Earth Day

I had the privilege to meet Rodolfo Montiel once. He is a brave man and a wonderful man.

Mexican Environmentalist Rodolfo Montiel

Intense public pressure by Amnesty International freed him and protected him after he had been wrongfully imprisoned and tortured. He is in danger in Mexico because he is an environmentalist. It doesn’t seem like you should risk life and limb for trying to protect your land and your people?

He was released, but there has never been an investigation into his mistreatment. Other environmentalists are still at risk of mistreatment or death in Mexico. You can help by taking action at the Canadian section of Amnesty’s website.

I also remember Rodolfo said while visiting in the states, “Maybe we wouldn’t have all the problems we have in Mexico with the environment if you didn’t have such giant houses in the US.”

Happy Earth Day.

Never Giving Up/Having Fun

Our local group recently participated in the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Amnesty International USA. This is a big pow wow of human rights activists from around the country. There is training, inspiration, and decision making that goes on for three days. The meeting moves to a different region every year, so it won’t be back in New England for five years.
During this year’s AGM we hosted a “Get on the Bus” (www.gotb.org) party. In honor of one of our actions that will happen at this year’s Get on the Bus, we invited some Tibetan performers.

Tibetan Performers at "Get on the Bus" party

The performers played music from various regions of Tibet and also sang and danced.
Then they invited the audience to get up and learn a Tibetan dance if they wanted to. There was none of the usual looking around and hesitancy, instead three quarters of the audience immediately got up and joined in.

There was then a lively and very fun dance session, with a couple of Group 133 dancer/activists leading the charge. I later found out that some Irish dancing and Tibetan dancing are similar and that is why they picked it up so fast.

AI Activists Learn Tibetan Dance Steps

The AI Tibetan Dance Party

I had a couple of thoughts after this session. Human Rights will prevail because we have more fun than the forces of evil. Human Rights will prevail because just like these Tibetan cultural representatives, we are all never going to give up.