PERSPECTIVES with Julie Rufo

PERSPECTIVES interviews, Table of Contents

• Ann Ginger on Civil Rights
• Kate Resucha and Karen Kenney, from Girls Inc., on raising young women
• Two Muslim neighbors, Dr. Hatifie and Sister Baldes
• Susan Galleymore about mothers in Middle East conflict areas, 2 shows
• Sureya Sayadi on Honor Killings
• Andrea Buffa on Media Reform
• Sanaz Meshkinpour on U.S.-Iran relations
• David Bacon on Immigration
• Sheryl Lane and Venesia Thompson of Urban Habitat
• Rafael Schiller-Laden of World Can't Wait
• Dr. Richard Walker on the Greening of the SF Bay Area. 2 shows
• Jacqueline Cabasso, on the dangers of nuclear energy and the resurgence of nuclear weapons, 2 shows
• Dr. Michael Parenti on the meaning of Imperialism and what we can do about it, 2 shows
• Barbara Lubin, Executive Director of the Middle East Children's Alliance
• the Renegade Rescuers about the SF Bay Oil Spill in 2007
• Elizabeth de la Vega on Outlaw Government, 2 shows
• Dahr Jamail on Iraq: What We Have Done, 2 shows
• Virender Goswami on Immigration Law Abuses
• James Soper on Electronic Voting Machines
• Antonia Juhasz on The BU$H Agenda, 2 shows
• May Day 2008, when Labor shutdown all West Coast ports to protest the invasion of Iraq
• Dr. Raj Patel on the worldwide food crisis
• Dr. Barry Schutz on Zimbabwe
• Matt Heberger on the water crisis
• MaryAnn Thomas of World Can't Wait, protesting military recruiting in Berkeley
• Daniel Lavelle on Venezuela
• Norman Solomon on the Warfare State and Political Possibilities, 2 shows
• Dr. Farid Younos on Afghanistan, 2 shows
• Betsy Rose on the importance of singing, 2 shows
• Ann Fagan Ginger on "Undoing the Bush-Cheney Legacy", 2 shows
• Ishmael Reed, on the Media's Treatment of African-Americans, 2 shows

Norman Solomon is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts. His weekly column on media and politics, Media Beat, has been in national syndication since 1992. He is also a former associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Norman Solomon's book, War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death, was published in 2005. A documentary based on the book was released in 2007. His latest book is Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State.

Norman was an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2008.

In the first of these two shows, Norman explains the extent of our Warfare State and the toll is takes on ordinary people. In the second interview, Norman talks about possiblities for reform of the Warfare State and U.S. foreign policy. He also covers the obstacles to reform mounted by the mainstream media and alienation of people from day-to-day political processes.

The DVD of the shows contains both interviews, plus bonus material: two previews from the makers of War Made Easy — the Film.

Dr. Farid Younos is an outspoken and independent thinker in the Afghan-American community. He is a co-author of "Asia in the San Francisco Bay Area," a publication of Asia Society and the author of Gender Equality in Islam, published by 1st Books Library, and Democratic Imperialism: Democratization vs. Islamization, published in 2008.

In the first of these two interviews, Dr. Younos answers Julie's questions about the tragic situation in Afghanistan, that has become even worse during the seven year occupation by U.S. and NATO troops.

In the second interview, Dr. Younos proposes his solution for the grave problems besetting Afghanistan.

The DVD of the shows contains both interviews, plus bonus material: a report from Human Rights Watch entitled, "Troops in Contact," Airstrikes and Civilian Deaths in Afghanistan.

Betsy Rose is a singer and song writer whose insight, warmth, humor, wit, and wisdom have addeda wealth of songs to the world of folk and progressive music for over thirty years. (See her website at http://www.betsyrosemusic.org and an excellent article on the Protest Song in the Wikipedia.) Betsy sings lots of examples of protest music that helps fight war and injustice, music drawn from a rich legacy of social struggles for justice and refashioned for our times.

As the world changes, the energy from singing has brought many together and helped heal us in our troubled times, and Betsy has been a vital local voice in this musical movement. Protest music has been a vital element in social change, but Julie asks Betsy in Part 1 of this two part interview why such music seems absent from recent demonstrations.

In the second part of this interview, Betsy talks about singing with children, and why it is so important as a tool to teach them how to interpret and use their emotions. Betsy draws directly from Buddhist teachings and the best of progressive education techniques for her daily work with young children who are facing hard times. Betsy plays and sings some of her songs as illustration.

As a bonus, the DVD also includes 6 Songs for Democracy, songs of the XI International Brigade in the Spanish Civil war. These historical tracks are taken from the original 78 rpm record.