The Crow Creek tribe has lost more than 33 children in recent years. The reservation only has 1,400 people. Last year Lengkeek asked social service officials to tell him where the children were and who they were placed with.
Seven months later, he received a list. Lengkeek says every single child was placed in a white foster home.
He says if the state had its way, “we’d still be playing cowboys and Indians. I couldn’t imagine what they tell these kids about where they come from and who they are.”
“It’s kidnapping,” he says. “That’s how we see it.” Read more…
City by city, it’s growing. If you have been watching the rise of Occupy Wall Street from the sidelines, maybe it’s because you’re not sure if you’re part of the “99 percent” or maybe it’s because you just have other things to do. Here’s the thing: This is bigger than one person, one issue, or one movement.
Here are five reasons why environmental activists and animal rights activists should Occupy Wall Street:
Corporations are destroying the planet.
Corporations are attacking you.
You have experiences to share about tactics.
You have experiences to share about dealing with corporate and government repression.
I sat on a bench next to some homeless men in the park today, and no one asked me for money.
I’ve spent a lot time around homeless people in my life, but tonight I saw something I’d never seen before. Tonight I saw homeless and disabled people being treated with love and respect by their community. Free cigarettes were the rule.
Hell, free everything was the rule.
No one asked me for money, though we all needed it. No one tried to sell me anything except ideas. People talked and listened to each other. They shared their stories and their work. Yes, there were crazy youngsters in all manor of dress. Yes, there was yelling and smoking. Yes, it was wet and muddy, but there were volunteers constantly sweeping muddy walkways.
Today I sat on a bench with homeless people and watched as their community treated them like human beings. Today I was at Occupy Portland.
It’s not all star trek and hippies in the park.
The philosophy is that everyone is welcome at Occupy Portland. However, even in a community practicing love and justice it still takes work. Ron Paul supporters spent the day creating argument and getting yelled at. And, anyone who’s afraid of the police is going to be nervious, because the police patrol every hour. While we all dream of a better world, we should also take this time to realize racism is a also a part of the 99%. Yet, even as I stood next the ‘crazy’ Ron Paul supporters, the community, the individuals of community, would walk by and constantly remind everyone to be inclusive. Inclusive means accepting Ron Paul supporters are welcome to #OccupyPortland. A small handful even welcome the police…
So you bring bags to the store, reuse your plastic, compost so you don’t use garbage bags, and recycle the trash that the city bin will take. Guess what?
It ain’t working.
Even if Every single family in the country spent the time sorting their garbage, we’d still be throwing millions of tons of waste into the fill every day… It would just be 250 million tons instead of 570 million. Recycled garbage creates air polution, water polution, waste garbage, and consumes massive amounts of electricity made from burning coal. That’s not change, that’s a joke.
Pre-Cycle is Real Change
The country’s first garbage free grocery store is opening in Texas. Check it out! I’d certainly spend all our food dollars there if they opened in Portland. Personally I’m still working on bringing my own container to Portland food carts, but I saw an awesome woman on her bicycle do it 2 weeks ago. It only takes one person to create change. Though my favorite Portland cart uses real dishes. Now if I can just get our junk food in jars at the store. Portland behind Texas for eco-friendly living? Ha!
Kitchen Dances is one of the very best food carts in Portland. Their menu is totally vegan, but don’t let that dissuade your omni or half-hearted veggie friends — their food is AMAZING. Their white bean gravy is divine, and their veggies are fresh and organic. The items on the menu are a little bit classic and a little bit more unique creations by the mastermind chef, Piper Dixon, co-founder of Proper Eats, and his partner. Their Tempeh Reuben is renowned. Their open-faced breakfast burrito with said white bean gravy is crazy good. I’m not the only one who thinks that they are awesome — Read their reviews on Yelp or like them on Facebook.
Not the most flattering photo of this truly awesome dish, but this is, hands down, the best scramble I have ever had. This scramble is less about the potatoes or tofu and all about the vegetables. Freshly-prepared cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, carrots, and green onion make up the greater portion of the meal. The tofu and potatoes are there too, have no fear, in generous proportion — crispy and well-seasoned, to boot. I actually could not finish this dish and I’m the type to eat for two at all times, being an enthusiastic eater and a nursing mama. I am very happy to live within walking distance of this breakfast scramble.
The Paradox Cafe will veganize any dish on their menu and they offer a lot of gluten-free choices as well. Sitting there trying to order, I felt like I really had to study the menu — their dishes seem original in a good way. If you sign up on their website with your email address, you can get some nice internet discounts on your bill there too. Definitely going back soon!
When I go to New Seasons, it’s hard to resist ordering this sandwich. I check every vegetable box on the ordering sheet. Sometimes the sandwich artists will make happy comments. These people are usually the best at making the sandwiches with everything, as the sandwiches can be quite hard to contain within the bread. Today, the sandwich was called “ambitious,” and when I apologized politely, the sandwich artist said not to worry, that he enjoyed making sandwiches like that one.
Note: Not all of the breads at New Seasons are vegan. The bread in my sandwich today is not — But! I found out from a former New Seasons baker that there is no dairy in the non-vegan breads, just honey. Being a casual vegan in this regard, I think the whole wheat seeded roll is worth it — But for stricter vegans, there are other great choices.
An Orange Chocolate Cupcake from Sweetpea Baking Co., where all the treats are vegan! Sweetpea Baking Co. also showcases a lot of gluten-free and soy-free baked goods, and their grilled, pressed sandwiches are the answer to vegans missing a good grilled cheese now and then. Saturday mornings they serve donuts, and Sundays they do an all-you-can-eat brunch buffet for $10! Follow their Twitter feed for news about what’s baking.
(Sweetpea’s pressed sandwich, “The Schwegmann” + tomato)
The writers of this blog have moved to Portland, OR! Where every restaurant knows what vegans are! Where people eat dark greens! Where urban gardens spill over residential pathways! Where cupcakes grow on trees…
Okay, but seriously. Kristen of The Casual Vegan has just promised Greg of The Casual Vegan that she will update this blog once a week to showcase all the awesome stuff that she goes out and eats with their baby, Dax, to prove to you that a.) Portland is a vegan mecca, and b.) Vegans have all the fun.
Today, on the way back from the food carts on Belmont where we found a delightful (and unphotographed) dish of vegan biscuits and gravy, I ducked into Saint Cupcake Deluxe and brought home this perfect cupcake. Not much to say about it other than it was delicious and when you have the choice between two delicious cupcakes, one made from the blood and sweat of animals, the other animal-free, why would you even hesitate to choose the vegan version?
A new study from Rice University as shown that gender-biased recommendations can negatively affect women’s careers. Old news right? Well not quite. This study took gendered language out of hundreds of recommendations. They then had them reviewed and rated by a selection comity that had no idea which candidates were male or female. Letters of recommendation for men are far more likely to use agentic adjectives while letters written about women more often use communal adjectives. The letters written for men that focused on agentic traits scored higher ratings again and again.
Words in the communal category included adjectives such as affectionate, helpful, kind, sympathetic, nurturing, tactful and agreeable, and behaviors such as helping others, taking direction well and maintaining relationships. Agentic adjectives included words such as confident, aggressive, ambitious, dominant, forceful, independent, daring, outspoken and intellectual, and behaviors such as speaking assertively, influencing others and initiating tasks.
What to do with this knowledge
In my experience, the person writing a recommendation almost always wants the best for you while still telling the truth. So, if your a woman and you’re getting a recommendation, prime your recommender with your knowledge about how stereotypes negatively affect female candidates and encourage the recommender to describe the agentic aspects of your work.
When writing a recommendation for a female candidate, avoid relying on stereotypes. Instead, seek agentic adjectives that apply to the person you’re writing about. Even if the person your writing about is nurturing and tactful, you’ll do them a service by writing about their independence and confidence instead.
