Obama Tickets Go Fast at Gone Wired Cafe

I am making this quick post between breaks at the JazzFest, as the Peace Education Center and GLNAWI are sponsoring a peace tent. Word spread quickly last night at the JazzFest about the Obama ticket giveaway at Gone Wired Cafe this morning at 9 a.m. I drove by the cafe last night at about 11:50 p.m. to see if anyone was lining up. The cafe doors were open and I saw a couple sitting in the chairs outside. It turns out, those people were the first in line for tickets.

I got up early this morning and got to the cafe at approximately 7:30 a.m. and already there was a line of people about 5 blocks long winding through the neighborhood behind the cafe. It was quite a scene. I snapped a number of photos and conducted some video interviews. You can see all the photos posted here. I will probably begin posting my video interviews tomorrow morning. So please stop back to check it out.

Ok, I gotta get back to the JazzFest. If you come out to Lansing's Old Town tonight please stop by the peace tent and say "hi"!

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Again the photos can be viewed here:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/9000299@N07/08z87G

Obama Supporters Having Fun Waiting in Line

RTR's 30th Class Reunion - A Musical Photo Montage

Here is a musical photo montage from the 30th Class Reunion from Saginaw Arthur Hill School (AHHS) Class of 1978. Go Lumberjacks!

My essay on the reunion is forthcoming. All classmates can find AHHS '78 on Facebook. In the meantime, please check out my Flickr photos HERE.

Also, special thanks to Deborah Heber-Coyer who shared her photos. They can be viewed HERE.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Photo Montage:
AHHS Class of 1978
30th Class Reunion

RTR's Top 15 Personal Favorite Photos from 2007

It was fun shooting photos during 2007 and I posted many of them on FLICKR for the peace community. The digital cameras are wonderful in the sense that you can shoot tons pictures and simply delete the bad -- and the really bad -- ones.

So with all the photos that I took and posted in 2007, I tried to pull together a narrow list of my personal favorites. Below are my top 15.

No. 1. Send Kids to College Not Iraq

This a photo of one main reason many of us work for peace. These girls stopped by the Peace Education Center/GLNAWI peace booth at the 2007 Lansing, Michigan Old Town BluesFest.

No. 2. The Lansing Eyes Wide Open Exhibit

Erick Williams visits the dramatic and touching Eyes Wide Open Exhibit that was displayed in Lansing, Michigan.

No. 3. Not an Object, Not a Target

Kathie Kuhn held up this sign as we prepared for the Peace-In at the Everybody Reads bookstore in Lansing, Michigan.

No. 4. Peacemakers Making Peace Cranes

Elise Harvey teaches another generation how to fold peace cranes. The photo was taken at the Peace Education Center's Alternative Holiday Sale in the Fall of 2007.

No. 5. Too Many Have Died


Artist and peace activist Charlie Nash is a constant presence at the Friday peace vigils at the Michigan Capitol Building -- rain, sleet, or snow.

No. 6. The Ben Miller Peace Memorial

This is the memorial plaque for Benjamin A. Miller (August 5, 1979 ~ July 2, 2006), which is part of the new permanent peace memorial on the Lansing Community College Central campus. The Peace Pole and Memorial for the Victims of War site is on the northwest corner of the hilltop above the outdoor amphitheatre at LCC. The memorial was dedicated "In honor of Veterans and all who have suffered or died as a result of war."

No. 7. End the Occupation

Students demand the end of the Iraq occupation on the 4th anniversary of the illegal invasion by the U.S.

No. 8. Shopping Zombies at Meridian Mall


On "Buy Nothing Day" right after Thanksgiving Day, this security didn't know what to make of the shopping zombies that visited Meridian Mall.

No. 9. Portrait of the PEC Board of Directors

Most of the 2007 Peace Education Center Board of Directors appears in this photo aside of Elise Harvey's famous rolling social statement.

No. 10a. (tie) Friday Peace Vigil at the Michigan Capitol

The weekly peace vigil at the Michigan Capitol Building in late August 2007.

No. 10b. (tie) Friday Peace Vigil at the Michigan Capitol

The weekly peace vigil at the Michigan Capitol Building in late December 2007.

No. 11. UFPJ Peace Rally in Chicago, Fall 2007

A photo from downtown Chicago at the regional peace rally organized by United for Peace & Justice (UFPJ).

No. 12. Moment of Reflection

The Michigan Peace Team (MPT) is captured in a quiet moment overlooking the Detroit River prior to the arrival of Cindy Sheehan.

No. 13. The Osborns

The Osborns at the Peace Education Center's Alternative Holiday Sale.

No. 14. The Michigan State University SDS Reunion

A group photo of the SDS Reunion on the campus of Michigan State University (MSU).

No. 15. Can Corporatism & Peace Co-Exist?

This is a scene from the regional peace rally in Chicago, Fall of 2007. Maybe there is hope that corporatism and peace can indeed co-exist.

All the Photos
You can see my top 35 favorites on FLICKR and, in the process, you can check out any of the photo sets by clicking on "sets" at this link: PEC Photos

My Inner Journalist

The year 2007 will mark the re-emergence of my Inner Journalist. I moved from snapping pictures to podcasting to posting video clips on the Internet through YouTube, all under the auspices of the Peace Education Center. Now I’m blogging, too, on the web with the “pen” name Rico Thomas Rico. What else is there to do with my spare time? Shovel snow?

There are very few sides to my personality that my wife, Ruth, has not met, and one is my Inner Journalist. The other side she met in recent years is my Inner Ailurophile. We were married a good number of years before we started volunteering at the Capital Area Humane Society (CAHS). Up to that point, Ruth and I had never had any pets, nor ever discussed the topic. My family in Saginaw had cats, dogs, and a chameleon. Ruth’s family never had any pets.

You can imagine Ruth’s surprise when we adopted our first cat, Sassy. We followed by adopting Thumper, who was one step away from being taken home by Claudia the Cat Lady. So, now, let’s just say we have a house full of fur – and it’s not a mink coat for Ruth. If Ruth married me for my bling-bling, all she got was ching-ching. The vet gets the bling-bling.

The Citizen-Journalist
I never imagined when 2007 started that I would interview and report on social activists like Antonia Juhasz, Ray McGovern, Patrick Barrett, Peter Dougherty, Ann Wright, David Cobb, David Korten, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and many others. I’ve had to shake off the rust on-the-fly. My journalistic training, instincts, and nose for news have been slowly returning. I tell Ruth, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

The growth of the citizen-journalist is partly the result of affordable technology, including cameras, recording devices, computers, the Internet, etc. More importantly, it is the result of the “professionals” not doing their jobs well and sometimes not at all. With a little initiative, I’ve found that you can easily scoop the professional press in this town and elsewhere. “Reporters” from the corporate media are constrained by the boundaries they are allowed to cover; they can’t stray too far into the neighborhoods or the truth without getting burned by their editors or corporate HQ or the local power elite. From what I can tell, these corporate reporters hardly venture out into the streets on weekends or evenings, unless they are covering high school sports. As I see it, these corporate reporters are pre-screened “professionals” who are paid to be local establishment cheerleaders, who have the strong tendency to ignore the obvious.

I expect big things from local citizen-journalists in the Greater Lansing area in 2008. I especially look forward to the launch of the local progressive magazine, Amplifx, which is backed by the Center for American Progress. You can also expect to see more Indy media (“independent media”) emanating from the Peace Education Center. As these progressive voices expand their coverage into our homes and neighborhoods, I’ll make this prediction: The status quo’s gonna start to shake and some fur’s gonna fly.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Who You Callin' A News Hound?

Grab Your Coat, You're Getting Snowed

Baghdad was 59 degrees today. Wanna bet that over 70% of our U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan would rather have been at the Capitol with us today?

The Bush dead-end defenders -- starting with U.S. Representative Mike Rogers -- refuse to acknowledge a vast majority of U.S. troops in Iraq, some on torturous second and third tours, would rather be home right now. But what would Bush, Rogers, and cronies know or care about the needs of our troops and the security interests of this country? These policy impostors have time and again proven they are complete amateurs in handling world affairs, and they've handily turned a blind eye to U.S. government illegalities like (all documented) torture, kidnapping, secret prisons, domestic spying, leaked CIA identities, evidence destruction and on and on.

So who is getting snowed here? Me. You. Our troops. The American public.

Grab your coat. Join us. We'll be back in front of the Capitol at Noon on January 4, 2008.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

To see all of today's snowy Peace Vigil photos, please visit:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/9042461@N06/4J0h66

Wishing for Peace on Earth

Below is my picture of the Peace Vigil at the Michigan Capitol Building in Downtown Lansing on December 21, 2007. This was the 328th straight Friday at the Capitol Building. Please come join us each and every Friday at noon until the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan end. Everyone is welcome. (Make it part of your New Year's resolution!) Signs are provided or bring your own. The next vigil: December 28, 2007, at noon.

-- Rico Thomas Rico

Quick Post: GLNAWI Strategy Session Photos

The Greater Lansing Network Against War & Injustice (GLNAWI) held a peace strategy session in East Lansing, Michigan on Monday, December 3, 2007.

Photos of the lively discussion can be found at this FLICKR page:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/9042461@N06/6PUA97

Quick Post: SDS Reunion Photos

This is a quick post to provide a link to some of my photos from the Michigan State University SDS reunion Friday night at Kedzie Hall. I will add more photos and captions tomorrow, along with a more detailed report on what turned out to be a very busy and fascinating day in East Lansing, Michigan.

-- RTR

Link to photos:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/9042461@N06/7HE9NC