Judge's Extreme Sentence for Sleep ~ ~ 400 hours volunteer work plus three years' probation ~~ Turns Into Six Months In Jail

Santa Cruz Indymedia

Police State and Prisons

Homeless activist Gary Johnson and
lawyer Ed Frey jailed for six months for PeaceCamp2010's Sleep Protest

by Robert Norse ( rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com )

Friday Jun 10th, 2011 1:00 PM

Homeless activist Gary Johnson--repeatedly ticketed and arrested in the 3-month long PeaceCamp2010 protest against the Sleeping Ban at the County Courthouse--was sentenced to 6 months in jail and taken there in chains. Activist-attorney Ed Frey, who initiated, supported, and was arrested, during the protest was jailed at the same hearing today. Judge Gallagher refused to suspend sentencing pending appeal, denied a motion for a new trial after several jurors complained of juror misconduct, and declined to answer Johnson's question "how can I take probation to obey all laws, when you've defined "sleeping" as lodging to the jury, making it a misdemeanor crime? How can I not sleep for six months during probation?"

I got a phone call this morning from Becky Johnson who was at court for what Gary Johnson (no relation) and Ed Frey thought was a hearing on their motion for retrial in the case of four defendants (Frey, Johnson, Collette Connolly, and Art Bishof).

After denying the motion, Gallagher announced he was also holding a sentencing hearing, which may violate the rights of the defendants--since, I'm told, there has to be advance notice of a hearing. He initially sentenced Frey to 400 hours of Community Service and 3 years probation, which Frey refused. Gallagher then sentenced Frey to 6 months jail (the maximum sentence). Johnson was also given the same sentence. All this is a second-hand account from the eye-witness testimony of Becky Johnson who was in court.

Apparently the ante for those who peacefully protest the Sleeping Ban has been raised to half a year's jail time. Recent modifications in the City's Sleeping Ban law that provide for dismissal of tickets if one has signed up for a "Waiting List' at the Homeless Services Center. (See "Camping Ordinance Revisions Pass at City Council" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/09/16/18658837.php ).

Frey has been an outspoken and principled activist who provided nightly portapotty support for the homeless protest (a first in Santa Cruz), something even the City was unwilling to provide. He has been a regular pro bono defender of homeless victims of the Sleeping Ban like Robert "Blindbear" Facer (see "Mayor Mike Rotkin debates Ed Frey on Free Radio Santa Cruz at http://peacecamp2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/mayor-mike-rotkin-debates-ed-frey-on.html ).

Gary Johnson continued the principled protest against the Sleeping Ban as others tired, retired, or fell away. SCPD and Sheriff's Deputies adopted a variety of new repressive measures against him and those activists that continued the protest (see "Lights, Camera, Tickets! Klieg Lights at City Hall--Throwing Light on the Shelter Shortage" at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/19/18656364.php

Frey's debate with former Mayor Rotkin can be found at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/07/08/18652988.php .

Six months in jail (even four months for "good behavior") is likely to cost Ed Frey his law practice and his home.

Becky Johnson should be writing a more extensive account of the shocking court repression shortly.

Those interested in supporting Gary and Ed can contact HUFF at 831-423-4833 or e-mail me at rnorse3 [at] hotmail.com .

VEHICULARLY HOUSED ACTIVIST CROW (LL: and PeaceCamp2010 survivor) ANNOUNCED HE WOULD BEGIN A MORNING PROTEST AT THE COURTHOUSE FROM 7:30 AM TO 9 AM MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY.

Linda's Hearth note: These two men are still in jail -- despite the state's determination to exit a huge percentage of incarcerated from California's overcrowded prison system. The problem came to a head when the federal government's lawsuit ordered our legislature and Governor Brown to obey a court order, because they had not been able to make health and safety changes to the prisons. Six months in jail because of one interrupted night's sleeping "crime". I hope I can join Crow on Monday morn?

Poet as Prophet, Art as Medicine

The artist must prophesy not in the sense that he foretells things to come, but in the sense that he tells his audience, at the risk of their displeasure, the secrets of their own hearts.

But what he has to utter is not, as the individualistic theory of art would have us think, his own secrets. As spokes(person) of the community, the secrets he must utter are theirs.

The reason why they need him is that no community altogether knows its own heart; and by falling in this knowledge a community deceives itself on the one subject concerning which ignorance means death. For the evils which come from that ignorance the poet as prophet suggests no remedy, because he has already given one. the remedy is the poem itself.

Art is the community's medicine for the worst disease of the mind, thie corruption of consciousness.

--from R. G. Collingwood

As noted by editors John Mc Cormick and Mairi Mac Innes,

Versions of Censorship ~~ An Anthology

Robert Ellsberg's "Life with the Saints”

ROBERT ELLSBERG
Son of the “Most Dangerous Man in America" Presentation:

“One Candle Lights Another"
The Pentagon Papers,
Gandhi, Dorothy Day, and
My Life with the Saints

Thursday June 9, 7:30 p.m., at Holy Cross Parish Hall, 126 High St., Santa Cruz

Robert Ellsberg will share his personal story “for the first time” about growing up within the U.S. peace movement, Thursday June 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Holy Cross Parish Hall in Santa Cruz.

As a 13-year-old, Robert helped his father Daniel Ellsberg photocopy thousand of pages of classified Pentagon Papers that disclosed the U.S. government's conscious pursuit of a losing War on Vietnam. A 2009 Academy Awards nominated film documentary about these disclosures features Daniel Ellsberg as “The Most Dangerous Man in America” and includes an interview with son Robert Ellsberg.

Ellsberg will speak on “One Candle Lights Another: The Pentagon Papers, Gandhi, DorothyDay, and My Life with the Saints.”Influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, Robert Ellsberg dropped out of college at age 19 to join the Catholic Worker, a pacifist movement that participates in nonviolent direct action and provides food and shelter to poor and homeless people. He became managing editor of The Catholic Worker newspaper and came to know, and work closely for five years with, Dorothy Day (1897-1980), co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. Day's cause for canonization or sainthood, as one of the most inspiring figures of recent history, remains open in the Catholic Church.

As official Editor of Day’s Personal Papers he has published The Duty of Delight: TheDiaries of Dorothy Day (2008) and All the Way to Heaven: Selected Letters of Dorothy Day. Ellsberg is Publisher of Orbis Books. He has also edited writings by Gandhi, Flannery O’Connor, Thich Nhat Hanh,Charles de Foucauld, Fritz Eichenberg, and Carlo Carretto.

The event is hosted by Pax Christi and The Social Justice Ministry of Holy Cross Parish and the Resource Center for Nonviolence (RCNV). There is no charge and a free will donation will benefit the St. Francisco Soup Kitchen and Holy Cross Food Pantry in Santa Cruz.

For more information: 831.423.1626 or http://www.rcnv.org/

President Obama's flip-floping on Marriage Equity Is An Affront to Human Rights

The Time to Evolve is Now

by Tina Phillips Thursday, June 2, 2011 at 6:40pm

He was for it before he was against it. Back in 1996, when he was running for the Illinois State Senate, Barack Obama answered a 1996 Outlines newspaper question by saying, "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."

In 2008, he said he was a "fierce advocate" for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Fast forward to 2011, and he says he is against it but that his opinion is "evolving." What is that supposed to mean?

Well, first off it sounds like he is trying to get re-elected. It appears he does what many politicians do; change their positions depending on the electorate's whims. But also it sounds like he is in the same place many of Americans seems to be in. Americans are "evolving" in their view and attitudes about same-sex marriage.

Several polls have now shown country wide support for it is above 50%. Although 28 states have constitutional amendments or initiatives that define marriage as "the union of a man and a woman" and the federal government will still not recognize it, same-sex marriage is still a hot topic of debate.

The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, is still on the books. However, recently the Obama Administration has come out publicly in opposition to it, calling it "unconstitutional." However, there is no current federal legislation being considered to overturn the law. Obama's position remains that DOMA should be overturned and the decision to allow same-sex marriage should be left to the states. He has come out in favor of civil unions, but not marriage equality.

Meanwhile this issue is being fought state by state. Here in California we saw the Supreme Court recognize same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry under article 14, the equal protection clause of the constitution. Only to see it taken away again, when Prop 8 won by a small margin of only 3% of voters in 2008. Then in 2010 a decision by the U.S. District Court in Perry v. Schwarzenegger ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional and it has been tied up in court ever since on appeal. It was as if my right to marry got lost in a black hole.

I will not pretend I have no stake in the outcome. As a gay person who has been with my loving partner for five years, I am ready to get married. I could have a ceremony in front of all of my friends and family, say I "do" and hear the words "spouses for life," have a first dance, cut a cake, throw a bouquet, and go on a honeymoon, but I cannot get a piece of paper that gives me all the legal protections that come with marriage. I cannot get the title and status of being married in the eyes of the law.

I do not need the government to recognize my marriage in order to feel like I am married. However, as a gay person it feels like what I am being told is I am a second class citizen. In California there is a civil union for me and a marriage for heterosexual person. I may have to hire and pay a lawyer to draw up several contracts to give my wife and I the protections an opposite-sex couple can get after one night in Las Vegas.

Civil rights should never be put up for a popular vote. Courts are charged with protecting minority rights against majority tyranny. That is what courts have done in the past for many minortity groups, including for interracial couples who wanted to marry in 1967, even when the majority of Americans had not quite caught up in the social views yet. However, the court process has been slow and cumbersome in regard to this issue. Moreover, to date there have only been five states that recognize same-sex marriage: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

However, slowly Americans themselves are coming to realize that gay people are people too. As more and more LGBT come out, more people can now say they know someone who is LGBT. As we share our stories, folks are realizing we have partners, children, and families. Whether straight people support same-sex marriage or not, many are deciding it is not their decision to make. The decision should belong to same-sex couples.

It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said, "the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice." As a gay person I can see it bending but waiting for it to reach justice is painfully slow. I can see that someday soon LGBT people will be able to get civilly married but why should we have to wait any longer? The time has come for the U.S. Supreme Court to put this issue to rest once and for all. The time has come for you, President Obama, to evolve. We should not have to wait any longer for our rights as citizens and fellow human beings to be recognized. I demand the freedom to marry, now.

Same-sex couple getting married. :-D

MRSA and other Super Bugs: Antibiotic-Proof But Succeptible to Pot

Medical Marijuana: The Ultimate Anti-Bacterial that Stops MRSA

Research has found that

cannabinoids kill super-bugs

that phamacuticals can't.

"Unable to effectively fight the
rapidly-evolving bacterium, medical marijuana
could be a “miracle cure."

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), infections such as MSRA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) cause illness and even death for tens of thousands of people each year. In 2005, for example, MRSA was responsible for 18,650 deaths in the United States. That’s more than the number of people who died from HIV-AIDS. Now researchers have found that medical marijuana has unique anti-bacterial properties that fight MSRA and other infectious bacteria.

European researchers tested five cannabinoid compounds created exclusively by the cannabis plant: THC, CBN, CBD, CBG and CBC. As the researchers reported in the Journal of Natural Products, all five cannabinoids have the ability to kill MSRA and other bacterium.

MSRA and other bacteria have evolved to be resistant to most of the standard pharmaceutical anti-bacterial agents, making them increasingly deadly and hard to control. These bacteria commonly transfer from person to person in hospital settings, but there are increasing reports of infections in the general population. MSRA and other “super-bugs” are most likely to attack people who have weak immune systems or have undergone medical procedures. The most worrisome fact is that this bacterium can be spread through casual contact.

With pharmaceutical anti-bacterials unable to effectively fight the rapidly-evolving bacterium, medical marijuana could be a “miracle cure.” That’s because cannabinoids appear to kill deadly bacteria in ways that differ from how pharmaceutical anti-bacterials do it. Because super-bugs have evolved to handle pharmaceutical anti-bacterials, the different anti-bacterial mechanisms seen in cannabinoids make cannabinoids particularly promising as a way of halting the spread of virulent infectious organisms.

Before marijuana was criminalized worldwide in the early 1900s, it was widely used as an anti-bacterial agent. Medical historians tell of marijuana salve, tinctures and smoked marijuana used as long ago as the 17th century to treat infections of the skin, lungs and eyes.

And ever since medical marijuana made a resurgence when it was legalized in California and other states beginning in 1996, researchers and marijuana advocates have noted that cannabinoids fight cancer tumors, infections and related conditions.

Marijuana knows how to keep its own secrets. Giovanni Appendio and the other researchers who published the recent study about cannabinoids’ anti-bacterial effects said that despite extensive testing, they were unable to determine exactly how and why marijuana is so good at killing MSRA and other bacterium that cannot be easily killed by standard pharmaceuticals.

Medical marijuana patients can take advantage of this knowledge by asking dispensaries, doctors and medical marijuana products manufacturers to provide marijuana tinctures, topical formulas and other marijuana products that fight bacterium.

Stay tuned to Big Buds for more information about marijuana’s unique medical effects. With marijuana already known to have so many other medicinal benefits, it’s almost no surprise to find out that it might also be the super-medicine for fighting super-bugs!

Linda's Hearth notes: This article is from Big Buds Magazine, online, for May 25, 2011. , I had a life-n-death struggle several months ago with MRSA, and a few years ago one of my children had to fight it and luckily is still with us. Another of my children also has a compromised and busy immune system. This is the first GOOD news I've read about the fast-evolving critters. Pass it on!

Teen Suicide and Violence Linked to Big Public Schools

Opinion, from Yahoo news

IS HIGH SCHOOL BAD FOR

TEENS' MENTAL HEALTH?

By Maggie Gallagher
Tue May 17, 8:03 pm ET

Every two hours, a teenager in America takes his or her own life. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among youth, and the rate of teen suicide has roughly tripled since 1960, the year I was born.

The heightened risk of suicide among gay teens has recently pulled the issue into the national spotlight, especially the "It Gets Better" campaign initiated by Dan Savage, but the rates for all teens are astonishingly high.

What is behind our high rates of youngsters taking their own lives?

Scientists have identified many contributing factors: Discrimination, the number of sexual partners, substance abuse, being dumped by a romantic partner, parental divorce, child physical and sexual abuse, bullying, and even excessive video-gaming play a role.

Scholars at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center have offered a novel contributing factor to teen suicide: high school.

In a careful and persuasive paper released last fall called "Back to School Blues: Seasonality of Youth Suicide and the Academic Calendar," Benjamin Hansen and Matthew Lang point out that suicides for 14- to 18-year-olds drop abruptly during June, July and August.

"The decrease in suicides for 14- to 18-year-olds during the summer months is stark, while the 19- to 25-year-olds see a slight rise in suicide rates during the summer," the authors point out.

"The fact that 15- to 18-year-old suicide rates decrease in the summer, but the 19-year-old suicide does not, suggests that the high school calendar is playing a prominent role in youth suicide," they conclude.

Suicide is not the only violent act teens are more likely to commit while school is in session. A 2003 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, "Are Idle Hands the Devil's Workshop? Incapacitation, Concentration and Juvenile Crime," by Brian Jacob and Lars Lefgren, used the natural variation produced by teacher in-service days to estimate whether school increased or decreased juvenile crime.

The answer? School attendance appeared to increase violent juvenile crime by almost 30 percent.

How could more time in school lead to more violence and suicide?

Hansen and Lang point to the "stress" created by the high school environment, but they also point out: "Although research has shown that alcohol consumption, poor self-esteem and sexual activity (are) related to youth suicide, there is little discussion about the fact that these risky behaviors tend to originate at school."

Jacob and Lefgren call it a "concentration" effect. Schools are places where the teens massively outnumber the adults, and the peer-driven social interactions increase the risk of violence.

"Lord of the Flies," in other words.

Adolescents torture each other, they fear for their place in social heirarchies of their own making, tempt one another to abuse drugs and alcohol and to engage in short-term sexual activity that results in anger, jealousy and (when dumped) depression.

We group children into large schools primarily for bureaucratic convenience. But teens do better when they spend more time with adults, who are civilized, and less time interacting in cultures created by peers, who are not yet.

On the whole, it makes you wonder why anyone ever objects to home-schooling.

(Maggie Gallagher is the founder of the National Organization for Marriage and has been a syndicated columnist for 15 years.)

More from Maggie Gallagher:

• DR. KEITH ABLOW-ING IN THE WIND ON MARRIAGE?
• PAUL CLEMENT'S COURAGE, A LAW FIRM'S COWARDICE AND A MOVEMENT'S WILL TO POWER

A former editor at the National Review, Maggie Gallagher is co-author of “The Case for Marriage: Why Married People are Happier, Healthier, and Better Off Financially.”

Ellie Foster Memorial Service Saturday May 28th 3 pm at the Santa Cruz Quaker Meeting @ 225 Rooney St, S.C., Potluck Follows

In loving memory of Eleanor “Ellie” Speer Foster

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 10:32pm

In loving memory of Eleanor “Ellie” Speer Foster who died of congestive heart failure on April 27, 2011 in Santa Cruz, California. An activist, humanitarian, and dedicated advocate for peace and justice, Ellie was known and loved by many in and beyond the Santa Cruz community.

Ellie was born in 1926 in Milwaukee to Eleanor Garton and Rolo Clayton Speer. She received a B.A. from Redlands College in 1949, and completed an M.A. in Psychology in the 1980s. Following graduation from Redlands, she and her husband, Herb Foster, began a long and inspired life together as social activists. In 1949, Herb and Ellie moved to Vienna, Austria, to work with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) helping WWII refugees. In 1952, they moved to Chicago where they served as directors of the Interns-In-Industry Program of Saul Alinsky’s Back of the Yards Movement.

After three years in Stockton, CA, they finally arrived in Santa Cruz in 1958. Devoted to improving the lives of children and youth, Ellie became the founding director of the Santa Cruz County Head Start Program and later served as director of the Santa Cruz YWCA. In the 1980s, she worked with UCSC’s Peer Counseling Center, and as a Marriage and Family Counselor.

Ellie was a lifelong Quaker, pacifist, and peace activist. In the early 1960s, Herb and Ellie started the Santa Cruz Friends Meeting, which first met in their living room on Miles Street. In the 1980s, Ellie was the local director of Witness for Peace, and she was involved in direct nonviolent action in Nicaragua.

She participated in many other nonviolent activist movements, including serving as co-founder and member of the Santa Cruz Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and as a member of the Salt and Pepper Shakers Affinity Group during the Lawrence Livermore anti-nuclear action in 1983. Most recently Ellie participated with the Raging Grannies, an international peace organization.

Surviving Ellie Foster is her beloved family, including her husband of 62 years, Herb Foster, sons Ken and David Foster, daughter-in-law Margo McBane, grandchildren Monica Foster, Onawa Foster-Tannheimer, Bard Foster, and Etta Foster, and great grand-children, Leticia and Kobe Allen. Ellie was preceded in death by her daughter, Joan Foster, in 1973.

Memorial services for Ellie Foster will be held Saturday May 28th 3 pm at the Santa Cruz Quaker Meeting (225 Rooney St, Santa Cruz). A potluck will follow. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Resource Center for Non-Violence: RCNV Donations, 515 Broadway, Santa Cruz, CA 95060; or American Friends Service Committee, 1501 Cherry St., Philadelphia, PA 19102(or online as gift in honor of a loved one: http://afsc.org/).

Linda's Hearth note: for folks not familiar with streets in City of Santa Cruz, Rooney St is off of Morrisey Blvd, DeLaveaga neighborhood.