Our evening with Amy

(photo by me!)

We first became aware of Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! back in 2004. After my bypass surgery Sparky and I decided to get away for a few days and we rented a house on a lake near Hickory in North Carolina. The house had satellite TV and we found a channel called Free Speech TV. On that channel was an earnest looking woman who had a show where she talked about issues we cared about, not the shit that they peddle on the usual corporate media outlets, and we both, Sparky and I, were blown away that there was someone one out there saying such things on TV. We watched as much of that channel as we could while there and when we left we were sad because we'd no longer see that show and that earnest woman who spoke truth to power and who talked about the stuff no other media person would dare speak of.

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Then when we got back home we heard that the radio version of her TV show was coming to our local public radio station. We were overjoyed. And we still are to this day, because in this politically conservative area where we live Democracy Now! stands out as a beacon of truth and independent journalism among that corporate media pablum that they try to feed us. Because of Amy Goodman's show progressive and liberal people in this area started getting together and meeting one another. And from those meetings arose friendships and action. If Ms. Goodman's show had not been on in this area then I doubt there would have been demonstrations against the illegal war of terror on Iraq and Afghanistan in this area, I doubt anyone would have had the guts to demonstrate to have that bloody thirsty war criminal Bush impeached, and there may have been a chapter of PFLAG started but I doubt it wold have been so well attended and supported as it is now.

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Well last night we finally got to see our heroine in person. Ms. Goodman came and spoke at ETSU last night and she's broadcasting her show from our fair city today. The lady has got a schedule that would kill a lesser mortal and for her to squeeze us in, well, it just tickled us all pink.

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Amy arrived about a half hour late due to weather issues. It was as cold as Christian charity yesterday and it snowed on and off all day in our region as well. She had an engagement on the other side of the mountain in Asheville yesterday afternoon and the drive over the mountain was a bit tricky at times. But when she took the stage at 7:30 she started talking and she had us all enthralled for an hour and a half.

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She spoke about the history of Pacifica radio, which is where she sprang from, about her many travels and about some of the folks she's been privileged to meet. She spoke about the crying need for more independent media in this country and about how the corporate media is nothing but a shill for whoever is in power. Her best line of the night in my opinion was, "We need a media that is the fourth estate, not for the state." She spoke at length about the teens who were Presidential Scholars who had more backbone than anyone in the corporate media when they confronted the murder George W. Bush about torture. She talked about the librarians who got served with a Patriot Act national security letter and who stood up to the tyranny of the bastard Bush. She spoke about how the corporate media, especially the ones ensconced in Washington DC, tell only one side of the story like they did in the run up to the war, most people were against going to war but the media ignored most all anti war voices, and in the national debate on health care reform, the majority of people in this country want single payer Canadian style health insurance but again the media ignores that because their corporate pay masters want them to. She talked about a lot of stuff and frankly it was almost enough to overload my poor brain but I'm glad she had so much to say because the other media figures in this country have so little to say, and that's why they have to constantly repeat themselves over and over again.

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She came across as very warm and friendly. She had a great sense of humor and she cracked a few jokes in her lecture which made me like her all the more. Sometimes she comes across as very cold and too business-like on her radio show but I understand why that is now, it's because she only has an hour to get out the stories that are ignored by the corporate media so she can't futz around. We didn't go to the reception to meet her in person but I'll always feel like we're friends now that we've shared some time together.

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I highly recommend you call your local public radio station and get them to air her show. If it can become a hit in our politically conservative area, then it can become a hit in yours as well.

Amy Goodman!

The time is almost here, it's almost Amy time! She's here in Johnson City tonight and we're going to see her. She's done more for the progressive movement here in east Tennessee, southeastern Virginia, and western North Carolina than she'll ever know. It is because of Amy and her show Democracy Now! that people in my area got together and started protesting the war and doing things to make all our lives better. If you get a chance I recommend reading her books and listening to or watching her show. If your public radio station doesn't carry her show then call them up and bug them until they do, it'll be the best thing ever for their fund raising efforts and it will bring liberals and progressives together just like it has here.

Three cheers for Amy Goodman!

Jealous much?

We got our tickets today to see Amy Goodman next week. Nyah, nyah, nyah. Don't let your jealousy consume you. And just to save tshsmom, some 'smug' time, I don't care what you think of Amy Goodman and her show Democracy Now!

Stick a fork in it, it's almost done

I went back for a second helping of answering the pledge drive phones at my local public radio station, WETS, yesterday evening. Why did I go back you ask? Because it's fun, there was free food, I wanted more free CD's, and I got to hang with my home girl and partner in crime Snad for a few hours.

Also along for the ride was a dude from Bristol, a guy in a leather tam o' shanter, and a cute young gal named Angela who was as smart and nice as she was pretty. The usual assortment of WETS staff were there as well.

The calls came pouring in during the 5 o'clock hour when they had an education challenge. Anyone remotely connected with the profession of education, be you a student, former student, teacher, retired teacher, school system employee, or even if you rolled "old school" style, you got $200 added to your pledge courtesy of a grant given to the station. I took calls from all over during that hour, I got calls from TN, VA, and NC. It was great. We really raked in the bucks during that hour and it made up for the slack times.

I must admit however I was not on my best behavior due to my being in an enclosed area with Snad. She enticed me to wise crack more than I normally would have and she also egged me on by laughing at my stupid one liners and tossing off a few zingers herself as well. At one point during my time there Sand sat down for a live interview with station manager Wayne Winkler. Being the trouble maker I am I passed her a note that said, "Shut the fuck up." She smiled sweetly and she wrote on the back of my note, "Fuck you, you fucking fuck" and she handed it back to me. Ahhh, good times, good times.

This pledge drive is going swimmingly and I can only attribute it to one thing, my participation. People not only want to keep Democracy Now! on the air, they also want to support me in my volunteer endeavors. It's very flattering to be so beloved, as I am sure some of you know. But unlike others I have not let the fact that I have legions of admirers go to my head. I may be beloved and worshipped as a demi god, but I still remain as humble as the day is long in Alaska in the summer time.

I'll be giving these CD's I picked up at the station a listen over the next few days:
Look for my reviews of them coming up in a few days as well.

Seriously, it's an honor for me to get to help my local public radio station out during pledge week. I've been listening to them for years and they've given me so much in terms of entertainment and unbiased news programs that answering phones for six hours over two days is the least I could do to help them keep the programs I love on the air.

Amy and me

I first became aware of Amy Goodman and her great TV/radio show Democracy Now! in the fall of 2004. Sparky and I were supposed to make our yearly pilgrimage to the beach in North Carolina but we chose to go to Knoxville so I could get my quadruple bypass done instead. When the days of searing pain stopped we decided to get away for a long weekend around election day, so we rented a house on a lake near Hickory, NC and we arrived there on Saturday and we left on Tuesday morning, election day. During our stay we stumbled across something called Free Speech TV on the satellite system they had in the rental house.

We had never seen anything like it. There on TV was someone who sounded like us, someone who was doing news stories about the things we cared about. There was someone, and a whole network too as a matter of fact, who was devoted to telling the kinds of truths we didn't often hear on the news we get on our local cable system. It was a revelation to us. When we weren't out enjoying the lake or the local scenery, we watched this wondrous woman Amy Goodman do her thing. We watched other shows on Free Speech TV about how we can achieve true democracy and shows about history that we never would have seen in corporate media outlets. Sparky and I both fell hard for the charms of that honey voiced progressive babe Amy Goodman.

We were very sad when we had to go because leaving meant that we would no longer get Free Speech TV and we couldn't see our new beacon of hope and progressive news, Ms. Goodman. Then later as the events of election night 2004 unfolded we became more depressed and sad. The Idiot Boy King got reelected and we would no longer be able to see or hear Amy.

But as luck would have it the universe conspired to even things out for us. Not too long after Bush got reelected our local public radio station picked up the radio show version of Democracy Now! and they began airing it at 6:00 PM every week night. We usually go for our nightly walk on weeknights around 6 so we got to listen to the show on our way to the park. We'd listen to the show on our way home and we'd finish listening to it when we got back to Monkey Central. We'd cheered when Amy socked it to the corporate media for not doing their jobs in keeping the ass hats in Washington DC honest. We cried with delight when they did stories that no other media would touch. We were overjoyed when Amy kept us informed of all the shenanigans that the Bush junta was trying to get away with.

It was a courageous thing for our local public radio station, WETS 89.5 on my FM dial and online at wets.org, to put this show on in our area at that time of the evening. I've said before how conservative this area is, they'd elect Adolf Hitler to Congress if he ran as a Republican, and the decision to air Democracy Now! ruffled more than a few feathers. WETS lost some members because some people didn't want to hear Amy tell the truth and to do the kinds of stories she does on her show. They wanted our local public radio station to be nice and safe and quiet and comfortable and not to rock the boat or make waves. The more they ran the show the angrier some people got. But something odd began to happen, other voices sprang up and these voices were in support of the show.

Then something even more unexpected happened, someone, my friend Joseph F., the smartest guy in the world, started a group in support of the show called "Democracy Now Tri Cities." The purpose of this group was to make sure Amy Goodman stayed on the air. My friend Joseph then did something radical for this area, he began a progressive blog in conjunction with Democracy Now Tri Cities and he used this blog as a clearing house of information about all the progressive events that happen in our area of east TN/sw VA/western NC. And it was because of Joseph and his support of our local public radio station that many people in our area began organizing and reaching out to one another. Amy Goodman and her show brought progressive people around here together and together we've put on many anti war protests and done many other things to raise the consciousness in this area about progressive and peace related things. Sparky and I met and became friends with Joseph and his wife, Sand and her husband John, Rev. Shuck, and many others because of Democracy Now! and Amy Goodman.

So now it's that time of year I used to dread around here, spring pledge week on WETS, click here to give our local NPR station some money if you like. I became a member last year because of Democracy Now! and this year I'll donate my time during pledge week. I'll be answering the pledge phones from 4 to 7 tonight and one day next week as well. I used to hate pledge week because it interrupts all the programming, but now I gladly put up with it if it means we can keep Amy on our local airwaves. So if you're in the WETS listening area and you call and make a pledge later this evening or next Monday evening from 4 to 7, then you might get lucky and I may answer your phone call. If you talk to me real nice and make a nice size pledge, who knows, I may even write about you on here.

Support your local NPR station, especially if they air Democracy Now! And your local station doesn't air the show, then pester them until they do.