Roomin' House Blues

This cover of Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land brings out the original spirit, keeps the acoustical purity, but adds blues and contemporary note. Woody would be pleased.   For more on this song and another take see my arts blog:  http://notesjotsflics.blogspot.com/2009/02/this-land-is-your-land.html

One of the things unemployment does is make you reevaluate your priorities and your possessions.  I was already low income, so I had little in the way of expensive services or habits to cut off.  I had already almost eliminated by CD and video buying habits  I used to haunt  I have although large numbers of books and vinyl in storage.  In the near future I will be trying to sell many of these books on line, my original intention for many of them.  I have brought a batch of them  home to begin put them on line. I have also been going through my video collection (in my rooming house room) purging out all the mistakes, duplicates, and I'm tired of that already films. I have gotten together about 100 to 150 DVD and VHS to sell off, along with some games and x-box equipment I got from departing roommates. (I'm not a gamer.) This is a little bit to extend the unemployment funds without selling what I may find of use for film nights at c...

This is an interview by Steve Allen of Bob Dylan followed by his singing the song.  I publish it today in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. because, although it was not a civil rights protest song, it is a result of the civil rights movement, which Dylan strongly supported.

The SNCC Freedom Singers were the official  singing group of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, a group of students who went don't South to help with voter registration, protests and organizing.  Dr. Bernie Reagon Johnson of Sweet Honey in the Rock and her husband Cordell Johnson were singers in the group.  Here they are in a 2007 Chicago concert, reunited.

For those of us growing up in the 1960's this speech came to explain the civil rights movement. 

I was growing up right in the time from the height of the civil rights movement to the beginnings of the anti-Vietnam war movement.  As an adolescent I watched civil rights demonstrators, including Dr. King and John L. Lewis beaten and attacked by dogs, and wept over the murders of civil rights organizers.  I learned the connection between race and poverty in America from the media, from books and from first hand exposure.  My sisters Mexican friends who lived a block away were poor.  But I also discovered that my white friends up the block and her white friends around the corner were also poor.  I also discovered that prejudice was not limited to race.  My class mates said horrible things about the mentally ill, which stung me, because my mother was mentally ill. So the civil rights movement and Dr. King began to represent a lot of things to me. He was about a fight against prejudice and intolerance.  But he w...

I have borrowed from  a local Seattle organization about the upcoming MLK Jr. day March.  More can be found at  http://www.mlkseattle.org/ "Many Voices United to Build the Beloved Community" Monday,January 17,2011 Garfield High School The Martin Luther King Celebration Committee announces the 29thAnnual region-wide Martin Luther King, Jr., Celebration on Monday January 17 , 2011. Workshops at 9:30am-11am, Rally at 11am, and March at 12pm. This year we will March from Garfield High School (23rd Ave & Jefferson) to the Federal Buidling on 2nd Ave. Immediately after the March refreshments will be served at Garfield's lunchroom FREE to all participants! Seattle has one of the largest annual Martin Luther King Day Celebrations in the U.S. We honor  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for his work toward racial equality and economic justice for all people, for his commitment to nonviolence, and for his stand against w...

The events of the last several days and the coming events have inspired me to write almost exclusively political articles.  The tragedy in Tuscon, the upcoming Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the news I got from the United Farmworkers Union were all things I wanted to remember in some way.  Many of my conservative friends and readers do not agree with my opinions concerning the events in Tuscon or most of the other things I wrote on.  Some of you may even have reservations on my thoughts on gun control.  My liberal readers may disagree with what I posted on abortion.  But what stood out for me in the Presidents speech in Tuscon was his call to unite, to work together and to pray. A great deal of my blogging does not revolve around politics, but this week posts have.  Politics is like all other things of this earth.  It will pass away.  Sure I believe in my politics and believe that it's a way to seek justice.  But in the end it passes aw...

In the aftermath of the killings in Tuscon let us remember a real American hero, Wyatt Earp. Yesterday, January 13th was the anniversary of his death I I do apologize for noting it late. Wyatt Earp was a true hero of the post civil war west.  His older brothers had fought in the war and he sought out being a lawman as a way to live out some of the values they fought for.  Gun slinger image aside, there is one thing that Earp was consistent on.  He was always a gun control advocate.  In both Dodge and Tombstone he got passed by local government and enforced rules requiring people to park their guns when they came into town.  What he saw was that hard working cowboy getting drunk at the local saloon and guns didn't mix.  His famous shoot out at O.K.Corral was all about enforcing the local gun control law. The ammo clips that Jared Loughner used in his killing spree had been previously outlawed under the automatic weapon controls that have expire...

Consistent Life, an organization I support because it opposes unjust war and abortion at the same time, in their recent email newsletter to me quotes Fr. Frank Pavone director of Priests for Life: “January 15 is the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and on or around that day we observe a national holiday in his honor. A week later, on January 22, we recall the tragic decision made that day in 1973 by the Supreme Court in  Roe vs. Wade , unleashing a policy of abortion on demand  . . . Both the civil rights movement and the pro-life movement are evidence of this common engagement. Both movements seek to secure equal rights for marginalized human beings, despite their appearances . . . Defending the equal dignity of every human being after birth strengthens our witness to the rights of those in danger before birth, and vice-versa. The witness, in fact, is ultimately one.” 

For regular readers of my blog it's no secret that I support the efforts of farmworkers to obtain justice. I carry in my wallet a card that says I am a supporter member of the United Farmworkers.  I recently inserted a link for those who wanted to sign the UFW petition to help the workers at Ruby Ridge farm.  ( http://roominhouseblues.blogspot.com/2011/01/farmworkers-at-ruby-ridge-farms.html ) UFW has emailed its supporters to thank them for posting links on Facebook or blogs. Here is a press release and a photo.  Yes I know that I should rewrite the press release and that the photo is a little blurry, but I have only a little time for this today.  Thank you to any readers that responded.  Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 11:30 a.m. Thousands urge Spokane lender to help end  Ruby Ridge Dairy’s abuse and retaliation against workers More than 30,000 signatures gathered during online petition Ruby Ridge Workers and supporters on the way...

It is actually amazing what an abundance of information there is about Loughner's political views.  But I actually won't start there. The first myth I want to dismantle is simple, in fact I have already addressed it. It's the alleged incomparability of politics and mental illness.   I have worked with the mentally ill and find that they range all over the place on politics, from the apolitical to the intensely political. And they range from left to right. The day of the Columbine shootings a Bipolar friend started calling gun dealers to chew them out for there role in the massacre and to tell them he believes in gun control.   I think the irony of this should not escape our notice.  We automatically assume that the mentally ill are apolitical and violent.  He demonstrated the opposite. I should say here that there is at least as much evidence of Loughner's right wing politics that his mental illness...

I have a good friend who has pleaded with me to consider retracting my article yesterday about the Giffords shooting based on stories on Fox news and an interview by and an interview by Rush Limbaugh of a high school buddy of  Jared Loughner suggesting that Loughner was a political. I respect my friends opinions and concerns.  But the Limbaugh interview seems almost to contradict itself and the person was a friend a few years ago.  Here is some of what I said in response:  Regarding the young man having no politics. People who read & studied  his blog suggested otherwise--the talk about monetary systems and the grammar talk that has been traced back to a extreme right wing blogger as the inspiration source. (This included the Sheriff who studied what happened before he made his statement)  And the flag burning indicates someone either on the far right or far left making a statement.   That is not an apolit...

I find it amazing that it has become a matter of controversy to suggest that violent images, death threats, gun toting and martial exercises have consequences.  We are being told that it's just normal to use cross hairs as a political image and that Democrats do it also.  It is pointed out that Sen Joe Manchin held up again in an ad that said he opened fire on Obama's climate change legislation.   Of course he didn't threaten to open fire on Obama, but even at that, the point was to found like the Tea Party in order to pull votes from the right.  We are told that the most plausible explanation  for our young shooters actions is his mental illness, and that we have no proof he heard any of the Tea Party ads, propaganda, news.  Therefore it must be implausible that he was influenced by them. First of all this is a direct insult to millions of Americans who suffer from mental health problems --maybe not as sev...

Here is a little bit I have cut and pasted in from material UFW sent me. If you want to sign the petition it may help the workers at Ruby Ridge Farms.  This Boss Brings a Rifle to Work Workers will hand petition in TOMORROW We've written to you before about the unbearable situation workers face at WA's Ruby Ridge dairy face on a daily basis.  Help workers fight back. The workers are demanding that Ruby Ridge's lender, Northwest Farm Credit Services, take a stance on this issue.  TOMORROW, January 11,   Ruby Ridge workers and their supporters  are going to the the lender's headquarters to deliver thousands of petition  signatures.   So far, there are 20,105 signatures on the workers petition. Help us reach 25,000 before tomorrow's event. This is the situarion at Ruby Ridge dairy. Ruby Ridge is being sued for violation of Washington wage and hour laws, unlawful discharge by firing 1/3 of the workforce and even assault. The workers who haven't yet been ...

Sorry dear readers.  I got so into the trials and tribulations of unemployment that I have not written about it. After my day of temping that I wrote about I did a second strenuous day.  After that the weather, the holidays, a injury to my hand and ribs and all the efforts to actually find a job have kept me from doing all the writing I should. I have a sprained finger  buddy wrapped to another  and this slows down my typing.  Because of it, my sense of spacing with both hands in off  and I am making lots of typos that I have to correct.   But enough of my unofficial troubles.  On to my official one. Last Wednesday I went to a "Mature Workers Job Club" meeting.  The Work Source Department has an official Mature Workers Job Club, but this is an additional meeting, on weeks that Work Source does not have it's meetings, in the home of one of the "mature workers." The meeting was in...