Cold Spaghetti

Here’s my small effort to spread happiness into your world.

And here’s our monthly round-up for January!

The January Just Posts

• Amber of Making the Moments Count with Teen Pregnancy, Is Education Helping?
• Andrea of Andrea’s Buzzing About with I can haz civil liberties?
• Casey of Moosh in Indy with on giving depression a voice
• communicationsforchange of bad words blog with Today’s Bad Word: Gay Marriage
• dodgerdeliberation of A Dodger’s Deliberation with Sweat Pants and White Privilege
• Emily of Wheels on the Bus with Take my hand come along
• girlgriot of If you want kin, you must plant kin… with You can’t hear me …
• Holly of Cold Spaghetti with A Forgotten Hero for Modern Times
• Jane of Finding My America with Louisiana: A Story I Can’t Tell, An Unsolvable Mystery, and the Joy of Acceptance
• jen of one plus two with civic dreaming and toupatou
• Julie of Using My Words with When does the end justify the means?
• kgirl of The Kids Are Alright with Miami
• litlove of Tales from the Reading Room with Books, Ebooks and the Environment
• Mary G. of Them’s My Sentiments with Headlines. And a Mission
• Mary Lee of Merrilymarylee’s Weblog with reading by moonlight
• meloukhia of this ain’t livin’ with The Next Phase
• Meredith of PR Unfriendly with Tribute to MLK
• pgoodness of Life as I Live It with The (Monetary) Costs of Melanoma
• slouchy of Slouching Past 40 with On Haiti, The Baggage We Carry and Their Bodies, Themselves
• submom of The Absence of Alternatives with We are all in this
• Susan of Toddler Planet with In the name of awareness
• thordora of Spin Me I Pulsate with The scars of others should teach us caution.
• Tiffany Sellers of PR Musings of a Clemson Student with Sometimes the voiceless have brilliant things to say

This month’s posts were nominated by:

Send some love to Alejna, who is leading the Just Post charge here while I drown in Lombardi Gras goodness.

HAPPY MARDI GRAS, Y’ALL!!!!

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A note about giving to Haiti…

Many have asked my thoughts on donating to Haiti in the aftermath of yesterday’s terrible earthquake.  My preference is to give to smaller organizations.  In particular, I like to have contacts at the organization whom I trust.  In the Haiti example, we donated to Hôpital Albert Schweitzer.  Deschapelles is located north of Port-au-Prince and is currently treating patients from the suburbs of the capital.  As now homeless residents of Port-au-Prince travel for medical care and shelter, I imagine that this community will grow in size and in medical need, beyond the injured they are currently treating.  I do have a professional relationship with the managing director, and have heard compelling stories of the programs and projects they undertake at this center.  The medical staff at the Hôpital is Haitian.  When you give, you give directly to this center, to this community, to these people, within this country.  For those reasons, I feel, based on my experience, that my donation will go the furthest.  It is my recommendation for giving.

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December 2009 Just Posts:

• Claudia at The Bottom of Heaven with:Some Thoughts on the Princess and the Frog
• Country Girl of Country Girl/City Girl with Can we talk?
• Emily of Wheels on the Bus with A letter to the peeps in Copenhagen
• Erika of Be gay about it. with Everybody hurts., Merry Christmas to all. and Shine your light, share your story …AND WIN A CONTEST!!
• Ginny at Praying to Darwin with: A Tree Grows in the Psych Ward
• girlgriot at If you want kin… with: I’m asking again: How long? again-how-long/
• h.e.g. of Faith and Aids with Speaking out against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009
• Kitty at The Show Must Go On with: See Ya in Your Nightmares
• Magpie of Magpie Musing with Charity vs. Democracy
• Meloukhia at This Ain’t Livin’ with: Glee: Sectionals and Antifeminist Spam
• submom of The Absence of Alternatives with” All things on cable TV considered, I wish my hotel had porn…
• Thailand Chani of Finding My Way Home with Sacred Life Sunday: No Slime Zone!
• wrekehavoc with world aids day 2009

Thank you for reading, nominating, and thinking about Just Posts!

***** BIRTHDAY

Did you catch that thing in the last post about the Epiphany celebrations in Ireland?  Where they honor today as “Women’s Christmas” and all the women party all day while the good gents take over all duties of home and family?  I completely and totally subscribe to that tradition as my Official Birthday Tradition from now on.  Paul willingly and thoughtful fulfilled all that he could to free me up today, but unfortunately work was not quite so forgiving.  Next year I’ll plan ahead.

***** PRESENTS

Alejna and I are introducing THE BEST OF JUST POSTS 2009 — we (with other readers, hopefully you, too!) are looking for THE BEST Just Posts from last year.  Nominations for the year’s best posts are currently being accepted.  In roughly two weeks (stay tuned!) we will open up a space for online voting and give awards (presents! whee!) to the winner in each category.  (You’re perfectly welcome to start practicing your fabulous acceptance speech; you’ll find no judgment here.)

You can view all the Just Posts from last year by going here and read more about the Just Posts here.

Just Post entries are encouraged from anyone at anytime!

***** AND ANOTHER YEAR…

I participated in Holidailies again this year and enjoyed the challenge.  My humble thanks go out to the two who host the event.  The community they create is warm and friendly; I’ve found other interesting and kind bloggers through the site.  They also chose a ‘best of’ that is selective enough to be manageable to read, which is a great way to find other interesting blogs (and thank you, mystery readers for my own additions to this list!)

*****

Alejna (Collecting Tokens) and I happily offer up Just Posts for a Just World for November 2009.

If you work with an organization that is looking for help in a certain area, feel free to post some ideas in the comments for places we can do some just work.  In the spirit of the season, if you give to a group, help with the homeless, cook in a kitchen, contribute some cash… write about it and consider sending it on for December’s list.

The November Just Posts:

• Ali of callapipper tree with Up on my horse, it’s not really high, it’s more of a mid-size horse
• Amanda Mueller from Amanda Mueller Blog with Mohammad Othman’s Administrative Detention Upheld
• Claudia of The Bottom of Heaven with This (Black) American Life
• Em of Social Justice Soapbox with Take Action #6- 5 things you can do without leaving the comfort of your computer chair
• Erika of Be gay about it. with Maine., Opening doors, come what may. , and This post is not about health care reform.
• girlgriot of If you want kin, you must plant kin… with Disappointment, Anger, Impatience, Remember that wishbone I was choking on?, Maybe seeing will be believing …, Connecting the dots. and And if I’m gay, what’s your point?
• Jay of Ill Doctrine with East Coast Cats and Christopher Street Boys
• Kimberly of The Gav Menagerie with Women’s Work
• Kitty from The Show Must Go On with Movember
• laloca of baggage carousel 4 with Bart Stupak doesn’t understand what “quality, affordable health care” means
• Magpie of Magpie Musing with Stigma//Taboo
• Mary G. of Them’s My Sentiments with A Voice from the Back of the Queue
• Mary of The Eleventh with The High Cost of Saving Money
• Mouse of The Mouse’s Nest with In a fishbowl
• Shokufeh from Shokufeh is… home with Ahem
• Tami of What Tami Said with Stuff black folks don’t do: Creating our own oppression, Civil rights, but just for me, When allies fail – Part One and When allies fail – Part Two
• Thailand Chani of Finding My Way Home with Okay. What in the world was I carrying on about?
• XUP of XUP (Ex-Urban Pedestrian) with Cows for Christmas

This month’s posts were submitted by:

Mary G.
Stacie
Holly
Alejna

Welcome to the October Just Posts!  This monthly roundtable features blog posts written on personal blogs on issues of social justice.  Alejna and I are host to the JPs and encourage anyone to participate by writing and nominating posts.  All participants are encouraged to use the Just Posts button on their own websites.

Thank you to all this month’s participants!

• Alejna, at Collecting Tokens, with: Celebrating 5+ Years of Marriage in Massachusetts
• Em, at Social Justice Soapbox, with: Venting
• Emily, at Wheels on the Bus, with: Glamorous
• Erika, at Be Gay About It, with: Stuffings or No Stuffings, We’re Getting Some Kids and President Obama Fierce Advocate of Rousing Speeches and the Status Quo
• Fatboyfat, at Make Lard History, with: Inverted Reality
• flutter, at by flutter, with: forgiveness
• GirlGriot, at If You Want Kin You Must Plant Kin, with: Tall and Tan, Young and Lovely and Attention White Folks
• Hedgie, at Princess Hedgehog Chronicles, guestposting at Talkin’ with the Teenie, with: The Unbearable Tenderness of Boys
• Holly, at Cold Spaghetti, with: October Awareness and Get It? Got It? Good.
• Kitty, at The Show Must Go On, with: Working the Cracks
• Kristina, at Everyday Public Relations, with: Does Sensationalism Help or Hurt Conservation?
• Magpie, at Magpie Musings, with: Meat
• Mary, at the Eleventh, with: Ma: Little Bigot On the Prairie
• Mary Beth, at Cats…Books…Life is Good, with: Are We Losing Our Humanity?
• Meagan, at Hades Arrow, with Frozen
• Megan, at Missing in Iraq, with: Uncensored II
• thordora, at Spin Me I Pulsate, with: In Health there is Freedom, Health is the First of all Liberities

Nominators:

• Alejna
• Emily
• Holly
• Meagan

Be sure to send love to Alejna, who has a great history of making music in her JPs!

Welcome to the lastest Just Posts roundtable, the monthly list of blogger writing on topics of social justice and activism compiled and hosted by Alejna and me.

It’s taken me 5 days to get this post up.  Does that say enough about life in Cold Spaghetti land?

Some of the delay in posting is due to a conference presentation I gave over the weekend about health and infrastructure in New Orleans.  Using a lot of maps, charts, and pictures, I gave the context for Louisiana, one of the poorest, least developed, States in our United States.  (Enter joke.  Our State motto: “Thank goodness for Mississippi,” lest we be last on ALL measures.)  The level of vulnerability among those in the Gret Stet is extreme by any measure and when further defined by race, becomes unthinkable.  But as far as we are down the hierarchy of outcomes, we are not so different than the rest of the country and indeed, not so different than the rest of the world.  The images of inequality and despair burned into our minds after Katrina are not indicative of New Orleans.  Those memories do not define or create a distinction for the rest of the country to use to separate themselves from our reality.  Every place is just waiting for that moment when it all falls apart, when our inequalities, vulnerabilities, and differences can no longer be invisible.

And now, the all important list: The September Just Posts.

• BipolarLawyerCook with My best friend’s wedding…
• dmariemart of Argot with Minds of Our Own
• Emily of Wheels on the Bus with No More Hall Passes
• Erika at Be gay about it. with and Iowa: a proposal. and Iowa: mawwiage, that dweam within a dweam.
• flying tomato of Flying Tomato Farms with Quit the Bullsh*t–Public Option Now!
• girlgriot of if you want kin… with Street walking and Danger, Will Robinson! Don’t Go “Down There”!
• jen at one plus two with bob marley has definitely left the building
• Jenn at breed ’em and weep with Hi, I’m somebody
• laloca of baggage carousel 4 with the politics of counting and thinking about miscarriage
• Magpie of Magpie Musing with From the Rain Comes Hope
• Neil of Citizen of the Month with Tales of Health Insurance
• Painted of Painted Maypole with Why isn’t this a non-issue?
• Tami of What Tami Said with I’m saving my cheers over new, “authentic” black Barbie line
• wreke of wrekehavoc with guilty pleasure monday: millworker (james taylor)
• Zach Ford at Zach Ford blogs with Coming Out Might Be Easier, But It’s Still Hard

The posts of this month’s roundtable were submitted by:

Slouchy
girlgriot
Holly
alejna

Thanks so much for reading! We really appreciate your support. And not just appreciate it. We need your support to keep the Just Posts going. Please drop by Alejna’s to see what she has to say this month. If you have a post in the list above, or would just like to support the Just Posts, we invite you to display a button on your blog with a link back here, or to the Just Posts at Collecting Tokens. If you are unfamiliar with the Just Posts, please visit the information page.

I have a confession.

I used to be very angry.  And the more I learned, the more I found out about how sick and twisted and unfair and awful the world can be, the angrier I got.  It felt a little like Sophie, who gets so very angry that she explodes like a volcano and runs and runs and runs.  Eventually, I realized that all that anger and exploding and running wasn’t really doing me or anyone else any good.  That no matter how angry and active and upset, the world was still sick and twisted and unfair and awful.

Sophie cries to let it all out.  I become cynical and apathetic.

How can I find a middle-ground with someone who refuses to let the President of the United States, a position that should be respected regardless of your political stance, address their child in a pubic space?  Where I can start to educate an individual who enjoys their Medicare coverage on the fact that their insurance is a government plan?  And if those ridiculous conversations cannot be fixed by reason and rational thought, then what future do we have?

I’d get mad, but I don’t think it’s going to help anything.

Is it to cliche to say I’m glad to read regular folks who write about these issues (and more)?  So thank you for the reading, for bringing these posts to my attention, and for suggesting them for this space.  Thank you.

August 2009 Just Posts…

Girl Griot at If You Want Kin… with: Choking on a Wishbone; Oh I See, Profiling is Colorblind; and What’s Good for the Goose

Kitty at The Show Must Go On with: Fallen into a hospital and can’t get out

Barbara at An American in Lima with: Government extends State of Emergency; more children to die

Holly at Cold Spaghetti with: Superheros; Thoughts on Rising Tide 4; and Why does New Orleans have different moral rules of conduct?

Painted Maypole at The Painted Maypole with: What Jesus would do and 4-years ago today Katrina made landfall

Laura at Our Feet are the Same with: B is for Backpack

Julie at Using my Words with: Why Playing the Whore Card in reference to Mommybloggers is not so cool

Catherine at Their Bad Mother with: Baby Got Boob

Margaret at Mostly in the Afternoon with: Youth in Asia

Elizabeth at A Moon, as if it had been worn by a shell with: Thursday Rant

Ilina at Dirt and Noise with: Marriott is a Disgrace

Angela at The Many Hats with: How dare you take your vagina out in public!

Jen at One Plus Two with: Culture Clash

Magpie at Magpie Musings with: You want to know how much a colonoscopy costs?

Chani with Finding my way back home with: War on Women

Fireweaver at Laboratory Tested with: Foolishness is Free

Contributors to this month’s roundtable:
Alejna
Mad
Emily
Holly
Painted Maypole

(Note: please forgive formatting and font issues here… the latest WordPress upgrade destroyed something important and I haven’t had a chance to track it down.)

A note from alejna, co-host of the Just Posts: As Holly is off travelling, without predictable access to the internet, she’s asked me to put up her JP intro. Here’s what she sent while she was still stuck in the airport a couple of days ago.

Maybe it’s the fact that the past 24 hours have been spent in Orlando, lost among endless strip malls and cookie-cutter stucco Florida houses baking under the hot sun. Maybe it’s the fact that our flight is now yet another hour late, putting the total delay to 4 hours and meaning that our first day in Scotland is going to be a mess of driving in order to get to our night’s destination. Or maybe it’s the awful way we left New Orleans on Friday afternoon, having endured yet another rude service experience with employees who cannot be bothered to perform on the clock.

Oh, and then there’s this guy. Likely the only other American (aside from Paul and me) to be on the flight to Glasgow that is currently so very delayed. A self-important, pompous windbag who thinks the epitome of American film is The Deer Hunter.

For whatever the reason, our consumptive, crazy, sprawling world is weighing on me lately.

No, actually, maybe it’s just this dude. He is now square dancing with his pre-teen daughter, has referred to his too-cool-for-school son as “bro” twice in a single sentence, and is throwing around awfully pronounced Spanglish in flashy volleys. (We’d clear away but we’re capitalizing on an outlet for juice before reaching a foriegn island whose plugs require additional equipment for use.) Oye. THIS is what the UK gets as an American tourist? No wonder the VAT tax is so darn high for foreigners. I’d want to keep us out, too.

While Paul and I practice saying “eh?” after every sentence (is will make people think we’re Canadian, eh?) please enjoy this month’s Just Posts. Alejna is likely to have some delightful musical accompaniment for the reading and deserves a big thanks this month for finishing up the formats on this month’s list while I’m off to ponder race, nationality, environment, and social justice whilst seeing a friend get married in a Scottish castle.

Cheers to all for another roundtable and drinks ’round for all in hopes of another!

The July Just Posts:

• anvilcloud of Raindrops in the Desert with Dedicated…
• Barbara Drake of An American in Lima with Peru’s Politicians Lock Horns with Scientists, Deny Crisis as Water Shortage Looms,
  250 Children Dead of Cold in Andes: Death Toll Keeps Climbing and Cemetery Dog, Buried City of Yungay, Peru
• Emily at Wheels on the Bus with Race Matters; or, the Judge, the Professor, and the Doctor and The one in which Emily admits to making a mistake
• Hispanic Fanatic with the great american melting pot (?)
• Holly of Cold Spaghetti with What’s that Smell? and Of Two Minds
• jen at one plus two with American Me
• Jennifer of Conversion Diary with One couple’s journey to adopting HIV-positive children part 1, part 2 and part 3
• Jingle of Just Jingle with On Twitter, Blogger, Weight Watchers and Self Esteem
• Kimberly of The Gav Menagerie with When is zero not really zero? When it describes your food.
• laloca of baggage carousel 4 with stockholm syndrome
• Lawyer Mama with Pat Buchanan: You Are a Hateful Disgrace
• Leigh at Liprap’s Lament with At an antiwar march, circa late ’60’s-early ’70’s
• Rebecca of Flying Tomato Farms with Good on ya, Greenpeace!, You Think E Coli Spinach is Scary? and Lack of Information and Support has a Chilling Effect on Farmers Markets in South Dakota
• Sasha at Sasha Dichter’s Blog with Real giving conversations
• Scarlett Lion at Scarlett Lion: Liberia with Context Africa: Senegalese wrestlers captured in monochrome
• Slouching Mom of Slouching Past 40 with Anatomy of a Diseased Brain
• wrekehavoc with peace train and american girl
• XUP with The Freegans
• Zack Ford of Zack Ford Blogs with Faculty Responsible for Campus Climate, Too! (NYU School of Law), Pat Buchanon: The Epitome of Racism in Our Country and Academic Freedom: Anti-gay Opinions vs. Anti-gay Untruths

The posts of this month’s roundtable were nominated by:

Lucy
Mary
Tina
alejna
Holly

It’s that time again!

Alejna and I are seeking nominations for Just Posts for a Just World for the month of July. What did you read this month that made you think, blew your mind, or tugged your heart into a broader perspective? We’re looking for thoughtful posts made by people who write personal blogs. For more information, see the Just Posts page.

We welcome nominations from EVERYONE and hope you’ll contribute to our roundtable!

June has been a difficult month, with posts that reflect this with writing on the thoughts and life changes that come with civil unrest, national conflict, and personal loss. Two countries which we have deep personal connections, Honduras and Peru, have been immersed in violent clashes. I’m still not sure where I stand with the Honduran coup d’etat… I’m not even sure if I feel right calling it a coup. I do hope that the International community keep Honduras in it’s sights no matter how the situation continues to unfold: it is a country of beautiful, open, forgiving people, 70% of whom live in poverty. Any sanctions or separation imposed on the country due to its political situation will ultimately work to the detriment of the nation’s most vulnerable. The Big Picture, the fantastic photography site hosted at Boston.com, posted a collection of photographs of the protests.

Peru also has experienced civil unrest. For years, indigenous peoples have lived in remote areas of the Amazon rain forest with protection from development. But the country wants to use it’s natural resources, particularly it’s forests and oil reserves, to comply with agreements the government made in the US-Peruvian free trade agreement. Violence erupted at roadblocks where people gathered to protect their land from entering developers. You can read more about the conflict at Life in Peru, particularly this post.

Also, as was pointed out by another Peruvian blogger, Peru also lost one of it’s musical legends, Alicia Delgado, who was unexpectedly murdered (a true-to-life telenovela type story). In honor of Alicia (and with appropriate homage to Alejna’s musical JPs) here is Ms. Delgado:

Below are the June Just Posts. Thank you thank you thank you.

• almostidealist at One Year to Change the World with Take action for Tiananmen Square’s victims, Sexism sells, Free speech, free range and Going green for the Iranian protesters
• Barbara Drake at An American in Lima with Archbishop of Cusco to Evict More Local Restaurants
• Christine at flutter with The Luxury of Safety and an untitled post
• City Girl at Country Girl/City Girl with Oh, HELL no
• Emily at Wheels on the Bus with This is what a leader looks like, Education dollars at work,
  Questions (part one) and Rejecting Yertle
• Emily at LA Mom’s Blog with What kids need
• Erika at Be gay about it. with My, what a gayngled web we weave.
• Emmy at Los Pininos with Revised Eulogy
• girlgriot at If you want kin, you must plant kin… with Voice of the People?
• Glenna Gordon (guest posting) at Scarlett Lion: Liberia with Global Post: Miss Coco’s Liberian Barbies
• jen at one plus two with the universal backbone and guess what’s coming to dinner
• Kyla at The Journey with My child, every child
• La Gringa at La Gringa’s Blogicito, with Relative calm in Honduras, despite what you might read and Honduran views on Mel Zelaya and the current events
• laloca at baggage carousel 4 public health stuff
• Mary at The Eleventh with Fed
• meg at A Different View of a Good Life! with Prison in Belize
• Mouse at The Mouse’s Nest with The radical act of being ourselves
• papilio588 at Walk with Me with Nickelsville
• Paul Newnham at Give a damn about poverty? with Why is fighting poverty so hard? and 40 Hour Famine
• Rebecca at Flying Tomato Farms with Are you “Man Enough” for the Middle Border?
• redbird at A Gringa Diary with The Honduran coup was personal here
• Zack Ford at Zack Ford Blogs with Sorry white men (and Ann Coulter), Sotomayor is not a racist. You are.
• Chris at Formerly Fun with Oh Oh, She’s Back on Her Soapbox Again

This month’s readers:

Mad
Emily
Holly
alejna
Stacie

Be sure to head over to Alejna’s for more Just Post love and musical thought!