Steppin' Out Of Babylon: Radio Interviews

Max Rameau is an organizer of “Take Back the Land”. The organization is based in Florida where it started in Miami in the fall of 2006 and has since emerged as a national movement with affiliates in Atlanta, NYC, Boston, New Orleans, Washinton DC, Chicago, Madison, New Orleans, Toledo, Sacramento and Portland (Right to Survive). Take Back the Land holds the position that housing is a Human Right.At this time there are as many vacant homes as homeless families. Because this housing is available we should move homeless people into these unoccupied homes. But the real objective of building homes is not to house people but is to make a profit. So houses stay empty and people stay homeless. Take Back the Land identifies government owned homes that have been foreclosed and, without permission from banks or government, moves homeless people into them. Take Back the Land also supports other local groups who value humans over corporations in housing. They call themselves a “translocal movement”—facilitating the proces

David Chandler is a physics teacher, a Quaker peace activist, and an independent 9/11 researcher, active with Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth and on the board of the International Center for 9/11 Studies. He noticed that something was amiss with the way the buildings fell on 9/11 and did precise measurements of the motions associated with the building collapses and straightforwardly applied Newton's laws of motion to show what this implied about the forces at work.Chandler thinks that the free fall of the buildings is one of the clearest smoking guns for the use of explosives on 9/11. A paper describing his analysis can be found online at the Journal of 9/11 Studies. Chandler's' analysis proves that approximately 90% of the structural support had to have been removed from the North Tower for it to come down with constant downward acceleration as it did. Building 7 (the third building to undergo rapid, total destruction on the evening of 9/11) came down at absolute freefall as well so that also had to

David Cobb is a community organizer and attorney living in Eureka, CA when he's not on the road sharing his concerns and organizing for a more democratic USA. He has run for president on the Green Party ticket in the past. Presently he is a leader of the group Democracy Unlimited of Humbolt County, a group which is working toward leading a non-violent grassroots uprising to make democracy real and legal in the United States. Democracy Unlimited’s present focus toward legalized democracy is a response in particular to the recent Supreme Court decision that gives corporations the same rights as an individual. In the past, if a person’s constitutional rights were being infringed upon, that person could go to the court system and find relief. However, with the January 2010 Supreme Court decision, now corporations have that same right as well. This means that now any effort to control the corporation’s conduct through legislation is subject to being overturned in court. Cobb says this particular legislation giving

The MOVE organization was started in the 1972 by John Africa and included members from different religions, race and gender but all were cemented by the belief that nothing is more important than life. The members of MOVE staged demonstrations at institutions they felt exploited life on earth, including circuses and zoos, chemical plants that were polluting our water, and homes for the elderly where residents were not being treated with respect. The police didn't appreciate the protests and reacted with brutality and bombings many times over. This brutality came to a head twice in MOVE's forty year history -- once in August of 1978 and again in May of 1985. Both times homes and lives were lost in the fight. In 1978, police officer James Ramp was killed. Nine members of the MOVE organization were convicted of the murder and, over thirty years later are still in jail. In 1985, the police came to the new MOVE house under the guise of following up on complaints by neighbors. The police tried to remove the MOVE me

Dr. Michael Fry, a wildlife toxicologist, is the Director of Conservation Advocacy at American Bird Conservancy and the Committee Chairman for the Federal Advisory Committee for Minerals Management Service. He says the EPA (Environmental Protections Agency) began developing technology 14 years ago with which it is just now beginning to test the chemicals all around us that are, as Dr Fry explains "endocrine interfering" chemicals which, though they are rarely mentioned, can have huge affects on humans and other animals and their endocrine systems (eg., gender development). He mentions that plastics are a major source of our contacts with these chemicals. Plastics numbered 3, 6 and 7 are toxic and should be avoided. Plastics numbered 2, 4 and 5 are non-toxic.On another matter, Dr. Fry explains some risk involved with wind as an alternate energy method. The problem is that windy places are also places where birds are. At Altamont Pass--east of San Francisco-- 1000 golden eagles and 1700 hawks and owls have been

As a child Musikka suffered from congenital cataracts, which developed into glaucoma after several surgeries. She began using marijuana to treat this condition despite the opinion of her ophthalmologist who felt that she should have surgery instead. Musikka chose to have the surgery on one eye, while continuing to treat the glaucoma using marijuana, obtained illegally to treat her other eye. She was in constant fear of getting arrested and losing her children, but the marijuana was working. By 1987 the eye she was having surgery on was blind and Musikka was arrested for possession of marijuana. By this point her children had left home for college. The press was alerted to the story and followed every move from her arrest to her trial. At the trial, Dr. Palmberg convinced the judge that no marijuana for Musikka would be a “life sentence to blindness.”On August 15, 1988 Musikka was acquitted. Later that same year she was enrolled in an experimental program run by the Federal Government that annually supplies he

Terry Hurst had ridden his bicycle from Salt Lake City, Utah to Eugene, Oregon when Sue Supriano met him. His destination was the San Francisco Bay Area. He’s a Board Member of the Mestizo Center of Culture and Arts in Salt Lake City—a nonprofit culture and arts organization on the west side of Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City is very ethnically diverse. Hurst’s neighborhood is 45% Latino, 3% Native Amer., 3% African American, 8% Pacific Islander, 6% Asian and 30% Caucasian. There are also many refugees—Tibetan, Vietnamese, Serbian and Ruandan. Of course these groups, including the GLBT population have their own churches, temples and centers.etc.—just in his neighborhood. The truth is that this diversity is the model for the US. Hurst believes that when you see people as the problems you build more jails and more “at risk” programs. When people are seen as the solutions you build more businesses, banks, community gardens and green programs for the neighborhood. Since the latter is the attitude of the organizers

Ian Hill is the founder and CEO of Oregon based Sequential Biofuels which consists of both a biofuel production company, producing a yearly five and a half million gallons of fuel, including ethanol, in the plant in Salem, OR and a filling station in Eugene, Oregon. At the time that Hill came from Tennessee to Oregon there was no demand for biofuel. After lots of study and believing that of the advantages of the lower carbon emissions of biofuels, and using recycled oil for the fuel would be a factor in making the world a better place SeQuential Biofuel was founded in 2002. Ninety percent of the fuel is made from recycled cooking oil which is very important to make this fuel sustainable without the many down sides of using land for growing fuel instead of food. Hill believes that we humans have ruined our own nest and feels strongly about not further perpetuating that model. The Eugene filling station is the first and only of its kind in that it is a passive solar building that uses 35% less energy than most

Jan Spencer lives in Eugene, Oregon where he is an elder activist for more sustainable living as well as an artist . In this interview we talk about the transformation of his standard ranch style house with a medium sized yard into a permaculture paradise producing lots of food, biological richness and beauty. Spencer says “permaculture is a big toolbox designing interrelated systems that work with each other and enhance the positive functioning of the larger system. It can apply to any region from one’s backyard to the world. It takes in economics, the larger system, the environment and the person designing the system. It can change the whole world for the better and much of it is using our common sense which too often we’ve lost track of. Spencer rides a bike, leads tours of Eugene neighborhoods for others who he encourages to be on bikes as well, gives talks and works tirelessly to bring people’s attention to the “system” that tends not to be good for us and encourages others to make important changes in t

Jyoti is the Spiritual Director of the or California based Center for Sacred Studies which is, among other things, sponsoring and supporting the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. The Center for Sacred Studies is in the mountains of N. California. It is a place for people to pray in whatever form they wish and much of their prayer is to heal and transform the history of violence against the Native Miwok and other Native people who were driven off their lands. One of the elders of Jyoti's larger international community, Kayumari, brought a message that one of the main purposes of the Center is to preserve different lines of prayer. Jyoti went to Africa to learn about the Iboga plant and there she met Bernadette Rebienot who is now one of the Grandmothers on the Council. Bernadette had made contact with the ayahausceros of the Amazon—ayahausca and iboga both being "plant" medicine/teachers that come out of the pharmacy of the earth. The people from the South American Amazon and Africa ne

Mary Wood is a Professor of Environmental Law at the University of Oregon School of Law. She calls the issue of climate change a "planetary emergency" and a matter of survival. Her idea is that it is crucial for the U.S. Government to hold the environment in public trust for the future of our children. Wood states that since it’s unclear whether we’re now past the “tipping point of no return”. Our best hope at survival is to act like we haven't past it and continue to try to lessen the negative effects of climate change. However it is clear that we will be over the tipping point very very soon if we don’t radically reduce our carbon emissions. Climate scientists are saying our carbon pollution will produce a “transformed planet” and it is a threat to humanity and to civilization as we know it. Wood challenges every parent to look their children in the eyes and know that our actions NOW will affect our children and all of life on the planet as we know it.Wood wants to re-frame the issue and say that the enviro

Trask has represented Native Hawaiians in the United Nations and various other global forums. She is the author of several books of poetry and nonfiction, an activist and outspoken advocate for the Hawaiian sovereignty movement (ke ea Hawai‘i), which consists of organizations and individuals seeking some form of sovereignty for Hawaii.In this interview she speaks of the ailing economy in the Hawaiian Islands and the negative effects of Hawaii’s tourism industry on the welfare of the Hawaiian people. She refers to the huge United States military presence in Hawaii and its devastating effects on self-determination and self-governance for people of whole or part native Hawaiian ancestry in their homeland. Hawaii is not surprisingly experiencing the effects of the economic collapse of the US and the wider world. Trask thinks its very sad that rather than planting food in these sunny, fertile islands with a year round growing season, too many local people are focused on getting more tourists to come to Hawaii. She

Media activist David Weisman from the California organization Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility (www.a4nr.org) reminds us that the negative effects of nuclear energy far outweigh the benefits. He recaps the problems experienced by such reactors as Diablo Canyon, Rancho Seco and the Three Mile Island meltdown and release of radiation. The problems that these older reactors had have not been solved since those times, and we run the risk of repeating them. Human error can have serious consequences at reactors, as was seen at Three Mile Island. Disposal options for dangerous “spent fuel” the negative effects of which last for millions of years, are still limited to storage in low-population areas such as Nevada, where there are already problems with contamination of soil and water. Contact with plutonium and nuclear waste result in deadly serious health problems including cancer. Another issue to consider is the security threat posed by countries moving to weapons manufacturing after establishing nuclear power

Riki Ott is a marine pollution scientist, author and activisit. She speaks here about her recent book Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in 1989 in Prince William Sound, Alaska. In this interview, she goes beyond the damage caused by oil tanker spills and by the oil industry as a whole (through extraction and automobile exhaust) to look at the bigger picture: how corporations are able to amass money and power, which in turn are destroying democracy. Ott speaks about how the courts ordered the Exxon Corporation to pay economic compensation to the citizens affected by the spill – for example, the pink salmon and herring industries collapsed – but the emotional cost of the spill, the damage done to Native culture and the way of life in Cordova, were not considered a “real” loss.Ott began to realize that the issue was greater than an oil spill: the crux of the matter is that corporations are granted human rights which are allowed to tr

Grandmother Agnes Pilgrim Baker, the oldest living member of the Takilma Siletz nation of Southern Oregon, is the Chairperson of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. The Grandmothers who are from Brazil, Nepal, Africa, Mexico, Tibet, Japan, the U.S. etc. travel all over the world sharing the knowledge, wisdom and hope gained through a lifetime of experience. Grandmother Aggie speaks on behalf of all Grandparents, and all those who would learn from indigenous, inherited knowledge in these times and will light our way through the uncertain future. She describes the Council, their mission, and some of their many adventures. She speaks passionately to the Elders of every society and to us all; calling us to greater action, appreciation, and gratitude for the world in which we live.From meeting with the Dalai Lama to agitating in the Vatican City, the Grandmothers stand as a reminder of the knowledge and prayers that we desperately need in our time for the healing of Mother Earth and her inhabi

Alexis Zeigler, author of Culture Change: Civil Liberty, Peak Oil and the End of Empire, takes a broad and integrated view of economy, ecology, culture and politics to propose a deeper truth about our current civilization. We have subscribed to a top-down “mental” view of societal change while for the most part ignoring the ecological and economic underpinnings that drive change from below. Zeigler uses the example of the women’s movement in this country, which has not been a linear trajectory towards liberation, but rather has had ups and downs which have been tied to the need for women’s economic contribution to society. He speaks about the efforts to control women’s sexuality by the anti-abortion movement as a symptom of increased restrictions.Zeigler observes that civilizations generally achieve the peak of democracy at the height of their colonial power and he sees the shift to an economy not based on growth, which is crucial, also as a time of potential restrictions to civil liberties. We are in trouble

A veteran war-tax resistor, who wishes to remain nameless, talks about her twenty-year history beneath the radar of the Federal government. Living in anonymity, the Resistor has paid only $35 to the government since her decision not to pay war taxes. She is independently employed and rather than doing her taxes in April, she calculates what she would owe and uses the money to benefit the community directly, through loans, grants, and other support for under-represented citizens.The Resistor is active in the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee. While these resistors have all chosen to protest the government’s funding of violence, there is diversity in both tactics and motivation. The Resistor maintains that they are not protesting taxes, but advocating for citizens to conscientiously object to paying for war. As the Resistor states, “bodies and money are the requirements for war. To pay for murder is to murder.”The Resistor argues that the benefits of this lifestyle choice outweigh the risks. Fe

David Bacon explains that what the US government and the governments of other rich industrialized countries do through their actions and policies towards poorer and developing countries is, in fact, designed to benefit the economies and large corporations of those “developed” countries and that these actions and policies often lead to what he refers to as “forced migration”. The policies of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) are terrible for working people of poor countries. In fact, the workers in both North and South America lost out with NAFTA. Workers in the U.S. lost when 800 jobs went to Mexico and Mexico lost a million jobs. Another way in which NAFTA creates poverty, for example, is that it allows U.S. corporations such as the huge food corporation of Archer Daniel Midlands to dump its products on the Mexican market at a very low price thus undercutting the price of local corn that has been grown by s¬¬mall farmers for centuries. As a result the local

Kathy Kelly is a nonviolent peace activist, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, now renamed-- Voices for Creative Nonviolence, and an active participant in the Catholic Workers. Since 1996 she has been involved in matters of Iraq and since 2006 has been living and working with Iraqi people in Jordan. At the time of this interview she was working to help Iraqis who have come to the U.S. In this interview Kelly remarks how protective and concerned American families can be about their children and that Iraqi families are the same. However due to the commonness of death threats, family members in prison, houses being destroyed, dealing constantly with multiple traumas and symptoms of post traumatic stress syndrome etc., it’s an immense challenge to stay calm and positive. People get through the days by drawing on wells of deep courage. It is by taking inspiration from the others around her that Kelly personally keeps going with her work in war zones and her time in prison.Kelly speaks about the plans for the Voi

Leonardo Cerdo, a young indigenous Ecuadorian, has been an activist since he was nine years old. He works with issues of the terrible environmental and human health issues in Ecuador caused by Shell, Texaco and Chevron who have been drilling for oil in Ecuador for thirty years or more, mostly in the northern part of the Amazon region. For twenty years people were afraid and not allowed to speak up until recently. Due to the extensive and horrible effects of oil development, many groups are now speaking up against the companies as they move south causing terrible skin, breathing, pregnancy problems and very, very high cancer rates for children as well as adults. Where the oil companies go there are swamps filled with toxic water and huge toxic pits--all together more than the size of Manhattan. Now people need medicines to battle these new sicknesses with pharmaceuticals (for which they need money) since their local plant herbal remedies are also polluted. People’s life styles have changed and are more money c