The New Gettysburg Address

“Twelvescore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men and women were arguably equal. Well that is out the window. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war: your 401K , Social Security and never ending debt. We have come to dedicate a portion to those whose struggle against oppression and racism, simply making ends meet, to eat and to keep their homes is a constant burden, with realization that without justice that this household might not live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this notion because the corporate owned government has decreed against it. The brave citizens, living and dead who struggled with Occupy, in Brazil, Egypt, Iran, Spain, Turkey, and elsewhere have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The media will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these honored citizens we take increased defiance against the injustice for which they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, though now this nation remains under Greed and oppression but shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the corporations and banks, by their profits, over the people shall soon perish from the earth.”

Catch WC Turck and Brian Murray only at RevolutionandBeer.com. Watch us every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., and Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m., on Chicago Cable Channel 19. Please don’t forget to Like us on Facebook.

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

Revolution and Beer exclusive: The Forgotten Protest JMBG-SARAJEVO/BOSNIA and the unnecessary death of Berina Hamidovic

JMBG refers to the citizenship law that still has not been passed in Bosnia. One side wants social security numbers coded to show ethnicity. It has created an impasse in the parliament, and now has led to the death of a small girl. This grew into a national movement when a child, Berina Hamidovic, born in March, needed special medical attention in another country. She was born after a law that assigned social security ID for new citizens expired. Last week, because of public and international attention, Berina and her family were afforded “special” travel documents for travel.

The Bosnian government has three main parties, largely identified by the warring sides in a war that ended after NATO intervened in 1995.The minority Bosnian Serbs are holding up a vote to authorize social security numbers for all new born children. The law expired this past winter, and a new law has not passed leaving thousands of children essential non-persons, without access to passports or healthcare benefits. The Serbs want the new numbers to reflect the person’s ethnic identity. The majority Croats and Bosniaks in parliament want random numbers without an ethnic identifier. Last week Bosnians of all faiths, or no faith blockaded parliament for more than 14 hours, refusing to allow MPs to leave until the law was passed.

This week the ethnically-Muslim family was stopped and held at the Serbian border by officers who, in a blatant case of harassment and bigotry, claimed they needed to verify the family’s documentation. The delay took precious hours that Berina did not have. Doctors in Stuttgart Germany said that if Berina had not been delayed due to the Bosnian government issue and the further delay by Serbian customs police the girl would have survived.

This is what happens when governments don’t work, don’t compromise and aren’t ultimately sensitive to their people. The opportunity she had was due entirely to the thousands who peacefully blockaded the parliament and refused to let politicians leave. Be a peaceful force for change, Be community!
Catch WC Turck and Brian Murray only at RevolutionandBeer.com. Watch us every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., and Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m., on Chicago Cable Channel 19. Please don’t forget to Like us on Facebook.

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

Batten down the hatches! If we can survive the weather channel, we’ll be all right!

There’s a storm a brewin’, and this one’s for the books my friends. Batten down the hatches, hide the children, cover the pets, and most of all, turn off the damned weather Channel until they are once again responsible media people. Currently they are panic central. They are Geraldo Rivera in rain gear. They are the paparazzi of disaster!

What happened Weather Channel. You once gave reasoned forecasts and responsible alerts. Now you run all day and all night “Severe Weather central,” hourly “TorCon(tornado condition) Updates” and your roving paparazzi of disaster(I love that line, so I’m using it as much as I can) parading as semi-irresponsible storm chasers and veritable tragedy ghouls.

Seriously, there is a way to disseminate critical weather information without this pandering and panic. All day long yesterday we were alerted, in the most specious and hysterical manner, about the “COMING OF THE DERECHO!” That could either refer to a sudden strong thunder storm system, are a 600 foot Mexican! Either way, be afraid. Be very afraid?

Evidence the tragedy that befell several of their storm chasers in Oklahoma earlier this month. The weather channel has made a sport-not a science- of severe storm chasing. They teased all day their weather rabbit on the outskirts of Joliet last night just hoping for a tornado. Like others in the media, they are also the ones lashing themselves to posts and showing campy videos of weatherpersons being knocked about in hurricanes. And don’t think the shorter skirts went unnoticed on their cheerleader-blond weather girls-My wife noticed. My wife noticed!

The storm was a good one. On the far north side of Chicago, near the Evanston border, we got almost two inches of rain, howling winds and plenty of lightning and thunder. A barn and a truck were trashed south of Joliet and some minor damage here and there, something expected with a strong line of storms. It wasn’t the storm-ageddon decried by the weather channel.

They were once far more serious and more comprehensive. They are now sportscasters to destruction. Weather is secondary to the commercials they run. The weather is just the vehicle to get you to those commercials. But then that is the current state of all media lately. It condescends to the lowest common denominator of fear to sow unwarranted panic as a means of keeping you glued to their commercial crazy train, it’s just sad that the Weather Channel had to succumb to that level.

Okay, just once more… paparazzi of disaster!

Catch WC Turck and Brian Murray only at RevolutionandBeer.com. Watch us every Tuesday at 7:30 p.m., and Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m., on Chicago Cable Channel 19. Please don’t forget to Like us on Facebook.

ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: If you have a cause to champion, please let us know. We proudly stand with you in the important work of strengthening the grassroots support network for the city of Chicago.

BEER! Catch the Beer of The Week review with 900poundgorilla, along with weekly food pairings for our featured beers by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper here. Find all of the great beers we review each week at www.glunzbeers.com.

ICE Raided Day Labor Corner – Press Conference Thursday at 11am at Pulaski/Foster

I’m writing to share a sad updated that the Albany Park day labor corner was raided Wednesday. ICE agents wearing jackets marked “police” arrived at the corner midday. They detained a group of workers, asking them for their identification, took into custody Israel Lopez Bautista (A#094924950) and transferred him to a detention center in Dodge County, Wisconsin within a few hours.

Please join us for an emergency press conference Thursday at 11am at the Foster/Pulaski street corner where we’ll stand with Israel’s brother Enrique who was temporarily stopped by the ICE agents, Israel’s son, and members of the family’s church to call on ICE to release him before this father’s day weekend.

Israel is a day laborer who has lived in the U.S. for 6 years. He has no criminal history, has three children, and is a dedicated volunteer and member of his church, Restoración Elin. We’ll be citing the raid in November that happened at this same corner and led to the deportation of 6 workers and calling on ICE to end the practice of random arrests at the street corner.

Thank you so much for your solidarity and support! We hope to see you tomorrow as we stand with Israel’s family to get him home, demand an end to deportations, and defend day laborers’ right to work and provide for their families.
Elisa
cell: 214.794.6796
Elisa Ringholm

Catch 900poundgorilla’s WC Turck and Brian Murray only at revolutionandbBeer.com. Watch the every Tuesday at 7:30 and Wednesdays at 2:30 show on CAN TV in Chicago

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review with 900poundgorilla and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com

The End of History

DHS has issued an all points bulletin for Johannes Gutenberg for causing history to happen. Authorities say that Gutenberg, a German national, who turned 613 years old this year, remains an unindicted co-conspirator for the proliferation of a technology that led to history taking place. Authorities recently have begun the process of reversing the damage done to the wealthy and powerful, which for centuries has become increasingly abused, led to new and revolutionary technologies, and began encroaching upon the narrative hegemony once enjoyed by industrialists, kings, royalty and wealthy white land owners. DHS officials warn that Gutenberg should be considered clever, informed and therefore extremely dangerous to the status quo.

The dilemma of true history is that is that the immensely complex, the vast avalanche of human experience, success and toil is simplified to a shadow of its true self for the digestion of our limited intellects. It is much akin to a movie, a great book or a digital photograph, behind which whole worlds exist, though we only acknowledge the merest impression of those worlds. But here is the key, remove any part of that background, no matter how miniscule and the image becomes less true.

The anthropological and archaeological records before written history make minor distinction sfor royalty and wealth. The narrative on the advent of farming-which gave humanity beer-is on the farmer, not his or her sovereign. Neolithic villages are described by their social structure and construction. That changed with the advent of writing. When we ponder the flowering of Egyptian culture it is the dynasties, the royalty that comes to mind first. Only recently have we learned details about the daily lives of those laborers and artisans that built the temples and pyramids of Egypt.

Religion-organized, state promoted and enforced religion- it can be argued was a tactic for control of the population, and a vehicle for extending power through warfare. Knowledge and information previously were enjoyed as the privilege of royalty and aristocrats. But technology is too often not shared, shall we say, liberally and freely. It is a failure of our species that new and critically empowering technologies are reluctant to be shared at all levels of society. Their proliferation is slowed by local politics, stuttered by commercialization, and preempted by completion between nations, races and religions.

The lack of voice and its accompanying agency might well be the key to many ills afflicting the planet, from the war to terrorism, racial and religious antagonism and poverty. But those voices are imperative to an accurate accounting of mankind. Imagine the battle of the Bulge told only by Eisenhower, Hitler or Montgomery none of whom were anywhere near the battle. Lost would be the toils and tears of the Great depression, the words of Anne Frank, the horrors of September 11th, the trial and triumph of the handicapped or the lesson of the addict. But it is all those voices which joins the palette to paint the most accurate mural of history.

History is not written by the victor, it is written by the empowered. History is the subject of the bold, the oppressed and the impassioned.

The assault by corporations and governments is not by accident. It is not a naïve reaction to real or vague security threats. There is a duality to the effort. On one hand there is an effort to stem or anticipate terror threats. On the other hand is an insidious effort to control and disrupt public, constitutionally guaranteed dissent and protest. The infiltration, monitoring and technologies applied by government against, not terrorists, but disquieted and concerned citizens of all political stripes is sinister. It is about control. It is a separation of the government from its people in favor of a Kafka-like self preservation of hegemony and power. It illustrates that the government has become its own separate nation, and all of us are perceived by that new nation as interlopers and a threat.

This year, lost among the impressive and historic protests in Turkey, another protest took place in Sarajevo. At one point, 250 foreign bankers and more than 100 others found themselves trapped and surrounded by thousands of angry and outraged Bosnian citizens. It took the better part of 14 hours for the police to reopen the building and allow those inside the Bosnian parliament building to leave. At one point mothers blockaded a street with strollers. The bankers were attending a conference on investment in Bosnia, plagued by massive unemployment, crumbling infrastructure and rampant corruption following the civil war during the 1990s.

The cause of the outrage was over the expiration of laws in February of 2013 that had previously assigned identity numbers to citizens at birth, akin to a Social Security number in the United States. The result was that since the expiration of the law no new-born children have been able to get ID numbers, depriving them of a long list of benefits, such as passports, medical care and more. In reality, it makes these children non-entities, or non persons in their own country. The spark for the outrage came after a 3 month old child was unable to travel to Germany for a stem cell transplant. Attention compelled the Bosnian government to issue travel documents for the child, but the fate of thousands of other children remains in limbo.

Bosnia has long had a history of political squabbling and backstabbing. The cobbled-together parliament is separated by parties representing ethnic Serbs, Muslims and Croats, who were at war with one another until a NATO intervention in 1996 compelled the so-called Dayton Peace accords. The parties have been antagonistic towards one another since the formation of that unified Bosnian parliament. In the current flap, the Serbs are demanding that that identity numbers show what part of the country someone comes from, in effect ethnic identifiers, while the majority Bosnian Muslims, Independents and Croats want those numbers assigned to children randomly.

But behind those lines is something far more dangerous. After two decades travelling and studying the Balkans, nothing is ever quite what it seems on the surface. The Balkans have long been the testing and proving grounds for all sorts of nefarious schemes by internationalists and governments. For example, while not a direct cause, part of the catalyst for the war was a manufactured crisis against the Yugoslav Dinar. The war helped Germany move through reunification easier, and protected the Deutsch Mark, which preceded the Euro and was the Dollar’s anchor currency in Europe.

Not that Yugoslavia did not suffer significant stumbling blocks of its own making, but as Germany reunified and a new Europe, post Cold War, grew on the horizon, Yugoslavia was poised to become a significant player on the European and world stage. Its geopolitical position was enviable, with prime overland access for oil from Central Asia and into the heart of Europe, and with some of the largest, untouched mineral deposits in the region. Before the smoke had cleared during the 1999 NATO war in Kosovo Halliburton had already secured contracts for an overland oil pipeline from the Black sea across the war torn and impoverished region.

That story is important to understand the duplicitous nature of what happens in the Balkans, and how it resonates, even informs strategy and agendas around the planet. Standing on the frontline during the siege of Sarajevo, I had a sense of past and future history colliding, and in the balance stood humanity at a crossroads. There were echoes of the Ottoman invasions of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries, of Austro-Hungarian hubris, the blood lusts of the Second World War and the short-sighted angst of the old Communist order. Poised opposite that past was the crumbling chaos of the old Cold War order, the world dividing and sub-dividing itself among arbitrary tribal assemblages. There would be strife and greed and a disregard for the true challenges awaiting the planet. Amid the destruction and despair of that tragic city that was all crystal clear. Bosnia was a lesson. The world refused to hear that lesson.

So now there is a new lesson, or perhaps a new scheme. Time will bear both out. But here is the alarming part, the disturbing conclusions that can be drawn from this is fairly obvious. The evidence is found plainly in our past and in our present. It is key to the erasure of history. Here’s what I mean.
At the start of the industrial age, the rich and powerful pitted working class people organizing into Unions against the poor, immigrants or disavowed racial minorities, such as poor blacks in the united States as a bulwark against labor organizing. These groups were often camped by company and factory owners at the gates as a warning to would-be organizers. When that failed outright violence was all too ready an option, often with the support of the government, the Columbine Colorado Mine Massacre in 1927 in which police fired into a crowd of mine workers killing six and wounding dozens is but one example.

There are ample examples of state backed anti-union violence, too numerous to list here. Those poor and disaffected minorities were tools, they were essentially non persons for the manipulation of the powerful.
Scrutiny has been growing upon the abuse of third world labor. More than a thousand were killed and nearly 3000 injured in April of 2013 in a Bangladesh factory collapse supplying Western European and American retail outlets with garments. But third world labor has become a mainstay for companies fixated fully on bottom-line profitability. That successive catastrophes has not compelled a moratorium or an outlawing of such labor practices, and has not driven a real conversation on an international minimum wage and a convention on global labor practices only underscores the hypocrisy of American fictions on freedom and morality.

There is a new necessity by the modern industrialists to secure the labor paradigm they are accustomed to. The Bosnian experiment is a signpost of things to come globally. We shall see more of this, as populations are erased from citizenry and relegated to non-person status. In such a world they will have no rights, no agency and no voice. And when the common person loses their voice only the wealthy and powerful will remain to paint the mosaic of humanity. It will be incomplete, and that will mark the end of history.

Catch 900poundgorilla’s WC Turck and Brian Murray only at Revolutionand Beer.com. Watch for the show on CAN TV in Chicago

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review with 900poundgorilla and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author Carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com

Revolution and Beer…of the week: Battle of the Great Lakes Monsters!

“The Ojibwa called Superior Gitchee Gumee. They told of a terrible serpent called Mishi Ginabeg who lurked in the dark depths and submerged caverns. It was said that when the spirit of the south wind, Showondesi, came laughing Mishi Ginabeg awoke from slumber for vengeance against all who had not made sacrifice. The crew of the Fitzgerald had grown old hearing those tales, but paid them little mind. This was the Twentieth Century, and surely there were no monsters skulking beneath Superior. The laughing Showondesi had long been replaced by the measurable science of meteorology. On that cold November night impassionate science abandoned the good crew, and not a soul could completely dismiss those ancient legends…A terrible moan arose from the ship…the storm was now at a murderous tempo. A new wave slammed the ship sideways nearly tearing her in two. O’Brien felt the wheel go dead in his hands and knew they were at the mercy of the lake. He turned, just as the bow slid into a deep trough. For a moment the ship’s great rudders spun free in the air…a giant wave built over the bow. McCarthy saw it first and crossed himself as the bow plowed under…”Those with a bit of history about the Great Lakes will quickly recall the fate of the Edmund Fitzgerald, here retold in my first novel, Broken: One soldier’s unexpected journey home, W.C. Turck.

I left earlier this week on a trip to Michigan’s Lake Superior shore. On the way up from Chicago I stopped off for a good beer to enjoy on the beach that evening. Something interesting to ponder and decipher a bit, and take the edge off the long trip. When I spotted a couple 4 packs of Great Lakes brewing Company’s Lake Erie Monster, a seasonal offering by a consistently strong brewer my choices narrowed considerably.

This handcrafted Imperial Pale Ale pours to a summer sunset deep golden hue. The head is pale white. After a long day on the road, take the edge off the long trip, it melted it away. Half way through the bottle, the 9.1ABV didn’t hurt either. There were just the caramel malt, hint of citrus and a comfortable hoppy finish that, from the first taste, didn’t two questions remaining; what food would this work well with, and which of the Great Lakes monsters would win in a fight?

This one is a no-brainer. The sightings of the so-called Lake Erie Monster, though no doubt encouraged by copious amounts of some cheaper swill, leave much to be desired. One, eh-hem, witnessed described the “South-Bay-Bessie” as cigar-shaped. Yet another described it as having a “long neck and an eye was visible on the side of the head with a grin going up one side The creature appeared to be playing in the water…” Sorry, but Frolicking serpents don’t evoke awe, at least not to this reporter. The grainy videos and photos hardly prove more than sightings of a prize-winning sturgeon, a wayward beaver or the existence of the Ohio mafia. Mishi Ginabeg has never, nor would ever allow itself to be photographed, nor would it ever, ever, ever frolic. But then Mishi Ginabeg doesn’t have its own beer, at least for now.

I was staying with our old friends the Coopers for the week. Carole, who authored the Simply Healthy Gourmet had supper waiting- http://www.simplynaturalgourmet.com/. She’d prepared roasted Rosemary Chicken, with roasted potatoes and onions. The warm sweetness of the onions nicely complimented the hint of citrus in the beer. A few days later, meeting up with a buddy, the sculptor Ritch Branstrom for a Lake Erie Monster in his studio, I tricked things up with a sliced roast beef, a slice of fresh mango and some local melted medium cheddar on croissant with homemade cilantro mayonnaise for a perfect match with the beer.

So, I guess when it’s all said and done it’s a draw between the two great lakes monsters. And though I’m hardly convinced of the actual creature, I’m fully convinced of Great Lakes’ Lake Erie Monster. Thank you.

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com

Bosnia’s Chuck Norris? Shephard strangles bear

I met men like this a thousand times in the wilds and on the frontlines of the Bosnian war during the 1990s. I recall one sort of simple bearded Serb soldier in the town of Vlasenica. Dressed, and over-stuffed into a Serbian combat uniform, he evoked images of the Serbian Hajduk(Hi-dook) fighters who battled the Turks through the 19th and early 20th Century. Rough mountain man would only be a partial description. He was a towering and imposing figure, with intense green eyes, untrimmed black beard and scraggly uncombed black hair. Being the only American in those parts, he took an unexpected liking to me, and smiled a yellow-toothed grin at my terribly broken Serbo-croatian. As he departed the bus, the man laid his massive hand on my shoulder, almost knocking the breath from me at the sheer power.

I tell that story to set the stage for this one. This week in the southern Bosnian town of Gacko, a typical mountain halfway point on the road between Sarajevo and the Montenegrin capital of Niksic, a legend may have begun. Local shephard, Blazo Grkic, 48, was tending his flock of sheep on a mountain near the town. A female brown bear appeared and charged into the flock. Bosnian bears typically are smaller than Alaskan and Canadian Brown bears, but not significantly.

Grkic, from his hospital bed, who had only an axe for defense, claims that the bear then turned and charged him, swiping away the axe. Earlier reports said that the bear had entered a nearby village and carried away two other sheep.

“One minute one of my hands were held in the bear’s claws,” he told a local reporter, “the other hand was around the bear’s neck until she fell down.”

The bear was found dead in the field. Grkic, who reportedly had a reputation for fearlessness in the village, was seriously injured, with severe bite and claw marks to his hands and legs. Grkic is expected to make a complete recovery.

Take that, Chuck Norris.

Catch 900poundgorilla’s WC Turck and Brian Murray only at Revolutionand Beer.com. Watch for the show coming in June to CAN TV in Chicago

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review with 900poundgorilla and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com

Revolution and beer Reactionary of the week: Camp Emanuel, until he gets the message on Schools!

They don’t even bother to deny it any longer. Kind of like an old hooker in a prom dress, something isn’t quite right, but you just know what’s really going on here. City hall and CPS officials don’t even deny the Public school/Charter school swap scheme any longer. They don’t even touch the all too apparent scheme to break the back of the Chicago Teacher’s Union-a thorn in the side of the Money-Masters that the CPS and City Hall trollops in prom dresses submit to. And they simply disregarded how their supposed billion dollar shortfall suddenly turning into a $379 million Dollar surplus

The Chicago Public School board, Mayor Emanuel, along with far too many puppy-dog Mayoral butt-sniffing Alderman, like Rogers Park’s Joe Moore or Lakeview’s James Cappleman, are so bent over for their Donor Pimps that they don’t simply ignore the people of Chicago regarding school closures, they openly condescend to them. And so camping out in the hallways of some soon-to-be-shuttered school, clogging downtown streets beneath the Mayor’s royal chamber and disrupting the minion-like meetings of CPS officials fall on deaf ears and depleted souls. Those things, while helping to rally the community, fall on deaf ears to politicians and CPS board members who see constituents as merely reeds to be whipped by the shrill winds perpetrated by their cohorts in the media.

Community is important only as a means to their self-serving end for these cretins.

They will not get the message until this community takes the issue peacefully but resolutely to their doorsteps. When the mayor can no longer spirit himself from his La Salle Street Lair, or the CPS Board members retreat from their Clark Street chamber of disdain to the bubble of their protected neighborhoods, then they might have to take, let’s say, more acute notice of the actual desires and demands of the people of Chicago.

So the rampant and repugnant royalty ruining Chicago Schools has agreed to benevolently spare 4 public schools-for now. Certainly they’ll proceed apace once people allow themselves to become sufficiently distracted, or the combined onslaught by the City Hall-media-police grand alliance exhausts or discourages them into submission. You know, like all healthy democracies, in which the government dictates rather than listens. 50 schools will be axed to make room for under-the-table financial deals, like the southside rail yard, or for their intention to open new charter schools, creating a tiered education system relegating many students to poverty and subservient labor.

And, as an aside, how does it make sense that if 54 schools in Chicago are “under-utilized” that opening 60 charter schools solves that problem? Just asking.

Call it Camp Emanuel, Outpost Byrd-Bennet, Vitale and Ruiz-Villes and Fort Hines. They should hear the people of Chicago. They should be made to actually hear the indignation and outrage of the citizenry of this city-morning, noon and night. They think it is about their money, their politics, and their advantage. They are better than all of us by virtue of their lofty position, or so they would believe. Time to bring the oligarchs and dictators back to earth! Time to remind them that they are employees! Time to remind them that they have assumed a perversion in their assumption of absolute power that this community will no longer tolerate! Time to remind them morning, noon and night, at their clubs and bars, at their grocery stores and gas stations, at stop signs, and when they are taking a crap if need be. Not a moment’s escape or a minute’s rest until they hear us loud and god damned clear!

Catch 900poundgorilla’s WC Turck and Brian Murray only at Revolutionand Beer.com. Watch for the show coming in June to CAN TV in Chicago

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review with 900poundgorilla and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com

Revolution and Beer…of the week: Brunehaut Gluten Free Belgian Amber Ale and Blonde Ale.

Continuing with the theme in which all things in the Universe seem to intersect at that beautiful moment in which activism and beer meet. It is what we do at Revolution and Beer. Activism isn’t about over-turning cars, loud chants or Occupying public places. Activism, true activism covers a broad spectrum depending fully upon the injustice or cause being championed. Boiled down into a common denominator, it is about lessening the burden, or sharing the burden from neighbors and those struggling against burden. May is Celiac’s Awareness Month. Brian and I love food and beer, and since there is no cure for Celiac’s currently, what could prove a better mission? The only treatment for Celiac’s is dietary maintenance.

Earlier in the month, we talked about a line of gluten-free beers from New Planet. The regular beer drinker will note the difference in brewing gluten-free beers with sorghum syrup rather than malts. In a pinch, these beers would pass most tastes. For those with Celiac’s or other’s with wheat sensitivities, they are an anchor to a more normal-feeling diet. One of the three from New Planet was very enjoyable. Check out the piece for which beer I’m talking about.

But alas, the Belgians have weighed in with two strong offerings in the Gluten-free arena. Brewed by Brasserie De Brunehaut in Brunehaut, in southwestern Belgium, Brian and I sampled the Amber Ale and Blonde Ale, both touting a respectable 6.5ABV. Following a 1000 tradition, these beers reflect that value and artistry of that legacy. We could not tell, as with other gluten-free beers, that they were indeed gluten-free. Immediately we started talking food. Because of the health dimension to the topic, we reached out to our friend, and author of Simply Healthy Gourmet, Carole Cooper, living an enviable existence in the wilderness overlooking the Lake Superior shore.

A warning, if you have an issue with delicious food, please leave the room now. We’ll wait a moment for those folks to leave. A little more. Some folks seem to be moving a little sl…Okay, their gone. Let’s talk food.

It’s grilling season, so I quickly inquired about a hearty meet dish that would highlight both of these beers simultaneously. The Amber Ale, has these really pleasing toasted hops flavor. The Blonde was full-bodied and a bit sweeter, pouring to a great clean golden hue, with a strong white head. Carole instantly referred me to a roasted lamb dish on page 75, that I thought was the perfect choice, the herbal earthiness of the lamb was a natural for these beers. But her side dish in the book was made with Orzo pasta, a bit of a no-no for the gluten in the pasta. Try as I might, I couldn’t find a gluten-free Orzo.

“How about a Basmati rice?” she offered as a substitute for the Orzo. Add to the basmati, chopped asparagus, juicy, sweet red grape tomatoes with a drizzle of Olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon, and you’ve got a tasty and satisfying side dish. But here’s the kicker, not all rice is gluten-free. Commercial or restaurant rice can have ingredients and additives that add gluten. Make it fresh yourself with a teaspoon of cumin for that smoky taste, or about a half teaspoon of mint to the cup of rice, pinch of salt and 13/4 cups of water for a different twist; Gluten-free and delicious.

We truly enjoyed these beers, and were tossing around possibilities for both gluten and gluten-free dishes. And we are really interested in readers sharing their gluten-free recipe pairings that can be shared with our gluten-sensitive neighbors. In the meantime, kick back with an Amber or Blonde Ale from Brasserie De Brunehaut. You’ll be pleasantly surprised. See, who said that activism couldn’t be fun, and delicious!

Here’s how to find Carole’s cookbook, Simply Healthy Gourmet, and catch her online recipes: http://www.simplynaturalgourmet.com/

Catch 900poundgorilla’s WC Turck and Brian Murray only at Revolutionand Beer.com. Watch for the show coming in June to CAN TV in Chicago

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review with 900poundgorilla and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com

New Student-Run Cooperative Opens in Chicago’s Austin Neighborhood

Center for Workplace Democracy // workerdemocracy.org

Manufacturing Renaissance // mfgren.orgCHICAGO May 14, 2013 — Four African-American high school students at the Austin Polytechnical Academy (APA) in Chicago are applying their computer-aided manufacturing skills to a new worker-run business. The cooperative, called MECH Creations, will manufacture trumpet mouthpieces at APA, 231 N. Pine Avenue, Chicago, IL. With assistance from the Center for Workplace Democracy (CDW) and Manufacturing Renaissance (formerly Center for Community and Labor Research), the students, now business owners, have secured a patented design, created a business plan, acquired materials, and are ready to begin production this May.

“We’re starting MECH Creations to bring new business to our community,” says Jennifer Curtis, a 18-year-old student at APA. “We are four young women who will work for ourselves and our neighborhood to show that anything is possible for young people.”

MECH Creations will be debuted to the Austin community, and the city at large, on May 16th. Students will host a neighborhood event at 5pm, at APA, where they will present their plans and goals, and screen the documentary film, “Shift Change,” which tells the story of worker cooperative businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy.

“In school, we learned about the Mondragon Cooperative, the world’s largest worker-owned cooperative in Spain,” says Desiree Wordlaw. “It was started by five young people who attended a technical school that Austin Polytech was modeled after. We hope we can be as successful as them, and help bring money and jobs back to Austin.”

The Center for Workplace Democracy’s mission is to develop strong local economies and grow small businesses by promoting worker owned cooperatives, and other models of employee ownership.

“Chicago’s schools are full of graduating seniors without job prospects,” says Dennis Kelleher, Executive Director, Center for Workplace Democracy. “We’re partnering with students at Austin Polytech to support the idea that young people can start and run their own businesses, and take a leading role in revitalizing their communities.”

Contact:

Dennis Kelleher, Executive Director, Center for Workplace Democracy

815-243-0309, dennisk@workerdemocracy.org

Catch 900poundgorilla’s WC Turck and Brian Murray only at Revolutionand Beer.com. Watch for the show coming in June to CAN TV in Chicago

Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer and at revolutionandbeer.com. And if you have a cause to champion, please let us know as we work to become the grassroots support network for Chicago Activists and community organizers.

Catch the beer of the week review with 900poundgorilla and check out the weekly food pairings for our featured beers with innovative and original dishes by Chef AJ Francisco and Simply Healthy Gourmet author carole Cooper at revolutionandbeer.com. Friend us on Facebook at Revolution and Beer. And find all of the great beers we review each week at Louis Glunz Beer Inc., http://www.glunzbeers.com