This is quite possibly the best video I’ve  ever seen on YouTube. First as Tragedy, Then as Farce is a talk by Slavoj Žižek that challenges what I believe is one of the most fundamentally flawed assumptions in society today, that capitalist charity can ever overtake the destruction created by capitalism in the first place. An article from the November 2001 issue of the satire paper The Onion reads “70 Percent Of The World Could Use An All-Star Benefit Concert“. It was of course meant to be a joke but is actually quite truthful and what’s not funny is that number is rising exponentially thanks to so-called “free-market capitalism”. Žižek does a brilliant job here of explaining how charity and ethically-branded consumerism is keeping this unsustainable system on life-support prolonging it’s long term damage. I must warn you though, it’s not for the weak-minded. His ideas will be very uncomfortable for many.

Abel and I left Denver at 1AM on Saturday, April 3rd to Join the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign’s “March to Fulfill the Dream“. We drove straight through taking turns sleeping and arrived in New Orleans around 7AM on Sunday, April 4th, the day of the kickoff for the march.

The significance of starting our march on April 4 is that it is the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous speech in 1967 at Riverside Church denouncing the Vietnam war and boldly stating that we must declare an “eternal hostility to poverty”.

Over the next year King was organizing the Poor People’s Campaign with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and a poor people’s march to go from Marks, MS to Washington, DC. One year to the day after King’s Riverside speech he was assassinated. A month later the poor people’s march went forward without King and today, over 30 years later poverty conditions have not improved and have arguably worsened. On April 4, 2010 we began the March to Fulfill the Dream in continuum of King’s last dream of a world without poverty and war.

Here’s a video I took of Cheri Honkala of PPEHRC speaking at our kick-off event.

While in New Orleans we stayed at the Lower 9th Ward Village, an inspirational community center being spearheaded by Ward “Mack” McClendon. I fell in love with this place and made a short video about it.

Five years after Katrina, New Orleans remains in great need of repair and in the lower 9th ward 75% of the people remain displaced. Those who have returned and do not have money are just barely hanging on. Even Mack who runs this amazing community center may lose his home, which he has yet to be able to move back into. I’ll have a video about this and more coming soon.

On our way out of town we stopped at the New Orleans Mission interviewed some of the homeless people there. One person who really broke my heart was Ronald, a homeless Vietnam vet. He is evidence of the destruction from war that continues long after the war “ends”.

Our next stop was Waveland, MS where we met with Katrina survivors who have been in battle to keep their homes. I’ll have a report on this in the coming week. Please check back…

Also, follow the march by visiting the PPEHRC website (this website is a bit confusing but see the “UPDATES” column for the latest posts.

We have many more cities and stories to collect on this march and caravan. We want your involvement. Check out our route and dates. If you have a lead on a story about poverty we should cover along the way, please let us know. We also invite you to collect your own stories and share them with us.

We also will be holding music and cultural events along the way. If you are a musician or artist and would like to participate just let us know.

I can be reached at 303-669-7286

I haven’t been very disciplined for the past several weeks. I’ve been on the road since April 2 and it’s been chaos. The two weeks leading up to my leaving Denver for the “March to Fulfill the Dream” were also nuts. This is no excuse though.

As of 60 days I weighed 178 pounds. I started out at 196 pounds. The first 30 days I lost 13 pounds and the second 30 days I only lost 5 pounds. I had actually lost more than that but then gained a little back.

Feel free to give me shit but please don’t give up on me.

I’ve really been behind and sorry I haven’t posted my daily blog for a while. I have still been working out and trying to watch my eating. I haven’t been perfect. My biggest challenge has been trying to eat 5 or 6 meals a day. I’ve been so busy the past couple  weeks that I only ate 2 meals on some days.

Next week I’m leaving for New Orleans where I will begin the “March to Fulfill the Dream” to Detroit. I’ll be gone for 3 months but still plan on sticking with my fitness program. This week I met with Neil Allman, one of the personal trainers at Qi Denver and he was showing me some running techniques. Since I’ll be on the road and will not have much access to a gym I’ll need to do exercises such as running. Here’s a video from our session.

Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign
3500 Lorain Avenue # 501A
Cleveland, Ohio 44113
info@economichumanrights.org
www.economichumanrights.org

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 5, 2010

Contact: Jeff Rousset, Communications Director, 845-642-8145, jeffppehrc@gmail.com
-OR-
Cheri Honkala, National Organizer, 267-439-8419, cherihonkalappehrc@gmail.com

March to Fulfill the Dream

Historic march and caravan led by poor people goes from New Orleans to the U.S Social Forum in Detroit

NEW ORLEANS, LA – On April 4th, 2010, Easter Sunday and the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, poor people and their allies will unite with the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) to advance Dr. King’s dream of ending poverty. The March to Fulfill the Dream will visit dozens of cities between New Orleans and Detroit, the site of the US Social Forum 2010, to highlight the urgent need for affordable housing and healthcare in the United States. Housing, healthcare, and jobs are human rights according to the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, endorsed by the U.S. in 1948. Continuing the legacy of Dr. King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign, which was cut short by his assassination, the tour is part of a larger strategy to unite poor people’s groups and their allies from across the country to build a diverse nonviolent movement to end poverty.

The PPEHRC caravan will visit many cities, including historic cities from the Civil Rights movement, for which Dr. King became the famous spokesperson. Each stop will include marches, demonstrations, and speak-outs led by poor people from the local cities, dramatizing the plight of today’s swelling numbers of the poor. Among the stops is Marks, Mississippi, where Dr. King launched the original Poor People’s Campaign in 1968 with a march and caravan to the nation’s capital.

“Dr. King’s dream is as relevant today as it was during his lifetime. More people than ever before are living in poverty surrounded by an unprecedented concentration of wealth and abundance. We are organizing to finally realize the dream of racial equality and economic justice in the United States,” said Viola Washington of New Orleans, a Katrina survivor with the New Orleans Welfare Rights Organization, a PPEHRC member group.

People in the U.S. are experiencing the worst recession since the Great Depression, with record numbers struggling for jobs, housing, and healthcare. More than 6 million Americans have been unemployed for 6 months or more, “the largest number since the government began keeping track in 1948,” according to a recent New York Times article. A record three million homes were foreclosed in 2009, with millions more expected to follow this year. Over 45 million Americans have no health care. Billions are spent on wars abroad while citizens at home lack basic social services.

“We don’t expect the changes we need to come from Washington or Wall Street, so we are building a mass movement to fight for the healthcare, housing, and jobs we need,” stated Khalilah Collins of Women in Transition, a PPEHRC member group in Louisville, Kentucky. “We are developing leaders from the ranks of the poor to create solutions ourselves and build a sustainable system.”

The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is a national coalition of over 125 grassroots anti-poverty groups, most of which are led directly by poor and homeless people. It is the nation’s largest anti-poverty organization that is led directly by the poor.

The March to Fulfill the Dream and the U.S. Social Forum (USSF) will connect poor people and anti-poverty groups from across the country with a special focus on education and leadership development. Every March event will promote dialogue among poor and disenfranchised people about the economic crisis and community-based solutions. “Organizing and education together can help us turn this recession into an opportunity for creative transformation,” said Larry Bresler, PPEHRC’s National Director.

The caravan, and the USSF itself, where more than 20,000 people representing progressive groups from across the U.S. and the world will gather, will provide spaces for poor people and their allies to further develop the analysis and strategy to build the movement and challenge the structures that cause poverty.

“All major social movements in history have been led by those most affected by problems. The Civil Rights, American Revolution, and Women’s Suffrage movements were all led by those most oppressed by injustice. The crisis in our economic system gets fixed when poor people are organized to lead the fight,” said Cheri Honkala, National Organizer of PPEHRC.

PPEHRC member groups have helped move homeless families into abandoned buildings, and are coordinating food distribution drives to help feed growing numbers of hungry people in both urban and rural cities. The coalition is running a national Zero Evictions and Foreclosures campaign to address what it sees as a national housing epidemic. As part of its “Programs of Survival” people are trained to resist foreclosures by using nonviolent civil disobedience to stay in their homes when other options have failed.

“There’s no more time to sit back and hope for politicians to help us. They help the banks and abandon the poor,” said Marian Kramer of the National Welfare Rights Union and Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, both PPEHRC member groups. “The present economic catastrophe calls for a wave of nonviolent civil disobedience to sweep over this nation and win the basic human rights we need to survive.”

Today I was able to make it down to Qi Denver Athletic Club. I did 40 minutes on the bike (really pushing myself) and 2000 meters on the row machine (about 8 hard minutes). I also did 2 sets of 20 - lat pulldowns @ 90 lbs, 2 sets of 20 - chest press @ 60 lbs, 2 sets of 20 - shoulder press @ 40 lbs.

3.11.10 FOOD LOG

11:30 AM
yogurt with granola, sliced banana and apple

3:00 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, cucumber, tomato, and balsamic vinegar.

7:30 PM
Mercury Cafe: bean, mushroom, and spinach enchilada. two glasses of red wine.

I was completely swamped today and didn’t get a workout in.

3.10.10 FOOD LOG

10:30 AM
Bowl of fruit with watermelon, melon, cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, and
blueberries

2:00 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, cucumber, tomato, and balsamic vinegar.

6:30 PM
Hornet Restaurant: Veggie sandwich and sweet potato fries

10:30
Hornet Restaurant: Pita and Hummus, broccoli & cauliflower. 2 shots of infused vodka.

Today I went on a 45 minute mountain hike.

3.9.10 FOOD LOG

10:00 AM
bowl of fruit with watermelon, melon, cantaloupe, pineapple, grapes, and blueberries

2:30 PM
Green leaf salad with black beans, onion, salsa, and avocado

8:15 PM
Pasta and Puttanesca sauce, glass of wine, 2 beers

Today I did 20 minutes on the bike, 1000 meters on the row machine, 30 reps - chest press @ 60 lbs., 30 reps - shoulder press @ 30 lbs., 30 reps - low row @ 60 lbs., 30 reps - vertical traction @ 90 lbs., 30 reps - pectoral @70 lbs.

3.8.10 FOOD LOG

11:00 AM
yogurt with granola, sliced banana and apple

1:30 PM
handful of pistachios

4:45 PM
Green leaf salad with black beans, onion, salsa, and avocado

11:00 PM
bean and cheese enchilada

It wasn’t a great day for my program as I didn’t get a work out in and I had pizza:(

Tomorrow will be much better, I promise.

3.7.10 FOOD LOG

9:40 AM
yogurt with granola, sliced banana and apple

2:20 PM
Spinach and green leaf salad with onion, cucumber, tomato, and balsamic vinegar.

6:00 PM
Usana oatmeal raisin energy bar.

9:00 PM
2 slices of homemade pizza with mozzarella, mushrooms, zucchini, and sun dried tomatoes. 6 breaded mozzarella cheese sticks. 2 Sierra Nevada beers.