Amy Goodman and the Evergreen State College
Todrick and I went to Olympia, WA, yesterday to see and hear a talk by Amy Goodman and Graciela Monteagudo. It was a special event at the Evergreen State College called “Radical Women for Change.” It took place in the college’s gymnasium. The first thing we noticed when we got there is the location of the college. “You can’t see it because it’s surrounded by trees,” was Todrick’s comment. Even though it is not far from Olympia, you really feel like you are in the deep country when you are on the campus of the college. I myself noticed the people/audience at the conference. There were a lot of young people – probably students – with the most colorful and interesting outfits and looks, very “alternative” I guess you could call it. The looks ranged from patched jeans -underneath “Laura Ingels Little House on the Prairie”-skirts, blue hair with lots of extra-strong gel, Marilyn Manson T-shirts, hand-written sharpie marker “Just another fool in love with Amy Goodman”-shirts, pink satin spaghetti-string slip - not underneath but on top of her “normal” clothes, and then there were Todrick and I. Todrick was wearing a button down striped shirt and black slacks like somebody straight out de board room, and I in black pants and a white sweater like the maître d’ at the “Chateau Snob”. Needless to say, we felt a little bit overdressed. Evergreen State College seems like a very environmentally conscious school because the man’s bathroom had waterless urinals, as Todrick pointed out to me.
After a few delays, Graciela Monteagudo started her show – a puppet show with puppets made out of cardboard from the street and other props out of recycled material. Graciela is from Buenos Aires, Argentina, and with her puppet show she told the story of the economic crisis of her country which led to today’s poverty resulting in almost 50% of the population living underneath the poverty line. Thanks to the workers and their efforts, today they are running about 300 factories in Argentina – but only after thousands have been killed in road blockades, demonstrations, and strikes, and still many children are starving every day. The situation is disastrous, and with her cardboard production Graciela is trying in a very creative way to make the people aware of these problems and the struggle of her people.
After her show, Amy Goodman took the stage. She is the host of “Democracy Now!” – an independent radio program broadcasting on over 300 radio stations in the U.S. She talked about the commercial American news media which fails to report the truth, especially when it comes to war because it is owned by huge corporations such as GM. Their interest lies in exploiting the resources and the indigenous people and the media helps to cover that up. Amy talked about Americans being the symbol of hope and death at the same time – “the shield and the sword”. She and her cameraman were reporting from East Timor during a student protest against the Indonesian invasion and the slaughter of their relatives. As the crowd gathered at the cemetery, they saw the Indonesian army coming towards them with their guns at ready. Amy and her cameraman moved to the front showing them their camera and microphones thinking that the soldiers wouldn’t fire because of the presence of the American media. However, as they moved in they circled around pinning the protesters between the concrete walls of the cemetery and began to open fire. Amy and the photographer were knocked to the ground and beaten with the butts of the rifles. The Indonesian soldiers seemed to think that Amy was from an Australian news crew. When she could finally get her passport out to show them that they were Americans, they stopped beating them. Amy and her heavily wounded cameraman were taken to a hospital and as the nurses saw them they started weeping because they felt like “their shield” (USA) had been broken. Isn’t it ironic? The US as savior and persecutor.
posted by sarina kriechbaum at 10:00 PM
