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

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.”

I was so busy all day today that I didn’t make it over to the gym. Man it’s hard to get to the gym everyday. My eating was also off again. I only had two meals.

2.27.10 FOOD LOG

3:15 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, cucumber, tomato, celery, olives, feta, and vinegar.

6:00 PM
I had dinner with friends at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Golden. I had a dinner salad with Italian dressing, some rice, hummus, falafel, babba ghanouj, tabbouleh, and split a vegetarian pie appetizer.

I got a pretty good workout at the gym today. I did a total of 40 minutes on the bike, 2000 meters on the row machine, 15 minutes on the treadmill, and did about 30 minute of upper body weight training. I found that I do much better when I jump around doing different exercises so I would do 20 minutes on the bike then 1000 meters, then back to the bike, etc. It’s not so monotonous this way.

2.26.10 FOOD LOG

1:15 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.

3:30 PM
Usana oatmeal raisin energy bar.

7:00 PM
I went to a friend’s party and had some salad, some mashed potatoes with sauerkraut and mustard, and some avocado. I had several drinks, which I shouldn’t have.

10:30 PM
a handful of pistachios.

Did you know that Emergency has a high standard heart surgery center in Sudan that serves Sudan and the 9 neighboring countries? And did you know it’s completely free of charge? Amazing!

Today I did 30 minutes on the bike, 15 minutes on the treadmill, 1000 meters on the row machine, and Jaret at Qi Denver worked with me for about 20 minutes on some general weight training. Thanks Jaret!!

2.25.10 FOOD LOG

10:45 AM
banana and an apple

1:30 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.

7:00 PM
Mercury Cafe: Alamosa Bass with broccoli and sweet potato. (I know it’s meat but it was very good and the Mercury Cafe serves the most ethically raised meat.

10:30 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.

Here’s another video with herbalist and raw food chef Brigitte Mars. Here she talks about how you can make vegan milk with nuts.

I was too busy today to make it to the gym:(

2.24.10 FOOD LOG

11:00 AM
Apple w/ peanut butter and fresh squeezed oj.

3:30 PM
Burrito with black beans, taco seasoned morning start meal starters (meat substitute), in a Mission “life balance” whole wheat tortilla and topped with some homemade green chili.

7:00 PM
SAME Cafe: a small amount of spaghetti with red sauce and a cup of minestrone soup.

10:30 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.

Last Friday Chris and I visited my friend Brigitte Mars in Boulder to talk about food and nutrition. Brigitte is an herbalist and raw food chef. Here the first video of many from our afternoon visit. In it she talks about growing sunflower sprouts at home as a fun way to have fresh greens year round. I know the quality on these videos is terrible. I’ve tried rendering the video many different ways and it looks bad no matter what I do. My computer sucks. I will be getting a new computer soon and will redo all these  videos then.

For exercise today I did 45 minutes on the bike, 2000 meters on the row machine (damn this thing kicks my ass), and about 20 minutes of upper body. I forgot to write down what I did.

2.23.10 FOOD LOG

10:00 AM
Banana and a glass of fresh squeezed oj.

11:30 AM
I had lunch at SAME Cafe: small salad and a cup of vegetable soup.

3:00 PM
An apple with some peanut butter

8:30 PM
I had dinner at Watercourse: Greek salad and some Buffalo Seitan. 1 glass of wine and 1 light beer.

I’m not doing all that great. Not with my eating nor with my exercise. I’m doing a hell of a lot more than I was before I started this thing but if I want to see really big changes and raise more money for EMERGENCY USA I’m going to have to ramp it up. You can help my by making a pledge and leave me your comments. To make a pledge just email me your contact info and how much you would like to pledge bosch@argusfest.org

Today I did 45 minutes on the bike and 1000 meters on the row machine.

2.22.10 FOOD LOG

10:00 AM
plain granola with yogurt, banana, and berries.

2:30 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.

11:00 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.

Today I got 20 minutes in on the bike and 20 minutes on the treadmill. I did 1000 meters on the row machine twice.

2.21.10 FOOD LOG

10:45 AM
Usana oatmeal raisin energy bar.

2:00 PM
Burrito with black beans, taco seasoned morning start meal starters (meat substitute), in a Mission “life balance” whole wheat tortilla and topped with some homemade green chili.

9:30 PM
I went to see a movie and a some popcorn but with no butter.

11:30 PM
Green leaf salad with onion, peppers, mushroom, cucumber, tomato, celery, carrots, and balsamic vinegar.