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unplug

unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Help Find Habeas Corpus

Habeas Corpus is missing, and the ACLU has launched a campaign to find him.

Who is Habeas? Well, he's not really a missing person, but the ACLU has personified him in their campaign because he is indeed missing - ever since the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was passed. Habeas Corpus has been an integral part of democracy since the thirteenth century. According to Wikipedia,

"In common law, habeas corpus is the name of a legal action or writ by means of which detainees can seek relief from unlawful imprisonment. The writ of habeas corpus has historically been an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action."

Since individual freedom and rights are (or at least should be) a central part of a democratic government, one would think that it would be too precious to remove from the lawbooks. But, just before the 2006 election, the United States government did just that. Certain detainees can now be legally imprisoned without being charged or given a justification for their imprisonment, denied court review or legal help, and tortured in ways that violate the Geneva Conventions. As part of the "War on Terror," the Military Commissions Act allows the horrible abuses at Guantanamo Bay to continue without consequence, and without due process, it is certain that we are holding innocent people behind bars. In fact, the Bush Administration has acknowledged that many Guantanamo Bay prisoners are not even terrorists!

For an inside look at what prisoners at Guantanamo Bay go through, I suggest watching The Road to Guantanamo, a movie about a group of friends who end up in Guantanamo simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The human rights abuses that are very common at Guantanamo Bay have drawn outcry from many organizations, such as Amnesty International, that demand the prison be closed.

The dissolving of Habeas Corpus and the mere existence of a place as horrible as Guantanamo Bay beg the question: Is the United States even a democracy any more? At the rate things are going, we really can't call ourselves a democracy. It's starting to smell like fascism to me...

Labels: human rights, news/current events, politics

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Dreaming of a Sustainable Summer Road Trip

Well, I've posted about it on my life blog, our volksvegan adventure blog, and I pretty much can't shut up about it. So I might as well mention it here too. We're hittin' the road for the summer!

The best part of the trip, of course, is that we are traveling in a moving experiment in sustainable travel, our "volksvegan" bus that runs on waste vegetable oil and bio-diesel. I'm very excited about this trip and will be blogging from the road as often as I can. We may even document our trip on video and make a documentary. We're visiting sustainable communities and towns we're interested in moving to in the Northwest on our trip, and doing a lot of backpacking and basking in nature along the way.

We took the bus on a test run to the Okanogan Family Faire Volunteer Summit this past weekend, and you can read about that little adventure on Our Volksvegan Adventure, which I will be updating frequently on our trip. You can see some pictures of the process of converting our bus in this flickr photo set.

We hope to leave in mid-June, so there's just a few more weeks of planning and working out the volksvegan's kinks before we embark on a quest for greener travel and free fuel. Stay tuned!

Labels: environment/sustainability, lifestyle

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Inspiration from The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a very important source of inspiration to me. I have read a couple of his books and I have a calendar of some of his teachings sitting on my desk. I definitely like the way he thinks and he never fails to give me food for thought. Some of my favorite quotes:

"The essential feature of true compassion is that it is universal and not discriminatory."

"In every part of the world, there are people who really speak about human rights, adn speak about the right of self-determination, and rights of animals. All of these are, I think, signs of positive change."

"Universal humanitarianism is essential to solve global problems."

"It does not matter whether you are a theist or an atheist, what matters is sincerity, forgiveness, and compassion."

"People who call themselves religious without basic human values like compassion; they are not really religious people."

The Dalai Lama is a very intelligent, compassionate, and happy person with a lot to share with the world. If you're ever seen the movie Kundun, which depicts his early life and his daring escape from Tibet when China occupied it, then you know about some of what this remarkable man has had to go through. Tibet has been taken over by China as the traditions, religious identities, and natural landscape of the Tibetan people are slowly being crushed. The Dalai Lama, as leader of the Tibetan people (even though he currently lives in exile), has never raised a fist towards China throughout their hostile takeover of his home. He is an example of leading with nonviolence, understanding, compromise, and peace.

His Holiness was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his demonstration of peaceful leadership and his devotion to compassion and teaching. He was also recently awarded a Congressional Gold Medal from the US House of Representatives. I certainly think world leaders have a lot to learn from this humble Buddhist monk. and everyone can certainly learn from his ideas and his life.

Two organizations I currently support are The International Campaign for Tibet and Free Tibet Campaign. These and many other advocacy groups are trying to stand up with the Dalai Lama for the people of Tibet, and ask China to end the atrocious human rights violations and brutal occupation of this peaceful country. One campaign of particular note is Race for Tibet, an effort of the ICT to force China to own up to the tragic occupation of Tibet befor the upcoming 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

You can sign a petition to the International Olympic Committee on the Race for Tibet site, which reads in part:

In light of the IOC's Olympic Truce commitment "to create a window of opportunities for dialogue, reconciliation and the resolution of conflicts...and to encourage political leaders to act in favour of peace" (www.olympic.org), it is clear that the IOC ideals and values are very applicable for Tibet as we approach the 2008 Games. The IOC has long contended that awarding Beijing the 2008 Games will improve human rights in China, but as time passes, these assurances have not turned into concrete results.

The IOC should not let the Olympics be used by China to blatantly or insidiously try to legitimize their rule in Tibet or to promote a distorted view of the conditions there. Yet with China's selection of the Tibetan antelope (or chiru) as an Olympic mascot, we are already seeing the first results of a Chinese strategy to misuse Tibet in relation to the 2008 Olympics.

I hope someday to see the Dalai Lama speak and to visit his beautiful home country of Tibet, but I hope that I can visit a FREE Tibet, after the Dalai Lama reclaims his leadership in a sovereign country and the bloodshed and hardship China has inflicted can begin to heal. Until then, I'll keep speaking up for Tibet and learning from what the Dalai Lama has to say.

Labels: activism, peace, politics