We All Should Care

Accept the call for a deeper purpose.

This rant is brought to you by Damien, Spider’s 6 year old son. He is the most passionate, caring person that I know. Young and old alike.

Out of somewhere (he has a train of thought, I can’t say nowhere) he says to Spider and I quote:

“Everything is made in China, and although stuff made in China is cute,the way they treat kids and other people is NOT cute.”

Do you ever think to pick up a product and look at the label, to see where it’s made?

Do you even know how badly people and especially the children, who work in those “sweat shops” making a lot of these products that we frequently buy, are treated?

Have you ever even given a second thought to it?

Damien has.

So, look forward to more posts from him, “Rants By Damien” is the newest addition to We All Should Care,next time under his name.

His mom may have to help him type it, but the tangent will belong solely to him.

Damien, you ROCK.

Hi,

My name is Angie, 24 years old, living in France.
Met Willow, and Jodie via Spencer Bell.
Thanks Spencer!

Well ,I have something to say today, something we should all care for.
Today, I woke up to the radio, as every morning. But what I heard set my heart in ice for the entire day
A lovely feminine voice was reading the news. The content were frightening.
Add a thumping beating heart over it, as Michael Moore did, and you obtain the scariest horror movie that could exist.
Mention of politics having sexual tourism in Thailand, financial crisis about to swallow us all, and so on.
But, that wouldn’t have been enough to make my heart bleed as it did. Tough, aren’t I?
Well, I do listen to it everyday. While wishing there were a radio  with only music. Spencer Bell and 100 Monkeys.
But I digress…

The article was about those people who have to feed off the shops’ dustbins.
The reporter had gone and interviewed some of those unfortunate people, that were waiting for the shop keeper
to bring the dustbins outsite. Five minutes in all, for them to search what they could scrap, what was still eatable
before the dustbins were taken out of reach.

Country of the “Lumières”, Country where the Declaration of Humans Right was first written.
And some of us still have to search the dustbin for food.
For! Food!!
That is not a scene happening in Africa or those ‘under’-developped countries.
It was happening right down our streets.

But that in itself wasn’t the worse.
Yeah, it can get worse!

An employee of another shop was explaining some strange orders:
“I am told to pour bleach on all the food that is to go into the dustbins, so that nobody will attempt to use it.
We throw those products because the sell-by date has come. There is a risk of food poisoning; We are just protecting the persons from themselves”
What a whole load of crap!!!
Everyone knows most of those products are still eatable. Even the unfortunate employee that was talking.
But, in case someone could be ill, they prefer to protect themselves from an upcoming trial.

What happened ?
I can’t condemn the boss, for being afraid of trials. Because I can understand.
He needs to keep his business alive, well, we don’t want the employee to join the crowd waiting for the dustbins.
And yet, that makes me so mad. Wouldn’t you risk food poisoning if it were the only way to have something in your stomach?
I think I would.
Hunger is too powerful.
In some countries, people eat dirt.
Yep. That’s true.

So, what do we do?
I don’t know.

I can’t feed all those people by myself.
But, at least, I’ll try to prevent that from happening to my closed ones.”

Naomi Campbell, one of the most famous black models, who has achieved feats that most would never have thought possible, has recently been slated as saying:

“there’s at least one facet of the industry that’s just as bad as it ever was when it comes to black models: fashion advertising. And the recession is making it worse.
She goes on to say “[Italian Vogue] made some noise, but, unfortunately, we are the same as before,” she said. “People, in the panic of the recession, don’t dare to put a girl of color in their campaign, full stop. Nor of any other race. It’s a shame. It’s very sad.”

In this day and age, you’d THINK we could grasp equality in general.
It infuriates me that our society puts such a huge emphasis on race, religion, sex, sexual orientation. Strip all of that away and what do you have?
A human being.
All of us are made up of blood, bones, muscles, tissues, organs and skin. Does it really matter what package it’s in?
I understand that modeling is about outward appearance, and pleasing society’s standards of such, but beauty is beauty, no matter the color of someone’s skin.
This world needs to wise up, get with the program and treat all models the same, they all do the same job, they deserve equal pay, and recognition.

[[image courtesy of google images]]

It is hard to find any unbiased information on the West Memphis 3 and most people have strong opinions but it is easy to become passionate about the travesty of our so-called justice system, especially in relation to this case.

Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin –known as the West Memphis 3– were arrested in West Memphis, Arkansas June 3, 1993 for the assault, mutilation, and brutal murders of 3 children. The evidence that connected Damien Echols, Jesse Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin to the murders was a love of Metallica, Stephen King, and black t-shirts. Oh and the worst part of it all *rolls eyes* Damien dyed his hair and was interested in Wicca. The case was actually a witch-hunt! They were no more than scapegoats for a small town community plagued by police corruption and Satanic panic. Seriously, there were no murder weapons, no evidence whatsoever linking them to the crime. Only small town mentality and that they were different, they stuck out like sore-thumbs in a town of good ol’ boys. They were arrested and convicted based on Jesse Misskelley Jr.’s (who is considered mentally handicapped and has an IQ of 72) confession during a 12 hour police interview, without counsel and without parental consent. Only 45 minutes of the police interrogation in which Jessie “confesses” (which he later unsuccessfully tried to recant) to being involved, alongside Damien and Jason, in the murders to West Memphis police was recorded.

There are many discrepancies in this case including much of Jesse’s confession. Wounds on the children thought to be bite marks did not match molds of the three’s teeth so they were assumed to be made with a serrated knife now have been decided to be caused by animals.

Damien, whom I have had the incredible fortune of receiving a letter from, sits in solitary confinement on death row waiting for lethal injection. Jason Baldwin was sentenced to life without parole. Jessie Misskelley got life plus 40 years.

Arkansas Circuit Court has turned down countless appeals, change of venue requests, etc. Thanks to technology and DNA testing that was not available 16 years ago, on August 10th Jessie Misskelley and Jason Baldwin began a hearing on their motion for a new trial based on ineffective counsel. Damien Echols is seeking a new trial in Arkansas Supreme Court based on new DNA and forensic evidence and juror misconduct. DNA tests found that no DNA taken from the crime scene matches Damien, Jason, or Jessie.

Enraged? Want to help? Sign the petition here, write letters, and visit wm3.org
(which redirects you here while the site is down for maintenance)
www.freewestmemphis3.org
Also you can get live updates at Twitter

[Image courtesy of WM3.org]