private Writing Samples

Originally Published april 18, 2011- updated May 8, 2011

I’m Going To Jail for Mother’s Day

For Mother’s Day I decided to give my kids a gift and go to jail for them. I have two beautiful boys who have brought me endless amounts of joy, and sometimes sorrow. They are not awake yet. When they do wake up I expect the usual card and a small handmade gift. I love mothers day and I have kept every little trinket they have glued, sewn, painted and decoupaged.

This year I gave them a gift. I was arrested for fighting for their future. I have worked tirelessly to get our public officials to stop poisoning our air, water and soil and to stop the bullet train we are on headed for a cliff that is climate change. But there is no getting off. It seems our politicians, along with their friends in dirty energy corporations have locked us all on this high speed trip to death and suffering. I have written, met with, begged, petitioned, campaigned for and against and still these politicians and policy makers do little to protect our children and future generations from what we have done only since the industrial revolution.

Here is a photo of me being arrested.

As a fairly young person (but my children remind me just how old I am every day) I am furious; Furious that some old guys in nice suits only seeing profit have thrown away our entire planet and indirectly murdered millions of innocents. Do you think that view is extreme? Look at the extreme weather mostly caused by climate change. Look at the glacial disappearing act that will sentence millions to die from lack of drinking water. Think of the millions suffering from air pollution. Think of those who will lose everything in coming hurricanes and floods

Those people perpetrating these acts for money are the extremists. Those fighting to stop them are the sensible people.

Think of the people of Fukushima who will die decades early from the damage to their bodies inflicted by an invisible enemy. The actions of our corporations and their enablers in our governments have continued the war on the young. They will be long dead and their children will have fat trust funds while my kids will have toxic superfunds. We must fight for our kids, even if it means getting arrested.

This year I was able to put some faces to the organizations causing this devastation and one of them belongs to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. That is why on April 18, 2011 myself and several hundred others occupied the Department of the Interior demanding to speak to Secretary Salazar. We were there for the annual climate leaders convention called Powershift. 11,000 attended. We were there from frontline communities being poisoned by the gulf oil spill, Katrina, strip mining, tar sands, oil shale, fracking, coal burning, oil refineries, and finally the mother of all destruction, mountain top removal. The U.S. government policies not only enable corporations to poison our children and walk away, but those policies mandate they do so. Our public lands are leased for these toxic persons by policy mandate. That must change.

We literally sang for our lives that day as the Department of Homeland Security warned us that we would be charged with felonies. What is a felony when we are fighting to stop the suffering of so many? What is jail time when we can see what our government policies have done in the gulf and in West Virginia? Many got up and left. 21 stayed and took a stand, while sitting and singing.

This is important work that is happening and the several hundred college students who participated will take it home with them. They will know now that they don’t have to stand for the status quo and that they can make sure their leaders start to finally listen to them. 9 others were arrested the day prior to Powershift in the Citizens Filibuster action. But for the 30 people arrested at Powershift we must help them jump through all of the legal hoops to continue to remain activists. It takes money, lots of money to fly and drive 30 people back and forth to DC for an arraignment and more.

Some may say, you have ruined your future. My inaction and inability to fight for the lives of my kids have ruined my future and theirs. Life will be exceedingly difficult in the world that we have set on an irreversible course of warming and environmental degradation.

The plane ride I will take today will stay in the atmosphere for 200 years. There is no way to remove it despite all of the wacky, but hopeful scientific claims otherwise.

I am working to teach my sons to stick to the courage of their convictions, really stick to them. I often have wondered if I would have had the courage to be a freedom rider, to fight segregation or to speak out against the Vietnam War if I had lived in those times. I know now that I don’t have to wonder because I am on the front lines of the greatest challenge humanity has faced yet and I am fighting for our lives. Our lives on this planet can be spectacular but are always brief. I want my boys to know we must use our lives as a gift and give to others. I work daily on social justice issues and I they often work with me going to hearings, writing, lobbying, advocating, and marching.

Fighting for justice and living sustainably are present in our daily lives and we are more connected to each other, to nature and more aware of being alive because of the way we live. I feel so much joy when I garden, walk, bike, and work to help others and I get to share that with my sons. Few scientist and as a result public figures want to level with us. Few will actually admit that it is too late to stop climate change yet many of them know what is coming. It is too late. All we can do is minimize the damage and try to prevent as much human suffering as possible.

This evening, on Mother’s Day, I will get on an airplane to go to Washington DC for my arraignment on charges of misdemeanor unlawful entry. It carries a jail sentence of up to 6 months and a $1000 fine. I am happy to do it. When my kids are adults and they see the devastation caused during my lifetime affecting them they will not have to wonder if I tried to protect the planet and take care of them. They will know exactly which side I was on by my words and actions.

I will go to jail for my kids. Will you go to jail for justice? Which side are you on?

Please follow this link and support they Powershift 30. Any amount helps!

Posted by salt lake community action group - July 27, 2010

Mothers with young children, the disabled and the elderly line up on a well worn, cream colored church bench in a crowded hallway. One man smiles eagerly as he is greeted by the Resource Specialist and invited to come in her office. He struggles to get to his feet and follows slowly relying on a black cane to make it to the office of Kate Osborne. We are in a windowless hallway of the Redwood Community Center and the clients are waiting for emergency food. Most people will receive a humble amount of bread, meat, cans and boxes. If they are lucky a sweet or two will be in their box. Fresh fruits and vegetables are not often available.

Workers like Kate across the country have a deadline looming. September 30 the funding for hundreds of thousands of jobs expires and those employees will be join the unemployed.

The people sitting outside Kate’s office are at the Redwood Road Emergency Food Pantry in West Valley Utah. It is run by the Salt Lake Community Action Program, an anti poverty agency. According to Neighborhood Specialist Mahina Jones the focus of the food pantries is primarily getting food out the door. They are overwhelmed by the increase in demand for their services and the Resource Specialist Program funded by the Recovery Act has been a godsend.

Resource Specialists Kate Osborne and Eva Monroy meet with people seeking food assistance to help them find other community resources that may help them get through the worst of the recession. They build relationships with clients and they ask for the women by name when they come.

The help the impoverished residents of Utah are seeking cannot come fast enough but with job losses in antipoverty and state agencies desperate residents may not find the help they need. Recovery Act funding provided over 5600 jobs in the state of Utah. Exact numbers for job losses due to the funding running out by state are not readily available at this time.

Analyst LaDonna Pavetti from the Progressive Center for Budget and Policy Priorities puts job losses as high as 900,000 when the funding for the jobs expires on September 30. When the funding was originally introduced it was hoped the economy would recover sufficiently enough for state and community agencies to keep new employees on the payroll. Those hopes have diminished in the drawn out recession and the inability or unwillingness of Congress to extend the jobs benefits.

Salt Lake CAP is unusual in that it will be able to retain 50 of approximately 75 workers who were hired with Recovery monies only because those 50 employees are part of the Weatherization Program; A program which has been extended two more years after Utah agencies hit their targets for weatherizing homes. Eva’s and Kate’s jobs will be gone when the funding expires at the end of September. Eva has only been at the agency for a short number of weeks. She came from the Jordan School District where her department was dissolved.

CAP Director Cathy Hoskins expresses concern about losing so many employees on the front lines of poverty during this drawn out recession; “They have done so much for so many during their time at CAP, that their services and caring will truly be missed. I’m sure that the demand for our multiple services will not decrease, so their absence will be felt by not only Salt Lake CAP but by the people they have helped both individually and collectively.”

The hope was that initial Recovery dollars would assist agencies facing significant budget cuts and increases in demand for those serving low income populations. The economy has not recovered sufficiently for those Agencies awarded ARRA funding to retain employees kept on or hired with Recovery dollars. Those agencies that faced reduced job cuts thanks to the funding will now have to let those employees go. This is only complicated by the increase in demand for the services of agencies like Salt Lake Community Action Program.

It is clear just how much the Resource Specialist Program has helped. It is evident by the requests from the public to meet with Kate and Eva. Food pantry supervisor Mahina Jones is pleased that clients call ahead to make sure they are available to meet with them. According to Mahina the relationships they build are vital for the potential success of the clients and their own ability to get on the road to self sufficiency. Sadly, the five Salt Lake CAP food pantries has also seen an increase in people who have never utilized emergency services. Jones emphasizes that is why the Resource Specialist Program is so much more important in helping families find resources to help them through tough times. All funding for the program will be gone in September.

ARRA funding provided a great opportunity for numerous community agencies to expand services, do large, short term projects, and train people with on the job experience.

The economic outlook for those families utilizing the services of the emergency food pantry is bleak. Job numbers have steadily stayed low. As for Kate she will move with her husband to California where he has been accepted to law school. They are expecting their first baby, a girl, before the holidays. Kate says she plans on working in a similar position in the future and applying the skills she learned at CAP to assist communities and families; “I like working one on one with people and I love the interaction. It feels great when I am able to resolve problems that clients may struggle with. Much of what I do is as simple as just listening and helping clients with basic life skills they never had the opportunity to learn.”

Kate’s next appointment is waiting at the door. A young mother holds two toddlers by the hand and smiles when Kate greets her. I walk quietly out the door and past a dozen people on the cream church bench. They are waiting for Kate and Eva, they are waiting for food, and they are waiting for hope.

Cori Redstone is the Social Media Development Specialist for Salt Lake CAP.

Her position was funded by Community Service Block Grants under the Recovery Act.

The funding for her job ends September 30th.

Links

The Center on Budget and Priorities

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3076

Salt Lake Community Action Program

http://www.slcap.org

See where the funding in your state is going

http://www.recovery.gov

This entry is also posted at Salt Lake CAP’s blog on WordPress and at The Daily Kos

Posted in Food, Poverty, Progressive | Tagged ARRA, CSBG, Food, jobs, poverty, recovery, TARP | Leave a comment

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