes me happy! SO GOOD! Oh, yes.

Well, I could write a lot about the Skill Share, I took some notes in my journal (since I don’t use it enough, gotta do something with it! I did the same during the Ed Encounter a few weeks prior), and have a lot to say, but! Not now. You’ll have to come back to this entry later, I reckon, on my website, not on facebook. However!

To start you off, here’s a Slideshow from the Skill Share, my photos to be polished up (hopefully soon!), feel free to bug me!

In the meantime, here’s a nice one.. (This links to the album!–>

MAD props to the Forest Defenders community (and to Forest and Mystique for all their work putting this on!), for all their energy, good thoughts, sacrifice, etc.
(On a sidenote, I’m sure that, if there is a divide between SJ and Env movements, it’s not coming from these good-hearted folks! (at least not intentionally!))

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It’s weird.. such.. overconfidence.. such.. long-windedness, and cockiness.. and I wasn’t really sure how to deal with it. Zach wasn’t sure either, that was a pain in the butt for him (to put it mildly!), a time we will never forget, but not for the best of times, but for the worst of times.

How to deal with people like that.. I still am left clueless, 2 semesters later. The time living with this guy.. it really made me question my ability to work with people and relate to them.. in retrospect, I’ve been able to have the clarity to know that it was more based on his personality that caused the big problems. I am not so flawed/etc/etc as he made me feel. I guess I also forgot the principle that people love/hate those qualities in others that they see in themselves. So, to whatever extent I reminded him of his qualities/”flaws”, that’s where I was scorned and criticized the most, and the most harshly.
Wild.

I didn’t realize how bad it was until he did something to really upset me. After I had said my goodbyes, he had an hour or so to pack, and one of his last moves was to take away our cable modem.
*#$#$%#$%
As JohnT would say, “JERK!” became my new name for him.
Why, because of my internet addiction? Good thought, and maybe that’s a part or it, but no..

How would you feel if your phone was taken away, without notice or prompting, and you realized it when you got home?
I have an internet phone, of which he is completely aware, and so I was left.. without that line of communications that’s so important, and I have been consciously trying to make all the more crucial and vital in my life..
Sigh..
I didn’t mind him taking my silverware, maybe some of my other kitchen things, but this.. was too much.

So, I guess it’s good that he did that, made sure to leave his mark of who he really is, without communicating the fact that he intended to do that. If he had told me, specifically that he was taking it, I could have made alternate arrangements. But no, other people?
He didn’t believe in a cooperative/communal household, or that people need each other .. except when he needs something, of course.

AYE. Now I’m just rambling.

It’s funny.. I thought my other roommate from this past semester, E-wreck, and him were getting along swimmingly, but once he was gone, it was clear.. EasyE’s life was so much better, happier, easier.. it was hard..

It was weird that his dog, Moses, was so sweet. My friend Joe said that’s usually how it is, asshole owners have the sweetest dogs.. other friends have reaffirmed, saying that statement makes a _LOT_ of sense. Interesting. I’d never used that word to describe him before though, so .. it’s interesting, you know?
Maybe that is the best word to describe him. Peace out..
-@

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