During one of the evening's most tense moments, a line of protesters carrying a fence made of chicken wire and PVC pipe advanced toward police lines at Bancroft Place and Connecticut Avenue NW about 8:30 p.m. Soon, they were face-to-face with D.C. police in riot gear, as observers holding up video cameras strained to capture the confrontation and the crowd chanted, "The whole world is watching." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31260-2002Apr22.html http://clients.loudeye.com/imc/washingtondc/fenceconfrontationbancroft.ram ***** ******* ** ** ** ** ******* ***** activist times ** inactive-for-a-week! ** ******** ******** ** ** ** ** ** ** ******** ******** ** ** ... ** ** . . .317. ... Goodbye Roberta Blackgoat. A memorial poem written by moon_grace 4/24/02 I bow my head to the woman who would not be relocated and instead of weaving cloth, at 84, she picked up pliers and unravelled fences. I bow my head to the woman who would not be relocated and instead of moving into town, at 84, she drove herself in an old pickup truck 33 miles one-way on unpaved roads for water, for phones, for gas, for news of the world. I bow my head to the woman who would not be relocated and instead of telling stories and bemoaning what used to be, at 84, she took up pen and paper and drew out petitions to stop what she thought was wrong with the world around her. I bow my head to the woman whose great-grandparents taught her relocation of Fort Sumner, and at 84, she flung open her doors when history came tapping on her window and she did not hide or falter. She did not lock her door and pretend she was not home. She dug in and worked for what she believed And at 84, She kept these words... "The Creator is the only one that will relocate me." Goodnight, Roberta Blackgoat. Issue #317 26apr01 GUEST COLUMNIST pAtRiCk MoOrE. Schools For Sale (Note: This originally started life as a persuasive speech in my speech class at Itawamba Community College. However, the time alloted for each student's speech made a longer, more detailed speech impossible. But at the same time, I feel this is a subject worth talking about, and ATI is the place to do it. For Deborah, Erica, Steve, Marilyn, Jimi, and Phyllis...this is for you: the "director's cut" of my persuasive speech.) Today’s issue is NOT brought to you by Pepsi! We can say that, and make a joke about it, but there are schools where this is not true. Faced with shrinking budgets, many Public schools find they have to rely on corporations for needed funding and materials. But often, companies that partner with schools put profit over education. As a parent, I feel that these kinds of relationships are inappropriate in a school setting. Today, I’m going to tell you about school commercialism, and why it’s bad for kids. Perhaps no other name is more closely associated with school commercialism than Channel One. Channel One loans TV sets to schools for an indefinite period, at least 3 years, and most of these schools are in low-income districts The show itself is approximately 14 minutes long, provided to grades 7-12. Billed as a way to ‘teach the news", there is very little actual news, as much as 80% ‘fluff" (a journalistic term for stories that have little relevance to the audience). In fact, some stories are actually promotions of events. Super bowl 36 was the "lead story" in one installment. Channel One contains 2-4 minutes of commercials. Many advertisers create ads to be shown only on Channel One. Corporations are charged millions of dollars for each ad aired, and some companies create ads for the exclusive use of Channel One. Most, if not all, of the ads shown are for items that teens can live without, such as Skittles or Nike shoes. The reason Channel One is so appealing to advertisers is the terms of the contract Channel one has with participating schools. Under contractual agreement, the schools must show the program during class time. Channel One actually promotes this in its own sales literature as a way to reach even the "lightest" TV viewer, that is, one who doesn’t watch TV very much at home, therefore beyond an advertiser’s grasp. However, the school time lost to advertisers can be as much as $300 million per year. Of course, Channel One is not the only in-school advertiser. YNN, or Youth News Network, is basically a Canadian version of Channel One, and it has been under fire from its beginning. ZapMe!, a company that loans computer equipment and internet access to schools, requires that students spend at least four hours per day in computer labs, and the ZapMe! operating system contain ads that cannot be turned off. Other ways that companies pretend to help schools are what I like to call Direct and Indirect sponsorships. Indirect sponsorships, for example, are when companies have gimmick promotions to get people to buy a company’s product in hopes they’ll help the schools (i.e. "box tops for education"), as opposed to outright donations. In fact, some companies use this to obtain demographic profiles of consumers in a given area. What is not revealed, is that the cost of the prizes is small in contrast to what is spent. For instance, under Campbell’s Soup’s "Box Tops For Education" program, a school must save almost 100,000 Campbell’s soup labels in order to receive one iMac computer. You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to see who’s the real winner here, considering that a fully loaded iMac costs around $750. Other incentives offered to winning schools include breakfast with the Trix Bunny, for example. Direct sponsorship is where companies like McDonalds and Pepsi pay millions for the right to advertise on school grounds and equipment. In some instances, companies like Pizza Hut serve their food in the cafeteria on selected days. One school district in Colorado Springs allows Coca-Cola to advertise and set up drink machines in the hallways and even allow students to bring drinks to class. However, it can be carried too far, as proposals in Mississippi and Colorado to paint school buses with sponsors’ logo in return for donations fail on safety issues. Yet, for all this ‘help’, there is a price to be paid, as the students at the University of Oregon found out. Nike withdrew tens of millions of dollars in contributions after the student body decided to support an organization that held overseas garment factories accountable for worker safety. What’s even more surprising is that Nike CEO Phil Knight is a graduate of the University of Oregon, and co-founder Bill Bowerman is a former UO coach. In Evans, Georgia, a student in Georgia got suspended for wearing a Pepsi shirt on a day honoring school partner Coca- Cola. other part to follow...had 2 finals last week, in Govt. and Visual Basic: A's on both! [ ed note: other part will go in 318 ] #'s http://www.cyberista.com/cyberistacolumnsdefault.asp?ID=1719017376 http://www.senaawest.org/RobertaMemorial/RobertaMemorial.htm http://www.angelfire.com/art/hoganview/RBPage/roberta1.html http://www.antiglobalizacion.org/Germinal/arte/ap00019.htm http://clients.loudeye.com/imc/washingtondc/aliastory.ram http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0427BLACK27.html http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=175904 http://www.sortakinda.com/look/withyoualways.shtml http://mke.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=245 http://www.oberlin.edu/~jdowning/flash/Default.swf http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc042702.html http://www.anarchogeek.com/archives/000009.html http://www.thehill.com/042402/protest.shtm http://www.ambiguous.org/robin/commentary http://www.pbgadget.com/posters.html http://66.56.40.6:7777/activism http://www.fatherjohndear.org http://www.snowshoefilms.com http://www.fastforpeace.net http://freespeech.org http://www.span.org http://bernie.house.gov http://prorev.com/apr22.htm http://www.studentsfororwell.org http://www.corporations.org/media http://www.burning-wheel.org/nofly.htm http://cfl.indymedia.org/media/00/00/00/1B http://www.sondra.net/al/vol6/62Frucht.htm http://www.splungecomm.com/h3c/release.htm http://www.agrnews.org/issues/171/index.html http://www.comrade.org.uk/Press/availableindex.htm http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=21891 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0428-03.htm http://www.nmai.si.edu/livingvoices/html/voices.html http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.22E.Gore.Vidal.htm http://bari.iww.org/~iww-nyc/CUNY/chomsky-interview.html http://www.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=177100 http://endthiswar.org/~toups/a20/tn/corporatemedia.jpg.html http://media.maineindymedia.org/content/DavidRovics/StLaw-16apr02/audio/ogg ===================-------------- Remembering A20s past. by marco http://www.webactive.com/pacifica/demnow/dn990421.html http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=22634 http://surfin.spies.com/~gus/trenchcoat --------------=================== A Flat (To Langston Hughes) By Jarrett Fulton I hear evil whisper, Memories lost, memories broken Cover in beautiful women and big city slickers Footsteps, echo with the streetlights that flicker Wind blowing against my back As car horns honk, A Flat The ground that bleeds the loss of innocence Life, rushes through the streets with Adrenaline An old man asks me about living, and how I feel about that I struggle with my answer while an insecure infant cries, A flat I’m new to this game Causing me to be offbeat As an adolescent, and there’s something that I lack The movement and the sounds of A flat -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The Punk Rock Band Name Suggestion Of The Month: The Tyson Bites -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Sympathy a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) I know what the caged bird feels. Ah me, when the sun is bright on the upland slopes, when the wind blows soft through the springing grass and the river floats like a sheet of glass, when the first bird sings and the first bud ops, and the faint perfume from its chalice steals. I know what the caged bird feels. I know why the caged bird beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars, for he must fly back to his perch and cling when he fain would be on the bow aswing. And the blood still throbs in the old, old scars and they pulse again with a keener sting. I know why he beats his wing. I know why the caged bird sings. Ah, me, when its wings are bruised and its bosom sore. It beats its bars and would be free. It's not a carol of joy or glee, but a prayer that it sends from its heart's deep core, a plea that upward to heaven it flings. I know why the caged bird sings. http://www.geocities.com/frankie_meehan/CagedBirdDunbarPoem.html A BREATHING CARCASS poetry by Jarrett Fulton Have you ever felt that you were at the bottom of the food chain? Why did God give us nerves to feel so much pain? Feeling those rigid jaws chewing, Nibbling my precious, unstylish body With claws that slash through my flesh The only sound is my screaming Becoming? A breathing carcass 1/4 of myself is missing As the Earth lies there and watches The beast and I are silhouetted like two lovers in the murky shadows I’m dying But the pain does not cease The beast devourers my body and all its wealth And I chant... I chant death Can you picture this torment? My body paralyzed, my mouth glutted with blood Only to cover my screams My screams... FATHER'S DAY By Jarrett Fulton 9 Months: They say we don’t spend time with our kids, (But we put clothes on their backs) They say we don’t nurture our seed, (But we provide them a place to live at) I hear songs of a "Motherless child" An abandon regiment of a juvenile And for what does a man gets, For what is a Man Identity? To tell his daughter not to lose her virginity Daughters, yearning for a male’s affectation, desire a broken gift Living out in the streets or follow into a boyfriend’s mischief 6 Months: Picture a woman giving her 18-year-old son discipline Punishing the young men with a belt or a hard-stricken instrument Without men, the domicile holds bars, but no fear Only an underrated parent can play it by ear Answer questions on where and how Where are we headed? But I don’t understand; why do mother receive all the credit? 3 Months: You ask us to be in the household To cover our kids when temper or cold Become the substitute, when a child’s mind is badly influence Accuse us of adultery, but in the bedroom; what are you doing? Someone told me that, women are being independent But I hear songs; without men, there’s no reason for living What do you need us for? To buy or fix your vibrator So on June 19, we Fathers receive a hug, a card, and a "I’ll see you later" Men are tired of these underrated antics See how our seeds grow, for without us, and take us for granted Born: It’s a boy Ha, you want me now, huh I’ll be back I need a cold case of the beer?! ATI - No longer abusing puts and calls since 1991 .-. / \ .-. .-. / \ / \ .-. _ .-. / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / \ / `-' `-' \ / \ \ / `-' `-' \ `-' ` Well, that's about it for ATI issue 317. Send all the stuff to ati@etext.org The Zine's semi-official website is at: http://www.thepentagon.com/primeanarchist http://www.thepentagon.com/schoolofamericas or http://www.thepentagon.com/soa for all things reconsidered. Oh, and if you've got sense, you'll dial 1-860-887-2600 ext. 5293 End with poetry BOLTCUTTERS by marco I dedicate the rest of my life to the name, and all that is called up when I say "Roberta Blackgoat." And that is all I can say for now. http://www.frucht.org/roberta.html