Saturday, September 17, 2005

RHINO'S Mid September BLOG THE QUOTE: "If you don't like the news, go out & make some of your own." - - Scoop Nisker (Beloved San Francisco Radio Host) KNOW YOUR HISTORY:  September 18th 1985 -- US & USSR reach a tentative agreement on a world-wide ban of medium-range nuclear missiles. Hopes of reducing the number of missiles soon ended in Iceland when Soviet Premier Gorbachev called for a limit on the development of "Star Wars" weapons & Acting President Ronnie Ray-gun refuses. 1987 -- Pope John Paul II, whose authority rests solely on 2,000 years of Christian tradition, speaks to Native American leaders in Phoenix, Arizona, urging them to forget the past. (Especially the generations of abuse suffered by Indian kids who were taken from their parents by US Government Agents and put in boarding schools run by wicked Priests & Nuns.) 1988 -- In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, another in a series of U.S. Government supported post-Duvalier military coups occurs. 1989 -- Puerto Rico: Hurricane Hugo strikes the island as it cuts a path of destruction across the Caribbean. RHINO HERE: Breaking my self imposed blog silence to call your attention to some wise & heartfelt efforts going on in behalf of the survivors of the tragedy down South.  As many know, The Rhino was a founding member back in the 1970's, of the Tennessee intentional community known as The Farm (www.thefarm.org), and its relief & development organization known as Plenty (www.plenty.org).  The Farm & Plenty were founded upon an agreement between several hundred of Haight-Ashbury's finest to put our heads together and do some good things for the world.  Years of history include relief & development projects from Guatemala to Lesotho, South Africa & from Jamaica to The South Bronx. Thirty-five years later and The Farm & Plenty are not just alive & thriving, but still reaching out to help people in need. Over the days since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, crews aboard school buses from The Farm have hauled loads of supplies Southbound & teamed up at Camp Covington with the likes of Veterans for Peace, Cindy Sheehan & the folks from Camp Casey, Michael Moore & his staff, & an amazing dreadlocked ex-Black Panther from Algiers, Louisana named Malik Rahim. The accounts of their home grown disaster relief efforts make for great reading & a reliable target for your financial support.  Please join me in supporting the relief work of Plenty.  Below are links to the Plenty Blog, and The Plenty Donation Page as well as links to the Veterans For Peace Hurricane Relief Message Board and a message from Cindy Sheehan about her experience in at Camp Covington.   Please excuse The Rhino as he exits back into blog silence wherein he busys himself with hopefully significant long term projects.   PS - In case you haven't heard the shrub's response recently when asked of his thoughts on Roe vs. Wade, he said he didn't really care how people got out of New Orleans.  : ) (o/)(o/)(o/) A Bright Spot in Bush World Amid the Miserable Failures on the Same Planet A Message from Cindy Sheehan, September 16th, 2005 http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=503 <http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=503> Veterans For Peace Hurricane Relief Message Board Providing Help for Those in Need in the Greater New Orleans Area http://www.vfproadtrips.org/katrina (o/)(o/)(o/) 9:38:32 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The Plenty Blog The Plenty Blog http://plentyinternational.blogspot.com 9/11/05 Camp Covington, LA By The Chief Just back today from Covington after 6 days of working with some of the best people in the world. I want to update you as best I can and maybe give some behind the scenes look at what has happened and I'll start with the latest news (yesterday) as it is the freshest information in a feeble mind. GETTING STARTED Waking up at 6:30 to a phone call from Colleen. She and the next crew from Plenty have been travelling all night and are close to Covington and they need directions in. Joel Kachinsky, Mark Hubbard, and David Mitzell (boyfriend of Bernice Davidson) are coming down to relieve a few of us, and they wll go with us to New Orleans today. We are planning some information gathering and a supply drop into Algiers, the South Bronx of New Orleans. Just across the river from the Convention Center, and just a couple miles from the Harrah's casino, Algiers is home to some of the most impoverished in the city. A good friend of mine from the Vets for Peace, Dennis Kyne, has made contact with Malik Rahim and we have already dropped a load of supplies there on Thursday. Malik is a Green party candidate for City Council in New Orleans, and was a founding member of the Louisiana Black Panther chapter. He is very no-nonsense in his activism, and has told the media coming in that if they just wa! nt pictures to go elsewhere, but if they have food and supplies he has time for an interview. After giving directions to our crew, I head into the middle of camp where we have a makeshift kitchen. Some cowboy coffee is brewing and we get a cup and begin to plan todays activities. Since our arrival on Tuesday of last week, the size of this volunteer operation has more than tripled. Cars and tents are everywhere and we have individuals and groups milling about. Some folks are asking where to plug in, and it quickly becomes apparent that some new, larger organizing has to be part of the plan. We were pretty small and could mobilize quickly a few days ago, but now it's a different story. The Vets for Peace are the largest contingent of this group, and some have been on the road for nearly three months, since Camp Casey in Texas. I ask a couple of them how they want to organize this, and Dennis looks at me and says "We would like you to do it." "Oh, really?! quot; says me. He laughs and reminds me that this is what Plenty does. Oh, yeah, ok then let's do it. We have a quick organizational meeting with about 30 camp members present. I lay out a plan that we hatched just an hour earlier, and we soon have coordinators for supply drops, camp food, crews, scouts, first aid, and mapping... MORE OF THIS POST & DAILY UPDATES AT: http://plentyinternational.blogspot.com MORE INFO ON PLENTY AT: http://www.plenty.org DONATE TO PLENTY AT: http://www.plenty.org/donate.html (o/)(o/)(o/) Rhino's Blog is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. Feedback & requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. (rhino@kifaru.com) See The Latest Greatest Political Cartoons      While You Read Rhino's Blog AT : http://www.rhinosblog.info Rhino's Other Web Sites: http://www.dreamcatchers.org  (Indigenous Assistance & Intercultural Dialog) http://www.kifaru.com  (Native American Relations Video Documentaries) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 7:51:06 AM    comment

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