Fight the power.

Today I am thankful.

Photo by Daniel Schaefer

Thankful that my brothers and sisters are still with me. Thankful that during the past years, we have engaged in - admittedly at times, - heated debate, but mostly thoughtful discussion, ardent advocacy, and lifelong learning. Thankful that we have found each other in this journey, and managed to stay connected.

Today I am thankful they were not taken from me by a rogue with government authority and a gun, a rookie, or a racist. When George Zimmerman shot Trayvon Martin, the danger of a non-indictment is ‘...not more Trayvon Martins, but more George Zimmermans'. The day after the Ferguson Decision, the same sentence pattern emerged in social media; ‘the danger of a non-indictment is not more Mike Browns, but more Darren Wilsons.’

After the decision of Ferguson’s Grand Jury not to indict, analysis of the documents and the long reaching implications erupted across the internet. Statements and nationwide actions continue in direct conjunction with heartfelt pleas for non-violence.  However, shooting deaths, economic segregation, educational manipulation, brutality against the community, and prisoners of the state...is not war already happening?

There are a number of periods in human history when oppressors were able to act this way towards an entire race. The Crusades, Colonization, Slavery, the Westward Expansion, Genocide, killing of Civil Rights Leaders, killing of Black Community Leaders, killing of young Black men...this seems a repetitive pattern.

Tearing apart cities, however, will prove nothing. Flashes of anger are to be expected, but it is not a means to the necessary end. Only a very generalized reaction in an extremely directed and organized fashion will break the pattern. Black Out Black Friday is a great opening to the 'national dialogue' for which our great thinkers have begun to call. But oppression is systemic and systematic, overt and inter-generational. Descendants of the era of the Conquistadors have been having 'a national dialogue' for more than 500 years. Once the border crossed them it became an international dialogue.

Ask an immigrant from anywhere in the Western Hemisphere that lies South of the political borders of the United States how that dialogue is going. Ask the Native Americans.

Ask Mike Brown's parents. Or Trayvon's, or Kimani's, or Akai's, or Sean's, or Amadou's, or Ramarley's.

Now is an actionable moment and we are, in fact, perfectly positioned as a collective of communities, Black, Latino, Asian, all of us. We manage large swaths of the business sector that are cornerstones of the (inter)national economy. We are professors, we are military, we are elected officials and the staff of elected officials, we are workers, we are men and women, and we matter. We are even in the police force - not in the necessary amounts, but there nonetheless. We need an African American parallel to Univision or Telemundo, with news shows that discuss themes with gravitas and objectivity by educated, well spoken individuals from the community. We have the power and resources to furnish, staff and fund our own candidates, and ensure that sufficient votes carry them into office. We have to take our anger with us through to 2016 and usher in that new wave. Politics is not a spectator sport.

We are no longer the minority. We are the majority, and it is high time we started acting like it. As long as there is unity between our communities, and we have a well codified plan for success we will reach that goal. Amongst the requirements: a newly formed national political party banner under which to march is crucial. Yes, more than a rallying cry to the side of an unresponsive party, but an entirely unique party, not subject to the hegemony of dynastic families and politics as usual traditions. A party that is inclusive, and that will stand primarily to stop the killing and imprisonment of our young people. We have had multiple watershed moments, we have had our Tianamen Square moment. Now we must throw off the colonized mentality, and move boldly forward.

Turn out for what?

Photo by Rock The Vote, via Addicting Info

Two weeks after the election cycle we have seen a tremendous amount of public shaming of Democratic loyalists' scapegoats. Candidates hewed too far from the president, campaigners didn't focus enough on the ground game, we were outspent...Perhaps at some point, when more time has passed for closer inspection instead of rank, reactionary, response that can all get sorted out.

There is one particularly super-salient strategy remaining, however, that seems ripe for discussion; that is the party's heavy reliance on the Millenial generation to turn out and overwhelm whatever outsized influence dark money could have bought with sheer force of numbers.

Hashtags and memes flourished, Little Jon parodied himself, and OFA deployed its resources across the US of A with the express purpose of attracting the new key demographic. All for naught, though, since, as with the 2010 midterms, this key demographic's lion's share stayed home, knowing full well that these were equally, and arguably more important than the presidential.

In this sense, Democrats appear identical to dieters: in the early 21st Century, Latinos were the crucial, key demographic to engage (we still are). Before us it was the African American community (just as important now if not more so). After this century's first decade passed, the Millenials became the Democratic darling demographic. Looking at all of this, the Blue Team has the appearance of a multiple identity in crisis.

Meanwhile, each of the key demographics that became a respective elections cycle's cause celebre decisively distanced themselves from this debacle. Turnout overall was anemic at best, and was prematurely touted as 'a referendum', 'a condemnation of a broken system'. The American electorate, clearly, forgets how the system came to be broken in the first place.

Exercise science and weight loss studies tell us in no uncertain terms that fad diets quite simply don't work. This year's has already failed us spectacularly twice in a row. If you want to reach your overall fitness goals, a singular focus of mind, and dedication to the process is imperative. So too in this arena. The Blue Team never stayed on message: clean air-drinkable water, economic repair and recovery, expiration of Bush era tax cuts, energy alternatives, storm recovery, stay on message. Also, stay on target; don't pull us into another conflict in the Middle East. Follow New York's example and prosecute the bankers that crashed the economy, divestiture from fossil fuels, marriage equality, healthcare... THAT is what attracted all stripes and persuasions of voters to Obama, and those are the concepts that create brand loyalty. Now is the time to return to the hedgehog concept.

So, allow me to recapitulate: we no longer want to be entertained. We want our platform to be spoken about with gravitas. Overpopulating media streams with young hip faces who speak directly to and in the same modalities with the last fad diet that failed us twice does not inspire the voting bloc. If fitness is your goal, you know what you need to do: stop eating so much sugar and bread. Get in the gym and train train train! Train, fund, and resource your candidates, and don't hand out leadership positions to those lacking in experience that outsource their memory and logic skills to the latest iPhone. Leadership demands life experience, it demands years of training and exercise, and it demands laser-like focus and adherence to ideals.

Leadership demands maturity.

Two years Democrats! 2016 is already knocking on our door. Put down the donuts, time to get back in the gym. Otherwise, for what will they turn out?

People's Climate March Occupies New York City Streets.

Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez,
Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman,
& State Senator Liz Kruger at Sunday's
People's Climate March.
Photo Credit: Office of the AG

Today's multinational People's Climate March was, by all accounts, a raging success. Well attended by both state and local legislators, the crowd was estimated at roughly 400,000. Spurred on by the environmental/climate change organizing nonprofit 350.org, anticipatory signage had been widely visible for weeks in advance in subway cars, on bust stops, and the only place where one of the stylized displays likely belonged but never made it was onto one of the stories tall jumbo screens in Times Square, right along the parade path.

What is uniquely interesting regarding this year's march is the fact that big business, in stark contrast to previous years, seems to be getting directly on board the bandwagon. Indeed, they have funded some of their own weighty brass instruments playing in all their oom-pa-pa glory directly in the face of every single climate science denier - legislative, religious, think tank, or Koch Associate.

Multilingual signage from
The People's Climate March.
Copyright 350.org 2014 

The collective of Keurig, Coca-Cola, and Heinz (along with others) respectively released major statements this year indicating in no uncertain terms that climate change threatens their respective bottom lines. Price Waterhouse Coopers, LLP - the globally known accounting firm - in an historic move released the estimate in its 'Low Carbon Economy Index' report that we are 20 years away from total system collapse. Not to be solely the harbingers of the current power structure's paradigmatic, perfunctory passage into the past, they also laid out clear pathways to a sustainable energy future. All possibilities are entirely functional and market ready now.

It turns out that, in the end, all of the dilettantes and dismissed detectives of the day of our denouement were correct: Viewing the Amazon, the Canadian Boreal Forest, or any other old growth forest as "overburden" to be removed in search of limited resource fuel that is itself a pollutant will inevitably overburden us with unimaginable lasting effects. Not even the entirety of the world's billionaires combined can afford a second planet. Likewise, we ought to have done this conversion long ago.

  The face of the matter is this: we have designs, strategic plans, available funds, space, popular support and acceptance, intellectual capacity, and either readily available or constructible infrastructure to create new world-wide power supplies. What we ought to be doing between now and 2016 is using every tool at our disposal, citizen collectives, micro-grids, vehicle upgrades, alternative fuels, public transportation...to signal market shifts - wholesale - away from fossil fuels. Vote with your dollars and respond with 'the fierce urgency of now.' Even Mayor De Blasio, in a recognition of the imperative of defining survivability in the 21st Century, ordered energy efficiency targets for buildings across the city. We finally arrived at the point where the 'future generations' for whom the resolution of such issues has been deferred is now us. We are the ones for whom we have been waiting, let us not be found wanting.

A static, in country force

A static, in country force can have a variety of missions: reinforce, rebuild, protect, retrain...the moral quandaries arise when decisions are made whom and how exactly to retrain.

In the hazy, unprecedented, post-9/11 era, fear became our reigning philosophy. Fear still manages to override the collective of other emotional varietals all too frequently within the policy arena. Few things are as addicting and powerful. But fear had been the weapon of control for countries with far less sophisticated forms of governance than ours, or so we thought. The trend of instilling in a populace blind distrust and abject horror towards an entire other race had previously been the grounds upon which to stand our moral superiority argument (see also the Kurds, Ethnic Serbs, or the Hutu and Tse Tse clash).

We had never done this (in fact untrue) we celebrated our melting pot culture (though truly we didnt). Institutionalized racism and marginalization are hallmarks of this nation since it's earliest times as a republic. From slavery through suffrage, tenement houses to internment camps, to separate but not so equal, to the AIDS epidemic and LGBTQ rights to (the return of) union busting, and now the "War on terror". War in and of itself is a terror. And while we're at it, let's check in on how the "War on drugs" and the "War on poverty" are going.

By only one measure have these wars done phenomenally well and that is to compensate the already well compensated. Obviation of cultural groups is required for this to happen: noone can be at the top unless someone first is at the bottom. But in its current iteration, those at the bottom are consequentially blamed for all of society's ills (be they at fault or no.) Along the arc of human history, this has happened repeatedly, and to satisfy ourselves with the whimsical platitude that the very same arc shall inevitably trend towards justice is a likely fallacy.

Whenever an economically empowered class, weaponizes a militarily empowered class, and these become judge, jury, and executioner of the underclass without the due process of law, that is known as oppression. Ferguson happened. Eric Gardner happened. Kimani Gray happened. Sean Bell happened. Amadou Diallou happened. Rodney King happened. The pattern continues.

This is a watershed moment. We can maintain this culture of fear,  or we can exchange the current cohort of undesirables for people that look, feel, and speak like the fabric of America. We can perpetuate a system of rulership that is predicated on objectifying subjugation, or we can seek to design and implement new systems. But we cannot hope to obtain system-wide remedies from archetypes who refute the facts of system-wide dilemmas.

The issue remains that the system itself is purposefully designed for segregation, submission, and subservience. Democracy is not democracy if it is only democratic for the few. Consequentially, as has been asked many times in Congress, a careful review of our founding document - specifically the part where it clearly states that if our system of government fails, it should be dismantled and reconstructed - is plainly in order. The situation in Ferguson is a symptom of a lingering, untreated, much more nefarious societal sickness. One against which inoculation is no longer possible as it has become a defining characteristic of American society. Before this latest issue falls by the wayside like so many other acts of senseless violence, let us now awaken the sleeping dragon of intercultural might to lead us through to a truer societal evolution. Now is the time for us to envision, embody, and encarnate an entirely new Great Society.

The proof is in the putting (not the pudding.)

During the past week, I have been working steadily on an article expressly focused on the anti-vaxxer argument. I will admit here a predetermined bias, coming from a family deeply enmeshed in the medical field. However, benefiting from the self same type of study that promoted and disseminated the anti-vaxxer argument at the outset, utilizing highly focused search methodology and accessing social media realms where the scientific community directly discusses these topics, the collection which follows of peer reviewed research articles resulted. As they are generated by experts in the field with a pointed presentation of statistical information, it may be important to consult with professionals capable of translating some of the contained language into layman's terms if you should need it. Not everyone is a trained physician, or statistician, or trained researcher, and that, specifically, is the problem with this entire intellectual melee: untrained minds selecting blind belief over bona fide biology is indeed a choice. But not one we can afford to make. This, then, is returning science to its rightful place in the public administration structure, opting for the design of intelligence rather than intelligent design. Opinions are my own, research is from elsewhere.


Age at First Measles-Mumps-Rubella Vaccination in Children With Autism and School-Matched Control Subjects: A Population-Based Study in Metropolitan Atlanta: Frank DeStefano, Tanya Karapurkar Bhasin, William W. Thompson, Marshalyn Atlanta Yeargin-Allsopp and Coleen Boyle, Pediatrics 2004;113;259-266 DOI: 10.1542/peds.113.2.259

ABSTRACT: Objective. To compare ages at first measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccination between children with autism and children who did not have autism in the total population and in selected subgroups, including children with regression in development. Methods. A case-control study was conducted in metropolitan Atlanta. Case children (N   624) were identified from multiple sources and matched to control children (N   1824) on age, gender, and school. Vaccination data were abstracted from immunization forms required for school entry. Records of children who were born in Georgia were linked to Georgia birth certificates for information on maternal and birth factors. Conditional logistic regression was used to estimate odds ratios (ORs). Results. The overall distribution of ages at MMR vaccination among children with autism was similar to that of matched control children; most case (70.5%) and control children (67.5%) were vaccinated between 12 and 17 months of age. Similar proportions of case and control children had been vaccinated before 18 or before 24 months. No significant associations for either of these age cutoffs were found for specific case subgroups, including those with evidence of developmental regression. More case (93.4%) than control children (90.6%) were vaccinated before 36 months (OR: 1.49; 95% confidence interval: 1.04–2.14 in the total sample; OR: 1.23; 95% confidence interval: 0.64–2.36 in the birth certificate sample). This association was strongest in the 3- to 5-year age group. Conclusions. Similar proportions of case and control children were vaccinated by the recommended age or shortly after (ie, before 18 months) and before the age by which atypical development is usually recognized in children with autism (ie, 24 months). Vaccination before 36 months was more common among case children than control children, especially among children 3 to 5 years of age, likely reflecting immunization requirements for enrollment in early intervention programs. Pediatrics 2004; 113:259–266; autism, autism spectrum disorders, MMR vaccine, immunizations, epidemiology.

Lack of Association between Measles Virus Vaccine and Autism with Enteropathy: A Case-Control Study
Mady Hornig, Kimberly Hummel Pickering, W. Ian Lipkin, Thomas Briese, Paul A. Rota, Timothy Buie, William J. Bellini, Margaret L. Bauman, John J. O’Leary, Gregory Lauwers, Orla Sheils, Ulrike Siemetzki, Errol Alden, Larry

Abstract
Background: The presence of measles virus (MV) RNA in bowel tissue from children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and gastrointestinal (GI) disturbances was reported in 1998. Subsequent investigations found no associations between MV exposure and ASD but did not test for the presence of MV RNA in bowel or focus on children with ASD and GI disturbances. Failure to replicate the original study design may contribute to continued public concern with respect to the safety of the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Update: vaccine side effects, adverse reactions, contraindications, and precautions—recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). MMWR 1996;45(No. RR-12):[inclusive page numbers]. [(Please keep in mind this article is from 1996, but its significance is prominent because of the historical basis of rejection of a premise relating to vaccines causing autism)]

This report provides updated information concerning the potential adverse events associated with vaccination for hepatitis B, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis. This information incorporates findings from a series of recent literature reviews, conducted by an expert committee at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), of all evidence regarding the possible adverse consequences of vaccines administered to children. This report contains modifications to the previously published recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and is based on an ACIP review of the IOM findings and new research on vaccine safety. In addition, this report incorporates information contained in the “Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices: Use of Vaccines and Immune Globulins in Persons with Altered Immunocompetence” (MMWR 1993;42[No. RR-4]) and the “General Recommendations on Immunization: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)” (MMWR 1994;43[No. RR-1]). Major changes to the previous recommendations are highlighted within the text, and specific information concerning the following vaccines and the possible adverse events associated with their administration are included: hepatitis B vaccine and anaphylaxis; measles vaccine and a) thrombocytopenia and b) possible risk for death resulting from anaphylaxis or disseminated disease in immuno-compromised persons; diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and pertussis vaccine (DTP) and chronic encephalopathy; and tetanus-toxoid–containing vaccines and a) Guillain-Barré syndrome, b) brachial neuritis, and c) possible risk for death resulting from anaphylaxis. These modifications will be incorporated into more comprehensive ACIP recommendations for each vaccine when such statements are revised. Also included in this report are interim recommendations concerning the use of measles and mumps vaccines in a) persons who are infected with human immunodeficiency virus and b) persons who are allergic to eggs; ACIP is still evaluating these recommendations.

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Additionally, there is an entire page from the CDC's website dedicated to vaccine safety and a potential causal relationship between vaccines and autism. It should be read carefully, and realized that not only does the CDC support the results of the research, the research itself is mostly done by agencies and entities outside of the CDC. 

American Fall

Every year I make sure to travel upstate and photo-document the autumnal changes to the scenery. In taking the long view of my history, and a quick tour through my external hard drive, I have gigabytes of space dedicated to pictures of trees from prior years. The shot above is from the Katonah Reservoir, a town in upper Westchester county where I used to teach at a private school early in my career as an educator. The picturesque clouds reflected in mirror-smooth water are like something out of a fantasy, and it's part of why I do this. Back when I still had my motorcycle, the ride was very nearly religious - crisp New York air, smells of earth, and leaves, and the bike. There's a really funny story about how on Sunday afternoon ride came to a sudden halt due to a family of wild turkeys quite literally, crossing the road. It's a great motivation for me to get back to a different financial paradigm. But late-year nostalgic musings are not the reason for the title, however it may be tangentially related.

Insofar as this blog is frequently a study of topics related to Public Administration, I will follow a suggestion put forth by the Rachel Maddow show that the reliable theme to use for parsing the national conversation is the Occupy Everything movement. I have spent a considerable amount of time following it, and even been on site, interviewing participants, following the action for my news column. But of late, Michael Moore - despite emphatically refusing any responsibility for leadership of the movement - has become something of a celebrated representative for media outlets far and wide. Whether this is good or bad is still subject to speculation and your own preferences. However, one thing did come up as Moore visited even greater numbers of demonstrations and talk shows along the way: he decided his was an expert voice for the revolution, and even decided that he had the proper ideas for parenting a living, breathing, global political imbroglio successfully towards adulthood. Where this falls apart is in the direct purpose for formation of the Occupation to begin with yeah these many long months ago. Initially, Occupy Wall Street was a movement that included all viewpoints, all idealogical convictions, all regions of the nation. It was also definitively leaderless.

Moore's positioning of himself in the interview spots on the massive slew of talk shows in which he appears fails the movement on both counts: in being a recognizable, frequently seen celebrity in relation to this movement, he drives directly against his own messaging to the movement, which has regularly been 'do not allow yourselves to be coopted by any political party.' Moore's extreme leftist leanings, and his almost ubiquitous appearance at as many OWS rallies as humanly possible alongside his television appearances creates the risk of his face being quickly associated with leadership of the movement. Secondly, this past week he made an egregious error: for some unknown reason, and in accordance with the demands of mainstream media outlets (the New York Times, The Washington Post, MSNBC, Fox News, and CNN among them,) have all habitually called for the dedicated list of demands to which the Occupation adheres as reasoning for their continued unrest. This is fallacious in the extreme. Part of the genius of the Occupy movement was the fact that no such list existed, and that the occupiers existed as a repository for the frustrations and discontent of the American people towards a non-functional political class, and a well fleeced elite playing the stock market as if it were the nickel ante table somewhere in a forgotten corner of Las Vegas where the edges of neon lights no longer reach. But the crucial piece was that no set list of demands existed for the simple reason that the second a list of demands exists, the moment a central core document listing the movement's ideals crystallizes, an opposition can be created, and in the same moment begins the chilling denouement of a once powerful and growing, impassioned drive for social change.

So, how does this become resolved? While Moore's appearances, and celebrity do in fact draw greater attention to the movement, organizers would do well to caution him to not be so visible in terms of talk shows, interviews, or the like lest the media establishment erroneously begin to equate his characteristic Detroit hat and fair figure with representing the movement itself. Also, they should remain adamantly devoid of a central core set of demands upon which politicos, the pundit-tree, and legions of naysayers could glom on and declare "these are un-American." Lastly, and this is perhaps the most crucial piece, the direct action portion of the movement - that which facilitated Bank Transfer Day, which is organizing around voting and the campaign season, - must continue with their plans and endeavor to create many more direct actions. The exact extent of the power of the people has yet to be proved, thought recently, in direct correlation to this movement, ever greater numbers of citizens are awakening to the idea that the governments and corporations exist to serve us, not the other way around.

Whatever dreams may come, this is certain to be quite an adventurous time. A time for us to break free of feeling like just another brick in the wall.

So you say you want a revolution....

I'm always shocked, slightly unnerved, and a little dismayed by the amount of time that passes in between posts here. Perhaps because I spend so much time elsewhere writing, I suppose that through some manner of digital osmosis that a measure of writing will find its way here. Unfortunately, despite my fancy for Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, and Laura Esquivel, I have not been sufficiently infused with the flavor of cybernetic magical realism to achieve such a feat. However, if none of that last sentence made any sense to you, I suggest watching Tron: Legacy - for the combined illusory/illustrative effect.

Since the middle of the month, I've been steadily following the Occupy Wall Street protest, and even visited and written a related article. The first time I visited the occupiers, it was slightly after my visit to the 9/11 Memorial site (pics below) and I must say I was incredibly impressed. The mainstream journalistic coverage of the movement has been entirely plagued with misinformation and doomsayers warning of a maleficent dystopia if these activists are permitted to continue what in many venues is being called lambasted as adolescent, fleeting hysteria. But after two weeks of constant occupation, 66 other cities getting involved, and scheduled appearances of union backing on the schedule for the near future, the truth of the matter is that the mass media's portrayals of this "tiny, insignificant rally" can no longer be ignored. Thousands of protesters showed up for the Brooklyn Bridge incident that took place on Saturday, and it grows exponentially by the day. I expect I will have at least one more article out in the next few days, and that in the offing, it might actually be more.

In other news, I've been asked to report for a linguist exam this coming Tuesday (as in, in two days.) This normally wouldn't be a concern, though, for the past year I haven't actually been doing the work of a linguist, save for minor conversations here and there, and during the past two weeks, my brother's been in town, so there was truly no opportunity for studying of any kind. Talking with another interpreter colleague who knows my skills rather well, I asked what I should do given the extremely tight turn around time. She suggested I go with a 'Zen mentality' to the exam, and try to be as calm as possible. That may just be what I need to do, right after I spend all day tomorrow reviewing all of my notes.

Today was rather interesting, one of the NUF 2011 class members showed up as part of a trip for her new position, and half a dozen of us appeared to share brunch with her. It's always interesting hearing what everyone is doing in the interim, and how many folks have moved on to something new and interesting, or have taken a left turn at Albuquerque, etc. There are many of us that came out of the program and walked straight into positions, but there are a group of us that are still searching for the proper fit, or the right opportunity, and frustrations run high at times. Frustration echoed in the protests by placards reading "Overeducated, underemployed" or similar slogans. In many corners of the internet, this is being called our 'Tahrir Square moment.' Odd that this singular theme has seemed to usurp whatever other message I'd been trying to convey.

In my next post, which first I'll have to be sure to make in the very near future, I shall have to talk about my volunteering at the VA Hospital, and how that has all gone. But for the time being, it's late, and I must sleep.

Good night!