sunset

thats me and Vicki Noon, the fierce girl who plays Elphaba in SF most nights... we are at party to celebrate our theaters success in raising money for Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids, shes like an inspiration for living, and she told me that she never went to theater school! isnt that crazy!

so yay! Im back in my room! lol, i love when its all sunny and pretty in here, but the sun is about to go down : (

So today was my second to last day of class, i just have thursday and then a final next thursday.  But in both my classes today we were having class discussions.  In my CAD class we are talking about this book called Whatever It Takes, its about this organization called the Harlem Childrens Zone, they are this amazing organization that is trying to give all kids an equal start.  This guy named Geoffry Canada has raised a lot of money to create this conveyor belt of programs that bring a poor child from harlem strait from the womb to college.  I read the book last week and i was upssessed with it.  Canada is inspirational and effective.  He has created this conveyor belt, and its working!

Heres a video about the organization:

i could go on forever about how wonderful i think this program is, and more so how i think this kids who are making it to college, and getting college educations have the potential to be our well educated and empowered leaders of the future, the ones who might finally have the perspective to overthrow this awful capitalistic society that we live in, and change the structure of America so that poverty no longer exists, and children who need these types of programs no longer exist.

so.... i have been thinking alot in this past year about moving back to New York... but i havent made any real decisions about it.  I have been thinking and praying alot about my life and purpose and stuff, and asking god to place infront of me a challenge and a situation in which i can make a difference.  and i think this is it.  Today in class it finally clicked.  I want to move to NYC in a few years, work for a broadway show at nights and on weekends, and work for the Harlem Childrens Zone and Geoffry Canada.  For good reason Canada hardly ever hires white people, but hopefully my experience studying abroad will make me qualified.  Even if i was able to volunteer for some part of the program, i think i could learn a lot.  So this is now in my 5 year plan, which is always changing, but not to frequently i guess.

Then, in my Labor studies class we are reading a book called "Solidarity Divided" by Bill Fletcher, Bill Fletcher Jr. and Fernando Gapasin.  My labor studies class has been very interesting, as well as very boring at times.  But there were some parts of this book that really jumped out at me and have helped me come to a better understanding of race, labor, and class in american society.  Just learning about how capitalism functions has been mind blowing, how the structure of the system it self is what allows oppression to continue in perpituity, and of course those that run the system do a very good job at making sure us poor folk, aka 90% america is ignorant to how this is happening.  Capitalism is the cause of those poor kids in harlem, they are the reason that things like the Harlem Childrens Zone have to exist. so anyways... heres a quote:

"Class struggle and trade union struggle are not necessarily the same thing.  Trade union struggle is a subset of class struggle.  Class struggle emerges from a simple dynamic: in a society with a social surplus and a division between those who produce and those who make decisions, a struggle inevitable occurs over that surplus.  insofar as the surplus ultimately results form the uncompensated labor power of workers and those workers-- whether working or rendered "redundant"--have not say over the disposition of that surplus, an antagonism develops between those who possess the means of distributing that surplus (and thus hold power) and those who do not: those with the means to distribute the surplus ultimately control societies means of production, distribution and exchange.

Class struggle, then , is not something that can be turned on and off: it can, however , take various forms, depending on the leadership of the contending sides.  It can also be influenced by conditions external to the society in which it occurs.  Class struggle, in other words, is not a situation in which workers or unions create "problems" but a social interaction resulting from the nature of a class society

Class struggle is built into the fabric of all societies that have classes.  it is not just a matter of what does or does not take place in a particular workplace or set of workplaces.  It also involves who can live in what sections of a city, who is exposed to toxic wastes, who gets access to what sorts of education, whose votes are counted in elections, and who pays attention to greenhouse gases"

well... thats about it, for now anyways lol. the sun is almost setting, so sad, good bye day, hello night