News

In Seven Days You Can Help Defeat Anti-Immigrant Bigotry

Written by Eric Ward

On August 28, Cindy Carcamo of the Orange County Register wrote an insightful article called Groups mobilize for the next immigration battle. The article quotes Barbara Coe a member of the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens. Coe has referred to Mexicans as “savages” and immigrants as “barbarians.”

As I sat down to write, I initially thought that I should use this blog to blast Barbara Coe for her relationship to organized racism. However, while I was pondering what to write I received a phone call from an old high school friend, Pam, who had read the same article.

Pam was spitting mad and wanted to know what she could do. She… Read more

Politics

Can We Make America Fascist Resistant?

Written by Jill Garvey

A thought-provoking article by Sara Robinson from Campaign for America’s Future: Fascist America III: Resistance for the Long Haul. I’m just including the first three paragraphs here, but be sure read the whole post.

August, die she must. The town hall freak show is winding down, the media circus is packing the cameras and satellite dishes and hairspray back into the vans, and Congress is soon heading back to the relative safety of DC. Yet, after all the fuss and bother, they’re probably no more or less resolved to pass health care reform than they were back in June, when those first delirious fevers rose like clouds of infectious mosquito nymphs hatched from

… Read more

Culture

Announcing the Image 2050 Video Contest Winners!

Written by Stephen Piggott

(And a look back at the Imagine 2050 Anniversary Celebration)

Before I announce the winners of the 2009 video contest, I would like to say a few words about Imagine 2050 and the recent celebration. It has been nearly a year since I started  writing for Imagine 2050, and in the past year I have seen the blog grow and improve immensely. The blog’s contributors and content are of the utmost quality and I consider myself lucky to be writing for such a unique and inspiring outlet. Whether it’s Eric or Dave’s hard hitting editorials, Jill’s dry humor and sarcasm, or Katie’s thought… Read more

A Step Forward for ELCA Clergy

Written by Amy Spicer

Last week the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination took a progressive and much needed step. Leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America voted 559 to 441 to lift a ban that prohibited sexually active gay and lesbian people from serving as ministers.

The new policy allows individual ELCA congregations to hire homosexuals as clergy as long as they are in a committed relationship. Until this vote, gays and lesbians had to remain celibate to serve as clergy. The proposed change would cover those in “lifelong, monogamous, same-gender relationships.”

Sports

The Oakland Raiders: Rebels, Misfits, & Progressives

Written by Guest Blogger

by James Johnson

“Are you ready for some football?”  -Hank Williams, Jr.

This is my first blog and I feel it is important to be upfront from the beginning of our relationship. I confess I am an Oakland Raiders fan. Joel Ebert’s blog the ‘Proximity Effected” Fan, talks about people who are fans because of proximity, that is not me. I live in Denver, Colorado home of a divisional rival.

People ask how can I be a Raider fan and live in Denver. I ask how can any forward thinking progressive not be a Raider fan?

When people think Raiders their image is of people painted Silver and Black with spiked hair, spiked shoulder… Read more

Politics

White Heat for White Health

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

This week the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) announced its tired ol’ annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” lobby days in mid-September, replete with its usual cast of right wing radio ringers spewing vitriol about immigrants.

This year, of course, the Great White Fear is that “illegal aliens” (and people of color) will get access to “tax-payer funded” benefits under an Obama health plan. Dan Stein and company must have breathed a collective sigh of relief that the health care debate hung on through the August recess, which gifted the FAIR Fire Holders something to rant about when they trot back across the Beltway in a few weeks.

Except for the emergency room… Read more

Imagine 2050 Anniversary Celebration – Thursday, Aug 27!

Written by George Garza

This week my band brothers and I journey to the heart of the midwest. Our destination: Chicago, Illinois.

We are en route to the Imagine2050 First Annual Anniversary Celebration, extremely excited to experience our first U.S. performance outside of Texas. This coming Thursday is the milestone marking night commemorating a successful launch year for Center for New Community‘s visionary blog site. The party is free and we are sharing the stage with an eclectic mix of music acts. Festivities start a 8:30pm inside Chicago’s Underground Lounge. In case you’d like to attend, here’s the map.

We are honored to be a part of the evening and are respecting the opportunity… Read more

News

World’s Fastest Woman Victim of Witch Hunt

Written by Jill Garvey

The questions raised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) about the gender of South African athlete Caster Semenya are deplorable. As a result of what is essentially nasty gossip she is being forced to undergo invasive gender verification testing. The tests involve a physical medical evaluation, input from gynecologists, endocrinologists, psychologists, gender experts, and internal medicine specialists, and they take weeks to complete.

Reports say that doubt was publicly cast on Semenya just hours before she was to run the 800 meter race at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. It’s suspicious and unfair to humiliate an… Read more

News

Whole Foods CEO Takes Cue from White Nationalists

Written by Jessica Acee

There is a disturbing trend spreading in the business community to side with white nationalists when it comes to health care, even using the same arguments. Last weekend I was in Austin, Texas, where among the kitschy neon signs, sits the largest whole foods in the nation. It’s a store whose official values include promoting health and investing in the environment and local communities.

Yet Whole Foods CEO John Mackey recently spoke out against Obama’s plan to reform healthcare in a much talked about Wall Street Journal Op-ed. It’s ugly, and if you haven’t read it yet, check out the link here. Mackey even had the nerve to say that we… Read more

Crosspost: Preying on Immigrants in Need, Chapter 79B

Written by Jill Garvey

Came across a great article at The Unapologetic Mexican by guest contributor David Bennion of Change.org.

Newsday highlighted yesterday New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s recent announcement of a crackdown on three NYC-area businesses charged with defrauding clients looking to resolve their immigration status.

The article is vague on this point, but I’m going to assume from the context and my experience that the three businesses are run by nonlawyer “notarios” who routinely abuse their positions of influence in immigrant communities to defraud newly arriving immigrants or those desperate enough to try anything to resolve their legal status.

Cuomo is right when he says the consequences of bad legal

… Read more