rousing the rabble

The Psychological Aftermath of Katrina

First Published 8 September 2005

Articles are starting to appear about how some Katrina refugees are being arrested for public intoxication and disorderly conduct in the Astrodome and in various shelters.  The articles mention this fact as if it were happening in a vacuum, as if the last horrible days were not an inextricable backdrop to this behavior.

Of course order needs to prevail to keep people safe.  And yes, there are a few folks who were no doubt engaged in disorderly conduct before the winds and the water of Katrina came.  But the vast majority of them were not.   And in the aftermath of Katrina, these folks might find themselves feeling things and thinking things and doing things that are ‘off.’  Things that they, themselves, do not understand.  When this happens, what they need is competent psychological understanding and, if need be, intervention.  Yes, such intervention can include caring, respectful containment when necessary.  But what it definitely does not include is a jail cell.

Schwarzenegger -- People's Governor or Flouter of First Amendment Rights?

First published 13 July 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle

It's the early 1970s. The Vietnam War is raging. Soldiers are dying daily with no end in sight. Many military officials say it's an "unwinnable" war. Lies are uncovered. The media begin to expose widespread military and law- enforcement surveillance of the anti-war movement. The strong anti-war voice at UC Berkeley is a major target. California's citizens, outraged at such blatant rights violations, respond by voting to amend Article 1, Sect. 1 of the California State Constitution. Going beyond federal constitutional safeguards, the amendment guarantees protections from privacy violations by both state and private entities.

Terri Schiavo: Beyond the Wedge Issue

Published June 18, 2005

The newly released results from Terri Schiavo's autopsy reveal the poignant realities that she was blind, that she was unable to perceive her surroundings, including when her feeding tube was removed, and that her 'smiles' were actually involuntary muscle movements. In the wake of these findings, both sides of the debate are busily commenting, backtracking, or claiming victory. But what neither side has adequately touched on is the same topic that was sorely missing from public discourse as it was happening: the why of it all. Why was Terri Schiavo in a coma in the first place? She was in a coma because she had an eating disorder that far too many times ultimately creates behavior that pushes the limits of what a body can withstand. Tragically, Schiavo pushed her body too far.

That the public discourse about Terri was not about the intrapsychic and sociopolitical implications of eating disorders is a huge disservice to the memory of her and another shovel in the deep pit of shame and secrecy for all those who struggle with them. An exploration of the mechanisms and institutions complicit in this issue in the mainstream was nowhere to be found. One institution, for example, is the women's magazine industry. Women's magazines purport to help women as they tell us to be afraid of and deeply ashamed about wrinkles and cellulite on the one hand, while they hand over our fear and our checkbooks to the advertisers with the other, wishing for a third hand to take in their ad revenues. Our fear and self-loathing and what we buy to mask them are the life bread of these magazines, as they are for many industries. Fully exploring this, and the causes and implications of eating disorders is far too broad for this article, but it certainly should not be too broad for public discourse because women (and men) like Terri Schiavo and Karen Carpenter and countless others all over the US are at this very moment literally dying to be thin.

Buddy Can You Spare a Dwarf*?

Revisiting California’s Rolling Blackouts

As if we needed more evidence of Enron’s misconduct, the L.A. Times just reported the recent unearthing of more taped telephone conversations of glib Enron electricity traders conspiring to shut down perfectly running power plants the day rolling black outs were scheduled throughout California.

Back on those cold, grey electricity-bereft days while some corporations were merrily plotting the financial and electrical ruin of the men, women, and children across California, still others were busy parading their indifference.  Literally.

The following was written in the midst of such gauche, and increasingly typical, corporate behavior.

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I had not been inspired by a commercial since that night in 1976 when I was convinced my life would be unutterably revolutionized if only I had a can of Psssssst!©, the instant aerosol spray shampoo. I was overdue.

Enter the “Save a Watt” ad. It’s the one that pleads with Californians to use electricity as sparingly as possible to help with the current energy crisis. “We can all make it through this together,” says the encouraging voiceover. Somehow something in that corny commercial got to me and I found myself filled with a sense of community and purpose. “Yes. We can make it through this together,” I thought. So hand in hand with my fellow Californians, I vowed to do my part; whatever it took. And I began working out my strategy.  But then, boom: directly after this ad, came one from Disney for its “Electricland Parade.”

Sowing the Seeds of Peace Amidst the Tsunami Tragedy

How the U.S. government and its citizens, including those in the peace movement, handle the tsunami relief efforts and reconstruction has everything to do with future peace.

It's at these times, when people are hit with unfathomable tragedy, when they are at their most vulnerable, when they are reduced to foraging for basic necessities, fighting for packets of rice, living day to day amidst a sea of corpses as far as the eye can see, when the peace movement should stand up, speak out, and act as resolutely and vociferously as if we were on the brink of another war. Because it's at these moments of want and desperation and inequity that the seeds of violence are potentially planted.

Progressives, It's Time to Put Our Money Where Our Protest Signs Are

First published December 2004

Last April, over a million women participated in a march on Washington for reproductive choice, the largest march ever of any kind in the history of the U.S. Empowered, scores returned home and quit their old body-hating gyms and joined Curves because it professes to celebrate women in their many shapes and sizes. But rather than celebrating women, in reality its owner is working hard to control women's bodies through pouring vast sums of money into anti-choice efforts. These anti-choice contributions are made up, in part, of our monthly gym dues.

Exhilarated, yet tired and thirsty after a day-long march and rally against egregious corporate war profiteering, a protestor, holding her "Stop Halliburton" sign, sips an Odwalla juice. As she does, Coca Cola, which owns Odwalla, participates in another kind of war - one of egregious and sometimes deadly alleged union busting and human rights violations in Columbia, India, and worldwide.

During election season, countless numbers of us logged long hours during our free time and weekends, working with a collective vision of a different reality for our country. We knocked on doors and made phone calls, asking undecided voters and Bush supporters to look at difficult and often hard to acknowledge facts about what a vote for Bush would mean. We wished and hoped people would wake up and see the truth.

Like those we tried to reach, we progressives could use a little wake up call ourselves and realize (or remind ourselves) how we help create the reality we struggle so hard against by way of how we choose to spend our dollars. And with the holiday spending season upon us, there's no better time for a little reckoning.

An Open Letter to Congress:

First published November 2004

Dear Members of Congress:

As you are no doubt aware, concerns about possible voter fraud abound.  Irregularities have been well documented in many states, more than enough to raise legitimate questions.  Is it widespread or in several isolated places?  Might it change the outcomes of any of the races?  What changes need to be made to protect our vote? We need you to investigate.  But more than that, we need you to understand that this issue is not a partisan one.  It’s not another round in the sparring match of Democrats vs. Republicans.  Nor is it post-election sour grapes or the machinations of conspiracy theorists.  Ultimately it isn’t even about the outcome of the election.  To relegate it as such is myopic and lazy and dangerous because the scope is much larger.

This is about Democracy.  And all of us – the gun toters and the bible thumpers, the tree huggers and the pro-choicers, Republicans, Democrats, Independents and Greens – we all live under the laws and promises of our democratic system.  And one of the most important and cherished promises of this system is that when we come of age every one of us (well, most of us, but that’s another story) can participate in our Democracy by voting and then resting assured in the guarantee that our vote will be on the whole fairly and transparently counted.  This principle is one of the defining features of our country, and, theoretically, part of what separates us from dictatorships and banana republics.

Thank You, People of New York City

First published September 2004

Our bodies ache with bruises and scrapes and sunburns.  Our voices are shot.  We are sleep deprived. 

We were jailed, some of us.  Others were preemptively harassed and spied on by transparent under cover police and Secret Service agents in pristine anti-Bush shirts and perfect haircuts.  They tried to pen us, and they tried to pin us with “Peaceful Political Protestor” pins.  But, few wore the pins or used their protestor coupons to NYC attractions not because we weren’t planning to be peaceful, because all but a very few of us were, but because our voices of dissent and outrage can’t be neatly labeled or preempted or mollified with discounts to Applebees.

It's More Important Than Ever: Speaking Out in NYC

First published August 2004


Explaining the decision to use three-year-old information to raise the alert status to Code Orange, George Bush told the country, "We are a nation in danger."

And so we are.

Bush was talking about the threat of terrorism. And it's real, to be sure. But just as real is the ominous threat looming large over the vast majority of Americans nationwide - the danger of losing a viable future for our children due to the disastrous environmental, fiscal, social, and international policies that are the Bush Agenda. But this agenda supplies more than a threat; far too many of us are already living the loss of a viable present. Countless numbers of our nation¹s children currently find themselves in dilapidated school rooms with outdated books and underpaid teachers, their promised monies diverted to war. Our veterans find the thanks they get for risking their lives is a greatly reduced benefits package. Workers of all kinds are laboring in an environment that until recently was unthinkable, no longer guaranteed overtime pay or guaranteed a safe working environment. The middle class and poor find a downturn in their economic picture, with any upturn only felt by the wealthiest 2%. And each and every one of us breathe increasingly unsafe air and drink unsafe water due to Bush¹s relaxation of more than 200 environmental regulations.

Hope Amidst a Backslide of Women's Rights in Iraq and at Home

First published April 2004

In his State of the Union address, George Bush proclaimed that with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, “the people of Iraq are free.”  He told us,”Today our coalition is working with the Iraqi Governing Council to draft a basic law, with a bill of rights.”  He then introduced Adnan Pachachi, the President of the Iraqi Governing Council and promised him “America stands with you and the Iraqi people as you build a free and peaceful nation.”

As he was waxing poetic about the freedom and rights of the Iraqi people, what he neglected to say is that just a few weeks ago on December 29th, Pachachi and his Governing Council voted in a closed-door session to curtail the rights of Iraqi women as part of that basic law.