Colleagues of Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin
Previously Aired On: July 26, 2006 - Listen to this Show!
Medea Benjamin was our orignially scheduled guest. The afternoon before the show, Medea Benjamin was arrested at the Capitol in Washington, DC. She was kind enough to send two of her colleagues from Code Pink, Ann Wright and Raed Jarrar, and it turned out to be a great show! Medea will be joining us again in the future.
Medea Benjamin, a powerful and charismatic force in human rights activism, has struggled for social justice in Asia, Africa and the Americas for over 20 years. She is the Founding Director of the human rights organization Global Exchange. Benjamin is a leading activist in the peace movement in the United States and helped bring together the groups forming the coalition United for Peace and Justice.
She is also the co-founder of Code Pink: Women for Peace, a women’s group that has been organizing against the war in Iraq and pushing for a reorientation of budget priorities in the US to focus on heath care, education and housing, not war. In February 2003, Benjamin visited Iraq and met with weapon’s inspectors, women’s groups and ordinary Iraqi civilians.
In January of 2002, Benjamin accompanied four Americans who lost loved ones in the September 11th terrorist attacks on a trip to Afghanistan to meet people there who lost relatives during the US bombing. She also led a women’s delegation to Afghanistan and Pakistan in November of 2001 to investigate the humanitarian situation among the refugee population, to assess the consequences of US bombing and to hear from Afghan women’s groups.
She is the author of numerous books. Prior to founding Global Exchange in 1988, Medea worked for ten years as an economist and nutritionist in Latin America and Africa for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Institute for Food and Development Policy.
Website: Global Exchange
July 26th, 2006
--Previous Guests--, Ann Wright, Raed Jarrar |
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American-Islamic Relations CAIR
Previously Aired On: July 25, 2006 - Listen to this Show!
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR is a nonprofit 501(c), grassroots civil rights and advocacy group. CAIR is America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, with regional offices nationwide and in Canada. The national headquarters is located on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.
Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America. Through media relations, lobbying, education and advocacy, CAIR puts forth an Islamic perspective to ensure the Muslim voice is represented. In offering this perspective, CAIR seeks to empower the American Muslim community and encourage their participation in political and social activism.
CAIR’s Civil Rights Department counsels, mediates and advocates on behalf of Muslims and others who have experienced religious discrimination, defamation or hate crimes. The department works to protect and defend the constitutional rights of American Muslims, thereby supporting the rights of all Americans.
CAIR’s Governmental Affairs Department conducts and organizes lobbying efforts on issues related to Islam and Muslims.
CAIR’s Communications Department works in conjunction with local and national media to ensure an accurate portrayal of Islam and Muslims is presented to the American public.
Website: CAIR
July 25th, 2006
--Previous Guests--, Arsalan Iftikhar |
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Former Boyband Member LFO
Previously Aired On: July 19, 2006 - Archive Not Currently Available
Rich Cronin (born Richard Burton Cronin, on August 30, 1975) is a singer and song writer from Orlando, Florida. He was part of the pop trio LFO. He wrote the hit Summer Girls in 1999, which is also known as The Abercrombie & Fitch Song, the single hit No.3 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales chart for six weeks, the single also went Platinum in the US for sales of over 1,000,000 units.
Rich’s friend Jennifer Love Hewitt was featured in the music video for a song he wrote called Girl on TV, which was the 2nd biggest single he wrote, the single hit No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, and No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100 Single Sales chart, selling over 750,000 copies in the US, and was certified Gold by the RIAA. He is currently working on a new album with Hydrogen Records and Poprox producers which has an unknown title.
On April 14, 2005, he was hospitalized with leukemia. Both Hulk Hogan and Jennifer Love Hewitt have supported Rich in this. Rich is actively involved in increasing public awareness and promoting research for a cure for Leukemia.
RichCronin.com
July 19th, 2006
--Previous Guests--, Rich Cronin |
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Native Actress, Dancing With Wolves
Previously Aired On: July 12, 2006 - Listen to this Show!
The tall, lanky, Tantoo Cardinal is a metis, the term in Canada applying to those of mixed Native American and European descent. Raised among the Cree, her acting career has included roles as the knowing wife of the Medicine Man in Dances With Wolves (1990), the poignant childless companion of Rip Torn in Where the Rivers Flow North (1993) and the mother of Brad Pitt’s wife in Legends of the Fall (1994). Cardinal has also worked extensively on TV, often in PBS dramas or films on historical First American figures and stories.
Being involved with the Amer-Indian movement of the 1970’s Tantoo felt acting would be a way to reach people and send her message of truth to the world. Along with Russell Means, Graham Greene and others she has accomplished a part of her mission. She began with public speaking and lecturing on the Native-American condition which gave her confidence. Cardinal was a leader of a youth group petitioning to get the Canadian government to build more schools on Indian reservations in the province of Alberta when she was cast in a small role in a 1971 Canadian docudrama on the life of Albert Lacombe, a 19th century Roman Catholic missionary.
Tantoo has garnered many acting awards for her work. She has done much for the Native-American community throughout her life. Recently she accepted the Sun Hill Award for Excellence in Native American Filmmaking at the Harvard Film Archive. The award is given in honor of a director, actor, producer, or writer who has made a significant contribution to the legacy of Native American film.
July 12th, 2006
--Previous Guests--, Tantoo Cardinal |
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Author of Born on the Fourth of July
Previously Aired On: July 5, 2006 - Listen to this Show!
This edition of The People Speak celebrates the 4th of July through discussion with film director Frank Cavestani and peace activist Ron Kovic whose life was portrayed by Tom Cruise in the Oliver Stone’s film Born on the Fourth of July. Director Oliver Stone based the film on Ron’s autobiography of the same name and they used director Frank Cavestani’s documentary Operation Last Patrol as research material.
Ron Kovic was a U.S. Marine who served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War where he was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. In combat on January 20 1968 he suffered a spinal cord injury which left him paralized from the chest down. He became one of the best known peace activists among the veterans of the war.
Ron Kovic was born on July 4, 1946, in Ladysmith, Wisconsin and grew up in Massapequa, New York. His autobiography, Born on the Fourth of July, was adapted as an Academy Award winning film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Tom Cruise as Kovic.
Frank Cavestani was raised in New York City. He made his theatrical debut as Shelley Winters’ co-star in James Bridge’s Days of the Dancing. Frank moved into motion pictures and television as a star and co-star, co-starring on CBS Defenders with E.G. Marshall when he was still in his teens and in Andy Warhol’s wild epic Women In Revolt.
Frank produced and directed his own film, Operation Last Patrol, a one-hour and won an award at the Popoli Film Festival in Italy and the Leipzig Film Festival in Germany; and iit is now part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern art in New York. He later became a technical advisor onOliver Stone’s feature film Born on the Fourth of July.
July 5th, 2006
--Previous Guests--, Ron Kovic |
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