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| The national NOW website has a wealth of news, action items, and other information of interest to anyone interested in women's equality Now national website: http://www.now.org Arizona State website: www.aznow.org Join a local chapter! Phoenix/Scottsdale NOW website: http://www.phxscottsd alenow.org/ Sun City/West Valley NOW webgsite: http://www.aznow-scw v.org/ |
| The Feminist Majority Foundation's website has news, blogs, resources, campaigns and action items: http://feminist.org/ |
| NCLR - National Center for Lesbian Rights |
| Free Legal Advice Lawyers on Call From 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month, volunteer lawyers answer legal questions on Channel 12. Anyone can call and ask questions. The lawyers answer calls from 5:00 -7:00 p.m. during the program. The Lawyers on Call number is 602-258- 1212. The phones are off when the program is not on the air.. Lawyers on Call is a public service program sponsored by the State Bar of Arizona and Phoenix’s Channel 12 KPNX TV. For more information, and a list of discussion topics, click here. |
| The China Study By Dianne Post The number one cause of death in America is diseases of the heart. Number two is cancer. Guess what number three is? Medical care – iatrogenic – mistakes and faults of the medical establishment. We know how to avoid number three – every nurse I know has told me to stay the hell out of the hospital if I want to stay alive! But how do we avoid number one and two for as long as possible so we can avoid number three? It depends on what we put in our mouth. We all have heard that the health of Americans is declining. We keep getting fatter with more diabetes in children and adults, and one in four will have cancer in their lifetime. We spend 10 times more for health care than other industrialized countries, yet the quality of our health system is ranked 37 in the world. We know fast food is bad, processed food is bad, sugar is bad, and fat is bad. We’ve heard that meat is bad and milk is bad and cheese is bad and eggs are bad one week and good the next. Americans spend millions of dollars on diets and diet food. Low fat diets are in and then low carb diets are in. Atkins is it, South Beach is tops. We’ve passed through the cabbage diet, the Optifast diet, and the vinegar diet. Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig hang on. Phen phen gets sued. Diet pills still abound. Patches like ex-smokers rev up your metabolism. Lap band surgery explodes. The China Study was the basis for the movie Forks over Knives. It was a massive study of 6,400 Chinese, 48 different diseases and 367 variables compared to every other variable. This bonanza of information has led to much information about the diseases of affluence and of poverty. In America, affluence is killing us. The evidence in the book as in the movie will shock you. The countries that drink the most milk (New Zealand and the U.S.) have the highest rates of osteoporosis. No other animal drinks the milk of another animal at all let alone into adulthood. Milk does not build strong bones. When the Nazi’s occupied Norway during WWII they took all the cows and chickens to feed the army. The Norwegians were left to eat only plants and grains. The rate of heart disease and cancer plummeted. After the war when the cows and chickens came back, it skyrocketed. These are just two of hundreds of studies. The solution is simple - whole food, plant based. Animal based foods, including our excessive consumption of protein, are making us sick. Read the book. Your health is at the end of your fork. |
| For years Arizona has relied on mass incarceration as its primary criminal justice response. That reliance is ineffective, inefficient, inhumane and discriminatory. The NAACP opposes the continuance of mass incarceration and the building of prisons, especially private, for-profit prisons, as the lynchpin of Arizona’s criminal justice policy. The State has spent millions and wants to spend millions more for prisons. In 2009 the legislature passed a law to build 5,000 more private, for-profit prison beds that would cost taxpayers $640 million by 2017 though the inmate population and crime is decreasing. The Department of Corrections (DOC) budget is $1 billion or 11% of the state’s total budget. While other states are bringing their budgets down in this time of austerity, Arizona’s keeps going up. The increasing criminalization of our society by these policies means that one in one hundred persons is arrested; more teens are tried as adults, we incarcerate at a higher rate and more people than any country including China and Russia, and the majority of those inmates are Black and Brown. The highest imprisonment rate is Black males. Counting men over 18, for white’s the rate is one in 106 is arrested, for Hispanic one in 36, for Blacks one in 15, for Blacks ages 20-34, it is one in nine. The discrimination crosses gender lines as well. For white women, the rate is one in 355, for Hispanic one in 297, and for Blacks it is one in 100. The states with the most prison inmates, the highest rate of and the highest growth of private for-profit prisons is in the South and Arizona. The state tries to hide the tremendous cost of these prisons by contracting with private, for-profit prisons that are not accountable to the public in the same way as the state institutions rather than requiring voters to approve capital expenditures at a time when our coffers are dry. But private prisons do not save money. Private prisoners cost on average $56 per day per prisoner while the state’s cost $48. The ADOC Maximus study done in 2007 found that when the savings and costs were totaled from all the private prisons, privatization was costing the state $343,237 annually. In Kingman alone, the net loss for the state was $1,443,685. In 2009, in a report by the DOC, FY2009 Operating Per Capita Cost Report, February 11, 2010, the daily per capita cost of a publicly run prison was $46.97 and the for-profit prisons were $47.20. Arizona is losing money by privatizing. Mass incarceration is a boondoggle for large corporations who suck taxpayer dollars out of necessary programs to pay their inflated salaries. Private prisons are not safe. The escape from the GEO prison in Kingman brought to light a multitude of problems at the prison, but when ADOC ordered them to fix it, they sued the state and taxpayers paid another $3 million – for subpar performance. Inmate on inmate violence is 66% higher and violence to staff is 49% higher in private prisons. Private prisons do not bring jobs or economic development. The corporations that run the prisons are not local and buy in bulk from a central out of state purchaser. They often bring in their own construction from planning to finish because they just repeat the process. The institutions in Arizona have already been fined e.g. those in Kingman, Marana, Phoenix West and Florence West because they failed to fill vacancies. But the Kingman prison is busy taking jobs from local city staff by hiring out inmates at less. Bills have been introduced to require private prisons to meet the same standard as state prisons e.g. to notify the state of threats to public health and safety (like the Kingman escape), prohibit transfer of serious or violent offenders from other states, make their records public since the public is paying the bills, and have state monitoring and oversight. (HB 2002-2006, 2299) But the committee chair, Rep Weiers won’t even let the bills be heard. Who is he representing? Private corporations or the taxpayers? Decades of research have shown that prisons do not bring economic development. In fact since 1990, a prison in a town reduces jobs overall and drives down wages. Up to two-thirds of the potential tax revenue and economic benefit leaves the host community. Prisons do not bring in other kinds of development such as tourism or housing. At least half of all prisoners are non-violent drug offenders. They need treatment not prison. The Innocence Project has proven repeatedly that many incarcerated Blacks were falsely convicted. Prison should be for violent criminals who need rehabilitation or who can never be rehabilitated. It should not be a profit-making venture for large corporations. Some sensible bills have been introduced this year if the committee chair (David Gowan) would only hear them. HB 2521 would allow nonviolent offenders to earn increased release credit and thus give them an incentive to get out early, saving taxpayers and helping families and communities. One policy driving our high incarceration rate is mandatory sentencing. One size does not fit all but the current procedure leads to lengthy sentences that cost the taxpayers and wreck families and communities. HB 2522 would resolve that. Another harm to families is the $25 charge for visits. While at first blush, it seems a good idea to help fund the prisons, in the long term it is harmful. Inmates who do not keep in touch with families are more likely to return to prison thus costing the community and taxpayers more in the long run. HB 2523 would remedy this. HB2531 allows the director of the DOC to parole inmates whose physical disabilities have incapacitated them, so that they are no longer a threat to the safety of the public. Arizona must re-think its criminal justice system and institute reforms in the best interest of the entire state, not just a few corporate shareholders or office holders. Mass incarceration of citizens, especially for profit, is a betrayal of our democratic ideals. Let’s get back on track. |
Dianne Post, National Lawyers Guild Legal Redress, Maricopa County NAACP 16 February 2012 |
| Banning Books By Dianne Post It’s the United States. It’s 2012. And we are banning books. Books like Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, De Colores Means All of Us: Latina Views Multi-Colored Century, A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn, The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin, Let Their Spirits Dance by Stella Pope Duarte about the Viet Nam War, Live from Death Row, by J. Abu-Jamal, Zorro by Isador Allende, Like Water for Chocolate, Feminism is for everybody by Bell Hooks. What is going on? Have we slipped into the 8th century or Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia? At a panel discussion March 3 at Galleria, speakers presented the origins, progression and status of the ethnic studies program and the rationale for and impact of HB 2281. The legislature passed HB 2281 in 2010, and it requires that a school not offer courses that: 1) promote the overthrow of the United States; 2) promote resentment toward a race or class of people; 3) are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group; and/or 4) advocate ethnic solidarity instead of treatment of pupils as individuals. Exclusions are e.g. 1) courses for Native American students that are required by federal law; 2) grouping by academic performance or language capability that might result in one ethnic group being together; 3) courses that include history of an ethnic group that are open to all students; 4) classes that include controversial aspects of history. If a school is found out of compliance, the state Department of Education can withhold 10% of their funding monthly. Superintendent of Education Huppenthal commissioned a study of the program, spending $110,000 taxpayer dollars. When the Cambrian report said the program built respect, embraced diversity and should be expanded, he threw the report in the trash (along with our money) and said the program violated the law, and he was authorized to cut 10% of the funding to TUSD. This move had nothing to do with academic standards and everything to do with the politics of power. In spite of two independent reports showing the TUSD Mexican American Studies program did not violate any aspects of the law, on 3 January 2011, attorney general Tom Horne declared the program to be out of compliance. A judge upheld his administrative decision. On 10 January 2012, in a 4-1 vote, the TUSD board voted to “suspend” its Mexican American studies program. At the panel discussion, Dr. Conrad Gomez outlined the development of the program back in 1997-1998. It began after a Hispanic parent sued TUSD for discrimination. Gomez was appointed chair of a committee to study the creation of a Mexican American studies program. The committee looked at multi-culturalism, bi- lingual issues and Mexican American studies programs. They had three public hearings in a year at which approximately sixty people spoke at each one with perhaps three opposing. The school board, city council, county board and South Tucson all approved. It was a thoroughly vetted plan worked out with the community – a community Horne and Huppenthal know nothing about. Dr. Auggie Romero, senior director for ethnic studies at TUSD described the program before it was “suspended”. The No Child Left Behind legislation specifically directed schools to identify and alleviate the gaps in their populations. A gap was identified for Latino students and the program was designed, under the law, to meet that gap. It never excluded anyone and was proven to be positive for all the students as the school knew that diversity makes for a richer environment. But the program focused on a certain type of curricula, type of pedagogy and transformed how the school viewed the community they served. Social justice was a part of the projects and qualitative research ensured students became engaged in the learning. Romero summarized the program as giving students identification, purpose and hope and characterized HB 2281 as “making hope illegal”. The two things most critical to success in education are engagement and identification. That is where the program was succeeding and precisely why the state wants to shut it down. They want to make it illegal to question or to challenge authority. As Romero said, a generation of underprivileged children who have hope can shift the racist, fascist culture in Arizona. In an earlier encounter with Huppenthal, Romero asked him just to speak the truth about the program. Huppenthal said, “We are in the middle of a culture war and we are going to win it.” Arizona, when it was part of Mexico was called Zona Arida. After U. S. troops precipitated a war with Mexico so we could take their land, the territory included what is now New Mexico and zona arida or Arizona. When New Mexico petitioned to become a state, the Arizona leaders objected because there were too many Mexicans – in what used to be Mexico. The racism in Arizona goes way back. The lawyers have challenged the law on several grounds: void for vagueness and First Amendment violations both as written and as applied. Both teachers and students are plaintiffs and both have First Amendment rights. A motion for summary judgment will be heard on 19 March in federal court in Tucson. No one has been able to define the four violations, and no causal nexus has been shown between the TUSD program and the alleged violations. These actions are a primal example of a government that has exceeded and abused its power. Huppenthal and Horne dismantled the most effective program for Hispanic students, indeed for all students, in TUSD, which is at least half Hispanic. One of the students called the behavior of the state, “straight up gangster tactics”. They are right. An irony of history is that the first school district in Arizona was the TUSD – organized by Mexicans. But the story is not over. We are on the right side of history and we will prevail |