To learn more about “Stop the Machine,” log onto www.oct2011.org. The month of October 2011 signifies the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan.
Quoting Mario Savio, an activist at the University of California at Berkeley who said 47 years ago, “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious — makes you sick at heart — that you can’t take part. You can’t even passively. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers and upon all the apparatus and you’ve got to make it stop,” the Oct2011 group said that it is calling “on people of conscience and courage — all who seek peace, economic justice, human rights and a healthy environment — to join together in Washington, DC beginning on Oct. 6, 2011, in nonviolent resistance similar to the Arab Spring and the Midwest Awakening. A concert, rally and protest will kick off a powerful and sustained nonviolent resistance to the corporate criminals that dominate our government.”
Human will be there, because she says that “We need to do more than vote once a year, and those votes really don’t seem to count for much when the politicians are owned by corporate interests. They promise their citizenry so much and never deliver. It has to stop.”
While Human plans to attend the “sit-in, sleep-in” protest on Oct. 6 for as long as she’s able, her efforts in New Paltz continue. “When I first arrived in New Paltz, I joined the local Green Party Committee, and became the secretary and the chair for a time. I also ran for a position on the Town Board as a Green Party member…I was part of the Town/Village Bike/Ped Committee, and currently serve as the liaison between the Town Planning Board and the town’s EnCB…I do what I can, because I’m passionate about this community and the world we live in.”
Human not only has given up a vehicle, rents an apartment from her daughter, does not own a cell phone, grows her own vegetables and only shops and buys locally, but she also has a greater desire for New Paltz. “We’ve come so far in terms of supporting our CSAs [Community Supported Agriculture] and our locally owned businesses, but I’d really like to see New Paltz create independently owned businesses that provide the community with clothing and furniture and basic necessities, so that we’re not forced to travel to buy those things, we keep our dollars local, we’re a sustainable community and we put an end to shipping, which creates one of the greatest impacts on global warming and climate change.” ++
