SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

Part of me feels it is my responsibility as an information disseminator to fill the 16 of you read this blog with information I come across.

This link is of a video taken and later edited of an event on September 1st.  The dude speaking on camera is also the camera man.  He literally burried the footage before being arrested.  We as viewers and readers of products of the media are responsible for seeking out different perspectives and experiences of the same event in order to better understand what is going on around us.

SHOW ME WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

we still live here

RNC Day 2: gas masks, the latest fad

Ripple Effect provided a day of music and activism

Matisyahu

Group hug during Matisyahu’s set

Michael Franti

Police not letting Rage Against the Machine play.  The police think RATM may incite a riot.  Perhaps the police are attempting to incite a riot if they don’t let RATM play.  In the end RATM is not allowed to go on stage.  Instead they go to the front of the stage with a megaphone and perform a couple of songs while the crowd kneels down to let everyone else see.  Amazing.

Poor Peoples’ March (group had permit)

When is the last time you saw police on bikes with gas masks?

 

and more gas masks

and more, scary police on top of cars with rubber pellet guns.

Thanks to Twitter we learned that the police had notified area hospitals that they would begin using gas soon.  That was our cue to leave.

RNC 2008 Day 1 St Paul – Holy Shit

Yes, I participated in the rally and the march today in St. Paul.  And no I am not an anarchist.  How could I be, I  am way too much of a capitalist.  But  I would like it known that regardless of what the media says, not all those who participated are anarchist.  Others who are not anarchists have ideas too.  Regardless, I am really happy about participating today, and I am really happy to share my experience.

@ the rally getting lined up for the march

sign @ the rally

exercising the right  to mock the ridiculousness that has become the 1st  amendment right.

This is who was watching us march.  Totally awesome, totally necessary [please read sarcasm]

 

After the march (actually like a couple of hours after the march) this is Mucha talking with the police to find out how we can get back home since downtown St. Paul was blocked off completely.  It was virtually impossible to cross over I 94 on foot.

Once we able to go home, we found the arrest area a block away from where we live.  Lots of civilians cuffed and lots of riot police standing around

the people who are not police are arrested in this image

and more arrestees

Obviously  what I witnessed today is nothing compared to what take place in other countries, none the less it was still a really intense day.  I started the day by providing Street Reference via Radical Reference; we were even interviewed by Congressional Quarterly but we ended up witnessing some pretty intense safety measures taken by the  St. Paul police department.

End  of day one.  What will tomorrow bring?  No one knows.  But I must say that Twitter really kept  us informed with what was going on and where not to go if we wanted to be safe.  Use Twitter.  Don’t know what Twitter is? Look it up at google and get to it.

RNC updated indymedia info

Please keep yourself up to date with what is going on in St. Paul and Minneapolis.  Even though CNN and NBC is in town, there are still choices as to what is made public.  For the real stories, the ones they don’t want you to know about, go to Twin Cities Indymedia

Staying informed will help keep us aware and  safe.

Day 5 of QC and IFLA

Today is my last day at the conference and so far it has been a pretty spectacular day.  I started out at breakfast, sitting by myself when a womyn walked up to me and asked if she could join me, totally like junior high.  I had seen this womyn earlier at the conference and thought I should approach her, but was intimidated as she reminded me of Monica Meyer.  However, this was Lia Friedman an art librarian  at UC San Diego and mover and shaker at Radical Reference an on line reference source for independent journalists and political activists.  OMG!!!!  Radical Reference actually provides volunteer street librarians for protests…omg…RNC…that is totally my thing!!!!  I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to participate in the RNC, and I totally found an avenue!!!!!!  Lia and I exchanged cards and, yeah, totally excellent connection.

After speaking with Lia, and even before, I feel really excited and passionate about librarianship, all facets.  I hope to keep this fire burning, but how?  Continuing ed? Participation in organizations?  The Revolution!

The first session of the day I attended was Libraries and Web 2.0.  Wow, what a panel, Stephen Abram, a womyn from OCLC, a womyn from LC, and a man from Creative Commons.  Brilliant!  Later I heard how someone thought it was a little inappropriate to have only “vendors” on the panel, but I was able to look past that and hear some really great things.  We need to “unfetter information”; harvesting labels w/out user behaviors does not work; and the phrase, ” compulsive anal retentive cataloging.”

After the session, Anne and I had lunch with 2 Canadians and an ex-patriot.  From this I picked up that Canadians have an invested interest in U.S. politics (unlike the U.S. who doesn’t seem to care about anyone else) and Canadians are very aware of the two major U.S. candidates.  This makes complete sense then that Mucha and I kept seeing Barak Obama t-shirts all over Montreal.  I love the Canadians.  I also learned that Canadian librarians have had funding issues for much longer than the U.S..  Some U.S. libraries are actually working with Canadian Libraries and how to handle situations.  Collaboration all over the place.

The final session I attended was Metropolitan Libraries with Public Libraries.  There was a talk on the Canadian Project “Working Together” and also the Sengkong library system in Singapore.  The Canadian project focused on making services relevant and visible for socially excluded populations.  What do socially excluded people want and need from the library, the library needs to be an advocate for all.  In Singapore, advocacy is a way of life.  Instead of continually asking the user to come to the library, bring the library to the user.  Get out in the community, get out from behind the desk.

This has been an amazing opportunity, and I look forward to implementing and practicing these new ideas that I have gathered from librarians around the world.  Yeah, this was definitely a good thing.  I have some really great ideas that I would love to share and work on.

Vegan Potluck = Twin Cities Terrorist

I am really excited for the Republican National Convention to make its way to St Paul in September.  I feel so fortunate to live 6 blocks from the excitement that will take place at the Xcel Center and surrounding establishments.  However, I am slightly disappointed that the FBI has not contacted me yet to be a spy for them.  I guess I don’t have the look.

What is even more perfect is that the MN State Fair will be going on at the very same time.  It really is too bad that the RNC is not being held at the fair.  I mean there are pigs, mullets, and beer; everything that the RNC is already familiar with.

What is really cool is how the RNC has caused the City of St. Paul to partner with Humana Inc. health insurance company in conjunction with the Bikes Belong cycling advocacy group which will provide 1,000 bikes for the public to use.  70 of those bikes will stay in St. Paul after the convention.  I will be on the prowl to see who is really using the bikes.  Will the suits be using the bikes?  Its really too bad a credit card is necessary to use a bike; this may prevent users that really need to use the bikes.   Each bike will be associated to a “meter” that the user will need a credit card to access; kind of like a deposit.  Once the bike is returned, the “charge” is removed from the credit card.  Basically, if the user returns the bike within 24 hours, the use is free.  Totally awesome. 

Some other really fun stuff will be happening as well, I am sure of it.  I have heard several rumors, but I am not the gossip queer, so I will wait to make sure I am spreading the truth.  This fall will be a really exciting time to be in St. Paul.