Year: 2014

One year, my relatives gave me a cow for Christmas … not a real cow – a Project Heifer Cow. As a kid, I’ll admit to scratching my head over that one, but, now that I’m an adult who has outgrown pink foot pajamas, dolls, and toys, gifts for social change make me really excited! […]

Locked Down, Locked Out, Truthout Editor-in-Chief Maya Schenwar’s nonfiction book on mass incarceration arrived in the mail last week. I opened the first page and did not stop reading until the very last word. From the moment my eyes made contact with Schenwar’s gripping confession of her complex relationship with her often-incarcerated sister, I was […]

Resistance, rabble-rousing, rebellion: a maturing empire such as ours has no room for these. Unquestioning obedience is required. Every standardized test, multiple choice question, regimented schedule, gold star, or failing grade trains us to obey authority. The curriculum that is laid out in yearly tests leaves no time for free thought, only a frantic rush […]

  Here at the foot of the Sangre de Christo Mountains, the desert is promising winter. The sagebrush mesa is dotted yellow with autumn flowering shrubs. Soon, the aspens high on the sides of the peaks will turn shocking gold with the bite of cold air. Our field of winter squash ripens orange, red, and […]

Dear Friends, Certain things fall by the wayside while the squash and weeds proliferate and our US tax dollars go to work bombing children in foreign countries. Updating my website and sending out newsletters lose significance as the power mongers maneuver for a stronger stranglehold on our lives. Yet, the crises grow into constants, and […]

by Rivera Sun The current struggle between democracy and oligarchy in the United States traces its roots back to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention where the wealthy elite pulled off a counter-revolutionary coup to stifle democracy. Oligarchs are as American as poisoned apple pie. Their wealth and power look mouth-wateringly good, but with every bite, democracy […]

by Rivera Sun Occupy Radio cohosts Rivera Sun and David Geitgey Sierralupe interviewed Ben Page, coauthor of the new study on how politicians ignore the people. Listen here. If a dictator moved into the White House and condemned the populace into servitude, the US political situation might be a lot clearer. But beneath the lies, […]

by Rivera Sun Depending on one’s proximity to wage and workplace issues, the term Labor Movement may conjure up images of 19th century Wobblies with rolled-up shirtsleeves, Detroit autoworkers, or Walmart strikers. The face of labor evolves through the decades and with each change in the workplace, our identity as a populace of laborers has […]

by Rivera Sun Surfing is an art. Life today sweeps us up in the swells of tremendous change. Terrifying undertows and riptides are brewing beneath the surface of our socio-political situation. The rise and fall of waves of change palpably upheave beneath us. And like dedicated surfers, we are all waiting to catch the perfect […]

by Rivera Sun The recent Supreme Court ruling removing limits to campaign financing should be the final straw on the camel’s back of the American people. Democracy in our country is a standing joke . . . and the trend of politics-for-sale is no longer funny. Wealthy elites and mega-corporations have created a modern day […]

Please enjoy this 1:30min excerpt from Rivera Sun’s talk at Unity of Taos on the stepping into the lineage of nonviolent struggle.

Extinction is no joke. Climate scientists say we have ten years, at most, to make a massive transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. If we do not, climate change will signal lights out for the human species. I am thirty-one years old. Climate change and global warming have been making headlines since I was […]

“This is the final showdown between the force of greed and the power of love. Either we are going to stop this extraction, or we are going to perish.” The Dandelion Insurrection – a novel by Rivera Sun It is not an exaggeration to say that Canada and the United States are facing an invasion […]

“Freezing to death is not an unpainful experience. Being cold is very painful.” – Carey Homelessness is on the rise. Despite the fact that we have more than enough houses to adequately shelter our population, three and half million homeless men, women, and children live and sleep in the streets. Imagine how it feels to […]

This week on Occupy Radio, cohosts Rivera Sun and David Geitgey Sierralupe interview Michael Nagler, founder of the Metta Center for Nonviolence. Listen to the podcast here. Those of us engaged in protesting the current failing system sometimes forget to remember the good things happening in our society, such as solar technology, local economies, and […]

“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” -Mahatma Gandhi While interviewing Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate in 2012, for the weekly Occupy Radio show that I co-host (listen here), it seems that she, like many of […]

Occupy Radio featured a special on the West Virginia Chemical Contamination. Co-hosts Rivera Sun & Getch interviewed Johanna de Graffenreid of the West Virginia Clean Water Hub. Listen to the podcast here. Every time your gas water heater roars to life in your basement, remember the West Virginians. Hundreds of thousands of residents no longer […]

Look beyond this night of darkness to the dawn of tomorrow. There is a world beyond the apocalypse, a world beyond war, a world of music and dance; a world where the children are laughing and time stretches slowly; where the Earth lives in the hearts, minds, and souls of our people. There is a […]

Occupy Radio interviewed Ysaye Barnwell on song and protest. Listen to the podcast here. When Pete Seeger died, a sense of the impermanence of life increased my urge to ask Ysaye Maria Barnwell, a Grammy Award winning, 34 year member of Sweet Honey in the Rock, to speak on Occupy Radio about the importance of […]

by Rivera Sun Occupy Radio interviewed reporter Kevin Gosztola on the NATO 3 trial, the surveillance state, the rise of counter-terrorism operations, and the use of terrorism law in relation to activists. Listen here: http://occupythemedia.podomatic.com/entry/2014-02-20T00_23_50-08_00 Cops need criminals. Otherwise, there’s no reason for police to exist. Likewise, counter-terrorism agencies need terrorists to justify the billions […]

I feel like shaking everyone and saying, don’t you get it? We don’t need a Movement of Movements – we are a movement of movements. My friends, we have been trapped in old dominant paradigm thinking. We have been steeped in warmongering, hierarchical, competitive, control-based mindsets since birth. We think we are lacking something, or […]

Is the NSA a secret admirer . . . or a stalker who needs a restraining order? After recording a dozen Love Letters to the NSA for Occupy Radio’s Valentine special, co-host Rivera Sun wrote down a letter of her own. Listen to the podcast.  Dear NSA, This is awkward. All these years, you’ve been […]

“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” -Mahatma Gandhi While interviewing Jill Stein, Green Party Presidential Candidate in 2012, for the weekly Occupy Radio show that I co-host (listen here), it seems that she, like many of […]

Enough! Enough of this senseless criticizing of one another. A Dandelion Insurrectionist who is imprisoned and beaten by the police is no more revolutionary than the mother who gets up in the morning and feeds her child. We all have tasks that are imperatives of our times and we must do them with humility. Those […]