Disclaimer: Content on the YP4 blog does not necessarily reflect the views of Young People For or People For the American Way Foundation. The views, ideas, statements or claims posted on this site by members of the public cannot in any way be attributed to either Young People For or People For the American Way Foundation.
Gray Panthers, Youth in Action, and the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (live blogging #USSF)
Here are summaries of some of the workshops I attended today:
Organizing Across Communities: Age & Youth in Action by the Gray Panthers of Metropolitan Washington
reporting from "ground zero" (live blogging US Social Forum #USSF)
2010 Midwest Regional Training
The Regional Training Session in Detriot, Michigan this past weekend (June 17th -20th) was phenonmenal. 27 Fellows representing states across the Midwest (Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois to name a few) came together to talk about their campus communities and the changes they wanted to see pushed forward.
Iraq is Not Detroit
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For most people--especially elected politicians--the title of this blog would seem fairly childish. Of course, Iraq is not Detroit; to compare the two would be living in a Republican dream, a place where Nancy did not hold a gavel and the President knew how to read.
Welcome to the zany world of Freshman Republican Rep. Tim Walberg. Congressman Walberg represents rural southern Michigan, and how proud they must be. He recently stated that "most of Iraq is at least as under control as Detroit is." (Drudge Report 3/22/07 Todd Spangler free press staff writer.)
Oh, where to even begin. The backlash was immediate and intense. The mayor's spokesman, Matt Allen, made his mandatory retaliation: "Any reference to Detroit as a war zone is absurd." Walberg's spokesman, Matt Lahr, countered that the congressman "frequently shares sentiments expressed to him by the soldiers and veterans he meets." Conveniently, he would not say whether any soldier had shared those sentiments.
I think what is most bothersome about the Congressman's talking points is the overall Republican agenda to sugar-coat everything that comes out of Iraq. To even compare Iraq, a country of 80 million people, to Detroit, a city of 951,270 people is grossly misguided. Whatever criminal problems Detroit might be having does not involve men getting passed checkpoints using children as decoys so they can then ignite explosives in densely populated areas throwing the baby out with the bath water--literally.