Say "NO" to "Tea Party" neo-fascism

Minnie Bruce and I will be traveling to Buffalo, New York (northeast U.S.) for this important protest. Please join us!

From the Buffalo International Action Center:

"The Tea Party will rally in Buffalo this Monday, April 12, at 11am at the foot of Pearl St and Scott with the racist millionaire developer Carl Paladino as their speaker.

IT'S ABOUT TIME WE STAND UP TO THESE EXTREME RIGHTWING RACIST, ANTI-IMMIGRANT, ANTI-WOMEN, HOMOPHOBIC NEO-FASCISTS!

It's time we let everyone know they don't speak for us! We're going to be there. Bring your own signs, or pick up one of ours."

After reading this article by Minnie Bruce:

Students organize against bank ‘takeover’ of commencement

please take a moment to sign the student-led petition and please help spread the word:

http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SUGRADUA&1

Protest top banker as SU commencement speaker (please sign & help spread the word)

Syracuse University bosses approved head banker of JP Morgan Chase to deliver the 2010 commencement address. Please take a moment to click here to sign the protest petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/SUGRADUA/petition.html

Today we're being told that the cupboards are bare, as millions lose work in a jobless recovery and the banks have foreclosed on miles of former neighborhoods.

But the money is there, as Pete Seeger sings (click on YouTube link below). Six decades after he sang these words--brave to speak or sing in those McCarthyite days of anti-communist witch hunt in the U.S.-- the working class has changed in this country. The historical images that accompany this recording today need more labor of workers of color, immigrants, women, youth and elder--and more pronouns are needed in these lyrics, too.

The living struggle will refresh the lyrics of demands through chant and song and lift up more music from the international working class and oppressed, as well. But the truth in this song still resonates as we struggle today.

click here for: Pete Seeger singing "Banks of Marble" / YouTube

Heavy metal (not the music):

(click photo)

After 13 months of treatment with three different anti-malarial approaches, I have finished treatment for babesiosis. The treatments have left me with inflamed, sore, ringing ears but without soaking sweats and painful chills.

I had hoped to wait to begin antibiotics to treat the late-stage lyme, but I needed them for these early battles. By day 13 of treatment it was clear that antibiotics won't be an option for long. Hopefully I will be able to get through at least 30 days treatment for bartonella--similar to WWI trench fever. Unlike the medicinal herbs, this new phase of pharmaceuticals are more debilitating and more isolating. And there's no medication "holiday" in the lull between drug treatments. I'm having a difficult time stabilizing after the last antibiotics so I'm not ready to take more antibiotics to try to eradicate the bartonella.

I have tested high for lead exposure, so I will be spending the next month trying to chelate to reduce the toxicity. Although the treatments can be quite miserable to go through and are not expected to make me "feel better" I'm doing so to help strengthen my immune system.

I'm so relieved that I've been in reality about the degree and impact of illness and treatment. Last year, between treatments, I worked at the Community Darkrooms. Now tat I can't get outside very often, I need to work on photos at home. I'm prepared and set up to do so. Last year I was working on large-scale printing and thinking in RGB color work space. Now I'lll be paying more attention to size/cropping and the saturation of my sRGB conversions for the web, as well as grayscales and duo/tri-tones.

While it may be hard for me to develop photos during the next four weeks due to headaches and other symptoms of treatment for lead exposure, I look forward to working on photos and posting them online to share with you. During the last 45-day treatment, Minnie Bruce and I made it to two demonstrations in Buffalo: one in support of Gaza and the other to stop daycare cuts. After the treatment, I was able to take some photos in New York City at dawn just before an early morning doctor's appointment. Just before starting the heavy metal chelation, Minnie Bruce and I traveled by car to Niagara Falls.

Minnie Bruce's poem from Niagara Falls trip is in her facebook notes:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/note.php?note_id=374448393479&ref=mf

I'm raring to develop and post photos. In the meantime, here is my photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/transgenderwarrior/sets/

yours in struggle and in solidarity,
Leslie

red thread (2 of 2)

[click photo for flickr source]

[click here for more photos]

sewing machine, typewriter tattoo (1of 2)

[click photo for short caption & more photos]

the role of labor

[click here for more photos]

[click photo for slightly larger view]

#30 hands, rainbows

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#29 communication

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[click here to see 2nd photo, few minutes later]

#28 moving forward

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