Today is Cesar Chavez Day. Last Saturday on March 28, 2009 I did a day of service with Americorps Bridging Borders and Strong Neighborhoods Initiatives. At nine in the morning, we broke into four groups: gardening, painting, landscaping, and litter pick-up.
Residents from the community, and volunteers from the urban farming project Veggielution, CommUniverCity and Sunday Charity joined us in this beautification project in honor of Cesar Chavez.
Ending around 2:30 in the afternoon, it is noted that dedicated members and coordinators such as Jeff, Leif, Peggy, Paul, Lisa, and many more came to set up as early as 7:30 in the morning.
In the end, Veggielution took the weeds to compost, and Theresa, Sharon, and I collected the plastic water bottles for San José State University's Sustainability Week (April 6-10) hosted by the Environmental Resource Center. Next Wednesday on April 8th, Sarah Bronstein with the Associated Students of San Jose State University will put on a Trashion Fashion show at 7 pm in the Campus Village Quad. These bottles will become a plastic bottle wall for the models to walk through. If you still have plastic bottles you would like to donate, please drop them off at the Environmental Resource Center at Washington Square Hall 115, between 9 to 5 on the weekdays. We would be grateful for your contribution!
On the subject of collecting "trash," here is another bit for you...
Perhaps you're part of an organisation focused on service...and you like cleaning the environment too. Perhaps you have friends who smoke, maybe there's an ash tray within your reach, maybe you just love your trash picking-up tool.
Either way, the great and grand Earth Day is coming to YOU at San Jose State University on April 22. Before that your beloved Environmental Club needs to collect cigarette butts for an art project.
If you are picking them up...PLEASE WEAR GLOVES! : )
What: Cigarette butts for art project raising awareness about litter!
When: ASAP before Earth Day April 22!
Who: Give them to me, Environmental Club (we meet Thursdays 5pm at the Student Union ) or Environmental Resource Center @ Washington Square Hall 115 (open 9-5 on weekdays)
(Picture from Deviantart artist Rockie118: http://rockie118.deviantart.com/art/Cigarette-Butts-6079499)
THANK YOU SO MUCH!! We really appreciate your contribution and efforts. It's not easy getting stinky!
Back to Cesar Chavez Day... we had today off school. I practiced for our cha cha performance, did some outreaching for social justice events, caught up with my good friend Amalia and Amber whom I haven't spoken to for awhile... I also saw a good but short video on Cesar Chavez. I find this quote memorable, "I am convinced that the truest act of courage, the strongest act of humanity, is to sacrifice ourselves for others, in a totally nonviolent struggle for justice. To be human is to suffer for others." (Cesar Chavez) Feliz cumpleanos Cesar Chavez!
I also chanced upon this beautiful revelation--a wonderful and amazing insight and epiphany-- another manifesto written by Urvi Nagrani.
This eloquent and succinct epiphany on our generation is so truthful.Here is an excerpt,
"A civil society is not something that can passively exist, it requires active citizenship, and apathy is the greatest danger our generation could possibly face.
So I will stand.
And I will to try to do my part.
And as I stand and plan to take action I know that sometimes I will fail. Sometimes my best won’t be enough. Sometimes I will be tired and frustrated and angry at the things too big for me to change. And that’s okay. Because the alternative to sometimes failing is never trying."
So away with apathy! Tomorrow, which is approaching very soon, is the first of April. Some may know it as April Fool's Day. Tomorrow, Planned Parenthood is putting on a screening of the premier of the MTV movie: Pedro here on campus!
Watch the trailer! It's a movie about the story of Pedro Zamora, an openly gay and HIV positive Cuban-American who was on the 1994 Real World San Francisco season. This premier will be the kick off for a month long campaign to raise HIV awareness and promote testing for the youth! It will be at 8 pm in the Campus Village Building TV Room at San Jose State University! [AND IT'S ON MTV TOO!]
Finally I would like to end with an excerpt from "Love, Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli. It is the sequel to an equally wonderful book "Stargirl." You must read these books! They provide great insight on meditation, life, and finding your inner-self. I do not own "Love, Stargirl" and I know this is a farely long excerpt...I apologize JerrySpinelli! I sincerely hope that you (the reader) will read both books. Borrow them from me if you want."April 1
I had promised Dootsie I would take her to Bemus Park today. At the first corner we came to, Dootsie said, "I wanna wear them." She was pointing to my errings, the little silver lunch trucks that my father had a silversmith make for me in Tucson. I took them off. I went to put them on her ears, but she said, "I wanna do it."
"Okay," I said, and handed them to her.
Next thing I knew she tossed them into the nearby sewer, threw up her hands, and cried out, "April fools!"
She was so pleased and proud of her herself, I hated to spoil her fun. But you know me, Leo, I'm not exactly the world's greatest actress. I couldn't cover up my shock and disapointment. She saw it on my face. Her eyes grew wide, her smile vanished. She tugged on my finger. She peeped, "April fools?" I could only stare at the sewer grate. She howled. "I did it bad!" and started bawling.
I hugged her and calmed her down. How do you explain the trickery of April Fools' Day to a five-year old? I tried to tell her how it works. I told her that in the end, the important thing is that the victim feels relieved and happy because things aren't really so bad after all. The look on her face told me she wasn't getting it. But I would soon find out she was getting it all right--just in her own way.
We continued our walk to Bemus Park Along the way I bought us each a pack of Skittles. It was the first warm Sunday of spring. They playground was an ant colony of little kids--swinging, climbing, darting this way and that, sawdust flying. Dootsie stationed herself at the bottom of the sliding board. As each slider landed, Dootsie held out a Skittle and said, "April fools!" Pretty soon every kid on the playground was lined up at the sliding board. When Dootsie's Skittles were gone, she took mine.
When the Skittles ran out, we started for home. We passed people in the park. Dootsie began unloading the rest of herself. To the first person, she gave a Mary Jane from her pocket. "April fools!" To another, she gave a pink quartz stone she had found. To another, a button that said THINK. To another, a paper clip. Each came with an "April fools!" and a giggle. And usually a puzzled smile from the recipient.
When her pockets were empty, she took the red plastic Cracker Jack ring off her finger and gave that way. Then the pink rubber band on her wrist. She panicked when she saw the next person coming and realized she was empty. She reached for my Stone Bowl fossil necklace. "No!" I said.
I gave her the change in my pocket. Dootsie gave away my coins one at a time. I was hoping we would run out of people before we reached her house. We didn't. Dootsie gave away the last nickle and ag ain went for the fossil necklace. I straightened up, keeping the necklace out of reach. She kept jumping, reaching, squeaking, "Gimme! Gimme!"
I gave it. It was gone in a minute, and she was back at me. "Stargirl! More!"
"Dootsie," I said, "I'm empty. There's nothing left."
I was lying. There was one thing left. It was a tiny brown feather of an elf owl. I had seen it clinging to the bird's nest hole high in a saguaro near my enchanted place in the desert. I used a yucca stick to dislodge it. Since the day we moved from Arizona I've carried the elf owl feather everywhere I go.
Dootsie was going for my pockets. I blocked her. The feather had come to mean you. Us. Stargirl and Leo. Blocking my pockets only made her suspicious. She knew I was holding back. "You have something!" she wailed. She was crying. Crying for a lack of something to give.
I had been crying a lot lately too. I remembered Archie's words, the words you told me he said to you once: "Star people do not shed tears, but light."
Dootsie was tugging, "Gimme!"
Give.
And what had those loose change been doihng in my pocket in the first place? Remember how it used to be, Leo? I never had change because as soon as I got some I would toss it onto thet sidewalk to be found.
What happened to that Stargirl?
Shed.
Light.
Tears don't bounce. Light does.
I gave her the feather. She gave it to a man walking his dog. "April fools!"
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