From the imdb.com summary [my emphasis]:

This movie was designed to have no plot. Meaning is to be created by the viewer, and only the viewer can give value to the images and music. That said, there is a central idea behind the movie, and according to the director it is this:

The greatest event in the history of mankind has occurred recently, and has been largely missed by both the media and academia. Beyond the headlines and every day crises of international events, a deeper shift in human affairs has occurred: Humanity no longer exists in the natural world, we are no longer connected to it. It is not that we are now users of technology, but rather that we exist within technology, we are part of it and it is part of us. The natural world now exists only to support the artificial one in which we live.

—Adam on imdb.com

The way these fims use cinema is poetic, brilliant, and while it may at first test the average U.S. moviegoing mind (or be “slower” than one is used to absorbing and certainly less linear and less narrative than mainstream USA cinema) they really are worth gearing over to appreciate. They are profound—though not for the short attention span—and they tell a truth that commerce and capitalist societies like ours are not really allowed to teach because the message directly attacks commerce and the most voracious of capitalism’s benefactors. (Even the scientists, who are much more literal and authoritative than artists or filmmakers, were hushed from telling some of these truths in the past few years.)

Shot by Ron Fricke, scored by Philip Glass, and directed by Godfrey Reggio, this trilogy is essentially montages of music and imagery. They have no dialogue and so use form, sound, juxtaposition and music quite to tell a story and issue their warning. They are like…impressionist art that you can breathe in and hear making a sound as it wraps around your understanding. I mean that…if you haven’t peeped these yet, watch this clip as if you would take in a piece of abstract art. With patience and love. Wait for it to reveal itself to you, the light shimmering on the planes, the curvature of negative space, the clusters of color and tone, the human emotion given shape not by facial expression so much as the taut mounds of bodies, the slumped figure of a collapsed worker being hauled on someone’s back, the legs and legs and legs angling up, the mud-streaked muscles straining in a pack.

These films will speak to you in sometimes unexpected and deep ways. They just ask a little time and room.

This clip is introductory scene to Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation [Hopi: Way of living/life that consumes other life in order to advance its own], the second film in the trilogy that begins with Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance and ends with Naqoyqatsi.

UPDATE: Full film Koyaanisqatsi [gracias, smartypants].

And the trailer to Koyaanisqatsi:

When I was a kid, my mom would roast a turkey + braise a duck on Thanksgiving. My parents said one was US tradition and one tasted good.

This bifurcated or dual function/form seems to me a good way to approach the holiday. Who wants to put away what some have come to know as a warm, happy time of gathering with family and celebrating food, love, taste, tribe, and life? The USA has so few “traditions” as it is, so as two-dimensional and full of tinsel that they are, they are dear to those of us who grew to know them as recurring events.

But using Thanksgiving as a time to teach children about both the myth and the damage done behind the Myth is crucial. And I capitalize “myth” that second time because this is not about being contrary or “radical” or anything. Thanksgiving is probably the most popular and earliest-given justification for invasion, murder, imperialism, occupation, and “othering” that we know of in this country. You see the harm wrought by the colonizer’s mindset time and time again, and even now in Iraq we hear fables fashioned on the same framework and it sickens. But Thanksgiving is Iraq, with its steaming platter of corpses. Iraq is Thanksgiving. And Thanksgiving stands in place of the real story, one of greed and superiority and crusade and greater stores of weapons and greater capacity for violence.

In 1637, English soldiers massacred some 700 Pequot men, women and children at Mystic Fort, burning many of them alive in their homes and shooting those who fled. The colony of Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay Colony observed a day of thanksgiving commemorating the massacre. By 1675, there were some 50,000 colonists in the place they had named “New England.”

—Deconstructing the Myths of “The First Thanksgiving”

Thanksgiving is the earliest fable given to us along the path of mental indoctrination that allows the USA to continue its method. Some say now a great change has come upon us and we may have to shift the way we do things. Global powers now, no sole hyperpower, diminished American might, changing demographics. We’ll see. “Time will tell,” as a reggae song often playing in my early household would promise the listener. Time will tell. (Obama’s words on not prosecuting anyone for war crimes etc tell us a lot already, though.)

Nonetheless, the path is in place and it is a path that begins with commercially-crafted tales designed to distract us from the USA’s long-running methodologies of exceptionalism and crusade and in place of that, offer us patriotic pablum; saccharine feelgood fakery that suffocates entire peoples and their struggles. Ultimately, who benefits from these fables and the lessons they instill? Who benefits from the invasion of Iraq? From the mercenary armies we have there and are now launching into many nations and onto ocean vessels? From our military bases that multiply like cancer? Who are the myths of Thanksgiving designed to benefit? What are the truths they are meant to obscure?

What is it about the story of “The First Thanksgiving” that makes it essential to be taught in virtually every grade from preschool through high school? What is it about the story that is so seductive? Why has it become an annual elementary school tradition to hold Thanksgiving pageants, with young children dressing up in paper-bag costumes and feather-duster headdresses and marching around the schoolyard? Why is it seen as necessary for fake “pilgrims” and fake “Indians” (portrayed by real children, many of whom are Indian) to sit down every year to a fake feast, acting out fake scenarios and reciting fake dialogue about friendship? And why do teachers all over the country continue (for the most part, unknowingly) to perpetuate this myth year after year after year?

Is it because as Americans we have a deep need to believe that the soil we live on and the country on which it is based was founded on integrity and cooperation? This belief would help contradict any feelings of guilt that could haunt us when we look at our role in more recent history in dealing with other indigenous peoples in other countries. If we dare to give up the “myth” we may have to take responsibility for our actions both concerning indigenous peoples of this land as well as those brought to this land in violation of everything that makes us human. The realization of these truths untold might crumble the foundation of what many believe is a true democracy. As good people, can we be strong enough to learn the truths of our collective past? Can we learn from our mistakes? This would be our hope.

—Deconstructing the Myths of “The First Thanksgiving”

That’s a little Haunted Land talk there. I like the hope part. It’s not a “hope” built on simply escaping the utterly depraved last 8 years. It’s not one built on some illusion of letting bygones be bygones with no truthful accounting nor consequence doled out. It’s reality: You cannot move forward with great crimes unaddressed and build a shining city on a ransacked graveyard. (If you ask the Wampanoag people, they will tell you that the “First Thanksgiving” actually involved not “finding corn” but in stealing it and looting childrens’ graves.) You can try! You can scribble in the ledgers and change the stories and lie to the kids, but truth has a way of making itself known, even if the only pathways left to travel are the disease and disintegration of a standing lie.

So! With all that said, I do hope that everyone enjoys their day tomorrow, as well as their lives and their families and their full bellies. I also hope that more and more as we go forward, it can be a day not only for fine foods and laughter and friendship and family, but also for respect, truth and the debt we owe to others. We can dismantle the machine that enacts these crimes one generation at a time, stripping away the veneer of propaganda and revealing the hard beating heart underneath. We could use the words of the Seattle schools this year, who are urging their staff not to simply “celebrate, but to educate.” We can imagine ourselves strong enough to “learn the truths of our collective past” and yet rise.

As you can see by my many links, I think a good place to begin is The Eleven Myths of Thanksgiving as discussed on the Oyate.org page, Deconstructing the Myths of “The First Thanksgiving” by Judy Dow (Abenaki) and Beverly Slapin.

Marcelo Lucero was killed in Suffolk County, Long Island. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy is being accused by many of being one of those politicians abetting the rising violence with reckless and extreme appeals to harsh crackdowns, local police doing ICE work, and general anti-migrant rhetoric.

“Suffolk County is a particularly good example of elected officials stoking the fires of anti-immigrant sentiment,” [NCLR CEO] Janet Murguía said. “For two years we have urged politicians and members of the media to show some restraint in echoing the damaging rhetoric that demonizes our communities.”

Levy accused Murguía and other critics of blurring the distinction between legal immigration, which he said he supports, and undocumented residents.

—Civil rights groups denounce Immigrant Bashing

I love the whole “Oh but not your kind, just those other ones” vibe to this worn out defense. Anyone paying attention knows there are earnest and intelligent ways to engage the immigration dialogue, ways that won’t bring harm onto people or underline dark imagery and fears they may already harbor. Anyone paying attention to Steve Levy knows he is not using any of those ways!

The Rev. Allan B. Ramirez, an immigrant advocate who is the pastor of the Brookville Reformed Church, decried Levy’s policies. “Along with those seven men, Steve Levy, who has demonized the immigrant community, also has blood on his hands,” Ramirez said.

Blurring the lines. Yeah, the Right wing does this a lot, this projection. This time it’s a Democrat, Steve Levy. No progressive here. Just a hater wearing blue. And he’s known for this.

After all, it’s not Murguía who is blurring lines. She is simply addressing facts. Facts about violence, facts about humans getting hunted and killed, facts about how careless and ugly talk inspires ugliness in others. To her—to me, to la comunidad—those are important facts. To Levy, they are not. Suffolk County County Executive Steve Levy is quoted as tsk-tsking the media interest in Lucero’s nightmarish end by admonishing reporters and scoffing it was merely “a one-day story” except for all their stirring stuff up. So that tells you where this man’s mind and heart are. Of course, being a true limp noodle of integrity, he flapped over to the press once his words began circulating and the spotlight found him, claiming “the horrible incident is indeed more than a one-day story. It was a reminder of how far we as a society still have to go.”

He can’t even say “murder,” can he. He can’t even talk about a life. All this “Horrible Incident” and “it” stuff.

You know what’s worse than a scumbag politician who uses his position of power to blur lines between humans in need and criminals, apathetic to or ignorant of the fact that they are feeding a tide of violence that gets innocent people killed? When that politician is so cowardly that he tries, at the same time, to distance himself from his own doings and come off like a saint.

You know how far we have to go, Mr. Levy? We have to go far enough to unseat Democrats like you. And then a little further.

Now Republicans, take heed of what I said to your daddy Karl: the key to the GOP’s revival is making Democrats like this one look bad to Latin@s by showing them up with candidates working for humane Immigration Reform! (And Dems, if you let the Republicans beat you to this, then you deserve to get beat, “progressive left.”)

In fact, I was on a conference call on this very topic the other day and some of the participants were people based in Suffolk County. And the discussion was very much on the toxic atmosphere in Suffolk County and the connection between legislation pushed and forwarded by Steve Levy and others, and the hate crimes against Latin@s/Mexicans. The people I spoke to related a rash of hate crimes there, this only being one. They also warned anyone looking into the numbers that Patchogue officials play with (methodology of categorizing/assessing) the statistics so they can continue to claim hate crimes are going down. They are not. What is true, according to those Suffolk Country residents/journalists was that these officials are “exploiting people’s hate and fear for personal gain.” And they left us with the statement that “the leaders of anti-migrant legislation in Suffolk county are Democrats.” (The two first names offered were Steve Levy and Jack Eddington.)

Obama won Suffolk County. And Barack Obama would not be president today without the shift in Latino votes this year. And it is already documented and understood that a large part of that shift was due to the immigrant situation and our looking for action on this issue. So what are you doing, Levy? On your own little crusade are you? Clearly. I have a strong suspicion that these types of crusades are soon going to have (political) consequences. So don’t pretend ignorance if you end up with any.

Below is the text of a public meeting held by NCLR and other Civil Rights groups on the rising Hate Crimes in our nation and the murder of Marcelo Lucero. Also below is the video (which has no sound for part of it).

CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS CONDEMN RECENT RASH OF HATE CRIMES

Fatal Beating of Long Island Latino Man Should be a “Wake Up Call for America”

Washington, DC—The brutal murder of Marcelo Lucero, a Suffolk County, Long Island man of Ecuadoran descent, brought seven national civil rights organizations together today to denounce the recent wave of brutal hate crimes against communities of color.

Representatives from the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the National Urban League,the NAACP and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) decried the recent spike in hate crimes both during and after the election.

“In the wake of an election that sends a message to the world about freedom, it seems incongruous to raise the specter of hate in America,” said Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR. “Hate did not win the election, but it has certainly reared its head in local communities across the country.”

“It is deeply disturbing to see this surge in hate crimes at a time when we should be celebrating coming together as a country and looking to the future,” said Karen Narasaki, President and Executive Director of AAJC. “Encouraged as we are to see many communities hopeful that we are headed towards an age of greater understanding, we cannot ignore the wave of hate crimes that has occurred in the wake of this historic election.”

The group cited FBI statistics that show hate crimes against Latinos and Asian Americans rising steadily over the past four years and a Southern Poverty Law Center report that details hundreds of incidents of hate crimes, vandalism, and threats committed since Election Day. This includes the election-night assault of Alie Kamara on Staten Island by two teenagers who shouted racial epithets and “Obama!” as they beat him.

“We believe that the Justice Department has to become more aggressive in prosecuting hate crimes,” said Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League, one of the nation’s historic civil rights organizations. “As a country, we’ve come a long way, but there is still more change needed.”

“At a time when we as a nation are celebrating our demonstrated diversity as millions of Americans of every race, color, ethnicity, economic status, religion, gender, and place of national origin went to the polls in record numbers to vote for and elect Barack Obama president of the United States, there are unfortunately those who are still living in the past filled hatred, fear and division,” said Hilary Shelton, Director NAACP Washington Bureau.

“Hate crimes such as these must be investigated and prosecuted fully at the local and federal levels,” stated John Trasviña, MALDEF President and General Counsel.

The civil rights groups faulted a “climate of hate” surrounding the immigration debate of recent years and the national election which has been fostered over the airwaves and echoed in political discourse.

“For two years we have urged politicians and members of the media to show some restraint in perpetuating the damaging rhetoric that demonizes our communities,” said Murguía. “Suffolk County mirrors the experience of many communities where hate, fostered on a national scale, has found a new home.”

“Certainly, President-elect Obama’s election speaks volumes about how far we’ve come as a nation; but, make no mistake, it signifies hope, not a final victory over prejudice and racial hostility, ” said Wade Henderson, President of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. “Certainly, in a nation of over 300 million people, there will always be a fearful few who can only find self-worth when they disparage and denigrate some group of people they see as different from themselves. We can’t legislate the heart and mind, but we can ensure that this segment is prevented from turning thought into action.”

“Words have consequences, and hateful words have hateful consequences. Mr. Lucero’s death is a direct consequence of the anger and hate spurred on by media outlets that mischaracterize all Latinos and the institutions that serve them as a threat to our country,” said Murguía.

“There is a direct connection between the tenor of the political debate and the daily lives of immigrants in our communities. It is no accident that, as the immigration debate has demonized immigrants as “invaders” who poison our communities with disease and criminality, haters have taken matters into their own hands and hate crimes against Latinos are on the rise for the fourth consecutive,” said Michael Lieberman, Washington Counsel, Anti-Defamation League.

These seven organizations are committed to working together to monitor incidents of hate crimes and hate rhetoric, to urge Congress to pass the Local Law Enforcement Hate
Crime Prevention Act and the media to cease resorting to bias and bigotry, and to increase tolerance and understanding among all communities.

To learn more about the code words of hate and what your community can do to combat hate speech, visit www.WeCanStopTheHate.org.

JUCHITAN, Mexico (Reuters) - Attaching flowers to a ribbon headdress, pulling a lace slip under an embroidered skirt and draping a necklace of gold coins over his head, Pedro Martinez puts the finishing touches on the traditional costume of Zapotec women in southern Mexico.

“When I get all dressed up like this my father always says, ‘Oh Pedro! You look just like your mother when she was young,” beams Martinez, 28, gluing on fake eyelashes in front of a mirror.

Martinez spent two hours in the hair salon he owns getting ready for this weekend’s festival of the “muxes,” indigenous gays and transvestites in the town of Juchitan who have found a haven of acceptance in Mexico’s macho society.

The muxes (pronounced moo-shes), mostly of ethnic Zapotec descent, are widely respected in the southern town where a dance and parade that crowns a transvestite queen and celebrates the harvest has been held annually for the last 33 years.

Anthropologists say the tradition of blurring genders among Mexico’s indigenous population is centuries old but has been revived in recent decades due to the gay pride movement.

Several dozen muxes were blessed by a Catholic priest at a mass before joining visiting transvestites and other townsfolk at a raucous party on Saturday night. The muxes wore either traditional local costumes or ball gowns and high heels. [...]

Some of the muxes, a Zapotec word derived from the Spanish for woman, or “mujer”, dress as women year round and others are gays who only don women’s clothes at the annual party, or not at all.

The area around Juchitan, a laid-back town near the Pacific, has a history of women playing leading roles in public life.

“The legend here is that mothers pray for a gay son who can take care of them when they are old,” theater director Sergio Santamaria, 56, said over a traditional breakfast of iguana soup and sweet corn tamales.

—Mexican transvestite fiesta rocks indigenous town

I so enjoy the acceptance in these stories. Not only a refreshing blast of love and truth in the face of so much backward fear, hate, loathing, ignorance in our own USA culture (especially as demonstrated as of late by the Mormon Church and others who pushed for Proposition 8/”Prop Hate”), but also a beautiful contrast to what I’ve too often witnessed personally in my own life.

I am grateful I did not take on some of the attitudes I saw demonstrated in my youth. Homophobia staked out a visible presence there. I watched supposed role models start fights with people because they felt that threatened by the presence of gayness. It was amazing.

I never connected to that reaction. Not a bit. Maybe it was another thing where if my (adoptive not biological) father was against a thing, I more or less aligned with that thing. But no, I just think part of my nature could never be like that. The truth is, in my life, I more often felt persecuted by the Male Expectation I felt peering at me through invisible crosshairs than a part of it. In the Male Role world, I was always an outlier, a spy, a fraud. I’m not into and have never been into so many typical “Male” signifiers and activities and maybe that’s because I associate these things (football, visiting strip clubs, hunting, racing, talking luridly about girls you’re with, idiocy, etc) with the stack of unspoken rules that come with being in that club. All the ones that screamed in your ear about how NOT to sit, stand, speak, dress. Ugh. Hell, remember, I’m the kid who took Typing and Home Ec in high school, rather than the highly-sought after Auto Shop. But it’s not just about ducking from the heavy, suffocating, dull, half-dead box that is opened for the Adult Western Male to fit into, it is also about celebrating the non-rigid, the emotional, the intuitive, the fluid, the flamboyant, the colorful—the Feminine aspect of myself.

It is a given to most of us paying enough attention that there is a prevalent misogyny in our culture. Normalized to the extent that hostile and violent imagery against women is a regular presence and energy in our media. In posters, in jokes, in titles, in ideas. From the slightly dismissive to the outright derogatory to the blatantly vile and vicious. Our focus is often (and should be) on the women targeted by this hate, the women who suffer under this stream of threat and this actuality of violence. It should be focused on the actors and co-conspirators as well. Aside from those who take direct part in that hate or violence, another important piece of this is the effects of this misogyny upon the male in general. What misogyny does to the male identity and psyche and sense of peace and self-love. After all, the Female is not hated in a vacuum. So, too, is the Feminine, entire. And that cannot be walled off to one gender. This loathing, this hatred points back to what we know to be part of our natural being.

Men (as boys) are “asked” to join the oppression (under great threat of both social humiliation and physical violence and over and over, too) and to do this of course, we must snuff out/suppress the Feminine in ourselves. This is, of course, a great pain and loss to a human. And as this loss cannot be mourned by implied decree, this pain becomes a bitter, perverse mess that is blind to itself. And so men not only join the hate against women, but they then envy women for their freedom (to still be allowed) to be expressive, emotive, beautiful, affectionate, relaxed, vulnerable. And the loathing to self-loathing ties to envy ties to sorrow and loss and is given ground, and men are emotionally insane when modeled as instructed. And they act out this insanity even when they don’t know why. It is because they have too often been prevented from even knowing who they are to begin with.

I’ve never wanted to be a part of typical men, men groups, or Man Roles. That’s why people like Pedro Martinez to me, bedecked in color and flowing robe and smiles and ribbon, seem so much healthier to me than men buttoned into suits and then pews and pushing propositions. (On a mundane level, part of my being puzzled as a child growing up was also why the “boys” and “mens” sections had all the boring clothes! I could never figure that out.)

Part of undoing misogyny and sexism, and a huge part it seems to me, is men revealing to other men that we are sold an illusion. The “man” some (and a system entire) would have us be is an unnatural and dangerous one. It is a maimed beast; a muzzled, anguished, and hungry creature. Even the ideal is lonely and half-blind. The Myth of Man is a fanged, bereaved, lie. His is the shifting shape of oppression and self-denial with a wolfskin slung over one eye. It is a shroud. Even for those men who feel it makes them more so. For if a man cannot love the feminine aspect of himself, nor can he love a woman. And if he is hiding from that half of himself, he cannot fully see a woman. And if he would abdicate half his power, he is weak to the point of failing.

It is a spiritual thing, of course. Not even a social thing. For me, I’ve always seen my Artist priorities as rising above any imagined “Male” Role priority, and so I’ve long been comfortable with costume and decoration and wearing makeup and masks and just about any way of expressing whatever it is I feel needs to be celebrated or given shape in a moment. (More comfortable than in many typical settings!) And of course I’ve had to become comfortable (or be ostracized at times) for remaining expressive, intuitive, emotional, flamboyant/theatrical and given to many behaviors that violate the Male Code. And yet of course, there is still the work of untangling some of the corrosive and binding threads that our patriarchal/misogynistic culture has sewn into my form.

I love that the same (Zapotec) Indians who gave the world Emiliano Zapata gives us the Muxes! How perfect.

I like this too:

DUAL-GENDERED GODS

Native people in the Americas with ambiguous gender were often regarded as wise and talented, said Rosemary Joyce, a professor of anthropology at the University of California at Berkeley.

“They were seen as have having a kind of spiritual power that comes from being more like the ancestors who are mothers and fathers at once, and more like the divinities who may be dual gendered,” Joyce said.

Anthropologists have found evidence of mixed gender identities across Mesoamerica, from Mayan corn and moon gods that are both male and female and Aztec priests who ritually cross dressed.

The Spanish conquest in the 16th century and the Catholic Church snuffed out much of that tolerance.

——Mexican transvestite fiesta rocks indigenous town

Because Colonization (and Patriarchy, too) are about control. And thus, Prop H8. And thus stiff collars and the Western Modes of acceptable and authoritative dress. And thus stark unforgivable lines. And thus dichotomized stances and laws that no person lives under comfortably and organically, unless they crave unnatural and aggravating wires strapping them down to the earth, making up for all the strength they have abdicated and would have used to guide and know themselves otherwise….

Okay, the length of that chunk of text (ironically) negates the YouTube lightness that I was talking about, but hey. Walk with me.

This primero bideo is of the Ace of Base song It’s a Beautiful Life. I admit, I’ve had this on my playlist (on and off) since it came out. It’s so sappy and happy and poppy that it can serve as a momentary dose of tonic that when too many clouds congregate. (Yet, I don’t think I ever realized how unreal the song was until I watched this video, and I’ve actually never watched it until now. I laughed almost the entire way through. It was in disbelief. It’s very weird. It begins con una rubia with the strangest morning breath you’ll find and just gets stranger.)

And this is a song by an early favorite band, DEVO. I had one of their albums as early as ten or eleven and still love some of their work. They are like abstract painters reborn as musical geeks. I love it. They appeal to the clown in me, the trickster, the jinxster, the robot dancer! But I’ve caught up with certain videos and been disappointed, after years of loving the music. (Such as Whip It, where there are a couple really ugly misogynist and racist moments.) I like this one a lot better. Really love the impressionist feeling of it (as opposed to “80s Flavored Hallucination” style that Ace of Base used). It compliments the bitter-flip sarcasm and disjointed feel of the song’s message well. And the moment or two that employ poor societal views seem to do it (or feel it) in context of the song’s disenchantment with society’s holding those views.

If a tune can be said to be sad, angry, and happy all at once, it would be Devo’s It’s a Beautiful World.

It’s an odd coupling of odd pieces, maybe. But these two songs paired—as different in tone, message, and method as they are—might be said to offer a more complete picture of the life each one attempts to describe.

Happy Viernes, Beautiful Gente! Or not!

It is senseless. It is hateful. It is unnecessary. It is wrong.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. The event is held in November to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28th, 1998 kicked off the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco candlelight vigil in 1999. Rita Hester’s murder — like most anti-transgender murder cases — has yet to be solved.

Although not every person represented during the Day of Remembrance self-identified as transgender — that is, as a transsexual, crossdresser, or otherwise gender-variant — each was a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people.

We live in times more sensitive than ever to hatred based violence, especially since the events of September 11th. Yet even now, the deaths of those based on anti-transgender hatred or prejudice are largely ignored. Over the last decade, more than one person per month has died due to transgender-based hate or prejudice, regardless of any other factors in their lives. This trend shows no sign of abating.

The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of our brothers and sisters who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect for our people in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people that we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.

Note: This page was taken from http://www.rememberingourdead.org/day/what.html

MEXICO CITY (AP) — John Malkovich is so touched by the plight of migrant children who cross illegally into the United States that he plans to make a documentary about it.

The actor and director says the documentary, which will be titled “Triple Crossing,” will seek to humanize the issue of illegal migration.
Malkovich said Wednesday the film will be produced by Canana Films, a production company owned by Mexican actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Malkovich, of “Burn After Reading,” is in Mexico directing the play “The Good Canary.”

—John Malkovich to film documentary about migrants

Some haters cannot be reached. But I do think that is the aging fringe. Most people actually aren’t set against kindness and justice. Unfortunately, many can’t see the truth of the situation to even fairly rule on it. Too many here in the USA cannot help but be poisoned by our toxic MSM and its festering monologue. It is a media that cares not for humans most of the time, but instead, for profits and fitting in with the power flow. Like flunkies trailing a bully, the newspundits and anchorfaces ride in the wake of popular corporate opinion and directive. They love to speak of triple concrete fences and beefing up the prison apparatus. They do not like to speak so much about numbers like over 40,000 children. They prefer phrases like “Land of Liberty” and “Freedom on the March.” etc.

More than 40,000 Mexican minors are detained every year by immigration officials while trying to cross the border into the United States. Many of the unsuccessful children are taken to shelters such as the Casa YMCA de Menores Migrantes in Tijuana, where Matilde has worked for years.

“We feed them and offer them a place to sleep, but we also help them to recover their emotional stability and track their relatives,” says Matilde.

On average, 3,000 minors between 11 and 17 years old arrive at Casa YMCA every year. They can stay in the shelter for a maximum of 8 days or until their families are located.

Other teenagers are not so fortunate. In 2003, 11 children died while crossing the border. So far, in 2004, there are already 17 dead minors, according to the Casa YMCA’s coordinator, Uriel Gonzalez.

The most dangerous way to cross to the U.S. is through the desert. A lot of immigrants have died of dehydration or animal attacks. Other risks are assaults, robberies, and sexual assaults.

That’s why many families pay a coyote to cross their children. However, since the 1990s the price to cross with the help of a coyote has skyrocketed because of increased immigration enforcement at the San Diego border.

—Immigrant Children Face Trials and Heartbreak to Cross the Border

Please tell me what laser drones and more aggressive men with guns are going to do for hungry children? 40,000 of them? And that’s in 2004! Because we know that in the first seven months of this year, ICE has deported 90,000 children. And many of them are just dumped.

A new study finds that unaccompanied children are being abandoned on the Mexican side of the border at an alarming pace.

In the last seven months, U.S. authorities have deported at least 90,000 children to Mexico, according to a study by the Mexican Government’s Commission on Population, Border and Immigration Affairs.

At least 13,500 of these children ages 17 and under were deported to Mexican border states but never reconnected with their parents or legal guardians. Many of these children have resorted to begging with the hopes of crossing into the United States again to be reunited with family members, according to the study. Other abandoned children are being cared for by churches and non-governmental organizations.

Many of these children were caught while being smuggled into the United States. U.S. authorities typically funnel the children through an “expedited” deportation process — sending them back to Mexico in a matter of hours.

The study cites another disturbing statistic: for every three adults deported to Mexico, one child is left abandoned in the United States.—Deported Children Abandoned in Mexico

If not abandoned or dumped over the border, we shunt them into our growing private prison system and make about ten to fifteen THOUSAND dollars off of each kid. A month.

Humanity? Freedom? Liberty? National Pride? Change? Hope? Honestly? Fuck off with the pipe dream propagandic phraseology until we see some justice.

More like this, Diego. More like this, Irene. More like this, Señor Malkovich. More heart into the matter. More truth to the people. More info to the People. More power to the people. It’s not enough all by itself, but every hand helps, every heart helps, every big boca helps.

We’re getting there. I’m sure it’s not fast enough for those families living in detention centers or broken up and criminalized or for los niños perdidos wandering far from their familias. Nor for me. But we’re getting there.

The art exhibit Chicana Art and Experience: Mujeres con Garbo that opens today in DC is a good example of what I mean. As a side note, I can personally speak for one of las mujeres whose art is being featured in this show, and she definitely is una mujer con garbo!

So if you’re in DC, stop in and check out the show, give up some support for la comunidad and the artists, and if you see Molina, tell her Nez said hola.

If you’re in Washington, D.C., in the next four months, make sure to stop by the AFL-CIO to view a dynamic and rich art exhibit by Chicana artists. The exhibition includes more than 30 prints, paintings, posters and photographs by women who reflect on the experiences and struggles of Mexican Americans.

In the late 1960s, inspired by the civil rights and labor movements, Mexican Americans coined the name Chicano/Chicana to describe an individual’s self-identification with a rich, complex fusion ancestry and culture. The name expresses pride in the culture of the indigenous, Spanish, Mexican and Anglo people of Mexico and denotes support for struggles against discrimination, brutality and poverty.

The Chicano/Chicana movement spawned a dynamic and creative arts community that includes many of the most prominent artists in the nation. Some of their work will be on display at the AFL-CIO in Chicana Art and Experience: Mujeres con Garbo (Women with Attitude).

This exhibit focuses on the struggles of working Chicanas—organizing, immigration, women’s rights, health care, workplace safety, housing, community and cultural identity. The title of the show comes from Juana Alicia’s poster, “Mujeres con Garbo/Women with Attitude,” shown above. Click here to see more of the exhibit.

The artists represented include Barbara Carrasco, Ester Hernández, Cecilia Concepción Alvarez, Laura Álvarez, Favianna Rodriguez, Yreina Cervántez, Juana Alicia, Irene Simmons, Delilah Montoya, Laura Molina, Tina Hernández, Yolanda López, Carmen Lomas Garza and Kathy Vargas.

The exhibit will run from Nov. 19, 2008, to May 31, 2009. The exhibit was organized by artist, independent curator, writer and educator Rex Weil.

—Chicana Art Exhibit Opens Today at AFL-CIO