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Women disarmed by DC gun control, bike against government failure, tragedy of the commons

17 Oct





















FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Renee Davidson Communications Director Collective Action for Safe Spaces renee@collectiveactiondc.org

Over 250 DC Women Expected to Participate in Grassroots Anti-Harassment Bike Event This Saturday, 10/19“19th Amendment Alleycat” will benefit local anti-street harassment group, Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)
Washington, DC — This Saturday, October 19, over 250 women are expected to participate in “19th Amendment Alleycat,” or what might be the District’s first all-women alleycat. Organized by two women bikers who are active in the city’s cycling community, the grassroots event aims to help women feel comfortable and confident on the DC streets, especially when faced with public sexual harassment. The event offers a unique spin on alleycats, or “urban checkpoint races” which are similar to scavenger hunts and are traditionally dominated by men. Registration is $5 and benefits Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), a local grassroots group that works to empower people in the DC metropolitan area to build a community free from public sexual harassment and assault.

Less about speed and more about strategy, the 19th Amendment Alleycat will include checkpoints throughout the city that center around events and locations related to DC’s role in the women’s rights movement. Participants will also be able to enter a raffle to win prizes from a range of sponsors. Male allies are encouraged to volunteer at check-points and join participants at the finish for a raffle (see raffle sponsors below) and an official after party.

“The 19th Amendment Alleycat aims to help raise awareness and foster dialogue about public sexual harassment, which is a widespread problem that severely limits women’s safety and restricts their mobility,” said CASS’s founder and executive director, Chai Shenoy. A study by CASS conducted this summer found that 90 percent of respondents report experiencing public sexual harassment in DC, including verbal harassment, leering, stalking and groping. “Since CASS was founded in 2009, we’ve received hundreds of stories of street harassment faced by DC residents, including by female bikers,” said Shenoy, pointing to stories of women being forced to change their bike routes to avoid sexual harassment, fearing sexual assaults along local bike trails and being stalked and dangerously harassed by strangers in cars. The event comes exactly one week after a similar all-women’s cycling event was held in Cairo, Egypt, in response to public sexual harassment.

In preparation for the DC alleycat, CASS collected stories of sexual harassment faced by women cyclists, as well as statements on how biking helps women feel empowered. “At the same time that women cyclists often face street harassment, biking can be very empowering, and we look forward to women reclaiming the streets of DC this Saturday,” said Shenoy.

Sponsors and those donating items and raffle prizes to the 19th Amendment Alleycat include: Retail: All-City Cycle, Anhaica Bag Works, Ass Savers, Fabric Horse, Fiks:Reflective, Harlot Clothing Co., Knog, Kozie Prery, Oury Grips USA, Po Campo, Pure Fix Cycles, Road Runner Bags, Rockinoggins, Vaya Bags; Local Bike Shops: BicycleSPACE, CycleLife USA, Proteus Bicycles, The Bike Rack, Velocity Bicycle, Cooperative; Food and Bev: Honest Tea, KIND Bars; With support from: The Bike House, WABA Women & Bicycles.
The 19th Amendment Alleycat will begin at 2:00pm Saturday, October 19th, at Meridian Hill Park in NW DC. The event will last approximately two hours and will culminate with an official after party. Interested parties should RSVP on Facebook. More information can be found on CASS’s website: www.collectiveactiondc.org.
###
Founded in 2009 as HollaBackDC!, Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) works to empower people in the DC metropolitan area to build a community free from public sexual harassment and assault. It does this through both online and offline activism, including workshops, innovative direct services, policy advocacy, and community outreach. Volunteer-led and -run, CASS utilizes the creativity and energy of the DC community to further its mission and vision. Follow CASS on Facebook and on Twitter.
Renee D. Davidson
Communications Director
Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)
[e]  reneeddavidson@gmail.com  

[w] www.collectiveactiondc.org
[t]  @SafeSpacesDC & @reneetheorizes

Take action to help empower people in the DC Metro area to build a community free from sexual harassment & assault.

Women bikers seeks to address government failure in providing safety in public spaces

17 Oct

October 17, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEContact: Renee Davidson Communications Director Collective Action for Safe Spaces renee@collectiveactiondc.org

Over 250 DC Women Expected to Participate in Grassroots Anti-Harassment Bike Event This Saturday, 10/19“19th Amendment Alleycat” will benefit local anti-street harassment group, Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)
Washington, DC — This Saturday, October 19, over 250 women are expected to participate in “19th Amendment Alleycat,” or what might be the District’s first all-women alleycat. Organized by two women bikers who are active in the city’s cycling community, the grassroots event aims to help women feel comfortable and confident on the DC streets, especially when faced with public sexual harassment. The event offers a unique spin on alleycats, or “urban checkpoint races” which are similar to scavenger hunts and are traditionally dominated by men. Registration is $5 and benefits Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS), a local grassroots group that works to empower people in the DC metropolitan area to build a community free from public sexual harassment and assault.

Less about speed and more about strategy, the 19th Amendment Alleycat will include checkpoints throughout the city that center around events and locations related to DC’s role in the women’s rights movement. Participants will also be able to enter a raffle to win prizes from a range of sponsors. Male allies are encouraged to volunteer at check-points and join participants at the finish for a raffle (see raffle sponsors below) and an official after party.

“The 19th Amendment Alleycat aims to help raise awareness and foster dialogue about public sexual harassment, which is a widespread problem that severely limits women’s safety and restricts their mobility,” said CASS’s founder and executive director, Chai Shenoy. A study by CASS conducted this summer found that 90 percent of respondents report experiencing public sexual harassment in DC, including verbal harassment, leering, stalking and groping. “Since CASS was founded in 2009, we’ve received hundreds of stories of street harassment faced by DC residents, including by female bikers,” said Shenoy, pointing to stories of women being forced to change their bike routes to avoid sexual harassment, fearing sexual assaults along local bike trails and being stalked and dangerously harassed by strangers in cars. The event comes exactly one week after a similar all-women’s cycling event was held in Cairo, Egypt, in response to public sexual harassment.

In preparation for the DC alleycat, CASS collected stories of sexual harassment faced by women cyclists, as well as statements on how biking helps women feel empowered. “At the same time that women cyclists often face street harassment, biking can be very empowering, and we look forward to women reclaiming the streets of DC this Saturday,” said Shenoy.

Sponsors and those donating items and raffle prizes to the 19th Amendment Alleycat include: Retail: All-City Cycle, Anhaica Bag Works, Ass Savers, Fabric Horse, Fiks:Reflective, Harlot Clothing Co., Knog, Kozie Prery, Oury Grips USA, Po Campo, Pure Fix Cycles, Road Runner Bags, Rockinoggins, Vaya Bags; Local Bike Shops: BicycleSPACE, CycleLife USA, Proteus Bicycles, The Bike Rack, Velocity Bicycle, Cooperative; Food and Bev: Honest Tea, KIND Bars; With support from: The Bike House, WABA Women & Bicycles.
The 19th Amendment Alleycat will begin at 2:00pm Saturday, October 19th, at Meridian Hill Park in NW DC. The event will last approximately two hours and will culminate with an official after party. Interested parties should RSVP on Facebook. More information can be found on CASS’s website: www.collectiveactiondc.org.
###
Founded in 2009 as HollaBackDC!, Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS) works to empower people in the DC metropolitan area to build a community free from public sexual harassment and assault. It does this through both online and offline activism, including workshops, innovative direct services, policy advocacy, and community outreach. Volunteer-led and -run, CASS utilizes the creativity and energy of the DC community to further its mission and vision. Follow CASS on Facebook and on Twitter.

Renee D. Davidson
Communications Director
Collective Action for Safe Spaces (CASS)
[e]  reneeddavidson@gmail.com  

[w] www.collectiveactiondc.org
[t]  @SafeSpacesDC & @reneetheorizes

Take action to help empower people in the DC Metro area to build a community free from sexual harassment & assault.

__._,_.___

Ayn Rand attracts cowardly rapists

12 Oct
Not as fans, but as critics.  Endless little nerd boys who will never have a real thought or write anything of significance will always, like Pavlov’s dogs, come a running to desecrate Ayn Rand’s bones.  And leftover websites with flagging traffic luv to publish pay per view cyber gang rapes of her corpse.

The authors, from David Sirota at Salon to this little unknown at gothamist, are always nerdy males.  And they always are much more hostile, abusive, and derisive when speaking about Ayn Rand than they are writing about any male author.  It’s all rather obvious.

Why Isn’t The Government Protecting Us From This Ayn Rand Play?

10813Anthem2.jpg 
Matthew Lieff Christian as EQUALITY 7-2521, Courtesy of Carol Rosegg
Opening this week at the Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Jerome Robbins Theater is the Austin Shakespeare Theatre Company’s performance of Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, which maybe you read in high school. The play was adapted and composed by Jeff Britting, the curator of the Ayn Rand Archives at the Ayn Rand Institute in Ayn Rand Irvine, California.
This press release summary will get you up to speed:

“Anthem is the story of a young man, EQUALITY 7-2521, who is born into a future world that has banished all individuality. Not satisfied with a world lighted by candles, EQUALITY fosters his love of discovery in an abandoned subway, a relic of the past. In solitude, EQUALITY rediscovers electricity and a new source of light. Above ground he meets and falls in love with LIBERTY 5-3000, committing a further ‘sin of preference.'”

The story is written from EQUALITY 7-2521’s perspective and shown in the play through a series of vignettes. Only plural pronouns like “we” are used and the Unspeakable Word is punishable by death. (Can you guess what it is?) He is assigned to work as a street sweeper. He hangs with his street sweeping pal and talented artist friend, INTERNATIONAL 4-8818. Striving for something more, EQUALITY 7-2521 tries to present his light bulb to the World Council of Scholars convening in his town. They are not pleased and reject his act as treasonous. He eventually escapes, runs into LIBERTY 5-3000, who also ran away, finds shelter and books, learns the the Unspeakable Word (“I”), and (in the book) renames himself Prometheus.
Some background on Rand: Rand was born in 1905 and emigrated into the States in 1926. She was raised in St. Petersburg, coming of age during the the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and despised Communism. Her father’s pharmacy was put under government control, causing her family to leave the city. They bounced around the country and she studied at a couple universities before coming to America where she began working as a screenwriter.
10813anthem5.jpg 
EQUALITY 7-2521 and LIBERTY 5-3000, played by Sophia Lauwers, Courtesy of Carol Rosegg
Rand’s bourgeois status was her birthright and her burden. Born into the aristocracy about to be thrown out, Rand took issue with that which would threaten it. She went on to write, among other things, The Fountainheadand Atlas Shrugged, and continued to develop her “philosophy” called Objectivism. Rand believed that collectivism killed entrepreneurial creativity through disingenuous ethical/moral justifications, and that the pursuit of individual happiness/wealth/whatever was the supreme moral purpose of life. Rand proclaimed that the only system that protects the rights of the individual is “full, pure, uncontrolled, unregulated laissez-faire” capitalism.Emphasis added for effect. After all, Rand was born into a wealthy, successful upper-middle class family. If she could make it, why can’t you?
And so that is the context for the play. It’s all framed by the considerable force of Rand’s beliefs, pedantically bludgeoning the audience with a fictional world meant to appear stunningly prescient —Oh my god she was right…I can see it all around me! Absolutely nothing is lost is translation; everything is by design loaded with meaning. He names himself Prometheus at the end because he invented light. Do you understand?
School was too easy for EQUALITY 7-2521. He wasn’t challenged and wasn’t allowed to be challenged. “It’s not good to be different from your brothers,” a Council elder tells him, “But it is evil to be superior.” Broad strokes. The society is oppressive and total, ruled in secret, with standardized and efficient biological reproduction. Women are brought to the House of Mating, raped, impregnated, and then separated from their children. LIBERTY 5-3000 was brought to the House and managed to escape. Upon reuniting with EQUALITY 7-2521, she reassures him they didn’t defile her. EQUALITY 7-2521 is relieved. It’s a weird moment that leaves you uncomfortably wondering what would have happened had she been raped. Would she be ruined, a tainted good, for EQUALITY 7-2521?
There is talk of the Unmentionable Times, filled with evils like “wagons that moved without horses,” and light without fire. This repressive society is anti-technological, afraid of development. When EQUALITY 7-2521 presents his light to the Council, he hopes that it will lighten the toils of man. His justification for technological innovation is that it will make work easier. There’s a joke about how it took 20 years to implement and standardize the production and operation of candles in society. I guess it’s an indictment of bureaucracy.
Ultimately [SPOILER ALERT?] [LOL], LIBERTY 5-3000 AND EQUALITY 7-2521 escape the city and find a home. “We can kill more birds, more than we need,” EQUALITY says. Unrestrained, interminable consumption. Everyone can take more than they need, always, endlessly, without regard. What’s a few more dead birds?
The staging was nice, if only because it distracted you from the diatribe. A large video screen played clips and served as a shifting set as actors traversed the open area dotted with spotlights. The actors did what they could with the dialogue adapted from the story, but couldn’t shake the clunkiness. If EQUALITY 7-2521 and LIBERTY 5-3000 seem a little stilted to you, just imagine how they sound read aloud. Earnestly.
Anthem is the subject of one of the most popular high-school essay contests for a reason. Nonexistent nuance, simple themes, conventional tropes and devices, a straight-forward epistolary plot. I would agree that you should judge it as a straight-up work of fiction.
But it’s nearly impossible to approach the work itself, or a theatrical adaptation, as an object of critique in itself because Rand chose to unsubtly perpetuate her beliefs through bad fiction. Not a particularly astounding writer, the result is just ham-fisted propaganda for capitalism. There are more than just passing similarities between her and L. Ron Hubbard. It makes sense that conservative zealots like Paul Ryan were inspired to be a politician by her work.
Britting believes that “the principle ethical-political issue in Anthem—and of our time—is individualism versus collectivism. Is the individual the primary element of society, or is the group the basis of society? The play poses the questions: Do individuals have the right to think and choose their own goals in life and pursue their own happiness? Or do the wishes of society determine the goals of individual lives, and is service to others the primary moral obligation among men?”
The above question has the double distinction of being a false equivalency and a purely vacuous ideological question. Yes, individuals have the right to think, for Christ’s sake, and choose their own goals.
In that spirit, here’s a good thought exercise: If you had to choose between the world of Anthem and a just-as-dystopic opposite (let’s say, instead of government there’s a system of rule based on pure capitalist economics), what would you pick? And why?
Britting said that he wants the play to be provocative because he believes (like Paul Ryan does) that “the world is going to end up at some point in the future like the world of Anthem, and that’s a very real practical problem.”
Well, the Soviet Union fell and big scary Cold War Communism mostly disappeared. Capitalism “won,” but where has it led us? To the largest socio-economic gap in recent history; to widespread unemployment; to a weak economy recovering from a financial collapse orchestrated in part by speculative derivative risk trading and predatory loan practices; to a couple decades of extreme deregulation, a massive taxpayer-funded bailout for those same institutions; and to a global economic system of exploitation, beset regularly by instability, dotted with conflicts on nearly every continent.
Our arms ache and the skies are empty: We are really good at killing birds.
If Rand’s opinions didn’t pretend to operate as legitimate philosophy, her work is immediately rendered more fun and insignificant. She was no writer, but she was even less of a philosopher. If Objectivism couldn’t gain traction beyond small circles of self-serving elites and earnest frat boys during the Reagan-era, why should we pay any attention to it now?
Anthem is running until December 1st at the Baryshnikov Arts Center at 450 West 37th Street. Tickets actually will cost you $69.00-$89.00. I repeat, they are charging $70 dollars for this production. More information can be found here.
Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.
By Marc Yearsley in  on Oct 9, 2013 11:15 AM

Don’t let your daughters work for the White House, or Congress or the DOD…

4 Jun
…or the fire department.

Apparently government employees are so used to taking tax money, the teachers can’t not take kids and the bureaucrats can’t refrain from trying to take bodies. (Full disclosure: I live in the building pictured in the background and have to walk by and could be dependent on, this fire station.)

Sexual assault allegation at DC fire station being investigated

By Matt Ackland, @mattackland – bio
WASHINGTON –

D.C. police are conducting a sexual assault investigation which allegedly took place inside a firehouse.
The alleged victim is a female firefighter who says she was inappropriately touched while she slept early Friday morning at the 2225 M Street firehouse in Northwest D.C.
A police report reveals the victim says she felt an unknown suspect touching her inner thigh which woke her up.
The D.C. fire department is also conducting its own internal investigation to find out if the female firefighter’s report of the alleged incident to her immediate supervisors was then passed on to police and administrators within the fire department in a timely manner.
Four firefighters have been placed on administrative duties pending the result of the investigation.
The alleged victim remains on the job.
Local 36, which represent the firefighters involved, issued this statement:
“We are watching this situation closely and are concerned anytime there are such allegations. Local 36 represents all of the firefighters and urges the department to conduct a thorough investigation in a timely manner that is fair to all.”

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/22490316/sexual-assault-allegation-at-dc-fire-station-being-investigated#ixzz2VFjRTsdH
Follow us: @myfoxdc on Twitter | myfoxdc on Facebook

Chavez critics indefinitely detained, raped

6 Mar

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Hugo Chávez’s treatment of his opponents will come under renewed scrutiny this week at the trial of a woman judge who was arrested for handing down a ruling that angered the Venezuelan leader, and was then allegedly raped while behind bars.

Maria Lourdes Afiuni’s case has become a rallying point for human rights campaigners who accuse President Chavez’s government of abuses. Noam Chomsky, the American linguist and political activist often cited by the veteran Socialist leader as a source of inspiration, is among those who have called for Ms Afiuni, 49, to be freed.
The saga began in 2009 when the judge granted bail to a banker facing trial on charges of subverting the nation’s currency controls. Angered by the move, the government had her arrested. Mr Chavez – who yesterday announced he was returning to Cuba for more medical treatment following his cancer therapy there – ranted on national television that she should face 30 years in prison for making the ruling. The President, who was elected in October to a fourth, six-year term in office, also called the judge a “bandit”.
Ms Afiuni, who has been in pre-trial dentition for nearly three years, latterly under house arrest, has repeatedly protested her innocence and refuses to co-operate with prosecutors or appear in court. A new criminal code, which allows for defendants to be prosecuted in absentia, could allow her trial to begin as early as today.
A book published last week claimed that, in addition to being wrongly imprisoned, Ms Afiuni was raped in a women’s jail near the capital, Caracas, in 2010 and then had an abortion. The account was confirmed by her lawyer, who claimed Mr Chavez was informed of the rape but took no action.
“Neither the President personally, nor the government, did anything,” Jose Amalio Graterol told The New York Times. “The mistreatment of Ms Afiuni continued.” He said she was cut with blades and burnt with cigarette butts. The rape was not made public earlier for fear that doing so would be psychologically harmful to Ms Afiuni, he said, adding that the decision to reveal it now was an act of courage.
Another of Ms Afiuni’s lawyers, Thelma Fernandez, demanded an investigation to identify those responsible for the rape. She reiterated that the government was informed about the incident, and details were also conveyed to the UN, the Associated Press reported.
Officials in Caracas have denied the claims in the book The Commandante’s Prisoner by Francisco Olivares, a Venezuelan journalist who worked with Ms Afiuni’s co-operation. Isabel Gonzalez, a former director of the prison where the judge was held, has called for an inquiry into the claims, which she denies. She also plans to sue for libel.
As the Afiuni case comes to trial, opposition politicians are compiling a list of prisoners they believe have been wrongly detained, and of exiles they say should be allowed to return home. On Friday, Congressman Edgar Zambrano said the list ran to 22 prisoners and 87 exiles.