Thanksgiving

I struggle with Thanksgiving. It's a holiday with more emotional baggage for me than any other, in part because it encourages genuine reflection, and in part because of its origins. I'll talk about the latter first, because it's more straight forward.

Thanksgiving started as a celebration of genocide. That sounds harsh, but I don't know a truthful way to articulate it that doesn't sound that way. A piece by Robert Jensen published annually at alternet explains this well (though it's written for people who don't need to read it, and if it does sway somebody, it just infuses them with the self-righteous anger so typical of white males that we need so much less of in movements for peace and social justice). The sanitized version of the holiday we celebrate makes us (myself included) complicit with the genocide and continued oppression of the native peoples of what is now the United States. And as much as I talk about celebrating the National Day of Mourning instead, I can never bring myself to do it whole heartedly and have all of the really tough conversations it requires.

The reason I still attend traditional Thanksgiving celebrations, normally with my family, but this year with a motley crew of US ex-pats in Managua, is because I believe that the holiday encourages true reflection. I find that this reflection is (as it really should be) troubling, this year as with many others. I hope that many people take the day seriously and really think about not only what they are thankful for, but why they can be thankful. At times, especially for folks in similar social positions to my own, this can be an excercise that oscillates between a sort of mental gluttony and spiritual masochism. I have a lot to be thankful for, and though I've worked very hard for it (though really I know very few people, no matter what their economic or social position, who haven't worked equally as hard if not harder for what they have) much of what I am thankful for is do to, in part or in whole, unearned privilege.

I found out today that my application to become a 2009 Young People For Fellow with the People for the American Way was accepted. I was hired a few weeks ago as a Grassroots Organizing Trainer with the United States Students Association. I am currently studying abroad in Nicaragua. I have an amazing schedule of courses next semester at an elite, private liberal arts college where I have created my own major and area of directed study. I more people in my life that I love and who love me than I would have thought possible. I am never in serious physical danger, I always have more than enough to eat (and can choose what, when, and where I eat almost without exception), I have shelter, and I live in a country where I have nearly unlimited freedom of expression and organization. Maybe most importantly, I enjoy my life. I have hobbies that I love, including film, literature, and music, and that I enjoy with loved ones. I love my studies and my work, and find it satisfying at a deeply spiritual level. My life is truely one to be thankful for.

There are many, many people who do not or can not feel this way. Literally billions of people do not have enough to eat, millions of whom are in the country in which I currently reside, as I go off to gorge myself. In fact, going through the list of things I've just made and talking about the exclusivity of each item would not only be a depressing excercise, it would be a pointless one. We know how difficult and malformed our material world is.

This was all just to give a sketch as to why I find Thanksgiving so problematic. But I still think it's a good opportunity. It's an opportunity to share with loved ones, both a sense of community and kinship and some of the issues we have on our minds.

Have a happy and reflective Thanksgiving.

Some thoughts about the political situation in the US

Yes, I am taking time out of my experience abroad in Nicaragua during an eventful election season here to pay attention to politics in the States. Hopefully writing this will get some of my thoughts out there and allow me to focus on completing my final few weeks here.

Here are a few links I would highly recommend checking out:

• A truly wonderful, touching and deeply spiritual letter to President-Elect Obama from the great Alice Walker
• A great piece (in a great series of pieces) on the vital role we, the people, must play in the new direction the United States must take and why we can't leave it all up to the Obama administration
• Latin American foreign policy and the next Secretary of State
• John Stewart reminded us a while back why things are so fucked up in the Middle East and why war and money won't fix it. All while making us laugh until we gasp for breath
• Saskia Sassen reminds us why financial markets are not economic growth
• A good, tight analysis of Obama's less-than-thrilling economic team

Alright, so, clearly the situation we've found ourselves in is a complete and total mess. We currently have an administration that doesn't know it's ass from a hole in the ground throwing billions of dollars of public money to their friends in the imaginary financial markets amidst the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of working class people have lost their jobs, both in the US and internationally. Global markets are destabalized which will not only exacerbate wealth inquality but will also throw the global food crisis into an all out catastrophe. Africa is deteriorating even further, with the war in the DR Congo reintensifying, Zimbabwe's political despot clinging desperately to power, Somolia getting even worse (who know that was possible?) and most other nation states in various states of disaray or collapse. The US government is still giving Colombia more aid than any other country in the western hemisphere despite a laundry list of well documented government sponsored human rights violations and authoritarianism. The executive administration is further weakening the already abysmal standards protecting our environment amidst a global environmental crisis of depleted resources and climate chaos. The US government refuses to denounce coup attempts against Bolivian President Evo Morales and takes an increasingly imperialist stance towards the country. Israel has shut down Gaza to international journalists and aid workers. The US government has decided to start conducting special operations inside borders of sovereign nations in blatent and brazen violation of international law. Again, things aren't good.

During all of this, the people of the United States have elected their first Black president, started questioning some of the basic tenents of capitalism in mainstream news sources, mobilized at unprecidented levels to show support in solidarity with same-sex couples in California who had their rights taken away on November 4th, and are demanding solutions to the various problems exhibited by the failing executive administration.

I hope that Barack Obama is taking note of this. He hasn't shown any indication of doing so thus far, with appointments of an economic team intrenched in the circles of people responsible for the policies that allowed the current crisis, a Secretary of State who is belligerently aggresive towards the middle east and has repeatedly turned a blind eye to human rights violations the world over, the retention of a Defense Secretary who has orchestrated an attempt at redefining international law to allow us to attack anyone we want, a head of the CIA who was complicit in torture and rendition policies, and more.

So, now that we have seemingly started to wake up, can we get on top of this? Can we show that we know, we care, and we won't accept the way things are? I know that I will raise my voice when I return in a little over two weeks, and will encourage everyone I possibly can to do so as well, but I'm only one person. We need a great tide of people and I implore everyone to be a part of that great tide for egalitatian change that is necessary to save the people and the planet.

A few links that I thought I'd share

I'm headed to Esteli for a little over a week, and I thought I'd share some of my favorite links before I left.

Keith Olbermann's special comment on Prop 8 was very touching, and then was emailed to me by no fewer than 7 people, so if you haven't seen it yet, enjoy and pass it on.

The Yes Men's July 4, 2009 edition of the New York Times is a what-could-be if we mobilize for change now that we have a government that might listen to us!

Anyways, I hope you enjoy those as much as I did.

Third Mass Email

Hey y'all

Since I've last written, I´ve learned about Culture of Peace, finished my regular classes, spent 9 days in El Salvador, started my independent study project in Managua and Estelí, been a nervous wreck tracking the 2008 US elections, swam in a giant fresh water lagoon next to former President Arnaldo Aleman's house, hiked through a tropical forest to look down into a volcano, and survived a very tense Nicaraguan municipal election. It's been a lot, and though I'm exhausted, I'm doing well.

Classes ended well. I did my final Spanish project on a book on the Latin American legacy of Paulo Friere, which prepared those in my Spanish class for the tour of the museum of the 1980 literacy campaign. The tour was amazing, and I have pictures that I will post when I return, even though I don't have a connection that will allow me to do so right now. The literacy campaign is still one of the things that I'm most excited about, and the museum's demonstration of the power of people coming together to make great change brought tears to my eyes. You can read what the United Nations has to say about it or the shorter version at Wikipedia.

After our Spanish classes ended, we went on our comparitive excursion to El Salvador. It was whirlwind 9 days of testimonials, history lessons, tours, community visits, and work that I'm still reeling from. It was one of the most affecting 9 day periods of my life. We began in San Salvador, where we went to a wonderful popular education organization called Equipo Maíz where we learned about the bloody history of El Salvador and the context for the Civil War (I was unable to find a good short explanation online, but here's what Wikipedia has, which is ok) We got testimonials from former FMLN guerillas, met with civil society organizations focused on the women's movement, migration, gangs in El Salvador, and more. In the evenings, we watched a few movies, including Romero and Voces Inocentes, both of which I recommend to better understand human rights struggles in Latin America. We visited the site of assassination of 6 Jesuit priests at the Universidad Centroamericana San Salvador, the sister university of the UCA where I study in Managua. This, along with the El Mozote massacre which we also learned about, is a famous instance of the brutality of School of Americas graduates which is marked by the annual protests at Fort Benning, GA each November. The accompanying museum, photos, poems, and memorial were a shocking a heart-wrenching experience. We visited the National Cathedral and the tomb of Oscar Romero along with his home and site of assassination, the Divine Providence. It seems trite to attempt to put into words the feeling of agonizing loss and pain that these sights represent, that eminate from them when you are there.

After a few days in San Salvador soaking in the history and social atmosphere, we went to the northern community of Santa Marta, which was a community in exile for 7 years in the 1980s due to persecution by government death squads before returning to their homes in 1988 while the civil war still waged. There, we stayed with families for three days and worked at the local popular radio station, Radio Victoria. I stayed with a former FMLN guerilla who taught me a few songs on the guitar and told me about his military service amongst hours long conversations about history and global politics, about which he was better informed than most of the students and probably even professors at Willamette. The town was still quite poor, with very little development, though they did have electricity and some running water. While at Radio Victoria, we worked on news shows, political analysis, entertainment spots, and I was even asked to sing a few songs, so now I've been broadcast in El Salvador and Honduras, singing both English and Spanish! It was wonderful to work with the youth who ran the radio station, and we learned a lot about current events from our time there, including the 2009 Presidential Elections and the FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes, though Radio Victoria is non-partisan.

When we returned to San Salvador, we were able to attend classes with students at the National University. I spent a day with a few students hanging out on campus, attending panels at a human rights conference, admiring the popular art, discussing current events, philosophy, and sociology, and learning about student movements on campus. It was a fantastic day that helped me remember why I was still excited about college and made me eager to return to campus in the spring.

We also got to visit the National Assembly and speak with deputados from both the FMLN (Frente Farabundo Martí de Liberación Nacional) and the right wing ARENA (Alianza Republicana Nacionalista). The meeting with the FMLN deputada was pleasant and uneventful, with a lot of politically correct hedged opinions, but the meeting with the ARENA deputado was filled with grand, sweeping boasts about his party that defied statistics that we'd heard and occured in the "Great Roberto d'Aubuisson Memorial Room." D'Aubuisson was the founder of ARENA and also a major death squad leader in the 1970s and 80s. The room's presence and reverence by the ARENA controlled National Assembly seemed a slap in the face of the memory of the tens of thousands of innocent victims of the governments ruthless tactics.

Overall, the trip was yet another experience that defies articulation. I wrote a short Op-Ed for the Willamette newspaper afterwards expressing the need to counter US policy that is the reason for Nicaragua and El Salvador's dire situations. You can find it at the Collegian website or on my blog I strongly encourage those of you who are interested to check out the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador for more information about what you can do to help the desperate situation there.

After returning from El Salvador, we studied Culture of Peace. We went to the Center for International Studies, where we were able to work with Zoilamerica Narváez, a major Nicaraguan feminist human rights activist. We also discussed the link between peace and justice with Jesuit Priests and non-violent campesino activists, and met with the non-violent movement for justice for banana workers exposed to the toxic pesticide Nemagon by US corporations like Dole and Chiquita. We also met with the Promoters of Peace, former contra and Sandinista soldiers working together against violence and for a more positive peace. It was a great weak that seriously challenged my preconceptions of peace and violence and I can't wait to discuss it with y'all upon my return.

Now, I was a wreck for about two weeks before the US elections. I was terribly nervous that there would be violence, voter suppression, homophobic attacks, or some sort manifestation of the infamous "Bradley effect." Thankfully, Obama won by a sizable margin, though four anti-queer pieces of legislation passed, including in my home state of California. I was simultaneously elated, shocked, unimpressed, and feeling disconnected on election night here in Nicaragua, even at our little election party gathering of US folks at the SIT office. I cried during Obama's acceptance speech, especially at the sight of a quarter of a million people in rapturous political celebration (the likes of which I had only seen in videos of South Africa when they elected Nelson Mandela) in Grant Park, where police beatings had torn apart the Democratic convention forty years ago. It was beautiful, and I was especially affected by Obama's line "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change." How right he is, and I hope we all listen. At the same time, Prop 8 and the rest of the discriminatory laws were cutting me deep. Does California really care more about chickens than queer folks? And what's all this bullshit about attacking the black voting bloc and the Mormon church!? The white gay voting bloc has never been attacked for it's racist bullshit before, and the focus should be on the folks whose rights were taken away, not the bigoted religious fundamentalists who spearheaded the campiagn. They are not the point. The point is justice. But I digress.

This email has turned out to be just as exhaustingly long as the last one, so I'll be brief with the rest of it. I'm currently in my independent study period, studying the relations between US organization Witness for Peace and Nicaraguan justice organizations. It's been a great first week of study, with a lot of rich information and new friends, and I've also used my more fluid schedule to travel a little bit. The coolest thing I've done this week was going to the Masaya Volcano National Park, and hiking through the forest to look down into the Volcano. Inside of it. Of an active volcano. And, unfortunately finding out what volcanic gas is (it smells bad and tastes like a multi-vitamin). It was a great day. I have pictures of that too.

I head up to Estelí to work more with Nicaraguan organizations up there on Thursday. It's weird to think that my time here is winding down, but I'm happy with the fact that my project is the focus of the rest of my time here. I hope that everyone is well, and know that I'm excited to see every one of you when I return to CA in December, Willamette in January, DC (hopefully) in February, or as soon as I can get to where the rest of y'all are.

Be well, do good work, and stay in touch,
Sam

Op-Ed from Willamette University Collegian, November 5th 2008

Thoughts from the ground in Nicaragua

I’m currently living in Nicaragua, studying Revolution, Transformation and Civil Society at the School for International Training. I’ve learned about the legacy of the Popular Revolution against murderous, U.S. backed military dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle (the third in the oppressive Somoza military dynasty) and the subsequent U.S.-funded counter-revolution. We recently took a nine-day trip to El Salvador for a comparative look at a country that endured a brutal 12+ year long civil war between revolutionary guerillas and a bloodthirsty, U.S.-backed regime that ended in a peace treaty rather than a transfer of power.

Both Nicaragua and El Salvador are ravaged by poverty as the second and third poorest countries in the western hemisphere. The last hundred years of both countries has been stained by a holocaust on the poor by military dictatorships and armed forces trained and funded by the United States.

When the FSLN (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional) came to power in 1979, they brought social services and land reform, which sparked a staggering reduction in poverty and illiteracy. During that period, the rightist dictatorship in El Salvador was killing protestors en masse, including innocent civilians and Catholic priests teaching liberation theology, closely resembling the situation that Nicaragua had experienced under Somoza in the 1970s.

During the 1980s, Ronald Reagan gave training and over $1,500,000 per day (amounting to over $6 billion total), to the military in El Salvador and also trained and funded, both publicly and illicitly, the “contras” (short for contrarevolutionarios) in Nicaragua. Both armies destroyed schools, food stores, and health centers, and used rape and torture as war tactics. Over 75,000 people were killed in El Salvador and over 50,000 people in Nicaragua, adding to the 50,000+ killed by Somoza’s National Guard.

Now, both countries have been kneecapped by U.S./IMF neo-liberal policies of slashed social programs, privatization, and deregulation. Poverty has increased and human rights crises like increased undocumented migration, gang violence, and lack of access to potable water are all rampant.

These policies were advocated for and funded by our government. This is our legacy. This is the country that many of us have grown up in, that has put us through school, that we have been socialized in. And we are seeing this horrible history repeated in Iraq and Afghanistan, this time with U.S. troops. Let us not be silent. Let us inform ourselves. Organize. Resist. Let our collective voices be heard.

A government that uses public funds without the informed consent of the citizenry to kill innocent people and set up puppet governments in accordance with their economic interests (trade and labor in Central America and oil in the Middle East) is fundamentally anti-democratic, no matter what kind of elections are held.

So let’s reclaim democracy and hold our government accountable by demanding that they advocate for human rights, break patterns of U.S. imperialism and predatory corporate capitalism, and help to save our environment. Seek independent information and check out organizations like United for Peace and Justice (www.unitedforpeace.org) for information on issues and what actions you can take to make change. If you’re interested in what you can do to help the people of Nicaragua and El Salvador, check out Witness for Peace (www.witnessforpeace.org) and the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (www.cispes.org). Informing yourselves about current government activities and making your voice heard is an important step in working for justice.