Class 2 Chapter 2 (1/25/12)

There are a multitude of similarities within the stories of Kettleman City, Buttonwillow, and Chester. All their struggles began by meeting disregard and ridicule before confrontation. The citizens of Chester realized like the others that the law is structured in a way that is not always "right" as you would like to think. The most important changes occurred at the local levels and I feel this is the important lesson to take from it; true change begins from the bottom up, its much harder to go from the top down.

During class we reviewed the first week's discussion a bit going over what sustainability meant and moving onward to the socially constructed forms of oppression, mainly racism, sexism, and classism. It is much easier to control a population when the population does not see itself as a whole and these forms of oppression serve to stratify and divide the population. A vast majority of people are blind to the big picture and they are in bliss in their ignorance. Obama had just given his State of the Union speech and addressed some key issues including the war, energy, the income inequality and the income gap, and of course the state of the economy. We watched DemocracyNow! for a bit which mostly recapped the SotU and there was a small segment on Ralph Nader as well. During the class we also touched on the military-industrial complex which accounts for a huge portion of our GDP so flat-out stopping our international conflicts isn't that simple. It seems that our country is structured for war and like previous Justice Movements have shown us, top down change is hard to come by.