Civil Liberties

From Alexandria to Zuccotti Park: They've Been Destroying Books For 2,000 Years

Richard Eskow — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 12:24:48 -0500

Fahrenheit 451: The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns.

They're back.

But then, they've never gone away. The Book Killers have always been with us. Before recorded history they were with us, murdering the scholars and storytellers and mystics of every tribe they ever conquered.

They were there when Great Library burned in Alexandria 2,000 years ago. They destroyed the library known as the House of Wisdom when the Mongol Empire invaded Baghdad in 1258. They say the invaders took the books from every ruined library in Baghdad and piled them into the Tigris River, to serve as a bridge for their soldiers and chariots.

They say the river ran black with ink for years.

In 2003 the United States invaded Iraq with an indifference, incompetence, and arrogance that led to anarchy in the streets. There was widespread rioting, vandalism, and looting of priceless ancient antiquities and manuscripts. The National Library burned, and the flames lit the skies for miles around.

Seven centuries later, the great library of Baghdad died again.

Always before it had been like snuffing a candle. The police went first and adhesive-taped the victim's mouth and bandaged him off into their glittering beetle cars, so when you arrived you found an empty house. You weren't hurting anyone, you were hurting only things!

- Fahrenheit 451

Now the book assassins have come to Wall Street. They removed the people and property from Zuccotti Park, destroying or damaging thousands of books in the process. Occupiers and Supporters brought the surviving books to a press conference this week. They were "torn, wrinkled, coverless and even mangled," as Gianna Palmer reported for McClatchy. "Among the books visible on the table were a leather-bound copy of the Bible, a collection of Chinese mythology and a volume of selected poems by Allen Ginsberg."

Bloomberg hasn't apologized. In his press conference announcing the raid he wore the same arrogant look of self-satisfaction that humanity has seen for thousands of years. It was the face of every Mongol chieftain, every Roman centurion, every officious book-destroying official that has ever lived.

Bloomberg and his compatriots would undoubtedly be horrified at any comparison to these vandals and barbarians. If Bloomberg ever does deign to apologize, which might only happen if there's enough political pressure, he'll undoubtedly say it was an accident.

And since things really couldn't be hurt, since things felt nothing, and things don't scream or whimper, as this woman might begin to scream and cry out, there was nothing to tease your conscience later.

But it was no accident. As Captain Ray Lewis explained to Piers Morgan, police procedure demands that receipts be provide for any personal property that is confiscated. The property must then be stored carefully. Negligence is no defense for the destruction of any property. And a society that values knowledge should be especially horrified at the destruction of books.

Bloomberg and his minions ignored police procedure. His police, aided by a private militia, disregarded property rights that are safeguarded for any suspected criminal.

But then, they knew they weren't dealing with criminals. They were dealing with something much more threatening to their system: Independence.

You were simply cleaning up. Janitorial work, essentially ... Who's got a match!

Rights are inalienable, which means they can't be sold or transferred. Somebody should tell that to Bloomberg and any other politicians. It means you can't designate a public area as "privately owned" and then retroactively suspend civil liberties there. Somebody ought to give Mayor Bloomberg a copy of the Constitution.

I'm sure the Occupiers would have been happy to lend him theirs.

Rights are also indivisible. If you discard one or two of our legal safeguards, you've discarded them all. Nobody gets to decide how many of our freedoms we're allowed, when or where they may be granted or denied. That's not freedom at all.

Books in the Occupy Library were literally treated like garbage. Their owners were finally allowed to reclaim their shredded remains - at the Sanitation Department.

But that shouldn't be a surprise. Bloomberg and his forces were already treating the Constitution like trash and police manuals like toilet paper. Why behave any differently toward a library? After all, Bloomberg and his peers must have been furious at what they would have considered the arrogance, the impertinence, of Zuccotti Park's residents. A library? A library is for a community!

And we decide who is a community and who isn't, say the Book Killers.

A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind.

Even worse, books contain ideas. And information. You only have to read one or two of them to realize how transparently Mayor Bloomberg is lying - about human rights, or about the cause of the financial crisis of 2008. One of the Occupy movement's great victories has been the unmasking of Michael Bloomberg, who until now had been the false face of a "centrist" mythology designed to hide the corruption behind today's politico-economic dynasty.

Billionaires sometimes endow libraries, but they don't want people creating their own. Knowledge is power, and power must be centralized. The centralization is well underway. As the book publishing industry shrinks, that power will be concentrated in the hands of fewer and larger corporations.

At this rate, the "Firemen" in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 will soon be obsolete. So will Bloomberg's batallions. Soon a faceless bureaucrat or corporate lackey will be able to destroy every single copy of any "unauthorized" book - instantly, simultaneously, and permanently - with a single electronic command.

"It was a pleasure to burn. It was a special pleasure to see things eaten, to see things blackened and changed."

Have you seen the video clips of the Mayor announcing his crackdown? It's the look of a man who was, as Southern aristocrats used to say, "taking his pleasure with his social inferiors." But some pleasures extract a high price on the soul.

In the end it doesn't matter whether the destruction of Zuccotti Park's library was "deliberate," or just the byproduct of a vandal's disrespect for the written word. Either way it showed us the values of the Bloomberg Administration. We've seen those values for 2,000 years.

Books were destroyed in Alexandria? Too bad, but we needed to burn the waterfront. Books were destroyed in Baghdad? Too bad, but we needed a bridge. They're all the same, these Book Killers. When it comes to the written word, their indifference and contempt reveals their brutality and hatred.

Destroying books is the instinctive act of tyrants and their servants. Subconsciously or consciously, they're driven by a desire to crush the minds of others, the awareness of others, the memory of others. Most of all, they're driven by a desire to destroy their own awareness and memory, because deep inside themselves they know what they're doing is wrong.

The Book Killers. Every time they destroy a book, they destroy a piece of themselves. They can ruin the physical objects, but they can't ruin the spirit that creates them, reads them, and shares them.

The Book Killers. In every age, they return. They come back to destroy the books, and they often succeed. But they never kill the minds, the memories, or the insights behind them. They can never kill knowledge, or passion, or justice, or wisdom. They're always trying, but they always fail.

And in the end, that's why they always lose.

Privatizing Liberty

Richard Eskow — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:46:42 -0500

As Mayor Bloomberg's forces swooped down on Occupy Wall Street, news reports described the "hundreds of police and private security guards" who had re-taken Zuccotti Park. Those private guards were used against public citizens who had been exercising their civil liberties in a public area.

That's not just wrong. It's un-American.

This incident holds an important lesson for anyone who loves our freedoms: When something public is made private, our liberties are privatized too. And privatized liberty isn't liberty at all.

Privatizing Liberty

Zuccotti Park. New Yorkers knew it as Liberty Plaza Park for nearly half a century. Like other sites in New York, the plaza was created through an agreement between the city and a private company, United States Steel, that wanted to erect a building that exceeded the city's height limits. So the city made them a deal: You can take up more than your share of the public skyline, but in return you have to give the city some open space at ground level.

This wasn't a gift. It was a fair exchange between two parties, a private corporation and the people of New York. The people gave up a chunk of their skyline and the owner agreed to provide an open - and, by agreement, fully public - space in return. New York City makes these deals fairly often. The plazas created by these agreements are called "privately owned public spaces," or "POPS," and the city has lots of them.

The Mayor may want to read that phrase again: It doesn't say "privately owned private spaces." Both the owner and the city are obligated to keep them for public use, in the public sphere, with all the laws and freedoms that apply to public space.

The park's current owner, Brookfield Properties, rebuilt the park with private donations after it was damaged in the 9/11 attacks. With Mayor Bloomberg's permission, they also overstepped tradition and the bounds of propriety by renaming the park - not for the thousands of innocent people who died that day, but for their own chairman.

The symbolism is perfect:They replaced a treasured word for freedom with the name of a rich guy who'd done nothing to create the park. With the Mayor's blessing, they literally privatized the word "liberty."

Like I said, perfect. Tragic, but perfect.

Private Dicks

Brookfield overstepped its bounds when its CEO sent the mayor a letter saying that the Occupation "violates the law, violates the rules of the Park, deprives the community of its rights of quiet enjoyment to the Park, and creates health and public safety issues." Those aren't decisions a private company, even an owner, should make about a public space. They are judgments an elected official makes on behalf of a free citizenry.

This week Bloomberg and Brookfield have used the park's semi-private status as an excuse to invade a public space with a private security force. Whoever these guys were - besides rude and uncivil - they served as a kind of Blackwater militia, but targeting New Yorkers instead of Iraqis. (At least Brookfield says it fired the guard who called a citizen a "faggot.")

When it comes to privatization, it seems the Mayor has boundary issues. He has repeatedly used the park's private ownership status to claim, that the public has fewer rights there than it does in other public spaces. That's false. But then, that's the problem with "public/private partnerships." The "public" partner always gets rolled the public one.

But then, that's how these people are. Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile. The lesson of Zuccotti Park is: Never give them an inch.

Thin Blue Line, Thick Green Wallets

News reports made noted the presence of two different groups, New York City police officers and private security guards, but in some ways that's become a distinction without a difference. The NYPD is frequently rented by the same Wall Street banks that broke the law, crashed the economy and got away with it. As Pam Martens reported in Counterpunch, Rudy Giuliani created an operation called the "Paid Detail" unit that turns New York's Finest into a "rent-a-cop" service for anyone with the money to pay for it.

And who has more money in New York than the banks? As Martens reports, companies like Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and the New York Stock Exchange have rented the Thin Blue Line with the cash from their Thick Green Wallets. Even after the Stock Exchange was found to have illegally taken over public streets and walkways and "created a public nuisance," nobody was fined or arrested.

But then, it must be hard for a cop to arrest anybody that he sometimes has to address as "boss." Maybe that's one of the reasons why a retired Philadelphia police officer, Capt. Ray Lewis, was willing to be handcuffed and arrested by fellow officers during the protest. Capt. Lewis called their rationale for arresting him a 'farce' and promised to return.

(photo by permission of the photographer, Lauren Thorpe)

New York isn't the only city that rents out its police force. But the financial capital of the nation bears moral and civic responsibilities that Mayors Guiliani and Bloomberg have disrespected and violated. The photograph of Capt. Lewis is like an image of law enforcement's honor, handcuffed by the mercenary instincts of Gracie Mansion's two most recent occupants.

Checkbook Democracy

But then, why would Michael Bloomberg be expected to understand that privatization is undemocratic? He "privatized" the electoral process, one of our most sacred democratic institutions, by buying himself the mayoralty. And he spent unprecedented levels of campaign cash from his personal billions to do it. Then, when he didn't like the term limits that the people of New York had decreed for their mayor - well, he "privatized" that too.

But this isn't really about Michael Bloomberg. Despite his reputation for healthy self-regard, even the billionaire mayor is only a symptom of a much larger problem. Rich people have been buying elections for so long that it's become the newest form of self-indulgence, conveying even more status than a Citation jet or a private island. Public office is the newest must-have item for the excessively vain and excessive well-to-do, a kind of vanity press for the self-published authors of their own meritless political careers. Bloomberg is merely the today's most conspicuous, extravagant, and fiscally irresponsible member of an increasingly ordinary club.

You don't have to be a billionaire to run for office these days, of course. But if you're not you'll spend most of your time begging them for money. No wonder the 1% call all the shots in government. They own it.

I've always thought it would be a good idea if elected officials wore the insignia of the corporations that sponsor them, the way race car drivers do.

Sold American

Republicans want to privatize Social Security and Medicare. The Bush and Obama Administrations have privatized law enforcement on Wall Street by asking banks to police themselves. And during the devastating San Diego fires, residents learned that AIG had created a private fire department that saved the homes of its clients while other nearby houses burned.

Privatized police. Privatized fire departments. Privatized prisons. Privatized armies of Halliburton and Blackwater soldiers. When for-profit companies perform government functions, they'll do it in a way that makes them money. That's not hard to understand, but our "leaders" keep doing it anyway.

Why? Because they've privatized their consciences, too.

Those Other Pat-Downs

Alan Jenkins — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:12:19 -0500

As a frequent traveler, I can understand the outrage over new TSA security procedures. A “choice” between an ultra-revealing body scan, a scandalously intrusive pat-down, or not traveling by air, ever, is no choice at all. And for those of us who travel internationally, the frustration is compounded by the knowledge that other countries use less invasive and, often, smarter approaches. Given the effective alternatives that seem to be available, law professor Jeffrey Rosen and others may be correct in arguing that the new TSA policy violates the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Still, I’m reserving my outrage for a situation that involves greater intrusion and even less choice. Just last month, an expert report released by the Center for Constitutional Rights found that the New York Police Department has stopped and frisked tens of thousands of New Yorkers without legal justification, and that the victims of these illegal searches are overwhelmingly Black and Latino.

The study analyzed six years of the NYPD’s own data, controlling for factors like neighborhood crime rates, social conditions, and allocation of police resources. Among its findings:

- Nearly half of all documented stops were explained by the vague justification “furtive movements,” while only 15% cited “fits relevant description.”

- Controlling for other relevant factors, race emerged as the main factor determining NYPD stops.

- Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be stopped than Whites, even in areas with low crime rates, where populations are diverse or mostly White.

- Nearly 150,000 stops over a six-year period were facially unconstitutional and without legal justification.

- Less than 6% of all stops led to arrests—a “hit rate” that is lower than for random check points. And the rate of gun seizures is almost zero.

If you’ve ever been stopped and frisked by the police, you know that the stress, rough treatment, and potential for catastrophe can make the new airport pat-downs feel like a trip to the spa. And, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights, Black and Latino New Yorkers were more likely to have force used against them, and more likely to be arrested rather than issued a summons as compared with White suspects accused of the same crimes.

While the new TSA procedures have been decried by politicians in oversight hearings and speeches, there’s been mostly deafening silence from political leaders on the NYPD search allegations. I suppose that's not surprising. But maybe the firestorm over scanners and pat-downs can lead to greater empathy over racial profiling and unjustified police stops that happen all too often around the country. Maybe.

Renee Guillory

Renee Guillory — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:50:36 -0500

kriselda jarnsaxa

kriselda jarnsaxa — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:37:16 -0400

I'm a married Heathen who lives in Kansas. We have no children (by choice), but 2 dogs and a cat we spoil like crazy. I've been disabled for several years and am homebound, so I keep myself busy reading, writing and playing online role playing games. Music is also very important to me, and when my wrist isn't screwed up, I play guitar (intermediate level). Politically I'm something of a moderate liberal, and have an interest in studying political scandals. I read a lot about conspiracy theories - not because I buy into them, but because I like to understand the ideas and hypothesizes behind them so I can better discuss them with people who are still rational :)

Dragon Scorpion

James Blonde — Sat, 10 May 2008 22:09:45 -0400

I'm 32 years old. Grew up and live in a small town in the midwest. Socially I'd probably best be defined as libertarian. I want government to be secular, and out of our personal lives. I don't believe government should be peddling in morals, like censoring what sort of material is appropriate for public consumption and what isn't. I oppose efforts to "nudge" people into doing what is deemed "best" for them, like levying high taxes on tobacco, alcohol, "junk food". I oppose most anti-abortion legislation, though personally I have ethical qualms about the procedure and would like to see it rare but safe. I support same-sex marriage. And while some would call this "liberal", I see it as a basic civil liberties issue.

Fiscally, I consider myself moderate; elements of both liberalism and conservatism. I oppose so-called "free trade" and promote fair trade instead. I believe in protecting American jobs, both from illegal immigration and from outsourcing. I believe government has a role and duty to ensure the safety and welfare of its people, through sensible regulation, worker's rights (including living wages, right to collective bargaining), basic services, and reasonable safety nets. Conservatively, I also believe in balanced budgets and pay-as-you-go government.

The "Tipping Point" and "Critical Mass" Are We There Yet?

Timothy Gatto — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:11:29 -0400

Just how many issues are facing “critical mass” while lingering at the “tipping point”? The way I see it, the volume of critically important decisions that must be made, and made soon, dwarfs any other period I have seen in my lifetime. The facts are that issues, problems and crisis are merging together to make a perfect storm that will affect the entire human race, sparing no one. While this may appear to be frightening to many, because of the threats that these issues pose to humanity, they cannot be ignored, and not dealing with these problems is no longer an option. These issues threaten our very existence as a species.

Just what are these issues that are such a threat to mankind’s continued existence? While many people and governments attempt to remain blithely ignorant of the situation, global climate change threatens to destroy upwards to half of all species of life on this planet. The irresponsible behavior of mankind towards the Earth is criminal in nature. The Amazon rain forest, which supplies twenty percent of the planets oxygen as well as removing nearly the same amount of carbon dioxide, is being destroyed at a rate which translates to an area the size of Belgium, being destroyed yearly. The Amazon rainforest which can be likened to the lungs of our planet can never be replaced. The discharge of fresh water from the mouth of this largest of rivers, makes up twenty percent of the fresh water discharged into the oceans. In fact, one minute of fresh water discharge from the Amazon into the Atlantic could provide New York City with its entire water needs for sixty years. The habitat of plants that haven’t yet been discovered, plants that could contain medicinal properties and cure disease, are being destroyed before scientists can evaluate their properties and possible uses. Once a species is gone from the Earth, it is gone forever. In this regard, there is no second chance.

There is another area in which the future of the United States, existing as a representative democracy, is in jeopardy. The number of American citizens that believe our constitution is being dismantled piece by piece, are growing at just about the same speed as the disassembly of certain laws that protect our freedom as expressed in the Bill of Rights. The United States is rapidly becoming a police state under the premise of this “Global War on Terrorism”. Terrorism and terrorists have existed since the dawn of time, and unfortunately, will continue to exist in one form or another until the curtain is drawn on our species. The United States of America has become a nation ruled by a group of paranoid fanatics that use the threats of terrorism and violence to invoke an external threat to its citizens in order to maintain compliance, to wage wars of aggression, under the guise of “protecting the homeland”.

The situation, in which we find ourselves, on its surface, resembles the war we fought in Vietnam. While the two wars have certain parallels, the facts underlying the circumstances are very different. During the Vietnam War, the US had more than a million soldiers on active duty. We conscripted soldiers and had a ready supply of replacements. We also were constrained by a powerful alliance of nuclear nations that supported our enemy. Toward the close of the war we had an organized resistance that opposed the war, and also a more independent media that did not “spin” the news as much as the corporate controlled media of today, which is largely owned by mammoth defense industries such as GE and Westinghouse, does. The media of the Vietnam era had a variety of owners, unlike the media conglomerates which now are owned and operated by a handful of corporate players that have a vested interest in prolonging this war, along with the huge defense industry contracts that produce record profits.

The Vietnam War was also very different than the wars we are fighting today in the Middle-East, in that the North Vietnamese were unified. The situation in Iraq is very different in that the Iraqi’s are largely split among sectarian lines. Civil war is a definite possibility, if in fact, it is not occurring now. The costs of this war, and the ramifications of continuing it, are staggering. We have spent, according to some sources, almost a trillion dollars that continues to be financed by borrowing from Japan, China and other nations. Our economy is headed south and we continue to add massive debt we owe to these nations. We see the dollar losing value as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates and add to the money supply, causing inflation. Meanwhile, the politicians in Washington are hardly addressing these issues, and they get a free pass from the corporate media whose owners have a vested interest in prolonging this war indefinitely for the sake of the bottom line.

Journalists and political activists have recently used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to expose this administration’s sanctioning of torture while interrogating prisoners. President Bush, along with Rumsfeld, Rice and Cheney, have been exposed for authorizing harsh interrogation practices that are in violation of both domestic and international law, including the Geneva Conventions. While the administration is being exposed as lawbreakers, Congress and law enforcement agencies, most notably the FBI, do nothing. Again, this administration is given a free pass on breaking the law. Former military officers working as analysts for the major news networks were exposed last Sunday by The New York Times, for what they were doing. Instead of independent analysis, they were hawking the spin that they were receiving from the Defense Department while they attended meetings and seminars on how to promote the war. While this occurred, the mainstream media kept a low profile when reporting these events.

In light of all that has been discovered in recent weeks, the Democratic candidates are mute. This behavior by the fourth estate and the behavior of the Bush administration bring us to another “tipping point”, another situation that is reaching “critical mass”. How long will we wait before the people breaking the law are brought to some kind of justice? Attorney General Michael Mukasey continues to behave as if he were President Bush’s personal lawyer instead of the chief prosecutor for the people of the United States, much like his predecessors. Meanwhile, many Americans believe that things are spiraling out of control and some feel helpless to do anything about it. When I mention “critical mass”, I am referring to a point in time when the government feels it is under no obligation to explain its actions to the citizens of this nation. Cheney’s response to a question put to him mentioning that the majority of Americans do not support the war in Iraq, he responded with the word “So?” That off-hand remark spoke volumes on the mindset of this administration.

Global warming, the wars in the Middle-East, the corporate and governmental interference and censorship of our news media, along with draconian measures such as the illegal wire tapping of American citizens and laws such as The Patriot Act, The Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the John Warner Defense Bill (that dismantles Posse Comitatus and allows the National Guards of any State to be used as law-enforcement), Presidential Directive 51 that allows the executive branch to usurp the powers of Congress and The Supreme Court in the event of an “emergency” declared by the President, the use of torture in interrogations and practices such as “extraordinary rendition” are just a few examples of increasing governmental authority in the name of fighting “The Global War on Terror”. If the past is an indicator of the future in historical terms, we are almost to the point that Germany found itself before Hitler assumed dictatorial powers.

We have, in my opinion, indeed reached the precipice that so many historians, journalists and a number of elected officials have been talking about. The majority of Americans are blissfully unaware that this country is just a micron’s width away from fascism. There will be no announcement or fanfare when we reach that point. It will not be headlined in the newspapers or talked about on television.

As there will be no announcement on embracing fascism, there will also be no one to turn to for help. There will be nobody responding to a concerned citizen’s 911 call. There will be no powerful lobby that will fight for your constitutional rights. We may still have elections to give a semblance of legitimacy for the Federal Government and there may even be “First Amendment Zones” where you can vent your frustration toward an unresponsive government where no one can see or hear you. You will be monitored, and your communications with others will be subject to scrutiny, in the name of fighting a global war on terror. Criminals are increasingly called “terrorists” in order to deprive them of their constitutional rights. A designation of “terrorist” or “terrorist supporter” will mean no rights to representation by a lawyer; no charges need be filed against you and you will not have a right to a swift and speedy trial judged by your peers. You can be held indefinitely and tortured during interrogations and the government does not have to produce incriminating evidence against you.

This scenario is already in place and operating. We torture, kidnap, eavesdrop and censor. There is no next step in the process, everything has already been done. There are no more preparations that need to be done. The elections in many areas still have no paper trail to validate the outcomes. There are two major categories of laws, the ones that must be obeyed by the citizens of this nation, and the ones that the Federal Government can ignore. Have we reached critical mass, the tipping point, the precipice? Will the planet succumb to climate change while the people succumb to fascism? Have we already gone past the point of no return? Can we reign in abuse of the planet and at the same time the excesses of the Federal Government? We can, but it will take a certain amount of commitment and dedication. Those two values are in short supply here in America.

That’s the way I see it.

David Drissel

David Drissel — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 12:32:37 -0500

I am professor of social sciences at Iowa Central Community College with over sixteen years of teaching experience. I served as department chair of social sciences, education and psychology, and physical education at Iowa Central from 1995 to 2001 and have been a faculty member since that time.

I completed by bachelor's degree in political science and sociology at the University of North Alabama and my master's degree in political science and history at Auburn University.

I studied abroad in China (as a Fulbright Scholar), Czech/Slovak Republics (as a Fulbright Scholar), United Kingdom (as an Oxford Roundtable participant), Costa Rica, Germany, France, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong, and several other countries.

I have presented papers at numerous academic conferences and published articles in academic journals and periodicals such as the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Asian Journal of Criminology, International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, and the International Journal of Diversity, Midwest Connections for International/Intercultural Education.

In addition to teaching full-time time at Iowa Central, I am working on a doctorate degree part-time at Iowa State University. I have a strong interest in American and global politics and often volunteer my time in support of progressive causes and candidates for public office.

Ian Mishalove

Ian Mishalove — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 20:39:32 -0500

I'm currently the Director for Online Communications at the Campaign for America’s Future, where I've been since July 2004. Prior to CAF, I worked for seven years at the National Wildlife Federation, first as their webmaster and then as their technical director for activist development. I received an M.E.S from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA from Princeton University -- and in both places focused research on how to empower progressive social movement networks -- esp. through online technology. Outside of computers and activism, I co-own and help to run Flow Yoga Center with my beautiful wife Debra, play the bass, enjoy mes animeaux -- Carmen, Maggie and Maxie -- and try to spend as much time as possible playing outdoors.

melindaegibson

Melinda Gibson — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:47:58 -0500

I am the Health Care Policy Analyst/ Organizer for the Campaign for America's Future. I was born and raised in Southern California. I began working on progressive causes as a teenager in the environmental movement. I was introduced to grassroots organizing by the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), and fell in love with the progressive activist lifestyle. I also worked on Moveon.org's Leave no Voter Behind Campaign for the 2004 Presidential Election in Cincinnati, Ohio.