The film chronicles the life story of late radical civil rights lawyer, William Kuntsler. Produced and directed by Kuntsler’s daughters Emily and Sarah, this powerful film recounts the historic causes that Kunstler fought for and reveals a man who risked public outrage and the safety of his family so that justice could serve all.

The film will open at the Cable Car Cinema, in Providence, RI on Friday, November 27th and has been extended for the third week in a row at Cinema Village in New York City. To see if your city has been added to the list, visit disturbingtheuniverse.com

Sarah Kuntsler and Emily Kuntsler recently returned home from openings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Berkeley. Here are links to some of the reveiws:

LA Times Review
LA Times Feature
SF Chronicle Feature
SF Examiner Review
Seattle Times

See the trailer here

]]> http://sherizampelli.com/blog/2009/11/disturbing-the-universe-opened-in-7-us-cities/feed/ 0 http://sherizampelli.com/blog/2009/09/handlebars-by-flobots/ http://sherizampelli.com/blog/2009/09/handlebars-by-flobots/#comments Sun, 06 Sep 2009 05:31:53 +0000 Gal VanIZed http://sherizampelli.com/blog/?p=2011

The Flobots understand the power of music on the masses and they use this power wisely. I recently joined them at fightwithtools.org. It’s a great place to meet music-loving, peace-minded activists of all ages. Come join and add me as a friend.

Buy music by the Flobots on iTunes.

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When they’re not out on the road playing music, they’re hard at work on their non-profit group, Flobots.Org. They are creating Street Teams across the country that are focused on bettering their community and the lives around them.

Flobots are gearing up to have their first National conference Dec. 30 – Jan. 1. They recently launched Donation Incentive Packages, where you can not only donate to a worthy cause but get some cool exclusive gear including their official flag bandanas, exclusive .org shirts and limited edition posters. All of their gear is screenprinted in Denver by IndyInk, and designed by artist D.J. Coffman (Flobot13). For information about their non-profit group or how you can get involed, visit Flobots.Org.

Anne Braden, a song about a white civil rights activist who stood up for her convictions despite opposition and ridicule, was featured in a previous blog. Given the recent election of Obama and the level of respect many American’s have for Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., I can’t help but think a lot of people would be moved by the lyrics of this song and several others on this CD. It’s available now on iTunes.

Anne Braden by The Flobots
[Spoken words of Anne Braden]
What I’ve realized since is that it’s a very painful process but it is not destructive. It’s the world deliberation. And what really happened in the sixties was that this country took just the first step toward admitting that it had been wrong on race, and creativity burst out in all directions.

[Singing/rapping begins]
From the color of the faces in Sunday songs
To the hatred they raised all the youngsters on
Once upon a time in this country, long ago
She knew there was something wrong
Because the song said “yellow, red, black, and white
Every one precious in the path of Christ”
But what about the daughter
Of the woman cleaning their house?
Wasn’t she a child they were singin’ about?
And if Jesus loves us, black and white skin
Why didn’t her white mother invite them in?
When did it become a room for no blacks to step in?
How did she already know not to ask the question?
Left lasting impressions
At a lesson, comfort’s gone (?)
She never thought things would ever change,
But she always knew there was something wrong.

Always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.

Years later, she found herself
Mississippi bound to help
Stop the legalized lynching of Mr. Willy McGee.
But they couldn’t stop it,
So they thought that they’d talk to the governor about what’d happened
And say, “We’re tired of being used as an excuse to kill black men.”
But the cops wouldn’t let ‘em past
And these women, they struck ‘em as uppity
So they hauled ‘em all off to jail
And they called it ‘protective custody’.
Then from her cell
She heard her jailers
Grumblin’ about “outsiders”.
When she called ‘em out
And said she was from the south, they shouted,
“Why is a nice, Southern lady makin’ trouble
For the governor?”
She said, “I guess I’m not your type of lady,
And I guess I’m not your type of Southerner,
But before you call me traitor,
Well it’s plain as just to say (?)
I was a child in Mississippi
but I’m ashamed of it today.”

She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.

[Spoken words of Anne Braden] And, all of a sudden, I realized I was on the other side

[Singing/rapping continues]
Imagine the world that you’re standing within
All of your neighbors, they’re family-friends.
How would you cope facing the fact
The flesh on their hands was tainted with sin?
She faced this every day.
People she saw on a regular basis;
People she loved, in several cases;
People she knew were incredibly racist.
It was painful, but she never stopped loving them,
Never stopped callin’ their names
And she never stopped being a Southern woman
And she never stopped fighting for change.
And she saw that her struggle was
in the tradition of ancestors never aware of her
It continues today:
The soul of a Southerner
born of the other America.

She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.
She always knew there was somethin’ wrong.

[Spoken words of Anne Braden]
What you win in the immediate battles is little compared to the effort you put into it but if you see that as a part of this total movement to build a new world, you know what could be (??). You do have a choice. You don’t have to be a part of the world of the lynchers. You can join the other America. There is another America!

Find out more about Anne Braden on Wikipedia.

Right about now, I’m ready to flip a lid and so are many of my students.

What I know for sure is that a lot of people are abused, neglected and sexually assaulted. Yet finding informative and interesting resources on these topics has been a challenge.

As an instructor, I have access to a lot of stuff for free. Free videos, free downloads, free books and even access to other libraries in the nation. So, it should be pretty easy for me to find stuff about child abuse right?

I mean, after all 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men is sexually assaulted in their lifetime and according to my textbook, “899,000 children were determined to be victims of child abuse or neglect in 2005″ and “42% of child fatalities were attributed to neglect” that same year. So it’s something teachers who are training counselors should know a lot about. Agreed? Think of how much trauma is going on out there behind all this abuse. Not just the survivors but their loved ones as well.

Yet, the truth is, even though I have a Master’s degree in counseling and trained for more than 3,000 hours as a therapist, I was only required so much as a weekend speed course about child abuse AND domestic violence. On top of that, even though I have advanced degrees and work at a college, it hasn’t been easy for me to find interesting, informative resources about child abuse for my students. (One exception is Miss America by Day with Marilyn Van Derbur on video, which I purchased with my own money).

While I was researching today, I found out about a book, The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case and the Beginning of Children’s Rights in 19th Century America by Eric A. Shelman. It’s based on the story of a child living in 1874. She was so brutally abused for so long that neighbors began to suspect something was terribly wrong. Law enforcement went to her home to find her bruised, bloodied and chained to a bed. They didn’t want to get involved. Eventually after many attempts to save the girl, she is removed from the abusive setting. After moving to a safe place, she flourishes.

I swear to you, it is a twin sister of the book A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer published in 1995 (for those of you keeping track, it’s a 121 year difference). Dave Pelzer’s book sold millions of copies. How many people do you think read Mary Ellen Wilson’s story? How many could even get it? I can’t get it and I’m a college instructor in 2008 with access to top-notch resources.

Now I could buy the book on Amazon for 45 bucks if I wanted to but I’m on a tight budget thanks to the economy and my shopaholicism so I’m trying to get it via the interlibrary loan instead.

Heck, maybe I’ll put in a request to have my department buy it. Hopefully their budget isn’t cut the way the instructional media section of the library is. Just for example, I was trying to access the website that lists instructional videos and it kept coming up dead. So I called Donna to see what was up and she said the site has been discontinued. Not even SHE has a way to access the instructional videos database on our campus. Can you imagine?
————-
P.S. This whole topic right here is absolutely related to the way Fungus 53 was taken off satellite and why I want it back on the air. Anytime anyone talks about abuse of power they get silenced, one way or another. If you truly want a free country you should sign the petition to punk rock back on the air.

P.P.S. My book, From Sabotage to Success is really good at helping you overcome the after-effects of abuse like low self-esteem, procrastination and worrying.

P.P.P.S. I did a 7-minute recording on child abuse and I’m available to speak on this topic if needed.

It was probably 1982. I was attending Costa Mesa High School. I had ordered the yellow jumpsuit directly from Devo. My friends dared me to wear it to school and I did but I got sent to the office and had to take it off.

Enjoy and exercise your personal freedoms they are precious and could be taken away if you don’t pay attention.

Mongoloid lyrics by Devo

Mongoloid he was a mongoloid
Happier than you and me
Mongoloid he was a mongoloid
And it determined what he could see
Mongoloid he was a mongoloid
One chromosome too many
Mongoloid he was a mongoloid
And it determined what he could see
And he wore a hat
And he had a job
And he brought home the bacon
So that no one knew
Mongoloid he was a mongoloid
His friends were unaware
Mongoloid he was a mongoloid
Nobody even cared

Buy Mongoloid by Devo on iTunes

The song of the week is brought to you by Michael Zampelli, former owner of Southern California punk rock icon, Zed Records. For almost 30 years, this mecca of punk and alternative music kept Southern California enthusiasts adequately supplied with unique, original and innovative music.

Currently, Zampelli manages a hockey fan message boards at www.letsgokings.com with thousands of subscribers. He takes photos for the LAist and the LA Derby Dolls. Each week he will contribute a song with a theme, a message and a beat. Enjoy and stay tuned.