text:
|Thread Tools
|Rate Thread
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
Our APs are about to EXPIRE! Oh, no. Let's GO!
Seriously, that is the only reason why we took this trip. Our APs were about to expire. I think that might have something to do with the pricing trend toward making APs more desirable. Hmmmm...
We aquired APs for a last minute trip at my sister's request when she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I can't believe that was only a year ago. The link for that trip report is in my signature. Anyway, the APs were because we had already booked another trip in October, so it priced out cheaper for the two trips.
Fast forward to this June and my mom mentions that she wants to go back to Disney World. I told her we still had the APs, but they would expire the end of July. That resulted in a panicked, "Well, book a room! Let's go!"
I'm getting good at packing for Disney World at a moments notice.
The cast for this trip:
Me (Tricia)
Mom (that would be my mom)
Joshua (DS7)
Daniel (DS3)
My husband had to stay at home and work. He missed the trip last July too, but he was there for the October one. He doesn't seem to mind if we go without him, as long as we go with him too. He's a pretty good guy. I think I'll keep him.
We were packed and ready to go on Thursday, June 4th. Our plan originally was to leave early on Friday (the 5th) and drive the whole way, but since we were packed up we thought we'd get a head start and drive part of the way. I knew I had to wait until after 2pm to leave because that is when our employee clocks out and Thursday is payroll (Friday is payday). We own a small business, so I have to meet those obligations first. No problem, leaving at 2 would still give us several hours to get over halfway, if not most of the way, to Orlando.
Then Daniel started complaining that his tummy hurt.
I'm not just talking about little whines, but big serious yells. Great. I called the doctor's office and explained the situation and they agreed to see him right away. The doctor pushed on his abdomen and watched Daniel's face for reaction. He was concerned about the area that was tender. He told me that there was a 50/50 chance he had early appendicitis.
We rushed over to the lab at the hospital for a lower abdominal MRI. First, I had to convince Daniel to drink a pint of lemonade-ish flavored stuff. Oh, that was fun. Then he had to stay still for the MRI, which was also fun. (I hope you can smell the sarcasm here. ) An hour later the results showed... nothing was wrong. Well, not nothing. Apparently the little guy was very, very constipated. That's it? He just needs to go potty? Sheesh. I can fix that without a doctor's help. Kicking myself here.
Even though it was later than we planned, we still decided to head out and get a few hours driving in. I thought we might at least make it into Florida before we stopped. That was before the monsoon hit. The rain was coming down in sheets. I couldn't see more than a few feet in front of the car and we were moving at a snail's pace. I gave up around Macon because it was almost bedtime for the boys and pulled off to find a hotel. What a miserable day.
I should note at this point that I have to keep on a strict bedtime routine due to Joshua's medical condition. He has epilepsy and his seizures are sleep triggered. When he is sleep deprived he is much more likely to have a seizure, so we just keep him on a regular bedtime to minimize the risk. It doesn't stop them completely, but it sure helps.
Friday, June 5, 2009
We were up at our regular time (about 6:30am) and we checked out of the hotel. We went to the Waffle House next door for breakfast before hitting the road to finish the trip. When we exited the Waffle House, full and raring to go, I noticed one of the tires on my van was low.
At this point, I'm beginning to think that the vacation gods have it in for me.
I went back inside the restaurant and asked where I could go to get my tire checked. Turns out there is a Wal-Mart with a tire center less than a mile away. I drove slowly to Wally World, pulled in, and a very nice man checked my tire. He found this:
See the blue circle on the inside wall of my tire? Yeah, they can't repair a puncture on the wall of the tire. Only if it is in the treads. What I thought would be a simple plug-and-drive-away turned into a new tire purchase. There went the first $80 of the trip.
So, much later than we planned, again, we finally hit the road south. We stopped at the Florida Welcome Center.
And by late afternoon we arrived.
We checked into All Star Movies and it was late enough that our room was ready.
I like the film tiles in the shower.
However, the wallpaper drives me nuts. It isn't bad at first glance, but when I was sitting on the toilet for a few minutes and this is all I could see...
It made me dizzy after awhile. Plus, I got those after images where I would see yellowish stars for a few minutes after I left the bathroom. Weird.
My sons were most fascinated with the light on the wall.
Why? Because the popcorn box seemed to disappear when the light was on.
They must have spent a good portion of the time we were in our room turning the light off and on just to see the popcorn disappear. I wonder why we even bothered to take them to the parks.
We decided to head to the Magic Kingdom to at least ride something. A quick bus ride later and we were heading down Main Street, USA.
Since it was late enough to not be overly swamped, we headed to Fantasyland.
We rode Peter Pan and then Pooh.
Why do I try to get a picture of us in the mirror in the "dream" room on Pooh?
It comes out dark and blurry. Every. Single. Time. And, yet, it seems I am convinced that if I just keep at it, eventually I will get a clear shot. The logical part of my brain accepts that it will never happen, but apparently that part of my brain doesn't control the picture taking impulses.
We bid farewell to Pooh.
We rode Snow White and then took a spin on the carousel.
Look how happy they are. This is what it is all about.
We were in danger of getting trapped in the park by the throngs waiting for the parade, so we headed back to our room for bedtime. I heaved a huge sigh of relief that we made it and had a week in front of us to relax and enjoy.
Last edited by RVGal; 07-16-2009 at 06:52 PM.
Proud Redhead
DIS Cast Member
The Tag Fairy knows you as more than just "Wife of Eric Roberts--XM Spy"
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Exeter (Reading), PA
Posts: 13,811
Here! ...and, 1st one too!
Bubba was the same way with the Popcorn light....what IS it about that thing?
Oddly enuf...I feel the same way about that wallpaper too!
Golden but never flaky
Join Date: Aug 1999
Location: Holodeck 3
Posts: 2,906
Loved your last TR - can't wait to see where this one goes.
That stinks about the tire. We had to replace all 4 on DW's car right before our trip.
DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 17,139
You should get a 'gold Mickey' for your determination alone!
I love the pics....what's a WDW trip without pics???
Why should I sail with any of you? Four of you have tried to kill me in the past... one of you succeeded.
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: SoCal
Posts: 733
I love that you took a picture of your view from the toilet
= Me (Heidi) = DB (Will) = Both of us at DL! *Our adventures*
Proud Redhead
Johnny Depp sexy transcends all generations!!!!
we should have just bagged it
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Outside Philly, PA
Posts: 3,125
I am here too!!!! Every trip is an adventure. You should own your own travel Company - Adventures by Tricia!!!
Glad to see you started this one - can't wait for more. Well yes, I can, but not really
April/May 2007 Trip Report
The Vacation that Almost Wasn't 2008
DH, Me, DD(18), DD(14), DS(12)
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
I'm glad to know it wasn't just my boys that were fascinated with the Popcorn light. I mean, it was kinda neat the first time, but I couldn't understand why it continued to be for days. "Look! It disappeared! No popcorn!" Yep. I see it. I saw it this morning. And yesterday. And the 50 times prior to that.
I'm also glad to know that I am not the only one disturbed by the wallpaper. It was like the Twilight Zone in the bathroom or something.
Thanks for joining me on another journey. I don't think there was any drama on this one. Well, not once we were in Orlando anyway.
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
Glad you like the pics. I take a lot. Of everything.
Or maybe I'm just weird and take pictures of everything.
I have day two's pictures uploaded. I'll try to get the text done today for the next installment.
DIS Veteran
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: PA
Posts: 1,290
can't wait for more!
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
DIS Veteran
Join Date: May 2003
Location: California
Posts: 3,426
I'm definitely in for this one! How cute is that lamp! and even cuter are your boys
The "C" Family
DM DS36 DGD2 DGbaby::: DD35 DGS6 DGD1 DS32 DS27 DS21
WDW Trips: March 1997 (BWV), February 2008 (BWV), December 2008 (BWV), Nov/Dec 2010 (BWV)
Disneyland Trips: September 1983, AP Holder July 2013 (twice), August 2013 & November 2013
All Our Dreams Come True If We Have the Courage To Pursue Them - Walt Disney
Proud Redhead
Im a Universal Homie
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: between milwaukee and chicago (in Tom Felton's house)
Posts: 56,844
(in honor of the lights in the room....)
waiting for more.
life is what happens to you on your way to achieving your dreams...........
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
Day 2 (since I refuse to count the first only-made-it-to-Macon day) - Friday, June 3, 2009
We woke up at our usual time and got everyone clean and dressed. That alone was a major accomplishment. I found myself spending the average morning chasing mostly naked boys around and trying to convince them to put clothes on, while Mom put on yet another layer of moisturizer at the bathroom mirror.
I don't think I mentioned yet, but we were in a Toy Story building on the third floor.
We used the elevator directly behind Woody's hat and our room was on the outside of the building facing the trees. That was nice. Not a terribly long walk and it was quiet in the room.
We headed to the food court for breakfast.
It wasn't too crowded yet, so we were in and out relatively quickly and off to wait for a bus. I had to take a picture of the new "celebration" flags.
We got lucky and a bus for DHS arrived in a few minutes. I had no idea when we booked that this was a Star Wars Weekend, but I found that out soon after. Because of that, we made sure we hit DHS first.
I took a picture of the new flags there too.
While we were waiting in line for the stroller rental, the Stormtroopers showed up.
They were so cool. I love the way they patrol the roof of the gates and look down on all of we guests so menacingly.
We headed into the park and Joshua started yelling, "Queen Amidala! Queen Amidala!"
I looked around for a picture or a poster, but to my surprise there was Queen Amidala herself. There was a short line to meet her, so we joined in.
The guy in front of me was wearing a full Anakin Skywalker costume. I'm okay with that. I can't understand why anyone would want to wear brown and black pleather in Florida in June, but if you don't die of heat stroke I say have at it. Whatever floats your boat. However, when it was this guy's turn with Amidala, he walked up to her, took her hand, dropped to one knee, declared his love and devotion for her, and then proceeded to cling to her for several minutes while acting out scenes from the movie.
Let me first say that I have no problem with fantasy role playing and all that. But, there is a fine line between having fun with a fantasy character and being a creepy stalker-like fan. This guy pole vaulted over that line and landed smack in weirdoville. It was very surreal.
Anyway, once the Anakin wannabe moved on it was our turn. Amidala squatted down so that she would put herself at the boys level. They seemed to miss the point of that and thought this was the position they were supposed to assume.
After the autograph, she stood up for posed pictures with the boys.
And Joshua decided to try and strike a cool dude pose.
I'm thinking that picture will be bribery material someday.
We walked to where the parade would take place, got a little snack and settled in to wait.
That lasted for about 10 minutes before the boys decided that it was "too hot and boring" to sit and wait. I wasn't going to force them to see the SWW parade if they didn't want to. I explained that this was the only opportunity we would have to see it and they still wanted to leave. Fine with me.
I have to take a break, but I'll be back with the rest of the day later.
Last edited by RVGal; 07-18-2009 at 09:59 AM.
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
Proud Redhead
Just call me Elmer 'cause I'll stick with you like glue
I walked the dog in my pjs
by not watching Rosie O'Donnell, I wound up with my nether regions on fire
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: NE Georgia
Posts: 3,888
I'm back.
We decided to ride Star Tours while most of the people in that area of the park were lined up waiting for the parade. We walked right on. After that we started walking around again until the skies opened up and rain poured down. Not a little afternoon shower, but a mid morning deluge. Ugh. We dived for cover at the closest ride, which happened to be the Great Movie Ride.
We were seated right behind the "driver" in the front of the car, so that was fun. I don't think I've ever been that close to the front before.
Because of our seats, I got a good shot of the Wicked Witch.
As we were walking around, I tried to get shots of the various SWW characters. I didn't have a lot of success, but I got a couple.
Eventually, we worked our way toward Toy Story Mania.
I honestly have no idea what was going on at the time we rode, but there was almost no line at all.
We were loaded into a car in less than 15 minutes. It was fabulous.
I was sharing a car with Daniel. He barely understands how to make the gun work.
Daniel was very excited to earn an armadillo. This is the first time he has ever scored more than 100. He was proud. He noticed I earned a beaver. He told anyone that would listen for the rest of the day that, "Daniel gots a armadillo. Mommy gots a beaver." That was a little awkward sometimes.
We had lunch at the ABC Commissary because it was convienient to where we were at the time that the boys and Mom started complaining they were hungry. I swore the last time I ate there that I wouldn't go back. Sigh. I am reaffiming my commitment to not eat there again. Bleech.
We saw Muppet Vision 3-D and decided that we were tiring out and were ready to call it a day. Well, Mom & I were tiring out and ready to call it a day. On our way out, Princess Leia Minnie was just coming out so we decided to get a picture with her.
You will notice that it is just Joshua. Daniel decided to turn shy for some reason. The photographer talked me into taking him up to meet her.
When we got back to the hotel, the boys still had energy to burn, so...
... it's off to the pool we go!
I let them tire themselves out, then we had dinner in the food court. We were in bed early and it felt good.
Last edited by RVGal; 07-18-2009 at 09:59 AM.
|Thread Tools
|Rate This Thread
|Similar Threads
|Thread Starter
|Last Post
|Cheapest way to get APs
|Can we get APs at International Gateway?
|Just got APs - a few questions
|Disney Discount Codes and Rates
|SoCal resident buying SoCal APs for out-of-town family?
|Disneyland (California)
|Upgrading MYW tickets to DVC APs
|Silly Little Pixie


text:
- Built in 1999 by Garrett Kitchem of Kitchem's Customs in Grove City, Ohio- Black steel body with fiberglass rear fenders- 360 CI Magnum... More
- Rotisserie restoration in 1999- Restoration by Dave Ferro of Dave's Totally Auto in Trevose, PA- 1 of 7 built with automatic transmission, bucket... More
- V-code Six Pack car- Approximately 2,500 miles since restoration- Rust free- Original 440 Six Pack engine- Original automatic transmission- Dana 60 rear endTo... More
- 1 of 6 Hemi Satellites produced- 1 of 2 1967 Hemi Satellites built with automatic transmission- AACA National Award winner- AACA Senior winner-... More
- 426 CI Hemi engine- Rebuilt 727 automatic transmission- Rotisserie restoration in 2013- New period correct factory replacement block with matching numbers block to... More
- Frame-off nut and bolt rotisserie restoration by Mike Paremsky at Michael's Auto Restoration in Winter Haven, Florida- V-code 440 Six Pack engine- 727... More
- Restored- 440 CI engine- Six Pack carburetion- Automatic transmission- ConsoleTo be sold at the Kissimmee 2015 auction, Kissimmee, FL, January 16-25, 2015. To... More
- Documented V-code 440 Six Pack car- Original broadcast sheet- 1 of only 716 Six Pack Superbirds- Listed in the Chrysler Registry and the... More
2001 PLYMOUTH PROWLER, IN THE RARE MIDNIGHT BLUE WITH AGATE LEATHER INTERIOR, SHOWING AROUND 16,773 MILES!! BLACK CANVAS TOP, RUN FLAT TIRES, 253HP BIG... More
Vehicle to be offered for Auction sale WITHOUT RESERVE and SOLD to the highest bidder January 14th-18th, 2015 at Russo and Steele's 15th Annual... More
1975 PLYMOUTH DUSTER, A LOW MILE VERY ORIGINAL CAR! AUTOMATIC, POWER STEERING, POWER BRAKES, AIR CONDITIONING, RALLY WHEELS, VINYL TOP, AND SIDE STRIPES. ORIGINAL... More
1970 PLYMOUTH ROAD RUNNER HEMI SUPERBIRD This amazing 1970 Plymouth Superbird Road Runner is one of ONLY 135 examples made with the famous 426 Hemi... More
- 1,456 miles- 24 valve 3.5L V-6 engine- AutoStick transmission- Optional chrome wheels- Leather seats- Air conditioning- Power steering and brakes- Power windows and... More
2000 PLYMOUTH FACTORY PROWLER ROADSTER, "FACTORY BUILT", S/C XP CAR BY CALIFORNIA BASED "PAXTON AUTOMOTIVE SUPERCHARGERS" A VERY SMOOTH QUICK AND FAST.ORIGINAL 14,688 MILE... More
Vehicle to be offered for Auction sale January 14th - 18th, 2015 at Russo and Steele's 15th Annual Scottsdale Arizona Auction. Please contact us... More

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Articles Related to Loire Valley
Showing 1 - 10 of 66 results
World's Best Trip: Loire Valley, FranceHow to take a World's Best trip to the Loire Valley, France.
Best Hotels in FranceBook your next stay at one of these hotels—they're the best in France.
25 Secret European VillagesMedieval churches, cobblestoned streets, and endless olive groves: head to these small European towns to discover a country's soul.
World's Top 25 Hotels 2011Remote escapes, city hotels, and value properties are all winners in T+L's list of the world's top hotels.
World's Coolest StaircasesSkip the elevator: these unique staircases take cool to new heights.
World's Top Affordable HotelsWhat do hotels in Vegas, Vermont, and Tanzania have in common? Affordable luxury.
Most Romantic Summer DestinationsFall in love with these swoon-worthy spots from Maine to Morocco.
World's Most-Visited Sacred SitesYou don't need to have faith to be drawn to these temples, churches, and shrines, popular for their spiritual and cultural value.
Best Life-Changing Trips 2010Trips from top tour operators created exclusively for T+L, and guaranteed to change your life.
Europe's Best HotelsReady to hop the pond this summer? Check into one of the best hotels in Europe, as selected by T+L readers.


text:
- Posted August 12, 2014 by
- amberbeach Follow
Hermosa Beach, California
This iReport is part of an assignment:
In Memoriam
Doubtfire Dad
A year and a half later, my dad was killed in a car accident.
A couple years later. And a few more after that, I grew up. Somewhat. And happened to catch Mrs. Doubtfire on the television.
I will never forget that night. I was hit with the welcomed memory of my dad laughing in the theatre.
I cried. I cried a lot.
And…I laughed. My ass off.
And I cried some more. Because I missed my dad. Very, very much.
For the first time in a long time, I got to share something with my dad. And somewhere between, "I'm melting like a snow cone in Phoenix" and "Carpe dentim," I knew I would never look at Robin Williams the same.
And I didn't.
Shoot. Sometimes, you two even looked the same.
Ever since that night, I have turned to Mrs. Doubtfire to pay my dad a visit.
And ever since that night, I have always seen a bit of my dad in Robin Williams.
The unimaginable gift to feel the presence of your deceased parent, strikes me as one of my "I'm most grateful for"s.
Robin Williams, I am beyond touched and enormously grateful.
God bless, you. And your family. And especially, your daughter.
I have you to thank for one of life's greatest gifts.
- Entertainment,
- News
What do you think of this story?
iReport welcomes a lively discussion, so comments on iReports are not pre-screened before they post. See the iReport community guidelines for details about content that is not welcome on iReport.


text:
FOX Sports Exclusive
Drivers on Chase bubble must win now
It's time to win.
THAT'S THE WAY!Keselowski's back in charge after JJ's setback. NASCAR Power Rankings
With seven races remaining before NASCAR's Chase to the Sprint Cup, go-time isn't enough. Wins – with an "s" – will determine which drivers inevitably qualify for NASCAR's postseason.
Certainly, the top five drivers in the points standings – Matt Kenseth, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Greg Biffle, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin – are locks. The next five drivers are in a six- to 15-point range behind Hamlin in a tighter contest.
But remember this: Entering the 2011 Brickyard 400, Brad Keselowski (currently in 10th place) was 23rd in the points standings with one win to his credit. Starting at Indianapolis Motor Speedway the No. 2 Dodge team ignited a seven-race run that included two wins, four top fives, six top 10s and an average finish of 4.85.
Currently, no driver outside of the top 20 in points, the cutoff for getting one of the wild-card spots, has a win. Of the three drivers in the wild-card standings with single wins – Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Joey Logano – Busch has the best average finish of 13.1. Newman average qualifying effort of 7.6 is second only to Juan Pablo Montoya (fifth) on the Cup tour but Newman's average finish of 20.2 at Indianapolis is disappointing for an Indiana native.
Two wild-card notables without wins this season are defending Indianapolis victor Paul Menard and Jeff Gordon, who holds the distinction of winning the first Brickyard 400 plus three more. The adopted Hoosier tops the Sprint Cup Series with wins and a remarkable 476 laps led at the track.
Carl Edwards has been consistent at Indy. He's finished second, posted three top 10s, completed every lap and never finished worst than 18th. But a Ford hasn't won this race since 1999 when Dale Jarrett was victorious, then went on to win the championship.
Certainly, Chevrolets are the favored cars at the Brickyard. Chevy racers have kissed the bricks following the finish in the last nine events on the 2.5-mile oval. And among the wild-card campaigners, no one is as hot as Kasey Kahne right now with two wins and 10 top-10 finishes in the last 13 races.
DROUGHT CONDITIONSThese drivers still can't find their way to Victory Lane.
At the Brickyard, it's been all or nothing for the 32-year-old. Kahne has a 7.9 average qualifying effort but his average finish of 15.9 is marred by two crashes in eight starts. Last year Kahne led 48 of his career 88 laps led at Indy. He was a contender until spinning in the grass on Lap 120 trying to avoid a collision between Landon Cassill and David Ragan.
Given Kahne's USAC background as a competitor and owner, a win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway tops his bucket list.
"Indy is a race that I want to win as bad as any race that we go to," Kahne said at New Hampshire. "We've come close over the years, so hopefully we can put something together there and have a really strong car."
Could this be the year Kahne exacts his revenge? That's just one of the storylines we'll be watching at Indy this weekend. Here are 10 others on the radar screen:
1. Back to the drawing board
Richard Childress is the only owner to boast three different winners at the Brickyard, including last year's victor Paul Menard. However, RC is still looking for his first win of 2012. It's hard to believe that Kevin Harvick has yet to win a race this year despite holding on to sixth in the points standings for the last six races. Don't be surprised if RCR moves interim director of competition Kent Day back to technical director. Dr. Day was slotted into Scott Miller's role after he left for a similar position at Michael Waltrip Racing in September. But it appears that part of the spark left with Miller. The challenge is finding the right people-person to pull the operation together. If that were an easy task, every team would be successful.
2. Qualifying on time
NASCAR is kicking around the idea of qualifying the top 38 drivers on time and cutting the number of provisionals down to four plus one for former champions. With sponsors at a premium right now, it could be catastrophic to eliminate provisionals altogether, particularly when a driver missing a race could result in a benefactor pulling its support from the team.
3. Big money, big money
The Brickyard 400 boasts the second-largest purse of the season. No doubt, the start-and-parkers will be coming out of the woodwork for a big pay day. Last year Robby Gordon parked after five laps when his engine failed and collected $133,356. But consider this: Last week Stephen Leicht attempted to run the entire race at New Hampshire but finished 32nd. Leicht earned a little less than $14,000 more than J.J. Yeley, who parked after just four laps and took home $69,767. Well not really. Yeley, who announced he was leaving on Twitter last week, received 10 percent for his effort. For the season, Robinson-Blakeney Racing has collected more than $1 million for running 2,311 of a possible 5,488 laps. That's not even half of the laps raced in 2012. In the last two weeks, NASCAR confiscated the No. 49's engines after the race for teardown at the technical center. Sending a message?
4. Not Chuck Norris
Carl Edwards will have a new crew chief this weekend with Chad Norris taking the reins for Bob Osborne at Indianapolis. Yes, Norris is making his Cup debut at a critical time for Edwards, who hasn't won a race in 52 events and sits 46 points outside of the Chase Zone. Will a new crew chief ignite a spark on the No 99 team? Norris, who has been at Roush Fenway Racing since 2005, believes so. "We definitely do have a task in front of us with the great people that we have here at Roush Fenway Racing and with (team owner) Jack (Roush) and Ford and all the great sponsors we have and (general manager) Robbie Reiser," Norris said on Sirius/XM NASCAR Radio. "We are going to get into this thing, we are just going to have to put our heads down and dig hard for these next six or seven races and go out and win some races and get all the points we can."
5. The right choice
Austin Dillon announced before the Nationwide Series race that he will wait a year before making the move full time to the Sprint Cup Series. Yes, Dillon, 22, won the Camping World Truck Series title last year, but he has yet to run a full season of Nationwide Series competition. In his 26th start, Dillon won his first NNS race and is currently second in the points standings despite multiple sanctions by NASCAR. Still, a second full season in NNS running against a field peppered with Cup regulars never hurt anyone. Are you listening Danica?
6. Make or break
Despite all the changes to Earnhardt Ganassi Racing in the offseason, drivers Juan Pablo Montoya and Jamie McMurray are still struggling to get their programs rolling. Although McMurray is eight positions higher in points than he was a year ago, Montoya is four positions lower after the first 19 races. Still, both drivers have enjoyed success and disappointment at the Brickyard. Both drivers have won at the track – McMurray two years ago in the 400, Montoya in the 2000 Indy 500. If there's an oval Montoya should win on, it would be Indy. He has an average qualifying effort of fifth. His best showing at the Brickyard in stock cars was his 2007 debut when he qualified on the front row and finished second. He's led 202 laps at the track with his most dominant run coming in 2009 when Montoya led 116 circuits before he was busted with a speeding penalty on pit road and finished 11th. With new engines coming from Earnhardt Childress Racing (ECR), Sunday should offer an accurate picture of where this organization stands.
7. Taking chances
One year ago, pundits were contemplating who would replace Carl Edwards if he left Roush Fenway Racing. One year later, how the landscape has changed. Matt Kenseth is leaving. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will take his place while Trevor Bayne jumps into a full-time Nationwide Series ride next year. Certainly, Stenhouse, the defending Nationwide champ, has paid his dues. Bayne, 21, has run a limited schedule but has shown promise with top-10 finishes at Las Vegas and Talladega on the Cup side this season and finished 14th or better in all five 2012 Nationwide starts with three top 10s and 74 laps led in four of those races. Next season, Bayne will have a solid effort behind him as he runs for the Nationwide title. What he does with the opportunity is up to him.
8. High road
Parker Kligerman must have been deflated after hearing that Ryan Blaney was jumping into the No. 22 Penske Racing Dodge for three Nationwide races later this year. Still, he made the most of the opportunity he had on Sunday at Chicagoland. He finished seventh – ahead of veteran teammate Sam Hornish Jr. – and raised his average Nationwide finish for the season to ninth. Kligerman, who turns 22 next month, is currently fifth in the Truck standings but, like any aspiring racer, hopes to move up the ranks. Following Sunday's race, Kligerman was "disappointed" that he didn't finish better but left on a high note. "Hopefully, I'll get another shot in this car," Kligerman said. "If not, it's been a pleasure and honor."
9. Generation Next
While NASCAR's crop of up-and-coming drivers including Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott have received a lot of attention of late, here's three more winners (all on Saturday night) to consider for the short list: Ross Kenseth (yes, Matt's son) won the Redbud 300 at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway in the ARCA/CRA Super Series. Jeb Burton (Ward's son) won at the family's home track of South Boston, leading 143 laps in a Late Model in the Wheelen 150. And Cale Conley earned his first victory in the K&N Pro Series East tour at his home track of Columbus (Ohio) Motor Speedway – leading all 150 laps. It was the fourth race of the season for the 20-year-old Vienna, W.V.-native and his 14th career start.
10. The 'Dinger
AJ Allmendinger's "B" urine sample will be tested on Tuesday. The analysis should take between seven to eight hours. Allmendinger will have his own independent toxicologist present to review the results. Penske Racing expects to have the results back by Thursday. Regardless of the outcome, this should serve as a wake-up call for all competitors to perform the necessary due diligence with all ingested products as well as what to do when the phone rings and the Medical Review Officer is on the other line.
More Stories From Lee Spencer
Member Comments
Please note by clicking on "Post comment" you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Be Polite. Inappropriate posts may be removed by the moderator.
NASCAR Videos
Larry McReynolds weighs in on whether or not the No. 48 will be at a disadvantag...
Larry McReynolds weighs in on which teams will benefit the most from the week of...
The biggest issue the No. 2 team faced at Loudon was where to hide the champagne...
NASCAR Headlines
Manion new crew chief for Annett, No. 7 at Tommy Baldwin Racing
Spencer: BK Racing ready to run Cup with Bowman, Ryan Truex
Report: NASCAR considering making changes to Chase playoff format
Cole Custer, turning 16 this week, set to run limited Truck schedule
Richard Petty Motorsports, Almirola sign 3-year extension with sponsor
Fox Sports Store
|Chase Authentics Danica Patrick Big Rig Tri-Blend T-Shirt - Charcoal
|Chase Authentics Danica Patrick Big Rig Tri-Blend T-Shirt - Charcoal
|Kyle Busch One Spot Gauge T-Shirt - Black
|Kyle Busch One Spot Gauge T-Shirt - Black
|Matt Kenseth One Spot Gauge T-Shirt - Black
|Matt Kenseth One Spot Gauge T-Shirt - Black
|Chase Authentics Carl Edwards 2013 Driver Schedule T-Shirt - Ash
|Chase Authentics Carl Edwards 2013 Driver Schedule T-Shirt - Ash


text:
Moyn (Music on your network) is a music player that plays files from a HTTP server. A home web server is a natural solution to sharing music files, so it's only fitting that a player is written with that in mind.
Update Notifications
User Reviews
Be the first to post a review of Music on your network!


text:
You must log in to access this feature. Sign in with Twellow or Facebook to get started.
By signing in to Twellow, you indicate your agreement to our terms of service.
Simply connect with Facebook and kiss those password blues away,
or go here to reset your password.
The race to the bottom is ending. The revolution is just beginning. JOIN US.


text:
COLUMBIA — Sarah Renaud, 18, was the first to arrive at the Historic Quadrangle side of the renovated walking bridge that spans College Avenue on Thursday afternoon. Her parents, Jeanne and Greg Renaud, talked to two women clad in bright pink Stephens College T-shirts. Slowly, more women arrived at the bridge's edge.
Stephens College starts a new tradition on renovated bridge
Thursday, August 16, 2012 | 8:11 p.m. CDT; updated 1:17 p.m. CDT, Friday, August 17, 2012
To read the full article, please sign up or login.
Get full access to the Columbia Missourian on your computer, phone, and tablet for just $5.95 per month.
* Unlimited access on your iPhone, iPad, Android phone and Android tablet
* All the high-quality, in-depth journalism of the Columbia Missourian and Vox Magazine, updated 24/7
* Your news. Your device. Your time.
If you'd like to read more about the value of being a member, read this column from the Missourian's executive editor, Tom Warhover.


text:
Chicago Torture Justice Memorials (CTJM) aims to honor and to seek justice for the survivors of Chicago police torture, their family members and the African American communities affected by the torture. In 2010 CTJM, a group of attorneys, artists, educators, and social justice activists, put out a call for speculative memorials to recall and honor the two-decades long struggle for justice waged by torture survivors and their families, attorneys, community organizers, and people from every neighborhood and walk of life in Chicago. This effort culminated in a major exhibition of 75 proposals and a year-long series of associated teach-ins, roundtables, and other public events in 2011-2013.CTJM now turns its attention to a campaign for reparations for those affected by Chicago Police torture, and to working in solidarity with other groups and individuals for racial justice and to end police violence and mass incarceration.
5 - mile March
Reparations Ordinance Hearing
Opening the Black Box—Reception
UN Committee Against Torture Calls Out U.S. Government and the City of Chicago on the Burge Torture Cases:
Twitter Campaign on October 24, United Nations Day
The Reparations Ordinance and Frequently Asked Questions
Artist Anne Elizabeth Moore speaks about her submission to "Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture"
Project NIA Pamphlet: Historical Moments of Policing, Violence & Resistance
Download a slideshow presentation about the CTJM project including a gallery of the memorial proposals that appeared in the Opening the Black Box exhibition.
"The fight for justice in the torture cases will not be over until all Burge torture victims receive compensation for their suffering, the men in jail get fair hearings and Burge's pension is taken from him."
–– Ronnie Kitchen, torture survivor
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago acknowledges that former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and detectives under his command systematically engaged in acts of torture, physical abuse and coercion of African American men and women at Area 2 and 3 Police Headquarters from 1972 through 1991; and
WHEREAS, the acts of torture committed by Burge and detectives under his command included electrically shocking individuals on their genitals, lips and ears with an electric shock box or cattle prod; suffocating individuals with plastic bags; subjecting individuals to mock execution with guns; physical beatings with telephone books and rubber hoses; and other forms of physical and psychological abuse; and
WHEREAS, Burge and his men committed these acts of torture and abuse to extract confessions from the victims which were subsequently admitted against them in their criminal prosecutions resulting in their wrongful convictions; and
WHEREAS, these acts of torture, physical abuse and coercion violate state, federal and international law and such acts are universally condemned worldwide; and
WHEREAS, the trauma and damage caused by these heinous acts continue to deleteriously effect the torture survivors, their family members, African American communities and the City of Chicago; and
WHEREAS, the trauma and damage caused by these heinous acts will continue to cause egregious harm to those affected unless the City of Chicago and other municipal bodies enact reparations to mitigate the harm; and
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago has been complicit in the torture practices and tacitly supported those acts by expending more than $20 million of taxpayers' funds to defend Burge and other detectives implicated in civil litigation brought by the torture survivors, and
WHEREAS, Mayor Emanuel has recently acknowledged that the torture scandal was a dark chapter in the history of the City of Chicago that stained its reputation and that he was sorry for it;
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago must officially acknowledge the torture that occurred in the City and resolve to never allow such acts to go undeterred and unpunished ever again, now therefore,
' Hereby issues a formal apology to the torture survivors, their family members, and other affected individuals and communities on behalf of the City of Chicago for the violations and harm incurred by these torture practices.
' Hereby creates a Chicago Police Torture Reparations Commission that is responsible for administering financial reparations to the torture survivors to compensate them for the torture they endured.
' Hereby creates a center on the south side of Chicago that will provide psychological counseling, health care services and vocational training to the torture survivors, their family members and others affected by law enforcement torture and abuse.
' Hereby provides that all torture survivors and their family members be allowed to enroll in City Colleges and receive their education and degree for free.
' Hereby calls on the Chicago Public School system to incorporate into its curriculum a history lesson about the Chicago Police torture cases and the struggles to hold those accountable and to seek reparations for the survivors and affected family members.
' Hereby calls on local law enforcement officials to provide evidentiary hearings to the torture survivors who remain behind bars who had their coerced confessions used against in their criminal proceedings resulting in their wrongful convictions, and moreover, supports the torture survivors' rights to have a full and fair opportunity to present evidence that demonstrates they were physically coerced into giving a confession.
' Hereby commits to supporting the creation of public memorials that memorialize the Chicago Police Torture survivors and the struggle for justice on their behalf.
' Hereby provides a minimum of $20 million to finance the Chicago Police Torture Reparations Commission, the center on the Southside Center, the creation of a curriculum and to fund the creation of public memorials set forth herein.
' Hereby directs the Corporation Counsel to take whatever legal steps are available to support the stripping of Jon Burge's pension.
Dec. 16, 2014, noon – 5 p.m.12 PM / Police Headquarters: Chicagoans will march about five miles from Chicago Police Headquarters, at 3510 S. Michigan Ave, to City Hall, at 121 N. LaSalle.
On Tuesday, December 16th, Chicago Torture Justice Memorials (CTJM), We Charge Genocide, Project NIA and Amnesty International will hold a five-mile march, then deliver a petition, reveal a list of nice & naughty alderpeople and hold and a memorial at City Hall to demand passage of the Reparations Ordinance for Chicago Police Torture Survivors.
On October 16, 2013, a Reparations Ordinance for Chicago Police Torture Survivors was introduced in Chicago's City Council. It has already garnered the support of 26 alderpeople, with only one additional vote needed to pass the ordinance. Passage of the ordinance is also supported by the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
Organizers are asking Chicagoans represented by alderpeople not in support of the ordinance to take action: http://pastebin.com/248AcnE2
12 PM / Police Headquarters: Chicagoans will march about five miles from Chicago Police Headquarters, at 3510 S. Michigan Ave, to City Hall, at 121 N. LaSalle.
2 PM / City Hall, 5th Floor: Marchers will deliver a petition with over 45,000 signatures in support of the Reparations for Chicago Police Torture Survivors ordinance. They will create a public memorial outside the Mayor's office and call for Mayor Emanuel and the Chicago City Council to pass the ordinance before the municipal elections this February.
Remote Action: Organizers are encouraging those who can't attend the action to participate via social media by using the #RahmRepNow hashtag to demand that Mayor Emanuel support the reparations ordinance, and by calling the Mayor's office at 312-744-3300 to advocate for the ordinance.
Participants are asked to bring a photo, manifesto, memento, candle, sign, poem, or flower to City Hall.
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/340660236117395/
"We give thanks to all who have stood up against the travesty of Chicago Police torture. We are making our grief, anger and determination seen and felt by coming together to demonstrate that we will not ignore the ongoing reality of police violence," says Martha Biondi, a member of Chicago Torture Justice Memorial. "We demand Mayor Emanuel offer his full support to the Reparations Ordinance for Chicago Police Torture Survivors and are delivering petitions with over 45,000 signatures in support of it."
March 4, 2014, 5:13 p.m. – 5:13 p.m.City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle St, 2nd floor, City Council Chambers
The Finance Committee will be having a hearing on the reparations ordinance, date TBA. The proposed Ordinance calls for a formal apology to the survivors; creates a Commission to administer financial compensation to the survivors; creates a medical, psychological and vocational center on the south side for the survivors and their family members; provides free enrollment in City Colleges for the survivors and family members; requires Chicago Public schools to teach a history lesson about the cases; requires the City to fund public memorials about the cases; and sets aside $20 million to finance this redress, the same amount of money the City has spent to defend Burge, other detectives and former Mayor Richard M. Daley in the Chicago Police torture cases.
Dec. 15, 2012, noon – 7 p.m.Sullivan Galleries
A screening of three powerful films about torture, featuring discussions with the filmmakers:
12:00–2:00 p.m.
THE END OF THE NIGHTSTICK by Peter Kuttner, Cyndi Moran, and Eric Scholl
As victims speak out, THE END OF THE NIGHTSTICK investigates charges of institutional racism, violence and cover-up. It also tell the story of a resistance movement, as local activist groups, including the Task Force to Confront Police Violence, refuse to let testimonies of police violence remain buried.
2:15–3:30 p.m.
TO TURN A BLIND EYE by Jackie Rivet-River and John Lyons
This short documentary film, TO TURN A BLIND EYE, exposes police torture of African American Suspects by former police Commander Jon Burge. As investigative journalist Jon Conroy said, "…they all knew, all the officers, the State's Attorneys as did many judges…and later there are 18 and there are 28 and there are 56 and now it's at 112. These are just guys we know about, there are many we don't.
4:00–6:00 p.m.
BENEATH THE BLINDFOLD Ines Somer and Kathy Berger.
BENEATH THE BLINDFOLD interweaves the personal stories of four torture survivors who now reside in the U.S., but originally hail from different parts of the globe: South and Central America, Africa, and the U.S. This documentary paints a holistic portrait of survivors' experiences, their path to healing, and life after torture.
Nov. 29, 2012, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.Sullivan Galleries: 33 S. State St., 7th Floor
Join us for an evening of fierce words with some of Chicago's finest writers: performances and readings by Kevin Coval, Darby Tillis, Archy Obejas, Gary Younge, Quraysh Ali Lansana, Krista Franklin, and others. This reading is dedicated to the survivors, families, and communities who endured unspeakable acts of torture at the hands of Chicago police.
Presented as part of the Sullivan Galleries exhibition Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture
organized by the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project, on view through December 21.
Oct. 5, 2012, 4:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.Sullivan Galleries
We invite artists and those who seek justice to submit proposals for a speculative monument to memorialize the Chicago Police torture cases. Over 100 African American men and women were tortured by white Chicago police officers and forced into giving confessions under former Commander Jon Burge. These memorial projects will serve as a public reckoning with police torture in Chicago and honor those who fought to stop it. We aim to make visible the social and political conditions that made torture possible, as well as the acts of courage that ended—or at least brought to light—the culture of impunity that thwarted justice for so long in this instance. Every submission will be an act of solidarity with torture survivors. We welcome proposals of radical imagination as we seek to honor the survivors of torture, their family members and the African American communities affected by the torture.
All submitted proposals will be exhibited at one or more of the following venues: Chicago area art galleries, community centers, and a dedicated website. We hope this project will help to build a social movement strong enough to deter these and other acts of torture and transform our broken criminal justice system.
Download the call poster and help spread the word.
Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project
(CTJM Project)
Sites throughout the Chicagoland area and a website
Submissions may be made by a person of any age and nationality.
Criteria for Proposals
A proposed monument may take any form – from architecture to haiku, from website to mural, from community organization to performance, from bronze plaque to large-scale memorial.
Submission Process
The submission can be in the form of a PDF, PPT, webpage, or other accessible electronic format. Non-electronic submissions will also be accepted.
email contact
mail to
Chicago Torture Justice Memorial Project
c/o People's Law Office
1180 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, Illinois 60642
On Friday, November 28, 2014, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UN CAT) condemned the U.S. Government and the City of Chicago for failing to provide sufficient redress to those who were tortured by notorious former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and the detectives under his command. This is the second time in eight years that the UN Committee has condemned the U.S. Government for failing to fulfill its obligations under the Convention Against Torture with respect to the Burge torture cases.
Last week the UN Committee noted that the "vast majority of those tortured," most of who are African American, "have received no compensation for the extensive injuries they suffered." (see Paragraph 26). The UN Committee called on the U.S. Government to provide redress to the Burge torture survivors by supporting the passage of the Ordinance seeking Reparations for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors that is currently pending in Chicago City Council's Finance Committee.
In May of 2006, the UN Committee had addressed the Burge torture cases and condemned the "limited investigation and lack of prosecution." It called on the U.S. Government to "bring the perpetrators to justice."
In June 2010, Burge was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice for falsely denying that he and others engaged in acts of torture. He was sentenced to serve 4 ½ years in prison. In October 2014, Burge was released from federal prison after serving less than 3 ½ years.
In its most recent findings, the UN Committee also noted that the U.S. Government failed to prosecute any other officers responsible for torture under Burge's regime because federal authorities allowed the statute of limitations to expire.
The UN Committee also cited its concerns about police militarization, racial profiling, and reports of police brutality and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against African American and Latino youth, immigrants and LGBTI individuals. In response to "We Charge Genocide," who submitted a Shadow Report and sent an impressive delegation of youth of color to Geneva, Switzerland, the UN Committee noted is particular concern regarding "police violence in Chicago, especially against African-American and Latino young people who are allegedly being consistently profiled, harassed and subjected to excessive force by Chicago Police." The UN Committee also expressed "deep concern" about frequent and recurrent shootings and fatal pursuits of unarmed black individuals, and the appalling use of tasers resulting in death, including the tragic death of Dominique Franklin, Jr. in Chicago and the "alleged difficulties" of holding police officers accountable for such abuses. All of these issues and concerns were raised by the We Charge Genocide delegation. Monica James, an organizer with the Tranformative Justice Law Project from Chicago, also testified at the hearing regarding police profiling and torturous prison conditions transgender women of color face nationwide in the U.S.
If passed by the Chicago City Council, the Ordinance seeking Reparations for the Chicago Police Torture Survivors would be an important step towards U.S. compliance with its obligations under the Convention Against Torture.
The Ordinance would serve as a formal apology to the survivors; create a Commission to administer financial compensation to the survivors; create a medical, psychological, and vocational center on the south side of Chicago; provide free enrollment in City Colleges to the survivors; require Chicago Public Schools to teach a history lesson about the cases; require the City to fund public memorials about the cases; and set aside $20 million to finance this redress - the same amount of money the City has spent to defend Burge, other detectives and former Mayor Richard M. Daley in the Chicago Police torture cases.
Chicago City Council Aldermen Proco Joe Moreno (1st Ward) and Howard B. Brookins (21st Ward) filed the Ordinance in Chicago's City Council on October 16, 2013. The Ordinance is now supported by a total of 26 Aldermen and women.
Over 110 African American and Latino men and women were subjected to torture that was racially motivated and included electric shocks, mock executions, suffocation and beatings by Burge and his subordinates. Scores of Chicago police torture survivors continue to suffer from the psychological effects of the torture they endured without any compensation, assistance, and they have no legal recourse for any redress.
CTJM submitted a shadow report on the Burge torture cases in conjunction with the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights to the UN Committee. Amnesty International, USA and Black People Against Police Torture & the National Conference of Black Lawyers also submitted shadow reports to the UN CAT on the Burge torture cases seeking redress for the torture survivors. Shubra Ohri, CTJM member and attorney at the People's Law Office attended the UN CAT's review of the U.S. Government this past November. In May of 2006, Joey Mogul, co-founder of CTJM and a partner at the People's Law Office, attended the UN CAT's review of the U.S. Government and presented evidence on the Burge torture cases.
Support the Chicago Police Torture (Burge) Reparations Ordinance
Please join the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project (CTJM) and Amnesty International, USA on Octobber 24, 2014 for a twitter power hour from 3 to 4 p.m. (CST) to tweet at Mayor Emanuel and urge him to support the passage of the Chicago Police Torture (Burge) Reparations Ordinance. See below for a summary of the twitter campaign and the significance of UN day in relation to Chicago police torture.
Demand that he walk the walk and not just talk the talk! Use hashtag #RahmRepNow and tweet at Mayor Emanuel @ChicagosMayor. For sample tweets, see http://pastebin.com/FnCQPNX1
By Joey L. Mogul
October 24th is United Nations Day, an international holiday commemorating the passage of the Charter of the United Nations. This year, its 67th anniversary, the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Project (CTJM) and Amnesty International, USA call on all concerned citizens of the world to support survivors of torture: please urge Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, via twitter, to honor UN Day by complying with the UN Convention Against Torture and pass the Chicago Police Torture (Burge) Reparations Ordinance pending in Chicago's City Council.
The Reparations Ordinance seeks to provide financial compensation, psychological and vocational counseling and other redress to the torture survivors, their family members and African American communities impacted by the systematic torture committed by notorious former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge and the detectives working under his command from 1972 through 1991.
During Burge's reign of terror, over 110 African American and Latino men and women were subjected to electrical shocks on their genitalia or other body parts with a handmade shock box or cattle prod, suffocation with plastic bags, beatings with rubber objects or telephone books, and/or staged mock executions. The vast majority of the torture survivors were also subjected to racist terrorism throughout their interrogations – they were repeatedly called racist slurs and epithets. These heinous acts of torture were committed in order to extract confessions. These confessions were then used to wrongfully convict scores of people, at least 11 of whom who were sentenced to Illinois' infamous death row. There is no question that these acts constitute crimes of torture as proscribed by the UN Convention Against Torture and condemned worldwide. It is why Chicago has been dubbed by some as the Abu-Ghraib of the Midwest.
Today, scores of Burge's torture survivors and their families continue to suffer from the psychological effects of the torture they endured without any compensation or assistance. They have no legal recourse to obtain any redress whatsoever because the statute of limitations on any claims they could have brought expired long ago. Moreover, approximately 19 of Burge's torture survivors continue to languish behind bars. They have never received evidentiary hearings to present newly discovered evidence uncovered over the last 20 years to substantiate their claims that they were tortured into confessing.
After decades of litigation and numerous governmental investigations, there is overwhelming evidence that unequivocally demonstrates that the City of Chicago not only condoned the torture but failed to stop its systematic practice and engaged in efforts to cover it up. The City of Chicago must accept responsibility for these international human rights violations and make amends to all of those so deleteriously harmed by them. It can do so by passing and enacting the Burge Torture Reparations Ordinance.
The UN holds special significance to those who struggle for justice in the Burge torture cases. In 2006, after exhausting all local and national remedies for justice, advocates working with the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights and the US Human Rights Network presented the Burge torture cases to UN Convention Against Torture. Even then, it was well known that Burge and his Midnight Crew engaged in acts of torture, but they were never held responsible for these crimes and they enjoyed impunity for their international human rights violations.
The UN Committee Against Torture heard Chicagoans cries of injustice, and, after reviewing the evidence presented, issued an historic ruling on May 19, 2006. It found that the U.S. Government had failed to comply with the UN Convention Against Torture, noting the "limited investigation and lack of prosecution" in the Burge torture cases, and it called on the U.S. Government "to bring the perpetrators to justice." Subsequently, Burge was indicted for obstruction of justice and perjury for falsely denying he and others engaged in acts of torture in 2008, and he was convicted of these crimes in 2010. Although this was a tremendous victory, the torture survivors still have not received the recognition and redress they so richly deserve and are entitled to under UN Convention Against Torture.
The Reparations Ordinance has stalled in Chicago's City Council for over a year. Mayor Rahm Emmanuel has apologized for the torture that was committed and said it is a "dark stain" on the City. He has also acknowledged the torture survivors are entitled to some redress, but thus far he has taken no steps to pass the Reparations Ordinance.
Now is the time for Mayor Emmanuel to pass the Reparations Ordinance and ensure the City of Chicago is complying with its international obligations under the UN Convention Against Torture.
For more info on the Burge torture cases check out: www.chicagotorture.org or www.peopleslawoffice.com
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
The Chicago Police Torture (Burge) Cases and the Reparations Ordinance
From 1972 to 1991, former Police Commander Jon Burge and detectives working under his command tortured over 110 African American and Latino men and women. Torture tactics included: electrically shocking genitalia or other body parts with a handmade shock box or cattle prod, suffocation with plastic bags, beatings with rubber objects or telephone books, and staging mock executions. The vast majority of the torture survivors were also subjected to racial slurs and epithets throughout their interrogations. Burge and his men committed the torture in order to extract confessions. These confessions were then used to wrongfully convict scores of people and send 11 of the torture survivors to Illinois' death row.
Burge was fired from the CPD in 1993. Burge was tried in federal court and, in 2010, convicted of obstruction of justice and perjury for lying when he falsely denied that he and others committed acts of torture. After serving approximately 3 ½ years in federal prison, he was released from prison to a halfway house on October 2, 2014.
What Does the REPARATIONS ORDINANCE Seek to Provide?
The Ordinance:
serves as a formal apology to the survivors, their family members, and the communities of color affected by this systemic torture that lasted close to two decades;
creates a Commission to administer financial compensation to the survivors;
creates a community center on the south side of Chicago that would provide psychological counseling, vocational training, referrals and other services to the torture survivors, their family members and the communities affected;
provides free enrollment in City Colleges to the survivors and their family members;
requires Chicago Public schools to teach a history lesson about the cases;
requires the City to fund public memorials about the cases; and
sets aside $20 million to finance this redress
Why Should the Ordinance Be Passed?
Scores of Chicago Police Torture survivors and their families continue to suffer from the psychological effects of the torture they endured without compensation or assistance. The majority of survivors have no legal recourse to obtain any redress whatsoever. Further, evidence exists that implicates the City and County in actions that led to ongoing torture and its cover up.
Has the City of Chicago Taken Any Steps Towards Redress?
No. While Mayor Emanuel has repeatedly called the Burge era a dark chapter in the history of Chicago and apologized on behalf of the City, no steps have been taken by the Mayor or the Chicago City Council to provide redress to those who survived the torture. The City remains complicit in this institutionalized violence, until it provides the survivors of torture redress for the suffering they endured. The passage of this Ordinance will help complete this unfinished business.
Haven't All of the Torture Survivors Received Financial Compensation from the City?
No. The vast majority of the torture survivors have received no financial compensation from the City whatsoever. Only 16 people (out of over 110) have recovered financial compensation through lawsuits for their wrongful convictions.
Can Torture Survivors Sue Now to Get Financial Compensation for the Torture They Suffered?
No. Torture survivors can no longer sue because the statute of limitations expired on any civil claims decades ago. The overwhelming majority of torture survivors did not bring claims at the time they were tortured because they were occupied defending themselves in criminal cases. Further, at the time they were tortured, survivors were not believed and did not have the benefit of exculpatory evidence that the City of Chicago and implicated detectives actively took steps to withhold and cover up for the last 25 years.
Who Is Eligible to Receive Financial Compensation from this Ordinance?
All individuals or the families of deceased individuals who can establish that they were tortured by Burge or one of the detectives working under his command at Area 2 or 3 police headquarters (and have not received a minimum compensation from lawsuits) are eligible.
Why is the Amount of Total Compensation $20 Million?
$20 million is the amount the City has spent to defend Burge, other detectives and former Mayor Richard M. Daley in the Chicago Police Torture (Burge) cases. The City has also spent tens of millions of dollars more answering requests for information in federal and county investigations into the torture and in settlement amounts to a limited number of survivors' in their civil cases.
How Would Financial Compensation Be Determined and Distributed?
The ordinance sets up a commission responsible for establishing rules and procedures for how people can claim that they are eligible for financial compensation. Each individual would receive the same amount of money from the commission.
How Do Survivors Establish They Are Eligible For Compensation?
Generally, a person would have to demonstrate that they were arrested and interrogated by Burge or an officer working under his command during the relevant time period. They can put forth evidence from their criminal cases wherein they claimed they were tortured or otherwise coerced, or they can present other outcry evidence noting a complaint of torture during or near the time of their interrogations.
How Will Criteria Related to the Other Parts of the Ordinance (Counseling Center, Access to City Colleges, High School Curriculum) Be Established?
The commission convened to determine financial eligibility will also determine who is eligible for the other redress in the ordinance.
Can Torture Survivors Currently Get Psychological Counseling Services from the City?
No. There are no psychological services or centers that provide counseling, vocational training or other therapeutic treatment to police torture survivors in Chicago or its environs. The Heartland Alliance Marjorie Kovler Center in Rogers Park is a community site that provides counseling and other therapeutic programs to international torture survivors only. Federal funding restricts their capacity to serve domestic survivors of torture.
Are There Any Burge Torture Survivors Who Remain Behind Bars?
There are approximately 19 Chicago Police (Burge) Torture survivors who remain in prison and whose conviction rests in whole or in part on their coerced confessions. Many have not been allowed to present evidence of their torture allegations, even given new evidence demonstrating the systemic nature of the torture uncovered over the last 25 years. The Ordinance also requires the City of Chicago to go on record in support of such evidentiary hearings.
Does the Ordinance Apply to all People Who Have Been Tortured By the Chicago Police?
No. There are uncounted individuals who have been tortured by officers in the CPD over many decades; including some who worked with Burge but engaged in acts of torture or abuse after he was separated from the Department. This ordinance is limited to providing financial compensation and redress to those tortured under Burge's tenure in the Department in light of the overwhelming evidence that demonstrates that this systematic pattern and practice of torture occurred under his command. We would hope that the community center on the south side of Chicago could serve the needs of all Chicago police torture survivors and victims.
Reposted from http://theconversant.org
In an increasingly neoliberalized literary market, "surface" readings constitute today's most prevalent form of cultural criticism within and beyond the academy. In pop as well as literary culture, amid critical dispositifs of disinterest and "zaniness"—described by Sianne Ngai as an aesthetic of laboring and playing under the new "connexionist" spirit of capitalism—the pressure to trade in nuanced perspectives for shallow punditry or personal diatribes subtends what Avital Ronnell calls our "default of the political."
For writer Anne Elizabeth Moore, the evasion of national and global crises, in order to maintain the status quo through unexamined obsequies or the revalorization of the private sphere, is a problem for all capitalist subjects, particularly for those seeking to find voice and form for radical critiques: "Nestled within these difficulties is a particular (although not exclusive) challenge to the female of the species, relegated to a gender role rewarded for silence and prized when emotional…. As a culture we value niceness, particularly in women, even at the expense of truth."
I caught up with Moore to discuss her current multi-media installation for the School of the Art Institute's "Opening the Black Box: The Charge is Torture" exhibition (70 collected works of witness memorializing more than 100 reported cases of torture by Chicago Police from 1972 to 1991); her current and upcoming projects; and her post-election response to questions concerning U.S. free trade laws, labor politics and censorship in a neoliberal market.
Virginia Konchan: In your election-day speech on the 19th amendment at the Defibrillator Gallery in Chicago, you argued that merely participating in patriarchal institutions isn't necessarily an actual gain, if those systems don't represent through a governing body or in the private interests they serve, the needs of women for safety, civil rights and economic development. What are some guerilla tactics for women to change the system (or, ourselves, as you suggested), from within?
Anne Elizabeth Moore: That election-day piece will be published in a book on inauguration day, but if you can't wait I do have an audio version of it here.
I personally don't advocate change from within a system which has thoroughly disempowered us—or, for that matter, any system that thoroughly disempowers as a matter of course. There are tons of people who do and that's great. I totally see the value of having more women in congress, more female politicians, more politicians of color and the general diversification of all institutions, organizations, systems and neighborhoods. But what we lose in that debate is the reminder that legislation is not the only way to achieve change. Going out and making the change happen on your own is one slightly more effective way of spending your change-making efforts, especially when everything else has stalled out. That election-day piece is an update of an Emma Goldman essay and what she argues, which I think still holds true, is that the big challenge is convincing women to see this, to not be beholden to a system that relies on their continued oppression. So "guerilla tactics," which has this totally dirty, underground sense to it. . . it's not about acting beyond the law necessarily. But about doing what you believe to be right in the world. I don't think that takes tactics. I think for most people it just takes a little silence and self-trust—maybe a bit of education or experience, too.
VK: We live in the age of media's seeming democratization (blog culture, citizen journalism); the means for self-publishing or publishing with independent presses and magazines abound. Is controlling the means of production everything, do you think, or only half the battle? In other words, does content suffer from the commodification of intellectual capital for the marketplace, and is the relationship between reader and writer compromised by media's digitization?
AEM: We don't control the means of production of everything, and we don't know what it would be like if we did. Publishing has always been limited by economic class, first and foremost, and by gender and education, secondarily. So keeping in mind that we are already dealing with a limited field of a potential range of cultural output, which itself necessarily limits the potential for new and exciting directions for future content, we also note that content is right now also being held back by that value system I mentioned earlier—the one that prizes financial reward over, say, intellectual achievement, thoughtfulness or integrity. You can see it in fiction, in nonfiction, in visual work, in film. Take journalism, for example. I mean, most of what passes for it these days is literally an ad. On top of what that's doing to us as humans, my real problem isn't with the ethical shift. My real problem is that I am totally bored by it. So I don't know necessarily that readers and writers' relationships are changing. Some are, some aren't (I had this conversation with Mary Gaitskill the other day about Twitter. She was like, "That sounds really stupid"). And I know that as a writer I am unchallenged. Although I really like Twitter.
VK: Social media and cyberactivism played a key role in drawing awareness to recent revolutions (from the Zapatista National Liberation Army to the Occupy movements). What is the next step after cyberactivism (on the level of policy reform or law?)
AEM: It's popular to claim all these miraculous attributes for social media, as it is for all new products when they appear on the market, but using social media is not cyberactivism, and it's definitely not activism. Making use of a tool in the manner for which it was designed to be used is just not activism. It's communication, and that's great, and important, but "raising awareness" is the lamest kind of armchair policy advocacy at best, which is about 80 steps short of change-making. It's totally great that people are educating themselves and each other about issues and events, especially as these unfold. But until that translates into shifts in behavior, whether legislated or not, it's just not going to matter. Anyway—when did that kind of behavior go from being considered "preaching to the converted" to being "cyberactivism"? Maybe the way we talk and think about social media is changing, but its effect on us isn't. Definitely, our standards are slipping.
I think we can actually see this in the Rolling Jubilee fallout. Rolling Jubilee, the Strike Debt project of Occupy Wall Street, is this interesting but very flawed response to the debt crisis. Some really smart writers, including Doug Henwood and Yves Smith, have done great investigative work about the larger problems that this supposed solution actually creates. Here I still think the action might be worth the critical response, because we are giving debt a common lexicon: but there may well be some people seriously screwed over as a result of this OWS well-intentioned action, so I hesitate to say for sure.
And that's kind of what I mean: we're really willing to retweet the first message that comes across our screens, not even thinking through the action behind it. Yves Smith made some excellent points in his essay on—again, not even policy reform, but holding people to existing laws—as a way of undoing this damage. You know? Let's do that.
VK: Was the black box in your recent installation at the School of the Art Institute your proposed means for a prisoner or detainee to disclose incidents of torture during interrogations?
AEM: Actually, the mailbox is for fellow officers to report wrong-doings, and the plaque above it simply restates the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor they each took when becoming police officers. I think prisoners of torture already have enough going on in their lives and shouldn't be responsible for repeatedly reporting their own abuses. They should be able to file a complaint, and an investigation should occur. Our charge as a society is not to burden the oppressed with further potential for oppression, especially when it's become so abundantly clear that most systems are set up to ignore prisoners' needs. The officers and detectives working under Jon Burge knew—hundreds of them. They were duty-bound to come forward, and only one did, 18 years later. My piece "Rest Area" is about holding the police force responsible for its own misdoings, which is exactly what they agreed to do when taking on the duty in the first place.
I generally find that new laws and policies aren't necessary to address most of the crap that goes down in the world these days, but holding people to the laws and policies that already exist means doing two things that don't happen very often: 1) people need to be already aware or made aware of current agreements and legislation and 2) the wrong-doers need to be held to these. Right now, ego and exceptionalism are, I believe, behind all of the most egregious violations of our social contract and laws. And it's going to take a lot more to undo those than passing a new law that says "by the way, laws apply to everyone, including people who think they don't." It's going to take education, introspection, reflection, time, and a culture that values facts over loudness, authority, and repetition.
VK: What kept the victims of torture (facing everything from mock executions to cattle prods) from communicating what was happening: fear of further retaliation? The black box suggests that anonymity would encourage more victims to speak out, if they knew they were being heard. Did some of the victims of torture by the Chicago police attempt to speak out, and to whom?
AEM: Well, the point is that they weren't all kept from communicating what was happening. People just weren't listening to those who were speaking out. That kind of silencing is very, very toxic. I've been writing about it in relation to Cambodia for years. When victims speak up about abuses, but their voice is silenced with extreme and excessive violence, guess what? Other people stop talking. That not only means that the original torture and abuse often continues, but silence becomes a learned behavior. Already we've seen other varieties of self-silencing on the south side of Chicago, because there has been no justice around this issue. In Cambodia, the silencing that happened around the Khmer Rouge continues to this day, almost forty years on—as does the resultant, unavoidable trauma. Don't think for a second that over a hundred black folks tortured in a small area of a single city won't have as strong and as lasting an effect. (And, you know, don't think that the history of segregation and racial violence and racism here didn't help foster a situation in which John Burge could go as nuts as he wanted, seemingly with full support of the entire city.)
VK: The memorials are, as the project statement says, "proposals for speculative ways to memorialize the torture cases." This double hypothetical confused me. Are there plans for implementing these projects (e.g. the Virtual Chicago Torture Justice Memorial), or is the larger point that restitution remains, in the legal system, insufficient and only speculative?
AEM: Hmm, it is a confusing sentence—and an extremely confusing notion. The project as I interpret it is to create public recognition around the particular set of police torture cases initiated by John Burge. I don't believe there's any plan in place to implement these exhibitions beyond the current gallery set-up, but I've been asking about that too. On one hand, it would be great if these pieces (all of them, or several of them) were placed in various spaces around the city, to widen awareness of the problem and artfully present responses to it. It would be great if the city itself would acknowledge its wrongdoings and not only fund this, but begin making restitutions to the torture victims and their families in the first place. On the other hand, regarding my piece in particular, I would be really sad if the city acknowledged that no current mechanism exists for the humanizing of police officers except to install mailboxes and plaques in bathrooms at the detective areas where folks could very secretly reveal wrongdoings they had witnessed. My piece is a nice conceptual response to a lot of different kind of wrongs currently embedded in a totally fucked system, but a more thorough overhaul of how officers behave and who allows for it and why would be a far more effective real-world solution.
VK: In considering the many cases of women publically beaten and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings (by police, as well as the public), and the continued human rights violations that occur in the Middle East and globally (genital mutilation, "honor" killings, public stoning of women), and most particularly in times of political instability (rape camps, or, for example, the sexual violence directed at female earthquake survivors living in Haitian tent cities), what do you think needs to be done on the level of foreign intervention (of course Egypt is a member-state of the U.N.)?
AEM: Here in the U.S., women are abused publicly as well, sometimes beaten or killed, sometimes sexually assaulted—by police as well as the public. The problem is not on the same scale as in Egypt, but it is the same problem. So the logic of U.S.-backed foreign intervention, whether military or via the U.N., totally eludes me. U.N. peacekeepers have their own history of sexual assault, keep in mind. It will never be a good idea to send an abuser in to respond to abuse, whether on an individual level or a national level. So what I advocate in such situations, always, is that we get some reliable studies of women's rights organizations doing gender justice work on the ground, ask them what they need in terms of support, and then give it to them. Anything beyond that is more or less colonialist and wrong-headed.
VK: You are the author of Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing and the Erosion of Integrity; Hey Kidz, Buy This Book: A Radical Primer on Corporate and Governmental Propaganda and Artistic Activism for Short People; andCambodian Grrrl: Self-Publishing in Phnom Penh. All these books fight back against corporate and governmental censorship. In Cambodian Grrrl you describe your self-publishing course taught to 32 girls in Phnom Penh, shortly after the final press run of your indie magazine of 13 years, Punk Planet. In interviews you have noted the neoliberal free market's alliance with corporate ideology and inUnmarketable, DIY projects' and alternative media outlets' co-optation by capitalism, or our internalization of the capitalist to create what John Seabrook calls "the marketer within." With Obama in office for the next four years, what are some effective strategies—local, national or global—of resistance for "underground" movements, feminisms, and hybrid/fringe identities? How can these avoid being reinscribed by wage-labor capitalism, cyborg culture, and media-generated consumer desire? Is there, in your opinion, an "inside" or "beyond" to capital?
AEM: Ah, well, there's also The Manifesti of Radical Literature (and the comics), but it's true that strategizing against silencing and self-silencing under governmental, corporate, and other pressures is "my beat." Neoliberalism values certain things and devalues others; that's our political economy at this moment, and Obama may have been the lesser of two evils in terms of how quickly this value system gets legislated, but he's not going to dismantle it—even if it unjustly discriminates against women (technically 51% of the U.S. population, although 57% of the folks living in poverty). And don't even get me started on how thoroughly neoliberalism discriminates against folks who do not place themselves on a gender binary, or how race fits into that matrix. (All of this being what my Truthout column Ladydrawers looks at.) Take drones, for example: the Facebook of warfare. We're really beyond a point where traditional notions of "anti-capitalist resistance" are going to do anything about drones. So this particularly pernicious form of late-stage capitalism we find ourselves in right now, that strives always for austerity and privatization while freeing only market oversight…it's a little beyond questions of capital. These are questions of human survival. A friend just called after he'd assigned Unmarketable to his college students. They had no idea what was being lost in the race for market dominance. But what's being lost is a fundamental respect for people, for ourselves. And we don't have much ground to lose there anymore.
I mean, I get asked this question a lot: what are the solutions? What are the upbeat answers to all these yucky problems? And, you know what? Those are questions totally fueled by capitalism, by a logic that demands that if we point out a problem we must fix the machine so production can continue. But there aren't flaws in the machine. This is what the machine does. I think it's enough at this point to all get on the same page about that. As far as what comes next, I don't know, and I don't think any of us will for a long, long time.
VK: In your 2012 Truthout article about the 3,000 mass faintings, during the previous year, at Phnom Penh garment factories (supplying goods to Puma, Gap, H&M, and American Eagle Outfitters stores), you note the failed 2010 union strikes in Phnom Penh (followed by rounds of illegal firings), and state that until U.S. consumers are willing to "double what they pay for cheap fashion," this system of exploited labor will continue. Of course that system might even worsen. In May 2012 the U.S.-Columbia Free Trade Agreement was approved, making 80% of U.S. consumer and industrial exports (and more than 50% of U.S. agricultural commodities exports) to Colombia duty-free. Obama supported this and other deregulated free-trade agreements, and pledged an increase of $130 million U.S. funds to Columbia to "bolster security" and hunt down narco-traffickers and gangs in the region. Bill Clinton's 1997 Apparel Industry Partnership initiative aside, what kinds of citizen action can be done to protest wretched labor conditions in the U.S. and elsewhere? Do you think selective purchasing agreements (e.g. those instituted in Berkeley and Cambridge, boycotting companies or corporations producing goods in Burma) or ethical investment drives are effective at the local level? Or does change need to come from putting pressure on Obama to impose sanctions on companies with sweatshop compounds that commit human labor violations in Nigeria, Indonesia, Cambodia, China and the Philippines?
AEM: Hmm, that's a good question, and it's going to take a lot of strategizing. Obama was in Cambodia yesterday and, thanks to some amazing on-the-ground activists, he spoke out against some human rights abuses the prime minister, Hun Sen, has been committing. But that's a pretty weird moment; if you think about it, there are a ton of human-rights abuses that go on in garment factories every day that Obama didn't even need to travel to Cambodia to fix. He could easily just say, "Yo. H&M, Inditex, the Gap, and Nike: let's get you on a timeline to pay a living wage wherever you manufacture, or we'll have to start holding you responsible for the human rights abuses that occur on the floors of the factories that make your clothes. We'll start charging you a massive human-rights-abuse import tax I just drew up BECAUSE I AM THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.N.ITED STATES." Then, you know, we're so close to the election everyone would just cheer and go out and voluntarily pay double for all their clothes for the week.
You know what I'm saying? Like the way we're even defining human-rights abuses here is crazy. Obviously our national sense of self-worth is overblown (American exceptionalism, again) if we think we deserve $7 dresses made by folks who are earning a fraction of that per day, around the world.
But it's a mistake to pretend that only people who make money are capitalists, of course. The real problem of capitalism is that we're all involved, whether we like it or not, whether it benefits us or not in any imaginable way.
In terms of changing the discussion, we have seen some great success from a performance based on the faintings called FEINT I did with some folks downtown last year. Those have now proliferated around the country through an activist organization called the Clean Clothes Campaign, and H&M, the world's second-largest clothing company, is now responding to some of the problems this organization has raised. But people remain desperate to find a way to get out of paying more for stuff, because getting something cheap makes us feel special. Maybe the real trick is finding a less damaging way to feel special.
VK: You were raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation (Sioux) in South Dakota and have worked on the Cheyenne River Reservation. What do you see as the most significant challenges facing indigenous communities today, and what did your work there entail?
AEM: So these are both Lakota reservations. So my experience living in indigenous communities in the U.S. is fairly limited. But Lakota women are stalked and sexually assaulted at rates much higher than the national average for women. They have a harder time in school, suffer from greater self-esteem issues. It's unbelievable, when you see it all together, even if you walk around with this received knowledge that, yes, these are the survivors of long-standing genocidal policies put in place by the U.S. government. And, it's not just women: last spring a blind tribal elder checked into the hospital with chest pains, and when he got out, he found KKK symbols had been carved into his chest by the non-Lakota hospital staff. So it's not even that these policies have fallen out of disuse. They've just, like everything else, become privatized. I was last there over a decade ago, running a camp for at-risk youth in some of the harshest conditions of poverty I've ever seen in the world, and I've been hoping to get some funding to return this summer to do my Adventure School for Ladies project there, but I'm not sure that funding will come through. If it doesn't, we'll put it off until next year—at which point a bunch of radical gender-minded queer folks will spend some time on the reservation, thinking through questions of social justice and translating them into cultural products or studies. Adventure School is really hard, and really frustrating, and more work than you can imagine, but pretty much the most fun ever.
VK: New projects on the horizon?
AEM: New Girl Law, the follow-up to Cambodian Grrrl, should be out in the spring. Ladydrawers has been invited to do some cool stuff coming up, so keep an eye on the blog for details. And a couple journalism projects. A lot of stuff, actually! So the cats are not going to be very happy with me.
Writer and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore is a Fulbright scholar, U.N. Press Fellow, Truthout columnist behind "Ladydrawers: Gender and Comics in the U.S.," and the author of five books, most recently Hip Hop Apsara: Ghosts Past and Present, a lyrical essay discussing Cambodia's recent economic development. Moore writes and lectures on independent media, globalization, and women's labor issues.
Project NIA's pamphlet series titled "Historical Moments of Policing, Violence, and Resistance" created a pamphlet that provides the history of the torture cases, stories from survivors, and points for further discussion. Take advantage of this incredible resource!
Download the entire pamphlet as a pdf.
The organizers of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials (CTJM) Project:
Dorothy Burge is the Internship Coordinator for Associated Colleges of the Midwest. She also teaches seminars on systematic racism, criminal justice, and social problems.
Sali Vickie Casanova, educator/artist/activist, is a member of the US Human Rights Network and Black People Against Police Torture. Much of her cultural work with youth and educators confronts abuses of justice in the U.S. juvenile system especially in communities of color. She holds the MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching) from Columbia College, MBA and BA degrees from Indiana University, and recently received the Award for Excellence in Urban Studies and Community Development from IU Northwest. Ms. Casanova's efforts as teaching/performing artist are dedicated to empowering youth and activists to transform the movement for social justice and human rights.
Adam Green is Associate Professor of History and the College and Master of the Social Science Collegiate Division at The University of Chicago, concentrates in U.S. history and African American history. He is author of Selling the Race: Culture Community and Black Chicago, 1940-1955 and co-editor of Time Longer Than Rope: A Century of African American Activism. Adam has lectured on campuses and community venues, and has appeared on WTTW (PBS) Chicago, WBEZ Chicago (radio), Al-Jazeera, BBC (radio) and C-SPAN. He's been involved in community initiatives in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles related to police accountability and educational justice.
Alice Kim is a cultural organizer, writer and a longtime anti-death penalty and criminal justice reform activist. She is on the editorial board of In These Times magazine and the advisory board of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University Law School. She is also the director of The Public Square, a program of the Illinois Humanities Council, that creates spaces for public conversations about social, political and cultural issues.
Carla Mayer's primary work focus is as an arts administrator and program manager for a municipal agency. She is a committed youth developer and creative activist. As an installation artist and sculptor, her work focuses on silenced voices, elemental materiality and including non-artists in the process of art-making. She has a master's degree in interdisciplinary art from Columbia College, a bachelor's degree in literary theory from Brown University and is a state certified art teacher.
Joey Mogul, is a partner at the Peoples Law Office in Chicago, Illinois and director of DePaul University' civil rights clinic. Mogul has been involved in the campaign for justice for Chicago police torture survivors for the past fourteen years both as an attorney and as an activist. Mogul was one of the founding members of the Campaign to Prosecute Police Torture and traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to successfully present the Chicago police torture cases to the United Nations Committee Against Torture in 2006.
A. Laurie Palmer is an artist, writer, and teacher. She has shown her visual work, which takes various forms as sculpture, installation and public projects, nationally and internationally, and she has published her writing in art journals and as independent projects. Her work has received support from the Louis Tiffany Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The Graham Foundation, the ArtCouncil (now Artadia), and the Radcliffe Institute. Palmer teaches in the Sculpture Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Amy Partridge is an artist, activist, and Associate Director of Gender Studies at Northwestern University. As a Mess Hall "key-holder," she has organized events, exhibitions, and extensive collaborative projects with Iraq Veterans Against the War/Warrior Writers, Tamms Year Ten, White Rose Catholic Worker, Sewing Rebellion, AREA, Project NIA, and a reading group with Danville prisoners. She is a collective member of Cheap Art for Freedom Collective, Midwest Radical Cultural Corridor, and the Slow-Motion Research-Action Collective. From 2009-2011, she was a community representative and Chair of the "Arts & Other" Committee in the 49th Ward Participatory Budgeting Process.
Mary Patten is a visual artist, video-maker, writer, educator, and political activist. In all her work, she seeks to address collisions as well as alignments between the worlds of "politics" and art-making. Her book-length essay, Revolution as an Eternal Dream: The Exemplary Failure of the Madame Binh Graphics Collective, was recently published by Half Letter Press. She has exhibited and screened her work widely, and has directed, curated, and participated in many large-scale collaborative art projects for over thirty years, including Pathogeographies (with Feel Tank Chicago), "Depression: What is it Good For?" at the Gene Siskel Film Center; Project Enduring Look; Group Material's "Your Message Here" (with ACT UP/Chicago); Artists' Call against Intervention in Central America; and Cityarts Workshop. She teaches in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sarah Ross is an artist who creates forms like clothing, signage and postcards to visualize struggles around space, class, access, and gender. She often works collaboratively on projects such as Compass and Regional Relationships. Sarah teaches at The School of the Art Institute Chicago and works with incarcerated artists at an Illinois state prison. Images and ideas can be found at www.insecurespaces.net
Ellen Rothenberg's work is concerned with the politics of everyday life and the formation of communities through collaborative practices. She is a recipient of grants from the NEA, the Bunting (now Radcliffe) Institute, Engelhard Foundation, LEF Foundation and the Illinois Arts Council. Rothenberg's work has been presented at London's Royal Festival Hall; Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen; National Museum for Contemporary Art, Bucharest; Museum London, Ontario; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Boston's Institute of Contemporary Art and Museum of Fine Arts; and CUNY's James Gallery NYC; among others. Rothenberg teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ben Stagl is an interdisciplinary artist, industrial designer, and community educator. His projects range in scale from the intimate to the civic scale and are informed both by a thurough understanding of classical traditions as well as a passion for advanced digital practices. Stagl is largely concerned with how humans continue to address and experience the commons. His projects have received support from the Oregon Arts Commission, the Regional Arts and Cultures Council, The Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, The Chicago Pop-Up Loop Alliance, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Stagl instructs workshops at colleges around Oregon and Illinois and he currently directs development at West Supply in Chicago and practices design with his collaborative studio ChiLab.
Brett Stockdill is an educator, writer, and activist. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology, Women's Studies, and Latino & Latin American Studies at Northeastern Illinois University.
Jan Susler, a lawyer since 1976, has been a partner at the People's Law Office since 1982, with a focus on police misconduct civil rights, political prisoners and prisoners' rights including litigation, advocacy and educational work around control unit prisons. Her work with the Puerto Rican Independence Movement and with progressive movements challenging U.S. foreign and domestic policies has been a constant throughout her career. Attorney for the Puerto Rican political prisoners for over three decades, she served as lead counsel in the efforts culminating in the 1999 presidential commutation of their sentences. She continues to represent those who remain imprisoned.
The Advisory Board for the CTJM project include: