Truthout

Vân, Cúc, Trúc, and Trang; Dũng, Dai, Thanh and Phát. In my mother tongue these names carry music, cadence, poetry. They evoke for the listener images of clouds, peonies, bamboo, jade; acts of bravery or wishes for prosperity. In English, alas, they lose all meaning as the inflexible American tongue turns them into a grunt, a bark, a funny diphthong.

"I wonder what'll become of MY name when I go in? I shouldn't like to lose it at all..." declared Alice, in Louis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass," upon entering a strange woods, "because they would have to give me another, and it would almost certainly be an ugly one."

Three out of four Washington, D.C. voters would support changing District law to replace criminal penalties for possession of limited amounts of marijuana with a civil fine similar to a traffic ticket, according to a survey conducted last week by Public Policy Polling. Two-thirds (67%) said they believe law enforcement resources currently being used by District police to arrest individuals for marijuana possession should be directed toward other crimes.

The poll also found that nearly two-thirds (63%) of District voters would support a ballot measure similar to those approved by voters in Colorado and Washington in November, which made marijuana legal for adults and directed state officials to regulate and tax marijuana similarly to alcohol. A solid majority (54%) said drug use should be treated as a public health issue and people should no longer be arrested and locked up for possession of a small amount of any drug for personal use.

Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) released the following statement in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, a case that raised the question of whether corporations could be held accountable for human rights abuses and whether U.S. federal courts can hear claims arising from human rights violations committed abroad under the Alien Tort Statute. The Center for Constitutional Rights brought the ground-breaking case Filártiga v Peña-Irala, which first launched ATS human rights litigation in 1980.

"I will give one for defense, but I'm cutting the whole offense budget," the man said as he dropped one penny into the jar marked "Military" in our Tax Day Penny Poll. Then he dropped various amounts of his 10 pennies into various jars with labels such as Health and Human Services, Education, Foreign Humanitarian Aid, and Environmental Protection.

We've been conducting these polls for years across the US. A group of us stood outside a post office in Seattle on April 15th. Each "voter" was given 10 pennies to vote how s/he would like federal tax dollars to be spent. When they were finished voting I would unroll 40-inch long, one-inch high piece of paper which revealed the actual way we spend our tax dollars. It would show: 60 percent goes to the military. It showed 16 other categories (one of which is everything that gets less than one percent of the budget). The next closest to the military is Health and Human Services which received five percent last year as did Education—the winner of my penny poll.

Normally I prefer it when Congress is not in session in Washington, reasoning our legislators can do us no harm, or less harm anyway, when they are back home in their districts meeting with constituents and/or pandering to and raising money from corporate special interests.

However this week, two congressional hearings shed light on some very interesting, previously unknown (or at least not widely known) facts related to our "national security."

Veterans For Peace has just released this statement:

As a major U.S. peace organization of veterans, including members who served in the Korean War, Veterans For Peace (VFP) is deeply concerned about the increasing risk of another open conflict on the Korean Peninsula at this time.

CNN reported on Thursday that, "Developments in and around North Korea are so worrisome that they appear to have frightened Dick Cheney." Bellicose rhetoric and maneuvers are indeed extremely worrisome, but it is important that we understand where the hostility is originating if we are going to be able to counter it.

Nearly 300,00 people have signed the Move To Amend petition that states:

We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling and other related cases, and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech, and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.

There are roughly 28 million Americans who can't find a job or have given up looking. Many more than that are suffering. And I just want to remind everyone, it's not your fault. Don't believe the "personal responsibility" bullshit that gets thrown around. This is not your fault.

I am the limbs of the children killed by the drones

gathered from the broken trees

a sad, frightening fruit

an alien among its own

hands that once clapped, faces that laughed

Humanitarian agency Church World Service President and CEO the Rev. John McCullough called on God to "grant us the political and moral courage to truly love and embrace one another, to honor each other's humanity," yesterday at a national rally in Washington, D.C. in support of immigration reform.

CWS supports immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship and that protects family unity for the some 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.