Today’s video of the day is “Everything Man” from Talib Kweli. If you haven’t purchased Eardrum yet, buy it today!!!

November 17, 1967 marked an historic moment in Philadelphia public school history. On that day, more than 3500 students across the city staged a mass walkout in protest of the school system. Tomorrow afternoon, thousands more will commemorate the event by gathering in front of the School District of Philadelphia headquarters for a “Day of Student Voices.” During the event, students will express their concerns and issue demands regarding public schools. In many ways, their demands won’t be much different than they were forty years ago.

During the initial protest, one of the key concerns was the lack of Black Studies in the curriculum. Today, despite the important addition of a mandatory high school history course, Philadelphia schools continue to deprive black and brown students of a rich curriculum that responds to their own cultural orientations, histories, and worldviews. While the addition of multicultural activities have offered the illusion of progress within schools, they have only served as patronizing gestures to political correctness. Rather than challenging the dominance European thought and culture on a daily basis, many schools have reduced diversity initiatives to piñatas and African dances.

Just like 1967, however, concerns about public schools are not restricted to the curriculum. Statistics continue to show that African American boys are overrepresented in special education classes, suspension lists, and dropout rolls. Despite considerable gains, girls are still denied full access to math and science tracks.  Gay and lesbian students continue to be physically and verbally abused on a daily basis. In fact, despite the ubiquitous presence of surveillance equipment, most students express greater feelings of unsafety within school buildings than ever before.  Such concerns will undoubtedly lie at the center of tomorrow’s protest.

Forty years ago, protestors accurately charged the School District of Philadelphia with “educational negligence” and demanded radical changes. Today, we must display the same commitment to transforming the educational lives of our children. Rather than finding short term solutions and reactionary reforms, we must acknowledge that the fundamental structure of today’s schools is incompatible with educational success for all. With this understanding, we can stop looking for simple answers to complex educational problems.

At a moment when youth are criticized for their lack of political engagement, the students involved in tomorrow’s protest should be celebrated for their willingness to changing their own circumstances. More importantly, they should receive the benefit of our active support. In addition to attending the protest –and the following day’s town hall meeting– we must begin looking for real solutions to our educational crisis.

For more info, please contact: November_17th_Coalition@yahoo.com

Space hasn’t yet been weaponized but it is already highly militarized, thanks to a money-hungry arms industry and a commission started by Rumsfeld.

Real-Life Star Wars: The Militarization of Space
By Stan Cox

Last January 11, a missile launched from China’s Xichang Space Center destroyed a satellite 537 miles above the Earth’s surface. Although the target was a weather satellite belonging to China itself (shot down ostensibly because it was obsolete), the act clearly rattled the U.S. space establishment.

Said one observer, The new space policy says we can defend the heavens with technology. But we can’t, and the Chinese just proved it.”

Precisely six years earlier, on Jan. 11, 2001, the Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization issued a report to Congress. The group, which had been headed by President-elect George W. Bush’s Defense Secretary-to-be Donald Rumsfeld, asserted that it’s only a matter of time until there’s all-out war in the heavens:

We know from history that every medium — air, land and sea — has seen conflict. Reality indicates that space will be no different. Given this virtual certainty, the U.S. must develop the means both to deter and to defend against hostile acts in and from space — and ensure continuing superiority.

The current thinking of military and industry officials was revealed last month at the annual Strategic Space and Defense Conference in Omaha, Nebraska. At that meeting, held in the backyard of the US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM).

And that strategy includes not just war mongering against countries like China and Pakistan by “space warriors,” but it poses a threat to the safety and liberties of all Americans.

The Militarization of Space

Military space officials will have to develop new doctrine and concepts for offensive and defensive space operations, power projection in, from, and through space, and other military uses of space. – Rumsfield’s Commission Report

The opening talk at the Strategic Space conference was given by USSTRATCOM acting commander Lt. Gen. Robert Kehler, who repeated that old cliche about the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” Implicitly responding to China’s January self-attack, he added, “Well you know what? We get paid to deal with interesting times.”

But how USSTRATCOM plans to deal with them isn’t clear. In 2002, the Air Force undersecretary for military space acquisitions told The New York Times that “We haven’t reached the point of strafing and bombing from space,” but that “we are exploring those possibilities.”

This fall marks the 40th anniversary of the Outer Space Treaty, an agreement among 98 nations (including the U.S.) that, banned nuclear arms from space but left out mention of other weapons. Nevertheless, no nation has ever launched an attack into or from space, and the costly US missile-defense program that began life two decades ago as President Reagan’s “Star Wars” dream continues to founder.

For the rest of the story, click here. 

New Jersey Votes On Death Penalty Ban

The New Jersey Assembly will vote on Dec. 13 whether to abolish the death penalty. What do you think?

Kira Hauser,
Registered Nurse
“That’s good, but I’d still rather kill people in New York.”

Ed Dolby,
Vending Machine Reapairman
“Hey, I’m all for the decision, just as long as New Jersey doesn’t get rid of the slow, torturous death of a regular prison sentence.”

George Dean,
Systems Analyst
“They haven’t executed anybody in 44 years. Shouldn’t they at least try it before abolishing it all together?”

TheOnion.com