After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town just south of Austin), is African-American, and what gives her vote some historic punch is that she's 109 years old. Her father was a slave. Her mother was born right after Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. She's been through it all--Jim Crow segregation, women's suffrage, the Great Depression, the poll tax, FDR, the civil-rights movement, desegregation, 13 years of George W (five as guv, eight as prez), and now: Barack Obama. This last change fills her with joy, she says.
Do something!
Wednesday, August 1, 2001
Posted by Jim Hightower
Posted by Jim Hightower
INFORMATION: Global Trade Watch (www.tradewatch.org; 215 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20003; 202-546-4611) is the public's No. 1 trade-scheme watchdog. You can get the full text of the 76-page "Down on the Farm" report from their website.
LEGISLATION: The key challenge this fall is to keep Congress from giving Bush "fast- track" authority. Fast-track is a euphemism for "railroading." It would allow the president to shove secretly negotiated deals like FTAA through Congress with practically no debate and no amendments allowed. The Bushites have relabeled it "trade negotiating authority," but by either name it stinks. To know where your Congress critters stand and what to do about it, contact Global Trade Watch.
AGITATION: The next big demonstrations against corporate globalization will be in Washington, DC, at the September 27-29 meeting of the IMF and World Bank. Contact the Mobilization for Global Justice (www.globalizethis.org/s30/; 202-265-7714) for more information and to get involved.
