Last weekend the girls at the Clinton School of Public Service produced the Vagina Monologues. The men of the school wanted to show support while setting an example of how men can advocate for women’s rights and work towards stopping violence against women.
For those of you who haven’t been following Project Kinect, or missed it, last June a few of us went to Tuscaloosa to help with the tornadoes clean up after the earth shattering tornadoes went through on April 27th, 2011. One of my other outlets that I sometimes post in is my CNN iReport and last week I received this message. It was so wonderful receiving this email and getting confirmation that Tuscaloosa is on the upward end of these disasters. It is one thing to read this in the news and see tidbits in social media outlets, but to actually get to hear it directly from a resident is fantastic. Thank you for this email.
I just viewed your iReport of your last day in Tuscaloosa. Couldn’t help notice
how emotional you were, it was a very trying time, and continues to be. I
understand how you would think how the relief resources were letting people
down. No doubt, some victims fell through the cracks, but that was a catastrophe
that we haven’t seen on that scale in a century. I am NOT making excuses, living
here, however, I saw how the churches and just regular folks, like yourself came
and helped out. With the official relief organizations, they were lacking, but
the community and people from all over the country did their best to pick up the
slack. Hopefully you’ve followed the progress we’ve made since last June. There
are dozens of Facebook pages you can find info on. Most of the debris has been
clear, but it still twists my gut to drive through the affected areas. As the
mayor finally admitted, you couldn’t have picked a worse path, it cut through
some of the poorest sections of town. I just felt compelled to message you and
let you know that things have progressed, but no one will ever be the same after
that terrible day. I’d like to say thank you for coming down and helping and
documenting, the news networks took off when the EMS contained them to a small
area so they couldn’t go into the worst areas and film the dead bodies, which is
just disgraceful, on the reporters’ part, those are people’s family and friends.
All they seemed to be concerned with was the death toll, which is still
inaccurate for reasons I won’t get into. I took pics and video, and I still
haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it, was born and raised at DCH
hospital, the one you could see in the background, I balled like a baby when I
saw the destruction had been done. Check out Facebook, though, there are many
pages that show what good has been done since.
Here is the video that she was responding to.
In Mid-March, I was traveling through the south with some friends and this is one of the extraordinary moments that we experienced while we were letting ourselves get lost in the post-BP oilspill gulf….
Dauphin Island was a three hour unexpected surprise. When we got onto the island, we really had no idea what it was that we were looking for. We drove around, looked for any signage but didn’t see anything that was significant to Project Kinect. Then, once we were in line for the fairy, we found something of interest. The ferry pick up spot was also the location for the Saw Grass Point Marsh Shoreline and Habitat Restoration. Not only are they attempting to make precautions to save the shoreline, but they are also setting up cement barriers to slow down waves as well as help prevent and destruction from possible oil spills in the future.
These pictures are of the Shoreline and Habitat Restoration as well as Dauphin Island and the surrounding area. As you see, all the houses are on stilts in attempts to battle any future hurricanes. While we were driving through the area, we couldn’t help to notice how many homes were up for sale. In the last several years, this area has been hit by many hard storms as well as suffering from last year’s oil spill. With that and the economy, it makes for a bad equation. The residents that have been around for many years though are diehards and have no plans of moving anytime soon.
**All three links are different and have additional information to what is happening in this area. Please check them all out if you’re interested.
To get off of the island and get back on track of our journey toward Saint Petersburg, we took the Dauphin Ferry across to the eastern shoreline of Alabama. It really looks like an untouched part of the country that I’m afraid, because of the low cost of real-estate, will soon be developed and the natural beauty will be history. The final pictures are of this shoreline. I absolutely fell in love with this part of the country. I look forward to getting back there at some point soon after my journey.
As we looked back at the year 2011, we can’t help to look at the political climate over the year as well as the outrage that citizens had all over the country. Three months after the protests and demonstrations began in Madison, WI, I went for a walk with my friend Alyssa to check out what was happening in the middle of everything happening. Here is that post as well as the video we took.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to witness everything happening in Madison, WI in the months of February and March but when I arrived into Madison, I wanted to make sure I got the feeling of what was happening over those two months. Thankfully, my friend Alyssa was in the middle of it which made her the perfect tour guide for this video. As you watch it, keep in mind that it was the middle of winter, covered in snow with an average temperature of 26 degrees. Over those two months, there were hundreds of thousands of people with the largest protest maxing out at close to a hundred thousand people. That was the protest where the state farmers came to support and brought their tractors right up to the capital and drove around it the entire day.
Also keep in mind what this means to have a hundred thousand people in this space. Over the last five months, we have been reading and hearing about hundreds of protests in the Middle East from places like Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and so on. The protests in Madison were as large and in some moments, larger than those. Americans will rally too and we can’t forget what we can do when we come together.
In this video there are a couple references that are made and just in case you would like to check them out, here are a few links.
Last May when I was in St. Paul for the Minnesota AIDS walk, I took a moment to sit with Danny, the program assistant for the Out for Equity with the St. Paul school district. When we taped this, he was just ending the year with the program and was extremely happy after the successful year that Out for Equity had. Since we taped this video, Danny has taken a new position with the Humane Society. One of the things that I unfortunately had to edit out was his love for animals and so taking this new position is on Danny’s dream job list.
This edited version does share his love for the twin cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul, and why he feels at home here. Where we feel the most at home is an extremely large part of being able to be productive and creates a space where we can contribute the most to our community. This video of course, is ended with Danny’s definition of community. It is one of the main focal points of Project Kinect and we must always remind ourselves that we are a part of a community.
WE ARE ALL INVOLVED!!!
As many people already know, Andy Rooney, writer and 60 Minutes commentator, passed away on November 4th. I’ve been fascinated by him from a young age because of his straight forward, yet satirical point of the truth. I always felt like he was speaking to me directly, as many of us probably did, and I respected his ability to throw out what he was thinking and not remorse over any consequences. In life, we have to hear the truth in order to identify what we can work on and Andy Rooney told the truth so we could face it. Those people are so important to us as a community even if we love them or hate them. They work as our calibrators and help keep us on track, looking at what we’re doing and evaluating it. I just wanted to post a couple of my favorite 60 minutes moments of Mr. Rooney.
If you would like to read more about his like, here is the New York Times article on him as well as his Wikipedia link.
Andy Rooney on Sleeping
Andy Rooney on Finances
And Rooney’s final send off
Today Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks announced that he would like us not to donate to Washington and to find a different way to donate for the growth of our country. He has started a drive with bracelets at each Starbucks that 100% of the profit will go to a nonprofit that will provide small business loans. In another interview this morning with Howard Schultz, I heard him say “the old way of doing business just to make money is selfish and unacceptable today”. I feel that this is just the beginning of us seeing how some of the wealthy CEOs will be attempting to make our society better with the tools that they have. That really inspires me, and I hope it inspires others to further use the tools that we all have to better our country and our community.
WE ARE ALL INVOLVED!!!
I acknowledge my love for Starbucks and here are other stories that Project Kinect has done on Starbucks.
Unfortunately circumstances were that I could not make it to my friend’s, Steven and Brenna, wedding yesterday. The wedding was in Buffalo, Kansas and I am here in Wisconsin. This was due to me causing a human error and I am extremely sad because of it. I don’t often make clerical mistakes and this one cost me. What it did do was give me an emotional calibration to how much I really do love the people in my life and that even though we can deal with not being able to see them all the time doesn’t change how much you really care for them. It also doesn’t replace the fact that sometimes you really do need to have contact with those people. There is no substitute for actual human connection and we can never forget that. We are an animal that travels in herds and needs constant love and human contact to survive.
This is just a reminder to know who you want and need in you life and let them know. Connect with them. Listen to them. Love them. Most importantly though, be open to the people around you that you are unfamiliar with though because they sometimes will turn out to be of great value and weight in your life. Project Kinect is about how we work as a community and need that human connection to move our community forward in a positive direction forward. WE ARE ALL INVOLVED!!
No Man is an Island by John Donne
No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;
if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe
is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as
well as a manor of thy friends or of thine
own were; any man’s death diminishes me,
because I am involved in mankind.
And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
Today is day fifteen of Occupy Wall Street. This is a small movement that is growing exponentially not only in Manhatten, but through the whole of our country. Here is a list of what I could find for times and places for different protests throughout the country today and I will attempt to keep this updated frequently. This isn’t about politics, race, gender, sexual orientation but about the well being of the majority of our country. The more you get active, the more you learn about the entire situation and the more you can make your own decisions on what actions you take.
WE ARE ALL INVOLVED
Protests set for October 1st
Washington D.C.: McPhearson Square. I couldn’t find a time but I imagine people are already there. Occupy D.C.
Boston: Dewey Square, Occupy Boston
Chicago: I couldn’t find anything yet but my guess is near Michigan and Congress, Occupy Chicago
Dallas: Federal Reserve Building 2200 North Pearl Street. Occupy Dallas
Los Angeles: 10:00am Pershing Square, Occupy Los Angeles
Seattle: 10:00am-7pm, West Lake Center Plaza, Occupy Seattle
San Fransisco: Occupy San Fransisco
Also keep checking Occupy Together for the most up to date information for the entire country. I will keep adding as I can. Here is the footage from Susan Surandon. I really appreciate her sharing her views on how change starts from the bottom, not the top and that she is confident that we have “the tool kit to do this non-violently.” Thank you to bYarlboro for putting this video up in its whole.
For many of you following Project Kinect, you may know that when I returned from Tuscaloosa at the beginning of July, I found my pockets extremely empty so I picked up a summer job at Sprecher’s Restaurant & Pub in Wisconsin Dells. Our community in the Dells is extremely diverse and represents the most modern form of the melting pot in our country. I mentioned it briefly in this daily blog while I sat in Starbucks.
This video shares some of the lives of just a few of the amazing people that made my summer fantastic. From a Project Kinect standpoint, we need to remember that we, with all of our different backgrounds, views and environments can still accomplish great things while getting to know each other. The only way I can really say it is from the Project Kinect Mission:
A program that is focused solely on getting to know someone else: Either through conversation, service, or swinging door education.
WE ARE ALL INVOLVED!
