Riot Jersey

 Apparently, as an update, there now a facebook event titled 'Riot Jerseys' at this link:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=110746972338315

The information of this event reads as follows:

"Hey everyone, we thought it would be an awesome idea to immortalize the RIOT THAT IS KEGS AND EGGS 2011. This is UAlbany. We go hard. We aren't stopped by authority, automobiles or anything else. If you're in our way we'll crush you. Show your UAlbany pride and represent.

We're selling t-shirts of any size, just post on the wall and let us know what you want. They're going for $6.00 for one, or two for $10.00 . We'll need at least 24 people to order so add anyone you think would buy."

 Maybe this is the other side to my argument? Maybe it's funny? I feel that there are so many students, and people at the parade, who were upset about what happened, and don't find it funny. In any event, I marked this as offensive on facebook. Am I missing something? Seems like crushing people is a gendered statement. Something about this being a jersey is also gendered. 

Saint Rose V SUNY Albany

'http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Riot-a-rift-in-town-and-gown-1132965.php

So here's an article about the recent Kegs and Eggs incidents on Hudson ave, which is in 'the student ghetto.' Having lived on the intersection of Hudson and Quail, I had some violent, interesting responses to this article.

"While the shaky videos of the mayhem burned up local websites, UAlbany officials -- who have taken pains to distance the university from its former No. 1 party school reputation -- condemned the students' actions as "reprehensible" and "hooliganism." In an apology letter issued to the news media, University President George M. Philip said the school "shares the outrage of community members and wants to assure them that UAlbany does not condone such behavior." The full letter is published in the Letters to the Editor section."

So, the SUNY kids are Caught! Those out of control renagade degenerate, whatever other rhetoric we can think of to vilify anyone at a public institution sorts of kids have been caught! We have irrevocable evidence that they are guilty. We're assuming here that everyone involved was a student, and more specifically a SUNY student. We also assume that in such a large group of people, everyone was just fine and dandy with what was going on. These are false assumptions. A large number of the houses on Hudson are rented to Saint Rose students. Not everyone drinking in the streets are from Albany.

"What many said was the worst incident in the city's student neighborhood in recent memory also underscored long-standing friction between permanent residents of Pine Hills -- perhaps the city's most diverse middle-class neighborhood -- and the transient student set known for trashing low-grade rental housing one semester at a time."

So here's some nice rhetoric pitting established home-owners against students. Not all students 'trash' apartments. Believe it or not, many land lords do not follow state laws in terms of keeping apartments neat and clean, and students choose this housing because it is near to campus. Students who have leases lose their security deposit, and are held responsible for damages when they leave the apartments on the street in question. 

"In an unguarded moment, one College of Saint Rose official recently suggested to the Common Council that it may be too late to save those blocks, which are now nearly devoid of resident homeowners.
"We've lost Hudson and Hamilton," said Mike D'Attilio, Saint Rose's executive director of government and community relations, "we don't want to lose Morris and Myrtle as well."

I'm not even sure how to respond to this chunk. Way to demonize your own students, that themselves or through their parents pay for your school, and your salary. Way to assume that SUNY students are vandals and that Rosebuds could have nothing to do with property damage. Way to assume the home-owners have rights that outweigh those of people who don't. Saint Rose suggests in this article that the way to 'save' Morris and Myrtle is to have college faculty live there and buy houses. 

Saint Rose apparently also did not receive any reports that it's students were involved. The article goes on to say that Saint Rose has students with parents so disgusted by Albany they do not want their children staying there (read: will not pay for their children to stay there). Were no Saint Rose students involved? How about Siena? HVCC? Or is Albany being criminalized in a way that no one wants to contend with. What happened, happened. It's not ok to start riots and cause property damage, but who gets blamed, who is pitted against each other, and who gets more police attention are not accidental and should be a factor in the analysis of what is going on in Albany, and what happened on Saint Patrick's day.

Standing in Solidarity with UHPP

I have an inter-uterine device, or IUD. I got said device from Planned Parenthood. I get my annual at Planned Parenthood. I want to work with Planned Parenthood.

So, the news that funding to them is being cut, though not terribly surprising, is pretty terrible. I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with Obama's  reversing the Global Gag Rule? Last semester I wrote a research paper about this.The Mexico City Policy was created under Reagan, and said, no funding to Non governmental organizations for abortion... you know, unless you were raped or there is incest. Clinton overturned the rule, Bush the second re-implemented it, and Obama overturned it again.
Many of the NGOs who had their funding  (USAID funds) revoked under Reagan never reapplied for funding from the US government. The international Planned Parenthood was embroiled in a lawsuit about the original policy, and I'm not sure how it ended.

In any event, the Mexico City Policy became something of a rhetorical device, or a political football, and opposition to or support of it by a president was more about being partisan than it was about actual funding.

So recently, the GOP is trying to re-define rape, so that the funding we are again willing to give to NGOs, will be reduced. They're trying to say that it doesn't matter if your father rapes you, you can't have the US of A's money for an abortion. Plus, how can we be sure rape victims aren't making it up.. or maybe just unclear about what rape is? The GOP would just like to clarify things... and make sure we're talking about 'rape rape' before we go all willy-nilly handing out tax-payers' money. You know... less than a tenth of a penny per tax payer, whereas half of your taxes go to fund the military.

Daily Show <== this is the link the the Daily show where they they discuss the difference between 'rape' and 'rape  rape'


And now, after the GOP is up in arms about pennies, our representatives are voting to cut funding to planned parenthood, and PP's response seems to be "what the hell are you doing; we aren't an abortion factory?"

And they aren't. The do STD screenings, give birth control, do annual checkups, and are totally depended upon by the women in upstate NY, including myself, who use them. But I am a little worried that the abortion debate isn't really in the response. Just leaves me feeling a little sick that, while the funding seems to be cut because of abortion debate, the response is not about the abortion debate.

Sickened, and hoping she still has a health provider when she thinks something might be wrong with her IUD,

Javateer