October 2010

Students:

Let me tell you a little goddamn story once:

Creation closes doors. That’s what the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the rest of the Media Industrial Complex (M.i.C.) would have you believe. Since the advent of digital media, these criminal corporate organizations have bribed lawmakers, bullied information services companies, extorted the American public and sued and imprisoned those who they deem criminal.

In their April 2010, Special Water Edition, National Geographic Magazine announced its formal commitment “to explore the World of Water.” Marked in the “Editor’s Note” this proclamation was officially enacted with the appointment of Sandra Postel as the Society’s first National Geographic Freshwater Fellow. “The initiative she heads will not only educate, it will ‘reshape how people and communities think about, use, and manage fresh water. It will provide the tools to enable individuals, corporations, and communities to become part of the solution.’” But what needs reshaping?

“The Evergreen State College will be a laboratory for sustainability as demonstrated in our operations, curriculum, and quality of life for employees and students. We will nurture values and practical skills that motivate a lifetime commitment to a sustainable, intergenerationally just way of living on a healthy planet.”

—Evergreen’s Vision for a Sustainable Future, available at the college’s website: http://www.evergreen.edu/sustainability/home.htm

The issue you’re holding is the first edition of the third year of the Counter Point Journal. There have been some good issues and some bad issues, more or less corresponding to how things were going on in our collective. Since we’re off to a fresh start this year, we thought we’d share some of what’s been going on in the CxPJ collective and explain why we feel like the project slid downhill last year.

In documents obtained through a public records request made by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington a strange exchange is revealed. On March 13th, 2007 a former Masters of Public Administration adjunct faculty named Steve D. Johnson copied and forwarded on to the Washington State Patrol (WSP) a post on TESC Crier advertising a March 15th anti-war protest at the Port of Tacoma rallying against use of ports for military shipments.

Ever since last April when Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, signed into law the most overtly racist piece of legislation since the pre-Civil Rights Movement era, thousands of people across the U.S. have been mobilizing to resist SB 1070. The bill requires police officers in Arizona to demand documentation from anyone they suspect of being an “illegal” immigrant, and arrest anyone who fails to immediately provide proof of citizenship. The bill was closely followed by the passage of an equally outrageous new law: HB 2281, which banned ethnic studies classes in Arizona state schools.

At first glance it appeared to be a normal conference room and as I walked in the loathsome college lecture flashbacks began. Then I realized: the room was full of queer people. We were everywhere. My first People’s Movement Assembly was stuffy, the room had no inches to spare and we were jam packed inside, but it hummed with excitement. We are all radical queers and we were all gathered to discuss movement building across and between our communities.

FIERCE is a membership-based organization building the leadership and power of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color in New York City. We develop politically conscious leaders who are invested in improving ourselves and our communities through youth-led campaigns, leadership development programs, and cultural expression through arts and media.

In August Governor Gregoire announced $51 million in cuts to welfare programs to families. These will be achieved by cutting off a family’s welfare grant after 5 years even if they have been participating in job search or job readiness programs the entire time. This will leave these families with only food stamps and no way to pay the rent.