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Oakland’s Family is flamboyant and family-friendly, activist and organized, on the move and rooted deeply in the neighborhoods. In Oakland, the Family is as concerned about marriage rights as housing rights. The family is raising kids, pursuing spirituality, sounding off about public safety, and railing about the budget deficit.

Read entire article here.

Here’s what I need this week:

1. Watch my audition video at http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=2653&promo_id=1

2. VOTE, VOTE, VOTE. There is no limit on the number of times you can vote between now and July 3rd at midnight.

3. Post the audition on your facebook page and twitter.

4. Send the audition video link to your friends and ask them to support this effort.

But it’s not just another day – if we really consider how deeply the war has impacted our community at home.  It’s certainly not another day for me.

This morning, I dig out my dog tags from under a pile of photos and begin the morning with sorrow, mind full of snapshots and sound. I think about the grieving military families I met while in Crawford, Texas protesting the war in 2005.  I remember the shocking and heartbreaking testimony during Winter Soldier in 2008 when I covered the conference for Pacifica Radio.  I think about my nephew Andre who is a new Marine Corps boot camp graduate heading to his first duty station.

I pause to reflect on the 5,462 American soldiers dead from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the hundreds of thousands wounded – languishing in hospital beds or waiting in line for benefits or fighting their demons.  I wonder why that number isn’t discussed or debated more in regular conversation, especially as more troops head to Afghanistan.  I think about my own time in the Palo Alto Veterans Hospital as a member of the 347th General Hospital unit and my struggle to understand the homeless, desperate veterans there suffering from a war decades gone.  I think about the warriors that tell the truth about war and the military at great personal sacrifice.

Memorial Day is also a time to remember the victims of war in other lands. Some come to US cities to begin again – or escape certain death at home. This is a local issue: Iraqi and Afghan refugees have even settled in East Oakland and other neighborhoods.

It’s also a time to reflect on the impact that war has had in Oakland. Today, take another look at the person with the bent cardboard sign on the corner of Broadway and 14th Street, or International and 84th, or the High Street exit off the 880 freeway. Locally, as is the national trend, fully one-third of the homeless on the streets are veterans from the Vietnam War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Our local Vets Center serves some of the veterans that suffer from joblessness and mental illness and drug addition years after their tours. But for those not served, and there are 100,000 nationally that must seek help from local agencies and community and faith based organizations.   We feature a discussion with one of the unsung heroes, a vet himself, that serves the local veteran community.

This Memorial Day, let’s remember that war has a dangerous impact on mental health as is shown in this recent PBS documentary.  We’ll continue to deal with the long-term impacts of the suffering here at home.

And today, let’s expand the meaning of this holiday to include the war raging on Oakland streets today.  There is great loss and suffering there too.  Today, we remember Alvaro J. Ayala, 28 and the hundreds that have lost their lives on Oakland’s streets.  These are our cousins, uncles, friends, husbands – killed on the street. Let us take a moment to honor victims of violence in Oakland this week as well.

On OaklandSeen this week, we will publish stories of loss and sadness from the war that continues abroad to violence in our streets everyday.  Perhaps if the long-term pain of loss is made plain, we will recommit to changing it.

I watched Jeff Lucey’s parents describe their son’s depression, alcohol abuse and suicide in front of an audience of veterans in 2008.

So this Memorial Day, let’s pause and consider who isn’t with us today.  Who was lost too young, ignobly, and ignored? Let’s commit to finding meaning in the losses that touch us all.

Oakland Mayor’s Model City Summit on Women kicks off with a series of community activities that enlighten, engage, and empower women and their families of Oakland and the greater Bay Area.

The summit celebrates the vibrant and meaningful lives of women by bringing them together to share knowledge, power and resources that improve their quality of life. read more
Price: Early registration $75. regular $100
Phone: (510) 238-7906
Age Suitability: Teens and up

Oakland Mayor’s Model City Summit on Women kicks off with a series of community activities that enlighten, engage, and empower women and their families of Oakland and the greater Bay Area.

The summit celebrates the vibrant and meaningful lives of women by bringing them together to share knowledge, power and resources that improve their quality of life. Featured speakers and workshops offer something for women and their families of all backgrounds

Women’s Media Center Announces First Class of 2010 Progressive Women’s Voices

MEDIA AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM DRAWS RECORD APPLICANTS

March 31, 2010 (New York) – Women’s Media Center is thrilled to announce the first class of its 2010 Progressive Women’s Voices (PWV) media and leadership training program. Now in its third year, PWV continues to be one of the most elite programs in the country, training and mentoring emerging political commentators.

“Media is a fundamental element of our democracy, yet women make up just 19% of experts in the news media. With the 2010 elections just around the corner, the Women’s Media Center is working to ensure that broadcast and print commentators represent the diversity of our nation,” said WMC President Jehmu Greene. “By amplifying the voices of the extraordinarily accomplished thought leaders selected for the program we are changing the conversation in the media.

Participants in the first class of 2010 include experts in voter mobilization, human rights, race politics, immigrant/refugee issues, family/workplace policies, military experience, labor issues, and feminism. These women are organizers, journalists, and academics, and reflect a diversity generally absent from mainstream media coverage. These women join more than 60 Progressive Women’s Voices alumnae, forming a roster of media-trained progressive women who are visibly and powerfully commenting on the important issues of the day.

With Progressive Women’s Voices and SheSource – a database of more than 500 progressive women experts – WMC has become the go-to resource for editors, reporters, producers, and bookers seeking expert sources and commentators. PWV alumnae have achieved more than 5,000 media hits in national media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC, and hundreds more. To learn more about Progressive Women’s Voices, please visit: http://www.womensmediacenter.com/progressive_womens_voices.html

Progressive Women’s Voices 2010 Class 1: Aimee Allison, Page Gardner, Jehan Harney, Shelby Knox, Sharon Lerner, Mac McClelland, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Imani Perry, Christine Trujillo, and Erica Williams.

PWV 2010 Class 1 bios:

Aimee Allison

Aimee Allison is a Bay Area KPFA radio host/producer, activist and author, with special expertise in the fields of social justice, environmental issues, and militarism. As an Army veteran and conscientious objector, Allison has a unique perspective on war and peace. Her book, Army of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World was published in 2007. Allison’s work combines deep understanding of local and national politics, and she has hosted broadcast segments everywhere from community radio to CNN. Aimee holds a BA in history and MA in education from Stanford University.

Page Gardner

Page Gardner is the founder and President of Women’s Voices. Women Vote, an influential organization focused on bring disenfranchised groups into full electoral participation. Primarily known for their work with unmarried women, is also leading the movement to enfranchise the historically under-represented groups that now comprise the new American electorate including African Americans, Hispanics, and young people. Before founding WVWV, Gardner worked at senior levels in political campaigns for the last 20 years. She is a nationally known political strategist and communications specialist.

Jehan Harney

Jehan S. Harney is an award-winning Egyptian-American TV journalist and filmmaker. Her films have explored issues of immigrant communities, human trafficking, forced sterilization, interfaith issues and more. Currently, Harney is finishing a documentary for national broadcast on PBS called “Dream of America”. The film reveals the plight of Iraqi refugees in the U.S. Her short documentary on American-Muslim women, The Colors of Veil, recently won the LinkTV/One Nation Many Voices award. Jehan has also worked in TV news, including at NBC and ABC affiliates, and most recently covering Iranian issues for WashingtonTV. She has earned the Writers Guild of America-East’s John Merriman Award, among others. Harney has an MA in International Journalism & Public Affairs from American University in Washington, DC.

Shelby Knox

Shelby Knox is a prominent feminist organizer, nationally known as the subject of the Sundance award-winning film, The Education of Shelby Knox, a 2005 documentary chronicling her teenage activism for comprehensive sex education and gay rights in her Southern Baptist community. After the film’s release, Shelby became a national advocate for comprehensive sex education, testifying before Congress and many other local and regional civic bodies about the failure of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs. A widely-sought after speaker and prominent media commentator on feminism and reproductive rights, Shelby lives in New York City, where she is working on a book about the next generation of feminist activism.

Sharon Lerner

A leading national voice on family/workplace issues and moms’ rights, Sharon Lerner is the author of The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation, due out in May. She is a journalist who has covered a wide range of issues of concern to women for more than a decade. An award-winning journalist, Lerner has written for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, The American Prospect, and other publications. Sharon has also received a National Headliner Award for her radio feature reporting and was a Senior Fellow at the New School. She has an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a Masters of Public Health degree from Columbia University. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young sons.

Mac McClelland

A rising star of progressive media, Mac is an expert on human rights, refugee populations and Burma. McClelland is on staff at Mother Jones as their human rights reporter, with other work published in The Nation, GQ The Daily Beast, The National Post, the Anderson Cooper 360 blog, Orion, AlterNet, as well as various literary journals and anthologies. Author of For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question: A Story from Burma’s Never-Ending War, called “truly stunning” by the Fund for Investigative Journalism’s Sandy Bergo, Mac has reported from locations across Asia and the US on wide-ranging subjects. She has been profiled by publications including The Advocate and is, most importantly and according to The American Prospect, “a total bad-ass.”

Samhita Mukhopadhyay

Samhita is the Executive Editor of Feministing, the highest-traffic site for progressive young women on the web. A veteran writer, whose work has been featured in New American Media, Wiretap, Colorlines, the Nation, The American Prospect, and elsewhere, Samhita’s expertise is also widely sought as a speaker. In addition to being a prominent writer/blogger, Mukhopadhyay is also a leading digital strategist, with a background at the Center for Media Justice, providing media strategy for grass-roots organizing groups. Mukhopadhyay has a Bachelors degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies from SUNY Albany and a Masters in Women’s Studies from San Francisco State She is at work on her first book tackling what she terms the romantic industrial complex, addressing romance and dating from a feminist perspective.

Imani Perry

Imani Perry is a Professor in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. She is an interdisciplinary scholar who studies race and African American culture using the tools provided by various disciplines including: law, literary and cultural studies, music, and the social sciences. She is the author of the forthcoming book More Terrible, More Beautiful, The Embrace and Transcendence of Racial Inequality in the U.S as well as 2004’s Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop and has published numerous articles in the areas of law, cultural studies, and African American studies. Perry holds degrees from Yale, Harvard, and Georgetown universities.

Christine Trujillo

A national leader on labor and employment issues, twenty year veteran teacher and labor activist Christine Trujillo is the President of New Mexico Federation of Labor-AFL-CIO, one of three women in the labor movement to hold such a high office. She is also President of the American Federation of Teachers, New Mexico; and a former elected official and Democratic party leader. Winner of numerous awards, Trujillo’s expertise also includes public bilingual education and health care issues. Christine is one of the country’s most prominent Hispanic leaders.

Erica Williams

Listed by Politico.com as one of Top 50 Politicos to Watch, Erica Williams is a dynamic young organizer and expert in issues of youth political participation and the increasingly racially & ethnically diverse electorate. In her work with the Center for American Progress, Williams has worked with both the organization’s youth-based arm, Campus Progress, as well as Progress 2050, a project that develops new ideas for an increasingly diverse America. Before joining CAP, Erica worked at the Leadership Conference on Civil Right to coordinate grassroots activity in nearly 45 states to advance effective civil and human rights legislation at the federal level. She is a past participant of the American University Women and Political Leadership Training Program, a 2008 O Magazine Women Rule Leadership winner, and a 2008 Aspen Institute IDEAS fellow.

To speak with Women’s Media Center President Jehmu Greene about Progressive Women’s Voices, please contact Rebekah Spicuglia, (212) 563-0680, rebekah@womensmediacenter.com.

The application deadline for the next class is April 19, with trainings to be held June 4-6 and July 9-11 in New York City. For more information, or to apply for the program, visit our website: http://womensmediacenter.com/index.php/media-training/progressive-womens-voices.html

Come and visit OaklandSeen’s website – featuring community news and views, events, etc. We had a hot launch party last week, and have lots of people interested in contributing to this effort. Wee!

Our goal is to have a real impact on politics and life here in Oakland and if you are local and want to get involved, let us know.

I joined the Media One team engaged in recording, and documenting the Sustainable Haiti track of the Social Venture Capital conference in Miami, Fl this week.  My job – to interview the myriad of entreprenuers, NGO, community orgaizations, Haitian-Americans, American investors and government people about their best hopes and vision for collaborating to rebuild Haiti.

We’ll deliver a series of videos that present best ideas, organizations, thinkers over the new few weeks.  But right now you can see images, video and blogs from some highlights at HaitiOnward – the hub that will keep social venture types and organizations connected over the long term.

Fantastic team behind the scenes, there at the conference who are forging brand new alliances between social venture capitalists and community groups.  And I was glad to be part of the new Generocity Productions, whose job it is to magnify the critical conversations that tend to only happen in the halls of a convention center.  I heard people having committed conversations about how to invest in Haiti to create jobs and eliminate the pervasive “ultra-poverty” of the region (World Vision’s phrase, not mine).

The general media may not be reporting about Haiti everyday, but the people at the conference – most who were connected and worked with Haiti before the earthquake – give me renewed hope that Haiti can be renewed as we hear in the words of the former Haitian Prime Minister. She was interviewed on Wednesday.