Sunday, September 20, 2009

Yo! Save the Geese! Filmed in Cambridge MA by Northeastern Students for Film Fest



Like all are, this film should stand on it's own.

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Sunday, September 20, 2009 3 comments

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Howling in Happiness!

Cambridge City Councillor, Marjory Decker off the ballot of 2009?

Robert Winters is reporting that Marjorie Decker, incumbant Cambridge City Councillor failed to submit enough nomination signatures to be certified as nominated to be a candidate for City Council, and she therefore will not be on the ballot for the Nov 3rd election. there are 20 candidates who will be on the ballot, competing for 9 seats.

This week I again recieved a communication that decker wants guide dogs banned from City Council meetings she attends. Therefore, guide dogs are howling in celebration that she may not be attending City Council meetings as an elected City Councillor after January, 2010.

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Saturday, August 01, 2009 1 comments

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Complaint Filed Against Sgt James Crowley, Cambridge Police Officer Who Acts Like Judge, Jury and Arresting Officer

Complaint filed against Sgt James Crowley, July 10, 2008, at the direction of Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas. Police Superintendent Stephen Williams was instructed to help me file this complaint. This was immediately after a meeting about Crowley's repeted threats to have me arrested on false, trumped up charges.



Here is a great video, please visit the creator's Youtube site.

I was not at all surprised when I heard that Sgt James Crowley has arrested an innocent man at his own home. At the meeting I had with Commissioner Haas, I expressed concern that an internal complaint would be nothing more than a whitewash. And so it was. But I had another meeting with Commissioner Haas, Stephen Williams, Kelly Downes, Neil Alpert from the Mayors office, and we again discussed the ongoing discrimination against me by Cambridge Police, and what training the police were recieving. More on this later. I repetedly told Police Commissioner Robert Haas:

"I fear, that if you don't hold Sgt James Crowley accountable, he will continue to do this to others, and eventually he will do this to the wrong person."

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Sunday, July 26, 2009 1 comments

Sunday, March 30, 2008

How Do We Build Community? Hope and Healing.


Colourful photo above shows a woman of colour waiting for a bus in Central Sq., Cambridge, MA. The photo below shows two white men waiting for a bus in Inman Sq. One appears to be middleclass, the other appears less well off, economically, and carries a cane.

All three are busy dealing with common problem: transportation.


Hope and healing.


Above is Bruce from Mass Office on Disability with his service dog. He has a level in his hand and is teaching us how to measure sidewalks for cross-slope. We are volunteers from the greater Boston area who will lead access survey walks in celebration of the 15th Anniversary of the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1990, Public Law 101-336, otherwise known as the Americans With Disabilities Act, the ADA. The ADA is enforced through the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that made it unlawful to discriminate based on race. The ADA makes it unlawful to discriminate based on disability.
Below is a photo of an African American male, and a white female.
Today we continue to struggle with our latent biases. I hope you will take time to view these photos, even enlarge and print them, and share them with family and friends. My intention, when I took these, was to illustrate the "DREAM."
Hope and healing.


Obama's speach on "race" provides us with real insight into what the barrier of attitude is, and how it handicaps us.

By speaking in plain english, without hesitation, baring painful truths on a subject that most of us would prefer be swept under the rug of "it doesn't affect me, personally," Obama has laid a foundation to rebuild a strong and United States of America. One of the most amazing outcomes of his speach is how much latent racism spilled over into the reaction to the speach itself.

It very may be that there are those who are invested, heavily, in that which tends to divide us. Those of us who want and seek inclusion, meet a bouncer at door after door. The bouncer is the barrier to inclusion. The "reason" given for exclusion varies from place to place. Inclusion, it seems, is illusion, even in 2008 in America today.

Fear and loathing are probably the main motivations for excluding individuals. The idea that we may have to consider the feelings of someone different from self is starteling to us. It immediately raises to our consciounsous our own bias. Something we don't want to acknowledge, or be associated with. Do we prefer "Out of sight, out of mind?"

But a group, City, State or Country is handicapped when not all of its individuals are considered members of the community, much less respected members of the community. The issue then, and which we have been skirting for a long time, is "Who should be members of the community, and how do we respect this commitment?"

How do we build community. How do we value community? How do we open ourselves to the views of others, whom we have learned to ignor, scorn, and speak with contempt about?

Yes, indeed, this is the guestion. How do we build community?


>>They said his speech, which called for an honest dialogue about race, offered an opportunity to be open to others' experiences without automatically triggering the shame, guilt and strife such conversations usually entail.

"Obama is such a gift right now: He talks about the truth in a way that everyone on all sides needs to hear, in a way that suggests there's hope for a new day," said Allan Collister, 64, who is white and is the pastor of New Church Berkeley, a nondenominational and heavily Asian church that's within the evangelical Protestant umbrella. "He treats with respect people he doesn't agree with. That's so huge."<< >>If it's segregated public schools, it's mostly black people who come to meetings. If it's about immigration, it's immigrants. If it's about sexuality, it's largely gays and lesbians. "St. Paul says that when any member of the family suffers, all suffer. Or when one rejoices, all rejoice. But we as a people live as if that weren't true."<< http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/30/MNIBVQS0Q.DTL&type=politics

http://tinyurl.com/yuzjj8

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Sunday, March 30, 2008 6 comments

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter


His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow.
Bible: King James version; Matthew 28:3

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Sunday, March 23, 2008 0 comments

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Dangerous Intersection Needs Proper Controls

My heart goes out to the harvard Grad student who was killed in the crosswalk in Central Square in cambridge Monday morning. This was an accident that was forseeable and preventable. here are some photos that I took almost 3 years ago to documant the problems at this intersection, where go on green cars cross the Mass Ave crosswalk while pedestrians enter the crosswalk on a save to walk light.

This is a tragedy and a travesty. It needs to be changed...

Photo above shows a blind man using a white cane waiting for the walk light. In the photo below he is walking across Mass Ave in the Cross walk. He is at a bit of an angle, and confused, because he hears traffic in front of him, so he veres away from aproaching car.

The cars have the green light and are turning across the crosswalk at the same time the walk light is on. We have all complained about this, but it is the City of Cambridge's pollicy to "keep the traffic moving."



The photo below shows the blind man has run into the car that is blocking the crosswalk and the accessible route to the curb ramp. The blind man cannot see it, and cannot hear any sound signals.

A full compliment of sound signals is needed so folks who are blind can hear them in both directions. theis photo was taken June 30, 2005.


Here the police sit, but show no concern, nor do they come to the aid of pedestrians caught in the crosswalk with crossing vehicular traffic. They do not even come to the aid of the blind man.

We need a full complement of sound signals at all busy intersections in Cambridge, and we need to end the police of having a green light at the same time as a walk light here in Central Square.


posted by Kathy Podgers @ Saturday, March 22, 2008 0 comments

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Harvard Grad student run over in crosswalk at known dangerous intersection at Central Sq, Cambridge

The photo above shows a man trying to cross Mass Ave in Central Sq. He has the light, but got trapped by a big bus that was turning across his path because the bus had a green light and this intersection has a safe to walk light at the same time. That's green for you. A good way to save on gas, and avoid ideling, but puts the pedestrian at risk

The photo below shows the man weaving down the crosswalk, after getting around the rear of the bus, he has to negociate with the driver of a car. This is taking a long time, will he make it before the light turns? Well, come to think of it, it hardly matters, what with all the cars in the intersection having made a right turn on green into the crosswalk filled with pedestrians walking on a safe to walk light!




Please note the signal shows a red hand, it means don't start, the cars on Western ave still have the green light and are still making right turns on green. You can see that is true, because the bicycle in the crosswalk is waiting for his light to turn green so he can go.

Do you think the old man using the walker will make it across the street in time? Do you care? If you do care, send me an email, or write to City Councillor Craig Kelley.

posted by Kathy Podgers @ Wednesday, March 19, 2008 1 comments