I just attended the Grassroots Media Justice Tour in Denton, Texas, the last stop on this nationwide tour. This exciting event showcased the following speakers:

Today marks the fifth anniversary of an incredibly tragic day, but one that I know was also responsible for inspiring much of my involvement with and passion for the social justice movement.

I was a high school senior in Tacoma, WA watching the local news when they reported a young woman and Evergreen student from Olympia named Rachel Corrie had been killed in Gaza by an Israeli bulldozer while attempting to protect Palestinian homes as a member of the International Solidarity Movement.

"Another of those silly jokes she forwards to her whole list," I thought as I warily opened the e-mail from my friend and former U. S. Senate candidate, Claire Sargent.

But this was no joke. Claire had forwarded a message from another long time tiller of the women's equality fields, Paula Cullison, who reported that when she went to AOL's greeting cards seeking to send Women's Equality Day greeting cards in honor of the 87th anniversary of women's right to vote, August 26, she found instead a card honoring National Toilet Paper Day.http://greetings.aol.com/display.pd?path=62352&bfrom=3&prodnum=3079182

Not to disparage toilet paper, given its importance to human comfort and cleanliness, but I was, pardon me, wiped

So it's only been a few weeks, but it looks like Scooter Libby's commutation could have enormous unintended consequences for the US legal system. See, President Bush (and to be fair, President Clinton too) helped lead the way in a 'tough on crime' attitude when it came to sentencing guidelines. As governor Bush forced courts to ignore personal facts about criminals - the needs of their families, their histories of community involvement, etc... For Bush, first as Governor and then as President, these sorts of facts just didn't matter when sentencing a convict.

The funny thing is, when the criminal happened to be a close friend of the president, those facts mattered a great deal. In his letter commuting Scooter, the President argued that the two year prison sentence was too harsh, considering that the Vice President's former chief of staff had no prior criminal history, had dedicated himself to public service, and had a family who depended on his income.

Ate Evelina Galang is a English-Creative Writing Professor at the University of Miami. I've been lucky to have met her when she was supporting the workers striking for a living wage last Spring of '06.

Today and this Spring of '07 she spearheaded at our campus and in Miami in general this amazing campaign for a simple to request. For the Japanese government to acknowledge the events of World War II and apologize to the Laban Comfort Women for the abuse committed to them by the Japanese Imperial Army.

Finally, this week, this campaign in seeing a victory.

Read more, see how you can help... We can help justice and fairness by the simple act of requesting acknowledgment and an apology.

     A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how disappointed I was that Paris Hilton's case was getting more attention that news regarding issues like living wages. Just when I had found a certain level of peace with the situation (since Paris turned herself in a couple of days early), I am shocked to learn that she will now be serving her sentence...guess where....at home. Wow. That's some sacrifice.

Join a community of folks like Ruben Vogt, a Young People 4 fellow who founded CYnergy Fellowship, and won the Brower Youth Award in 2006.

The Brower Youth Awards are looking for outstanding youth leaders.  People representing varied backgrounds, communities, and visions for environmental & social justice.  Individuals ages 13-22 with the power and persistence to create lasting change.  

The Brower Youth Awards honors six young people annually for their outstanding work in their communities.  Each winner is awarded $3000 and brought to the San Francisco Bay Area for a week of media and public outreach, leadership support, bonding with the other award recipients, and a scenic camping trip.  And to culminate the week's activities, the six individuals will receive their awards at a 900-person awards ceremony, followed by a public reception.

Past winners have protected Native sacred sites from development, restored wetlands in their communities, supported youth leadership development, coordinated student networks pushing for a clean energy future, and more.  Their impact doesn't stop there.  They continue as environmental & social change agents, writers, visionaries, and speakers, supported by Earth Island Institute's New Leaders Initiative.  Join them.  Apply today for the 2007 Brower Youth Award.  http://www.broweryouthaward.org

Does anyone remember back in 1998 when James Kopp AKA "Atomic Dog" murdered an abortion provider? Well this past week Kopp was finally convicted on a federal level for his act of terrorism. It seems that while the justice system is slow, it sometimes pulls through.

Everytime I hear a rabble rousing', equality loving, civil rights benefiting woman skirt around using the "f" word it makes me cringe. When I worked for Planned Parenthood and signed women up to volunteer, I heard it. "I'm pro-choice but I'm not a feminist."  I've even been in women's studies classes where some women finish talking about their intense passion for equal wages and birth control, with the sentence,"I'm not a feminist". As a result of this common experience, I began to wonder: What is so bad about the "f" word? What is about this word that is so scary and passé for some passionate and progressive young women?