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When we hold up activists and community organizers and programs that are working and that are making a change, that gives people who are not already working for a change a way in. -Coya Paz
Wonderwoman, Coya Paz discusses the dark side and the sunny side of news from public schools this week with host Molly Adams and guest host Odinaka Od Ezeokoli, filling in for Brian Babylon.
First, the bad news.
A high school student in Florida was expelled under zero-tolerance policies for possession and discharge of a ‘destructive device’. What happened exactly? She set off a small explosion after mixing chemicals as part of a science experiment. The internet is up in arms on behalf of the student, and so are Coya, Molly, and Odinaka.
Then, the good news.
A new principal of a public school in the low-income Boston neigborhood of Roxbury is firing security guards in favor of art teachers. The results have been positive change in tangible ways at the school. Coya, Molly and Odinaka are pumped.
Force-Feeding Prisoners: On Monday an op-ed in the New York Times, Gitmo Is Killing Me, went viral. Dictated to his lawyers through a translator, Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, described the rampant hunger strike at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba and the violent ways that prisoners are force-fed to keep them alive. Force-feeding is considered torture by World Medical Association, but still happens regularly in US prisons. Journalist Ann Neumann, who edits The Revealer and teaches at Drew University, has covered many hunger strikes and joins us from New York to talk about the ethics of force-feeding.
Gun Deaths and Suicide: In 2011, of the 30,867 gun deaths in the U.S., 19,766 were suicides. As part of Front and Center’s exploration of how guns and gun regulations affect our lives, WBEZ reporter Shannon Heffernan looks at how suicide complicates the issues of mental health and firearm ownership.
Coya Paz: Our race and social justice commentator looks at Rand Paul’s ill-fated trip to Howard University, racial profiling in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing and dealing with the scary feelings of “2001 all over again,” as letters filled with poison are being mailed to the Capitol, and reviewing the Senate’s version of immigration reform.
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Obama got a lot of hype for his successful fundraising tactics as he kicked off his campaign last year, but now in the month of June, Romney has raised $106 million, where Obama has raised about $76 million. This was the second month in a row that Romeny and his supporters out-raised Team Obama.
But it’s not just his lavish fundraisers with Hamptons-vacationing, Ferrari-driving Americans, it’s his offshore accounts that have the Obama campaign accusing the Republican nominee of having greater interest in bettering himself rather than the country. Caller Max from Boston called the Amp to talk about why paying in to the larger community is how you prove your patriotism.
